20150314 感謝回饋眾生恩To Be Grateful and Pay It Forward
To be able to live safely and well in each passing second is truly a blessing. So, we should always be grateful. In my morning Dharma talks, I mention that at every moment, we must be grateful to Mother Nature for sustaining life on Earth with her five elements. Mother Nature gives us plenty of living space in this vast universe. In addition to the four elements of earth, water air and fire, we have our living space. The land supports all living creatures and gives rise to all existence.
Humans also live on this great piece of land. The land provides us with all necessary resources for survival. Its soil brows crops for us to eat and sustains our life. Its trees, plants, mountains, rivers, oceans, and other wonders create beautiful sceneries. They are not just beautiful sceneries for us to enjoy, each of them has its specific function to sustain life on Earth. When we see water flowing in streams, be grateful for it. We need water to survive.
When we see crops growing on land, be grateful for them. The land provides us with various types of plants for us to eat and use, how can we not grateful for them? Not to mention all the people of various professions contributing their skills to create a functioning society that provides us with all the necessities in life. We should be grateful to everyone. Yet, we cannot ignore what is happening to Mother Nature.
Recently, Taiwan has been experiencing water shortages. Indeed, we must have a sense of crisis and start solving this problem by reminding each other to conserve water. and reduce water consumption in our daily life. We need to share with others how we use water to keep clean while conserving water. We have to remind one another to do this. Otherwise, this water shortage will start to impact residential use. The public doesn’t seem pay attention to this.
We should be on the alert. We should conserve as much as we can when using water, cherishing water as it were gold at this critical time. Water is essential to our survival. Especially with Mother Nature already out of balance, we need to be more vigilant. In this world, people in many poor countries are already suffering poverty for their entire life. The frequent occurrence of compound disasters caused by climate change adds more suffering to people.
Moreover, in palaces with poor sanitation and inadequate medical care, people’s lives are especially difficult and full of suffering. If we take a closer look at our life, our environment and our society, we should be grateful to have one another doing good to help people, so that people can live in peace with all their life needs fulfilled. This is a true blessing we have.
Yesterday morning, the separation surgery for the conjoined twin sisters from the Philippines officially began sometime after 8 A.M. Nearly 30 medical staff worked in the operation room. This surgery continued until after 2 P.M.. It was a successful separation. I am truly happy. Indeed, not all lives come into this world healthy nor guaranteed to grow up smoothly. Life is full of uncertainties.
That is why the Buddha said that we are born with our karma. When causes and condition come together, people may meet the right help to save them, as evident by the charity cases we often encounter. These people in hardship are helped and saved by volunteers because of love. We also saw the Syrian crisis caused by violence and war, which has gone on for four full years already. Such injustice and crisis in society come from conflicts between people over differences in opinion or mindset. Once the crisis started, it went out of control.
For four full years, this war has continued, and waves of refugees have fled to neighboring countries Syria used to have a harmonious society. Now the country suffers extensive damages. Many homes were destroyed. Many lives were injured or lost. We also see Tzu Chi volunteers in Turkey helping Syrian refugees with their living needs while also working hard to enable refugees children to have education. Local people are also inspired and have come forward to help with love. In this crisis, we see people reaching out save refugees with love and mindfulness.
You see, these adorable children were forced to flee from their homes. How old are you? Nine. How long have been away from school? One year. I came to the school at 6 A.M. to wait for the door to open. I am Himet from Syria. I am in the fourth grade. Last night, I was too excited to sleep. I couldn't fall asleep until 3 A.M. because I am going to school in the morning. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
These innocent children suffer from this world’s chaos and crisis. This is indeed a hardship. All in all, they have encountered someone special in their life who can help them. To them, their future holds a lot of hope. However, if people fighting don’t harmonize their heart and mind, that better future will be far from coming. All in all, after seeing the world affairs, we must look back at ourselves and be cautious. The world affairs remind us to be sincerely pious and cautious.
首頁 