Yao C.

Greetings Master, greetings fellow practitioners.

My name is Yao C., I'd like to share some experiences promoting Shen Yun in 2016. We are very lucky to welcome Shen Yun coming to Atlanta in 2017, which is how precious once again out of Master’s great benevolence to extend the length of Fa-rectification, so that we have more time to save more people. I also had the opportunity to join the team to promote Shen Yun in 2016 and help Master in Fa-rectification to save more sentient beings, I am so grateful to have this opportunity and I treasure this most magnificent chance.

Using the heart, from being affected to remaining unaffected

We started making Shen Yun promotion plans and selecting the team's coordinators early in 2016. I was selected to coordinate and post the Shen Yun posters. Later, things changed. The local general Shen Yun coordinator had to leave for a short period due to the job and I was appointed to be in charge of manpower coordination temporarily, and I would restore the original arrangements after general Shen Yun coordinator came back. I agreed in the meeting, but I got butterflies in my stomach and I just could not believe I had the courage to take such an important task. So, from the moment of accepting the task, my heart became very heavy, and I felt the gravity of the role on my shoulders. At that time, I really felt the greatness and difficulties of each Shen Yun coordinator. Needless to say, in order to overcome the difficulties to coordinate all aspects and all the details, and to have the courage to assume this important task, you need great righteous thoughts.

Next, I needed to put all the work into action. As a novice, I needed to work even harder and spend more time on my role and passion. I contacted a Shen Yun coordinator from another city. She shared with me a lot of good experiences involving Shen Yun promotion. She showed me how to develop a schedule, how to properly arrange the ground promotion efforts and all the different media advertising efforts to reach mutual positive effects of efficient advertising. With this basis, I developed the general Shen Yun promotion plan. Within the plan, I developed a detailed manpower schedule and an extensive record of time spent in different projects. With this, we could easily track and make changes to improve the effectiveness and efficiency. At this point we had a framework for the first step of the overall plan.

The next most important job was to draw the map for each project. This was a big challenge to me. How to do it? I spent a long time anxiously staring at the computer screen, trying to figure out what my next step would be. I needed the map to make assignments for each team and each project. While I was pondering about the map, I started to ask master, "Master, I do not know how to draw the map, but I need to draw the map for Shen Yun promotion plan to be on schedule. I hope I can learn to complete it, Master please help your disciple!” At this moment, I truly felt it. Master said, “Cultivation depends on one’s own efforts, while the transformation of gong is done by one’s master.” Master showed me a miracle. When I pulled myself back from the “pondering”, I was able to draw the map. It was such a wonderful moment!

Once everything was ready, I started to make assignments of local disciples for each Shen Yun promotion project. This was actually the most difficult part and I really felt a lot of pressure at different times.

In a routing Shen Yun coordination meeting, a fellow practitioner was very hesitant about the plan. She thought that the coordinator had used a lot of new disciples, and veteran disciples had been ignored even though they are very capable. Those new disciples needed to study Fa more and cultivate more to improve. How could they accomplish this important task? And the map was not ready yet and so on ... from start to finish, she put forward a lot of doubts and objections. One of the fellow practitioner at the meeting thought that he was one of them being indicated, and directly refuted her. Suddenly, the atmosphere of the meeting became very tense. I knew very clearly that she was talking about me, but my first reaction was: “Thank you master, it is an opportunity to improve my xinxing again. I must not be tempted.” I was really not tempted at the meeting, but just after the meeting ended, I felt very bad and I ran into enormous tribulations. I felt I had been wronged and was very depressed. The words and all the dissatisfied emotions at the meeting kept repeating themselves over and over again in my mind and my heart became unstable. I sat down and began to send righteous thoughts, trying hard to calm myself down but found that my heart was still disturbed. I kept suppressing myself: “Calm down, calm down, do not be affected.” It seemed to get a little better, but my fears soon came back again, bringing with it the same anger and anxiety I had felt. I just could not clear out those words from my mind. How could I not be affected? At this time a word of Fa went through my mind repeatedly: "by having your heart unaffected, you will be able to handle all situations" [Essentials for Further Advancement II - Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)],
My body suddenly became startled. If my heart is so sensitive to what others say, how could I calm down?

Later, the coordinator found out about my situation and said: "I hope you can stay unaffected in promoting Shen Yun. Do not be affected by any external factors, use your heart to do things. Do not be easily tempted by other’s criticism.” After it was over, I thought: "Well, Dafa disciples have great responsibility and really want to take the overall situation as the most important! I shall put down my fear of being criticized.” Then I felt liberated and slowly calmed down. I was able to ease into meditation. I felt that I am in the Fa, immersed in Master's benevolence and my mind quickly calmed down. I could wholeheartedly devote myself to promote Shen Yun. This let me experience “using heart”; from affected to unaffected. I really benefitted a lot and I felt my xinxing improved.

No sentient beings, no home

After the first stage of local poster promotion work done, I went to another city to help promote Shen Yun show. I went with another fellow practitioner. There we spent four days posting posters in the whole city.

