Germany: Rectifying Myself in Dafa and Embodying the Whole Group

Greetings to Master and Fellow practitioners,

I feel honored to have taken part as a sales representative at the Shen Yun gift booth during the 2022 Shen Yun European tour. I have seen the audience’s feelings of expectation and grateful appreciation of Shen Yun, and I have truly felt Master’s compassion. I have only made a little breakthrough in my cultivation, but my Master has given me so much. I would like to use this experience to report my experience to Master, and communicate with fellow practitioners. Due to my limited level of cultivation, if there is anything lacking in my attitude, please correct my mistakes.

1. Shen Yun blesses all sentient beings, Dafa purifies people's hearts

"We've been waiting for two years, and we're finally able to watch Shen Yun!" In the 2022 Shen Yun tour season, this is what we hear the most from the audience. A lot of the audience bought tickets for Shen Yun performances two years ago, but the performance was canceled due to the outbreak of the CCP virus, and there was a two year long waiting gap. The lives that have survived this pandemic, their understanding side are very much looking forward to seeing Shen Yun.

When an old grandmother came to the theater to collect her ticket, she was holding the Shen Yun flyer she received from 8 years ago. It took her 8 years to save enough money to buy the ticket. It does not matter whether they have waited for 8 years or 2 years, anything could have happened during the waiting time, but now they can finally walk into the theater to watch Shen Yun, as they have long wished for.

The audience was not only deeply touched by the splendid performance, but when they excitedly walked out of the auditorium, they talked about the wonderful moments of the performance with their companions and selected gifts for themselves and their relatives and friends from the Shen Yun gift booth.

In addition to the silk scarves, jewelry, picture albums, audio-visual products and other products, the Shen Yun shop booth also launched a new subscription service for the "Shen Yun Creations" website, giving keen audiences an opportunity to know more about Shen Yun and Chinese traditional culture. It is a valuable resource, and many early performances of Shen Yun can also be seen on the website. This year, Zhuan Falun was brought to the audience at the shop. Revered Master is merciful, leading those who are destined to get "Zhuan Falun" at the Shen Yun venue, and fulfilling the opportunity that they have been waiting for Dafa for thousands of years!

Before each performance started, during the intermission and after the performance finished, audiences would walk to the Falun Dafa book section at the gift booth to talk to the staff, hoping to learn more about Falun Dafa. Many people bought books on the spot and asked where they could learn the exercises. I remember a family who made a special trip from Switzerland to Germany to watch the performance. They loved Shen Yun very much. The dad in the family asked his 8/9 year old son to choose a gift. The little boy looked around the gift booth and he only picked Zhuan Falun in the end. The father and son immediately showed it to the mother, and the whole family left with an abundant harvest.

Some audience members eagerly wanted to know what words were written on the banner held by the dancers in the last dance, and even wanted to take the banner with the words "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" home and hang it on the wall. Another audience member came to the booth and excitedly held the hands of our staff and said, "I finally know why the CCP persecutes Falun Gong! I believe the CCP will collapse for sure.”

Master said in "Teachings at the Conference in Los Angeles":
“Do you realize, when those who have watched the Gala walk out of the theatre, any and all bad thoughts they had have been dissolved? All of their bad thoughts are gone. (Applause) That’s why people found it so powerful.”

I also think of a passage from Master's "Teachings Given on Lantern Festival Day, 2003":
“What’s cultivation? We just want to cleanse, cleanse step by step, all the way up. Cleanse it—it’s as simple as that!” Yet when manifest at different levels, it becomes paving the way, having troubles, enduring hardships, eliminating karma, cultivating, and so on, cultivating one way, practicing another way…”

The audience who watched the live performance gave feedback that Shen Yun took them to the heavenly world, and some people felt no longer troubled by their illness, forgot their concerns in life, and felt purified. I feel that every moment I participate in the Shen Yun gift sales program, I am being "purified step by step" by Dafa.

