By a practitioner from the United States

(Clearwisdom.net)

As the Fa-rectification progresses, we Dafa practitioners have shouldered more and more truth-clarification work and our usage of e-mail has also increased. Many practitioners have several e-mail accounts. The time we spend on reading and sending e-mails has also increased greatly. Some practitioners cope by almost never or rarely reading e-mails from other fellow practitioners. This has affected communications among practitioners. Sometimes it even causes misunderstandings. For example, the sender of an email may assume that the addressee has read his e-mail, but not getting a response, he concludes that the addressee is not interested in what he had to say. I'd like to share some of my thoughts about this matter.

The convenience of e-mail makes it the main form of communication. In order for us to form a whole body among all practitioners, one of the first things we have to do is maintain a smooth flow of communications. So the use of e-mail is inevitable. We should read our e-mail in a timely manner or we should at least browse through them. If we receive really irrelevant messages, we can ask the sender very nicely not to send such messages again. As far as how to efficiently deal with the large volume of e-mails, we shall use our wisdom. For example, we can install software such as Outlook, or Outlook Express (OE), or Eudora to automatically log in to several accounts and manage the e-mail. Of course, we also need to install proper anti-virus software to ensure the security of our computers. Of special note is Outlook Express, which is bundled with the Microsoft Windows operating system. If it is not installed by default, it is not very complicated to install. If you don't know how to do it, you can ask other practitioners to help.

What is more important is that our cultivation state and our righteous thoughts and righteous actions are reflected in how we handle our e-mail. In the past, when I received other practitioners' e-mails, I always could not help noticing that there was something wrong with their messages. If I didn't tell anyone about it, I would complain quietly to myself. For example, I would think, "This is such a simple thing. Why did they make it so complicated and confuse people?" "Why did this practitioner send this e-mail again? It's obviously just the same thing." "This e-mail is quite baffling. Why didn't they provide some background information?" "Why is this practitioner's English so bad?" "This practitioner's tone is awful." and so forth. When I was too busy to read all of my e-mail and became impatient because of it, some bad thoughts would flash successively in my mind.

I eventually realized the damage these bad thoughts had caused and the kind of energy field that they could create. I was then very ashamed of myself and thus made some changes in myself. Nowadays, no matter how imperfect an e-mail would seem, I would treat it with compassion from the bottom of my heart, and I would appreciate what my fellow practitioners have done for Dafa as well as encourage them to do more. I no longer have the complaints that I used to have. When I receive e-mails that I can't understand immediately or that are not directly relevant for me, I sincerely wish that they accomplish their objectives. In the case of suggestions or appeals where I cannot participate or respond on time, I would assist by silently sending forth righteous thoughts. I am sure that many practitioners have experienced a similar change of heart.

Beyond the use of righteous thoughts, in sending e-mails we also need to use righteous actions. For example, when we write, especially to non-practitioners, do we consider the addressee's cultural background and their understanding of the Fa so that we can use proper wording, expressions and tone? Also, have we written in a calm, precise and concise style? Have we paid attention to improving our writing and language skills? Does every email reflect the image of a righteous Dafa practitioner? Another thing we should pay attention to is the difficultly of keeping e-mail absolutely secure. Third parties such as an ISP, or even some government security institutions may store and examine the contents of e-mail. We should consider the issue of safeguarding the image of Dafa so that we don't cause everyday people to misunderstand, suspect, or interfere with us just because of our improper use of wording or expressions.

Many of us practitioners have done a great deal of important and far-reaching truth-clarification work. If we can't maintain the same high standard in handling our e-mail, a very ordinary and quiet process in cultivation, we would still be having loopholes affecting our daily lives. So I hope that every one of us, especially those who don't place importance on this matter, would start to pay attention to it and maintain righteous thoughts and righteous behaviors at all times.

To wrap up, I have several suggestions: 1) The security of e-mail is very important. Practitioners who are not familiar with this issue, please take proactive actions to educate yourself so as to not cause damage to other practitioners and Dafa work. 2) Before we send an e-mail message, we should consider the receiver and avoid unnecessarily burdening them with too many e-mail messages. 3) E-mail is a tool and it is also an environment for practitioners to do Dafa work and for communicating cultivation experiences so everybody should guard it with righteous thoughts. We should not forward e-mails containing negative information or attachments that are not proper nor should we distribute them at practice sites. Everybody has the responsibility to maintain the pureness of every part of the environment for Fa-rectification.

This is only my personal enlightenment. Please compassionately correct anything improper.

Posting date: 4/13/2003
Original article date: 4/13/2003
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Translated on 4/6/2003
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/3/28/47340.html

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