(Minghui.org)
Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
There is a team of Falun Gong practitioners in Britain who regularly calls China to clarify the truth, using what we refer to as the global “RTC platform.” Practitioners from around the world also use this same platform to study the Fa together. As a result, our xinxing as a whole has improved. We also help and encourage one another.
Besides making phone calls to China, we also promote other truth-clarification projects in our respective areas, such as Shen Yun and the signature drive to help stop the Chinese Communist Party's (CPP) crime of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners. I would like to share a few of the many touching stories that I've personally witnessed while being involved in the RTC platform.
Practitioner A gave up practicing Falun Gong after the persecution started in China in July 1999. Two years ago, she visited Britain and decided to resume her cultivation practice. Since she lived so far away from other practitioners, she had to cultivate by herself. About six months ago, one of the practitioners recommended that she join the RTC platform.
In the beginning, she only studied the Fa with others. However, encouraged by her fellow practitioners, she tried making phone calls to China. The first tribulation that she encountered was that her husband refused to install the software that she needed, telling her he was afraid of getting a computer virus.
Although she initially felt helpless, after studying the Fa and discussing her situation with other practitioners, she realized that nothing should stand in her way of making phone calls to China and saving sentient beings. With her newfound determination, things naturally changed. Her husband bought her a new computer and installed the required software.
Practitioner A mainly speaks Cantonese, so when she first joined the platform, she was not very fluent in Mandarin. Sometimes she made mistakes when she read the Fa. However, over time, her Mandarin has greatly improved.
At some point, she decided to try making phone calls to China. When she had finally succeeded in helping a Chinese person quit the Party, she was very excited. She listened carefully to the other practitioners' successful calls and began incorporating key elements of their approaches into hers. Her success rate in helping people quit the Party greatly improved.
With the encouragement of her fellow practitioners, she not only joined Dafa-related activities near her city but also helped distribute Shen Yun fliers in London. Every time she came to the city, she stayed for several days.
The first day she distributed fliers, she wore high heel boots. By the end of the day, the heels on her shoes had split and her toes were sore and bloody. However, she didn't feel any pain at all. In fact, that same blustery cold night, she went to several theaters to help hand out fliers.
Several times she wasn't able to make it home until 11p.m, yet, she still felt happy and wasn't tired at all. She could feel that Master was strengthening and encouraging her to do better.
Practitioner A noted that, during her stay in London, it was much easier for her to do the sitting meditation. She was able to sit for two hours without feeling any pain. She felt very very comfortable, as though she was “sitting inside an egg shell” (Zhuan Falun). When she sent righteous thoughts, her whole body became warm and her energy field was very strong.
She also experienced a host of tribulations when she first came to London. In the beginning, she was very worried about getting lost. Her husband was also worried that she would not be able to find her way around, so he did not allow her to go alone. She wanted to go with another practitioner, but that practitioner could not come. Later, she realized that she needed to get rid of the attachment of dependency.
Finally, she made a breakthrough and persuaded her husband to let her go alone. A practitioner from London picked her up at the subway station. When Practitioner A came to London the second time, she did not need the other practitioner to pick her up. Instead, she found out on her own how to take the Tube. “Now I am not afraid of getting lost anymore,” she said. “If I don't know the route, I can aways ask someone for help. I feel I can always figure it out.”
During a recent signature drive, practitioners kindly supported her. Some practitioners told her where to collect signatures, while others emailed her blank petition forms. Within a few days, Practitioner A had collected more than 200 signatures.
Practitioner B changed a notion that she had held for decades. Since she was little, she had always thought of herself as a “follower” and felt very comfortable being led or managed by others. She never once thought that she had the ability to manage others.
Since the RTC platform operates year-round, it needs the support and coordination of many practitioners. Thus, Practitioner B started to host the “First Broadcast Room.” At first, she thought it was a pretty simple job—she only needed to make a few extra phone calls if there were any open spots in the schedule.
The first time that she hosted the platform, she and another practitioner took turns making phone calls for more than two hours, while other practitioners just listened quietly in the background. When it was time for everyone to share, Practitioner B's mind went blank; she did not know what to say.
Several times during the experience sharing, things got a bit awkward due to the strained silence. The First Broadcast Room is an important experience sharing event for the whole platform. Every night, practitioners from all over the world gather there, so it is important to organize a good experience sharing so that everyone can benefit from it.
Practitioner B eventually realized that it was not easy being a host. While two practitioners are making phone calls, there could be several dozen practitioners listening in. One really needs to know how to create a proper environment. Practitioner B realized that she first needed to change her mindset from being a “follower” to being “leader.”
She also needed to motivate other practitioners, encourage newcomers, be humble so that others felt comfortable sharing their own experiences, and had to make sure that her tone of voice and mental state were good so that she could set a good example. Basically, the responsibility of a host is to create a good truth-clarification environment for practitioners to improve together and motivate more practitioners to join the phone team.
