(Minghui.org) The 2021 Epoch Times and NTD Television Falun Dafa Experience-Sharing Fa Conference took place in Manhattan on May 15. Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Dafa, attended the event and gave a lecture for over 20 minutes. Meeting attendees gave Master a standing ovation and applauded for a long time when Master arrived. They were very excited to hear Master lecture at the conference.
Practitioners from different departments of the media shared their cultivation stories. They work in reporting, editing, production, sales, marketing, distribution, customer service, printing, and other functions. By following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, they were able to let go of attachments, improve themselves, and help Master save people.
Newcomer Overcomes Challenges
Dina from Taiwan joined the media recently. She shared how she resisted the temptation to seeking comfort as a young practitioner and decided to move to New York to work in the media.
As a technical engineering intern, in her first three months working at the media, Dina kept asking herself almost every day if she should continue her internship. Although many practitioners kept encouraging her, it was a huge challenge for her to handle the relatively cold temperature in New York (in Taiwan it was almost never below 59 Fo). Her homesickness and physical tribulations became a constant test.
As she studied the Fa more, Dina had a better understanding of cultivation, Fa-rectification, and Master’s boundless compassion in saving sentient beings. So she made up her mind to formally join the media outlet and stay in New York. While working here, she found herself making significant progress with many attachments removed.
She said, “My righteous thoughts became stronger and stronger as I thought about Master’s compassionate salvation and the sentient beings in my world waiting to be saved. There is no shortcut in cultivation. Only by studying the Fa more can we strengthen our righteous thoughts. Only by having the Fa in our mind and the strong will to save sentient beings, will we be able to take lightly our human notions.”
News Anchor Eliminates Ego
Fuyao is a news anchor.
News anchor Fuyao has worked in the media for 6 years. From an intern who always chatted with her friends over her cell phone to a team leader with numerous responsibilities, she has come a long way.
This has been a process of continuous improvement. Once after a news episode, many viewers left many positive comments online and she was thrilled. Noticing this and worried that she might be too attached to this, practitioners in charge of websites removed some of the posts. Still attached to those positive comments, Fuyao was still thinking about them when doing the second set of exercises.
Right at that moment, Fuyao heard Master saying the exercise music, “man man fang xia (slowly put down).” Although she knew Master was talking about putting down hands for the exercise, “I also knew Master was giving me a hint of not holding onto those comments and getting trapped in zealotry,” she recalled, “I was moved to tears.”
Through studying the Fa more, Fuyao realized such zealotry was not only related to one’s ego of fame, it also involves jealousy and resentment. Since then, she has always remembered to remind herself to be clear-minded and also remain calm as a practitioner.
Customer Service Person Relinquishes Selfishness
Ms. You Tiandai works in customer service.
Ms. You Tiandai began to practice Falun Dafa in 1996 when she was still a child. She currently works in customer service. Because of limited manpower, her workload kept increasing and she had to stay up late almost every night. In the beginning, she was able to maintain righteous thoughts. She found it more challenging as the team she manages expanded from several people to dozens of staff members.
As a practitioner, Ms. You looked within to see how she could improve during those conflicts. More specifically, she noticed her jealousy, showing off, struggling, resentment, and other habits were related to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) culture.
To fundamentally solve these problems, Ms. You began to memorize the Fa teachings in her spare time. When riding the subway, walking, or waiting for something, she often used the time to recite teachings in Zhuan Falun. Gradually she was able to memorize the entire book.
This process is very rewarding. “As a practitioner, when we are able to let go of selfishness and always be considerate of others, we would find life is happier and more peaceful,” she explained.
Senior Manager Removes Party Culture
Wang Xueke resigned from his previous job and joined the media 20 years ago.
Mr. Wang Xueke is a senior manager at Epoch Times. Over the years, he had seen how the English Epoch Times had grown from a startup with only a few subscribers to the fourth largest U.S. news media based on subscription. Meanwhile, he has also found his attachments, specifically jealousy and Party culture.
For a while, he had abdominal bloating, so he looked inward and found some issues. For example, he had hoped some practitioners in the high tech industry could come work for the media. When they declined, he often got upset and developed resentment towards them.
