PureInsight | October 21, 2006
[PureInsight.org] My name is XX
and I am the conductor of the Toronto Divine Lane Band. It is my honor
to have this opportunity to share our cultivation experience here.
Today, I just want to share with you my cultivation experience from the
past few months in the Divine Land Band. I also represent the
practitioners who could not come here to share with your a few
unforgettable experiences we had as a whole body.
Four months ago, with the help of our Master, the Canada Divine Land Band was official established within several days.
I thought that I knew what our Master's purpose to establish the Divine
Land Band was. But I did not really understand it completely until the
day we had the parade right before the year 2006 Canada Experience
Conference. That parade made me really understand from my heart the
true meaning of the band. This was the first time that the Divine Land
Bands from both the US and Canada marched together. The power of the
entire band as a whole was very striking. When I reached Chinatown, I
looked back. At that moment, the whole picture had changed. What I saw
was not the Divine Land Band. It was the ancient battlefield with
thousand soldiers and horses fighting. I suddenly remembered
someone had once said that many practitioners from the east coast of
northern America had been famous generals in their past lives. At that
moment, I understood why Master called our band an "Army Band." Don't
you think that we are like the soldiers from Yue Fei's army, the
officers from General Yang's family? Yesterday, under the guidance of
our Master, we created glorious history in the human world; today,
we've come together again for the same mission. We are now using the
form of a band to rectify Dafa. Suddenly, I felt extremely solemn and
sacred.
In the past few months, my strongest feeling is that our band is not to
provide entertainment to ordinary people. It is not for fun and
pleasure. It is serious cultivation. It requires us to cultivate
ourselves and eliminate attachments under a special environment.
Besides, we've also come across conflicts that we had never experienced
before. Now I understand Master's words of "looking inward," "think of
others," and "be tolerant" more. Now let me share with you several
cultivation stories:
I became the conductor of the band by chance. When I decided to
participate in the tryout, I started to have serious symptoms of karma
elimination, high fever, food poisoning, diarrhea, and vomiting, I
could not eat anything. I could not stand on my two feet steadily
during the first few days. Since I started my cultivation, I had never
experience such severe symptoms of karma elimination. When I had karma
elimination, the symptoms were very light. It was very unusual
for me to have this kind of karma elimination. But in my mind, I was
very clear that Master was purifying my body. After it was over, my
body felt very light. Gradually my music sense became very strong even
though I did not have any prior music background. My arm was not sore
anymore. My ear became much clearer. After a while, I learned the
basics of how to be a conductor and I felt that it was not that
difficult to become a conductor. I even started to felt lucky that I
did not need to learn the finger movements of a particular instrument
and I did not need to memorize the notes as other practitioners do.
After I developed such thoughts, the second day I found out that I had
lost my sense of tempo. I could not even work with the band. I
could not tell if the band was playing well or not. Band members told
me that sometimes my tempo was fast and sometimes my tempo was slow.
But I couldn't hear the difference myself. This state continued for
more than a week. It taught me a valuable lesson. I realized that
everything we encounter is related to our cultivation no matter what
role we play in the band. We will fall as soon as our hearts are not in
the right place.
As time went on, some practitioners started to point out my problems
and gave me suggestions. It became more serious after the parade. In
the beginning, I was very calm. I did my best to take everyone's
suggestions. Later on, the criticism did not abate. Instead, it became
very biting. I started to become impatient. Even though I did not talk
back, I had the thought in my mind, "Why don't you just spend some time
looking for your own problems instead of being so picky toward me?"
In "Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital," Master
said: "and you insist on figuring out who's right and who's wrong; even
though you've made mistakes, you insist on figuring out others'
mistakes. When that's the approach, you won't be able to resolve the
problem." When I heard this, my face became red and stayed red for a
while.
Later on when I shared my experience with another practitioner, he
said, "Because you stand in the front of the band, it is very obvious
when you make mistakes. It is a good thing that people point out your
mistakes. This way they help you improve yourself. Because of it, you
should be the one who improve the fastest in the band. Don't you think
it is a good thing?" I could not help from bursting out in laughter
when I heard what he said.
After that, I calmed down and thought about what people had said about
my problems and I saw that what they said was right. On the surface, it
seemed that they were just talking about small, seemingly unimportant
details. In reality, they actually pointed out the attachments I need
to eliminate. This helps me to understand more deeply what "looking
inward" means and how to look inward. Looking inward should be done
unconditionally. When you look inward with conditions, you would not
find the root of your attachment.
It is just like what Master said at "Teaching the Fa at the Fa
Conference at the U.S. Capital," "No matter what trouble you encounter,
no matter what makes you feel unpleasant inside, and no matter whether
on the surface you're right or wrong, if you are to truly regard
yourself as a cultivator you should always examine yourself for causes.
