(Minghui.org) I saw Shen Yun for the first time in Norfolk, Virginia recently and I was very excited. I could not wait to see the show, and I was happy that my husband, who is not a practitioner, was coming with me too.
The show was wonderful, and the opening scene of countless Gods following Master down to Earth to save sentient beings really touched me. It reminded me of my sacred mission and vow. During the show, my husband liked the performance. He laughed and enjoyed himself, but became very upset during the vocal performances when the lyrics appeared on the screen. I felt enormous pressure and I tried to maintain righteous thoughts. In my heart, I asked Master to forgive him. We stayed until the end of the show and then we left for home. My husband did not speak with me for the rest of the trip back home and in the following few days I felt enormous pressure and could not calm down inside. I had many thoughts that this was all my fault because I so badly wanted my husband to realize how wonderful Falun Dafa is.
Many thoughts of bitter indignation and anger surfaced, but I also had other thoughts as well that were guiding me to be kind and patient with my husband. Through this experience I felt like Master was helping me differentiate more clearly that those notions and reactions that my husband had were not his true self. I started to send forth righteous thoughts and those bad substances slowly disappeared. Reflecting upon this experience, I realized that I wanted my husband to become a Dafa practitioner for selfish reasons. For example, because I thought that our life together would be much happier and more interesting if we both practiced Falun Dafa, and I would be able to talk with him about cultivation things. I realized that all those thoughts came from attachments such as sentimentality, mental comfort, and the desire to discuss Master’s teachings as a philosophy. Dafa is sacred, and who am I to decide who has the honor to become Master’s disciple? That is only up to our esteemed Master, as well as the pure heart of a being, and many other factors.
I came to understand that instead of wishing for my husband to become a practitioner from my different human attachments, I can only cultivate my character well and validate Dafa with my actions, conduct, and compassionate heart everywhere I am, including in my family environment. After this, my relationship with my husband improved and I no longer focused on what my husband did, but what I could do better myself.
To my surprise, one time when my husband and I were traveling in my home country, we met my practitioner friend and her non-practitioner husband. My husband really liked them and he was observing my practitioner friend’s behavior. He saw how kind she was and how harmonious their marriage was, as well. After we left their home, my husband thanked me for being with him, having patience, and for maintaining a good attitude during this period of time. He also said that he thinks all of this is due to Falun Dafa and the exercises that I practice. I felt very surprised to hear that, as it was only after a period of time when I did not have this intention and attachment for him to become a practitioner that this happened. I have come to understand that when we improve our xinxing, naturally Master rectifies things for us and we can truly validate the Fa.
Helping with Shen Yun Ticket Sales
I was very eager to help with Shen Yun promotion this year and I felt like I had waited a long time for this opportunity. While at the mall selling tickets, I had many realizations. The first few days I was very preoccupied by appearance and I had a human mindset of selling things. I also had negative thoughts that I did not like how certain practitioners were approaching people and I was looking down on them, thinking that I was better. Those thoughts were very harmful and I realized that I must let go of these mentalities of competition, jealousy, and showing off. Day by day, I felt my mind becoming more and more pure and Master giving me guidance on how to do better.
At this time, I also joined The Epoch Times newspaper as a customer service agent, speaking with people every day and doing retention calls. When customers call to cancel their subscription, we have to read them a script, letting them know the mission of The Epoch Times. Master arranged for me to join this project in order to become better at speaking with different customers. I applied what I learned in retention calls to Shen Yun tickets sales, which was very helpful. People at the mall started to stay more, show interest, and talk to us more at the booth. For example, I changed from “Do you know about Shen Yun?” to “Do you enjoy music? Do you enjoy live performances?” and other open questions that people are more likely to start a conversation with. We all know that sentient beings are predestined to come to see the show. For example, a woman thanked me for giving her a flyer, as she had wanted to see Shen Yun for a long time. Afterwards, she bought a ticket and was very happy! Another Westerner family who adopted a boy from China stopped by and we had a great conversation about their European roots. They bought 8 tickets and I saw the entire family at the show one day at the Kennedy Center.
There were some days when we did not sell any tickets, but at least on those days I was able to speak with people and clarify the truth to some of them. One day we were able to sell 10 tickets and the other practitioner at the booth said it was a big celebration of 10 different universes since all these people will see the performance and be saved. That night when I studied Zhuan Falun, I saw many Gods in orange robes in the book behind the words. It was so wonderful, and I felt very encouraged by Master.
