What Should We Learn From Shen Yun?

(Minghui.org) We all watch Shen Yun every year. While I was moved and amazed by the stunning beauty of the show, I couldn’t help but think of Master’s teachings.　

“By leading you all in doing Shen Yun, Master is in fact giving you a model.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference”)

We have various projects to save people. With each and everyone’s different cultivation state and level, the results can vary widely. Looking at Shen Yun, I thought, whichever thing we use to save people, if we can make it meticulous and refined, and reach a superb level, we will be able to have greater strength and efficiency in saving people.

Take the family material production sites in China as an example. In some regions, the materials are very well made and packaged, neat and beautiful. They look very appealing to people.

There are also some that need a lot of improvement. Some of the materials missed certain colors. Some had blurry pictures and words. Some weren’t bagged and just randomly placed in certain places.

Suppose we are the readers. When we see the poorly made materials, will we develop respect for Dafa from looking at them? I’m afraid that people would have the impression that those who made the materials didn’t care about them, instead of sensing our compassion to save them.

We should not expect that people will cherish poorly made materials or understand the difficulty we all face in producing them. Even less should we believe that they won’t be able to tell that things are poorly made.

If we can’t maintain high standards in the materials we produce, we may cause people to develop negative feelings about Dafa and it’s also a waste of precious Dafa resources, including our own time and materials.

I’m involved in making materials myself. I understand how difficult it is to do it. But exactly because of the difficulty we are facing, we should pay even more attention to the quality of the products.

We shouldn’t be satisfied with just doing things for the purpose of doing things.

We should do it with a cultivator’s compassion and take things seriously. We should remember that we do things to save people, not to make ourselves feel good about how many things we did or how much we have achieved.

In addition to doing good jobs ourselves, we should also help fellow practitioners to improve their skills.

When we notice that fellow practitioners fail to produce high-quality materials, we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to it, thinking “they’ve already done so much.” While we don’t point fingers at anyone or blame anyone, we shouldn’t be held back by human sentimentality or a shallow understanding of “being tolerant of others’ problems.”

If we are having some technical difficulty or facing some challenge, the best solution is to stop the production and fix the problem, so that we can make sure the things we make are the best. When we insist on producing the materials, despite the poor quality, aren’t we putting too much emphasis on ourselves instead of thinking for sentient beings?

When I tried to communicate with some practitioners about improving their printing skills, they said that they have been doing things this way for so many years and it was fine. If that’s the case, I’m afraid that they may have been wasting Dafa resources all this time.

My personal understanding is that the Fa has different requirements for us at different levels. No matter how well I did before, I can’t be content with the status quo. I should have the desire to make constant improvement in both my xinxing and skills.

For some practitioners, probably they still take the material production as a one-time thing and don’t think about things in the long term. They don’t see themselves as a professional in printing the materials or spend time to study the skills it takes to do things well.

Master said:

“By leading you all in doing Shen Yun, Master is in fact giving you a model. I have made Shen Yun the best show in the world. At the very least, in the performing arts, in the field of the arts, it’s playing the lead role. So how about our other projects, then? When what you do has just a little bit of success, you’re so pleased with yourselves. But are you playing the lead role [in your field]? You haven’t even managed to play a supporting role, and some are playing the role of a clown! Is that what Dafa disciples should be doing? Is that what Master has asked you to do? Some of us are saying, “We don’t have sufficient funds, so we can’t get the project going.” But that is because you haven’t done a good job on it. You didn’t treat it as something that Dafa disciples really need to do, as a real enterprise to run. An international media company isn’t considered a major corporation if it doesn’t have a few hundred million dollars in working capital. Of course, when I put it this way some people will certainly feel pressure. I’m not saying it’s unacceptable if you don’t achieve that. I’m merely talking about it in terms of principles, and that we have to approach things this way.” (“Fa Teaching at the 2013 Greater New York Fa Conference”)

While we don’t have the big media like The Epoch Times or NTD in China, the family material production site is in fact a big media network itself. Due to the persecution, Minghui.org and the materials remain free to the public. But with the quick progress of the Fa-rectification, maybe Minghui.org may also become a paid website and the materials it provides to the public will no longer be free. If that’s case, will we still consider ourselves volunteers and amateurs in making the materials?

No matter what we do, the ultimate goal is to save people. Maybe we all work on different projects, but the requirement for our cultivation and our hearts is the same. We need to think seriously about how to do well the projects we are engaged in and how to play the leading role, and not just be satisfied with a supporting role, certainly not to play the role of a clown.

This is my understanding at my level. Please point out anything inappropriate.

Editor’s note: This article only represents the author’s current understanding meant for sharing among practitioners so that we can “Compare with one another in study, in cultivation.” (“Solid Cultivation,” Hong Yin)