(Minghui.org) After working as a full-time sales representative for seven years at the Sound of Hope, I became a customer service representative last year. I encountered many tribulations and tests with the change in my cultivation environment. I could not have overcome these tribulations without Master’s protection and encouragement.
Improving My Mindset
My job involved responding to the subscribers’ messages, answering phone calls, and giving after-sales support. After working long hours, I felt the job was distressing, especially when most of the phone calls and emails were complaints and negative comments.
Interacting with new customers during promotional campaigns was equally challenging. New customers asked questions ranging from listening to or watching the programs, payments, and subscription issues. Sometimes customers sent several emails in a row demanding a solution immediately. When there were glitches on the website, dozens and even hundreds of emails quickly flooded the inbox. In those situations, I had to tell myself that my job was saving people and not just an ordinary job, that I needed to have courage and continue.
One customer requested a refund as soon as he sent the payment. I couldn’t give him a refund because we hadn’t received his money yet. He then emailed my supervisor, saying, “Did you hire a spy? She deliberately did not give me a refund. She is trying to ruin your reputation. Please investigate her background. She must be a secret agent.”
Such things happened all the time. Sometimes I managed to remain calm on the surface, but I still complained in my heart.
Master said,
“… Wandering around in society is rather torturous. It must beg for food and meet different kinds of people who will scold, insult, or take advantage of it. It might encounter all kinds of things. It will treat itself as a practitioner and balance well relations with others, always maintaining and upgrading xinxing. It will not be moved by the temptations of different benefits among everyday people. After many years, it will return from wandering around.” (Lecture Eight, Zhuan Falun)
In the past, I never thought that I would one day “wander around among everyday people.” I realized I didn’t understand the Fa at that time. When the time came to improve my xinxing and assimilate to the Fa, Master arranged this environment for me. By interacting with all kinds of people every day, I cultivated my character and thought of others first.
When I changed my mindset, I no longer felt upset. Instead, I cherished every opportunity to interact with people. I treated my job as a chance to eliminate my attachment and move up in cultivation. I tried my best to treat every customer with kindness. Whether they asked for a refund, vented, or praised me, I treated them the same. I tried to find options to meet the customers’ requests. Most customers were moved by my sincerity and stopped blaming me.
Once, an elderly customer called and said she couldn’t log into her account. I reset her password, and it worked. But she forgot how to log in again, and during the next few days she called me every day. When she called on the fourth day, I was alerted and thought, “What’s wrong with me? Why does she keep calling me?” I looked within and found my problem. The day before, she’d said, “Look, I’m old, but I think seniors should also learn how to use the Internet and watch programs on their phones. Don’t you agree?” At that time, I was busy with other tasks while answering her phone call, and I said, “Yes.” But in my heart, I thought, “Yes, you should learn. Why don’t you ask your family to help you?”
I realized I was impatient with her, even though I seemed polite on the phone. I understood that I didn’t meet the requirements of Dafa. So I immediately corrected myself. I put aside all the other tasks at hand and chatted with her patiently. I spent about half an hour on the phone with her and helped her. She wrote down each step. She hasn’t called me since.
Many customers know that Falun Dafa practitioners run the Sound of Hope, so they observe how we behave. Therefore, when I dealt with customers who did not want to subscribe anymore, I was kind to them and put myself in their shoes.
I cherished my predestined relationship with everyone. One customer from China sent us several complaint emails in a row. Later, however, he said, “Although I no longer subscribe to your program, I still appreciate your service. One day, if you come back to China, please be sure to contact me. I am from Jilin, and I will treat you well.”
Think of Others
When I had fully adapted to and begun to enjoy my customer service work, I was offered a manager’s position. I realized this new environment was arranged for me to make a breakthrough in my cultivation. The work was very trivial and tedious. I had to liaise with all levels internally and externally. My colleagues were from Europe, Asia, and North America and spoke different languages. It was very challenging to bring them together because they had different work environments, states of cultivation, and understandings of the Fa.
I read messages from about 20 to 30 chat groups from different departments on my phone. Because of the time difference, my work hours became very irregular. I often had to sit in my car at night to make phone calls or have meetings to avoid disturbing my family.
