(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings Master, Greetings, fellow practitioners.
I went to the New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) headquarters in New York City in 2010 to help produce programming. Although I felt that the job requirements exceeded my ability, I decided to just do as much as I could, since there was no one else available. In the beginning, I observed that the process utilized by NTDTV to evaluate its programs was only based on feelings, and lacked solid analysis. Therefore, we first performed some statistical analysis. For instance, we analyzed the distribution of our audiences according to the Chinese and English programs at the time. We also considered our situation and manpower available to us. After we examined all these factors, we concluded that the biggest task was to develop more professional television production talent, and ensure that the entire staff had solid fundamentals. At the same time, we organized our global resources in order to better utilize the available manpower and develop cooperation. We then developed a plan that we thought was very practical – to design a global series, and put an emphasis on training staff and utilizing manpower.
I worked previously in a non-practitioner television station, so I was involved in training sessions from the time that I began working at NTDTV. I feared the dismissive looks of fellow practitioners during my classes, but at the same time, I saw that the programs created by practitioners had many simple problems. I thought, “Why am I doing the training? Not to validate myself, but to share some of my experiences with others. If I'm corrected by fellow practitioners, that's really not a big deal. Why am I afraid of giving classes – just because I'm afraid of having my feelings hurt?” I strove to correct my motivation and also sent righteous thoughts to eliminate the selfish fear and worrying mentality. During one of my training sessions, I really felt the pureness. The training was recorded and it showed many Falun flying at me. It was amazing, and just like Teacher described. This experience gave me tremendous encouragement.
We also began planning a training series, along with the new program series.
Breaking through Notions, Learning with Modesty from Others
Most practitioners at NTDTV don't have professional backgrounds. As a result, once they learn something, it is very easy to form a fixed notion. I often have to break these notions during my training sessions. In comparison, people who are new to NTDTV have fewer notions and sometimes they're easier to teach.
I felt that some of the more capable practitioners had a strong sense of superiority. Sometimes they'd say, “The TV programs I see in the USA are not like this,” “We have not had any professional personnel for many years and haven't we made it just fine,” “These theories are all ordinary people's things” and so on. I used to be affected by them and began doubting myself. Later, I searched within and strove to eliminate my feeling of inferiority. I tried to understand fellow practitioners from a positive perspective and to look at things more positively. I realized that we needed to cooperate and work together. I then changed my way of communicating with others. For example, I tried to use more subtle ways to point out issues; I took the initiative to communicate with others and tried to encourage and acknowledge them more frequently.
Sometimes I was asked, “What makes you feel that you can help and train others?” At first, these words really tested me. Later, I again cleansed my motivation. I thought of saving sentient beings, and the other thoughts then disappeared. I thought, if Dafa practitioners take the time to learn a profession, they would then be better than non-practitioners, because we can distinguish good from bad. It just happens that I have some experience, and I'm just here to provide and share these experiences. As a matter of fact, many people have a much higher potential than me. Once I got my motivation right, fellow practitioners' words didn't affect me.
However, when I wasn't in the right state, I felt that I was being wronged. This was usually because I didn't study the Fa enough and didn't have strong righteous thoughts. Therefore, my human notions all came out. Once I realized that everything was for saving people, I was able to brace myself up again.
Sometimes, I see fellow practitioners doing things very slowly and getting very tired, so I try to help. After sharing with them, we'd realize that the problem was there because a breakthrough in personal cultivation was required. The issues would not be resolved fundamentally by trying to find the “masters” in the professional field, or by making it up with manpower or equipment. During the many years of training, my experience was that a practitioner's performance depends on his/her [[xinxing]] and motivation. If the sole purpose is to save people, then the path forward opens up; otherwise the road is closed off.
Teacher said,
“The gong level is as high as the xinxing level. The more one is attached to fame and self-interest, the lower the level one will drop to among everyday people. One’s gong will also consequently decrease. In the end, when one has completely dropped to the bottom, one will no longer be given any gong.” (Zhuan Falun)
In the beginning, our team often slept at the TV station in order to save the two hours of transportation time to and from the dorms. There were times when our schedule was so tight, that some practitioners hoped to just replay or pause the programming. However, we thought about it more, and understood that the pressure was, in a sense, a way to push and check ourselves, so we never stopped or paused the programming.
Coordination work takes a lot of my time. Sometimes, I find some time to push the programs through, and when they're finally played, there's often a lot of criticism. Some practitioners think that it should've been done one way, whiles others think that it should've been done another way. I know that this is probably because the production time is short, and I usually try not to spend too much time to explain what I'm doing. However, we often need continuous righteous thoughts from fellow practitioners. If practitioners' opinions have a critical impact, to the point of affecting cooperation, then I have to actively communicate and share. I think that if we all look at others' work in a more positive fashion and don't magnify the issues, then the development of many things will be different. Sometimes, I see many misunderstandings created when we focus on others' issues and eventually magnify them. I often remind myself not to do this to others' work.
In the process of constructing the global platform, time was required to learn and understand the situation for every area. The coordinators of every project looked at things from their perspectives. Common comments included: “How is my area going to develop? How is my program going to do this and that? How is my project going to need more manpower?” However, from a cultivation point of view, this was actually a form of selfishness. When we look at the whole body, our perspectives will change. The key is again, how to cooperate with each other well. In a recent article, Teacher again reminded us about the importance of cooperation.
