(Clearwisdom.net) My son is seven years old and has been a Falun Gong disciple for seven years. There have been a lot of memorable and inspirational stories of my son and I cultivating in Falun Gong together.
As soon as he was born, I often played Teacher's audio and video Fa lectures for him. At the time I was not a Falun Gong practitioner yet, but my family was. One day I left a copy of Zhuan Falun on the sofa. My son had just learned to crawl. He did something he had never done before. He leaned against the sofa, climbed on it and tried to grab the book. I took away the Zhuan Falun book to prevent him from ruining it and laid it down together with other books. My son climbed back down and crawled quickly to the pile of books. He threw away one book after another until he found Zhuan Falun. He grabbed Zhuan Falun and hugged the book tightly to his chest. He laughed so hard that he drooled.
When my son was seven months old, I took him to an auditorium to watch Teacher's Fa lecture video with other people. When he saw Teacher appearing on the screen, he laughed and clapped his little hands repeatedly. Later on, I started to read out loud to him when I studied the Fa. Basking in Teacher's grace, this little guy grew up little by little.
I feel ashamed when I think about it, but for a long time after the persecution started, I stopped being diligent in my cultivation. I even stopped reading the Fa and playing Teacher's audio lectures on the Fa to my son. I felt he was perfectly safe because he had already become a Falun Gong practitioner and that I didn't need to worry too much about him. One day I finally faced the truth that my son had become very mischievous and selfish and that he lied and threw fits a lot. I tried to educate him to be a better kid, but nothing worked. I was overcome with both sadness and anxiety. It terrified me to think I was ruining my son's future. I thought to myself that my son is a young Falun Gong disciple. If I don't educate him well, I will disappoint Teacher.
First of all, I searched inward to identify my problems. Why did it bother and upset me when my son was unruly? Did I have the same problem? Did I fail to be kind or tolerant, too? After I rectified my mentality and removed my attachments, I was pleasantly surprised to find my son had also enhanced his xinxing level a lot. One of his worst shortcomings was lack of tolerance. He would throw fits and slam things on the floor at the slightest criticism. I started to make him listen to Teacher's Fa lectures and study the Fa every day. Through daily Fa study, he gradually identified his mistakes and continued to correct them.
One day I went to pick him up after school. On the way home, he told me proudly, "Mommy, I have become very tolerant. Today my teacher reprimanded me, but I endured it and stopped myself from crying!" I gave him a pat on the back and then told him, "It is not real forbearance to endure with anger to save face or act superior. It is genuine forbearance to endure without any anger." He listened and replied, "Mommy, I will do it."
Later he faced another test. A classmate hit my son, but he did not fight back or get upset. I knew my son had truly upgraded his xinxing. My son has always received excellent grades at school. He scored 100 points on almost every test. One day he told me proudly, "I am the only one in my class that scored 100 points on this test." I reminded him not to breed any attachment to zealotry or showing off. He nodded with a smile, signaling that he would remember my advice.
For a period of time my son was addicted to a race car video game. He was reluctant to stop playing the video game when I told him to study the Fa. At first, I was very mad at him so I reprimanded him. However, he became all the more addicted. Although he did not talk back, he ignored me and continued to play his video game. Finally I realized that something was wrong with me. Why did I get upset? Didn't I become angry? This is not a correct state of a cultivator. I adjusted my mentality and explained to him the importance of studying the Fa. I told him patiently that his addiction to playing the race car video game is a very strong attachment and he ought to purge the addiction. He promised to stop his addiction. Indeed, he began to spend less time on playing the video game. When he encountered a challenge, he would respond to it based on the Fa. He would often ask me, "Is it wrong for me to do this or that?" Then he answered his own question by quoting Zhuan Falun.
In actuality, my son is like a small mirror. When I look at him, I see my own inadequacies in cultivation practice. Every time he practices the sitting meditation, he can endure the pain for one full hour. In comparison, I am lagging behind. One day my husband said a few harsh words to me. I refused to listen and gave him a rebuttal. My son was reading when it happened. He put down his book and came to me saying, "Mommy, you did not endure." I realized what I had done and admitted it right away, "Mommy is wrong to lose her temper." One day my husband listed things he had done for our family, but my son interrupted him. "Daddy, you have such a strong attachment to the mentality of showing off." We all burst into laughter.
My son has been studying the Fa, practicing Falun Gong exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts with me. He also helps clarify the truth to the Chinese people over the Internet. One day after we finished sending forth righteous thoughts, he told me, "I saw many Faluns rotating near us. Many rays of white light were shooting out from Faluns. I also saw Teacher's Fashen." I said, "It is Teacher who encourages us to be diligent in our cultivation practice." He nodded with a serious look on his face.
I wrote this article because I feel that as parents, we will obstruct our children from cultivating and from upgrading their xinxing levels if we don't do well. We shoulder a lot of responsibility for our children. We must not only cultivate ourselves well, but also keep our children on track in their cultivation practice. In order to do so, we must do everything well for the sake of our children.
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