(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!
I am a Dafa disciple, currently in my fourth year of cultivation. For the last few years I have been working at the English Epoch Times office in New York City, and over the past year, through studying the Fa, having faith in Master, and working with fellow practitioners, I have been able to support my wife's and mine living in Manhattan by doing print ad sales full-time at the paper.
Master said in “Teaching the Fa in New York City” in 1997:
“Being far away and separated by oceans, it’s not easy to meet with you. But although you can’t see me in person, as long as you practice cultivation, I’m actually right by your side. And as long as you practice cultivation, I can be responsible for you all the way to the end; what’s more, I’m looking after you every single moment.”
Faith has been something I’ve really lacked since becoming a practitioner, and it wasn’t until recently that, after learning more about what it is to be a true practitioner, I have been able to believe and trust in Master.
After coming to work at The Epoch Times in New York City in 2009 and experiencing an incessant daily tribulation, my cultivation and faith was shaken to the core. I spent over a year battling interference and trying to figure out my shortcomings to counteract my tribulation. There came a point when I finally took a good hard look at myself. I realized that in my cultivation I was pursuing something – I was not truly cultivating myself because I wanted to assimilate to Zhen, Shan, Ren and help Master with Fa rectification. I had become lazy and was going through the motions, still in pursuit and filled with desire for ordinary things. I felt like I was completing a task, rather than truly cultivating from my heart.
It stuck out to me when reading Zhuan Falun:
“However, you must be here to genuinely study this Dafa. If you hold various attachments and come to gain supernormal abilities, have illnesses cured, listen to some theories, or come with some ill intentions, that will not work at all.”
Master has talked about being a true practitioner and about truly cultivating. He uses the word “truly” many times throughout Zhuan Falun: “truly practice cultivation,” “truly regard themselves as practitioners,” “truly upgrade your xinxing,” and “truly follow our xinxing requirements,” among many other examples. To me, truly cultivating comes from the heart. Cultivation is not something that I have to do; it is something that I want to do because I know that it is the truth. It comes from the yearning to be good and to assimilate to all of the principles in Dafa – it comes from the desire to truly change your heart and return to goodness.
Having this understanding helped me put the sacredness back in my cultivation and helped me renew my heart. After having a big breakthrough in one area, I was still experiencing a lot of physical and mental interferences. After sharing and looking inside, I realized that throughout my entire cultivation I had never really taken sending forth righteous thoughts seriously. I missed the set times, had constant stray thoughts, and rarely did anything extra – again, I was treating it like a chore.
Master said in the “Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A” in 2001:
“Let me tell you, all those who remain and that can persecute Dafa and Dafa disciples are due to our students themselves. Students who haven't taken sending forth righteous thoughts seriously: the evil in the dimensions that you are supposed to shoulder and be responsible for has not been eliminated. That's the cause. So you must take sending forth righteous thoughts seriously. No matter whether you think you have the ability or not, you should do it. What you eliminate from your own mind are ones which have an effect within the expanse of your own body; at the same time, you need to eliminate the external ones, which are directly related to the dimensions you're in. If you don't eliminate them, then they not only persecute you and restrain you, but also persecute other students, other Dafa disciples.”
This, to me is an example of cause and effect. My understanding is that Master has provided us with all of the tools that we need to succeed in our cultivation. So many times I cried out for Master and felt unanswered, while truthfully, I wasn’t using the powers that He had given me. After I started putting heart back into my cultivation and focus back into sending forth righteous thoughts, my entire environment changed.
In the third quarter of 2010, The Epoch Times made some management changes and also changed the distribution model from being a paid daily newspaper to a free daily newspaper. This new model has been highly successful and our paper is truly acting as a force in New York City. New Yorkers have always had access to sensational, low-quality free newspapers, but since being introduced to The Epoch Times last year, New Yorkers have been surprised and impressed.
Our sales team has been through a major process of tempering over the last year, and I truly feel that we have discovered some wonderful methods of cooperation that have allowed us to work as one body and make a serious impact.
Last year we had a team of two full-time Western sales people and our full-time sales manager. The team has always been set up to work and function under the sales manager’s lead, and both my colleague and I listened to and followed the training and thus we started to close sales. We would record our cold calls, and then the manager would listen to them and tell us how we could better improve our skills. This was good cooperation.
After doing well for a few months, we added a new sales person, and after a little while, the dynamic started to change. We weren’t doing the sales trainings as frequently, and we started to develop a negative attitude toward the sales manager. There was criticism and negativity emerging from the sales staff, and I watched the atmosphere in our sales area go in the wrong direction. At the same time, I had a growing uneasiness brewing towards one of the sales people I was working alongside, which I realized later was jealousy and competition. I didn’t think that it was jealousy because I was making more sales than him, so how could I be jealous?
