PureInsight | July 11, 2005
[PureInsight.org] I am ten years old and am a fourth-grade student in the elementary school. Since my Mom started practicing Falun Gong, she has been reading the Fa to me. I study the Fa with my Mom every day. Since the Chinese regime began the ban on Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, my younger sister and I have been clarifying the truth about Falun Gong to people with help from my Mom. Next, I would like to share with everyone how I have been upgrading my morality while clarifying the truth about Falun Gong.
In order to help rescue Ms. Yoko Kaneko, a resident of Japan who was arrested and sentenced to prison for going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong, my Mom and I collected a lot of signatures urging the Japanese government to demand that China release Ms. Kaneko. We also distributed truth-clarification newspapers and clarified the truth directly to people on the streets. I remember one day my mom and I went to Gaiza to collect signatures. We arrived at Gaiza at 10 AM, but soon the weather became gloomy. It looked like it was going to rain. Some other grownup Falun Gong practitioners left Gaiza and went collecting signatures elsewhere, but my mom said we would stay here collecting signatures until 6 PM. However, it began raining around 5 PM. I got fussy and wanted to go home. My Mom said, "There are a few blank sheets left. We will go home when all the sheets are filled with signatures."
I wanted to protect the already signed sheets from getting wet, so I went down into the train station, taking the sheets with me. A middle-aged Japanese man approached me and asked what I was doing there. I answered, "I am collecting signatures to ask the Japanese government to rescue a Japanese Falun Gong practitioner, Ms. Yoko Kaneko. Would you like to sign the petition?" He looked at the signatures and the truth-clarification material and said, "Other kids are working part-time to earn their allowances. What about you? Who is paying you to collect signatures?" I told him, "I am a Falun Gong practitioner. I am doing volunteer work." The man said, "Why don't I give you some allowance?" Then he produced 1,000 Japanese Yen and told me to buy some snacks with the money. I told him, "I am a Falun Gong practitioner. I am doing volunteer work. I must not take your money. I will appreciate it if you sign our petition." He looked at me for a moment and then signed the petition. Then he said to me, "You are a very good kid. Good luck!" Then he left. My mom and I went on collecting signatures until 6 PM. On the way home, I told the story to my mom and she was very pleased.
On weekends and holidays, my mom often takes my younger sister and me to Akihabara where we distribute truth-clarification newspapers. A few times I felt tired and did not want to go. I told my Mom, "I want to have more sleep during weekends and holidays. I want to stay in bed until 10 AM." My Mom told me, "This is not a behavior of a Falun Gong practitioner. We are Fa-rectification period Dafa Disciples. While we are supposed to offer Teacher's salvation to the world's people, you are wasting time sleeping. How can you call yourself a Fa-rectification period Dafa Disciple? When others call you one but you fail to live up to the title, won't you feel embarrassed?" I thought to myself, "Yes, I will feel very embarrassed." Thus I got up immediately and went to Akihabara with mom as usual.
When we arrived at Akihabara, my Mom gave my younger sister and I 200 copies of the truth-clarification newspapers each. I started to fuss. I complained to my Mom, "Two hundred copies for each of us. That's 400 copies in total. That's too many. I don't want to distribute 200 copies." My Mom told me, "Your human thought surfaced again. With one more newspaper distributed, there will be one more person getting Teacher's salvation. You should try to eliminate this demon nature of yours and to bring out your compassion for sentient beings during the process of distributing the newspapers. We are not just distributing newspapers. This is part of our cultivation practice. It is not just an everyday person doing things; it is gods offering Teacher's salvation to sentient beings." I kept mom's words in mind and distributed the newspapers with my compassion. It turned out that my sister and I finished distributing the 400 newspapers in less than two hours. I was so happy and excited that I almost cried. I excitedly told my Mom what had happened to me while I was distributing the newspapers. An elderly Japanese lady asked me what the newspaper was about. I answered, "This is Falun Gong." I also said Falun Gong in Chinese to the elderly lady. She learned to say Falun Gong in Chinese with a funny accent. Next I told the elderly lady, "Grandma, please remember Falun Gong is good." Then she learned to say, "Falun Gong is good" in Chinese. She also told me, "Gan Ba De!" (It means "cheers" in Japanese.) She also thanked me. I was very excited. I ran to my Mom and compared my height against hers. It was as though my height had increased as the height of my character increased! My happiness infected my mom. She grinned happily as well. I said to Teacher at heart, "My morality has risen again!" Teacher told me in my mind, "Do not develop an attachment to zealotry. Keep on distributing the newspapers with compassion."
One day, while I was playing ball with classmates at school, a kid took the ball from me. I began to fight for the ball with him. The kid became mad and punched me in the nose and lips. It hurt badly. I was very upset and wanted to cry. After I returned home after school, I told my Mom what happened. My Mom asked me, "What were you thinking at the time?" I replied, "I was very angry with him. I wanted to give him a good beating." Mom told me, "A cultivator should not have these human thoughts. Teacher repeatedly taught us to be compassionate towards others. You are a Falun Gong cultivator and should surpass the everyday people. You are a cultivator, but you did not differentiate yourself from everyday people. You have even fought for a toy made by everyday people. Gods gave mankind the things that they play with. If you were the one who had made a ball for the mankind to play with, would you want to descend to their level and fight for the ball made for them?" It suddenly became clear to me that I am a cultivator and I shouldn't fight with other people. I realized I had made a mistake.
At the time, my nose and lips still hurt, but I didn't whine. When it was time to take a bath at night, I checked my nose in front of the bathroom mirror and discovered that the bump and the pain had both disappeared. I told my Mom immediately of my discovery. My Mom told me, "Every cultivator has a beautiful face. How can you possibly have a bump on your nose? As soon as you upgrade your morality, everything will go back to normal." I jumped up and down excitedly. That the bump on my nose has disappeared must be a proof that my morality has upgraded! I asked Teacher in my heart, "Is that so?" Teacher answered me in my heart, "Yes."
When I fail to upgrade my morality or when I fail to forego my attachments, my Mom studies "True Cultivation" with me. Teacher said,
"My truly cultivating disciples, what I have taught you is the Fa for cultivation of Buddha and Dao. Nonetheless, you pour out your grievances to me over the loss of your worldly interests, rather than feeling upset for being unable to let go of ordinary human attachments. Is this cultivation? Whether you can let go of ordinary human attachments is a fatal test on your way to becoming a truly extraordinary being. Every disciple who truly cultivates must pass it, for it is the dividing line between a cultivator and an everyday person." (From "True Cultivation" in Essentials for Further Advancement. )
I must follow Teacher's words and live up to the title of a young Falun Gong practitioner in the Fa-rectification period.
Translated from:
http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2003/12/31/25125.html
