(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings benevolent Master!
Greetings fellow practitioners!
I have walked on the path of assisting Master in Fa Rectification for 11 years. In the past three and a half years, I have mainly been involved with coordinating media. Through this process, I have had some experiences that I would like to share with fellow practitioners. If there is anything inappropriate, please kindly point it out.
In the first two years of being involved with media coordination, I had not paid enough attention to management, but only worked on maintaining the weekly publishing, article arrangement, and type-setting of the newspaper, so that it could attract more readers in order to achieve the purpose of clarifying the truth, and saving sentient beings. We tried to expand the distribution of the newspaper in order to save more Chinese people. However, as time passed, the financial pressures also grew heavier. To solve the issue of finances to enlarge the circulation of the newspaper, I mortgaged my home, and started to run a grocery store with fellow practitioners. However, due to the global economic downturn, in less than one year, we suffered a loss of $500,000. Things were going from bad to worse. When I shared with fellow practitioners, I came to understand, I had failed to meet the requirements of the Fa Master has taught, and allowed the old forces to interfere, which resulted in great losses in Dafa resources. I came to understand that the wealth that is in the hands of each Fa Rectification Dafa Disciple, is a resource of Dafa. We cannot use our own money purely for enjoyment in our daily living, but we should try our best to apply it to Dafa projects. In order to avoid a negative impact on the circulation of our newspaper, I sold my house to pay for these expenses.
This painful lesson made me think deeply. Recalling the experience sharing conference in New York, 2006, when we asked Master how to make money in running our media, Master told us to obtain advertisements. Yet for two years, I had not truly followed Master's instructions, and failed to put more emphasis on sharing between practitioners on this issue. I only felt that I was coordinating the new media. Meanwhile, since fellow practitioners were already very busy, and we were short on manpower, nobody could help with selling advertisements. Therefore, the number of advertisements in the paper did not even reach 20. Upon finding these shortcomings, I immediately sought to correct them. I found a few practitioners and together we established an advertising department. As we had no experience in sales, and were not familiar with the market around Sydney, we began by making phone calls.
Every morning, before work, we spent one hour on Fa study. After this we all shared about the situations we came across while selling advertisement in the previous day. We tried to find shortfalls, and discussed ways to improve. Hence, slowly and gradually, the number of advertisements began to increase, and the size of our department also increased. Some practitioners who had experience in relevant areas also joined the advertising department, and in less than one year, the number of advertisements had increased to 100, and the newspaper was expanded to 32 pages.
Throughout this process, I came to deeper understand about the importance of Fa study. Master has arranged all the best for us, but we need to take the steps. There is no such thing as a free lunch, and only by increasing our righteous thoughts, will we have assistance from Master's Fashen, Buddhas, Taos and Gods. Where do righteous thoughts come from? Righteous thoughts come from the Fa!
Having arrived at this point, the difficulties throughout three years of being involved with the media are hard to forget. How to let go of human attachments through cultivation? How to cooperate with practitioners who have come from different cosmic systems and live in different environments of everyday society, and who each have different characteristics? How to allow each person to fully utilize their skills, work together to make the media successful, and complete our mission in saving sentient beings? These are all topics which I face on my cultivation path as a coordinator, and in the process of assisting Master in Fa Rectification.
1. To understand and support fellow practitioners to the greatest extent
I feel that as a coordinator, we need to understand fellow practitioners to the greatest extent, and discover their strong points. One practitioner had worked as an advertisement sales representative for 9 years, and was full of experience. When I hired her to be the manager of the advertising department, there were practitioners who were concerned, as she had worked for sales in the newspapers controlled by the CCP, and thus contributed to increasing funds for the evil party. There were also rumors that she had an appetite for money. Thus I shared with her honestly. Through sharing, I found that she had many strong points worthy of my respect.