It was like what Master said in Zhuan Falun:
“This also occurs among true practitioners, for mutual disrespect and not eliminating the attachment to competition can both easily lead to jealousy.”
I did not respect this person’s ability and, therefore, I wanted to constantly be better than him, further fueling the attachment of jealousy in our environment. On top of all of the attachments and negativity, the team had stopped sharing with each other and tensions were secretly brewing between everybody.
Master said in “Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting”:
“Your journey is one where if you can take correct, right steps, the doors before you that were once shut will open and the road will become wide. The journey is the same, whatever project it may be. When things don’t go well it stems from poor cooperation or not giving it enough priority. Human attachments are what block your path, and thus the entire journey has been bumpy and filled with constant troubles.”
Not only had we not made a priority of cooperation – no sharing, no training, not supporting our manager – there were many attachments playing out that weren’t being discussed that were blocking our path. Then at the beginning of spring, one of the full-time sales people left and the other one moved to another department.
To me, this was really an unfortunate thing that did not need to happen and shows how not working together and looking inside can destroy an environment. I also feel that this practitioner leaving had a lot to do with my own negative thoughts toward him and the pressure that created.
I was reminded of Master’s words in “Teaching the Fa at the 2002 Fa Conference in Boston”:
“So when you argue with ordinary human attachments, I think to myself: "If they saw the true situation, they wouldn't argue even if they were asked to." But it's exactly because you can't see the true situation and you have ordinary human attachments that you can cultivate here.”
I understand now that it is important to immediately reverse any negative thoughts that I have about other practitioners. I have seen such thoughts' destructive power.
The whole time that I have been doing sales, my wife and I were also doing some computer work for a few hours each night so that we had enough money to pay our bills. I knew that there would come a time when I would have to take a leap of faith and depend solely on my commission from the newspaper to support my family.
I realized that right now is Fa rectification and what we are doing is extremely important – we must break though. There is no more time to wait around and only bring in enough revenue to break even, barely getting by. The Epoch Times is supposed to play a major role in Fa rectification. All Dafa media are supposed to play a major role in Fa rectification. After having this understanding, as well as understanding my role in this matter, I knew Master would provide for me if I quit my ordinary work and had faith in Him. That was 5 months ago, and Master has fully provided for me along the way.
Last month our team had our biggest print ad sales month in the history of the English Epoch Times. I attribute this to a few things. We have changed our environment completely from before, and now we study the Fa together, share about attachments and struggles, closely work together and bounce ideas off each other, and do daily morning training before we start our work. We have a close, warm atmosphere that is very open.
I feel that when the right elements are in place within our xinxing, individually and as team, we can make a huge breakthrough. In June we started our month by doing training and setting individual goals. Within 5 days of starting our daily training, we had already closed $20,000 in sales. The sky seemed to open up – the phones were ringing, potential clients were emailing us back. It felt like a huge tide had turned in our favor. There was a direct correlation with all of our efforts – cause and effect.
We set our goals on a Wednesday, and I asked Master to help me close $6,000 before the end of the week. I kept that number firmly planted in my mind. By 3:30 p.m. on Friday, I was running out of options. I remembered in my mind that there was an older gentleman just a few blocks from our office who had almost bought an expensive ad with us months back. I had an understanding that everyone who places an ad with The Epoch Times is playing their role in Fa rectification and many of these people probably pledged, long ago, to spend a lot of money with our newspaper to help Dafa. With this thought firmly nestled in my mind, I went to see this man on late Friday afternoon.
I negotiated with the man for over two hours. There were points where things did not look good, but I kept telling the man in my mind, “This is your mission, this is your destiny, this is your role in Fa rectification,” and no matter what he said, I would not let go of that thought. At 6:30 p.m. I walked back to the Epoch Times office with a $6,000 check in hand. I almost couldn’t believe it – I had faith in Master and would not let the thought out of my mind, and He arranged a situation to provide exactly what I had hoped for. This is another living testament of the power of Dafa.
What I understood through this process is that by approaching people for advertising it is not only saving them, but it is helping them play a significant part in helping our newspaper save sentient beings. The more ad dollars we have, the more papers we print, and the more people we save. Sometimes I worry about whether or not an advertiser will get a return on the investment he makes with our paper. When you look at this is issue from the perspective of saving the person and allowing him to play his part in Fa rectification, that thought is completely eliminated.
All in all, my journey working as a part of The Epoch Times has changed me more than I ever thought I could change. We have a magical Fa-centered environment at the paper, and I am truly honored and grateful that Master has allowed me to be part of such a wonderful team of people.
Thank you, Master! thank you fellow disciples! Please point out any shortcomings.
