(Minghui.org)
Greetings, Master!
Greetings, fellow practitioners!
As soon as I began to practice, I was handing out papers for the Chinese Epoch Times. I only distributed the papers in my spare time or on weekends. Every Friday before sunrise when I went to the printing plant to pick up papers and delivered them to our office, I felt very excited. When I was handing out truth-clarification materials in Chinatown, clarifying the facts to people, I felt very honoured. Since then, I have spent most of my time working as a reporter for the Chinese Epoch Times. I have really cherished this path.
Becoming a Reporter by Chance
I am a person who lacked motivation in every aspect of my life. I began to practice at the end of 2001. For the first half of the year, I only read the Zhuan Falun at home and went to the exercise site to participate in the group exercises. Later some practitioners who became familiar with me suggested I join the large group Fa-study, as well as read Teacher’s new articles in addition to studying Zhuan Falun. From then on, I gradually began to embark on the path of the Fa-rectification cultivation.
Everything around me seemed to happen so naturally. This was a result of Teacher’s arrangements that I enlightened to because of the good cultivation environment in Toronto. Practitioners’ kind encouragement to write this sharing helped me to reflect on my cultivation path.
There was a lay-off at my workplace in 2005 and I was affected. In the first week after I lost my job, coincidentally, I was asked to deliver a camera to a practitioner who was on site. From then on, I become a volunteer reporter for The Epoch Times.
At that time, I lacked experience in being a reporter. I didn’t know how to type well either. I could only type about 300 words in an hour. I don’t know how I kept doing it at that time. I spent a lot of time on Fa-study. I had a feeling that my ancient vow had to do with The Epoch Times. On the surface, it looked like I had no backup plan, secondly, I had the time, and more importantly, I felt that some kind of force was assisting me.
I remember at the beginning when I went to participate in the news conferences in some Chinese communities, those leaders were very surprised to see an ET reporter, they kept praising us by saying how well we were doing. For sentient beings, I will try my best. At that time, in addition to being a reporter, I also took on the role of being an editor. Practitioners who worked as news reporters would sometimes write articles to share technical skills, which automatically became my teaching materials. I learned to do news reporting mostly from my hands-on experience.
At a matter of fact, what has helped me most is the elevation in my cultivation. My experience is that when I was calm, I could do well. When I was very focused, I could write articles very well. Sometimes after I finished writing an article, I would think, “It would have been better if I were to write something like this, or expressed it that way.” However, when I read the article again, I felt that what I originally put down was still better. Later I came to understand that this was brought about by my cultivation state, which transcends the ordinary human state. I feel so lucky to be a practitioner.
Meanwhile, when going to report news on various levels of government, I was often forced to use English. I only needed to read in English before; I didn’t have much opportunity to speak English. It has become a precious opportunity for me to use English in doing reporting. Gradually, my level of confidence has built up.
One Touches People Most When Using One’s Heart to Do Things
Being a reporter, one needs to act fast. Even though I didn’t have a teacher, all I did was use my heart to do it from a cultivation perspective. I taped everyone’s speech at the press conference and recorded interviews. When I returned home, I listened to all of the recordings. It was very time-consuming and involved lots of hardship. I believed I must have been eliminating a lot of karma in the process. However, the outcome of putting my heart into doing my work was that whoever read it became very happy and all praised the fact that my articles reflected the truth.
Of course, if one takes too much time in writing an article, it doesn’t work either. Someone said that the best way to handle news reporting for a reporter is to write down key points. Then after one gets home, one writes out an article by following those points, one only listens to the recording when necessary. Later on, I got into the habit of preparing a draft at the press conference. Then on my way home, I began to plan for the structure of the article. After getting home, I only needed to listen to the part that I really needed to, so that I managed to finish an article within a shorter period of time. However, I insisted on focusing on conducting interviews, without taking any notes. After getting home, I listened to the part of the recordings that I needed. This approach may not be the best for a reporter; I chose to do it this way, because it came down to my cultivation state. However, by doing so, I gained trust from those I interviewed; many of them commented and said that I reported with a high degree of accuracy. At the same time, they said to me that so and so from another newspaper was so careless and what they wrote down didn’t reflect what the people who were interviewed said.
