3. Publishing a Newspaper
After coming back from America, three Australian practitioners, inspired by the American practitioners' experiences in protecting and promoting Dafa, suggested publishing a newspaper to print positive reports on Falun Dafa. Their suggestion aroused great responses and lots of discussion among practitioners.
Each practitioner expressed his or her own understanding. Practitioners who wanted to run the newspaper thought that the cultivation practice during the present, special period of time is closely connected to our Teacher's rectification of the Fa. It is right, but far from enough, to only maintain the basic cultivation forms: group practice and group study. Falun Dafa is in such a critical situation that the Chinese government has used the national media to spread a lot of negative propaganda, slandering and smearing Falun Dafa. This vicious propaganda has long been spread overseas. When some practitioners submitted articles to the Chinese newspapers here telling the true story of Falun Dafa, the persons in charge always told them that if the newspaper published the positive articles on Falun Dafa, they would be under pressure from the government. Even though some practitioners offered to use their own money to publish articles in the form of ads, the newspaper agencies still feared this menace. The same was true with the Broadcasting Stations. Thus, all media here copied only the negative reports from the Chinese government. At that time, no positive messages about Falun Dafa could be conveyed to the public and the voices of practitioners were effectively silenced. In this extremely special situation, it was really necessary for us to publish our own newspaper to clarify the truth of Falun Dafa and let people know about the persecution of practitioners in China. In his latest articles, our Teacher told us clearly that we should appeal for help from people of all walks of life. But how can this be done without any positive messages from society while the Chinese government blocks news of the brutal persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners?
Being enlightened by the Fa, we felt that it is required of us to promote Falun Dafa and clarify the facts by all means. Some forms seemed not to be mentioned in Falun Dafa, however, they are all there because the great law has no forms. With their steadfast and righteous thoughts, the practitioners began to run the newspaper.
Without experience, everything had to be started from the beginning. Some practitioner provided money, some started to learn how to edit a page; and some asked specialists for instruction. At last the newspaper (Ming Li) was set up and ready for distribution. It covered news from China adapted from the Minghui net, reports on protecting and promoting Falun Dafa in different countries, the cultivation experiences from practitioners, and the articles submitted by local practitioners. The newspaper brought positive information on Falun Dafa to the public, and it became popular. There were always people asking: "We did not get "Ming Li" on Falun Gong this week, are there any left?"
The newspaper was mailed to China. The practitioners in China were greatly encouraged when seeing our own newspaper run by overseas practitioners and learning of their vigorous activities in protecting and promoting Falun Dafa. When a senior practitioner from China came to Australia, his relative told him: "There are Falun Gong practitioners in front of the Chinese Consulate, you can find practice site there." When he got to the park and saw practitioners, he cried: "Now, just as I found the underground party during the Liberation War, I finally found you. "While in China, he knew nothing about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners but only noticed that Falun Dafa was suffering a severe attack by the negative propaganda. He also said, "All Falun Dafa books were destroyed, and the government dares not let people read them (for fear that people will know the truth by reading). I have been a Communist Party member for more than 50 years, and have already realized Falun Dafa is good (let alone those who have been less influenced by the Party). The government is scared, with a guilty conscience. The practitioners gave him our newspaper and some other materials. Before leaving Australia, he said to us, "The newspaper and materials have given me a great help. I feel like I have attended several experience sharing conferences."
The newspaper revealed the truth about Falun Dafa, which scared some people (who were against Falun Gong). Sometimes, just as we put a pile of newspapers on the newsstand shelf, someone takes them all away without reason when we aren't looking. As the practitioners had no capability of running a newspaper, they combined the newspaper with some other Chinese weekly newspapers. Somebody thwarted it insidiously. Under pressure, the newspaper agencies had to give up cooperation with the practitioners. All these created extra difficulty for the practitioners, but they continued persistently to run the newspaper on their own because they knew the newspaper would play an important role in letting people awaken to the truth. They surmounted these difficulties and published and distributed the newspaper by themselves. Some practitioners sent the newspaper to every free newsstand, and some distributed it to pedestrians on weekends. Although they had contributed a lot, they felt happy for being able to take part in these activities to protect the Fa.
The newspaper not only enabled the local practitioners to understand the arduous conditions of the practitioners in China, but also provided them with an opportunity to share their experiences and improve themselves. Someone complained, "Passing around the newspaper and articles from Minghui net among practitioners is distracting the practitioners from studying the Fa. Only Zhuan Falun is the Fa. Other materials should not be spread among practitioners." The practitioners who ran the newspaper and those who supported it, after thinking it over seriously and exchanging their thoughts based on their understanding of the Fa, thought that at present our Teacher hopes all the kind-hearted people will pay attention to Falun Dafa. It is good to cultivate quietly without doing anything but that is not the cultivation associated with the process of rectifying the Fa. In order to be responsible to society and to spread Falun Dafa, we should cherish this rare cultivation environment and the great honor to contribute ourselves for the rectification of the Fa. There might be some shortcomings in running the newspaper, but we should try our best to make it better, and at the same time improve ourselves. Therefore, they went to collect suggestions from other practitioners on how to improve the quality of the newspaper and to do it better. Some practitioners warmly put forward their opinions and suggestions. The newspaper was kept running. Around April 25th, they published a magazine of 10,000 copies with the title "Recommend Falun Dafa to You". The magazine included articles intelligible to everyday people and articles written by the spectators who played a role in promoting Falun Dafa. The magazine selected 20 articles from several hundred articles posted on Minghui net from last July 20th, which were categorized into 6 sections: (1) Falun Dafa around the world; (2) Health and Morality; (3) Cultivation; (4) Medical Theory; (5) Science Discovery and Thoughts; and (6) Opinions. After its publication and being mailed to China, it has gained a good response. The difficulties during the whole process did not discourage them because they knew this was cultivation. They went all out to contribute themselves to the rectification of the Fa, and improved themselves by studying the Fa and sharing their experiences.
The above stories showed how the practitioners in Australia have associated their own cultivation with the rectification of the Fa during the difficult current period. From these stories, you can also see their sincere heart for protecting Falun Dafa. Everyone has experienced tests from all aspects. In this arduous environment, practitioners discovered their attachments and their human notions that needed to be broken through. By looking back, we sincerely appreciate our Teacher for giving us the opportunities to get involved in the process of rectifying the Fa!
Teacher's new articles have illuminated the cultivation path for all the practitioners in Australia. We are happy and gratified, almost every practitioner is willing to offer support and help, and actively take part in activities to let people know the truth about Falun Gong: to either promote Falun Dafa before the City Hall, or run the newspaper. Now in Australia, we have a fresh and vigorous cultivation environment to make further advancement together in the cultivation practice.
Practitioners in Sydney, Australia July 22, 2000