On the surface, I got on very well with almost everyone. However, my good attitude was only on the surface. In fact I avoided conflicts with others because I didn’t want to spend time resolving the issues. Superficial cooperation did not represent a solid improvement in cultivation, and it was soon reflected in my work.
One day, I was called to a meeting on short notice. By the time I arrived, almost all the heads of the other departments were already there. The meeting was about why I didn’t meet our subscription target.
It seemed everyone questioned my work performance. My explanations seemed weak. I finally said that it was beyond my ability and I offered to quit if there was a better candidate for this position.
It all happened very suddenly. I knew that something had gone wrong in my cultivation, but I couldn’t figure out what. I thought I worked hard and did the three things well.
I felt depressed and resentful for the next two weeks and often wept. I wanted to quit. However, I asked myself, “It’s easy to quit, but will it improve my cultivation?” I knew that tears could not solve my cultivation issue, so I said to myself, “Even if you work hard, you still have an issue if you can’t meet the target.”
I kept looking inward. One day I thought, “Did I hurt others at work?” I suddenly remembered that the sales manager did not want me to leave when I quit the sales job more than a year before. I insisted for two months until she had no choice but to let me go. At that time, I did not think about her feelings or look inward. I only thought about myself and blamed her, wondering why she was so stubborn and did not let me go.
By looking inward, I found my attachments. I wanted to join this team because I thought this department could assume more roles in saving people. I didn’t follow the course of nature and wanted to avoid taking a position where I was needed.
After I realized this, I approached the sales manager. I spoke to her frankly and apologized for leaving a year ago. She told me she was not trying to stop me. She said she just wanted to give me more time to think about my decision thoroughly.
I found my attachment to validating myself. If my starting point was selfishness, how could I reach my target? After that, my workload was still heavy, but I was no longer stressed after I found my attachment and removed it. When I improved my xinxing, I made a breakthrough at work. Because of hot news events, our website’s subscriptions surged and grew quickly.
I gradually realized that I should think of others first or try to understand them. I finally understood that Master arranged for me to be a person who lives for others.
Whenever things didn’t go well, I asked myself if I’d done anything wrong or if other parties had some difficulties that I didn’t know about. When I communicated with the other party with compassion and understanding, the problem was easily resolved.
Understanding What True Cultivation Is
Just as our website’s subscriptions began to increase, our email system went down one day. Thousands of emails were blocked, affecting nearly 1,000 subscribers. Our customer service email system was flooded with complaints, and customer service calls did not stop throughout the morning. We had to reply to these thousands of emails and manually fix the issues one by one.
I looked inward and found my problems. When Ukraine was invaded, three of our technicians were there and were often in danger. I resented the initiators of the war. I felt happy when I heard about the international sanctions against that country.
I remembered Master’s teaching on this issue. Master said,
“Do you know why wars, epidemics, and natural and man-made disasters happen in this world? They’re precisely because human beings have karma, and those events exist to remove it. No matter how wonderful a time period may be in the future, there will still be wars, epidemics, and natural and man-made disasters on earth.” (Teachings at the Conference in Switzerland)
I discovered my notion of humanness. I realized that we, as practitioners, should not have a preference in our hearts and should save every sentient being.
Conclusion
The past year has been intense but fulfilling. I wept when my family who lives far away needed me, but I couldn’t leave because of my work. I wept in frustration when the system was down, and I had no solutions. I cried when I had a problem at work and couldn’t find the problem in my cultivation.
When I found it difficult to pass the tribulation, I often thought about Master’s teachings.
Master taught us,
“Yet as a practitioner you will find the things that people take seriously to be very, very trivial—even too trivial—because your goal is extremely long-term and far-reaching. You will live as long as this universe. Then think about those things again: It doesn’t matter if you have them or not. You can put them all aside when you think from a broader perspective.” (Chapter III, Falun Gong)
We are in a time when we are destined to be made into extraordinary beings. As I walked through all these difficulties, I am grateful to Master for reshaping my life.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
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Category: Improving Oneself
