(Minghui.org) Since Shen Yun debuted its first performance in Sweden in 2008, tens of thousands of Swedish people have had the blessing to watch the show before the pandemic hit in 2020.
Shen Yun is a project directly led by Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) and is incredibly powerfully in saving sentient beings. I felt very honored to contribute to a number of tasks for Shen Yun shows in Sweden, such as online promotion, ticket sales analysis, audience surveys, backstage support and security.
During the process, I not only had multiple opportunities to cultivate myself, but also witnessed some miracles. On several occasions, I broke through physical limitations and accomplished multiple tasks in a day without feeling tired. To give an example, I helped set up the stage during the day, worked backstage during the show, and then wrote reports for The Epoch Times until the wee hours. The next morning, I started another round of tasks for the day, light and happy, without any slight feeling of fatigue.
Extraordinary Experiences in Helping with Shen Yun Project
Once, I injured my back just before Shen Yun arrived in Sweden. The day before the opening night, I had to drive five hours to deliver some equipment from Gothenburg to Stockholm. Getting in and out of the vehicle was painful for me, but I made it. However, upon arrival in Stockholm, we realized that an important item was left behind. With no hesitation, I drove back to get it. By the time I got back, I had been driving for more than eleven hours that day. The next day, I helped with the show’s production and it was very successful. By nighttime, suddenly, I realized that my back pain was completely gone!
While working as a security guard, I came across some extraordinary incidents. Once, a woman in her 80s came in a wheelchair to watch Shen Yun by herself. Her grandchildren escorted her to the theater lobby, just to make sure that everything was fine with their grandma.
After the show had started, I ran into her daughter in the lobby. She told me that she was very concerned about her mother, who insisted on coming to the show although she had just been released from the hospital after an operation on her leg and she was still quite weak.
After the show, I helped the elderly woman into a taxi. She was very excited and radiant. “Oh, it’s worth the effort!” she kept saying, “Absolutely worth it!” I could feel her predestined relationship with Dafa and the immense compassion of our Master.
While reviewing the audience surveys, I was delighted to see the positive feedback about the information regarding Dafa. One person wrote: “I appreciated the spiritual content and prophetic warning about the future of the world and also become aware of our own limitations and the need for directional guidance.”
We scheduled six shows for early January 2020 in Stockholm. When we were promoting the show, many potential audience members told us that they had booked short vacations to warmer countries to escape the cold weather––a tradition for many Swedes during that time of the year.
We conducted extensive marketing research and used all possible cost-effective ways to promote Shen Yun. All practitioners involved cooperated well and did their best. We were confident that as long as we did things with our heart, Master would help us reach out to all those who were destined to come to watch Shen Yun.
As it turned out, ticket sales for every show were very good. All those who braved the cold weather to come to see Shen Yun in Stockholm reconnected their bonds with Master and Dafa. Even though I don’t know exactly what obstacles they had to overcome to see Shen Yun, the most important is that they grasped the opportunity to see it and were blessed with salvation as a result!
In March this year, I helped as security when Shen Yun performed in Denmark. I was still recovering from a strained leg that got injured while lifting something very heavy. The pain, from the right hip to my leg and foot, had caused me much inconvenience for three months by then.
My duty was to guard a busy entrance to the theater. It was near the kitchen where Shen Yun artists had their meals. Since the artists worked on a very tight schedule with limited time for food, timing was extremely important. Every second counts, and any interference would affect their overall schedule.
Unexpected incidents occurred from time to time, but those working in the catering team never complained and were able to resolve the issues very quickly. I could feel the calm and peaceful atmosphere in an intense work environment. This helped me realize my own shortcomings in comparison. I needed to improve and keep calm when under pressure.
Miracles happen when we have ample righteous thoughts. Two days earlier, I still felt sharp pains from my back to my leg when I picked up a chair. But now, when I was fully focused on my duty as a security guard, all the pains disappeared, even though I had to stand from morning until evening, with only a little bit of time for rest and meals. The injury in my leg was completely healed and I could even help the catering team carry some heavy items, for the first time in three months!
