(Minghui.org) At the end of 2020, a few months before I retired, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fired me from my non-government job because I refused to stop practicing Falun Dafa. This was unexpected, but I was not discouraged. While the CCP closed one door, our compassionate Master Li (the founder of Falun Dafa) opened two windows for me. I found tutoring jobs, and my income was the same.
Looking back a year later, I realize that, of all the people in the world, I was predestined to meet the students I tutored. What follows are stories about two of them.
HanHan, a cheerful and lovely girl, was one of the students I tutored. She had good social skills, but she needed to improve in the subject I taught. In elementary school, she did just fine in her other subjects, but her classmates usually scored better than she did in this one. She always failed to pass this subject in middle school even though she was tutored. Her mother had hired several tutors for her in the past. On the day we met, she told me that she had no confidence that she could ever learn this subject because everyone thought she was stupid.
My top priority was to help her build her confidence and stop thinking she was stupid. I adapted to her way of learning so I could design and solve the questions in ways she could understand. She tried to answer all my questions during our sessions. I praised her for good handwriting, clear answers, and quick responses to specific questions. We got along very well. Gradually, HanHan became more confident and answered more of the questions correctly.
One day, all excited, HanHan told me that she had finally passed the midterm exam in the subject. She said sincerely, “Teacher, you are the first person to think that I am not stupid. In front of the entire class, the teachers in my three major subjects often ‘praised’ me by saying that I was not bright but that I worked hard to improve my grades.” I was speechless.
HanHan’s mother said, “Before one exam, HanHan did not want me to blame you if she did not do well. She said you are patient and kind, you explain things clearly, and she understands what you say. She said she would be the one to blame. She also promised to work harder and asked me to keep you as her tutor.” What a lovely child! I was in tears.
Her mother also said, “I heard about you from the mothers of two of HanHan’s classmates in the elementary school. They had taught at your old school and said you were a good person. I am confident that I can leave HanHan’s instruction to you.”
Her words meant a lot to me. At my former school, I got along with people according to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. I was glad that I was a credit to Falun Dafa.
LiLi was in his first year in middle school. His mother and grandmother said that LiLi did not like to study and did not have a good academic foundation. I sensed their feelings of helplessness.
A Rough Start
I prepared the syllabus carefully and explained it to LiLi enthusiastically on the first day. He was very cooperative, but I noticed that he wrote incredibly slowly. He thought for some time before writing one character, and none of the characters he wrote was complete. In my more than 30 years of teaching, he was the first student I’d encountered with that learning difficulty. I patiently told him to write the words properly and in a timely way.
Although he promised to write faster, he did not. That session seemed endless, and it felt like a bucket of cold water had been thrown over my enthusiasm. My mind raced. As a Dafa practitioner, however, I looked inward and then tried my best to make the lesson go well.
When I got home, I thought, “I was predestined to meet this student. His parents have run a school. They knew my situation and still had me tutor their child without hesitation. They must know the facts about Dafa. I should do my best to help LiLi improve. I should demonstrate the broadmindedness and kindheartedness of a practitioner and help them recognize Dafa more.”
The next day, I finished the course content with great interest. I calmly watched him applying the theorems. He wrote down words and answered the questions one by one. I patiently explained the things that were incorrect. His slowness still needed to improve.
Moreover, he sometimes asked irrelevant questions while I was explaining something else. I repeatedly reminded him to listen and concentrate on one thing at a time. It took me more than two hours to finish the lesson that could have been done in 90 minutes. I was exhausted when we finished.
LiLi did not score well in any course in the first monthly exams. His score on the subject I tutored was also far below expectation. He told me that his classroom teacher commented on his overall performance as “inferior.” I felt sorry for him. His parents would feel even worse when they saw his grades.
LiLi is a good child. When there was no make-up class, he would quietly do homework or play alone in the classroom. Unfortunately, his teacher ignored all of his strengths. Under the CCP, adults judge a person only by their income, and many teachers judge a student by his or her grades.
As the tutoring progressed, LiLi and I became more familiar with each other. One day, he told me that he once scored only 20 points on this subject. I asked him why he did not get a tutor before now. Lili said, “My dad’s teacher tutored me, but he stopped coming after a few sessions. You won’t run away, will you?”
When he said that, I remembered that when I occasionally put my coat on during class because I was cold, he asked if I was going to leave. Obviously, his previous teachers’ comments and being abandoned by his tutor had psychologically damaged this poor child.
I said, “As long as you study hard and improve, I will always look after you. If you don't pay attention and make no progress, after sometime I would be too embarrassed to teach you. Wouldn’t that mean that you indirectly fired me? So we have to work together. For example, if you always leave out a stroke when you write a character, even though I have pointed out the correction needed many times, and you do not change, think about it, weren’t those words you wrote with missing arms and legs pitiful?”
From then on, Lili hardly wrote any characters incorrectly. It was a stroke of luck, and I saw the kindness in my heart.
To prevent him from falling behind, I tutored him every day, rain or shine, even though I had to ride my electric bicycle over 20 minutes on snowy days to get to his house. One drizzly night, I had a flat tire. Unable to find a repair shop after dark, I called my husband to pick me up. Because he didn’t understand exactly where I was, he had to drive back and forth several times before he found me.
I can cultivate in any setting. I knew that tutoring was also a cultivation journey.
LiLi’s Family, a Predestined Relationship with Dafa
After six months, LiLi had made significant progress. Now, teaching him required less effort.
One day after our lesson, LiLi’s grandmother gave me a wool scarf. I tried and tried to decline it, but her sincerity left me no choice. Afterward, I felt ashamed for taking the gift. I thought of returning it several times but never did.
One day, I gave LiLi’s grandma a gift in return. I said, “Sister, this is my gift to you. You must accept it. LiLi's father knows that I practice Falun Dafa. I would rather lose my job than relinquish my practice. From Dafa, I understand the meaning of ‘no loss, no gain.’ It is improper to accept a gift for no reason. Falun Dafa is a spiritual practice based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. It teaches people to cultivate their xinxing and to be kind.”
By then both of us were in tears. I said, “The propaganda about Falun Dafa on TV is all false. The CCP is deceiving the world. You will be blessed if you often recite ‘Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.’ The children around you will also benefit. Some people were saved during the pandemic because they recited those auspicious phrases.”
LiLi’s grandmother asked if she could recite the phrases even if she were a Buddhist. I replied, “There is no problem. If you say them sincerely, you will feel it. You can give it a try.”
She said, “LiLi is very lucky to have you as his tutor. The secretary where I work is also a practitioner. He was arrested and held in a detention center for 15 days for practicing Falun Dafa, and he was stripped of his duties. I was the deputy secretary at the time. I refused to let the 610 Office agents search his office. The next day, we cleaned out his desk and found many Dafa books in the drawers. We kept the books safe for him. There were also many welfare coupons that he hadn’t redeemed. He was very popular at my workplace.”
LiLi’s grandmother was in her 60s, but she looked much younger than her peers. She was very kind and had an even temper. She made a cup of tea for me before each lesson. Once, when I arrived ten minutes earlier than usual, she and LiLi were already there. She said, “LiLi, you have a wonderful teacher. You must study hard.” Both LiLi and I beamed.
Of the students I tutored, LiLi lived the farthest away from me and had the worst academic foundation, and his parents paid me the least. Why did I not want to give up on him? It must have been because LiLi’s family had a predestination with Dafa, and I wanted to honor that sacred bond. I felt that I could help him improve his grades.