(Clearwisdom.net)
I. Background
It is not incidental that my wife knows tailoring. After we were married, children arrived in our lives one after another. Although I work at a government office with good job security, I have been constantly unwell and have had several big surgeries. I frequently went to see doctors in the emergency department uncertain of my welfare. If I were to die early, who would provide for my kids?
For this reason, twenty years ago my wife studied at a garment tailoring school for three years. After graduation she opened a dress shop, passed the class B Lady's Wear Technical Exam sponsored by the government, and received training in Japan for two months. She therefore became a very good tailor. Now that we look back, she was in fact preparing for Fa-validation. One's life is like a stage show, and Teacher has pre-arranged the roles for each of us to play in it.
Teamwork in Costume Making |
The costume group has always been loosely organized. When New Tang Dynasty TV was assembling the 2004 Global Chinese New Year Gala, a thundering Drum and Flag show was put together. All the costumes and flags used in this performance were completed stitch by stitch by a group of practitioners, including my wife. Normally, all group members were busy with other projects. They only got together when they were needed to make costumes for anti-torture demonstrations or special performances. Due to a lack of exchanging insights and Fa study, the group was gradually losing its members.
Just before putting on the 2006 New York Global Chinese New Year Gala, the CCP attempted to block the export of the costumes ordered by the Gala from China by interfering with international commercial trade affairs. Teacher emphasized the importance of the Gala in "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles,"
"The performances have the direct effect of validating the Fa and saving sentient beings. Their impact is thus quite significant, and their effects are quite good. If we could keep doing this non-stop, instead of having just a few shows, like at present, if we could put on more shows, then think about how many sentient beings would be saved! Do you realize, when those who have watched the Gala walk out of the theatre any and all bad thoughts they had have been dissolved? All of their bad thoughts are gone. That's why people found it so powerful."
II. Studying the Fa
 Group Fa Study |
Many practitioners had such a question in their mind: "How can it be equivalent to clarifying the truth? How can one establish mighty virtue making costumes?" They did not feel much difference compared to making clothing before they started cultivation.
We came to realize that making clothing and accessories is a necessary industry for the future new humankind. It is a part of art creation, and will influence the maintenance or decadence of the morality of humankind. In 2003 Teacher mentioned in "Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art,"
"Of course, modern society’s arts aren’t limited to paintings, drawings, and sculptures—there are also crafts, advertisements, fashion, theatre, television and movie production, product design, etc. There are a plethora of professions related to the arts; in other words, they are all related to fine art. But no matter what profession it is, if the artist himself establishes an upright foundation, then no matter what works he creates, they’ll all be infused with upright elements, and they’ll all be wonderful, good, and will benefit people. That’s for sure. Generally speaking, this is what I’ve seen with mankind’s arts."
In his "Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005" lecture, Teacher responded to practitioner's questions saying:
"Dafa disciples are using their unique strengths as they validate the Fa. These are things Dafa disciples should do, and it can be said that they are making the most of their talents to do what Dafa disciples should do, so that is a great thing. In fact, isn't this the case with everyone? Those of you who are good at computers are breaking through the Internet blockade and clarifying the truth online, and of course there are those with other talents. It's all the same. Those who really don't have special talents are handing out flyers on the streets, and the mighty virtue is the same. No one will fail to reach a high realm in cultivation because society doesn't consider what he or she does scientifically or technologically advanced. That's impossible."
Teacher also said:
"Isn't everyone putting his own abilities to use and finding the right spot to validate the Fa? You aren't all doing the same thing. I just talked about this, right? [Didn't I say] that the Great Way has no form, and everyone is proactively validating the Fa within his own social stratum and profession using his own unique strengths?"
In fact, the impact of Dafa's media with regard to validating the Fa and clarifying the truth is becoming ever greater. This includes not only the media on the surface, the power of TV media is even more unlimited. The mighty virtue established by TV media belongs to all participating fellow practitioners. As long as the participants really put their hearts into it, there is no difference as to the roles each one plays in it.
