“Good People are Good Wherever They Go!”

(Minghui.org) I’m an elementary school teacher and I began practicing Falun Dafa more than twenty years ago. By writing about my cultivation experiences I hope to tell everyone how powerful and beautiful Falun Dafa is and thank Master.

On July 1999, one year after I began practicing former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Jiang Zemin ordered the persecution of Falun Dafa. Because I refused to renounce my faith, the authorities subjected me to illegal detention, extortion, and wage theft. The Ministry of Education assigned me to teach in remote mountain schools. No matter the difficulties I resolutely continued practicing Falun Dafa.

Transferred to a Distant School

In August 2000 I was transferred by the Education Ministry from my urban elementary school to school A, an elementary school located in the mountains about 15 kilometers away from my home. I had to travel four hours each day on scooter, rain or shine, to reach the school and then return home.

Everyone, including the school principal, secretary, teachers, town leaders and police stationed there, knew I was transferred to their town because I practiced Falun Dafa. I was assigned to be the homeroom teacher for a third-grade class at my new school.

There were eighteen students in my class, and their academic scores and ability to absorb information varied widely. Because of the situation I adopted a unique teaching method which was very effective. I was kind. I praised and encouraged them whenever they made the slightest progress and I never mocked or criticized them. I conducted myself according to Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance so that my students and the staff would have a good impression of Dafa.

Within two weeks my unique teaching method had a positive effect. The students were increasingly interested in learning. Those at the top became more proficient in their studies, while those who were less advanced had steady improvement in their grades. Students began to help each other, cultivated friendships and they established a feeling of unity throughout the class. Their delighted parents spoke highly of me, saying that the school acquired a good teacher! This positive feedback helped the principal and town mayor overcome their prejudice against Falun Dafa practitioners.

The mayor came to the school to see me. He asked, “How do you find it here?” I replied, “Very good.” He then turned to my students and said, “You are lucky to have such a good teacher!” Some of my students nodded, while others smiled at me. My eyes welled up with the realization that Master was encouraging me through the mayor’s words. Thank you, Master!

Using Righteous Thoughts to Escape Illegal Detention

The year 2001 marked the height of Jiang Zemin’s intense persecution of Falun Dafa and practitioners. One night, just before New Year’s Day, local police conducted a large-scale roundup and abduction of practitioners. My husband and I were at a fellow practitioner’s home when we were abducted and taken to the police station. Illegally interrogated, I refused to cooperate or give any confession. My interrogators gave up and assigned two young officers to guard me until I could be taken to the detention center in the morning.

When the hands of the clock above the door struck midnight, one of the officers received a call and hurried away. Three older officers entered my room, gathered around a desk less than two meters away from me, arranged their chess pieces and began an intense discussion over how to salvage a losing game. At this point, the second young officer also received a call and hurried off, leaving the door slightly ajar in his wake. Starring at the gap, I thought, “This isn’t where I’m meant to be. I need to leave.” But the gap in the door was too narrow. I thought of Master and asked, “Master, please open the door a little wider.” The door opened, but the gap was not wide enough to let me through. I begged, “Master, open it a little wider.” The door slowly opened wider. I happily thanked Master, stood up, quietly walked past the three officers and exited through the door. With Master's help and protection, I escaped and avoided persecution.

Displaced

After leaving the police station, I realized I could not go home and would have to wander for a while. But no matter where I chose to go, I knew I could not leave without any Dafa books. I decided to find temporary shelter at a relative’s countryside home thirty miles away. I would pass by a fellow practitioner’s home on my way there and could obtain a Dafa book from her. To avoid detection, I avoided the main road, groped my way down the dense undergrowth of the mountain and followed the riverbank at the mountain’s foot. Below the frozen river’s embankment was a vast cornfield covered in the remains of harvested corn stems. I climbed up the embankment and slowly made my way forward. Faint moonlight illuminated my path. I recited passages from Lunyu as I walked. Later, when trees and overgrown stubble narrowed the embankment to the point where walking on it was impossible, I descended into the cornfield below the embankment. The corn stems left in the fields were sharp, so I walked in the muddy ditch on the side. I happened to be wearing heels that day, and the heel on my right foot had been feeling slightly loose. I thought, “Let my heel come through this intact.” My high heels survived the tough journey.

Despite walking alone in the wilderness late at night, I felt no fear, hardship or fatigue. Instead, I felt an indescribable sense of happiness because I felt Master was right beside me.

