(Minghui.org)
Greetings respected Master.
Greetings fellow practitioners.
In April 2007 I was asked to take over the coordination of the telephone group because the coordinator was very busy. This project involves using the RTC platform to make phone calls to clarify the truth to people in China. As it was to be a temporary position, I agreed. The first tribulation encountered related to the phone group’s weekly Fa study. I live in the northern districts of Sydney, but most of the practitioners in the phone group live in the south. A return journey from the north to the south can take up to two hours, even three hours if I were to pick up others along the way. This was sustained despite rain or hail for three years, until we joined the global RTC platform and changed to a monthly Fa study session. My understanding at the time was that in order to persevere in saving people through phone calls, we must persevere in studying the Fa, and ensure that the Fa study and sharing environment remain undisrupted. Therefore, it is essential to have face-to-face Fa study, sharing and phone calling.
However, as time goes by, things can become like a ritual or procedure. Some fellow practitioners thought it was a waste of time and stopped coming to the Fa study, while some new practitioners came once and never again. After self-reflection, I found that the cause of the problem was on my side. Every sharing is an environment for everyone to mutually share their understanding and improve together.
Master said, “The cultivation practice form that I have left for Dafa disciples ensures that disciples can truly improve themselves. For example, I ask you to do the exercises as a group in parks in order to form an environment. This environment is the best way to change the surface of a person. The lofty conduct that Dafa disciples have established in this environment--including every word and every deed--can make people recognize their own weaknesses and identify their shortcomings; it can move their hearts, refine their conduct, and enable them to make progress more rapidly. Therefore, new students or self-taught disciples have to go to the practice sites to do the exercises. ” (“Environment” Essentials for Further Advancement)
Despite not doing what Master required, I had thought I was maintaining this environment. There was no focus in our sharing, we chatted as we pleased, occasionally going off-topic into ordinary matters without realizing that this was a problem. “Looking inwards” were just words. I could look within on trivial problems, but when it touched on my fundamental attachments, I avoided it. This meant that our environment to search within as a whole was unable to form, we could not assimilate unreservedly with the Fa, and it became a hidden barrier.
As soon as I recognized this, I changed. During small group Fa studies, I truthfully exposed my attachments, fellow practitioners kindly made suggestions, and a harmonized environment was formed. As everyone’s compassion and righteous thoughts arose, the environment changed to one that allows us to improve during our Fa study and sharing, and fulfill our prehistoric vows while saving sentient beings through phone calls.
The next tribulation involved problems with installing the software for making the calls. Practitioners who work with computers were all working full-time, and their spare time was filled with studying the Fa, doing the exercises or other Fa-validation activities. Most practitioners in the phone group were computer illiterate. From installation to use, they needed clear step-by-step written instructions and demonstrations, which took a lot of time. Sometimes when fellow practitioners were too busy to install programs or troubleshoot, it hindered our saving sentient beings. I began to learn about installing programs on computers. As my computer knowledge was next to nothing, it took a long time to learn. Fortunately, the practitioner who taught me was very patient, and after some practice I was able to install and work with some applications. Initially, when I met with problems I couldn’t solve, apart from asking fellow practitioners for instructions, I tried to work it out on my own, often until very late at night. Sometimes it was so late that it was inappropriate to disturb other practitioners, and under this situation, I would ask Master for help. Many things that I didn’t know about and couldn’t figure out no matter what were miraculously resolved when I asked for Master’s help and had faith in Master.
As my skills improved, there was a period where I became attached to my abilities and was wary of how other people judged my skills and performance. These selfish thoughts circled through my head and would not leave, affecting my Fa study and my sending righteous thoughts. During Fa study and sending righteous thoughts, I did not want to put down what I was doing at the time. Even though I really did a lot of work, because I did not let go of my most fundamental attachment, I was validating myself. Some fellow practitioners were quite eager in saving sentient beings, and when the installation took a long time they became impatient and said things that provoked my attachments. I then felt very aggrieved, thought that I had invested so much without asking for anything in return, and felt that I did not deserve to be treated like that.
Master said, “Do you realize that as long as you’re a cultivator, in any environment or under any circumstances, I will use any troubles or unpleasant things you come across—even if they involve work for Dafa, or no matter how good or sacred you think they are—to eliminate your attachments and expose your demon-nature so that it can be eliminated, for your improvement is what’s most important.
If you are able to succeed in improving yourself this way, what you do then, with a pure heart, will be the best and most sacred.” (“Further Understanding” Essentials for Further Advancement)
I was unable to see that the process of coordination is also a process of cultivating myself, that everything we have is a gift to us from Master. If we can truly believe this and not have any thoughts about how good our abilities are, we can then truly validate the Fa and not validate ourselves.
Before the Fahui (experience sharing conference) in May this year, in order to form one body, be more efficient as well as motivate more practitioners into saving sentient beings on the RTC platform, the evening shift of the first direct call room on RTC platform was assigned to different regions and countries. Australia was scheduled for Thursday evenings. As the Sydney team was established early, most practitioners didn’t feel too pressured by the roster. However, a lot of problems arose when liaising with coordinators from other areas. I was hoping that we could rotate every week but it was taking a long time to organize that. I felt a little disheartened and was unsure about how to break through it.
At this time, a fellow practitioner posted on the platform a part of Master's “Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students,” where Master answered a disciple's question:
“Question: When we don't have any [preconceived] notions or preset plans, the effect of validating the Fa is excellent, and when the opposite is true the effect is poor.