However, because of the large range, lack of time, and fewer people, our task was actually very difficult. I drove the car with the fellow practitioner to all the streets and allies, trying to make the best of all our time to post the Shen Yun posters. In these four days, we have witnessed miracles, withstood many tests, and experienced improvement in cultivation. It really was extremely victorious, and I was very happy to have a real feeling of bathing in the Fa.

In the promotion, we were very excited. It was a very good teamwork with very high efficiency. But suddenly there was a time when I felt my body getting very tired and I became lazy, wanting to just take a rest. I said to myself, "Master, where is my home? Where did I come from? Where will I go?" Once my questions appeared, a thought emerged in my mind instantly and I was astonished at the words: "Heaven and Earth is my home, sentient beings are my home. No sentient beings mean no home." At that time, I was very shocked by the answer. Is there any excuse to slack off, even for a second or a minute? Why did we come here? To offer sentient beings salvation; to become a Dafa disciple and fulfill a prehistoric pledge. We are the hope of sentient beings, bringing their chance to be saved, thus wherever there are sentient beings is where my home is. I shall use all my heart and soul to search and save all the sentient beings to my heavenly world home. How could you let yourself slack off and want to rest for a while? These words were vividly engraved in my heart and engraved on my forehead; they will not be erased and will never be forgotten. Sentient beings are in the hope, master is in the hope! I have to put my entire heart into working harder and becoming aware of every thought in cultivation. It would be a great sin filled with regret if sentient beings could not be saved due to my slacking off. Fellow practitioners, let's cultivate more diligently and quickly!

The choice of sentient beings

During the promotion of Shen Yun this year, I witnessed a lot of very touching things, very interesting sentient beings, and I had some very meaningful experiences: On one occasion, I went to the company to promote Shen Yun. When I came to the front door of a company, I met a couple, and I had a thought in my mind: "I want to tell them about Shen Yun." Even though I quickened my pace and walked on without stopping, I missed the young couple. Then I quickly swept the company and came out. I was surprised to find that the couple was still there, and they had parked right next to me. I thought to myself “This is your opportunity and it will not be lost.” Master let them stay to wait for me. So, I quickly took out the Shen Yun flyer and gave it to them. I talked to them about the Shen Yun show. They were then very excited and kept saying thank you, and the man said to me with two hands pressed together: "Thank you very much for telling us about Shen Yun. You let us feel hope!" I was also very moved, with tears running out of my eyes. It is really hard to describe that feeling of gratitude and joy. I remembered that Master had said in the lecture Touring North America to Teach the Fa, “Throughout history people have declared that they would save sentient beings. But who knew the true meaning of saving sentient beings? You are truly saving sentient beings, and only you are worthy of doing something this magnificent. Make sure you don't lose this opportunity!”

Although the two sentient beings could not see with their naked eyes, their hearts are like a mirror, knowing everything. Their knowing side could even feel great compassion from Master. I was shocked by the choice of the sentient beings, I understood the importance to tell the truth to people. Promotion of Shen Yun seems to be the same work as that of ordinary people, but it is really a world of difference. It is a Dafa disciple fulfilling a sacred vow, a Dafa disciple walking on a divine path, and searching for every precious sentient being!

The opportunity for sentient beings to be saved, the opportunity we Dafa disciples could save sentient beings are in the line between! It has long been arranged in history and is linked to all of this life. Every day we meet different sentient beings who are arranged to be saved. I must cherish this sacred opportunity. This further reminded me that as a Dafa disciple at the time of Fa-rectification, I must always cultivate myself to be a qualified Dafa disciple in order to save sentient beings and the lives that have predestined relationship with us.

During the Shen Yun promotion, I met a very special person. He’s been running a high-end Chinese restaurant for more than 20 years. Mr. Li is a Korean Chinese, who believes in Buddhism. He usually likes to do some charity works for the local community. Perhaps it is because he has been a kind person that their business has been doing very well. Their restaurant decoration is that of the magnificent style of a beautiful garden. The restaurant atmosphere is amazing with courteous service, and food that is also done well and is highly rated. So, we thought of asking him to provide dinner service for Shen Yun.

We set up the time to discuss the cooperation, however it turned out that their restaurant was closed on the date that we needed the service. So I began to talk about the purpose of Shen Yun, and the meaning of cultivation. I hoped that he would not give up the opportunity to cooperate with us. He listened carefully and wholly agreed with us during the conversation, at the end of which he said: "Let me think about it." Then he went back to the kitchen. After a while he told the chef to prepare some of the dishes for us to taste. He finally told me: "I decided to open the restaurant on that day”, and gave the best price. We were very happy. I said: “We really thank you for the support, you know? A Buddha arranged for you such a wonderful chance, so you could have the honor to be able to do such a meaningful thing.

He said: "I also agree." What a simple answer, but this is also the most correct choice in his life. For millions of years, he had waited for this chance and on that day, he finally got it! I am really happy for him. However, his story is not over. We hosted a variety of Shen Yun promotion events and in one of the promotional events, a school showed great interest in the Shen Yun show. They wanted to order 140 tickets for their teachers and students. It was the Christmas holiday season; they wanted to get the discount tickets. Later, one of the VIP team members heard about the event and wanted to help those students to see the Shen Yun show. He then asked me to introduce Mr. Li to him. He wanted Mr. Li to sponsor the school for the students to see the show.

