(Minghui.org) I am a teacher who has been practicing Falun Gong for 18 years. The journey has been bumpy, and for a time I ceased cultivating. But due to Master's compassion, I later returned to Dafa. Below is my experience on using Dafa to guide me in my daily work as a teacher and also in clarifying the truth to people.
Dealing with Problem Students
A boy named Xiaopang was transferred to my class. He loved to fight and did not behave in class. Thus, I found myself disliking him and agreed with reluctance to his parents' requests to put more effort into educating him.
His mother would often ask about his progress, so I took this opportunity to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to her. However, she rebuffed my overtures and even returned the software I gave her to break through the Internet firewall.
There was also a female student by the name of Jiaojiao. Her parents worked in the Public Security System. Jiaojiao did not like to study and her conduct was poor. When talking with her parents, I mentioned withdrawing from the Party, and they asked me sternly, “Why do you meddle with such things when you are in the education field?” I felt sad because I realized I did not educate the students well enough and was worried about losing the opportunity to help save their parents.
Memorizing Hong Yin Helps Me Reach Students; More Parents Agree to Quit the Party
I understood from the Fa that I was not tolerant and compassionate enough. I wanted to change my students' bad behavior because I wanted them to conform to my human expectations. So, I had to let go of the idea of forcing the students to change. I started to treat them with more tolerance and communicated with them in a sincere manner. The students then started restraining their bad behaviors. Xiaopang was so upset that he cried when others criticized him for misbehaving.
Initially, I helped the entire class to memorize Hong Yin and then read them stories from traditional Chinese culture in our spare time. Later, I understood that learning the Fa did not affect the students' studies. So I adjusted my teaching schedule and prioritized the memorization of Hong Yin and stories from traditional Chinese culture before regular lessons.
The students learned very fast, and both Jiaojiao and Xiaopang listened attentively. Xiaopang's test results were among the best.
The children really liked to listen to the traditional stories. The parents often commented on the changes they saw in their children after being exposed to traditional culture.
Once, Xiaopang's mother reprimanded him severely before dinner, but he still politely served her rice and vegetables. She asked him, “Aren't you angry at Mother?” He said, “Teacher told us that it is very easy to be filial to our parents when they like us. We will be remarkable if we can still be obedient to them when they dislike us.” His mother's eyes filled with tears and she told everyone, “My child has changed so much.”
I ended up choosing Xiaopang and Jiaojiao to be the emcees at the graduation ceremony. These two children painstakingly prepared for the event. Jiaojiao no longer exhibits his former willfulness, and Xiaopang is more serious. The graduation ceremony was very successful.
I continued to look for opportunities to convey the wonderfulness of Dafa as well as the truth about the persecution to the parents; many of them gladly accepted the materials I offered them. I basically clarified the truth to every parent before their child graduated.
Jiaojiao's mother held my hand on the eve of graduation and expressed her respect for Falun Gong. She also talked about her dissatisfaction with the evil Chinese regime.
Xiaopang's mother even took a Minghui Weekly newsletter to her workplace and read it to her colleagues. She then asked me to help her quit the Party on the eve of her child's graduation.
My Heart Is Unmoved During Performance Evaluations
My supervisor informed me that performance evaluations had started and she hoped that I could aim for the highest rating. Due to practicing Dafa, I gave up on striving for higher positions many times during the past ten years.
Sometimes I would think that nobody would remember me, even if I sacrificed so much. There is a teacher whom I allowed to accept a promotion originally offered to me. He said, “Ever since you gave your spot to me, your rating can never be higher than mine.” I felt sad to hear that but did not say anything. As Master said:
“We therefore believe in following the course of nature. Sometimes, you think that something should be yours, and others also tell you that it is yours. Actually, it is not. You may believe that it is yours, but in the end it is not yours. Through this, it can be seen whether you can give it up. If you cannot let it go, it is an attachment. This method must be used to get rid of your attachment to self-interest. This is the issue. Because everyday people are not enlightened to this principle, they will all compete and fight before profits. (Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)
I keep in mind I am a cultivator and do not compete for everyday things. I have the Fa principles and Master to guide me. The things that I want are the things that everyday people are not able to obtain.
When the performance evaluations were released, I was ranked first. It was just 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.” ( Lecture Seven, Zhuan Falun)
Eliminating Attachments While Making Truth-Clarification Phone Calls
I started making truth-clarification phone calls in 2012. In speaking directly by phone, I could clarify issues according to the hurdles in the listener's mind and the effect was definitely good.