Teacher: Yes, with a lot of things you do, when you are free of human notions your own attachments won't get mixed in. If, beyond being responsible to the Fa, you have no human attachments, none of your own things, and none of your personal factors mixed in, then you are sure to do that thing well. Whereas once you've mixed in your own factors, then you can't do that thing well. (“Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students”)
This passage from Master’s teachings awakened me. I was still looking at things from a human standpoint, using human notions to think about how to form a human wholeness, to form a physical wholeness assessed by how many people appear on the platform, validating my achievements by the number of people who appear. In doing so, I was hiding my deeply concealed vanity. I did not recognize the true meaning of “the Way is without form yet contains the whole.” Our one body is not for other people to see, but for us to improve together, in order to better clarify the truth and save sentient beings. During the process of forming a whole body, the most important aspect is to cultivate the heart.
Sharing with each other based on the Fa is the basis for mutual improvement. When one measures diligence in cultivation by doing things showily and chasing after numbers, it creates a grave rift between doing things and cultivating the heart. This attracted comments that we were not mature, that we hadn’t made a breakthrough, etc. When I finally understood this, the attachment I could not let go of was gone, and I was no longer attached to the attachments of other practitioners.
Due to the time difference, our calling time ends at midnight (1:00 a.m. during Daylight Saving time). Added to that is a half hour of sharing after calling, sometimes longer, then the sharing contents need to be typed up and posted to the platform. As I was not able to type fast, it took me several hours to do it. Initially, I was doing this with a sense of completing an obligation, but through the sharings of fellow practitioners I saw many touching stories, behind which all contained the enlightenment that fellow practitioners had attained at their level, their determination to aid Master in rectifying the Fa and saving sentient beings, and the compassion and righteous thoughts they have cultivated through believing in Master and believing in the Fa. When I encountered bottlenecks during phone calls, I was able to find inspiration in fellow practitioners’ sharings.
For example, during the 29th August sharing there was a snippet on sending forth the righteous thoughts: “When the fellow-practitioner was making a phone call, she was sitting on the side sending forth righteous thoughts. The phone began to ring, and she used her mind to say, ‘Pick up the phone! Pick up the phone!’ When the practitioner made up a name for the person to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and asked, ‘Can I use this name to help you quit the CCP?’ She used her mind on the awakened side of the beings, with a forceful thought saying, ‘Yes!’ This is to say our Dafa disciples’ thoughts are effective. Our thoughts can guide other sentient beings.”
I did not think much of it at the time. The next day, we were scheduled on the Rescue Platform, which was very difficult initially. People either won’t pick up, hang up, or hurl abusive language, which had been the situation for several weeks. While looking through the files I saw a name, “Gao Yun Xiang;” a picture crossed my mind – the skies high and clouds scant, and an auspicious cloud sails past – it was such a good name, and such a pity that he was working in a jail that was persecuting Dafa disciples. That thought came and went, and I called the number without thinking much of it. Gao Yun Xiang picked up the phone and I asked him if he had read an article posted on many sites since 12th August called “Central Political and Law Commission: the Organs of Public Security, Procuratorial Organs and Public Courts will take full responsibility for quality of investigations.” He said he had and when I asked what he thought of it, he said, “Nothing much.” I began to tell him stories of Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in Beijing and Masanjia forced labor camps, as well as Wang Lijun and Bo Xilai orchestrating organ harvesting and now being prosecuted. He said, “That’s ridiculous, you’re making silly connections. I don’t believe that there is any live organ harvesting.” I said, “I’ll play a recording for you, it’s a recording from a policeman who was present at a live organ harvesting.” He said, “I won’t believe it even if you play it.” I said, “You won’t believe it because you don’t know how evil the CCP is, and you don’t want to believe it because you still have a conscience, but this is truly happening right beside you.”
He ended up listening to me for more than 20 minutes, and I told him that there was a Falun Gong practitioner incarcerated since the 28th at the location where he works. He said he didn’t know about it and asked for the practitioner’s name, so he could check it. After I hung up the phone I thought, “Every thought of Dafa disciples is very important.” I also understood that the road Master has laid out for me is the fastest, best way to let go of my attachments, and the only limiting factor is how much and how easily I can give them up.
Master said, “A person who has a position of responsibility is actually a coordinator, and getting more capable people involved is what's key. How big of a role can any one individual play? Only when the group as a whole plays its role has the coordinator done well. When a coordinator does well himself, well, if you're the only one doing well, then you should just be an average student in that case. The key is that you have got to play the role of and fulfill the duties of a coordinator. ” (“Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference”)
Seeing this passage from Master’s teachings, I felt very ashamed. During these few years in coordinating fellow practitioners in saving sentient beings through phone calls, I am like a child who just learned how to walk, tripping and falling along my way until today. There are many attachments I should have bravely let go of on the road that Master has given me, but due to my strong human notions, my true self could not take control, and I missed many opportunities to improve. Writing this sharing is also a process of exposing my everyday people’s notions, so that I can walk better and straighter on my future cultivating road, and motivate more practitioners to pick up the phone.
Thank you Master for the kindness in saving me. I can only repay your benevolence by being diligent.
This sharing is limited by my personal understanding and level; please kindly point out any insufficiencies.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
(2013 Australia Experience Sharing Conference)