(Minghui.org)
Cultivating Ourselves While Making Truth Clarification Phone Calls to China
I have been logging onto the global truth clarification platform for two months. I was moved by practitioners’ stories from different regions. Some of them shared how they improved in their cultivation after they joined the platform team; others made dozens of phone calls every day. While sharing our experiences in making such phone calls, touching stories came like an endless stream. On one occasion, someone repeated loudly, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” after he learned the truth about Dafa. This moved every practitioner working on the team. Now that Master has given me the chance to work on the truth clarification platform, I should really assume responsibility for saving sentient beings, cultivating myself, and learning from other practitioners’ enlightenment through the same project. I have continued to save sentient beings on the phone with the other practitioners for quite some time.
It was not easy in the beginning, but with the help of fellow practitioners, many of my problems have been resolved. When I first picked up the phone, my attachments of fear and to self made me hesitant. I felt an invisible pressure, but I was able to distinguish that this was not me – it was evil forces attempting to block me. I realized that I needed to overcome it. If I could not even make it through the first step, how would I be able to advance? Initially, I was very nervous, and sometimes forgot what I was supposed to talk about. There were also times when I did not know how to answer the other person's questions. A fellow practitioner encouraged me by saying that I need not be attached to whether the person wants to quit the CCP. The key is to clarify the truth well, and even if he does not quit, once he hears the truth, it will eliminate the evil factors and lay the foundation for his salvation.
Because of human attachment, I stopped making phone calls one day. The next day, I felt very uneasy. At night I sent out a strong and conscious righteous thought: “Eliminate all the evil that interferes with my making truth clarification phone calls.” I made it through one call after that. The people on the other end were having a party and used a speaker phone, so dozens of other people at the party could hear the conversation. A local Party head volunteered to quit the Communist Party. Three others quit the Communist Youth League, while the others said they hadn’t joined any kind of Party organization. Just one phone call can save so many sentient beings. This experience enhanced my confidence to make more truth-clarifying phone calls.
The process of making phone calls is also a process of continuous improvement. Every time I make a phone call, it is a breakthrough; each time, it feels like shedding a layer of ego. In the process, I've learned to persevere – whatever state I am in, I must pick up the phone. Because I persevere to save people, at the same time I’m making breakthroughs in my cultivation.
After that I encountered another phase of interference, plus my own attachment: I encountered inaccessible phone numbers, dropped calls, or people hanging up and being reluctant to listen to the truth. My state of mind became unstable. It was not until I heard other practitioners sharing their experiences, that I realized it was time for me to upgrade my xinxing. In order to avoid being caught by the old forces (because of attachments) and interference in the process of saving sentient beings, I needed to look within. Besides this, I also kept sending righteous thoughts to clear my space. That way, my words would become very pure and powerful, and people would find the truth easier to accept. By looking within, I found that I couldn’t tolerate being criticized. I preferred to hear compliments. To get rid of this attachment, I constantly sent righteous thoughts to kill these ideas. After I put myself in a right spot with stronger righteous thoughts, my phone calls became more effective.
One time after I finished clarifying the truth to someone, the person asked me, “What’s your name?” I answered with my surname. The person on the phone said, “You don’t even dare to tell me your name. How can you ask me to trust you?” After that, I realized I had a very strong attachment of fear. My thinking was that the more I was afraid, the more phone calls I should make. Since then my attachment of fear has been diminishing.
Every day I would first review the cultivation exchange of the day before, such as what kind of question I hadn’t answered well; how to answer that question the next time; what my state of mind was when I was making the phone calls; and if I had any kind of attachment and what it was. Because I have focused on digging out any attachment hidden deep in my mind, I have improved very quickly.
In making phone calls to clarify the truth, I encountered a variety of people. Some did not speak up, but did not hang up either. Some threatened to call the police. Some argued and insisted that the CCP was good. And there were those who claimed, “You're crazy.” Faced with such people who have been indoctrinated by the evil Party’s culture, clarifying the truth is a process of enduring tests of different human attachments.
