(Minghui.org) When Mingming's classmates were about to graduate from junior high, they were overwhelmed by the huge amount of materials they had to review on top of their daily homework assignments. They would get up at 6 a.m. every morning and wouldn’t go to bed until 11 p.m., and had few opportunities for breaks or to use the restroom.
Although parents complain that today’s educational system is too tough and not healthy for their children, they are also aware of the bleak future that awaits them if they do not get high grades. A student with marks not high enough will have to pay an application fee of tens of thousands of yuan in order to be admitted to a better high school. This is a heavy burden for the average family. Therefore, parents and children face this compulsory exhaustive situation with a feeling of helplessness.
It was a completely different scenario with Mingming. Every day, on his way home from school, he could be heard singing:
“We are stopped by neither wind nor rain, all for whom? We eat and sleep on the street, all for whom? Standing on the sidewalk, disciples of Dafa Leaflets in hand born of compassion and painstaking effort…” (“Showing You a Path of Hope” from Hong Yin III)
Mingming's mother would have already prepared his afternoon meal when he returned home from school. Mingming would wash his hands and help set the table. He was never a picky eater and would always comment how delicious the food was, no matter what his mother had cooked for him that day.
During lunch, Mingming would share with his mother interesting anecdotes from school. One day he told his mom, “When we were about to hoist the blood red flag at school, I sent forth righteous thought to stop them. Then suddenly, the sound system failed. They tried for a long while to fix it, but they couldn’t. The principal then told us to hoist the flag up without the music, but the flag would only go up a quarter of the way, and then it got stuck. Everybody laughed, so the principal gave up and dismissed us. I then heard that they gave up the flag hoisting ceremonies in order to focus more on our studies.
“Another thing that happened today was that our political class teacher again talked about how good the Communist Party was. I knew he was going to spread rumors that would negatively affect my classmates, so I sent righteous thought to stop him from continuing. All of a sudden, he said to us, ‘What I said just now was false news from the newspapers and television. In fact, the Communist Party is the worst and it will only deceive people. None of us should listen to what it says…’”
Hearing all of this, Mingming's mother couldn’t stop herself from laughing. She praised Mingming for having done well, but he told his mother in all seriousness, “Don’t develop the mentality of zealotry.”
After a quick lunch, Mingming would help his mom wash the dishes and tidy up the kitchen. They would then wash their hands thoroughly, sit in the full lotus position, pick up the book Zhuan Falun and start their Fa study.
When Mingming's mother was pregnant with him he was already immersed in the Fa, as she diligently studied the Fa and did the exercises. His mother started practicing Dafa about half a year before she became pregnant with Mingming. The day Mingming was born, his mother clearly saw a cluster of light, like a rainbow, come to her. She knew a new life was about to be born and felt extremely blessed.
From that time on, Mingming was already a handsome little boy with good features, a head full of black hair, shining and clear big eyes, with delicate and translucent skin. People commented that the child was too beautiful to be a normal wrinkly newborn.
Mingming hardly got sick when he was young. Occasionally, he might come down with a fever or flu-like symptoms or have diarrhea, but he would recover naturally after a few days. Although his mother knew Master was helping to cleanse his body, she still maintained the notion that he was too young to withstand a high fever. So when Mingming's father, who was not a practitioner, insisted on giving Mingming medicine, his mother would not object. However, when the medicine and visits to the hospital did not help, and seeing that he got better without the medication, the family became less concerned when he got sick, and was not as eager to make him take medicine.
When he was about three years old, Mingming was able to recite “Lunyu” in Zhuan Falun . His mother was surprised because he did not know too many words, so she kept wondering how he could recite such a long text? She then realized it must be because she read Master’s books and lectures to him every night at bedtime, and often played Master’s recorded lectures for him to listen. Sometimes, when she thought Mingming was asleep, he would turn over and ask, “What word are you reading now?” When his mom pointed at the word and said it out aloud, he would also point to the word and say, “Ah, so that’s the word.”
As Mingming was growing up he was always kind and well behaved. He never picked fights and would not speak out of line. When he was bullied or beaten, he would not react, as he knew what was expected as a practitioner. However, he was not cowardly either. The year when the police arrested his mother, five-year-old Mingming sat in the full lotus position on his mother’s mat reading Zhuan Falun and sending forth righteous thoughts.
However, his father was afraid when he saw him doing that. He yelled at Mingming, snatched the book from his hands, and threw it on the floor. Mingming picked up the book, held it close to his chest and scolded his raging father, “Mother is such a good person, and bad people arrested her. You're not helping mother, but helping the bad people, and you are bad.” Mingming's father was speechless. He quickly calmed down and did not say a word in response.
The only fault one could find with Mingming was that he liked to play too much. However, his mother remarked that it’s normal for children to love to play so it’s okay to be a little naughty, just as long as they don’t do bad things. In elementary school, teachers all commented that he was a good student that could quickly pick up anything he was taught. The only thing was, because he loved to play, sometimes he was not as serious a learner as he could have been.
