(Minghui.org) I am an early childhood educator. Master Li (Dafa’s founder) has unlocked my wisdom and so I have resolved many conflicts at work after I began to cultivate Falun Dafa. My work has become easy and relaxed. I am calmer and more peaceful at heart. I am able to find my own shortcomings by witnessing the purity and innocence of the young children I work with.
Children nowadays are given a better life and are often spoiled. They develop strong personalities and tend to be very self-centered. These children often get into conflicts with each other, and this is especially the case for younger children. Since parents don’t want their children to be bullied, they’ve taught them many unnecessary things. These measures have caused a lot of problems at school. Educating children has become something tedious. However, as a Falun Dafa practitioner, Master has taught us to be better people. After thinking about this, I realized I needed to do my best and display the beauty of Dafa in my workplace.
Peng Peng was a challenging child when he first started school. He would often get into conflicts with his classmates and could get physical when things did not go his way. He would hit or snatch toys from his friends, turn off the classroom computer screen when he disliked a subject the teacher was discussing, and he would be fussy. He’d point fingers and blame others. The teachers were unable to reason with him, and his behavior caused a lot of trouble for everyone.
I felt agitated by this initially and blamed Peng Peng’s parents for his behavior. Children who are spoiled and fussy are the direct result of their parents giving in to whatever the child demands. I tried my best to change his bad behavior by being patient and reasoning with him. But nothing seemed to work. I was enlightened to the fact that Peng Peng’s behavior was a reflection of my cultivation. I needed to look inward and treat both Peng Peng and his parents with compassion. I needed to step into the shoes of his parents and look at the situation dialectally. I realized I still had strong Chinese Communist Party culture and ideals. Though I may reason with the children, many times I’ve just forced the children to obey me. How could this be allowed from the perspective of cultivation? What Peng Peng displayed was a mirror of myself. His problem was also my problem and I needed to upgrade in cultivation.
I began to look inward and changed the way I perceived Peng Peng. I started to look at his positive side. I communicated with him calmly by telling him what is right and what is wrong. I taught him that whenever he got into a conflict, he should consider the other party’s feelings and learn to be patient, and treat others with kindness.
Through much encouragement and positive guidance, Peng Peng became more cheerful and outgoing. He’d often played by himself in the past, but now he made more friends and shared toys during playtime. He became more patient, was able to wait to get his snacks, and he learned to get in line to wash his hands. He also became more polite and followed the classroom rules. He became more tolerant of others. His positive changes made everyone happy.
The head teacher sent a video of the children doing morning practice to the parent group chat one morning. But the head teacher was careless and did not notice that two children were arguing in the video. This caused a stir between the two children's parents in the group chat. Both sides felt that their child was being bullied and wanted to fight about it after school. They were getting aggressive in the group chat and it was quite tense. Neither of them would give in. The head teacher attempted to mediate the situation but without success. She became very anxious because something terrible might really happen at school if this was not stopped on time.
I told the head teacher that I would like to attempt to mediate the situation. I called the first parent and sincerely apologized that the teachers had been careless and had overlooked the situation. I was empathetic about how the parent felt. I praised his child’s progress in class and spoke about how the teachers at school try their best to nurture and cultivate the children’s good habits. I held a heart of compassion and did not blame or complain to him. I then called the second parent and also apologized. I told the parent that it was the teachers’ mistake that had caused so many misunderstandings among the parents, and I hoped that they would forgive us. Neither of the parents pursued the issue any further, and I felt that I had resolved a huge commotion.
If I had not cultivated Falun Dafa, I would have been upset and would not have known what to do. I am fortunate to cultivate Dafa. Master has taught me to step into other people’s shoes during conflicts. Master has helped me resolve a lot of the problems I have encountered at work.
The above is my cultivation experience at my limited level of understanding. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate.