Cultivation in Promoting Shen Yun

[PureInsight.org]
Greetings Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!

I have deeply experienced the wonderful feeling during the process of promoting Shen Yun tickets after the removal of ordinary people’s thoughts, and again and again felt Master's compassionate care and reinforcement.

My German is not good, and I can only communicate in a simple way. As Shen Yun promotion was short of manpower, I recited some introductory sentences from the Shen Yun promotional materials and went to the selling point to sell tickets. On the first day, I repeated to customers the sentences that I had remembered. Later, a beautiful young lady came to me excitedly and said, "I have heard of Shen Yun and I have a great feeling. Could you give me a leaflet and I’ll go back and discuss it with my friends."

I gave leaflets to her without a word, because she had heard of Shen Yun and I could no longer directly recite those words to her. She took the leaflets and left. I felt very depressed that she was so excited and was certainly very likely to buy tickets, but I just let her go without any further words. If she came across a fellow practitioner with good German she would definitely buy a ticket immediately. Maybe I should not be standing here, or I should go to distribute newspapers …?

I was frustrated and moody. All of a sudden she stood in front of me and said, "I want to buy a ticket." I realized it was Master’s encouragement to let me stick at it, so I told myself to never give up easily.

The next day, when other practitioners introduced Shen Yun to customers I listened attentively and immediately wrote down some simple sentences. For some complex sentences I tried to change them into simple ones that I could say. Day by day, I gradually accumulated a greater vocabulary for introducing Shen Yun. Meanwhile, I paid attention to adjusting the tone and speed, gradually changing from reciting, into a natural introduction. Unconsciously, I became able to independently sell tickets. Even some hesitant customers decided to buy tickets right after talking with me. Occasionally, there were also the cases that some customers who had heard other practitioners’ introductions and were ready to go home to consider further, changed their mind and decided to buy tickets after talking with me for a while. This gave me a lot of confidence, but also many of my attachments unknowingly developed.

More than a week later, another fellow practitioner and I were assigned to the same ticket selling point. During the first two days both of us sold tickets. Suddenly, one day I did not sell a single ticket. I was very sad and felt time pass slowly. I was sure that there was something wrong with me. Thinking about it, I found that during the past few days I had competed with her on the number of tickets we sold. Every night I counted which tickets were sold by her and which tickets by me. I very much hoped that I was not worse than her. I realized this was a strong heart of validating myself instead of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings. I knew I had to change.

On the next day, throughout the whole morning I did not sell any tickets, but she sold tickets. I said to myself, “I know this is a test and I will be able to pass this.” I settled down, ruled out all other thoughts, paid attention to every person passing by, and seized the opportunity to introduce Shen Yun. Not long after, a woman walked up to me and said, "A few hours ago I took newspapers and flyers from you; I read them carefully and felt good. I discussed it with my family members, and we decided to go to watch the show.” When she left with Shen Yun tickets, I again reminded myself to steady my heart and not be moved. Thereafter, tickets sold very smoothly. I felt my heart was very calm and pure; nothing but selling tickets.

At night when we were leaving, the fellow practitioner asked me, “Today almost all the tickets were sold by you. Do you have a feeling of complacency?” I said, “No”. That evening when I was back home, I studied Zhuan Falun Lecture 2 and read, "I mentioned the other day that the key to increasing gong lies in our cultivating xinxing and becoming assimilated to the characteristic of the universe." My body shook with an indescribable feeling. At the same time I was filled with infinite gratitude to Master.

When selling tickets in those days we often felt the encouragement and reinforcement from Master. We were selling tickets from 10am to 8pm. On the first day we found there were more people in the shopping center in the morning and less in the afternoon. So we decided to go there one hour earlier, and come back one hour earlier.

Around noon the next day, both of us sold tickets at the same time. My fellow practitioner said, "I was already hungry, but saw so many people here, so I waited until there were less people and then I would go for lunch." I said “I also thought the same.” My fellow practitioner understood all of a sudden and said, "No wonder we sold tickets at the same time, we were thinking the same thing.” I think, Master saw our hearts and encouraged us.

When we were planning to leave at 7pm we found that there were still a lot of people, so we decided to stay there until 8pm. At 8pm when we were leaving, a young man hurried to us to buy a ticket. We asked how he knew Shen Yun and he said that he’d got the information from us. I asked him who gave him the information, and he smiled and said “the two of you”. In fact, that had already revealed my ordinary person’s heart, but at that time I did not realize it and just thought that this guy was really interesting. We were both delighted; if we did a little more with our heart, Master would give us encouragement.

One day when we had a group experience sharing, fellow practitioners exchanged ideas on how they coordinated with each other: one practitioner would try to engage with passers-by, one was responsible for introducing Shen Yun, and another for selling tickets. They worked in a cooperative way to sell tickets. The next day the two of us were on the way to the ticket selling site and the practitioner asked how we could cooperate with each other even better. I said, “Our situation is not the same as theirs. Our stand is in the middle of the road, where people can pass by on both sides, and the two of us can handle ticket sales from start to finish independently. At critical moments we help each other by sending righteous thoughts; it should be the way of cooperation.”

Then the fellow practitioner frankly mentioned that when I sold more tickets than her she was jealous of me. I said I was always competing with her on ticket sales. On the day when I asked the young man who introduced Shen Yun to him, my attachment was already revealed. Both of us realized that when we had these attachments, in fact, we were not one body. We were still distinguishing which was yours or which was mine. How could we talk about one body? Both of us needed to discard these attachments. We were determined not to distinguish between ourselves and cooperate with each other well.

On the same day, we met a family of three—parents and their daughter. At the beginning when my fellow practitioner introduced Shen Yun to them, the whole family seemed very fond of it, but the father was hesitant because three tickets for the family were not a small sum of money. I went over with Shen Yun tickets in hand. By listening to them talking, I knew which show and which ticket price were more appropriate for them. I quickly came up with three tickets, found a right time and talked to the father, “You see that we have such good seats. Do not miss the opportunity and buy three tickets.” The dad seemed tempted.

My fellow practitioner reminded him that both his wife and daughter would like to watch the show very much. The father still hesitated. I kept on talking with him, and tried to help him make the right decision. The fellow practitioner and I helped each other. Finally, the father nodded. I handed over the tickets to the daughter; the little girl took them with a happy smile on her face. The father laughed. Seeing the family making the right choice at the critical moment of their life, I was really happy for them.

This was the first time that the two of us cooperated with each other. When I came back at night, I told this story with delight to other fellow practitioners. Before going to sleep, a fellow practitioner said she had just read an experience sharing paper on Minghui. The main point was that it was dangerous to have the attachment of zealotry. Upon hearing this, my heart was startled. I immediately realized that when I talked about the process of selling tickets with a great deal of interest it was dangerous too. I was very grateful to the experience sharing from the practitioner, and also very grateful to Master's ingenious arrangements of letting me realize my attachment before the problem happened.

Next time during group experience sharing, I shared how I cultivated cooperation and got rid of the attachment of zealotry. The next day on the way to the ticket selling point, my fellow practitioner said, “Yesterday you said the same words that we shared before; however, I felt your manner was not good.” I said it was maybe because the first few fellow practitioners had been talking about what kind of interesting people or things they met during the ticket selling process, rather than sharing xinxing improvements, and I could be a bit impatient. And I also expressed with displeasure that I would not go to such kinds of experience sharing any more. It was simply a waste of time. The fellow practitioner said that this was not a righteous thought. I said that I would sit in the corner and wouldn’t listen to that meaningless sharing; I would study the Fa and recite a few Hong Yin poems instead.

After getting out of the car, I found my water bottle lid was loose and water had leaked out, which made the folding cards on the table wet. I knew I was wrong again, and said in my heart to Master, “Master, I know that I was wrong, I must change.” Fortunately, the wet part of the cards was on the bottom part which did not affect its use. I knew Master was watching over me, not only allowing me to realize my own problems, but without affecting ticket selling.

Getting rid of the heart of ordinary people is a painstaking process. At the end of February, I was allocated to another place. The situation was good in the beginning. I did things well with a lot of enthusiasm. After a period of time, fewer people gradually stopped at our site; my momentum became weaker and weaker. I felt every day those passers-by were familiar faces; some people received the flyers many times. I felt I had no alternative but to stay there for a couple of days more with a feeling of suffering. After a few days I would go to Vienna. I was even looking forward to getting out of there and doing something else.

On that weekend the overall ticket sales were four tickets less than I expected. I popped up with a thought that it might be because my cultivation state was affecting ticket sales. If it was because I was not doing well that the people who were supposed to be saved could not be saved, this sin would be too great. I began to look inward: I felt I was too focused on results and concerned about achievements. When seeing my achievement was not good, I was sad—this was again validating myself and seeking fame.

I told myself that these attachments must be eliminated. I could not be driven by any circumstances, but must steadily and surely do the right things well. On the following Monday, I constantly reminded myself, "Forget about yourself, just save people." Then I found there were still a lot of unfamiliar faces, and there were people interested in the show. I finally came out of the negative state. Whenever I felt happy with selling tickets, I would remind myself to be careful not to let my heart be disturbed. When leaving the ticket selling point for Vienna, I was no longer going with an escaping mindset.

Back from Vienna, I was with fellow practitioner A and another fellow practitioner B in the same group. Practitioner A could not speak German, and B, who spoke very good German, did not have confidence when selling tickets. It was a weak team for selling a good number of tickets; we could only rely on Master. I said to myself: I did not have the skills for selling tickets, and I did not speak good German, so the only thing I could do was to keep righteous thoughts and request Master's reinforcement.

On that day, not long after we began, practitioner B introduced Shen Yun to a middle-aged couple. Because of her inappropriate behavior, the couple quickly left. I told myself not to be angry, and then walked over to remind her to avoid this problem next time. She nodded. That day I always paid attention to my every single thought, not to have any negative thoughts about other practitioners, especially when I saw others doing something that did not comply with my ideas or made me feel uncomfortable, I’d remind myself to keep away from any bad thoughts and put my focus on introducing Shen Yun or selling tickets.

I spent almost the whole day without food or drink, but I felt full of energy. Whenever I caught a bad thought and cleared it instantly, I would feel my own body and the whole field was clear and transparent, I instantly felt tall, and filled with the power of compassion. Fellow practitioner B did well thereafter, several people listened to her talking, and then she directed them to me naturally, so that tickets were sold.

In the following group sharing, fellow practitioner B said that once, a fellow practitioner was not very friendly to her, but she thought it was a test for her to remind her that even when ticket sales go well she should not have the heart of zealotry. Then she heard that practitioner say, “I don’t know how well sales are going in other ticket selling points, but I hope we sell very well.’ She suddenly saw the practitioner’s lovely heart of saving people. Hearing her sharing, I saw the gap, I did not have bad thoughts about others, but had not been able to see others’ merits, and see them even when they were unfriendly to me.

A few months of Shen Yun ticket sales is a process of continuously discovering and removing attachments, which sometimes has low points and is at times painstaking. Meanwhile, I felt more magnificence after discarding an ordinary person’s heart. Thank you, Master, for giving me this rare cultivation opportunity. Thank you fellow practitioners who have helped me in the process.

Thank you, Master. Thank you, all!

(Speech at 2013 European Falun Dafa Experience-Sharing Conference in Copenhagen)