Czech: My Experience as a New Czech MC for Shen Yun

Greetings Master, Greetings fellow practitioners!

My name is Leoš and I come from the Czech Republic. I began practising in 2010 and experienced many miracles on my path of cultivation. I wish to share my experience of becoming the new czech MC for the Shen Yun shows in Brno and Prague.

I am 34 years old and work for an investment company in Brno. My job involves analytical work as well as meeting with clients. I am married and, together with my wife who is also a practitioner, have two small sons. We live in a small house near a forest.

How it all began

Approximately 2 years ago I was asked by a fellow practitioner to do videos for czech EpochTimes. I agreed and covered part of the Trump era and mainly electoral fraud in numerous videos. It was quite convenient for me as I did the videos at work where I normally wear a suit with a tie.

After some time I found inspiration in American youtubers like Chris Chappel and others, and opened my own Youtube channel called “Between the lines”. Apart from politics and stock markets I made quite a few videos about the persecution of Falun Gong by the CCP regime.

In autumn 2021 I received a phone call from a female practitioner. Until then she was the MC for Shen Yun shows in the Czech Republic. However she told me that her time as MC came to an end and asked if I could take this job. The role of the MC is to go on stage and together with a Chinese partner, introduce the pieces. Knowing my limits and having stage fright when talking to a lot of people I kindly refused. I could not imagine myself talking in front of a full theatre.

A few weeks later I received the phone call again. She told me that I am the right person for the job. I felt much compassion in her voice, but refused her again. However my wife was saddened by my decision and said I should have taken this precious opportunity.

But I was firm in my decision as I thought I could do damage to Shen Yun since I would definitely have stage fright. I didn’t believe in myself. It took me a while to get enlightened to this matter. But after some time words from The Eighth Talk of Zhuan Falun appeared in front of me:

“The Daoist sage Lao-tzu once wrote that, “The Way may be spoken of, but it is not a common way.” The Way wouldn’t be precious if it were something so readily available it could be found in the streets, and anyone could take it up and succeed at it.”

When doing my everyday work I also carry out my duties and tasks from my boss. I realised it's not up to me to decide my role in Shen Yun. It is Master who decides it and I cannot find excuses not to do it. Master also said in The Fourth Talk of Zhuan Falun:

“And secondly, if you really were to have no worries on the home front and be free of all troubles, what would your spiritual practice consist of? It’s hard to grow spiritually if your life is full of comfort and ease. So it’s not how you may have imagined it, with conventional thinking.”
After I solved this in myself I accepted the job of MC. At this point I still had little idea what I was getting myself into. And I had no idea how to get rid of stage fright. But I kept righteous thoughts that everything will be ok and I will do great.

Preparing for my new job

Right after I accepted the job of MC I received a message from the New York office saying I need to go for training as soon as possible. It was December one or two weeks before Christmas. My attachment to comfort surfaced as I didn’t want to leave my wife and kids in the Christmas holiday.

To my surprise my wife was completely ok with me leaving for the Christmas holiday. She said nothing is more important than my work for Shen Yun. My wife was very supportive throughout the whole time. Eventually this problem solved itself as it turned out that the best time for my arrival was the end of January.

During the Christmas holiday I worked on memorizing the script I would be saying on stage. This was the absolute foundation and I repeated the script every possible moment. I even recorded myself so I could listen to it whilst riding my bike to work. This effort paid off later.

At the end of January I spent a week in New York and thanks to advice from veteran MCs I reached a certain level of confidence. During spring 2022 I took a few courses which were not bad but nothing I learnt was as helpful as what I was taught in New York. Time was flying and suddenly it was May – the month when Shen Yun would be arriving in my country. I was looking forward to it, but something was about to happen.

Shen Yun finally arrives

Shen Yun arrived in Brno on May the 13th, a very special day. The night before I didn’t sleep well. I woke up that morning with a terrible headache and I felt weak all over my body. My biggest fear had materialised. I was afraid of experiencing sickness karma such as toothache or flu, which would negatively impact my performance on stage.

Master taught us in The Sixth Talk of Zhuan Falun:

“You might just bring yourself health problems by often thinking that you have them. That’s because your thoughts have sunk to the same starting point as the average person, who, naturally, does experience illness.”

I looked at the picture of Master on the wall. I thought of the former MC who believed in me. I thought of the Shen Yun coordinator and all the other practitioners. I started to cry. I didn’t want to let them down but I was very close to breakdown.

Shen Yun was arriving that evening and I was left with no choice but to pull myself together. I did a set of exercises and listened to Fa lectures. I felt a little better but asked myself a question: how can I go on stage like this tomorrow?

It was May the 13th and Czech practitioners prepared a celebration with a big cake for Shen Yun members. The next day was my first Shen Yun show as an MC. That evening I went to bed with this thought: “The Old forces might test me but they will not win. They will not win. I will go on stage tomorrow and I will do great.”

The next morning, I did a set of four standing exercises twice. After that I went to the theatre for rehearsal and did the exercises again. My mind was calm like never before and I had no fear of going on stage. I was completely ok. I thanked Master from the bottom of my heart.

The audience was very warm, and the show was a big success. The second show on Sunday was the same, only I felt even calmer than the day before.

The shows in Prague were two weeks later. I kept repeating the scripts and further worked on my body language. I already had experience from the first two shows. My goal was to have everybody in the audience thinking I am a total professional.

Both cities were sold out and we even had to add extra seats. Thanks to Dafa and Master, not only did I pass sickness karma within one day, but I also became a professional MC from scratch. I witnessed the immense power of Dafa first hand.

I wish to encourage practitioners who might face similar decisions. With firm belief in Dafa, there is nothing we can’t do. I wish to conclude my sharing with words from Master’s Jingwen “To The Czecho-Slovak Fa Conference”:

“Each Dafa disciple must persist in studying the Fa well no matter the circumstance. Only by doing so will you be able to fulfill your historic mission as a Dafa disciple, and assist Master in saving lives. You are the hope of the lives of the race or ethnic group that you were born into. Do well the things that you should do.”

Thank you Master, thank you fellow practitioners.

(Selected to the European Fa-conference 2022 in Warsaw)