(Minghui.org) I was deeply moved by the Tian Guo Marching Band’s performance when I participated in my first Falun Dafa parade, and I wished to join the band. The Tian Guo Marching Band is an indispensable part of parades because their performances display Falun Dafa’s majesty and magnificence. So when a practitioner asked me to join the band in 2010, I immediately agreed.
In the blink of an eye, 15 years have passed. When I first joined the band, I was still attending university, but I’m now the father of two children. I feel very fortunate to participate in parades all over the world, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, New York and New Zealand. Thank you, Master, your benevolent protection and thank you fellow practitioners’ for your righteous thoughts. This year, my daughter also formally joined the band and plays the flute. She is the youngest member of our band.
I play the bass drum. When I joined the band my rhythm was feeble and my drumbeats were always wrong. It was only through sheer determination to keep going that I persevered. Our practice sessions were held in the community’s primary school gymnasium, so the conditions were not ideal. We also had difficulty purchasing drums. We improved as time passed.
The piece Delivering Treasures starts on a softer beat, but I tended to start one beat ahead. The other practitioners always helped correct my rhythm. I don’t know why I hit the drum so hard even though I was on the wrong beat. We really did not know our limitations—we just had the wish to assist Master in Fa-rectification. With Master’s guidance and the other practitioners’ compassionate encouragement I overcame many tribulations that seemed impossible.
Participating in Parades in Hong Kong
When I began writing about my cultivation experiences after I joined the band, scenes flash through my mind like a movie. The ones that left the deepest impression on me were the parades in Hong Kong.
The evil was rampant, and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sent people to interfere during every event related to Falun Dafa in Hong Kong. The practitioners there asked practitioners from other countries to come and help. When we listened to the practitioners who returned from the parades in Hong Kong talk about their experiences I was moved by their cultivation state. Although there were few band members in Australia we registered to join the parades. It was difficult to check in my bass drum in order to fly. Now when I recall my experiences, I really thank those practitioners who told us about their experiences in Hong Kong.
My daughter was very young. But after discussing it with my family, who are also practitioners, we decided to bring her with us. We registered for the April 25 parade. It’s very hot and humid in Hong Kong in April, and it’s also the rainy season. If we hadn’t laid a good foundation by constantly practicing our instruments, we wouldn’t have had the physical strength and stamina for the parade which lasted hours. The parade in Hong Kong was a very big test.
We hurried to the hotel after our plane landed. We needed to take a bus to the designated location so we could do the exercises. I initially did not understand why we needed to do them before the parade. But after it ended, I realized that I may not have been able to persist if we hadn’t done them.
After we did the exercises, we practiced playing the music. The three band majors formed a single line and their batons displayed the pattern for the piece Falun Dafa Is Good in unison. The percussion section sounded and when we played Falun Dafa Is Good it felt like the melody resonated throughout the sky. The CCP’s loudspeakers tried to drown us out. Although I was born in China, I lived in Australia for years and thus I wasn’t used to being in such close proximity to the evil. This experience made me deeply feel the Hong Kong practitioners’ difficulties because they lived in such an intense environment.
After we practiced, we headed to the parade’s starting point. We needed to take the bus and my wife and I were separated. I felt uneasy but when I saw practitioners in their blue caps and everyone looked like soldiers who were waiting to go to the battlefield, it inspired my righteous thoughts. At that moment, I noticed my wife and daughter waving to me from another bus as it drove past. Tears rolled down my cheeks. No words can describe how touched I felt. I silently thanked Master. Thank you, Master, for arranging everything so well. This also reminded that I just needed to maintain righteous thoughts.
When we reached the starting point, the music instructor from Taiwan helped us tune our instruments and do warmups. After we lined up I saw there were more than 20 bass drums and almost 70 percussion section members. This would be a grand parade. There were five rows of bass drums, and the practitioner in front of me was from Malaysia. His drum beats were very powerful and accurate. While I participated in this parade I learned how to play the drum with both hands and I memorized the drum scores.
After the parade started, it was hard to hear the melody from the instruments behind us. I kept my eyes on the band major’s baton throughout the parade. I noticed groups of people were taking photos along both sides of the road. The people who were crossing the bridges overhead also stopped to watch and take photos. We stopped after about 50 minutes, and practitioners, who were assigned to assist the band, gave us water and words of encouragement.
I thought this meant we were halfway through the parade route. However, this was just the start of the parade. Then, the band major blew his whistle and what followed was four hours of non-stop parade. After we walked and performed for about three hours, my shoulders hurt so badly that I thought I reached my limit. I just mechanically played the drum and all I could hear were the sounds it made. When it felt especially grueling we passed through an overpass and the echoes of the drum beats were loud and crisp. I could also heard the majestic and magnificent music played by the different instrument sections behind us as they passed through the overpass. It was very moving to be part of this grand procession as it passed through Hong Kong’s bustling city center.
My spirit felt lifted and renewed—we were displaying the wonderful nature of Dafa to the people of Hong Kong. Even my shoulders stopped hurting.
The parade ended at the Chinese Consulate. I felt this was also the climax of the battle between good and evil. The band major stopped directly in front of the Chinese Consulate and we adjusted our formation in perfect unison. We lined up horizontally, and we did not stop playing the music. It felt as though our bodies had unlimited strength. After all the sections arrived, the sky darkened and the LED light on the baton seemed especially bright in the night. We performed on site for nearly two hours.
When the event ended, the practitioner who was in charge of the buses helped us load our instruments. It was only then that I finally saw how many band members there were. It was a very moving sight. When I put my drum down, my shoulders felt as though they were about to dislocate. I had no strength to pack my drum. One elderly practitioner quickly packed up her instrument and then helped others. As a young man, I felt ashamed. I felt this was a display of a true practitioner’s nobility and how miraculous Falun Dafa is.
I would like to tell former band members, “Fellow practitioners who left the band for various reasons, I was able to persist because I saw how diligently you cultivated and your righteous thoughts. Your perseverance gave me, a newcomer, the feeling of responsibility and mission to participate in the band. More and more new practitioners are now joining us. I hope to walk with you on this cultivation path—our band—in the future.
Fifteen years may seem very long but it’s just a fleeting moment in the face of the grand Fa-rectification. No words can describe my gratitude to Master and my respect for fellow practitioners.
(Selected Sharing Article for the 20th Anniversary of the Tian Guo Marching Band)
