(Minghui.org)
Greetings Venerable Master!Greetings Fellow Practitioners!
Today I would like to share my experiences from promoting Shen Yun in Britain last year.
When I learned that Shen Yun would be coming to Britain in 2021, I very much wished to participate in the promotion of Shen Yun. I believed that Master Li (Falun Dafa’s founder) had given me this opportunity to cultivate myself well and save sentient beings. I expressed my wish to the coordinator. That weekend all practitioners in Britain would distribute Shen Yun fliers at the same time. I participated in this event. One practitioner invited me to be involved in promoting Shen Yun in shopping malls. Doing promotion in shopping malls requires good physical health and good English communication skills. It was hoped that more young practitioners would take part in it. So I attended the Shen Yun promotion in a shopping center for the first time.
On the first day, we had to arrive very early. I was sleepy all the way to the shopping mall, because I was not used to getting up early. I was a bit irritated when I arrived because the shopping center was not high-end. No one told me what I should do at the stall. I felt unhappy because I felt that the coordinator didn’t arrange things well. I then realized that my thoughts were not right. Since I was there, I must cooperate completely and shouldn’t complain. I should think about what I should do at this moment. If I held onto my negative thoughts, wouldn’t I disturb the righteous field that other practitioners were maintaining? I started to send forth righteous thoughts and adjust my mentality.
I accumulated more experience during this process. At the start, I felt sore and pain in my back and couldn’t stand straight after being in the shopping mall for a whole day. After several days I didn’t feel tired. When people refused to accept my fliers, I felt upset or ashamed.
At that time I remembered what Master said:
“Also, with those people that you run into by chance, who you run into in daily life, and the people you run into at work, you should all clarify the truth to them. Even when in your daily life you pass by people so quickly that you don’t have a chance to talk to them, you should still leave them with compassion and kindness. Don’t lose those who should be saved, especially those with predestined connections.” ( “Fa Teaching Given at the 2003 Atlanta Fa Conference,” Collected Teachings Given Around the WorldVolume IV)
I shouldn’t allow myself to feel frustrated or upset. I should leave the people who passed by me with compassion and kindness. With these thoughts, I felt uplifted again.
I found some procedures needed to be improved. I didn’t complain but rather did it silently. I found that there was no roster for breaks. Sometimes there were not enough practitioners at the stall when practitioners took lunch breaks. I made a roster to allow every practitioner sufficient time for their break while maintaining enough manpower at the stall.
I often came across people who wanted to know about Shen Yun but didn’t want to buy tickets on the spot. Every time we went through the process of getting people interested and then getting people to the stage where they wanted to buy tickets, and then finally buying tickets, it was a battle between righteous and evil in another dimension. It was especially fierce at the final stages of buying tickets. Most of the time we required several practitioners to send forth righteous thoughts to subdue the evil.
One day a family of three came to our stall. The father was very interested and took out his wallet to buy tickets after I finished the introduction. At that moment, his daughter said she couldn’t go because she would have examinations. We then found tickets that didn’t fall during her exam time. She then said that she didn’t want to be distracted before her exams. The three of them couldn’t agree. The father felt apologetic and said that he had to discuss it with his family. They moved away and started to discuss it. I saw them not far from our stall. Their knowing sides must want to grab this opportunity to be saved. I started to send forth righteous thoughts quietly and asked the other two practitioners to join in. They came back after a long while. The father and the mother were very pleased to be buying tickets and even joked that they should thank their daughter for agreeing to go, otherwise they would not be seeing the show. I was very moved by the practitioners’ cooperation. It seemed ordinary in this space. It must have been a big battle in another dimension.
On another occasion, a couple came to our stall. I showed them the prices of the tickets and introduced Shen Yun briefly to them. They chose five tickets. When I got to the payment page, the lady wanted to make a call to invite her parents to watch the show as well. The signal in the shopping mall was bad. She couldn’t get through to her parents. Finally, they said they would come back after they contacted her parents. They left without securing tickets. I shared this with other practitioners and realized that I should have used my wisdom at that time to help them buy tickets. Because I didn’t want to force them to buy tickets, I didn’t make an effort to help them to buy them. The only thing I could do at that moment was send forth righteous thoughts to clear any interference from them being saved.
