Aicheng Buddhist scriptures tour

Comprehensive report of W450 writing practice workshop

The song "Returning from the Literary Camp" by classmate Wang Zhengxing describes the Literary Camp workshop held from July 29 to August 2, 2005. A group of "beauties" (Chinese in the United States) who believed that there was still a place for "literacy" were invited by the female leader Gao Lili to go to the literary camp workshop in Allentown, PA to learn from the experience. I hope that after obtaining the scriptures, I can serve the Kingdom of God and one day return to heaven in glory.

By the way, when we first arrived at the Maria Monastery where the Literary Camp is located, there were already many hurdles waiting for the "beauties". The first level is the "Dumpling Level". This level is purely a preparation for warming up, so those who have skills can make dumplings; those who have no way to show off, first try to make excuses.

"Dumpling Pass" allows all "beauties" to taste the sweetness. Then, the female leader played the "Movie Level" to test everyone's observation skills and endurance after a meal. That night, most people passed the test easily and looked forward to the "Prayer Walk" the next day.

A godly general flying from the sky

In addition to the heartfelt sharing from the female leader every morning, the several experts in the workshop all show their best skills and excel in the care. Two experts in the publishing industry who flew from Taiwan were eye-openers for us "learners".

◎Tao is the voice of heaven

Chen Jingzhi, Vice President of Daosheng Publishing House, spent a whole day teaching "The Current Situation and Trends of Christian Publishing in Chinese" and "Innovative Distribution and Marketing of Spiritual Books". In addition to giving us an initial understanding of the Christian book distribution process in North America, mainland China, and Taiwan, he also introduced a series of writing work such as "creation → compilation → distribution → readers" starting from Moses receiving the stone tablets.

We see the importance of preserving the original words from the Bible, and we also recall that two hundred years ago, the British missionary Morrison brought Christianity to China and translated the first Bible for China, opening up the spread of Christian written missionary work in China. China's gate.

Vice President Chen also introduced the future publishing trends and mentioned that modern technology will be more applied to the publishing industry. Therefore, POD (Print On Demand) publishing and BLOG (Web log) publishing came into being. Reading has also become diversified. "Visual reading", "auditory reading" and "tactile reading" are becoming more and more popular with the release of audio books, video books, e-books and online books.

Vice President Chen, who started his career in publishing at the grassroots level, carefully studied the tips in the sales process and understood the reasons why best-sellers sell well. At the same time, he combined the promotion of new book releases and the free reading of new and good books to have planned and destination promotions. Good Christian book. Therefore, in addition to encouraging everyone to write more good works, he also said humorously that only when good works are written can publishers have books to publish.

▲The lineup of teachers in the 2005 workshop was extremely prosperous; from left, Gao Lili, Ding Yuanping, Chen Jingzhi, Xian Guanglan, Su Wen'an, Huang Ruiyi, and Chen Huiwan.

◎God-given grace

The reason why President Ding Yuanping of Tian'en Publishing House is so successful is that he is based on the solid rock and happily puts every step in his life on the path chosen by the Almighty God.

President Ding said that the "planning editor" is a key figure behind the scenes of cultural communication, and it is crucial to whether a book, an article, or an interview is outstanding, popular, and touching. In addition to having literary literacy, you must also have keen insight, marketing concepts and integrated organizational skills, which means you must have a global macro perspective. Once the direction is confirmed, it is necessary to plan points, lines, surfaces, and bodies. It also requires detailed and detailed teaching and implementation steps to implement the mission; the links are tightly linked, and the strategizing is done at the fingertips, and the writing is full of clouds.

From President Ding’s sharing, we can see that he served effectively throughout his life, which was rooted in his love of reading as a child. He was well-read and well-informed. Standing on the shoulders of giants of all generations, he was able to see far-sighted things and see others invisible; Insights are insightful, and people dare not do anything! The creation of "Kingdom" magazine is a model for using words to shepherd Chinese believers around the world. Now, he has vigorously supported the nascent "Kingdom Resources" magazine. As the successor of "Kingdom", he has taken a macro-inspection of the current situation, needs and blind spots of Chinese Christians, giving advice and replenishing the soup. He is truly a Kingdom strategist. general.

Life is like a play, life is a play

If you have watched "Beijingers in New York", the person who plays the role of the aunt is Shen Guanglan, the director of "Drama Screen".

Teacher Shen is a professional film star and drama professor. Originally from Nanjing, she spoke with a Beijing accent and said with a grateful tone: "This journey has been guided by God. He made me go from a shy and introverted little girl to Beijing from the south and entered the Beijing Film Academy. .Through the teacher’s careful guidance and my own serious study, I am where I am today.”

