(Clearwisdom.net)
1. Studying the Fa
My son was once addicted to a computer game called "Devil Town" when he was two years old and wanted to play that game every day. When we tried to stop him, he would throw a tantrum. Because his grandparents spoiled him, it seemed impossible for us to change the situation. However, one day he opened a drawer full of Dafa books. He picked up the book Hong Yin and started looking at the pictures, even though he was then not able to read. He went through the whole book. He then told me with a serious face, "I will not play 'Devil Town' again." Since then he has never touched that game.
When I read Zhuan Falun, he would come over, listen and play. He told me one day that he saw so many Falun; some of them were big and some were small. The big one was as large as a dinosaur, and the small one could be a grain of sand. They could change sizes and turn with sunny light. He also saw gods sitting on lotus flowers and their posture was like his mother's posture for sending righteous thoughts.
When he was three years old, I began formally reading Zhuan Falun to him and taught him to memorized Hong Yin. He is eight years old now.
My son goes to the school where I work. Last semester we took a bus to school. The ride takes one hour.
On the way, he listened to Teacher's lectures from an MP3 player. After school we would sometimes send righteous thoughts together. Now he listens to a Dafa lecture once a week. Every night, we study Essentials for Further Advancement. I read the book first, let him express himself based on his understanding, and then he reads it by himself. We try to memorize the article if it is short. The next morning, we review the article again and memorize it before school.
Since studying the Fa, my son has become a boy who is kind, gentle and never involved in fights or name-calling. He weeps when a good person is teased and has good grades in school. Through cultivation, I could tell that he differs from other children. He has a divine side. Dafa unlocks his wisdom, and he is aware of that. He often says, "Master gives me everything, including my life."
2. Sending righteous thoughts
When my son was five years old, I showed him some Dafa practitioners' paintings and told him the story behind each painting: that Dafa practitioners were severely tortured or died from injection of toxic substances, and young practitioners became homeless because their parents were illegally detained. I also showed him the pictures of police who received karmic retribution for their evil acts. I told him those police used to be good sentient beings before they came to the human world, and wanted to receive Dafa, but they were confused and got lost in the world. They not only missed their opportunity for Dafa cultivation, but also committed crimes of persecuting Dafa practitioners, which led to their annihilation. This was sad; therefore, we should send righteous thoughts to destroy the police's evil acts so that they would no longer commit crimes and they could be saved.
Later on, I read two experience sharing articles from young practitioners. My son was listening. He pointed to his head and said, "Mom, I understand now. Let's send righteous thoughts now." He sat in the lotus position for fifteen minutes. He told me later that as soon as he had righteous thoughts, his world became golden. He also saw an explosion of a big toad with the thought, "The Fa Rectifies The Cosmos, The Evil Is Completely Eliminated."
I regretted not introducing him to Dafa two years earlier. He said to me seriously, "Mom, I am grateful that you helped me become a true Dafa practitioner," a completely unexpected comment which made me cry. I am deeply moved by the fact that once a sentient being obtains the Fa, he is filled with gratitude and treasures it.
My son often described what he saw when he sent righteous thoughts. The scene was so beautiful. When eliminating evil, he saw the five-star flag with a red dragon. The dragon was ugly with bumps all over its body; a head grew from each bump and was ugly, evil, and full of CCP specters. When sending righteous thoughts to a forced labor camp, he saw that evil beings had once controlled the minds of those guards, and he could gradually eliminate those beings. Once, after sending righteous thoughts, he told me emotionally, "Mom, Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance are very big, and I am very small, just like a mosquito!"
3. Helping each other to improve in cultivation
When he was still in a day care, I once disliked his teacher and asked to have him switched to another teacher. I asked him which teacher he liked better after he was transferred. He said, "They are both equally good. Do you know why I think so? Because I am a Dafa practitioner and I should do things well no matter who my teacher is." He had made me feel embarrassed. My face turned red instantly.
I handed my Zhuan Falun book to a fellow practitioner with the words corrected and commented on my good job on doing the word correction. After the practitioner left, my son said, "Mom, your attachment of showing off appeared when you gave out your book." I realized that he was right. This young practitioner was simple and pure when he pointed out my problem. I not only failed to recognize my attachment, but also failed to see the negative effects, using the recently developed concepts among our practitioners, including myself, which could easily hurt others.
Master said,
"Study Fa, obtain Fa,
Compare in studying, compare in cultivating,
Examine each and every deed,
Accomplishing is cultivating." ("Solid Cultivation," Hong Yin, Translation Version B)
I have to act in accordance to Master's teachings and purge those attachments.
