(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings, Revered Master!
Greetings, fellow practitioners!
From having one show with 2,200 seats in 2007 to having two shows with 4,400 seats in 2008 and then four shows with 8,800 seats in 2009, Shen Yun Performing Arts has put on shows in Ottawa for three years. Every seat is for a sentient being to be saved by Dafa. For the past few years, practitioners in Ottawa have taken ticket selling as an important means to save sentient beings.
Master said in "Fa Teaching at the 2007 New York Fa Conference,"
"At every show put on by Divine Performing Arts, there were many audience members who shed tears throughout, with many more having to constantly wipe tears from their eyes. Every show was like that. People were deeply stirred and moved. In this dimension it was young people who were performing, while in other dimensions, many of my Law Bodies and many divine beings were doing so. (Applause) The strength of the impact on people, as with the changes it caused in them, were very similar to what happened back when I personally taught the Fa early on. (Applause) So it has effected tremendous changes in people."
Therefore, with Ottawa being one of the cities hosting Shen Yun Performing Arts shows, local practitioners have regarded bringing more people to the theater to watch the show and be saved by Dafa as their responsibility in validating Dafa and offering salvation to sentient beings.
Every year, in late August or early September, it is the season for a new semester starting at schools and people returning from vacation to their busy work schedules. Supermarkets, department stores and shopping centers become busy again. As one of our sales strategies for the 2008 show, we started selling tickets to the public on September 5.
In order to let more people in Ottawa know about Shen Yun, starting early in September, local practitioners started promoting the show to the public via all kinds of media. To keep up with the pace of media promotion, almost all practitioners were organized to sell tickets at shopping centers, large department stores, government buildings and wherever people gathered, in the east, west, south, and north of the city. For people who had seen or heard about the show in the media and then saw us selling tickets at different locations, this strengthened their impression of the show. The Ottawa public was deeply impressed with the costumes we wore and our in-depth explanations about the show. In addition, the promotion of Shen Yun for the past two years in Ottawa and all over the world has had a great impact on people. When people saw us, they looked as if they were regretful for not having known us earlier. By October 12, 2008, after about five weeks, we had sold 1754 tickets.
I. Eliminating Human Mentality and Attachments During the Process of Ticket Selling
After we started to sell tickets to the public, every practitioner tried hard to do his or her best to bring more people to the show. Some practitioners postponed their school studies; some postponed their work; some gave up what they were working on; some stepped forward to sell tickets after finishing their housework, busy Dafa projects, and everyday work. I also received phone calls from practitioners who wanted to know why they were not assigned tasks in selling tickets during the week. I added their names to the list immediately.
In the process of selling tickets, we were sometimes able to sell tickets and sometimes we weren't. We shared our experiences, tried to eliminate attachments, believed in Master and the Fa, tried to change our human mentality, clarified the truth, and endured hardships while selling tickets in the malls, etc.
After two weeks of ticket selling, I noticed that some practitioners sold lots of tickets while some could not sell any at all or sold only a few tickets, even though they stood in the mall for the entire day. This had been the situation for the past two years, but we never had as many tickets to sell as we did this year. Those who didn't know how to sell tickets and those who had difficulty in selling tickets were not previously given assignments in the malls. This year, I noticed again that practitioners showed different abilities in selling tickets. What caused the differing results among practitioners?
I realized that although every one of us tried very hard to sell the tickets, we had different mentalities, and adopted different methods in selling the tickets, and thus the results were not the same. Therefore we quickly arranged for a training session. It was in fact a chance for practitioners to upgrade in the Fa by exchanging experiences and learning effective ticket-selling techniques from each other.
I presented a slide show based on some photos I captured of a practitioner selling tickets. Happily, we observed the righteous thoughts that the practitioner had and the strategies she used. We shared our experiences in an open way. For instance, one practitioner said that there were so many people in the chain store and she kept introducing Shen Yun to every person that she had the chance to talk to, telling them about everything from its content, achievements, and worldwide scale, to the grand performances in Ottawa for the past two years, and comments from well-known people, as well as showing the photo albums prepared for each location. She also patiently tried to find the most satisfactory seats for each customer. Because of this approach, many people bought tickets on the spot. Those who couldn't decide right away had the chance to know about Shen Yun and obtained the show information, so they promised to come back after discussing with their family members or friends. With the power of Dafa, from morning until night, these practitioners didn't pass up any chance to clarify the truth in the chain stores, and kept bringing sentient beings to the theater.
