(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings, Master! Greetings, Fellow Practitioners!
Part 1. Believe in Master; Walk the Path Arranged by Master
Three days after my daughter was born, I received a phone call at home from her pediatrician. I was told that the infant screening result showed that my daughter had hypothyroidism. She would have to take thyroid pills her whole life, otherwise her body and brain would stop developing. Then she said to me delightedly that as long as the dosage was right, my daughter would grow normally. I was completely shocked by this phone call. I couldn’t believe, as a Dafa disciple, that my child was born with this condition.
Next we had to take her back to the hospital for another blood test to confirm the diagnosis. She was too young to have blood drawn from her vein, so the nurse had to cut her heel and squeeze the blood out drop by drop. A little baby who just came to this world a few days ago was held down on the bed by nurses, and used up all her energy to scream and struggle. It took quite a few minutes to fill three tubes. Sadness, pain, confusion, anger, helplessness, guilt… as the mom I was overwhelmed with all sorts of feelings. I didn’t know if it was because I didn’t cultivate well that my daughter had to suffer like this, or whether it was a test arranged by the old forces.
Afterward, these blood tests happened every two to three months in order to confirm the proper dosage of her medication. I was not very clear on the Fa about how to deal with it, so I didn’t have the courage to stop her medication. As time passed, others in my family became used to giving my daughter the pills, and they felt that this was not a serious problem. But I kept one thought in my mind -- this is not the correct state for a Dafa disciple’s child. Although I didn’t know what to do at the moment, I was very sure that sooner or later she would stop taking the pills. When she was a little baby, my daughter was very different than her older brother. She was short-tempered, cried easily, stubborn, and rebellious. She barely listened to what we said, which was a big headache for us.
I have been taking her to and from daycare since she was one and a half. We have about one hour to listen to Master’s lectures in the car. Maybe she can’t understand the language itself, but I know that her true self is assimilating to the Fa. After turning two years old, she became more easy-going and learned how to listen. I had always thought that the changes were due to her age until I started to prepare this experience sharing article. After I recalled how she grew up, I realized that it was the Fa that actually changed her, and only the Fa has the ability to change her.
With a clearer understanding of the Fa I realized that there might be two reasons that caused her current situation. She might have signed some kind of contract with the old forces; or, maybe it’s a test and interference aimed at a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple. But we don’t need to worry about the exact reason, nor acknowledge the old forces’ arrangement. Since she already acquired Fa in this life, her path should follow Master’s arrangement.
About one month before my daughter turned three, the pediatrician asked us to try stopping her pills for one month since her dose had always been the lowest among children with hypothyroidism. I looked into her eyes and said to her as a young fellow practitioner: “Lulu, you are a young Dafa disciple, you are not sick. From now on we won’t take any medicines. You must listen to Master and walk the path that Master arranged. Nobody else can move you.” She blinked at me seriously, and I knew that she understood what I said. Meanwhile, I spent more time to send forth righteous thoughts to clear out the interference from the old forces in other dimensions. In March this year, the blood test result was perfect after the dose was stopped for one month. My husband still wanted to ask the pediatrician whether there would be any problems with her thyroid development. I said to him, “Everything is already perfect; why bother to check her thyroid development?”
I just realized that maybe my daughter didn’t have any problem at all, and the symptoms on the surface were just an illusion. But because I couldn’t deny the old force’s arrangement at the beginning, she suffered for three years. To think about it from another angle, again I realized that for every human being who comes to this world, cultivation is the only and ultimate goal of life. It’s impossible for an everyday person to control or change his/her own fate.
Part 2. Sharing about Shen Yun Show Preparations
The first number in the 2011 Shen Yun show is “When Kings Followed the Creator to the Earth.” In this piece, we follow Master to go through countless cosmoses and come down to the earth to start the divine civilization. We did this for just one goal – to help Master rectify the Fa and save the sentient beings. When I thought about how this year our ticket sales were not good, which did not live up to Master’s salvation and sentient beings’ hope for their kings, tears came to my eyes.
The 2011 Shen Yun show had a ticket price increase and had new requirements to us – to open the market in mainstream society. Here I’d like to summarize and share some experiences from my personal perspective.
Break through the notions and break though my self
At the very beginning of Lunyu, Master says:
“'The Buddha Fa' is most profound; among all the theories in the world, it is the most intricate and extraordinary science. In order to explore this domain, humankind must fundamentally change its conventional thinking. Otherwise, the truth of the universe will forever remain a mystery to humankind, and everyday people will forever crawl within the boundary delimited by their own ignorance.”
