(Clearwisdom.net) Several months after I started practicing Falun Gong in 2008, I had an unusual dream. It took me a while to finally realize that the dream was a hint from Teacher to start calling people in China and share the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution with police officers participating in the suppression of Falun Gong.
Nevertheless, I was still afraid of making the calls. This was mainly because I have never been eloquent in my speech. I'd rather work hard for hours than socialize. I lived in the United States for more than 30 years, and in that time, I rarely had any chance to speak Mandarin. In fact, I speak Mandarin in such a thick Taiwanese and English accent that the last time I went to Taiwan, even my fellow Taiwanese asked me where I was from. Sometimes my own sister did not quite understand my Mandarin. If it had not been for Falun Gong and the help from Teacher and my fellow practitioners, I could hardly imagine that I can now host conference calls in Mandarin Chinese.
1. Step One: Picking up the Phone
Literally shaking with trepidation, I made my first call to China. Someone answered the phone but did not speak. I bit the bullet and, in a monotone voice, started to read a script I had written. For my second call, a policeman shouted insults at me. The next day a policewoman answered the phone. She shouted, "Are you tired of living? Don't you have anything better to do?" Then she hung up on me. When I called the number again, she told me that she was not a police officer. I believed her, and even apologized to her. As for the last call I made that day, an old man answered the call. He told me that he was a farmer and not a police officer. I was so inexperienced that I actually told him, "I am sorry. I must have dialed the wrong number. If you ever meet a Falun Gong practitioner, please tell him that Falun Gong is good." I felt silly afterward because of what I said. After a while I stopped calling China altogether. One day, while studying the Fa and exchanging cultivation insights online with a fellow practitioner, someone asked if I might be interested in calling China to persuade people to quit the CCP and/or its affiliated student leagues. After she passed me the required information to get started, I began having self-doubt. For someone with limited fluency in Mandarin and in communication skills like me, would I be up to the task? I did not have any confidence at all.
After thorough consideration, I decided that I had to do it because it was an important responsibility in saving people from the CCP's lies. Besides, I felt strongly about saving people, and thus I joined the telephone team, consisting of Falun Gong practitioners from all over the world. The practitioner hosting the meeting invited me to make a call, but I asked to just listen and learn first. After a week, I finally mustered enough courage to make a call to China.
At first, I read a script given to me by the coordinating practitioner. Little by little I customized the script to my own needs. I ran into many different personalities when I called China. Some refused to listen. Some were disrespectful. Some thought I was a member of the Nationalist Party because of my accent and would try to close the conversation by claiming to be from the Nationalist Party also. But the biggest challenge was still my limited fluency. Oftentimes people would tell me they didn't understand me and then hung up.
At first I tried to ignore the setbacks. I tried my best to speak articulately and slowly, with a smile on my face and compassion in my heart. I could not persuade many people to quit the CCP like other practitioners, but I managed to persuade a few a day when I made the calls together with other fellow practitioners. One day I managed to persuade eight people to quit the CCP. It must have been Teacher that made it happen by bringing me in contact with predestined people.
I became increasingly discouraged, though, as more people hung up on me. Thought karma and an attachment to comfort got the better of me. After a while, many human thoughts and notions began to prevail. I became reluctant to make calls. I even told myself, “I have been helping with Shen Yun and writing news articles. I do not want to call China any longer.”
Yet compassionate and magnificent Teacher has always been watching over me, encouraging me and giving me hints in my cultivation. One day while I was doing the sitting meditation with my eyes closed, I saw "Be Diligent" in large Chinese characters before my eyes. I felt very guilty. I thought: "Fellow practitioners inside and outside of China have been terribly busy, but they have been doing their very best to save people from the CCP's lies. I, on the other hand, have been consuming a lot of Teacher's time."
Teacher said,
"Clarifying the facts at this point in time very much requires manpower, and if sentient beings are to be saved, it will take participation from more people. More people need to be involved in the variety of projects that aim to snuff out the evil’s persecution. In this light, then, a great deal of strength is lost when there is one less person, and a great deal of strength is gained when there is one more set of hands." ("Fa Teaching Given in Manhattan")
After reviewing the above passage of the Fa, I decided to start calling China again.
