Fa
Teaching Given at the NTDTV Meeting
(Li Hongzhi ~ June 6, 2009)
Hello, everyone! (Disciples:
Hello, Master!)
You have really been working hard. A
long time has passed since I last taught you the Fa or saw you in person. I
know, however, that the more I teach and the more I push you forward, the more
numerous and more serious will be the ordeals that the old force factors create
for Dafa disciples. But the Fa has been given to you. As long as you cultivate
according to the book of Fa and study it, you will be able to resolve anything
and gain everything. I have thus intentionally not spoken about things in more
detail during this period of time. Many things really were left for you to
think through and figure out. That’s why I have not come to speak with you for
nearly a year.
Whatever the case, the progress of
Fa-rectification is pushing ahead rapidly, and you can all sense this from how
our situation and time itself have changed, for things are going so fast
now—unfathomably fast. And, to mankind, what has taken place in the cosmos is
likewise unfathomable. Regardless, Dafa disciples’ cultivation and all of what
I am doing in Fa-rectification are as they are and the form is set, such that
there won’t be much change to speak of. And the pace of Fa-rectification is
extremely fast. Fa-rectification is approaching at the fastest speed in the
cosmos, even without needing me to direct it. Judging from things at present,
changes are rapidly unfolding in this world as well, with human society’s
decline being especially notable. In today’s Chinese society, morality is
declining at an almost inconceivable rate. Mankind was never so bad anytime
before in human history. Never before at any time—such as the fall of a dynasty
or on the eve of a catastrophe—did things get as bad as they have today, for
before reaching this point man would have perished. If it were not for
Fa-rectification, gods would have long since forbidden today’s people to exist.
This is especially so for
None of you realize what the people
in today’s world once gave of themselves for this affair. Nor have you realized
what magnificent beings they once were, plunging down headlong into such a
dangerous place, braving the tremendous peril. That fact alone makes them
worthy of your saving them and pulling them out. For them, the danger lies
precisely in how attractive their surroundings are. During this great ordeal,
Dafa disciples have indeed taken on some added hardships for them, for sentient
beings, but whatever the case, what awaits Dafa disciples are the best of
things. In light of this, all the more so should Dafa disciples realize how
monumental their responsibility is, and shoulder it. You all speak often about
“helping Master rectify the Fa” and, whatever the case, I feel that those are
weighty words and hope that you can accomplish that—and do so to the best of
your ability. I know that doing so is really hard. Though you may say those
words, carrying that out perfectly well is truly not easy. You are saving
sentient beings and shouldering this historic mission, but you are also
cultivating yourselves at the same time, and sometimes when you run into a
problem, you don’t handle it well or work together well. I have said that the
stage of history was set for and has been given to Dafa disciples for the
purpose of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings. With all that you have
done, the future is going to be, no matter what, something glorious. I just
hope that you will really be able to do better, cooperate better, and work with
each other better.
Have you paused to consider: is
there really anything that you cannot let go? In the course of history you
tasted honor and glory, and you endured enormous ordeals. In those long, drawn-out
years of waiting, you went through everything possible all so as to arrive at
the present. And by all accounts you should be able to, at the end, finish the
journey well. Whether your validating of the Fa goes well or not is often
simply your own doing.
I’m saying that this current page of
history is left for Dafa disciples [to write]. Don’t be fooled by the fact that
all the various ethnicities and nations around the world, or the people of
society’s various strata, are busy doing their own things. That is just
mankind’s normal mode of life and necessary state of existence, and things have
to be that way. It couldn’t be that people all suddenly took action directly
for the Fa, for that would mean the spell of delusion was broken. All the same,
people’s very existence is for the sake of this Fa. It might seem that neither
who they are nor what they do is relevant to Dafa disciples, but in reality,
all of it is. It might all appear random, but everything is, in reality, well
ordered. All sentient beings are waiting to be saved, and I can tell you
something certain. If Dafa disciples don’t act to save them, those people, no
matter in what corner of the world they may be, will have no hope unless you go
to save them. And that especially holds true for the Chinese people. I have
spoken about this before, as you know. A lot of kings from the heavens, kings
of different nationalities, and kings from different eras of history have
reincarnated in that place. They are enduring the largest ordeals and pressure,
because what they are achieving is not just completing themselves; rather, what
they are achieving, shouldering, and putting in is in fact for the sake of
their multitude of sentient beings. That is why they have such tremendous
ordeals. What they choose amounts to the shared choice of sentient beings in
enormous cosmic systems, and it is for this reason that their ordeals are so
huge. The same holds true for you, because although you have, as Dafa
disciples, assumed such a magnificent responsibility as a result of your
predestined tie, the sacrifices you made in history are no less.
At this point I want to talk about a
few specific things. As Dafa disciples now go about validating the Fa and
saving sentient beings, the goal of their initiatives is clear, but those
efforts themselves, as with how you carry things out, need to be understandable
to people. I mean understandable to human beings, rather than gods. People look
only at the surface of things, and they can understand things from only the
surface, so the superficial form that your actions or activities take must
conform to ordinary society. You shouldn’t overdo things, or else people won’t
understand. But at the same time, if you don’t do enough you will not manage to
save people. Failing to balance these two things well is the main problem our
Dafa disciples’ projects are prone to. If you aren’t careful about what you say
and do, it will cause ordinary people to fail to understand us, to mistakenly
think that you are getting involved in politics, or to believe that you have
ulterior motives—all of which would needlessly cause our Dafa disciples’
magnificent mission of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings to go
unfulfilled. As Dafa disciples you are all plenty clear on this intellectually when
I bring it up, but when you try to put it into action, you tend to lose sight
of it and get confused. You need to pay attention to this and absolutely
mustn’t make trouble for yourselves.
Don’t take the wicked CCP’s
disintegration to be your goal. The CCP is nothing, and I have never seen it as
cause for worry. It is just something that was created expressly for
Fa-rectification. By its very nature it is antithetical to the cosmos, and so
the forces of the entire cosmos have wanted to destroy it. This has led to
there being an old force that is dedicated to its preservation. It has
protected it for over a hundred years and saw to it that it gained experience
that would allow it to, in the final stage, oppose Dafa disciples’ effort to
save sentient beings; to act as a brutal ordeal when Dafa disciples were to
succeed at cultivation; and to serve as a demon who brings chaos to the world
when you were to save sentient beings. That’s all it is, so don’t give it so
much weight or let your goals revolve around it. It’s not worthy. What you do
is for saving sentient beings. The wicked CCP isn’t in fact capable of all that
it has done. In reality, this has been a case of factors of forces from the old
cosmos using it to do things. An obvious question would be to ask why use [the
CCP] and not some other being instead. It was chosen because it is that bad,
and it was created exactly like that. If Dafa disciples were to really focus
what they do upon this entity itself, it would collapse, after which the
factors of the old cosmos’s forces would then use something else to make
trouble. The wicked CCP exists solely for this one purpose, and whether you go
after it or not, it will fall apart. Once our Dafa disciples have completed the
things that they are to do, it will fall apart for sure. But in the meantime,
as good and evil collide, each life’s choice of where it stands, the path that
each chooses, and the conduct of these sentient beings will determine where
they head in the future. That’s how all this works.
You can expose the wicked CCP in
your media efforts, but it should be done for the purpose of clearing things up
for sentient beings so that they may be saved. Today’s meeting is for Dafa
disciples around the world who work with NTDTV. Most of you present here are
thus involved in media work, and in some cases you assume multiple roles. As
Dafa disciples who run media outlets, your thinking in regard to what you are
doing needs to be clear. Of course, I needn’t say anything for you to be clear
[on what you are doing], but when you are dealing with actual, real issues, you
should not act rashly. The moment you lose your sense of calm, that’s when you
are apt to go awry. At critical moments you need to remember that you do this
work to save sentient beings.
It wasn’t easy for the station to
develop as it has in just a few short years. Whenever I see the programming
broadcast by NTDTV, I have a feeling of admiration for Dafa disciples. Dafa
disciples are truly extraordinary. You have gone from not knowing anything to running
a station and doing it so well, with such colorful programs. Everyone would
watch this TV station and find it just outstanding, a remarkable venture, if it
weren’t for the fact that they were deceived by the evil early on. Though it is
right before their eyes, many people can’t see how great the station is at this
time as a result of interference and evil factors that are controlling them.
That’s all right, though. Things are changing rapidly as the Fa-rectification
forges ahead and as Dafa disciples’ righteous thoughts grow stronger. The
energy emitted by NTDTV is very strong, and the television sets tuned in to it
receive powerful energy, which dismantles the evil’s factors. So from this
perspective, the station doesn’t just need to be run well, but also be run in a
more regular, standard manner. When you as Dafa disciples achieve Consummation,
you will hand the station over to people from the period of Fa’s rectification
of the human world, and it will become a part of the culture of the future mankind.
So you need to do a good job with it.
Let me get a little more specific.
If you want to run a media outlet well, you need to have a good footing in
society. Ordinary things aren’t going to be magical, and old force factors are
going to interfere with people’s salvation. Of course, work at the TV station
is not itself Dafa cultivation, and it has no direct connection to Dafa. The
station is run by Dafa disciples, and it is for the purpose of validating the
Fa and saving sentient beings. That’s the connection. The station is not part
of Dafa itself, but rather, it is a tool that is used by Dafa disciples to save
sentient beings. Since it should get a foothold in society and become like an
ordinary station, you have to, in terms of management, use normal approaches
that are used in human society. The companies out in ordinary society have a
lot of experience of this type. The management system they use does accord with
the form of society, and that’s why it was able to gain a foothold in, and take
shape in, human society. In other words, what man has done in this regard
conforms to the principles at this level, and so you too should follow ordinary
ways like these as much as possible when running your TV station. If you want
to run it well, you really should figure out how to adopt standard management
practices and get into a positive cycle, and put some thought into your
business operation.
The fact is that the primary goal of
ordinary TV stations is to make money. Your starting point is different. It is
to save sentient beings. That’s simply magnificent, and something no human
beings could accomplish. Since that’s the case, if the station is poorly
managed and can’t continue due to lack of capital, you will lose a powerful
medium for getting the facts out. You have all seen its effectiveness and
influence in recent years, so, given that, why not run it well?
You know that the CCP is a regime
that’s sustained by lies and that counts on the media to mislead people. From
day one it has deceived the Chinese public and, to this very day, the end, it
has used the media to lie to the Chinese people. It has buried the truth and
kept up a façade of lies for so many years. People have been raised and
grown up under its lies. Then wouldn’t you say that Chinese people who live
their whole lives accustomed to that approach to things are worthy of pity?
Many Chinese people don’t understand the outside world even after they leave
China, since they grew up in the wicked CCP’s culture and even think that other
countries are abnormal and foolish. It’s not that the outside world is
abnormal. Rather, that is normal society, and the one that is warped
is the wicked-Party-run Chinese society. For decades the wicked CCP has been
quite pleased with itself, thinking that its deceptive propaganda has been a
success. It has kept a firm grip on the media, ensuring that it churns out
propaganda on its behalf so as to help it sustain power. I say this to tell you
that propaganda can spur people to action, and it really can have an effect
when people rely on it for information. Some people just don’t think for
themselves, and believe whatever they are told.
Human thinking has a weakness, and
you have discovered this over the years while clarifying the facts. Namely,
that the first idea that’s accepted tends to stick. (Laughs) Once a
person accepts a certain idea, he will then evaluate whatever comes afterward
in light of it. This is a flaw in man’s design, but in this setting of inverted
principles, it is actually helpful to people in terms of eliminating karma via
ordeals and eventually arriving at the truth. Were it otherwise, it would be
too easy for people to gain the Fa and return to the heavens. If it were the
case that people used correct principles to seek and evaluate things no matter
what others might say, then this human setting would never have been bad and it
would not be human society. (Laughs) But correct principles were not
to be found here in the human world previously. The emperor would rule the
land, sending troops to conquer parts of the world; and the victor would become
emperor, leaving the vanquished to become outlaws. Such are the principles that
govern this human plane. Why did the Fa of Buddhas and Gods meet with such huge
obstacles and why did so many ordeals, attacks, and rejections come about once
it was disseminated here? Because those were the correct principles that were
being disseminated, something that had not existed in this setting before.
Whatever the case, that is the
history and the course that human culture has taken since the world’s
formation. But things are different today. Today is the final, grand
culmination of all that has transpired since the creation of the world. Since
Dafa has been broadly spread here, this setting may well be preserved forever
for mankind. That is the blessing that Dafa has brought to mankind as part of
Dafa’s grand dissemination and part of the cosmos’s Fa-rectification: namely,
the fact that the plane of this dimension may be preserved forever.
I don’t want to say too much. I
believe you are here for a meeting, and must have a lot to discuss. I don’t
want to keep you too long, but I would like to give you a little extra time. If
you have some crucial, major questions, you can raise them now and I will
answer them for you. Then the time that’s left can be used for your discussion.
(Applause)
Disciple: Given that we are
reporters, our coverage needs to be accurate. But sometimes we overstate things
to persuade people of the truth. I feel that we should follow the standard set
by Western media and report things accurately.
Master: I agree with this perspective.
That’s how things should be done. Don’t be like the propaganda tools of the
wicked Party. It’s not right to depart from the truth when you describe events
in hopes of achieving some effect. Just let the piece achieve whatever effect
it will achieve. Don’t knowingly bend the truth. You will lose credibility.
Disciple: I am a reporter who covers
community events. From cultivation I know to do everything according to Zhen
Shan Ren, and I know that our reporting is to tell people about things that are
truthful, kind, and good. But there are some things that we are unable to
decipher completely. For example, things are complicated in Chinatown. Some
people are very pro-CCP, so we try not to report on activities that they
sponsor or to report as little as we can. And when they push something that is
not right, we know that we absolutely cannot report on it. But sometimes the
connections they have are so subtle, and we’re concerned about not handling the
reporting well and thereby helping bad people with publicity.
