2014/12/22付出無求 仁醫傳承 Year-end Blessings Trip: A Heart Filled with Gratitude
Yesterday, I had completed the first round of my Year-end Blessings trip around Taiwan, starting in central Taiwan, I then traveled around southern Taiwan and then returned to eastern Taiwan. I am very grateful to return to the Abode safe and well. I’m most grateful for this. My trip this time spanned 21 days. On the first day, we went to Keelung. I was very happy to see the new Jing Si Hall there. With it, I saw our practice there really entering a new era.
Volunteers there are all very diligent. The building is nearing completion and is undergoing final touches with all the work done by Tzu Chi volunteers themselves. I see a truly dignified new Jing Si Hall for spiritual cultivation. But not only does the building look dignified, most importantly, I saw volunteers work together with love and in harmony.
So harmonious was the ambience that when I sat down to listen to their sharing, the male volunteers said to me: “Master, we are grateful, we are grateful to the female commissioners. They worked as hard as the men. They helped out with many heavy-duty works, such as lifting heavy things. They did all sorts of tasks, climbing up and down and so on.”
The female volunteers said to me: “Master, we are grateful to the Tzu Cheng volunteers too as they not only served as security and also grabbed the heavy-duty tasks first. Even for the work assigned to us, they also wanted to help out, such as preparing meals and beverages. Those are our jobs, but the male volunteers helped take care of it.” Hearing them praising and thanking each other, I felt harmony all around.
Whenever I see this place, I always feel grateful to Mr. Wen, the owner of the land. Many years ago, Mr. Wen came to see me with the land title and the location map. He said that he hoped I could make use of it. It is a beautiful piece of land. Though it is located on a hillside, it is in a housing community that complies with all legal regulations. It also has convenient access to transportation. But, to go ahead with the construction, we must be very careful, for our land is at the bottom of the community.
Therefore, our construction has to be very sturdy, so that the community above us is protected. Thus, it has taken a long time to design and construct the building. The land is very big, and the building was well-constructed. For this, I must thank Mr. and Mrs. Wen and their children for happily agreeing as a family to make the donation of this land to Tzu Chi. We have to be grateful to the Wen family for this.
But we must not forget the volunteers who had provided the old Tzu Chi offices. The volunteer, Mr. Lee, first provided an apartment in the city to serve as Tzu Chi’s office. However, it was not very big and could not accommodate the growing number of Tzu Chi volunteers. So, another volunteer, Mr. Chou, and his brother were very mindful and provided their factory to serve as a Tzu Chi office after renovating the entire building.
That place had recruited and nurtured many Tzu Chi volunteers. From the beginning, at the groundbreaking of our Jing Si Hall in Keelung, Mr. Chou and his entire family were all completely devoted to the construction and helped with many things, including everything from interior construction to external landscaping. Mr. Chou also said to me: “Master, the trees we see here around us are all originally from the Jing Si Abode.
We had begun preparing for the saplings years ago.” When the saplings were ready, they moved them one by one back to Keelung. This symbolizes that the root to our Dharma Lineage comes from the Jing Si Abode. The saplings were from the Abode and now they are taking root in Keelung. I am really touched by what they’ve done, especially in all the minute details in everything.
Since, I was already in Keelung on that day, I thought that I might as well as take a side trip to Xizhi. I found it very interesting that when I arrived at Tzu Chi’s Xizhi office, I did not see many people. It was very relaxing. When I got to the front door, a few volunteers were on duty in the Jing Si Bookstore. They quickly ran to the front door and tried to open the door. However, they could not open the door. Everyone was very nervous. After we went inside and went into the Buddha Hall, I looked all around.
I told the people with me that I had visited Xizhi several times before, but I had never looked at the interior of the building before because every time I came, people were everywhere. I was not able to see the floor, nor look up at the ceiling. That day, I felt very comfortable. I felt the texture of the floor I stepped on. I raised my head up and saw the skylights.
I was able to walk around freely. What I saw on display touched me very much. They were a lot of very old antiques in and around the facility. We were very curious and often reached out to touch them. Our hands felt their cleanness. It was very impressive.
Then, I arrived at the recycling station. It was just as clean. After being sorted in detail, the packed recyclables were piled up neatly. I am truly grateful to our recycling volunteers for making great efforts to care for our planet as well as our recycling station. I’m truly touched by this. The recycling volunteers give of themselves without seeking anything in return and still are grateful for everything. They even give me credit for having this recycling station.
In fact, it was through their collective effort that they found and got this recycling station. I really am grateful to everyone and words can’t fully express my gratitude to everyone. After that, I visited Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital. What our medical mission is doing truly fills me with gratitude and moves me very much. I saw the high standard of care they provide in the way they do everything possible with great caring and thoughtfulness to save lives and help patients get better.
I saw young doctors in their prime being very dedicated and mindful in saving and helping patients while the older doctors support them and share their experience with generous kindness. It made me see a lot of hope in medicine. The same was true when I visited Taichung and Dalin Tzu Chi Hospitals. Time’s running out, so I’ll tell you another time. In a word, at the Tzu Chi hospitals I visited, I saw all our doctors, nurses, and other staff truly caring for the health of Taiwan’s people with love and commitment. It is truly moving.
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