A Wish Fulfilled: Introducing Dafa to Schools

I learned about the Fa in 2003 but started to practise in 2005. I’ve always felt regret for those lost 2 years, so I try to be diligent and treat every day as the final day, not missing any chances. Since then, I’ve been involved in various Dafa projects, but one wish still remained unfulfilled.

A few years ago I read an article on Minghui written by an Australian practitioner. It was about introducing Dafa to schools in India. It included photos of practitioners teaching hundreds of children in rural parts of India. It really impressed me. Since then, I thought about it many times, wishing to do the same thing in my country.

Earlier this year, when a Chinese practitioner came to my country to help with local activities, I felt Master was guiding us to finally do it. We established a non-government organisation. I prepared a special letter for mailing to elementary schools. Before proceeding, I presented the plan to a friend of mine (a non-practitioner), who was a school principal.

My friend already knew about the persecution and personally witnessed the arrogance of the evil Party during his visit to China. However, he felt the Chinese embassy could interfere and suggested I first contact the Ministry of Education. Seeking cooperation from the Ministry was not something I originally had in mind; they are so slow and bureaucratic. But my friend felt we could even upset school principals if we didn’t obtain the permit. It was an obstacle; I had a look inside.

The prompt answer I got was: What we’re doing is the very best thing. What we’re doing is saving people and those who can help will only have blessings. It is only our attachments standing in our way, so let’s get rid of them.

With righteous thoughts we mailed the letters and a couple of days later, some schools contacted us. The first one was in a city in the south of the country, where they had a big Chinese market, so we could do Tuidang and visit the school at the same time

The letter contained basic information about Dafa and the health benefits, and invited both students and teachers to learn Dafa. In this very first school, however, only teachers came to the class, led by the school principal, so we ended up teaching 12 teachers. After finishing the practice, we shared our experiences of Dafa and then clarified the truth. For me, it was always hard to clarify to more than one person at a time, but 12 ladies listened without a blink. The principal seemed relieved – she already knew about the persecution, but couldn’t take sides on it before. I was glad we helped.

A week later, we were invited to give a class at two schools in the north of the country. Not knowing who would attend, we were quite surprised to have a whole class of 10-year-old kids. They were very attentive, patient and happy to meet us, especially the Chinese practitioner. After the class they all brought their textbooks to have their names written in Chinese, as a souvenir.

Since then, this has become a regular thing in each of the schools, along with teaching kids some Chinese words: “Falun Dafa Hao” and “Zhen-Shan-Ren”. Having a group of so many kids shouting “Falun Dafa Hao” in one voice was a magnificent thing to hear and the greatest reward for our efforts.

One school was located in a village in a quite isolated part of the country. All of the students at the school were summoned to the gym, more than a hundred. The principal joined too. During sharing with the principal after the practice, we found her quite a fascinating lady. Although she had to teach Darwin’s theory of evolution, she didn’t believe in it a bit. Although not religious, she believed in higher beings and a higher order. She told us a story about her daughter levitating in church and her experience of how to be an unselfish person.

We took the opportunity to explain our understanding of Dafa, that the universe is good in nature and so were people when they were first created. We explained what Zhen-Shan-Ren is, and saw her eyes glowing. She said excitedly: “Oh, I think this was predestined! You are not doing this for yourselves – you came for us. I’m most grateful.”

As the number of trainees grew in size, we noticed a problem with the exercise music not being played loud enough. During the meditation at home, however, these exact words came to my mind: ”Battery amplifier.“ After finishing the practice, I Googled the words and got the address of a music equipment store. So we went there and bought it. With a sound amplifier running on batteries, we would be able to teach outdoors as well.

Getting a hint to connect an amplifier was not the only arrangement we recognised during the process. Two almost identical cases happened at two different high schools: Our programme was aimed at primary schools and provincial areas where people never got a chance to learn about Dafa. Owing to a preconceived notion that older students can’t be patient and in control, I purposefully avoided inviting high schools. But then I met a high school teacher in my work place. After I mentioned our programme, she promised to ask the principal. Next day we were invited to take two lessons at a high school, with local TV network coverage and a short interview. Contrary to my expectations, the kids were quite disciplined and well-behaved. The first lesson was only attended by 30 students or more, but when the word was spread that Dafa was there, the next class held an hour later, had a record attendance of nearly 150 students. It may seem hard to maintain order with so many teenagers, but once the Dafa music was played, they all acted like real Dafa disciples.

After some time, the Chinese practitioner had to leave the country. As she used to be very popular with kids, for a moment I was worried this would interrupt the project. But then I remembered “Cultivation is up to the disciple while gong is up to Master.” It is not us doing any of it, so why be bothered?

In a 4-month period, we introduced Dafa to 12 schools and to more than 800 students and teachers, in small towns and villages all over the country.

In each class, we noticed some special children, very focused, tranquil, and so pure, practising like they already knew Falun Dafa from before. After the class, they would come over with questions such as when would we come again and how to enrol for the Dafa class etc. To each of those special kids we gave an exercise DVD and informed them about the Falun Gong book.

We donated the Falun Gong book to the school libraries. In order to have regular practice groups in school, one of the teachers should have the heart to take the lead. I hope in the future this will be resolved too. We will continue with this project and try to form regular Dafa practice groups in some of the schools.

Now that I reflect on all of it, I wonder why we didn’t do it before and why we haven’t taught children in all countries on a regular basis. Our Master said in the lecture 20th Anniversary Fa-teaching, in New York, 2012: “You’ve all seen that, going forward, the evil doesn’t have enough strength for it to be made use of. Gradually the evil climate that the old forces use to test Dafa disciples, as well as the setting in which you save sentient beings under evil pressure, is disappearing. That’s because the evil is now insufficient to make use of.”

Probably in the near future, Falun Dafa will be practised in schools and the Fa at the human level will be part of all academic subjects. By then, we should seize the time to save whoever is left to be saved and pave the way for the future spreading of Dafa.

Venerable Master, thank you for fulfilling my wish.