PureInsight | March 12, 2019
[PureInsight.org]
Greetings to everyone.
Every year, from November to February, I help with Shen Yun ticket sales in different cities in America.
I sell Shen Yun tickets full-time during this two-month period, which is a great cultivation opportunity for me.
I would like to share my experiences selling Shen Yun tickets.
I first sold Shen Yun tickets in Florida, USA. The city I went to has a lot of universities. In that year, the city held Shen Yun for the first time. There are only four Dafa practitioners in the city. Three of them have to work elsewhere full time. Only one of them had the time to communicate with the theater, do marketing, book hotels, prepare food, etc. I was assigned to sell Shen Yun tickets at a mall and became the only full-time ticket salesperson in the entire city.
I had never sold Shen Yun tickets at malls before. I do not speak fluent English. Initially, workers at the mall did not treat me nicely. Shoppers always bypassed the Shen Yun ticket booth as if an invisible glass stopped them from getting closer. Most people never heard of Shen Yun before.
When I first started to distribute Shen Yun flyers, different human thoughts filled my mind. I wondered why the managers of the mall treated me badly, why someone had tattoos around his entire body, and why women wore so few clothes. I judged people by their appearances. For example, I thought some young people dressed weirdly like bad teenage boys. I assumed that they would have no interest in Shen Yun. Because I judged people, I chose to whom I distributed flyers. I had a very hard time distributing Shen Yun flyers, not to mention selling tickets.
One day I started to silently recite, “Falun Dafa is good.” I recited this for the whole day. Something magical happened the following day. The entire environment of the mall changed. Staff at the mall started to greet me and gave me some free food. Some staff came to me and asked for lotus bookmarks. Shoppers were all willing to take Shen Yun flyers and listen to me. I distributed more and more lotus bookmarks and Shen Yun flyers. I was wondering why there was such a huge but sudden change. Later I realized that it may have been because I had recited “Falun Dafa is good” the entire previous day. I have cultivated for a long time, but this was my first time actually seeing the effects of saying “Falun Dafa is good.”
Since then, I have stopped judging people by their appearances and backgrounds. I would say “Falun Dafa is good” in my heart to all shoppers when they passed me whether or not they took my flyers or purchased tickets. My attachment of judging people has been replaced by the words “Falun Dafa is good.” The city almost sold out all tickets before the performance.
Even though I did not sell a single ticket myself, I saw a lot of familiar faces when I went to the Shen Yun performances. For example, one Indian family brought their kids to the mall every week but never talked to me. I was surprised to see that they actually came to the performance. I saw the young boy I once regarded as a bad teenager come to the show as well. After seeing those “impossible people” come to Shen Yun, I realized that I only needed to do what I ought to do and not worry about the results.
However, selling Shen Yun tickets in New Jersey was a different story. One year, I was assigned to a luxury mall in New Jersey. Shoppers at this mall wore much nicer clothes and talked in better ways than shoppers in Florida. I was asked to wear high heels and business suits. I also needed to check in and out whenever I went to the mall. I had to record how many flyers I passed out and how many tickets I sold. They had a lot of requirements.
Practitioners in New Jersey scheduled shifts to sell tickets at the mall. One shift is 4 hours. When the mall is busy on weekends and holidays, two people would be scheduled to the same shift. Practitioners needed to pass certain trainings before being permitted to promote Shen Yun at the mall. All other practitioners at the mall had a lot of experiences. I am the only person who was at the mall for whole day but lacked experiences.
Now I will share my experiences of selling Shen Yun tickets at the mall in New Jersey.
Several years ago, selling Shen Yun at the mall was still hard. Only one or two practitioners were able to sell tickets successfully. Distributing flyers was hard too. Those shoppers with high social statuses disliked people promoting things to them directly. They therefore were not willing to take my flyers.
