(Clearwisdom.net) Upon hearing that The Epoch Times newspaper was facing a difficult financial situation, and that they needed more practitioners to promote advertisements, I decided to help. I am not an outgoing person, nor did I have any ideas about how to promote advertisements. However, I was inspired by the experience shared by one fellow practitioner, and I decided to give it a try. That fellow practitioner expressed her understanding of a paragraph of the Fa lectured by Master on the topic of "Reverse Cultivation." Her understanding was that we are practitioners, and Master would add gong to the position where our xinxing levels are to help us. Therefore, we do not need to learn how to promote advertisements step by step from scratch as ordinary people do, nor do we have sufficient time to do so. As long as we have righteous thoughts, Master will add gong to ours. That is, "Cultivation depends on one's own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one's master." (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun) I thought that by promoting advertisements for The Epoch Times, I could cultivate myself during the process, and that would be a good idea. However, it was really very hard when I began. It was a genuine test to my xinxing, and the interference from the old forces was quite intense. The thought of quitting from this program always popped up in my mind.

In order to promote ads, I had to learn how to make phone calls or do "telemarketing." I was very nervous when I first picked up the telephone. A practitioner demonstrated the technique for me several times, and I followed that method. After having made several dozen phone calls, I no longer felt nervous or scared. The attachment of fear was gone, but a new problem emerged. Sometimes, I spent a whole day making more than a hundred phone calls without any noticeable progress. I became very depressed and felt that a whole day had been wasted like this, and I couldn't calm myself down. This was truly a xinxing test for my cultivation. After eliminating the attachment of fear, I had to cultivate myself to become more patient. There were difficulties along every step of my cultivation path.

The next step was to promote ads in person. I heard that the effects of directly promoting advertisements face to face to the customers were very good, so I decided to visit companies one by one by myself. Direct ad promotions to customers means communicating with the managers of businesses door to door on the streets or in the malls. I started at a fashion store in Scarborough Town Centre. As soon as I forced myself to enter the store, my mind was working hard on how to speak to the people in charge of the store. However, I was too shy to talk to them. Whenever they saw me, I turned away immediately and looked at the merchandise in the store, pretending to be a customer. Just at that time, I saw an acquaintance of mine, who appeared to me as a "lifesaver." As a result, I talked with him for more than one hour. After he left, I still needed to do my job. I re-entered the store and approached the store owner after walking around the store several times. Unfortunately, the results were not successful, but at least I had my first sales experience behind me. From there, I went to more than a dozen stores, but no one was willing to purchase a single advertising column. Having tried for the whole day, what I received were only refusals and even unpleasant words from some of the people that I encountered.

In one of the stores, I met an acquaintance of mine from a long time ago. He said to me, "Why don't you do something proper instead of promoting advertisements?" It sounded as if I wasn't engaging in a decent business. I felt so frustrated that many negative thoughts popped up. Is it right that I am not a suitable person to promote advertisements? What should I do in the future? My mind was overwhelmed by these thoughts for quite a while. Eventually, I realized that as Dafa disciples, we should do everything according to the requirements of the Fa instead of ordinary people's notions and standards during this Fa-rectification period. With this righteous thought, I became determined to fulfill my responsibilities in promoting ads for The Epoch Times.

Gradually, I obtained my first client and made the first transaction for a small amount of currency, which encouraged me and made me feel a bit more comfortable inside. However, since the price of the transaction, which was determined by me, was too low and didn't meet the requirement, a fellow practitioner criticized me on this. As a result, I felt depressed and I couldn't cheer up. Thinking over this matter, I realized that cultivation is about elevating xinxing. When our xinxing is upgraded, the clients will come to us. Master said, "One's gong level is as high as one's xinxing level." (Lecture One, Zhuan Falun). Elevating xinxing is crucial to one's cultivation, so I should upgrade my xinxing through overcoming all the difficulties. There is a saying: "A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit." I should improve where I hadn't done well before. Master did encourage me. The following day, I obtained several new clients and successfully signed contracts with them for small amounts of currency. This improvement and some compliments from my fellow practitioners made me feel dizzy with success. As a result, the mentality of showing off and the attachment of zealotry emerged. Soon after that, new problems came up. A meeting with a client didn't proceed smoothly that evening. At first, there was a traffic jam on my way to meet with the client. Later when I finally managed to get there, due to my delay of more than one hour, the client was unpleased, and then the deal was canceled. I realized that this was caused by my attachment of zealotry, and that I should be aware of it. I should let go of this attachment. A few days later, this client called me back and completed a sale with me.

