(Clearwisdom.net) As an editor of the Minghui website [Clearwisdom.net is the English-language version of Minghui.org] and an overseas Falun Gong practitioner who is deeply concerned about the persecution of Falun Gong in China, I have some thoughts about the many articles that I have read about Falun Dafa truth clarification material printing sites in China. I think the purpose of the work at the printing sites is for the practitioners involved to walk their own paths in Fa-rectification. The printing site, and everything related to it, is these practitioners' cultivation environment and is full of opportunities to expand one's capacity, to seek out one's problems, and to let go of one's self and human notions. On the surface, the effectiveness of the printing site in clarifying the truth, in cultivation, in saving sentient beings and in eliminating evil, might seem to be limited. In reality however, its effect is huge. Yet, the current number of printing sites and practitioners participating in the work is far too few. That's why at Minghui we have been emphasizing what Master suggested: to have printing sites spring up everywhere and blossom all over the place. As time goes on and the persecution nears its end, those who benefit ultimately are the individual practitioners who establish their own printing sites.
To make a truth-clarification materials printing site work well, we have to continually study the Fa (1) and send forth righteous thoughts, and we have to clarify the truth actively, instead of just mechanically producing the materials. We also need to look within ourselves during the whole process and improve our xinxing (mind-heart nature or moral character). Only in this way can we keep a clear mind and fully consider the overall situation of Fa-rectification. Otherwise, we are likely to be interfered with by human notions and the superficial phenomena in everyday work. This might result in slacking off and not doing the work well at all times. It could even result in not completing the work. The work at the printing sites requires certain technical and editing skills, but it is not something related to one's personal recognition or as a means to accomplish one's personal goals. If we cannot balance the relationship between ourselves and the truth-clarification work, problems may arise in our cultivation and interfere with our work. Doesn't the same hold true for working at Minghui/Clearwisdom--During these past few years, some practitioners who have worked for Minghui have formed the notion that it is something done behind the scenes and only serves to assist other "more important" Dafa projects.
Perhaps the word "serves" is right in the sense that the Minghui website has a strong service function. We established Minghui in June of 1999 in order to make up for the damage we saw occurring to the cultivation environment in China. The Chinese Communist Party has always blocked information and run a propaganda campaign in its persecution of Falun Gong. How could we let people know the truth about practitioners, the persecution, and let our call for justice be heard around the world-- We needed a channel to send out the message and we needed people to take care of it by providing this service. More importantly, as Dafa disciples, whether we can feel the benefit that Falun Dafa brings us or not, it is our duty to stand up and speak out when Teacher is being slandered and the practice is being illegally suppressed and practitioners are persecuted. Apart from going to government offices to appeal, we needed to have our own media as a window for both external and internal exchange of information. The Minghui/Clearwisdom websites fulfill that need and have a distinct service nature.
Currently, ordinary people and even some overseas practitioners and coordinators might not understand the significance of Minghui or even value it much. The practitioners who have been working for the website, however, should know better about the importance of what we are doing. We should know that Master knows everything we are doing and that the gods in the cosmos are watching everything we do. We are not doing it to get recognition or praise from other people. Master saves us unconditionally. We shouldn't have preconditions or expect returns when validating Dafa, standing up for Master, exposing the evil, saving the sentient beings, and maintaining our cultivation environment. Without such firm beliefs, amidst the temptations in this world and driven by attachments to self interest, fame, and achievements, it is hard to carry on the work of Clearwisdom.net, especially when problems accumulate and seem to make the test insurmountable.
Minghui has a direct role in clarifying the truth and dissolving the evil. Many of the people who participate in the persecution, including the head of the evil, pay attention to this website. Even though they hate it, they can't live without it. The result of their reading the contents on the website is inevitable. It is the same as when Jiang hears "Falun Dafa is great" and sees the banners held up by practitioners: the evil behind them will dissolve.