Practitioners in New Jersey did not know me. When they first saw me, some greeted me, some wanted to get to know me more, and some looked at me from top to bottom wondering who I was. My first shift in New Jersey was in the afternoon. As soon as I arrived at the mall, a fellow practitioner who was scheduled to the same shift looked at me from top to bottom. His first reaction when seeing me annoyed me. His glance suggested that he doubted my ability to talk to high social class people. I felt wronged because he judged me by my appearance. I was thinking in my heart: you had no right to judge me. I soon realized that this thought was bad. I told myself to get rid of this thought. Immediately after I told myself to eliminate the thought, the practitioner asked me if I passed the trainings. I smiled to him and told him I had not yet. He stopped talking to me, but I knew that he was still judging me.
On that day, we were scheduled to distribute Shen Yun flyers together. He stood on one side of the mall while I stood on the other side. I tried my best to get rid of my bad feelings about him. I did not want to judge him in the same way that he judged me. I also did not want to keep those bad thoughts in my mind. I did not want those bad thoughts to interfere with me selling Shen Yun tickets. Later, an old lady came to me. I introduced Shen Yun to her in an attempt to encourage her to buy tickets, but she told me that she needed to talk to her husband first before making a decision. After she left, I saw the practitioner looking at me as if he were doubting my English abilities. I smiled to him and tried to get rid of my negative thoughts. The old lady eventually came back and bought two Shen Yun tickets. I promoted Shen Yun tickets at the mall in November. Most people bought New York City Shen Yun tickets instead of New Jersey Shen Yun tickets because Shen Yun did not come to New Jersey until the next May. However, I almost broke the record of ticket sales at that mall. The coordinator sent me a message to ask me to share my experiences with other fellow practitioners who were also selling tickets. Fellow practitioners all thought that I had some special sales strategies. Nonetheless, I did not know how to sell tickets in English at all. My English was not that good. It was extremely hard for me to sell tickets at the spot.
Through these experiences, I realized the importance of looking within. During that period, I tried hard to get rid of my negative human thoughts. I stopped worrying about how to sell tickets successfully in English. After I changed my mind, people came to me to ask for Shen Yun tickets. I know Master arranged those people for me. I only needed to make sure that I had a clear mind when selling Shen Yun tickets. I needed to make sure that I did not have any negative thoughts about anyone, including fellow practitioners. I needed to make sure that I had a compassionate heart.
I have some more experiences distributing Shen Yun flyers to share. I was good at distributing Shen Yun flyers. The number of Shen Yun flyers I distributed was at the top of the records, but the number of people who accepted Shen Yun flyers declined at the end of the day. However, I noticed another fellow practitioner who distributed increasingly more Shen Yun flyers. He always managed to distribute an increasing number of Shen Yun flyers even on Monday when there were relatively fewer customers. One day I asked him how to distribute flyers. He said he was memorizing the Fa when there were no customers. He thought reciting the Fa was more effective. He memorized the new version of “On Dafa” when he was selling tickets at the mall. After hearing what he said, I started to memorize the Fa when I was selling tickets at the mall. I gradually got rid of the attachment to the number of Shen Yun flyers distributed.
One day I attended a local Fa study. Practitioners took turns hosting the experience sharing meetings. Practitioners needed to write their experiences instead of talking casually without scripts if they want to share. Most of the sharings were about how to get rid of human notions and how to pass tribulations.
One practitioner shared his experience about how he got rid of his communist party culture. He wrote an article in Chinese and English. I cannot remember clearly what he said. However I was impressed by his determination of getting rid of the communist party culture, so I started to read How the Specter of Communism Is Ruling Our World.
A couple days later I went to sell tickets. It was on December 23, several days before Christmas. The mall was crowded with people, but I was the only one on duty. I stood a long time yet failed to pass out a single flyer. Not a single person wanted to take the flyer; they just wanted to shop. I thought, “I cannot just stand there!” I looked at the crowds passing by me, thinking, “How can you be saved?” Then I thought, “I will help clear the evil forces behind you!” Right after the thought came up, before I had a chance to send forth righteous thoughts, suddenly everyone came up to ask me for Shen Yun flyers. If someone spoke longer with me, there would be a lot of people in line. That day, I broke the record and passed out 741 Shen Yun flyers, when normally I would only pass out around 140 flyers. The “top working class” who normally seemed apathetic and the Chinese engineers who would walk away soon after they saw me all came for flyers. We had been holding the stand for more than a month. They frequently came to the mall for meals. The crowds that always say “no thank you” to me all came for flyers. Even I found it incredible. I think maybe Master saw my xinxing improved and decided to let the sentient beings all come take flyers.