When looking deeper into why this happened, Mr. Wang realized that this was related to his jealousy as well as the Party culture. Although he had given up his day job two decades ago to work on the media project full-time, he still had an attachment to a comfortable life and a stable income. In addition, he also had hidden jealousy towards other practitioners.
He also realized that he harbored the Party culture of imposing his own opinions and understandings on others. He said that every practitioner has his or her understanding of the Fa. It is understandable that some practitioners are unable to work for Epoch Times full-time due to financial reasons or other considerations.
“Just because I left my previous job and a decent income for this project 20 years ago, it does not necessarily mean that I have eliminated the attachment to money or that everyone else has to do the same,” Wang said, “Only through calm and kind communication can we practitioners collaborate with others well, without interference from the old forces.”
Mr. Wang is now paying more and more attention to every thought and move of his, so as to catch any Party culture influence and eliminate it.
Importance of Doing Exercises
Bill always works 7 days a week, even during holidays or when he’s going through physical tribulations. During his sharing, he talked about how he let go of the attachment to fame and overcame physical tribulations.
One day in 2017, he had the symptom of kidney stones. The pain was so severe that he rolled around in bed. This lasted 7 days and he was exhausted. He even thought about ending his life, but he could not do it because of his unfulfilled mission.
Then he felt Master delivered a message to his mind, “I’ve given all capabilities to practitioners.” Bill said, “I suddenly understood that since we have all the capabilities, why bother seeking outwardly for a solution?” While rolling around in pain, he kept reciting the verses used in sending forth righteous thoughts. The pain disappeared half an hour later.
Because of a busy work schedule, Bill has little time for sleep. In the beginning, he was afraid this might cause dizziness during the day. Later on he realized that the purpose of sleep was to have some rest and that Master had said doing the exercises is the best form of rest.
The night he came to the above understanding, Bill did the third and fourth sets of exercises, with one hour each, after sending forth righteous thoughts at midnight. He ended up sleeping only two hours that night, but he didn’t feel sleepy at all the next day.
Now Bill does mediation for one hour before the midnight sending forth righteous thoughts, after which he does the second set of exercises for more than two hours every day. He sleeps for at most two and half hours every night. Before his morning Fa-study, he does half an hour of exercise too.
Witnessing Miracles with a Pure Heart
Li Mengfei works in marketing.
Ms. Li Mengfei works in marketing for an English-language media. She shared how she removed human notions during her interaction with customers.
Ms. Li’s job involves interacting with many high tech firms. Suppression of freedom of speech by these companies sometimes affected subscription. Recently, her email IP was even blocked. After this happened, Ms. Li looked within and realized that she had an attachment to comfort and an aversion to being bothered. Later on, she realized the way she looked inward still had a hidden pursuit. In other words, she just wanted to get things over with, instead of really improving herself.
When looking deeper, Ms. Li realized that she had placed those companies as opponents. As a result, she had the mentality of being combative when dealing with those companies. She also hoped for a shortcut and didn’t want to be bothered by having to work harder to get those companies on board.
Another week passed and it seemed that Ms. Li had done everything she could do. Since there was still no breakthrough, she intensified studying the Fa, doing the exercises, and aligning herself with the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. With that, she found her mind purer with stronger righteous thoughts.
At the same time, Li realized this was an opportunity for truth-clarification. On the following day, she wrote an email to the company that blocked her IP and explained the improvement the media has implemented. Also she included some basic facts of the media and positive feedback from readers. She said many people were waiting for news and uncensored information.
By the time her email was sent out, Ms. Li knew things would work out because of the power from the Fa. On the next day, the IP blocking was lifted. When looking back, she realized every step required solid cultivation.
The conference ended at 7 p.m. and many practitioners were moved to tears while listening to others’ sharing. The dedication of some young practitioners or new practitioners have motivated veteran practitioners to do well too. They expressed the wish to learn from each other and do better as a whole body.
“It is great that Master gave us another lecture in the media conference after three years,” one attendee remarked, referring to a previous lecture in 2018. “We will do our best and not let down Master’s expectations,” he added.
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