BALTIMORE—With a background in self-discipline and spirituality, holistic health practitioner Jedidiah Smith found Shen Yun Performing Arts to be “very powerful.”
“Their high level of discipline and training and their commitment to the passion of spirituality—that was very powerful for me ... and seeing a group of young people, especially, practicing an internal peace that actually makes manifestations in body and mind, I really believe in [that],” said Mr. Smith, founder of The Center for Holistic Wellness, after seeing
Shen Yun at The Hippodrome Theatre on March 15.
Mr. Smith works in holistic medicine, helping patients heal by balancing the mind, body, and spirit, and what he saw in Shen Yun was an emphasis on this important connection.
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, with a mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. Through
music and
dance, Shen Yun aims to show audiences the beauty of “China before communism.”
As the program books explain, Shen Yun artists practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a spiritual discipline that teaches the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance, as well as five meditative exercises.
For Mr. Smith, the spirituality of the
artists’ inner lives was evident in their performances on stage, and it underscored the importance of spirituality.
“When it comes to the aspect of any mind-body discipline, there isn’t any quality like that without some sort of powerful commitment. And that’s an internal thing. It’s a spiritual quality. I think we need more of that in this day and age,” he said.
“What I see this production showing, there’s a tradition and we, all ancient cultures, come from a spiritual background,” he said. “It’s truly the one thing that keeps almost every human more balanced, is that inner connection. They end up being kinder more loving to their fellow humans.”
Spirituality has numerous health benefits shown in clinical research as well, Mr. Smith added. But it isn’t necessarily easy, he said and does require some sacrifice, as one of the stories Mr. Smith saw in
Shen Yun pointed out.
“When you begin to reap the benefits of it—and this program and so forth and the
stories begins to really let people know it’s worth it—because you can’t take the material things with you. You can’t take anything with you other than the memories and the love. That’s it,” he said.
Reporting by Terri Wu and Catherine Yang.
