(Minghui.org) I joined the euphonium section (baritone) of the New York Tian Guo Marching Band in 2013. Conductor Zhou joined the band the same month. With the other new team members and led by Conductor Zhou, I started learning how to play a musical instrument from scratch. It was good timing, and I was grateful for Master’s arrangement.
Although I had no musical background, I was full of confidence. I started from developing the basic skills and practiced all day long. With the help of the senior team members, I passed the exam and participated in a parade six months later.
I remember that veteran team members often reminded me that Master had created the Tian Guo Marching Band, so we must cherish it. It is said that when it was first established, the band rehearsed every week on the mountain, and Master himself guided everyone. Every wind instrument has Master’s inscription: “Tian Guo Marching Band.” When I first started rehearsing with everyone, I heard and felt that every note had a strong power and was extremely sacred, which brought tears to my eyes. Thinking back to how I felt at that time, I was excited and proud to be in the band.
Helping Master in Fa-Rectification
After several years of practice and participating in parades, I became more and more proficient at playing my instrument. I felt like I had some musical talent and learned new pieces quickly. I took the initiative to take on the responsibility of training new members. After the pandemic, I took on the responsibility of baritone section leader. It seemed that everything was going well, and I was on the road to helping Master in the Fa-rectification.
However, over time, my initial excitement and the novelty gradually faded, and I found myself slacking off.
Cultivation Tribulations
When rehearsals resumed in 2022 after the pandemic, there were far fewer band members. Due to the long-term absence of rehearsals and parades, some of them had gone on to other projects and were unwilling to come back. Our team only had half of its members.
I encountered difficulties in my cultivation, and I got busier and busier at work, which prevented me from participating in every parade. I was also afraid of hardship and was unwilling to participate in a parade the next day if I didn’t feel good. New team members leaving also dampened my enthusiasm, and I was unwilling to take the initiative to lead new team members.
During a St. Patrick’s Day parade in March 2025, I felt unwell. Although I insisted on walking the whole procession, I was unable to keep playing from the middle of the parade route on. My sickness karma symptoms did not go away for eight months, and during this time I missed many parades.
On several occasions in the second half of 2025, one of our team members said that our team was the worst section in the band. My understanding of this assessment was that the number of people in our team participating in the parades was so small. But I didn’t care too much at the time, because I felt that this was not something I could control; what could I do?
Getting Out of the Predicament
In August 2025, my illness karma worsened, manifesting as dizziness, nausea, and palpitations for no reason. I sought medical help, but no cause was found. Other symptoms such as stomach bleeding and chest pain also appeared, and I stopped working. I felt scared and helpless and as if my life could end at any moment.
For two months at the end of 2025, I had these symptoms, and every day was very painful. From an ordinary person’s viewpoint, these were neurological issues caused by being under too much pressure at work and having high blood pressure. Stomach problems can be the result of a poor diet. At first, I kept thinking that I should go to a follow-up appointment and take medication or change doctors for another opinion. Although I knew that I was a cultivator, I couldn’t have righteous thoughts about this. The key problem was that I didn’t fully believe what Master said, and I wondered if Master was really taking care of me.
During several extremely painful moments, when fear of death completely occupied my mind, I began sincerely asking Master for help and guidance. To my surprise, I received answers from Master in my thoughts, and I physically felt Master purifying my body. I understood what Master said: “Belief comes before seeing.” (Teachings at the Conference in Canada). I realized how poor my enlightenment quality had been.
During the time that I was resting at home, I began studying the Fa intensively and sending forth righteous thoughts. For two months, I maintained a daily routine of six hours of Fa study and two hours of sending righteous thoughts. When the discomfort was intense in the beginning, I would send forth righteous thoughts for two to three hours at a time. My symptoms noticeably eased after sending righteous thoughts, but they would reappear the next day. This cycle repeated for some time.