During the experience sharing, one practitioner suddenly realized that she followed the way she used before for distributing flyers, which was to allow people to take material home and then decide whether they wanted to buy the tickets later. After the experience sharing, she realized that distributing the flyers was not the goal. We should have the ability to promote Shen Yun and persuade people to buy tickets on the spot. In fact, we were providing an easier 'step' for sentient beings to enter the theater. Master told us how difficult it was for us to obtain the Fa,
"...it takes many, many predestined occurrences like these to make it happen, and only then can you obtain this Fa. It isn't easy at all." ("Teaching the Fa in New York City")
We had the opportunity to meet sentient beings at the malls and introduce Shen Yun to them, which is also a predestined occurrence. Under no circumstances were we to let go of the chance. Once the person left our booth, with a little interference, he or she might miss the opportunity.
Another practitioner also shared that when she stood on the opposite side of the above mentioned practitioner in the mall, she didn't miss anyone who passed her. She handed a flyer to everyone. She treated herself as a 'promoter' of Shen Yun instead of one who was selling tickets, and thus she could make sure that sentient beings would grasp the chance to be saved.
Through the experience sharing, fellow practitioners realized that while selling tickets at the mall, we should change the mentality of "promoting" to the action of "selling." Of course, we were not attached to ticket sales all the time, but after we adjusted our mentality, the process of ticket selling changed a lot. Sentient beings left us with more information. I later observed that fellow practitioners' status in selling tickets had changed noticeably.
A practitioner whose English was not fluent focused on distributing flyers at first. But when she realized that she should "sell tickets" instead of "promote the show," she asked us to prepare a simple script for her to explain Shen Yun. She learned it by heart and constantly revised it and added more to it. Every time she sold tickets, she served the customers with compassion. She explained Shen Yun's superb quality and its preciousness, introduced the discount for tickets and what seats were available, and so on, until the customers finally bought the tickets. As time went by, I noticed that her English remained the same for her everyday activities, but when she was selling the tickets, she could speak English fluently and answer questions properly and compassionately. Many customers were willing to listen to her, and she was able to handle ticket selling independently. I felt the great power of Dafa and experienced that this practitioner was actually selling tickets by using her supernormal abilities.
II. Studying the Fa Well and Assimilating to the Fa -- It is Dafa that Saves People
During the experience sharing, I noticed that a practitioner who had maintained a very good sales record didn't say anything. I suggested that she share her experience with us. She thought for a moment and simply said, "It is Master who did everything." Then she didn't say anything else. We listened quietly. I felt these simple words penetrating my heart and I was shocked. Master is saving sentient beings on a large scale by means of Shen Yun Performing Arts. As Dafa disciples, no matter what we do - selling tickets or working with media, etc., it is the manifestation of Master's law power in human society. Only when we genuinely assimilate to Dafa, can the power of Dafa manifest in us, and only then can we save sentient beings. Thus, we all realized that cultivation practice is the priority in the process of hosting Shen Yun Performing Arts shows. If we don't cultivate ourselves, our personal attachments will affect the sentient beings in buying tickets and therefore prevent them from being saved.
Another practitioner shared how she let go of all mentalities while selling tickets. Once the human mentality arose, she excluded it and eliminated it. She found that studying the Fa and doing the exercises before selling tickets was the foundation for keeping divine thoughts. Otherwise, it was hard to sell any tickets. One practitioner was quite busy with other Dafa projects every day. She sometimes had no time to study the Fa before going to sell tickets. If she had not studied the Fa, she noticed that no one was interested in buying tickets. When this occurred, she took out Zhuan Falun and read the Fa. After a while, someone would approach her and buy tickets. That practitioner said that one should come out to sell tickets only after he/she had spent some time studying the Fa at home, and by doing so, they would have better results in ticket selling.
After this experience sharing, every practitioner had strengthened his/her confidence in selling tickets. Later, all practitioners were able to sell tickets, which in turn gave us more confidence and strengthened our beliefs. We encouraged each other to place cultivation practice as the priority and make sure that omissions in our personal cultivation would not prevent sentient beings from being saved by Master.
