Participating in the Art of Zhen Shan Ren Exhibition

Greetings revered Master, Greetings fellow Practitioners,

I would like to share my experiences from participating in the Art exhibition and a few understandings I came to in recent times.

With a strong feeling of urgency in doing the three things, I still could not break though to be more diligent, until I noticed very intensive interference in projects that I should have taken part in. I tried to look within to find why I couldn’t break through simple laziness and do what I was doing with a purer heart. In “Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland in September 1998”, Master said:

“Human beings have many attachments, all kinds of notions, and a range of emotions and desires. All these thoughts are in your head, yet none of them are you. I've said that this door is wide open and that only your heart matters. It's just up to a person's heart whether he can cultivate, and whether he can still have the thought and intention of returning to his origin and true self. So I'm telling you that everything that interferes with your thinking might not be you. As for some people who can't forgo their self-interest while it is at stake among everyday people, or those who can't tell which thoughts are theirs and which aren't, and who even think that those bad thoughts are theirs, we definitely won't keep looking after them. Why? Because those people have taken those bad thoughts to be themselves, and yet these things of ours are not to be given to those bad thoughts.”

I realized that the true me is the knowing side, while the part that is not diligent is combined with all particles and elements of my universe that are to be discarded. If I try to answer the question, “who is me?” the answer should be the true self. I realized that all these bad factors are just not me, but only postnatally acquired notions and karma, which are trying—as all living beings—to defend themselves from being eliminated; trying to convince me not only that they are a part of me, but that they are the true me.

After studying the Fa, these understandings emerged and I made a breakthrough. Now I could see clearly that I should have compassion and not blame myself any more, since it wasn’t the true me. I felt fear and an uncomfortable feeling when I realized this, and the fact was that these feelings were generated by the part of me that feared to be eliminated; the process was just taking place and it brought great changes that I had not expected before. I was grateful for Master’s patience in waiting until my understanding elevated, although I was still feeling bad for letting Master down so many times.

Over the following days, things happened to be arranged for me to move to a city where The Art of Zhen Shan Ren was about to be exhibited. I joined the project from the beginning and stayed at the galleries all day long for 7 weeks, without a day off. I traveled along with the exhibition for almost 4 months.

To really save sentient beings while participating in a project, I knew that it wasn’t enough just to be righteous on the surface, study the Fa and do the exercises every day. There were times when I felt similar to when I was doing Shen Yun promotion—even though I thought I was doing well, Shen Yun came and went away with not many in the audience, and I still couldn’t understand where my shortcomings were. Time waits for no one, and I should be clearer about what my position is in Fa-Rectification.

On many occasions it was busy at the gallery until very late. The closing hours were 6pm but having full access, we could extend the opening time at will, so sometimes there were visitors even after 11pm. I was thinking, “Can this project rely on me?” I wanted to put my heart into making sure my cultivation state was good. One evening, I had much to do and I stayed overnight in the back office. My body was tired, but I could not sleep. I had difficulty and pressure, wanting to do things sincerely. In that state of still not being asleep, I decided to go to find Master and thank him for these difficulties and opportunities, for allowing me to do greater things in Fa-Rectification.

My main spirit flew away and I only saw that I was flying through some cosmic space that was extremely high, passing stars, galaxies and nebulas. I knew there were much higher places, but this was where I stopped. Upon arrival, I saw Master there on the right side, smiling, and two beings on the left side, standing on a cloudy surface. Behind the two beings was an entrance to this level’s realm, which was covered by a cloud bathed in purple light. Two men were standing as if protecting the entrance with serious faces. Only Master actually knew why we were meeting there. Those two beings were serious to the extent that they would destroy, in an instant, anyone who would appear there but did not belong to this level, even just for knowing that they are there. Since my intention was to find Master, I started to speak to Master’s Fashen: “Please accept my apologies for coming here, standing before you with such a filthy mind and body. I know there is no human language I can use, and anything that I may say even in great words is filthy, but I wish to thank You for what You do, and for allowing me to assist You in Fa-Rectification.”

There is one more thing I need to mention. A few days after this experience, we had an opening evening reception, and due to the preparation I didn’t do the exercises or study enough. Before I went to sleep there was a thought reflected in my mind that it would be nice to have this kind of uplifting experience again, and as a result of this pursuit, in the morning I overslept the 5am Righteous Thoughts, and in my dream a demon came who claimed to be my master. The whole dream was unpleasant and really indicated that I should not pursue anything of that sort.

The experiences at the galleries were wonderful and xinxing improvements were tremendously fast, as I could observe the harmonious work of other practitioners. There were many people coming to our desk after seeing the paintings. We talked as if we knew each other very well and just hadn’t seen each other for a very, very long time. Each city we visited brought different people, as if they would represent different layers of the universe. Many things really depended on how well we could remove our attachments. Some conflicts appeared to be very serious, but after a moment of looking inward they vanished in an instant, as if they were only conjured up to improve our xinxing. The same gallery was demanding in cooperation, but with pure hearts of practitioners, cooperation was so smooth that even when working with practitioners who spoke only Chinese, we could understand each other with one glance.

