How To Deal With Conflicts--A Mother's Summer Camp Diary (Photos)

(Clearwisdom.net) The five-day Minghui School summer camp in Xizhi, Taiwan ended recently. During the involvement with children at the camp, both the young practitioners and I have gone through the process of letting go of attachments and improving xinxing. I would like to share my experiences with young practitioners and their parents so that practitioners can do things according to Dafa, and we can improve together.

Young practitioners' morning practice

Young practitioners are studying the Fa

Young practitioners are studying the Fa

One child's mother told us that her son was "a little overlord" at school. Elimination of karma at the camp was so obvious to him. He lay on the ground, hoping someone would take care of him, waiting for someone to come over and inquire after his situation. He sat there with one leg on the top of the other and asked for water. No one paid attention to him, and he ended up having to do things for himself.

An older child hit another boy who was taller and stronger than him and decided not to offer an apology. The hurt boy cried miserably. I first dealt with the aggressor. He complained, asking why I was only blaming on him and not the other boy; that made him angry. Usually I only have one thought when faced with something like that: "not striking back when beaten, not swearing back when sworn at." But it is not right to hit others either, and it is your problem if you hit someone.

But at that time, I had a different thought: if I persistently pointed out only his problem, he might not be totally convinced. Teenagers often have rebellious feelings in such circumstances and often expect others to share their way of thinking, and if I showed a different attitude he might understand. I then turned around and talked to the injured boy, and he started apologizing because he was the one who had made fun of other boy and made him angry enough to throw the punch. As a result, the boy who hit the other felt embarrassed and apologized as well, and the two boys forgave each other.

However, the hitter often had conflicts with others, even though he had a good heart. Due to his wrong notions, he frequently ended up doing things that caused problems. One parent suggested that this boy needed special attention, and someone needed to gradually correct his thoughts and notions, which would require a long-term effort. I thought about whether or not I should talk to his parents about this issue.

One day the breakfast was porridge. Many kids did not like it. Of course, we would like to provide something that the children like to eat every day, but we were short-handed. We were grateful if some practitioners could help, and we could not pick and choose. After the first attempt there was still more than half a pot of porridge left. We could not waste food, and none of the mothers could finish it at all. If the kids could help, and each had a small bowl of porridge, we could finish it. After a discussion among mothers we decided to ask them to finish their share before eating dumplings.

However, an older child reacted like this: All of us do not like porridge! Why do you force us to eat it? Many of the younger children chimed in with the older kid. What could we do? How could we deal with it? We encountered a test. Nowadays many children want tasty food; they are used to better things and cannot tolerate any hardship. It would be good if we could help them understand to think of others first, to tolerate and not to waste food.

They were initially quite angry and could not accept our request, but because they had no choice they ended up finishing the porridge and were happy to get dumplings. Actually, we could communicate with kids. Eating a bowl of porridge is a good thing for them, but making them too comfortable, on the other hand, may not be a good thing for them.

Finally I realized the following:Children become smarter after receiving Dafa, and they understand Dafa better and clearer. They will improve only if they can do things according to Dafa. No matter if it is children or adults, real cultivation is to do things according to Dafa.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/7/12/158724.html

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