(Clearwisdom.net) Editor's note: Master said in “Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference:”
“Only if one can persevere and continually forge ahead does it amount to true diligence. It's easy to talk about, but putting it into action is tremendously difficult. That is why it's said that always cultivating as if you were just starting will surely result in achieving your ultimate rank.”
The following is taken from a group sharing article at the 10th anniversary of the Minghui Website in 2009. Many of the practitioners involved in the Minghui/Clearwisdom website work cannot share their cultivation experiences in the same way as other practitioners outside of China. To address this issue, many practitioners co-authored this article for the purpose of sharing and mutual encouragement among Minghui website project team members at the Fa Conference marking the 10th anniversary of the Minghui Website’s founding. The article has been edited for publishing.
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The Minghui website completed the first ten years of its journey on June 25, 2009. It has evolved from a very simple website to a large group of websites with original content in multiple columns, issues, media forms, sub-domains, and languages. How have the practitioners who have been working on the Minghui website been doing during these 10 years? This article will share with you some of the early days of the Minghui website.
Continued from Part 3
Part 1: http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2011/8/13/127445.html
Part 2: http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2011/8/20/127582.html
Part 3: http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2011/8/21/127598.html
Part 5: http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2011/8/24/127651.html
Minghui Website Widespread in Mainland China
The establishment of the Minghui website lets Falun Gong practitioners all over the world, especially practitioners in mainland China who are under tremendous pressure from the Chinese government, have a place of sharing which points them in the right direction in their cultivation. The Minghui website, through overseas Dafa practitioners' hard work, became widespread in mainland China. More importantly, all of Master's lectures and articles are published through Minghui. Therefore, mainland China practitioners who live in the environment of lies and persecution now have a reliable place to get Master's articles.
Practitioner C, who was mentioned earlier, said, “After the persecution started in 1999, a large number of local practitioners were mislead by a small number of practitioners who believed that it was wrong to go to Beijing and appeal for Dafa. They even said such deeds were distorting the Fa. In addition, many fake articles came out and confused some practitioners. They found evidence in the fake articles to prove that they should not go to appeal for Dafa. It was not until September 2000, when Minghui published the article 'Serious Teaching,' that the majority of those practitioners realized that they have not done well and started to validate the Fa.
“After I came out of the detention center, the first thing I did was to get on the Minghui website. It is hard to express the feeling after getting to the site after numerous blocks. At that time, there was no software to break through the Internet blockade, and it could take close to an hour to get onto the website after going through a surrogate web user.”
Practitioner D shared, “Because the Minghui website provided us a place to share regardless of where we are, we are able to read Master's new articles promptly. Therefore, no matter what kind of hardship we have to go through, we are able to follow the pace of the Fa-rectification. The Minghui website accompanied me through the toughest times on my cultivation path.
“During the past ten years, I have downloaded and printed truth-clarifying materials from Minghui.net and passed them on to Chinese people who have been poisoned by the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) lies, so that they can learn the truth too.”
Practitioner A from the previous series said, “Our area had our first official contact with the Minghui editors in March 2000. As we received the first email from the Minghui editors and read those caring words from our fellow practitioners, those of us who were there could not stop crying and looked each other in the eyes to encourage each other. From that moment, our hearts were deeply connected to those fellow practitioners at the Minghui office. This feeling, I believe, is also experienced by every mainland China practitioner who has contact with the Minghui editors.
“Around September 2000, we downloaded two articles from the Minghui website. One of them was “Jiang Zemin Cannot Shirk the Responsibility for the Persecution of Falun Gong” (http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2000/9/28/8117.html) We printed millions of copies and distributed them to every corner of our province. Our efforts to publicize the facts of the persecution reached a new turning point.”
Other mainland China practitioners who have been validating Dafa closely with the Minghui office from the beginning of the persecution identify closely with the narratives from the above two practitioners.
During the time that the website was spreading in China, it had a powerful effect in negating the CCP's persecution. For instance, in the earlier CCP propaganda, the CCP repeatedly mentioned “Minghui.net.” Even though they added many lies before and after “Minghui.net,” many mainland Chinese have learned to understand the opposite meaning of anything that the CCP says or publishes. As a result, many workers at the 610 Office read the Minghui website and they changed their jobs after reading it. Some police officers learned how to use the software to break through the Internet blockade and read Minghui frequently.
A Falun Gong practitioner in mainland China related, “During the time that I was imprisoned at the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp in Beijing, I noticed prison guards using software to break through the Internet blockade to get online. Some policemen stopped harming Dafa practitioners after their evildoings were exposed on the Minghui website.”