Apart from serving the printing sites in China and the practitioners in China, and serving the needs of practitioners clarifying the truth overseas, we are also clarifying the truth and providing service to governments, congressmen, research organizations, and intelligence agencies that have an interest in us for whatever reason.
We are directly exposing the evil, shocking the evil and lessening the pressure on practitioners in China. Each article restrains the perpetrators. While carrying out the different functions of collecting information, verifying information, writing articles, typing, sending out messages, translating, proofreading, polishing and editing, many practitioners freely give of their time and effort, and eliminate the evil during the process. Therefore, when an article is posted, the evil is restrained. After learning that his evil conduct was exposed on the Minghui website, a policeman in China became furious and said, "What can you do to me--" In fact, he is afraid that retribution will fall upon him. So, he secretly seeks ways to hold back from persecuting practitioners. This is only one small example of the results of articles being posted on Minghui.org.
Some practitioners, especially westerners, don't like to use the word "evil" in publishing articles on Clearwisdom.net. To them, it seems too emotional. However, when describing a robbery, if you don't call the wrongdoers bandits or robbers, what else do you call them-- When a policeman is determined to use brutal methods to torture practitioners, calling him an evil policeman is describing the nature of his conduct. It is not to express one's feelings, but rather to identify the behavior he has chosen for himself.
Regarding elements in other dimensions that control police officers who persecute practitioners, they are separate from the people who commit wrongdoing in this dimension. If we don't have a distinct name for it, readers might be confused about our intentions. It would also be inconvenient for those who want to talk about the "evil." Of course, we shouldn't use the word "evil" throughout an article, but neither should we go to the other extreme and avoid using it completely. There are other ways to give a clear description. When our heart is troubled, it helps to study the Fa and look within to solve the problem. When we let go of our feelings, we will have a different view of the situation.
The effectiveness of our work is related to how well we validate the Fa, in conjunction with the practitioners working at the truth-clarification materials printing sites in China. It is also related to what we do under Master's guidance to fulfill our vows to Master and all sentient beings. It is the same with the teams making phone calls to China, those who break through the Internet blockade, those who clarify the truth to government officials, and those who work in other media run by practitioners. We are part of a larger strategy, like a chess game, expanding the influence of the truth-clarifying materials through Minghui/Clearwisdom and carrying out the pledge we made to Master and sentient beings in our cosmos eons ago. The articles on Minghui do not belong to the printing sites, nor do they belong to the practitioners working for the website, or the authors themselves. Instead, they belong to all Dafa disciples. The relationship between our work and the work of other practitioners is not that one project can replace the other, or that one is above another. It takes all of our collective efforts to make up the whole force of truth-clarification.
Thus, putting all the necessary projects together, we Falun Dafa disciples are striving to address all the people in this world that need to be saved and leaving no one behind.
Other practitioners who do not participate in our work or who place too much value on their own work might not know our names or what we do. They might even accuse us of not supporting other Dafa projects. When such misunderstandings occur, we can explain our work to them kindly. If they cannot understand, we still have nothing to worry about. There are always conflicts in cultivation. We all need to use the conflicts to improve ourselves. Just because what we are doing is of great importance does not mean that we will have a smooth and easy path. Nor can we expect people to understand us, take care of us, recognize us, or speak highly about us. That is not what a cultivator should pursue.
Some practitioners have been working for Minghui/Clearwisdom for a long time and struggle with a huge amount of work every day without taking time to study the Fa or send forth righteous thoughts. They have some xinxing issues which have not been resolved for a long time. Some are not aware that they have a mentality of pursuit. Facing the temptations in the world, they feel that they didn't get what they wanted out of the work for Minghui and they left. They didn't consider whether others would be able to shoulder the amount of work they left behind, nor did they think about whether their leaving would affect the work at the website.
