(Clearwisdom.net) Through the course of cultivation practice I have come to understand better and better how to be an elementary school teacher and how to educate my students. My words have become more and more powerful. I know how to change a badly-behaved student and influence the student positively. I also know how to change and correct some parents’ misguided minds. All these have come from my cultivation practice. If I weren’t practicing Falun Dafa I would have been a bad person, and wouldn't assume any responsibility to truly benefit others. I feel Dafa’s enormous compassion very deeply. From the changes in me and in the people surrounding me, I have become profoundly aware of Teacher shouldering all of our problems and joys, for which I will be grateful forever. I will never be able to pay Him back.
Appealing to a Child’s Conscience
Having their minds poisoned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), many Chinese people nowadays no longer understand the meaning of justice and conscience. However I understand that all living things have their knowing side - a kind trait that can accept positive teaching. My method of instilling truth-clarification into my students is not merely clarifying the truth. Instead, I pass on to them what I have learned from Dafa. I use these personal experiences as the principles for conducting myself as a human being on this plane/level. My students have found it easy enough to accept these principles, which can therefore help them elevate their characters. In my opinion, it is a way to validate Dafa.
I often tell my students that good writers should have a sense of social responsibility, safeguard social morals and hold fast to a sense of conscience. What he/she writes should be just and kind, and have a positive influence on the readers. I tell them, "When you write, you should be rational and write from your conscience. You cannot follow your inclination, to write whatever your mood is at present. You should promote positive ideas, create positive public opinion, and have a good influence on good influences, among other considerations."
I also tell them, "All life is connected somehow. In other words, all living things in the world are one. If one life has gone bad, it means the whole entity is affected and turning bad. As a human being, you’re either righteous, safeguarding social morals, or deteriorating and going downhill along with the bad trend. Obviously, we cannot let that happen." Then I give some negative examples to illustrate that when something deteriorates, it will sooner or later be weeded out. Then I conclude, "A human being must therefore have a sense of social responsibility and be responsible for all the positive elements in society." These principles often arouse my students’ thinking. They listen to me attentively. Actually, from what Dafa has given me, I have only shared a tiny little bit with my students. If they do not practice cultivation in the future, I hope the "tiny little bit" can lay a foundation for their lifelong characters.
One day, hearing my words, a student mentioned Zhuan Falun in the class, trying to repeat the CCP’s lies. I knew Teacher wanted me to help this lost child, so I clarified the truth of Falun Gong to the whole class. In the end I said, "Not every schoolteacher dares to tell you what I just said, because in China a schoolteacher can easily be thrown into a prison right after teaching a class, for simply speaking the truth. I cannot keep silent, however, simply for this reason, and it is impossible for me to lie to my students, which is against my conscience. As far as I am concerned, the most shameful thing for a teacher to do is to deceive his/her students."
I said this not because I was fearful that the children would report me to the authorities. I believe that no matter what trouble is created due to my attachments on the cultivation path, the Fa can compassionately resolve this. If I indeed hold selfless compassion in my heart, then I can help anyone, no matter who they are, or how and why I encounter them.
I know that the righteous power behind me is enormous. I will distinguish between people and the evil controlling them from behind. Each time when I am fearful, I realize it is due to my lack of compassion. If I clarify the truth to my students with a fearful mind, fearing their parents will report me, then it is equal to encouraging the evil elements to push a deceived life to the opposite side of Dafa. How irresponsible that is! When I indeed think of them with compassion and try to be responsible for their future opportunities of Dafa cultivation practice, I no longer have fear.
All I have been thinking is that these children should at least treasure what I have told them. No matter how much I have made myself understood or they have understood, I hope they all learned to follow my teaching that "treating others with compassion" is the minimum requirement for a human being.
During the CCP's more than fifty years of corrupting/indoctrinating people's minds, all kinds of cruel movements have completely destroyed the Chinese people's morals and conscience. Otherwise, how could a child treat his/her teacher who is clarifying the truth in class like an enemy? And how could a parent report his/her child’s teacher to the authorities? Of course, our unrighteous thoughts play a role, but more importantly, it is due to the CCP culture.