On one phone call, I spoke with a man who was smearing Master badly. I was not moved by his words; instead I told him the truth very calmly and nicely. Then he gradually changed his attitude. In the end, he stopped cursing and listened. Recalling that person’s attitude, I felt sad. But later I came to realize I was treating this phenomenon like a non-practitioner would. Only when I can cultivate myself well and awaken the sentient beings with my tolerance can I dispel people’s misunderstanding of Master. This is what Master wants to see.
On some calls, people hung up on me, which also affected my attitude. After I shared my problem with other practitioners, I came to realize that our thoughts can make these things happen. The more difficult we think these calls are, the harder they turn out to be. I should always be tolerant with people on the phone, ignoring whether they want to listen or not. One time, I called a young man. At the very beginning, he said he didn’t want to listen. However, I called him again the next day. On the second phone call, not only did he withdraw from the Communist Youth League, but he also helped three friends around him to resign from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations. At the end of the phone call, he repeated loudly, “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” He gave me some more phone numbers and hoped that I could help more of his friends withdraw from the CCP. On another call, one man and all of his roommates resigned from the CCP and its organizations. Then he also gave me more numbers to call. I called his friends and they withdrew, too. A group of people have been saved because of one phone number. From this experience, I learned that when we use our righteous thoughts when we make phone calls, Master will send the sentient beings to us.
Focusing on Studying the Fa and Cultivation: Advancing Vigorously
At the very beginning when I logged onto the platform, I didn’t dare to speak too much. I was afraid I would say the wrong thing because of my human attachments. And I didn’t want to share my feelings with the other practitioners. Later I realized that, regardless of whether I was good at truth clarification phone calls or not, experience sharing can help me make a lot of progress. Every time we shared our experiences, I benefited a lot, and I became more and more mature.
At that time, I was really worried and felt a high level of stress. A fellow practitioner told me, “The nervousness and stress are not our original nature. Only when we deny them can we make progress.”
When people hung up on me too many times, I felt lost. The other practitioner encouraged me, “No matter what we face, we should have a righteous will. Don’t give up. It’s very precious if someone can persevere.”
When I met with cultivation tests, one practitioner told me, “Truth clarification phone calls and character cultivation are complementary. We need to get the three things done well at the same time. We should look into ourselves when we are in trouble. And we also should send righteous thoughts as much as possible.”
After I did this for a long time, the attachment to validating myself surfaced. At this time, a fellow practitioner mentioned at the experience sharing, “Study the Fa well; clarify the truth with tolerance. Don’t do something for the sake of accomplishment. Don’t slack off in studying the Fa and cultivating ourselves. Get rid of the consideration for ourselves; think about sentient beings instead.”
Then a new broadcast team was set up, which will encourage more practitioners to participate in this truth-clarification project and help more practitioners to make faster progress. Some time ago, the coordinator asked me to lead other practitioners in this effort. One practitioner is a new student from Japan, while another one from Singapore has listened to the phone calls for a while, but hasn’t yet made any phone calls himself. On the first day, the Japanese student did some preparation, but the student from Singapore didn’t. At first, they followed the script, but not smoothly. Their voices did not sound natural. The next day, the two practitioners reviewed their first day’s experience. Their speech became much smoother. The Singaporean student at first didn’t dare to make phone calls because of the difference in education between him and the mainland Chinese people. However, after his first experience, he could feel a strong sense that what he was doing was right. And this student’s phone call was very natural. With only a few words, he successfully persuaded one person to withdraw from the CCP. The other practitioners at the site also watched this.
From the very beginning, I encouraged them to persevere. I recorded our phone calls and then reflected on our weak points, including our attitudes and tone of voice. During the process of helping these two new operators, I also made progress. Only by being tolerant in how we think of others can we become responsible for others and ourselves.
Currently, more Singaporean practitioners have started to pay attention to the truth clarification platform. Now Singapore has its own platform, with the hope of more practitioners joining in.
In just two months, I made very quick progress and felt as if Master was pushing me. Only when we cultivate ourselves to the right place can we see that everything arranged by Master is waiting for us.
This understanding is based on my cultivation experience. If there is anything inappropriate, please compassionately point it out.
