(Minghui.org)

I am from Latvia.

We had the Art of Zhen, Shan, Ren International Exhibition in Riga, the Capital of Latvia in April. Preparation for the exhibition took a couple of months, but I did not participate in this process at the beginning. Just before the exhibition, I felt strongly compelled to help.

Since I do not live in Riga, I thought to myself that the only way I can help is to inform people about this exhibition in my hometown. Having such a thought in mind, I went to Riga to join the group study session and I said to the coordinator that I wanted to help in some way.

After studying the Fa together, the coordinator listed the tasks that should be done before the exhibition. Making phone calls to organizations was among them. In the coordinator’s opinion it was a task I could do as one can make phone calls from any location in Latvia. But it was not what I expected to do, so I turned it down at first. Another practitioner took this task. After a while I reconsidered and found there was something wrong with my xinxing. I asked myself why I did not want to cooperate. I have always regarded cooperation among disciples as very important.

Our Master emphasises it in “Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa”: “As you realize, with the many projects that Dafa disciples have initiated in order to counteract the persecution, clarify the truth, and save sentient beings, what is most important is that Dafa disciples cooperate together well, and that only when people work together well will things go well.”

I had already created an idea about what I could do and it prevented me from accepting other suggestions. Besides, I had never done that kind of work before – making phone calls – so it was something new and unknown to me. However, that is exactly what made it a wonderful opportunity to ascend. I went to the practitioner who took the task and offered my help.

The first step was to find organizations on the Internet and look for their phone numbers and email addresses. We decided to call the largest companies located in Riga District.

The next step was making phone calls. We agreed that I would call organizations starting from the beginning of our list, and the other practitioner – starting from the end of the list.

After sending righteous thoughts together, we started making phone calls. I made the first call and said that an international art exhibition would take place in Riga and that I could email some information about it, the employees of that organization might be interested in seeing this exhibition. Even before I finished what I wanted to say, I had received an affirmative and positive response.

I was surprised how easy it came. In such a joyful mood I made the next phone call. It did not go so easy any more. I was told they usually charge money for these kinds of emails to be distributed in the organization. However it would be all right if I sent it to them and they would consider whether they could forward it to all of their employees.

I made the third phone call and received a rejection. It made me understand that I had to send forth righteous thoughts before each phone call to eliminate all the factors blocking people from getting to know about the exhibition. My own self had to be purified from all bad things so that my heart would be calm before each of the calls I made.

While making phone calls I had the opportunity to detect many human emotions and desires I myself had – joyfulness when things went well, desire to convince, disinclination to receive rejection, pursuit of a result, desire for appreciation, desire to compete, lack of confidence, selfishness and fear about what others would think of me.

In the afternoon, the other practitioner called me. She asked me how I was doing with phone calls and which organizations I had called. It was important for her to know otherwise we might start calling those organizations that had already received a call. It turned out she had called many more organizations than I had. I was surprised because I thought I was working fast enough. Now the desire to compete and to win appeared. I hurried to make calls and spent little time on sending righteous thoughts and purifying myself. Since I was in a hurry and my heart was not calm, I soon received a negative answer. I realized that it was better to stop making phone calls that day, as I could not calm down my mind and heart.

The most significant conclusion from this experience was that after each of the calls I could notice some attachments I had. And then, before each of the next calls, the attachments I found could be eliminated when I purified myself by sending forth righteous thoughts. In this way, the process of ascending was fast.

Before I started making phone calls I had no confidence in myself and worried about what people would think of me. Now I already think differently. If there would be a need to help with Dafa projects by phone calls again, I would surely do it. If we get involved in a project, we must be able to cooperate and be coordinated. If we cooperate well, the power of Dafa will be great and the result of any Dafa project we do will surely be good.

For some longer period of time, which was approximately half a year, I did one-hour sitting meditation very rarely. I simply could not bring myself to do it. Thanks to the exhibition it all changed. When I came home after being in Riga for two days to help with the exhibition, I started doing one-hour meditation regularly. A significant ascension occurred, and it all was thanks to the exhibition, "The Art of Zhen, Shan, Ren."

Thank you all!

(Presented at the 2013 European Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference in Copenhagen)