Master: I remember that after the
persecution began, a person from mainland China wrote me a letter posing as a
student. The letter talked about how a particular thing could be done better
and so on, but I knew that this person was a special agent. So as to disguise
himself, the point that he made was beneficial to us. So, I adopted the idea.
Why do I bring this up, then? All that I do is for the sake of saving sentient
beings, and no matter who you are, as long as you can contribute to the
salvation of sentient beings, I will use [what you have to offer]. As long as
an ordinary person is alive today, no matter how poorly he behaves—with the
exception of the very worst ones—there might still be hope for him. When
someone who passively did bad things in the persecution gets clearheaded, he
will, if he can then play a positive role, have a chance to make up for what he
did. If such people say some positive things, you can quote them, for instance,
but definitely don’t use anything bad that they might say. If someone is bad,
however, and what he says doesn’t have much bearing on saving sentient beings,
then it’s better not to report [on his event or remarks], even if people might
find it interesting. That’s because any coverage will build a person up and
enhance his level of recognition. There’s no need to boost a bad person’s
profile. If what he says helps to save sentient beings, then reporting on it
will actually help him to accumulate virtue.
Disciple: What should we do if we’re
to run NTDTV, a television station, well? In our area, the students that
participate in sales say that The Epoch Times needs to be done well before
NTDTV can be addressed.
Master: You don’t need to ask me about
these things. If a person says that he is primarily working for The Epoch
Times, then of course he should focus on The Epoch Times and help NTDTV
afterwards. If someone says that he is primarily working for NTDTV, then he
should focus on NTDTV, and help out the other media entities only after
finishing his work. These all fall within the scope of your duties as Dafa
disciples, so do as much as you can within your means. All of the media
entities that you run have the effect of saving sentient beings, and the voices
that come forth from these entities carry the mighty virtue of each of you who
has participated, for sure.
Disciple: NTDTV is very much short
of money, and in order to pull in advertisements—some are really hard to get—the
marketing department sends reporters to shoot a lot of free infomercials, which
sometimes go overboard. Is that the right approach?
Master: If it goes overboard, then it’s not
right. At the beginning things probably weren’t handled well, since everyone is
in the process of going from not knowing what to do to knowing. I hope that you
will gradually come to do well, become ever more experienced, and handle
problems more and more rationally, so that you can handle things entirely on
your own.
Disciple: It has now been several
months since NTDTV first broadcast in Canada, in 2008. However, as we tried to
broaden the subscription base, we learned that NTDTV’s approval rating in the
communities was quite lacking.
Master: The history that is unfolding now
is designated for Dafa disciples, but nobody is about to proactively invite you
to do something, for people are under the spell of delusion. All of this was
put in place for you—including all the things that are right and wrong, or good
and evil—and all of it is mixed together. So it is indeed hard for you to do
things. Even though that’s the case, no beings in this cosmos can compare to
you. Gods especially designated for the task are handling what I just
described, but only when you do well will things in this world change. Doing
well, working together well, and being effective really come down to you,
yourselves. You might ask, “Is there some kind of secret weapon we could use?
Can we come up with some kind of special method?” What has been given to you is
the most righteous of paths, but it is a narrow one. When your intention is
wrong or there are issues with how you go about things, the path will be
difficult. The path is very narrow, and it may look like it can’t be traveled.
But in fact, you can do it.
Disciple: The rules for the nine
competitions hosted by NTDTV have been changed again and again. I personally
feel that it’s not very good in terms of how those who have registered for the
competitions will perceive us, and it’s obviously not very professional. I’d
like to ask Master if this is my own notion, or is it that we can do better
than that?
Master: I know that there have been
changes, and mostly it was due to inexperience and trying to better suit the
needs of the competitions. Indeed, it’s not so good to have lots of changes.
But actually, for the participants in the competitions, the clearer the rules
are, the better. The coordinators lacked experience, so they were gaining
experience each step of the way. When things are found to be incorrect, they
should be corrected. I think things will be better in the future since they
will have more experience then.
Disciple: I’m a journalist from
Taiwan. Dafa disciples in Taiwan are doing a lot of news reporting in order to
expose the bad things that the CCP is doing, and yet they find it challenging
to collect first-hand evidence on the scene. May I ask how this problem should
be solved? My second question is, the current government and some businessmen
in Taiwan are becoming increasingly pro-communist. If we point out their
mistakes in our reports, will we turn them against us?
Master: There are more than enough things
published by the evil Party itself and other major online media that you can
use. You can reprint any of those things. It would be even better if you could
get first-hand news directly from the mainland, but only if you have
connections there that are completely secure and safe.
As for how a certain government or
so-and-so is doing, a cultivator doesn’t have to give this any thought
whatsoever. Don’t give it any thought or concern. Just think, “I came to save
sentient beings, and that’s that.” Someone might be in power today, and
tomorrow it might be someone else, but whoever wants to be in power, so be it.
It is arranged by gods, so it is what it is. If you focus your attention on
this, it means that your thinking has gone off track. The moment you think like
that, it’s a deviation. Don’t concern yourself with such things, and just do
what you should. What usually happens is that the more attached to something
you become, the greater the likelihood that problems will follow and form into
something like a test of your xinxing. The more you ignore such things, the
better. You have your path, while human beings have their affairs. You have
things that you need to do. Don’t give any concern or attention to political
things or what happens between parties. Of course, our media don’t really have
a choice about reporting on it, since those are probably things that ordinary
people are interested in. In that case you can just report as others do, and
not write opinion pieces. You can just carry others’ reports. And we don’t
write opinion pieces on inter-party squabbles. So that’s the approach you can
take to news that’s of interest to people, until the persecution has ended and
the media run by Dafa disciples have fully become a regular part of society.
Disciple: Master, please explain to
disciples what impact the Han Couture Design Competition will have on how the
world’s people dress, and please tell why Han clothing was lost for so long
after the Ming dynasty.
Master: (Smiling) Today’s
gathering is to discuss NTDTV’s work, not Han couture. Let’s leave this
question for another time.
Disciple: I have a question about
management. When everyone is talented and opinionated, I have found that if I,
as a coordinator, give instructions or try to reconcile different opinions
somehow, there will always be someone who tells me to look within. Of course,
in the context of cultivation I can look within when I get home. But when it’s
about dealing with a particular problem and deciding how to get something done,
how should I handle it as a coordinator?
