(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I would like to tell you about my experiences while I was part of the security team during the Shen Yun performances.
I’ve been part of the security team for years, and my understanding of our role has gradually matured. We have specific tasks, such as handling disruptions or copyright issues, and stopping people from taking photos during the show and asking them to erase any they might have taken. But I have come to view our overall role more broadly, such as guarding the performances with righteous thoughts and our specific tasks are like anchors.
It takes only a minute to explain this, but it has taken me years and a lot of practice to learn how to do it better, and I still need to improve. On the one hand, we need to be ready to quickly address whatever disruptions might occur. On the other, we need to stay very calm and low-key. We are responsible for noticing if someone takes a photo, yet we shouldn’t “search for problems” in the audience. When we talk to people, we need to be professional and firm in explaining the rules, yet very kind, polite, and pleasant.
I also realized the importance of de-emphasising ourselves. A clear example of this is the fact that we stand in the auditorium during the performance, but we should not watch it: our eyes are on the audience. Another manifestation of it is the requirement for us to be visible as little as possible, be it in the auditorium during the show or when walking among the audience in the halls. I think our approach and mindset should switch from “we have our jobs to do” to “we are here to serve others.”
Working on the security team gives us a great opportunity to cultivate ourselves, eliminate attachments and karma, and help save sentient beings. I see it as a grand blessing from Master to be able to help with Shen Yun and experience that righteous environment.
Master said,
“Don’t mistakenly think that when you have helped to raise awareness about Dafa and the persecution, joined in Dafa activities, or participated in Dafa projects, you have done something for Dafa or for me. That is my providing you with ways to save and help one another, to rescue people together, and at the same time save yourselves; so during these latter days, beings are able to help save one another.” (“Stay Out of Danger”)
I participated in the security team for performances in Vienna, Salzburg, and Prague this season. Each provided me with an interesting episode worth reflecting on.
My Experiences in Vienna
Despite working in the security team for many years, I never managed to handle one part of our job well. When we ask people to erase a photo, we should follow up by telling them to permanently erase it from the trash bin as well, since an erased photo is stored there for some time. I never did that. I was insecure about whether I would be able to explain it well, given my limited German, and also whether I would be able to help the person locate the trash bin on their phone. I was worried it might be too bothersome to people. I let it go with the excuse that it gets erased on its own after a few days.
Before the first show this year I realized that this was a loophole, and I decided to overcome it. I put my fear and other emotions aside and learned how to locate the trash bin on various types of phones.
The opportunity soon came. Three people, I assumed they were a mother and her two daughters, entered the auditorium a bit late, and so they missed the reminders that taking photos is prohibited. After a while, one of them took a photo. They were sitting close to me so I was easily able to approach them and ask them to not do it.
During the intermission I went to the young lady, determined to ask her to erase the photo, also from the trash bin. I was not forcing or pushing myself to do it and I was very calm. To my surprise, the young lady spoke English fluently. She was very understanding, cooperative, and pleasant. She even apologized, and we permanently erased the photos.
This experience went so smoothly that it was immediately clear to me that Master was helping me. It reminded me, and deepened my understanding, of how important the genuine will to cultivate and follow Dafa is. It truly felt miraculous: the moment my wish to do well arose, Master opened all the doors for me.
As practitioners, we may sometimes feel a bit stuck in cultivation, knowing that we should do better but not knowing how to improve. When I encounter these situations, I have always been tempted to “do something”: study the Fa, do the exercises, send forth righteous thoughts, etc. These are all things we should do and this helps, but if we stick to the mentality of “doing this or that,” I think we might be missing something. When I tried to improve my situation this way, it usually had only a limited impact. What I think is key to making a breakthrough is the genuine will to cultivate, to change ourselves, and to follow Dafa.
My Experiences in Salzburg
Something that happened during the shows in Salzburg revealed a fairly big loophole in my thinking and approach. Towards the end of one show, a fellow practitioner signaled to me that he would like my help. (When possible, we approached people in pairs, one talking and the other sending forth righteous thoughts.) As the curtain closed, I quickly joined the practitioner, and he explained the situation. He saw two photos taken near the end of the show: one photographer was close to him, the other far away and at the centre of the audience.
I noticed he seemed a bit stressed. I was a bit surprised and thought: “He’s always very calm. I’ve never seen him like this.” I kept having these thoughts as we went to both groups and erased the photos with them.
Afterwards, I thought the whole thing through. This practitioner faced a very challenging situation, but he remained determined to do his part no matter what. First, he went to the lady near him as soon as people started to leave. She was reluctant to cooperate, yet he kept explaining, politely but firmly, and she then agreed. He then asked her to erase the photos from the trash bin as well, and she did it. Even though this took some time, the practitioner then quickly continued to search for the second person, sitting at the very center. It’s usually very hard to find people in the center once the audience members stand up and start leaving. Yet in this case, our target remained seated even after everyone around him had already left. We went to him, and he was even less pleased about it than the lady. He used various excuses, but the practitioner patiently kept explaining and, in the end, he cooperated.
The practitioner had to overcome several obstacles. I reflected on how I would have handled this situation and felt I wouldn’t have been able to resolve more than one issue. I would probably have decided to focus only on the lady that was close to me, thinking that the chances I could keep track of the person in the middle were minimal. I would have waited until she walked out of the auditorium. But she would have said, as she did, that she was in a hurry and needed to catch a train. If I had at least managed to convince her to erase the photos, I would most likely not even have mentioned erasing them from the trash bin.
