(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master and fellow practitioners:
This year is my 10th year working in the Dafa media. Reflecting on the past 10 years of cultivation, I often feel that Master Li (Dafa’s founder) is always by my side. If I did anything wrong, Master would remind me. There are things that I have done well, and there is also much where I did not do well. No matter how many hardships and tribulations I have to overcome, they are all opportunities Master has carefully arranged for me.
Ten years ago, when I first decided to leave Australia to come to work for the media in the U.S., my family members didn’t understand. They weren’t happy about it and didn’t want me to leave. In my family, only my mother and I cultivate Dafa.
My father worried about my safety because I was alone in the U.S. He often heard about shootings in the U.S., and thus thought that it was a dangerous place. My younger brother and sister thought I wasn’t being responsible. They thought I only cared about myself and didn’t want to take care of our parents. I also had to quit my ordinary job. In the first two years of working here, I was only working as a volunteer without getting paid. Out of the concern that my family members wouldn’t understand and would think that Dafa practitioners go to the extreme, I only told them that I was working at some company in the U.S., but didn’t mention that I was working for our media.
It was a test for me when I went back home to visit my family every year. My dad tried to persuade me to stay and not return to the U.S., and my younger brother and sister complained that I didn’t take care of the family. I didn’t know how to solve this conflict at home. I looked within, and realized that it was a tribulation brought about by my own attachment to affection for family members; it was because I couldn’t let go of sentimentality.
Master said,
“Cultivation practice must take place through tribulations so as to test whether you can part with and care less about different kinds of human sentimentality and desires. If you are attached to these things, you will not succeed in cultivation. Everything has its karmic relationship. Why can human beings be human? It is because human beings have sentimentality. They live just for this sentimentality. Affection among family members, love between a man and a woman, love for parents, feelings, friendship, doing things for friendship, and everything else all relate to this sentimentality. Whether a person likes to do something or not, is happy or unhappy, loves or hates something, and everything in the entire human society comes from this sentimentality. If this sentimentality is not relinquished, you will be unable to practice cultivation. If you are free from this sentimentality, nobody can affect you. An everyday person’s mind will be unable to sway you. What takes over in its place is benevolence, which is something more noble.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
I realized that I had to let go of sentimentality toward my family members and cultivate compassion. I should view them as sentient beings, and my goal is to save them. Since then, I kept clarifying the truth to my family, helping them to understand the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and how it has been persecuting Falun Gong. The Epoch Times and NTD expose the evilness of the CCP and clarifies the truth. Every year when I went back to Australia, I would bring them a lot of the latest materials published by our Chinese and English media. Our media has grown so rapidly, because more and more people have understood the truth, and have grown to like The Epoch Times and NTD.
Every time I talk to them on the phone I clarify the truth to them. My dad is a businessman, so I would tell him to stay away from the CCP and not do business with them. Recently, I mentioned to him about the CCP’s suppression of activists in Hong Kong, and its attack on our truth-clarification sites, as well as the attack on our print shop in Hong Kong last month.
I told him that the CCP virus targets people aligned with the CCP, and that he needs to distance himself from the CCP and recite “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” This is the key to being saved, and the best way to not be affected by the pandemic. My family members have changed from not understanding or accepting Dafa at first, to now having gradually understood that Dafa is good, and the CCP’s persecution is evil.
Now, I can openly and freely tell my family that I work at the Epoch Times and NTD. Being an employee here is the honor of my life. During the anti-extradition movement in Hong Kong, our reporters stayed on the front line to bring people truthful reporting. My family was very moved by it. My mother shared on social media that I currently work at the Epoch Times and NTD, saying that they are world-class media outlets.
My sister who doesn’t cultivate liked the post and left a comment. She wrote, “Thank you for your hard work, please do more. It is all dependent on you, the great Falun Gong, and your media, to save Hong Kong.” She meant that we Falun Gong practitioners are the hope for human beings. It was like their knowing sides all know that everything we are doing is to save them. My family members are now very supportive of my working in the media. My sister would often text me, encouraging me to continue clarifying the truth, and awakening the conscience of people through my work in the media. I truly feel happy for my family members as they have positioned themselves correctly.
During my past 10 years of working in the media, I have switched departments multiple times. When I worked in the sales department, I encountered a bottleneck with work. It was because my xinxing was stuck at the same level without breakthroughs in 2017. A lot of my hidden attachments were exposed. Driven by the mentality of showing off, vanity, and attachments of pursuit and competitiveness, I signed a wrong contract. I tried to hide my mistakes. But gods are watching. Even if I could deceive others I wouldn’t be able to deceive gods or Master Li (Dafa’s founder). Master used this incident to expose all my attachments for others to see. The executives gave me an opportunity to continue working here but removed me from my position.
