(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa practitioners have spent the past eight years exposing the persecution and assisting Teacher in Fa-rectification. During this process, fellow practitioners have moved from not knowing what to do in the beginning, to gradual progression toward maturity. Falun Dafa practitioners have used various means to clarify the truth and save sentient beings. Most projects, such as distributing materials, doing media work or organizing art exhibits, require a great effort by the practitioners involved. Now, Dafa's position in the human world is getting better and better and the righteous field is stronger. However, during the Fa-rectification process over these many years, many of our human notions have also been revealed as we go about our work. Many problems have occurred as a result. I would now like to share some views concerning some phenomena that have occurred in regards to our attitude while handing out materials, improving as a whole, accomplishing our mission and saving sentient beings.
On many occasions, fellow practitioners have discussed the need to cherish truth-clarification materials and the importance of maintaining a pure mind when handing them out. However, some practitioners still do not pay attention to this and some who did well in the past now have an incorrect mindset. I think this occurs mainly because practitioners have not realized the connection between how they carry out their Dafa work and the improvement of xinxing. If practitioners are able to continuously correct exposed human notions during the process of handing out materials, I do not think we will have the long-term problem of not cherishing those materials.
When beautifully-produced materials become available for practitioners to distribute, some practitioners hastily fold the materials and hand them out without reading the content very carefully. Others bundle several different kinds of informational materials together and quickly distribute them without paying much attention to preparation. Materials sometimes get dispersed with little thought as to appropriate and effective distribution sites. Additionally, some practitioners even do this important work with reluctance. You can imagine the effects of doing things in this way!
We all know that everything we do in Fa-rectification is not everyday people's work and should be done with the heart to save all sentient beings in the world. Thus, if we do the work with a mindset that does not consider the content and distribution of materials carefully, we will not achieve very good results. If a person is able to be saved, but commits a crime against Dafa because of our impure thoughts, then are we saving sentient beings or destroying them? Although there are people who cannot be saved, our mindset must still be pure so that we do not let down those sentient beings. What is the use of distributing truth-clarifying materials if we do it with the mindset of worrying about falling behind, feeling an ordinary person's obligation to go out to distribute materials, or wanting to accumulate more mighty virtue by distributing more materials. Can we save people this way? Will gods in the cosmos acknowledge our mighty virtue? This is speaking from the angle of saving sentient beings.
From the perspective of individual cultivation, if we do not cherish truth-clarification materials and hand them out carefully, we are being selfish and disrespectful of fellow practitioners' efforts. This leads to a lack of a "one body" awareness. If we look carefully, we will find that truth-clarification materials have become of higher quality and are more professional. We began with handwritten materials and have progressed to a professional, highly technical standard. Many fellow practitioners who are doing this work have had no professional training. However, they have achieved good results due to their sense of responsibility for sentient beings, help from Teacher and by researching how to do things. They have made huge painstaking efforts!
"Minghui Weekly," for example, has a very professional page design. People who are familiar with typeset can see from its picture design, selection of written content and whole layout, that a weekly paper of this caliber requires massive amounts of time and careful consideration. In order to pass the purest message to sentient beings, the design must be fresh and the content rich. Profound messages explained in a simple way are needed to obtain the effects of inspiring and magnifying people's kind thoughts, and truly saving sentient beings. When I saw that some practitioners disliked Minghui Weekly and only wanted to distribute pamphlets, I felt sad that they were unable to comprehend the message of the Weekly. Although Minghui Weekly is actually only a single page flier, it does contain concise yet valuable information. In addition, it has quotes from Teacher's writings which help in clarifying the truth. If our fellow practitioners merely rely on individual notions when distributing truth-clarifying materials, how can we save people?
I am truly amazed when I see the many carefully designed truth-clarification materials fellow practitioners have made available on our websites! Manuscripts from humble submissions in mainland China are expertly polished and edited. The heavy workload and responsibility for ensuring the quality must, at times, be overwhelming! Without a solid understanding of the mission of saving sentient beings, practitioners would have been unable to accomplish this sacred work for such a long time.
Once edited, materials are posted on the website and practitioners in China's material production sites then download and print them. The materials are then passed on to other practitioners for distribution. In order to maintain contact with the Dafa website, practitioners at material production sites must take the time to study the latest network safety requirements and computer and printer safety maintenance and servicing needs. Meanwhile, in order to ensure quality of material, practitioners also need to select printing materials of excellent quality and a reasonable price. Finally, they must then carefully make attractive truth-clarification materials in color for distribution. This is why practitioners at material production sites are so busy!
Why do editors outside of China, or practitioners at material production sites in China, put forth such a big effort to make materials? Isn't it to save more sentient beings with the best quality materials possible? As practitioners who hand out materials, when we easily get the materials every time, have we ever thought about fellow practitioners' unselfish contributions? Have we thought about what sacred mindset we should hold when handing out these materials? When we hastily distribute materials out of fear of not reaching Consummation or just to fulfill a task, aren't we disregarding other practitioners' painstaking efforts? Practitioners who edit and produce these materials have already put forth a pure message of truth, but we fail to distribute them with a mindset of being responsible for them. Thus, we have not connected our hearts to the one body on this point. Speaking more deeply, isn't merely thinking of oneself without considering others a manifestation of selfishness? Some practitioners who were given materials by others also began to help with production at the family material production sites. These practitioners found that they had more appreciation for truth-clarification materials that they produced themselves. Why? Perhaps it's because during the production process, they directly experience the sacredness of these efforts, so they naturally regard the material as being more precious.
Currently, there are practitioners who pay a lot of attention to clarifying the truth by word of mouth and they seldom think about handing out materials. This may happen because word of mouth is direct and allows one to immediately see some results from their efforts at truth clarification. However, the results of handing out materials can't be seen and is indirect. There are many ways to clarify the truth and any one of them can have the effect of eliminating evil and saving sentient beings. It may not be possible to directly see the effect of every item that is distributed. However, can we say that the changes within people in China towards Dafa in these past years are unrelated to our persistent distribution of truth-clarification materials? Hasn't Teacher acknowledged what we have done? Behind every situation in validating the Fa by Falun Dafa practitioners, there are divine factors. It is up to us to do this important work with a correct mindset. We must remember that just one thought of ours has an extremely important effect on the salvation of sentient beings.
In writing this article, I have held no intention to slight, accuse, or blame practitioners who distribute materials. I just wanted to share my views on how we can truly look at the issue of handing out materials based on the Fa. I wanted to truly explore how to eliminate selfishness, form one body and save as many people as possible. Whether it is related to fellow practitioners around me or based on articles on the Minghui website, I find the issue of truth-clarification materials not being cherished has existed for quite a long time. It is out of a sense of responsibility to the Fa, fellow practitioners and sentient beings that I wrote this article. If there is anything inappropriate, please forgive me.