I have also been telling my students to be thankful. I told them, "You will encounter two kinds of people in your lives. There are those who wholeheartedly wish you well without asking anything from you in return - your parents and your teachers. As for your teachers in particular - they see you come and go, and after graduation a new class of students arrives. Your teachers don't stay with you, but want you to be good, hope that you will each become a true person who is an asset to the country and society. A true person has to be compassionate, tolerant, just and selfless. You should therefore be thankful to your parents and teachers, as well as to all those who have helped you, and thus treat people with compassion, even if those people are strangers to you." Oftentimes these principles touch my students. Almost every time I talk about the evil CCP’s brutality, I talk about a teacher's conscience and some principles of conducting oneself. One day the students said, "Teacher, if somebody comes and gets you, we will bring you back."
Their words sounded naive and funny, but I treasured their intention. I’m a practitioner. I do not expect everyday people to do anything for me. The only thing I hope for from them is that they can accept everything I have told them, and that’s enough. I treasure them, treasure the origin of their lives. In other words, their compassionate side.
What has touched me most at school is that one really cannot judge others with preconceived notions, nor can one draw any conclusions on someone merely by his/her outer conduct. Many of my students are not yet academically gifted and conduct themselves poorly, but they came for Dafa. For instance a student, who often left his homework undone, wrote in his essay that he had a dream one day. In his dream he was very tall, and he was a god. He knew what every human being was thinking. Then he drew the conclusion that it turned out gods know every human being’s thoughts.
Disclosing CCP Evil Using Textbook Articles That Praise the CCP
The CCP embellishes its contemptible acts, and showcases them in school textbooks. I either skip such articles or disclose the real history of the CCP, which includes no fighting against Japanese troops during the anti-Japanese war, labeling retreat as the "Long March," and then CCP launching all kinds of movements to devastate the Chinese people after taking over control of China. I have taught these to my students for two semesters. Almost all my students are no longer members of the Young Pioneers. I told them not to join the Youth League, and do not make vows in front of the Youth League’s flag either. Some students said, "I’ll never join the League."
I have also told my students, "No matter what I have told you, I want you to take it positively. I do not want you to hate society. You should be kind, filled with hope and bright. You should become good people. When you grow up, you will be the backbone of society. You should be responsible to society, the country and nation. You should treat everything with a righteous mind." I told them that the CCP took ideas from the Nazi era and built a factory to process human bodies in China's northeast. After I told them some things about human body specimens I told them, "If you become an official in the future, you should remember that the higher the rank the more responsibility you will shoulder. You should safeguard justice and not permit evil things to disturb society." They listened very carefully.
As I had been speaking so often of CCP treachery, one day when I mentioned the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners again the class became very quiet. Perhaps the students had understood that since the wicked CCP could do any evil, there was no doubt the persecution was real. In my opinion, those who have read the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party are relatively clear about this. A parent told me that Jiang Zemin was brought to justice. He also talked about the June 4th 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, and the freedom to practice Falun Gong in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. He thought the wicked CCP ruined education in China.
Those in the higher grades among my students like me more, as they think I have a sense of justice and can "win their hearts by way of morality." What they don’t know about me was that before I started practicing cultivation, I was a teacher with a so-called strong "party nature." I was cold-blooded and ruthless to my students who had done wrong, like the "Criticizing and Denouncing" activities during the Cultural Revolution. I would either hit them or scold them. Even my colleagues said that my face was "evil" in correcting my students. Now, when I recall those days, I cannot help sigh with emotion.
Many years ago I was a negative person, and had hate for the world and life. Through today’s cultivation practice I have gradually understood the meaning of life. I didn’t realize the purpose for my existence until I had developed compassion in my heart/mind and gradually understood how to be a Falun Dafa practitioner. Teacher has helped me gradually find myself.
I believe that a life that is indeed in accordance with the requirements of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance on different levels, be it a god or a human being, must be the best life in his or her realm. And this kind of life can be responsible for all the righteous elements in the universe.