Emotions kept me in the clutches of depression for quite some time. I asked my son, "What should I do? I feel lonely." He responded, "Well, you need to think about your world and many sentient beings depend on you to offer them salvation. You have to cultivate back to your world, Master is waiting for you." He went on, "Loneliness is an evil being, and hardships are evil beings in one's life." I told him that I often felt I was not capable enough and was not able to make it. He said, "You should not give up halfway. Giving up halfway is like walking on a long road, but in the middle you are tired and hungry and do not walk any further. However, you must overcome those hardships and force yourself to keep walking." He also encouraged me, "You tell yourself that you are a Dafa practitioner. There is nothing that you cannot overcome. Feeling lack of ability is also an unrighteous thought, and you need to get rid of this attachment."
One attachment bothered me for a long time. There was an unspeakable thought in my mind: I was afraid of Master. I was distressed and talked about it with my son. He asked, "How can you be afraid of Buddha? You should not act like evil people that would be afraid of Buddha. Do you have doubts about Dafa?" I have eventually discovered the reasons for my fear: my preoccupation with myself; not firmly believing in Master and Dafa; and not being serious about cultivation. Now I have gradually let go of this attachment.
I often reflect on myself. For example, when other practitioners shared their opinions regarding their attachments, I would always tell them how I got rid of my attachments and how I improved after studying the Fa. I wanted them to learn from my "good experience." It appeared to be for helping other practitioners, but was actually showing off. Nevertheless, when I talked about my troubles with my son, the young practitioner, he did not talk about himself. He rather said what I should do, encouraged and reminded me to do better.
Emotions still preoccupy me. My son said to me once following Fa study, "Mom, the wall, the towels and everything in the human world are illusions. Only Dafa is real." He told me not to be attached to things in this world. All elements to be disintegrated in the old cosmos are "illusions."
My son sometimes does not move forward diligently. This manifests as absentmindedly studying the Fa and falling sleep when sending righteous thoughts. He often cried when he had a stomachache, which was due to interference from evil elements from other dimensions while sending righteous thoughts. He appeared to be weak. When his posture was poor, he sometimes could correct it, but sometimes he could not. This continued for a relatively long time. I once told him very seriously that he did not treasure the opportunity of practicing Dafa, and did not move forward diligently. I also reminded him that Master once said, "I'm waiting for you--do you not realize that?!" ("Teaching and Explaining the Fa at the Metropolitan New York Fa Conference")
After listening to the above words, he lay on the floor, with his hands holding his head. "You should reflect," I told him. "I am reflecting," he said with tears. "Master's words moved me, and I want to cry."
My son is my fellow practitioner. I continue to discuss with him things related to Fa cultivation. Once I brought a large quantity of paper and ink home, attempting to set up a Dafa materials production center at home. My husband said, "You'd better rent a room for it. Our mother has hypertension, and she may not be able to accept it if something should happen." I refused, argued with him and did not consider his feelings. Later I realized that I should not have done that to him and should be kind to him. That evening I had a discussion with my son. He said, "Evil beings see that you want to make Dafa materials, so they used Dad to stop you." I said that I thought the same. "Let's send righteous thoughts together."
4. Seriously cultivating Dafa
The requirements for all Dafa practitioners during cultivation are the same, no matter whether you are old or young.
During his initial cultivation stage, my son saw many beautiful things through his third eye. He asked me naively, "Mom, do you see something through your third eye?" "I have not seen anything," I replied. He asked, "Why? Why can I see things? Why was I chosen?" I said, "It is no big deal whether you see things or not." Master said,
"Supernormal capabilities are basically small tricks,
Dafa is essential." ("Pursuing a Righteous Fa Course" from Hong Yin, Translation Version B)
I reminded him that Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is the standard by which to measure whether one is a good or bad person. He nodded his head.
When he started sending righteous thoughts, I was getting curious and asked him what he had seen. Even if sometimes I did not ask, he would still tell me. If he did not see anything with his third eye, being vain, he would make up something to tell me, but I could tell whether or not he was telling the truth. If he really saw it, it should be in concert with Dafa's teachings.
A non-practitioner lacks the ability to see the things a Dafa practitioner could. If one had demonic interference from one's own mind, the things appearing from one's third eye would not based on Dafa. I reminded him that lying is not the truth; it would make him drop in cultivation level. At the same time I realized my attachment of curiosity. This curiosity had encouraged him to show off or to be complacent if he saw something which did not accord with Dafa and had to be discarded. When he continued to tell me later on what he had seen, things such as a Fa weapon, energy, or a gong column, I would remind him that whatever he had seen was provided by Master, and not to become attached to it.
