[European Fa Conference] The Power of Unconditional Cooperation

(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master. Greetings fellow practitioners.

I started practicing Falun Dafa in 2005, and after a while I decided to attend the European Fa Conference. Since I have always been involved in writing, I wrote down my experience of obtaining the Fa and was not surprised when it was selected. A few days later, however, I received a message from the coordinator. The translators were having difficulty and some parts needed to be rewritten. I was puzzled. How can translators object to the content of an article - isn’t it their job to translate? I became upset, almost angry.

That was years ago. I wrote more sharings and participated in various Dafa-validation projects, but only recently have I found myself in the translators’ situation and understood them, even though I haven’t been translating anything. Let’s start from the beginning.

Shen Yun in Salzburg

The conditions are not yet suitable for Shen Yun to come to my country, but in many other performance locations, outside help is welcomed. The closest city to mine, where Shen Yun performed in previous years, is Salzburg, so I went there many times to help with promotion and security. This year’s show was scheduled for late January, and since the pandemic measures were still strict, we had to start preparing months in advance. Vaccinations were the first hurdle to cross. But even if there were some dilemmas, Master dispelled them in the article “Wake Up.”

We got vaccinated. However, two in our group had a dilemma about which vaccine brand to take. I immediately realized that this was a human thought. In the end, they chose the wrong brand - the result was that they could travel, but the pandemic measures did not allow them to enter the venue, they could only work outside. One thought changes the outcome.

My first assignment was to watch the door where the performers entered the stage. Since I hadn’t seen the latest edition of the show, I thought it was a pity that I couldn’t see the stage from where I stood. Two hours before the show, however, a security person from the theatre came and locked the door, so my task became superfluous. I got a new assignment - to help the audience take photos in the lobby.

I was surprised by the great desire of people to be photographed next to the Shen Yun posters, even though they had to wear masks on their faces. Of course the posters are beautiful, but good design is the standard these days and people still don’t take photos in front of many other well-designed posters. However, before the show, as well as during the break, the audience waited in line to have their photos taken next to the Shen Yun poster.

People had excitement on their faces as I photographed them using their phones, and a kind of relief, as if they had found what they were looking for.

Eventually, after the audience entered the hall, I asked the coordinator what I should do now. “Have you seen the show yet?” he asked.

I took a vacant seat, right there in the venue where Mozart once conducted his works.

Shen Yun in Graz

Three months later, several of us traveled to Graz, another Austrian city. The Graz Opera is old and respected, so visitors are from the highest class. This time I helped with security in the hall, with the task of making sure no one took photos during the show. The coordinator had no experience in this role, but there were a lot of experienced practitioners on the team, so everyone tried to help the coordinator do his job well. Between tasks, we studied the Fa intensively, and practically everyone knew what to do without even being told. It really was one body of practitioners working together.

Of course, this produced results. Three shows held in Graz were practically sold out, because the pandemic restrictions had been lifted by then.

Although I had helped with Shen Yun in previous years, this was the first time I saw a full house, given the difficulties Shen Yun encountered in Europe in the past. The synergy between the performers and the audience was clearly there, and the applause was loud and enthusiastic. I felt like I was part of the event, not just a helper. In fact, I have come to realize that we practitioners are not here to help Shen Yun, but that Shen Yun is helping us. The show will go on, with or without us, and whoever needs to be saved will be saved. Our participation in that process is the infinite mercy of Master, an opportunity that is extremely precious.

When I returned home, local practitioners asked me if I had had the opportunity to watch the show. “Three times,” I replied, because there was almost no interference from people taking photos, so we could watch the stage with one eye. In fact, I got the impression that interfering with Shen Yun was no longer possible or had been minimized, as if in this period of time the old forces no longer have any say in the matter, only Master. My conclusion was that the European venues are full this year based on that.

