My Cultivation Sharing About Teaching at Minghui School

(Minghui.org)

Greetings, Master, Greetings, Fellow Practitioners.

I am grateful for Master Li Hongzhi’s (Falun Dafa’s founder) compassionate care and salvation over the past 27 years, and for his merciful arrangements, which have allowed me to embark on my cultivation path in education. I am honored to have the opportunity to report and share my cultivation experiences and insights from teaching at the Minghui School.

Teaching Traditional Chinese Culture

I arrived at the Minghui School in Toronto in 2014. At that time, my job was to teach traditional Chinese language and culture to kindergarten and after-school classes. With Master’s compassion, I transitioned without any obstacles to teaching traditional culture to young students outside of China.

During lesson preparation, the profound meaning behind Chinese characters would vividly manifest as images appearing before me. I remember preparing to explain the Chinese characters for “come” and “go” using simplified characters, when suddenly a picture appeared on the PowerPoint slide, depicting a person sliding down from the sky along a line. During the fall, the person grew larger, the colors deepened, and then the traditional character for “come” appeared. I realized Master was enlightening me to the fact that Chinese characters have inner meanings and divinity.

Master told us:

“Chinese is a special written language, and it is similar to the written language in the heavens. And oral Chinese is similar to the language spoken in the heavens, because it is a form of culture that gods directly created for mankind. Also, since what was established in China was a semi-divine culture, the form and sound of Chinese characters are interconnected with the cosmos. It’s different from the written languages in the West and the written languages of other ethnicities. That’s because from a certain perspective, the written languages of other cultures are actually sets of symbols that gods created for human beings so that they could await the Fa in those regions after forming predestined connections. That way the people awaiting the Fa in those places could lead normal lives and temporarily have a set of symbols to communicate with each other.” (Teaching at the 2004 International Conference in New York)

I now understand the importance of teaching children to read and write in Chinese and the differences between mastering Chinese knowledge and learning traditional culture. I started using pictographic characters and traditional characters to explain the meaning of Chinese characters.

I later realized that children are all very pure individuals and don’t have any notions. My teaching mode shifted from me a teacher lecturing to guiding the children to understand and recognize Chinese characters. For example, when explaining the Chinese character for “compassion,” the children could understand from the pictographic character that two people speaking kind words is beautiful. The children understood that speaking respectfully and not hurting others with words is a display of goodness.

With the profound meaning behind the culture, the children were able to understand and quickly remember the characters. Their proficiency in the Chinese language improved rapidly. Most importantly, they began to practice aspects of the divine culture, such as filial piety to parents, respect for teachers, and keeping their promises.

While teaching traditional culture, I also continuously eliminated the influence of atheism. For example, I realized that the children’s growth process is also a cultivation process. In the process of cultivating good habits, their realm is elevated. By becoming a good child, they will establish connections with the divine and cultivate.

Master told us,

“The 5,000 years of civilization lead back to Heaven.” (“Singing for All Lives,” Hong Yin VI).

Atheism, however, prevents people from recognizing the transformation of virtue and karma, so modern people cannot understand the behaviors of ancient people. Their ways of showing love for children are also limited to sensory experiences. For example, giving delicious food to children first, avoiding any hardships in life, worrying about children’s suffering, and providing meticulous care. Parents’ focus is on their children’s academic achievements and the development of skills. This is fundamentally different from the education of a divine culture.

When I recognized these principles, I started to emphasize cultivating good habits in the teaching process, such as a sense of responsibility, perseverance, filial piety, respect for teachers, and helping others.

Looking Inside and Giving Up Modern Teaching Concepts

The elementary division of the school was established in 2021. We initially didn’t plan to set up a class for older children, but some parents hoped we could start a senior class for elementary school. Most of the students in the senior class came from public schools, and during the pandemic, some had developed habits of playing games and watching YouTube videos. On the surface, the students seemed to have many issues and we came across various challenges every day. At that time, I felt more like a psychologist than a teacher, observing the students’ emotions and using teaching experience and methods to guide their education. I had to be vigilant and prevent potential problems. To help the children adapt to the environment, I also had to play the role of their playmate.

Additionally, I constantly resolved conflicts and disputes among the children, worked overtime, and communicated with parents and the principal about the children’s problems and the solutions I implemented. It was exhausting, and I still had to prepare lessons for the next day when I returned home. My practitioner husband criticized me for not cooking or doing household chores, which frustrated me. I was trying my best to be a good teacher, so why was the environment around me so chaotic?

However, during a significant family conflict, when my husband vehemently opposed my work, I found a sense of calmness. I thought, “This practitioner has been supportive and helpful in my cultivation. Why is he so strongly against my work at the Minghui School? What was wrong?”

These questions allowed me to step back and reflect on the situation from a different perspective. I understood that everyone has their attachments and understandings, and it was important for me to continue my cultivation and stay true to my heart in the face of external conflicts. I continued to seek guidance from the Fa and communicate with fellow practitioners to find ways to balance my responsibilities and maintain harmony within my family and cultivation practice.

Thanks to Master’s compassion, I gained a new understanding by reading “The Inner Eye” in Lecture Two of Zhuan Falun. I realized that the things happening in my environment corresponded to my dimensional field. When encountering problems with the children, instead of looking inward, I used my teaching experience, skills, and known methods to solve the issues on the human level. This approach was both laborious and time-consuming. Because I did not upgrade my cultivation state, the environment around me did not change.

When I awakened to this understanding, I felt a sense of peace and tranquility that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. My heart was no longer affected by the children’s behavior. When the students encountered problems, I calmly looked inward. They became a mirror for me as if they had become a part of my body. It was a strange feeling. I didn’t just love them; I cherished them deeply.

After this transformation, the energy field between the children and me suddenly opened. The children were eager to communicate. They went from engaging in battles of wits with teachers and parents and being addicted to computers to humbly consulting the teachers on how to break free from their internet addiction. They went from being coerced by their parents to practice cultivation and attend this school to figuring out how to upgrade themselves to meet the audition requirements of Shen Yun and assist Master in Fa-rectification.

Seeing these changes transformed my teaching philosophy. I realized that when I relied solely on skills and experience to solve problems, as a cultivator, I was seeking external solutions. As a teacher, I am responsible for passing on the Tao, imparting knowledge, and solving problems. As a cultivator, I should use a peaceful and compassionate heart to view my environment. Only when one’s cultivation state improves can substantial changes occur in the surrounding environment.

Letting Go of Ego and Harmoniously Cooperating with the Team

The Minghui School uses traditional cultural teaching materials developed by Falun Dafa practitioners, and I am fortunate to be part of this project. Each teacher involved in curriculum development has his or her own understanding. During this process, I discovered many attachments within myself, the strongest being the attachment to ego. I often unconsciously emphasized my ideas during curriculum development. When I became aware of this attachment, Master compassionately enlightened me with corresponding Fa principles.

When I let go of my attachment to my ego and wholeheartedly harmonized and cooperated with the team, compassionate Master enlightened me. I understood that the attachment behind my ego was related to atheism. Atheism leads you to form concepts based on senses and experiences: you believe that your abilities and intelligence result from your efforts, and you consider yourself remarkable. It prevents you from recognizing in your heart that the Divine bestows you with the abilities you have. When I realized the attachment behind my ego, I was determined to eliminate it. I felt that the capacity of my mind expanded, and my inner being became filled with gratitude to Master.

The above is my understanding gained through cultivation while working at the Minghui School. If there is anything inappropriate, please kindly point it out.

Thank you, Master. Thank you, fellow Practitioners.

(Presented at 2023 Canada Falun Dafa Cultivation Experience Sharing Conference)