(Minghui.org) I am a Falun Dafa practitioner from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I started practicing Falun Dafa in 2005. I joined the telephone group because I wanted to study the teachings in English online with other practitioners. Because there aren't too many practitioners who read Zhuan Falun in English here and those who read it are scattered all over, it was decided that we would read online.

Several months ago, I began making phone calls to China to clarify the truth. At first, I was there to observe and support the group by sending righteous thoughts. Then, when a coordinator learned that my Chinese wasn't fluent and, in fact, my schooling was mainly in English, she encouraged me to give it a try. So I did. After two months of observing, I decided to try to make phone calls myself.

As I mentioned earlier, my schooling was mainly in English, and I also speak English at home. When I read Zhuan Falun in Chinese, I didn't understand the deeper meaning of the words. Whenever a practitioner left me a note, I had to spend a lot of time translating it into English to ensure I really understood it. But sometimes the online translation was not reliable. That meant that, from time to time, I had to go over the meaning with the person.

The first time I read Zhuan Falun in Chinese, it took me three hours to finish one lecture. Initially, I read it aloud when I muted the microphone, and I also listened attentively to how practitioners read their paragraphs. Eventually, I joined them reading aloud, but I read slowly. Some corrected my pronunciation, others complained that I read too slowly, and a few even left quietly in the middle. I wasn't surprised. I just told myself that I needed to be patient at all times.

Another thing I needed to overcome was to balance my time well. How to take care of my business, balance my family well, and do the three things that we must do was challenging. The only thing I could do was to sleep less or skip lunch or dinner. After more than a year, I was finally able to read Zhuan Falun in Chinese independently.

Once when I helped to send righteous thoughts, I had sickness karma. This had happened before. I remember the first time I sent righteous thoughts in a similar setting, I had symptoms of diarrhea and a stomachache that went away when my duty was finished three days later. Other forms of interference, like having a high fever or a migraine, power outages, network disconnects, and so on happened, too. I knew Teacher was helping me overcome the ordeals all along. Although they were hard to endure, I tried to look inside and adjust myself one step at a time.

I still remember my first phone call to China. My hands were sweaty and my mind was blank. The minute the person picked up, I said hello and tried to remember the details about the self-immolation incident and organ harvesting, but very quickly they hung up.

The phone calls didn't always go through because many of them were invalid numbers. We had to dial each number at least five times. Sometimes we dialed the same number 20 or even 50 times. That really tested my patience!

Sometimes the police officers stayed on the phone and listened to our truth clarification and were saved. But sometimes they would swear at us with ugly words. We stayed calm, kept sending righteous thoughts, and looked inward. It all helped us to improve our character.

What we encountered making these phone calls reflected our cultivation states. For myself, I found that people's reactions reflected my attachments. When a police officer swore at us, for example, and our hearts were moved, our compassion was buried and we would start arguing. That meant we needed to look inside.

Teacher said:

“Tense situations with others will come up unexpectedly for those of us who practice. How can you be prepared, then? If you can always be compassionate and calm, you will handle the issues that arise in your life well since you will have a buffer, in a sense. Things will work out well if you are always compassionate and good to others, thoughtful towards people, and handle whatever situations you get into with people by first pausing to consider how well your actions will go over with the other party and whether anyone will be hurt by them.” (The Fourth Talk, Zhuan Falun)

Speaking from another perspective, making phone calls is a good opportunity for us to cultivate ourselves. It is a constant reminder to take cultivation seriously and be organized with our time. I found it difficult to adjust to the environment. But with time and effort, I felt that I improved. Practitioners involved have been very supportive and encouraging.