Teacher said,
“As you realize, with the many projects that Dafa disciples have initiated in order to counteract the persecution, clarify the truth, and save sentient beings, what is most important is that Dafa disciples cooperate together well, and that only when people work together well will things go well.” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa - Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference”)
Later, I took a suggestion from a fellow practitioner, and joined the station's group Fa study and exercises, instead of doing them by myself. I also encouraged others in my team to join the group Fa study and exercises. Whenever I can't attend, I always think about calming down and studying the Fa. The overall cultivation state of my team became a lot better and the overall work effectiveness also improved greatly.
Eliminating the Feeling of Inferiority and Jealousy; Cooperating Better
There is a practitioner who works under me, who sincerely shared that he was jealous of me. For instance, he cared about who seemed to be better in cultivation; who was doing better at work; who was more liked by others; whose work seemed to be more important, and so on. After sharing with him, I thought about our interactions. In the beginning, all I could think about was that I took a lot of the workload myself, because I was afraid that he wouldn't be happy if I'd assigned it to him. I was also afraid that others might think that I was taking advantage of him. It turned out that some people started saying things, as if they wanted to bring about conflict between us.
I started to search within only after it got too annoying. Once I started searching – wow, in fact I also cared about these things and had feelings of being wronged. The root cause, underlying the fear of others saying things about me, was a feeling of inferiority. All this time, I wasn't being compassionate toward those people who were overly dominant or crafty, and I wanted to protect and help those who were weak and vulnerable. At first, I just thought that this was because I didn't like people who bullied others. However, when I calmly searched within, I found that the root cause was that I had a deep sense of inferiority, which affected me a lot. When I was a child, my family's situation was not very good and my parents didn't have much schooling. Even back then, I saw how much my parents were mistreated and discriminated against. Therefore, I formed a mentality of hatred toward those who seemed aggressive and always wanted to help the weak and poor people. I also wanted to get out of that kind of life of being mistreated and looked down upon. Therefore, I was very competitive and wanted to be first in everything – in the games we played and in school. Based on the Fa, these are just due to cause and effect relationships, karma and reincarnation. They are something that a cultivator must set aside. On the other hand, the competitive mentality also made me form habits such as wanting to battle unfair behavior, and looking down on specific types of people. This feeling of inferiority that I formed as a child eventually caused the development of many attachments, such as jealousy, competitive mentality, attachment to fame, fear, and others. Once I recognized this feeling of inferiority and began to look at things based on the Fa, it became a lot weaker and my other attachments also weakened.
I then remembered sharing something with the other practitioner. When he was young, he hadn't received love and affirmation from his parents, and his feelings were often hurt. Therefore, he usually didn't trust others, and wanted to be valued by other people. After we shared, we both realized that this thought of wanting to be valued by others was due to his feelings being hurt frequently as a child, and that this was also a strong attachment. This attachment made us feel very tired, and also interfered with our cooperation in validating the Fa, so it wasn't the least beneficial and could only help evil factors. I told him, “Every practitioner probably suffered quite a lot before cultivation. Many times, it's just due to karma and reincarnation. Maybe it's because in your previous life, you did bad things to them, and they became your parents in this life. You just don't know these things, so we must put down these attachments, and Teacher has already removed a lot of our karma. Also, we don't need to prove ourselves to anyone, including our parents. It is not as if when our parents say that we are good, then we're good; it's not that when other practitioners say that we're good, then we're good. As long as we measure things with the principle of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance we'll be okay, and we don't need to care about what other people think about us.” We talked several times and it really touched him. After this, the cooperation between us got better and better, because we didn't need to waste time on these things, and were able to make the best arrangements for a lot of activities.
Practitioners Saving People, Not Doing Ordinary Media Work
During my work with NTDTV, we're so busy that once we don't pay attention, it's very easy for ordinary society's notions to come out. Sometimes, a practitioner does very well on most things and only has small issues here and there in the projects. When this happens, we should just quietly make it up and not magnify the small issues. It might be due to our jealousy, and it will add a lot of difficulties for others' projects to develop and go forward. Whenever we offer our opinions to others, we must hold strong righteous thoughts and only do so when we truly understand the situation. Since we're cultivators, we must constantly remind ourselves that the reason for working at NTDTV is because we want to save people. If we're too attached to doing things, then we'll waste a lot of time, subsequently delaying the process of saving people.
When we reinforce our righteous thoughts of saving people and look at things based on the overall situation, then immediately our perspectives will change. We must always use Teacher's Fa to guide our thoughts, perform our work and solidly cultivate ourselves. This way, we'll surely walk quickly on the cultivation path of returning to our true selves.
During my meditation, I've witnessed the male-female relationships of my many previous lives, as well as the things I did that hurt other people in those lives. I realized that many things in this lifetime are due to predestined relationships. I also realized that many attachments and notions that I found difficult to eliminate, came with me when I was born in this world, but were not originally mine. They had formed over the course of many lives during reincarnation. When I don't have these notions, the feeling is such a relief and so pure. My life was rescued from hell and pulled out from the ocean of human emotion by Teacher. Today, I'm so fortunate to be a Dafa practitioner. Whenever I think of these things, tears fill my eyes. Thank you Teacher.
NTDTV should soon be taking off. There are still many sentient beings waiting to be saved. Fellow practitioners, let's be diligent together, do the three things well, cooperate well with each other, make up for the each other's shortcomings, and together fulfill our prehistorical vows of saving sentient beings and assisting Teacher in Fa-rectification.
This is just my cultivation sharing. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
Thank you Teacher. Thank you fellow practitioners.