In addition to the physical discomfort, I felt great mental challenges. While I was strengthening my righteous thoughts again and again, I started to see the problems in my own cultivation. The first one was that I’d slacked off in my cultivation. In the past few years, I had used the excuse of being busy with work when I didn’t study the Fa or cultivate my mind. Without righteous thoughts, I almost always treated issues in line with ordinary people. I also held onto many attachments for a long time and turned a blind eye to Master’s repeated hints. And I was worried about the sickness.
During that parade in March 2025 when I had physical symptoms for the first time, I did not reflect on this seriously and instead used the theories of ordinary people to think about it. After that, Master reminded me many times, such as when the entire basement of my home flooded. I had sought a doctor to solve my problems. How can ordinary people’s methods solve cultivation problems?! As I was writing this article, a voice in my dream told me this sentence: “When you encounter problems, you must solve them through cultivation.”
When I realized these problems, I was very surprised that my cultivation state was so poor. I had thought more than once that I might miss the opportunity to cultivate that I had been awaiting for thousands of years because of my lack of diligence. That made me feel very sad and afraid. This fear of missing the opportunity to cultivate is different from the fear of illness karma.
Master said,
“Whoever misses out on this historic opportunity, whoever misses out on this chance, when you realize what you’ve missed out on you won’t even want to live even if you are allowed to!” (Fa Teaching Given at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference)
I don’t know how many times I looked at Master’s portrait and felt deep regret and cried. It is very dangerous to put fame and fortune before cultivation. At the same time, I was also thinking about how I could ensure that I would not lose righteous thoughts again.
By persisting in studying the Fa for a period of time, my righteous thoughts became stronger and stronger, and I understood the solution: the answer was to study the Fa more. Almost every time Master gave a lecture, he reminded everyone to study the Fa more. I really hadn’t understand the meaning and weight of this sentence before.
After two months, the symptoms of discomfort disappeared. I am grateful to Master for his compassionate salvation, and I am also grateful to my family and fellow practitioners, as well as our team members, for their encouragement and help. During these two long months, I could clearly feel the changes in my body and the encouragement that Master has given me. Although I can’t see anything in other dimensions and almost never see Master in my dreams, I could truly feel Master by my side.
Looking back at the assessment “Our team is the worst section in our band,” wasn’t that Master warning me? As the team leader, it is my responsibility to ensure that there are enough people to participate in parades and to ensure the quality of the performance. How can I say that it has nothing to do with me if there are not enough team members to participate in a parade? I realized that we had to use righteous thoughts to view the practitioners we knew in order to get more people to join our team and improve the level of our performance. After all, we are a cultivation group, and everything is related to cultivation.
There are several elderly practitioners in our team, and over the past two years they have encountered physical tribulations. Most of them have strong righteous thoughts; not only can they overcome difficulties, but they have also helped other team members. This reminds me of what I have not done well. Isn’t this giving me encouragement about what I should do in my cultivation?
Epilogue
When I read the sharing articles by other team members, I was deeply moved and decided to write my own. After 13 years of cultivation in the band, I have become a middle-aged Dafa disciple, and I have also experienced life’s milestone of starting a family and starting a career in a foreign country. The hardships and troubles of living in today’s world often bother me and had led me to gradually slack off in my cultivation. I have not been able to “Cultivate with the heart you once had” (“Fa Teaching on World Falun Dafa Day,” Collected Fa Teachings, Vol. XII).
I now realize that these troublesome things are opportunities for cultivation and improvement and that I should do better when I encounter them. What makes me happy is that no matter how difficult it is, I often think of bits and pieces from the band over the years, such as the team members’ will to practice diligently, which encourages me to persevere and pushes me to do better.
The band has been in existence for 20 years, and many of the Dafa disciples who participated in the band in the early days are now elderly. They are, of course, particularly admirable. At the same time, our band needs young members. I know that many young members often take frequent leave due to work and family reasons, or have even quit the band. I especially want to tell them that everything we have is given by Master and that our path is arranged by Master. You must walk your own cultivation path with righteous thoughts and not miss this priceless opportunity.
(Selected submission for the 20th Tian Guo Marching Band Anniversary Fa Conference)
