Cultivating the Garden of Our Lives - Learning How to Be a Journalist on the Path of Fa-Rectification

Greetings Teacher,
Greetings Fellow Practitioners,

I first encountered Falun Dafa in June 1999. It has been 5 years since then, and during those 5 years I was in a state of self-cultivation and self-improvement most of the time. Even though I took part in some activities that help to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa as well as spread the practice, I was very confused and could not find my own path in Fa-Rectification.

Literature is one of my passions. I like to write prose and poetry. I wrote many articles before I started cultivation. After I began my cultivation, I continued writing. However, what I wrote were still for the general public and with an everyday person's mentality. Of course, through progress in cultivation, my writings naturally carry the purity and radiance of a Dafa disciple, and as a result of this some people commented that my writings purified their hearts and souls. They commented that they felt very peaceful and tranquil when reading my writings. Even so, I still didn't know how to connect my writings with Fa-rectification.

One or two years ago, I joined a reporter team working for a media outlet. I occasionally wrote some news reports. I also frequently wrote for the literature columns of that newspaper. However, I made little progress in my cultivation. I could not get rid of the confusion in my mind. I sometimes fell into the maze of sentimentality and could barely free myself.

In May of this year, I joined other practitioners in the Zhengjian Poem Community. This was a turning point in my cultivation. Even though we just wrote poems together and didn't do much experience sharing about cultivation, my fellow practitioners always pointed out my not-so-righteous emotions with great compassion. Also, being with Dafa disciples, the righteous field would help me on to the right path.

As a journalist, I do many interviews and report on lots of activities, which sometimes conflict with my activities to help spread the practice. Sometimes it is very difficult to decide which one I should go to and which one is more important. I felt that reporting was like a job, and had less to do with my cultivation, so I was not very active with it. Actually, looking deep inside, there was a selfish mentality because what I often thought about was which one would help me more in cultivation, instead of which one was better for saving and helping sentient beings.

However, the experience of one recent piece of news I reported changed my thinking and helped me find my path in Fa-Rectification.

On July 17, I was assigned to do a report on a cancer patient and volunteer get-together held by the American Cancer Society at the New Jersey Chinese Community Center.

The weather was beautiful that day. The activities lasted from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. I didn't plan to attend that long. I just wanted to complete the task quickly, listen to Dr. Jingduan Yang's lecture and chat a little bit with the volunteers, cancer patients and their families. I planned to leave afterwards. However, after I joined the activity, a whole day passed without my even realizing it.

Dr. Jingduan Yang's lecture was excellent! Not only did the 200 attendees felt benefit from it, but I also felt enlightened. The title of his lecture was: "The Prevention and Cure of Tumors in Chinese Medicine".

Dr. Yang first analyzed the reason tumors form. Then, he discussed the different mechanisms of Chinese medicine and Western medicine related to the treatment of tumors. He also discussed the relationship between spirit and the human body.

Finally, Dr. Yang talked about the prevention of cancer. He stated that one's mental state has a great impact on the physical condition. In order to prevent cancer, you need to reduce your desires and reduce stress. You should not have too many attachments to all the things in this world. A medical doctor can prolong your life, but the quality of your life may not be that great if you don't pay attention. You need to adjust your mentality. Don't be afraid, worried, and sad etc. If you can do all of these, you would be a saint. Though we cannot become a saint in a short time, we can at least start with learning from a saint.

When necessary, you should give up your worries about life or death. Focus your vision on the eternity of your life. Cultivate your body, your speech and your heart; truly change yourself. As if you were cultivating the garden of your life, you will obtain unexpectedly good results.

During the lecture, Dr. Yang twice subtly mentioned Falun Gong. The first time was when he was talking about the destruction of the traditional Chinese culture, the Cultural Revolution, and now the persecution of Falun Gong. The second time was when he talked about the cultivation of mind and body. He said that no matter what kind of beliefs you carry, as long as you truly cultivate yourself, it would help you, whether it is Christianity, Buddhism, or Falun Dafa (Dr. Yang said this because he didn't want to offend the Christians and the Buddhists at the meeting.).

After Dr. Yang finished the lecture, many cancer patients and their 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 several group discussions. Sitting among the cancer patients, their families, and the volunteers, I listened to their voices. Most of them suggested: Love yourself more, open your mind, stay calm, watch what you eat and exercise. I felt their helplessness and pain, as if they had fallen into an endless well. They really need others' help.

During the lunch break, there were about seven people at my table. An old man next to me found out that I was a news reporter and he commented, "Good! Your newspaper is getting better and better. It seems that you also have more advertisements now." I listened with a smile and asked him, "Tell us your opinions. We must have something to improve."

