(Clearwisdom.net) In Taiwan, students face the intense pressure of having to excel academically to pass the college entrance examination. Hence, the number of students suffering from depression and those dropping out and skipping school increases every year. The following third-year high school students who have been practicing Falun Gong for only eight months might be able to help their fellow teenagers with their personal experiences of enjoying their eduction!
A high school teacher and her students practicing Falun Gong together: (From left) Song Yichun, Lee Ruming, and their history teacher, Ms. Wu
A schoolteacher who practices Falun Gong introduces Falun Gong to her students
Song Yichun and Lee Ruming are third-year high school students at Neili High School in Taiwan. They are not only classmates but also fellow Falun Gong practitioners. They both face upcoming college entrance exams. How did they find out about and start practicing Falun Gong? It turns out that their new history teacher, Ms. Wu, has been practicing Falun Gong for many years. Unlike many other schoolteachers who demand only high scores from their students, Ms. Wu is very amiable and caring. She distinguishes herself from other teachers because she emphasizes morality, respect for others, and manners. She told her students that having high morality is far more important than having high scores. Her students truly feel that Ms. Wu is nurturing their moral values and virtues. Having a good impression of the other teachers at school who practice Falun Gong, the two students became interested in Falun Gong.
In addition, Ms. Wu tells her students the facts about Falun Gong when she teaches relevant material in class. One day, Yichun told Ms. Wu that she wanted to learn Falun Gong. Meanwhile, Ruming found a copy of Zhuan Falun in the school's library. After she read the book, she decided that Falun Gong was very good. The two of them immediately started practicing. Several classmates joined them. At one time, more than ten students in their class were practicing Falun Gong.
Falun Gong gave them the wisdom to improve academically
How do they find time for Falun Gong, given their heavy course load? Well, there are eight schoolteachers and staff members at school that practice Falun Gong. Ms. Wu uses the time for siesta to read Falun Gong books and practice the exercises with them. (They practice the exercises on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and study the texts on Tuesdays and Thursdays.) They were surprised to find that they felt more energized in the afternoon.
Yichun also studies the Fa before going to sleep or 30 minutes before the start of school. She discovered that studying the Fa helped her calm down and enter tranquility, which was very helpful to her studies at school. As for Ruming, she spends about one hour every day studying the Fa, practicing the exercises, or reading articles on Minghui/Clearwisdom about cultivation experiences. She finds the articles very helpful to her cultivation practice.
When asked if practicing Falun Gong has distracted them from their learning or caused them to fall behind, Yichun said, "In my first year in high school, I was almost always one of the last five in class. (There are about 43 students in her class.) In my second year in high school, I was always struggling between 20th and 30th place in class. I started to practice in the middle of my third year. In the last major examination at school, I was in second place in the class."
Ruming added that she developed a good attitude towards learning after she started to practice. When she learned from Falun Gong's texts that it is a student's duty to do well in learning, she became more responsible. As a result, her academic performance has been steadily climbing. She confessed that she used to skip homework, but she now thinks that it would disappoint her teachers and give Falun Gong a bad name. Nowadays she hands in every homework assignment on time.
Realizing that one reaps what one sows and learning to search inward when facing conflicts
Since the two students started to practice Falun Gong, they have been repeatedly surprised by their academic improvement. More importantly, they have started to change their perspective on life due to Falun Gong's teachings. According to Yichun, Falun Gong taught her that there is a cause and an effect to everything or the law that one will reap what one sows. Therefore, Yichun is learning to regard everything from a different perspective. There are often conflicts between peers. Before she started to practice Falun Gong, Yichun would think others were in the wrong when if they bullied her. But now she thinks that she might have done something wrong in a previous life to those who treat her badly in this life. More importantly, Yichun is willing to search inward to identify what she can do to improve herself instead of blaming others. As a result, the conflicts are often easily resolved.