Teacher relieved some practitioner's doubts in "Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005" in the Q&A session:
"Some people say, 'I can save people directly by clarifying the truth to them. Today I convinced someone of the true situation through clarifying the facts. I feel so happy that this person has been saved.' Well, as far as the media goes, there too you will have a part in the role it plays saving sentient beings. Let's say that one hundred people are involved in this media work, then if the media saved one hundred people a day, one of them was definitely saved by you. Newspapers are distributed every day, so there are definitely more than one hundred people [saved], right? Then haven't you saved someone each day? That's definitely the principle that is at work here, for you have worked together to keep the newspaper running, which means that you are clarifying the truth together."
III. Cultivation
In order to avoid being interfered with by evil once again, preparation for next year's show started early. Most of the costumes would be made by Dafa practitioners outside of China. My wife accepted responsibility to coordinate the Taiwan costume group making costumes for North American needs. Since then her workload gradually increased. She often worked late into the night making samples and capturing the designers' intents, skipping meals and depriving herself of sleep. Once the samples were confirmed, volume production needed to be completed under a very tight timeframe. This whole process had become another trial in the cultivation of fellow practitioners.
On the evening of July 8, 2006, my wife received a phone call from a North American practitioner stating that dance costume 'A' had been confirmed and that the material used for male performers should be changed to the same as the female costumes. The next day she received a request that the costumes be ready for use in the performance scheduled for the following Saturday. The practitioners who were familiar with the process were all dumbstruck. How could this be possible? I heard my wife saying, "As long as Teacher says it is possible, it will be possible." The job was accepted, even though the North American practitioners had not yet even sent in their measurements. Dance costume 'A' had altogether 34 sets. The measurements would not be received until Monday. There would actually be only four work-days. At the time there were only six or seven members of the group excluding my wife. One to make samples, one to tailor and sew edges, and the rest had no experience at all but to help with basic sewing. Help would be needed from experienced practitioners living in other cities, however, there were only three or four candidates, and they all lived twenty to thirty miles away. Making a sample costume is different from volume production. My wife was immediately faced with many challenges. They had to buy the materials, dye the cloth, make another set of samples or make simplified drawings (to guide the sewers) before the original samples were sent to North America. How to arrange the production procedures and allocate jobs with limited manpower? In addition, where to find the vast help needed to sew on the glittering decorations towards the end?
This was the first time our practitioners were faced with such urgency. The job could not be finished without collective efforts, teamwork and cooperation. During the entire operation, inadequacies and attachments of many of the practitioners were exposed. For example, due to a last minute change of material, it was hard to find material of the same color. The cloth needed to be dyed, but the skills of dying could not be acquired overnight. The result was that the color of the costumes were not all identical. The practitioner who made the samples spent an extra half day on the job thinking that the sample could be made better, The practitioner who was doing the tailoring job always felt that her helpers were more of a hindrance and had added to her workload. A new practitioner who had just joined the team was bothered by household worries and concern for kids. Furthermore, some practitioners were mixing cultivation with the attachment of doing work ... The result was imaginable. The job still needed half a day's work to complete. They scrambled to pack things up and send it on the plane. Many thanks were owed to the North American practitioners who made up the shortfall by working through the night.
There were also many touching moments during the entire process. All the participating practitioners were determined to complete the job as best as they could. Some kept wiping their sweat even in an air-conditioned room. The practitioner in charge of deliveries was even driving on the highway until midnight despite bad weather brought by a typhoon. Many of the practitioners in charge of sewing had not slept for over 24 hours, but they continued sewing. Ironically, after the job was hurried to the end, the plane to take the practitioner delivering the costumes was continuously delayed. In the end we understood it after we reviewed Teacher's lectures, "Teaching the Fa in Canada, 2006" and "Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Canada Fa Conference,"
"I’ve told you before that, when it comes to cultivation, any cultivator in the past would, like you, have a tough cultivation predicament, one of grueling, long-term tests. And especially when a person cultivates with things that benefit him in practical ways right around him, that’s truly hard. Many chances to gain are right there, tempting cultivators, and when you let down your guard just a little bit, your thinking, your understanding, and even your human thoughts will lead you to drift along with the current. So this form of cultivation is very hard. But because it’s hard, seen from a different angle, it shows that the Dafa disciples today are able to cultivate to high levels. If the environment were not so trying, then the direct tests of the cultivator’s human surface and of the main body of that person’s being would not be so intense." ("Teaching the Fa at the 2005 Canada Fa Conference")
We are deeply touched. We Taiwan practitioners had been used to a relaxed environment. It was Teacher who painstakingly arranged this good opportunity allowing us to advance in our cultivation. Thank you, our merciful and almighty Teacher!
