(Clearwisdom.net) I started practicing Falun Dafa when I was 40 years old, in July 2004. Since late 2006, I have been editing the persecution articles written by local practitioners. Here I would like to share my cultivation experiences. Please point out anything improper.
Rushing to Publish Articles with Strong Attachments
In July 2006, two local coordintors (A and B) thought that I was good at editing and asked me if I would be interested in doing it. I told them that I was confident with my language editing, but I was not so confident with my understanding of the Fa and protecting practitioners' safety while editing for the website. We decided to go ahead. They would provide the persecution articles. I then edited the articles and had them check them again before submitting to the Minghui website (Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net). For the next two years, we collaborated on editing articles, and only the three of us handled this project.
In 2007, at a local experience sharing conference, a practitioner mentioned some details about her husband who was persecuted in prison. I took notes, gathered information, and wrote an article. I then sent it to practitioner A for feedback, but I did not hear back from A, and I didn’t see the article published on the website either. Moreover, I did not know where A lived.
After 10 days of no response from practitioner A, I was anxious and sent the article directly to the website. A few days later, the website published my article. I felt a sense of joy. Practitioner B came and told me that some 610 Office officials had questioned the practitioner about the article. They inquired about who wrote the article and threatened her, so she complained about practitioners A and B.
I felt bad about the whole thing and asked B to send my apology to her. A few days later, Practitioner A sent her revised version (in which she added more details) back to me, and the article seemed more realistic. After this, I looked inward and discovered the strong attachments of impatience and showing off. Even though I had paid attention to eliminating those attachments after I started cultivating, they periodically appeared. This was especially the case when I dealt with a serious project that might impact another practitioner’s safety or create misunderstanding among practitioners.
Thereafter, with any persecution articles, regardless of whether it was long or short, I edited it over and over to verify that it was accurate and to insure the safety of the author so that only very little editing was needed. In 2008 both practitioners A and B were persecuted, but I was able to continue this project alone without the need for additional editing.
Eliminating My Attachments to Fear and Comfort in the Process of Exposing the Persecution
Master said:
"Exposing the wicked policemen and bad persons and publicizing their evil deeds is extremely effective at shocking and restraining those irrational, wicked people. At the same time, by clarifying the facts to the people on a local level, it most directly exposes, and generates public awareness of, the wicked persecution. It is also a great way to save the people who have been poisoned and deceived by the lies. I hope all Dafa disciples and new students in Mainland China will do this well." ("Master's Comment on a Student's Article," 2005) Verified
In 2008, a practitioner who had been released from prison wrote down his eight years of persecution experiences. The paper was very long and unorganized, and it needed a lot of editing. I spent eight days modifying and editing his paper, and I encountered interference. My legs were so painful that I could not complete practicing the exercises.
I thought about what he had suffered during such brutal torture. It required great courage for him to step forward and expose those evil deeds. I became more patient with reading his rough drafts, and I worked with him by getting him to fill in even more persecution details. After I completed the article, I had him read it for any discrepancies. I edited it several times before submitting the article to the website for publication.
In recent years, more persecution articles have landed in my hands. Some articles were not so clear; some were incomplete or needed more grammatical editing; and some were not logical. Regardless of how difficult the article was, I never gave up and tried my best to make the article clean and clear.
One persecution article came from outside of our town. It was written in pencil, and some of the words were missing. I had to guess at some of the sentences, based on what was clear in the article. It needed a major revision. In order to insure that it was factual, I took a long distance bus three times to iron out some details with the author, who also once came to my house. During the preparation of the article, there was a lot of interference from other dimensions. It took us about one month to get to a final version. This article exposed an evil place that was used specifically to persecute Dafa practitioners in our province. The article detailed evidence of torture and three incidences of karmic retribution. After this article was published on the website, the 610 Office officials came to the author’s house to harass her, and they attempted to persecute her again. She was safe under Master’s great compassion and protection. I went to her home after I was notified of the incident. We exchanged cultivation experiences, and we both realized that when we used human thinking, the evil took advantage of us.
I needed a quiet place to edit the articles. Once I received an article, I started working right away throughout the night. I usually sat in front of the computer for more than 10 hours, and I only took breaks when I needed to go to the bathroom or to eat, drink, or send righteous thoughts. Sometimes my back hurt when I sat for a long time, but I reminded myself that this is part of my cultivation, and I should do as Master said: "When it's difficult to endure, you can endure it. When it's impossible to do, you can do it." ("Lecture Nine" in Zhuan Falun) As a result, the back pain and fatigue went away. I had more energy after I studied and practiced the exercises.
Editing the articles exposed my attachments to fear and comfort. I tried to overcome them. As a Dafa practitioner, there were no articles that I could not handle; however, the human attachments were hard to let go of. After more than four years of editing persecution articles, I still see some of these attachments. However, I realize that I should treat myself as a cultivator so that I can do everything well, and I should look inwards so that I can improve my xinxing. I will continue improving in my cultivation and not let Master down in what he arranged for us a long time ago.
