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Gratitude: My Cultivation Experiences in DPA Ticket Sales

Feb. 1, 2009 |   By a practitioner outside of China

(Clearwisdom.net) Divine Performing Arts (DPA) staged several successful shows in my city. The evening of the first show, when I looked at so many people in the theater, I was moved to tears. After I read the audience's feedback on the website, I was so happy for the people that were saved. I was so happy for practitioners who contributed selflessly as one body. My gratitude to Master is beyond words.

Looking back at the past several months of ticket sales experience, I am very thankful. I am grateful to Master for giving me the opportunity to improve in cultivation this way. Master brings predestined people to us. I am grateful for local fellow practitioners' cooperation and assistance. We improved our xinxing as one body.

The process of improving as one body is also the process of individual cultivation and the upgrading of xinxing. I would like to share my cultivation experience in ticket sales.

1. My strongest impression with regard to ticket sales this year is that we coordinated with one another very well as one body, with strong righteous thoughts. We united harmoniously as one body. We have established and maintained a good cultivation environment where everybody looks inward when conflicts arise.

2. Fellow practitioners' help, experience sharing, and training has helped me greatly. Personally, due to a language barrier, at the very beginning, I was worried that I would not know what to say. I was just planning to distribute flyers. Because the number of tickets was double what it was last year, more practitioners were needed to help sell tickets. "Cultivation is up to you, gong is up to the master." (Zhuan Falun) I thought, "As long as I have the thought of saving sentient beings, Master will bring the predestined people to us." In the meantime, I greatly benefited from group experience sharing.

I also realized the importance of Fa study and xinxing cultivation. Based on my own situation, I tried my best to memorize the introductory materials about Divine Performing Arts to make up for my lack of proficiency in the English language. I also sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the attachment to fear. Due to the strengthened righteous thoughts as one body, as well as fellow practitioners' help, I made great progress in ticket sales, although it was far from enough.

3. One must not have the attachment to validating oneself while selling tickets. My experience is that one ticket center is a small body. Practitioners' having righteous thoughts and coordinating well with one another is very important for selling more tickets (and thereby saving more people). At the ticket center, the focus should not be who sold how many tickets, because it is done by the one body. Our eyes in this dimension cannot see the power in other dimensions. In fact, all in all, it is done by Master. Just as Master says, "When you teach a person the exercises, he may say, 'Oh, I have Falun now.' You wrongly think that it is installed by you, when it is not. I am telling you this so that you will not develop this attachment. It is all done by my fashen." (Zhuan Falun)

When we unintentionally focus on our individual accomplishments, there will be a distance between practitioners in other dimensions, which will prevent our power from fully functioning. Then it will be more difficult to relinquish our attachments to the pursuit of fame, competitiveness, jealousy, and self-validation.

4. While selling tickets, I truly realized the importance of purifying myself and sending forth righteous thoughts.

I realized that selling tickets to people is just like going around meeting people. We meet all kinds of people. It requires us to improve our xinxing, to keep eliminating all bad thoughts and interference in order to save sentient beings, and to treat everybody benevolently. I found that when I maintained a peaceful mindset and kept the thought of "I will save you," ticket sales always went smoothly. I do not have to say too much before people decide to buy tickets. When I became complacent, people did not even accept the flyers. Only when we purify ourselves and reach the Fa's requirements will the Fa's power be manifested and enable Master to bring predestined people to us. When we have different attachments, they will prevent people from being saved.

I truly realized that the entire ticket sales process is a process of eliminating different kinds of attachments.

One day, while selling tickets in the mall, a young man came to listen to me introduce the show. As he was listening, I noticed his face getting closer and closer to my face. Soon after that, a young American came over to watch our TV advertisement. He smiled at me, "This show must be great. But I am single and I would like to find a Chinese girlfriend to go with me. Would you like to accompany me?" I felt awful and thought, "What is going on today? Why did I meet with this kind of situation today?" I alerted myself because I knew that nothing is accidental in cultivation. So I started eliminating the lust factor in my dimension. Nothing like that happened anymore afterwards.

