20150527 悲願相伴慈引度 Bringing Relief to the Suffering
It’s been over a month since Nepal was affected by a major earthquake on April 25. After the quake, we’ve been sending one relief team after another to Nepal. The fifth team of 28 members will leave Nepal this afternoon, and the sixth team will depart from Taiwan today.
Everyone on our relief teams go to Nepal to serve with love, and everyone pays for everything out of their own pocket. They pay for their own travel expenses, accommodation, etc. See how they give both money and effort. They’re really very dedicated.
On the fifth team, there are teachers from Taiwan and Malaysia. See how they teach the locals to sing, do sign language, etc. Before going out to serve, see how our volunteers quickly learn to speak some simple words in Nepali. I have a son today.
I often say that we should dedicate our lives to serving others. This time, it’s not just our doctors who have gone to Nepal to save lives, our teachers have also gone there and walked into the lives of the locals by inspiring them, bringing them joy, and making them feel deeply respected.
Such is genuine, sincere love. “Foster sincerity among people and inspire people to give”. Isn’t this what I encouraged everyone to do at the start of this year? Tzu Chi members serving in Nepal have truly done that. They’ve instilled Tzu Chi’s values and love in people’s hearts and inspired them to give. After Tzu Chi members leave Nepal, I’m sure that the locals sing the Tzu Chi songs they’ve learned from us.
We’ve also taught them sign language and shared with them how to lead a meaningful life filled with joy. See, apart from relieving their suffering, we’ve shared wholesome values with them. Our fifth relief team has not only eased the locals’ suffering, but also brought peace to their minds. They also interacted with local teachers.
I taught them two Jing Si Aphorisms today. “The more we do, the more we gain. The less we do, the more we lose.” And “Don’t underestimate ourselves as everyone has unlimited potential.” The teachers all liked them very much. They even invited us to their school to share Jing Si Aphorisms with more teachers.
See, be it local teachers, students, children, or young people, Tzu Chi members have imparted wholesome teachings to them all. This is how they seize every opportunity to share true principles with the locals and help them grow n wisdom.
Here in Taiwan, we see an elderly woman in Taichung who had suffered much in life. She had a son and a daughter. In college, her daughter studied foreign languages and her son civil engineering. Unfortunately, after an operation her daughter fell into a vegetative state. Her husband had been suffering from colon cancer for years.
So, she had to take care of her husband and her daughter. Therefore, her son came back from aboard to take care of his father. But after his father passed away, the son felt unwell and was diagnosed with rectal cancer. From that on, she had to take care of her daughter and son. See how hard life was for her. Her house was in a mess, but she was not able to clean it up.
And as her son and daughter had occupied two rooms, she could only climb up a narrow staircase to sleep on a countertop on the second floor. What suffering she had endured.
Feeling for her, her borough head referred her case to Tzu Chi, so Tzu Chi volunteers began to care for her. Having cleaned up her house, our volunteers built a room in her living room so she no longer had to climb up and down the stairs again, which was very dangerous for her.
She was very happy. As her son had encouraged her to volunteer with Tzu Chi, she later became our recycling volunteer. Many Tzu Chi volunteers have told her that she can consider them as her children who will give her any support she needs.
She has truly been liberated from her suffering. I do recycling for my son. I’d like to repay Tzu Chi volunteers, but they don’t want me to. So, I come here to help with anything. Sometimes I pick vegetables. Sometimes I wash dishes. I do my best. I want to do what I can to help others. If I can save a little to share with the needy, I’ll be very happy.
I hope I won’t fall ill so I can work until the day I close my eyes forever. After relieving her suffering, our volunteers further guided her to serve. So, she is now full of joy, peace, and ease.
We also see a similar family in northern Taiwan. When out volunteers were cleaning up their house, the daughter, who is emotionally unstable, kept yelling at our volunteers. So, our volunteers and her mother had patiently calmed her down. Isn’t life miserable for them? They’ve really suffered a lot. In all, from the stories of people we see, we can be awakened to life’s truths and learn not to take issue with little things in life.
Moreover, as Nature’s elements have become imbalanced, climate conditions have also become erratic, leading to many disasters. So, we must seize time and opportunity to do what is right. Please do more good deeds and pray with a sincere heart for the world to be safe and free of disasters. This I what we should do with all our hearts.
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