Improving My Character While Producing Truth-clarification Booklets

(Minghui.org) One day, I went to the home of a technician practitioner who lives in the same county, to ask for help. I happened to catch him and his wife packing truth-clarification brochures in zip-lock bags. Various colorful brochures were spread all over the bed. Some had ink paintings on the covers and others had New Year’s paintings. The printing on the covers was clear, and the colors were bright and beautiful.

I am no amateur when it comes to making truth-clarification booklets. To my eyes, the covers were printed perfectly, and I praised their work again and again. It’s no wonder that the wife would often brag about her printer whenever she saw me. This time I really saw it, and in fact, the printer is a long-discontinued Canon 4980.

The technician practitioner laughed, and said, “If you need it, take this printer home with you.” This generous offer came so suddenly that I was a little embarrassed. Is it appropriate to accept the tool that was so important to them? His wife helped pack it, and said, “It’s appropriate, take it. I have something else.” The printers she used at home were usually the ones that had been passed on by other practitioners. 

A few days later, I went to the Fa study group. I had been working with practitioner Ying to produce various materials, and I had a printer that specialized in printing covers that printed well, so I often supplied her with the covers for the booklets, and she printed the inside pages herself. That night, she returned the expired and unused covers to me. I was disturbed and felt sorry for myself for giving her too many. Ying showed me a cover that she’d printed herself. I felt that the one I printed was obviously better, so I took both covers and showed them to other practitioners, asking for their opinions. Some said that this one was darker in color and the other one was lighter in color. An older practitioner said, “It’s all the same, as long as it can save lives. Don’t be so particular. How much more does it cost to print the cover of your quality?” I didn’t say anything more, and took back the two covers.

After I got home, I kept wondering why my printed cover, which was obviously more clear and beautiful, was not recognized by the other practitioners. I remembered that Master said, “If you need to make the books a little more elegant in order to save people, then that’s okay.” (“Fa Teaching at the Minghui 10th Anniversary Conference”)

The booklets designed by the Minghui website are getting better and better, rich in content and illustrations. I don’t need to spend extra money to print the cover, and I used the printer given to me by the technician practitioner. I spent a lot of money to make the materials. I don’t go on trips, buy clothes, and do other things, but I saved money to make the materials; there is no one and nothing to blame. Looking inward, I was wondering what I should cultivate and let go.

It took me two days before I figured it out, but I found my two attachments: one was an attachment of showing off, and the other was one of imposing something on other people. On the one hand, I presented the two covers to the other practitioners to show that I had done a good job; on the other hand, I wanted others’ recognition so I could continue to supply Ying with covers. In the past, I kept giving Ying a large stack of covers regardless of whether she wanted them or not, causing her to have a backlog. I decided that in the future, when she asks for covers, I would then give them to her. After destroying the expired covers that she returned, I paid 50 cents per cover out of my own pocket to cover the cost of making them. I put the money into the fund to make new materials in the future.

Having talked about producing these materials, I’d like to share a little more about the packaging. I used to climb stairs in residential buildings to hang materials on door handles and used normal tote bags – the kind with the smiley face printed on them. Originally, I would pick up discarded pamphlets in roadside flowerbeds and the like, some in zip-lock bags that looked delicate but that were not particularly noteworthy to me.

The other day at the home of the technician practitioner, I saw many pamphlets in zip-lock bags. The bags were very thin, and the thinner they were, the more translucent. These zip-lock bags were much more formal and sophisticated than those tote bags I used. I went to the wholesale market and bought many zip-lock bags. Hanging the pamphlets on doorknobs is not very secure, and it is likely that the bag would fall to the floor as soon as the owner pushed open the door. I now place the truth-clarification pamphlets in zip-lock bags on the floor, against the door, which makes more sense and is safer to do.

Some practitioners would wrap the truth-clarification booklets in old newspapers. Several practitioners exchanged views about this, and some said, “The newspaper is the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) mouthpiece, and the paper is full of evil words. Everything is alive, and the space field of the CCP’s newspaper is full of evil communist spirits and rotten ghosts. Evil spirits are pervasive, so the newspapers should not be allowed to enter homes at all, and the evil communist spirits are not allowed to enter homes. The pamphlets that save people cannot be wrapped in newspapers that harm people.” Everyone in the group had his or her own opinions, and the results of our sharing were not satisfactory.

I think I should show the zip-lock bagged pamphlets to the practitioners who wrap the pamphlets in newspaper, so that they can compare and decide for themselves what kind of packaging is most appropriate. I want to get rid of my attachment of imposing things on others.

I will continue to do my best to produce beautiful pamphlets, so that more people can be saved!