Several hours later, when the mall was about to close, I saw the couple come back. They said that they were still waiting for her parents’ call. I recommend they buy tickets with different prices so that they could all sit in the middle. I sent forth righteous thoughts while talking to them. They called their parents, daughter, and friends. One phone call went through, while another phone call didn’t. I continued talking to them about how the CCP persecutes traditional culture and why I was willing to volunteer to promote Shen Yun. He told me that he had an interior design company and had been to China. I asked a practitioner who was in the design industry to join in our conversation so that he could continue talking with us. Another practitioner kept sending forth righteous thoughts. I was greatly moved by our silent cooperation. Finally, the couple bought 10 tickets!
Promoting Shen Yun to strangers was different from promoting Shen Yun to the people around me, and I felt uneasy. How could I promote Shen Yun to my colleagues with ease and not like a salesperson? I felt time was really pressing after reading Master’s article “Wake Up”. I know people around me, friends or colleagues, have predestined relationships with me. I hope that they can be saved. They are mainstream people. I had an appointment with one of my colleagues to have lunch together. I didn’t have Shen Yun fliers with me and didn’t know how to switch to the topic of Shen Yun. I felt uneasy. I then thought to myself that I should just tell her about the beauty of Shen Yun that I saw and use my own language to talk to her, and it was completely natural. I received a text message from her in the evening saying that she and her husband had bought tickets. I was surprised yet moved. Actually, I didn’t do anything except for saying a few words. I even didn’t give them a flier. I realized that they must have waited a long time for me to tell them and to build this bridge. It was a pity that I did this so late. This incident encouraged me greatly.
I then introduced Shen Yun to many colleagues. At the start, I only recommended Shen Yun to them and didn’t organize for us to watch Shen Yun together. Later Master helped me realize that I should lead them to watch Shen Yun. One day after a celebratory function for our company, I shared a taxi with four colleagues to go home. While driving on Theater Road, one colleague asked if any of us were going to watch any shows this year. I took the opportunity and said I would not see anything this year but there was a classical Chinese dance show called Shen Yun next year that I wanted to watch very much. Before I introduced what Shen Yun was like, my colleagues immediately said, “Let’s go to the show together!” That day we bought five tickets at the highest price. The next day I invited other colleagues to join us. They immediately agreed. The result was even better than a Shen Yun seminar. Later on I talked to colleagues who I had introduced Shen Yun to before but who hadn’t bought tickets and invited them to watch the show. They agreed and bought tickets immediately.
One colleague wanted to watch the show with us at the very beginning. When I saw him the second time, he said that he had forgotten to buy a ticket when he got home. He repeated this several times. I then had a cleansing. I was not able to go to work due to a stomach ache. Later on, my colleague said that a new Covid variant had appeared and employees might be not allowed to go to the office. I thought, he still hadn’t bought a ticket, I must see him before the lockdown. I went to the office despite my discomfort. I mentioned to him he should buy a ticket when I saw him. He said that he would buy one after he finished the work at hand. I reminded him at noon. He said he had forgotten because he was too busy and that he would buy one immediately. I saw that he had not taken any action after some time. I realized that there must be some interference. No, I must help clear the evil’s interference. I went directly to his desk and said, “Let’s check the tickets together.” He visited the Shen Yun website immediately, booked a ticket, and confirmed the time and seat with me. I didn’t leave until he finished the purchase. My understanding was that I couldn’t get lax at the last minute. Some people wanted to buy tickets but would have a lot of interference. I must help them. I would not adopt the same method with everyone. I felt that he wanted to watch the show from his heart, but there was external interference. Only Dafa practitioners’ righteous thoughts can subdue bad elements.
