Edinburgh Parade Weekend Sharing

As many practitioners in Scotland were not around and those who were had other commitments, the role of event coordinator fell on me.

In my workplace I manage a large annual project involving bringing in an external contractor to carry out various tasks. I draw up a schedule of work as a guideline, list the paperwork that needs to be exchanged and things that need to be in place prior to the start of the work. The work should proceed according to the schedule but there are so many things that can go wrong some flexibility needs to be built in. I thought that I could use my work experience to help make the parade weekend successful as in previous years I recall seeing a task list for practitioners.

Before describing how things went in Edinburgh, I’d like to share how the Fa helped me cast off my biggest attachment and take a big step up in my cultivation.

In 2005, having found Dafa the year before, I began the annual project. At that time I enjoyed my job, a position I held for 26 years. If other areas of my life were not so good I could immerse myself in work and get some job satisfaction. If things went wrong I had back up plans to take care of things. I really felt that my job was very important to me and regularly received praise from my boss. When the 2005 work started every day things went wrong, breakdowns in mechanical equipment, computers, minor accidents the list goes on. At home my dad was ambulanced to hospital twice with severe kidney problems. After 10 days, having had another long and testing day, I sat with my head in my hands and thought to myself I would go to my boss and explain things pointing out all these problems and look for some help. After a good night’s sleep I realised that if I tell him the problems I also have to tell him how to fix them so what would be the point in giving myself even more work. I just had to get on with it. I did think this was major tribulations and part of my cultivation as the amount of problems in the first 3 days were more than I had experienced it total over the previous 25 years. The problems continued until the end of the job and when the contractor left I breathed a sigh of relief. I put more effort into Fa study and exercises then realised the change within myself. Prior to this contract I would have said my job was where I excelled and worked with confidence, an area where my strength lay and for me at that time I knew Dafa was good but it had to be restricted to my spare time. Afterwards I realised the attachment to my job had gone and that Dafa was now where my strength lay and my job was just something to help me make a living. I realised that I knew of at least three relatives or relatives of colleagues who had committed suicide as they had lost their job, a result of their attachments. So I thank Master for helping me break this connection so I can put more energy in saving people.
In previous years I have done many tasks in support of the Edinburgh parade as I believe if you see something that needs doing or if someone needs help I just do it. The combination of this and my project management experience from work led me to believe that I could be coordinator with confidence in the role.

Prior to the event a practitioner who was experienced in the coordination role sent me a job list which was the basis of my schedule. This way having checked what we had to do and feedback from practitioners in sharing’s prior to the event I drew up a schedule but resigned myself to not having expectations of things or regard a good result as a pursuit. Rather the schedule was a guideline and we should all be prepared to be flexible to accommodate the fact that we are all humans cultivating and are trying to rid ourselves of attachments whilst enduring tribulations. Along the way practitioners passed on their experience of things that had happened in previous years. I sent the email to the UK Group mail and asked that practitioners each print off a copy of the schedule and maps so to avoid confusion, this was translated to Chinese also, but a practitioner said we should print out copies and take them along as many don’t read the emails they just turn up and others don’t have access to a computer they just hear about it from others. I printed off spare copies and they did indeed prove very useful.

Regardless of what happened I didn’t let fear or anxiety play a part in my thoughts as we had many practitioners helping and suggesting ideas where needed and behind this I felt the way forward was there as Master had arranged, I’d just not found it yet. We heard that the van bringing materials and equipment from London had broken down and we sent righteous thoughts, the van started and we made arrangements to get up in the early hours of the morning and unload it upon its arrival. However it broke down again. On hindsight we should have continued sending righteous thoughts and studied the Fa to clear away interference, help us raise our xinxing and reveal our attachments.

The event gathered momentum with practitioners pulling together to make the best out of the situations that occurred. On the Saturday parade practitioners showed three distinct sections. Falun Dafa banners announced our presence at the front with Waist drummers accompanying the music of Falun Dafa Hao. Next banners telling of the persecution and girls dressed in white carrying the flower framed plaques of the victims of the CCP’s persecution. Followed by more banners urging people to help stop the persecution and support quitting the CCP. I was a martial at the side of the parade and saw that when the people saw the banners and drummers at the front of the parade many faces in the busy Princess Street where smiling and gazing then as the banners and girls with plaques passed the smiles dropped to deep sorrow. On seeing this I was moved to tears myself. I quickly moved towards the front of the parade again as where the smiling faces were to help dispel my tears. For me this was like my fathers funeral where through studying the Fa I felt strong for my family yet at the funeral my tears flowed as I saw the grief in my mother and cousin at my fathers passing. He was a good man with high morals by today’s standards and always put others before himself. I felt he will have a good place to go and didn’t mourn but rather, within myself, felt he had just sloughed off his cells and moved off into another dimension as Master say’s in Lecture 2.