There was a period when his third eye was closed. Although a Dafa practitioner can cultivate with and without the third eye open, I thought he might still have some attachments. When I asked, he thought about it and said, "Am I a show-off? Dad mentioned that he had a headache and, in the meantime I saw an evil being inside his head from another dimension. I told him and tried to eliminate it, but the evil being ran away and disappeared." His third eye was opened again after further cultivation.
My husband and mother-in-law used to be strongly against my son's cultivating. I was frequently worried that they would disagree with it and it turned out that they indeed disagreed. After I let go of my concern for their disagreement and believed cultivating in Dafa is the most righteous and divine thing to do, and that no one should stop us, my husband's attitude changed. I can freely cultivate Dafa with my son.
My son asked me once, "Mom, why does Grandma not want me to practice?" I said, "That is not Grandma. She is naturally kind and comes here to receive Dafa, but is lost in the human world. Master has mentioned that an ordinary person appears to be weak in front of a truth cultivator, but can be strong and take control of the cultivator only when this person is controlled by evil beings from other dimensions. Perhaps, your Grandma is just like that." He ran out, returned and said, "Mom, I saw a big fox on my Grandma's side. I thought about eliminating it and it was destroyed. How did this happen?" My mother-in-law's attitude eventually changed.
Sometimes we have not passed tribulations well. Once my son had a high fever. We studied the Fa and sent righteous thoughts. He saw that his world was full of evil beings, but did not have enough energy to destroy them until Master gave him some "energy balls." His fever was gone for a while. That evening the fever came back. As he was afraid of Grandma, when Grandma took him to a hospital for an injection, he did not refuse. We knew that he did not handle this tribulation well.
Perhaps he could get guidance from Master's lectures. One day I suggested reading two sections from Zhuan Falun: "Qigong Psychosis" and "Breeding Demons in Your Own Mind." After that we sent righteous thoughts together. He told me later that a "god" came and handed to him a thing like a hammer, but Master said "don't take it," and he ended up not taking it.
The toughest lesson we have learned is the following. I read a young practitioner's sharing article to him. This youngster experienced that his body became huge, could go through many layers of universes, and each fine hair on the bodies was filled with wan symbols and Falun. I thought how wonderful that would be and expressed my feeling to my son, and mentioned what great cultivation that young practitioner had, indicating that he, my son, did not do too well, compared to the other one. My son said nothing. The next day, after sending righteous thoughts, he told me that he saw many wan symbols. I did not pay attention. The third day he told me again how many wan symbols he had seen-- so many more than the previous day. I realized there was something wrong. It seemed he was breeding demons in his mind.
I told my son immediately that what he saw were fake or evil images, and he should eliminate them. After sending righteous thoughts he said, "Mom, you are right. It is evil conjuring illusions. They tried to fool me." He realized, "I understand now. I should not have wan symbols, no matter how I practice, because lives are different."
Master said,
"The reason I'm pointing this out to you is to tell you that once people like that appear, you have to really be sure you don't regard them as some kind of amazing Enlightened Beings. This is a serious problem in cultivation. Someone is right only when he acts in line with this Dafa. Don't follow others or go and listen to them when you see their abilities, or divine powers, or whatever it is. You'll hurt them, their attachment of happiness will well up, and they'll lose everything they have in the end, everything will be shut down, and eventually they'll fall to the bottom. Somebody who's Unlocked can still fall down, and if a person doesn't handle himself well, even if he's Enlightened, he can fall down, too. Even when a Buddha doesn't handle himself well he'll fall, let alone you--somebody who's cultivating right in the thick of ordinary people! So it doesn't matter how many abilities you've got, how awesome your abilities are, or how great your divine powers seem, you really have to handle yourself well." (The Sixth Talk, Zhuan Falun, 2003 translation version)
From the above mentioned experience, I also learned the power of influence among our practitioners. We have to do everything according to Dafa, and walk the right path. After that incident, there was no occurrence of breeding demons in one's own mind again. I got rid of the mentality of curiosity, treating my son as a young practitioner, not a kid. I carefully handled his problem that occurred during cultivation to avoid misguiding him. He also found some of his attachments, such as overeating, playing and sleeping, being jealous of the other children who received special attention from grandmas and moms, and the mentality of competition.
Master has given all the best to us. We did not realize it in the past, but we have a better understanding and appreciation for what Master has done and given us. We should move forward diligently and become selfless with righteousness and responsibility for all righteous factors in the universe.
