My Cultivation Experiences in Team Work Coordination

[PureInsight.org] Greetings Master and fellow practitioners. I am a practitioner from Columbus Ohio. Today, I will share my cultivation experiences.

Master said:

For Dafa disciples as a whole, in the process of validating the Fa, when you work together in concert, the Fa power is great. Whether you're doing things as a group or doing things individually, what you're doing is the same kind of thing, and that's what we mean by one entity. You're all clarifying the truth, sending righteous thoughts, and studying the Fa, so the specifics of the things you're doing are different but the division of roles is orderly, together there's a form, and separated there are particles.

(From "Explaining the Fa during the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")

After the 2003 Fa Conference in Los Angeles, more and more practitioners began to realize the importance of working together as a team. Several major truth-clarifying teams including fax, telephone, and web have broken through barriers, and have gradually united and formed one big body. Being one of the participants, I will first share my cultivation experiences in teamwork coordination.

I. Cultivating in Team Work

Due to teamwork, the members of the different teams have various opportunities to share their understandings. Thus, we are able to act together when encountering some major issues. Hence, the power of Fa is also strengthened. Meanwhile, each team has broadened its range of coverage as a result of learning from the experiences of other teams. For example, at the regular Fa experience sharing meetings, after hearing about the phone team's experiences, more and more practitioners were stimulated to join into truth clarification projects. This also served as a good example for the other teams to improve as a whole body. When I first got involved in teamwork collaboration, I realized that the conventional thinking, which was formed over a long period of time, was quite hard to recognize and break through. I would distinguish very clearly what was mine and what was others'.

At the beginning, when I saw parts of other teams that were lagging behind, I only knew to point it out. For example, when I saw that the practitioners in some areas seldom got involved in phone teams events, I then pointed this out only to the phone team. Later, I thought, "Why could I not break through this barrier by simply getting involved on my own? I could then bring the initiative into full play. Particularly, since I am in contact with several of the practitioners from the other teams, and the practitioners from the phone team might not be familiar with them. After discussing with some fellow practitioners, we all agreed and immediately we voluntarily organized a small quick-response team as a back up for the phone team. This team not only promoted making phone calls to other practitioners, but also found that the act of making direct phone calls to China was beneficial for doing other kinds of truth-clarifying work, such as writing chat line messages, scripting for FGM movies, and so on.

When I was collaborating with other teams, it was easy for me to see my own weaknesses. Once, I got negative feedback concerning a mailing. I did not carefully think it all through before I sent out the information This caused a series of bad effects. After that, a lot of practitioners shared their understanding from the point of the Fa, and hence we were all able to improve together and that barrier was eradicated. This is the same issue as when sometimes phone calls cannot get through. It is interference caused by the practitioner's mind. From this, I saw that my belief in the Fa was insufficient; hence the evil was able to sneak through.

Another experience I would like to share is that to form a whole body all depends on each and every practitioner, not just on the actions of some project coordinators. This is because every practitioner is one particle. From the very beginning, Master requires us to open up all of our meridians. The roles of project coordinators are to coordinate and establish contacts. Every practitioner plays an active role and diligently gets involved in the projects, and makes suggestions. Meanwhile, it is important to have a whole picture in mind while accomplishing our own particular tasks. During the 2003 Houston Fa Conference, the various truth-clarifying teams held for the first time a joint truth-clarifying meeting. The goal was to give an overall introduction of the different branches of clarification work, so we could clarifying the truth and improve as a whole body. I joined other practitioners to organize this activity.

Initially, I felt a little bit nervous because it was my first experience in helping to organize this kind of meeting, and in the last few days prior to the meeting the email system was not working, My attachments gave the evil the loopholes. I came into a conflict with another practitioner over car travel arrangements. I realized that it resulted from my own loophole, and the lack of having sufficient compassion over a long period of time. Yet, the conflicts occurred in that critical moment. It was not targeted to only me, it also was targeted to this meeting to improve cooperation. Therefore, I tried my best to adjust myself, and at the same time, I hoped that no trouble would occur again. Then, I became extremely careful. As a result, ten minutes before boarding the plane, I found out that I had left the car keys in the lock on the outside of my car that was in the parking lot. However, it was impossible for me to go get them. In the airplane, I remembered one practitioner's story of when her car got towed. She remained unaffected by the incident, and calmly sent forth-righteous thoughts while assisting in a vital video shooting. At that moment, this fellow practitioner's experience greatly helped me. I told myself that I would forget about my car, and whole-heartedly concentrate on the Fa conference. Three days later, when I returned from Houston, the car keys were still hanging from the outside lock of my car. I realized that if I could let go of my attachments, Master would take care of me.

