(Clearwisdom.net) I am a junior in high school. When the persecution started in 1999, my teachers and classmates didn't understand the situation very well, and I was under a lot of pressure. In addition, my parents were illegally arrested several times, and they weren't around to help me with my studies very much. By the time I was in eighth grade, my grades were very poor. I wasn't able to finish my homework almost on a daily basis. My teachers criticized me all the time and complained to my parents. Getting into high school became an issue. By then, my parents realized the severity of my problem. It interfered with validating the Fa because all of my friends and classmates knew that I was a Dafa practitioner. It could reflect poorly on Dafa.

My previous understanding of cultivation was rather extreme. I thought that my purpose in life was to obtain the Fa and assimilate to the Fa, and that there was no need to take the study of everyday people's knowledge very seriously. I felt that whichever school I went to would be just fine. Although I appeared to be taking fame and self-interest lightly, in fact I was not walking my path well. A student who doesn't pay attention to study is the same as a person who does not pay attention to his work. How can you do your work well if you don't pay attention to it? How is that different from being in the state of trance while working? In fact, the precondition of taking fame and self-interest lightly is doing one's work well. Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa at the Discussion on Creating Fine Art,"

"Let me tell you, everything that Dafa disciples are doing during this present historic time is of utmost importance. Just yesterday I was saying that whatever Dafa disciples do, human society will emulate it in the not-too-distant future."

My understanding is that, as a Dafa practitioner of school age, I am also responsible for setting an example for the future. As a student, my job is to study and I must do it well. As a student, I have a lot of studying to do. As a Dafa practitioner, we need to face it with righteous thoughts. In order to solve this problem, I have been reciting Lunyu and Hong Yin on the way to school and on the way home over the past two years. I also try very hard to find other time to study the Fa.

Teacher said in "Teaching the Fa in San Francisco, 2005:"

"In an enormous cosmic body that is quite far away, the elevation of lives there is very different from what is understood by lives in the cosmic system that you are in. They are sustained by their skills and the continual improvement of those skills. The gods at a higher level, then, have tied whether the lives at the lower levels can invent things and whether they can produce things onto the elevation of their realms. If a person's realm is elevated, his wisdom will be opened up, and he will be allowed to produce things, create things, and elevate. After he elevates, he will realize again and again that he is able to accomplish those things only because of the rise in his morality, and realize that he is able to elevate only because his own realm has risen."

I have come to understand that, as a practitioner, one needs to have higher standards than everyday people. Whether I have any wisdom and whether my grades improve are closely tied to the improvement of my morality. At the same time, I must believe that my grades will improve as my level rises. That is also a reflection of believing in the Fa and Teacher.

Good grades can easily lead an attachment to fame. I was happy when I got good grades and disappointed when my grades were not good. At those times, I must be alert and immediately eliminate this attachment to fame. My parents often advise me, "You must correct your mistakes and that's it. Do not pursue some status in your mind."

The primary reason for my poor grades was that I could not concentrate in class. There were different reasons for that, some internal and others external. They included all the inference caused by my own emotions and desires. In order to eliminate the inference, one must look within and get rid of attachments. That is the process of cultivation. At the same time, the evil uses human attachments to magnify those attachments and cause damage. Therefore, one must send forth righteous thoughts to eliminate them.

Over the past two years, I have been strengthening my main consciousness while I am in class. As soon as my mind wants to drift off, I eliminate the thought. It was hard at the beginning. My parents continuously help me strengthen my righteous thoughts as well. They remind me every morning to concentrate, and they ask me at the end of the day how many times my mind wandered off. No matter how I do, they never blame me. They just help me to look for attachments so that I can eliminate them. That requires a lot of patience on their part, and I am thankful to them for it.

So, I continuously look inward, eliminate my attachments to purify my thoughts, and I am now able to concentrate more in class. My grades have naturally improved. Eventually, I was able to get into a good high school. I was ranked 270th in the school when I entered as a freshman. I am a junior now, and I was ranked #1 at last midterm. I often get the highest scores in several subjects. Because of my good grades, I am able to safeguard the reputation of Dafa among my friends, teachers, and classmates and have validated Dafa at the same time.

I truly hope that all the practitioners who are still in school are able to balance the relationship between cultivation and study, and thus establish a new cultivation environment. This will provide people in our families, schools, and society with an opportunity to see Dafa in a positive light and be saved.

This is my experience in cultivation and schooling. Please kindly point out anything inappropriate. Heshi.