As the organizer of the experience sharing, through this entire process, my righteous thoughts and xinxing were strengthened and upgraded. It is like what Master requests of coordinators,
"Assistants should try their best to be responsible in their assistant work and even take the initiative to do the demanding work. Some assistants who might be older and whose understanding of the Fa isn't as good feel that the Fa is good but aren't able to explain things well. They can find some people to help them with their assistant work--you should do this out of responsibility to the Fa, instead of weighing what you might gain or lose. Your own gains and losses are also closely linked to the Fa. When you do an assistant's work, don't mix in all kinds of self-interested thoughts, or else your own cultivation and the group's cultivation will both be affected." ("Explaining the Fa for Falun Dafa Assistants in Changchun," from Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa)
III. Righteous Thoughts and Harmonizing the Whole Body
After a month of ticket selling, I noticed another problem. Since Shen Yun Performing Arts was not as well known locally, people responded to it differently. Some people were very interested in it upon seeing us, and they would come over and inquire about the show and buy tickets. Some felt indifferent to it. Some liked it, but hesitated when it came to purchasing tickets. Some were interested in it, but couldn't make the decision and had to consult with family members before buying tickets. Regarding this phenomenon, we organized another training session. We discussed how to deal with different situations, how to persuade customers to buy tickets or get them to come back and buy tickets. Fellow practitioners expressed their opinions and came to an agreement that the most important thing was to clarify the truth with righteous thoughts and compassion.
One practitioner didn't work because she had small children. She spent four to five days a week selling tickets. She said that every morning, after she arrived at the shopping center and got everything ready, while standing in front of the booth, she felt every cell in her body sending forth strong righteous thoughts and forming a compassionate field that penetrated to the eternal destination. This made her energy field very positive and made every sentient being feel the glory of Shen Yun. This practitioner tried to make every person fully understand while promoting the show. Even if the person didn't buy tickets on the spot, he/she got to know the show, which would form a foundation for him/her to buy tickets later. No matter which shopping center this practitioner went to, she could offer salvation to sentient beings like a divine being guarding one direction.
There is a practitioner who has been coordinating the shift arrangements in front of the Chinese Embassy. She is also the key player in sending forth righteous thoughts in front of the Chinese Embassy. She is a senior practitioner and does not speak fluent English. But due to her righteous belief in Dafa, her solid foundation of cultivation practice, her deep understanding of Shen Yun and her compassionate heart in saving people, she had very strong righteous thoughts. On different occasions, her heart to save people touched the customers. They came to buy tickets from her, and after purchasing tickets, they seemed to have become her relatives. A little girl about ten years old leaned against her after the practitioner persuaded her mother to buy a ticket for her, as if she was leaning against her mom. It was her silent gratitude for being saved.
One practitioner shared that it is essential to have righteous thoughts and form a harmonious and unbeatable whole body together with team ticket sales at shopping centers. Usually we arranged two to four people at each shopping center. On the weekends, we might add or take away some people according to the size of the booth. We understood that our ticket sales teams were not doing everyday people's things, but saving sentient beings. The different states that practitioners had should be harmonized, strengthened with righteous thoughts, and cooperative. For about a month, we had two booths in a small shopping center. The two booths shared one cash register and some tickets. When we harmonized everything with our righteous thoughts, there were no conflicts at all. At the same time, practitioners at the two booths formed a field with righteous thoughts that covered the entire time-space in the shopping center. Practitioners who were selling tickets in the field felt very joyful while sentient beings were willing to listen to us. Although the shopping center was not big, we were able to sell dozens of tickets every day. During the Christmas season, the most sold was about ninety tickets in one day. Fellow practitioners who live about one and a half hours away from Ottawa drove to the shopping center and joined us in ticket selling. All of us unconditionally let go of ourselves, made up for each other's deficiencies and learned from each other. We cooperated very harmoniously with each other. In another big shopping center, we had a booth selling tickets for two months. Some customers who went to the shopping center regularly greeted us like old friends.
What's worthy of mentioning is that after practitioners who could speak English went to sell tickets at malls, senior practitioners silently sent forth righteous thoughts at home. Some went to the shopping centers, sat on the long benches close to our booths, and silently sent forth righteous thoughts to clear the space around us so that more people could get to know Shen Yun and grasp the opportunity to be saved.
Last year, after we promoted the show and sold tickets at busy shopping centers, department stores and government buildings, we sold about 98% of the 8,800 tickets. At the same time, we planted many seeds and made a solid foundation for Shen Yun to become well-known to the public.
IV. Coordinating Ottawa Practitioners in Ticket Selling
For the past three years, I was lucky enough to have the chance to coordinate ticket management and ticket selling arrangements for the Ottawa Shen Yun shows.
The first year, while preparing for the show to be hosted in Ottawa, I made phone calls to almost every local practitioner including those who seldom came out. I sincerely asked them for ideas about how to host Shen Yun shows in Ottawa including their opinions about ticket pricing, locations and ways to promote the shows, and how they could participate, etc. I collected all kinds of suggestions. Some suggestions were in writing. After communicating with every practitioner, everyone felt that they were an important player in hosting Shen Yun in our city. I also tried to find out the best point to engage every practitioner to participate in promoting Shen Yun. Since there was only one show that year, 2,200 tickets, the plans were carried out very smoothly. With the whole body in place and with Master's help, we sold all the tickets five weeks before the show started. Then all of the standing-room tickets sold out as well. A good foundation was laid for the following years.
The second year, we had two shows in Ottawa. Conflicts occurred at the very beginning. One likely reason was that things went too smoothly the first year and we had attachments such as selfishness and self-absorption. At the same time, when conflicts occurred, we didn't immediately look inward. Instead, we had complaints about each other and looked at others' shortcomings. A direct consequence was that we couldn't find big shopping centers where we could sell tickets. When there was only three months left, fellow practitioners on the coordination team realized that we had to cultivate ourselves and stop pointing fingers at each other. We finally found some smaller shopping centers where we could sell tickets. The most we sold was just over a dozen tickets in one day. Since there were only two shows, after we rectified ourselves in cultivation practice, tickets miraculously sold out.
The third year, we had four shows in Ottawa, a middle-sized capital city with a population of 870,000 people (including surrounding cities, there are about 1,200,000 people.) It is the political center of Canada, but not the capital of commerce or arts. Four shows meant that one out of every 100 people should buy a ticket. Thus, when making plans, I began consulting other practitioners. At that time, due to my limited cultivation status, it was painful for me to hear opposing opinions. However, with the righteous thoughts of coordinating the whole body and successfully hosting Shen Yun in Ottawa, I forcibly eliminated this human mentality that made me feel pain. Gradually, we walked together. We updated the details of our plans for practitioners and at the same time more Falun Dafa Association members joined the coordination team. We shared the work and cooperated with one another - looking for shopping centers and sponsors, doing media promotion, putting up posters, etc. We cooperated very harmoniously.
After ticket selling started, we strategically formed momentum in promotion so that people in Ottawa could see us on every corner of the city - east, west, south and north, followed by a lot of media promotion. Thus, we needed more practitioners selling tickets at government buildings on weekdays and at shopping centers on weekends. If we counted up all the practitioners who joined group Fa study, it was far fewer than what was needed. We understood what Master said,
"For Dafa disciples as a whole, in the process of validating the Fa, when you work together in concert, the Fa power is great." ("Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")
Shen Yun is an opportunity for all practitioners to save sentient beings and build their own mighty virtue and should not be done by just a few practitioners. Therefore, for the good of every practitioner, I started to communicate with fellow practitioners of different cultivation statuses.
One practitioner had a baby who was only a few months old. She wanted to join in ticket selling. However, her income was not high and it was not practical to send her child to daycare. Children are also beings who have come to obtain the Fa. If we treat them as the most important and don't fulfill our responsibilities in Fa-rectification, their knowing side will feel resentful. I thought of several practitioners who could help and I asked one of them whether she could look after the baby, thinking that senior practitioners could not go to sell tickets but they could do supportive work. In the end, the mother practitioner solved the issue very well. She took the baby to a practitioner who was running a daycare. She herself was engaged in many weekdays of ticket selling. Wherever she went, the number of tickets sold increased. Her experience was that everything is done by Master. She just kept talking so that more people would know about Shen Yun.
