2014/12/29 及時救援定民心 Providing Timely Relief to Bring Peace
Life is truly impermanent. People happily boarded a plane flying from Indonesia to Singapore. They all had their own trip purpose, yet ended up on the same plane with the same fate. This plane, carrying over 160 passengers onboard, went missing over the sea. It is truly agonizing for the passengers’ families to wait for news of their loved ones. Not knowing whether they are dead or alive, each second feels interminably long.
At a time like this, they really need someone to be with them, to comfort them and to give them support. This is exactly what living bodhisattvas ought to do at this time, go to those in need to alleviate their pain and suffering. When a disaster happens, we have to quickly give of ourselves and seize the opportunity to help the people in need with the Dharma. Dharma is formless and intangible, but it can inspire our heart and spur us to take action in times of need.
When many people gather together with the spirit of helping the people in need, we will be able to make the world into a pure land. When we are chanting the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, we often come across the phrase “the Buddha’s pure land” How to reach there?
Remember last year’s Typhoon Haiyan(Yolanda) disaster? For that disaster relief, if there weren’t so many people with the bodhisattva’s heart and enlightened love, we would not be able to restore the heavily damaged cities of Tacloban and Ormoc.
If it weren’t for a large group of living bodhisattvas who immediately joined the disaster relief, Tacloban might still be in ruins now. However, if we go there now, we’ll see that the city has been restored and revitalized in just a little over one year. We also saw that a local church completed its rebuilding and held their first Mass. We see that peace and calmness have been restored in people’s hearts, and businesses are back up and running. This was made possible because there were so many people who gave their love to help restore the city and businesses.
We can create a pure land in this world, if we bring out our Buddha nature and give of ourselves to alleviate the local community’s hardship. This is possible because we take on the mission as living bodhisattvas and we find the strength to help others.
After volunteers give of themselves, they share their experience and insights in serving others. Volunteers often are filled with gratitude in doing what they can, and in the process, they realize the impermanence of life. They also learn about the great forces of nature at work in this world. They give of themselves and ask for nothing in return while expressing gratitude.
This is the Tzu Chi path. As we walk on this path, we can realize that the truth in life is to give selflessly. We learn that disaster and suffering are a product of living beings’ collective negative karma. But, to truly realize this, we must have the Dharma in our heart.
This recent flooding in Malaysia has created an extensive disaster zone, larger than the one in Tacloban, Philippines. Its impact is truly vast. Floodwaters have impacted eight states, from north to central Malaysia. At the same time, southern Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka are also experiencing floods.
Days of heavy rain across the region has created disaster in four countries. Where there are Tzu Chi volunteers, Tzu Chi quickly begins to provide disaster relief. For places where there are no volunteers, we are powerless to help the survivors.
For example, in Thailand, we have Tzu Chi volunteers from Bangkok to northern Thailand. However, we have no volunteers south of Bangkok. Due to the sheer size of the country, though the news said “southern Thailand”, that encompasses everything south of Bangkok, a vast area.
The flooded area is very far from Bangkok, making timely response impossible. In Sri Lanka, we can only assist areas in Hambantota and Colombo. Other areas are out of our reach. If disasters happen in very remote places, be it landslides or other disasters, our acid can’t reach that far away. We have no way of helping the people there.
This shows us that the bodhisattva spirit has not spread to that area yet. So, regrettably, we’re not able to bring aid to the inundated areas of Sri Lanka and southern Thailand. However, in the landslide-hit areas in Indonesia, Tzu Chi volunteers in Indonesia have responded and brought aid to the affected areas. In response to the floods in Malaysia, Tzu Chi volunteers have come together to fill the affected areas with love and care.
Such enlightened love has pulled together volunteers from central, southern, and northern Malaysia to bring relief to the flood affectees. They are planning to help clear away the debris in the aftermath of the deluge. So, Tzu Chi volunteers have gone out in public to invite those who are not affected by the floods, or those who have been affected just a little to join the relief work and give of themselves.
We are also hoping to encourage those who are in hardship to join and register with Tzu Chi’s cash aid livelihood program. Only then can the deluge-affected areas be speedily revived and recovered. We also see that many people have been rushing to buy food and goods. Yet, there’s a sufficient amount of goods in the unaffected places, such as Penang, where Mr. Richard Koay, a local volunteer, has been collecting and thinking of ways to gather relief supplies. Some of the locals are very willing to offer what they have to help. So, there are many people who care about this disaster.
In the wake of disaster, we see how people genuinely give of themselves with their sincere love and generosity. Many have made great efforts as well as donated money to help. We learn that Tzu Chi volunteers from the KL-Selangor Branch also mobilized to do survey and relief in the past few days. While Tzu Chi volunteers in Penang chartered a plane to go to Kelantan to render help to flood survivors. Tzu Chi
Singapore also expressed their intention to help in this relief mission.
When they asked me for permission to do fundraising, I told them of course they could, as a donation drive is a good way to inspire loving-kindness. I told them that they certainly can carry out a donation drive locally to inspire love. It will also be nice if they can go to Malaysia to help.
In summary, if our volunteer force is more widespread, our strength will be greater to bring pure land to this world. This requires us to bring out people’s Buddha nature and love, so that everyone together can help the flood-affected areas to quickly recover and return people’s lives and the economy to normal.
This is the ultimate aim of our relief mission. We don’t know how long these floods in Malaysia will last. But, we can see that the affected area is vast, we do our best to help as many areas as possible. I sincerely hope to see more people coming forward to give a helping hand.
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