New Practitioner: Correct Every Thought Through Cultivation

(Minghui.org) I started to practice Falun Dafa in Australia in 2019. I believe that Falun Dafa is the righteous Fa and teaches people to cultivate their hearts and become good. Following the principles Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I clearly feel the improvement of myself and I can keep a calm and peaceful heart.

Practitioners Must Be Good People Wherever They Go

I study the Fa and do the exercises every day. I have gradually realized that the mission of practitioners is not only to cultivate themselves well, but also to assist Master Li (Dafa’s founder) to rectify the Fa and help all people.

I send forth righteous thoughts every day, and go to the truth clarification site with my husband, who is also a practitioner. We clarify the truth and distribute Dafa informational materials.

Because I didn’t study the Fa well and my cultivation state was not stable, I often felt that I couldn’t grasp the key points when clarifying the truth, and didn’t know how to deal with people's different attitudes or the questions they raised. Although I felt every word came from my heart, it didn't seem to be convincing. I knew that I had to study the Fa well, and strengthen my righteous thoughts.

Joining the RTC Telephone Platform

My husband and several other practitioners encouraged me to join the RTC telephone platform to clarify the truth. After taking the children to school, I had some free time and wanted to awaken the conscience of more people.

Therefore, in October 2020, I participated in the RTC training. During the three-week training, I learned a lot about clarifying the truth and how to deal with people's different questions.

The training greatly made up for my previous deficiencies in clarifying the truth at the truth-clarification site. Master's guidance, the hard work of the other practitioners who prepared the material, and the patient guidance of practitioners who did the training filled me with gratitude.

With sufficient preparation, I believed that I would be able to better help people. In order to catch up and help more people, I decided to participate in the RTC platform project from Monday to Friday.

My plan was to take the children to school in the morning, do the exercises at the truth-clarification site, distribute Dafa materials, return home and make truth-clarification phone calls for two hours, then pick up my children from school.

But with this arrangement, there was no time to cook lunch for my husband a few days during the week. He is a diligent Dafa practitioner, who works a regular job, and also participates in several Dafa projects. I assumed he would understand and support me because I also wanted to do the things a Dafa disciple is supposed to do.

While I was focused on making phone calls, I ignored caring for my family: I couldn’t do things that should be done during the day, so I would do them in the afternoon or evening.

Sometimes I had to do several things at the same time, which caused me to lose patience when faced with my children’s quarreling and their homework tutoring. Family matters were not properly communicated with my husband, and gradually, conflicts became more prominent.

I often felt aggrieved: "Why can my husband devote himself to Dafa projects, but I should spend precious time on family matters and our children?"

Master said:

“I have always said that in cultivation Dafa disciples have no role models. And it's not just that in your personal cultivation you have to walk your own path--even the form of cultivation I have imparted to you has no example to follow. So you just have to blaze this path yourselves.” (“Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference”)

From Master's Fa teaching, I realized that my husband and I had our own paths to walk. We should learn from the good practice of other practitioners, but we cannot copy them when dealing with our situation.

I understood that conflicts arose because I had failed to balance the relationship between truth-clarification and family. A Dafa disciple should be a good person everywhere, being compassionate even more so to family members. If I failed to do it well, not only would it affect my ability to clarify the truth and help people, my husband would also not be able to concentrate on his job and do Dafa projects. It would also have a negative impact on Dafa disciples as a whole.

So during the children's school breaks, I carefully thought about how to arrange my time so I could make phone calls on the platform, take care of my family, and at the same time tutor our children. Clarifying the truth is cultivation, and taking care of the family is also cultivation; there are no big or small things.

I should live by the principles Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, treat everything with righteous thoughts, and do everything well.

Cultivating Myself Through Making Truth-Clarification Phone Calls

When I first started making phone calls in the RTC training room, I was nervous. The practitioner who trained me said I did well, and that I only spoke a little too fast; she also encouraged me not to be nervous.

I realized that Master was giving me hints using a practitioner's words. It is good to have the heart to help people, but if I am anxious, it can become an attachment.

Master said:

“When you lack wisdom it's usually caused by your being anxious, being anxious in your mind to do something, giving it too much importance, and thereby developing a different type of attachment. Actually, with a lot of things if you calmly and gently talk to people and handle those things rationally, you'll find that your wisdom will flow forth like a spring, and every sentence of yours will get right to the point, and every sentence will speak the truth ” (“Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference”)

I realized that in addition to being anxious, I also paid too much attention to the material I would deliver to the other party. I was concerned about whether I could respond correctly based on the conversation, and whether the words I said would convince the other party.

These were also attachments. With human thinking and a lack of righteous thoughts, the truth materials that contain countless efforts from other practitioners would not be able to play their role.

I thought: "Let go of all attachments! Don't focus on getting people to quit the Party, only have a pure heart and, with the blessing of Master and the help of other practitioners, I will naturally help the predestined people."

Sure enough, there were people who quit the Party. I understood this was Master's help and affirmation of my righteous thoughts to help people.

In the past two months, several people a week quit. I kept in mind Master's Fa, and often reminded myself to have righteous thoughts, constantly study the Fa, and send forth righteous thoughts, which has also made my cultivation state more and more stable.

In February 2021, the practitioner who trained me before contacted me and asked me to participate in a new phone calling project. She said when she looked for a practitioner to participate, she first thought of me.

This should be a more suitable way to help people which Master arranged for me. I was also about to adjust my time for making calls, so I asked the practitioner to cancel my schedule with the RTC platform, so I could join the new project for two to three days a week.

The scheduled time was reduced compared to the past, and I felt I could better concentrate on things I needed to do, and do everything well. After a few days of training, I started to clarify the truth with the new phone calling project, which was different from the way I used to do it in the past.

After becoming familiar with it, I felt that the way to interact with people was very good. When I was on the phone, I could clearly feel my progress and my heart became calmer.

I used my compassion to let people understand the truth; my voice was softer and slower, and my thoughts were clear and flexible when responding to the questions from people. I thank Master for the arrangement!

Now, no matter what reactions I encountered from people, I could keep my mind calm and my righteous thoughts firm to help them.

Master helps me see my attachments. One day, a practitioner from the RTC platform told me that because I canceled my schedule, there was no one to replace me that day, which caused some inconvenience. Only then did I realize that my negligence caused trouble. Cultivation is serious, and I must maintain righteous thoughts at all times.

I looked inward to see whether there was any attachment associated with me leaving the past project and joining the new one. At the same time, I quickly let go of my wrong thoughts, because whatever I did was to help people.

I will continue to work hard at letting go of human attachments, correcting every thought through cultivation, improving myself and helping people, and doing the things Dafa disciples should do. I believe through continuous Fa-study, my effort to help people will definitely be more effective.