My experiences from cultivation practice whilst promoting Shen Yun

Greetings, Master, Greetings fellow disciples:

Now I will share my experiences with you all about taking part in Shen Yun promotions last year.

1, Taking part in Shen Yun promotion in a shopping centre

In 2021, when I came to know that Shen Yun would perform in the UK, I hoped I could participate. I thought that this was an opportunity for me to work on myself and save sentient beings. Consequently, I expressed to the person in charge my wish to participate. It just so happened that on the same weekend was the coordination for the entire UK to hand out Shen Yun flyers, so I took part. During this period of time, another practitioner invited me to help with promotion in the shopping centre. At the shopping centre, we had to stand for long periods of time, and it needed those with physical strength and those who were good at speaking English, so they hoped that more young people took part. In this way I took part in promoting Shen Yun in a shopping centre for the first time.

I had to get there very early on the first day. As for me, who was not used to waking up so early, all along the way I way drowsy. After I arrived, I thought to myself rather impatiently: This place is rather ordinary, not like an upmarket place. When I got to my place, no one told me exactly what I needed to do, and I felt that the other practitioners had not arranged this comprehensively, and I was very displeased in my mind. I realized that these thoughts were not right, and since I had already got here, I wanted to wholeheartedly cooperate, and complaining would be useless. What I needed to think about now was what I needed to do. If I were to have negative thinking all along, wouldn’t this have influence on fellow practitioners’ field of righteous thoughts? After I realised this point, I immediately sent righteous thoughts to get rid of negative thoughts and readjusted my own state of mind.

Through practice I accumulated more and more experience. When I just started, after finishing a day of work my back was in pain, and after it finished, I felt that I couldn’t stretch my waist straight. After a few days at work, I didn’t feel tired. Sometimes when I handed out leaflets some would refuse, and in my mind, I would feel disheartened or embarrassed. At these times I recalled what Master said: “Also, with those people that you run into by chance, who you run into in daily life, and the people you run into at work, you should all clarify the truth to them. Even when in your daily life you pass by people so quickly that you don’t have a chance to talk to them, you should still leave them with your compassion and kindness. Don’t lose those who should be saved, especially those with predestined connections.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference”). I couldn’t let myself feel thwarted, and I couldn’t lose heart, and I should leave compassion for those who pass by me. As I thought like this, I would once again feel encouraged.

During the process of helping with promotion I discovered some areas on which I could improve. It wasn’t that I was complaining. It was that I should silently make good on what I was doing. Master said said in the “FA Teaching at the 2019 New York Fa Conference”: “You should be noble and high-minded, and cooperate well with others. It’s not about whose idea is the best. When someone’s idea isn’t great, or all that well thought out, you should quietly and discreetly find a way to help make it work, and help get all the bases covered! That will be what earns you the admiration of divine beings, and you will have done it without saying anything!”. I discovered that we didn’t have a schedule for our duty turns, and that fellow practitioners would rest at different times, so sometimes there were not enough of us at our positions. So, I took the initiative to make a rest timetable, enabling everyone to have some reasonable rest time, and moreover guaranteeing that there were enough people at their positions.

During the promotion I often bumped into people who just wanted to know what Shen Yun was but who didn’t want to buy tickets on the spot. Every time from the time that they show “interest”, to the stage of “wanting to go”, and then onto the time of “buying tickets”, it was as if there was a great battle between good and evil. Especially at the last phase of “buying the tickets”, this was the most intense time, and on many occasions, it relied on the support of many practitioners’ righteous thoughts until we could vanquish the evil.

Once, a family of three came to the exhibition stall, and the father was very interested, and when I introduced Shen Yun to him, he got out his wallet and said that he would like to buy a ticket. At this time his daughter said that at that time she had an exam and couldn’t go. We had a look at several performance times, to look for a ticket which was not during the time of her exams, however the daughter said that she didn’t want to distract her attention before the exams. The family of three were in a deadlock, and the father expressed his apologies and said that he would decide after talking it over with his family. They started talking over it after walking away for a few steps. I thought that the people in this family were standing not far from the exhibition area, it was most certainly the case that their aware sides wanted an opportunity to be saved. I started to silently send forth righteous thoughts and motioned to the two practitioners behind me to help with sending righteous thoughts. After a very long time they had finally talked it over, the husband and wife very happily expressed that they would like to buy tickets, and even jokingly thanked their own daughter, because without her agreement they would not have been able to go. The cooperation of fellow practitioners moved me very much. It looked very ordinary, however in other dimensions there was a great battle.

There was another time when a married couple came to our exhibition. I showed them our price range and also briefly introduced Shen Yun to them. They had just selected five tickets and were just about to go to the sales interface, when the wife wished to make a phone call to invite her parents. The reception in the shopping centre was very poor, and no matter how she called she could not get a connection. In the end they said after a little while they would come back after they had got in contact with them. They had got all the way to the interface for making purchases, but had not bought tickets, and then they had left. After a while I talked to another practitioner and shared that I realized that at the time I should have used my wisdom to first enable them to buy the tickets that they had selected. At the time because I did not want to force anybody too much, I did not put forth too much effort. I realized that now the only thing I could do was to send righteous thoughts, to clear away whatever was interfering with them from buying tickets.