In May 2012, Practitioner B started to take charge of the “RTC Platform Text Message Team.” In the process, she got rid of a lot of human notions. At first, she felt that she needed to do more than others because she was a coordinator, and it wasn't right to order people around. Thus, she did most of the tasks herself.
She worked every day collecting and organizing the phone numbers that were submitted by practitioners. She also hosted the First Broadcast Room twice a week. She was so busy that she didn't have time to do the other things that she needed to do.
“Do not try to do everything yourself,” the platform coordinator told her. “You should ask other practitioners to participate. It will motivate more practitioners and help everyone improve.” However, Practitioner B still held onto her human notions and continued to do everything herself.
Without letting go of her human attachments, conflicts started to arise. Once, a practitioner who was scheduled to host a broadcast room with Practitioner B, called up at the last minute to say that she couldn't make it that night and that Practitioner B would have to host the session by herself. However, Practitioner B also needed to manage another broadcast room and worried about how she was going to host two rooms at the same time.
When it was time for everyone to share experiences, B still could not find anyone to replace her. She then looked at her computer screen and noticed that another coordinator had just entered the platform. So, she asked him to host the experience sharing, while she went to the other room.
Through this incident, B realized that she should let more practitioners participate in the project so that a coordinated team could be developed. After she changed her point of view, B posted a message saying, “I hope that more practitioners can participate in the daily roster.” A few days later, many practitioners volunteered, and, in no time at all, a weekly task roster was established.
Practitioner C used to be a loner. After joining the platform, she diligently cultivated herself in the group. Within the first three months of 2012, she encountered two big tests. First, her father, who loved her very much, passed away. About two months later, her mother also passed away. For various reasons, she was not able to see her parents before their untimely deaths.
While still in mourning, she continued to make phone calls on the platform. Through lots of Fa study and the help of fellow practitioners, she quickly got back on track. Practitioner C said that both of her parents knew the truth about Falun Gong and had quit the Communist Party, so there really wasn't anything to worry about.
Practitioner C lives in a suburban area of London. For many years, she had never visited London alone, mostly because she could not leave her business unattended. Also, she lived far away and was not good at driving. This year, she overcame lots of difficulties and came to London twice to promote Shen Yun. She took an overnight bus and arrived the next morning. After a long day, she took a bus back that same night.
Although the bus trips were exhausting, she never complained. On the contrary, she found that she had greatly benefitted from each trip that she took. Last year, during a signature drive, C collected more than 140 signatures in one day. She also distributed Epoch Times newspapers in a nearby area.
Practitioner D lives outside of London. After she joined the platform, she improved in many ways, especially her character. She said that she used to be an introvert and would often keep to herself. After she joined the platform, she became much more outgoing. She is now able to help people quit the CCP in public, something she didn't feel comfortable doing before.
Although D runs a family business and has has two young children, she still managed to come to London once a week to help promote Shen Yun. She would take a bus on Saturday night and arrive on Sunday morning. After a whole day of promoting Shen Yun, she would take a bus home that same night.
Practitioner E just moved to London from China. After making a lot of phone calls on the platform, we could tell that her CCP mentality had greatly diminished. When she first started working on the project, she would often say unkind words to the people in China when they cursed her. Other practitioners kindly pointed this out to her and she humbly accepted it.
She realized that her mind had been seriously poisoned by the Party's culture. Thus, she continuously worked on rectifying herself and within a few months, her words had become more calm. Sometimes her compassion for the person she was speaking to moved Practitioner E to tears.
One of the reasons she was so good at clarifying the truth when she was in China, was that she had collected a lot of good truth-clarification materials, which made it easier for people to see the value and urgency of quitting the Party and its affiliated organizations.
Practitioner F is very diligent and does the three things well. After hearing about the RTC platform, she not only joined the project, but also actively encouraged other practitioners to join. Every day for the past two years, she has been making phone calls to China.
A few months ago, Practitioner F moved outside of London. The place she moved into doesn't have Internet service. She overcame many difficulties, including having to ask other practitioners for some phone numbers from the platform, so that she could make phone calls using her cell phone.
Although she is the only practitioner in her area and doesn't speak any English, that hasn't stopped her from looking for every opportunity to validate the Fa. She regularly does the exercises outdoors and distributes Epoch Times newspapers.
She recently needed some blank petition forms for a petition drive. Being new to the area, she spent a lot of time looking for a copy shop. When she finally found one, she could not communicate with the people in the shop. But that didn't deter her. She simply called up some practitioners in London who spoke both Chinese and English and asked them to speak directly with the staff there.
After making her phone calls to China, she went out to collect petition signatures. Although she did not understand any English, having only the heart to save people, she collected lots of signatures.
The above are just a few of the many heart-warming stories of practitioners improving as a whole. Our phone team in Britain would like to thank Master for making it possible for practitioners from around the the world to use this platform to save sentient beings and improve together in cultivation. We also want to thank the coordinators and practitioners on the RTC platform for their continued selfless support.