(Minghui.org)
Greetings, Master. Greetings, fellow practitioners.
Becoming Adept at Talking about Falun Dafa
In 2009 when I moved to a small town in Canada, I was the only Falun Dafa practitioner. I was worried because I wanted to establish an environment for validating the Fa. I was fortunate, as Master provided me with the opportunity to explain the facts of the persecution of Falun Dafa in China to my classmates and teachers. After a while, I became involved with truth clarification online. Half a year later, I met up with practitioners in a nearby city and so was able to participate in local truth clarification work. At first, I went to Chinatown to speak to people about Falun Gong. Over time I became more adept and less intimidated. A year later, a practitioner told me they needed help on a media project. I joined the project to call China to clarify the facts about Falun Dafa. It is just as Teacher said:
“The arrangements that were made were, in fact, quite detailed, to the extent that how each Dafa disciple would walk his path; what situations each would meet with; how each would advance or fall back; and how things would be handled when inappropriate states eventually came about, was all meticulously arranged.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)
Making Phone Calls to Save Sentient Beings
Making phone calls taught me many lessons. I used to tremble even before I began to make calls. Now, I can talk to any police officer without blinking an eye.
Two months into making calls, I called a deputy chief of a police bureau. After listening to some facts about Falun Dafa, she said, “Falun Dafa is good, but it should not get involved in politics.” I told her, “We are letting people understand the truth of the persecution so they are not fooled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). We hope that people will be safe when the CCP is no longer in power. There is nothing that involves politics.” I then told her about quitting the CCP and its affiliates. She said, “The quality of life is pretty good now.” I responded, “There are so many natural and man-made disasters these days. Since the CCP came to power 63 years ago, it has killed over 80 million people during its different movements. Now it is persecuting a group of good people who practice Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Heaven will not tolerate that and will destroy the CCP. Those who refuse to quit the CCP will go down with it. I would like for you to stay safe.” She hesitated and said, “I am a kind person and follow my conscience and that should be enough.” I said, “The CCP is built on lies and violence. It seeks to persecute the Chinese people and destroy traditional Chinese culture. It does not belong to China. I hope you can become a real Chinese person by quitting it.” I offered to help her quit and she eventually thanked me. She also agreed to treat Falun Dafa practitioners she met kindly.
I went on to the next phone call. The person was very impatient. He told me not to bother him because he was eating and hung up. I kept calling back. He did not pick up the phone several times. Then, when he finally picked up, he said that what I told him was boring and useless. The next call, he brushed me off again. By then, I had already made over a dozen calls.
I was debating about giving up, when I suddenly remembered what Master said:
“As for saving sentient beings and clarifying the truth, a lot of people haven’t done it in depth. They’ll say just a few words to people, thinking 'Listen or don’t listen, just do whatever you like. You don’t want to listen, fine!' and they’ll go on to find the next person. In whatever you do you should carry it through to the end, do it well, and if you intend to save someone, then go ahead and save him. When someone is placed before you, there isn’t a choice—you’re wrong if you become selective in terms of saving people. As long as he is someone you run into, you should save him, regardless of his position or social status, or whether he be the president or a beggar.” (“What is a Dafa Disciple”)
I immediately called again, but he berated me until people next to him told him to stop cursing. He then changed his attitude and started to listen to the facts about Falun Dafa. He quickly agreed to quit the CCP and its affiliates. I asked him to turn the phone over to those around him, “Now you are safe. I want your relatives and friends to be safe, too. Isn't that a wonderful thing?” He quickly said, “Yes!” During that one call, 27 people quit the CCP and its affiliates. From this incident, I was enlightened to what Master said:
“When this compassionate goodness emerges, its strength is without equal, and it will disintegrate any bad factors. The greater the compassion, the greater the power ... Compassion is an enormous energy, the energy of righteous gods. The more compassion that is present, the greater this energy becomes, and it can disintegrate anything that is bad.” (“Fa Reaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference”)
Overcoming Obstacles
Feeling sleepy was an enormous problem when making phone calls, because I made the calls after returning home from NTDTV at midnight. I mainly had office numbers and not many people picked up the phone. Also, when someone did answer, the person berated me and then hung up. That was the time when I got sleepy, but with Teacher's help I got through those moments. One time I fell asleep during a conversation and only woke up when the other person shouted. Another time I could feel my energy draining away as I spoke. The other person asked me, “Are you drunk? You sound confused.” I was shocked and quickly became clearheaded.
