(Clearwisdom.net)
I am a Falun Dafa practitioner. I'm 16 years old and I'm in high school. I started to practice Dafa in 1997. After a lot of consideration, I think I should write down some of my understandings to share with fellow practitioners.
First of all, I don't think young practitioners have been doing well with the three things that Teacher has asked us to do, since I haven't heard many stories on how young fellow practitioners have clarified the truth on campus. I've met and talked to many young practitioners. I don't feel that most of them strive forward diligently. I didn't do too well, either, but I have been working on those three things. I read at least one lecture of Fa everyday. I never go to bed before I send forth righteous thoughts at midnight. I always try to help my classmates to quit the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations.
I've heard that many young practitioners were very good when they were little. But they changed when they got into middle school or college. Some even gave up practicing Dafa. What a shame! Of course, they should be responsible for themselves. But I think their parents should take even more responsibility for this. Maybe many of the parents thought it was okay to cut some slack for their kids since the workload in middle school was pretty high and therefore they should focus on schoolwork and Fa-study could wait. To me, this shows they didn't firmly believe in the Fa.
Young practitioners are also cultivators! Not studying the Fa for one day means you are more prone to everyday people's thoughts and behaviors. Campus life in China is actually terrible. Little kids start to date without adult supervision. Schools teach atheism. Math questions start out with, "Guided by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the workers build a trench. Its height is ...." The course on China is simply full of lies. For Western novels, the Chinese textbook notes something like, "This novel laughs at the darkness of capitalism." It's hard to even imagine the political classes. Human beings' essential nature leans towards compassion. Therefore, people love peace and dislike war. Education in China however, tries to make students desire war and money. Most of the students in school do not believe divine beings exist. Students dare to do anything, and it is very common to see them fighting on campus. How can such an educational system and environment not have an impact on the young practitioners who do not often study the Fa and are not strict with themselves? I just want to tell those parents that do not know the situation on campus very well that it is very easy for young practitioners to get interfered with if their Fa study is lacking or they don't understand how to balance their cultivation and school workload.
I believe many practitioners with kids have encountered this issue. Here is how I handled it. At the Middle School Entrance Exam, I sent forth righteous thoughts for myself since I wanted to validate the Fa. As a result, I did great in the exam. I'm actually good at art courses. In order to avoid more exposure to politics, I decided to learn science so I could take fewer political courses, which are designed to pour the evil Chinese Communist Party poison into students' ears.
I don't think there are many students that can truly handle these things well based on the number of people who have quit the CCP and its affiliates. There are about one hundred million practitioners. If each one of us had helped one person quit the CCP, there wouldn't be only 36 million people that have quit the CCP and its affiliates. How many practitioners still haven't stepped forward yet! Teacher always said in his Fa-lectures that Falun Dafa disciples are magnificent. I always felt embarrassed by it. Why has the persecution still not ended? It's our responsibility. Teacher said,
"Then if every student is able to do that, I can tell you, with five minutes of sending forth righteous thoughts together, the evil in the Three Realms will never exist again."
("Fa-Lecture at the Conference in Florida, U.S.A")
In other words, there hasn't been a single time in the past several years that all Dafa practitioners have sent forth righteous thoughts together. There are so many sentient beings waiting for us to save them. But we didn't take any action due to fear or other reasons. The Fa-rectification deadline has been postponed again and again. How can we still have complaints?! Many of our young practitioners haven't done well with the three things since they like to play or are lazy. I don't think this is good. When everything ends one day and when we turn back and look at the path that we have walked, won't we feel embarrassed? The Gods in heaven will laugh at us!
From another perspective, maybe the cultivation path for us young practitioners in China is supposed to be like this. In such an environment, taking those Party culture polluted courses, are we able to balance the relationship between cultivation and study? It would be the most difficult and therefore the most precious if we can do it. It would be our mighty virtue if we can do it. We followed Teacher to rectify the Fa. Which one is more important to us, schoolwork or cultivation? Putting which one first is dependent on how we believe in Teacher and the Fa. Some people might think schoolwork is more important since it determines your eventual quality of life. Think about it, now that we have learned the Fa for so long. Every person's destiny was set already. As cultivators, Teacher protects us. If something really belongs to you, it won't be lost. If something doesn't belong to you, you won't get it. Why are you still so attached to your scores on exams? True cultivators all know that studying the Fa won't impact your schoolwork. Instead, it will open up your wisdom and improve your efficiency. Young practitioners, if you are the same as I am in high school, you should be able to understand this. You are no longer a little kid. You should be able to make your own decisions.
I read some articles written by young practitioners. They are good. However, I see a problem. Those articles mainly talked about how they started to practice Dafa and how the Fa opened up their wisdom so they entered very good schools. Some other articles written by adult practitioners also talked about how their illnesses disappeared after they began practicing Dafa. Well, of course, these all validated that the Fa is supernormal. This is good, but it appears they believed in the Fa because their health improved or their schoolwork improved. I had a classmate in junior high. I clarified the truth to him and he started to practice Dafa. But he always wanted to get some "results," like if his scores would go up or if he could see through other dimensions like I did. I told him that I'd believe in the Fa even if I couldn't see anything since Dafa teaches me how to be a good person. Fellow practitioners with kids, please do not educate your kids like everyday people. You will be able to discipline your kids well by applying Dafa's standards.
In summary, I'm making a suggestion to all the parents with kids. Please do not cause any losses due to your own attachment of fear or attachment to your kids. They came down here on a mission, too! Do not just see their physical interests in front of you, which will ruin them! If you firmly believe in the Fa, please be responsible for your kids, the young Falun Dafa fellow practitioners!
