(Clearwisdom.net) The articles listed under the section, "Facts of the Persecution" on Minghui/Clearwisdom always describe frightening persecution cases. I remember when I was learning Falun Gong, the horribleness of those articles prevented me from reading them because I could not bear to read about the blood and violence, or I was unwilling to read them. Ultimately, I was not willing to have my peaceful life disturbed by the negative emotions these tragic cases triggered. Actually, I was attached to my own ease and comfort. I knew that if I read these cases, but did nothing, I could not live with my conscience! This selfish attachment made me deliberately skip these stories on Minghui/Clearwisdom in the early days. I even stayed off the site for a while. I chose to clarify the truth in chat rooms. I did not want to have to face the persecutors.
However, I could not avoid going to the Clearwisdom website for too long, but even just the titles of the persecution cases were enough to deeply hurt my conscience. I knew that I could not continue to deceive myself. Therefore, after a year of clarifying the truth on the Internet, I finally decided to face this issue. I spent a lot of time every day telling the truth in chat rooms, but after reading the persecution cases I could not sit still any longer. I felt that I had sat by and watched the most urgent life and death matters go on without doing anything to help. I felt I could not even call myself a good person.
Ten months ago I made the decision to act. Of course, I understood that pain and bitterness was a process in the beginning, and that it would go away. Still, I was worried and imagined troubles coming to me. My fellow practitioners in China risk their lives to tell the truth in villages, one after another, regardless of the severe winter or hot summer. I could not even compare my own suffering to my fellow practitioners in China who are persecuted! In this way, I started to make calls regarding the persecution cases, but often I would still find excuses to avoid doing it. I recognized many attachments as they came up, interfering with my persisting in the matter. I asked Teacher to strengthen me and let me be persistent. Even when I struggle to make calls, Teacher helps me to pick up the phone. I feel extremely calm after making the calls, regardless of the results.
It is not difficult to make the calls; what's difficult is to let go of human notions. During the last ten months, my heart has been frequently moved. Sometimes the nice weather tempted me to take a walk or I found excuses to do some unimportant chores. I found my attachment of avoiding making calls was not abandoned, because my level was limited and my compassion was not sufficient. I seriously realized that clarifying the truth via phone calls was my responsibility. So, I gave myself no other choice. After six months of making calls, I made it a rule to make calls every afternoon, except for holidays. Previously, I made calls when I had time off; therefore, I would look for excuses not to take time off. Now I do other things when I have free time.
If I encounter frustration or interference, I call a fellow practitioner to share experiences, and we encourage each other. We must persist! Since I stepped onto this path, I can no longer bear to leave. In this way, the avoidance attachment was also abandoned.
The difficulty or obstacle in making calls regarding the persecution cases is actually due to our hearts. The fear of the other person's fierce manner, fear of being cursed at and the fear that others will say we are not good. We also have many attachments that we all recognize, but that we don't want to get rid of, such as the attachment of arguing, not being willing to listen to unpleasant words when the other party confuses right and wrong, impatience when dialing a lot of wrong numbers, impatience with people hanging up and impatience with the time it takes to establish a conversation with someone. It is easy to be discouraged and anxious. Teacher said:
"Since you're cultivators and you're among ordinary people, you just have to listen to those displeasing words, and you have to be able to listen to those displeasing words. (Applause) Otherwise, when you haven't even resolved this most basic cultivation issue, how could you call yourself a Dafa disciple?" ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Chicago Conference")
How serious is this? These are the most basic cultivation issues! Teacher told us to ceaselessly study the Fa; that's to tell us to truly practice cultivation!
Some practitioners felt that making calls was not efficient and gave up. Frequently, the phone number is either wrong, there is no answer, or they hang up right away. This can be looked at from several aspects. First, a Falun Dafa practitioner's heart may create our experience. Second, we can't stop rescuing fellow practitioners and restraining the evil because of difficulties. This has a great significance beyond general truth clarification and saving sentient beings. Third, cultivation is itself the process of constantly getting rid of attachments. Obviously, we still do not want to leave these attachments behind us. Four, this is our opportunity to establish mighty virtue. If one day everyone listens to our truth clarification calmly, that will be the effect of the overall Fa-rectification and not our individual efforts in validating the Fa.
The majority of fellow practitioners are afraid they can't speak well, are afraid of damaging the dignity of Dafa and are unable to break through this obstacle. Teacher said:
"Just clarify the facts to people with compassion, and you will be safeguarding Dafa's dignity" ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")
I have experienced the difficulty of this matter when faced with the other party's arguments, which contain a lot of distorted facts. Sometimes I get angry. What's more difficult is facing the torture cases. I feel a lot of hostility, anxiety, and angry feelings that immediately intensify when I reach the perpetrators.