A few hours later, the shopping centre was about to close, and I was very pleased to see this couple come back! They said they were still waiting for a phone call from their parents. I recommended to them a mix of first class and medium range tickets as this would be nearer the centre of the stage. As I was speaking, I was also sending righteous thoughts. They took turns to phone their parents, daughter, friends and a few others, and it was always that one phone call would get through whilst the next wouldn’t. I continued to tell them about how the CCP had persecuted traditional culture and told them about why I myself wanted to be a volunteer. He said that he ran an interior design company, and that he had been to China. I called out to another practitioner of the same profession to come and join our conversation, to enable him to continue talking to us. Another practitioner next to us saw that I was talking to this married couple for a long time and stood by our side silently sending righteous thoughts. The tacit cooperation between practitioners moved me greatly. In the end this couple bought ten tickets!

2, Promoting Shen Yun at my workplace

Promoting the sale of Shen Yun tickets to strangers is one thing, but I really didn’t feel at ease promoting Shen Yun to the people around me. How could I, in a very natural and poised way tell them about Shen Yun without sounding like a salesperson? In Masters Jingwen (“scripture article”) entitled “wake up” he said : “The Fa’s rectification of the Cosmos has finished, and now a transition to the Fa’s rectification of the human world is taking place.” I felt that time was pressing, and I knew that those around me, whether they were friends, or colleagues, all had a predestined relationship with me, and I hoped that they could all obtain salvation. Moreover, they were all people in mainstream society. I agreed to go for lunch with a colleague, but I had no materials in my hand, and I didn’t know how to change the topic to Shen Yun. I felt very awkward. In my mind I thought; then I will just talk of the beauty that I saw in Shen Yun, and if I used my own words to tell her of this then it wouldn’t be so awkward. After having chatted at lunch time, in the evening I received a text message, saying that she and her husband had already bought tickets. At the time I was both shocked and moved. I hadn’t done anything, and had just said a few words, and didn’t even have any materials with me. I realized that I had done wrong, in that they had already waited for ages, and had been waiting for me to tell them all along, and I had put up this bridge for them, but that it had taken me this long until I met the standard. This matter gave me great confidence.

After getting inspiration from this experience, I introduced Shen Yun to many colleagues one after another. At the beginning I was just recommending it to them but hadn’t thought of organizing everybody to go see it together. Later Master enabled me to realise that I should still take my colleagues with me to go and see it. Once after finishing taking part in a celebration activity at work, I took a taxi with four other colleagues to go home, and as we were passing by the theatre area, one of my colleagues asked me whether I had seen any shows this year. I took the opportunity to say: no, but next year there is a classical Chinese dance show called Shen Yun that I really want to go and see. I had not even finished telling him what Shen Yun was, when my colleague said “Let’s go together!”. On that day we bought five upper class tickets. On the second day at the company, I invited some other colleagues to go and see Shen Yun with me, and when others heard this they immediately agreed to come along, and the result was even better than just recommending Shen Yun to them. Later I also found several people to whom I had recommended Shen Yun before but who had not bought tickets, and invited them to go with me, and they very readily bought tickets then and there.

One colleague from the start wanted to come and see it with us. The second time I saw him, he said he forgot about it and would buy tickets when he got home. It¬¬¬ was like this several times afterwards. At this time, I started to go through the tribulation of sickness karma and had no way to work, and I didn’t go to work all along. Later I heard a colleague say that the new virus mutation had emerged, and he reckoned that very soon they would not let staff enter the company building. I recalled that he had still not bought a ticket, and that I must see him once before then. So, I endured not feeling well and went to the company, and upon getting there I immediately raised the topic of buying tickets, and he said after he had finished his financial assignment, he would buy one. After noon I reminded him again, but he said again that he had forgotten, and that he would buy one right away. After a while there was still no sign of activity. I realized that there was certainly something interfering with him. This was no good, I had to go and help him get rid of the evil interference! I directly went to his office desk and said: “Let’s look for tickets together”. He immediately accessed the Shen Yun website, got some tickets, and carefully confirmed the time and seat number with me, and left after he had bought the tickets. I realised that sometimes one really can’t relax. Some people wanted to buy tickets but would have serious interference making them not buy them, in which case I should go and help them. Of course, I would not take such a direct approach like this with everybody. This time I felt that in his inner being he really wanted to go, but that he had external interference, and that only the energy field of a Dafa disciple could frighten the bad things away.