I have read and recited this paragraph numerous times, but in most of cases, especially when promoting Shen Yun, my first response to things was still an ordinary people’s way of thinking. Therefore, I was always groping around inside the box created by my own ignorance.
My understanding of mainstream society was not accurate. I thought that only those who are very wealthy and have high social status are the mainstream. Therefore in my mind I drew a line between the mainstream and myself. I am not a very outgoing person and hadn’t had much exposure to those people. So I found it extremely difficult to open my mouth and talk to these people at our ticket selling events. I wanted to introduce them to Shen Yun but was afraid that they would think I was trying to sell them something. So I lacked confidence even before I started the conversation.
Later I realized that I was blocked by my own notion – I only saw their high social level and fine clothes. In my notion, these wealthy people are too great and too high for me to reach, and I negated myself. In a conversion with a fellow practitioner, I told her that I didn’t know how to react when I met with those high level leaders in my company. She told me that no matter how high their level might be in the company, they are not comparable to us Dafa practitioners. That is very true. The essential difference between us and them is the difference between practitioners and ordinary people. If an ordinary person doesn’t know the truth and can’t position himself/herself well for the future, it doesn’t matter what social level he/she has and how rich he/she is, it is nothing. Furthermore, we are Dafa disciples of the Fa-rectification period, we are here to save them and they might be the sentient beings of our world; why should I feel intimated?
To dig it even deeper, I found that I was still too attached to fame, profit and affection. So I had a distorted thought: they have money and high social status but I have neither of them; how could they take my words seriously? I thought they they were just being polite and wouldn't purchase the ticket later. This distorted thought, together with self-protection, stopped me from approaching people to introduce Shen Yun to them. After so many years of cultivation, I thought that I had put down the attachment to fame and profit, but now I realized that my so-called “putting it down” was not solid. It was like I had put it down when I was deep in the mountains or woods, but when I came to an environment that is full of fame, profit and affection, I was still moved. We have to follow the mainsteam society’s rules and etiquette, but we can’t let people's fine surface appearance stop us from saving them. What is the appropriate way to meet the requirement? I was inspired by Master’s poem “Abiding in the Dao” (Hong Yin).
In fact, from the surface of these social parties I can tell that most of the people have come here with a distinct goal – they want to expand or strengthen their social network. They actually come to the party for themselves. But as Dafa disciples, we come to the party for them; we are here to save them. If I have the notion that others will think that we are trying to sell them something, then we will send that notion to others’ minds. When we have our pure heart, strong righteous thoughts, and great compassion to save them, along with the proper etiquette for the mainstream society, I believe nothing can block us. “If Master asks you to work on higher-end society, just do it with righteous thoughts, and you will definitely succeed.” (“Be More Diligent”)
After studying Master’s recent lectures about Shen Yun again and again, I felt that the line that I drew between me and mainstream society gradually disappeared. Not only are the wealthy people of high social status our target audience, but so are people in the middle class. Our show is world-class, but the ticket price is not very high. Most of the people who have a stable income are absolutely able to afford the ticket. So we should think of ways to reach these people. Most of practitioners have connections with them at work or in daily life, so it’s not difficult to find them. It is essential that we don’t let our own notions block us.
Put aside self and cooperate as one body
During last year’s Shen Yun production in our area I was in charge of the food for the performers and the volunteers. Because I was not experienced in this area and didn’t coordinate the tasks very well, it caused lots of problems and complains. At the beginning I was not moved by it. I felt that I tried my best and due to the limitation of the kitchen and theater conditions, it was not all my fault. But many months after the show, I still heard complaints from different practitioners, and I started to feel it unfair. I thought to myself: this job is really tough; not only do you have to worry about all sorts of concerns, to run back and forth and become exhausted, but also no one is satisfied. Next time I’d better work in security or watch the bus; at least nobody will complain.
Last year at the Chicago Fa Conference a practitioner shared his experience. In order to promote Shen Yun and support other cities also staging Shen Yun performances, he put in a huge amount of time and effort but didn’t feel much appreciated. When he started to think that it was not fair, he realized that everything he did was nothing but helping Master rectify the Fa, so there is nothing to complain about. Tears came to my eyes when I heard this. At that moment all the bad feelings like complaints, unfairness, etc., that had been stuck in my heart since last year’s show all melted away instantly – gone completely. Why in the world am I doing this? I always mention helping Master rectify the Fa, but only at that moment did I understand the weight and meaning of it. We participate in different projects; some may be trivial or look like ordinary people’s projects. But we can’t forget our ultimate goal when doing all of this. Every project has different tasks. It’s just like the Shen Yun show, there is the lead dancer, group dancers, soloists, piano accompaniment, the conductor, and the orchestra that can’t be seen by the audience. Although everyone has a different role, they can’t make it happen if any one of them is not doing a good job. We are fortunate enough to be involved in this Fa-rectification project. On the surface it looks like we are just cooking, picking up the food, watching the bus or door, ironing the costumes, etc. But isn’t everything we do helping Master rectify the Fa?
