PureInsight | January 13, 2001
I can't remember exactly when I began doing editing work. I worked on translating/polishing Master's books before July 20, 1999. A few months later, I saw emails going around about doing translation/polishing for websites. At that time, I did not have anywhere near the understanding of the importance of Dafa websites, and just saw it as an in between job from translating Master's books and articles. Through translation/polishing for the websites, I gradually came to have a deeper understanding of the importance of Dafa websites and this being an important way to let people know the truth, and thereby protect Dafa.
To be quite frank, I have never really seen myself as a great writer, I do not always understand complicated grammar rules, and my vocabulary is not that impressive. Through doing Dafa translation and polishing though, some of those ordinary skills did not seem to be as important as they would in an ordinary person's job. When I would work, I would try and understand all the articles from the point of view of the Fa. I would not only try and understand what the person writing the article was trying to say, but also the Dafa principles behind all that, and how to convey that in the article. I would often have experiences where I would be reading a line, and the words of Master would pop into my head. I would go back and read the line again, and found that often that was the principle that was being displayed by that practitioner in this experience that they wrote down. By understanding the principle Master lectured on and the experience of this person, I would reword the sentence in a way that I understood to make the most sense. The polished article would not necessarily be seen as a great work by an English professor, and at times quite simple English was used, but I think that the article was able to convey the deeper meaning of the author's experience, which can often be difficult to see if it is covered by complicated words, tricky grammar, poor translation, etc. (this is not to say that just because an article was written in Chinese that it perfectly conveys the deeper meaning either, sometimes that can be difficult to see as well).
When I was offered the job of being an editor, things ran nowhere near as smoothly as they do now. We were all trying to figure out the best way to do things, and most importantly how to get the website to a level that it would fully serve its role of giving direction in Fa-rectification. This brings up an important topic-the role of Dafa websites. These websites represent Falun Dafa, and provide direction during Fa-rectification. Wow! That's pretty big to say the least. Because of this, I think that each of us working on these websites needs to calmly come to understand its importance, and the role each individual plays within that. We all know that Dafa is greater than we can ever fathom, and that Fa-rectification is something so enormous that there is no way we could even come close to understanding it with an ordinary person's mind. Dafa websites do much more than just pass on information, they need to be 100% in sync with Dafa and Fa-rectification. They cannot go astray even a little, because that would in turn have a devastating effect on all the practitioners (I understand 'going astray' and having 'mistakes' as two different concepts). I remember talking with other editors about their understanding of Dafa websites macroscopically, and when one stops and thinks about the importance of Dafa disciples in the human world and the effect we have on the whole universe, one can only imagine the form these websites take in other dimensions. (I think other editors have a much better understanding of the big picture of these websites than I do, so perhaps they can share their understandings with the rest of us sometime.)
Editing work is obviously much different than polishing. My understanding for being an editor is that the most important thing for us is to have a very clear and rational understanding of the Fa, especially Master's new articles and lectures. Not only do the articles need to conform to Dafa, but also they need to express the most correct understandings and current situation of Fa-rectification. When practitioners read Dafa websites, they should attain a clearer sense of all that is going on and what they need to be doing now. Though the articles go through many people's hands before they get to the editors, it is the editors' job to make sure that every article, line, and word fulfill the role of Dafa websites, and if not, then that part needs to be changed or removed because dregs cannot be posted on Dafa websites. To some this may sound extreme, but I think those with a rational understanding realize the importance of this. Now when it comes to our actual work it is not to say that we go and redo everything (ideally the articles should already be in good shape by the time they get to us), but we need to make sure that everything fits the standard of Dafa. Minor grammatical errors I do not see as a big problem (though of course they should be fixed when caught), but it is making sure that the article is worthy and fits the standard of Dafa websites that is important.
As an editor, I feel that it is my responsibility to make sure that I have a very good understanding of Master's new articles and articles from the editors. When a new article or lecture comes out, I not only read it and try to understand it, I read it over and over, and read it every day for at least the next week. If it is a new article, I always memorize it after I have read it a few times. I then recite it from memory everyday and reread it everyday. The new lectures seem a bit long to memorize (which is probably a mental obstacle that I should get past), so instead I will make sure that if there is a new one I will read it at least once a day, and often a few times a day when it first comes out. This is of course in addition to my regular studying of Zhuan Falun and other articles and lectures (by the way, for the past few months I have been going through Essentials and reading a few articles from it everyday, and I feel that this has definitely helped in my cultivation). I usually try and make time to look over some articles on Dafa websites everyday. I not only read it for my own cultivation, but I also try and get a understanding of how the article was put together and how it conveys its message, as well as trying to get an overall understanding of the web page and the postings for that day.
I think it is good that as editors we be sure to stay on top of things and maintain a clear, thorough, and rational understanding of the Fa. Though Dafa websites may not be the only mission we have in Fa-rectification, I think it is vital we understand their importance, realize where we put it on our priority list, and what we need to do to fulfill this extremely important role.