In the end the original group of five of us enlarged to twenty-four people. I realized that bringing everybody to go and see it was the most effective way. I had to take the initiative, and couldn’t be passive, and moreover the most important thing was that I truly had to make an effort. Several colleagues told me that they had bought tickets because I had given them such a vivid picture when telling them about it. I knew that this was Teacher encouraging me, enabling me to have more self confidence in promoting the show. I enlightened to the face that it was not accidental what price ticket someone would buy, so I always recommended the tickets in the highest price range to my mainstream colleagues, because they deserved to have the best seats. I also hoped that they could obtain the nicest seats.

3, My colleagues overcome difficulties to see the performance

I heard another practitioner say that we shouldn’t relax just because a colleague had bought a ticket, and what was essential was whether this person could get to the theatre in the end, so we should send righteous thoughts for the people around us who had bought tickets. At the time I had not taken notice of this too much. However, various kinds of interference occurred in the few weeks before the performance.

First a colleague said that the nanny could not change her times so they could not come. Following this a Russian colleague and a Ukrainian colleague told me separately that because of the Russo-Ukraine war they were not in the mood to go and see the performance. Later there was a notification saying that all of London’s underground staff would go on strike on the day we were going to see the show. Many people felt that it was too troublesome to get to the theatre, and they started to hesitate. At the beginning I thought that I had already done what I could, and after all I had already successfully enabled them to have tickets, whether they would go or not would be a decision each life should make, and I didn’t want to force people too much. But later I remembered the words of the other practitioner, and hence started to send more righteous thoughts, to remove interference.

Thankfully the colleagues who were hindered by the underground strike were all at home. In order to reduce obstructions, and to avoid the evil taking advantage of our loopholes, I offered convenient plans for everybody. On the day before the performance, I organised a chat group for convenient communication. I researched the traffic itinerary, and sent everybody different ways of reaching the theatre, such as taxi times, bicycle journey times, public transportation time, as well as routes for changing bus stops and where to get off etc. I notified everybody that we would gather an hour beforehand at the theatre entrance to give them ample time to arrive. To avoid getting late because of a situation on the way, I also decided to work in a café next to the theatre and invited everybody to also come. I printed their tickets to prepare for the emergency that their mobile phones wouldn’t work.

On the day of the performance, the sky was heavily cloudy, and it rained. On the day before I felt a little unwell, and in the morning when I got up, I felt top-heavy, with no strength in my body. I hesitated about whether I should go or not, and then thought again: This is no good, If I were not to go, my colleagues would also decide not to go. This was evidently interference. So, I attended the morning Fa study as usual, and doubled my exercise practice. By midday, I had still not received any replies from the message I had sent the day before. Even though it was like this, after arriving at the café next to the theatre I immediately sent a message to the group telling them the traffic situation and my location. I said to the group how I was looking forward to the performance, and that I had also prepared special clothing, and hence encouraged them. In the afternoon one by one two or three people accompanied me to work sitting in the café. At five o clock the café closed, so we went to a restaurant. I then immediately sent our new location to the group. After half an hour five or six people turned up, and after a while another group of people turned up. I made an effort to reject this feeling of being unwell, and accumulated strength to maintain an excited tone when speaking of the background of Shen Yun to my colleagues. In the end all twenty-four people who were supposed to arrive arrived. Even the Russian colleague who originally didn’t want to come came. The colleague who couldn’t fix the nannies time also resolve the nanny issue.

This small restaurant was full of my colleagues. Some people told me, a journey that usually takes only half an hour took them two hours today. I was very moved. They had also gone through a process of cultivation just to get here! Even though it was raining and even with the inconvenience of the traffic, they all still got here! What was even more gratifying was that they all came well in advance to the appointed time, and not a single person was late enough to miss the show.

After the show everyone was very happy. My colleagues in the group thanked me one after another that they had such a special experience. I enlightened to the fact that if a life is to be responsible to others he must be responsible along the whole journey. It wouldn’t do to just get the tickets bought and then call it a day. I had to do what I could for these predestined people who I work with every day, and from beginning to end to eliminate the interference that was not allowing them to obtain salvation.

4, Concluding remarks

Whilst promoting Shen Yun, sometimes I would sometimes treat it as a task to do and treat getting tickets sold as a success. I had to remind myself at all times that the real purpose of this was to save people, so the process was very important, and it required me to incessantly help people get rid of interference. During the entire process of promotion, I felt Teacher’s encouragement. From being a person who really didn’t like doing sales, with practice I slowly accumulated experience, and discovered that actually it wasn’t that difficult. Sometimes when buying tickets, customers would say that what I said had really moved them, that what I said was very vivid, and letting me know that I had done very well. I couldn’t let my own attachments; such as being embarrassed, shy, feeling awkward, and being afraid of people refusing, to hinder those around me from this opportunity of being saved. I thank Master for giving me this opportunity to take part in Shen Yun, and to fulfil my vow.

The above are my understandings during this period of time, if there is anything incorrect, please kindly point it out.

Thank you Master, Thankyou, fellow practitioners.

Original article: https://www.yuanming.net/articles/a162877-.html