(Minghui.org) I started cultivating in Falun Dafa in 1998. I became a full-time reporter for the Chinese Epoch Times newspaper in Germany in 2008. After moving to New York in 2019, I joined English NTD. The following is my cultivation experience over the past three years.
It was beyond my wildest dreams to make English news because I had spent over 20 years in Germany and didn’t have a strong command of English. However, I was assigned to the English team at NTD on my first day at work.
The first time I attended a meeting with the English team, I couldn’t keep up with them because they spoke quickly and I missed a lot of information. Others also had trouble understanding my English because of my mixture of Chinese and German accents. I also had trouble reading and writing, but I wasn’t deterred.
My first job was to serve as the contact person for two correspondents, one in the U.K. and one in France. Both of them were new and had many questions. I was touched by their strong wish to expose the persecution of Falun Dafa in China. They resigned from their day jobs to become full-time reporters. I held a virtual meeting with them every day to discuss reporting topics and to solve problems. Because of the time difference, our meetings were usually held at 5 a.m. or midnight.
English NTD hadn’t been around for very long at the time, and the workflow was still being perfected. Sometimes, the European correspondents had to wait a long time before their reports could be reviewed, leaving them frustrated. If their written reports or videos needed to be revised, it would not be early enough to include them in the evening news. The evening news producer was under pressure and sometimes raised her voice. I kept nodding calmly to her until she calmed down, and tried to figure out a solution afterwards. After stumbling for a few months, we worked out a good process. Then, my job entered another phase.
As the pandemic broke out in early 2020, our department launched a program on this topic. The producer left after some time and I was asked to take the position. The number of subscribers skyrocketed. We eventually got rid of our attachment to the number of subscribers and started doing our daily work smoothly and steadily.
Eliminating Jealousy
I never thought that I could be jealous of reporters. I was twice as old as they were and much more experienced. I should only help them. How could I be jealous?
When talking with a colleague about my career path, I said, “When I started working on news reporting, I had to learn everything by myself. The new reporters now have things ready for them, because I can teach them how to do things.” The colleague replied, “It was probably arranged this way because you are capable of starting without much help.” His praise was pleasing to my ears, but I felt there was something slightly weird about what I had said.
Reflecting upon the conversation, I realized that my words displayed my complacency and zealotry. I found more attachments when I dug further. Whenever I taught new reporters about writing, I often thought, “I can teach you all these things within a few minutes, but no one taught me. It took me many days to figure these things out by myself. It’s too easy for you!”
Why did I feel that it was unfair? It was because of my jealousy. I was jealous of how easy it was for them to get started and their fast progress. It finally dawned on me why a reporter complained that I was too strict with them sometimes. I responded, “It’s good for you. You will make faster progress.” Now I realized that my jealousy had made me nitpick, because I thought they should have done better since they had an easier starting point than me. I lacked compassion and tolerance. I also understood that everyone has a different path of forging mighty virtue, and that I shouldn’t compare apples to oranges; my heart lightened after I realized that. I’m no longer disturbed when I notice reporters’ shortcomings with their work. I can communicate with them nicely about it.
Learning to Be Tolerant
It takes many steps to make a TV program, and every step needs to be done on time. Given limited staffing, we have to collaborate well and be tolerant. The following is a recent incident that taught me an important lesson.
A colleague needed to improve the quality of her work. Another colleague and I decided to find additional materials for her. One time, another experienced colleague and I had to do some research for the less experienced colleague before we could get started with our own tasks. My experienced colleague told me, “She has plenty of time for her research, but she hasn’t put her heart into it.” I agreed.
When I studied the Fa later that day, I read the following paragraph,
“You should be noble and high-minded, and cooperate well with others. It’s not about whose idea is the best. When someone’s idea isn’t great, or all that well thought out, you should quietly and discreetly find a way to help make it work, and help get all the bases covered! That will be what earns you the admiration of divine beings, and you will have done it without saying anything! Who came up with the idea is not what’s important, but rather, who has fully developed himself through the process; whoever works on himself has grown from it.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XV)
Wasn’t this paragraph talking about me? Did I help my female colleague quietly? I did cooperate, but I complained about it. As a result, I didn’t improve myself, though I did the work. How could I make the judgment that the colleague hadn’t put her heart into it? My work had shortcomings, too. Others might also think I hadn’t put my heart into it. She actually did most of the work, and we simply helped to improve it. My complaint was thus completely gone.
Our Growing News Program
Since we started our program during the pandemic, the total number of views on YouTube has reached 200 million. The episodes about the pandemic and the flood in 2020 attracted many viewers.
As the two topics wrapped up, we refocused on the global resistance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its coalition. Many people would like to know what’s going on in China. With a vast sea of information every day, we tried to sort out what’s the most important. I realized that I had so much to learn at the beginning, not only about China, but also about the world because the CCP had infiltrated so many countries.