As a result, his test marks could not be maintained at the top of his class. Mingming's mother said to him, “We don’t necessarily put a lot of emphasis on test results. However, Master teaches us that as practitioners, we must perform to the best of our abilities. So, when we can do something well and conscientiously, we mustn’t slack off and be sloppy.” Mingming nodded his head in agreement.
When Mingming went to high school, his mother picked a school closest to their home so that he could come home every afternoon to study Zhuan Falun and do the exercises. Other students usually had to do their homework until late at night, but Mingming would only need to take half the time. He would use the rest of the time to study the Fa and read articles on the Minghui website. Even when he had a tight schedule at school, he would always find time to study the Fa and do his exercises. On weekends, he would even take half a day to go with his mother to make telephone calls or distribute truth clarification materials. Mingming had abundant energy, uplifting optimism and led a fulfilling life.
Mingming once grew lazy and slacked off in Fa study and doing the exercises, and his marks dropped. His father became anxious and decided the school Mingming was going to was not up to standard, so he wanted to switch Mingming to a better private school. However, his mother objected because the private school was much further away, and it would mean that Mingming would not be able to come home early enough to do the exercises or study the Fa. The private school was also a lot more academically demanding, so Mingming would have to be studying from dawn till dusk. His father was adamant about changing schools and insisted that this was the only way that Mingming would have any hope of going on to a high-ranking senior high school.
Mingming did not want to change schools either, and when Mingming's mother spoke to him about this, she said, “Master told us that nothing happens by chance, so we have to look inward to find out what caused the changes in you.” Mingming apologized with sincerity, realizing he had slacked off in Fa study and doing the exercises. It was this lax mentality that created the gap, and now he must get rid of this mentality. Mingming's mother also looked inward and realized that she was overly concerned about his getting high marks. They both decided that they had to be more diligent in Fa study in order to overcome this tribulation.
A few days later, out of the blue, Mingming’s class teacher came to visit them. The teacher got straight to the point and said, “I heard that Mingming is planning to switch schools. I’m here on behalf of the school to ask that he stay. We hope you will listen to what we have to say. It’s often said that gold will shine anywhere. Your child has a rare intellect.
There were special reasons why he didn’t do so well in his tests last time. But as long as your child is in my class, you can rest assured that his next test results will be good. Moreover, your child is able to adapt to everything in this school. If he were to change schools now at this critical juncture, he would need some time to adjust to a new environment. That might impact his learning and progress…” What the teacher said finally convinced Mingming's father to change his mind and not switch schools. Mingming and his mother were both grateful that Master intervened so they could overcome their obstacle smoothly.
Although Mingming's father backed out of his idea to switch schools, he still insisted on Mingming taking a math enrichment class every weekend. So, the only available half-day that Mingming and his mother had dedicated to go out to talk to people about Dafa had to come to an end. Mingming and his mother once again determined that Dafa work must be the top priority. They turned to Master for support and sent forth righteous thoughts to eliminate the interference. As it turned out, Mingming only went to the math class once when the teacher announced that the class would be canceled as it would be too tiring on the students to hold this extra class, and therefore they should just work on more exercises on their own at home. With Master’s arrangement, the problem was smoothly resolved.
Mingming was good in all subjects, but had some difficulties with writing because he was not interested in writing essays that required following certain guidelines. Mingming's mother decided to download some articles written by practitioners and some books on traditional Chinese culture, and told Mingming to use righteous thoughts and the spiritual content in them as inspiration to help with his writings. In doing so, his writings would be more natural, thoughtful and convincing.
Once, Mingming’s essay was one mark off receiving full marks, because his teacher said that no essay could get full marks. Other teachers requested copies of his essay to use as a model for their classes. Mingming’s teacher was so proud of him that he read the essay aloud in class and instructed his students to do the same. The teacher remarked, “I’ve taught language classes for many years. This is the first time an essay has touched my heart. The essay is beautifully written, but best of all its structure and theme have achieved a spiritual height.”
Faced with an abundance of praise, Mingming's mother reminded him not to let it go to his head and give rise to the mentality of zealotry or pride, but to use each accolade as an opportunity to clarify the truth because the essay is, after all, written from wisdom bestowed by Master.
When Mingming's classmates later sought him out to ask him how he could write such a brilliant piece, he would tell them, “I like to read articles and stories from Falun Gong materials. Their contents are all real and the writing is especially good. My writing is inspired by all of the material I’ve read.” Mingming would then continue to clarify the truth to them. His classmates said that they would read those materials. Several of his good friends also understood the truth and quit the Chinese Communist Party’s Young Pioneers.
Everything one learns from cultivation practice is most wonderful, and Mingming’s cultivation stories are plentiful. Both Mingming and his mother truly believe that to be able to obtain the Fa, follow Master, validate the Fa, and save sentient beings are the greatest blessings!
Thank you once again, Great Compassionate Master, for your amazing grace in saving sentient beings!
Heshi!