Establishing a Cultivation Environment for Our Children

(Minghui.org) For many years I tried, along with other practitioners, to create a cultivation environment for young Dafa disciples, like a Minghui summer school. We tried to establish such a framework long before we had children of our own, for we were thinking of the children around us, and my husband already had children. I was a teacher myself and my husband played in theater for children. For many years fellow practitioners and I have been gathering information about Minghui schools around the world and collecting materials like books, DVDs, and music.

I later had a child of my own and the need was growing more urgent to find an alternative or a supplementary framework to provide a cultivation environment. As my son grew up, he was exposed to more and more games, images, and values of everyday society.

In "Fa Teaching Given at the 2010 New York Fa Conference" a disciples asks a question,

"Disciple: At present, the children of many Dafa disciples are caught up in ordinary things. What are we to do?

Master: Indeed, human society is one big dye vat. Society is contesting with Dafa disciples for people. And this even applies to Dafa disciples’ kids, who live in this setting too: bad things are trying to drag them down. If the child does not cultivate, or doesn’t have a good environment, then he really won’t be able to ward those things off. Yet a Dafa disciple’s responsibilities are enormous, and so we must not only save the world’s people but also those close to us."

In France it seemed that investing time in our children was often overlooked due to the many truth-clarification projects that kept us all busy. Nevertheless, in recent years, more practitioners in our area had children, and the need to organize a proper framework was getting ever stronger.

The initiative came this time from one of the mothers who felt helpless when her children refused to cooperate and had resorted to putting them in front of the TV while she was doing Dafa work. She decided to organize a weekend Fa study for parents and their children at her place. The idea was that parents would study the Fa and share experiences while the children did the exercises, played, and were in the Dafa field. I felt it was important that each little Dafa disciple would see that there were other children like themselves, who practice, study the Fa, and send forth righteous thoughts. They had to see that the practice and exercises did not belong exclusively to the adults who pushed them to participate.

It was a pilot meeting and we didn't know exactly what content we should include, or how it should be organized. We hired a Chinese practitioner who had been a nanny and assigned her to take care of about ten children of different ages, without giving her any guidance. She soon gave up, so I invited her to study with us while the children were just running all around the yard. It happened not just because of the lack of organization, but specifically because we had not come to a common understanding with the nanny, and because some of the parents considered that time to be their own time to study the Fa. The nanny then told us that she wouldn't be able to attend the next day. So if we were thinking for a minute that we could get “external help,” we realized very soon that all the nannies and practitioners who had given classes in the past couldn't come. My understanding was that the mission of educating these children and finding a proper framework was ours, the parents; we were the ones who should make the effort and cooperate to create the right framework.

The next day we were already better organized. We studied the Fa and practiced with the children. Afterwards some of the parents took the children to the park, while other parents did the exercises and prepared lunch. After lunch the two groups studied the Fa with the children who already knew how to read, and the little ones fell asleep beside us. Although the meeting was unorganized and unstructured, we felt that it was a very good experience and that we wanted to continue meeting. As we lived near the beach and had space, we immediately proposed to host the next meeting in the summertime.

This time it was obvious that the meeting should be very well organized to the last detail. We planned to host 20 children and 10 adults for a week. The children were of different ages, and pressure came from different directions – a basic demand was that the children would practice the exercises and study the Fa while also having recreational activities.

I had fewer than three months to organize the summer camp. Being organized has been a major struggle for me. I used to do everything at the last minute and postpone things as much as possible. In such situations when I have been under pressure, I had feelings of bitterness, feeling all alone, and a victim – thinking everyone else is guilty, everyone is against me and nobody helps... I used to get angry and upset, and in the end I would take it out on my husband. But this time, like a miracle, whenever such feelings emerged, I managed to reject them rationally and peacefully so that I could move on with the project.

I also regarded the various requests and questions like, "How will you organize the meals and where will we sleep? Are you sure of this and sure of that?" not as demands, but as advice to help me plan. I was sure that I had all the conditions to make it happen and I decided to arrange them with a calm heart. And so it was - very simple! I moved on step by step, preparing the meals, sleeping arrangements, and a wide array of activities and field trips that would interest the students. I knew that everyone wanted this vacation to remain in the children's hearts as a "wonderful journey" of cultivation.

I even planned the classes, including time for practice, time to memorize poems by heart, and time for Chinese children's songs. However, three weeks before the opening I still didn't have a teacher. A few weeks earlier we had hosted a family of Chinese practitioners. So I proposed the job of teaching the Chinese language to the children to the young mother. She smiled with happiness, and although she said that she didn't know how to write traditional Chinese I saw that she liked the idea, and that I wouldn't have to convince her because Master had already taken care of it. Thus we found our Chinese teacher, but not without difficulties and xinxing tests.

From then on, each time a problem came up, a wonderful solution emerged due to cooperation, and brought more practitioners and children to the summer camp. For example, when this teacher told me that she didn't have the financial means to come, we found another practitioner who wanted to send her daughter, so we connected the two and even managed a carpool. So what seemed to be a bad thing turned out to be a good thing, and thanks to the difficulty, a solution emerged for the other practitioner as well. There were many other cases like this.

