(Minghui.org) I went to college soon after I started to practice Falun Dafa. The local assistant in Kaohsiung encouraged us young practitioners to memorize the Fa and told us some stories of young practitioners in Taipei to encourage us. I was inspired and started to memorize it. I finished memorizing Zhuan Falun for the first time in a few months. Around that time we formed a Falun Dafa group in my college and I got busy. Gradually I went back to mainly reading Zhuan Falun.
More than a decade passed in the blink of an eye. When I recall those days, memorizing the Fa enabled me to truly dissolve into the Fa and I felt happy every day. I felt that my current cultivation state wasn’t as good as it was back then. But when I wanted to start to memorize the Fa again, I felt there were so many things to do. How could I find time every day to memorize the Fa?
In 2017, I undertook a brand new project for NTD Asia Pacific. But after we made some sample programs, the results were not satisfactory. After a practitioner from another production team spent two weeks editing it, he told me, “My wife looked at it and said, ‘This is hard to watch.’ I just don’t feel connected to the content.” I felt bad to hear that. The couple were both practitioners and they were very kind. The fact that they said it meant there must be big issues with the direction of the project and our own cultivation. We’d already worked on the project for six months. I felt helpless but didn’t know what to do.
When I got home and told my wife about it, she said, “You don’t study the Fa with your group. How could you do well?”
I did not participate in the group Fa-study with the team because I wanted to maintain a steady pace in my own Fa-study. When my wife pointed this out, I realized that I had a selfish mentality and only focused on my own wants. So I began to arrange my time to study the Fa with the team that evening. But the group didn’t study every day, so how would I arrange my own Fa-study on the other days? I decided to memorize the Fa when there was no group Fa study; when there was group Fa study, I would memorize the Fa afterward.
The effect of memorizing the Fa this time was very obvious. When I studied the Fa by myself, there were times that I was not able to really absorb the Fa. This completely changed when I memorized the Fa. I was able to come to more understandings and see the principles behind the words. When I encountered problems during the day, I was able to remember the Fa. My will to cultivate became stronger and the feeling was wonderful. I really thanked Master from the bottom of my heart for arranging this cultivation path for me. If I hadn’t had that issue with the project, I might not have begun memorizing the Fa again.
After I memorized the Fa for a few months, someone at the station said that he’d talked to a practitioner in the U.S. and they mentioned our new project. He suggested that I talk to him, as he was very knowledgeable and had won awards in the field. So I made an appointment to meet with him online. He gave me some brief suggestions and sent me some short videos for reference. I was inspired, and the conversation sparked many ideas in my head and widened my vision.
Following that conversation, we quickly made another sample program and reported our progress to the supervisors. After evaluating it, the supervisors pointed out a clear direction. At that time we still had one position to fill. One practitioner who was usually not present at the meetings participated in that day’s discussion. He recommended a good candidate. Just like that, all the problems were resolved within two weeks. Everything went well after that.
That was coincidentally when I had just finished memorizing Zhuan Falun. I didn’t expect memorizing the Fa would actually help the project, but it seemed it did.
Master said,
“Your journey is one where if you can take correct, right steps, the doors before you that were once shut will open and the road will become wide. The journey is the same, whatever project it may be.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. X)
It was very similar to the situation when I memorized Zhuan Falun in college. We wanted to establish a Falun Dafa group but our application was denied twice. When we applied the third time, the school leader was still hesitant—then he asked me to demonstrate the exercises. When I finished the first exercise, he approved our application. At that time I had just finished memorizing Zhuan Falun.
Because I felt that I was more focused when I memorized the Fa and could get a clearer and deeper understanding of the Fa’s principles, I continued to repeatedly memorize it. Each time I finished a little faster and the capacity of my heart increased. Especially the first few times, every time I finished memorizing the entire book, there were some obvious changes in my media project as well as my ordinary work. For example, in my ordinary job, a lawsuit that my company was involved in for over seven years was settled. The third time I finished memorizing it, my company successfully obtained strong evidence for a lawsuit in Germany. As I continued to memorize the Fa, the company’s most troubling lawsuits were closed one after another, all with positive outcomes. My understanding was that Dafa has boundless power and it can give Dafa practitioners the green light to reduce some pressure in their ordinary lives so that we can remain calm and focused on doing our Dafa project well.