On the other hand, he consistently clarified the truth to the school teacher and encouraged her to continue to plan for the Shen Yun show. Later, my fellow practitioner and I met with Mr. Li. We had a very cordial meeting. Everything went very smooth. Mr. Li agreed to sponsor the student group to see the Shen Yun show. Later, he directly wrote a check to the school. I was so moved. First, due to the insistence and wisdom of the fellow practitioner, second is the school teacher's obsession with Chinese traditional culture and she did not give up on trying to organize students to see Shen Yun. Of course, thanks to Mr. Li, he once again made such a good choice for his own future. Now, the evil has really become less and less, and there are more and more awakened sentient beings. His words and deeds completely touched me; an ordinary person is so, not to mention our Dafa disciples. This inspired me to cultivate more diligently and I realized it is even more urgent to search for and save the sentient beings. In the end, just how many sentient beings are looking forward to us, waiting for us to save them? There is no time to delay in saving people. Never slack off.

A new journey starts from my xinxing cultivation

In the coordination of manpower for promoting Shen Yun, I have experienced several major xinxing tests, which helped to improve my cultivation. Here I simply tell about one of the cultivation experiences.

In the early stage of the Shen Yun promotion I was selected to coordinate the manpower resources. It was actually very stressful task for a relatively new disciple like me. On the one hand, manpower coordination involves knowing how to balance a lot of practitioners’ spare time to do both Dafa projects and Shen Yun promotion projects in the most effective way. On the other hand, it could be my own feeling that veteran disciples would not be willing to let the new disciple to make all the arrangements. This could cause some disciples to not take my assignments. So I suggested having a few veteran disciples to help with coordinating manpower for promoting Shen Yun. My suggestion was approved.

We set up a manpower coordination team, bringing together several fellow practitioners to help coordinate the arrangements for Shen Yun promotion. And I was mainly responsible for posting posters, promoting Shen Yun to companies, hospitals and the hotels. Another new disciple and I basically distributed the posters every Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 5:00 pm. Sometimes we had fellow practitioners join to distribute the posters. Once, my partner needed to send the Epoch Times newspaper on Friday, and I made several calls and could not find anyone to help me for the time being.

Finally, I came across the coordinator and asked if he could be the driver for that day. The coordinator rejected me immediately, "No, I do not have time; my time has been arranged to another fellow practitioner." I felt very sad and I thought, “I took such a big job with great courage and I was very supportive to you to do this year's Shen Yun promotion. Now I need your support, you did not say anything, not even a word of encouragement and just directly rejected my request.” I felt very sad for a long time. I felt that my heart and mind were stirred. I felt wrongly treated and angry. I wanted to argue, to try and tell him that he should help me and that I was very stressed. Later, the coordinator found out about my emotions. He said: "At that time my idea was that another fellow practitioner who was helping may need more support and help than you do.” Because you were capable enough to solve the problem independently, I thought that there was no problem, so at that time I directly rejected your request, but if you really do need a driver, I think I could be your driver next time. After listening to his explanation, I felt much better. Then, I began to reflect on myself. What is the purpose for which I am doing this? What am I complaining about? Did I come to help master to save sentient beings? What was I blamed for. Do you think you need someone to support you and that needs to be satisfied? Where do you put those sentient beings? What is your responsibility as a Fa-rectification period Dafa disciple? My heart was so easily affected by this little thing. Is such a mind like Dafa disciple’s? Are you also saving the sentient beings? I really felt ashamed of myself! Thinking of this, I felt my heart gradually let go, the mood was not so heavy, my mood was no longer fluctuating. Sadness, blame, indignation of the heart seemed to had been taken away suddenly, really, that was removed by master. I felt relaxed, once I put myself in the Fa and I felt master's compassion.

Conclusion

Master’s quote in What is a Dafa Disciple? “When you are working together and experience friction, it is because of human attachments. That is part of one’s cultivation state and process, and absolutely not because someone is truly no good. A person’s good side can’t be seen anymore, as it has been separated. What you see will always be the side that has not been cultivated yet. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a compassionate heart, or should look at people in rigid ways. I’ve said again and again that you cannot see a cultivator’s good side. That side is simply terrific, and has met the standard. And what does it mean to “meet the standard”? It is the standard of a god. Whereas the part of him that hasn’t been successfully cultivated yet, that part is going to seem worse as it works its way up and gets closer to the surface. But, maybe that person has cultivated very well. I hope that you all cherish yourselves, cherish others, and cherish this environment that you have. Cherishing the path that you travel is cherishing yourselves.

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Dafa disciples, although Master spoke a little sternly, it was to lift up your spirits, because you are the hope for humanity! The hope for sentient Sentient Beings! You are also Master's hope!” [Fa Teaching at the 2016 New York Fa Conference]