(Minghui.org)
Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996 after seeing a newspaper advertisement about free classes to learn the Dafa exercises. I also had the honor of attending Master Li’s (the founder of Falun Dafa) first lecture in Australia.
Master said,
“Some people have asked me, “Teacher, you have taught us so many things and given us so many things—what do you seek?” I said, “I seek nothing. I am just here to save you. I just want to see you strive to become a better person and for you to be able to advance and improve yourself.” (Lecture Given at the Conference in Sydney)
Master’s words deeply touched me. I hadn’t formally started practicing Dafa at that time. I thought in my heart: “I want to be a better person and I am willing to improve.” From then on, I started practicing Dafa.
Looking back at my cultivation process, I am extremely grateful for Master’s compassion. As a person full of karma and attachments, I have had ups and downs. However, I am on the path of cultivation that constantly purifies me and leads me toward godhood.
After Shen Yun started touring Australia in 2007, I spent almost all of my leave time, five to six weeks each year, promoting Shen Yun in shopping malls. After retiring six years ago, I devoted myself fully to promoting Shen Yun. In the early days, I had no sales experience and my English wasn’t good enough. The first thing I had to overcome was timidity and a lack of confidence. As a Falun Dafa practitioner, I firmly believe that courage and confidence must come from Dafa and improvement in cultivation.
I realized that the effect of clarifying the truth and saving people is closely related to the state of our Fa study and cultivation. Therefore, before promoting Shen Yun, we must first adjust our cultivation state and strengthen our Fa study. At the same time, we should learn some sales skills from ordinary people, improve our customer service abilities, and shift from a volunteer mentality to being sales professionals.
When we do well selling tickets in shopping malls, it is a reflection of our overall efforts and cooperation; when we do poorly, it must be because we have areas in our cultivation that need improvement. When promoting Shen Yun in shopping malls, I try my best to introduce Shen Yun to everyone who is predestined. Even if they don’t buy tickets at the booth right away, I still want them to have a good impression of Shen Yun. Some people happily come back to tell us that they bought tickets online themselves.
I cherish the opportunity to promote Shen Yun in shopping malls. When I have the chance, I’ll go to other areas to help with promotion as well. Last year, the last stop of the Australian tour was a city in the south. Knowing that they were short-staffed, I booked my flights in advance after communicating with the practitioners there. After the show in Sydney, I flew over to join their promotions. Because the mall’s booths were small and there were no chairs, I had to stand for eight to nine hours a day, seven days a week. Sometimes once a week during late-night shopping, when there weren’t enough people, I had to stand for more than 10 hours—for three consecutive weeks. Without Master giving me strength, it would be very difficult for someone over 60 years old to do that.
Due to the overall efforts and cooperation of all the practitioners, we were at one of the better shopping malls for two weeks. An elderly customer was very satisfied with our service and bought three bouquets of flowers for us. He said that he had never seen three ladies working together so perfectly in his life. He said that he felt peaceful and compassionate around us. Although I worked full-time as a salesperson in a shopping mall for nearly five months last year, I can’t describe the joy in my heart when I saw people being saved by watching Shen Yun. I am grateful for this opportunity.
Over the past decade or so, in the process of promoting Shen Yun in shopping malls, there have been many opportunities for cultivation and improvement. The first step was to get rid of the fear of setbacks, the human notion of reputation, and the attachments of desire and of wanting to be comfortable. Sometimes it might take me three to four hours to make a trip, starting at 7 a.m., and I’d be exhausted when I returned home at 7 p.m. – especially when I stood at the mall for several hours and no tickets were sold despite my efforts. When you are frustrated, it is easy to look outward. You need to find your righteous thoughts from the Fa, find your various attachments, and improve yourself.
In the early days, when I saw fellow practitioners arriving late and leaving early, or when there were no sales after a whole day at the booth, did I remain unmoved? At first, I would think to myself: the rent is expensive and they still don’t value this opportunity. Would they be like this if this were their own business? The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. In fact, behind my feelings of injustice, there were notions of jealousy, disdain for others, and intolerance.
When I gradually let go of these attachments, these phenomena disappeared. Every practitioner is working hard and improving. We should understand and be considerate of fellow practitioners, and with good intentions not make rash judgments based on superficial phenomena. We shouldn’t let the old forces take advantage of things, thereby creating misconceptions and creating distance between practitioners. Every practitioner has strengths, and you cannot use your strengths to look at other people’s shortcomings.
Although I have lived in Australia for more than 30 years, which is longer than I lived in China, the imprint of the Party culture still shows.
Once, a practitioner who had a good relationship with me took the initiative to take my place at lunch. This practitioner was exceptional at distributing flyers. She was able to distribute a flyer to every customer who passed by. After her efforts, there were not many flyers left. Unfortunately, we had no other stock and we didn’t know when the flyers would be reprinted. I told her about the situation and suggested that we should first chat with customers, and if they were interested we could then give them a flyer. However, because she was on a roll, she didn’t listen to me. I had no choice but to ask her to leave, even using the excuse that she wasn’t on the roster that day and that her attire wasn’t professional enough.