For the 2011 show, the main coordinator still wanted me to be in charge of food. I didn’t have any complaints by then. It is huge responsibility and I felt that my ability might be limited. However, I decided to try my best to accomplish the task. During the preparation, there were some xinxing conflicts among practitioners who were involved in the work, but I kept telling myself that all these were minor things; my goal is to help Master rectify the Fa. All the practitioners helping with the food put their whole heart into the work. Although there was tremendous work to be done, and everybody was exhausted, nobody complained and we all put aside our selves to cooperate as one body. It was a pleasant experience, and the whole process throughout the Shen Yun production was surprisingly smooth.
Every single step is cultivation
Our local 2012 Shen Yun promotion has been ongoing since this summer. I have been working on contacting various local event organizers to apply for booths to sell tickets. I also help schedule practitioners’ shifts for these events. I did the same job for last year’s promotion but didn’t feel stressed since there weren’t many events. In the past few months almost every weekend we have had some local event, and sometimes more than one in one weekend. I’ve spent lots of time contacting practitioners to confirm their shifts. Sometimes if I don’t hear anything back after a few e-mails, I will have to make lots of phone calls. Another job is to make sure that everything is ready for the booth setup – tickets, banners, TV, tent, table, chairs, etc. I have to keep track of who has what and how to send it to the next event setup. After a while, I feel completely overwhelmed by these trivial things. Every week, from Monday onward, I start worrying about next weekend’s event and spend so much time on e-mails and phone calls.
I have been thinking of a better way to improve the efficiency – to send fewer e-mails and make fewer phone calls in order to save everybody’s time. But nothing seems to work. I have also complained to other practitioners that I have been in a state of just doing things and have no opportunities to cultivate or improve myself, which is not right.
After focusing on Fa study, I realize that all this trivial work may look the same as everyday people’s tasks, but cultivation is embedded in every single step of the work. I have been ignoring the cultivation part of it and turned it into an everyday person doing Dafa work. Take the booth application as an example: usually I first search the Internet for information on local events. If there is any fit with a reasonable price, I will contact them and apply for a booth. Later some practitioners pointed out that we should trade tickets or our media advertisement with the organizer to get a free booth. In this way, not only can we save money but we can also provide an opportunity for them to see the show. I had had this kind of idea before, but this requires clarifying the truth and probably meeting with the organizer. I felt that I just don’t have the time to do this for every single event. Having the attachment to laziness, I didn’t spend much effort on this. Whereas, some practitioners make numerous phone calls and meet with the organizers to clarify the truth deeply, then get a free booth or in-kind sponsor. Compared to these practitioners, I find that I have been doing Dafa work in an ordinary person’s way by ignoring the cultivation and truth-clarification aspects of the work.
When scheduling practitioners’ shift for events, cultivation is also involved. At the beginnin,g when I sent an e-mail saying that we are going to have an event on such and such a day, please let me know what time you can help, I received lots of responses. But after participating in quite a few events, I almost don’t get any responses. Although I didn’t say anything, my heart was moved a little: I've spent so much effort to get us into this event; how come nobody wants to help? Even those who are capable didn't respond; were they expecting me to call each and every one?
In fact, I know that our local practitioners fully support all the events. One practitioner told me a long time ago that she would be there to help as long as I let her know the time; another will show up anytime he is asked unless there is something urgent that he needs to take care of; another who works on the weekends will make early arrangement so that she is able to help with the ticket sales; some can work at the booth for 10 hours straight without any break. Although everyone’s schedule is full and each has to work really hard, nobody complains. Practitioners are supportive of each other and cooperate very well; therefore the effect of the events has been good too. I always feel lucky that I can cultivate in such a warm and supportive environment.
I know this is an opportunity to cultivate myself. My heart has been moved. I felt that my hard work was not acknowledged. I have been too self-centered. Sending e-mails and making phone calls may look just like ordinary people’s tasks, but cultivation is embedded in every single step of these jobs. We are one body. Any practitioner’s impure mind will have a negative impact on the whole energy field. I will start with myself and with every single step, without missing any cultivation opportunities. In this way, I won’t have any negative impact on the overall Fa-rectification.
Above is my recent experience to share with fellow practitioners. Please point out anything that is incorrect. I appreciate the opportunity to recall my cultivation path and share with fellow practitioners. Human words are not able to express my appreciation for Master’s grand grace.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
