Cultivating A Garden of Life: How I Promote Falun Dafa As a Journalist

I first encountered Falun Dafa in June of 1999. Most of the time over the past five years, I was focused on personal cultivation. Even though I have participated in some Falun Dafa introductory activities, I was very confused and hadn't found my own path.

I love writing. I write essays and poems. I wrote a lot before I started to practice, and I continued afterward as well. However, the things I wrote were all for everyday society and with everyday people's thoughts. Of course, as a Falun Gong practitioner my writings naturally carry purity and glow. As a result, some people commented that my writings purify their heart and soul. They commented that they feel very peaceful and tranquil when reading my writings. Even so, I still didn't know how to make the connections between my writing and my cultivation during this special period of time.

A couple years ago, I joined a newspaper as a volunteer reporter. I occasionally wrote some news reports. I also wrote frequently for the literature column. However, I made little progress in my cultivation. I was still very confused. Also, I sometimes fell into sentimentality and did something which made me feel guilty and ashamed in front of Master and my fellow practitioners.

In May of this year, I joined a practitioners' poetry club. That was a turning point in my cultivation. Even though we just wrote poetry together and didn't do much experience sharing, my fellow practitioners always pointed out my not so righteous emotions with great compassion. Also, being with other practitioners, the righteous field would lead me to the righteous path.

I am a journalist. I often go to various activities to cover the news. Sometimes, there would be some conflicts. Sometimes, it is very difficult to judge which one is more important and which one I should attend. I felt that being a reporter is an ordinary people's job , that it's not strongly connected with my cultivation and so I was not that interested. Actually, looking deep within, there was a selfish mindset because I often chose the one I felt would help me most in my own cultivation, not the one that would benefit helping others.

One of the recent news report activities changed my thoughts and helped me find out my own Fa-rectification path.

On July 17th, I was assigned to report the Cancer Patients and the Volunteers Get-Together Activity of the American Cancer Society at the New Jersey Chinese Community Center.

It was a beautiful day. The activities lasted from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. I didn't plan to attend the whole thing. I just wanted to listen to the lecture by Dr. Jingduan Yang and chat a little bit with the volunteers, cancer patients, and their families. However, I forgot the time after I started to join them. The whole day passed very quickly.

Dr. Jingduan Yang's lecture was wonderful! The 200 attendees benefited from it and I did as well. I felt enlightened. Dr. Yang's lecture title was: "The Prevention Function of Chinese Medicine in Cancer Treatment."

Dr. Yang first analyzed the formation of the cancer. Then, he discussed the different mechanisms of Chinese medicine and Western medicine in cancer treatment. He also discussed the relationship between the spirit and the human body.

In closing, Dr. Yang talked about the prevention of cancer. He said the mind has a great impact on the physical situation. To prevent cancer, you need to reduce your desires and stay calm. Don't have too many attachments toward anything in this world. A medical doctor can prolong your life, but the quality of life may not be that great if you don't pay attention to yourself. You need to adjust your mentality. Do not be afraid, worry, or feel depressed. If you can do all of these, you can be a saint. Though we cannot be like this all of a sudden, we can learn how.

When necessary, you must give up the worries about life or death. Look far to the ultimate life. Cultivate your body and your heart, truly change yourself, just as if you are cultivating a garden of life, and you will obtain unexpectedly good results.

After Dr. Yang finished the lecture, many cancer patients and the families surrounded him and asked him questions. Some asked if they could take certain medicine, some asked how to deal with their current health situation.

After the lecture, I joined the group discussions, sitting with the cancer patients, families, and volunteers and listening to their voices. Most of them suggested: Love yourself more, keep an open mind, stay calm, watch the diet and do exercises. I could feel their pain and feelings of helplessness, as if falling into a deep well without bottom. They really needed help.

At lunchtime, there were about seven people at my table. A gentleman next to me found out that I was a reporter. He commented: "Excellent! Your newspaper is getting better and better. It seems that you also have more advertisements now." I listened with a smile and asked him to make some suggestions so we could improve.

He asked very carefully: "Which column do you work on?" He didn't want to say something which would make me unhappy. I told him that I only take care of the local news. After some hesitation, he continued: "Could you increase the content about the exercises? Also, add more cultivation stories and talk about how Falun Gong makes people healthy."

He said that we published a lot of persecution and political content creting fear in people. In fact, he generally doesn't read these stories anyway. I thanked him saying: "Your comments are very good and very important. I will convey this to the editors."