At that time, it was very difficult for me to come to work and face fellow practitioners. It was a test of life and death for me. Because I made a mistake, my attachment to saving face, and my fear of being criticized and discussed by others made me feel terrible. I had the thought back then, that if I just leave the company, maybe I won’t need to face such problems anymore.
Master said,
“Perhaps in the future you may be slapped in the face twice, and you will lose face in front of someone whom you least want to see it. It is to see how you will deal with this issue and whether you can endure it. If you can tolerate it and yet it preys on your mind, it is still not good enough.” (Lecture Nine, Zhuan Falun)
I realized that feeling terrible meant that I needed to improve. I spent a month writing down all the problems with my xinxing. I was shocked after I finished. After cultivating for so long, I still had so many attachments that I had yet to let go of. So I made up my mind that I must dig all of them out and eliminate them. I dug deep, trying to figure out why this would happen to me. The reason was that although I thought I was already very diligent, I was busy doing work, and my heart for doing things was stronger than my heart for cultivation. When facing tests, I failed to conduct myself using the most fundamental Fa principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. And the most fundamental problem was that I didn’t realize how serious cultivation is. I’m grateful to Master for giving me this stick warning. It allows me to realize what I didn’t do well in the past and to start anew and do well again.
When I was overcoming tribulations, I would often recite Master's poem:
“A wicked person is born of jealousy. Out of selfishness and anger he complains about unfairness towards himself. A benevolent person always has a heart of compassion. With no discontentment or hatred, he takes hardship as joy. An enlightened person has no attachments at all. He quietly observes the people of the world deluded by illusions.”(“Realms,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
I hope I can eliminate any resentment and develop an honest and open heart. I have to take lightly all gains and losses.
I returned to the company a month later. I didn’t leave because I knew that as long as I still have such attachments, it would be the same wherever I go. If I don’t let go of them, even if I left for somewhere else, I still wouldn’t be able to do well when the next test comes. I shall get back up from wherever I have fallen. I decided to come back to the media, face my mistakes, and walk the final leg of my path well.
Master said,
“You will be made to abandon all those attachments that cannot be given up among everyday people. As long as you have them, all of those attachments must be removed in different environments. You will be made to stumble, whereby you will become enlightened to the Tao. This is how one goes through cultivation practice.” (Lecture Four, Zhuan Falun)
After overcoming this tribulation, it felt like a huge chunk of karma was eliminated. I felt like a new person.
After coming back to the company, the executive level adjusted my work, giving me another opportunity to continue contributing to the company. I was arranged to work in the digital marketing team. The goal of our team is to help the company grow rapidly. Our team works at the front line to attract subscribers. It feels like we are the soldiers fighting at the front line of a war.
But, I enlightened that as Fa-rectification period Dafa disciples, we have come here with a mission. In the past two years, I felt like we were in a battle between good and evil every day. Our work often gets interfered with by evil. And whenever we face such evil interference, we would try hard to think of ways to overcome it. We use novel ways to break through, beating the evil at their own game, and utilizing such opportunities to make further progress.
For example, in the first year, we grew very rapidly using social media. Because of our rapid growth, other mainstream media started to attack us, contacting social media, and asking them to halt our promotion. All of a sudden, social media restricted all our accounts for no reason, which has greatly impacted our promotion efforts and hurt our effectiveness in saving sentient beings.
I enlightened that this is interference by the old forces. They don’t want us to be able to save many sentient beings. We first sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate evil interference in the other dimension, and we also looked inward. Did we have zealotry that allowed the evil to exploit our loopholes? Or were our righteous thoughts in saving people not strong enough?
When our subscribers read the Epoch Times, they would understand the truth about Falun Gong and obtain a good future. It’s a very important project that directly saves people, hence the evil interference that targeted us. Therefore, we increased our frequency of sending forth righteous thoughts and put more effort into getting rid of zealotry, as well as purifying our hearts in saving sentient beings.
Later, we tried to use another social media platform for promotion. This demanded us to improve the quality and methods of our advertisements. People who work on advertisements, including me, also needed to learn how to use the new platform. I remember that in that first month, we were initially very far from our goal.
