10月24日

Dear parents,

Hope all of you are enjoying the nice weather of this weekend.

Starting this week, we move to a  new section of Dizigui {泛爱众 }. I would like to introduce the new component in the Dizigui class and need your support on this practice. My idea is every week in the class I will ask your lovely children to cultivate a good habit and do one special thing for his or her parent.

每周一孝：

For example: this week, for next 7 days, you kids will serve you the water for washing the feet before sleep (倒洗脚水). Maybe your children is too young to do it now. Please do  not discourage them. More wisdom on how to encourage young kids to do this, please refer to <<细讲弟子规>> -34.

A good example  for this is 大导演和老妈妈 (http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/kiS5MItf8H8/) A famous director over 60 years old is doing this service for his mom. Please review it.

Maybe you don't have the habit of washing feet now. There are lots of benefits to do so. Please check this link (http://blog.zol.com.cn/287/article_286546.html). You may like to do so. More importantly let's:

-- 享受为人父母的幸福

-- 长养孩子的孝心

每周一习：

This week, I will ask students to arrange personal stuff after returning  home from outside:

-- Hang up the coat properly

-- Arrange the shoes

-- Put mittens, scarf, hats in the right place (天凉了， 望珍重加衣）

-- Arrange School bag /back bag

Please make your closet/storage kids-friendly in the entry area so that your child can easily do so.

每周一字：

爱：（http://www.dfg.cn/gb/mryz/dangri/29-ai.htm）

For the young kids, you can start teaching them to learn /write a new Chinese character per week. The information from the link above is very good so that you can introduce more background knowledge behind this beautiful Chinese word.

每周一句：

凡是人 皆须爱 天同覆 地同载

Love parent – 孝

Love elder brother and sister – 悌

Love your enemy – story  Martin Luther King Jr.

Love the helpless – Story of Mother Teresa and 许哲

Love animal – Story (see the end of this mail)

Love tree

Love even mineral (江本胜 – 水实验)

I have to stop here now due to lack of time. See you soon.

Your respectfully,

Fan

 =========Follow up  of the class ======================================

Dear parents,

The content of last class did not follow the plan exactly. We shared the a story of Ryan (http://www.ryanswell.ca/about-us/ryans-story.aspx). When we talked about the earth (地同载), one of students mentioned there was no much clean water somewhere in this planet. Ryan, this hero, popped into my mind. He demonstrated the love towards thousands of unknown needy people in Africa.

For Martin Luther King, we shared the story of bus boycott in 1955. When Martin was arrested, he said : "I was proud of my crime. It was the crime of joining my people in a nonviolent protest against injustice” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Bus_Boycott)  The story shows Martin’s special love towards wrong-doing people with nonviolent methods. Another story is related to restaurant boycott (Lots of laughter from Children when hearing how Negro politely demanded the service in restaurant which refused to accept black clients)

Also how Mother Teresa helped the dying people in India greatly moved kids. After picking up a dying man from the gutter and brought him home to her apartment, she said: "Such a beautiful day . . . to meet Christ face to face in the poor. He was there -- the hungry, the sick, the naked Christ -- and the thought of Him in this distressing disguise gave me great joy, peace and strength."

I did urge the students to serve you the water for washing feet before sleep. Not sure if you are enjoying it now. This is experiment to see how it works. Maybe your kid is forgetting this now. You can somehow remind him or her. Or if your parents are with you, you can set up an example. (Please note that by no means, I want to intervene your private life with this).

Also, as a homework, I asked them to arrange the personal staff after returning home and asked them to find a story related to “Love” with you so that we can share it in the class. Today, I found this touching short film (very short – only 1 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTn2iurL2cE&NR=1

Let’s end with a quote from Marin Luther King Jr.:

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of good will to come together with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "We ain't goin' study war no more." This is the challenge facing modern man.

Wish we all do the right thing by following path of Dizigui.

Enjoy your week,

Fan

=================Story===============================

     在西藏草原上，有许多藏羚羊。有一天，一个猎人看到一只藏羚羊站在那里，他马上拿起了猎枪就做好瞄准的动作…这时，这只藏关头却一动不动地站在那里看着猎 人，突然它的双膝跪在了地上。这个猎人非常惊讶，他从来没有看过这种场面，不过他还是扣了板机射死了这只羊。然后他把羊的肚子剖开一看，原来这只羊怀孕跑 不动了。它这一跪是祈求猎人饶了它的孩子。这个猎人看到这一幕，自己的内心相当震撼和后悔，从此他就把猎枪丢掉了，再也 不杀害动物了。凡人之所以为人者，惟此恻隐之心而己。
       有一个猎人瞄准了一只老鹰正要猎杀，这只老鹰把食物获取后并没有吃，飞到巢里放下食物就飞了出去，这个猎人很惊讶，就等它回巢。后来这只老鹰飞回来时带着 一只年纪很大的老鹰，一看就知道是它的母亲，入巢后这只老鹰就含着刚才获取的这些食物，一口一口地喂它的母亲。这个猎人本来要射杀它，看到这一幕，他从此 也往下了。
     又有一个猎人，他往下一个捕兽器，要捕黄鼠狼。一天，他看到已经捕到了，但走近仔细一看，原来捕兽器上只剩下黄鼠狼的皮，而黄鼠狼却撕开自己身上的皮逃走 了。这个猎人很惊讶，这只动物到底上哪里去了？他顺 着血迹跟踪过去，当猎人找到黄鼠狼居住的地方，就近一看，它倒在了洞里已经死了，而它的孩子正在吃它的奶水！
       白居易曾写了一首诗：“谁道群生性命微，一般骨肉一般皮，劝君莫打枝头鸟，子在巢中望母归。”古 诗云：“爱鼠常留饭，怜娥不点灯。”何其仁也！所以，我们绝对不能因为自己的欲望，自己好玩，就去玩弄动物、伤害动物，果报怪惨烈。