(Clearwisdom.net) As soon as I became aware that I was pregnant in 2002, I started playing Dafa music and Master's lecture tapes for the baby in my womb. I knew she came for the Fa, and would not be an ordinary child, and that I should regard her as a young practitioner rather than merely my child.
I treated her as a young practitioner after she was born. Sometimes she wasn't feeling well, but as soon as I played Master's lecture tapes or Dafa music, she got better very quickly. When she began talking, I taught her to chant "Falun Dafa is good," and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good." I started teaching her to memorize Hong Yin at age two. As soon as she entered the daycare center around age three, I started teaching her the core principles of cultivation practice and asked her to follow them; for example, not fighting back when being punched or insulted, looking within, no second cultivation way, and judging right from wrong according to Dafa. She understood these principles. I often read her books such as Stories of Cultivation Practice, Stories of Traditional Chinese Culture, and books that had no Communist Party culture elements, such as Journey to the West and Pinocchio.
I also taught her to send righteous thoughts and do the five sets of exercises. In addition, I picked stories from the Minghui/Clearwisdom and Zhengjian/Pure Insight websites and read them to her, with the purpose of filling her mind with good things, which could strengthen her righteous thoughts.
She's now in elementary school, and I asked her do a shorter version of the whole set of exercises every week. I also requested that she recite several poems from Hong Yin every night before bedtime. She now participates in the global sending forth righteous thoughts activity at noon and 6:00 p.m. as much as possible. She is able to concentrate when watching Master's lecture videos, and while studying Zhuan Falun during school breaks.
Her school has a flag event every Monday morning, and each day she sends righteous thoughts to eliminate the Communist specter behind it. She can tell when there are bad elements in the textbooks, and sends righteous thoughts as soon as she sees them. When she doesn't feel well, she sends righteous thoughts, studies the Fa, and looks within, then becomes well again. Others in our family are used to this already. When I don't feel well, she sends righteous thoughts for me. When others don't feel well and think they've caught a cold, she tells me in private, "No, it's caused by karma."
Children have very few bad thoughts. In daily life, I teach her to lead a simple and easy way of life. In China however, the environment for elementary school kids is not comparable to the Minghui School environment overseas, because people have different predestined relationships and many of us have to stay in China. But we can strive to change our environments, and at the very least our family environments for the better, so that our kids can live in a relatively pure environment where they can be influenced more positively, and yet more importantly, build the ability to resist the bad influences of society.
I personally believe that the young practitioners' cultivation states have a lot to do with their parents. Their self-sufficiency, discernment and self-control are relatively weak and they're easily affected by their environments. Therefore, as parents we should not only spend time caring for their basic needs and studying, but also supervise and help-out with their cultivation practice every day. We need to make sure their faith and righteous thoughts toward Dafa are not compromised at any time. We especially need to pay attention to keeping their thoughts as pure as possible by keeping them away from the bad things in society, and helping them learn things that are beneficial, and learning the principles of Dafa. We can never let our guards down and think it is OK to "follow the course of nature" in this regard. Supervision is essential!
I know a practitioner who believes in "following the course of nature" with regard to bringing up her child. The child did quite well when he was little--his third-eye was open and he could often see Master's law body. But the practitioner did not take the responsibility to supervise him, and gradually things started to go bad. The child got into computer games and his academic record started to drop, not to mention doing Fa study and the exercises. Moreover, he would get angry whenever anyone tried to discipline him.
I suggested that the fellow practitioner help her child study the Fa, but the practitioner said, "In my understanding, every family has at least one person who creates difficulties for others to improve, and it is not possible for everyone to be diligent. The child has grown up and has formed his own mind, and I can't do anything about it." The child later had to withdraw from school due to his poor academic record. He now stays at home playing computer games and surfing the Internet all day, and has stopped practicing cultivation.
The practitioner sighed, "I am so busy. I have no time to supervise him. He doesn't listen to me. He's big enough to make his own decisions. Let's follow the course of nature." My heart sank when I heard this. If the practitioner had put more time into helping her child, he would have turned around a long time ago and improved. After all, he came to the world for the Fa!
Fellow parent practitioners, our goal is to "...attain the righteous Enlightenment of selflessness and altruism." ("Non-Omission in Buddha-Nature" from Essentials for Further Advancement) We should be compassionate, especially to our children. I don't think it is right to wait for our children to grow up before they make the decision of whether or not to practice cultivation. Some of us think we're too busy as parents. We have to work, do the three things well, do housework, and attend social activities, etc. Some of us think our time is too tight for practicing cultivation even for ourselves, not to mention sharing it with our children. They also believe that supervising children takes a lot of effort, energy and time, and it's better to have someone else to take care of them.
I personally don't believe these kinds of thoughts are based on the Fa. The thoughts of wanting to be free of trouble, and not wasting time on children, are caused by the attachment to ease and comfort. It is a manifestation of a lack of the sense of responsibility and mission, and the root is selfishness. Even non-practitioners take great responsibility in educating their children. Raising children should give education as the first priority.
If we wait for them to grow-up before supervising their cultivation practice, won't that be too late? Won't we have to spend more time helping them remove their bad thoughts and notions? Drawing an analogy, isn't a room cleaned every day easier to clean than one that is cleaned once a week? Isn't it an extra benefit that it is clean every day? The human world is full of contaminants. Shouldn't we use the pure water of Dafa to cleanse ourselves every day? Indeed! The same is true with our young practitioners! Of course, I'm not suggesting we watch them at every moment and not do anything else, which is another extreme.
Raising our children as non-practitioners is doing them harm. This is not showing consideration for their eternity and we are not being qualified parents. Because we have obtained the Fa, to truly think of our children, we should help them with practicing cultivation, instead of merely providing them with a comfortable life. Just because we cannot become attached to sentiments doesn't mean we should ignore them. We are supposed to supervise them well. We shouldn't ignore them! I know many practitioners who pay a lot of attention to their own cultivation, but treat their children as ordinary people, which I think is caused by their being lost in conventional thinking.
A child's mind is like a blank piece of paper, and it depends on us what is drawn on it. Master said, "A person is like a container, and he is whatever he contains." ("Melt into the Fa" from Essentials for Further Advancement) What have we filled their minds with?
Dafa practitioners should do well in every aspect. Lack of time and capabilities is an excuse, and the real reason is that we did not pay attention to our children's cultivation practice as seriously as to our own. It is because we are not selfless enough.
In my humble opinion, we must, by all means, raise our children responsibly, and spend enough time in assisting them with their cultivation practice. We should not allow our non-practitioner family members to take over completely, and be satisfied with their having good food, clothing and academic achievements. Aren't those things far less important than obtaining Dafa? A life that came to the human world when Dafa is spreading is for the Fa! Let us all work hard and advance diligently with our fellow young practitioners!
This concludes my limited personal understandings. I hope to inspire some fellow practitioners, so that future regrets can hopefully be reduced.
July 3, 2009