Cultivation Experiences during Coordinating Shen Yun Ticket Sales and Hotline Work

Respectful Master, fellow practitioner,

I’m a Berlin Dafa disciple. At the end of 1999 I participated in a gathering of German practitioners with my wife, who is also a practitioner. My body was cleansed by compassionate Master, I experienced Dafa’s wonderfulness, and therefore I stepped on the path of cultivation. I sincerely appreciate Master offering salvation to save me!

Next I’d like to report to you some of my cultivation experience during the Shen Yun performance in Berlin last year.

In the spring of 2012, Shen Yun came back to Berlin after three years absence; all the practitioners were genuinely happy and cherished this opportunity. I took over the coordination work on the tickets sales and hotline.

At the beginning, there were few people ringing the hotline and the work was divided among several practitioners. Afterwards, as there were many projects simultaneously being carried out that all require manpower, I thought I could ask those practitioners who rarely came out to join tickets sales and hotline work. Doing so can make more practitioners join in, and avoid conflicts with other groups on human resources. After I contacted a few Chinese practitioners, they all agreed happily. This little group was soon formed.

However, hotline work required certain language skills as customers made enquiries. Therefore, I told those Chinese practitioners who participated that because of the language barrier, some can only help with tickets sale. Without making any complains, fellow practitioners did a good job; I was really moved.

Sending righteous thoughts to strengthen the audience to break through the interference to watch Shen Yun

The hotline started a few days later and we received a Chinese lady’s call to book tickets. She said she read many articles about the audience’s feedback on Shen Yun from the Epoch Times so she must watch it. She also wanted to invite her friend who lived in Berlin. But she was in hospital at that moment and was not sure if she’ll be discharged by then. She asked me if she can reserve the tickets. I said to her: I’ll reserve two seats for you right now, you just think about coming to watch, and it’ll be fine.

Three weeks before the show, this lady was discharged. She paid for the tickets, and we sent the tickets to her; where she lived was two hours away from Berlin.

One week before the show, she rang the hotline again and said because her friend can’t make it, she wouldn’t come as well. When I heard this I knew she was the victim of interference. I encouraged her to come even if she was alone; such a chance must not be missed, at the same time I was sending righteous thoughts. Then she said she’ll try to come with her husband.

Two days before the show, she rang again and told another practitioner on the hotline that she lost the tickets. Once I heard this I rang her back and said to her, regardless of what happened, you just come, we can make it up for you. At that moment I had a very strong thought: these two people must not miss this year’s Shen Yun performance in Berlin. Later when she came to pick up the tickets she said to me, they didn’t drive as her husband was not feeling well recently, but they took the train to come to watch Shen Yun.

At that time, I was so happy for them. Meanwhile, I also realised the difficulties Master had in saving sentient beings. I thank Master for his enormous compassion.

This lady was overwhelmed after watching the show and agreed to be interviewed by our media.

Be considerate to fellow practitioners, cultivate your self

One day, I met a practitioner who was a coordinator. When she saw me, without even thinking, she said: “You guys are so busy with your own business, that you set Shen Yun aside, don’t even offer to help?” At that moment I was nonplussed, this practitioner never said things like that with such an attitude; on top of that, I did put my business aside and treat Shen Yun as a priority.

I went back home and closed the door. I did not dare to face Master’s photo, but faced the corridor. I shouted out: “Bad luck!” Suddenly I felt I’m being ridiculous, so I gave out a loud laugh. Immediately I realised that this is for improving my Xinxing. Looking inward, although I found myself able to let go of material things, inside I often worried about my business and how to do it well. Apart from that, everyone wants to do well, everyone has some pressure. At that time, there were some things that needed to be done, but either nobody did it or it hasn’t been done well. Therefore the main coordinators were under great pressure.

I realised, not only did I need to be whole-hearted and do well on the hotline and ticket selling which I’m responsible for, but I also need to share with some others whenever I have time. Since then, the ticket selling work has gone even smoother.