I suddenly felt that their confidence in our newspaper is what we wanted. This approach works more effectively when interviewing an expert. I remember after I finished interviewing an expert, he asked me to send the article to him before being published, to prevent mistakes. I told him that I have asked all the questions that I had and I would follow the recordings to write articles.
Later on, I interviewed more and more experts. Putting my heart into what I do helped me to better understand their fields and also gained trust from some of them. They were able to talk to me more openly and they trusted me in that if I had a question, I’d ask and seek clarification from them. If I found anything inappropriate, I wouldn’t use that in the article.
Cultivation made me become more focused at work. Especially during interviews, I could clearly sense their feelings; as a result, I managed to discover more touching stories from my interviewees. I have interviewed practitioners from the mainland, practitioners who obtained the Fa in Canada and non-Chinese practitioners. The stories on how they began to practice, how to elevate themselves during practice, and how to make it through amidst the persecution in mainland China touched me deeply. When writing those articles, I was often moved to tears.
Pressure Is a Good Opportunity for Improvements in Cultivation
When The Epoch Times was hiring full-time journalists, I had been working at an ordinary society job for over 2 years. I had just been promoted, and the job security was good. At the time, the president of The Epoch Times approached me for the full-time journalist position, and she had successfully persuaded my wife as well.
Coincidentally, my wife had a secure job at the time, and we had just cleared up our mortgage, which helped me with deciding to work full-time at the The Epoch Times.
It really takes courage in deciding to work for Epoch Times. On the other hand, it is a great opportunity. When working for media companies in ordinary society, as a journalist, you are only allowed to make basic reports, such as translating and revising the news script you are assigned. But working for The Epoch Times, I had the opportunity to play many different roles. When I still felt that I wasn’t experienced enough, I was already asked to participate in the round table meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister. During the meeting, I was responsible for asking the Prime Minister questions on behalf of The Epoch Times. My English was not fluent at the time. I was so nervous that I repeated “Falun Dafa is good” in my mind to calm down. This was apparently a good opportunity for cultivation.
When I was responsible for reporting political press events, I was also responsible for the photography, even when I had limited resources and skills for photography at the time. I had to shoot a lot of photos, in order to ensure getting good shots. The other professional photographers shot a lot to get the “right” shots. I shot a lot, too. But due to the far distance and low light, many of my photographs were not clear enough. If I don’t shoot a lot, we might not even have a picture for the report.
But, every time when there was an important press event, at least one of the good pictures was good enough to be used for the report. As I learned more about photography later on, I realized that, with the camera I had at the time, in those situations, it would have been impossible for me to get any usable shots at all.
I want to thank Master for His arrangements, encouragement, protection and care. I was able to hone my photography skills because of these opportunities. Because I had to focus on taking photographs, I was unable to really focus on listening to the speeches. So I had to listen to the voice recordings later on, which was helpful for improving my English. More importantly, I had improved in cultivation during the process, and my confidence for cultivation was also boosted.
The Epoch Times has grown to require even higher standards for its published articles, and many interviews were conducted over the phone. Because my English has improved, I had more confidence for conducting interviews over the phone. You could say that my professional capabilities have strengthened as much as The Epoch Times has grown.
Aside from reporting different subjects that can be foreign to your knowledge, one of the biggest challenges as a journalist is meeting deadlines. There had been countless times, where I had to finish the report within a short time frame before the deadline. There were times when the deadline was approaching just as I needed to take my child to music class. It was hard to describe the feeling I had at those times. I don’t want to say it felt hard because those were good opportunities for cultivation. Many of those times, I just tried to calm down and tried to forget about the interference, and I was able to complete my report, just in time.
When I recall these experiences, I realized I didn’t really do anything purposefully. I simply walked the path of cultivation arranged by Master – I became a journalist at The Epoch Times, and at the same time, I was on the path of my cultivation.
Learning to Look Inside and Think of Others
I work from home, and take care of my son who is in elementary school. When I used to work for the company in ordinary society, I had an elderly family member to take care of my child, so I didn’t need to worry about it as much. I realized afterwards that taking care of my child is also a good opportunity for cultivation.