Master: I know what you mean. (Audience
laughs) Usually Dafa disciples will readily forgo food and sleep in order
to validate the Fa—“No matter how tired we are, we’ll do it.” But, as for
managing things and doing them in a standard way; supervising one another; or
trying to establish certain rules and procedures, you immediately refuse to
comply. (Audience laughs) Have you considered that only that way will
what you do be more powerful and methodical, and only then will you get a good
footing in human society and play an even more powerful role? You set up a
television station to validate the Fa. Your initial thought was for it to
expose the evil, and that was the extent of it. But Master just told you that
whatever you do, you should do well. And furthermore, what you are now doing is
apt to be left for the culture of the future. If there aren’t even rules or
regulations, however, then how could it be given to the future? What would
people learn from in the future, then? Without any norms, what would they learn
from?—just the zeal of Dafa disciples? (Master laughs) (Audience laughs)
That’s why I say that regardless of what kingdom you once ruled or what project
you are now involved in, whoever it is that’s supposed to supervise you, let
him. Don’t think that people can’t supervise you. Don’t forget that human
beings are in delusion, and the form of your cultivation has you practicing
among ordinary people. Perhaps the Dafa disciple who supervises you came from a
level that’s not as high as yours, or it may even be the case that he hasn’t
cultivated as high as you. But that doesn’t matter. This is about cooperation
that’s founded on righteous thoughts and that is meant to save sentient beings.
Make sure that you work together well. Did I make myself clear? (Applause)
Many students have actually brought this up with me. Today I had an opportunity
to explain it clearly for you. (Audience laughs, applauds)
Disciple: I have two questions. The
first question is, since many of the students doing media work assume multiple
roles—and that’s especially the case when it’s time to promote Shen Yun’s
performances—no one works on the ads that our salespeople bring in, or those in
the sales division go off to sell tickets. How should we balance these things?
Master: That is a problem. That’s why each
time a Shen Yun tour begins, I want to let the world know about Shen Yun as
quickly as possible. I require that the touring companies not stay in any one
place for too long, because if they did, it would be really hard for the local
practitioners and it would affect other projects. The problem [you’ve raised]
actually occurred to me long ago. Back in the days when Shen Yun Performing
Arts was being established, I made up my mind and decided to use young Dafa
disciples for this, so that it would not affect Dafa disciples’ other projects.
But there were still so many Dafa disciples involved in selling tickets and it
was a lot of hard work for them, so other projects still ended up being
affected. So what I thought was this: once we achieve a certain degree of
renown or if Shen Yun quickly gets famous, we can have ordinary people book the
full show and then there won’t be any need for you to work on ticket sales. As
it turns out, Shen Yun already puts on the single best show in the entire
world. Nobody is better. (Applause) But right now, the wicked CCP is
interfering with the salvation of the world’s people. Shen Yun is hugely
influential now, though it hasn’t developed as quickly as planned. Once its
popularity spreads far and wide, there won’t be any need for you to expend so
much effort over ticket sales. At that time we’ll just need to put out an ad
saying that Shen Yun is here and will perform at such-and-such place, and that
will do it—people will come. I think that Dafa disciples won’t have to spend so
much energy and time on it then, and other projects won’t be affected. So
that’s what I have been moving toward. In doing so, I specified that we ensure
the quality of the program and that the performance is perfect, that we ensure
the best results, and that there are no lapses or problems at any point along
the way. When we truly achieve that, the show’s influence is sure to expand. I
won’t guarantee anything, but I feel that the day is not far off. (Applause)
At that time, all you will have to do is run an ad. (Audience laughs)
Or perhaps your media will have gained the same kind of influence, so there
wouldn’t even be a need for ads. It would be enough to just have you report on
it. (Master laughs)
Disciple: Could Master please talk
about the importance and responsibility of NTDTV’s multi-language programming
in relation to saving sentient beings?
Master: For sure it would be better if
there could be programs in more languages. And if the station could truly gain
a solid footing in ordinary society, get into a positive cycle, and flourish
and prosper, that would be great. Don’t stop at having programs in other
languages, however. You will really be doing well when you have managed to
produce programs in every language, with no ethnicity left out. That’s because
who is before you and who you must save are all of the world’s people. But I
know that in terms of human and material resources, or what we can bring to
bear at present, we are really far off from doing that. But whatever the case,
for now let’s start from the basics. If we do well, it will not only have a
great impact, but also, talented and capable people will obtain the Fa one
after another; and since the two are connected, they will come on board and
fill the needs you have. It’s even possible that every facet of your enterprise
would improve, including your financial means. But if your present state
doesn’t change fundamentally, none of those changes will come about. So, you
should really give a lot of thought to how to gain a footing in ordinary
society and get into a positive cycle. Let’s work hard on this.
Disciple: Just now there was a
Canadian student who asked a question about Canada. I’m pretty confused too, in
fact. More than half a year has passed since last September, when NTDTV started
its operations in Toronto, and still we don’t have enough viewers. I am
thinking about how to make a breakthrough with the challenges we’re facing.
Isn’t the success of a business a major responsibility that the management has?
Master: Whether or not you cooperate well
isn’t in the hands of just one or two people. This time let’s have everyone
think along the same lines and see if there’s a good solution. At a minimum, by
doing so you can learn about how to go about things in the future and how to do
things in a solid and steady way. If it still doesn’t work, then it probably
means that conditions still aren’t ripe. If your efforts go well, though, and
things work out, then it means that you have cooperated well.
Disciple: Pardon the interruption,
but we noticed that there are people taking notes. Note-taking is strictly
prohibited, and neither is recording allowed.
Master: It’s not that we are afraid of
people taking notes. Rather, once you leave here with what you have written
down, it won’t be the same as what I originally meant. And besides, you
wouldn’t be able to get everything down, so what you jotted down would amount
to quoting out of context. What you are doing is picking and choosing what you
like and think is useful to tell others. You are not cultivating yourself, and
instead want to use my words to fix-up others. (Audience laughs) So
you’d better not take notes. I told you long ago that it’s not allowed, wishing
to see you walk your path correctly. You need to destroy the notes that you
have taken.
Disciple: Shen Yun has performed all
over the world, but not in Hong Kong.
Master: I know. Increasingly, the wicked
CCP seems to be brazenly exercising full-blown control over Hong Kong. What
happened to that “one country, two systems” thing? It looks to me as though
[the CCP is] utterly without shame, and right now it fits that saying, “A dead
pig is not afraid of boiling water.” (Audience laughs) It will stop at
nothing, and the world’s disgust with it is deepening by the day. More and more
it’s leading the world’s people to see it more clearly for what it is. It’s
directly manipulating and controlling the government of Hong Kong, and the
theaters there are all government property. But none of this matters, and there
is no need for concern. You know what I’m thinking? I am preparing for Shen Yun
to perform in mainland China. (Enthusiastic applause) I’m not just
thinking out loud. The evil may think it’s powerful, but let’s see what history
has in store. (Master laughs) It’s not up to them. Every dynasty was
once full of bluster, only to be reduced to a whimper in the end. (Master
laughs) (Audience applauds)
Disciple: I’m with the marketing
department of NTDTV headquarters in New York. I wanted to ask about
collaboration between the news teams and production teams. We’ve gone out to
report events, and have come back with lots of business cards each day. Many
people are interested in us. One thing that concerns me is how time is now
passing faster and faster every day, and I am anxious. Although I’m not doing
this full-time, I hope that I can stay in touch with each and every one of
those contacts. But there is only enough time to do very little each day.