Remove selfishness, learn to coordinate

About three weeks before the performance, the hotline got very busy. During that time I had been concentrating on doing my own things. One day I found the atmosphere in the office wasn’t right; there was a conflict between two hotline practitioners over a small matter. One of them was a practitioner that I rarely speak to, because I felt she’s very sensitive and I didn’t want to hurt her by mistake in what I say. So I asked another practitioner to help. That practitioner was always happy to help, but that day she suddenly said to me: “You are the coordinator of this group, why do you ask me to coordinate? Isn’t it an opportunity for you to take up?”

Suddenly I understood, it’s Master using her mouth to highlight the issue to me. That’s right, from the beginning to the time when Shen Yun was about to start, such a long time, I hadn’t really directly coordinated others. Normally other practitioners would do well themselves initially. Occasionally small conflicts occurred, then we exchanged thoughts and moved on.

Looking deeper, I didn’t take the initiative to resolve the conflicts when they occurred, the main reason was because I was afraid to offend others, the attachment of self-protection. That was a selfish heart. I went to another practitioner who was in the conflict first to exchange thoughts. I started to learn coordinating, practitioners also opened themselves to communicate, and the office’s field became more harmonious.

Be more professional on introducing Shen Yun

The advantage of the hotline was having more chances to introduce Shen Yun to customers. After having a chat with us and listening to our further introduction, many people increased the amount of tickets they purchased or upgraded their tickets. For example, some only wanted to buy two tickets but then bought four tickets; some planned to buy third class tickets, but then changed to second or first-class tickets.

I remembered once a western man came to pick up two first-class tickets he bought. He came to the office, browsed the Shen Yun picture book, asked a few questions, and we answered briefly. When we gave him the tickets, I mentioned that there were two seats available next to his seat. He immediately asked us to wait a minute, and rang his friend to see if he was free on the weekend to watch Shen Yun. So we sold four tickets.

We also had some lessons. Once, a well-dressed gentleman came to pick up two first-class tickets. After he came in, he said he’d like to buy another ticket for his mother, but he didn’t have money with him and he’d pick it up the next day. He asked us to reserve a seat next to his seat. Because I concentrated on talking about how beautiful Shen Yun was, the dancing, the backdrop and my feeling etc. I talked a lot, I forgot to ask this gentleman’s telephone and contact detail. Next day, he didn’t come to pick up the ticket. We couldn’t contact him either, and felt it was such a shame.

A similar thing had happened several times. At that time I just didn’t understand, why sometimes it’s so easy to sell, sometimes we can’t. After participating in the New York Fa conference I was inspired. I came to understand that Master has arranged everything; we only needed to do it, to let those predestined people know. When we introduced Shen Yun with a mixture of our feeling, the result was just the contrary; our words not only had no power, but it also interfered with people learning Shen Yun.

This year I will first carefully study how to introduce Shen Yun by following Shen Yun’s website, to make myself become much more professional during the Shen Yun promotional period.

Two stories

Next I’d like to share two stories during ticket selling.

Last Christmas Eve there were many families that went to the church to pray. We thought this would be a good opportunity to promote Shen Yun. So all of the practitioners split up to cover each church, and distributed Shen Yun promotion materials every hour on the hour.

At around 9.50pm, we were about to go to church when the computer phone started ringing. I was in a hurry to distribute materials so I left it to go to answerphone. My son suddenly said loudly: “No, that is the Shen Yun hotline!”

Then I started to realise it was the hotline. I turned back immediately, rang that person back, and a gentleman bought a ticket. He had seen Shen Yun advertising in the underground and called the Shen Yun hotline as soon as he got home.

The final performance was about to start. An elderly man rushed to the ticket sales window to see if any tickets were left. He said he watched the show yesterday and felt the performance was extraordinary, so he wanted to watch it again today. He waited until the show was about to start in order to let those who haven’t watched the show buy tickets first, as he had already enjoyed it once. That was the last ticket sold for Shen Yun 2012 in Berlin.

These two stories were an encouragement to me, so I wanted to share them with you.

Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!