Written by a Dafa practitioner Cheng Ping

(Clearwisdom.net) Each day, Dafa practitioners in China submit many articles for publication to reveal the persecution of Falun Gong. On one hand, the purpose of this is to expose the facts of the persecution and to restrain the evil. However, the most important purpose is to save sentient beings.

With this in mind, I think there are still many problems with regard to published articles and local submissions. Many of them do not have problems with their writing quality. Rather, they are reflections of cultivation status. If fellow practitioners keep a general audience in mind while writing--as if they were clarifying the truth to them face to face--these articles will deeply move the reader. The authors of these articles come from all walks of life, including farmers, laborers, women in their sixties and seventies, young practitioners, etc. Each of these articles helps readers to learn the truth about Falun Dafa from many aspects such as the kindness and honesty of Dafa practitioners, the greatness of Dafa, and the cruelty of the persecution. Reading these articles is like a conversation with the authors. It is a genuine exchange of the mind, which arouses compassion from the public.

In fact, these articles are effective because inside, the righteous thoughts of Dafa practitioners and the energy generated by their compassionate minds can save sentient beings.

However, our articles could be greatly weakened and even lead to adverse effects on different groups of people if they were written with the mindset of a non-practitioner. For instance, some authors complain of the unfairness they have received, not in the sense that arouse compassion from the public, but indicating the author's grievances in their mind. Some articles are written as day-to-day accounts that have no cause, consequence, or consideration for the acceptance of readers. Sentences from some articles indicate the hatred, coldness, indifference, longings, and helplessness of everyday people. This is to say that the attachments we fail to rid ourselves of are unconsciously left in these articles, thus hindering the effect of saving sentient beings. Also, we should regard the process of writing articles as a process of cultivation and of truth-clarification--something to be treated very seriously.

The process of writing each of these articles is a process of hardship for the authors themselves, since they have to recollect the feelings and difficult experiences they have suffered. Nonetheless, at all times we should write with righteous thoughts. We are not writing to prove the hardships we have suffered, but rather to help the public see and know the genuine evil and cruelty of the persecution against Falun Gong.

The real purpose of our articles is to break the warped thoughts in reader's minds. For this, we must keep in mind the reader's capability of perception and comprehension. This should be the starting point for our articles. Then, we can easily solve the problem of our writing skill, which might look quite complex at first sight.

For instance:

1. There might be paragraphs to introduce the authors themselves, which may not necessarily be at the beginning of the article. This could be very important since it tells the reader who we are, how Dafa has benefited us, why we cultivate and persist in cultivation, and why we try to expose the persecution, etc. This may not only provide avenues for the readers to know the authors as real people, but also may present a sharp comparison between the darkness and evil revealed in the articles. Then the righteousness in these articles will arouse their compassion and the sympathy, which is deeply rooted in their hearts; only those who know brightness can understand darkness and only with compassion can people fully know evil.

2. There should also be detailed descriptions of the time, location, and people involved in a death case, or any other case relating to the persecution. This way we can provide the readers with concrete and convincing information that confirms that we are giving them the facts.

3. In some articles, authors exchange ideas with fellow practitioners while clarifying the truth to the public. So naturally we have to use many words that give descriptions of our cultivation status and that members of the public at large may consider strange. It's up to us to target our audience before we start. If we write for the public, we should read our papers from their perspective. On the other hand, we would certainly write in a different way if we wrote about the exchange of righteous thoughts and the behaviors and personal enlightenment of Dafa practitioners.

4. We should try to describe things as objectively and neutrally as possible to avoid creating obstacles for the public. For instance, we should not use too much of the word "evil," Instead, we can insert details of the persecutors' names and positions. In fact, readers will come to the conclusion that they are evil after we present the plain facts clearly and logically.

Furthermore, the compassion, the cultivation level, and the mind of the author are also manifested in the tone of voice we use when communicating with the audience. This is not only a conceptual thing, but rather something that is manifested in every sentence of the article.

5. The attractiveness to readers. Like our readers, Dafa practitioners come from all walks of life. All Dafa practitioners have their own unique cultivation enlightenment and experiences from the persecution they have suffered. Their descriptions should manifest such uniqueness.

During the writing process, a detailed description of our suffering and a depiction of our thoughts are very important because it can leave the readers feeling like they are personally on the scene of the persecution.

6. Do not talk at too high a level. Readers may be confused and even be pushed away if the articles are written in a manner that transcends the words and concepts used in everyday speech and thought.

7. Explanations of terminology are also very important for readers to have a better knowledge of the facts of the persecution.

8. For the convenience of fellow practitioners' truth-clarification through phone calls, we should try to provide the telephone numbers and addresses of the people responsible for the persecution at the end of our articles, even if they have been published before.

Posting date: 1/19/2004
Original article date: 1/18/2004
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/12/23/63102.html

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