(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings Master!
Greetings Fellow Practitioners!
Today I'd like to share my cultivation experiences in reporting on Shen Yun performances as an NTDTV reporter.
Part 1
When the Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company came to Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium this year, they decided to add 10 more shows. I had been covering Shen Yun with a small number of others, sometimes just by myself. It had worked out just fine, and I had no language problem. However, this time Shen Yun was performing in the French-speaking region, but I don't speak French at all. What should I do?
After covering the shows for more than 10 days, I felt like I was reborn. The experience has turned my way of doing things upside down and changed my views completely. My heart seemed to be broader and my eyes brighter. I was able to use the wisdom Dafa has given me to look at matters from outside, and see through the illusions created by various interference taking advantage of my and my fellow practitioners' human attachments. I was able to open my heart and work with my fellow reporters from all over Europe to cover the shows. I understand that this is not because of how well I have cultivated. Rather it is because there was a need and Master has granted me such status, so my human attachments would not interfere with the cooperation among fellow practitioners.
I used to be very attached to my own capabilities. A fellow practitioner used to tell me that I had yet to open my heart. I had tried very hard, but he kept telling me the same thing. Now I have truly experienced what it feels like to open my heart.
When I first got to Louvain-La-Neuve, I was totally unsure of myself. I couldn't apply any of the skills that I had developed here. I had to wait until the translation was done before I could do my job. To make things worse, those who had promised to come and help did not show up. I didn't know what to do and couldn't hold back my tears. After sharing with other practitioners, especially after watching the show on the second day, I suddenly realized that it actually was a project for the European practitioners to handle the media coverage. It seemed that no one could stay long, that people were coming and going. But in reality this project was giving everyone an opportunity, so more and more practitioners could participate. The media coverage was a great task and required all of us to work together.
Suddenly I was deeply moved. Master has offered an opportunity for everyone to participate. Some could only take part for a few days, some could support remotely. But I had the opportunity to be part of the entire project, coordinating and assigning tasks. How fortunate I was! If I continued to hold on to everything, not only I was being selfish, but also going against the requirements of Fa-rectification.
I have never shed so many tears during the show. I was as if immersed in benevolence and I could not stop the tears. I had to pinch myself really hard to not weep out loud. Those dances awakened the memories and gratitude deeply engraved in my heart. Some small details displayed by the performers showed that they were constantly thinking for others. They were not acting. They didn't need to. It is part of the selfless characteristic of their being - being considerate of others. It was very moving.
The dance, "Astounding Conviction," made me realize many Fa principles: the cooperation among the enlightened beings is to harmonize by using one's best, without being attached to how much and what one has done, or whether others know or not. When everyone is doing so and cooperating seamlessly, even the concept of "cooperating" does not exist anymore. It works as an automatic, harmonizing mechanism, and its power is boundless.
I began to share my workloads with others. Some of the tasks I could do more quickly myself, but I would still share with others as long as there was an opportunity. I felt it was my responsibility to do so.
During that period of time I had also encountered many human attachments such as jealousy. Sometimes during the interviews I felt as if being suppressed, and I would feel very guilty - I've only gotten a few minutes for an interview, how could I allow my human attachments interfering with what I should do? I couldn't say "Let me study the Fa and adjust myself first." Time would not wait for you. If Shen Yun cast members encountered tribulations in their cultivation, would they get a chance to be sloppy? The schedule is all set, and they have to perform under their best conditions. So what about us?
Take "Astounding Conviction" for example. There are so many gods and Buddhas watching over a Dafa disciple. When the Dafa disciple meets the Fa standard, all the gods and Buddhas will send out righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil. Indeed there are so many gods and Buddhas watching me and helping us. What is there to be afraid of?
One of the key events was the media coverage of a senior government official, which had caused some stir among our media groups. A few of the coordinators looked inward and shared our thoughts. We were so moved by the sharing that at the end, we held one other and cried. We all felt the energy. One practitioner suggested that before we went on our assignments, all practitioners in the media center study "Lunyu", send out righteous thoughts, then put our hands together and say: "Assist Master to rectify the Fa and save all sentient beings!" three times. We were all deeply moved and felt a powerful, bursting energy.