Another understanding I have is that during today's Fa-rectification, we should not only do well and act diligently by ourselves, or as a part of some teams, we should also help each other as a whole body. We should share our experiences more often to diligently progress together.

II. Experience in the Involvement of Drafting the Script of the Law Suit against Jiang

Last year, I often saw on the Minghui website practitioners from China asking practitioners to make short and engaging truth-clarifying TV programs. At the same time, I learned that practitioners of Fang Guang Ming TV program were very busy, and were unable to make arrangements for such a program to be made at that time. After watching several TV programs related to suing Jiang, I decided to write a short script which main topic was about lawsuits. This script would also present other truths including the Tiananmen self-immolation incident based on the model of the TV program called, "Witness and Proof." Jiang is the evil head of the persecution. The self-immolation and a series of lies targeted at Falun Gong were made to please its needs. Many Chinese inside Mainland China still do not know the truth about the self-immolation incidents and Falun Gong. Therefore, I hope to connect these aspects together with the suing Jiang script to clarify the truth.

After discussing with several practitioners, we realized that the quantity and quality of our truth-telling documentaries were far from sufficient. The one that practitioners in China risked their lives to broadcast was still "The Witness" which was made one year before. The experience of my calling China also inspired me. Broadcasting may be stopped at any time, while listeners might hang up at any moment during our calling China. When calling China, we usually told them the most important truth. If they were interested in more, we then tell them the details. In the beginning of this script, we planned to present the panorama of overseas lawsuit, then, we would expose each of the lies. "Bring Jiang to Justice" would be the base line which would be noted throughout the entire set of documentary.

When drafting this script, I came into contact with practitioners who were involved in the lawsuits against Jiang. Because of this, I started to have deeper understanding of the lawsuits. The three crimes that Jiang is accused of in the lawsuits are torture, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The first two were easy to understand. But, I did not fully understand what "crimes against humanity" entailed. When I discussed this with another practitioner, he said that Jiang is destroying humanity and persecuting the conscience of the people of the whole world. From the surface, Jiang is only persecuting Falun Gong practitioners and their family members. However, who forced individuals to be transformed under the brutal torture, who was involved in the persecution from the central government to the local offices, who had to lose their professional ethics as journalists in order to fabricate false news, who had to brutally torture practitioners and so on? In addition, aren't those ordinary people who have been filled with lies also the victims of this persecution? People in China have lost the opportunity to know this Fa. Torturing and suppressing Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance has helped lies, evils, and violence to manifest in the world. Moral standards are going downhill daily. The target of the evil police's torture is not only a particular group of people but actually all ordinary people in China.. The day that Jiang is found guilty in court in China is not far away.

The new understanding of the lawsuit also helped me on clarifying the truth. Once I called an agent in the Chinese National Security Bureau. After telling him some facts and about the lawsuit, I asked him, "I believe you do not want to persecute good people from the bottom of your heart. You are also a victim of the persecution by Jiang, aren't you?" He changed his attitude. Maybe the consciousness left in his heart was moved. When I called China before, I just broadcast what had happened overseas about Falun Gong, and not thought about how to touch the caller's heart. Now I realized the difference between telling the facts of the truth and truly clarifying the truth clearly.

