A Sickness Tribulation During Promoting Shen Yun Pointed out My Cultivation Loophole

(Minghui.org) Two weeks before Shen Yun arrived in Taiwan this year, I arranged a ballroom to hold two tea sessions to introduce people to the show. The atmosphere was peaceful and harmonious. Not only did the guests feel that Shen Yun was a high-level arts performance filled with compassion and beauty, they realized it was also a show of a lifetime. The ticket sales were as high as ninety five percent or more. After the tea sessions were over, I invited friends to the ballroom for singing and dining. There were only two weeks left before Shen Yun opened in Taipei.

I made this arrangement because I knew that people have different tastes, so we needed to do things to suit what they like. For example, some people enjoy the tea sessions, while others find them boring. Some prefer the more relaxed atmosphere of dancing and singing and are happy to attend.

The guests enjoyed themselves. When my friends thanked me for hosting the events, and said they had a wonderful time, I mentioned that I was a volunteer and I’m helping to promote Shen Yun Performing Arts. I invited them to watch the world-class top performance at the Taipei Performing Arts Center.

Two weeks after the gathering, I brought eight friends who bought the higher class tickets, to see Shen Yun performance.

I did not dare relax for a minute while promoting tickets. Apart from organizing the above mentioned events to promote ticket sales in my area, I also tried my best to participate in other Shen Yun promotional events. I often went to the venue where we had a booth to introduce Shen Yun to people.

I understand that every minute on Earth is precious time that Master extended for us by exhausting everything he has so that we can save more people. Even though I am busy, I feel honored to assist Master during this historic time.

Tribulations Come

While promoting Shen Yun tickets, I also went through some tribulations and tests.

I suddenly felt very tired one day while I was promoting Shen Yun at a train station. I’ve practiced Falun Dafa for years, and I’m seldom tired. That afternoon, I felt tired just standing. I decided to go home early.

Soon after I came home, I developed a fever and I felt very weak. I went to bed. I wasn’t completely asleep but I did not have the energy to get up. Two days later, I started coughing. I took a COVID test, and the result was positive.

The pandemic has gone on for three years, and this was a scenario I never imagined I would be in. I deeply believe that practitioners have no illness, so whenever my body displayed illness symptoms, I just thought it was reducing my karma and I needed to bear a little hardship. Throughout my cultivation, I was seldom ill. I was not worried about the pandemic. I just did what a practitioner should do and I was not affected by events in the world.

However, I did not expect the illness symptoms to be so intense and I invited people for a singing session. I coughed so hard that I could not speak.

I knew that this tribulation must have come because I had some loopholes in my cultivation, which gave the old forces an excuse to interfere with me. I knew I needed to seriously look inward, find the problem, and correct it.

I maintained a very calm and stable mindset. Even if I coughed until I could not breathe, and felt very uncomfortable, I kept telling myself that I would get better. Nothing could interfere with promoting Shen Yun.

When I looked inward I found a very big loophole. Whenever I became busy I slacked off in doing the exercises. I reduced the one hour long second exercise to thirty minutes.

Master said:

“The higher energy that it develops will be stored in the cells throughout your body, reaching all the way to your particles in the tiniest and most invisible of realms where your physical existence begins from.” (The First Talk, Zhuan Falun)

Because I did not practice the exercises properly I lacked energy. That gave the old forces an excuse to attack me.

A practitioner who had been helping me told me that she could not come that day because she had an accident when she was riding her bike. That day, I coughed so hard that I could not even drink water. I thanked her for her support and wished her a speedy recovery. I did not tell any of the other practitioners or friends who planned to attend the gathering, that I had illness symptoms. Nor did I think about canceling the event. My heart was calm as I listened to Master’s lecture.

Due to my steadfast righteous belief in Master and the Fa, I overcame this most serious illness tribulation of my life, and the gathering went on as planned. That day, my voice just sounded a bit hoarse. If I did not tell everyone that I just recovered from a serious illness, they would never have found out. Eight people purchased tickets to see Shen Yun at the North Arts Center.

When the illness symptoms were most serious, I had thoughts like, “Better cancel the event! You can’t even speak properly, how are you going to host your friends to sing?” I negated this thought immediately. I knew that the old forces were exhausting their techniques, but it had no effect on me.

Master said:

“So whether it is good things or bad things you run into, so long as you cultivate in Dafa, they are all positive, to be sure.” (Teachings at the 2005 Conference in San Francisco)

It seemed on the surface that I was going through a tribulation. However, I was able to calm my heart down, look inward, and correct my incorrect state. It was actually a good thing and helped improve my cultivation. I also deeply experienced Master’s painstaking efforts to arrange every step in each of his disciples’ path of cultivation. They all help us improve and elevate in cultivation.

I had a deep understanding during the process of overcoming this illness tribulation, which is that we need to cherish every day even more.

If this tribulation did not happen, I would never have thought deeply and realized that Master bestowed special grace and honor on us practitioners. If a practitioner does not measure his thoughts and behavior against Dafa’s standards, and do what Master asks, but instead is attached to being lazy and leading a comfortable life, he will not even be able to lead a normal life. He may meet with great tests and tribulations that the old forces arrange to pull down those practitioners who do not meet the mark.

My cultivation for the past twenty years has been filled with sadness, happiness, hardship, and joy. I know deeply that these experiences have been meticulously arranged by Master.