However, my attachment of fear started to emerge when I made these calls. I was afraid my voice would be recorded, my phone would be located, or that I simply could not do well. The stress I experienced could not be described.
I know that as long as I follow Master's requirement to do the three things well, the old forces will not dare to interfere. However, I felt that layer after layer of substances were obstructing me; this was the test that I needed to break through and the attachment that I had to cultivate away. I recalled Master's words:
“... however hard it may be, however much interference or difficulty may be introduced by a being prior to saving him, Dafa disciples do have ways forward. As I have always said, as Dafa disciples your historic missions are simply huge, with you shouldering the responsibility of saving sentient beings. So for sure there is a path that you will be able to walk through to completion.” (“20th Anniversary Fa Teaching”)
I sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate those bad substances in my dimensional field, but each time I continued to struggle to make a phone call. The hurdle was usually overcome by the second or third call, and I felt relaxed after that.
Initially, I felt anxious when the call went through and was afraid that the other party would hang up before I finished clarifying the truth, so I started to talk faster. As a result, the more anxious I became, the messier things got.
Once the call went through and I was worried that the person would hang up. I do not even recall what was I talking about, but the person on the other end listened quietly and seemed friendly. Finally, he agreed to withdraw from the Party and its youth organizations.
After putting down the phone, I really felt like crying because compassionate Master purposely arranged such a good sentient being to assist me in practicing clarifying the truth. Master said:
“If our art form, or our quality, were less than superb as Shen Yun tours to numerous countries around the world, we wouldn’t meet their standards, and people wouldn’t approve of us, in which case we would not manage to save people. So you have to have something marvelously superb. Only when everyone speaks well of you, when nobody can say a bad word about you, can you save those people.” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa - Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference”)
I was then able to let go of the attachment to success and not be moved by the listener. I wrote down the words that I wanted to say and read from a script during the conversation. After reading for a few days, I realized that using a script does not sounds like words from the heart, so I decided to memorize it.
Initially, I felt very rigid and worried my thinking would be disrupted if the listener raised a question. Thus, I memorized alternative suggestions and more suitable truth-clarification content to fit the situation.
A traffic police officer once answered and asked angrily why I had called him. I said, “As a traffic officer, you are ensuring others' safety, so I am ensuring your safety!” He changed his attitude right away and kept thanking me.
Sometimes I would encounter former practitioners. For all kinds of reasons, they had given up on cultivation. I encouraged them to continue cultivating and not miss out on their predestined opportunity.
On another occasion, a young man answered and started swearing and hung up on me. I thought that I could not allow to him to harbor such hatred, so I called him back. At first he continued to swear. After a while, I asked him if any Falun Gong practitioners had ever harmed him. He replied that it was me who made him angry because I had already called him on another day. I apologized to him immediately, “I'm so sorry for disturbing you. I did not remember your number.” His anger vanished. I told him, “I only hope that when disasters come, you can be safe. You must remember to often recite 'Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.'” He cheerfully agreed.
Master said:
“As for you, disciples of Dafa, the closer it gets to the end the better you should walk your paths, seizing the day to cultivate yourselves well. After doing a whole slew of things, you might find, if you look back upon them, that all of it was done with a human mindset. When it is a human being doing human things, and things are not being done with righteous thoughts, there won’t be any Dafa-disciple mighty virtue in those things. In other words, as gods see it, that’s just fooling around—not mighty virtue, or cultivation—even though you did do it. Then wouldn’t you say it was done in vain?” (“Dafa Disciples Must Study the Fa - Fa Teaching Given at the 2011 Washington DC Metro Area Fa Conference”)
Through writing this experience sharing article, I've been able to reflect on my cultivation. There are some things that I did under the guidance of the Fa principles and there are also many other things that were done under the influence of human notions. When a problem occurred and I could not think from the Fa's perspective, it was because I did not sufficiently study the Fa, so the Fa principles were not firmly rooted in my heart.
I will use this experience sharing as a starting point to study the Fa well and truly have righteous thoughts and righteous actions as I walk my own path.
Thank you, compassionate Master, for enduring everything for me and making all the careful arrangements!
Thank you, fellow practitioners, for all the help!
(10th China Experience Sharing Fahui on Minghui.org)
