My Cultivation Experience at The Epoch Times

[PureInsight.org]

Greetings Master,

Greetings fellow practitioners.

I have been working with The Epoch Times for three years now. In retrospect, I find that Master has carefully arranged every step and every experience; with every fallback, every hardship, and with every time I’ve cried, I realize that Master is expecting me to mature more quickly. Without Master’s guidance, I do not know where I might have descended to in society’s huge dye vat. Master has pulled me out of Hell; I have been washed clean; I have been re-educated in Dafa; I am now mature enough and I have strong righteous thoughts. Master has also given me opportunities to accumulate my own mighty virtue. I am now able to, along the path of Fa rectification, help Master save more sentient beings.

1. Work at The Epoch Times

When I started to work at The Epoch Times, I had many difficulties. My background did not match the work requirements at all. I’d begun to cultivate Falun Dafa when I was young. My father taught me everything. I did not have too much experience dealing with people outside my own family, so I was not quite sure how to get along with other people. I even had trouble completing a whole sentence, so how could I work at The Epoch Times? At first, I felt it was very hard. Nonetheless, I developed very strong righteous thoughts; I was determined to bring more capital to The Epoch Times. Master saw my heart and arranged an excellent fellow practitioner to mentor me. The fellow practitioner helped me learn about the world, taught me how to deal with business owners and also told me about current trends. The fellow practitioner told me what kind of mindset businesspeople and politicians might have. I was asked to pay great attention to the details, etc. I made speedy progress in learning about my particular work. Thus, a solid foundation was laid down for me.

2. “Silly Sister” - A Manifestation of a Weak Main Consciousness

When I was a student, everyone around me used to call me “silly sister”, because I didn’t care about anything that happened to me. When I first started to cultivate, I even felt happy with my carelessness. I thought that my cultivation was good, because I treated things so casually and was not easily attached to things. Fellow practitioners also praised me on that. As a result, I felt even more content with myself. When I started working at The Epoch Times, I finally realized that my careless attitude was creating chaos for me. I then came to understand that as a genuine cultivator, I had to keep a low profile and remain vigilant; I should not treat everything with such a casual approach. Everything, every thought, every word and every phone call should be clear with no ambiguity. I must develop strong righteous thoughts to do everything well. Even if I might end up being taken advantage of, I still need to know what is going on. I should never become muddle-headed.

In Zhuan Falun Master says, “Now, you know that in our discipline we don’t avoid the ordinary world when we cultivate, and we don’t shy away from or try to escape from conflicts. Right in the thick of this complicated ordinary people’s environment you’re clearheaded, you get shortchanged while you know full well what’s happening, and when other folks compromise your best interests you don’t fight tooth and nail like they do, and you’re taken advantage of while all kinds of things try to drag your character down. In a grueling environment like this you temper your will, you improve your character, and here, with all kinds of bad thoughts from ordinary people preying on you, you manage to come out of it detached.”

This made me think of those pop singers in the ordinary world. Those singers would first try to get into some state of mind and then close their eyes to sing their songs. We all know we cannot sing those Shen Yun songs with our eyes closed. We have to develop strong righteous thoughts to sing well, and our minds must be clear and determined. Only then can we sing the songs with power and move people to tears.

My days at The Epoch Times were very busy. I had to do many things. I needed to collect customers’ phone numbers, prepare relevant documents, talk to customers, sign off contracts, execute contract duties and coordinate multiple parties when addressing problems. If I was not clearheaded, it was easy to make mistakes and possibly mess up the whole team’s efforts.

After I realized what I needed to do, I immediately began to act on it. In the morning, I would get up right away. I made my bed after I got up, and I placed everything in order. I would pay attention to everything around me. My main consciousness was alert all the time. I seldom fell back to my previous sloppiness. When I visited customers, I always kept strong righteous thoughts. Every word of mine was right to the point. I wanted to touch and move the other side of a person that could understand what I was telling him/her.

3. Letting Go of the Attachment to Self

At the very beginning of my work at The Epoch Times, I was very bent on making some big deals in order to impress others. I wanted to show how excellent I was. However, as time went by and my cultivation level elevated, I became more familiar with my work and realized that it was just a waste of time trying to show others how great I was. When I made a deal, yes, I would feel happy for a moment, but shortly afterwards, I would have to start from scratch again. I had to get back to my humble state and continue to work hard for the next deal.