I think we should increase the following content. People in our society today are very sophisticated. They don't care much who was persecuted or political things. Actually, the best way to break a lie is to let people themselves feel that Falun Dafa is good and Truth-Compassion-Forbearance is good. This way, the lie would not exist anymore even without breaking it down.

He also told me that he is practicing Falun Gong secretly. He managed to get hold of the information from the Internet. He said that he has a friend who lives in Princeton. This friend used to have a lot of diseases, and his face looked colorless. After several years without seeing each other, he became very healthy, even his cheeks were rosy. His mind and body were all taken care of. It was this friend who told him about Falun Gong. When he first heard, he even criticized his friend: "How can you practice this? The Chinese government is criticizing this so seriously yet you still practice it?"

The friends at the same table felt very interested in my words. Several of them asked me how to find a practice site. I offered to get some flyers from my car. I said that I usually would not pass out leaflets while I am working as a journalist. However, since you are asking for them, I'll get some for you.

One of the ladies was very eager and said: "Great! We'll wait here. It is not easy to meet a Falun Gong practitioner."

I got some flyers and VCDs. After I passed some to each of them, they hid them immediately. One reason they did this was because they cherished the information I gave them; the other reason was they were afraid that other people would know that they accepted Falun Gong information. I understood the situation and didn't say anything. I just smiled.

Seeing that I was giving the information, some other people came to me and asked:" Is it Falun Gong? Can I have some?"

In the afternoon, I joined the group discussions again. At that moment, I just acted as a journalist again. I respected my profession and didn't want people to think that I was pushing them to learn Falun Gong. I just sat there to listen and asked some questions from time to time.

The people in several groups were saying: "What Dr. Yang spoke about was excellent!" I knew that the way Dr. Jingduan Yang mentioned Falun Gong had achieved very good results. Even though he only briefly mentioned Falun Gong, it worked because they trusted Dr. Yang.

After the day's activities, I was very happy and felt everywhere was full of fresh air. Ii was as if I had spent a very meaningful day because I ahd really helped people. I hadn't known how to clarify the truth about Flaun Gong to people before, but now I understood. The journalist job arranged by Master is my special path to clarify the truth and save sentient beings. Master wants me to discover the righteous thoughts of sentient beings and save them as I work as a reporter.

I remembered not long ago I had been complaining in front of the poetry group that I was not interested in writing a special report for the general public. I told them that the more I cultivated, the more I felt that the general public cared only about profit and fame. They seemed quite dirty. So, I could not praise them that much. Very often, when I was writing the report, I had to switch from a Falun Gong practitioner's frame of mind to a non-practitioner's mindstate.

As soon as I said these things, another practitioner criticized me: "Even though non-practitioners have many attachments and are living deep in illusion, they are also created by the Fa [universal teachings, the prciniples taught in Falun Gong]. Many of them are the next group of beings waiting to obtain the Fa. Disregard their polluted part and find the part which meets the standard of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. No matter how weak their righteous thoughts are, you should encourage them to strengthen them. This is saving them. Saying that you are switching dimensions is a mechanical kind of attitude, it's not from the heart. No matter how much you do won't save people that way. Master said even though there is only a glimmer of hope we should give them hope. We need to look for this hope, and heighten and brighten it. With this attitude, you'll find that reporting and writing becomes much easier."

His words shocked me. Indeed, Falun Dafa is very harmonious. It penetrates from the very highest level all the way down. I do not need to do any dimensional shifting. It was I who didn't cultivate well and didn't understand Master's Fa well. All I need to do is to search for their righteous thoughts and encourage them to maintain the righteous thoughts; enlighten them to hope and provide them the hope. This way, I can make the people surrounding me more positive and revive their righteous thoughts. This is saving people and also saving myself.

After this, I began to better understand my own path and my own way of informing people with the correct facts about Falun Gong and saving sentient beings. I believe we should work quietly, using our wisdom to truly cherish sentient beings.

The Chinese Community Center is very close to my home. Every activity I participate in there is a chance for me to interact with more people, a chance for me to take Master's great compassion and Falun Dafa's beauty to them. As long as we are persistent and do it steadily and carefully, in the long run, Falun Dafa will become known and accepted by all. I truly believe in the near future, the Chinese Community Center will invite us to teach Falun Gong.

Thanks to the Master!

Thanks to my fellow practitioners!