PureInsight | July 27, 2022
[PureInsight.org]
Greetings, Master!
Greetings, fellow practitioners!
When I saw the announcement concerning Pure Insight's 20th Anniversary Submission, I really wanted to participate. I am a veteran practitioner who started practicing Falun Dafa in 1995, but I was not diligent in cultivation before. Recently, with practitioners' help, I have been able to access the Dongtaiwang website, which allows me to break through China's firewall. After frequent reading of sharing articles written by practitioners on Minghui and Pure Insight, I realized that there was a big gap between myself and other practitioners. Recently, I have become more diligent than before.
My Views on Family Education
I have a 4-year-old son, Yuanyuan (pseudonym), who is very healthy and lovely. In today's society, there is a strange disease causing women difficulty to get pregnant. There are ladies around me who have resorted to IVF. While some succeed, some do not. At the beginning of our marriage, my partner (who does not practice Dafa) and I, had no plans to have children. Because it is generally difficult for women to get pregnant these days, my husband's family was also anxious about it, and once thought it would be difficult for me to get pregnant too. Later when we wanted to have a baby, I got pregnant right away. The fetus was very healthy during pregnancy, which was a blessing from practicing Dafa.
(1) Helping my Child Obtain the Fa
When I was still pregnant with Yuanyuan, I listened to the Fa every day. Later when Yuanyuan was born, I was busy with not only my work, but also taking care of the child, and doing the housework. My husband was against me practicing Dafa, and objected letting Yuanyuan practice too. I often wondered how to overcome this situation.
One day I read a paragraph from Teachings at the Conference in Houston,
“Student: When I perform the exercises my son opposes it.
Master: Yes, some people will have situations like this where family members oppose [the practice]. It’s still up to you, though. After all, there are going to be tests when a person takes up cultivation. So perhaps a demon will make use of your son so as to interfere with you. If you truly enter into Great Law cultivation, and you manage to truly cultivate, then I will take care of it. I will look at what your thoughts are when you are amidst interference, and see whether you still want to practice, since cultivating Buddhahood is serious and it won’t do if your will is not firm.”
After sharing with another practitioner, I realized that I should let my 3-year-old Yuanyuan start to recite: "Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good." I did not expect that the child would actually heshi and say it. I read the Fa to him when his father was not at home, and told him not to let others know, he understood. When he heard that Dafa disciples were persecuted, he cried. He also often asked me if it would be wonderful to go back to heaven.
(2) Yuanyuan Biting his Fingers
Due to my slacking off in cultivation a while ago, I did not maintain my xinxing well; I often quarreled with my husband, and even fought with him. Every time we quarreled, Yuanyuan always anxiously stopped us, "No! Stop arguing!" I did not realize it was Master's hint; sometimes I really fought with my husband. Because my cultivation state was not good, I had many attachments, and I did not create a good family environment. Yuanyuan gradually developed a bad habit, he liked to bite his fingers. He bit his nails in half, causing bleeding and pus to come out. We tried all kinds of methods to stop him doing this: From scaring him, blaming him, applying medicine on his fingers, buying him toys if he did not bite his fingers. However, none of these methods worked.
Then one day, I found that he had not bitten his nails. The next day, my mother, who is also a practitioner, asked me if Yuanyuan had bitten his nails. I told her, he had not. Grandma said that she specially sent forth righteous thoughts for Yuanyuan's situation. At that time, I was not diligent, so I did not really believe that this was the case. Later, Yuanyuan bit his nails again.
A while ago, I increased my Fa study, and I could send forth righteous thoughts every day to eliminate evil. One day when sending forth righteous thoughts, although I still doubted the power of sending forth righteous thoughts (I had the attachment of suspicion in my heart—I always thought I was not diligent, so did my righteous thoughts really work?) However, when I was making the Big Lotus Flower Hand Sign with eyes closed, I suddenly saw a grey color in front of my eyes, and small white transparent bubbles were slowly rising up from my hands! Although this phenomenon did not last long, but it was very clear, clearer than I could see with glasses and eyes opened. I am still a little excited when I think about it now. That was the first time I saw another dimension since I began practicing.
Since then, I have paid more attention to sending forth righteous thoughts, and of course I have also eliminated the evil that interfered with Yuanyuan from studying the Fa. Through recent Fa study, my xinxing has also improved. Most of the time, when I faced the opportunities my husband provided me to improve my xinxing, I could maintain my xinxing well. Now Yuanyuan only bites his fingers occasionally.
(3) The Disappearance of the Dinosaur Toy
Once my mother brought Yuanyuan out to play, and she saw a small toy on the ground. My mother told Yuanyuan to pick it up and bring it back home. She told me afterwards, and I felt that was wrong, but did not say anything. Later, my mother brought Yuanyuan out to play again, and they saw a small toy on the ground, so my mother asked Yuanyuan to bring it home as well. When I learned about that, I asked them to put the toys back where they found them. However, they did not do it. A few days later, my mother rode an electric bike to bring Yuanyuan out to buy a big dinosaur toy. When they arrived back home, they found the dinosaur toy was missing. Perhaps it had fallen off the bike. Yuanyuan cried. Suddenly, my mother realized that she did not educate her grandchild in accordance with Dafa's requirements, which increased the child's selfishness.
Master said very clearly in The Issue of the Celestial Eye, Lecture Two, from Zhuan Falun, “From the perspective of our universe, ‘to be smart’ is already wrong, for we require following the course of nature and caring little for personal gain. Being so smart, he intends to pursue self-interest. ‘Whoever bullies you, go to his teacher and find his parents.’ ‘Pick up money if you see it on the ground.’ The child is taught this way. From childhood to adulthood, as he receives more things, he will gradually become increasingly selfish in ordinary human society. He will take advantage of others and lose de.”
