Unforgettable Days in the Tian Guo Marching Band

(Minghui.org)

Greetings, benevolent Master!Greetings, fellow practitioners!

I am a young adult student who obtained the Fa in South Korea in 2016. During this opportunity of the 20th anniversary of the founding of Tian Guo Marching Band, I would like to recall some of the experiences that I have had in this project, as a report to Master and also to share with fellow practitioners. I hope that recalling these experiences will serve as encouragement for me to do well on my future path of cultivation.

Connecting with the Band

On June 4, 2023, a Sunday morning, I was memorizing Hong Yin III at home. While I was doing that, I picked up my mobile phone and saw a group message: “The Tian Guo Marching Band has a parade and truth-clarification event … ” I thought to myself, “I will follow the band in the procession to distribute flyers.” I went to the parade meeting point before the start time. After greeting a practitioner I was familiar with, a few practitioners came up to me one after another, suggesting, “The Tian Guo Marching Band lacks young members at the moment; why don’t you try learning an instrument so you can join the band?” I don’t like to turn people down, so I said that I would find a time to go to the practice venue to check it out.

On June 6, which is Memorial Day in South Korea, a practitioner took me to the practice venue. It was close to my house (if you walk fast, the journey takes just about 20 minutes). The practitioner had me try to play some sounds on the clarinet. After I was really able to play some sounds on the clarinet, she taught me how to assemble and disassemble the instrument, and told me some other things I should note about the instrument. At the time, I didn’t think about trying any other instruments. Just like that, I started learning the clarinet.

Practicing the Clarinet

In the following days, this practitioner taught me how to play the lower octave’s do, re, and mi and some of the simplest segments that are made up of notes that are from the lower octave. Just this process alone was quite hard for me at the time because I had no sense for music, so my playing did not match the rhythm at all. My fingers were clumsy with the keys too. I was the kind who would be out of tune at a karaoke session. A practitioner later joked, “Your world does not seem to contain music, so now it’s time for you to create your musical world.” This practitioner also suggested that we meet at the practice venue at 5 p.m. every Tuesday.

The two of us would just buy some bread after work to eat at the practice venue before starting our practice. The practitioner would first teach me how to play a foundational exercise and I would practice by myself for a while. After that, she would come and check my progress. Once, she came to check but even though the tempo was quite slow, I could only play a small section of the short piece. It was really hard to be able to play the whole piece within such a short time! After the practitioner left, I stayed behind to practice by myself until around 9 p.m. On other nights, I would make time to practice by myself. I would try to play each note well, followed by two consecutive notes together, then followed by three and so on. In this way, by the time I met the practitioner the next time, I was able to play the whole piece while keeping time with the metronome. That gave me a little sense of accomplishment. After practicing these simple pieces for around three months, the practitioner started to teach me the Dafa songs.

First up was the song “Fa Rectifies the Universe.” Similarly, the practitioner started off by teaching me the first few bars based on a very slow tempo. She said, “You need to learn how to sing along with the metronome first. If you can sing, you can play. The fingerings will just need practice.” I kept those words in my mind. As I was not familiar with reading Western musical scores, I could not remember which note lay in which position along the lines. Therefore, I wrote down the key for each note on the scores and took a photo of it with my mobile phone so that I could memorize the scores while I was walking or taking the train. I thought that this should help make my learning the pieces more efficient. However, the duration of each note was different, so some notes only lasted one or half a beat while some lasted for one and a half or a quarter beat. Some of them lasted for two beats while some lasted for four, etc. To play the rhythm continuously was quite difficult for me at that time.

I thus spent more time than others on my practice. For example, on Saturdays, I would bring my lunch to the practice site and practice my instrument from 9 a.m. to around 3 p.m. After that, I would head to the Chinese Embassy to send forth righteous thoughts for an hour. Following that, I would proceed to join the group Fa study near my house. On Sundays, I would also bring my lunch and head to the practice venue to practice early in the morning. After sending forth righteous thoughts and studying the Fa, the band would start to practice together and I would go to a small room to practice by myself. In between, practitioners would come and check on my progress and give me some guidance.

Some days, I would head directly to the practice venue after work. As I had been working the whole day, it could be quite tiring. Sometimes, by the time I assembled the instrument, I would lose interest in practicing. But once I started playing, my tiredness imperceptibly disappeared and was replaced with a body full of energy. I experienced this many times. Sometimes, after group Fa study ended at around 9 p.m., I would head to the practice venue to practice my instrument, and there were many times when I felt my body being filled with energy. Sometimes I would only go home after sending righteous thoughts at midnight.

