PureInsight | September 5, 2005
[PureInsight.org] It has been a year since I became a volunteer at a Chinese TV station that supports Dafa. During the past year of working in the TV studio, I feel I have elevated my xinxing levels a lot. Before I became a cultivator, I didn't have many friends and had a very small social circle. I had low self-esteem, I was very timid, and I often encountered unpleasant people or things. As the result, I became very bitter. Since I started practicing Falun Gong, I learned that those were attachments I must forgo during my cultivation practice. But because I had not removed my deepest attachments to fame, self-interest and sentiment and because I lack discipline, I often compromised my standard and failed to address problems with righteous thoughts.
I became a volunteer because a TV program needs audience members for the shooting. Many practitioners from Taipie, Chilong, Taoyuan and Yunlin came to the TV studio in Taipei to help with the TV production. Some everyday people's TV drama programs rent the same TV studio, so there are all kinds of people coming to this TV studio. Each time I go to the studio for a shooting, I meet people from different walks of life. I feel my social circle has suddenly broadened. I am especially impressed with those fellow Falun Gong practitioners who volunteer to do carpentry work and to clean the studio. Many of them are elderly folks. They could be enjoying their comfortable retirement life at home, but they choose to work as volunteers for the studio. Rain or shine, they work diligently with a great attitude. When it is time to send forth righteous thoughts, everyone drops his work and starts sending forth righteous thoughts. The entire TV studio becomes a pure land in the human realm right away! During the breaks, many fellow practitioners immediately sit in the Full Lotus position studying Zhuan Falun. This diligent environment constantly prompts me to be more diligent. During the past year, I have eliminated many of my attachments and purged many foolish concepts. I thank our compassionate Teacher and tolerant fellow practitioners who have helped upgrade my cultivation levels so quickly.
All the fellow practitioners who work as regular volunteers have very cheerful and easygoing personalities. In comparison, I am very squeamish and fidget easily. TV production is all about teamwork. Any tiny mistake in any function during the TV shooting will cause NG and re-shoot. One of my functions at the studio is to push the cart on the rail to make the camera move. At first, I had a strong attachment to fame and was not very happy to be assigned such a trivial job. I felt as I was an nobody or an unimportant extra. There is a handle on the cart that allows me to easily push the cart. When the handle was installed, an attachment to comfort immediately surfaced. I thought, "Great! Now I hardly need to lift my finger!" But when the director started shooting, either I failed to move the cart smoothly or a loud noise would come from the handle. As the result, there were a lot of re-shoots. I gradually let go of my attachment to fame, the desire to get a more important role, comfort, and even the thought that the hostess of the show is very beautiful. When I eliminated these attachments, I found the job of pushing the cart to be increasingly easy. The more attachments I let go of, the better things become in the physical dimension. An elderly person responsible for carpentry work laid out wood underneath the rail to reduce the noise. Some other practitioners renovated the cart and laid out new rail. They also lubricated the wheels of the cart. After I removed my impure thoughts, the job really became easier.
I finally realized it is imperative to cultivate my mind. Cultivation requires solid work. I must meet the standard in each test to upgrade. Before I accepted the concept of teamwork, I often blamed myself for the mistakes I made. When I realized that TV production is teamwork and it does not matter who makes mistakes, as it won't help the group if I beat myself up or avoid responsibilities.
Many practitioners have recently started to volunteer at the TV studio and fellow practitioners started to ask me to join work meetings. With added responsibilities and with limited time, I met new xinxing tests and discovered there were many areas I need to improve. I believe that, in this diligent cultivation environment, fellow practitioners and I will continue to upgrade our xinxing together and improve our truth-clarification work.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2005/8/23/33569.html
