(Clearwisdom.net)
Greetings Master, and Greetings everyone.
My sharing will be on several different topics.
1. Improving Myself in the Process of Establishing a Minghui School
In 2002, I realized the importance of Minghui School to young Dafa Disciples’ and their parents’ cultivation so I organized Fa-study and exercises at my home which we then called the Melbourne Minghui School. After several months we rented a larger public room. The parents and I discussed the importance of learning Chinese for the young disciples so that they could study the Fa in Chinese, and thus the Chinese lessons began!
At this stage we had only one class which included all of the children. They ranged from ages four to sixteen years old. We soon realized that in many ways this was a disadvantage as their levels of proficiency were different, so we decided to rent several classrooms at a primary school. To do this we were required to register as a Chinese Community language school, to get public liability insurance and to follow the state curriculum for Chinese language education. We also incorporated Minghui Net (Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net) stories, study of Hongyin and Lunyu and the Falun Gong exercises, as well as a righteous arts-based activity afterwards.
Before we moved to the primary school we lost two students and I realized we needed to be more clearheaded, righteous and close to the Fa. We also had to be more dynamic and skillful in terms of our teaching methods. Our school needed to be interesting and stimulating to validate the Fa. After moving to the primary school we opened Minghui School to the public and invited students whose parents did not practice Falun Gong. Within a year we had five students whose parent’s were non-practitioners.
It was hard to begin running a school as there were many challenges such as being short of time, finding and understanding a curriculum and organizing the timetable. I also had to put aside human thoughts about it not being very important or not a real job.
Breaking through human concepts is part of our cultivation in the Fa rectification period. I discovered that to register with the Department of Education I had to write up a curriculum based on Chinese textbooks for many different levels. Just beginning this task involved breaking through my self imposed limitations and concepts that told me that I couldn’t do it. It was an almost physically painful process but I felt very light and free when it was complete. Practitioner’s righteous thoughts are powerful. Once we can overcome the mental barrier we can achieve many things.
The teachers, some parents and I started having regular Fa study and meetings. Through this we strengthened our understanding of the importance of Minghui School. We came to realize that our role is not just to come along, teach a few things and leave, but it is a Fa validating job. We are creating a new business, one which assists little disciples and their families and validates the Fa as well. When Minghui school first began I would sometimes coordinate it with a negative attitude. Sometimes I wanted to stick to my own way of doing things and felt that other people weren’t doing enough. When we had Fa study and regular Minghui School meetings it became so much easier to get things done as teachers and parents began to make decisions and take on more responsibility. We now make decisions as a group. We are learning to work together more effectively. A coordinator’s job is to help organize elements such as Fa study and regular meetings so that everyone can create their own mighty virtue in carrying out the Fa rectification work.
One prominent test we have been faced with is the attitude of a few students who were not behaving well. It is not acceptable for Minghui School to ignore this, and it is a result of the children’s being saturated with everyday peoples’ thinking and mentality. We make an effort to be diligent in ensuring students are behaving well, especially the older students, as they should act as role models for younger students. At first I did not do so well in this area and thought that I needed to sound and act emotionally moved and angry. "Bob! No talking please!" Eventually I realized that this would disturb the whole class as well as setting a very bad example. It is much better to approach a student and talk with them calmly and seriously about what they did wrong—treating the student as a fellow Dafa Disciple and a little disciple, not as just a child. Now I am improving in this area.
2. Importance of Fa-study
I would also like to share my thoughts on the importance of Fa study. Fa study is an essential part of cultivating well in the Fa rectification period. I try to study at least one lecture per day of Zhuan Falun or another lecture, and do an hour of standing exercise or the fifth exercise. Sometimes I found my cultivation state wasn’t good and when looking inside I found that my Fa study and practicing had slipped without my noticing. Sometimes it would be because I experienced demonic interference in the form of sleepiness trying to stop me from cultivating. As soon as I recognized it as demonic interference it would usually stop.
Balancing well our study of Zhuan Falun with regularly reading some of Master’s other lectures, particularly the recent ones as well as other Jingwen and Hongyin is important in staying righteous and keeping up with the Fa rectification. When I do this well combined with regularly sending righteous thoughts my cultivation is solid and I get Fa work done quickly and efficiently.
Sometimes my cultivation state and clarifying the truth would seem quite stagnant and I would wonder why. Quite often it was because I had not studied the new lectures recently. When I realized this and then read them I would find new energy for the Fa rectification activities, and things would happen with more sacredness and energy.
Occasionally I feel that my cultivation is not stable enough. If I think about it, I often see that it is because I am not reading one lecture of Zhuan Falun per day, the reading quality was very poor or if I was sleepy at night. We have to ensure the quality, otherwise it’s reading in vain.
3. My Understanding of the Male-female Relationship
Recently I realized I still had some shortfalls with my understanding between the appropriate relations between males and females, and I had to raise my level.
Recently, Master said in "Teaching the Fa in the City of Los Angeles,"
"I have talked before about the old forces’ interference. Have you thought about the following? (Sexual desire) is one of the factors (they use) to hold you back! What do the old forces and the old cosmos see as the gravest thing? Lust, (in the form of) sexual activity outside of marriage. That’s what they see as the most serious of things."
When I read this I knew that my understandings on this issue needed to be raised up and my character rectified. Cultivation is a matter of improving, layer by layer, and the requirements are higher and higher. I understood that by being in this world, particularly involved in the theater, I had picked up notions such as it is fine to touch or hug or be friendly and close to both males and females. I thought that it was just the same, instead of properly understanding that there is a difference between male and female, and we should have a proper distance between unmarried males and females.
Please point out anything inappropriate.
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