Every day there were people who were truly moved to tears. After seeing the exhibition, many came back later, bringing their friends and relatives. I remember one time a lady who was about 35 years old and dressed very smartly, approached me and kept repeating: “I didn’t know it was happening…” She was all in tears, sobbing out loud. The lady kept crying and slightly shaking for a few minutes, then gradually calmed down. That moment I wanted to cry myself, in the same way as I did few years ago, when I myself found out about Falun Dafa and the persecution. When the lady cried, I didn’t know what to do, being at that moment among 62 paintings and a full venue of visitors, as the others practitioners sent Righteous Thoughts or did promotion outside. These moments are very touching; inspiring us to use this precious opportunity to help Master save sentient beings.

In one of the galleries I remember two young men who were very talkative, who were interpreting each painting through their personal intellectual understandings. They were talking non-stop, and I started to think about how I would clarify the truth to them. I had to react quickly, so I decided to empty my mind and create a pure and righteous field that was free of any thoughts, to restrain their human sides or attachments. I just opened a book, and pretending that I was reading, I sent Righteous Thoughts. As they were finishing viewing the last 2 paintings and were around 5 metres from me, they acted as if they had forgotten how to speak. In silence they approached me, standing without a word and with an expression that was hoping for me to talk to them. After clarifying the truth to them, they sincerely thanked me for bringing this gallery to their city, and letting them know about Falun Dafa.

There were situations when, while leafleting outside, people were stopping even on the other side of the road, pausing from wherever they were about to go. And as if driven by what they saw and a leaflet held out for them, crossed the busy street, took a leaflet and entered the gallery. One time I extended my hand with a leaflet to an elderly lady. She took a quick turn and stood speechless. Suddenly I realized that upon seeing the leaflet and the entrance to the gallery, her eyes filled with tears as if about to cry. She said: “This is what I’ve been looking for… This is what I’ve been looking for.” The lady then stood in silence, very straight, in front of the entrance and continued very slowly with a shaking voice and eyes full of tears from being moved: “I left home… I ... I wanted to go to the, bank? …maybe to the shop? But this is what I’ve been truly looking for! Thank you! Thank you!” Between her and the paintings, there was still a long corridor, but she started to walk through as if entering the heavens, very slowly, with a very dignified posture. I was very moved seeing this.

There was one time at another gallery where there were not many visitors due to different circumstances. I tried to help with this situation, but I felt an uncomfortable pressure from not knowing how to improve at that moment, when righteous support was needed. Earlier, I had already booked my bus ticket home. We were about to have a private viewing of the gallery in two days time and help was needed. I decided to ignore my bus ticket, and go to leaflet in the city centre. When I was leafleting, for a while, not many people were taking the leaflets, and not much attention was drawn to our banner. Deep in my thoughts I was asking Master how I could improve and help with the gallery. Shortly after my bus departure time passed, suddenly I felt a sense of relief, as if some bad elements were removed from my body. A lot of people started taking leaflets and I was looking around, seeing that there were some big changes, and knew that Master was helping us. We had a very successful opening with many visitors and a very warm atmosphere.

I remember once we shared about the importance of ensuring visitors view the paintings in the correct order, starting from theme one with the image of the Buddha Statue. Early morning the next day, I sat near the entrance reading Zhuan Falun, waiting for visitors. Just as I was looking at the Buddha Statue, my third eye opened and I saw that the whole statue actually turned golden. Then I saw, while looking at Buddha’s face, that the statue began to speak, but I could not hear any sound. His face was moving and He was turning his arms slightly, as if alive, standing naturally with a joyful facial expression and immense righteousness. At that time, I enlightened that Master’s Fashen was talking and I realized that perhaps, Master’s Fashen might communicate with the knowing side of each visitor as they were introduced to the exhibition.

It would take too many words to describe the multitude of magnificent things that occurred, as well as all the xinxing improvements, and the amount of beings saved was tremendous. The Art of Zhen Shan Ren can reach the different cities where Shen Yun would have no possibility of going.

Before and after viewing the paintings people seem to be very different. Their understanding is open to a high level, they look happy with a feeling of being complete, as if they had been waiting for a long time to see these paintings and learn the truth. These people say things like thank you from the bottom of their hearts for bringing this exhibition to their cities and letting them obtain and learn so much from this Art. Even we ourselves are not personally aware of the magnificence of the things that are happening in Fa-Rectification and how worthy that person is, who is thanking us with tears. There is also what we do realize—that they are thanking us for being saved along with countless beings behind each of them. I hope more practitioners will step forward to collect such worthy beings, allowing them to be saved.

The above experiences have been written after personally assisting with the galleries for 99 days within less than 4 months, since the time I stepped forward to join the project of The Art of Zhen Shan Ren.

Please point out any shortcomings in my understandings.

Thank you Master.
Thank you fellow practitioners.