When it comes to drama, she looks like a star in every move she makes. When it comes to life, under that bright and weather-proof appearance, there is a past that is more touching than drama. Not only did she not complain about the suffering she suffered, but she said: "The suffering of the Cultural Revolution gave me a deeper understanding of life and suffering, which will be helpful for my future acting career. In the entertainment industry, true and false False, false and true. If you are not careful, you will fall into the abyss of sin. Thank you and praise the Lord, because of my faith, I can finally be clean and free from pollution."

When Teacher Shen introduced the theory and techniques of drama, he specially invited several students to put the theory into practice. Xu Yun performs computer typing; Ma Lin performs cooking at home, and Meihui performs restaurant dates. Teacher Shen humorously pointed out everyone's shortcomings, and the audience burst into laughter. She went on to demonstrate on the spot, which was jaw-dropping, and also opened a series of classic movie lists.

After two classes, all those who learned the lesson were reluctant to leave. The poet Wang Zhengxing was inspired by this and wrote a couplet with a brush as a gift to Master Shen Guan. The couplet said: "The dragon girl in Guangyu is in the heart of the divine country; the flowing wine in the Orchid Pavilion reminds me of Jinling."

Another village with hidden flowers and bright willows

Along the way, I have entered the last three levels unconsciously. Unexpectedly, I walked into a "Peach Blossom Spring" that seemed both real and illusory. Here are three masters who discuss fantasy literature from the East and the West. If you want to dig out treasures from this treasure mountain, you will not be able to do it without the skill of "three twos and threes".

◎Pick up the golden key at the end of the rainbow

The elegant and moving teacher Chen Huiwan introduced the characteristics of "fantasy literature" to this group of pilgrims:

1. Most of the time it takes place in a secondary world
2. There are many supernatural things
3. The main axis is often the protagonist embarking on a journey (journey)
4. The entire story conveys a metaphor or symbol
5. Rooted in Early Story Sources

Teacher Chen said that people prefer fantasy literature because it provides a more complete and richer feeling than the real world. Secondly, readers are released in problems and solutions. At the same time, fantasy literature also provides a set of moral systems that can comfort people's hearts, such as "The Lord of the Rings", "The Pilgrim's Progress", "Naria", etc. These Christian writers all believe that myth is a medium to convey reality. They all grasp the characteristics of fantasy literature and write works with rich Christian colors.

The definition of "imagination" is a world formed in our minds using things that we cannot hear or touch. The greatest challenge of Christian literature is to "describe the indescribable, describe the indescribable, use the concrete to describe the abstract, and use stories to describe the sacred." Jesus also used many parables to help us understand the kingdom of heaven and what "rebirth" means.

Teacher Chen proposed three Christian arguments for fantasy literature. First, due to the Western religious reform movement in the seventeenth century, people no longer pursue "beauty." Second, the fear and hatred of witchcraft, wizards, and witches. Third, we need the Holy Spirit to teach us how to think carefully and discern clearly, and it is not difficult to learn lessons from fantasy literature. Therefore, Teacher Chen encourages us to pick up the golden key at the end of the rainbow and open a colorful door to Christian literature.

▲Students in the workshop gave teacher Li Li a surprise thank you for her hard work with an extra-large card.

◎Capture the magical skylight

In this year's writing camp, there is a group of "immortals" who want to capture the beauty of the sunrise. They get up earlier than the sun every day, hoping that the moment the sun wakes up, the beauty that has not been refined by the world will be stored in the treasure house of memory. The innocence of these "immortals" at this time is comparable to that of children.

The next master guardian after Teacher Chen Huiwan happened to be Teacher Huang Ruiyi, who still had a childlike heart. She took us on a journey through the world of children, and suddenly we found ourselves becoming Peter Pan, flying freely in that boundless fantasy world.

Fantasy literature is a special genre that relies on traditional oral literature. Every nation has many stories, passed down from generation to generation over a long period of time. So, when everyone tells a story, it changes and grows a little bit when they are retold. For example, "The Brothers Grimm's Fairy Tales" were not originally meant for children. They were rewritten to become the current fairy tales.

Western "Winnie the Pooh" (Winnie the Pooh), "Mary Poppins" (Mary Poppins), and "Alice in Wonderland" (Alice in Wonderland) anthropomorphize animals, and the stories are thrilling and puzzling. However, These stories do give people some kind of spiritual or emotional satisfaction with the "unknowable."