With the support and help of my fellow practitioners, I eventually persisted along my path. I thought that perhaps because Master could see my determination to promote ads for The Epoch Times, He was helping me to successfully complete several sales worth a total of more than $5,000 in the first month. However, I didn't feel too confident in my heart, because I had no idea how this had been accomplished. It seemed to me that without too much promotion from me to my clients, they were just willing to sign contracts with me. In the following month, I gained some confidence, but things didn't go as smoothly as they did in the first month. I made many phone calls, and went directly to many different businesses to promote ads to clients face to face, however, there weren't many positive results. Furthermore, after the conclusion of one deal, the client changed his mind and canceled the contract. My fellow practitioners encouraged me, saying that I was doing a great job. I was wondering in my heart, "Can my performance at this job be called doing well?" I felt that advertisement promotion was really a big challenge for me. Besides these hardships, I couldn't make myself calm down when I was studying the Fa and doing the exercises. Everything that was entangled in my mind was all about how to successfully promote advertisements. I tried hard to let those attachments go, but my efforts were in vain. Just at that time, a fellow practitioner provided me with a job opportunity and asked me whether I would accept it or not. It was a job within my professional field. In the past, I had acquired a professional certificate in this field, yet I hadn't found the chance to obtain a suitable job. Now the opportunity came. In my heart, the debate of whether I should accept it or not was very intense. I had just started my job at promoting ads for The Epoch Times, and everything had just begun to go smoothly. Was this opportunity of my preferred job simply interference to my work promoting ads? Then I wondered, if in the future I couldn't do a great job at promoting ads, would this kind of opportunity for my preferred job ever come to me again? What should I do? I made myself calm down to study the Fa and then shared my situation and my own understandings with my fellow practitioners. Eventually I realized that as Dafa disciples, we should regard the requirements of the Fa as our priorities instead of selecting what to accept or reject according to our ordinary people's needs. Therefore, I was determined to continue my job at promoting advertisements.

Although promoting ads is very difficult, I do treat it as a means of cultivation instead of simply a job, and thus I try my best during the process of doing it. I think that as Dafa disciples, as long as we have righteous thoughts and try our best, Master will arrange everything for us. In this way, I could naturally fulfill my goal every month, and I even exceeded my target for this month.

During the process of promoting ads, many of my attachments were exposed. The most obvious one was the attachment of zealotry. When I did pretty well, I immediately became rapturous. Then I soon realized my shortcoming and eliminated my attachment of zealotry. However, it appeared again and I cultivated myself to let it go again. When I couldn't make even one deal, I became very anxious. I easily felt anxious again even though I could make a deal, because I was wondering where the next deal would come from. It was very difficult to maintain a calm mind all the time. My heart, like in a tug-of-war, was pulled to one side at one moment and then pulled to the other side at the next moment. This is a very good opportunity for cultivation.

During the process of promoting ads, I realized that everything practitioners do is not only a superficial phenomenon that demonstrates itself to ordinary people's society. In order to save sentient beings, as Dafa disciples, we can utilize different manners and different channels to access ordinary people and thus accomplish our predestined relationships with them. What matters is that during this process, we upgrade ourselves as well. Everyone talks about saving sentient beings; however, the worldly side-path practices in the past didn't really save anyone. Today Dafa is spread broadly, and it is totally different from what was stated in the past about saving people. Dafa disciples are lives created by Dafa. If we cannot cultivate according to the Fa, the sentient beings of our worlds cannot be saved, and our own lives will be in great danger of being totally destroyed. We are the carriers and manifestations of the Fa in the human world. We have the responsibility to fulfill our great prehistoric vows to assist Master with Fa-rectification. Therefore, our personal cultivation is very important. In conclusion, I would like to cite a few sentences from Master's scripture "To the Australia Fa Conference:"

"Whether you are a new or veteran student, all the same you must not neglect Fa-study on account of being busy. Don't just go through the motions when you study the Fa. You should study with a concentrated mind, and you must really be studying. There have been so many lessons involving this. I hope all of you do well on the final leg of the journey. The future will soon be displayed before [the world's] eyes."

The above are some of my personal cultivation experiences. Please point out with compassion any inappropriate parts for me.

Thank you Master!

Thank you everyone.

Posting date: 2/3/2007
Original article date: 2/3/2007
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/1/2/145948.html

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