PureInsight | February 26, 2017
[PureInsight.org] I have been in the Tian Guo Marching Band for 10 years. I remember the beginning well. I experienced the Tian Guo Marching Band for the first time in New York—it touched my heart and stirred up a wish to participate. But in Europe, the project didn’t exist. So I was very pleased when the European Marching Band was founded.
At that time, there were few experts and many beginners, but we were engaged with our hearts. At our first workshop, I felt a childlike delight in my heart; ready for adventure.
I play the tenor saxophone. My instrument had already been waiting for this moment for 20 years in my grandparents’ attic. My grandma used to love marching band music and she had bought me the premium instrument in my childhood. But I had only learnt to play scales; after that, I’d lost interest. So after a very brief moment of enthusiasm, it had disappeared into the attic. How could I have known (back then) that there was a real reason behind it?
When I restarted to practice for the Marching Band, I wanted to immediately start with the Dafa Songs. The weather that day was dark and cloudy. The first notes of Falun Dafa Hao became possible to play, and gradually even a melody emerged. It seemed as if I hadn’t forgotten anything. Surprisingly, the sky was clear and the sun was shining after my playing.
The first performance
Our first performance was in Chinatown in Paris with nearly 180 members. We wore a colorful outfit. Some of us had only a few weeks of musical experience. We were somewhat able to perform three songs by heart. But whatever the ability, everybody put their hearts into their playing.
We were bringing holy music to the Chinese community; we were bringing hope, and we received our applause.
Our conductor had been unsure about the impact of our performance and told us this after the parade. When the audience had clapped their hands, he’d felt relieved. At another performance in France, the audience were even jumping rhythmically to our songs.
While playing, I realized that although I could hear my own incorrect notes, the audience couldn’t hear them. I understood it like this: When I perceived my shortcomings, I was able to improve; outside of the band the divine beings made our sounds even nicer, since we were playing with our hearts.
Why do I play with the European Marching Band?
Europe has many different countries with different languages. Music is a language that can be understood by everybody. The European Marching Band became a tool for breaking through the language barrier. It breaks through the old arrangements and merges us into one body for clarifying the truth of Dafa.
When we were playing by heart and marching at the same time and also had to follow the drum major’s baton, I was often the odd one out, or played incorrectly or too loud. My craving for recognition manifested when I played loud; my attachment to not listening to reason manifested when others criticized me; and my fear of making mistakes manifested when I played off-key notes or got out of step.
But when we formed a unity and were marching along, I could sense the cooperation of the one body. One time, I sensed myself being in another dimension, where everything seemed to go very slowly, and the strength of the Dafa songs appeared very powerfully.
I would like to read out Master’s Poem:
Tian Guo Marching Band
“Drums and horns of Fa display divine might
Purging all manner of evil, beckoning souls back to heaven
Heaven n’ earth are in awe, as the Band saves lives at the end of time
Its glorious light shines, in the cosmic Fa-rectification”
During our meetings, I very much appreciate doing the exercises and studying the Fa together, as well as the experience sharing, the rehearsing and the sending forth righteous thoughts together.
Challenges of the Eastern European Tour
The Eastern European Tour was a challenge for me. We had as many performances during the tour as we would normally have in a whole year.
On the one hand, I knew that many sentient beings were waiting for us; on the other hand, I felt depressed from physical pain, and from the pursuit of comfort, nice feelings and peace. In addition, I didn’t know all the songs by heart and hadn’t practiced much.
A fellow practitioner woke me up from my confusion. She said: “Just go. You will manage it. We play the songs so often; you will be able to play.”
When we arrived in Hungary and rehearsed for the first time, I felt very uneasy in my heart. I felt like my fellow practitioners were taking no notice of me and my heart was burning. At the rehearsal, I played very badly in front of the coordinator, which was painful. I also became afraid that he would perhaps not let me play in the parade.
My previous experience was that I did not play all that badly normally. But when I was in such a state, it mostly did not work. When I looked inside, I saw a deep fear of not being appreciated and of failing.
In former times, I had already experienced these feelings of not being cared for and of painful loss. Through those experiences, I had created false concepts about myself and a painful feeling of being lost. I did not want to experience this feeling anymore and had created a strong attachment of fear around it, which would show up when others did not take notice of me or when I was about to fail.
Once, in a dream, I was sitting with Master and other practitioners at a table. Master was talking to all other practitioners except me. My heart was aching. When I awoke, it was still aching. It was this same feeling. I thanked Master for giving me this hint regarding my root attachment.
I had an opportunity to let it go of this attachment again on this level. I calmed down.
Master says in “Eliminate your last Attachment(s)” in Essentials for further Advancement, “All of you are already aware of the principle of mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition. If you are not afraid, the factor that would make you afraid will cease to exist.”
To my surprise, the next day I had to play in a frontline position. I had wanted to march in the middle, since I was not able to play some songs by heart. However, during that time I was always put up front, where all spectators could see me. I thus let go my attachment of not being noticed—I was being noticed!
In Krakow, I still played in the same frontline position. All of a sudden, the coordinator appeared and said, “You will change your position with practitioner B. You don’t do well with putting your instrument in position at the end!” So I moved to the back row. I was annoyed, because in my mind, I was good at returning my instrument to the resting position. In protest, I showed the coordinator very clearly and in a provocative manner, how well I put my instrument in position. “Here, look; I can do it…” But I realized that this was searching outside.
Thus, I looked within and discovered the following attachments:
1. The starting point of the coordinator was that we should always have a good impact in front of the spectators. Maybe he always looked at me when I put down my saxophone incorrectly. So his starting point was good.
2. As a practitioner, I should not hold on to my position. Was I unhappy because I was to change position?
3. I felt like being treated unfairly and was afraid to be rejected again.
4. I was angry. But anger is not compassionate. It interferes with the one body of the Marching Band.
In the end, I realized that I had to raise my Xinxing so that even more sentient beings could be saved. Eventually, I should thank him for having given me an opportunity to elevate my level.
While working on my attachments, my anger diminished and suddenly the coordinator smiled and gave me a thumbs up.
I am realizing more and more the connection between elevation and saving sentient beings.
If I do not raise my level, I cannot reach higher levels. If we do not collectively raise our levels, sentient beings will not be saved.
The whole tour was very successful from my perspective. We played both under sunshine and rain. We could reach out to many sentient beings. At some market places, I saw artists blowing soap bubbles that floated up like big transparent bowls. They were like the many worlds which we set free by playing in our parades—realms that could now have a future.
If the European Marching Band was a ship, I should say: We have become larger and I hope we will still grow further—to become as large as the ocean of all sentient beings, who have to be saved.
Thank you, Master!
Thank you, fellow practitioners!
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/155667