Yichun's mother often nagged her about excelling academically, and Yichun used to talk back to her mother. Now she listens calmly to her mother and reflects upon her attitude toward learning. She is even thankful for her mother's reminders to be diligent at school. In addition, Yichun feels she should be responsible for her learning because she is a Falun Gong practitioner. She feels that she, as a practitioner, must not neglect her education and has been motivating herself to study diligently. Yichun used to think it was unfair when she was asked to give way to her younger sister, but now she no longer bickers with her sister or reads her sister's diary. Yichun's sister often evaluates her speech and manners according to Falun Gong's cultivation principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance and points it out when Yichun fails to comply with these principles. As a result, Yichun has become all the more vigilant about conducting herself according to these principles.
Since she started to practice Falun Gong, Lee Ruming feels that things in life are not as complicated as she thought. She has also discovered that searching inward is an excellent tool to make progress in cultivation. Every time she feels like losing her temper, she decides that she must have some attachments she needs to let go of. As long as she is willing to purge her notions and put herself in other people's shoes, Ruming feels that things in life will become a lot easier to handle.
Farewell to illness
In terms of dating, Yichun and Ruming have learned from Falun Gong's teaching that a student should emphasize moral values and chastity. Yichun feels that she ought to follow the traditional ways of conduct. Yichun does not think that refusing to do anything immoral means she is conservative. Rather, she thinks it means that she values virtue and morality. Ruming added that she noticed that today's people are very casual about dating and relationships and that she used to wonder if she should accept the conventional values about dating. Now that she reads Falun Gong's texts, Ruming is convinced that she should adhere to the traditional code of conduct and should not descend to the conventional values about dating and relationships.
Due to the pressure of college entrance examinations, teenagers in Taiwan often suffer from illness because one's mental state affects one's health. Yichun and Ruming were also prone to illness in the past. Since they started to practice Falun Gong, they have become very healthy, which aids their learning. Yichun used to get sick often. It was not uncommon for her to go see a doctor twice a week. Every time an examination was around the corner, Yichun would catch a cold, which affected her academic performance. She used to think that there would be no end to such a fate.
Since she started to practice Falun Gong, Yichun has learned the root cause of a person's illness and the effect of eliminating one's karma on cleansing one's body. Through their steadfast studying the Fa and practicing the exercises, Yichun's health has improved substantially. She said she is now a healthy, happy teenager every day. After witnessing how content Yichun and Ruming are, some of their classmates have asked to learn Falun Gong as well.
Their parents have stopped worrying and now support Falun Gong
Yichun and Ruming's parents have not started to practice Falun Gong yet. What do they think about their children practicing Falun Gong? According to Yichun, her parents were worried that her grades might drop because she spent time learning the practice. To her parents' surprise, Yichun's academic performance improved by leaps and bounds. Hence, Yichun's parents witnessed the power of Falun Gong. Once Yichun's mother took a photograph of Yichun's bedroom and was surprised to see Faluns in the picture!
Nowadays Yichun's parents support her decision to practice Falun Gong. In the past, Yichun's parents would settle on her getting into any college. Now that they have witnessed her progress, they expect her to land in one of the top colleges in Taiwan. Yichun's parents added, "If you get into a public university, we will start practicing Falun Gong!" (In Taiwan, the top universities are the public ones.) Yichun knows that cultivation is a serious matter and that her parents should practice Falun Gong unconditionally. However, Yichun has decided to do well in every aspect so that her parents will be interested in learning more about Falun Gong.
Spreading the facts about Falun Gong and helping mainland Chinese quit the CCP via Internet chat rooms
Although it has been less than a year since Yichun and Ruming started to practice Falun Gong, they have studied all of Teacher's lectures at least once. They have a good understanding of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong. At one time, Yichun did not understand why Teacher would not ensure that those wicked people who committed crimes against Falun Gong practitioners would receive instant karmic retribution. As she continues to study the Fa, Yichun has realized that Teacher is compassionate to give those predestined people opportunities to learn the truth about the persecution and to be free of the CCP's lies.