Master: True, those who are really doing
things will feel that there isn’t enough time. That’s why I hope that you will
get more people involved in marketing, and thus you won’t feel so busy and will
be able to blaze a trail and get into a positive cycle. (Applause)
With marketing, you need to clarify the facts as you interact with people, and
it too will be a way of saving sentient beings. And you are doing [marketing]
to help the station as a whole do well, so it’s outstanding. Don’t think that
only doing the more frontline types of work, like writing articles, amounts to
saving people. That’s not true. Everyone is utilizing the reports from the
station to save people.
Disciple: I have two questions. One
is, NTDTV has been in existence for seven or eight years. Many students,
however, have not improved their skills to a satisfactory extent. They
themselves hold this to be the case. The second question is, many students are
more enthusiastic about handing out flyers than working on NTDTV’s news.
Master: (Master laughs) There are
differences among you, but every link in the chain is critical. If you consider
the case of those who are a bit older and who don’t have much schooling, or who
don’t know how to do anything else, the most effective thing they can do is to
pass out fliers. For those of you who are well educated and adept at writing,
however, you can play to your strengths and do writing. The truth of course is
that all of these are ultimately the same. Whatever form it may take, if what
you are doing saves people it is magnificent. (Applause) (Master laughs)
Disciple: NTDTV has developed very
quickly and its programs are becoming more numerous, but we still have a
shortage of manpower in each region. When we are overwhelmed by the work, some
fellow cultivators say that we have to ensure a certain quantity and try to do
more. Others meanwhile say that since we are so busy now, if the quality can’t
be ensured we should do less. So while we are en route to becoming more
professional, how should we handle this?
Master: I see that you’ve been working
really hard, and everyone is trying their utmost to do better and do more. Of
course, the better the quality and the more programs you do, the better. That’s
what I think. But when I see all of you working so hard, I don’t want to say
anything further. (Master laughs) (Audience laughs) That is what
everyone wants, however. If you can work together better and add some more
manpower, perhaps the situation will change dramatically. I see the immediate
challenges that you face. There’s no special solution. (Master laughs)
Master cannot give you some special method, for you need to walk your own path.
Disciple: Some talk shows need to
invite guests. One perspective is that as long as they hold views that help to
expose the CCP, we can invite them on our programs. But sometimes we haven’t
looked into their backgrounds that well. Another perspective is that we should try
our best to invite our own commentators.
Master: As for inviting commentators, of
course it’s best to have those with the appropriate status. But if you have
regular, strong commentators of your own who are popular, that’s good too, but
that means your station would need its own experts. That said, sometimes there
is a need to invite appropriate people from outside for a program. They speak
from a third party angle, as an expert or in a special capacity, and that too
is needed. But it is hard to gauge the views some people have, so you might
need to find out a bit beforehand. The theme of a program is usually clear, so
[when you screen him] you can just have the conversation revolve around that
topic. Tell the person your views, and if he agrees with you, then go ahead
with it; if he doesn’t, then don’t. If the person is really someone from the
CCP, then isn’t it still good if he publicly exposes the wicked CCP for what it
is through his comments? (Audience laughs) (Master laughs) You should
be broad-minded and tolerant. (Master laughs) (Applause) Things will
go well if you are magnanimous.
Disciple: During interviews, some
people from the mainland who understand things asked me to pass on their
regards when I see you. (Master: Then I thank them.) (Audience applauds)
Some rights advocates there are asking if they can work in China as NTDTV
reporters.
Master: It’s too dangerous for them. You
have to look out for their safety as much as possible. If they manage to
provide information, you shouldn’t reveal your source’s identity; and you
should be especially careful about their safety. Revealing their identity
really would be detrimental to them. You should take these things into
consideration.
Let me talk about another thing. In
the mainland, some students have become confused during the persecution.
However, once they become clear on things, or once they find themselves in a
new setting, they are able to tell right from wrong. They definitely don’t side
with the evil deliberately, for sure. When you evaluate someone, you often say,
“So and so was ‘transformed’ in the mainland.” But, failing to pass tests is
simply part of the cultivation process. Cultivation is not over after that, and
the person is still cultivating. So, you shouldn’t regard him as really being
no good anymore. Of course, some people did do bad things during that phase
when they were supposedly “being transformed,” but, if they might still be able
to make it up later on as they cultivate, they should be given chances. I hope,
though, that these people will have the attitude of wanting to make a fresh
start; when you act as if you don’t care about what happened, you will be
looked down upon. Of course, the Dafa disciples who were not “transformed” and
made it through despite the evil are indeed magnificent, and deserving of
respect. (Applause)
My point is, you shouldn’t push your
fellow cultivators away. They are fellow cultivators, and you should try your
best to have them feel the warmth with which Dafa disciples interact with one
another. If your concern is that you don’t know them well enough, then you can
try to learn more about them from Dafa disciple contacts in China. If the
person really is a Dafa disciple, then bring him on board [your project]. Or if
nobody knows for sure about him, then wait for some time. If it doesn’t feel
right, then tell him to go hand out fliers first. But if you determine that he
really was a Dafa disciple in China, then I think there won’t be a problem.
Even if he’s a special agent, consider that everyone can see that the CCP is
about to fall. China’s high-ranking officials are moving their capital overseas
in large quantities, preparing a way out for themselves and buying foreign
passports, thinking of how to flee. Who’s actually dedicating himself to that
regime? Yes, there are indeed some stupid people (everyone laughs),
some brainless ones. Those people have been indoctrinated to the point that
they really can’t tell right from wrong. You’ll recognize such people the
moment you meet them, but they are the minority, after all. The world’s people
are waiting for you to save them. You should open your hearts and not exclude
your fellow cultivators. If you fail to do so, you are obstructing and stopping
yourselves.
Disciple: I do interviews with the
community in Flushing. Some people are, as ordinary people put it, just set on
opposing Falun Gong. Should I allow them to be on camera? There are others who
we usually don’t take footage of, and maybe only one of their hands or
something would appear in the scene. But ordinary viewers have complained about
this. Also, should we report on the activities that religious groups hold?
Master: You should make that judgment call
yourselves. If you feel that you want to give the person another chance, then
go ahead, do it. But if it’s a case of someone who is rotten to the core, and
because of him many sentient beings might be eliminated later on or lose their
chance, then let’s not allow him to appear on camera. It’s up to you to decide.
If instead someone’s presence or words are good for saving sentient beings,
then whoever it may be, it can be used. And if there is nothing beneficial,
then don’t use it. Some news items are not important and have no connection to
your efforts to save people, so don’t draw attention to those ones.
Disciple: Travel programs are a good
way for us to get into and expand a new market, so I would like to create such
a program. The ones that we currently air are all tapes that we obtained
externally, whereas if we could produce our own we could market them later on. (Master: That
would be good.) But, when I brought up the things needed for this with the
management, they felt that right now we aren’t good enough and couldn’t produce
something the same caliber as others. (Master: Well,
maybe they’re right.) (Everyone laughs) When studying the Fa it occurred to
me that I might be being too insistent, and since I’m a cultivator after all, I
dropped the idea. (Everyone laughs) Yet some fellow cultivators believe that my
idea was quite good, and they have encouraged me to carry it out. Right now I
can’t figure out whether it’s really just that I have an attachment or whether
it turns out we could currently produce a program as good as what ordinary
people do. I personally feel confident that we could.