Another practitioner, who usually only participated in bigger local events, has three children ranging from four to sixteen years old. Her husband is not a practitioner. She really wanted to sell tickets, but she had too much of a burden from her family responsibilities. I told her, "Simply treat selling tickets as one of your jobs. If you come out one day on the weekend and form a habit, your family will know that you won't be home that day of the week and eventually they will acknowledge that. But if you don't step forward this week or next week, since you stay home, your family will feel very comfortable and they will always expect you to stay at home. Even though you spend more time at home, your family will still complain when you are not home." As a result, this practitioner came out every Sunday. So every Sunday, even though there was only one shopping center that needed help, I would arrange for her to go. She organized everything well at home. We know that it is the safest to walk on the path of cultivation practice. As long as we follow the Fa, how our family members respond is only something that happens in the process and it is also the process of our cultivation practice.
An elderly practitioner was busy with everyday work and other Dafa projects. I didn't plan to arrange for her to sell tickets, but she let me know through other practitioners that she wanted to sell tickets. I answered right away, "Great!" In the end, this practitioner had very strong righteous thoughts. Her heart to save people was so sincere and upright, and her compassion made people feel the beauty of Shen Yun. People listened to her with great interest. She has a very good memory and could remember clearly to whom she had clarified the truth, to whom she hadn't talked to yet, to what extent she had promoted the show, and how to continue if she came across the person again.
Another practitioner with young children and a heavy family burden didn't know how to break through at the beginning. When I talked to her, I felt helpless. But when she saw more and more practitioners step forward to sell tickets, she sent her children to daycare and overcame many difficulties to arrange her schedule. Even though she could only come out for two hours, I arranged two hours for her. Sometimes, if one of her children suddenly developed a fever, she would have to change her schedule. But I did see that she was trying hard to deal with things with righteous thoughts. Probably because of her pure heart, she sold some tickets every time, even though it was only at a government building with much less traffic.
More and more practitioners went to sell tickets wherever they were arranged to go. Many customers said when buying tickets, "I saw you at another mall."
During the process of ticket selling, considering each practitioner's personality and cultivation status, I tried to arrange the schedule of ticket selling not based on simply filling the space. No matter how tight the manpower was, I carefully arranged the team at different locations, since putting people with different strengths might form a better team. This arrangement definitely helped the ticket selling and at the same time cherished the chance and the time at each booth so that more sentient beings could have a chance to buy tickets.
A few practitioners do not speak English well but they sent forth righteous thoughts frequently and they had strong righteous thoughts and could recite some scriptures. I arranged for them to work with a practitioner who could speak English well. On the first day at one location, the practitioner who didn't speak much English kept sending righteous thoughts. Once in a while, he brought in someone to buy tickets. In that shopping center which did not have too much traffic, they sold over twenty tickets that day. The practitioner who could speak English was very happy and let go of many human mentalities. She changed a lot and actively asked to be paired with that practitioner to sell tickets again. Of course, the practitioner changed and it was a fundamental change. She later volunteered to sell tickets at different locations. Even though she wasn't with the practitioner who spoke little English, she was still able to sell tickets. She also asked to go to more locations and promote group tickets. I witnessed the great change in her.
There are many other examples. Once fellow practitioners built up confidence, upgraded their abilities, and changed the mentality that blocked ticket selling, their energy was huge, which is the manifestation of the power of Dafa in practitioners.
V. Upgrading My Xinxing in the Process of Ticket Selling
1. Eliminating the attachment of acting as a "leader"
In addition to being in charge of ticket management and staff management, I was also in charge of equipment. Prior to going to ticket selling locations, fellow practitioners went to my place to pick up the equipment and materials, such as costumes, television sets, poster boards, Shen Yun illustrations and albums, etc. At the beginning, I was able to maintain a generous heart of compassion. In order to make it convenient for others, I printed signs and categorized materials. I found that some practitioners placed the materials in a tidy order after coming back from malls. Some even stayed a bit longer in order to get everything in order, but other practitioners simply piled things together and left.
