(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings, Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!
I am a schoolteacher, and I am writing down my experiences over the years of clarifying the truth to share with fellow practitioners, and to report to Master.
1. Clarifying the truth to my students
Master told us to:
“Study the Fa and gain the Fa,
Focus on how you study and cultivate,
Let each and every thing
be measured against the Fa.
Only then, with that,
is it actually cultivation.”(“Solid Cultivation" from Hong Yin)
I constantly cultivate myself when I am with students: I use a calm voice when I teach, and I treat every student with compassion. One day, after I ran out of copies of the practice test, I went to different classrooms looking for a copy for a student who really did not care about school at all. Seeing how I sincerely cared so much about him, he was moved to tears, and said, “You’re very nice!” I never use hurtful words towards any student, including those who are disobedient or disruptive; instead I explain why their behavior is inappropriate and try to convince them to improve and be better. Our school has a rule that, between classes, students have to take turns erasing the chalkboards. However, I never criticize those students who don't erase the boards. Instead, I erase the boards myself. I often pick up the chalk that falls on the floor myself, and I buy batteries for the classroom clock when they run out. I spend my free time making up lessons for those students who have been absent, and I never accept gifts from students.
Once I had a sore throat and was unable to talk. Students from both of my classes came to see me and brought me some fruit. The students from one of the classes voluntarily collected 400 yuan for me, but I told them that I could not take the money. After I explained why I couldn't, they were very respectful and supported my decision.
I am able to handle challenging situations as a Dafa disciple should because throughout the years I have diligently studied the Fa and used every seemingly difficult situation to look inward and eliminate my attachments. My compassionate words and deeds touched my students, and hence when I told them about the truth of Falun Gong and about withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations, they eagerly listened to me. Many of them often sincerely recite, “Falun Dafa is good; Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” Numerous times, these students have frequently experienced instances of good returns as a result of their good thoughts and behaviors.
2. Clarifying the truth to students when I substitute teach
I have substitute taught for other teachers twice in the past few years. After teaching my own students, I taught two other classes. Thus, I've had to teach seven to eight classes a day. I treat the other teacher's students as if they were my own students. Whenever my human heart of selfishness, laziness, or showing-off surfaced, I eliminated these notions right away. After a month, I told the students that the reason I was able to handle such a big workload, was willing to work so diligently, and had the energy and good physical condition all resulted from the benefits that I obtained by practicing Falun Gong. I also spent an entire class period clarifying the truth and explaining how the regime wrongfully slanders and persecutes practitioners. When I gave them examples of how kindhearted Falun Gong practitioners have been brutally persecuted, more than half of the students were in tears.
Lately I subbed for a class of over 80 students for seven days. On the last day, the regular teacher returned and remained in the room. About seven to eight minutes before the end of the period, I could not decide whether I should begin telling them the truth about Falun Gong. Just then, I remembered the words in my head when I sent forth righteous thought that morning, “Standing steadfast at your post,” and I enlightened that Master was hinting to me to be firm with my righteous thoughts to tell students the truth. So I told them, “Your class is filled with high quality students with good moral character. You’re the hope of our school. How much has your teacher contributed to that? Let me give you an example. Because your teacher had to take a seven-day leave, you’d have missed one week of classes. She sent several requests to the school officials to get someone to substitute teach for her. Nowadays, who would want to take over someone else’s full workload with no pay? To teach you, I’m adding more tasks onto my already heavy workload. You’ve probably seen in the past seven days that I did my best to teach you, and I did not treat you casually because you’re not my regular students. Some teachers privately asked me why, since I already had to teach six periods every day, did I agree to sub in your class? Nobody else would have agreed to such a request. I know clearly how hard it is to teach seven periods a day. It is because one person tells me that, wherever I go, I must be a good person. That is the reason why I agreed to teach you. Because I agreed to take on this additional work, in the past seven days, you did not miss any classes. Don’t you think you should be grateful to that person who teaches me to do this?” The students all nodded their heads. I told them loudly, “That person is Mr. Li Hongzhi. You might remember the alleged ‘self-immolation’ on Tianenmen Square and other slanderous things you've heard the CCP say about Falun Gong. As a matter of fact, those are fabricated lies, and they’re as fake as the fake cigarettes, fake wine, and fake baby formula poisoning the Chinese people. On the contrary, Falun Gong practitioners are honest, unselfish, and compassionate people. I hope that you will all follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance in the future to be good people.” After I finished speaking, to my surprise, the classroom teacher agreed with me and gave me very positive remarks. Unexpectedly, my words and deeds helped the students experience the beauty of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and the teacher learned the truth as well.