More and more parents from all over France announced that they or their children were coming – Chinese and western practitioners, veteran as well as new. On July 20th, about three weeks before the opening of our summer camp, I met a new practitioner in front of the Chinese embassy. She said she and her husband had practiced for a year and a half, and that they lived far away from the other practitioners. They had two children. When I told her about our summer camp, she was so happy and told me that her daughter felt like she was the only young Dafa disciple in the world. Indeed, this practitioner later arrived with her two children at our summer camp.

On the appointed day all the practitioners came and the summer camp for young Dafa practitioners opened with great fanfare.

During one of our field trips, I met a journalist who had written about our local Falun Gong group before, and I invited him to write about our camp. He was very excited to see the children sitting in meditation, and interviewed several practitioners. A week later the article was published in the local newspaper.

I could feel the energy growing stronger each day. Though rough at first, gradually the children became harmonious, and so did the Chinese lessons. It was splendid to see how this practitioner, the tutor, in spite of her being so unsure of herself in the beginning, carried on the lessons with such tenderness and patience. She gradually gained her self-assurance while we encouraged her. Her mission was anything but easy, as she had to teach 14 children ages 3 to 15. "Mission impossible"? They made it! The little ones sat at the front and the others behind them. At first the parents practiced the exercises together with the children. The elder children had a good effect on the little ones. When we once tried doing separate practice for adults and children, we noticed that while the older children could still concentrate, the little ones stopped cooperating. We decided then to bring them back to the energy field of the whole group practice.

Each day we did the whole set of the exercises for an hour and sometimes stopped and worked on one particular exercise for ten minutes or so. We then memorized a poem of Master's and then taught them a Chinese children's song or watched a video related to cultivation principles. After lunch we sat with the children in our yard and had cultivation experience sharing. We encouraged them to share what they had been able to do as cultivators and what being a cultivator was all about. After failing to have sharing on the first day, we realized this was a much needed transition between cultivation activities and recreation. In the evenings, prior to their going to sleep, we studied the Fa with the children.

We all noticed the glow which emanated from the children, and I felt that the borders that often limited us as parents – "my child, your child" – which had been so strong in me that I was ashamed – these borders were gone. Suddenly each child was Dafa's child and I could see the purity and beauty in each of them. Even when on the surface each had this or that character... The one who caused trouble, the one who cried a lot, the one who upset the other children, the unlucky one, etc. I could suddenly see how these characteristics were only a thin cloak that could be easily be whisked away. When I shared this with one of the practitioners, he said that this qing of judging character on the surface was probably replaced by compassion. In Zhuan Falun Lecture Six, Master said,

"Of course, in practicing cultivation in ordinary human society, we should respect parents and educate our children. Under all circumstances, we must be good and kind to others, not to mention to our family members. We should treat everyone in the same way. We must be good to our parents and children and be considerate of others in all respects. Such a heart is thus unselfish, and it is a heart of kindness and benevolence. Sentimentality is something of everyday people, and everyday people just live for it."

And in that same lecture,

"In the course of samsara, you have had mothers who were human and non-human, and there are too many of them to be numbered. It is also countless how many sons and daughters you have had throughout your different lifetimes. Who is your mother? Who is your son or daughter?"

Some magnificent things happened as a result of the camp. The child of our tutor had had difficulties speaking before and never wanted to practice the exercises. In his first visit to our house he didn't want to ride the horses and didn't even dare to get near them. At our camp this time, on the contrary, he rode horses, became more and more courageous, and played and talked with the other children. He also practiced and recited the poems, and continued to practice with his parents when he returned home from the camp.

The mother who came with her two children from afar told me that her son had never practiced the exercises. He now practices and sends righteous thoughts. Another practitioner who came from afar with her two little children told me that before the camp they used to cry and interfere with her, to her despair. She reported that when they returned home her one-year-old daughter did the second exercise with her, and her three-year-old son recited Master's poem. Another practitioner reported that since they came home from the camp, her daughter practices and sends righteous thoughts along with her. I and another practitioner decided to wake our children 15 minutes early to practice one or more exercises before going to school.

So, today the children know by heart two of Master's poems from Hong Yin – "Falun Dafa" and "Genuine Cultivation." Every one of them said that the summer camp was the best vacation they had ever had.

Suddenly the place where we lived seemed to have greater meaning and significance. Four years ago we moved to Normandy, at the seaside, repaired a big house and opened a café-restaurant. Neither I nor my husband had had any background in cooking or restaurant management. We had lived in the city and we were always very active in Dafa activities and work. Suddenly our course was changed. We lived far away from other practitioners, and it was hard for us to participate in many of the activities. But once more we witnessed the final proof that when our hearts are pure and we are steadfast in Dafa, Master can turn any difficulties into good things. Master has sent many practitioners to us to encourage us to keep on being diligent in the three things of Dafa disciples.

Thank you, Master.