Just as Master told us,
“That is why Fa-study is still the most, most important thing—it is the fundamental guarantee for all that you are to do.” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XI)
Remembering That Everything We Encounter Is a Cultivation Opportunity
I helped film a video. Six months before, I’d prepared a plan that fit this project well, so I proposed it to the coordinator. The coordinator agreed so we tried it. Three weeks later, a practitioner named Ping, who was not local and not part of this project, sent a plan provided by ordinary people to the group list. This plan happened to be the same as the one I proposed. I originally thought that the coordinator would just respond to Ping that we were already doing it. But to my surprise, the coordinator did not mention it. What touched my attachments even more was when Ping asked several questions to the group that were all answered in my proposal; the coordinator knew this but remained silent.
When I got home that evening, my wife’s words aroused my attachments. She said, “What Ping proposed was exactly what we have already been doing and trying!” My heart was really agitated.
For the next two days, I kept thinking about Master’s Fa:
“Dafa disciples, in your cultivation in the ordinary human world you all have understood something clearly that’s based on the Fa’s principles, namely, not to be attached to the “gain and loss” of ordinary people. So when things related to validating the Fa are involved, there too you shouldn’t insist on voicing “my ideas” or on having things done “my way.” It’s not like only then can you establish mighty virtue in the cosmos.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2002 Conference in Philadelphia, U.S.A.,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World, Volume II)
Master’s words really hit my heart. I used to think that I would be able to let go of it if I encountered this kind of test. I didn’t expect that it would disturb me so much.
I found many of my human mentalities and attachments after going through this test: my show-off mentality, attachments to reputation and jealousy, resentment, and so on. Once I was able to calm down and see my own issues, I immediately understood the coordinator: He thought my professional skills were lacking so he didn’t have confidence in me. If we had a professional team and were asked questions, the coordinator could say, “We have a dedicated team working on it.” Since the coordinator thought that I wasn’t mature in the field yet, he wasn’t ready to publicly acknowledge my plan because there were too many variables.
Once I thought it through, I totally understood his viewpoint and I also saw my selfish mentality of “I want to be the one” and “I want practitioners to admire me.”
Another time, a program coordinator from overseas asked if we could help film some simulated prison scenes. They would be used as illustrations in the interview programs. Several local practitioners wanted to help, so we agreed. Through working on this, I identified many of my shortcomings, especially my attachment to fame and reputation. During the filming, we often had different ideas. I sometimes had a lot of complaints and resentment.
Master said,
“When a person harbors resentment it’s because he has grown fond of hearing pleasant things and having things go well. And then when things don't go that way, he resents it.” (“2018 Fa Teaching Given in Washington, D.C.”)
In the past, I never thought there was any connection between resentment and “having things go well.” Only then did I realize that I had a strong obsession with fame. I often complained that my team did not reach the goal because it would affect my reputation—I wanted everything that I handled to be great. My attachment to fame and reputation always drove me to complain about other practitioners.
After the filming was completed, we made a “behind-the-scenes” footage and played it for practitioners at the local large group Fa study. At the end of the footage was a list of all the practitioners that participated in the project. One practitioner who was involved in the filming said that he had some special feelings while he participated in the project and he often felt very encouraged. He said that when he saw the list of the names at the end of the footage, they were all shining brightly.
I felt ashamed. What he saw were the bright spots of fellow practitioners, while all I saw were their shortcomings. I also understood that there is a great history of cultivation behind every practitioner. I cannot just emphasize myself. I need to see how great the other practitioners are.
The filming went on for nearly two months. In the process, many things seemed to be “just right.” For example, the place where we were filming almost seemed like it was given to us. Some practitioners avoided traffic jams and major accidents just before we were to start filming; the battery in the prop vehicle ran out of power just after we’d finished filming the scene, and so on. We were so grateful for Master’s help.
Master said, “Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
We have Master and we have the Fa. As long as we have the desire to do something, Master will make the best arrangements for us.
After several years of working on the media project, my biggest hope is to be able to think from the perspective of cultivation and recognize my own issues when there are conflicts.
Master said,
“Who came up with the idea is not what’s important, but rather, who has fully developed himself through the process; whoever works on himself has grown from it.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference”)
These are some of my cultivation experiences while participating in NTDTV. If anything is inappropriate, please kindly point it out. Thank you, everyone!
(Presented at the 2021 Taiwan Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference)
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