Teacher Huang takes us into the world of Ursula K. Le Guin and appreciates the six parts of her work "Tales from Earthsea". Her stories are not only fascinating, but the ideas behind her works are also broader and deeper, able to "stylize" abstract ideas and "fantasy" ordinary life. Le Guin believes that it is meaningful to understand the forces of darkness, and to meet, intersect, and unite with them. He also believes that the entanglement of good and evil deep in human nature can achieve harmony on his own. Therefore, it is worthy of our attention that the charm or crisis of fantasy literature is that when readers are intoxicated with the author's moving plots, they also unconsciously accept the author's worldview and her ultimate concern.

Fantasy literature, like poetry, speaks the language of night. Teacher Huang hopes that when we appreciate these fantasy literature, we will be able to distinguish that the light that illuminates us is not the light of the wizard's spell; what warms us is not the flames spouting from the ancient dragon's mouth, but the light of the sky that does not originally belong to the earth and sea.

◎Gods, demons, Buddhas and monsters have their own tricks

Just like the detective in Sherlock Holmes, the protagonist of this level, Mr. Su Wen'an, has extremely clever "case handling" techniques. He can explain the background and criminal records of the group of people in "Journey to the West" one by one in one go.

"Journey to the West" is a masterpiece of fantasy literature from the Ming Dynasty in China. It was written by many unknown scholars and Wu Cheng'en over the past six hundred years, and became the crystallization of collective creation. Like a horse in a different mind, seventy-two changes, a thousand miles apart, the Monkey King, a tight curse, blazing eyes, Zhu Bajie, Zhu Bajie eats ginseng fruit, causing havoc in the heaven... are all idioms that we use unconsciously in our daily lives. and slang, which shows the profound cultural influence.

The stories and characters of "Journey to the West" reflect the reality and conflicts under China's feudal system. The book depicts a novel and strange atmosphere that is more complete and richer than the real world, allowing readers to feel relieved and comforted in the process of struggle and resolution; at the same time, it also provides a set of ethics common to gods, ghosts, and the real world. moral system. Therefore, when appreciating this book, we should start from the four perspectives of politics and society, setting up metaphors, philosophy and life, and balancing ancient and modern times.

Through "Journey to the West", Teacher Su encourages us:

1. Chase the rainbow in the sky and appreciate the roses at your feet. When Christians pursue spiritual growth, they must experience and enjoy the sweetness and pain of serving God.

2. To achieve the goal, teamwork is required. Therefore, whether in family, church or workplace, it is not about finding perfect talents, but how to integrate and train talents with their own strengths and weaknesses into a team so that everyone can complement each other and move forward towards the goal together.

3. The difference between good and evil lies in one mind. The monkey king, Sun Wukong, finally changed his ways and returned to the right path. As "Proverbs 4:23" says: "Above all else, guard your heart, for the results of your life are from the heart." If the motivation and mentality are right, although a person's useless talents are like "000000", However, if you dedicate your life to God's hands and put God first in everything, you will add "1" in front of "0", giving all your talents eternal value.

4. There is a long way to go to write "Journey to the West" for Chinese Christians. Teacher Su hopes that Chinese Christian literary workers will find a way out on the road of Chinese fantasy literature, so that they can bring biblical truth into every corner of society and truly satisfy people's hearts.

Teacher Su finally encouraged us to apply our Christian faith to our daily life and spiritual life. We have Sun Wukong’s "fiery eyes"; we have the "demon mirror" of the Heavenly Palace that can "see through all things"; we have keen discernment and the ability to judge evil, and grasp the truth. I am used by God in my family, workplace, church, and writing.

▲All the teachers and students of the workshop took a group photo on the green hillside, filled with joy and contentment.

We meet again with a mission on our shoulders

After a few days of breaking through the customs, my luggage was filled with several handwritten tips taught by masters of customs protection, and my heart was filled with abundant love and the mission of Chinese Christian literary workers.

Before leaving, we received customs clearance certificates from the female alliance leader and the gatekeepers. When everyone shared their experience of studying the Buddhist scriptures, hearty laughter and touching voices, mixed with the sadness of parting, filled the air. We know that we are here on a mission, hoping to “incarnate” the message of the Kingdom of God; we are here because of an appointment to meet again next year. Farewell, heroes, see you later!

(This article is condensed and rewritten based on the records of Bing Guang, Xu Yun, Wang Zhengxing, Luo Cunxin, Wei Guo and others from this workshop)