PureInsight | June 28, 2004
[PureInsight.org] It's a rare opportunity for us to review the process on how we have cultivated and improved during the past year, and then share our understandings. Today, the title of my sharing is, "Personal Cultivation and Group Improvement."
Due to the predestined relationship with Dafa, each of us has become Master's disciple – a Falun Gong cultivator. We come from different living environments and cultural backgrounds. Each of us has our family, a job, and activities in society. From time to time, wherever we are, we need to face various conflicts in our daily life. While resolving such conflicts, we grow and improve. Now, I will report to you how my fellow practitioners and I for the last year have overcome external interferences, gotten rid of attachments in the process of Fa-rectification, and have cultivated ourselves while achieving group improvement. As the paper preparation is limited by time and our realm of understanding, mistakes are unavoidable, please kindly correct us.
In "Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with the Asian Pacific Students," Master said:
…each Dafa disciple has to fully play his role and proactively do what he should as a Dafa disciple. As you go about validating the Fa, whatever you think of, see, encounter, or can recognize, go ahead and do it, and only then are you walking your own path and forging your own mighty-virtue.
In July 2002, several Boston practitioners attended a meeting in Washington, D.C., where practitioners from other regions introduced how they utilized radio to contact communities and clarify the truth. At the meeting someone suggested that we set up a web radio with worldwide coverage, so as to spread the good news of Dafa to all regions where the internet is accessible. This online radio-station also serves as a source for local radio stations. The potential effects of this newly born media on society gave us great courage and inspiration. So we decided to form a group in Boston and play our role in the Fa-rectification process. Even though we had this idea, none of us knew anything about running radio stations or how to use computers. Putting our ideas into practice was also a challenge. We did not start the project until January 2003. Master said:
All of the beings in the Three Realms came for the Fa, were created for the Fa, and were forged for the Fa.
(From "Teaching the Fa at the 2003 Washington DC Fa Conference")
Since Fa-rectification requires us to grasp such a skill, my fellow practitioners and I needed to find our position in validating Fa. With the help of fellow cultivators who specialized in using computers, and practitioners from California and Canada, we overcame various difficulties. Finally, in February 2003, we successfully began producing Boston Community Program and the Children Program, "Little Bee's Garden Field."
Those who joined the radio project were mostly those who were unknown to many practitioners in the Boston area and could not join other projects to contribute to the Fa. It was not that they did not want to come out to validate the Fa, but there were various subjective and objective reasons to hold them back from doing so. Most of us were either parents of small children or older than fifty years old. Half of program hosts have spouses who do not practice cultivation. Many of us have a full-time job, and have to do a lot of housework. We are all employees and not well-off economically. In order to do this job well, we had to use our own money to purchase recording equipment, reference materials, music CDs and some even upgraded their home computers to do the job. After a few training sessions, we basically learned how to record, upload and download the programs.
I am not the only one who knew little about the computer. I had only used it a few times and did not even know how to send emails. Faced with so much software and hardware, we did not know how much time it was going to take and how much sleep we would lose. The hardships that we experienced could only be shared by fellow practitioners in the radio group. One practitioner had to bring her two children to my home during a blizzard to do the program, because her computer was infected with a virus. Some practitioners have to put their children to bed first in order to produce the program on time. Some practitioner did not feel well, but still managed to make the program, in order to keep the program running. Some practitioner had difficulty with getting on line at home, and tried other ways to get around it and so on. Because we shared the same wish, had a common goal and understanding and a clear division of labor and cooperated well, we have worked together happily and enjoyed good relationships for over a year.
By the end of this month, we will have produced 100 programs of children's storie, 100 programs of children's music, 100 programs of ancient poems and 100 programs of nursery rhymes. In addition, we also produced 100 "The Little Bee Children Programs" in collaboration with practitioners from California, Atlanta, New York and Illinois. We also made 1000 CD for children stories before the Atlantic Fa Conference last year. This is a good trial for market and sales.
When "Teaching Fa at the Washington, D.C. Fa Conference," Master cautioned us:
Now when we clarify the truth to others you all feel that we should treat sentient beings with compassion, then all the more so should you be compassionate among our Dafa disciples. You're all disciples in the same practice, and you're giving your all for the cosmos' Fa-rectification, so you should cooperate well with one another. Don't approach things with too many human attachments, and don't cause unnecessary conflicts and arguments by interacting with each other with human attachments. In these situations your conduct should always show Dafa disciples' tolerance, kindness, and niceness. The next person's things are your things,1 and your things are his things. We don't talk about the "unity" everyday people do, which is a forced, superficial thing. You are cultivators, and your realms are higher. So in your many projects your actions should reflect an understanding of others, an ability to listen to people's opinions, and an ability to gauge what's right and what's wrong by using Dafa.
