Master's Wish is my Command in Fa-Rectification

Greeting revered Master! Greeting fellow practitioners!

I am a practitioner living in Sweden. I obtained the Fa in 1998 in Beijing, and emigrated to Sweden in 2001 from Mainland China.

In order for the Epoch Times to play a greater role in helping Master's Fa rectification, Master again offered another precious cultivation opportunity—the Epoch Times Nordic Office was moved from Gothenburg to Stockholm last July. Soon after this, the Epoch Times Chinese Version Nordic Office was formally established. Thanks to Master's and fellow practitioners' trust, I was promoted to the Director of the Nordic Office from a general staff member. At this European Fa conference, I would like to share my experience and progress gained during the Fa-rectification period.

Master's wish is my command
When I was first nominated to become a coordinator, I felt very confused, because I saw various complicated relationships among fellow practitioners that had exhausted many Dafa coordinators. I was afraid that my cultivation would be affected when I was involved in such a situation. In addition, the Nordic Epoch Times consists of four countries: Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and each of them has its own local coordinator and Dafa Association, which would be very complicated to coordinate. At that time, each country's Epoch Times was funded by practitioners' donations. It would be hard to fund the business simply by sales. In addition I still had my job to do along with with many family responsibilities, which only left little spare time to do Dafa work. With all kind of difficulties I could not step forward to assume such responsibility. But as a Dafa disciple, I was very clear that if there were no one to bear this responsibility, it would be hard for the Epoch Times Nordic Version to move on.

I realised that those concerns stemmed from selfish perspectives. If I could not overcome this, it would be hard for me to step forward and make a decision. Our compassionate great Master really pushed me forward. In a dream, Master came to me and spoke with me, and then he took me and other disciples who I was familiar with, to climb many mountains, and pass many streets. We were following Master to look for sentient beings to save ...... . After waking up, my tears shed and my heart felt like it was having an electric shock. In this instance, I realised what Fa rectification needed was what I should do. Since then I no longer thought about whether my ability would be good enough to meet challenges, and no longer thought too much about the results.

Some key coordinators in the Epoch Times Headquarters suffered a lot both in personal and family life, and everyday they worked hard to coordinate different branches all around the world. The workload for them was very heavy. They moved me deeply. In contrast, why couldn’t I get rid of selfishness and assume a few more responsibilities?

Then I accepted the promotion to become the Director of the Epoch Times Nordic Office, while fellow practitioners also encouraged and supported me with their righteous thoughts. We had a common goal: working towards a better and better newspaper and saving more sentient beings. I also realised this was my responsibility. Master's wish is our disciple's command. Our Dafa disciples should coordinate well unconditionally. Master always gives us the best.

Advertisement sale is telling the truth and saving people
I started to learn office management from zero and went to a reasonable competent level. During the process, there have been many opportunities to temper and improve my character. I realised that we should learn from what Master did for Shen Yun in running the Epoch Times, with an aim to make it the biggest in the world. If our path is righteous, our prospect will be brighter and brighter.

Our office should be run in a virtuous circle. The newspaper funded by practitioners' donations will not be able to have mighty virtue. This issue served as the biggest challenge for disciples in Nordic countries as practitioners funded all newspapers. But to run the business properly is never a single day's job. There are relatively smaller Chinese communities in the four Nordic countries, and the four countries all have different languages and different currencies, which makes the Nordic Epoch Times harder to run both in personal coordination and in management. Our team as a whole needed to improve very quickly in cultivation to reach our goals.

In order to strengthen the newspaper sales, we developed a unified marketing plan in accordance with a newspaper editorial plan. In order to increase the circulation and to expand the influence in the local Chinese community, we opened up 21 newspaper picking up points in Stockholm, including six Swedish supermarkets. During the process we broke through the mindset of lack of time, language skills and professional experience. With the support of the Netherlands and Belgium office, a joint version was applied to our newspaper, and a Nordic colour advertisement page was also inserted.

Then a different sort of progress was made in marketing in Demark, Finland and Sweden, where first page colour and mono advertisement orders hit our office. The market was progressively opening up for us and our incomes increased substantially. More than six months later, Epoch Times in Sweden started to operate normally without practitioners' funding.

I was very clear that the result flowed from team coordination. In reality, Master, who encouraged us to go ahead, arranged everything. Just as what is written in Master-Disciple Grace, “When disciples’ righteous thoughts are strong, Master has the power to turn the tide”.

Whenever I sent an invoice to a client, I could feel our sales team's arduous efforts, I could feel the joy of saving sentient beings. I felt that our coordination was moving on the right track.

Fellow practitioners who had left the Epoch Times came back to join us again for saving sentient beings. Our editorial team coordinated better and better. When a practitioner did not have time to write an article, another practitioner would help to write one. When we missed an interview for an event, others would manage to write an article to make it up. Meanwhile, newly trained practitioners also joined our design team. Overall, all practitioners are working together to improve the newspaper, try their best and cooperate with each other.