In 2002, in one area, all the large-scale Dafa materials printing centers, which had been running since 1999, were destroyed. A Dafa practitioner from the countryside shared during the first web-based experience sharing conference for mainland China practitioners: “Days passed, but since those practitioners who were able to get on the website were also arrested, we had no way of reading Minghui. We had no way of knowing the current situation of the Fa-rectification in the outside world, and we could not read Master's new articles. We were suffering in total darkness. Later, I came to know a practitioner from another area. This practitioner was very anxious for us too upon learning our situation. He helped us to established a new station in our area, to get on the Internet, and print out Dafa materials.
“I can do farm work easily, but to me the mouse felt like a round ball, and my fingers went numb from all the clicking. My head was blank when my fellow practitioner taught me how to use the computer; I was clueless.”
Facing the new challenge, this Dafa practitioner conquered his limitations, and under Master's support and fellow practitioners' help, he went through this learning process with much hardship. He learned how to get online, edit, download, fix the printer and using common software, he established another information center and printing station that works together with Minghui.
This practitioner's experience is typical among many elderly practitioners and practitioners who do not have a high level of education.
Another practitioner in mainland China wrote a letter to Minghui: “I started to read Minghui relatively late, as I did not see our Dafa website until October 2005. Prior to that day, I felt I was very familiar with the Minghui website, but the website was also very out of reach. It seemed mysterious and divine. Even though my desire to read Minghui was urgent, I always thought that I knew nothing about computers; I had never touched one. Subconsciously, I felt that I would have to learn sophisticated technologies to operate a computer, thus my computer just sat at home, unused. Later, under practitioners' help and encouragement, I learned how to type and learned some basic computer skills. I learned how to break through the Internet blockade and eventually was able to read Minghui.”
This Dafa practitioner's experience is not an isolated case. Regardless of their computer knowledge and education level, mainland Chinese practitioners firmly believe in Master and Dafa, and together with the Minghui website, they have walked the path of cultivation year after year. Under the suggestion of “flowers blossoming everywhere,” many mainland China practitioners voluntarily shoulder the responsibilities of the truth-clarification materials production center, the printing station, editing duties and distribution center. Their efforts have enabled Master's new articles and truth-clarifying materials to reach every corner of China overnight.
The Evil is One Foot High, The Tao is Tens of Thousand Feet High
The Chinese government hates and fears the existence of Minghui, and therefore, it has been trying to disrupt the website for many years. During Minghui's early years, there were many incidents of CCP attacks on the website, through professional hackers hired by the CCP. Practitioners who operate the Minghui website are also highly educated computer professionals, though they lack financial support. These volunteers were facing the resources of an entire country.
What should they do? The answer was to study the Fa and cultivate to increase the power of their righteous thoughts. Soon, Dafa practitioners had one thought among them: nothing can interfere with us because what we are doing is right. One of the technical personnel shared, “I felt my dimension suddenly become very large, and I felt that I am the best in the technical world. My confidence increased immediately.” Since then, they consistently improved their technical knowledge and developed a better fundamental understanding regarding how to protect the Minghui website's safety. While they needed to work hard on the human level, what they possess are things that only practitioners possess; everything Master has given to them is the most basic and precious, and it is indestructible.
One technical personnel said that he had to learn techniques from the very basic level and he also had to resolve many difficulties by himself. “A few times I had intuitions about our problems, and when that happened, I felt as if a divine being had helped me. Cultivation is supernormal; when we can really live up to the standard of Dafa, when we have a pure mind and unselfishness, Master's power will manifest through us.”
All of this was taking place quietly, like the surface of a peaceful lake that rarely has major waves. At Minghui, every person has experienced Dafa's greatness within a peaceful and quiet cultivation environment.
The Minghui website personnel are all educated with advanced degrees. Every one of them has formed their own work and social habits from years of education. These habits are generally considered to be good habits. However, some of those habits are very useful at Minghui, while some are not. Everyone felt that they had elevated their cultivation level and professional abilities during the process of breaking old habits and mentalities.
For instance, everyone gradually agreed to an understanding: everything around oneself has to do with his cultivation. Computer problems, technical problems and coordination issues are all mostly likely to be resolved by cultivating oneself. Experience proves that as Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, every issue is naturally resolved once practitioners have elevated their xinxing.
As another example, some practitioners used to prefer working by themselves, and as a result, sometimes they could solve the technical problems themselves. However, sometimes things were done poorly. Why? Through studying the Fa and searching within, everyone discovered that because of the workload and pressure, sometimes they get stuck on the surface of things; they were working as individuals. In fact, it does not matter whether the practitioners are on the editing side or the technical side, their energy fields are all connected as a whole, and they are all cultivating and saving sentient beings. After gaining this common understanding, the practitioners working on the website do not feel like they are separated by distance and different responsibilities. Everyone also noticed an interesting phenomenon: as long as you are unselfish in your heart, oftentimes after you told someone your problem, before others even began to do anything about it, the problem had already disappeared. This is the power of righteous thoughts and coordinating as one body.
(To be continued)
August 8, 2011