My behavior angered her, and she loudly said to me repeatedly in the mall: “You can’t sell a single ticket today” and, “You won’t be able to cultivate in your lifetime like this.” Looking at the strange looks of the passing customers, I forced myself to calm down. After she left, although I tried hard to sell tickets, I felt that the field around me had changed and I couldn’t achieve the intensity I needed to save people. That day was the only day we did not sell any tickets in the two weeks at that mall.
For this reason, I could not forgive this practitioner for a long time. In other words, with this test, I was not able to let go of attachments and improve in my cultivation for a long time.
In Essentials for Further Advancement, Master taught us:
“Do you realize that as long as you’re a cultivator, in any environment or under any circumstances, I will use any troubles or unpleasant things you come across—even if they involve work for Dafa, or no matter how good or sacred you think they are—to eliminate your attachments and expose your demon-nature so that it can be eliminated, for your improvement is what’s most important.
“If you can succeed in improving yourself this way, what you do then, with a pure heart, will be the best and most sacred.” (“Further Understanding,” Essentials for Further Advancement)
It took me a long time to see my problem. I used one attachment to cover up another. Under the pretext of doing a good job for Dafa, I would use a certain “reasoning” to suppress others. With the notion of self, and my desire to prove myself, my words were not pure. Not only did I fail to convince my fellow practitioner, but I angered her. I realized that I should also let go of my perceptions and feelings about fellow practitioners. Cultivation is about getting rid of human notions, and treating every challenge with compassion. An environment for practicing Dafa is maintained by each of us truly cultivating ourselves. We cannot replace cultivation by doing a bunch of things we think are “right.”
Holding onto attachments for a long time is artificially nourishing those attachments and notions. It is laziness and a lack of diligence in cultivation. It is irresponsible to one’s cultivation and irresponsible to the sentient beings we are responsible for. When I realized my problem, I was really happy, as if a heavy burden had been lifted off me.
Shen Yun has great power to save people, and most sentient beings can be saved after one performance. In the process of promoting Shen Yun, I can always feel that everyone is looking forward to this opportunity for salvation that they have been waiting millions of years for. But this opportunity depends on the efforts of Dafa disciples to help people connect with this holy destiny.
Once, a man passed by the Shen Yun booth several times. Other practitioners and I tried to talk to him, but he refused, saying that he knew about it and didn’t want to see it, so we didn’t attempt to promote it to him further. One day as we were about to finish, he came over to say hello to me. Maybe because he had rejected our kindness too many times, he was a little embarrassed when he explained that he had a 90-year-old mother and it was inconvenient for him to go out to see a show. He and I talked about the meaning of Shen Yun and how some things in life cannot be missed. He suddenly said, “You convinced me! I don’t have any money on me now. I will go get money from home.”
I silently sent forth righteous thoughts. After a while, he came back and bought two tickets. I saw him at the theater when he was watching the show, and he was very happy to introduce his 90-year-old mother to me. He told her that I sold him the tickets and that they should thank me because they enjoyed Shen Yun very much.
Once, a young man walked by our booth. He was a graduate student studying Asian culture. I talked to him about the meaning of culture and the soul of a nation. He was moved and bought two tickets and was ready to take his mother to see Shen Yun. Many times, when we have sufficient righteous thoughts and are in a good cultivation state, Master will give us wisdom and abilities.
He came back shortly after buying the tickets and gave me a large bag of fruit. I later gave him a copy of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party in English. When we have done what we should do, and when sentient beings understand that we are working tirelessly so that they can have a better future, their knowing side will express their support for Dafa’s salvation in various ways. Out of gratitude, I sometimes receive flowers, lunch, fruit, milk tea, and coffee from customers, but most importantly, these are given with hugs and gratitude.
Since last year, Chinese people, including some dance professionals, relatives of Chinese celebrities residing outside of China, and proprietors, have started buying tickets to watch Shen Yun and have expressed their support for us.
There are many more stories about saving people, but I won’t go into further details here.
During the process of selling tickets in the mall, I realized that our thoughts are very important. When selling tickets, we must concentrate our thoughts, purify our field, and not let any distracting thoughts interfere. With strong righteous thoughts, what we say will have strong penetrative power.
Looking back on the cultivation process I have gone through in promoting Shen Yun for more than ten years, I have grown from a timid person who only manned the booth, to an experienced salesperson; I have also grown from a person who does not know how to cultivate or look within to being a disciple who has learned to look within and cultivate to get rid of human notions, thoughts, and emotions. Along the way, I can feel Master’s compassionate care and blessings.
I am grateful to Master for bestowing this supreme honor on disciples, and this rare opportunity and blessing to cultivate. Thank you also to fellow practitioners for their tolerance and cooperation.
Recently, I studied Master’s new article, “Cultivation in Dafa Is Serious,” and I deeply felt the gaps and laziness in my cultivation. On the path of cultivation ahead, I will constantly use the Fa to remind and encourage myself, to constantly improve myself and cultivate well, to help Master save all sentient beings, and return to my true home with Master at the conclusion of cultivation.
The above is my cultivation experience at a limited level, please correct me if some parts are not in accordance with the Fa.
Thank you, Master!Thank you, fellow practitioners.
(Presented at the 2023 Australia Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)