(Clearwisdom.net) I would like to share this cultivation story of a person who has lost his sight in both eyes. Looking back on eight years of our difficult cultivation journey, my wish is that we cherish more of the opportunities we get, as very few are now left during the Fa-rectification period.
I selected the pseudonym "Song Ming," which means "giving light/hope," for this blind practitioner. Song Ming is 49 years old this year. He obtained Falun Dafa in the spring of 1996 by listening to tapes of Master teaching the Fa. As he could not study the Fa and do the exercises like other practitioners, he had to exert much more effort at the beginning. After he began cultivation, his serious vasculitis disappeared without any treatment, so he cherished Falun Dafa very much.
In December 2000, he went to Beijing along with some local practitioners to validate Dafa. After they unfurled a banner at Tiananmen Square, the other two practitioners made it back home safely. Song Ming, however, was detained at "Long Feng" Hotel in Beijing. At that time, three policemen forced him to sit in a swivel chair and insulted him in all sorts of ways. He was then taken back by officers from his local police station and detained for 16 days. He even had 500 yuan extorted from him. In detention, he was shocked with an electric baton twice a day by the police interrogators, who also punched and kicked him.
After Song Ming returned home, his elder brother was very angry with him and sent him to a senior nursing home. Before this event, his elder brother took care of him, as he received about 900 yuan as an annual living allowance. After he was fined 500 yuan for practicing Falun Gong, he has had to live in the senior nursing home. Due to the corruption of Chinese Communist Party officials, a portion of the relatively small allowance for the disabled is skimmed off at every level of the local government. By the time it reaches the people who need it desperately, it is only a tiny amount. So the living environment and conditions are extremely harsh for those who are elderly and/or disabled. There are only two simple meals a day in the senior home. In the winter, there is not enough coal to heat the building adequately. When Song Ming first went to the senior home, the head interfered with his Fa study when he saw him listening to the audio tape. He also pressed Song Ming's hand down when he saw him sending forth righteous thoughts and did not allow him to do it. He even spread rumors that he might send Song Ming to jail. Song Ming was not swayed by these acts and persisted in what he needed to do. In the end, no one could keep him from doing what a Dafa disciple should do. He often quietly delivered truth clarifying materials to the head of the senior home through a hole in a broken door at night. He had to get over a wall about 5 ft tall both going and coming, as the gate to the home was locked once it got dark. At some point the big metal gate was stolen and the blind practitioner no longer needed to climb over it to clarify the facts.
When there were no truth clarification materials to be had locally, other practitioners bought double sided tape from other areas and made them into truth clarification materials by writing them by hand. Then Song Ming would go out to the nearby villages and post them. He did more work than the sighted practitioners sometimes. Because he could not see, when he went out to post materials at night, he often bumped into trees, walls and even could not find his way home. Several times after rainstorms, he fell into holes filled with water that was waist-high. Sometimes when the dogs barked like crazy, he would take off his shoes and then walk barefoot to keep them from hearing him. Encountering so many difficulties, his determination to save sentient beings was not weakened at all. Even now, he is still distributing truth clarification materials from home to home.
For the past three months, with help from fellow practitioners, Song Ming has participated in efforts to send forth righteous thoughts at the local place where practitioners are held from a short distance. After following practitioners there twice, he can now get there by himself. He does not have any income; he only receives 5 yuan each month as an allowance. He has bought only an MP3 player and has never spent money on anything else. In addition, he donated all his savings to the material preparation site. His savings came from the payment he receives for sweeping the floor in the senior home (5 yuan per month), payment from odd jobs (usually people get 20 yuan whereas he only gets 15 yuan), and the little money his elder sister gives him for his personal use.
He has visited all the villages in the surrounding area over the past eight years. He said, "Other practitioners are all very busy. I shall go to the most far away places." He has so much hardship and yet he still thinks of others and tries to help them out.
The local authorities did not give this good person any breaks. One time a policeman came, claiming that he was a fellow practitioner whom Song Ming knew well. He tried to deceive Song Ming into giving him truth clarification materials. Under Master's protection, however, Song Ming successfully saw through this underhanded deception.
For those who are still not very diligent, I hope that this practitioner's cultivation story can encourage each of us. Starting from today, let's try hard in our last efforts to save people. The beings in our worlds are counting on us.