Cultivation and working with the three medias

Today I want to share briefly about my experience in helping with the media work, especially how I improved my xinxing (character) by taking part in the news and programme production for NTDTV.

As Master mentioned in 'The closer to the end, the more diligent you should be': “going through hardship and suffering is an outstanding opportunity to remove karma, to be cleansed of sin, purify the body, elevate your plane of thought, and rise in level -- it's an extraordinary good thing, this is a correct and upright Fa-truth.”

It's easy to read, to say and to 'enlighten' to Master's teachings, but it's not easy to actually follow them.

In Hongyin, 'Solid cultivation': “let each and everything be measured against the Fa.Only then, with that, is it actually cultivation.”

In the process of doing the media work, if one can improve him or herself, get rid of attachments, melt into the Fa, one can save sentient beings in a better way. In my opinion, this is the meaning of joining the media work.

When I first started doing media work, I didn't realise the importance of the media as one of the Fa-validating projects. From translation, to newspaper and radio, and finally to TV, through the actual process of doing the job, both my personal cultivation and being able to realise the importance of the media work have improved bit by bit.

At first, I was only involved with translation work. The workload isn't much, the deadline is not so tight. Also I was at university at that time so I had a lot of spare time, thus it felt quite easy to do.

Later on, I moved to another city due to a placement with work. With fellow practitioners' encouragement and help, I started doing newspaper and radio work. At the beginning of 2006, after sharing with fellow practitioners, I also became involved with TV work. At that time, I had to work during the day, so I only had evening and weekend time to do the media work. For the TV filming, now and then, I had to travel to another city to do the filming. Then I travelled back the next morning, in order to not to affect my everyday work.

When I decided to take part in the media work, I didn't think too much. I just thought that these projects needed people, and I happened to be suitable to take on the job. However, during the process, the more I do, the more I realise that everything is arranged by Teacher, we just need to do it. At the same time, we get rid of our attachments, and improve our levels, in order to assist Master in the Fa-rectification in a better way.

Take the TV work as an example. At the very beginning, I was rather passive towards what I was doing. I hardly ever thought about how to improve on my own initiative, either in terms of the technical side in everyday work, or from the xinxing level side as a cultivator. As a result, it really became difficult for fellow practitioners to cooperate with me. Whenever others raised an issue with me, I felt very unhappy, thinking, I've done so much, why do they keep picking on me? I kept thinking about when they could find someone else who is suitable to replace me. At the end of the day, the filming is not something I wanted to do anyway. I just felt that I'd had enough.

But Master says in 'Teaching the fa at the conference in Singapore': “I've often said that when two people have frictions between each other, each one should examine him or herself” ... “They're your own tribulations, and we use them to improve your character. You should be able to overcome all of them. As long as you improve your character, you will be able to overcome them, it's only that you might not want to overcome them, if you want to overcome them, you can. So from here on out, when you run into a conflict, you shouldn't think it's just by chance.' ( the fourth talk, Transforming Karma)

Even though Master's teaching is very clear, sometimes I still felt uneasy or unhappy. Though I know that things don't happen without a reason, as a practitioner, I have to look inward unconditionally, but sometimes I just felt that this process is so difficult. A lot of times, even though I know I'm going through a test, I still fail it. Even if I say to myself that 'I want to pass this test, I need to pass this test' I still couldn't let it go to my heart. When I manage to not argue back, I didn't achieve the forbearance of a cultivator. As Master says in Essentials for Further Advancement, What is Forbearance (ren)? “Forbearance is the key to improving one's xinxing, To endure with anger, grievance, or tears is the forbearance of an everyday person who is attached to his concerns. To endure completely without anger or grievance is the forbearance is the forbearance of a cultivator.”

For example, I've never been good at things like dressing up or make-up. I never really cared about them as I thought these appearances are not very important. But after joining the NTDTV, the appearance of an anchor becomes very important as it reflects the image of our TV station, but whenever fellow practitioners criticized my clothes, I would be unhappy, thinking that they're too picky. Only after calming myself down and asking myself: “Why do I find these criticisms annoying?” Then I realised that the notion that I had before was a result of the education system of the CCP. It was the CCP which deliberately destroyed the traditional values of Chinese people, who used to be known for their civilised manners.

When I get rid of that notion, and change my mindset, I would consider fellow practitioners' criticism more carefully, especially when I can consider other practitioners' opinions in a calm and objective manner. I would find that their opinions are usually very honest and accurate, that it was not a personal criticism, but, it was for maintaining the reputation of our TV station. The reason that I felt angry was mainly because it challenged my human notions and hurt my self esteem.

Besides this, I also make efforts to improve my knowledge on this aspect. As has been suggested by practitioners, we need to pay attention to the way we dress during our activities, to give a good impression to others. This is even more important when presenting for our TV station. Of course, I am still in the process of improving myself, I would welcome any suggestions from practitioners.

In the process of doing media work, cooperating with other practitioners is also a frequent test for me. Sometimes I would think negatively about a coordinator, sometimes I would look down on other practitioners. I found that the main reason is that other's opinions don't match that of mine. Master has said (not exact words) to Australian practitioners that as long as we do it, even though it isn't perfect at the beginning, eventually during the process miracles will happen. So whenever I am in conflict with other practitioners, I would try my best to calm down, and try not to judge whether their opinion is good or not. Instead I would try to cooperate with them, especially with the coordinator. I found that when I let go of my own attachments, things usually turn out very nicely.

Master said in Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005, “I just said that the principles of cultivators and those of ordinary people are opposite. Human beings believe that a life of comfort is a good thing, while Dafa disciples believe that everything be easy is a bad thing when it comes to their improvement and that discomfort is conducive to improvement. Have you managed to turn around your fundamental concepts?” Sometimes I found that media work is indeed demanding. Sometimes when I have to complete a piece of news, or a programme, sleeping had to become the last thing. In my mind, cultivation is to enjoy hardship, as what ordinary people regard as bad things are good for practitioners.

Through sharing with other practitioners, I realised that as Fa-rectification progresses, the standard for us becomes higher. From taking part in The Epoch Times, SOH, to eventually joining NTDTV, in the process of cultivating in the media group, I gradually recognised the importance of media in saving sentient beings. I understand that the abilities that we have now are all pre-arranged, and we need to make use of them to good effect. In validating the Fa, Master said in Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston, “As you know, our manpower is very limited right now, so in your efforts to validate the Fa, don't neglect things when you turn your attention to something else. In other words, we shouldn't focus all of our efforts on one thing.” So even now, I am working mainly for NTDTV. But I also try to help with SOH and Epoch Times.

The current Eutelsat incident makes me realise that in China, a lot of ordinary people have gradually changed after watching NTDTV. So when we work for NTDTV, or for other media, we are not for entertaining ordinary people. It's a requirement for us to cultivate ourselves well while doing media work, we need to keep ourselves pure, only then can we produce programmes that are more effective in saving people. I also welcome more practitioners to join the media team, and cultivate ourselves while saving sentient beings during this process.

The above is my personal understanding, please point out anything inappropriate.

Thank you Master, thank you fellow practitioners.