This phenomenon is common in other projects. Some practitioners outside of China often start a new project and leave an old one behind saying, "I will do whichever one is more important." Some practitioners always want to make sure that they are not left out of the "most important things." My fellow practitioners, the projects do have significance in certain times and at certain stages. Yet we have to look within ourselves to see if we are letting our selfishness run amok or if we are pursuing something. As Master's Fa-rectification has come to its final stage, can we still not put strict requirements on ourselves to follow what Master says in "Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature"-- Master said, "...you should consider others first, so as to attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism." The new projects have a process of preparation at the beginning stages. During the process, it is natural and necessary to place much stress on its importance. But it doesn't mean that it is more important than any other project. For a media project that has entered a mature stage, such as Minghui/Clearwisdom, we shouldn't expect people to say repeatedly how important our work is. Otherwise, how can we say that we are maturing in cultivation-- Are we not all studying the Fa-- We should be able to see things from a higher point of view and from the needs of the Fa. When everyday people say you are great, does it count-- People think that the major U.S. media are great and important. What kind of role are they playing at this critical historic moment-- What is their future going to be-- With regard to feedback from others, what really counts is our own judgment from the perspective of the Fa.
A certain number of practitioners, who have been burdened with a huge amount of work for a long time, do the Dafa work in a passive way, with a mentality of only completing their assignment. They do not have a sense of responsibility, honor, and mission for the entirety of the work. Even today, there are those who still can't tell what needs to be improved or what problems need to be solved, in addition to fulfilling the assigned tasks every day. Some use the relative safety of their work as an excuse for a passive attitude, or laziness, or a reluctance to change, in order to justify those negative aspects of their characters.
There are some common problems brought about by different cultivation states. For example, one practitioner feels that because he is giving a lot for others they should understand him, recognize him, and support him unconditionally and in a timely manner. If he doesn't get what he expects, he feels bad.
Ever since ancient times, there have been many ways of cultivation. Solitary cultivation is one of the major forms that helped pave the way for Dafa disciples' cultivation today. Although we don't talk about solitary cultivation, doesn't the path we take as practitioners helping at the printing sites and at Minghui/Clearwisdom, a relatively low-profile and "quiet" way of life in the society and among practitioners, have some elements of solitary cultivation-- It's just that in ancient times, the physical conditions were harsh and the environment was lonely. In comparison, our environment is more comfortable and much nicer. In addition, we are doing cultivation at home. We have responsibilities to family, people in the society, and other practitioners. In fact, even under the most special circumstances, for example when the workload is extremely heavy for some time, we are not isolated from the society. Just as one of the Minghui team members said, "At the beginning I felt I was buried in the work, quite passive and miserable. Through studying the Fa, I calmed down and found that reading each article was actually sharing experiences with the practitioners in China. We are disciples of the same school working together. Doing this work greatly benefits my cultivation, and in turn, it helps me do a better job."
Everyone can see the parts we do well. So, I am only pointing out the shortcomings. If we do not make continuous improvement, we cannot meet the requirements of the Fa at the final stage of this period. When we study the Fa with a calm mind and form a stable environment for group study and experience sharing, our human notions will be subdued and eliminated. With a strengthened righteous mind, we can easily see things through to their completion and are more willing to make progress. As everyone has the will to do the work well and make improvements together, and as we have Master and Dafa, there is nothing that we cannot achieve.
What exactly do we want-- Is it comfort and status in the human world, recognition and praise from other people, fame and admiration among practitioners, or achievements in our careers-- No. What we want is to share Master's burden, even though our power is tiny. We want Master to have less worries about us, even though we haven't met the xinxing standards in various aspects. We want people to admire Master from the bottom of their hearts and to think highly of the great virtue of Falun Dafa. Working for the Minghui/Clearwisdom websites is the path we have taken in fulfilling our vows. No matter which part of the work we are engaged in, it is the path we are walking until the next generation of practitioners takes over.
Here I would just like to share my thoughts with fellow practitioners, to solicit their own thoughts on these issues. We will share more next time, when the opportunity arises.
(1) Fa: Law and principles; the teachings of Falun Dafa.
