PureInsight | January 24, 2026
[PureInsight.org] During the course of cultivation, in recent years one of the ways Master has enlightened me is that passages from Master’s teachings will automatically be recited in my mind. Perhaps because I have memorized more of the Fa through recitation, this form of enlightenment has become more noticeable.
That day, while I was doing the exercises, my mind suddenly began to automatically recite a sentence that Master taught in Lecture Four of Zhuan Falun, “Anyone who is willing to patiently endure, put in what it takes, and suffer a little will find that spiritual practice is doable.” However, at that moment I could not recall the two words “put in” in the phrase “put in what it takes” even though this is a sentence I know very well by heart.
After finishing the exercises, I quickly looked it up in the book and saw that it indeed says, “put in what it takes”. My heart was stirred: Was Master reminding me that I had not given enough? Was it that I had not done enough in promoting Shen Yun? Compared with many fellow practitioners, I indeed have not done enough, but I have already made every effort within the time I could use! For example, during the one-week Thanksgiving holiday, together with two consecutive weekends, a total of nine days, I did not stop for a single day in promoting Shen Yun. Was my approach too limited (since, due to time constraints, I mainly put up posters)? At the time, I did not fully understand what Master was pointing out. But something that happened the following weekend made me truly understand Master’s enlightenment.
On Saturday, I went to put up posters on a relatively busy street. Near the end, I came across a dental clinic. At that moment, I only had posters and flyers with me and no calendars left. Yet calendars are actually more suitable for places like clinics, since they are very likely to be displayed for an entire year. I hesitated: should I just go in and leave flyers, or go back to the car to get a calendar? The car wasn’t far, but going back and forth would still take about ten minutes, and it was only this one clinic. I was measuring whether it was worth the trip using ordinary notions of efficiency, when I suddenly thought of Master’s enlightenment from that day, about “giving.” Wasn’t it precisely about whether one is willing to give just a little more for sentient beings? The human notion of efficiency doesn’t really apply to saving people, does it? Since it is for sentient beings, what is there to hesitate about? So, I decided to go back to the car to get a calendar. Through the transparent glass door, I saw two staff members at the front desk; they both looked very kind, which made me even more determined to return to the car for the calendar.
When I returned to the clinic, the dentist happened to come to the front desk as well. Normally, the doctor is usually in the back, so it is rare to run into him. When he saw me, he warmly asked if he could help. I said I was there to give them a Shen Yun calendar, so that this beautiful calendar could accompany them for the whole year. He said, “Oh, I often see Shen Yun advertisements, but what exactly do the two words ‘Shen Yun’ mean?”
This was the first time during my poster-posting that someone had asked me this question. I immediately thought of what the host says during Shen Yun performances—that the meaning of “Shen Yun” is the beauty of divine beings dancing. So I told him, “Shen Yun means: the beauty of divine beings dancing.” Just as I finished saying the word “beauty,” he made an exaggerated, humorous expression and said, “Ah, the beauty!” I then realized that in English, “beauty” has a double meaning—besides “beauty,” it can also refer to a beautiful woman—so he thought I meant that Shen Yun was about beautiful women. I quickly continued with “of divine beings dancing.”
As soon as I finished the remaining words, his expression changed dramatically—from a joking expression to one that was very serious and respectful. I felt deeply moved: it turned out that this sentence, which we hear so often during the performances, carries such tremendous power.
After taking the Shen Yun calendar and flyers, he immediately noticed the line at the top: “China Before Communism.” He said he was currently reading a book about the Cultural Revolution, which mentioned that at that time even children might inform their own parents. I said that was indeed the case—between relatives, spouses, and even teachers and students, people could turn against one another—but often it was not their true intention; they were forced by the Chinese Communist Party. He said it was terrifying, and that fortunately the United States is not communist. I reminded him that the CCP is now also committing harmful acts in the United States. He listened very attentively. Coincidentally, I actually had several flyers in my bag about the CCP’s transnational repression, so I naturally handed them to him as well as to the two front-desk staff members. After reading the flyer, the doctor told me, “I completely believe what you’re saying.” I said that was because he is a good person, which made him very happy. Of course, I also reminded him and the front-desk staff about purchasing Shen Yun tickets, and in the end we parted happily.
