(Clearwisdom.net) A recent discussion on the Clearwisdom website revolves around helping our young children to cultivate. I'd like to share some of what went on with my child when my family started cultivation practice ten years ago.
My wife and I started practicing Falun Gong in the spring of 1998. We would practice the exercises for two hours every morning and study the Fa for two hours every night at the practice site, along with our then six-year-old son. He played with his toys next to us and never made a sound while we studied. If he got tired, he fell asleep on the sofa. I noticed a significant change in his behavior six months later. One day as I studied the Fa I came across this sentence, "Some people call it a heavenly language, and there are others who call it the Buddha's language." (Third Lecture, Zhuan Falun) Our son, playing beside me, continued, "That is slandering Buddha," which is of course exactly as it says in the book. I was shocked. I looked at him and said to myself, "His human side is playing, yet his knowing side is studying the Fa with me." From then on I intentionally sat next to him every time I studied the Fa at home.
One Sunday afternoon I bought a copy of the newly published Hong Yin and read it aloud standing by my son. I came across the poem "Human Work and Buddha Cultivation,"
"Some 2,500 years, the Buddhist precepts
have been bequeathed,
Name and gain, they tell, first must go,
then the grueling cultivation begins;
Alas, the monks of our day take salaries,
And workplace dress is even provided."
(Hong Yin)
He put down his toy race-car and ran to me. I studied the Fa with him for a while. Afterwards, I pondered for a long time, "Our Esteemed Master, your Fa has opened this young practitioner's memory of cultivation practice from hundreds of years ago, and he was shocked to learn about such degeneration in today's Buddhist circles..."
In the fall of 1998, about nine months after my family began cultivation practice, I participated in activities to disseminate Dafa in other villages. I came home one Sunday after spending the entire week in the countryside and my son told me very seriously, "Daddy, Mom has a lot of attachments to get rid of. One day, someone came to our home to collect water money, and Mom said she charged us for an extra month and quarreled with her. Why didn't she just give her the money?" I was very happy to hear this kind of insight from our son.
The people around us today all have great, predestined relationships with us. Master has told us several times, "Nobody is in the world today without a major reason." ("Explaining the Fa During the 2003 Lantern Festival at the U.S. West Fa Conference")
Let's pay attention to the people around us; it is very likely that something insignificant might become their opportunity to obtain the Fa. This is true especially for children. Their bodies are young but not necessarily their souls. As soon as they obtain Dafa, they will improve and assimilate to Dafa faster than grownups, because their human notions are less ingrained.
This is my personal understanding. Please point out anything improper.
