PureInsight | August 31, 2006
[PureInsight.org] (United Kingdom Experience Sharing Conference, 2006)
My name is J. I got involved with the newspaper in early 2005 and
started to coordinate the distribution. It got off to quite a shaky
start as I had never been in a position of responsibility before. I had
quite a big attachment to relying on others and I felt that it was the
duty of everyone else to rally round and get involved. I had a very bad
mentality. I was combative and blamed others who didn't help.
I was validating myself and subsequently had many conflicts, in
particular with one certain distributor: when he failed to turn up on
time I would get most frustrated and more often than not our heated
phone conversations would end with me saying "How can you do this? I'm
distribution coordinator." I was very combative and competitive.
"A wicked person is born of jealousy. Out of selfishness and anger he complains about unfairness toward himself.
A benevolent person always has a heart of compassion. With no discontentment or hatred, he takes hardship as joy.
An enlightened being has no attachments at all. He quietly
observes the everyday people blinded by delusion." ("Realms" from Essentials for Further Advancement)
I managed to let go of this mindset and things naturally started to
harmonize themselves. more people got involved and everyone started to
take more responsibility for their particular papers.
Getting rid of my attachment to reputation and comfort
Often, I didn't like delivering the papers because of the lowly opinion
people have of a paper boy or girl in society. I would have liked to
have done something with less physical work and more status, like
writing articles for the paper. Sometimes I would also resent getting
up at six in the morning to travel to central London in rush hour and
pull a trolley load of papers across town. To my human notions it felt
"undignified," when, actually, it was to help me remove my attachment
to fame and reputation. I would visit the same places where I used to
audition when I was pursing an acting career. Sometimes I had the
thought that I didn't want to bump into some of my old acting
colleagues for them to see that I was now a paper girl.
But as my mind changed, so did the situation. I started to view
my paper delivery as an honour; I was coming with truth to all these
different work places, residential homes and cafes. As my mind changed
so did how people viewed me. Many people greeted me like a long-lost
friend and were really pleased to see me each week. I felt noble and
dignified.
"He comes with the Truth, which gives him full control
And travels the four seas with a free and easy spirit
Spreading the Fa's principles throughout the secular world
Loaded full with sentient beings, his Fa Boat sets sail" ("Tathagata," 2002)
Lately, I noticed that I had started to slack off in my diligence in
distributing the paper. The paper has been running for over a
year now and I felt that I didn't have the zest and enthusiasm for it
as I used to. I was like the person in Zhuan Falun
who only did superficial work to be appreciated by his supervisor. But
as Teacher tells us, cultivation practice depends fully upon your heart.
Before I would just do my set delivery routes and leave it at that but
now I take the initiative and go and give out papers in the street in
the afternoon. Recently, one of our distributors left to go back to
Hong Kong. She used to give out papers on the corner of a busy London
street with the BBC building on one corner and a busy university with
many Chinese students on the other. It is an excellent place to
distribute the paper as it is a thoroughfare that many people pass
through at lunchtime. Before I took over this distribution point I was
reluctant to because of my attachment to my reputation. I didn't want
to stand on the pavement, on my own in the middle of the day, giving
out papers.
As Master says in Zhuan Falun:
"A lot of people want to practice cultivation toward high levels.
This is now provided right before you, and you may still be unaware of
it." "Today, it is offered to you at your doorstep, and maybe you have
not realized it! This is an issue of whether you can become enlightened
to it and whether you can be saved."
Each week there are 10,000 papers printed, which is 10,000 opportunities
to let people know about the truth. The papers are free for any
practitioners to collect and distribute where they please. Each week I
can take the opportunity to do better and better, improving my xinxing
whilst reaching many sentient beings who have waited aeons of time for
me to walk through their door with a newspaper.
Alongside the distribution, two other practitioners and myself have
formed the ad sales team for the paper. The sales team has a very
important role to play in ensuring that our paper starts functioning as
a regular media outlet in society. It has been a slow process in
learning the basics of sales and for a long time I didn't really have
the heart to do it. My human notions told me that it was too much work
for too little reward, it would never succeed enough to make a living
off, and sales was a bit of a lowly profession.
There was a turning point though at one of our sales meetings. One
practitioner commented that the newspaper in New York had grown so
quickly because they all had the one righteous thought that they wanted
it to succeed. After this our minds in the sales team
changed. We naturally started to come together, setting up office
in one practitioner's home and started to treat it like a regular
job. Doing calls in a group is very supportive: we can discuss
how the call went and how to better handle objections. There have
since been two more practitioners who have joined the sales team.
I feel I need to make rapid progress in sales so I can start bringing
in regular revenue for the paper. I have come across many attachments
lately in trying to push forward with the sales. Notably, my dependence
on others and my attachment to comfort. I am quite happy making
appointments over the phone then going to visit someone, but find it
difficult walking in off the street to visit a business. Fear of
rejection, fear of the unknown and my attachment to comfort and
security all come into play. Walking in cold off the street does feel
like a baptism of fire but it is a very time-effective approach to
sales and makes you more distinctive than the numerous sales calls that
businesses receive. The other practitioner in the sales team gave
me some useful advice recently: If you keep putting yourself in the
same situation again and again then things are bound to start
happening.
Contrary to popular opinion sales can actually be quite
enjoyable. The stereotype of the pushy sales person is not true
at all, as Teacher tells us in Zhuan Falun:
"'Nine out of ten merchants are fraudulent.' That is a saying made by
everyday people. I would say that it is a matter of the human
heart." It is our enthusiasm and positivity that attracts people
to our newspaper. I would encourage anyone to get involved with the
sales team. Instead of thinking of it as sales, we are just
representatives of the paper. There is no particular type of person who
makes a good sales person, you can be quiet and shy or loud and
extroverted. It is the heart and mind that are important, as
Teacher tells us in Zhuan Falun: "If you can commit your mind no difficulties can stop you."
