Cambridge Dafa disciples improved as one body in the promotion of Shen Yun

Hello, respected Master!
Hello, fellow practitioners!

Unlike in previous years, the way Shen Yun was to be promoted this year was a bit different in the UK due to the special location of the theatre. Therefore, practitioners were required to promote Shen Yun in the regional areas assigned to them. I was appointed as a coordinator in the Cambridge area, which was indeed a big challenge for me.

As an ordinary person lacking coordination skills, I would have simply refused to work with other people. But as a Dafa disciple, I came to see that it was my opportunity in the course of my cultivation practice, by which Master not only wanted me to be tempered by the front-line duty but also wanted Cambridge Dafa disciples to be improved and uplifted as one body through the form of promoting Shen Yun to save more sentient beings.

Although we encountered a lot of interference and tests in the project, our belief in Master and Dafa was unshakable. As one body, Cambridge Dafa disciples, by supporting one another and continually negating the old forces’ arrangements, took every step firmly on the road of cultivation to honour our pledge.

Here is my report of how Cambridge Dafa disciples were tempered and elevated their xinxing levels in the promotion of Shen Yun.

Part I: Every practitioner was an outstanding coordinator
By the time I was appointed as the coordinator in the Cambridge region in the project of promoting Shen Yun, I had run into a dilemma. It was a few months previously that I had accepted the invitation from a German cultural association run by practitioners to hold seven lectures within five days on how to improve health during the period of the Chinese New Year. I was keen to go there to take the opportunity to save as many sentient beings as possible utilizing the fascination of mainstream society with Chinese traditional culture. In addition I was hoping to learn from their experience in the promotion of Shen Yun, since the German cultural association, with lots of interaction with the Western mainstream society, had made Shen Yun Performing Arts take to the stage triumphantly several times even though there were only five adult Dafa disciples and two young Dafa disciples coordinating it.

Unfortunately, my lectures were due to be given at the same time as I was to take up the responsibility of coordinating the distribution of Shen Yun leaflets in the Cambridge area. Who could replace me if I left the post? I decided to talk to my fellow practitioners in the Cambridge area about my time conflict problem, and I gained their complete understanding and fabulous support. A fellow practitioner in charge of a media project offered to undertake the job of coordinator of the tedious work of distributing Shen Yun leaflets in spite of the piles of writing tasks waiting ahead for him. Meanwhile, the other fellow practitioners all came to help with the project. In particular, a new practitioner took his own initiative to be involved in the distribution of Shen Yun leaflets. He not only bore the long task of chauffeuring fellow practitioners to and from various districts in Cambridge to assist with the leafleting, but also delivered the leaflets himself and arranged for other practitioners to do the distribution work. He told me that he had originally been a frail and brash person, and it would have been an impossible mission for him if he had not practised Falun Dafa.

Part II: Unwavering, selfless and heartfelt dedication to Shen Yun promotion
The travel from Cambridge to the area where we were responsible for delivering Shen Yun leaflets was inconvenient. It would take us about 7 or 10 hours by train or by bus for a return journey, while it would take only 4 hours by car. So we decided to drive to the area to do leaflet distribution. A new fellow practitioner was the only one among us who could drive. He was ready to take the job as a driver and make it an opportunity to elevate his xinxing. He was quite clear that he had to handle a great amount of pressure and stress brought to him with the job.

One day when we were about to set out to do leaflet distribution according to the appointment we had made, the news came that his wife, a non-practitioner, along with his two young children, were all sick at home. However, he made his decision without hesitation that he would drive us to the area as planned. Soon another incident occurred to him. He fell over while walking, and his arms and knees become swollen, the day before Cambridge fellow practitioners were to be driven by him to do the leafleting. He thought to himself that it would be terrible if he could not get involved in the leaflet distribution the next day. Soon after he realized that the thought was wrong and should be denied. Magically the next day everything went quite smoothly for him physically; however, his car broke down while it was raining in the morning. Persuading his wife to take and pick up their children from school without a car, he managed to borrow his wife’s car and drove us as usual to the places we were supposed to deliver the flyers. He said what Dafa required was his first priority. To treasure Dafa was to treasure his own life.