Teacher once said on the issue of individual cultivation,
"When your friends or family suffer, are you moved? How do you weigh them? This is how difficult it is to be a practitioner!" (Zhuan Falun)
However, even though it is difficult, we still must do it! Didn't Teacher say:
"When you see problems, make changes, and when you see shortcomings, overcome them and you're not a cultivator if you don't do the things within your power." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 International Fa Conference in New York")
I was too impatient during the early days of making calls. My level was low, but I did get a 610 Office staff member to promise not to arrest Falun Dafa practitioners. Our cultivation status directly manifests in the sentient being's reactions on the phone. I once read a very severe persecution case at a famous dark den. I had called that place previously several times. The other party shouted abuses at me and hung up. At other times nobody answered the call. I wanted to pick up the phone to restrain the persecution immediately, but I saw what a Falun Dafa practitioner wrote at the end of the article. "Fellow practitioners, who have convenient conditions, please clarify the truth calmly, stably, and with kind and compassionate thoughts." My eyes rested on this line. My emotion at that time did not meet these conditions. A fellow practitioner's reminder made me realize that I was not thinking from the Fa.
I first calmed down and adjusted my thinking to the proper state. I dialed the number and a lady answered the phone. I said, "I am sorry for taking the liberty to call you." She nicely said, "Oh! That's ok!" I said, "I have a matter to trouble you!" She said, without hesitation, "Tell me about it!" I told her the details of that case. She said that she was not aware of it, only working in the office and not directly dealing with the detainees. Therefore, I began to explain the truth to her and she listened. When she did not want to listen anymore, she said, "Don't say any more. Actually, I have never answered these types of phone calls, but I feel your words are pleasant, so I listened!" It seemed to be her understanding side. I felt that I had to tell her more truth, so that she could be saved. Therefore, I let my urgent feelings come through. She felt pressured. She said, "Sorry! I can't help you, very sorry!" Then she hung up. I looked at the phone and felt deep regret. I believe my cultivation state was not that of a genuine cultivator and that I let her miss out on this rare opportunity.
Teacher said,
"I've told you before that Shan isn't something pretended, nor is it a state that's just maintained on the surface. Shan truly comes from within and can only be attained and embodied through cultivation. When you're before sentient beings, as soon as words come out of your mouth and as soon as your thoughts emerge, they are able to disintegrate bad elements and the bad things that poison the world's people and that exist in people's minds. And then people will come to understand, and you'll be able to save them. Without the mighty power of true Shan at work, you won't be able to disintegrate those things, and you won't achieve anything in clarifying the truth." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2004 Western U.S. Fa Conference")
I see many attachments of mine clearly from making these calls. It directly affects rescuing fellow practitioners and whether people who have a predestined relationship with me can be saved. That helps me be strict with my every word and action. In the past I was not strict with myself. It requires me to consider others, to be unselfish and maintain a compassionate and peaceful mindset. These are the fundamentals of compassion. I can only assimilate to the Fa through practice.
This makes me reflect on some practitioners who stress studying the Fa and reading the book, but do not treat it as true cultivation. One practitioner is earnest and responsible about doing things, diligently reads the Fa, and has almost memorized all of Zhuan Falun. She sometimes uses alcohol as a flavoring in cooking and says it does not taste good without the alcohol. Teacher has told us the Fa on alcohol more than once. Although this practitioner is very diligent, she can't even let go of this tiny attachment. Zhuan Falun is the ladder for us to go to the heavens, and it is given by Teacher. If we merely hold the ladder tightly, but do not climb up ourselves, it does not work. It is also looking externally.
In recent years, persecution cases are being exposed more and more. I do not know which case to start with when I make calls. All of them are urgent and concern a life in danger! Here I would like to call on fellow practitioners to actively work on this matter. Falun Dafa practitioners' collectively sending forth righteous thoughts has destroyed a lot of evil in other dimensions. I hope fellow practitioners are acting on the persecution cases and making calls if it is convenient. I once read an article written by a practitioner who had been detained. He could not see a clock in prison and thought he would miss sending forth righteous thoughts. All of a sudden, his entire body was surrounded by strong energy and he knew practitioners outside were helping him with righteous thoughts. He immediately began sending forth righteous thoughts. Righteous thoughts sent by fellow practitioners repeatedly strengthened him and he escaped from the evil's den.
In fact, time is not a big issue regarding making calls on persecution cases. There are different people to talk with during the day, at night or on holidays. It is certain attachments that hold us back. Finally, let's encourage each other with Teacher's lecture.
"Cultivators look at things in just the opposite way. They see tribulations and suffering as good opportunities for improvement. [To cultivators] these are all good things, and the more there are and the faster they come, the faster the improvement. Some cultivators want to push them away and think, "Don't come."...Can you really cultivate that way? If to this day you still can't come around on this concept, then as your master, I don't know how you will ever move towards Consummation." ("Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005")
Thank you, Teacher, for your merciful salvation.
