20150305節能減碳‧照顧殘疾Reducing Carbon Emissions and Doing Recycling for a Better Earth
See how heavy rains have caused severe flooding in Argentina, South America. To people in the central-western region, it is the worst weather disaster they’ve seen in 50 years. Why have climate conditions become so erratic? Scientists have told us time and again that too much carbon emissions have led to greenhouse effect, which has in turn brought about extreme climate conditions.
So, all this is caused by the pollution we create. Lately, we’ve seen that many people in Taiwan have changed their religious practices after a large temple in Taipei removed its incense burners and encouraged people to just pray sincerely by putting their palms together.
Since then, many people have stopped burning incense and paper money.In fact, as long as we pray with a sincere heart, the heavenly beings will certainly feel it, and there’s no need fighting to be the first to place our incense in the burner on New Year’s Day.
However, we also see that in Tainan, for a ten-day period during the Chinese New Year, 15 local temples still collected 200.6 tons of paper money from people for the city government to burn for them. This number is truly staggering. So, the city government has also been encouraging people to donate money instead of burning paper money--- With the money people use to buy paper money, they can donate it to do good deeds.
As a result, the city government collected nearly US$1,600 from people this year. Think about it--- With more people donating money instead of burning paper money, there’ll be less carbon emissions and air pollution. With a change in our mindset and practice, we can still pray sincerely all the same. If we don’t change and are still superstitious, we’ll have to be aware of the consequences.
We also see a heartwarming event in Indonesia. During a war decades ago, many soldiers who fought in the frontline were injured and became disabled. After the war, they live in a complex especially built for them and some veterans’ widows. As they are now advanced in age, life is not easy for them.
So, on March 2, the Indonesia Army worked with Tzu Chi volunteers to distribute aid to them. This is indeed very heartwarming to see. If there was only misery in the world and no warmth and love, wouldn’t our world become too cold and bitter? To fill our world with more warmth, we need to give with sincere love.The Buddha teaches us to care for others and feel their pain as our own. This is what our volunteers in Indonesia have done. I’m very grateful to our volunteers there for giving of themselves with compassion and wisdom.
Every time I see the work they do, I can’t help but praise them. We also see Taiwan. In our TV program on our recycling volunteers, we can see howour recycling volunteers uphold the value of love and live a meaningful life through giving of themselves.
No matter if they are poor or rich, healthy or disabled, they work with one heart to protect our environment. Take for example one recycling volunteer who suffers from cerebral palsy due to a difficult delivery at birth. His family was not well-to-do, so they had endured much hardship in life.
He got married at 28 and has three children. He worked hard to raise his family. But due to his physical condition, it was not easy for him to work. Nevertheless, he persisted and moved on. At one point, he could hardly make ends meet.
Learning of his condition, Tzu Chi volunteers started to provide him with aid. He was very grateful and wanted to give back. So, he started serving as our recycling volunteer.Although he is physically challenged, he’s very happy doing recycling work.
Ifeel bad if I don’t do recycling just one day and I’ll miss the recycling station. Before I had this tricycle, I only did recycling in the morning. After I attended the volunteer training, I began to feel the heavy responsibility on me. Brother Xie works from dawn to dusk. I think he works too hard. So, I’d like to share some of his workload. Then, he doesn’t have to do so much work anymore. When others are happy, I’m happy.
Such is the cycle of love. See how beautiful his life is. People who are physically challenged also have a lot of potential. As long as we treat them with respect and love, they can still give of themselves for our society.
Every one of our Tzu Chi volunteers is full of love. See how one volunteer attends to his store half day and does recycling work half day. His legs were injured, but he still carries heavy boxes of recyclables.He never says that he’s tired. He climbs upstairs to carry the recyclables down and loads them onto the truck. I really admire him. He’s just like a young man.
My legs are so sore and weak that they almost buckle. It only happens sometimes, not always. It has to do with ageing. If I don’t move, it’ll get worse. So, I can’t quit. Taiwan is indeed full of people with love.To care for the Earth, our volunteers not only do recycling themselves, but also encourage others to do the same as they hope more resources can be recycled and not be wasted and carbon emissions can be reduced.
It may seem like an insignificant act, but it is an act full of love. If everyone can take up recycling, I’m sure that our Earth and the air will become cleaner. To restore the harmony in Nature, we need to start with people’s hearts.
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