2. Rectifying myself and not allowing negative factors to take advantage of the loopholes

I always think of Master’s teaching when he talked about “the appearance stems from the mind from “Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting”:

“Don’t take any such things to be a big deal, for with something as significant as saving sentient beings you should just do what you are supposed to do, going about it in a composed manner. When you encounter things that don’t sound so good or that aren’t what you hoped for, don’t take it to heart, and just nobly and confidently do what you are supposed to. If you don’t let the evil’s interference sway you, bad factors won’t arise from you, the evil will become trivial, you will become towering and massive, and your righteous thoughts will be ample. That’s truly the case.”

I feel that I have had many positive experiences in clearing negative thoughts. In work, there will always be imperfections or emergencies. Once they occur, they will inadvertently lead to negative thoughts. When they are not managed, the negative thoughts will be magnified, which will also affect other practitioners in the project and the project itself. But being able to realize it instantly and distinguish that it is not my true self can suppress it, clear it, and things will change for the better.

Due to the pandemic, the global delivery chain was affected. Some of the goods we ordered from the headquarters only arrived after the tour began. They could only be handed over and counted in the theatre before the performance. There is a new jewellery collection called "Xianlian", including necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, which are very elegant and beautiful. We have looked forward to receiving it for a long time, but when it finally arrived, we found that although each bracelet has a separate packaging bag, nearly every bracelet is tangled up. We had to take out all the bracelets within a short time before the audience entered the venue, untie them, and put them back into the packaging bags one by one, which added to the work we already had. Several thoughts quickly flashed through my mind; how did this happen: caused by bumps in transit? Was it caused by the fellow practitioners who picked up the goods and placed them carelessly? Could it be that the packaging design of the bracelet itself is not rigorous enough... But time is tight, and we must arrange it as soon as possible before audiences enter the venue. I realized that those thoughts were not helpful to the current situation and thinking more about it would not only magnify my complaints but also delay the work of sorting them out. It is not my job to complain about other people's omissions, what I should think and do to improve the imperfections in the workflow. So, I at once dismissed the negative thoughts and started sorting the bracelets out. During this process, I thought of the cumbersome procedures of the production of these products, from design to being made at factories, then transferred on lorries, etc., which is not easy to come by. Not all touring cities have been able to receive these goods. Therefore, gratitude arose in my heart.

I have this bad habit of choosing easy things to do and don’t like difficult things. When encountering problems, I always see the trouble first, so I complain that others are causing trouble for me, but I forget the hard work of others and the setbacks they have gone through, and I don’t know how to be grateful.

I explained to the guests that this jewellery line’s name “xianlian” stands for divine lotus which comes out of the mud without being stained, symbolizing the people who still kept noble character in turbulent times. As a Dafa disciple, shouldn't I be more like this? You cannot complain just because you are in an unsatisfactory situation, and you cannot let your own selfishness sully the pure field where Shen Yun saves people. That set of jewellery has been immensely popular from the moment it appeared to the end of the tour this season.

After the first two days of the show at one tour stop, we found that we could make some adjustments to the booth table to better display the book Zhuan Falun. During the process, a practitioner raised questions about the details of the adjustment, but received no response. I noticed she seemed a little upset and left the booth for a while.

When the audience was about to enter, that practitioner had returned to the booth, but her expression was still a little gloomy. I thought, why can't she temporarily put down her emotions for the sake of the whole group? As the audience entrance time approached, I felt increasingly unable to hold my breath, and some of the negative ideas I had about this practitioner in the past began to emerge. If I go to communicate with fellow practitioners at this time, the words I say would not be pure. I can no longer indulge your negative emotions like this. I must immediately correct myself. Recalling my mentality just now, I just want to achieve my idea as soon as possible, but I have no intention of listening to another opinion. When there is a sudden change to the plan, the lack of communication and the lack of real consideration for others will lead to misunderstandings among us.

When I felt that my mind was finally back on track, I went to my fellow practitioner and talked to her. I found that she didn't mind about what had happened before. The reason she was upset was because she was aware of her stubbornness and was struggling with how to get rid of it. I am fortunate and grateful that the practitioner quickly adjusted their mentality and welcomed the audience happily. Before that performance, the product that the practitioner was in charge of sold well, and she also talked about it in her later sharing that that experience had a very positive impact on her.