Clarifying the Truth to My Colleagues and Neighbors
I worked in a large company before I retired. Many mainland Chinese came to work or visit our company. I found it very difficult to clarify the truth to them at the beginning, because they had been deeply brainwashed by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) slanderous propaganda against Falun Dafa in China.
After sharing with other practitioners who worked in the same company, we decided to clarify the truth to our Chinese colleagues and visitors. We found opportunities to share with them that we proudly practice Falun Dafa and demonstrated in our interactions with them that we are good people. We tried our best to help them out when they came across any difficulties.
Whenever I saw a Chinese colleague eating alone in the canteen, I would go over to say hello. By and by, they changed their attitude and were willing to talk with us, and they gained a better understanding about Dafa.
They became curious about Falun Dafa and read materials about the persecution online. When Shen Yun came to perform in Sweden, some of them also attended the show and changed their notions.
At a farewell dinner party, a Chinese manager who had just finished training in Sweden said, “I used to have very negative views about Falun Dafa, but I have completely changed my mind since I got to know you.”
A trainee engineer said, “Oh my goodness, I saw the video about the self-immolation and it turned out to be a hoax!” He was also aware of other atrocities committed by the CCP against the Chinese people.
While I was having coffee with a few Chinese colleagues, one of them said, “I’m touched and very impressed that Swedish people can understand and practice Falun Dafa. You know? Falun Dafa is a qigong practice that requires its practitioners to be good people.”
Even after they returned to China, some of them still kept in touch with us and expressed gratitude for getting to know us in Sweden.
During the pandemic, a lot of people worked from home, so we had more opportunities to meet our neighbors. My wife and I helped them with all kinds of small things, and they were very grateful. At a gathering with some neighbors in winter 2020, we clarified the truth to them about Falun Dafa and decided to establish a Falun Dafa practice site every Thursday evening.
We taught them the exercises and told them about the benefits of doing the practice, as well as the cruel persecution in China. After we did the exercises, we shared our experience in cultivation and answered their questions. Some of them also joined the online Falun Dafa introduction presentations.
When the film Letter from Masanjia was screened in Gothenburg last year, four of our neighbors went to watch it with us. They were shocked by the crimes of the CCP and deeply moved by the courage and determination of Falun Dafa practitioners.
Shen Yun Zuo Pin a Platform to Revive Traditional Culture
For a while, I felt rather distracted by the negative things happening in today’s society. I felt worried because the degenerating trend has a very bad influence over the world’s people. Everyone is busy going about their lives, and there is nothing I can do to help.
I realized that only by studying the Fa could I overcome such anxiety and be able to look at things from a positive perspective. I found that my anxiety and worries had stemmed from human sentiments and I needed let go of such mentality. After a while, I refocused on what Master has required us to do––to keep clarifying the truth.
In 2021, I learned that the works of Shen Yun became available for the public on a new streaming platform known as Shen Yun Zuo Pin (Shen Yun Creations). It shares the same mission as Shen Yun Performing Arts, to revive and promote China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture. Watching the videos on the platform gives me a feeling of peace and harmony and a sense of fusion with the beautiful culture bestowed by the divine.
Shen Yun Zuo Pin is a pure land on earth that can free people from the distractions in this chaotic world and the negative influence from degenerated morals in the modern society, and help them return to their true nature.
People can now enjoy the original works of Shen Yun’s dances and music pieces. There also videos of classical Chinese dance, ethnic dance, short dance dramas, Shen Yun symphony pieces, instrument solos, vocal solos sung in Bel canto style, as well as interviews with Shen Yun artists, etc.
My understanding is that the platform of Shen Yun Zuo Pin, as a pure land, can help change the bad things in today’s society and help people to learn about the beauty of Falun Dafa so that they can choose a bright future for themselves.
Master said in a recent article, “Wake Up,”
“The old universe is what it is; let it be. Your responsibility is to rescue and deliver lives to the new universe. What’s needed for the next historical era—the Fa’s rectification of the human world—is for people to be saved and delivered to the world that is being rectified by the Fa and for the culture and ways of tradition to be revived.” (“Wake Up”)
At this critical moment in history, I will be even more diligent in Fa study, as this is the only guarantee for me to become one with Dafa in the face of distractions in the chaotic world today.
Thank you, Master!Thank you, fellow practitioners!
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