Those managers to whom I reported were also very hard working themselves. They were usually the first to get to the office and the last to leave the office. Besides their own work, they also had to manage much administrative work. They never complained and instead simply led their teams actively to make even more business progress every day. Whenever my showoff mentality was popping up, I just took a look at those managers around me to see how serious and busy they were, and I became calm right away. In retrospect, it feels ridiculous for one to become self-intoxicated in one’s so-called achievements.

4. Improving Cultivation is Fundamental; Do Not Slack off in Saving People

At The Epoch Times, we were urged to keep a good cultivation state. We filled in our time spent studying the Fa and sending forth righteous thoughts on timesheets every day. Every Monday, we had a group Fa study and discussion session. There, everyone became very open-minded. People could talk about anything. Any personal cultivation attachment revealed at the session was forgotten by others quickly. No one would be looked down upon when he or she exposed certain “dirty” attachments. Everyone was trying to help others to improve more quickly. At such group Fa study and discussion sessions, we would encourage each other, help each other and improve together. We did not hesitate to point out other’s obvious cultivation issues. I had also dug deep and exposed many of my hidden attachments, such as sentimentality, lust, seeking fame, hatred and jealousy.

The elements that blocked any business deal were always closely tied to my own locked heart. Every time I made progress in my cultivation, I observed that one lock of my heart had broken open. A fellow practitioner once said, “I can let go of anything to save more people.” What excuses did I make for not hurrying my efforts to save more people? How could I waste my time by searching for excuses for those failed deals?

5. Letting Go of Hatred Towards a Friend

I had a very good friend from college who later became a saleswoman for insurance products. I paid great attention to our friendship, so whenever she asked me to buy products from her, I did not hesitate to and immediately agreed to do so in order to support her, even if I did not necessarily need the product.

Once I started to work at The Epoch Times, my income became unstable. As a result, I had to terminate my insurance two years ago. Some time ago, an insurance renewal bill was sent to my house. My father saw the bill and thought that I might have forgotten to pay it, so he paid it himself. I had not known about this bill until recently, when my father mentioned it casually. I then learned more about what had happened to this friend of mine. She’d been having trouble meeting the business quota, so she’d decided to sell three more insurances to me without my agreement. I then called my friend, but she did not pick up the phone. I was filled with anger. I felt my friend had cheated me and taken advantage of my trust in her.

I realized that this incident was not accidental; however, it was just so hard to calm my heart. Complaints filled my mind. How could such a beautiful lady behave in such a disgusting manner? Because I shared some similarities in personality and appearance with this friend, many people around me often compared me to her. I became very frustrated and my heart was filled with dark matter. I knew that I had to get rid of such hatred quickly, so I began to spend time reading related articles on the Minghui website. I would feel a little bit better after finishing each article. However, the root was still hidden. Master then arranged for my aunt to expose my attachment. My aunt came over and threw more oil onto the fire—she kept blaming my friend, which made me angrier. Out of anger, I made a call to my friend’s manager and shouted at him. I was still not satisfied even after the call, so I called my friend. She picked up the phone this time. She was obviously trying to avoid me, but she knew she could not, so she finally promised to return my father’s payments.

After the call, I felt so happy. I had recorded my phone call, because I had been trying to gather evidence of the fraud. However, my aunt was still not satisfied. She kept saying how stupid I was to have listened to my friend in the first place, and what I should have done at that time, etc. In the end, I started to cry. My aunt was surprised at my crying and left right away. I cried, because I realized my cultivation mistake. I cried, because I felt I did not live up to Master’s expectations. I felt sorry to those sentient beings that I was supposed to save, including this friend of mine. I had just missed a chance to show the bright positive image of a Dafa practitioner to the ordinary people around me.

I felt so terrible that I even started to think that I was no longer able to cultivate and that there was simply nothing I could do to correct it. But later, I started to laugh about it. I thought, “Well look. This is a great exposure of my demon nature!” I felt happy right away. The demonic behavior that I exhibited before was not out of my own character. It was exposed right in front of me with the help of this insurance bill incident. I should use this incident and begin to get rid of this fake “self”. I then started to send forth righteous thoughts to negate the demon nature hidden inside me. With just a single thought, I got out of my depression and felt relieved. I fell asleep afterwards with a content heart. From then on, I completely got rid of my anger. I kept a calm heart when dealing with this friend of mine again. I even introduced The Epoch Times newspaper to her and explained what I could do to help her business through The Epoch Times’ business advertisement section.

