(Clearwisdom.net) The NTDTV Chinese New Year Spectacular played in Berlin on February 28th. We have gone through the tough and busy time of promoting the show, have seen good box-office sales, and have heard good feedback from the audience. Now I would like to calm myself down from all of it and look for the problems that occurred during the process. I'd like to share this with my fellow German practitioners so that we can all improve together.
During the process of the ticket promotion, I have found that many schools, companies, and old people's homes haven't heard the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution. I feel that we have not done nearly enough clarifying the truth; many practitioners have found themselves somewhat isolated from ordinary society. Thus when we needed to find these institutions, many practitioners had to talk to them as strangers at the beginning.
There were however two examples of the opposite of this. An elder German practitioner and a Chinese practitioner own a restaurant. Because of their understanding of the Fa and their broad contact with ordinary people, they were able to promote several dozen tickets among their friends.
One of the important ways of promoting the show was to play the DVD from the previous shows. Last November we started to make a German version of this DVD, but we later stopped, and then, after some time, wanted to start again. The DVD was still being modified even in mid-February. One day we were told not to use this version, and next day we would be told not to use that version. Was it the self-cultivation problems of the participants that were reflected in the Dafa work? The losses that resulted from this were quite obvious.
In the beginning of promoting the tickets, we told all of the practitioners in other places not to come to Berlin to help. But at the last minute when it was urgent, we asked all of the practitioners in Europe for help. Was there a mistake in the decision making? In the parade event of the Divine Land Marching Band on February 10th, we did not wisely pass out the information of the Spectacular to the public. We emphasized too much on following the human laws; is it that we had notions of ordinary people in our minds and did not discover and discard them in time? Did we carefully plan and think about the expense and effects of each type of advertisement? In the end, when we found out about a good way of advertising and wanted to add more of that type, we had already run out of funds. Many practitioners only got their assignments of where to promote the show in the morning. Thus, often times after they found the directions, it was already 10am or 11am when they left home. This kind of coordination was perhaps not done as well as in everyday people's companies. Especially the coordination in the last two days. I felt really worried and embarrassed.
I am not blaming anybody in pointing out these issues. I know that the coordinators of some projects were very busy during this period. They often didn't get to go home until 2am or 3am every day. Now the busiest time is over. We should be sure that we don't use the good results to cover up the part of our xinxing that needs to be improved. We should calm down to study the Fa and look within. Everybody, including myself, should think about it.
This is the first time that the show was held in Germany, so our practitioners did not have any experience. We could have shared more with the French or North American practitioners, who had done it for three or four years. Our sharing should not be limited to only the practitioners in France or North America who prepared for the show, but also with those who have realized the importance of the show. In this way, practitioners from different areas could also share experiences with the local practitioners, which could help more people in understanding the new period in Fa-rectification, and bring along more people to participate. This time, French practitioners thought of a way to promote the tickets: Playing short introduction videos of the show in the television-sale section of the malls, with practitioners wearing traditional costumes standing alongside to pass out flyer's. This was a form of advertisement that required small funds but gave a great result.
We had a good sharing on the second to last day before the show. The discussion was on whether or not we should stay to study the Fa in order to adjust our states of cultivation, or whether we should go out to promote the tickets, and adjust our state in the process. A practitioner who had just come back from New York shared an experience with everyone: If we have cultivated for so long, but at the time when the Teacher asks us to do well, and when Fa-rectification requires us to do well, we still use "not ready" as an excuse, then we will probably never be ready; we should just go and do it. Her sharing had a very strong and righteous effect in changing the situation at the time.
In the crucial time during the last day, every practitioner that participated in promoting the show witnessed that it didn't really matter how much was done by the practitioners. In the end, the show was done in accordance with the criteria of Teacher and Fa-rectification. This has allowed me to have a better understanding of "Fa-rectification has to succeed". It also made me value the time of cultivation today. I must be strict with myself and carefully look for my shortcomings according to the Fa.