When I found that some practitioners had piled things together without categorizing them into different groups, I suddenly developed a heart of "strictness." Thinking that the labels were very clear, how could they place things in such disorder? I told myself, "Set up a regulation and keep them in order." Therefore, I created a regulation about material management and thought about how to "get everyone to follow this regulation." I printed two copies and prepared to put them up on the wall. When I took out the first copy, the moment that I turned around, I could no longer find that piece of paper. When I picked up the second copy, my hand was somehow cut deeply by the sharp edge of the paper. I suddenly realized that this "strict management" heart was wrong. Words in Master's scriptures appeared in my mind,
"They've become like the bureaucrats found among everyday people." ("Teaching the Fa at the Meeting with Asia-Pacific Students")
I said in my heart that I didn't want to become like the bureaucrats.
In fact, although coordination and management are needed while we work together in validating Dafa, we should have the heart of great forbearance and forgiveness. On the basis of being responsible, we should silently make remedies for different behaviors of fellow practitioners. Perhaps that remedy itself is what I was missing and what needed to be improved. The different behavior of fellow practitioners doesn't have a right or wrong side, and we shouldn't blame fellow practitioners using our own criteria and behavior. It is impossible for all practitioners to be the same. Maybe that practitioner had overcome a big difficulty in order to step forward to sell tickets and she needed to hurry back home. Doing well as a whole is achieved after everyone has upgraded his/her xinxing in the whole body, not through carrying out strict regulations.
2. Upgrading my xinxing while enduring hardships
I am a person who cannot endure too many hardships. In working on some Fa-rectification projects over the past few years, I could no longer persist when more endurance was needed. For the past two years of hosting Shen Yun in Ottawa, I had been in charge of ticket management, coordination among practitioners, and scheduling arrangements, and at the same time I also directly participated in ticket selling, but we had fewer tickets to sell before and we didn't encounter so much difficulty. This year, the volume of our tickets doubled. Every day, besides everyday work, I had other Dafa projects to finish. On top of that, I had to update tickets, assign tickets, manage staff and deal with other trivial things. Time management was a direct test to my xinxing, and at the same time my xinxing level influenced the endurance ability of my body.
In the process, I often worked past midnight to schedule staff and then updated tickets until early in the morning, sometimes, 6 o'clock in the morning. After I finished work, I just sat on the ground and did the meditation. Then I slept for a while and went to work. When I did not have much human mentality, I could often feel that Master was by my side and pushing the Fa principles into my mind. I remember that after I shared my experience with a fellow practitioner, he sent me an e-mail with the following words from Zhuan Falun:
"As you know, a cultivator's gong, along with his level of character especially, is what he's cultivated by going through countless hardships and tempering himself under grueling conditions all his life. So it's extremely precious, and eight tenths of that precious matter is used to enrich his world. And for this reason, when he succeeds in cultivation later on he'll get whatever he wants just by extending his hand, he'll have anything he wants, and he'll be able to do whatever he wants to--he'll have everything in his world. That's his benevolent might, which he cultivated by bearing hardships."
In this human world, we Dafa disciples did some things through our own efforts in order to validate the Fa. However in other dimensions, Master prepared supreme honor and mighty virtue for us. This is the manifestation of the boundless wisdom and mighty virtue of Dafa. Master said,
"The truth is, I treasure you more than you treasure yourselves!" ("Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)," from Essentials for Further Advancement II)
Therefore, although I was very busy while coordinating ticket selling, I frequently felt happy and understood more of what Master said in "Fa-Lecture During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference,"
"Just on the one issue of cultivation alone it's so complex at the cosmos's lower levels. But it becomes simple at higher levels, where there's no longer any concept of cultivation but only the concept of karma elimination. At levels higher up, all troubles are to pave the way for ascending to Heaven. And at even higher levels, concepts like eliminating karma, enduring hardships, and cultivation no longer exist, and it's just a choice!"
I feel that when we whole-heartedly walk on the path of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings, it looks like we "sacrifice" in the human world. It isn't that we did something or sacrificed something, but that Master gives us everything, that Master chooses us and purifies us and takes us back to where we came from.
In the Shen Yun project led and directed by Master, Master has given us the Fa, eliminated the karma that we accumulated throughout our lifetimes, and given us a chance to save sentient beings. Our responsibility, now and in the future, is to bring more people to see the show and be saved, and harmonize what Master wants.
Thank you, Master!
Thank you, fellow practitioners!