6. I Must Have Firm Determination

I did not get paid too much at The Epoch Times. This had always been a test for me throughout the years. As a result, if I did not have an excellent cultivation state, my family and fellow practitioners would feel pressured for me as well. If I did not do well, my family and friends would start developing negative thoughts towards Dafa. The more hesitant I was to overcome this blockage, the more challenging the difficulty would appear. I was under constant tests all the time.

No matter how much I told people that I loved my job at The Epoch Times, how great The Epoch Times newspaper was, and what a wonderful future the newspaper held for itself in this world, I would immediately become very uneasy as soon as people started to ask about my salary. People would then sigh. I knew that such a sigh indicated that I had not done a good job. I had just lost a chance to save the people in front of me. I felt so terrible for that. Later, I came up with an excuse. I said to myself, “Look, I am still young. I can still do other things later on. If it really turns out that I would have trouble feeding myself, it will not be too late for me to seek out new employment.” I now find such an excuse very ludicrous. No matter how much I boasted about The Epoch Times and about the newspaper’s future, etc., I was actually lacking confidence in The Epoch Times as well as my work there. I was lacking confidence in Master. I was also short on righteous thoughts. What was I planning to do? Wasn’t I planning to leave a backdoor for myself? Wasn’t I fooling myself into thinking that I could still find a job if I failed at The Epoch Times?

There is simply no return path for Dafa practitioners. There is nothing else that we should keep doing other than saving sentient beings. We should march forward and get rid of all evil with our strong righteous thoughts. With Master’s protection, what kind of worries do we still need to concern ourselves with?

Once I decided to let go of all my concerns and focus on saving even more sentient beings, my living conditions began to improve. I was no longer under constant pressure. Master had arranged everything properly for me.

7. Purify Oneself, Execute Supernatural Powers to Save People

Whenever my mind is very clear and void of any confusion, I can feel that each cell in my body is able to detect minute changes while I am talking to other people, even though I still cannot see anything in other dimensions with my third eye.

From other people’s eye movements and body gestures, I can sense what they are thinking about or what kind of worries are troubling them; I can detect whether or not the person is really listening to me and what the person thinks about us; I can also grasp the person’s general character and I will know whether the person is humble or arrogant; I can also get a feel for their life style. With such knowledge about people, I can easily adjust my approach to various customers that I deal with. I try to guide or control the customer’s mindset so the person will feel very happy doing business with me.

The whole process is like a running machine operating properly at every stage. The key to maintaining a proper running state is to keep a solid personal cultivation state. Whenever my cultivation state is not good, those spirits in other dimensions will come to control my mindset and behavior and thus create havoc for me. For example, once I was in a bad cultivation state. That day, I was introducing The Epoch Times newspaper to a customer, when all of a sudden I started to utter nonsensical words, even though I was already familiar with the introduction. We should never slack off in our personal cultivation. We have to study the Fa, do the exercises and send forth righteous thoughts every day!

8. Conclusion

In the beginning, I had trouble balancing my work. For example, whenever I dealt with a customer, I always tried to do my best, but at the same time, I also tried hard not to use such a chance to validate myself. For example, I like to dress up properly with certain brand name attire in order to maintain a good image for The Epoch Times, yet I do not want to become too attached to my appearance; I try very hard to secure deals with customers, yet I also try hard to let go of my pursuits of fame and gain; when I have better days, I try very hard not to forget my role of saving people, so that I don’t get bogged down; I need to focus completely on my work at The Epoch Times, yet I should not treat my family and friends as blockages to my success at work; as a media professional, I need to read lots of news from various sources, yet I try very hard not to be influenced by such information from this world, and so on. Going through all these difficulties in my cultivation, I do not think I could have made it had I not been guided by Master and Dafa. I know that I have stumbled so many times along the path of my personal cultivation, and I have made Master worry about me from time to time, yet our merciful Master still treasures every disciple. I hope I will work even harder from now on and walk firmly on the path of cultivation!

(This is an experience sharing article presented at the 2015 Taiwan Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference.)

Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/149675