Master: Then you can explain to the
station’s management in greater detail your thinking in regards to what steps
you would take and how you would carry things out. If you are able to instill
confidence in them by discussing this, then I think there will no longer be any
issues. (Everyone laughs, applauds)
Disciple: I am currently involved in
making music programs for the station. We’ve found that the technical skills
needed for sound production are very high, and I’m not sure how much time I
should allot for something like this. Do I need to make a special effort just
to learn this, and perhaps make a study of it? I ask because it would be very
time-consuming.
Master: Things need to be done well at the
station, and that means there have to be standards, and professionalism. If you
can’t do something, you will have to learn it. (Laughs) As for the
specifics of how to do that, it’s up to you.
Disciple: Each time we hear Master
teach the Fa, there are always students back home who really want us to tell
them about it as soon as possible after we return. What happens next is this
person recalls a little and that person recalls a little from memory. It
doesn’t seem that right to me.
Master: When you discuss after going back,
you’ll need to add, “What I’m sharing is just the general idea, and not
Master’s original words.” If people are just trying to learn, it’s fine. But
if, however, someone takes notes and reads from them, then that is a case of
misrepresenting Master.
Disciple: I had previously asked the
person in charge of planning as a whole about the overall planning for
programming. He said that in many cases they found that when the station
ordered that a program go forward, and for example told it what direction to go
in, it proved to be very hard for practitioners to keep it up. By contrast,
when instead those involved wanted of their own initiative to produce a
program, they generally could follow through. One direct result of this has
been that the station is really lacking in programs that have popular appeal.
So I would like to ask how to better balance the ratio of popular type programs
and truth-clarification ones.
Master: If you were working at an ordinary
company and your boss told you to do something, would you tell him that you’re
just going to do whatever you feel like doing? So, why can’t you cooperate well
when you are validating the Fa? Why can’t you handle this well? Why can you do
something well only if it appeals to you? These are precisely problems of
coordination and cooperation. It was a shared aspiration that brought you
together for this initiative, but when you each insist on your own views, and
just do what pleases you, how could that amount to cooperation? If each of my
five fingers here wants to be extended, a fist can’t be formed and there will
be no punch to throw (laughs). It’s weak this way. So you need to work
together well.
Disciple: At present there is a lot
of engagement between Taiwan and China. If we are to report on it as regular
media would do, it will be hard to avoid making the wicked CCP look better than
it is.
Master: That’s indeed something to be
careful about. As for the specifics of things, that is still something for you
to figure out. But you should modify the content from the reports done by ordinary
media if it contains things that would willfully make the wicked Party look
good.
Disciple: If we are to avoid writing
commentaries, then can we find ordinary people to do so?
Master: If you have ordinary people do it,
it’s still your paper that’s running the commentary. Readers won’t make a
distinction between whether the writer is part of your staff or not. Don’t get
involved in ordinary affairs, and don’t partake in ordinary people’s politics.
I have made this clear.
Disciple: I would like to ask a
follow-up question. There is now a lot of engagement between Taiwan and China,
and the CCP has used a lot of media, business, and economic means to make
inroads in Taiwan. Should we look for one aspect of this to hone in on and
expose?
Master: You need to consider whether or not
these things help to save sentient beings. If not, then don’t do it. If so,
then reveal the truth. But don’t pay any regard to whether or not [the CCP] has
made inroads. The more you think about that, the more it will make inroads,
with the point being to see what you’ll do. Don’t pay it any mind. When saving
sentient beings, you want to direct your efforts at people—not how things are
shaping up in society. Focus on people’s hearts and minds, and not on a certain
social class or an organization or institution.
Disciple: When reporting on
happenings outside of China, I’ve found that sometimes what is reported in
mainland China is news that has already been published abroad, and that what we
report on can serve as a strong counterpoint to the CCP; for example, we could
compare how democratic governments in the free world handle a certain thing
with how the CCP does. I’d like to ask whether, when we broadcast news of
happenings outside China, it’s important for us to look at the news reported by
China as a reference and expose the CCP by depicting the contrary.
Master: No, it’s not. There is no set
tactic. Just do things sensibly. No matter how the CCP tries to seal things
off, no matter how it tries to control information about its persecution of
Falun Gong, what it is doing will nevertheless be revealed to society; people
will find out in the end and that information will be reported internationally.
You can reprint reports from elsewhere and, simultaneously, find out through
your channels what exactly has happened, and report it afterwards. So there is
no need to take the [wicked Party’s] stuff and report the opposite. Of course,
things are different for media that are reporting from special angles; they
specialize in dissecting the wicked Party. (Everyone laughs)
Disciple: I’m a disciple from Los
Angeles, and I would like to ask about strategies for promoting Shen Yun. We
had eight performances this year in January, but, because our initial marketing
plan wasn’t very effective, we didn’t do a good job early on moving tickets.
Later, we were hoping to capitalize on the Thanksgiving holiday to make up for
lost time and set a plan, only to have it fall through when the practitioners
couldn’t agree on things and big arguments ensued. Then, in the end, the
worst-case scenario happened: when the performances were about to start, we
gave out discount vouchers.
Master: The problems you experience selling
Shen Yun tickets are in fact a reflection of the cultivation state of the students
in that locale. That’s extremely clear to me. No matter which student or which
place it is, however your state is will definitely be mirrored in how your
ticket sales go. I’m not saying that you haven’t cultivated well, but rather,
that it is a manifestation of how successfully you cooperate. That is very
apparent in how your Shen Yun ticket sales go. In some places students worked
together extremely well, and in some places there were just a handful of
students working on things, yet what they did, despite having few people, was
highly effective.
I’ve observed that in San Francisco
there are some students who for quite some time haven’t stepped forward. I
don’t want to lose them. I’d like to see this group come out and do some simple
things as a start, having them first of all step forward, and secondly have a
chance to establish a certain amount of mighty virtue. Otherwise, what will
happen to them in the future? Other Dafa disciples are very busy, and don’t
have any extra energy to take on more things. It’s true that some of the
students who didn’t come out before have managed to come out, and that’s great.
Disciple: NTDTV Europe has a set
program that runs once every two weeks, called “Across Europe.” It’s a struggle
even to fill up the fifteen minutes. I’m really concerned seeing NTDTV Europe
like this. What will it take for NTDTV Europe to do better? There seem to be
quite a few people there involved in NTDTV.
