Falun Dafa Minghui.org www.minghui.org PRINT

Growing Up in a Group Cultivation Environment

January 08, 2007 |  

(Clearwisdom.net)

Greetings, honorable Master! Greetings, fellow practitioners!

My name is Alison Chen, and I am twelve years old. I would like to share some of my recent experiences with everyone.

When I was nine years old, a Minghui School was established in our area. We met every week on Saturdays to study the Fa and do the exercises. After I turned ten, the older Minghui School kids started studying the Fa together on Teamspeak, every day at 8:00 p.m. during the week. But after a while Teamspeak no longer worked, so we paired up to study the Fa together over the phone. At first, I read with one young practitioner. We read with each other for 30 minutes every day and longer during the holidays. About one year ago, I started reading with another young practitioner. Just recently, a practitioner who had moved to another state joined our study. This routine has become quite stable and we can read together three to four days per week.

When I was ten, I also started going to a dance school with some kids from the Minghui School. We went once a week for two classes. There was a two-hour break in between each class, which we utilized for studying the Fa. Two years later, all of the dancing skills we learned from the school became useful for Fa-validation. This year we learned three dances from last year's New Tang Dynasty TV (NTDTV) Gala by ourselves: "Fairies' Flutes," "Plum Blossom," and "Nine Swords." We watched the gala DVD numerous times in order to learn the movements, and afterward, we arranged the placements ourselves. When we performed these dances, it attracted a lot of attention, and was very effective in promoting the gala.

For example, during a Moon Festival event, we were asked to perform at the NTDTV booth. It was a very small place covered with grass, and was slippery and slanted. At first, we complained a lot about how hard it was to dance, but then we realized how many people had come to watch us, and these small inconveniences no longer bothered us. We tried our best not to make any mistakes, and performed the "Nine Swords" for the first time with three people. I felt very successful that day, because we did a good job despite the crowdedness and difficulties. I thought we did exceptionally well on the "Nine Swords" because we cleaned up the environment with its heroic music and strong movements.

Once we even performed the "Nine Swords" at a Moon Festival, for an audience of 1,000 people who mostly came from Mainland China. The audience applauded throughout the entire performance. After we took part in so many Dafa events, I realized that we were no longer kids. We are young Dafa disciples, Dafa disciples full of power. We also have a part in the Fa-rectification.

During these past few years, we have studied the Fa together, danced together, and have grown up together. It is very important that we join together as a whole. If we had not joined together in unity and instead cultivated ourselves individually, we would have probably been more like ordinary kids. Now my Minghui School friends are my closest friends. I still have many close friends at my ordinary school, but they cannot understand the most important part of my life. Therefore, I am not obsessed with spending time with them on the weekends. Most of my weekends are instead spent with Dafa activities. My father is not a Dafa practitioner, yet whenever I am going to an event, he always gives me lots of support, and drives me to and from the events. In this group cultivation environment, I find that it can take you out of the complexity of ordinary people and put you onto the road of Fa-rectification.