Lessons Learned from the Issue of Shen Yun DVDs

(Minghui.org) According to a recent notice on Minghui, Shen Yun videos will not be provided to mainland China this year. A later notice told us to stop distributing all Mainland China-only editions of Shen Yun DVDs. Although I still live in China and did not take Shen Yun DVDs overseas, I have identified some loopholes related to this issue.

Selfishness and Neglect

The direct cause of this incident is that a large number of practitioners took Shen Yun DVDs out of China. On the surface, this happened because practitioners overall lack the sense of copyright and were not considerate of this method of truth-clarification. From the perspective of cultivation, however, it reflects our selfishness and untrustworthy behavior. Master has taught us to be selfless and to put others ahead of ourselves. But what we did violated Shen Yun's copyrights and Master's requirements for us.

Just because I did not go abroad and take the video files with me does not mean that my xinxing has no loopholes regarding this issue. Suppose I had travelled outside of China, would I have deleted the Shen Yun video files on my computer in advance? Probably not. Were I to bring such a computer overseas, wouldn't it be similar to keeping audio files of Master's lectures—which should have been destroyed after the lectures were published—as some practitioners did years ago?

Such behavior may not cause immediate losses, but it could lead to undesirable consequences later on. If these DVDs and files are circulated overseas, the harm brought to Shen Yun's performances could be very serious.

Practitioners' conduct has already caused interference and there will be no more Shen Yun videos for China, at least this year. This incident not only relates to practitioners who were directly involved, but also provides an opportunity for us to think this over as a whole. For many of us, our xinxing loopholes may not have caused direct losses, but we do need to learn from this and do better from now on.

A Casual Attitude Towards Shen Yun Is Inappropriate

The Minghui notice stated, “... that inside China many practitioners have casually circulated Shen Yun DVDs based on their own understandings and personal preferences.” We know that such actions are wrong, but how can we avoid doing things based on our own understandings and personal preferences? I think we need to follow Master's words on this.

Master has mentioned Shen Yun many times in lectures. Although most of what he said was related to Shen Yun performances overseas, we can still use what he said as a guideline to promote Shen Yun well in China.

For example, we know that tickets for Shen Yun performances should not be sold at a discount. Doing so would compromise Shen Yun's brand and the effect of saving people. Similarly, we cannot produce low-quality Shen Yun DVDs to increase the distribution, as that will also negatively affect Shen Yun's image.

Some practitioners said high-quality DVDs take too much time to produce and that a small number of high quality DVDs can not reach a large enough population quickly. These practitioners then made large quantities of low-quality DVDs and distributed them like fliers, for example, by leaving the DVDs outside people's doors, household by household. In this way, the Shen Yun DVD is treated as something cheap. This is inconsistent with what Master asked us to do overseas, such as promoting Shen Yun in higher-end mainstream society.

Not Acting on Our Own Will

The notice wrote, “...these people's behavior, acting on their own will, has interfered with the efforts and goals of Shen Yun Performing Arts”.

Similar situations occurred in my region. Some practitioners often argued about the production and distribution of Shen Yun DVDs. In many cases, the cover of the Shen Yun DVD was altered.

In summary, this new requirement regarding Shen Yun DVDs highlights a loophole that has existed in us for many years. We should identify our own problems and improve our behavior as well as our xinxing. This will allow Shen Yun and other projects to move forward in a more healthy manner and play a more important role in saving sentient beings. If the Shen Yun video continued to be provided to mainland China and we did not take it seriously, that would directly interfere with and harm Master's efforts. The consequences would be unimaginable.

Only by doing things according to the Fa can we do well assisting Master.