I experienced tremendous interference during the writing of this article. It was really like what a fellow practitioner said, "As long as the work is relevant to Jiang's trial, there is big interference and we must keep alert at every moment and send forth righteous thoughts." After writing this part of the experience sharing, the whole content of the script we were working on regarding Jiang's trial was lost, so I decided to rewrite the article. During the whole writing process, I could feel Master's care and hints. Also, I received help from many fellow practitioners in the revisions. My husband, who has done Fangguangming TV programs, saw that what we wrote was not really like a script, but like an article. So he wrote a script based on our writing. Just when were about to finish, we got a draft of a book regarding Jiang's trial from an Australian practitioner and used it as a reference. We also saw the TV program of Jiang's trial that a practitioner made in the form of Minghui focus points. Here, we hope practitioners can encourage each other, because Jiang's trial is still going on. Let us continue to write better and more comprehensive articles and make better TV programs about Jiang's trials to cooperate with the progress of global lawsuits against Jiang until the evil head is brought to justice.

Because of these activities, I began to have contact with practitioners who work for Fangguangming TV and truly understand the hardships of the practitioners who make the TV programs. At the same time, I began to help write some Fangguangming scripts and combine my experience obtained from clarifying the truth into it. This is also an experiment of combining the work of direct truth clarification to China and the media in order to provide better feedback and improve the efficiency. After Canadian practitioners initiated the systematic truth clarification to Chinese people called, "Truth in the Central Plains" and reading the article with Master's comment "Expose the Evil Happening Locally to the Local People," several American practitioners including me and Canadian practitioners came up with the same idea. That being that we need to have the TV programs clarify the truth to the local people. So, we began to write the scripts for different provinces to expose the evil in the local areas. While collecting the materials for Beijing, I could clearly feel the evil interference behind the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp and the difficulties of practitioners in China. I also deeply felt I should overcome my laziness. I also realize the importance of the responsibility of overseas practitioners, to do what is hard for practitioners in China to do. Most importantly we must take every step well in the cultivation path arranged by Master.

III. Personal Cultivation

1. Recognition of my Fundamental Attachment to Myself which Translates to Selfishness.

Each practitioner's cultivation path is different. Before I began to practice, I was a person who tried to outdo others and strived to excel. Therefore, my attachment in this aspect is strong. Having practiced Dafa for several years, I noticed that I often speak in the way that contains the expression of teaching others or showing that I am better than others. I was very startled when I realized this. I asked myself and my husband whether I should continue to do coordination work. Looking into myself deeper, I realized that this is the attachment which I should get rid of. My attachment is not a result of Dafa work; instead, my attahchment has been completely unmasked during my Dafa work.

When doing things for Dafa, your competitiveness, desire to show off, clinging to your own emotions, feeling like your reputation is being challenged, and other attachments might mixed in.

(From "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Atlanda Fa Conference") The old forces have arranged every practitioner's life, meanwhile Master utilizes what they have done to rearrange each practitioner's path of getting cleansed. Escaping or hiding will not solve this problem. The only way is to face my own attachment, get rid of it, and break through the fetters on me. I also felt that we should treat correctly the relationship between personal cultivation and Fa-rectification. We have our responsibility to fulfill. The Fa is harmonious. Actually improving in self cultivation will greatly help us to work better in Fa- rectification.There is another characteristic about myself. I have a straight forward personality and I speak quickly, while having no patience and seldom consider whether the other people can accept what I say. I used to believe that this was my own personality, which conforms to truthfulness. One practitioner pointed out that this is not the truthfulness that we cultivate. It is nonbenevolence, because there is also Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance within Truthfulness. For a long time, I could not come from compassion nor cultivate it.

I asked a fellow practitioner when we talked on the phone one day,"Why am I always able to see other people's shortcoming? Is it because I have a big omissionin in this aspect?"

She said, "When you can notice other people's shortcomings, you may have the similar problems yourself. There may be some other deeper grounds that you are not aware of. It is time to dig it out."

I asked hastly, "What is it?"

She replied, "The observer is often clearer than the one being observed. Is it time to cultivate your own compassion?"

"You are absolutely right I do not have a compassionate heart. I do not know how to cultivate it out."

She said that if someone is modest and unshowy, it actually indicates that his/her Buddha-nature is strong. She further listed a few examples of the known coordinators who are doing great in their cultivation. I felt as if I had suddenly seen a shining light in my dull wooden head. I have stayed on this level for too long. Many practitioners who are very solid in their cultivation came to my mind. I know practitioners from two project teams. The coordinators of these two teams has been doing an excellent job. Firstly, the coordinator regards each practitioner as important and fully encourages everyone's enthusiasm. Secondly, he is also doing well himself and communicates with another team frequently.