But, we didn’t acknowledge the arrangements by the old forces and kept sending forth righteous thoughts. Our team would send righteous thoughts every day at 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. to eliminate any evil interference. In addition, as we carry a pure heart in saving people, Dafa gave us the wisdom needed to solve problems and overcome difficulties. Through persistent Fa-study, sharing, and mutual support and encouragement, we cooperated very well with each other and formed a formidable body. Our work on the platform kept improving its performance. So ultimately, in the last week of the month, we successfully accomplished our monthly goal and reached a new record for English Epoch Times subscriptions.
After the interference in 2019 with our social media promotion, we kept facing such interference. Other media also continuously attacked us. And afterward, a lot of big advertising platforms refused to work with us. Last year, a company suddenly stopped providing service to us without warning. Amid such difficulties, we kept walking forward step by step. In this process, the standards for our cultivation also became higher and higher.
We needed to maintain our best possible cultivation state and tackle the challenges we faced every day. Besides accomplishing our individual goals every month, our team requires that every day, each member must at least study the Fa for an hour, exercise for an hour, and send forth righteous thoughts at least five times. Our team keeps a spreadsheet for it, everyone is required to fill in their time every day. If anyone fails to do it, everyone will be able to see. We would also summarize every month about who did well and who didn’t reach the standard. And ones who failed to reach the standards will need to come up with a plan of how to improve. This is a very effective way to encourage our young practitioners to be diligent.
Master said,
“You have a tremendous responsibility to run these media companies well. The things that Dafa disciples do will be passed down to human society in the future, and so too will your media companies be passed down and become primary media companies in this world. Think about it, when humankind realizes that you are saving them, how will they regard these projects that Dafa disciples are working on? They will bestow them with tremendous honor.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2015 New York Fa Conference”)
To run the media well, in addition to maintaining a good cultivation state, we also need to adjust our mindsets. How do we overcome hardships and interference – by having courage and being determined? I enlightened that we need to overcome the issues ourselves first.
Master said,
“As Dafa disciples clarify the facts, they are truly going at it one man against a hundred, or even one against a thousand,...” (“Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. IX)
We also need to have great compassion, because we are the hope of sentient beings. Whatever tribulations or interference we face, we need to stay unmoved and remain faithful to Master and in Dafa. Amid this difficult situation, we will walk forward step by step.
There are two examples from last year in which we weren’t interfered with by difficulties, and were able to make EET subscriptions grow extremely rapidly.
The first example was amid the pandemic, no matter how severe it looked, we knew that we carry the important mission of helping Master rectifying the Fa and saving sentient beings.
When all Americans were staying at home, we seized the time to clarify the truth. We also cooperated with a number of departments. The advertising team created 13 timely videos during the pandemic that were very popular. They exposed the origin of the CCP virus and the evil nature of the CCP, helping many Americans learn the truth. These videos had over 30 million views. Many subscribed to NTD after watching them. These people have positioned themselves correctly.
The second example was that during the election season, we had just begun EET’s digital subscription. But the chaotic development of the human world made us not sure at first who was right and who was wrong. Later, Master published the Jingwen, “The Presidential Election.” After reading it, I realized that this American presidential election is a battle between good and evil, and one between gods and demons. Therefore, we need to distinguish clearly right from wrong. Our digital marketing team would send EET information to a large number of Americans in the form of breaking news every day. A lot of American people learned the truth from such content and subscribed to EET.
I realized how important it is to study the Fa with a focused mind. In addition to joining group Fa-study every day, I recite the Fa every Monday and Friday at noon. And on Sundays, I would spend an hour studying Zhuan Falun very slowly, sentence by sentence. I can only go through four paragraphs in an hour. Although it’s very slow, by studying the Fa with a calm heart and focused mind, I was able to enlighten to a lot of Fa principles that I haven't understood in the past 20 years of cultivation.
Through studying the Fa slowly, I overcame the problem of not being focused during Fa-study. Sometimes, after studying for an hour, I would feel as if my entire body and mind have been cleansed. A lot of bad thoughts were eliminated in the process, and I am shown the meaning of the Fa layer after layer. It makes me feel that I am cultivating with the heart that I once had. With such a heart, I am able to continue facing challenges that come up every day and try my best to help our media fulfill Master’s requirement as soon as possible.
In my journey of cultivating in the media, I have stumbled many times. These 10 years are also a process of me growing and improving in cultivation. Although I am still very far away from the standard Master sets, I will keep trying hard and striving forward vigorously. I will cultivate myself well, fulfill my mission as a Dafa disciple, and walk the final leg of the journey well.
Thank you, Master and fellow practitioners!
(Presented at the 2021 Epoch Times and NTD Media Fa Conference)