He asked very carefully, "Which column are you responsible for?" He didn't want to say anything that might hurt me. I told him that I only took care of the local news. He hesitated a bit and then said, "Could you increase the content on teaching Falun Gong? Also, add more cultivation stories and add more content about how this makes people healthy." He said that we published a lot of persecution content that related to politics. This made people scared. In fact, he generally does not read these articles. I thanked him with much gratitude, "Your comments are very good and very important. I will convey this to the newspaper office."

I think this is something that we ought to consider, no? Everyday people are very realistic. They don't care much about who were persecuted or political things. Actually, the best way to break a lie is to let people feel for themselves that Falun Dafa is good and Zhen Shan Ren is good. That way, the lie would collapse on itself.

He also told me that he was practicing Falun Gong secretly. He got the information from the Internet, but he was not so sure about how to practice the exercises. He wanted me to tell him how to practice the Qi, etc. He said that he had a friend who lived in Princeton. This friend used to be very sick and his face looked grey. When they saw each other again after a few years of separation, the friend's face was glowing with health, and his mind and body were in a very good state. It was this friend who told him about Falun Gong. At that time he even blamed his old friend, "How can you practice this? The Chinese Government is attacking it so badly, and you still practice?"

I told him we don't practice Qi. We don't practice mind intent either. When we practice the Falun Gong exercises, we don't think about anything. Our minds need to be empty. I said that Dr. Yang mentioned staying calm and learning to give up our desires and attachments. That is what Falun Gong teaches you.

The people at the same table were all very interested in my words. Several of them asked me how to find the location of a group practice. I offered to get some flyers from my car. I said that I usually would not pass the flyers while I was working as a journalist. However, since they were asking for it, I could get some for them.

One of the wives was very eager and said, "Great! We'll wait here. It is so difficult to meet a Falun Gong practitioner!"

I got some flyers and VCDs for them and they immediately put them in their bags. On one hand, they cherished what I gave them; on the other hand, they might be afraid to be seen by others that they were taking Falun Gong materials. I understood the situation and didn't say anything. I just smiled.

Some other people noticed the materials that I gave and came over to ask me, "Is that about Falun Gong? Can I have some?"

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

The people in these groups were saying: "What Dr. Yang talked about was excellent!" I knew the three words about Falun Gong that Dr. Yang mentioned were working. Even though he only mentioned three words with regards to Falun Gong, it worked because they trusted Dr. Yang.

After a whole day of activities, I was very happy. I felt I had spent a very meaningful day because I had really helped people. I hadn't known how to clarify the truth before, but now I understood. The journalists' journey, arranged by Teacher, is my special path to clarify the truth and save the sentient beings. Teacher wanted me to discover the righteous thoughts of the sentient beings and save them during my news reporting activities.

I remembered not long ago, when I was complaining in a Zhengjian poem group meeting, that I was not interested in writing special reports for the public because the more I cultivated, the more I felt that people were only after profit and fame. Therefore I couldn't think of anything positive to write about. Very often, when I was reporting, I had to switch from a practitioner's level to an everyday people's level.

A practitioner criticized me, "Even though people may not be good, they are a layer of lives created by the Fa of the cosmos, especially since many of them are the next group of beings waiting to attain the Fa. Exclude their polluted things, go to discover those things that conform to Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance behind the scenes. No matter how little and how weak their righteous thoughts are, you should grasp it and expand upon it, so as to resuscitate their righteous thoughts. And this is saving people.

Switching levels is a perfunctory attitude as if you had to do it. Those kinds of things, no matter how much you do, you won't save people. Teacher said that even if there were only a glimpse of hope for a life, Teacher would give him hope. During our reporting activities, we are looking for this hope, enlightening to this hope and offering this hope. With this attitude, things will become very easy and you will be well into it."

His words greatly shocked me. Indeed, Dafa is all encompassing; it runs through everything from top to bottom. I do not need to think about switching levels. It was I who didn't cultivate well and didn't well understand Teacher's Fa. All I need to do is to discover the things that conform to Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance behind everyone and every story, and then catch sight of their righteous thoughts and magnify them; look for hope, inspire hope and give a hope. This way, I can make the people around me very positive and recover their positive true nature, and this can help them and me.

After this event, I came to understand my own Fa-rectification path and my own way of clarifying the truth and saving the sentient beings. I have learned that we should do more work silently instead of on the surface, and that way we are truly caring about sentient beings. That way, we are connecting with the sentient beings in the long term, sharing a part of their happiness and pain. Isn't that genuinely caring about them?

The Chinese Community Center of New Jersey is so close to my home. Every reporting activity is a chance for me to get close to sentient beings, to bring Teacher's great compassion and Dafa's beauty to them. I truly believe that as long as we are persistent and do our work steadily and patiently, Dafa will be learned and accepted by sentient beings. I truly believe that in the near future the Chinese Community Center will invite us to teach people Falun Gong there.

My thanks to Teacher!

And my thanks to my fellow practitioners!