I want to point out the effect of positive experience sharing. If you have suggestions to the coordinator or about a project, you should share your idea or suggestions with the coordinator face to face privately or at another meeting. During Fa-study and experience sharing, the purity should be maintained. There should be no calling and no task assignments. It is just Fa-study and experience sharing.
Saving people has a strict xinxing requirement.
During the third year of selling Shen Yun tickets, I summarized my experiences of the first two years and wanted to sell tickets with the same attitude.
The fellow practitioner working with me was very skilled at selling tickets. One time, she saw me memorizing the Fa. She criticized me in a very harsh manner. She said she would not tell the coordinator since I did this for my first time. She told me to pay attention to my professionalism. I realized that every practitioner has a different background. Every practitioner has different cultivation states and therefore different requirements. I thought that she probably would not have criticized me if I were learning how to promote Shen Yun in English instead of memorizing Fa.
I have been selling Shen Yun tickets for several years, but I have not passed the trainings yet. I never treated the trainings too seriously, so it was understandable that the practitioner was so mad at me. I had been relying on Master to send predestined people to me. We sold the fewest number of tickets at the mall that year. However, we did not realize the seriousness of our problems. We thought we only sold a few less than other malls. I made different excuses such as other malls had a lot more practitioners, but the mall I went to only had one other practitioner besides me. Most customers came to the mall for lunch breaks instead of shopping. That was why we sold the fewest number of tickets. I tried to convince myself with those excuses. In short, I used all kinds of excuses to not improve my English because I thought learning English was for everyday people and would waste my time. I knew clearly that such a mentality would place obstacles on saving sentient beings. However, I did not want to change myself because I had so many human attachments, such as seeking profit, laziness, finding excuses, selfishness… so many flaws and attachments. After realizing my problems, I started to read English Zhuan Falun.
I still had various challenges and conflicts each time whether I was selling tickets alone or with fellow practitioners. Master gave me various tests to help me improve each year. If I was able to look within and cooperate with fellow practitioners, whether or not I thought fellow practitioners’ requirements on me were fair, selling tickets would become easier, and I could sell more tickets with the help of Dafa.
Once I went to a city where no local practitioners came out for various reasons. I was the only one to sell tickets. When I got up every morning, my mouth felt as dry as a desert. I drove an old car to the mall. I sold tickets alone at the mall for several weeks until a practitioner finally came to support. A practitioner from another city also came to join us. After that, selling tickets in the city became fairly easy. Even passersby stopped and helped us promote Shen Yun by telling others to purchase tickets. Some people asked for Shen Yun posters. Some people stopped by to chat with us. For example one person said that her mother wanted to fly to Canada to watch Shen Yun with her. An elderly gentleman asked me what suit he should wear to watch Shen Yun because he had never watched a show. I told him to wear his best suit. I said, “You would be my VIP, and I would be honored to take you to the theatre.”
During ticket sales, I experienced the painful struggles of xinxing tests with fellow practitioners caused by different understandings of the Fa. As long as I maintained my xinxing and gave up everyday notions, I could feel Master’s compassion as well as the happiness and gratitude of sentient beings after being saved.
Thank you Master for purifying me through Shen Yun ticket sales and thank you local practitioners for giving me such a good environment for selling tickets. Most mall customers are part of mainstream society, such as engineers, management personnel, fashionable ladies, students, etc. They came to the mall regularly. After selling tickets at the mall for a while, I could recognize them, say hello to them, and chat with them. I would have a chance to talk about Shen Yun with them. Some people from China quit the CCP at the mall. No matter how many tickets we sold at the mall or whether people accepted Shen Yun flyers, we should keep our mission in mind and not sway from our initial purpose of saving people. We should encourage each other.
This is my experience sharing. Thank you very much.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/node/249826
