(Minghui.org) Last October I was invited to join the Shen Yun Ticket Hotline Team, and I was told it was a great cultivation environment. So, although I was concerned about how well I would do, this gave me the reassurance I needed to join the team. I saw it as another way of connecting people to Shen Yun and helping Master save sentient beings. What I didn’t realise was that I would also go through some intense and invaluable “tempering” to be a part of the team and to work effectively alongside them. I found it both extremely rewarding and challenging.
In his teachings Master frequently mentions tempering. In Zhuan Falun Lecture One, Master said:
“As a cultivator, you must cultivate and temper yourself in the environment of everyday people and gradually abolish attachments and various desires.” (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun)
The Hotline team consists of 18 members. Many are veteran practitioners and nearly all of them have years of experience of working on the hotline—some joined the team in 2007, and members are exceptionally committed, dedicated and mature. About two weeks before I formally began working, I was added to the teams chat groups. One of these is the ‘Hotline on Duty’ group, which is where all our calls are logged with details given of the nature of the call. I read every entry made by team members and this process became part of very valuable tempering into their ways of working and the spirit of the team. Even though I hadn’t at that point joined, the group was already having an effect on my cultivation—their high levels of conscientiousness and thoroughness in doing their utmost to support people was obvious and I knew I was going to have to work hard to meet these standards and work effectively alongside everyone.
During this preparatory phase, I began to consciously temper myself. Disciplining myself to learn the work and getting to know how the team worked together. Any notions or preconceived ideas I had about this type of work and how I was to approach it were quickly shelved. I was given lots of support during this time by two of our most veteran practitioners and eventually got to the point where I could put my name on the schedule and begin to take calls.
The vast majority of the calls are positive. There are difficulties and problems at times, but these calls are in the minority. The team also gets a lot of appreciation from callers and often people just call back to say thank you or to ask that we pass on our thanks to a specific member of the team. Peoples’ attitudes and responses on the line are wide ranging. Callers can be wonderful, they can be captivating, funny, endearing, vulnerable, critical, charming or complaining. But, my job to be steadfast, calm, kind and friendly and help them to the best of my ability. Another practitioner said something to me that I felt was so important. I had taken a really difficult call and after it was over I texted my co-worker and asked if I could have handled it better. Her response was really kind and supportive. Then another text from her came: “Sometimes we are tested to see if our heart is moved.” This simple phrase was invaluable to me.
Master said:
“Being “unmoved” refers to a person’s steadfast righteous thoughts and righteous faith being unmoved.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2005 Canada Fa Conference,” Collected Teachings Given Around the World Volume V)
As a practitioner I must maintain a constant discipline to keep my thoughts righteous, stay focused, and keep what we are doing firmly in mind. There are dangers inherent in not taking that care. Master tells us that ordinary people are not stable and on the hotline an ordinary conversation can change in a heartbeat to something quite different. For example, a young woman rang. She was lovely on the phone, the conversation was easy but when it came to booking tickets she told me she was disabled and used a wheelchair. As I explained the process of booking disabled access tickets, she became angry and frustrated. But as she listened to my calm explanation, her manner returned to being friendly, polite and humorous. Within the time of one call this caller changed from friendly to angry, accusatory and threatening, then back to friendly again.
There is also something about the immediacy of phone calls, which quickly makes me aware of any attachments or preconceived notions that I need to let go of. It is a constant tempering. I also feel I should highlight Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in this process. Truthfulness has to be tempered with compassion and tolerance, otherwise it can turn cruel and cause great damage and hurt. If we emphasize compassion without the rigors of truthfulness and tolerance we can be easily manipulated. Tolerance taken too far on its own without truthfulness and compassion can at least mean collusion with someone’s bad behavior but far worse collusion with evil. This really does feel like a narrow path.
