PureInsight | April 12, 2004
[Pureinsight.org] In "Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art," Master said:
Just yesterday I was saying that whatever Dafa disciples do, human society will emulate it in the not-too-distant future. Right now, during the Fa-rectification period, everything in the world revolves around Dafa–that's for sure–because the Three Realms were created for the Fa-rectification. Why am I discussing these things with you today? It's because Dafa disciples with artistic skills have abilities and energy. If the things you do aren't upright, or aren't upright enough, you'll reinforce the unrighteous elements, which will affect human society even more. In cultivation, you're supposed to rectify yourselves by cultivating away everything that's not good.
It became crystal clear to me after reading the above that what Master said also applies to those of us who write articles, regardless of whether they are everyday people's news or experience sharing articles for our fellow practitioners. Writing is also a process where we rectify ourselves. Those of us who grew up in Mainland China have been shaped by the last several decades of turbulent times in Mainland China. We demonstrate unknowingly many warped characteristics of the time in our thinking, speaking and writing. If we let our guard down, we will easily fill our articles with big but empty words that we grew up reading in Mainland China. Our words will also tend to carry strong personal biases and personal emotions. Come to think of it, isn't it actually a manifestation of our demonic side? Naturally when we write in such a way, our thoughts won't come across to the reader and we can't make the reader understand what we want to convey. It does take time for us to recognize this problem. Once we recognize this problem, we should intentionally purify our words.
When I read ancient Chinese books like The Book of Songs (Shi Jing) and The Stories of Deities (Shenxian Zhuan), I found that the ancient Chinese wrote with a peaceful mind and rarely used words that lacked objectivity. Confucius said, "If I use one word to describe The Book of Songs, I would say, the author had a righteous mind." At the same time, only those with equally pure minds could understand books that were written with pure minds. Nowadays there are few people who can appreciate and understand the ancient masterpieces.
We are Dafa practitioners during the Fa-Rectification period, and our words will be important to future generations. Our words are also a test of how well we have been doing during the Fa-Rectification. Thus, our responsibilities are high and must be taken seriously.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2003/10/26/24218.html
