July 31, 2002
(Clearwisdom.net) I began learning Falun Gong in 2nd grade. When I first read Zhuan Falun, I felt that it was very difficult to understand since I was only an elementary school student and my vocabulary was very limited. I could not understand the audiotapes of Master's lectures when my teacher played them in class either. In my dreams however, I often read Zhuan Falun while in the heavens and could understand it perfectly. When my teacher asked me what I had read, I could only remember one word -- "Cultivation."
One Sunday afternoon when I was practicing the sitting meditation at home, I went to the "Falun Elementary School" in the heavens. It was a very big and beautiful school and Master was the teacher in every classroom. While reading lectures one through three of Zhuan Falun, the pronunciation symbols automatically appeared beside the words that I didn't understand. Some of the other students were also reading the book Hongyin (Master Li's poems). Master taught us many new words, and gave us lectures on the Fa and other subjects as well. Afterwards, we practiced the Falun Gong exercises on a big sports field while Master spoke the exercise commands in person.
During the break, I played with my classmates. Sometimes we flew to a big tree to chitchat. There was a golden dragon and a colorful phoenix up in the sky that guarded the school, and we sometimes flew to the sky to play with them. The golden dragon was as big as the Great Wall, and a single thread of his beard was like a pillar. Under the wings of the colorful phoenix, there was fire gushing out. However, it was not hot at all. Even if we touched the fire, it wasn't dangerous and we wouldn't catch on fire. Out of curiosity, I poked open the clouds beneath my feet and I saw high mountains. I then flew lower and noticed that houses and people on the ground looked so tiny.
Master gave us in-class assignments as well. He gave each student a piece of paper on which to draw a Falun emblem, and asked us to glue it onto our lotus seats when we were finished. He also gave us a quiz question on the advantages of Falun Dafa. I got a 100 on both of the assignments, and Master awarded us with presents for doing well.
Our lunch boxes were golden and covered with Falun emblems. After we ate lunch at the Falun Elementary School, I returned to my home to find that I had already been meditating for two hours.
Today was our school's end of the year ceremony before summer vacation. My mom has always expected me to do well and get as many awards as possible during the ceremony, and I have never let her down. This year however, after all the names were called out I didn't receive a single award. My teacher noticed I was a little upset after we returned to the classroom and told me that I was too attached to fame and self-interest. She said that as cultivators we should put down all of our attachments. Besides, I had already received many awards during the regular school year, and should now let other students have the chance to receive some too.
I told my teacher that there was another reason for my negative attitude. Earlier that day I did not keep up my xinxing (mind-nature) well and failed to follow "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." My sister had dropped my pencil box on the floor and things spilled out everywhere. I ran to her and asked her to pick them up but she refused. Then I lied to her by saying that if she picked them up for me, I would give her some beautiful stickers. My sister really loves stickers, so she complied. Afterwards I laughed at her loudly and made a cynical face. "Ha, ha!" I said, "I tricked you!" As soon as I said that, I suddenly saw in my celestial eye that three lotus petals had fallen off my lotus seat. The lotus seat had also become smaller to signify that my xinxing level had dropped. I was very miserable after seeing this and thought that I must do better in the future so as to be worthy of Master's great teachings!