In my heart, I care about Chinese people and hope they can all be saved. However, the Chinese people have been poisoned so deeply. Chinese people that pass by have shown different states of mind.

Once a Chinese man passed by. I smiled and tried to hand him a flyer. He waved his hand and almost hit me in the face. He also said something very unpleasant. Although I was still smiling, I thought, "What a pity! If you do not want it or do not want to listen, it is your choice. Master already said that about half of the people are not savable." When I had that thought in my mind, I immediately realized that I had resentment. I realized that I did not truly feel pity that he was deceived by the lies. I did not truly hope he could be saved. Instead, I developed resentment because of his unfriendliness. I even had the thought of hoping that these kinds of people would be eliminated. I was shocked by that thought. At that moment, I found out that I still had that deep-seated, evil thought. How could I save people with this kind of mindset?!

Compassion is cultivated after one assimilates with the Fa and lets go of human attachments. I understand that doing Dafa work does not mean being diligent in cultivation. Being diligent in cultivation means that one will never let an opportunity pass by without upgrading one's xinxing.

I reminded myself to dissolve any negative thoughts and send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate any thoughts that were not in line with the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. I sent a benevolent thought to everybody passing by me. I said in my heart to their main consciousness, "Come see the DPA show. This is the ticket to the future. I hope you can all be saved and do not miss this once-in-a-thousand millennia opportunity."

Later I realized that no matter what kind of people I meet, I should always maintain a peaceful mindset. I also developed a further understanding of the Fa:

"Looking, but caring not to see--
Free of delusion and doubt.
Listening, but caring not to hear--
A mind so hard to disturb." ("Abiding in the Dao," Hong Yin)

This is the manifestation of the raising one's realm. It is a natural reflection after assimilating with the Fa.

One afternoon, a well-dressed middle-aged lady came to me and asked me with a northern accent, "Have the tickets sold out yet?" I answered, "Almost." She said, "Hurry up and sell them all. Would you like my help?" I thanked her and asked her, "Would you like to buy some tickets?" She said, "I've bought mine already. Last year I missed the show. I heard that it was great, so I bought my ticket early this year." I said, "You look like somebody in the arts and performing field." She said she used to work in that area in China when she was young. She gave us her best wishes for our ticket sales. I am so happy for her.

While selling tickets in the mall, every day we met many people who had already bought their tickets. When they passed by, they were always so excited to tell us that they had bought which day's tickets. One elderly American gentleman bought tickets from me and every time he saw me at the mall, he always shook hands with me and said thanks. I knew it was his knowing side that was so happy to be saved.

The last afternoon at the mall, when I sent forth righteous thoughts with a calm mind, I saw a magnificent scene in other dimensions. Golden mansions were in front of me. Everything was so wonderful. I knew it was Master encouraging me. I was so grateful. It is Master who established this opportunity for practitioners to cultivate and improve and for sentient beings to be saved! I said to Master from the bottom of my heart, "Thank you, Master!"

During that time, every morning after I got up, the first thing I thought about was ticket sales and saving sentient beings. I sent forth righteous thoughts every day to eliminate any interference in saving sentient beings. I asked Master to strengthen me and to bring all sentient beings waiting to be saved to us to buy tickets. When sharing experiences with fellow practitioners, this was our number one topic. Everything was so natural. Now as I recall it, the local practitioners treated the salvation of sentient beings as the number one thing in their life. When our xinxing reaches that level, Dafa's power naturally will manifest. The ticket sales went very smoothly.

I would like to share another incident that moved me. While selling tickets in the mall, I met a friend that I had gotten to know only recently. Before then, I had tried to introduce the DPA show to her. She said she was not interested and always tried to avoid that topic. After she read the audience feedback about the show, she called me herself and asked about the show. Naturally we talked about the truth about Falun Gong and the importance of quitting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). When I asked her whether she would like me to help her quit the CCP, she said sure. I was so happy for her. I also realized the power of the DPA show in saving sentient beings. I realized the mighty compassion of Master in saving sentient beings.

Recalling the ticket sales experience over the past several months, "gratitude" is what I would like to express to Master from the bottom of my heart.

Please kindly point out anything inappropriate in my sharing.