(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings to Respected Master! Greetings to fellow practitioners!
I have practiced Falun Gong for seven years now. At the end of 2005 I became an official member of the Minghui website support team. My projects deal mainly with categorizing the organizations and individuals that are responsible for the persecution. Based on the persecution articles, we can then expose the details of their evil acts and put them on the "list of perpetrators." In the meantime, we also summarize the persecution Falun Gong practitioners have experienced and store the data in the Minghui materials library. We do this to expose the persecution and the evildoers, and to validate Dafa and explain the truth. What we do also greatly suppresses and eliminates the evil. After I joined this group, I began to make myself always use my righteous thoughts and control every single step and detail in editing well. I'm glad to have this opportunity to share my experiences and thoughts after the more than a year of participating in the work of editing the persecution incidents and working with the people involved in Minghui.
Hints from a dream
I needed to familiarize myself with certain editing techniques during the initial training period and spent time repeatedly practicing the whole editing project and techniques. When I had nervously finished my first project, that same night I had a dream. I was on the floor playing puzzles, like a child. The puzzle was a small tree. When I mindfully put down the last piece to finish the small tree, I saw--not too far away--this small tree becoming a big tree, 17 meters high (like a five-story building). Immediately, further away, a 35-meter tree appeared (like a 10-story building). This hint in the dream made me realize that to do well with any work for validating the Fa, including editing, the most important thing is to have a sincere heart, a heart that is responsible for Dafa.
Fa principles tell us that every practitioner has his or her own cultivation path and has his or her own Dafa work to do. There are no examples and no role models to follow. We know that every Fa-validating project is important. There is no one project that is more important than another. There is no difference between big projects and small projects. The most important thing is for practitioners to understand their projects from the Fa perspective and to understand that everything is meant for rescuing sentient beings. Practitioners' pure mindsets that are responsible for the Fa will have a huge impact on results in other dimensions.
Readers' feedback
The majority of those that read these persecution incidents and the "list of perpetrators" are fellow practitioners, but some are also regular people in society, as well as those that are carrying out the evil deeds themselves. Because we usually categorize the incidents based on provinces, specific areas, the persecutors' work places, and the kind of persecution people were subjected to, fellow practitioners can use our information to locate certain targets--to explain the truth and send forth righteous thoughts.
We recently received feedback from practitioners in China: "We use the Minghui material library a lot. The categories are very detailed and it is easy to search. For example, the 'Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners Database' divides the cases according to specific areas and workplaces. Practitioners and non-practitioners alike read and use them." Some predestined people often get to know more truth about the persecution through the Minghui materials library. The evildoing persecutors are worried about getting on the "list of perpetrators." The list was compiled from persecution articles published on the Minghui website. It systematically summarizees in detail the time, place, persecution method, and process of persecuting different practitioners by a given official from a certain workplace (for example, forced labor camp, prison, police department, police station, or 610 Office). It lists everything clearly and completely. Therefore, what the evildoing officials are most afraid of is getting their names on these lists.
I remember one Mainland China practitioner's feedback, that the head of a certain organization found his name on the "list of perpetrators." He immediately went to explain to the practitioner that although he was the head, he never followed the directions from upper management to persecute practitioners. He always feigned ignorance about practitioners' activities. The practitioner eventually confirmed that it was truly so and asked Minghui to remove his name from the list. This person had recently become clear-minded, after the practitioner explained the truth to him. I even read about it in a practitioner's truth clarification article that this person understands the truth now. Obviously, during this critical period, he chose a bright new future for himself.
Touched by what I edit
During group Fa study and experience sharing sessions, fellow practitioners who make phone calls in response to the persecution say that, nowadays when they call the evildoers, the number of people who hang up right away has decreased. Relatively more people remain silent and finish listening to the truth. Some evildoing people still curse and argue, but their tone of voice indicates they are scared and worried. In fact, more and more reports of evildoers who persecuted practitioners receiving retribution do manifest the principle "after committing numerous crimes against innocent people, one will have to take full responsibility;" "deeds are provoking retribution" and karmic retribution.
Another group of evil people are collaborators who participate in persecution. They are former Falun Gong practitioners who have gone astray due to brainwashing and torture and assist the evildoers. From the Fa's perspective, Master keeps giving these people opportunities. Following an experience sharing, we decided that as long as the Fa-rectification is not over, there is still an opportunity for them. Master is still waiting for them. So, at present, we are not categorizing the collaborators on the list as "perpetrators." However, we hope that no matter what their reason for abandoning the Fa, these people should wake up soon and return to the Fa-rectification and to the cultivation path. Otherwise, they will be grouped together with the evildoers. The only end result for them will be to enter the gate of no-life.
Something else touches me deeply during the editing process, besides the persecution incidents; they are articles about "children of the persecution." It is common in China for dependent children--those who are still in school and rely on their parents for support-- when they lose their parents to the persecution, to live in exile and become homeless and destitute. We categorize them as "persecution children." I'm deeply moved whenever I read of children in truth clarification articles crying, "I want to find my mother. I want to go home. I want to go to school..." Their pitiful cries are still being heard. I call to them in my mind: "Innocent children, you, our young Falun Gong practitioners, be strong!"
Upgrading xinxing
I began Fa study in March 2000, four years after the start of the brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Because I did not have a deeper understanding of the Fa, when I went on the Minghui website every day, the section I wanted to read most was "Practitioners Exchange Insights and Experience." As to articles related to "Facts of the Persecution," I usually just glanced through them every now and then. Reading about the brutal torture did not influence me too much. I only had a perceptual understanding of innocent practitioners being persecuted and of the authorities' criminal acts of ignoring the law.