Through this experience, I also reminded myself not to easily judge other practitioners and draw conclusions. I would not be able to discover my own inadequacies if I only focus on how others are in a bad state.

3. Who has the better idea?

During a break, a fellow practitioner shared an interesting experience:

On an ordinary working day, she found that a gift item was out of stock after going through the inventory, so she went to the downstairs booth to see if there was any left. When she happily took the goods back upstairs and was about to display them, she found that the layout of the booth had changed. She thought how could someone change my layout without asking me? She forwarded this issue to the general coordinator, "Please tell the whole team to put an end to this kind of thing." It happened a few times later, and she became alert. She realized that this was directed at her attachment. She always felt that her layout was good, and a change to her layout felt disrespectful. After she realized this, she felt as if gods in the heavens intended to let people change her layout, to test whether she could really let go of her attachments. When she thought about it like this, she was not so angry. Just look inward a little bit and let go of your stubborn self. After her candid sharing, other practitioners in the team were also inspired and saw that they had a similar mentality; they also learned to respect others and be less stubborn.

Another practitioner, who was responsible for selling the book Zhuan Falun, saw that her arrangement of the books had been altered a few times. At first, she thought, other people might be more experienced, they must have their reasons for changing the arrangement. She realized that she did not need to spend much time changing the layout if the books were placed properly. When the audience comes, it is more important to introduce Dafa books to them attentively. Later, such random changes occurred less and less, because everyone also found that the effect is better if you keep your mind stable and do it in an upright manner.

This year, there was a performance with a considerable time span, and some practitioners were unable to participate in the whole process and could only join in the next few performances. In the first few shows, I oversaw the jewellery part, deciding the process and arranging the exhibits. When I ran out of inspiration, other practitioners gave me good advice generously. When more staff arrived in the next few shows, the fellow practitioner took time off work to come to support them. We communicated with each other before starting the task. Her idea was different from mine. In the first few shows, I took the inventory of the goods before displaying them on the booth. She suggested displaying them first. After the show, I would pack the displays away according to the product category, which is convenient for the next day’s inventory; she suggested that the displays should be put together in one box for the next day. Her process was more convenient for her, and it is important to let her work quickly and at ease. You do not have to bother discussing whose idea is better, just start it directly, which is more efficient. And in this way, didn't I also learn the good methods of fellow practitioners? How nice. To let go of yourself is not a loss but a gain.

After writing this article, I felt ashamed for a while. I found that after the Shen Yun performance, I could not let go of everything calmly at home and work when facing trivial matters. That is why I want to remember the happy time of being in the Shen Yun sales team that was full of positive energy and working under the guidance of Dafa for the past two or three months. During this period, I saw Shen Yun's performance saving thousands of sentient beings and experienced the cultivation opportunities that Master arranged for us in an orderly manner. Complaining, worrying, arrogance, etc., is completely incompatible with this sacred field. Sometimes I think cultivation is like a 100-meter hurdle, just sprinting, bypassing the railings, and the first rush to the finish line is invalid. Only by letting go of our attachments, Master will make us grow taller and overcome those difficulties.

In this year's performance, the title of the erhu solo piece was "The Mind of a Dafa Disciple". I do not know how ordinary audience members perceived it, but to me, it was more like Master's entrust to Dafa disciples – to cultivate myself to have a mindset that is worthy of the title "Dafa disciple".

Finally, please allow me to share with fellow practitioners a passage from Master's scripture "Further Understanding”:
“Do you realize that as long as you’re a cultivator, in any environment or under any circumstances, I will use any troubles or unpleasant things you come across—even if they involve work for Dafa, or no matter how good or sacred you think they are—to eliminate your attachments and expose your demon-nature so that it can be eliminated, for your improvement is what’s most important.”

Thank you Master! Thank you fellow practitioners!

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