(Minghui.org) When I made phone calls to China to tell people about Falun Dafa and the persecution, I was a bit restless, and my mind was not calm. When I looked inward, I found a mentality of focusing on the number of people I could convince to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its youth organizations. This was due to attachments to fame, showing off, and zealotry. I also became obsessed with the number of phone calls I could make, which was due to the attachment of doing things. I would try to correct my mindset and focus on clarifying the truth well in every phone call.
Master Li said,
“All the things Dafa disciples do are magnificent, and very important. As you clarify the truth, the words you speak and the energy you emit have the effect of intimidating and eliminating the evil. You are crucial in determining whether the beings in this world stay or get eliminated. If your words are pure and righteous they will really go right into the innermost part of people’s thoughts, and instantly make people understand.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World, Volume IV)
Another impure mindset cropped up from time to time: Rather than truly wanting to save sentient beings, the reason I wanted to make phone calls was to satisfy one of the three things Masters asks us to do. I didn’t want to be left behind!
I had a script that I thought was quite useful when making phone calls and shared it with other practitioners. However, a day or two later, the script was no longer effective. I then realized my desire to prove the script was valuable in saving people.
When making phone calls, I was too eager to express what I wanted to say from my own perspective, rather than speaking from an angle that could be better accepted and understood by the person listening; thus, the effect was not good. I would then try to talk to people as if I was talking to an old friend and wanted them to be safe and not impose anything on them.
I usually started with some opening remarks, and then began to try to persuade the person to quit the CCP. This would most likely be the point where they hung up. I found that sometimes I had a mindset of completing a task, and felt that after I had finished talking, if they agreed to quit, my task would be completed. I should have exhibited more compassion, and had the desire to save someone from the beginning to the end of the call.
After talking about quitting the CCP and asking the person whether they would like to do so, they would often remain silent and say neither yes nor no, or hang up. I found that I was impatient. When I let go of this and aligned my thoughts with the Fa, the person would agree to quit.
I once talked to a man for an hour. He asked a lot of questions, and there were times I thought he was just messing around. However, I still answered all of his questions. He didn’t hang up, but still wouldn’t quit. I was stuck and couldn’t make a breakthrough. In the final two minutes of our conversation, I had a strong desire to save him, and then the entire energy field changed. He agreed to quit, and his attitude was completely different from before. He became almost like a child who was simple and kind.
My understanding was that during most of the conversation, my righteous thoughts were not strong. So my state of mind corresponded to his, and he ended up asking a lot of questions. No matter how I answered them, I couldn’t break through. When my compassion and righteous thoughts emerged, however, the Fa opened up his mind. His true self came out and immediately expressed his wish to quit the Party.
Master said,
“... People in peril are crying for helpFor their knowing side wants to survive ...” (“It’s the Divine Saving People,” Hong Yin III)
A person’s knowing side is often eager to express their position. The obstacles I faced were due to my mind not being pure enough, so my words could not reach the inner part of the individual’s mind. Therefore, I couldn’t save them.
Fellow practitioners have provided many good scripts to use when making phone calls. The same script had different effects when used at different times. I realized that this is still an issue of cultivation. It is similar to what’s said in Zhuan Falun about pulling a tooth by a doctor in Western medicine compared with that of Chinese medicine. If we cultivate well, then it will be like using the liquid drug with yellow fumes, and the tooth will come out easily. However, if we do not cultivate well, it will be like pulling a tooth in Western medicine. The dentist seems to have very fancy tools and complicated processes, but the effect is not nearly as good.
Another example is that there are some Vietnamese practitioners whose spoken Chinese is not very good. But I can feel the power from their compassionate energy instantly getting into the microscopic particles of the people they are trying to save. From this, I can really see the gap between our cultivation levels.
Sometimes, I was in a good cultivation state and had a strong energy field, so my communication with people went very smoothly. My success came completely down to Master’s help. Even though I would tell practitioners that it was all from Master, I sometimes felt pleased with myself, having thoughts like, “I did a good job!” or “I talked well!” This is a bad mentality of validating myself.
The above is my personal understanding. If anything is not in accordance with the Fa, please kindly point it out.