As I walked out of the clinic, I immediately realized that the reason I had such a full opportunity to clarify the truth to the doctor that day was because I had that thought of “being willing to give a little more for sentient beings.” If I had gone in directly with only flyers, the doctor would not have appeared at the front desk, and none of this would have happened. Through this experience, Master showed me that if one’s xinxing is raised just a little, and one’s compassion is a bit greater, the effect of saving people will immediately be different; conversely, even if one does a lot, the results may not be obvious. So Master was enlightening me that in promoting Shen Yun, not only are actions needed, but also a heart that is truly willing to give for sentient beings—essentially, a heart of compassion.
So where had my previous problem been? Upon careful reflection, I discovered that when I worked on Shen Yun, my mindset was often driven by a sense of responsibility. I felt that as a Dafa disciple I should do this, or that I must do this because it was Master’s requirement, rather than stemming from a genuine cherishing of life and sympathy for sentient beings. It was not a fully conscious willingness to take on responsibility and give for sentient beings. I had long known that doing things and cultivating are not the same, but only now did I clearly understand that doing a lot of “saving-people” work and having a strong wish to save sentient beings are also not the same. Of course, a cultivator with a strong wish to save sentient beings will certainly do many things to save people; but the reverse is not necessarily true.
Then what was the reason that I could not truly be willing, from the depths of my heart, to give a little more for sentient beings? I found that it was something very cold, deep within the lives of the old universe—that is, a lack of care for other lives. Sometimes it manifests as being unmoved, and one may even think that this means one has cultivated well, but in fact it is indifference. Knowing that lives are being destroyed, yet feeling no sense of urgency and remaining unmoved—this still comes from the self-centered nature of the old universe. We all know that when a life loses its physical body, it can be reborn through reincarnation and may still have a chance to be saved. But if it is eliminated during the Fa-rectification, that means complete destruction of both body and soul. And these lives had once descended from high levels in order to save their own sentient beings. Seeing all this and yet remaining unmoved—how is that any different from the great enlightened beings and great Ways in the old universe mentioned by Master in Lecture Three of Zhuan Falun? They sat there coldly, watching Master save people without being moved at all. Master said, “Those few days my mind really felt uneasy; the sensation that was lingering would be hard to describe.”
Looking back on the path I have walked, I feel deeply ashamed. Although I have made efforts every year to participate in promoting Shen Yun, the indifference that I did not recognize within myself caused me to miss many opportunities to clarify the truth to people. At times I would even think that most shop owners are usually not in their stores, and doctors are not at the front desk either, so it is hard to reach people from mainstream society. But if I were truly carrying a compassionate and righteous field, perhaps that predestined shop owner or doctor would appear before me—just like in the example mentioned above. I have also encountered many people who expressed interest in seeing Shen Yun, yet I merely reminded them to purchase tickets as soon as possible and never thought of noting down the store and coming back some time later to follow up. I have not managed to keep sentient beings in my heart at all times, and so these things simply did not occur to me.
However, I clearly know that this indifference does not belong to the essence of a Dafa disciple, because our life essence has already been recreated by Master. The new universe is for others, and Master requires us to become lives that are completely for others. Therefore, we absolutely cannot acknowledge this indifference—once we recognize it clearly, we should discard it. At that moment, another line of Master’s Fa from Hong Yin VI resounded in my mind: “.... the Creator now maketh the universe anew, Out of His love for all living creatures.” Yes, Master loves sentient beings, and we also need to love them—we must not be indifferent! Of course, Master’s love is compassion.
I am sharing this experience of mine in the hope that while we diligently promote Shen Yun, we also pay attention to our mindset in doing things and cultivate more compassion. Only then can we bring sentient beings into the Shen Yun theater. Master will surely enlighten us in the areas where we need to improve. Finally, I would like to share with fellow practitioners a passage from Master’s Fa Teaching at the 2009 Washington DC International Fa Conference, “Compassion is an enormous energy, the energy of righteous gods. The more compassion that is present, the greater this energy becomes, and it can disintegrate anything that is bad. ”
Chinese version: https://www.zhengjian.org/node/300120
