(Minghui.org) I began practicing Falun Dafa in 2012, and my 12 years of cultivation have passed in the blink of an eye. Along the way, I faced challenges and stumbled, but thankfully, I did not deviate from Dafa under Master’s care. I would like to share some of my insights from cultivating Dafa.
I married relatively late in life. My wife is not a Dafa practitioner, but she knows Dafa is good and is aware of the brutal persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She also feels that in today’s society, someone who adheres to moral principles is extraordinary, so she has great respect for me. At times, however, due to my inability to let go of human attachments, especially my attachment to sentimentality, I lost my temper with her. I regretted it deeply afterward, knowing that I did not conduct myself well. I apologized to her right away and corrected my behavior.
As I gradually worked to align myself with Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I realized the purpose of marriage in the human world and how sacred it is. Marriage brings two people together to form a new family, where the couple both have responsibilities to bear and contributions to make. Before they marriws, they each had strengths and weaknesses as well as troubles inherited from their own families. When they come together through the bond of marriage, their respective strengths and weaknesses collide, interact, and integrate during their shared life, ultimately leading to mutual elevation. Both parties can shed their weaknesses and elevate their thoughts and character.
In this process, the contractual bond of marriage is profoundly sacred. However, modern society generally views emotions (or “love”) as the foundation of marriage, believing that the marriage hinges on emotions. When there is any dissatisfaction or hardship, or when emotions falter, people begin to look down on their spouse, and such issues can even escalate to divorce. This completely disregards the individual’s responsibility and the significance of marriage. Some consider marriage the “graveyard of love,” but this is totally incorrect. Modern media also put huge emphasis on the importance of emotions, with nearly every TV drama showcasing some kind of romantic story, treating emotional desire as everything in life. They fail to realize that marriage is about cultivating oneself to eliminate one’s shortcomings and developing a sense of responsibility toward the family and society. Nowadays, many people, even in their 40s or 50s, indulge in emotional desires outside of marriage and abandon their families.
There is an ancient Chinese saying: “At the age of 40, one is free from doubt.” Yet, in modern society, many people in their 40s are still seriously confused. I was fortunate to have encountered Dafa, which has allowed me to be like a pure lotus in a muddy world. By adhering to Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, I strive to improve myself and fulfill my responsibilities to my family. As a result, we have a harmonious and joyful family life. The CCP slanders Dafa practitioners, claiming they abandon their families, refuse to work, and so on. These are all lies. Many of the difficulties that Dafa practitioners’ families face stem from persecution by the CCP.
Falun Dafa teaches us to be good people and to meet high standards in all areas of life, whether in the family or in society. I am a middle school teacher and strive to hold myself to Dafa’s standards at work. Because I treat my students with kindness, they are all willing to listen to me and feel that I am different from other teachers.
At my current level of understanding, the education system under the CCP is infused with political propaganda and demonic influences. From childhood, students are indoctrinated with the belief that the CCP is great, glorious, infallible, and always serving the people. In reality, it is the people who serve the CCP without getting the respect they deserve. For example, students are taught that humans are advanced animals and they must learn to compete and fight. The seeds of fighting and conflict are planted in their hearts from a young age, and they gradually lose all their positive qualities. Education is no longer about nurturing individuals, and schools have become a battlefield for fame and profit. Many middle school students experience anxiety, depression, and other psychological issues, and a significant number lose interest in learning altogether.
The rapid increase in social problems and the growing pressures on families have made many students emotionally fragile. When they come to school, they often have high expectations and hope for guidance and support from their teachers. However, they are often met with the same darkness, as schools also have turned into arenas of fame and profit. Some schools, without moral boundaries, even exploit students and their families, leading to a growing darkness in students’ minds and an increase in campus problems. In fact, there are many reasons why students lose interest in studying: personal, familial, educational, and societal factors that are due to the CCP’s influence are all part of it. Yet, from the perspective of schools and teachers who fail to understand the root causes, the blame is often placed solely on the students, who are then placed under stricter control, which creates a more vicious cycle.
Cultivating Dafa has opened my wisdom, enabling me to see clearly the psychological challenges students face. In my teaching, I treat every student kindly, putting myself in their shoes and considering their needs. Using the principles and insights I have gained from Dafa, I help them untie the knots in their hearts and allow them to feel as much light and warmth as possible.
Many senior colleagues have said that, if just half of their students pay close attention in class, it’s a mark of success for a teacher. However, in my classes, the vast majority of students genuinely enjoy listening. There are serious struggles for fame and profit among teachers in the schools. Some resort to underhanded tactics, and some don’t put much effort into their teaching. After I began practicing Dafa, I worked hard to hold myself to its principles, and I dedicated myself to my teaching duties. When it came to matters of personal interest, I simply let things take their natural course. Even though I have worked for many years, I remain an ordinary teacher, and yet I feel no sense of loss. I actually feel a profound sense of happiness. This all comes from the power of Dafa, which has guided me to cultivate myself through my work and strive to be a person who contributes positively to society.
Many students have returned to visit me after graduating and have told me how much they liked my teaching. Every time I think of this, I am deeply moved. The CCP spreads lies to slander Falun Dafa practitioners, claiming we are harmful to society. Yet, in reality, Dafa practitioners are genuinely striving to be better people. Who is righteous and who is evil is crystal clear. It is just that many people in China have been deceived by the CCP’s lies and therefore lack a proper understanding of Dafa.
After so many years of cultivating Dafa, I sense the vastness and profoundness of Dafa. Its deep principles are beyond what I can fully comprehend. From my initial stage of personal cultivation, and gradually elevating step by step, to later understanding the concept of Fa-rectification cultivation, my inner state has undergone a tremendous transformation. I came to realize that, as a Dafa practitioner, the quality of my cultivation directly impacts the extent to which I can help Master save sentient beings.
I primarily teach graduating classes, and in the course of teaching, I often seize opportunities to clarify the truth to the students. I explain that Falun Dafa has been unjustly slandered by the CCP and that the Tiananmen Square self-immolation was a hoax. I point out the obvious flaws in the self-immolation incident to help students understand the truth. Through this, I teach them that, in today’s society, distinguishing right from wrong is often challenging. When state-run media portray a person or a group as being bad, it’s likely that this person or group is being suppressed or wronged. This is because, in today’s world, standards of good and bad are often manipulated for self-interests. Under Master’s protection, I have been able to safely and peacefully clarify the truth to my class every year. However, due to interference from the old forces and my own attachments causing insufficient righteous thoughts, there have been some classes where I couldn’t finish explaining everything. This has left me with deep regret. For those students who have graduated, I always silently ask in my heart that Master will arrange another opportunity for them to encounter Dafa practitioners, so they can hear the truth more.
From my personal experience in cultivation, I’ve come to understand that letting go of attachments and returning to one’s true self is an extraordinarily difficult process. This is especially so within the inverted principles of the Three Realms, where walking the righteous path is inherently challenging and where things have become even more challenging with the persecution by the old forces. Dafa cultivation requires us not to abandon the secular world but to cultivate in the ordinary society while eliminating our attachments. The hardship that we endure in this process is something that ordinary people cannot imagine. Yet we have Dafa as our guide, Master’s protection, and the righteous path to walk on. When we let go of human attachments and relinquish our desires, the compassion that arises in our hearts and the righteous thoughts born from understanding the truth propel us forward on the path of Dafa cultivation. In doing so, our hearts remain forever bright and sacred. On the other hand, for regular people who do not understand the truth about Dafa and continue to sink within the inverted principles of the Three Realms, their fate is truly pitiful.
The above is my personal understanding at my current level. If anything is not in accordance with the Fa, please kindly point it out.