2. Treating People with Compassion and without Notions
In order to improve myself, I invited a practitioner from Taiwan to make calls with me. I wanted to know how she overcame the barrier of her Taiwanese accent. Afterward I realized that the accent was not the root cause of the problem. It is our righteous thoughts and righteous actions that determine the outcome. I must not be discouraged by my notions. Once I adjusted my mentality, I started calling China again.
After repeated trial and error, I gradually found a way that worked better for me. I feel my personal field of righteous thoughts growing larger and more powerful as I make more calls. I feel the positive energy in my speech touching the people that I call. I have sincere gratitude towards compassionate Teacher and fellow practitioners on the phone team. I have eliminated many attachments during the process, including fear, impatience and comfort.
3. Quality vs. Quantity
One day it suddenly dawned on me that although most people I called did not quit the CCP right away, all of them learned something about Falun Gong and about the CCP. Perhaps they would quit the CCP the next time a practitioner called them. I should not be attached to the number of people who quit the CCP. For example, I once asked a man if he had heard about quitting the CCP and its affiliated organizations. He said he had heard about it a few times, but had not done it. In less than a minute of us talking, he decided to quit. This was a good example of the cumulative effect of our calls.
One day, I was talking to someone that I suspected to be a CCP official. He insisted that the CCP was good. He even threatened to have me arrested. I responded, "I have not done anything wrong. Why would I be afraid of the police?" I thought of giving up on him, so I thought that I would end the call by giving him information to bypass China's firewall and check on important facts about the CCP on overseas websites. But I was surprised when he asked, "If I quit the CCP, will I be able to keep my job as the chief of the bureau?" I decided to explain to him patiently that it would have no effect on his position. In the end, he completely changed his attitude and quit the CCP and its two affiliated student leagues.
4. Sharing Our Experiences; Abandoning Human Thoughts to Embrace Divine Thoughts
I sometimes envy those practitioners who are eloquent and have a beautiful voice. If only I had better communication skills in Mandarin or had a softer voice, I would be able to do a better job. Yet I did not let any hardship or failure stop me from calling China. I would not give in to frustration or the feeling of defeat. When the attachment to comfort surfaced, I tried to improve my mentality.
The biggest reward of calling China in a group setting is that we can share our insights on each other's experiences, cultivation and Fa study. I feel as though I am with my own family when I spend time with fellow practitioners. We care for and encourage one another. When I first joined the team, those practitioners gave me a lot of guidance and encouragement. The main coordinator especially touched me with the encouragement she offered me, as well as the time and effort she has contributed to the team.
The second reward comes from our group Fa-study. At first, I had a difficult time adjusting to the slow pace that fellow practitioners were studying the Fa. After several meetings, I realized that the slower pace allowed me to absorb the content of the Fa better. I used to study the Fa at a quicker pace, but it was as though I was studying the Fa just for the sake of studying the Fa. Moreover, we would exchange cultivation insights each time we finished calling China. I have benefited immensely from the group Fa-study.
Generally speaking, it is not particularly challenging to make phone calls to China. But the first step is as hard as a baby taking its first step. By the time you progress to the second and the third step, you will feel as though you have discovered a new path! After a while, you will feel quite at ease and develop a feeling of honor in saving people from the CCP's lies.
In the past four months, I have managed to persuade only about 100 people into quitting the CCP and/or its affiliated organizations. The numbers may be higher when I make calls alone, but it is very important to do it as a group. It is like a battlefield between good and evil. When there are more practitioners, the righteous energy will be larger and more powerful, and will disintegrate the interference from the evil beings in other dimensions.
Epilogue
Teacher's Fa-rectification is drawing to a close. There are many precious Chinese people who remain the victims of the CCP's lies and have forgotten about the meaning of life. Calling them directly is one of the best ways to reach out to the Chinese people . It is an urgent matter to save people. If more people from outside of China can spend time calling people inside China or if each practitioner can make one more phone call to China, more people will be saved. Each practitioner has countless sentient beings associated with him/her.
I often tell fellow practitioners that are new to the phone team that I am the least eloquent person in the world, and that every practitioner can do it well if I can. The fact is, Teacher helps each and every practitioner if they want to save people.
I sincerely hope that more practitioners will start calling China and seize the opportunity to assist Teacher in saving people. In addition, the phone team is now pairing practitioners so that they can help each other. Why are you hesitating?
Please kindly point out anything you might find inappropriate in my understanding.
