(Clearwisdom.net) My wife, child and I began practicing Falun Dafa in 1998. We helped each other study the Fa and improve in cultivation. We were grateful to be practicing Falun Dafa.
Since the illegal persecution of Falun Dafa began on July 20, 1999, we lost our local group Fa study and exercise environment. As a result, my son started to only do the exercises occasionally and studied the Fa only under parental supervision during the holidays. We also began to gradually slack off in sending forth righteous thoughts, doing so only twice a day. Eventually, we ended up not treating ourselves as cultivators.
My wife and I did not take the Fa as Teacher. We became occupied with trying to create the best environment for our son to get good academic grades in school. We made promises and encouraged him with rewards to urge him to study. We had neglected the importance of helping him to study the Fa and cultivate his heart. As a result, he learned to cheat and his academic performance dropped rapidly.
Only a few days ago did my wife and I realize the terrible stage our son had reached. Even the teachers and my co-workers knew about this. People knew that my wife and I practice Falun Dafa and thought that we had neglected our son because of the practice. We have negatively affected Dafa with our shortcomings and pursuits. We have not harmonized well with Dafa and both my wife and I feel extremely regretful.
In the aspect of raising our son, my wife and I have learned this heavy lesson. I hope fellow practitioners who have children let go of the attachment to their children getting good grades. Any attachment becomes a loophole for the evil to take advantage of. We should teach our children to take the Fa as Teacher and help them to study the Fa to change them from the inside. The Fa will also solve their puzzle and truly educate them well.
Practitioner's Comments
Children are influenced by the environment; some of them learn to go after fame and profit at a young age and thus become selfish. In general, practitioners' children have a different environment and education because we have the Fa to guide us. There are some practitioners who are affected by their education and are attached to sentimentality. Having these attachments will hold back their children.
As parents, our words and actions are our children's first teachers. They will have a deep impression of our attitudes and reactions to problems, and how to handle them. Children closely observe their parents' behavior, what they respect and disrespect as well as what their parents emphasize intentionally and unintentionally. All of this will unconsciously become the child's standard of value. Therefore it is paramount that practitioners who are parents do and say things righteously.
The child in this article originally was quite good in cultivation. But when his parents pursued good academic grades and used profit and gain to tempt him, the child started to pay more attention to profit and gain and made a mistake in fulfilling his goal. Although there may be many cheating in school, it is especially bad for practitioners' children to do that, and the parents should take responsibility.
Providing a good life for our children is important, but it is the moral and spiritual education that will give them true happiness. Our ancestors had a saying, "Raising children without moral education is the fault of the father." This emphasized the difference between "raising" and "educating" and the importance of education. Practitioners should realize that children also came to attain the Fa, and they are also lives that Teacher wants to save. In today's society, children are becoming busier as they progress from elementary to high school. As parents, we cannot ignore our responsibility of providing a basic cultivation environment for our practitioner children to study the Fa every day. Children who have attained the Fa, and who have the Fa in their hearts will know the moral standard required of a practitioner and demand themselves to be good persons, good students, etc. The child will then not make such terrible mistakes such as cheating or lying. There have been many stories of practitioners' children who practice Dafa who are very kind, pure, considerate and do well in school.
I have also noticed that senior practitioners, because of their attachment to sentimentality and fear of disciplining their grandchildren too much, or not wanting to offend their in-laws, unconsciously spoil their grandchildren. This will then hold back these children who originally came to attain and assimilate to the Fa. The best way to be responsible to the children is to provide them the condition to study and cultivate Dafa and educate them to be responsible to themselves and return to their original nature.