Because the opportunities to go out by car were limited, we had to seize every chance to distribute Shen Yun leaflets as much as possible. In order to save time and improve efficiency, each one of us took a suitcase or carried a big backpack filled with materials to be distributed on that day. We went separately from street to street, ignoring the leg pain or foot ache resulting from the long and tiring walk. We took hardship as joy and the interferences were nothing to us as Dafa disciples, for whom looking inward was the only path whenever encountering tribulations.

A female practitioner, though in her sixties, offered to join our distribution team. Carrying a big heavy backpack filled with flyers, in spite of her foot ache, she went round the streets for the whole day just as the young people did. She felt happy to be able to participate in Shen Yun promotion in order to save more sentient beings. She considered it a great honour for a Dafa disciple to do something to assist Master in Fa-rectification and that such opportunities would become less and less. In order to help a young couple with two young children get the opportunity to deliver Shen Yun flyers so as to honour their pledge, she volunteered to take care of the children for the young couple while they were out engaged in the promotion project. She dedicated a lot of efforts to helping coordinate the Shen Yun promotion, which was, as a result, facilitated smoothly and effectively in the Cambridge area.

Seeing the problems of staff shortages and insufficient interaction with mainstream society, a practitioner who had been based in Cambridge before offered to help us with Shen Yun promotion. Soon after, the rate of Shen Yun ticket sales significantly increased in the Cambridge area as she helped fellow practitioners to enter the mainstream society in Cambridge. In the meantime, some Cambridge practitioners offered her a car and the cost of car maintenance and refueling for the promotion of Shen Yun. In order to get easy access to Birmingham where Shen Yun Performing Arts was going to be staged, Cambridge practitioners offered to rent coaches to bring the Cambridge audience to Birmingham.

These are just a few examples; each one of our fellow practitioners in Cambridge managed to put down his or her own self and make up for his or her weaknesses so as to get along with the working group in an attempt to successfully facilitate Shen Yun promotion.

Part III: Opportunity to experience Master's merciful care and concern
As long as our hearts are with the Fa, we will never get lost. This is because Master is around us all the time, taking care of us.

I am a person with a poor sense of direction. One day when I reached the entrance of a roundabout in a residential area, I put down my suitcase filled with leaflets by the side of the road. Then I took out a big bag and filled it with flyers. I thought to myself that it would be helpful to reduce the luggage weight if I carried only one bag while delivering flyers. The households around the roundabout became the first target I wished to reach. Soon after, I discovered that at the back of the households there were many paths extending outwards to where we had planned to go for the flyer distribution.

I started to go from door to door in the newly discovered area and soon found the leaflets running out. If I walked back to the entrance to get more leaflets from my suitcase there, it would be a long journey for me to walk and waste a lot of time. What’s to be done? It suddenly occurred to me that it would be wonderful if I could apply supernatural powers to obtain more leaflets from my suitcase. Master said in his "Teaching the Fa at the Western U.S. International Fa Conference in 2005": “Human society is in delusion, and people cannot see how the cosmos truly is or the real situation of beings. That's how beings are at this level, but the situation during the Fa-rectification is presided over by Dafa and it changes according to what is required so that Dafa can save sentient beings. The fact is, at this time Dafa disciples have to do divine things, because for Dafa disciples their personal cultivation is no longer first and foremost. Saving sentient beings and reconstructing the colossal firmament during the Fa-rectification are the purpose.”

So Dafa disciples have supernatural powers, and the supernatural ability can be applied if the righteous thought, rather than ordinary person’s thought, is powerful enough. To make the flyer distribution more efficient, I recited Master’s verses or sent forth righteous thoughts while I was delivering the flyers. Now that I had almost run out of leaflets, I asked Master for help to allow me to have enough flyers to distribute to every household in the residential area or to allow me to get more leaflets by flying them over to my hand. Soon all the leaflets in my hand had gone before I realized it, and there were no new leaflets flying over towards me. I understood that I had to walk back to the junction to get more leaflets owing to my righteous thoughts not being pure and powerful enough.