She told me, as a full time advertisement sales person for a regular newspaper, her income was quite good. On the other hand, selling advertisement for the newspaper through which Dafa practitioners clarify facts and truths, was very difficult, and thus was accompanied with low income. However, as a Fa Rectification Dafa Disciple, she resolutely chose the second option. Since clients have the rights to choose the media in which they advertise, an advertisement consultant could not stop them from choosing either one, but only make recommendations and provide guidance. Currently, the effectiveness of advertisements in our media, does indeed fall short of the two mainstream newspapers of everyday people. Hence when everyday people choose to advertise with everyday people's newspapers, she would also guide them to also buy advertisement from our newspaper, giving them the chance to contribute a little towards Fa Rectification and position themselves well. If we had chosen to give up on these clients, as some other practitioners had suggested, perhaps these businesses would choose only to advertise with everyday people's media through other sales agents. From this perspective, I feel she was very rational and objective and I agreed with her method.
To give another example: there was one practitioner who obtained Dafa three years ago. During the evil's furious interferences in Flushing, he resigned from a very good job in everyday society, and traveled to New York to work full time in Fa Rectification projects. After one year, he returned to Australia, and I invited him to work for our media. However, I heard from New York practitioners, that he was a new practitioner who has not studied the Fa deeply, and was difficult to coordinate with etc. Through sharing with him, I discovered the key to the problem. I felt it was really still a matter of encompassing and understanding fellow practitioners. We cannot use the standards that apply after more than 10 years of cultivation, on a fellow practitioner who has cultivated for only three years. Furthermore, we are all walking on the paths of Gods, and we tend to see only deficiencies in others. Actually, this was also Master's arrangement to allow us to find our own shortcomings, expand our own capacity, and to be tolerant and understanding of one another. Compared with inside China's mainland, there are much fewer practitioners overseas. With a great number of Dafa projects, and the acceleration in the progress of Fa Rectification, to do well in one project, particularly in the media, requires the involvement of many practitioners. It is normal for practitioners to have various opinions, because each cultivator is on a different level, and views problems from different angles. However, a coordinator must see things from the angle of fellow practitioners, to understand and support them to the greatest extent. I give them responsibilities, but at the same time, I also give them authority. Only this way can the skills of these practitioners truly be brought out, to accomplish the great vows in assisting Master in Fa Rectification.
2. Unconditionally letting go of self
Through working as a coordinator for three and a half years, I more often gave directives and orders to others. When practitioners wished to discuss something with me, or had suggestions or recommendations, they spoke with a respectful tone. Yet, as time passed, I began to develop the mannerism akin to that of a "boss" or "leader." At the beginning of last year, I became acquainted with a practitioner from another state. I found this practitioner had a clear line of thought, and proposed marketing strategies from well thought out viewpoints. I thus asked this practitioner to be involved with planning in the management of our media.
However, this practitioner was extremely arrogant, and often gave me lessons with parables from history. He also spoke with an overbearing tone. Sometimes during our discussions, I had to follow his thoughts 100%, otherwise he would refuse to help. To be honest, I had never come across anyone who spoke with me in that way. However, as I needed his help and guidance, I did not show any discontent towards him on the surface. Yet often I could not guard my xinxing, and thought, "Who do you think you are? You only do the talking, other practitioners and I will have to do the work. "
This situation came about a number of times, and it occurred to me that this was not coincidental. This was targeted towards my attachment of being a "boss" or "leader." I recalled Master's words in "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.",
"So what's their state of mind? It's tolerance, an extremely immense tolerance, being able to accept other beings, and being able to truly think from other beings' perspectives. This is something a lot of you haven't achieved yet in your cultivation, but you're gradually catching on and achieving it."
Whenever I felt discomfort in my heart, I would think of Master's Fa teaching. After a few months, this practitioner moved to Sydney, closer to where we were. He also became directly involved with our media's development strategies and management. His speech, mannerism and interactions with others have also become more harmonious. We now communicate very well. I am very grateful for Master for arranging this cultivation opportunity for us. Similarly, the two practitioners I mentioned earlier have also improved quickly. They have felt this themselves, and fellow practitioners also comment that they have improved. I truly feel the mighty power in compassion and great benevolence.
