(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master and fellow practitioners! I am glad to have this opportunity to share my 13 years of cultivation experiences. I began practicing Falun Dafa in 2002 as a junior in college. After 8 years of cultivation, I was fortunate to work for the media and doing truth-clarification.
When I obtained the Fa in 2002, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had already started the persecution. Through Fa study, I understood the importance of clarifying the truth as a Dafa disciple. Therefore, for so many years, aside from my ordinary work and study, my mind didn't rest at all. I kept thinking, “How do I help Master rectify the Fa? How to stop this persecution? How can more people be saved on a larger scale? How can we reduce the burden of practitioners in mainland China? What can I do? What are my vows? How can I make the best of my power?”
I also did many truth-clarification projects, including establishing a Dafa club at school, running a camp for Dafa students, maintaining practitioners’ computers, clarifying the truth on the Internet, making phone calls, talking to people at tourist attractions, etc. I even went to tourist sites in Hong Kong to clarify the truth for seven days as my honeymoon vacation. In everyday people's words, “cultivation, spreading the Fa, and clarifying the truth” has become my leisure time “hobbies.”
My first job after leaving the army in 2008 was a sales position in a foreign-owned international trading company that buys and sells solar electrical parts. Many people thought the job had a future. After two years quickly passed, I was already quite proficient at the job, and things were getting smoother. I felt that I could foresee the blueprint of my future career, and that everything was under control. I was about to get a raise and a promotion to assistant manager.
On the other hand, I still helped out at NTDTV after work and on weekends as an anchor and technician, even though my day job was busy. I deeply felt that I didn’t have time to better devote myself to clarifying the truth at NTDTV. As to my ordinary job, I saw my boss and my colleagues spend time socializing, developing connections, and learning second or even third languages at night after work. All of these were beneficial to the day job. I found myself trying to do both jobs well. Although my boss was satisfied with my performance, I felt that I couldn’t do perfectly on both sides.
At that moment, I read this passage of Fa:
"So, if clarifying the truth and the task of running a Dafa-disciple media entity could be rolled into one, wouldn’t that help resolve the time constraints that you face? And it would also be resolving the issue of making a living and having a job in ordinary society. What’s not to like about it? I think that this is now imperative." (“Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting”)
I was very happy when I enlightened to this. This is a preference for disciples whose conditions permit working full-time. I don't know if this was in the vow I made, but I think it's a very good opportunity. So I quit my ordinary job and came to work for NTDTV in early 2010. I was transferred to the Epoch Times in 2014 during a reorganization.
Working in the media full time is a very good opportunity that Master provides to disciples to validate the Fa. If one can combine “job, interests, aspirations, and life goals,” one's achievements and efficiency will increase many times over. Just as expected, when I worked in the media, I didn't feel tired at all, even when I worked overtime. Instead, I felt very happy.
I have cultivated in Dafa for 13 years, but not until this year did I remain steady in doing all of the exercises every day at the practice site. It's a shame to look back on this, but for a practitioner it should be the most basic homework. Yet it was really a big breakthrough on my path of cultivation. I would like to share how I made the breakthrough.
I started with upgrading my xinxing. As a practitioner, doing the exercises is part of Dafa cultivation, and we should do the exercises every day. If one doesn't do the exercises in the morning, after a busy day, one might end up not completing the exercises that day. Thus, completing all five sets of exercises in the morning is the best way to ensure doing the exercises consistently.
Doing the exercises outdoors can not only promote Dafa, but also serve as a clear goal to encourage myself to go out. If I do the exercises at home, I might fall asleep or lose determination. I enlightened from Fa study that to achieve something, one first needs to change the mind. With the right attitude, one's actions will follow. If we don't take the exercises seriously, it will be hard to wake up to do the exercises. On the other hand, not completing the five sets of exercises every day meant that I wasn't taking this seriously.
A new problem emerged after I started waking up early to do the exercises: I fell asleep easily while doing the exercises. Sometimes when I meditated, I didn't even hear Master's voice to change palm positions, or I changed my palm positions unconsciously. To solve this problem, on my way to the exercise site, I tried to move my limbs more while walking, and sometimes called out slogans to energize myself. However, those techniques didn't work.
I enlightened that to energize myself, the best way was to send forth righteous thoughts. The verses, movements, and thoughts of sending forth righteous thoughts fully unlock the Buddha Fa's divine powers. It is the most righteous thing. Therefore, I kept sending forth righteous thoughts on my way to the practice site to eliminate all the interference that made me sleepy. As expected, my situation of falling asleep improved, making for another big breakthrough. I found that I didn't have enough confidence in sending forth righteous thoughts before, so it’s no wonder that it didn't work very well.