After walking for over two hours I reached the practitioner’s home. The gate was locked, so I had no choice but to climb over the 18-meter-high wall. The wall was too high. I spotted a large pile of straw heaped next to the wall. I climbed to the top of the straw heap, only to find myself at a dangerously high distance from the ground. Jumping was not an option, so I asked Master, “Master, I still have a long way to go. I can’t hurt my legs.” Holding that thought, I jumped off and floated softly to the ground. It was amazing! I knew Master helped me down.

After obtaining a copy of the precious book Zhuan Falun from the practitioner, I continued along the main road to my relative’s home. I arrived at my destination after walking for over an hour. It was still too early, so I didn’t wish to knock on the door and disturb the elderly couple. A pile of corn stalks had been left by the courtyard wall so I burrowed in it and waited for daybreak. Winter mornings are exceptionally cold, so I recited the Fa until I stopped shivering. When dawn broke, I emerged from my corn stalk shelter, brushed off any lingering stray strands, straightened my clothes and knocked on my relative’s door.

I left my relative’s house two days later, wandering further from home to make sure I wasn’t found. I first stayed with my older sister, who lived in a distant town. My sister left me alone at home while she went to cook at her daughter’s house, and I used this time to study the Fa, practice the exercises and send forth righteous thoughts. During that time, my energy field felt very clear, my mind felt empty without any human thoughts. I realized Master arranged for this, giving me time to study the Fa well and strengthen my righteous thoughts after my ordeal.

I left my sister’s house two months later and moved to a small city over a hundred miles away. I worked at two domestic jobs, one after the other. The first involved caring for a sick, hospitalized elderly woman. I had an ingrained fear of dirt, but caring for her helped me cultivate away this fear. I helped collect and dispose of her spit and urine, wash her face, fed her, and so on, caring for her wholeheartedly as if she were my own mother. Another patient’s family commented, “Your daughter is so filial! She takes such good care of you.” The elderly woman replied, “She’s not my daughter, she’s the caregiver my family recently hired.” Everyone in the room turned to me in admiration. However, I was forced to quit this job three days later, because schedule demands meant I could not study the Fa or practice the exercises regularly.

My second domestic job involved caring for a ten-year-old boy studying in second grade. His parents constantly traveled out of town to sell their medicinal products. I did my best to care for, protect and educate this child. When the child’s mother described what he liked to eat, I took note and made sure to buy it. I never spent the family’s money on food for myself. To make sure the child never ate leftovers, I cooked exactly enough for each meal, eating whatever was left after the child ate. One day, the child’s mother bought a watermelon for her son and stored it in the refrigerator. When it was time to cut it up I found the outside was slightly overripe and soft. I told the child, “Your parents work hard to earn enough money to feed the family. This watermelon is slightly bad on the outside, but the inside remains good enough for you to eat. I’ll eat the outer layer in order not to waste it.” The child repeated my words to his mother when she came home.

The child’s mother was so moved, tears welled up in her eyes. She told me, “You treat my son better than I do as a mother. Thank you so much.”

Validating the Fa After Resuming My Teaching Job

I was able to return home six months later in July 2002. It was summer vacation by then, and the authorities continued to persecute me by withholding my salary for an additional two months. I hadn’t been paid for a full eight months. When the school term resumed, the education ministry assigned me to an elementary school (hereinafter referred to as School B) in the mountains, even further and more remote from my home. The commute was long, and filled with roads that were hard to traverse. I had to push my scooter up steep slopes, while downhill slopes were so steep I had to get off and walk with my scooter instead. It took over two hours to get to school, and I had to leave home at 5:30 am each morning. Rain and wind made the journey even more arduous.

All the teachers at School B knew I was a practitioner. I was assigned as homeroom teacher for the first-grade class and began developing a new and unique teaching method for the active, curious and playful seven- and eight-year-olds under my care. I cultivated in them a strong interest in learning, which encouraged them to explore the education curriculum with enjoyment and deeper understanding.