So I looked around to check the location to make sure I could find the exact place I had left to come back to. Just at that moment, I saw my suitcase lying there across the street! I could never thank Master enough for this most extraordinary and overwhelming heavenly blessing and magic!

Part IV: To promote Shen Yun with the purest and most sacred mentality
We believed that it was our great honour to be able to participate in Shen Yun promotion, and it was a fleeting opportunity given by our Master with immeasurable compassion for us to save sentient beings. And there would be no opportunity like this again. We must promote Shen Yun with the purest and most sacred mentality.

Any impure mind would affect the success of Shen Yun promotion and the salvation of all beings as well. Initially we allowed our practitioners’ relatives who knew a little bit about Falun Dafa to give their help in leafleting, fearing that we could not meet the deadline of leafleting with limited hands in our team. Obviously, we dealt with the problem with an ordinary person’s mentality. As a result, our car broke down on the way back and it took five hours before we arrived home. Due to the lack of a car driver, we asked a non-practitioner for help as our driver. Consequently, the satellite navigation system in the car caused chaos for us and took us further away from the destination we had meant to go to. In the end we managed to return to Cambridge in vain. Due to not being very close-knit in the early stage of Shen Yun promotion, we encountered a number of interferences and problems. For instance, the car satellite navigation system broke down or the tyres went flat while we sat in the car talking about things unrelated to Dafa cultivation. Finally we came to see how serious and sacred Shen Yun promotion is in order to save sentient beings!

Since then we started to study the Fa and send forth righteous thoughts in the car on our way to deliver Shen Yun flyers and there was no longer a problem. We were pleased to see that both the leafleting and Shen Yun promotion in other forms went successfully in the Cambridge area with the turnout rate being among the best.

Part V: Participating in cooperating with other UK fellow practitioners
Although being short of hands, Cambridge Dafa disciples still contributed their efforts to help fellow practitioners in other regions with Shen Yun promotion. Meanwhile various support from other regions poured in for the Cambridge Shen Yun promotion team. For instance, one practitioner from Cambridge worked as a coordinator most of the time at the centre of UK Shen Yun promotion to keep contact with theatres. Another practitioner from Cambridge moved to Birmingham at the very beginning of the UK Shen Yun promotion. He took a key and active part in distributing the leaflets there and at the same time he offered to cook for other fellow practitioners. In the early stage of Shen Yun promotion, some Cambridge practitioners held that since the regional arrangement this year, all practitioners based in Cambridge should help with the promotion in Cambridge instead of other regions. By exchanging ideas, we realised that Dafa disciples in the UK were one body. The success or failure of the UK Shen Yun promotion was a test for all Dafa disciples, including whether we had abandoned our selfish attachment to parochialism, and that sufficient support was supposed to be given by us to those who played greater roles in Shen Yun promotion no matter where they were.

Perhaps it was because we had abandoned the selfish attachment for the benefit of Shen Yun promotion in Cambridge that we got a lot more support from fellow practitioners in other regions, particularly London. Indeed, Shen Yun promotion activities within the urban area of Cambridge were only launched successfully due to support given by practitioners from other regions.

In other words, the success we achieved in the promotion of Shen Yun in the Cambridge area resulted not only from the efforts by Cambridge Dafa disciples, but also from the efforts made by every UK fellow practitioner who had put down his or her self in dedication to the coordination of Shen Yun promotion. It was Dafa that united us as one body. It was Dafa that helped us put down ourselves unconditionally to assist other UK fellow practitioners in the great achievements of Shen Yun promotion.

Let us revisit Master’s poem in "Hong Yin III":

Following Master
Massive, powerful figures,
They gathered for the Great Current
Assuming different social statuses,
and different occupations
Dafa disciples are one body
Following Master in Fa-rectification
working against sinister tides

Thank you, our revered Master!
Thank you, all fellow practitioners!