On the Sunday morning we did exercises on a paved area off Princess Street the route of the parades. Shortly after we started a motorised street sweeping machine came and circled us making it difficult to hear Master and music. After the second exercise I took a leaflet and approached the driver. I explained the exercises and apologised for preventing him doing his job. I pointed out our practice described on the leaflet and mentioned our parade the previous day. By this time we were joined by his workmate who was listening and said yes I saw the parade, the ladies in white with the plaques were very moving. He asked if those on the plaques were relatives of the girls or our group. I said no but some in our group had undergone persecution in China and obtained asylum status to remain in our country. The driver said he practiced Tai Chi and that he’d wait until we finished our standing exercises. I thanked him and he reached out his hand to shake and wished us well in our endeavours as did his workmate. I returned to the group in time to move them to an adjacent area where they had already cleaned. This area was opposite the front door of the Royal Scottish Academy where we hoped to display the Zhen, Shan, Ren Art Exhibition. We placed our mats down on the paved area taking care not to obstruct the vehicular access and began exercise 5. As we sat there the rain increased it’s strength from a thin mist to a heavy downpour with the water running along the gutters like a small stream. As we neared completion I became aware of cigarette smoke and opened my eyes to see the security guard and other staff members watching us from between the stone pillars in the shelter of the overhanging roof of the building. I thought to myself they won’t forget our being there demonstrating our tolerance of the rain. Perhaps this will help as we approach them to host our exhibition. It certainly felt like part of Masters arrangement.

The parade officially named the Edinburgh Cavalcade began a little late and was slow to get moving but by the time we set off the pace had quickened, it certainly felt faster than the previous two years when I attended. I was martial at the rear this time as we made our way through the crowd lined street. Having finished the parade I suddenly felt nausea, tiredness and chilled so I sat in the materials van whilst practitioners dismantled the float on the street side. I felt like karma was being dissolved in a wave as it came on very quickly. I was driven back to the hostel where we stayed and I could hardly keep my eyes open though I knew there was still much to be done. I lay down for an hour and a half and when I awoke practitioners in the kitchen and corridor outside my room were studying the Fa. I carefully made my way past into the corridor feeling much better and resumed the remaining tasks I had to do. I then got a call to say a journalist wanted to interview me as the event coordinator and I put aside all my self doubts before entering the room. Practitioners with the journalist had told him of Falun Gong and I picked up the conversation telling of all aspects of our practice, the persecution, our efforts with the Epoch Times, NTDTV and the situation with Eutelsat, the events in Flushing, the Nine Commentaries, the organ harvesting report to the European Parliament and the Human Rights Olympic Torch Relay. Despite the long and testing day the words came to me as if I was just relaying them from my heart.

After the event I reflected on what had passed thinking of ways where we could do better next year. I thought it had gone well and looked at photo’s taken by a practitioner which showed our out of sequence Ren, Shan, Zhen plaques at the front of the parade and practitioners dressed in blue denims carrying the Falun Dafa banner whilst everyone else was in costume. As coordinator I looked over the drummers, float and dancers but didn’t go to the front before the parade started. I recall last year noticing this and asking the girls holding the plaques to change their order to read Zhen, Shan, Ren.

As event coordinator I learned it is important that everyone communicates well and all coordinators of the various activities within the group listen and consider the viewpoints of the practitioners, being prepared to change and improve ideas as the event unfolds. Rigid mindsets hold everyone back from doing better and make us less approachable to those with fresh thinking. I believe that although the loopholes still existed in this year’s event, the Zhen, Shan, Ren in the hearts of all practitioners taking part kept the evils interference at bay. Many put in a lot of hard work in preparing and doing the tasks throughout the weekend including the ones who were not there on the street but in the accommodation or covering at the Embassy to let others come and take part. I’d like to thank everyone who helped us touch the hearts of those in our Scottish Capital, the VIP’s, tourists and Chinese students who came many encouraged by the Edinburgh Chinese Consulates entry. As Master said, something to the effect that, the evil party unknowingly helps us by bringing more to see our efforts.

Thank you Master and thank you all for listening