3. Clarifying the truth to students in summer school
A former colleague of mine repeatedly asked me to teach at a summer school in the summer of 2007. I had originally planned to spend my free time during summer break studying the Fa and clarifying the truth, so I turned down the opportunity to make more money. However, since my colleague kept insisting I thought perhaps it was Master's arrangement, and so I accepted the job. I asked Master to help me. The summer school students came from different schools in different areas. There were about 20 students in each of the three classes I taught, and I taught for four and half hours every day. For more than three weeks, I rode my bike to school in the burning sun, and thus I was able to let go of many attachments. Because I knew Master had arranged this opportunity so that I could save people, I never thought about how much money I would be paid. On the last day, I returned the money I received to the students (about 23 yuan each) and told them why I felt I should not get paid for teaching them during the summer and why I returned their money. They were all amazed. They quietly listened as I talked to them about the persecution for more than an hour, and they all agreed to do the Three Withdrawals. Master had arranged this opportunity for me to more widely clarify the truth to more beings that I otherwise would not have been able to reach. It is as Master said,
"As long as you are doing things out of a wish to validate the Fa and save sentient beings, I will affirm all that you do. And when you go do those things, there will be my Law Bodies or gods there to amplify it and make what you do yet more magnificent and extraordinary, and they will assist you." ("Fa Teaching at the 2008 New York Conference")
Later some students gave the money to my former colleague, who then gave the money back to me a month later. It was like what Master said, “If something is yours, you will not lose it. If something is not yours, you will not have it even if you fight for it.” (Zhuan Falun) When I told my husband what happened, I asked if I could use the returned money to make more Falun Gong materials. Moved by my unselfishness, my husband understood and agreed.
4. Ordering teaching supplies – clarifying the truth
It is usual for teachers to keep the commission they get after ordering teaching supplies and materials from some companies. However, I used the commission I got from ordering supplies and materials to make truth-clarifying materials. I also used it to buy pencils and notebooks for my students. Since I was concerned that the students and my colleagues would not understand why I bought things for students instead of pocketing the money, I did not tell them the real reason. After discussing this with fellow practitioners, however, I realized that it was important for me to explain to my students why I did this, and that I needed to eliminate my fear that my colleagues would misunderstand or criticize me. Dafa disciples only strive to conduct ourselves righteously and by our upright actions we unconsciously rectify people and things around us that may be warped. After I handed out the elegant notebooks that I had purchased to my students, some asked why I gave them the notebooks, and others asked how much I would charge them. (If they cost too much, they could not afford them). I told them that, since I helped them order the school materials, I got some commission, which I had used to buy the notebooks. In this way I was returning their money to them. Surprised and excited, they thanked me. I took advantage of this opportunity to tell them, “Nowadays every profession has some sort of ‘unwritten rules.’ For example, the cost of medicines in China has skyrocketed because doctors get a kickback or commission if they prescribe the medicines. The books we ordered cost 40 yuan each in bookstores. But if we place a group order, they only cost 35 yuan, and if we buy in even larger quantities, each book costs only about 30 yuan. Now, you might think that the price is very cheap, but there’s still a hidden commission fee added into the cost. So, I'm returning your money to you, and I never randomly order extra materials for you, because I try my best to be an honest, compassionate person and I want to think of others first. I have greatly benefited from the book Zhuan Falun, which teaches people how to be good and explains why we should strive to be good. I do as the author of the book tells me to do. Someone thanked me earlier. However, you should not thank me, but please thank my Master who wrote the book.” Afterward, I also told them about the beauty of Dafa.
In a few short years, I changed from being fearful and unable to tell people the truth about Falun Gong to having the courage to talk openly, from being too scared and not able to speak fluently out of fear at the beginning to being able to naturally and calmly clarify the truth to people. I have also endured extreme difficulties to eliminate my attachments. In retrospect, as I look back over my cultivation path, I can see that every step of the entire process was compassionately arranged by Master for me to lay aside my selfish human heart and assimilate to Dafa. I have enlightened to the fact that clarifying the truth to my students is not difficult at all if I study the Fa well and strictly follow the Fa.
I also want to mention that every time I clarified the truth to my students, fellow practitioners from our local area always helped me by sending forth righteous thoughts. This proves that collaborating well as a whole body will help us get good results. Please kindly point out anything that is inappropriate.
Thank you, Master! Thank you, fellow practitioners!