Master said,
“Then what sorts of things are doing that now? Things like worms, bugs, bacteria, and all kinds of foul things like that. Sending righteous thoughts is extremely effective in these cases! They are annihilated in large batches. But there are a lot of them, given how big this cosmos is; and the cosmos consists of many layers. So after you have wiped these things out, shortly after, before long, they might infiltrate again, and you need to eliminate them again. So you need to keep sending righteous thoughts like this, and persist with it for some time, before you will see obvious results.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2015 West Coast Fa Conference”)
I now understand that sending forth righteous thoughts is very effective. I should have believed in and understood this principle, but with my poor enlightenment quality and lack of righteous belief, it's a shame that I didn't enlighten to this level of Fa earlier, instead of after more than ten years of cultivation.
I have a lot of work every day, much of which involves the Internet and social networking sites. There is a lot of interesting information on these sites. I was becoming easily distracted and sometimes forget to do the work I was supposed to do. The continued development of technology generates a lot of interference and distractions, such as instant messaging software that I have to use for my job. I use three kinds of instant messaging software and nine different email accounts. The result is very low efficiency at work. I looked at this problem from the Fa. Managing time well cannot be achieved by using any kind of tools or techniques. Time management is a xinxing problem. While memorizing Lunyu one day, I read,
“It was Dafa that created time and space, the multitude of lives and species, and all of creation; all that exists owes to it, with nothing outside of it. All of these are the tangible expressions, at different planes, of Dafa’s qualities: Zhen, Shan, and Ren.” (“On Dafa”)
I enlightened that time was also created by Dafa. If one conforms to the characteristics of Zhen, Shan, and Ren, one can do well in time management.
In applying the principles of Zhen, Shan, and Ren in time management, I understand that Zhen means facing one's daily work efficiency truthfully. We should seriously evaluate how time is being used every day. At the end of the day, we should try to think over whether there's any part we didn't manage well, and determine which part needs improvement. We should not avoid facing this issue.
Shan means remembering at every moment that every second of time now is what Master has extended for Dafa disciples and all beings. We should not waste even a second, as this is the manifestation of being compassionate to all beings. Wasting time is not compassionate.
Master said,
“So many years have passed over the course of history, the Three Realms have existed for so long, and so many sentient beings have come here over time, but all hopes are being placed in this one moment out of all the ages. This instant is precious beyond measure. Completing the last leg of this journey well is what's most magnificent.” (“Teaching the Fa in the City of Chicago”)
As to Ren, it means resisting temptations and following a pre-arranged schedule. When I encountered difficulties at work, I would get annoyed and couldn't resist relaxing by visiting other websites or checking my email and messages. This meant I wasn't doing well with Ren. The difference may manifest in one keystroke. When we aren't paying attention, it's easy to become distracted.
Therefore, upgrading xinxing is the best way to manage time well.
Working at the media is also part of validating Dafa, and also my main Fa-validation project. I deeply know that it's very important to support the media in all aspects, so that we can let more people know the truth. Working here is just like working at an ordinary company, in that different positions require different skills.
One day, I recalled Master's words,
“Everything in the world was established and created for the Fa-rectification, and Dafa disciples are the great figures of our time. Since ancient times the beings in all realms have waited in anticipation. Gather up and rescue the beings that you are to save! Have righteous thoughts and righteous actions, dissolve all hindrances, and spread the facts widely. Divine beings are among men.” (“To the European Fa Conference in Stockholm”)
I was not sure what “great figures” meant, so I looked it up in a dictionary and found that it means people who hold great influence of the times. My understanding is that from an ordinary point of view, they are so-called important people. Since I am in charge of marketing in the media, I enlightened that I should achieve the same level and abilities as “marketing masters” in ordinary society, so that I can better assist the media. But how can I become or even go beyond these “marketing masters?”
I suddenly enlightened that it's not difficult at all. I can just study their writings. This enlightenment changed my thinking. I used to feel that I didn't need to spend time learning ordinary people's knowledge, because since I don't even have enough time to study the Fa and do the exercises, how can I have time to learn ordinary skills? However, I discovered that studying these professionals' books in order to clarify the truth and validate Dafa is necessary, and it conforms to the way of ordinary human society.
However, I need to learn only the ordinary knowledge relevant to what's needed, not just devote all of my time learning it. In the meantime, I also need to study the Fa well and do the exercises. When I put myself in the correct position, I found that Dafa opened my wisdom. I can thus learn things very quickly and comprehend by analogy. I came up with many new ideas and ways that I can apply to my job. Many of them have positive effects on the media, both directly and indirectly.
There are no shortcuts on the path of cultivation. The best and also the easiest ways to eliminate interference are studying the Fa and doing the three things well. When I encounter interference, or things not going smoothly in validating the Fa, it's because I didn't study the Fa well. The most significant interference from the evil is that which made me unable to study the Fa well, fall asleep while studying the Fa, and become too busy to study the Fa. It's easy to understand, but I often ignore them. I encourage myself that I have to study the Fa better from now on.
These are my own understandings. Please kindly correct me if there is anything wrong. Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
(Presented at the 2015 Taiwan Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)