When I first joined the editing team, in order to expose the evil details of what was being done to persecute practitioners, I had to understand everything related to those acts in great detail. Many articles in the "Facts of the Persecution" section on the Minghui website are based on practitioners' own stories. Some are written by fellow practitioners on their behalf. They come from practitioners with different backgrounds, different educational levels, and different ways of thinking. When I first started editing this kind of article, my level limited me. Although I clearly knew that the persecution was the main topic and that the purpose of these articles was to expose the persecution, I unintentionally chose some unrelated details in some of these articles, or felt that these articles were more validating the writer than validating Dafa. That is when I occasionally encountered xinxing conflicts while editing--not being able to focus on the main points.
When I had done editing work for a while, I noticed the work going smoothly when I had studied the Fa well. As I studied the Fa more and upgraded my xinxing, I gradually found out that fellow practitioners use their purest starting point on every persecution article; use their strongest righteous thoughts and exert their utmost effort. Their goal is to expose the evil, suppress and eliminate the evil. In the meantime I also realized this: when practitioners present their persecution articles with their firm righteous thoughts, behind each article lies great compassion.
Staying focused during Fa study:
Recalling my editing path, I clearly noticed that my participation and skill level rose and fell based on my diligence in Fa study. Having gotten a good handle on the editing work, my improvements in editing techniques make me deeply understand the importance of studying the Fa well. Based on the principles that have become clear to me that every practitioner focusing on good Fa study and on diligently raising their xinxing level is the fundamental assurance of raising one's levels, I am aware that only when one truly cultivates will one be able to realize Dafa's profundity and understand what the Fa truly manifests. After I realized that I am the king or god of my own universe, when studying the Fa, I could feel a myriad of microscopic or macroscopic lives assimilating to this great law of the universe. As I studied the Fa more, my xinxing gradually rose as well. After that I could feel even more the preciousness and seriousness of Dafa.
All righteous thoughts and actions are indeed from the Fa. One has to have a steady foundation of Fa study to do good Fa-validating work. I realized that the state of practitioners' Fa study can reflect their corresponding xinxing, enlightenment, wisdom, and level. As long as one studies the Fa diligently, is integrated into the Fa, and uses rescuing sentient beings as the starting point--accompanied by firm righteous thoughts--one will be able to edit articles that have strong penetrative power and will automatically be able to suppress and eliminate the evil.
Improving after sharing experiences
Our group holds sharing sessions every week for coordination purposes. Besides group Fa study and status reports, the team members discuss mainly how to better grasp editing techniques and share editing insights and experiences. I feel my editing ability has become much better after participating in the group experience sharing sessions, comparing myself to and learning from fellow practitioners. Unfortunately, schedule conflicts or other Dafa projects prevent some of the team members from attending these sessions. I notice when team members do not take advantage of this environment and opportunity of mutual sharing and group advancement there are gaps in the required level of and in terms of the quality of editing details. They gradually fall behind the rest of the group and are unable to catch up with our progress and the xinxing tests. It is indeed regrettable.
Continuing to practice
Fa-rectification has advanced rapidly. Every Dafa practitioner walking on the Fa-rectification path is fully using his/her capabilities and utilizing what he/she is good at in the human world to validate the Fa, rescue sentient beings, and clarify the truth. Presently, time and manpower is extremely precious because of the many Fa-validating projects. Many practitioners are quite capable and can do the work of ten people or a hundred people. Numerous examples abound of practitioners who are responsible for projects that are not in their areas, but who are able to exhibit unbelievable power and wisdom. Besides attending large-scale Fa-rectification activities, we all should clearly realize what work we should be responsible for and how to do it well to validate the Fa.
I realize how precious it is right now for some greatly capable practitioners who can carry on many projects. Some practitioners have realized how to maximally utilize their professional skills to validate the Fa, to persist in doing well the projects of validating the Fa, and to maintain righteous thoughts instead of fluctuating according to outside factors. This will be critical for them to reach their individual cultivation standard, and also be the ultimate assurance of practitioners reaching the cultivation standard as one body.
Reaching out to help in time
In one of my dreams I stood at the edge of a cliff when suddenly a person appeared next to me. He was taller than I and falling rapidly down the cliff. Without thinking I reached out and extended my hands to him. Immediately, there was a tall, strong person who pulled him up and saved him. After I awoke from my dream I realized that my strength and ability would have been insufficient to pull up the person that was falling. There was even a chance that he might have dragged me down the cliff. However, because of my instant reaction--to reach out to help him--it gave that tall, strong person the opportunity to save him. Of course, that tall, strong person was the one who saved him. But without my reaching out, the falling man would probably have lost his chance of survival.
This dream made me realize that we practitioners as one body should always treat the Fa as our teacher. But the level of awareness is different for different practitioners. Some are high, some are low, some are faster, and some are slower. Cultivation level is based on one's xinxing, and each level has corresponding power. As long as one realizes things from the Fa standpoint, one should try one's best to help practitioners out, even if it is simply a small gesture. Sometimes the help might not take effect right away. But, if he is truly a predestined person, there will be more hints and directions later on for him to return to Dafa once more, and return to the Fa-rectification to rescue more sentient beings and fulfill prehistoric vows.
Lastly, I would like to quote from Master's lecture "To the Canada Fa Conference" to share with fellow practitioners for mutual encouragement,
"The closer it gets to the end, the more you cannot let up; the closer it gets to the end, the better you must study the Fa; the closer it gets to the end, the stronger your righteous thoughts must be."
The above are some of my experiences in editing persecution incidents for Minghui. Please point out anything inappropriate.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!