(Clearwisdom.net) After reading the article entitled "Parent Practitioners: Please Do Not Neglect Your Children Who Have Yet to Resume Cultivation" (http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/8/3/119023.html) I thought a lot about the many "former little disciples" around me. Except for a few who are still cultivating, most of them have completely given up the practice. To help these children who are now young adults return to Dafa, I spoke with them on various occasions and even offered to have some of them live in my home. But it saddened me to see them still deeply obsessed with the illusions of earthly life. When I later shared experiences with their parents, the excuse I heard most was that it was perhaps not time yet for them to resume cultivation. Several parents said that they didn't know how to talk to their children, so they just left it all up to the young adults. I also encountered parents who challenged me to come up with a good idea to help their children.
My Daughter's Cultivation Stories
I want to share my daughter's cultivation stories here. She was almost ten years old when she began cultivating with me in early 1998. My family was quite fearful after the persecution began in July 1999, but they soon gave up efforts to stop me from practicing when they realized that nothing could change my mind. They did, however, take every opportunity to intimidate my daughter. When they saw her studying the Fa with me, they used various means to interfere with us. Fortunately she had good inborn quality and a firm belief in Master and Dafa, so she wasn't fazed. Since my family usually left her alone when she did her homework, she made good use of this quiet time to read Dafa books. She and I also shared thoughts and experiences often. I always considered her a good fellow practitioner. She was never hesitant to point out my actions that didn't conform to Dafa, and I sincerely accepted her suggestions. I did the same for her when she failed to do things conforming to the Fa and she thanked me after realizing her mistakes. We encouraged each other to walk our cultivation paths well.
My daughter showed signs of high fever in the winter of 2000 when I was not home. My husband was so busy playing his computer games that he didn't notice her symptoms. When I returned home after 2:00 p.m., I noticed she wasn't feeling well. She didn't dare to tell me where she felt uncomfortable, because she didn't want her dad to give her medicine. I took her to her into her bedroom and put her to bed. Her lips were pale, her face bluish, and her forehead very hot. Her limbs were cold, and she was breathing abnormally. When I took her temperature, it was almost 40°C (about 104°F).
With her eyes closed tight she said to me, "Mommy, this is not illness. I believe in Master and Dafa. Master said I won't be in any danger." She told me that Master said,
"I am rooted in the universe. If anyone can harm you, he or she would be able to harm me. Put simply, that person would be able to harm this universe." (Zhuan Falun)
She said, "I'm not afraid, and I'll be fine very soon."
I said, "Just lie down and we'll study the Fa together. I read and you listen. It'd be great if you can fall asleep and take a rest." I read Master's article "Sickness Karma" (Essentials for Further Advancement) many times, while applying a cold compress on her forehead. With Master's care, her temperature returned to normal at around 11:00 p.m. that night. She woke up at 3:00 a.m. to drink some water before going back to sleep again. When she got up and called me to her room the next morning, I was so amazed to see her glowing with happiness. She had a rosy complexion, big dewy eyes, and red lips. What a little beauty! I dragged her to the mirror. She smiled at her reflection. Whenever we thought about this incident later on she said, "Mommy, Master helped me renew my life."
My daughter didn't stop studying the Fa when she went to high school. She insisted on reading Dafa books for at least thirty minutes every day, even during the college entrance exam period. She withdrew from the Young Pioneers' Organization and the Youth League while in high school. When the Youth League secretary in her class pressed her to pay a league membership fee, she firmly refused. The secretary was infuriated and threatened that she either had to pay right away or quit the league. She replied immediately, "Signing up for and quitting the league should both be voluntary. How can you force people like this?" She wrote a withdrawal statement and gave it to the secretary without hesitation. When she learned that her high school still kept her youth league certificate on file after her graduation, she got it back and burned it. I'm happy to see her make rapid progress in her understanding of the Fa principles.
To me, it is clear why my daughter could get to the point where she is today - it is all because of her consistent Fa study.
My Words to Parent-Practitioners
If a life wanders away from Dafa, everything in the human world will lure him to forget the vow he made before coming down to earth. Parent-practitioners, please consider if you really treat your child as another practitioner. What a predestined relationship he has with you - to become part of your family! You are rescuing sentient beings every day, yet you neglect the one right by your side. You forget the occasions when he studied the Fa and practiced the exercises with you. You forget the things he told you that he saw with his third eye. You forget how he followed Dafa principles - to conduct himself no matter how others bullied him. You forget the arrest for going to Tiananmen Square together with you. You forget that he was also beaten and intimidated while in detention, enduring pressures from people at schools, helping you to wisely make and distribute Dafa materials, having suffered with you when forced to leave home to avoid arrest.
If you could recall any of these past experiences, I bet you would no longer claim that his or her predestined relationship is not strong, and time to resume cultivation is not yet here. I urge you to sit down and speak with your child.
Master said,
"Inborn quality determines one's enlightenment quality, but this is not absolute. Some people do not have very good inborn quality, but their home environment is very good; many family members practice cultivation. Some of them are also religious believers and believe very much in the matter of cultivation practice. In this environment, one can be made to believe in it, and this enables enlightenment quality to improve. So it is not absolute. Some people have very good inborn quality, but due to their being educated with that tiny bit of knowledge from our practical society, and especially because of the absolute methods in ideological education a few years ago, they have been made very narrow-minded and will not believe anything beyond their knowledge. This can seriously affect their enlightenment quality."
"In this view, one's inborn quality does not entirely determine one's enlightenment quality." (Zhuan Falun)
In my opinion, the human world is complicated and full of numerous kinds of predestined relationships beyond our comprehension. We cultivators should take the Fa as Master in our every thought and action. I suggest you think of nothing but creating a good environment, to guide your children to walk the righteous path. As you expressed, some of you feel helpless when it comes to your children. As I see it, this happens because your emotions concerning your children are still too strong, and you fail to realize that the most important thing is that they are precious lives, having come down to assimilate into the Fa. Their predestined relationship happens to be to have been born into your family.
My Plea to Young People Who Have Given Up the Practice
You have grown into young adults. I hope you are not forgetting your past cultivation stories. I hope you no longer lower yourself into the human world's desires and lust. Come back and follow Master home! Have you had an opportunity to see this year's Shen Yun Performing Arts show? One of the programs is called "Splitting the Mountain to Save His Mother." Did you see that young man Chen Xiang, whose mother was imprisoned at the bottom of a mountain for her violation of heaven's rules when he was still a little boy? He wanted to save her when he grew up, so he diligently practiced martial arts, guided by the gods. He eventually used a heavenly ax to split the mountain open and free his mother. Don't you feel you are somewhat similar to Chen Xiang?
I urge you to return to Dafa and study the Fa more so as to cultivate righteous thoughts and righteous actions. Please know that you have numerous relatives from your previous lives whose minds are poisoned and wait for you to rescue them. Please come back my little disciples. Life is but a brief moment. You cannot take anything away with you at death. If you are too attached to the human world, it will easily ruin the most precious thing in your life.