Originally five of us had wanted to watch the show. I ended up having 24 colleagues go. I realized that it was most effective that I lead them to watch the show. I must take the lead and not be passive. The crucial part was that I must act. Several colleagues told me that they bought tickets because I introduced Shen Yun so vividly. I knew that Master was encouraging me and letting me gain more confidence in promoting Shen Yun. I realized that it was not accidental what price of tickets they bought. I recommended they buy the tickets at the highest price because they deserved the best seats. I hoped that they could get the best.
Practitioners said that we shouldn’t become lax even after people bought tickets. It was crucial that each one came to watch the show. So we should still send forth righteous thoughts for the people around us who had bought the tickets. I didn’t take it to heart. But various interference occurred several weeks before the show.
One colleague told me that she couldn’t make it because their maid didn’t have time to look after their baby. Then one colleague from Russia and another from Ukraine said that they were not in the mood to watch the show due to the Russian and Ukraine war. Later there was an announcement that the subway workers in London would go on strike on the day of the show. Several colleagues became hesitant about whether they would go to the show because there would be a lot of trouble on the way. I thought I had already done what I should. I managed to get them to buy tickets. It was their choice whether they went to watch the show or not. I didn’t want to force them. But when I thought about what the practitioner told me, I started to send forth righteous thoughts to clear the interference.
My colleagues worked from home due to the subway strike. I did some research on how to avoid the strike and what were the best routes to the theater so that the evil couldn’t take advantage of any loopholes. I set up a group chat one day before the show for easy communication. I studied the traffic and sent out different routes and times such as taxi times, self-drive times, bus routes, and transfer routes to the chat group. I notified everyone to arrive at the theater one hour before the show. In order not to be late due to the traffic conditions, I applied to work at a cafeteria near the theater on the day of the show and invited them to come to the cafeteria. I printed out their tickets in case there were problems with their cell phones.
It was drizzling on the day of the show. I felt uncomfortable the day before. I didn’t have strength. I hesitated about whether I should go. On second thought, if I didn’t go, my colleagues would not go either. This was obviously interference. I attended a morning Fa study and did the exercises twice. Nobody had replied to my message by noon. I still sent a message to the group chat telling them how the traffic was and where I was at. I said I was so looking forward to the show and had prepared a dress for the occasion to encourage them. In the afternoon, several colleagues came and sat in the cafeteria. The cafe closed at 5 o’clock. We went to a restaurant. I sent a message to the group immediately. Five or six colleagues appeared half an hour later. Another group came after a while. I tried my best to dispel my discomfort and told them what Shen Yun was with excitement. Finally, all 24 people came. Even the Russian colleague came. The other colleague also managed to solve the issue with her maid.
The little restaurant was full of my colleagues. Some told me they had spent two hours on a trip that would normally take them half an hour. I was very moved. They also experienced a journey of cultivation before they arrived. They came despite the rain and inconvenient traffic. They came early at our agreed time. No one was late for the show.
Everyone was happy after the show. They all thanked me for letting them have this special experience. I realized that I must take responsibility for each one’s whole journey in order to be responsible to each person. My mission was not complete after I sold tickets to them. I must take responsibility from the beginning to the end for my colleagues who worked with me under the same roof every day and get rid of all the interference that would have prevented them from being saved.
During the promotion of Shen Yun, it was easy for me to regard it as a job and regard sold-out tickets as a success. I needed to remind myself all the time that my real purpose was to save sentient beings. So the process was very important. It required me to help dissolve interference for them. I felt Master’s encouragement during the whole process. I used to be a person who didn’t like sales jobs at all. Gradually I accumulated experience through practice and found it was not too hard to do sales. Some people who bought tickets said that they were moved because I spoke so vividly and heartfelt. They wanted to let me know that I had done a good job. I realized that I shouldn’t let my human attachments, such as feeling shy, feeling awkward, and afraid of being refused prevent them from being saved. Thank you Master for giving me the opportunity to be involved in Shen Yun's promotion and allowing me to fulfill my vow.
The above is my understanding at my present level. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.
Thank you Master!Thank you fellow practitioners!
(Presented at the 2022 Nordic Fa Conference)