A Petite Flower among a Million Blooming Truth-Clarification Material Production Sites in China
By a group of Falun Gong practitioners in Jilin Province
(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings, revered Teacher! Greetings, fellow
practitioners! We would like to share our experiences of assisting Teacher in His Fa-rectification
and saving sentient beings. We have divided our humble insights into four parts. 1. Letting Go of Selfishness to Establish Truth-Clarification Material
Production Sites A large population in China has misunderstood Falun Gong and endorsed China's
persecution of Falun Gong because of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP)
deceitful hate propaganda. To help them learn the truth about Falun Gong for the
sake of saving them, we need to produce and distribute a large number of
materials containing important facts about Falun Gong and the CCP's cruel
persecution of practitioners. With that in mind, establishing and running
truth-clarification material production sites becomes an important
part of truth-clarification work. Some practitioners have to assume the
important responsibility. The truth-clarification material production sites started small in number and
scale and gradually blossomed over time. It is a daunting task to keep the
operations of a large truth-clarification material production site going because
it has more requirements than a small site. Combined with the old forces'
frequent interference and sabotage, larger production sites in our area were
repeatedly discovered and destroyed by the police. Fellow practitioners were
also arrested as a result. For a period of time in the winter of 2005,
truth-clarification materials were running short. I was pretty anxious about the
lack of a timely supply of materials for fellow practitioners, but I didn't
think of establishing a production site myself. (At the time I didn't know much
about using a computer.) I didn't think of lifting some of the burden from those
fellow practitioners that were running large truth-clarification material
production sites. I was satisfied with donating several thousand yuan
a year to help keep the sites running. In fact, I was pretty pleased with myself
at the time. Due to the ongoing shortage of truth-clarification materials, a few fellow
practitioners suggested that my wife and I establish a material site at home. I
didn't say yes right away. Instead, I gave a diplomatic answer and promised to
think about it. The truth is that I was selfishly thinking of my own safety. But
my wife and I exchanged our understandings on the Fa and we agreed
to assume the responsibility. In fact, we decided that we were in an excellent
position to establish a truth-clarification material production site at
our home. First, every person in our household is a Falun Gong practitioner.
Second, my wife and I both have good daytime jobs that are not very demanding in
terms of working hours. Third, our income is sufficient to keep a
truth-clarification material site running. Fourth, because my wife and I are
both practitioners, we can exchange our insights and upgrade together if we run
into problems. We both realized that we had been selfish in avoiding the responsibility. As
practitioners, we must eliminate the attachment of selfishness. Teacher has
repeatedly taught us to create truth-clarification material production sites in
China, as many as the flowers that bloom here. As practitioners, we should do
our best to achieve Teacher's goals. Once we upgraded our understanding on the
Fa, my wife and I put it into action right away. With fellow practitioners'
help, we started a truth-clarification material production site at home. 2. Overcoming Technical Challenges by Learning from Scratch My wife and I didn't know how to use a computer. We only knew how to turn one
on and off. Once we had purchased all the necessary computer equipment, a fellow
practitioner started to teach us how to use the computer and computer software
step by step. My wife took meticulous notes and followed the notes step by step.
At first we learned to run simple tasks, but we forgot more complicated ones as
soon as the practitioner left. At first we wasted a lot of resources because we were pretty bad at using a
computer. Sometimes we wasted over 10 sheets of paper because of one mistake. I
felt frustrated with myself and felt inadequate. If I had known it would be so
difficult, I would not have agreed to do it. But when I thought of fellow
practitioners anxiously waiting for truth-clarification materials to save
sentient beings, those unrighteous thoughts were eliminated and replaced by
righteous thoughts. At first my wife and I didn't know how to get on the Internet, so we had to
rely on another practitioner to bring us the data files in person on a portable
disk. It was inconvenient and limited our production rate. Later we learned how
to surf the Internet with a fellow practitioner's help. We started out with a
dial-up connection, which really slowed us down. Sometimes we couldn't get a
dial-up connection at all because of the CCP's Internet blockade. My wife and I
decided to get a cable connection. Now we can download truth-clarification
materials from the Internet very quickly. Because of fellow practitioners' help and our hard work, my wife and I can
now run the material production site on our own. We can download and print
truth-clarification materials, install software, compile documents, burn VCDs,
upload music to MP3 players, and make greetings cards to Teacher on special
holidays. We can even fix simple computer problems. During the process, we have
learned to take good care of our computer and equipment. After all, they are Fa