Shen Yun in Prague

I had a special experience in the city of Prague. I went there in 2002 on business and encountered practitioners introducing Falun Dafa at a tourist spot. Although I was not interested in anything spiritual at the time, I was interested in information about the persecution in China, so I took a flyer. I didn’t even read it until two years later, when my wife was diagnosed with a very serious illness. Although I am not one of those people who keeps things, I found the flyer in a drawer. We decided to try it together, by learning the exercises online. After a month, my wife received information that the diagnosis was wrong and that she was completely healthy, so she felt there was no need for her to exercise. She stopped, but I continued.

The reason for the activities in Prague at the time was the NATO summit, which took place at the Congress Centre. When I learned on my return from Graz that Shen Yun would perform at the same Congress Centre in May, I immediately felt like going there. I reached out to practitioners in Prague and offered to help, and they accepted.

Working for the Prague performances was completely different, for two reasons. The hall had 2,700 seats, which is many more than the previous venues, and second, security team coordinators were not so experienced, and neither were many of the team members.

My previous experience and the experience of the practitioners who came with me was definitely needed, but how to apply it in practice? At the Austrian performances, the team had group Fa-study and sharing, but in Prague we didn’t even have our own security room. The coordinators were overloaded with work and seemingly focused on external issues, e.g. how to communicate using the walkie-talkies. They thought our schedule was too busy for group Fa-study.

In the end, we didn’t manage to put the walkie-talkies into operation—which may have been Master’s arrangement—because that would only disturb the audience. However, there were arrangements by the old forces too, although in Austria they seemed to be gone.

As the show progressed, messages from team members about people breaking the rules and taking photos started to arrive. During the first show, many children were escorted by their parents to the toilet. They walked the entire length of the venue and then in front of the stage. This certainly disturbed the audience - some perhaps to such an extent that they did not want to return to their seats after the break. I understood later that the venue security had locked some of the exits without prior notice, so the only exit from the venue was the one near the stage. The other exits were unlocked after our intervention, but that only partially solved the problem with the children, who were already accustomed to using the wrong exit.

Although all the tickets for the three shows in Prague were sold out three weeks in advance, some audience members may have made a wrong choice during the show. I felt sorry for them.

I think the entire security team realized we needed to do better. The next day we found a suitable place for Fa-study and most of the team members were there. The coordinators gave precise instructions on how to act in each situation, strict procedures were implemented, and upon that, I observed a change within me. As 2,700 people entered the hall, I stood by the entrance with a smile, and silently followed them with my eyes, with righteous thoughts in mind. This time I had firm thoughts, that each one of them must be saved. I truly cherished each one of them, no matter how they behaved.

I don’t know what inner changes the other members of the team experienced, but the third show was much more like those in Austria. No one took photos - there were literally no incidents - nor were there any people exiting the venue, or delays in entering it. The calm and harmonious atmosphere resulted in long applause at the end.

Shen Yun’s visit to two Czech cities was considered super successful, as more than 8,200 tickets were sold, compared to barely a few thousand in previous years. The question that lingers in me is, how many sentient beings might have lost their chances due to our shortcomings.

On the other hand, I learned a great lesson and experienced the power of unconditional cooperation. When I remind myself of those translators from the beginning of my story, I realize that they were not just translators, but first of all fellow practitioners who proactively participated in the Fa conference, trying to make sure that the sharings are in accordance with the Fa as much as possible.

In a similar way, I tried to help Shen Yun during the shows in three cities, ready to accept any role, from bus guarding to backstage work, lunch deliveries, taking photos, or banning photography, without thinking which of these roles may suit my capabilities or which was higher or lower. Because in Dafa there is no high or low, and as trivial as a role may seem in this dimension, in other dimensions it may be the majestic divine act of our cultivated side, which is earth-shaking.

Master has repeatedly talked about Shen Yun, but it was as if I only recently enlightened to his words at the Fa Teaching at the New York Fa Conference on the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Dafa’s Introduction to the Public.

I’m finally able to feel the enormous compassion of Master, who is personally saving people using classical Chinese dance. Some of those people might have been from our paradises.

At this phase of the transition from Fa-rectification of the cosmos to Fa-rectification of the human world, we must focus on the most effective way to save people, and that is Shen Yun. I hope there will be more opportunities like those above.

Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!

(Sharing paper submitted to the 2022 European Fa Conference)