Some people have asked why our group does not have many conflicts in doing the radio project. We also thought about this question. My personal understanding is: First, we are righteous and our hearts are open. When there was an issue, I look at myself first, and see how I can do better and reduce the others' burdens. For instance, the time for the "Little Bee Program" is fixed, so producers coordinate their timing and contents to form a comprehensive children's program with a great variety. Secondly, the individuals in our group had to be willing to accept other's viewpoints. For many things, there may not be a right or wrong way of doing something. It is just a different understanding and looking at it from a different point of view. No matter whose it is idea, as long as it is good for the project, we will take it. From the very beginning up to now, we have adjusted program structures many, many times. This included adjusting the FTP website, the radio website and the email system. We have experienced many virus attacks, the need to reinstall computers programs and so on.
We encourage each other, help each other, and we have come through it all. This has been accomplished with the joint efforts from the technical group of the radio, Boston computer experts, our artist, our computer designer expert and of course the efforts of each member on the team. Without personal improvement, the group will not improve. Without group collaboration, individual efforts will not last such a long time! Thirdly, we respect each other and emphasize communication. We have a clear division of labor and responsibility. In this group, we have people who produce programs, and also people who compile them. We corporate and communicate well with each other. At the beginning, a practitioner had difficulty in adding music to the program, so another practitioner helped her do it after finishing his own programs. Our painter helped design pictures and a computer design expert made them more vivid. Practitioners who work on newspapers provide us with news and community stories. In short, each practitioner is contributing in various ways with his or her expertise.
One advantage of the Internet is its ability to break the geographical and distance barriers, as this radio project not only has attracted local practitioners, but also practitioners from other regions as well. The children program is composed of eight parts. Boston practitioners produce four parts, and the other four are contributed by practitioners from Atlanta, New York and Canada. For some programs, there is not only a host, but a whole team of practitioners to collect materials, do recording, combine the program, upload the program and so on. This is a collective program, which combines the group efforts and manifests the collective wisdom. The program has not only attracted our volunteer practitioners, but also attracted their family members and friends. We are all cultivating ourselves, and harmonizing our environment. Dafa disciples' energy strengthens as we cultivate ourselves; from harmonizing ourselves, to harmonizing our families, our work places and the entire society. In this way, society becomes a harmonized world where each individual is a part, and enjoys the serine peace of harmony. Some people in our group observe that even though their family members may still have different opinions about Dafa, they seldom have complaints about their radio work. Usually the spouse has a tight budget for family expenses, but is very supportive in purchasing equipment and material. Superficially, the other halves of the families may seem to be indifferent toward the radio program, but, from time to time, they will make some favorable comments, revealing their true feelings.
Children are the hope of the future. An innocent child's voice in the program adds color to the children's program and attracts a young audience. It is Dafa that has given us the courage and wisdom to positively change ourselves and our environment. It is the group collaboration that allows us to use ordinary common sense to accomplish such uncommon achievements. Through our voice we are able to spread the wonderfulness of Dafa to all corners of the world.
When "Teaching Fa at the 2003 Midwest-U.S. Fa Conference," Master said:
When Dafa disciples validate the Fa, it doesn't matter which country or region you're in, or which ethnic group you belong to—there are no such distinctions among Dafa disciples. You're all one body…The better you cooperate with each other as a whole the more powerful you are, and the more powerful you are the greater your impact.
Since April of this year, Boston Branch of the "Sound of Hope International Radio Network" has already started a trial program broadcasting through a local radio station. We have already broadcast for eight weeks. In the near future, the Boston audience will be able to hear us on the air. We will start with a three-hour program each week on Sunday between 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on frequency 1630AM, with two hours of Mandarin programming, followed by an hour of Cantonese programming. Now the Fa-rectification has a higher requirement for us, let the "Sound of Hope" be heard everywhere in the world so that each region has the "Sound of Hope."
We are a cultivation body. We want to improve collectively. We need your understanding and support. Let us encompass new understanding to our personal cultivation in the Fa-rectification process.
