(Minghui.org) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I am writing here to share some of the understandings I gained while helping to promote Shen Yun.
When I recall the two month period when I was at the mall to sell Shen Yun tickets, I realize that every ticket booth at a mall is actually a window to save sentient beings and a platform for every practitioner to cultivate. All the different kinds of people and different kinds of things we encountered at the mall are opportunities for us disciples to improve our xinxing.
Getting Rid of My Attachment to Showing Off
One day, I sold 19 tickets in the mall. After I got home, I joyfully told my sister-in-law (a non-practitioner) while I was cleaning up: “I sold 19 tickets today!” She replied without any expression: “Does this merit being so happy? Isn’t it true that you came here just to sell tickets? It would be odd if you didn’t sell tickets.” I said: “I sold 19 tickets in one day, and I felt that I sold so many; that’s why I was so happy.” She then replied, “You should think this way: if you were not here today, another person would be here, and he or she for sure could sell 19 tickets and might even sell more tickets than you. Why are you so complacent?” My sister-in-law’s words were just like a stick hitting me on my head, and it woke me up. My attachment of showing off and complacency was very strong, and Master was reminding me with my sister-in-law’s mouth. Selling tickets in the mall is to assist Master to rectify the Fa and save sentient beings; we should keep a pure heart. It is all done by Master’s Fashen. When we have a pure heart, Master’s fashen will bring the people who have a predestined relationship to the ticket booth and buy tickets. How can I be complacent and show off ? Later on, my heart wasn’t moved up or down by the number of tickets I sold on a particular day.
Cultivating My Compassion While Selling Tickets
I encountered all different kinds of people in the mall. Often, I judged people with an ordinary mindset. For example, I liked to judge people based on their how they dressed; then I made my own judgment of how wealthy those people were. I then judged whether the people would buy tickets or not based on my mindset. One day a customer in very casual clothing came to our booth and watched the brief TV introduction in front of the TV. After a fellow practitioner introduced the Shen Yun show to him, he then started to carefully go through the Shen Yun booklet one page after another. I had a thought at that moment. Should I say more to him? I then had another thought; the other practitioner already spoke to him. He didn't look like a person with money. I guessed that he might not buy tickets even if he liked the show. I concluded that I did not need to say more to him, but just let him read by himself.
After he finished reading the booklet, he asked me for the seating chart and the prices. He said that he would like to buy two tickets for his parents. I asked him why he did not buy one more for himself so he could accompany his parents to see the show? He said that he had never seen such bright and beautiful colors before and that the melody of the Shen Yun music had deeply touched his soul. He showed me the goose bumps on his arm. He said that this must be a very special show, “My parents are over 80 years old, I don’t know when they will leave this world. I want them to see the show first, but my financial ability is very limited. I will wait and let my parents tell me how beautiful this show is after they watch it. Then I will go to see it next year!” While I was helping him choose the seats, I could not help tearing up. I blamed myself for my previous thoughts, felt ashamed about my attachment to judging others, and was very touched by his respect for Shen Yun. After he bought the tickets, he left his email address and his contact number, reminding me to make sure to let him know when Shen Yun comes back next year. I could not stop myself from crying after he left.
While reading the next morning, Master’s Fa about compassion deeply touched me. Master said:
“... compassion is a trait of righteous gods. That is not to say that simply wishing to do some good counts as compassion. When someone is seized by a whim and acts on it, that doesn’t count as compassion. Rather, in that case it stems from the person’s likings. Or put more bluntly, it’s out of attachment. True compassion doesn’t have any selfishness mixed in, and one will, when dealing with anyone, or sentient beings in general, look at things with righteous thoughts and loving kindness.” (“What is a Dafa Disciple”)
When Master spread Dafa in the beginning years, Master dragged us from hell and cleansed us; He never disliked and avoided us. Today, we are helping Master to rectify the Fa and save sentient beings, how can we choose the sentient beings? We should not block the sentient beings from being saved because of our human thoughts. On the other hand, I have seen the compassion and peacefulness of other disciples from Canada who came to help. One was a new practitioner from Canada who attained the Fa in 2009. When she was helping sell tickets in the mall, she always introduced Shen Yun to everyone no matter what kind of appearance they had and regardless of whether they would buy tickets or not. This greatly touched me, and I admired her for doing so.