Ask yourself whether you have a wrong, hard-to-detect motive that's
related to the problem. If you, as a cultivator, only part with things
superficially while deep down inside you still stick to something or
cling to your own vital interests that you don't allow to be
undermined, I'd say to you that your cultivation is fake! If your own
thinking doesn't change, you cannot advance even one step and are
deceiving yourself. Only when you truly improve from within can you
make real progress."
Another incident also touched me a lot. Everyone knows that it is
important for us to maintain pleasant facial expressions during our
parades. It is especially important for practitioners who play
the drum as people can see their faces clearly. I believe that "smile"
is the one of the required lessons for all of us. But several
practitioners in the Toronto Divine Land Band always looked very
serious during our parades. I told them many times. But they did not
change. I was very concerned because it is not pleasant to see such
serious faces in the band from the audience point of view. I thought to
myself, "Besides, we are here to save the sentient beings. Shouldn't we
look peaceful and kind? Do you think that smiling is abnormal? Why is
it so hard to do?"
On August 7th, I read one experience sharing article
"Cultivating in the Divine Land Band" by a practitioner who had just
come from Mainland China recently and now was in the Toronto Divine
Land Band. Even though he didn't give his name, I knew that the
practitioner is a member of the small drum team. The article said, "I
remembered that during the parade in Montreal, the conductor asked us
to smile to show the best side of our Dafa disciples. But I could not
smile. When I played the drum, all the practitioner's faces from
Mainland China appeared in mind. It seemed that they were with me. I
could not control my tears. This time I really smiled when I paraded in
the Caribbean Festival. In the Divine Land Band, I eliminated many
attachments."
Even though she finally smiled, I felt very bad when I read her
article. I had misunderstood the reason why she hadn't smiled before.
On two occasions, my attitude toward her and other practitioners who
looked too serious were not good. I never showed any concern for them.
My bad attitude toward them only made them feel worse. Now I realized
that I had crossed the line. Our Master always asks us to think about
others. From this incident I realized that in order to do that, I need
to put down my notions and think about things from other people's
perspective. We need to be tolerant of others even when we think others
are wrong based on our own standard. Now more and more I have come to
realize that human eyes often don't see things correctly. How many
things that we see with our eyes are what they really are?! Only
tolerance is the right attitude that Dafa practitioner should have.
In the past four months, we have participated in many parades and
community activities. We have received excellent feedback. Many
organizations invited us to join their activities next year. Many
people asked us about where they can find Dafa exercise practice sites.
In addition we have continuously undergone major improvements as one
body after each parade. In the beginning of July, we participated in
the July 4th parade in Montreal. More than ten thousand people,
including many Chinese people, lined the streets to watch the parade.
The audience was very enthusiastic and we performed very well. As I led
the band, I felt that I was surrounded by an extremely strong energy
field. I was very touched and my tears just kept running down my face.
Later on, the parade organizer told our contact person, "I believe in
God. I think that it is God who sent you here. You are not regular
people. You are gods. I will invite you to join us next year." On the
way back to Toronto, everyone opened his/her heart to share his/her
experience. Everyone in the band went through many tests and everyone
has his own touching story. Because of the time limitation, I am not
going to list here one by one.
Last Sunday, there was a food festival in Chinatown. Some practitioners
suggested our band to go there to clarify the truth. Even though not
many practitioners came on that day, the result was really good.
Everyone smiled and we performed extremely well. Once the band started
to perform, the atmosphere became very lively. During the breaks of our
performance, practitioners eagerly took turns to use the microphone to
clarify the truth to the passers-by.
That day, Bai Xue, a practitioner who is also a famous singer, and our
Male Choir also joined us. They sang together. We sang "Falun Dafa is
good" and "Coming for you" many times. Within a few hours, around three
thousand people stopped by to listen to us. The practitioners who gave
out fliers said that they had never handed out so many fliers within
such a short period of time during the past. Later on, people said that
it was like a small-scale New Year gala. In the future, we should use
this form to clarify the truth and save the sentient beings more often.
A few days ago, I studied Zhuan Falun
and our Master said, "You have gained four ways in one shot." Actually,
establishing the band is also "gained four ways in one shot." Here we
improved our xinxing,
increased our gong, saved sentient beings, and established the image of
Dafa in the human world. What our Master asks us to do always has deep
meanings.
In "Teaching the Fa at the Fa Conference at the U.S. Capital," Master
said, "Everything that Dafa disciples have achieved will soon be
revealed." Maybe, our future road is not long. If it is true, what we
have now is very precious. Let's cherish the opportunity of being with
our Master, cherish the predestinated relationships among us, and do
our best to finish up the last part of the path together.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2006/8/26/39672.html
