PureInsight | September 15, 2012
[PureInsight.org] I took part in a sharing by New York practitioners about training for promoting Shen Yun ticket sales. I was deeply touched. During the sharing, practitioners talked about the experiences of an elderly fellow practitioner who failed her first test. Due to a lack of English, she was unable to adequately prepare for the test. But she never gave up and spent a week trying very hard in preparation for the next test. She searched the dictionary for many hours looking up the meaning of unfamiliar words. When she attended the second test, she was well prepared and maintaining righteous thoughts, her performance was so excellent that she passed successfully and smoothly.
Funnily, she was able to recognize words in Shen Yun materials, but not in other publications, like many other practitioners who can read the book, Zhuan Falun, but do not recognize the same Chinese characters published elsewhere. The New York practitioners shared many such touching stories and I was deeply impressed. I believed the efforts practitioners put into preparing for the test were vitally important. I thought that I would prepare well too, should the tests come to Toronto.
Soon I received a phone call from a fellow practitioner. I was advised that New York practitioners were coming to hold tests in a few cities in Canada. I was one of the practitioners to be tested. After the telephone conversation, I thought I would take the opportunity to gain a thorough understanding of Shen Yun, no matter how much I already knew.
While the planning stage went well, I came across several cultivation (Xinxing) tests one after the other. On the day I was advised of the Shen Yun training and exams, I began to suffer a toothache. The toothache was so disturbing that it was difficult for me to eat or talk. I thought I had paid enough attention to Shen Yun training and testing after attending the New York practitioners’ sharing, so why did my tooth hurt so badly. It had to be something related to my cultivation, but what? I looked inward for impure thoughts I may have had towards Shen Yun. I found at times that I praised Shen Yun artists’ excellence using ordinary people’s standards. I even flattered them. I had not cultivated my speech, nor had I changed my everyday people’s notions at the root. The artist’s skills were on a surface level no matter how difficult the technique. Without Master’s protection and reinforcement of these skills and techniques, the artists could not save sentient beings at a deeper level. I started sending righteous thoughts to eliminate my attachments to flattery and began cultivating speech. Behind the attachment was an everyday person’s thoughts. From then on, my toothache began to improve.
The following night, I received the coordinator’s email. He sent out a list of the first group of more than 10 practitioners who needed to do the test and my name was first. I read the email in more detail. In this group, there were Western practitioners whose English was much better than mine, and there were other practitioners who had been awarded Epoch Times’ top salespeople honors. Furthermore, the group also included practitioners who were professional trainers for sales teams. I believed, in terms of language, sales capacity and so on, I should not be placed first. I began to complain in my head about the coordinator. I was thinking of telephoning him, but gave up the thought because it was very late at night. I was not happy. He could have talked to me first before putting me top of the list. I was suffering from toothache and feeling anxious about taking the test. I thought it would have been better to put me second on the list. I would then have a chance to see how the first one taking the test would go. If I failed, how embarrassed I would be especially in front of those practitioners who came from other cities. I was so annoyed my mind was in turmoil. The more I thought about it, the more my tooth ached, even though it had felt better before.
Gradually, I calmed down. I thought of the New York Fa Conference this year and was deeply touched by the Fa principle of cooperation that Master taught. I even shared with fellow practitioners my understanding after returning from the Fa conference and told other practitioners about following Master’s teachings to cooperate well with each other.
Now, when faced with a small thing I was moved. How could I forget Master’s teaching? Why was my mind in turmoil? I was listening to an audio tape of Master teaching the Fa, and a story about a person who had a basket of large apples that were swapped by someone with smaller apples was mentioned. The Fa principle was of personal gain and loss, and it became fixed in my mind, exposing an attachment. I then enlightened. The test needed to be done and someone had to be first. Wasn’t I afraid of losing face because I was the first one to be tested? Wasn’t I acting reluctantly and unwilling to cooperate? This was conditional cooperation. I had to dig out an attachment to selfishness and question why I was holding onto it so tightly.