We came to the human world because of the increasing selfishness in our natures, which has deviated from Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. When we clarify the truth to everyday people, we can be very compassinate to all beings. However, we often cannot treat our fellow practitioners in the same way. The main reason is our fundamental attachment to selfishness, is being touched. The word "I" is the priority. When I first realized that my fundamental attachment is the attachment to myself, I asked myself, Can I eliminate it? The answer from my innermost mind frightened me. My innermost mind asked me back, "If it is eliminated, how will my own benefit be affected? After several years' of cultivation, it was the first time that I recognized that my innermost mind is still very persistent in protecting myself. We all know the requirement of Fa, yet it is very hard to do it. But only doing is the true cultivation. After sharing with my husband, he said, " Do it little by little, starting from home." Later, at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference one practitioner asked Master:

Only after having cultivated this long have I realized what my fundamental attachment is, which is the attachment to my self.

Upon hearing this, my heart is filled with all sorts of feelings. Master said (in reply to the above question):

Yes. To put it plainly, that's the fundamental factor of beings of the past. In the past, when it came to this, you all had it, and many people really couldn't realize it. With all of you improving as a whole, it isn't that pronounced anymore.

On the Minghui website, I read various articles on the destruction of several materials production sites by the police in China and the arrest of the Dafa practitioners who worked there. In my view, part of the reason this happened may have been due to over emphasizing some practitioner's ability and neglecting his/her own cultivation. Other practitioners usually ignore the attachments of certain capable practitioners because critical work relies on them. I also noticed similar phenomena here in the US, including myself. Master gives us our capabilities for validating Dafa, and the old forces have also added their arrangements. I deeply realized how difficult it is to constantly remind us to look into our own minds and progress on the path of cultivation. After reading the article "Golden Buddha" on the Minghui website, I asked myself, "Is my heart a piece of gold or a piece of fried dough?" Since I have obtained Dafa, my heart will not be a piece of fried dough. But it is still not a piece of pure gold. To become a piece of pure gold, we must learn from each other in our Fa study and cultivate ourselves diligently together.

2. About Family Issues

My husband and I are both practitioners. Two years ago, our relationship was very tense because none of us could give up our own personal attachments. We also had to deal with our parents and our small baby at the same time. The conflicts inside our family greatly affected our cultivation and validation of Dafa. Later, we both realized that only demons would be happy if we continued arguing with each other. After constant Fa study and looking into ourselves for problem resolution, we were able to remove the demon natures little by little and become more and more forgiving and understanding. Now we have an open and a good family cultivation environment. We share thoughts with each other and help each other in validating Dafa. Actually, cultivation at home is the first step. Fa is harmonizing. Master taught female practitioners to be tenderhearted. I realize that the whole process of getting along with my husband is to remove many notions that I have developed in my life, such as competitiveness and excelling. All of these cannot be separated from my cultivation in any aspects.

The same is true with a project, a group, and our Dafa practitioners. Aren't we a big family? Only when we are open to one another, study Fa together more often and share thoughts more often in order to cultivate ourselves togther diligently, can we form an unbreakable one body. Then, the power of Fa can be fully displayed, which the evils are most afraid of.

I obtained Dafa in 1997. Prior to 1997, I was so fortunate that I attended Master's Tianjing Lectures in 1993. However, this is the first time I have seriously written down my cultivation experiences in a sharing article. The reason why I had not wanted to summarize any of my experiences was because I did not want to face and pay serious attention to my attachments in the past. I still have so many attachments and what if I could not do well after I had written the paper? I wanted to protect myself. Each step of removing attachments is very difficult. When studying Fa more, it is easier to recognize the attachment. When becoming relaxed, the demons take the advantage of the gap. But I feel that I can finally face my own attachments, which is a step forward compared to the past. I still need to walk step by step solidly on the road of validating Fa. I hope this summary of my experiences will be a milestone in my cultivation, which will encourage me to walk well on the rest of my road. I will undertake the responsibility that I must undertake. I will not disappoint Master for his benevolent salvation, and I will not let down any beings who are waiting to be saved.