Seeing that so many practitioners are paying more effort to the newspaper, I was moved. Only the Fa and Master could make our seemingly ordinary disciples become sacred. The process of coordination, in reality, was a cultivation process of trusting and being wholehearted about fellow practitioners. As a coordinator, whenever I saw fellow practitioners paying such a lot of effort, whenever I witnessed their shining and good points, I cherished every practitioner in the Epoch Times more and more, and I also felt Master's mercy and the profoundness of the Fa.

Cultivate myself solidly in the coordination work
During a year of coordination work, I felt that a coordinator should pay more effort, assume more responsibilities, with endless things to think about and to plan in one’s mind. In fact, shouldn’t we regard all these as excellent cultivation opportunities offered by Master? During the process of paying out and bearing, Master is helping us to expand our capacities.

For six months before Shen Yun came to Sweden, we focused on promoting Shen Yun and I was responsible for kitchen and theatre restaurant work. I was too busy to attend the Epoch Times weekly meeting, let alone to spend time on Epoch Times sales. So during this period I could only maintain a few old customers' long-term contracts. After the Shen Yun show I received a half-year printing invoice for the Nordic Epoch Times from Germany, while, apart from Sweden, the other three Nordic countries did not perform well on sales. I felt so sad and shed tears. I felt that I could not live up to Master's trust, and the significance of a coordinator's responsibility. If we deviate from the Fa a little bit, the Old Forces will interfere with us with various excuses. For example, some competent practitioners had to work to make a living, while some others left due to being under too much job pressure. Various reasons underpinned our poor sales performance. Facing the situation, I felt very anxious. I realised that we should not be interfered with by the Evil Forces, and behind the complicated phenomenon, there was something arranged by the Old Forces and the Evil. We should deny them with our pure righteous thoughts.

At this year's New York Conference, the Epoch Times Headquarters raised the standard for each branch, asking all the branches to get rid of sponsorship and go towards standardisation, professional management and training full-time staff.

I spent a lot of time and energy exchanging ideas with coordinators from different countries, and wished that three other countries could join Sweden to form an Epoch Times Nordic one body, and the coordinators and sales could all pay more attention to the market. If we are united as one body and look after the market well in each country, then our four Nordic countries could form a real one body. This is what Master wants.

Master said in Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference: ”With any project or any task, if you decide not to do it, then don’t do it; and if you do decide to do it, then you definitely have to do it well and carry it through to the end. If you do otherwise, how shall the time you wasted go down in the annals of history? Whatever is not brought to completion amounts to a failure. That is not to say, however, that a certain task has to be carried out according to your own ideas and only if it succeeds will you build up mighty virtue. Rather, it is in the act of your cooperating and the thoughts that follow, and in how you go about things in the process of collaborating, that count as the cultivation process.”

I realised it was time for me to improve. I needed to get rid of ego, expand my capacity, be compassionate to fellow practitioners, look at fellow practitioners’ good points, and reflect upon myself when discerning others’ weak points. I started to communicate with the practitioners around me. One practitioner pointed out my working method and attitude. My boss would be very satisfied with me, but my team members were just like a pawn in my hands. In fact, thinking from other people's perspectives allowed me to understand what I had never experienced before. I always behaved in my own ways and rarely thought about other people. Sometimes I was very anxious, talked fast, all of which many people were unwilling to accept. I understood that through Dafa coordinator work my mind was upgraded and my wisdom increased.

If we want to coordinate fellow practitioners well, cultivating ourselves well is the key. To further dig my thoughts out, I found my selfishness during my coordinator work period. For instance, while encouraging and being inclusive to fellow practitioners, what I was thinking about was establishing my mighty virtue and not making myself a single commander on my own. I understood, as a Dafa disciple, I must step forward from the old universe’s nature of only looking after myself, and reach the new universe’s standard of being selfless. While I realised this other practitioners were working towards helping me become a better manager, and teaching me to always put other people's needs first.

Each fellow practitioner must have his/her own way, and whether it is flat or rugged, it is all with its own reasons and cause. As such, understanding fellow practitioners’ status, situation, their path and having mutual tolerance are the requirements for our coordinators. I often reminded myself not to neglect my own cultivation while looking after the whole team. When I see everyone works so hard to improve cultivation, I no longer feel the responsibility of being a coordinator is a burden, and no longer push everyone. Rather, I try to help each practitioner to maximise his/her potential. I feel it is very important to understand each team member and work with them to survive the hardest situation.

During the collective cultivation process and constant adjustment with fellow practitioners, I have become familiar with my work, from knowing nothing, and I can always feel Master's compassionate care. I no longer feel happy when I can achieve something; rather, I am focused on my limitations and a higher standard that the Fa imposes on me.

The Epoch Times will become the first media in the world, and we all understand how lucky we are to be able to work here. We are now cultivating during the Fa rectification period and saving sentient beings by working in the Epoch Times under Master's guidance. There will be many things for us to overcome for what we are achieving and what we will achieve. I understand that the way ahead is not smooth but nothing will stop me. Master’s huge bearing out has extended our path. Any opportunity will no longer repeat itself. Let us cherish the chance. Our Master’s wish is my unconditional command.

Thanks to Master! Thanks to fellow practitioners!