My mother and I immediately explained to Yuanyuan why one should not take small advantages. Yuanyuan understood.
My Views on School Education
I teach in an urban public elementary school. School education is a hot topic in modern Chinese society. I have wanted to be a teacher since I was a child. That is because in the 1990s, when I was in elementary school, being a teacher was a relatively well-respected profession, although teaching did not make much money. Unexpectedly, when I actually became a teacher, I found that the teaching profession has undergone relatively big changes: parents and students are not so respectful or obedient to teachers, teachers in turn have to obey the School Parent Committee. Parents and students may call the Education Bureau’s hotline to complain about teachers even for a trivial matter. If any problem occurs at work, the leaders almost always pass the buck to teachers first. The teachers are not all sincere too.
(1) Teachers Aren't Upholding Traditional Virtues
Since ancient times, teachers were held in high esteem by society. However, modern teachers have a bad reputation, which was caused by the Chinese Communist Party's Cultural Revolution. With relatively low social status and low wages, teachers are not respected by parents and students anymore. Beside, because of the serious corruption of teachers' morality, there is endless news about teachers physically punishing students, raping students, and accepting bribes. According to my observations, a school principal is also the secretary of a wicked Party, he/she will use the communist Party's policy of: "Faking, being evil, and fighting" to govern a school, divide teachers into two groups: lure or suppress, and place “insider teachers” in each office so that the “insider teacher" can catch any teachers who disagree with the Party's policies. At the same time, most of the school leaders will use their positions to embezzle.
In this atmosphere, there is no unity among colleagues. Teachers are supposed to have good morals, but there are many cases of extra-marital affairs; people who incite quarrels between colleagues; talk ill of other teachers behind their backs with parents; and some receive bribes like gifts and money from parents. In a small school, colleagues are also divided into small groups, constantly fighting with each other in order to be middle-level cadres or receive promotions. The phenomena of primary schools having unhealthy children are serious. In several primary schools in our city, every two classes have at least one unhealthy child, and some classes even have two. These children may suffer from cerebral palsy, autism, epilepsy, schizophrenia, polio and other conditions. However, most teachers do not really feel pity for such children, but complain in the office why these children are assigned to their classes, or make fun of such children.
(2) Difficulties for Students and Parents
The worst off is the child! Now children drink poisoned milk powder, and eat vegetables with lots of pesticides, and unhealthy pork. When they go to school, they learn the evil CCP culture, and admire the wrong persons as heroes. The wicked Party controls the ideological education very strictly. First-year students are required to join the Chinese Young Pioneers (a CCP organization) and wear red Party scarves every day; otherwise, their student's points will be deducted. The school will organize CCP patriotic song competitions every semester, and all classes must participate. Students are also organized to draw patriotic posters and write patriotic movie reviews on political films such as "My Motherland and Me.” The students also have to take [what I refer to as] brainwashing classes every semester. Every week when the school raises the CCP flag, students need to speak under the flag to praise the wicked Party and sing wicked CCP songs. What children hear and see every day are the Party's philosophy of fighting. In daily life, video games, online chat, TV series, etc., all drag students down.
Today's parents have high requirements toward teachers, and they look at teachers with skepticism. Therefore, the conflicts between teachers and parents have become increasingly acute. Some parents do not know how to educate their children. When the teacher uses the mutated Party culture to persuade parents, the result is predictable.
Once, a colleague said to me, "You're a silly one!" I was so happy at the time, because I did not want to be the same as them.
(3) Exploring how to Improve Education
Once, a leader of the Education Bureau directly asked the younger teachers, "How can we improve teachers' professional ethics?" Some teachers said, "Teachers' professional ethics is related to the teachers' family education." Some teachers replied, "Teachers should make themselves an example;" Some teachers said, "To improve teachers' professional ethics, the superiors can organize teachers to go to orphanages or visit children from special families." Maybe the leaders themselves did not know the final answer to this question.
Why is the education industry a big mess right now? Can it be solved by improving teachers' professional ethics?
In fact, our merciful and great Master has a poem in Hong Yin called, “The End of Dharma”:
"Worldly people are not merciful,
And deities are not divine,
The human world has no Dao,
Where do righteous thoughts exist."
Also in the Fa Teaching Given in New York City from the book of Teachings at Conferences in the United States, Master said, “The images of Buddha Amitabha and Saint Mary are even stuck in graveyards.”
People don't even fear God, and how can they respect a teacher who is full of karma?
How can we make school education better today? Of course, as a Dafa disciple, I know there is only one way to do it, and that is to follow the Fa.
When dealing with colleagues, I try not to think about gains and losses. At first, I was the only one who cleans the office. Later, under my influence, my colleagues in the office also took office cleaning as a shared duty. Our office is regarded as the cleanest office by everyone. I do not talk badly behind people's backs, nor incite quarrels between colleagues. Gradually the atmosphere of the office improved. Every Teacher's Day, parents often offer me gifts. Every time students try to give me gifts, even just snacks and flowers, I refuse to accept them. I only accept handmade cards from students. What I get is the respect from parents and students.
When the students fight in class, I will let them find their own shortcomings and think about themselves, so that the conflicts can be well resolved, the students will get along better, and the relationship between students will be more harmonious.
In class, I do not teach the Party's philosophy on fighting, even though the evil Party requires teachers to promote it among students. I use class meetings as an opportunity to talk about traditional cultural knowledge and small stories of tolerance, kindness, and sincerity to students. I praise students when they do well. As a result, the atmosphere is getting better and better.
Only by following the requirements of Dafa, can the relationship between colleagues, parents and teachers be harmonious, and student management will be smooth. The above is my personal understanding.
Chinese version: https://big5.zhengjian.org/node/265885
