My Experience of Hosting a Nine-Day Workshop

Recently, we hosted our city's first nine-day workshop. We doubled up on the two Sundays and had a potluck dinner in between the lectures. The two dinners epitomized the workshop: everyone smiled, laughed, shared stories and understanding and became good friends with one another. Perfect strangers were able to find harmony in a small kitchen and dining room and share their joy about obtaining the Fa [universal law and principle].

When we told practitioner friends from other cities about the results of the workshop, they were all very encouraged. Seven people started the videos and the same seven people finished. Throughout, there were eight other people who saw at least one of the videos. Every one of us had a wonderful time getting to know others and talking about our understanding and life experiences. On top of that, after the final video, we all stayed to talk for two and a half hours about ways to help other people know about Dafa.

For a long time we had wanted to host a nine-day workshop but couldn't find space. But an opportunity finally came when we gave a one-day workshop at a local library. A woman who attended was very taken with Falun Gong, and bought Falun Gong, the introductory text. Seeing her genuine interest, a practitioner who had traveled two hours one way to help out at the workshop bought her a copy of Zhuan Falun. Within several days, the new practitioner finished Falun Gong, taught herself the exercises and started reading Zhuan Falun. A week later, when she attended our weekly group practice, we told her about Master Li's 9-day video lecture and how we had a copy of the last lectures that he had given. Realizing how special the videos are, she graciously offered to open up her home for the nine-day workshop.

Several weeks later, we had been able to work out a schedule. Just four days before we started, four new people contacted us and learned about the workshop. Seeing how this seemed to be arranged helped me enlighten to some of my own attachments and, as a result, helped the workshop turn out so successfully. Please allow me to share my experience.

At the start, I was overly worried about the atmosphere in the new practitioner's home. People tended to come late and then talk a lot so that we started the videos a half hour later than planned. They got up frequently, sometimes made comments during the videos, suggested that we skip the first ten minutes of Lecture One, and even insisted on rewinding certain parts because they were interesting. In addition, before and after the videos, half of them would smoke while seemingly judging different parts of the videos from the perspective of other practices and traditions they had studied. Taking all of this in, I grew overly anxious and despondent. I even attempted to abruptly curb the discussion. But soon, I realized this work for Dafa was pointing out some of my own attachments.

I was then able to look at the environment from a positive light. By some miraculous stroke of fortune, seven people and some of their friends sprinkled throughout the room, were getting a chance to see and hear a video recording of Teacher! They came of their own volition and excitedly talked about what they were learning in terms that they could understand. Because one's attention span can easily drift during the videos, they at least wanted to get themselves comfortable and situated beforehand, as this would help them stay alert. Obviously enthusiastic about the videos, when they would have to go to the toilet, they would run to and from the bathroom.

An environment that was more lax than I had previously thought appropriate naturally emerged. We agreed to pause the videos half way through for a five-minute stretch break. Before and after the videos, people had free reign to talk. I came to understand that my anxiety over such circumstances was the result of a lack of in depth understanding. Our Teacher's Gong and the virtuous deeds of the practitioners in China and those outside of China who have stepped forward to validate and spread the Fa are manifesting in human society at an unprecedented rate. More and more people are learning about Falun Dafa; seeds are being planted and seeds are beginning to sprout. People of all sorts and from all levels are coming to learn Dafa. This is absolutely splendid!!! Any form someone's interest takes, seen from a certain level, is pure splendor!!! Then, on this level of the Fa, shouldn't such an event be joyful?

I realized that, as a veteran practitioner hosting the nine-day workshop, my duty was to accommodate the attendees by harmonizing my understanding of the Fa with the life experiences that they brought with them. I encourage all practitioners to look into the possibility of hosting a potluck dinner to start off and finish your next nine-day workshop!