There were times when I failed. One time I was very sleepy, so I decided to take just a short nap. I slept through the night. Another time a practitioner asked me whether I would make calls to promote Shen Yun and said that I would need to make calls daily. After I studied the Fa and was ready to make calls, I was really sleepy. I knew it was interference but thought that I would feel all right after a short nap. I fell asleep and woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn't get up. The next day I felt sick, had a dry throat, was tired throughout the day, and ran a fever that night. I knew that this was because I hadn't made the calls and so missed the opportunity to save people the previous day and my gaps were being exploited. I was so dizzy and tired that I did not think I could pick up the phone. Suddenly a thought entered my mind, “You are a Dafa practitioner. Stand up and accomplish your mission. You made a mistake, now you correct it. Don't disappoint the sentient beings. There are so many practitioners being tortured.” Immediately my problem seemed trivial. I struggled to get to the phone. The minute I picked up the phone, I was fine. I knew Teacher was giving me another chance. Tears covered my face, I felt so grateful to Teacher and ashamed that I had missed a chance to save sentient beings. Teacher said:
“Don’t you get sleepy? Don’t you feel sleepy as soon as you read the book, or become drowsy once you study the Fa? Let me tell you that those are gods at a level in this human dimension. If you can’t break through them, you remain a human. They aren’t intentionally doing anything to you—they treat everyone like that. That’s why people feel tired and sleepy. If you want to break away from being a human, you have to break through everything before you can make it. If you go along with them they’ll think you are just a human.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Assistants’ Fa Conference in Changchun”)
I gradually overcame sleepiness by insisting on making calls. Everything changed as I did. When I clarified the facts about Falun Dafa online, many people added me as their good friend, but once they heard the facts, they disappeared. It was as if they had waited to hear from me. Teacher arranged for them to find me.
Making Phone Calls Changes Me
I became more tolerant, and compassion filled my heart. My tone and attitude changed when I talked. Once I talked to an educator in a forced labor camp. He was very mean and kept cursing. I did not raise my voice and talked to him calmly and kept sending righteous thoughts to eliminate the evil behind him. After a dozen calls, his tone changed and he stopped cursing. I cleared his misunderstandings about Falun Dafa. In the end, he told me, “I know Falun Dafa practitioners are good people. I am a victim, too. The authorities demolished my house. To feed my family, I had to take this job.” I used what he told me to awaken him, and within about 15 minutes, he quit the CCP and its affiliates. I realized from this that guards and police are victims, too. They are worse off than the common people, and I must be compassionate and save them.
“We really appreciate what the overseas practitioners are doing”
Another time I talked to a guard in a detention center for five minutes. He said, “I know, but I don't make the decisions here.” He gave the phone to a practitioner after he understood the facts about Falun Dafa. The practitioner said, “You are a practitioner, aren't you? Where are you calling from?” When she heard that I was calling from overseas she got very excited and said, “We really appreciate what the overseas practitioners are doing. Thanks for rescuing practitioners in China.” After thanking me, she said, “Don't worry, I will be released in a few days. Many guards have come to understand the truth of the persecution and are sympathetic. They know that we are good people.” In the end I encouraged her, “Keep your head up, we are one entity.”
After the call, I was so amazed knowing that practitioners in China have created their own environment. With the rescue effort from practitioners overseas, the environment in China has changed enormously. It was truly as Teacher said:
“Compassion can harmonize Heaven and Earth, ushering in spring
Righteous thoughts can save the people in this world.”(“The Fa Rectifies the Cosmos,” Hong Yin Volume II)
Helping Fellow Practitioners
On the phone project I met a practitioner who had just begun to practice a few months before and had already clarified the facts about Falun Dafa to his friends and family. He was distributing fliers in Chinatown and talking to people face to face. He said, “I really want to save my friends and family. Can you help me with the automatic calling software now? I will call them manually later.” I was so touched. Teacher arranged for me to work with this new practitioner so I could help him and at the same time find my shortcomings. This opportunity helped me to return to my best state as a practitioner and progress more diligently.
Another practitioner had stepped into the practice over a year ago. She overcame many obstacles and had a lot of breakthroughs. She seized every opportunity to save people. She often made calls to people who persecute practitioners in China. She told me, “I felt terrible reading the persecution articles on Minghui.org. I want to quickly help them.” I have learned so much from these new practitioners and truly respect them.
Filled with Energy Despite Little Sleep
During the year I was working on the phone calling project, I made calls every day. When Shen Yun was in town, I had to promote Shen Yun during the day and make calls at night. I did not feel tired at all. On the contrary, I was filled with energy and felt very good. I started from making calls for a couple hours a day to up to six hours a day. I knew Teacher was helping me. Even when I only slept a little that night, I still was energetic during the day. Teacher said:
“At the beginning they could act wildly all around the world, whereas later they could carry on only inside that political and legal system [in China], such as in the prisons, in the Public Security bureaus, in the State Security offices, in the forced labor camps—only inside that system. Now, they can no longer control even that system itself. [The factors] are now contracting around the prisons and brainwashing centers, and they don’t have much strength left. Even Beijing is now hard for them to hold on to.” (“2012 International Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital”)
I knew that I had to continue making calls to China no matter what obstacles I ran into.
In retrospect, my path of cultivation is like what Teacher said:
“That really is the case. There has been a great deal of groundwork done in advance. All that’s missing is your carrying things out with righteous thoughts.” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa - Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference”)
“A while back, some Dafa disciples had not yet stepped forward, so we had to wait and do our best to have them come forth. But the time for this is running out.” “When I saw students who came out of China, I urged them to tell the students who haven’t stepped forward to quickly do so—to have them quickly find those lost students and spell the facts out for them, for what they otherwise face is a most tragic of ends.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)
“I can't leave behind any of the Dafa disciples.” “As your Master, I can't leave behind a single disciple ” (“Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students”)
Teachers words above are his wish and our responsibility. We need to wake up all practitioners and seize these final minutes to save people.