3. A coordinator needs the courage to take on risks and responsibilities
Due to the great amount of time and training required for sales and marketing, to stabilize the work of our sales representatives so they can work as full time staff and not worry about making money for a living, in the initial stages of our advertising department, at the beginning of last year, I decided to set up a salary and commission policy. This decision was questioned by many practitioners, who thought that I was not acting according to the Fa. I studied the "Fa Teaching Given to the Australian Practitioners" many times, and felt the decision did not contradict with guidelines which Master had set. Fa Rectification was progressing, and at different stages, Master has different requirements towards Fa Rectification Period Dafa Disciples. A few years ago, all we were required to do was clarify the truth through publishing the newspaper. Yet the requirements towards media are now different, and there were higher expectations of media coordinators. I work at a media outlet now and am running a business. As the sole financial investor in this media, I must take on the full responsibility and risk. If selling one house was not enough, I would sell two, in order to achieve success in management.
Therefore, I needed to stabilize the work of our sales agents. The few staff members who were working in our sales department, had not been in Australia for long. They did not have any source of income, and the basic salary I gave them could only cover the most basic rent, grocery and transportation expenses. I respect them, as they would rather give up the chance to work towards buying a house, but instead accept this basic income to work as an advertisement salesperson. They did this to assist Master in Fa Rectification, and save sentient beings. These are the righteous thoughts of a Fa Rectification period Dafa Disciple. Therefore, I insisted on providing them a basic salary. The sharing on this topic with fellow practitioners continued until publication of Master's "Fa Teaching Given at the NTDTV Meeting." During this Fa Teaching, Master clearly pointed out,
"...those who work full time on selling ads can have a regular wage. That is, we do it by treating it as a formal job, allowing people to take on this work without those worries--we have to make this path into a reality."
As Fa Rectification proceeds, the requirements of Dafa Disciples also continue to elevate. A coordinator in our media project, must study the Fa even more, and study the Fa well, in order to catch up with the progress of Master's Fa Rectification. Now there are even higher requirements for our media, which need to become effectively managed, so that all participating Dafa Disciples can receive salaries to match the levels in everyday society. Our media need to become first class, in order to save more sentient beings. As the development of our media quickens, their influence in society will also grow even stronger.
In "Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.", Master taught us,
"When another God proposes an idea, they aren't eager to reject it, and they aren't eager to express their own ideas and they don't believe that their own ideas are good. Instead, they look at what the end result of the other God's proposed approach will be. The paths are different--everyone's path is different--and the truths that beings validate and enlighten to in the Fa are different, too, but the results might very well be the same. That's why they look at the results, and if the result of a God's idea can achieve the goal, if it can truly achieve it, then all of them will go along with it. That's how Gods think. Also, if there's something lacking in it they'll unconditionally and quietly supplement it to make things more complete and perfect. That's how they handle things."
Therefore, as a coordinator, I try to take the lead to facilitate a tolerant working environment, where everyone can share open-heartedly, to bring up their thoughts and suggestions. As we hold meetings to discuss directions of development, and decide upon a particular strategy that needs internal cooperation, everyone works harmoniously, and without argument. Thus we are able to quickly decide upon a plan. During implementation, everyone works together to cooperate and supplement each other's shortcomings. Hence we are able complete our plans promptly. Fa rectification has requirements of us in the issue of time. Now, time passes very quickly, and we have a great mission to save sentient beings. Any attachment could lead to delays in saving people in Fa Rectification, and provide excuses for the old forces to interfere.
Seeing the fellow practitioners around me, I feel that each one of them has great skills and abilities. Compared with them, my abilities are not worth mentioning. They are like five fingers of the hand, and my role is to hold the five fingers together into a fist, so it can throw a very powerful punch.
Finally, I would like to end my sharing with Master's poem:
"Compassion can harmonize Heaven and Earth, ushering in
spring
Righteous thoughts can save the people in this world"
("The Fa Rectifies the Cosmos," Hongyin II)
Thank you everyone.
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