(Minghui.org)
Hello, respected Master!
Hello, fellow practitioners!
I'm a practitioner from Belgium. I would like to share with everyone what I've learned during this year’s Shen Yun promotion.
When preparations for our 2013 Shen Yun began, some practitioners, including myself, were not motivated right away. We were still focusing on the movement to help Chinese people renounce their memberships to Chinese Communist Party. Before Christmas, I suddenly became alarmed: why am I still attached to my own projects? Shen Yun is our priority. Right after we began focusing on Shen Yun, our team began to experience problems in cooperation. We all heard earfuls of issues concerning lack of cooperation as one body. These issues reflected our shortcomings in xinxing cultivation, which in turn might seriously jeopardize our efforts to promote Shen Yun. I was very well aware of these issues, but since I'm not the coordinator, I felt helpless.
During a group Fa study on the Global RTC platform (project involving phone calls to China inform people about the persecution of Falun Gong), a Canadian practitioner asked me about our situation. My response must have been pretty negative. The practitioner said: “You're a veteran practitioner, and you have studied the Fa extensively. I suggest you share your understanding of the Fa principles with everyone. The coordinators are too busy to solve all the issues. You should quietly do your part to harmonize the situation.” I felt that this was Master’s message to me delivered by this practitioner, and I suddenly became more motivated.
I recalled Master’s lecture from “Fa Teaching Given at the NTDTV Meeting”:
“The problems you experience selling Shen Yun tickets are in fact a reflection of the cultivation state of the students in that locale. That’s extremely clear to me. No matter which student or which place it is, however your state is will definitely be mirrored in how your ticket sales go. I’m not saying that you haven’t cultivated well, but rather, that it is a manifestation of how successfully you cooperate. That is very apparent in how your Shen Yun ticket sales go. In some places students worked together extremely well, and in some places there were just a handful of students working on things, yet what they did, despite having few people, was highly effective. ”
My understanding is that Master made it clear to us that our Shen Yun ticket sales are directly tied to and reflected in our cultivation and collaboration.
A practitioner posted a paragraph of Master’s earlier lecture:
“Dafa disciples should handle everything positively. Don't look at the negative side of other people. You should always look at their positive side. Actually, did you know that back when I was teaching you Dafa, during the classes a lot of human thoughts were sent out from the audience down there? The thoughts sent out by some people were really bad, but I didn't look at any of that. I just look at your positive side, and thus I can save you. If I were to always look at your negative side, how could I save you? The more I looked at it the angrier I'd get, and then how could I save you? (Applause) So in any situation, don't be affected by human-type behavior, don't be affected by human thoughts, and don't be affected by the feelings and emotions in this world, either. Look more at the positives in others and less at the negatives.” (“Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference”)
Again I felt that Master was directly telling us the root cause of our cooperation problems. I did not even need to look for them. Indeed, even as an ordinary practitioner, I can still quietly harmonize the situation. I forwarded both the Chinese and English version of the above two paragraphs to our group email.
After that, every time I saw articles on Minghui and other Dafa websites about one-body cooperation, I forwarded the links to our group email. When Shen Yun preparation picked up speed, our country-wide Fa study or large scale meetings did not allocate much time for xinxing related discussions. Sharing articles via group email effectively provided a missing link. Master’s mighty power rectified our environment. Quickly I began to see less and less argument amongst practitioners. People become less stubborn. When some practitioners complained in private, other practitioners immediately reminded them to get rid of “negative thinking.” I also eliminated many negative thoughts.
We have a practitioner who was very diligent and actively involved in many projects. At the beginning of this year’s Shen Yun promotion, she had many suggestions but most of them were not accepted. Discouraged, she began to vent her negative emotion, and reduced her involvement in the activities. I and a few others began to worry about her, and we complained about her situation. But during Fa study, I quickly found my own problem: “negative thinking.” I must relinquish my negative thoughts about other practitioners. Maybe she was doing something else, and what we saw was just an illusion to test my xinxing. Master’s Fashen are watching over every practitioner, and if we remember to conduct ourselves according to the requirements as cultivators, we can do well in our task.
I was able to let go of my negative thought. Later I learned that this practitioner was busy making Shen Yun promotion DVDs at home. My negative thought again surfaced: Everyone can use the Internet, and all practitioners use Ipad, Smartphone or MP4 to play Shen Yun video clips, we don’t need that many DVDs. Especially since we have a manpower shortage, an active practitioner making DVDs at home is unnecessary.
Because of this negative thought, we did not see many people taking our DVDs, and some promotion sites reported leftovers. But soon I realized that this was a negative thought. I began to rectify myself with Master’s teaching, reading specific paragraphs on negative thinking over and over. Soon I came to realize that practitioners could use any method, such as distributing flyers to wealthy homes, hanging posters, and passing out DVDs. As long as we do them based on our understanding of the Fa, Master will arrange people predestined to see the show to buy tickets. I was able to let go of my concern. Soon I began to hear positive feedback from other practitioners, saying the DVD is great, and many people love it. That practitioner also came to group activities more often. Thank you Master, I have felt the amazing effect of looking inside for my own attachment.
For about two months prior to the Shen Yun performance, I had been having frictions with a Western practitioner over a trivial matter. We clashed about six times. Every time afterwards, I wept and looked inside for my own issue. Every time after I found my own problem, I moved on. But a few days later, we would clash again. In the beginning, I was happy, thinking this is my opportunity to improve my xinxing. But my husband (a practitioner) helped me to identify some subtle remnants of Communist Party culture I was harboring, self- righteousness, and a show off mentality. Therefore, the conflict kept coming back. Once during our country-wide Fa study, the other practitioner made quite a scene. I was very upset. On our way home, my husband pointed out my attachment to self-image and fame. I knew Master wants me to have a big heart. After that, my resentment quickly vanished.
The conflict was not over, even though I was able to react to it with compassion. It seemed that the hurdle just got higher, and soon I felt that many Western practitioners' attitudes towards me had changed. They no longer returned my emails, and they looked at me with indifference and even “anger” in their eyes. I began to feel encirclement from the evil forces in other dimensions. These conflicts were not for our personal cultivation, they meant to obstruct our effort in rectifying the Fa and saving people. Indeed, because of the interference, that Western practitioner (in conflict with me) seldom participated in Shen Yun promotion.
I recalled Master’s article “Expounding on the Fa” that I memorized in my heart, suddenly I became clear. At the same time, I received an email from a practitioner who shared her experience of some abnormal xinxing conflicts, and she reminded everyone to stay alert. Following her email, I also sent an email to the big group, attaching Master’s “Expounding the Fa” and a few other articles, encouraging everyone to send forth righteous thoughts and eliminate the evil interference. From that point on until after Shen Yun came, the “conflicts” never reoccurred.
Due to our collective efforts to improve cooperation and eliminate negative thoughts, our 2013 Shen Yun was successful, the high-end tickets were sold out, some audience members even waited at the door for an opportunity to buy tickets.
I would like to thank Master for supporting and enlightening us. I learned that even as an ordinary practitioner, I could still play a silent role in cooperation, and improve our cultivation in Shen Yun promotion.
Due to my limited understanding, please point out my mistakes. Thanks everyone.
(Presented at the 2013 European Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conference in Copenhagen)
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