It’s good to remain very calm and try to handle issues as smoothly as possible, but this isn’t our priority.
It reminds me of what Master said,
“They tell the students that the students have reached Consummation and no longer need to practice; that the students should conform to ordinary people as much as possible; that the students should turn in their books, and so on. With this nonsense, they have deceived some students who, in the midst of demonic ordeals, don’t want to stay in the human world and want to achieve Consummation as soon as possible. In the Fa, I have told you to conform with ordinary people as much as possible while cultivating. But I have never said that you should just conform to everyday people [as an ends in itself]. If you are no different from an ordinary person, are you still a cultivator?” (“Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s),” The Essentials of Diligent Progress II)
This incident gradually showed me several layers of understanding. It reminded me that the cultivation process is not smooth sailing and that we can’t shy away from facing obstacles. As I wrote this sharing, I also realized how much this mindset of emphasizing appearance over substance has interfered with my mission as a Dafa practitioner. As I dug deeper and thought about it more, I saw that there is even more to this.
Since we are Dafa practitioners of the Fa-rectification period, we shouldn’t focus merely on personal cultivation, and we have our grand mission of helping Master save sentient beings. As I understand it, this means that we need to care about how others perceive our behavior and we need to clarify the truth about the persecution in a way that people can understand, etc...
This led me to think about the term “validating the Fa.” I think this is key to what we should do, but what does it mean? Of course, I have no way of knowing what validating the Fa truly means, but I would like to share my very limited understanding of how it can manifest or what it may contain.
Master said,
“Dafa is the wisdom of the Creator. It is the bedrock of creation, what the heavens, earth, and universe are built upon. It encompasses all things, from the utmost minuscule to the vastest of the vast, while manifesting differently at each of the cosmic body’s planes of existence.” (“On Dafa” (Lunyu), Zhuan Falun)
Dafa created everything, and it is manifested on every plane. So I think a practitioner can validate the Fa by always searching for Dafa in whatever situation he might find himself in. It entails having faith that Dafa will always provide us with a path we can walk. How to cultivate in specific environments, how to clarify the truth to various people: Dafa has answers to all questions. If we are flexible and truly seek these answers, instead of rigidly insisting on doing things “our” way, then I think we are validating the Fa.
Then what went wrong in my case? How is it that, instead of validating the Fa, something so sacred, I often tend to slip into “conforming to everyday people” and barely cultivating? I believe the Fa from the article “Eliminate Your Last Attachment(s)” quoted above gives us the answer: in the article, the secret agents were telling the students “… that the students should conform to ordinary people as much as possible; that the students should turn in their books, and so on.”
In my case the deviated state comes from interference, and it is a form of persecution and an old forces’ trap.
My Experiences in Prague: Putting Others First
This year the performances in Prague started on Friday, but I planned to go there on Wednesday to attend some meetings related to my ordinary work. At the beginning of the week, my wife started to feel unwell, and on Tuesday evening her fever rose above 40°C. She could barely take care of herself, let alone our three children.
I canceled my plans for Wednesday and Thursday, but I was determined to leave on Friday morning so that I could arrive on time for my duty in the security team. My wife spent Wednesday in bed, and I took care of the kids. I knew I shouldn’t stress my wife, so I didn’t talk about leaving. I tried to be supportive and calm, but internally I was resolute that everything would be fine. By Thursday evening she had improved to the point where she could manage after I left.
I arrived in Prague on Friday afternoon and joined the team. Some hours before the show, I started to feel unwell, as if I was getting ill. Around 90 minutes before the show, I went to my position. I felt a bit dizzy and nauseous, and I worried whether I would be able to do my job. But I thought I should not disrupt others from focusing on Shen Yun with my personal issues, so I kept it to myself. I reminded myself that “this is not about me” and just kept sending forth righteous thoughts.
When people started to enter the theater, I completely switched my focus on assisting them, and suddenly all my problems disappeared. I think it was this simple decision that made all the difference: I didn’t wait to first feel better or to figure out why I felt unwell; instead, I unconditionally disregarded my own things and just did what was needed so that people could watch Shen Yun.
I believe that this switch from “self” to “others” reflects the difference between just personal cultivation and our mission of helping Master save sentient beings. Of course, cultivation is always first, and it is the foundation of all we do as practitioners. When we face problems, we should look inward and search inside. I think our main mission of saving others actually helps us to understand how to look inward. In my understanding, looking inward should not revolve just around ourselves, like when an ordinary person gets stuck in endless self-criticism or self-questioning. Instead, it should be based on putting others first and altruism.
At the time the above experiences occurred, I realized that they contained some hints for me. I reflected on these experiences when I began thinking about writing this sharing, and they formed into a coherent picture. But it was only after I truly put my heart into writing that I suddenly started to see things clearly. At some moments, I felt bombarded with new understandings, and many of my loopholes were revealed to me with unusual clarity, and they suddenly seemed so connected to one another. I realized how far I am from validating the Fa, both at home and at work. I am very grateful for this Fa conference and the opportunity to write down my sharing.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
(Presented at the 2026 European Fa Conference)