tools with which we save sentient beings. Looking back on the process of
learning technical skills, we feel it is also a process of cultivating our
hearts and eliminating attachments. 3. From Eliminating Fear to Stably Running a Truth-Clarification Material
Production Site My wife and I established the site at home in the winter of 2005. We were not
without fear at first. When a fellow practitioner told me that the police had
special equipment to detect a laser printer in the neighborhood, I spent about
50 "yuan" to buy copper wire to make a shield for the printer. After I
finished weaving a copper shield, I tested it and found it did not work. Next I
wrapped a cardboard box with a sheet of tin to make another shield. After a
while, a fellow practitioner told me that none of the shields I made would stand
up to the police's detector, so I removed the shield from my laser printer. Actually, these tests and illusions were targeting my attachment of fear. I
identified my attachment of fear when I exchanged understandings with fellow
practitioners. My wife and I began to study the Fa more. I even started to
memorize Zhuan Falun. Now I am memorizing Zhuan Falun
for the third time. Once I understood the problem from the perspective of the Fa,
upgraded my xinxing level, and reinforced my righteous
thoughts, I realized that human notions were dominating me when I was busy
making those protective shields. In fact, none of the shields worked. It has
been Teacher protecting our material production site all along, because Teacher
saw that we truly wanted to produce truth clarification materials, but we still
had some fear. Teacher was protecting us while waiting for us to upgrade our
understanding on the Fa. Teacher even gave us hints via a fellow practitioner.
This is the true reason why our truth-clarification material production site has
been running safely. As my wife and I continued to study the Fa, we tried to find the root cause
of our fear. We decided that the problem originated from our lack of steadfast
faith in Teacher and the Fa. We failed to do what Teacher told us to do.
Whatever we decided to do, we did it on compromising terms. As we continued to
dig into our attachment, we realized that we had been afraid of letting people
know when we were doing things to clarify the truth. But why weren't we afraid
of letting people know when we were doing other things? We must have been
selfish. We were afraid that the police might discover the production site in
our home. We feared this and that because we did Dafa work from the wrong
foundation. Our foundation should be built on assisting Teacher in His Fa-rectification
and on saving sentient beings. If we had regarded ourselves as upright and
all-mighty divine beings assisting Teacher in His Fa-rectification and
fulfilling the most sacred, righteous mission of saving sentient beings, would
we have had any fear of the evil, wicked beings? The evil, wicked beings would
not dare to come near us. Teacher said, "If you are a true practitioner, our Falun will safeguard you. I am
rooted in the universe. If anyone can harm you, he or she would be able to
harm me. Put simply, that person would be able to harm this universe."
("Characteristics of Falun Dafa" in Lecture One of Zhuan Falun) Teacher has explained the Fa very clearly in the above passage. The key is
whether we can conduct ourselves as true practitioners. I feel utterly ashamed!
After all, I have been cultivating for more than a decade, but I have not been
able to believe in Teacher and the Fa completely. Teacher taught us a long time
ago that we are walking on the path to godhood and that we are divine beings
validating the Fa in the human world, but my wife and I were holding fast to
human notions and fearing this and that. It should be the evil beings that fear
practitioners because we are eliminating evil beings from other dimensions with
our righteous thoughts and because we are saving sentient beings. We have the
ability to end the persecution and guard the universe. We are future kings and
lords of the universe. Once my wife and I elevated our understanding on the Fa,
we successfully eliminated our attachment of fear. However, fear sometimes pops up in our minds from time to time because we are
still cultivating in the human world. Sometimes we would be interfered with
because we failed to differentiate fear from our true selves. In 2007, when a
local practitioner was arrested, we were told, "The truth-clarification
material production site is a sensitive place. Why don't you suspend operations
for a while? Wait until the coast is clear." I didn't want to acknowledge
the old forces' interference or the persecution of the fellow practitioner, but
I decided to take the practitioner's advice and stopped producing
truth-clarification materials for a week. As I studied the Fa and searched inward, I realized fear was dominating
again. When a fellow practitioner is persecuted, that is when a
truth-clarification production site has to fulfill its function of exposing the
persecution, spreading the truth, and rescuing the fellow practitioner. My wife
and I resumed operations immediately. Since then, we have been running our
truth-clarification material production site normally, regardless of so-called
politically sensitive days or any contingencies. My wife and I have reached the following understandings: Our heart must not
waver no matter what kind of news we hear. Our first thought should be to negate
the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners adamantly. Falun Gong practitioners
must be released immediately and unconditionally. When an unrighteous thought
