Give Me Five!
Chung-Mei Tzeng 2012-10-14
However, in the past, "children" to me were like ""little monsters"" because I thought they were unreasonable. They could be giggling and having fun for one minute and then start to cry the next. It seemed to me that they didn’t care about anything, and I just couldn’t handle them. For an impatient person like me, when I encountered this kind of children, I would act tough like a wild animal trainer who, with a whip in hand, was going to tame beasts.
One day, at Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy I saw Shifu being surrounded by a group of cheerful little dizi, who were giggling, talking and playing noisily with one another. When I looked closer, I found that the little dizi had turned into little angles with sweet smiles and sparkling eyes. It was amazing! I could not help but wonder what magic power had caused such a change, so I stood there and watched them. Meanwhile, Shifu left the group of little dizi, walked past me, and then turned to me. He said, ""Look! A child’s kungfu is incredible! You should learn to have the pure heart and thoughts of a child."" He then turned to all that were present and said, ""Children are gifts from Heaven. How you treat them affect what they will become.""
"That’s right! A wild animal trainer’s job is to tame beasts!" I suddenly realized that the way I thought about my job was wrong and began to look at my students with a pure heart. I was surprised that the power of a pure heart started to work its magic on me, too!
One time during recess, two boys got into an argument. One of them made a fist and was ready to punch the other, who was staring angrily at the former. As soon as I saw them, I dashed over and caught the fist. The moment I held the fist firmly in my hand, I thought about what Shifu had taught me--I should use a genuine heart to love him.
"What happened?" I asked them. The boy with the clenched fist zipped his mouth and didn’t say a word. The other kid said, "I accidentally hit him, and I didn’t do it on purpose!" The kid with the clenched fist suddenly opened his mouth and said, ""My father told me that if someone tries to bully me, I should punch him to death."" And he started to tighten his fist again. Still holding his fist in my hand, I said, ""Your father doesn’t want you to get bullied and hope you are brave."" Then I turned to the other boy and asked him, ""If you accidentally hit a classmate, what should you do?"" Prompted by my question, he turned to the boy and bowed, ""I am sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose."" I then said to the boy that was still clenching his fist, ""He didn’t do it on purpose. If you hit him, won’t that mean that you are bullying him? If he thinks the way like you do, shouldn’t he fight you back, too?"" The boy shook his head, and his clenched fist slowly loosened up and said, ""I am sorry!"" I told him, ""Okay, when you are very angry, first take a few deep breaths. Don’t just make a fist or hit someone because that way you will hurt yourself." After the intervention, the two boys made up with each other and walked off together, chatting and laughing.
Wow! I personally experienced the power of a caring and pure heart. I found out that when you radiate true love to a person, that person can definitely feel it, especially when that person is a child. A child’s heart is pure, so he can feel it right away. From this experience, I deeply understand that we have to improve ourselves so that we can create a beautiful world for children.
