February 20, 2004
(Clearwisdom.net)
The issue of educating children and helping them do well in cultivation is a great concern for many fellow practitioners who are parents. Many children have come to learn Falun Dafa. As parents, we are responsible in terms of how they assimilate to the Fa. I would like to talk about how we organized a Minghui class in our area, which we hope to serve as a reference for fellow practitioners.
In the spring of 2003, the other practitioners and I read a lot about Minghui schools on Clearwisdom Net and PureInsight Net. We also wanted the young practitioners inside China to have the same cultivation environment as those outside China. One day at the beginning of summer, I told my 10-year-old son, "Canada has a Minghui school." To my surprise, my son suddenly said, "Mom, you can also set up a Minghui school."
I shared this experience with other practitioners and they agreed and supported the idea. That encouraged me a great deal. We read some relevant articles from Clearwisdom Net and PureInsight Net and improved our understanding of how to set up a Minghui school based on the Fa. Using overseas practitioners' experience as a reference, we decided to organize a Minghui class for local children based on the available resources. We also used our adult study group as a reference and organized a weekly meeting for group Fa study and sending forth righteous thoughts. We also increased the frequency of group Fa study during holidays. We treated this as a task in Fa-rectification, and saw it as part of improving the whole body. Our attitude was one of being responsible for our young practitioners and being responsible for Dafa. Under the compassionate care and protection from Master Li, our Minghui class started to take effect in Fa-rectification.
Due to the special situation in China, we have considered the safety factor. The location of the Minghui class is flexible and changeable; the meeting time also varies but we make sure it is once a week. Parents study the Fa with young practitioners, and send forth righteous thoughts. We discover the children's problems and exchange our experiences with them immediately. We study Zhuan Falun, and every time we study the Fa, we ask the children to memorize 2 to 4 poems from Hongyin (Master Li's poems) as their homework. Sometimes we also read the experience sharing articles and stories by young practitioners from "Minghui weekly." At the beginning, because of the different age groups, the progress of Fa study was very slow. Sometimes we could only learn about one issue at a time. Sometimes the children were naughty, and they could not sit for very long. Also, there were times when they would play as they were studying. That caused us great concern and also opened our hearts. We were then able to immediately look within and share experiences in order to improve our study time with the young practitioners.
Now we are studying Zhuan Falun for the second time; Hongyin and "Lunyu" (preface of Zhuan Falun) have been completely memorized. The next step is for the young practitioners to memorize Zhuan Falun.
Through studying the Fa, the children were all improving and changing without realizing it. One practitioner said, "I feel that it is now very easy to teach my child. The amount of time I spend helping him with his schoolwork has decreased but his school grades have improved. He has also conquered his shortcomings."
Now the young practitioners also understand that they should look within when there is a problem. They also join the adults in clarifying the truth and helping to save the people of this world. One young practitioner invited his mom to clarify the truth to his teacher. In the past, because of his fear, he always stopped his mom from clarifying the truth to his teacher.
Studying the Fa with the young practitioners did not slow down our Fa-rectification work. On the contrary, we gained a lot more than we had expected. We also recognize things that need to be improved so that we will be able to do better as Dafa practitioners in Fa-rectification. We have also had many revelations and have improved as a whole body. In terms of family environment, things improved in various degrees. Parents who are not practitioners noticed how the children had changed in their daily life. At the beginning of the Minghui class, they were set against it, not understanding and not supporting it. Now they help to bring the children to study the Fa. The new family situation has reduced the resistance in Fa-rectification work. It has had a positive effect in terms of truth clarification, improving individually, improving coordination, and harmonizing the whole body.
