(Minghui.org) From June 28 to 30, 2024, Falun Dafa practitioners in France used the three-day weekend to watch the video of Master Li’s “Teaching the Fa to Australian Practitioners” and talk about their cultivation experiences in promoting and assisting with the Shen Yun Performing Arts’ 2024 French tour. On the third day, practitioners read Zhuan Falun together and discussed their experiences over the three-day weekend. They said they benefited a lot physically and mentally from the gathering.
Practitioners share their experiences in promoting the Shen Yun Performing Arts’ 2024 French tour.
On the morning of June 30, practitioners met at the famous Luxembourg Gardens in Paris to demonstrate the Falun Dafa exercises. The French Senate is also located in this park. Because of the beautiful and comfortable environment, many tourists and local residents visit the historic site, and many people saw the exercise demonstration.
Practitioners do the Falun Dafa exercises in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.
Eliminating Jealousy
The first speaker was Ms. Huang, a Chinese reporter for NTDTV who was responsible for interviewing the audience during Shen Yun performances. She talked about her own mental journey of discovering and eliminating jealousy.
Ms. Huang said, “During this year’s Shen Yun coverage, I felt that there was a person in charge of film review who targeted me. He often found fault with every news report, and the better the content of the interview, the more minor faults he found. I felt it was very unfair. Why could other people’s not-so-good reports be broadcast smoothly, while my report, which had good content, had to be revised? Some of the reasons for the revisions also puzzled me.
“I thought: Is this jealousy? Is it to postpone the broadcast time of my report? However, in each revision process, I also found again and again that the effect was indeed better after the revision, and most of the effects were indirect, that is, modifying one place led to corresponding adjustments in other places, resulting in better overall results. This experience made me realize that this was a test I needed to pass, and it was not because the other practitioners were jealous of me. On the contrary, it was because of my jealousy that I had this test and this difficulty, which made me get rid of my unwillingness to accept others, my competitive mentality, and my feeling of superiority.
“During this year’s Shen Yun performances, the dance ‘Restaurant’ inspired me a lot. I didn’t quite understand it when I first watched it, but after watching it several times, I understood: In fact, cultivation is just like the story of ‘Restaurant.’ If there is dirt, clean it up, and if there is a mistake, correct it. There is no need to cover it up or hide it. Just correct it and clean it up. The process of correction and cleaning up is not as difficult as we imagine. As long as we are determined to change and practice it ourselves, in the collective melting pot, it will soon be effective.”
Looking Within and Finding Attachments
Ms. Helene Tong from Paris, said that she was originally the person in charge of Shen Yun product sales training, but she felt excluded during the Shen Yun tour. She said, “My heart was full of negative emotions. The grievance of not being taken seriously and the inability to understand other people’s emotions almost made me want to leave the team.” After studying the Fa and communicating, she understood that she was frustrated because of her strong mentality of showing off and her obsessive need to control everything.
She said, “I feel very lucky to be able to tour with Shen Yun all the way. The artists’ rigor, concentration, calmness, as well as their low-key and quietness, all allow me to see the gap between us and them, and push me to be more diligent.”
Improving Oneself While Distributing Leaflets
Ms. Christine Modox who lives in Marseilles in southern France, talked about how during the early activities to promote Shen Yun in France, no matter what difficulties they encountered, they persisted in distributing leaflets to local residents.
She encountered a gentleman who refused to accept the leaflet, which made her realize that she also looked down on others. She said, “Seeing his attitude reminded me that the other person was like a mirror. I should reflect on whether my behavior and words were decent and kind.”
She recalled that she had felt the same contempt and blame for some homeless people. She said, “They lived in the lobby adjacent to the ground floor of my building. This annoyed me, so I wrote a letter to expose their illegal behavior. Every time I passed by them, I looked at them with disdain and accusation. I later realized that what happened to me during the distribution of flyers was caused by my lack of compassion in my words and deeds. Nothing that practitioners experience happens by chance.”
Christine also realized, “In history, they were also Master’s relatives and friends, and they were also sentient beings to be saved. I immediately asked Master for forgiveness.”
Eliminating Resentment
Ms. Anita Richard said in her speech that she was injured three times while promoting Shen Yun and could not walk for more than ten days. Once she was accidentally knocked down by a pedestrian and felt as if her internal organs were injured. The pain was so severe that it was difficult to fall asleep. She almost felt that her life might end. After she asked Master for enlightenment on what to do, a sentence appeared in her mind: “Ask for forgiveness from those you have offended, and forgive those who have offended you.”
She said this surprised her, “Because I thought I had forgiven those who had offended me, but it was not that easy to ask for forgiveness from those I had offended. So I thought a lot about who I offended and how to ask for their forgiveness.” She also said, “I thanked Master. I understood that I must improve myself and cultivate away my sentiment. The most important thing is not to hold grudges against anyone.”
After the three days of group Fa study and exercises ended, practitioners all agreed to remind each other to keep improving and promote Shen Yun performances with an even better attitude next year.
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