Ruming has seen two movies that Ms. Wu has played in class, Shock and Sandstorm. Ruming is in tears when she recalls the sharp contrast between the cruel torture and imprisoned practitioners who endured those tortures. Ruming knows that some policemen in China were worth feeling sorry for because they were made to participate in the persecution against their will. Ruming thinks that even those policemen in China should be given an opportunity to learn the facts about Falun Gong.
Once they realized the severity of the persecution, both Yichun and Ruming started to spend some of their spare time spreading important facts about Falun Gong and the persecution of Falun Gong. They have gone to chat rooms on the Internet and chatted with people from China. According to Yichun, she has met a lot of mainland Chinese with twisted ideology who use dirty and aggressive language. Most of them keep cursing and criticizing. But when Yichun tells them about how popular Falun Gong is outside of China, their empty accusations are powerless. Some people silently listen to what she has to say and have helped her clear the name of Falun Gong in the end. The girls often meet people who change their minds about Falun Gong on the Internet. They've also met people who've asked to withdraw from the CCP, the Youth League, and the Young Pioneers.
Yichun once met a mainland Chinese government official who is involved in handling affairs between Taiwan and China. The official talked about how he places the people of China first in his work. Yichun asked him, "Do you really feel that China is good? Who truly benefits from the CCP's rule? The Chinese people or the corrupt government officials?" The official knew he was not telling the truth and later agreed to withdraw from the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
According to Ruming, there are all kinds of people on the Internet and she is prone to argue with them when her cultivation status is not good. When she studies the Fa well, Ruming finds that people will naturally sense her kindness and compassion and will tend to listen when she talks. Hence, Ruming feels that she, as a cultivator, must rectify each and every one of her thoughts so that compassion will manifest its power.
Good and bad is determined by one thought: Teacher repeatedly protects them and their families
According to Yichun, she has witnessed many miracles since she started to practice Falun Gong. Once when she was practicing the sitting meditation, a group of teenagers near her home were about to fight. Her mother was standing next to a window and asked her to come watch the fight. At the time, Yichun rectified her thought and thought, "They must not fight! Every life is precious! Teacher, please make them stop fighting!" In the next second, Yichun's mother told her disappointedly, "What a pity! They were about to fight, but they stopped and walked away."
Another time Yichun's mother was taking her to school on a motorbike. They ran over a nail at an intersection, but they arrived at Yichun's school safely with the tire intact. Her mother said that the tire did not become flat until she rode by a body shop.
At a barbecue during the Moon Festival in 2006, Yichun, who rarely helped in the kitchen, was chopping meat when she cut the back of her left hand. She immediately thought of the passage in Zhuan Falun about an elderly lady being hit by a car. She remembered that a good or a bad outcome comes from one thought, so she thought to herself that she was fine. It turned out that there wasn't even a scratch or any blood on the back of her hand. Her family also witnessed this miracle. Yichun is very thankful for Teacher's protection!
Falun Gong gives them happiness
According to Ruming, one's age does not determine one's cultivation level. All cultivators can find a lot of fun and challenges in their cultivation practice as long as they apply cultivation to their lives. Because she feels she is growing up in Falun Gong's cultivation practice, she is able to see things in life more clearly.
Yichun spent a lot of time nursing herself back to health before she started to practice Falun Gong. Now she tries to utilize her time for studying the Fa and practicing the exercises. She feels she is leading a happy life. She is able to turn most of the unpleasant things in life into nothing.
They both decided that cultivation is not just for older folk. They feel that Falun Gong can lead teenagers on a healthy path, so they tell people they meet that Falun Gong is very good. They hope that more and more people will have the same good fortune to find Falun Gong and learn the true meaning in life and the source of true happiness!
Views expressed in this article represent the author's own opinions or understandings. All content published on this website are copyrighted by Minghui.org. Minghui will produce compilations of its online content regularly and on special occasions.
Category: Improving Oneself
