By Minghui/Clearwisdom reporter He Yu

(Clearwisdom.net) In late April 2008, Divine Performing Arts again came to perform in western Canada. During this time, Buddhist nun Fayun began following the Divine Performing Arts tour, from Vancouver to Calgary, and then to Edmonton. She attended eleven consecutive performances. Why is it that a person, one who has already gone beyond the secular world, could become so enthusiastic about the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular? Fayun initially refused our request for an interview, saying that she preferred a quiet cultivation environment. However, after she watched the performance multiple times, she finally agreed to talk about her understanding and experience of Divine Performing Arts.

Fayun, a Buddhist nun

Fayun told the reporter, "I feel that the Divine Performing Arts performance is a masterpiece that is extremely peaceful and pure. It is incomparable. Those who can grasp the meaning of the performance would realize that this show is unprecedented.

"As the name 'Divine Performing Arts' implies, only when the performers have reached that high a realm can they create and perform such a sacred show. Through the format of singing and dancing, the performers have conveyed the wonderful information of Buddhas to the audience, and brought the Buddha Fa into their hearts. It is exactly because of this that Divine Performing Arts can touch the people's hearts and eliminate their worries. This performance is full of compassion and wisdom, and it is consummately truthful, benevolent, and beautiful.

"The performance is not something that we, ordinary people, can describe. With human words, regardless of how many we use, we can neither express our respect and praise of the performance, nor can we summarize its extremely profound meaning. For example, when those dancers played Bodhisattvas, they used their body movements and hand gestures to convey the messages of Buddhas (although the body postures and hand gestures are movements, the hand gestures, in and of themselves, are a kind of language that is very close to the paradises of Buddhas). How much can one understand the performance? Whether one just sees it as ordinary singing and dancing or as an ordinary performance, this depends on the person's enlightenment quality and his or her karmic relationship.

"I believe that even when only its superficial artistic format is considered, this performance, in and of itself, is unprecedented and unparalleled in this world. All aspects of the performance, such as the overall program design, the orchestra, the dancing, the costumes, the backdrops, and the lighting, etc., can be said to be perfect and flawless."

"This was my first experience of the Divine Performing Arts performance. I am deeply moved by the music. The music is indeed unprecedented. It is 'heavenly music.' I say that it is heavenly music based on the musical notes and their combinations that only exist in the heavens and are not heard in the human world.

"When I quietly sat there and listened to the live performance of the Divine Performing Arts Orchestra, it seemed to me that the music was made by several hundred musical playing instruments, as if it were naturally that way. Furthermore, it seemed that many instruments in the Buddhas' paradises, which have never been seen in the secular world, were also played in the music. For example, no chime-bells were played in the orchestra, but I could clearly distinguish from the music the existence of the sounds of chime-bells.

"Over these past days, I have been thinking about where the Divine Performing Arts music has come from. I wanted to write down the music and the instruments played. However, because the music seemed to be from a symphony orchestra that consisted of several hundred instruments, regardless of how hard I tried, I could not catch and write them down. I believed that for those who are learned in music, Western or Chinese, they would all find the music marvelous.

"The combination of the musical instruments in the orchestra is also marvelous. I had thought about [the possibility of creating] this combination of both Western and Chinese musical instruments before, and I felt that it could not be done. However, the Divine Performing Arts Orchestra has accomplished this, and furthermore, it has done it so perfectly! In the meantime, the orchestra has also achieved the perfect fusion of traditional Chinese music and contemporary music. So, the Divine Performing Arts music is really unprecedented!

"The music can allow people to melt into the emptiness. It can truly move people's hearts, melt away their attachments of greed, anger, and sentiments, and enlighten them out of bewilderment and ignorance. So I believe that the music is the sound of compassion and wisdom from Buddhas' paradises."

"The dances of Divine Performing Arts are even more marvelous. I have seen numerous superb dance performances. However, as far as the Divine Performing Arts dancers' every act or movement and every twinkle or smile is concerned, even the top dancers in the world cannot perform to such a realm of being lithe, pure and free of any pollution, empty, gentle, and harmonious. In plain words, these are simply not the dances of the human world. Except for divine beings, no one can dance to such perfection.

"For example, regarding the dancers' footsteps in "Water Sleeves," could these be done with human feet? The footsteps were so light, soft, and fluent, like water, but without water's bewilderment. I have not seen heavenly girls flying above the waves, but this performance just gave me that impression. So the dancing footsteps were simply [as if] not accomplished with human feet."

"I just cannot figure out how those costumes, which represent different realms, dynasties, regions, and ethic groups, were designed and sewn. They were so perfectly made. Visually they were so clear, bright, soft, beautiful, and full of harmony. They matched the stage designs, music, and dances perfectly and flawlessly.

"For example, for those heavenly girls' clothes, all the details were so elegantly and delicately fabricated. I have not seen things like these in the secular world. They are not something that humans can in any way come up with, and they can only be taken from the heavens. Even one costume had so many sequins and decorations. How were they put on the clothes? Those who are good at clothing design know that these sequins and decorations are very difficult to handle and are time-consuming. Furthermore, the costumes for different performances were all different. So simply making the costumes would be an inconceivably huge project. I really cannot figure out how they did it."

"I believe that in this world, one cannot find another performance like that by Divine Performing Arts, in that it is not only moving and soothing, but it also encourages people to move toward a state of emptiness, purity, harmony, and compassion. The realm of the performance is not something that humans can achieve, much less surpass.

"Divine Performing Arts has achieved a perfect combination of the various stage elements. From the tiny things like a column of strong light or of weak light, the adjustment of the color intensities, and the change of the shades of light, to the big things like the various perfectly beautiful and elegant backdrop designs, the matching of sound, light and colors, and the matching of music and dance, all aspects of the performance are not accidentally made. They were all carefully designed and full of profound meanings.

"So only in the performances by the Divine Performing Arts could one see that the Lord of All Lords rode on the wagon that was pulled by the heavenly horses, and flew above the audiences' heads, that the enlightened beings and Buddhas descended to the human world under the heavenly music, and that in the dark prison, a Buddha's paradise appeared, first in a dim ray of light, which was then enlarged and showed the brilliance and splendor of paradise...

"I am touched and moved by all of these displays. I cannot conceive that in the secular world there is such a group of people who can create such a brilliant and unprecedented performance. Are they ordinary people? I feel they are not. Except for explaining it by using the religious saying that living Buddhas have manifested themselves in the human world, I feel that this can absolutely not be explained with the logic of the secular world."

Fayun has studied Buddhist theory and art for over twenty years. She is very accomplished in the areas of Buddhist music, dance, and other arts. In the late 1990s, she introduced Buddhist arts in Taiwan to the international stage, which has created a huge impact and drawn people's attention to Buddhist arts.

(To be continued)

May 10, 2008

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/5/10/178183.html