I realized I could improve if I was to fail in the test and look at any areas that needed improving and take another test. It was good to improve in this way, reminding myself to follow Master’s teachings. I would cooperate and cooperate… soon, I fell asleep.
I woke early next morning and found my toothache had completely gone. I could eat and talk normally. I was so grateful, my tears fell. Master compassionately cared for me and encouraged me. I had just enlightened to a righteous thought by following Master’s teachings, cultivating myself and cooperating with the coordinator.
While at home preparing for the test, there was a funny story. In order to practice my introduction of Shen Yun to everyday people, I asked my son to act as the audience. He also kept the time for me. At the beginning, I paid attention to talking and talked a lot. I thought the more I talked the better. After I finished talking, I asked my son to score me. My son looked sternly and smiled: “Mom, no offense, five out of ten.” He meant that he would only score me 5, if the full mark was 10. I asked why so low? He said: “Firstly, you talked too much. Secondly, I don’t like you dressed casually when introducing Shen Yun.” I was wearing a casual dress because I was at home.
I realized, through my son’s comments, Master was reminding me introducing Shen Yun was not only by way of mouth, but also to use our hearts. We should also pay attention to appearance by dressing appropriately and watching our behavior. After that, I dressed up and appeared with a smile, neat clothes and appropriate body language. This time, my son scored me 8 out of 10. I rehearsed at home and passed the test in front of this young fellow practitioner before attending the official test set by the New York practitioners.
In the past, I had introduced the Shen Yun website to other people and received very good feedback. But I had never studied the content of the website thoroughly. This time, I read each part carefully, both in Chinese and English. My human notions were removed while reading.
I never thought to include the lyrics of Shen Yun songs in my introduction. In the depths of my mind, I thought that the lyrics were at too high a level for ordinary people to understand, afraid they may not accept it. However, I suddenly came to realize that ordinary people would understand. The website mentioned: “The songs sung by all singers are original lyrics. These lyrics are full of rich philosophy of life and profound significance. They’ve surpassed the boundaries of all nations, races and cultures and are favored and praised by people from around the world. Some audiences even take these lyrics as the ‘Holy Songs.’”
To ordinary people, these lyrics were originally created. However, the nature of the lyrics is part of Master’s Dafa. My personal understanding is these lyrics have the magic power to open the lock to save sentient beings. Theater audiences have been waiting a long time to hear these lyrics. It was my own personal attachments that blocked me from thinking about introducing Shen Yun through the lyrics. I suddenly enlightened and could feel that my personal attachments and notions were removed in a flash. I also reinforced my understanding of the value of Shen Yun. I’ve decided to use the lyrics of these holy songs in introducing Shen Yun when the time is right.
I did not think to use the props to promote Shen Yun either. But after reading the website, I understood the history of the headwear, clothing, shoes and so on. All these were finely made by hand--the fans, handkerchiefs and whisks held in a performer’s hands were skillfully made and blessed with new life. For example, various fans exposed wonderful moments, like flowers in full bloom. The knives, guns, sticks, swords and drums have showed the strength of the nation of the Tang Dynasty.
My understanding that Shen Yun is the best show in the world had increased. I went back to training and prepared for my test. I could feel that what came from my mouth were not just words, but also my cells and fluid coursing through my body had melted into pure compassion and beauty of Shen Yun. I also experienced the miracles and sacredness of Shen Yun in my introduction.
Finally, I want to share that I benefited very much from the test. During the examination, many practitioners offered comments and suggestions. I did not feel that they were testing me, rather they were helping me to improve. I feel that the whole process was a process of upgrading my cultivation level, instead of a process of rehearsing in preparation for a test.
The opportunity is rare and I wish all fellow practitioners will join us. I believe you will benefit too from my experience.
Thanks Master! Thanks all of you.
Heshi!
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/111296
