PureInsight | October 1, 2001
Master said: “Judging from the articles on the ClearWisdom web site and the Dafa disciples' articles on the Xinsheng1 web site and in other media, I'd say that some of the articles you've written are masterpieces--they are well-reasoned, their ideas are backed up, they demonstrate clear thinking, and their logic is strong. They have truly shocked and intimidated the evil, and their caliber is high….Sometimes when I read the PureInsight web site, I feel that the new beings and the new humankind have truly begun now, because your understanding has already managed to align with those of the new historic period and those of the most righteous beings. Dafa disciples are establishing for humankind a foundation for the future.” (“Lecture on the Fa at the Washington D.C. International Conference”) From this, I understand that, since the principles that Dafa disciples have enlightened to from the Fa are establishing a foundation for humankind of the future, it is the duty of Dafa disciples to incorporate these understandings into “well-reasoned,” well “backed-up” pieces “demonstrating clear thinking,” and “strong logic” on a high level.
But for some fellow practitioners, writing an article is so tough that it makes them hold back out of fear, as if it were a goal that is too high to reach. Moreover, the article should be written on a high level. Then it seems even harder! In fact, the reason is that these fellow practitioners haven’t grasped the gist of the skill of writing. I always think that anybody, even a person who has no experience in writing, can write an admirable article once he grasps the skill of writing.
For most of us, the first step after deciding on a topic is always thinking about what we should start with. Then we will write word-by-word, paragraph-by-paragraph, following the sequence from beginning to end. I find that if we write in this way, our mind will be led imperceptibly by the article in order to keep the article integral and continuous. Then we can seldom fully develop our original thoughts and unique insights. So, after we finish the article, we always feel regret because we didn’t completely express what we wanted to say.
To improve this situation, I personally think we must jump out of this writing mode that is led by the article. Conversely, we should develop the details of our insights completely at first; then start to write the article. Only by doing it this way can the article we write be what we want.
The detailed procedure is as follows: after we decide on the topic and collect the related material, we should start to write down all of the ideas that are related to the topic in our mind, i.e., write down whatever we have thought about. We should try to write uninterruptedly, and we needn’t care about whether it is fearfully messy and inconsistent or not. We should keep writing until nothing else can be squeezed out from our minds. Then, we can put these messy paragraphs roughly in order and arrange them to be a draft of an article. We should work on it further by adding, deleting and modifying. We need to modify and correct it again and again; we also need to think over and over about it, sum it up and rearrange it from time to time until the draft becomes a whole article.
Next, we should go through the article from the beginning to the end very carefully. Please don’t give up easily if it is not satisfactory. You can take a break and wait for one or two days. From my personal experience, during this period, it does happen like Master said: “He will be unable to continue writing a paper, be short of ideas in composing a piece of music, or be unable to complete a scientific research project. At this point, a person is usually tired, with the brain wasted and cigarette butts scattered on the floor. He gets stuck, has a headache, and still cannot come up with any ideas. In the end, under what conditions does inspiration appear? If he is tired, he will think: ‘Forget it. I’ll take a break.’ Because the more his Main Consciousness controls his brain the less other lives can step in, with this break and the relaxation of his mind, all of a sudden he can unintentionally recall something from his brain. Most inspiration comes this way.”(Zhuan Falun, Lecture Nine)
If we can persevere in our writing, while taking a break and relaxing inspirations will come one after another. So, relaxation is one of the procedures we must follow. During the relaxation, we can take this incomplete article with us. When the inspiration comes or when we have free time, we can add, delete, or modify parts. By way of these unremitting efforts, the article is often a masterpiece when it is born. Sometimes, I couldn’t even believe that I wrote a given article!
Meanwhile, what we are going to present by expressing our personal experiences, understandings or Dafa-related information, will be a most integral and complete article; and it’s also an exciting article. Moreover, it can help us understand the Fa more clearly and logically after thinking, summarizing, arranging and repeated deliberations. So, in fact, it’s a procedure for self-improvement, as well as using a pen to assist Master.
Using this writing process, if we Dafa disciples can convey our own experiences to fellow practitioners via the internet, although we cannot communicate with each other face to face like we do in the experience sharing conferences, such articles embodying our utmost efforts usually can be encouragement for each other. These articles help us to realize our attachments and the gaps that exist when we fall behind other practitioners. Meanwhile, by sharing experiences with each other, we can make our work of spreading the Fa, clarifying the truth, and exposing the evil ever more comprehensive and efficient. If we do this, the Dafa-related websites can be treated as super-scale experience sharing conferences for Dafa disciples around the world.
In addition, if during your writing some ideas came to your mind that were not related to your chosen topic, you can also arrange and organize them into other papers with different subjects. By doing this, we can ferment several fine pieces of writing at the same time.
All of the above is my personal viewpoint. I hope this will be worth your consideration and that more fellow practitioners will have the courage to use their writing to assist Master.
Translated from
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2001/8/23/11434.html