The show was a huge success. The audience did not want the curtains to close. We were extremely busy with interviews. My group conducted eight interviews in a row. People were lining up waiting to be interviewed. They were patient, and their words were very touching. Yet it took us half of the usual time to put the reports on air.
One lady raised her hands over her head and applauded after each program throughout the show. She really stood out in the crowd. After the show, she cried in front of our camera and told us that she had been very depressed and was on the verge of committing suicide. Her friend told us that she kept crying and her body was trembling during the show. When I was editing her interview afterward, I almost cried as I could sense the joy radiating from the center of her life.
Since I had always been criticized for being conceited, I tried very hard to think less of myself. This time I realized that if I was no longer attached to myself and immersed myself in the Fa, there would not be any notion of being "important" or "trivial." We can be either important or trivial, depending on what Dafa wants us to be, and still be capable of anything, no matter what realm we are in.
Part 2
A few months after the show, we began to produce a "Shen Yun in Europe" feature program. Based on the experience in Louvain-La-Neuve, I particularly hoped that more and more European reporters would participate in the production. This was the first time for me to coordinate such a project. Unlike any other prior experiences, where all I needed to do was to diligently work on my own assignment, this time I had to constantly make phone calls and write emails, which were things I liked to do the least in everyday society. Sometimes it felt extremely difficult. Why did I have to try so hard to pull everyone together to work on this project when I could do it all by myself?
Just as I was getting frustrated and ready to give up, another coordinator had a long talk with me. She was able to get as many practitioners as possible, regardless of their experience, to work on a project. She would ask the experienced practitioners to train the new ones and monitor the progress from behind the scene to make sure that things ran smoothly. She even shared some coordination work with other practitioners. In the end everyone was motivated, and she had built a strong, cohesive team after the initial difficult break-in period. She even turned some practitioners who seemingly had the least amount of coordinating skills into key players in her team.
I was very moved with her sharing. She is truly following Master's teaching. Instead of being attached to the matter itself, she focuses on how to help everyone work together. She has such a broad mind that she lets others establish their mighty virtue by working on the project. She also has faith in her fellow practitioners regardless of their experience. All she looks at is their willingness. I believe this is because of her faith in Master. Her sharing gave me enough courage to continue to work on my project. Things began to improve: a fellow practitioner who is excellent in editing traveled hundreds of kilometers to stay with me to work on the project full-time; some never-heard-of-before new reporters also joined our team and did an excellent job.
Of course there were tribulations and interference that stirred my human heart and made me anxious and worried. I was bothered with the fact that not everyone was paying serious attention to this important project, and was concerned how I could push it forward. One day I got to the office early. Master's poem, "Assisting the Fa" (from Hong Yin) that I had posted on my computer, fell on my desk.
You resolved to save sentient beings,
And assist Master as he
journeys this human world;
Come now, and help me turn the Falun,
When the Fa is fulfilled,
Heaven and Earth will be yours to travel.
(English Translation Version A)
I asked myself: am I validating the Fa or doing what I personally wanted myself to do? What does Master want? Master wants us to save people. Master wants us to cooperate with one other.
In fact, the higher, subtler, broader, and the more selfless the realm is, the stronger the power. Therefore the old forces' arrangement can never escape Master's turning wheel. For me, if I wanted to coordinate the project better, I needed to broaden my mind instead of feeling desperate. It is the mind of an enlightened being instead of the human heart that can shoulder this mission.
Master's "Be More Diligent" was published next day. Master said,
"One might then ask how it was that the overall coordinator came to preside over something so major. Is it because he cultivated especially well? Not necessarily. It owes to the fact that he started up the project and leads it, and the project rests on him. Everyone else is merely validating the Fa and doing his part, doing his best on his end, in that project that has already been launched. It's akin to the cultivation you do at a company in ordinary society: your boss won't gain mighty virtue because of you, but you will establish your own mighty virtue in that setting."