On another day, Master showed me how I need to cultivate my every thought as I was distributing Shen Yun flyers with other practitioners. I had a thought about a practitioner in our area whom I never saw distributing flyers with us. I had negative and intruding thoughts of “why does this practitioner never help us with flyer distribution?!” Those thoughts reflected another layer of the attachments of competitiveness and showing off, and also an attitude of complacency that I was doing so much more than she was. To my surprise, I found out later that she was actually distributing flyers every day, only she was doing the task by herself because she did not want to burden other practitioners and make them wait for her. I felt very bad and ashamed of myself for having negative thoughts about her.
A few days later she was scolded by the owners of a home she put flyers at, and I had the thought that she did not manage the situation very well at first. I came to understand that every thought can influence our surroundings and I need to pay attention to and eliminate every thought I have that is not aligned with the Fa. As practitioners, we are one body and we should help each other with not only actions, but also encouragement and positive, righteous thoughts. Since we are one body, how could, for example, one particle compete with the other? We are all important. Through this experience I also understood that my perspectives are still limited to my cultivation level and I should pay attention to all of my thoughts.
Selling Shen Yun Souvenirs at the Gift Shop
I was very lucky to be able to be part of the Shen Yun Gift Shop team, and I had many realizations during the days I worked there as well. For example, I struggled to do the exercises every day and I had many attachments such as comfort and laziness. I asked one practitioner what Shen Yun dancers do in the gap hours they have when they perform two shows in a day, and the practitioner said, “They usually do exercises to recover.” I was shocked to realize that I had a wrong mentality that the exercises are hard and time-consuming to do every day. One of those nights I had a dream where I was in a car and a man spoke with me, saying that he must tell me about a vision that he had about me before I was born—it was that I was supposed to be born without legs! The dream felt very real and in that moment I realized that Master had changed the course of my life because I was going to be a practitioner in this life and I needed my legs. When I was younger, a doctor had also told me that I should have been born deaf. Again I deeply felt that Master arranged for me to have hearing because I was going to be a practitioner. I realized that I had been taking everything that I had for granted, and I really wanted to improve and practice the exercises daily.
A few days later I had another dream where Master showed me that Fa Rectification was supposed to have ended in 2018, but He again prolonged the time in order for more sentient beings to be saved, and in 2018 is when I first obtained the Fa.
Master shows up many times in my dreams and encourages me by letting me see countless Faluns in the sky, and sometimes the universe when I close my eyes. In one dream I saw a crowd of people and then I suddenly saw Master. He was walking fast, but I recognized His face. We were on a street away from the crowd of people, it was so wonderful, and there was a boundless energy radiating from His field. I ran after Him and knelt down to thank Him for His salvation. He touched my head without saying anything and I tried to think of something, anything, to say, but my mind was completely empty and I was immersed in Master’s powerful radiating field. As I woke up this poem from Hong Yin immediately came into my mind:
“The AwakenedOrdinary people know me not, I sit amidst Mystery; Where there is profit and desire,there I am not,After others pass away, only I remain.”(Hong Yin)
Through this, I realized that Master is where profit and desire is not, after everything goes or vanishes, only He remains and He contains all of us, all of His creation. I woke up in amazement and I could still feel that field which was beyond pure, compassionate, and wonderful.
I am so thankful for this opportunity to assist with Shen Yun and to be here in DC and to be a Falun Dafa cultivator, as we are the luckiest beings in the whole cosmos!
One day I had a simple moment when I was looking at my desk. I had Zhuan Falun, The Epoch Times, a Shen Yun calendar, and other practitioner-related materials and I felt for a second very deeply how precious this time is and how blessed I am to be following the path that Master arranged for me. I have the opportunity to work at The Epoch Times and will soon go to New York for two months this summer to be trained to become a journalist. My husband even encouraged me to go.
I will never doubt Master’s arrangements, as He made the best for all of us. We only have to walk the path of cultivation and do what a Fa Rectification Dafa Disciple is supposed to do!
Thank you, fellow practitioners, and I want to tell you how important you are, and I hope we can collaborate better as a whole body and improve even more!
Thank you, Master, for this once-in-an-eon opportunity to be a Falun Dafa practitioner!
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Category: Journeys of Cultivation