I have to write reports, be responsible for others’ reports, and research a lot every day. Sometimes I felt that I wasn’t smart enough to do the work. Every time I wanted to research less, I asked myself if I would overlook the best topic, so I persisted.
Our program has attracted many people in the fields of politics, business and academia. Their opinions influence decisions in different fields, regions and countries. Many China experts have been watching our program. We didn’t know it until we reached out to them for interviews.
A media professional at another country once told us that he had been promoting our program with every opportunity he got. Every news brief he put together included a link to our weekly content, which reached government officials in his country.
At the beginning, our show host used to get few responses when she reached out to experts for interviews. Now, some experts take the initiative to contact her and have even shared some information exclusively with us.
Our program is translated into ten different languages at NTD.
A Chinese American once told us that he happened to be in Wuhan in January 2020 and that the local media there covered up the COVID outbreak. He broke through the CCP’s firewall to watch our program, and decided to change his flight to leave Wuhan early. All flights were canceled after he left. He wouldn’t have been able to leave if it weren't for our information. Many people in China have also learned what’s truly going on through our programs and provided valuable information to us.
Working Five Days or Six Days
A discussion was raised at headquarters whether to work five or six days a week. It was too tiring to work six days for some colleagues, but it’s better than what I used to do.
When I started working as the editor-in-chief for the Chinese Epoch Times in Germany over ten years ago, my husband worked elsewhere. I had to take care of our two kids, a one-year-old and a three-year-old, and work full-time for the newspaper. My salary was nominal, so I had to do some other jobs in order to supplement my income. I worked seven days a week, day and night. Doing housework was like a break for me. Though my salary eventually increased to the point that I didn’t need another job, it was exhausting every day. I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, but my wish to offer salvation to sentient beings allowed me to persevere.
I did have complaints. I felt like a candle being burned from both ends. However, after making it through the hardest time, I no longer feel tired now.
I start work at 7:30 a.m. and don’t leave until after 8 p.m. With our one-hour Fa study session scheduled in the early morning, I actually leave home between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. Some people say that I work too hard, but I feel it’s better than before, because I used to work at night and on Sundays, too.
Candles burn out, but I’m a piece of iron being tempered to steel. My purpose is to assist Master in Fa-rectification. No pain, no gain. I don’t complain because I’m a Falun Dafa disciple, and I have gained so much more than what I’ve put in. We aim to reach consummation as well as save sentient beings.
The discussion gave us an opportunity to ponder why we work hard, why we run our media, and the fundamental question of why we cultivate ourselves.
Age Doesn’t Matter
I never thought about how old I was or how much I had aged, but a fellow practitioner’s words three years ago made me pay attention to my age. She was hesitating about joining the media when she said, “I’m already fifty,” meaning she was too old to change her career path.
It dawned on me that I was almost fifty and no longer young. Ever since then, I often thought that my health wasn’t as good as thirty years ago when I never experienced any discomfort.
However, an incident a few months ago changed my notion. One day, I threw out my back when I tried to move some water. It hurt so much that I couldn’t move for ten minutes. After it got better, I slowly dragged myself home.
A sharp pain woke me up that night, and it took me several minutes to roll over the next morning. I looked within for my attachments while lying in bed. I hadn’t done the Falun Dafa exercises often and couldn’t tolerate others. Eventually, I had to decide whether to go to work. I could work remotely. It would be reasonable to rest for a day, given my age. However, I felt that I’d be acknowledging the old forces’ interference. I eventually made up my mind to go to work regardless. It’s just physical pain! What could it do to me?
It took me a lot of effort to get up and out the door. I walked slowly to the bus station. My body was stiff at first, but gradually loosened up. The pain had gone down a lot by the time I arrived at my office. After working for a while, I felt hot and comfortable. No one even noticed that I had any pain that day. I walked slightly slower than normal that evening, but everything was back to normal the next day.
I had never recovered so quickly when I pulled my muscles before. The experience taught me that any discomfort is a false appearance, which needed to conform to the worldly principles, such as lifting something heavy or aging problems. If you believe it, you will be stuck in these principles. However, if you completely disregard your age and treat it as a test in your cultivation, it’s indeed just a part of your cultivation.
When our thoughts meet the criteria of high-level principles, Master will be able to help a genuine Falun Dafa disciple. However, if you are stuck in the notion of aging, your body will show signs of aging.
By the same token, my right shoulder hurt one time, just like the frozen shoulder usually experienced by people around fifty years old. I initially thought it was a frozen shoulder too, but after experiencing the pulled muscles last time, I treated it as a test, which blocked me from doing the exercises. I lifted my arm as high as I could while doing the exercises, despite the excruciating pain. It’s completely fine now.
I feel like I’ve been reborn through my work at NTD. I appreciate all my colleagues who have given me a great cultivation environment. Most of all, I thank great, compassionate Master for giving me opportunities to uplift myself and help Master in Fa-rectification!
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Category: Improving Oneself