Purifying Myself While Selling Tickets
The pure hearts of the Canadian practitioners also influenced me. I deeply realized that the more pure my heart is, the stronger is the energy field that forms between me and the scene on the TV and background music, and the more people who have a predestined relationship with the Fa will come to the booth and buy tickets. The people who come to buy tickets all have predestined relationships, but they are not necessarily rich. Master said at “Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Switzerland”:
“As I mentioned before, when you speak to others with your own goals in mind, wanting to change or persuade them, no matter how reasonable your words are, other people will have a hard time completely accepting them. Nor can the words move people’s hearts. Why? Let me tell you: It’s actually because the words you say contain all of your thoughts. Your sentences have complicated thoughts included in them, such as your human emotions and desires, and even those many attachments of yours. That makes your words not so powerful and rather diluted. Also, people often look at things from their own viewpoints when they say things to others, and those might not conform to the Fa of the universe. So in this respect they lack the power of Truth. Moreover, when speaking to others, people add things to protect themselves so that they won’t get hurt. In other words, the intention behind your words is no longer pure, then. And as a result your words get really frivolous. But when your mind can truly become tranquil, when your attachments get less and less, or when the distracting thoughts get less and less, then you’ll find that your words have power. Why was it that when I spoke about non-action I mentioned that you shouldn’t interfere with things that shouldn’t be interfered with? That’s because your words already have power, and words with power can change people. It doesn’t matter if your changing someone seems right, you might be doing something wrong. You don’t know the truth since what your eyes see is superficial, and since you can’t perceive karmic reasons from the past. Your mind will become increasingly pure as you reach higher levels. What your thinking brings forth then, and what you say, will be extremely pure. The purer and simpler they are, the more they conform to the principles of that level of the universe. The words you speak then can instantly pierce people’s hearts, strike the depths of people’s thoughts, and strike the more microscopic part of their existences. Now isn’t that going to be powerful?! So if you can become tranquil, that ability signifies that you have reached a certain realm.”
Let us leave our personal preference alone, eliminate our personal distractions, and keep a pure heart to save sentient beings by introducing Shen Yun to every person with a predestined relationship. I remembered many customers who bought tickets last year. When I saw them in the mall, I could still recognize them from all the people that passed by our booth. I still remember their address and profession and even their seating area. Some of the previous customers bought tickets again this year after they were recognized.
Treating the Shen Yun Advertisement Design Seriously
This year, the amount of work for the advertisement designs for our area was huge. There were so many different newspapers and so many different versions. Moreover, the coordinator had so many requirements for the advertisement design in very minute detail. However, I am one who does not like to use my head and dig into details too much. I always thought that we just needed to add the local information to the general design that Shen Yun gave us. Actually it was my laziness that hindered me, and I tried to avoid the hassle. So when the coordinator told me that I had to change this or that in the design and that I had no choice but to follow his directions and satisfy his requirements, I did so, but with strong, unhappy feelings. One time after the advertisement in the newspaper came out, the coordinator discovered that the ticket hotline number for ordering tickets was wrong. He called me and asked me to correct it; he did not blame me, but instead kept saying that it was all his fault. Several tens of thousands of newspapers had been printed and the ticket hotline number was wrong. This couldn't be a single person's fault. I was extremely upset that day and kept blaming myself again and again in my heart: “How could I design the Shen Yun advertisement with my personal mood? This caused a huge loss.” Then I started to calm down and told myself: “I have to treat the Shen Yun ad design more seriously, pass on the positive energy and message to the readers, and let all of them buy tickets after they see the ads.” After this lesson, every time the coordinator asked me to modify the design, I tried to understand his thinking. Especially for the design for the wrap ad, since Shen Yun only gave us one version for the wrap design. But the coordinator asked me to change the whole contents of the page. I had to use my head to think about what needed to be added and what pictures needed to be changed. I had to calm down and read everything in the Shen Yun calendar and cooperate with the coordinator to create a new design for each wrap. Through cooperation with the coordinator, I understood that I should never deny other people's ideas with my own notions.
Shen Yun 2013 is coming. Let every one of us cherish this precious opportunity, awaken the sentient beings, and fulfill our prehistoric oath.