Master: (Sighing) You’re basically
asking me how to cultivate better (everyone laughs) and cooperate
better. When things don’t go well, everyone bears some of the responsibility,
for sure. You wanted to take this path, to come on board and be part of this
project so as to help Master rectify the Fa. Then we should ask, have you
helped Master rectify the Fa? Or is it that you are just satisfying your
attachments in the process? That’s the problem as I see it. I’m not referring
to just the difficulty producing those fifteen minutes that you described. If
you can’t work together well, how are all of those programs that the station
needs to produce going to be made? You need to realize what your responsibility
is. What Dafa disciples shoulder is a great, historic responsibility. Tens or
hundreds of millions of years, or two Earths, have passed, all of which was for
this very affair at the end. How could you not do well at the very end? Yes, it
is a deluding place here, but how come some people do manage to do well? Why is
it that others can manage to cooperate well? In cultivation, hardship is not
the greatest challenge. Hardship passes after a brief spell, and if it’s not
handled well one will nevertheless be clear about things afterwards. What is
hardest is to remain consistently disciplined when there is seemingly no
hope—that’s the most difficult. Dafa disciples, after thousands—or tens of
thousands—of years, what you have sought to do has arrived. If you don’t do
well at it, how will you stand before all of this one day?
Have you heard about the Great
Judgment? At one time the god(s) of a very high plane arranged for there to be
a major judgment at the end of Fa-rectification. The plan was to include all
who had passed away as well as all who had gone to hell, as they would be
brought back to life for judgment; the living would undergo judgment too; as
would all gods of the entire universe. All would be judged one by one. The idea
of the Great Judgment has been passed down in the West, in fact. It would not
just be those who had done wrongful things who would be judged, but also those
people and gods who had played a good role, including Dafa disciples—they too
would be subjected to judgment. Each life would be made to bear responsibility
for each and every one of its actions in history. And this would be especially
true for during the time of the universe’s Fa-rectification, where one would be
held accountable for everything—be it one’s motives, what one did, or even the
little things; and it was set that gods, those who had played both a negative
and positive part in the Fa-rectification, as well as demons and even tiny life
forms, would all be subjected to judgment. Even those who had a positive effect
would be judged just the same, in which case it would be asked how many
sentient beings could not be saved on account of your failing to do well in the
course of what you were doing? And in the case of a Dafa disciple, it would be
asked how many of your vows went unfulfilled? Failing to make good on them
would be just one aspect of it, for when you do not do something, or do it
well, there are consequences of varying sizes, and you would be held
accountable for all of these. Would it work if you weren’t held accountable for
the shame that your actions might have caused Dafa or for your having deceived
the Lord? I haven’t talked about any of this before. I didn’t want to mention
these things. But you really, truly should sober up. Don’t you know what time
it is yet?
Disciple: Shen Yun will one day go
to the mainland to perform. What are the future prospects for NTDTV in the
mainland?
Master: (Laughing) (Everyone laughs)
Well, it’s no joking matter. As you’ve seen, here, during this critical moment
in history, NTDTV has managed to play an overwhelmingly positive role in
helping Master rectify the Fa and save sentient beings. That mouthpiece of the
wicked CCP, that disaster of a television station (laughter), is in
fact a den of fiends. It’s a band of hooligans that rigs up lies and
falsehoods, it is solely an instrument of the wicked Party that works to dupe
the people. In the future, will there still be a place for it to utter so much
as even a sound? There won’t, you can be sure. Now of course, NTDTV has
been responsible to society, it gives voice to the people, and what would be
wrong with moving it to a different place? (Everyone laughs, applauds)
Having said that, Falun Gong doesn’t seek to gain anything of what ordinary
people have, but, the fact is that NTDTV is a company that’s established in
ordinary human society. Mark my words: the magnificence of your saving sentient
beings is such that the people of the future will really hold you in high
esteem, and they will carry forward all of what our Dafa disciples have
undertaken. (Applause)
Disciple: [Putting on] a performance
by Shen Yun indeed takes up a lot of students, which affects many projects.
But, disciples in
Master: NTDTV’s competition series has
already had a pretty big impact and made an impression on people. The
competitions serve to restore human culture. For one thing, they can increase
the station’s name recognition and have the effect of distinguishing NTDTV. If
the programming is made lively, it can attract viewers from different segments
of society. That’s looking at it on the surface, at least. In reality, though,
it is a matter of saving people through the work of television. But that said,
after the competitions are over, wait until next year before doing things
again; don’t keep hyping them up in the interim. If you promote them any
further, it will amount to merely promoting ordinary human things. A Dafa
disciple’s priority is to save people, so you need to keep things in proper perspective.
The competitions can help to distinguish the station, and they help to recover
the proper cultural heritage of man. But when they are done, they’re done, and
you can’t exclusively go on promoting human culture at the expense of saving
sentient beings, which is your primary responsibility. Your top priority right
now is to save sentient beings.
Disciple: We have encountered some
challenges while working on the business operations of NTDTV. One is that among
our students there are not that many who do sales. Another is that people feel
that doing sales for The Epoch Times is relatively easy, whereas with NTDTV
it’s hard, and they lack confidence. There really are issues that we face
producing ads, as the requirements are high. How should we look at these
difficulties?
Master: What I think is, [these two media]
are interfacing with different kinds of businesses. If a business is rather
large, it will definitely be interested in doing television advertising. But if
it is smaller, it’s possible it will only be interested in doing advertising in
print media. This should be quite clear. If a restaurant were to use television
advertising, for instance, they might feel it’s like bringing out the heavy
artillery to kill a mosquito. (Everyone laughs) Whereas larger
enterprises have a wider business scope, and the effect that television
advertising has befits them. So, when doing advertising you need to think a bit
about what kind of commercial entity is suited to your medium.
Disciple: I coordinate the reporting
on Shen Yun for multiple languages. I have noticed that sometimes when people
are preparing Chinese language reports they are a bit sloppy handling the names
of Western interviewees, yet a person’s name is very important in journalism.
Another thing is, there was a Shen Yun television ad that was to be translated
into several languages, but the quality of its editing wasn’t that good. I
thought that it would only take half a day to perfect it, but one of my
supervisors said that it would take too long and we should just quickly roll it
out. I feel that the approach wasn’t right. Could I have a discussion with him
about this?
Master: You certainly could, but that
doesn’t mean you should just change it as you wish and drag it out for days or
even longer. Quality is important in journalism. If there are indeed the
problems you mentioned of people’s names being written wrong or typos, then you
all need to pay more attention to such things going forward.
Let me say a few words in passing
about promotional video clips. There are a lot of opinions being tossed around
about the Shen Yun promotional video(s). I’ll speak about this from two angles.
On the one hand, it’s possible that indeed the footage and the creative aspects
didn’t meet your expectations. Everyone is still learning, and for sure there
will be shortcomings in people’s work. But each is trying his or her best. And
with time, each will do better and better. That’s something I require of them,
and those involved will work hard on it. There is another element to it,
though. As you know, ordinary people are not the same as cultivators, and when
they size up whether something is beautiful or good, what’s to their liking is
not going to accord with the true, traditional standards for these things as
set forth by divinely imparted culture, for they have lost that standard. The
wide array of notions that people form in the world after birth determine their
thoughts and actions, and that’s why you have some people saying one thing is
good and others saying something else is, or one person saying something you’ve
done is a problem while the next finds it okay.
