(Minghui.org) I have worked in the field of literature and art all my life. After the persecution of Falun Gong started, I was imprisoned and forced into homelessness to avoid further persecution. After I resumed my job, I was anti-social for a while until I enlightened that Dafa is a great law that is not restricted to any forms. My cultivation path has now become broader. My path in Fa-rectification—validating the Fa in literature and artwork, rectifying everyday people's notions of traditional culture, and leaving a pure form of creative production for people in the future—was already arranged by Master a long time ago.
During the 1980s, between the end of the Great Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989, political control was not as tight as in other times of China's recent history, and the areas of literature and art enjoyed a brief time of freedom of speech and publication. At that time I read extensively about art and aesthetic theories. Among the accessible resources, three professional journals had a significant influence on me: Art World, Prose, and Aesthetic Education. Over a decade of reading and learning from these journals helped me to build a solid foundation for doing well my job of writing critiques and validating the Fa in my own way today.
When I had the chance to resume my work after my homeless period, I was uninterested in secular life and creative production in the field of literature and art, aiming to eliminate my attachments to fame and material gain. Therefore, my acquaintances and colleagues believed that I had written myself off, and a reputable critic even published an article stating that I was too spiritual to do the work that I used to do well. They also rejected the idea of withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. I later enlightened that the great law is not confined by any forms, and that I should return to mainstream society in China to provide opportunities for salvation of people in arts and literature, and the sentient beings related to them.
Once I had reached a higher level of understanding of the Fa, I realized that Master had indeed arranged every detail properly for me to validate the Fa at work. As Fa-rectification is progressing, social phenomena are emerging with the cosmic changes and people are starting to return to their cultural roots for traditional teachings. As part of our jobs, my colleagues and I were required to provide leadership in developing community literature and art as part of our fieldwork. In the community where I was assigned to work, I helped the locals establish a photography club and a painting and calligraphy club, in addition to offering instruction in a variety of art activities and community news reporting. My community is now regarded as a model of community development, and community representatives from other cities also often come to learn from us. In the annual report meeting, my director made a special point of acknowledging my achievement.
Master told us to learn as much as we could. I did not fully understand this until recently when I had an experience with "blogging." I used to dislike computers and blogs, but I have now come to realize that I can take advantage of anything in everyday life to validate the Fa. I recently posted a review of a Western movie on my blog that I had built earlier this year. A poet friend was moved to tears upon reading my review and thanked me for writing such a touching article. His wife commented, “Those who are strong inside are the happiest.” This article was also published on a website run by Dafa practitioners.
Not long ago I published two critical articles based on an interview with a famous painter and writer, which included topics covering art, spirituality, and the meaning of life. These articles earned me a higher reputation in literary and artistic circles, and the critic who had criticized me for being unable to do my work well published an essay to compliment these two articles, saying they were the most comprehensive and profound of their kind. He also took the initiative to contact me to learn about my stories of cultivation and persecution, and was preparing to write about me. Another critic, when mentioning me in his book, commented that Falun Gong is “a rational grassroots spiritual belief.” Moreover, he withdrew from the CCP and its organizations and said, “We can never know Falun Gong well, but we know Falun Gong through you.”
While my career was being re-established, I developed an idea to publish a journal that promoted pure traditional culture as opposed to popular magazines that are full of ads, sex, and violence. However, when the chance came (my supervisor wanted me to be the chief editor of a new journal) I refused to take it because I was worried that this additional work would take up my time for practicing Falun Gong, and also that the journal would have to follow the Party's journalist rules like most media in China. But my supervisor kept trying to persuade me, and I changed my mind and accepted the assignment, based on the thought of helping to revitalize traditional culture to save sentient beings. Nevertheless, I stipulated that the journal would not be obligated to carry political propaganda. My supervisor agreed with me.
While researching and collecting the works of local writers and artists, I edited a sample journal of traditional culture. My supervisor submitted the sample to different levels of supervisory bodies and assured them of my capacity and skills. He also told those department heads, “Work is work. No one—including the 610 Office—should interfere with our work.” Some of the supervisors could not believe the journal was edited by one single person, and others were greatly impressed and agreed to support my journal. After reading copies of the journal, some of my colleagues told me that for a long period of time they had not read such a good publication that touched their hearts.
It is true that in today's world only Dafa practitioners know what is real beauty.
The challenge of cultivating among everyday people is that one can easily get lost in worldly society. Facing compliments and acknowledgments, I occasionally couldn't help feeling proud of myself. I have to remind myself that what I am doing is not to validate myself but the Fa. Master said in “Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan,”
“...you have to reach a state in which you have such things but have no heart for them, in which you can do such things but without attachment.”
The Fa is the origin of everything. It is not about how capable I am, but that we are all Dafa disciples saving people in different positions, as is required by Fa-rectification and needed by sentient beings.
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