When I first started practicing the clarinet, I thought that the Tian Guo Marching Band is a project that can save people and its effect is very good. However, after practicing, I discovered that it was very difficult for me to play this instrument well, despite all the practice. So I had this thought at that time, “In that case, I will treat it as a cultivation process. Since it is cultivation, I am not going to give up on this chance lightly. I need to take on hardship and cultivate my xinxing.” Having this thought made my mind clear, so I seldom had thoughts of giving up during the practice process. Although, such thoughts flashed through my mind many times, I would quickly recall what Master had mentioned:

“...so if you can’t even overcome this, how can you cultivate? Can’t you even get over this trivial thing? Everyone can make it.” (Lecture Two, Zhuan Falun).

That was how I persevered.

When my practice progressed slowly, I would think, “Is it because I am being impatient or I have the desire to attain success quickly? Cultivation cannot be hurried. As long as I play well bar by bar, as long as there is a little bit of improvement every day, as time passes, the day will come when I can play the instrument well enough.”

A practitioner sent me the recordings of the clarinet part of the Dafa pieces. After I had practiced a piece until I was relatively familiar with it, I would turn on the recording and play along with it to see if I could keep up with the tempo. When the practitioner taught me, she also requested that I be able to play the full song from start to end without making any mistakes before she moved on to teaching me the next song. In this way, around eight months later, I felt that I was ready to take the exam.

The Instrument Exam

I thought that I would not have any more exams in my life because I had already graduated with a doctorate. I used to be a bit nervous when I took exams in the past. The instrument exam was no exception. I was a little nervous, because I had spent a lot of time and effort on it. But, I also knew that I should not place too much hope on this exam because my standard was limited. I had thought, “If I do not pass the exam, I will just follow the Tian Guo Marching Band to clarify the truth because I have already done that before. I have the courage to open my mouth, it is easy to have compassion, and I can successfully persuade people to quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its affiliated organizations. If I pass the exam, that will be even better. I will have the honor of becoming a Tian Guo Marching Band member and take part in parades to clarify the truth.”

I thought that at such critical times, I should let go of my attachments and let Master have the final say about whether I stay or leave because Master’s arrangements are the best. Therefore, about 10 minutes before the exam, I put down my instrument and opened Master’s Fa to study. When it was my turn to take the exam, I was actually able to play five songs without stopping and followed the metronome tempo perfectly! I still feel that that it was quite miraculous even when I think of it now. How could I perform so well, at such a superb level? After the exams, the practitioner told me, “Actually, the practitioner who took the exam before you usually plays better than you, so we were worried about you. We did not expect you to perform so well during the actual exam, and you passed. This is really a miracle! Master helped you.”

Taking Part in Parades

After passing the exam, I was able to join the band in parades. I remember that my first parade with the band was on March 31, 2024. During that parade, I was honored to join the South Korea Tian Guo Marching Band’s first ever truth-clarification event on Jeju Island. The day before the parade, the practitioner asked me to try marching and playing the instrument at the same time. I found it hard to coordinate my steps and playing well. She said, “This coordination also needs a process. When you are in the parade, you can play softer and try to play as much as you can but your steps must be the same as everyone else. Things will get better as time passes.” After all the practitioners left the practice venue, I stayed back by myself to practice the steps for a while and found that I still could not coordinate my instrument playing and steps well.

However, during the parade the next day, I discovered that with the band’s mighty empowerment, I was actually able to coordinate my steps and instrument playing in most parts. As I took part in more and more parades, I gradually became more familiar with the pieces and was thus able to march and play at the same time undisturbed. My lips are now able to stabilize the reed and minimize extraneous sounds, and I am also able to cooperate with the band as a whole to play beautiful music.

It Is Wonderful To Be in the Tian Guo Marching Band

One Sunday I was a little late for the group Fa study at the practice venue because I had come from another Dafa event. The moment I opened the door, a surge of gentle energy enveloped me. All I heard was the neat clear reading voices of the practitioners, and I saw all the practitioners sitting up straight. At that time, I asked myself why didn’t I join the Tian Guo Marching Band earlier? This is such a great place. I experienced this gentle energy vividly once again when I was late for another group Fa study session. When the Tian Guo Marching Band is having group Fa study, I believe that this kind of harmonious energy really exists, because I am usually able to persist in keeping my legs in the meditation position throughout the whole lecture, from the start until the end. When I joined the Tian Guo Marching Band’s group exercise practice outdoors, there were also many times when my hands felt light.