pops up in our minds, we should identify it, differentiate the wicked thought
from our true selves, and eliminate it right away. Then it will be eradicated
instantly. If we should follow the wicked train of thought or think about how to
protect ourselves, we would be acknowledging and even inviting the evil
arrangements. Hence, we must be aware of our each and every thought and be
vigilant against exploitation by the evil forces. 4. Melting into the Fa and Becoming a Particle of the Fa In retrospect, over the past eight years of assisting Teacher in His Fa-rectification,
my wife and I have come a long way. At first, we didn't know what to do. Then we
followed suggestions from fellow practitioners. Eventually, we truly elevated
our understandings on the Fa and caught up with Teacher's Fa-rectification. We
have become increasingly mature as Falun Gong practitioners. Our material
production site at home is responsible for supplying materials for over 200
practitioners. My wife and I are responsible for the operating expenses and the
entire production. (When we are short of money, fellow practitioners will help
out.) We also have to shoulder a little coordination work. My wife and I made a
rule for ourselves: No matter how great an article is, we must not use it in our
truth-clarification material if it is not published on the Minghui/Clearwisdom
website. Take Jia Jia's "Letter to Fellow Countrymen" as an example. A
fellow practitioner told us that it was an excellent article and that we should
distribute it far and wide. He could hardly contain his excitement about Jia
Jia's article. But my wife and I told him calmly, "Jia Jia's article is
truly very well written, but it is full of pursuit for democracy and power of an
ordinary person. These are not at all what Falun Gong practitioners should
pursue. This is a very solemn issue. We must be responsible to the Fa."
Later on another practitioner made the same request. Many local practitioners
had a discussion on this issue and reached a consensus. In the end, we didn't
widely circulate the article among the public in our area. But there were times when my wife and I reached the wrong understanding.
Spreading The Cosmo's Calamity is one example. When I first read the
novel on Zhengjian.org (PureInsight.org), I took instant delight in it. I
thought this was a novel about cultivation practice and I was very inspired. I
thought reading this novel would help us elevate our xinxing
levels, so I downloaded the novel, printed many copies, and distributed them
among local practitioners. I thought I had done a great deed until Teacher
published "On the Novel The Cosmo's Calamity." I realized that
I was driven by my attachment to have done something a practitioner should not
have done. I immediately destroyed the remaining copies of The Cosmo's
Calamity and told fellow practitioners to destroy the copies I had given
them. As a practitioner running a truth-clarification material production site, I
am shouldering important responsibilities. If I should fail to conduct myself
properly, I would be likely to mislead fellow practitioners. China is a special
country where the majority of Falun Gong practitioners cannot access the Minghui/Clearwisdom
website directly. Therefore, practitioners place their trust in those
practitioners running truth-clarification material production sites. Hence, they
tend to distribute whatever materials they receive from material production
sites. With that in mind, it becomes very important for practitioners at these
sites to check all the materials before distributing them to other
practitioners. While running the site, my wife and I keep learning new ways to economize. At
first we made a lot of mistakes because we didn't know how to use the computer.
As a result, each time we printed materials, we made a lot of bad copies because
of paper jams, shortage of ink, etc. In order to prevent paper jams, one of us
is responsible for watching the paper feed and the other, the paper output. This
way we have stopped wasting a lot of paper and ink. Nowadays hardly any
resources are wasted. My wife and I will not think twice about spending money on validating the Fa,
but we are very frugal in terms of our personal living expenses. We have been
running the site for over a year. We hardly spent any money on new clothes. My
wife and I have reached the following consensus: It is Teacher and the Fa that
have given us everything we own today, so we must achieve Teacher's goals
unconditionally. Teacher has scooped us out of Hell, deleted our names from the
list of people condemned to Hell, and arranged our Fruit Statuses in heavenly
paradises. It is Teacher and the Fa that gave us our lives and everything else,
so we must assimilate ourselves into the Fa and become a particle of the Fa. My wife transfered the majority of the donations from fellow practitioners to
other truth-clarification material production sites. Only when we are short of
money do we take the donation. Sometimes when we hear that another truth-clarification
material production site is short of money to keep the operation going, my wife
and I spare some money from our living expenses to make a donation to that
production site. We are one body. When a truth-clarification material production
site runs into difficulty, we all run into difficulty. We still have a lot of attachments to eliminate during our journey of
assisting Teacher in His Fa-rectification, but we are confident that we will
eliminate all of them. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate in our
understandings.
Chinese version available at
http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/11/7/165775.html
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