One serious attachment that I realized I needed to address was the attachment of zealotry. It happened very early on when I took a call from someone who lived in an area I knew. Although she desperately wanted to see Shen Yun there were too many difficulties. I wondered whether I could personally help her. I knew this thought was inappropriate and I knew I wouldn’t have acted on them, but still the thoughts were there. I was still wondering why I had them when I picked up Zhuan Falun for Fa study. The book didn’t fall open at the bookmark but on the section “The Attachment of Zealotry.” I realized that Master was guiding me and if the desire or righteous intention to help was taken too far and wasn’t in line with the environment I was working in it could turn into something very negative. Practitioners are amazing and our team is exceptional. The standards and conscientiousness that everyone shows to help people on the telephone are remarkable. But if we take this too far and don’t temper this righteous intention and energy with what is appropriate to the environment we’re in, it can bring real trouble to ourselves, our team, the reputation of Shen Yun and also the caller. Many of our team discussions are about how far we can go to help people and where we have to draw the line because of potential risks to Shen Yun.
There is also a strong element of protection in our work. Protection of each other, protection of Shen Yun and protection of the caller on the line. As we all know, the greatest protection comes from diligent Fa study, sending righteous thoughts and doing the exercises.
The protection and support from Fa study, exercises and sending righteous thoughts is very valuable.
Last season there were serious threats to Shen Yun and baseless attempts to discredit the company so we were all on high alert. In the end, although there were a few strange and abusive calls, nothing too onerous occurred. But I knew I needed to maintain strong righteous thoughts and make sure that my own behavior was as impeccable as possible and temper myself in line with Shen Yun’s mission. What we’re doing is serious. This is no ordinary hotline and I know that any weakness or carelessness on my part is dangerous because evil is always there waiting for a gap, an opportunity to take advantage and lay waste to everything we are trying to do. It did at times feel like we were holding the line in a battle, and as Master said,
“In circumstances like these, what everyone should be doing is coming together with a shared sense of purpose, making Dafa the priority, exercising the self-restraint befitting a practitioner, ensuring that harm doesn’t befall your initiatives to save lives, and working together, shoulder-to-shoulder, to get through ordeals. (“Critical Times Reveal One’s Spiritual State”)
As a team it certainly feels like we are working together “shoulder-to-shoulder.” There are weekly meetings that begin with Fa study, then issues encountered during the week are discussed where we discuss individual cases and ways of dealing with them. There are high levels of personal accountability in this team and people take full responsibility for addressing problems and difficulties. Sometimes sharing can be moving and difficult as issues are thoroughly worked through and we come face to face with our own notions, attachments and shortcomings. We really need to be clear on how we interact with callers and we all need to give them accurate information, and this information changes throughout the season. Although we all have different approaches and individual styles it’s important that we are all giving the correct policy line and there are no shortfalls in the service we provide.
Thankfully, there are also very high levels of support between us, and for me there have been no gaps in that support. Right from the beginning, I was welcomed, supported and encouraged. Whenever I was on shift, if I needed help, advice or guidance, whoever I was working with responded immediately. At the same time if I needed correction, it was there and this too is part of the tempering process. We have to hold the line, we have to give a quality service in line with Shen Yun’s mission and there are rigorous standards in this team.
At the end of the season we all met to review our work and we discussed areas for improvement and shared what we learned about our own cultivation. For myself the overriding feeling was immense gratitude to the team. It is very difficult to convey this without sounding sentimental or overly effusive but I have to say I’m deeply grateful to everyone for their commitment and dedication and it’s been a privilege to be a part of the Hotline Team.
Both the team and the work for Shen Yun have had a profound effect on my cultivation and I experienced some much needed tempering. Some of that is conscious in disciplining myself to thoroughly learn the work, putting the shift hours in to fit and work effectively with the team, but at the same time I have been tempered by this process in ways I couldn’t have imagined or predicted. It has at times been grueling, facing hard edges in myself, becoming aware of attachments and working hard to let go of notions, views and projections, but it has also been strengthening and freeing.
I would like to end by saying that I was asked to share my experience of working on the Hotline Team this season. Like most practitioners we all work across different teams and I know that as I have talked about the commitment and dedication of the Hotline Team, there are many other equally dedicated and committed teams, who have worked tirelessly to support and ensure the success of this year’s tour. It has been a privilege to be a part of this whole one body effort.
I am, of course, always deeply thankful to our Master. In giving us Shen Yun, Master has given us the means to help us fulfill our vow. In providing the work we need to do he has, at the same time, given us the best cultivation opportunity there has ever been and ever will be. How do I say thank you, other than to say, “Thank you, Master. I will try to do better.”
Thank you, everyone, for your dedication and commitment.
(Selected article presented at the 2025 UK Fa Conference)
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