IV. Improvement
My wife once told me that, as far as she knew, many overseas practitioners came from mainland China. They left behind their families, and life was quite difficult. Sometimes they even lacked the bus fare to come out and validate the Fa and clarify the truth. For many practitioners, if additional dance costumes were to be purchased, it would create more difficulty for the Fa-validation activities of some practitioners. She knew that making the samples and paying salaries were the most pricey part of the costumes. Her special talent means big savings to fellow practitioners validating the Fa. After hearing this, I felt very moved. I was very respectful of her and was happy to identify with her and show my support.
Practitioner Zhao first became a practitioner to maintain her relationship with her husband who was a Dafa practitioner. She admitted that she did not quite identify with Dafa. After this period of time, through group Fa study and sharing insights, and also through observing the dedication of other practitioners as well as the harmonious relationships of husbands and wives cultivating together, she was deeply touched. Without mentioning anything to others she sold a semi-automatic baking apparatus located on the first floor of her house and made room for a sewing workshop. This helped avoid bothering the neighbors living downstairs during night production. She had never handled a needle and thread before, and now she has learned to operate a sewing machine.
Sister You has a straight-forward personality. She has worked in sewing for over thirty years but had never done any work as hard as working on Dafa projects. In great frustration she said something about quitting cultivation. After exchanging views with fellow practitioners, she realized that she was too eager to complete the work and thus exposed her lack of tolerance. She had forgotten that other practitioners were beginners in sewing. Now that she came to see her mission of guiding the other inexperienced practitioners, she put all her efforts into the work and took the initiative to help other practitioners in the sewing workshop.
I once visited practitioner Lin's house in Donghu four times within 24 hours to fetch or deliver things. I had a short conversation with her when I arrived the third time at around 11:00 p.m. She told me that her husband used to strongly reject to religion after her father-in-law became bed-ridden due to a stroke, her mother-in-law left home to become a nun and the family became heavily indebted. Practitioner Lin had to help her husband deal with the difficulties, making money by maintaining a home-based business using her tailoring skills. It was fortunate that she was introduced to Dafa by her sister-in-law. She could cultivate at home, and could validate Dafa by simply making costumes. This was just wonderful. She told me not to hesitate to ask whenever help was needed, and that given the limited time, she could finish the third batch of work as soon as possible. As expected, she phoned me to pick up her work very early the following morning. When I arrived at her house at around 7 a.m., I was very moved to see she had not slept at all the entire night, so I thanked her. She said in high spirits that there was no need for thanking her and said, "You are the one who really worked hard!" Through these simple words you can feel the truthfulness in her heart.
Many other practitioners experienced things they had never experienced before. They were called up at 4:00 in the morning, not to practice exercises but to sew glittery decorations onto the costumes. When threading needles, sometimes older practitioners did not have time to put on their glasses or use the special devices made for that purpose, but they could thread the needles effortlessly. Some became very tired after long hours of work. Once, a practitioner dozed off and was suddenly awoken when her needle stuck into another practitioner's foot. The other practitioner was also working in a haze and only felt she was being stung by a mosquito.
During the project, it was indeed hard to arrange group study. Although a DVD of Teacher's lectures was played at the work site, we felt that we could not concentrate on listening to the Fa. After the project was over we quickly settled down and resumed our group study and exchanges of insights every afternoon. We took a photo that shows three Faluns in it. This is really a precious picture. Teacher has been encouraging us. Indeed, studying the Fa is the most basic of all cultivation activities.
After this experience we were all able to find some of our gaps and inadequacies. Whenever there were conflicts, we learned to look inside ourselves for attachments or baggage that needed to eliminate. After this trial we discovered that we all had become more mature in our cultivation. We know that every day we shall lose no time but to solidly complete the three things Teacher asked us to do. Thank you Teacher! We also thank all practitioners in advance for pointing out any mistakes.