One student in my class had an IQ lower than average, which hindered his learning progress. As it happened, major road construction had blocked off the road I usually traveled, so I temporarily boarded at the school. After school, I approached the student’s parents and asked, “I’d like to help your child with his homework and give him additional tutoring. I won’t charge you anything, but I hope you can pick him up from school after you finish your farm work. Is that okay?” The parents happily agreed, and I did my best to tutor the child. The child’s academic performance miraculously caught up with the rest, and out of the fourteen students in my class, none were graded as underperforming. In the townwide exam at the end of the first semester, the class ranked first and continued to remain first the following semester. Furthermore, eleven of my fourteen students scored full marks in math, with the lowest scoring 92. The average combined score for my class in Chinese and math was 98.7, far exceeding the score achieved by the next-best school. News spread throughout the town, and the parents of the student who scored 92 marks came to thank me. “We didn’t expect much from our child, but we also never expected him to score 92. We’re so lucky to have a great teacher like you!”

Besides focusing on academic studies, I also subtly taught them the moral values imparted by Dafa, so they would learn to become good people. Besides strong academic performance, the children also cultivated excellent characters. I also began receiving praise from their parents, compliments from fellow teachers and commendations from my workplace leaders.

During the second semester of 2003, I was transferred back to School A. During my forced absence, a young female teacher had taken over my class. However, she lacked experience and the students refused to listen to her. While classes were in session, the students left their seats, talked and fought with each other, ignored her attempts to teach and refused to complete their homework. Some mischievous boys actively worked to embarrass the teacher in class, egging the entire class into laughter. Their antics left the teacher so angry she frequently took leave from work, culminating in her transfer a year and a half later. Under my care, this class consistently ranked first in the town’s unified exams. Now, they dropped to last place.

Worried over their deteriorating character and academic grades, the children’s parents repeatedly appealed to the principal to have transferred me back. The principal also repeatedly approached his superiors to request my transfer. This cumulated in my transfer back to School A.

These once innocent, lively, studious, and well-behaved children were now in fifth grade. They had grown taller and become more mature but also become more mischievous. Seeing the situation, I decided to call for a parent-teacher conference.

On my first day, the parents came to school and sat beside their children. When I walked into the classroom, the children lowered their heads as though they had done something wrong and dared not look me in the eye. In contrast, their parents smiled as they looked at me. After greeting them all, I said, “Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend this parent-teacher meeting. Thank you for supporting my work here. First, I want to explain why I suddenly left this school and the children.” Everyone listened quietly as I spoke, “Everyone knows I practice Falun Dafa. Falun Dafa teaches people to be good people by following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Because of my determination to cultivate and become a better person, I was illegally arrested and forced to flee. I was unable to return home or resume my job. I have a child myself but could not return home to care for them. What wrong did I commit by being a good person?”

I wept as I spoke, and some of the children and parents cried along with me. I continued, “You know me well. If it wasn’t for Falun Dafa, I wouldn’t have taken on such a troubled class. Now that I’ve taken over, I will do my best to teach the children well.” I laid out specific requests for the students and asked their parents to give their support.

After taking over the class, I quickly developed class management measures tailored to the students’ situation. I adjusted my teaching methods and strengthened collaborative efforts between the teachers, students and parents. These measures helped the class regain its former high standards and the students achieved excellent results in the townwide exams.

School A later merged with the central primary school, and the principal assigned me to another school to become the homeroom teacher for a fifth-grade class. Parents of the children in this class had a history of being uncooperative, selfish and protective of their children, reluctant to criticize their child harshly even when they made mistakes. This resulted in strained relations with the former homeroom teacher.

After I took over, I adopted a cultivator-like approach, always considering others and demonstrating kindness. This approach positively influenced both students and parents, improving the relationship between the school, students and parents. The students’ academic performance also improved, and they achieved first place in the town-wide exams for two consecutive semesters. On learning the good news, the mayor called me and happily said, “Teacher, you’re amazing! Your classes always top the list wherever you go!”

A year later, I returned to the central primary school and was assigned to head the mathematics department. Six months later, I approached the principal and told him, “I’m near retirement. Let a younger teacher have this job opportunity and assign me another task within my capabilities.”

The principal reassigned me to the cafeteria, and I continued to adhere to the requirements of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, doing whatever I could tirelessly and without complaint. One day, the cafeteria team leader told me, “Before you came, the principal told me he was sending over a good person. I’ve been observing to see what kind of person you are, and I’ve noticed you voluntarily take on tasks, whether they are assigned to you or not. You truly are a good person. When I reported your performance to the principal, he exclaimed, “Good people are good wherever they go!”

Conclusion

My achievements at work are the result of the wisdom and abilities bestowed on me by Dafa and Master and to aid in validating the Fa. I will continue cultivating steadfastly and return home with Master.