As a journalist, I often worked alone, so I had limited opportunities to interact with other people. This might be the reason why my son disliked learning at school, and he fell behind with his school work. His teacher asked that we help him with his school work.
I was very busy with my journalist job. I had only reminded my son to do his homework at home, instead of helping him with it. But my son had no idea how to do his homework at all, so he couldn’t finish, and he was afraid of going to school. Therefore, I had to spend time to help him with his school work. I found I had to teach him everything he was taught at school, it was like he didn’t pay attention at school at all. This was very time consuming. I had to help him like this for quite a while until I realized it might have to do with my own cultivation.
During that time, I was asked to interview education specialists, from which I found many good ways of educating children. I tried these methods on my son. It was simple. I had to be patient, and try to really understand my child in order to help him. I suddenly realized that the problem came from the thought that my child was taking up my precious time for doing important things. My son was uncooperative because I was impatient with him. I am a cultivator, I should look inside when problems occur, and thinking of others is what I must do.
After that, when my son seemed frustrated and impatient, I apologized to him, saying that it was my fault. Then he became much more relaxed. I told him I would love to help him, so he trusted me, and he started studying more on his own. It was getting much easier for me as well, which I think is a result of my progress in cultivation. At the same time, I saw the positive results mentioned by those education specialists – My son started telling me about his friends and teachers at school, and even his secrets, which he told me not to share with others.
I suddenly realized what cultivation is about – that is to be unselfish, and to truly think of others.
The same principles apply at work. I used to get angry when I found out my article hadn't been published for a long time after I turned it in. I realized I should have understood the editor’s situation since I had been an editor myself in the past. Meanwhile, I heard the same complaint from another journalist. So I patiently shared my understanding of the Fa with this journalist, as well as the situation from an editor’s standpoint. Maybe she was convinced. But one I thing I could be sure of is that I had convinced myself. After that, there was an incident when my interview article was not published due to lack of communication beforehand. I had no complaints. Cultivation is miraculous like that.
Seeing the Media's Impact in Saving Sentient Beings
It’s been very busy working for the The Epoch Times. I often have to work seven days a week because we don’t have enough journalists. Since I became a full-time journalist, I had to leave the other projects I worked on in the past. I was worried in the beginning that, as a journalist, I couldn’t clarify the truth directly like the other practitioners.
Master’s Fa Teaching Given at The Epoch Times Meeting encouraged me. Master said: “Just imagine if all those who are involved didn’t need to go and work at ordinary companies to make ends meet, since your own paper would be providing for them, and they could put all their energy here. If this paper can manage to become a normal workplace in ordinary society, with people getting normal salaries, then wouldn’t you be both doing what Dafa disciples are supposed to do as well as assuring financial security in your life? Wouldn’t that be great?”
Hearing about how The Epoch Times has really changed many ordinary people’s views from fellow practitioners’ experience sharing made me feel that The Epoch Times has really worked very effectively in saving sentient beings. I recently interviewed the cultivation story of a Western practitioner whose life was in a desperate situation, and had completely turned his life around since cultivating Dafa. The Epoch Times was how he found out about Falun Gong.
Master said in “Fa Teaching Given at The Epoch Times Meeting”:
“If you can run the paper well, you will have a more powerful effect saving sentient beings and validating the Fa.”
I found that many Chinese people know about the relationship between The Epoch Times and Falun Gong. As a journalist, I think that the better I do my job, the more people will agree with The Epoch Times, and the better mentality they will have towards Dafa. I put in even more work for the interviews and writing articles because this is my path for validating the Fa and saving sentient beings.
A leader from a Chinese association asked me to send him a link of my interview with him after being published. He said he will share the link with his subordinates.
Indeed there have been many Chinese people who saw the true nature of the CCP by reading The Epoch Times, and proceeded with the “three withdrawals” [quitting the Party and its affiliated organizations]. They have changed their attitudes towards Falun Gong. Even so, there is a gap between the influence of the paper and Teacher’s expectations. In the path ahead, there are many challenges. Looking back, I believe that as soon as one believes in Teacher and Dafa, one will surely walk on the path arranged by Teacher and be able to fulfill one’s ancient vow.
(Presented at the 2013 Canada Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)