Master's teaching told me that I need to let as many practitioner reporters as possible establish their mighty virtue in this project.
One coordinator from another country had some misunderstanding of my approach. I felt the criticism a bit unfair. In hindsight, it was due to the fact that I had failed to open my heart. I asked myself: do I have the broad mindset to even share the coordination responsibility itself with others?
The night before we completed our first edition, the editor asked me to go rest first. My human attachment began to surface. Seeing that she had done so much, and so well, of the editing, I became a little jealous. Then I thought of Master's teaching and fellow practitioners sharing. I asked myself: Do I really have the mindset to allow fellow practitioners to establish their mighty virtue in this project? I recalled the first time when I covered the Shen Yun report in Atlanta. The local coordinator did not have a lot of technical know-how. He had not slept for two nights and had a lot to do the next day. But he still stayed with me and tried everything possible to help me until I completed all the news. I didn't realize until later that those seemingly "useless" things he did back then were in fact really effective matters in the other dimensions. Without his selfless, righteous support, I could not have accomplished what I did then.
So I sat down across from the editor and began to send out righteous thoughts. She told me the next day that while I was doing so, her editing went very smoothly. I was very touched but regretted that I had not done so earlier. If we fail to become enlightened and miss the opportunities, it is be impossible to make up the losses.
The feedback on our first edition was positive. Its framework, which is the collection of most of our European correspondences' wisdom, was highly recognized.
Part 3
I also wanted to share how I cooperated with other practitioners. I usually work with another practitioner to cover the news. There was a period of time when I could not handle the news reporting anymore. It's because I felt that this practitioner did not respect others and I did not want to work with him anymore. Plus, I was not cultivating diligently at that time so I had some really tough times to get rid of my human attachments. I didn't have enough righteous thoughts to break through these obstacles. The field generated by these conflicts also prevented other practitioners from joining the team.
As I was feeling miserable, I read Master's "Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students" and came cross this paragraph:
"Of course, just now I only talked about men. I need to talk a little about women now. (Audience laughs) Well, I'll go easy. (Audience laughs) As a woman, you in turn need to be understanding of your man. Women: you all want your man, your husband, to be a strong, upright and dignified, manly guy, but in your actions you always keep him down, keeping him under such tight control that he's like a woman (audience laughs). So how could he be manly? When the whole society is in this state, think about it, the society's men have all become she-men, (audience laughs) and all the women have become he-women , (audience laughs)--it's the inversion of yin and yang. Of course, that's how society is, and I won't insist that you be a certain way. We do have some female students who are indeed really talented, and there are some people who are really amazing, (Master laughs) and sometimes they surpass men in terms of abilities. But all the same, a lot of times you really need to be considerate of your men. As a cultivator, you have to be a good person wherever you are, and you have to be considerate of others--so in the home why can't you be considerate and understanding of your own husband? Aren't we to leave the future mankind with the best things? When both of you are cultivators you should each be considerate of one another, and with that how could you talk about divorce? Marriage should be something unbreakable. (Audience laughs) (Teacher sighs)"
I was constantly demanding respect from that fellow practitioner. Wasn't it the same as what Master said in his teaching? I didn't act as a woman. I was overly strong and always demanding others to be a certain way. How could I gain his respect? As soon as I realized this, I felt that the heavy stuff on my back was lifted and removed, and I felt very light instantly. It was Master's teaching that untied the knot in my heart. For similar reason, I should not force others to accept what I said or enlightened to. How can I second guess what Master has arranged for other's cultivation path and willfully impose my notions onto others?
Afterwards, I exchanged my thoughts with that fellow practitioner, and the result was quite good. Our ensuing cooperation has become much smoother. That's because I didn't force him to accept my "way." All I wanted was to dissolve all the bad elements and form a harmonious field with fellow practitioners.
Thank you, Master for your protection. Thank you.