In addition, be it when the Tian Guo Marching Band plays the song “Fa Rectifies the Universe” indoors or during parades, or when I hear fellow practitioners or myself play this song, there have been countless times when I was moved to tears. It still happens even now. Such a scene has often appeared in my mind, in which a very long time ago, many disciples of Buddhas, Taos, and divine beings followed Master, with their divine halos, down levels and levels of realms to this mundane world, just to wait for this moment today when the Fa rectification comes to the world.

The Clarinet Helped Me Cultivate My Heart

My job involves chemical research at a university. In the past, when I saw that some of the Ph.D. candidates in our lab from another country were not very competent (in fact, they had not studied basic chemistry), I felt upset. How could the university do that? How could they let people who had not studied basic chemistry study for a Ph.D. in chemistry here? I really couldn’t understand it. Our teacher was such a good person. How could he allow students like that to stay for more than three years?

It was only recently, after I went through the grueling process of learning an instrument, that my attitude toward them changed. I realized, “Actually, they work very hard in their experiments; and they are also very willing to help others. I believe that through their efforts and the teacher’s guidance, they can also ultimately do well in their job. It is just a matter of time.” Isn’t that how I learned my clarinet? From my teacher’s point of view, if the students already knew everything, what would these students have to learn? The teacher is giving them an opportunity to learn. With that, my heart felt balanced about their lack of professional knowledge.

Another very important point is the effect of the encouragement and patient help of the practitioner who helped me and other practitioners during my early days in the Tian Guo Marching Band. That, and my seeing how other practitioners helped one another in a harmonious manner. Without me realizing it, their speech and behavior deeply moved me, transformed my stubbornness, and changed me.

For example, in the past I only focused on my job and did not care much about other people’s jobs. But things are different now. I seem to be able to care a lot for everyone. I listen attentively and understand everyone’s experiments more deeply. I like to discuss things with them and hope that I can give them good suggestions based on my limited experience. In this way, I can also shoulder and reduce some of the teacher’s stress. For example, one afternoon not long ago, I helped one of these Ph.D. students edit his essay. After completing the editing, I looked up at the clock and saw that three hours had passed! I had already exceeded the time to knock off from work. Even now, I am still surprised at how I could help him edit his essay for such a long time. This would have been impossible in the past. Furthermore, I am also able to listen to the details of another Ph.D. student’s experiment, discuss it with him with laughter, and regularly ask about the progress of his experiment. I can treat these students sincerely, and I try my best to help everyone in our lab. This change in me is largely because of my experience in the Tian Guo Marching Band!

Conclusion

Dafa drew me to the Tian Guo Marching Band. Under Dafa’s guidance and empowerment, I was able to play some of the Dafa pieces on my clarinet within about eight months and pass the exam on the first attempt, giving me the honor of joining the Tian Guo Marching Band in parades.

Under the influence of the Tian Guo Marching Band environment, I got rid of my unbalanced mindset, which had been troubling me for a long time. What followed was the happiness and joy of being able to think of others instead! If not for Master leading me to the band, how would I have been able to get rid of this unbalanced mindset? I also had very real experiences of the very positive energy field when I took part in the band’s Fa study and exercise sessions.

Taking this opportunity of the experience sharing for the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Tian Guo Marching Band, I would like to say, “Master, thank you for choosing me, so that I have the fortune of becoming your disciple! I also thank you for not giving up on me all this while, even though I have not been worthy of being your disciple. In the future, I must listen to your words and place Dafa as the top priority, put effort into my cultivation, cultivate my compassion, and save more sentient beings!”

Thank you, Master!

Thank you, fellow practitioners!

Kindly correct me if there is any room for improvement.

Heshi.

P.S. In mid-December 2025, I heard that the Tian Guo Marching Band was collecting cultivation experience sharing articles and I immediately agreed to write about my experiences. That night, I came to the practice venue and while I was practicing the piece “Triumphant Return,” I discovered that I was able to play all those parts, which had been very difficult for me, very smoothly, in one go. In the past, this would have been almost impossible.

In addition, while writing this article, I discovered that when I tried writing at home, my mind was in a mess, such that I could not write a proper article. After trying a few times, I only managed to write a few very incohesive words. Frustrated, I took my laptop and went to the practice venue to work on my article. In the end, I was able to write more than 800 words in one go. I later went to the practice venue another two times to write some more, and basically succeeded in finishing my article. This shows that the energy field at the Tian Guo Marching Band’s practice venue is very strong, as it had a very good effect on helping me write my cultivation sharing article!

(Selected Sharing Article for the 20th Anniversary of the Tian Guo Marching Band)