(Minghui.org) I would like to talk about my experiences reporting on the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo. I now have a deeper understanding of something Master said: “Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
I was assigned to do live interviews. Looking back, I realize I was under Master’s merciful care the entire time. Many attachments that I hadn’t yet identified were exposed and I eliminated them.
The first story I covered was the Olympic Flame Relay. Due to the pandemic, the organizer changed the plan but didn't send out a public notice. Fellow practitioner Alan (alias) and I went to the original location but no one was there.
I felt very guilty and kept apologizing to Alan because I was responsible for verifying the information. Alan was very calm and reassured me, saying that it was normal for unexpected changes to occur in such circumstances and that I should not be surprised. We decided to go to the finish line and take a look.
When we got to the finish line stage, it was surrounded by security personnel and police. Because we did not RSVP, we could not enter the area near the stage. Before the pandemic, we could enter events like this with a business card even without an RSVP.
We just filmed outside the location and interviewed some spectators. The police questioned us constantly the entire time. Every time we moved to a new spot to film, we were questioned again.
I joked that, in contrast to the past when we had reservations and were treated like a big deal, being pushed around like this was a big letdown. Even as I said that I realized I had the attachment of preferring good circumstances to bad ones.
The news piece was finished and produced but not published. I didn’t bother to find out why, as my thoughts had become very negative. I was jealous of fellow practitioner Betty (alias) because her pieces were often selected and mine were not, although I felt mine were better written than hers.
In addition, one of her pieces was the very first of our team’s that was published, so I felt unsettled.
When I thought about checking to see why our Olympic piece was not published, I remembered that Betty once told me I had a show-off mentality. As my jealousy and negativity kicked in, I shut myself off. I remained silent and ignored any team posts with the excuse that I was busy.
I knew my behavior was wrong and that my jealousy was at play—I tried desperately to reject these bad thoughts. I realized Master watches over us all the time. There must be something I didn’t do well that caused my piece to not be published. I looked inward and realized it was my jealousy and show-off mentality.
As soon as I found these attachments, things changed.
Alan asked me about the piece we’d worked on together because the interviewee wanted to see it. So, after waiting for three days, I checked on the status. It turned out there was a miscommunication among the teams and the staff in charge of publishing the news did not know where to find the file we had uploaded.
Through this incident, I found my attachments were removed and the misunderstanding was resolved. It was a shame our piece was not published—I was so frustrated that I even thought about quitting while I waited for it. Fortunately I did not quit.
The second week, there were no events, so we could only film some background scenes. The mid-summer weather was very hot, so Alan and I decided to go out after 3 p.m. when it was cooler. We barely finished half of the shots before a heavy storm rolled in. The Olympic Village was not open to the public yet and everything was closed. The only shelter was under a building’s overhanging roof.
The rain seemed to be coming directly at us, and thunder was booming over our heads. The film equipment was safe and dry, but we were drenched.
Summer storms usually pass quickly, but that storm lasted for hours. After the rain stopped, we continued filming. But a few shots later, it started to rain again. We both felt the rain was targeting us. We had no choice but to pack everything up and leave.
Afterward, Alan told me he realized it was his attachment to ease and comfort that caused the situation. He felt if he had gotten up as soon as he finished studying the Fa and doing the exercises, regardless of the weather, the situation would have been much different.
The Olympic Village opened the next day, and the footage we took the day before could actually be used. We were amazed at how well Master prepares everything for his disciples. From this experience we understood we must do our best at every moment. I realized if we had filmed more footage or done more interviews that day, the news would have been even better. I felt guilty.
My Computer Helps Point Out My Attachments
One day, my computer had a problem: it stayed on the boot-up screen forever. I could not get into the system to work. I said to the computer in my heart, “You have been fine. Why are you dropping the ball at such a critical time?” I was anxious because I had an article due. Since the computer was not working, I had to write the article on my phone.
I began to look inward and found that every time there was a problem with my computer, it was actually because of a problem with my cultivation. Clearly the problem was related to my cultivation state.
It suddenly occurred to me that, a few days before, a practitioner had asked me to write something, but I said I was busy and couldn’t. In reality, besides being busy, I resented him for pushing everything on me. In addition, I didn’t like being told what to do, which was another attachment.
I came to the conclusion that if I didn’t cooperate with fellow practitioners, my computer wouldn’t cooperate with me either. I didn’t like the fact that the practitioner chose to follow his spontaneous ideas over my plan. Instead he tried to make me change my plan, so I refused to cooperate. I felt this was why my computer gave me a hard time, too.
I said to Master in my heart, “Master, I am in the wrong. I will change. I will cooperate unconditionally.”
The next day, I woke up and saw a practitioner’s message saying that we needed to meet at the Olympic Press Center. It was a sudden change, and my reluctance surfaced: “It was clearly stated that I would collect news at home today, but now I have to go out on this hot day. I’ll get all tired and sweaty!” All kinds of negative thoughts began to surface: “And I don’t even know if my computer is working or not...”
As soon as I thought of my computer, I suddenly recalled what I’d said to Master the day before: “I will cooperate unconditionally.” So I texted the practitioner that I would meet them as soon as I finished charging the equipment. After sending the text, I turned on the computer, and everything was working fine.
I always felt sorry that some of the interviews were not used, because I understood that the individuals we interviewed also had predestined relationships with people who could learn the truth by watching and listening to those interviews—so I wanted to use those interviews as much as possible.
I decided to do a summary piece on the Olympic Games combined with the changes in people's mindsets due to the pandemic. I thought there was a weekly report about the pandemic situation during the Olympic Games, but I did not have the specific numbers. I wrote the article with the flow of events and interviews laid out, and I began to gather data about the pandemic.
Surprisingly, I discovered that a Japanese media had just published an article on the pandemic with the specific data I needed. I strongly felt it was Master who prepared the information for me.
On the last day of the Olympics, I was originally scheduled to shoot the fireworks during the closing ceremony for the evening news slot. I was told the slot was canceled and I had to catch the news slot four hours earlier.
I quickly informed a fellow practitioner about this and told him that we had to go out immediately. The practitioner was very cooperative. At the time, Typhoon No. 10 had just left Japan, and it was still raining. The practitioner asked me if the weather was okay to do interviews. I said it was okay, because we had to go out no matter what.
The rain came and then subsided while we were shooting footage and doing interviews. In the end, the sky cleared up.
On our way to the site, the practitioner said it would be nice to interview some people wearing kimonos. When we got there some volunteers wearing kimonos were serving drinks to foreign journalists, and they accepted our interviews.
It was time to rush home to produce the news. There are three transits between the site and my home, and if I was lucky and didn’t have to wait for any of the buses, it would take me 50 minutes to get home—otherwise it would take an hour and a half.
News pieces are time-sensitive, so I asked Master for help. As a result, the correct buses showed up right away, and each one left as soon as I got on. I made it home in 45 minutes! I thanked Master wholeheartedly for watching over me. Our news piece made the broadcast that day.
We wanted to film the Olympic mascots but had no luck finding them. One day, we finished shooting footage in the morning and had enough material for a news piece. We wondered if we should go to another location in the afternoon to shoot some scenes and finally decided to go.
After we were done and on our way home, we ran into the Olympic mascots! If we hadn’t gone to another location in the afternoon, we would have missed them again.
I felt as if Master had already prepared everything for us. From my experiences I understand that however much we sacrifice and however much we are able to let go of our human attachments is how much we will gain.
Thank you, everyone. Please kindly point out anything improper.
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Category: Improving Oneself
