(Minghui.org) I’d like to share my thoughts after reading the Minghui editorial “Resolve Cultivation Issues Through Cultivation, Company Issues Through the Company” which was published recently on the Minghui website.
It stated, “These tangible projects and companies involve money and property, as well as job positions and division of responsibilities; they have thus become a touchstone for many people. We have people who contribute selflessly, but also those who seek fame and gain. Some dedicate themselves to saving sentient beings, while others look on from the sidelines and make comments and judgments. While some persevere in overcoming obstacles and moving forward, we also have those who ride on others' coattails and only seek self-satisfaction.”
I have been doing advertising sales for our media for many years. I felt lucky that I could join this project full-time because I no longer needed to spend time doing everyday people’s work.
I felt that this project was a bit more difficult than other projects, after being in the position for a while. I had to generate a certain amount of sales revenue each month, while other projects had no such requirement. Practitioners kept coming and leaving in the sales positions if they could not earn enough to support themselves. Only a few sales representatives were able to stay.
I managed to stay, and achieved a certain sales goal each month, but I then developed complacency. I felt as if I was doing the hardest job of any project, which meant that I was validating myself. I felt I was performing a more valuable job than those in other positions in the same media or those involved in other projects. It brought me more self-satisfaction. I was not the only one who had such feelings. Other sales representatives also mentioned similar thoughts to me.
When my sales revenue went up, I developed the heart of looking down on the sales representatives who weren’t doing as well. I measured myself against other practitioners using sales figures—whoever achieved a higher sales record was more remarkable. This was actually my attachment of fame and self-interest. Because of my good sales record, I got more personal attention, and was praised and acknowledged by other practitioners, resulting in a good reputation. At the same time I wanted to associate with practitioners who held similar thoughts, and excluded those who were of a different opinion.
For many years I felt I was lucky because I was involved in a most valuable project. I had a number of loyal clients, and sales became pretty easy for me. I felt very content. So I formed my own “comfort zone” and developed my own likes, attachments, and notions. I developed my own rigid notions of what I wanted to do or not do, who I should see or not see, and what criteria to use to judge a person.
In recent years, our city, like most cities in the world, has faced a downslide of the print-publishing businesses. There are many external reasons, such as that the printing industry is shrinking, changes in the marketing models, spreading of the media, and so on. We felt as if we were facing a new market, and the once-familiar clients became unfamiliar. I didn’t expect that it would become so difficult to sell advertisements.
Previously, if a client became difficult to handle, I would use a different approach and break through it. But this time it seemed that all my previous approaches failed to work. The whole market became a difficult one for me to tackle. The difficulty worsened. Our sales representatives became discouraged. I became resistant to the changes, and lost hope for the future. I was not motivated to start again from the very beginning, especially since I could see no hope.
The Minghui editorial stated, “While some persevere in overcoming obstacles and moving forward, we also have those who ride on others' coattails and only seek self-satisfaction.” (“Resolve Cultivation Issues Through Cultivation, Company Issues Through the Company”)
The above sentence was a stick warning for me. My previous good sales record brought me fame and interests as well as self-satisfaction. But when the circumstance changed into a difficult one, I was reluctant to persevere, and lacked the willpower to overcome obstacles.
I overcame countless obstacles and faced great pressure in the first few years after I started advertising sales. My path of doing sales was not an easy one. Once the sales became stable, I expected that it would remain like this forever.
When I came across new and bigger challenges, I was not willing to face them. All my attachments, such as fear, complaints, laziness, and resistance, overpowered me. I blamed the market and the high-tech Internet that the aliens brought to us. I blamed the management team for their lack of forward-thinking, and product development, and their Chinese Communist Party (CCP) indoctrination. As a matter of fact this mentality of mine was caused by my attachment to comfort. I resisted hardship.
Master said:
“Because human society is a place in which suffering goes hand-in-hand with enjoyment, life does abound with suffering, however wealthy you may be or however high your status. Because pain is hard on people, they try to, consciously or unconsciously, ward off suffering in hopes of leading a more pleasant life. And so it is that in the pursuit of happiness people form ideas about how to avoid harm, how to live well, how to get ahead in society and achieve fame and success, how to acquire more for themselves, how to come out on top, and so on. To this end, as they gain experience people come to form notions about life; and those experiences, in turn, come to fortify these notions as people live out their lives.” (“The Closer to the End, the More Diligent You Should Be,” The Essentials of Diligent Progress Vol. III)
I would like to share some of my observations about practitioners working in the media—about their attachments, and human hearts, which Master has mentioned in his lectures. I hope it will serve as a stick wake-up for practitioners, so that we can improve together.
The mindset of many practitioners is that of an everyday person. They become complacent when they sell lots of ads, become arrogant, and think that they have achieved greatness. Those practitioners who are doing well may look down upon those who aren’t doing well. Those who aren’t doing well may become jealous of those who are doing well. They validate themselves, fight for resources, don’t cooperate, and even harm each other.
Additionally, some employee practitioners complain about the management team, and refuse to listen to them. The management team ignores the long term employee practitioners, and prefers to work with obedient new starters.
Some of the practitioners’ behaviors are still in line with the CCP indoctrination. They think they are always great, glorious, and right. They want quick successes and to become rich overnight. They go to extremes, and do superficial work. They don’t finish the work that they started. They crave greatness and success.
When problems surface during a project, they may blame and not trust each other, and seek fame and self-interest. They don’t accept criticism. They form their own groups. Sometimes male and female practitioners have unhealthy relationships.
Thus, we practitioners have to ask ourselves, “What’s the purpose of us working in a media job? To seek fame, self-interest, and be mired in sentimentality?” Some don’t seem to work for the media selflessly.
Our media is like a touchstone to test practitioners. All human attachments will be exposed. Cultivation practice is like the great waves sifting the sand. Only when doing solid cultivation, and putting cultivation principles into practice, can we walk our cultivation path well.
Master said:
“There is no fame, self-interest, or official titles in Dafa, but only cultivation practice.” (“A Heavy Blow,” Essentials for Further Advancement)