As modern parents struggle to protect their children from bad habits and behaviors that can easily be learnt from peer students, a teenager says an ancient meditation practice originating from China has helped him maintain his cool and see the world with a more mature and responsible perspective.
“School is a really hectic place … and it’s gonna get crazy at times. And I think Falun Dafa really helps me maintain my cool.” Daniel Babay, a 14-year-old from New York told NTD on May 9.
‘The Practice Gets Me Through A Lot’
Babay started to learn the practice since he was only one year old.
Now a 14-year-old, he said this meditation style helps him stay emotionally balanced and rational which, as a teenager, might otherwise be harder.
Fights in his middle school are very common. “Whenever people witness a fight, they always try to get in it, because the atmosphere would be a little hyped,” Babay said, “Everybody is like screaming and throwing punches.”
But the principles he has learned from Falun Dafa—Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance—make him tuned in to a different approach. “Usually, I’m the only one trying to stop things,” he said. “So the practice gets me through a lot—actually [helps me] staying level-headed, keeping my ground.”
Babay was among the hundreds of people gathered in front of the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan on Thursday to celebrate the introduction of Falun Dafa to the public 27 years ago this month.
Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong, was first brought to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China. The practice has since been spread to more than 100 countries around the world.
An Independent Mind
Aaron Wong, another teenager practitioner of Falun Dafa, says that through the practice, he has learned how to accept criticism from adults graciously, and strive to improve himself.
“For example, when they ask me why I didn’t do my homework,” he said, “I don’t need to come up with false excuses. I just being truthful and just admits that I did something wrong [sic].”
Wong said the practice has also helped him to discern right from wrong with an independent mind.
“Most kids my age these days in school, when they see something that’s not really good but people are encouraging, they might not be able to control themselves and they just follow the crowd,” Wong said, “whereas me being a practitioner, I can understand what’s good and bad. I can control myself to not follow these things.”
Husband Says I Changed in Personality
Teenagers aren’t the only ones who benefit from the practice.
Marija Dionizovik-Dimanovski, a research assistant at Montefiore Medical Center, said all her severe headaches and back pain went away in one to two months after she started the practice. “And they never came back,” she said.
And it’s more than just her health that went through tremendous change.
“My husband told me that I changed like 90 percent in my personality,” Marija told NTD. “Even my son told me that I improve as a mom, from before Falun Dafa and after Falun Dafa.”
She said she use to be a very dominant and controlling type of wife, and would yell to her husband and son a lot. “But then after reading the principles in Zhuan Falun, I recognize that the wife needs to be a caring and gentle woman.”
“We should control ourselves and be tolerant to other people. Look into ourselves first, and find the mistake and then eliminate it,” she said. “So that’s what I did. I look into my character and eliminated the controlling ego part in myself.”
Marija says after she did that, her husband changed as well. In fact, her entire family changed for the better. “It’s more harmonious a lifestyle in my family.”