Many productions in Western society,
as you might know, don’t use a lot of advertising—with some even using no
television advertising at all. They don’t give a clear explanation in their ad
copy about what the performance involves, and even just write a few words,
maybe adding on some vague picture, and it’s effective even though it’s that
kind of ad. Then compared to that, Shen Yun’s ads actually reveal too much,
isn’t that right? That’s true, as you well know. No other shows use such
detailed and precise representations, and yet some of our students still think
it’s not enough; some even think that you need to depict in an ad the entire
production for it to work. That’s not possible, though. And this holds true for
ads for movies as well. If you make it too detailed, people won’t come see it,
for they will think that they know the whole thing already. With many people,
they will only have a new, fresh experience if they go into it not knowing
anything about it, and only then is it interesting, and only then are they
mesmerized by it. So if your ads are too detailed it will in fact have a bad
effect. It’s the opposite of what you think—that people will come to see it
only if you portray it in all its glory. If people know about all of it
already, they won’t in fact come to see it.
Then what accounts for all the
difficulty you have selling tickets? It’s not just a matter of your promotional
materials. Then what is the issue? It has to do with the longstanding cultural
foundations that people have, as well as their degree of familiarity with
another culture. Take any ballet company in the
So it’s not that you haven’t given
out or put out enough promotional materials. Consider that last year in the
Disciple: As for our media outlets
reporting things that have broad appeal, is what you have in mind the kinds of
things that go along with ordinary people’s attachments and appeal to people
whose moral values have slid down? Or were you referring to the kinds of things
that they really should enjoy…?
Master: There is no set standard for what
people like. When anything is done well, people like it. It comes down to quality.
Some people like things spicy, some bitter, some sweet, and some sour, as they
have different tastes. When people live in society for a long time, they
develop their own views on things and what they like, and everyone has
different tastes. But don’t let this fact affect you. You know that what
comprises a Shen Yun performance is really crucial, so people say to me, “Why
don’t you include xiaopin [skits]?” “Why don’t you have xiangsheng [comedy
dialogue]?” “Why don’t you include popular songs?” “Why don’t you have
acrobatics?” “Why don’t you have this, why don’t you have that...?” There is
one thing I am extremely clear on, and that is, whatever it is you do, if you
do it well, people will like it. When you choose what to use, you take into
consideration your audience and ask whether a given artistic form is classy or
whether it’s unrefined. Why have I chosen song and dance? Because song and
dance have no language barrier, and no cultural or ethnic barriers, and anyone
can follow it. Then supposing we were to do a xiaopin skit, what would all
those groups out there who don’t understand Chinese be hearing? Many kinds of
arts are by nature limited in their appeal. Only song and dance are something
everyone can accept and find accessible.
Sometimes I can’t help but observe
how every day there are people around me airing their views, expressing this,
then that, then this… At those times I’m thinking: I am probably the only one
who could handle all of this, I know what I am doing as well as what the future
holds (everyone laughs), and if anyone were to take my place it would
be a mess, as they couldn’t handle all this. (Everyone laughs, applauds)
That reminds me of the media that
Dafa disciples are running. When Dafa disciples are doing something, for sure
there are always yet more people at ear’s length who air their views, unloading
a whole pile of suggestions—“do it this and that way, that and this way…” (Master
laughs, everyone else laughs) Those who are involved in the [media]
projects always think that the management has problems, while those involved in
the management always think that the others aren’t being very cooperative. But
actually, Dafa disciples should first be considerate of others no matter what
the occasion, and put themselves in the other person’s shoes, and look at the
whole picture. Then you will know what to do. Think about where the other
person might be coming from, see if you can look at the whole picture, and then
you will know what to do.
Disciple: Could Shen Yun’s
performance be played in
Master: No, Shen Yun’s performance cannot
be played as a movie. It wouldn’t be striking the way it is on stage, nor would
it be as effective saving people. As for the question of what the station
should do, that’s still left to you yourselves to determine. I was really happy
when I heard that
Disciple: There are a lot of young
disciples among those doing media work. Because they haven’t figured out the
appropriate degree of intimacy between men and women, it has made their own
cultivation and things around them highly unstable.
Master: This is really something to watch
out for. If Dafa disciples don’t do well in this regard, if they can’t pass
this test, or if they have not walked their own path well, then they have
disgraced both themselves and Dafa disciples as a whole. I don’t want to say
much about this; I already said more than enough before. Pay attention to it.
The media in mainland China like to publicize this sort of scandalous thing, as
the evil wants to corrupt the Chinese people and make them unsavable. The
evil’s goal is plenty clear: to see whether gods will still bother to save such
people. Then how are you, as Dafa disciples, to get other people to do well if
you yourselves aren’t managing to do well? How are you to save them?
Disciple: Many of us who are
involved in media work have to attend to an ordinary job as well, which makes
it hard for us to put all of our effort into the media’s operations.
Master: That’s the situation for pretty
much everyone sitting here. Everyone’s doing it that way. It’s just a matter of
using your time well, of managing it well. That’s the situation before us,
unless you have a way to resolve the problem of making a living or to get full-time
employees. I’ve in fact told the station that those who work full time on
selling ads can have a regular wage. That is, we do it by treating it as a
formal job, allowing people to take on this work without those worries—we have
to make this path into a reality. Other initiatives can do the same if
conditions permit. But if they do not, then you can’t do that.
You all know the effect that Shen
Yun Performing Arts now has, and you have seen it; even if it is thousands who
attend, when they leave, they have changed. That kind of instant result isn’t
something that our other efforts to clarify the truth can achieve under normal
circumstances; at least at present they haven’t reached that kind of level, let
alone with an audience of Shen Yun’s size. But a show put on by a performing
arts company can. A performing arts company can have that big of an impact,
but, of course, for that to happen many things first need to be done well. This
has led some people to conclude that we should just focus on starting up more
new companies then—“let’s all work on this.” But that won’t work. As you can
imagine, that would cause problems in terms of financial, material, and human
resources. The [Shen Yun] performers you see, those young adults, have ample
conditions for this, and their artistic skills improve at an incredible rate.
The students at Fei Tian have done really well in their academic courses
too—their scores on standardized tests were among the top in their upstate
Disciple: There was an ordinary
person who, after seeing Shen Yun perform, brought the company’s promotional
materials back with him to mainland
Master: As the evil factors are
increasingly cleared out, people are increasingly becoming freed. People will
analyze things for themselves after waking up, and they will see the
persecution and the wicked Party for what they are. They will immediately be
able to tell which is good and which is bad. However badly people’s moral
values might have sunk, they still have powers of reason after all, and they
are still able to discern good from bad. Gradually people will wake up.
Disciple: It has already been set
forth that The Epoch Times has to break even financially. So in terms of the
business side of NTDTV, how should Dafa disciples at the station go about drawing
up goals?
Master: The specifics are still things that
you need to work out for yourselves. Don’t ask Master things that are so
specific. Cooperate together well. I have also spoken with the coordinators, so
they will know what should be done.
I think that I won’t say anything
more. I would like to leave you time for discussion. After all, today is not a
Fa conference. (Everyone laughs) I’m just here to resolve some of the
pressing questions you might have. That’s all I will say. Thank you all! (Enthusiastic
applause)
Last update: August 20, 2009