Overcoming Tribulations to Succeed in Fulfilling My Mission

(Minghui.org) I started practicing Falun Dafa in 1998, but fell into a rut after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began persecuting Falun Gong one year later. I stopped practicing for about five or six years and resumed just before my family left for Korea.

It has been 17 years since I joined the Korean Tian Guo Marching Band in 2009. At the beginning, a fellow practitioner told me that the difficulty was not in playing a snare drum, but in playing it incessantly. After weathering many storms, I more fully understood the meaning of those words. Discussed below are some of my cultivation experiences with the marching band.

Joining the Korean Tian Guo Marching Band

The Korean Tian Guo Marching Band was led by a music professional, and the technical requirements for its members were high. Because I had a decent ear for music and a lot of basic training, I easily passed the rigorous band entrance test and joined the snare drum team.

My daughter was going through the process of karma elimination when I was asked to participate in a parade the next day. While other drummers congratulated me, my mind was chaotic. However, I suddenly felt a sense of mission and became calm, as if nothing else mattered anymore.

I have participated in every Tian Guo Marching Band parade since then. Before each parade, I warmed up by practicing, and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate all factors that might interfere with the marching band and my efforts to assist Master Li in saving people. During the parade, I focused on reciting the Fa and sending forth righteous thoughts to maintain a pure state of mind.

At an Asian Fa Conference, I had the opportunity to collaborate with the Taiwan Tian Guo Marching Band. I was deeply impressed by their strict teamwork and superb playing skills. Their instruments were always arranged neatly and all members wore band uniforms. Designated persons were responsible for guiding pedestrians away from the procession. Thus, the procession looked very sacred and dignified.

I was later appointed as captain of the snare drum team. I was very happy and willing to work hard for the team. But a great tribulation suddenly came about just as my cultivation state appeared to be solid.

Passing a Life-or-Death Karma Test

Besides the Tian Guo Marching Band, I also participated in various projects involving media, truth clarification, and phone calls to China. I was extremely busy every day, often rushing from one event to another. Some fellow practitioners praised me for my diligent cultivation. But I was complacent, unknowingly becoming arrogant, and was exploited by evil.

One day, I almost passed out in a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate and only managed to stay upright by grabbing onto a fellow practitioner. I then experienced severe symptoms of sickness karma. I was in great pain, feeling that every cell in my body was being killed. I did not know where I had gone wrong in my cultivation. I was very weak, and struggled on the brink of death every day.

I thought that Master would help me as long as I cultivated diligently. So I stopped looking for the problems and treated myself as a new practitioner, starting cultivation anew. However, evil factors kept frantically interfering with my cultivation. While studying the Fa, it felt as if I was in a near comatose state, and my mind was not clear. I sometimes felt that I was wearing a thick steel helmet, and heard my own voice from a faraway place when I recited the Fa.

I often went out to study the Fa and send righteous thoughts in the morning, rain or shine. I listened to the Fa incessantly while walking. However, I was still depressed and felt desperate. To encourage me, Master arranged for me to see clusters of Udumbara flowers above the snow-covered shrubs in a small park where I often studied the Fa.

I attended the marching band parades whenever I felt a little bit better. On one occasion, I suddenly had chest tightness and shortness of breath halfway through the parade. I was worried that I might bring shame to Dafa if I fainted. So I let go of the attachment to the fear of a life-or-death situation, and gradually recovered my strength.

Due to my health conditions, I usually meditated while the band was playing. I recited the Fa with eyes half-opened until the music ended. Slowly, I was back to normal. It took me about one year to eliminate the sickness karma.

Joining the Toronto Tian Guo Marching Band

I joined the percussion group of the Toronto Tinguo Marching Band after my family moved to Canada in 2011. Many of the group members were from Hong Kong and Taiwan. The atmosphere was warm and cheerful, and I soon integrated into the new group. Although the Toronto band was not as demanding in playing techniques as those in Asia, its music was very inspiring and powerful.

I soon encountered overwhelming commitments involving media, family matters, and classes. I had no time to practice the new techniques and music pieces that the newly-hired instructor taught the group. Consequently, my cultivation dropped and my health was frequently disrupted. I later tried to practice whenever I could, but I just could not catch up with other drummers. I felt so awful that I almost quit the group to avoid this predicament.

My teammates tried hard to persuade me to stay, and one of them even shed tears as she spoke. I realized that I was too concerned about saving face and seemed to have forgotten my mission. Although I had not done well enough in drumming, I could still go about talking to people about Falun Dafa. With encouragement and help from my teammates, I persevered.

As my cultivation improved, I discovered my shortcomings. Diligence is not about doing a lot of things or being very busy and spectacular, but about the mindset. I reminded myself to be peaceful and stable, avoid extremes, learn to make choices, and keep a balance among projects, family life, and cultivation. I thus arranged more time for drumming practice, and gradually caught up with the pace.

Pushing Beyond Physical Limits

Drummers require a lot of physical strength during parades. They have to keep playing their instruments nonstop once the parade starts. They feel the drums getting heavier and heavier towards the end. Most people my age are already retired, but I am able to beat the drum for several hours in a parade. It is a testament to the power of Dafa.

I witnessed the power of Dafa in two of my events. One event occurred in the Calgary Stampede Parade. I had worked overtime at my job to make up for the time I took off for the parade. I was exhausted when I arrived in Calgary the night before the parade. Making things worse, I slept on a hard concrete floor and got very little sleep. I was extremely tired the next morning. The weather was very hot and the parade route was quite long. By the time the parade was over, I was completely drained. We then had to walk with our drums to a designated, distant location after our performance. Taking any further steps became a challenge. If it were not for Dafa, I wouldn’t have been able to make it.

Another event happened in a large parade during the New York Fa Conference. The weather was exceptionally hot. Due to evil interference, the parade procession moved very slowly, taking more than three hours to reach the end. But the drummers needed to play continuously, pushing my physical strength beyond the limits. I did not dare to drink or rest because the media cameras kept filming us. I was about to collapse. Certain thoughts related to my mission suddenly came to mind, making me feel that my life was still of value. The fatigue soon vanished as if my body had been cleansed by Dafa.

Conclusion

A fellow practitioner once said, “Beating the snare drum is not difficult. But the challenge lies in playing it continuously.”

In the article, Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference, Master taught us:

“With any project or any task, if you decide not to do it, then don’t do it; and if you do decide to do it, then you definitely have to do it well and carry it through to the end.” (Collected Teachings Given Around the World, Volume XI)

Once a march starts, the Tian Guo Marching Band would always see it through to the end regardless of weather conditions. This was one of their unique characteristics, which has impressed many people. The ability of the band members to validate the Fa persistently is closely linked to their cultivation state. I notice that my purity and holiness today is quite different from when I first joined the band.

Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!

(Selected Excerpts from the Cultivation Experience-Sharing Conference Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Tian Guo Marching Band)