20151011把握分秒慧命增 To Develop Wisdom at All Times
In the Philippines, many people are truly poor. Recently Tzu Chi volunteers have been distributing rice donated by Taiwan with love. They went to towns and villages that were devastated by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) and recovered with the help from Tzu Chi.
Therefore, residents treat Tzu Chi volunteers like family and friends, bonding very closely. Local officials would tell Tzu Chi about tribes, communities or villages that suffer greater hardship. There is a town with a group of poor farmers who always take out a loan to buy crop seeds with high interest payment. Each year after repaying their loan, not much is left for the farmers. This creates a vicious cycle. These poor farmers continue to be poor.
This year for Tzu Chi’s distribution, we went to remote areas in Leyte, Philippines. Based on the information given to us, we went to assess and confirm the needs. Then the distributed rice to the farmers in need. In Tanauan, the town mayor kept thanking Tzu Chi on behalf of the poor farmers helped.
“I come here because I want to personally thank Tzu Chi Foundation. We have to pay it forward as well by helping others like how Tzu Chi has been helping us.”
Each household who received aid was very touched and also very grateful. All of them knew Tzu Chi’s bamboo bank era with daily donation of 50 cents. They collect recycled plastic bottles and use them as their coin banks to save coins for donation as their way of repaying Tzu Chi’s kindness. This practice gives them a chance to cultivate blessings and for them to feel that they are also to help others. Their donations are like drops of water going into a water jar. Any drop can be theirs.
So, they are very happy and grateful. Their gratitude shows on their faces. Their way of giving back was very touching. This is their power of love, pooling it together to form the Great Love. That was in the Philippines.
Now, I’m very grateful that the rice donated by Taiwan with love has helped many countries. We see that people in several African countries are also very grateful to Taiwan’s rice.
All in all, the power of love can truly warm up this world. In this world, when people’s hearts are cold, indifferent and in disharmony, only the power of love can warm up the world, harmonize people’s hearts and inspire love in people to serve the people in need.
We need to work harder in this area. It is very important to lean, share and pass on the Dharma. Those who have learned the Dharma have the responsibility to share the Dharma and pass it on to others, and at the same time, be responsible for their gift of life because them flies by easily, so do lives. Life diminishes in the passing of time. With each passing day, life diminishes by a day. With each passing year, life diminishes by a year. This is the warning that samantabhadrab Bodhisattva gave us: “As today passes , our life is shortened.” At the end of each day, our life diminishes by a day.
So, we have to truly make good use of our time and be responsible for our gift of life. We must spend our life to nurture and grow our wisdom-life. Wisdom-life is nurtured through learning the Dharma. By listening to the Dharma, we will know more about life’s truth. With life’s truth in our heart and setting our life in the right direction, that’s how we increase our wisdom-life, a form of life composed of wisdom. With wisdom, we’ll be able to seize our time to benefit living beings, which is the meaning of our life.
We need to be very mindful in making good use of our life to serve and help people in need. Just like Tzu Chi’s doctors and nurses, they seize time very well to do good. During weekends and holidays, they go up to the mountains or out to remote areas to provide medical outreach and free services for those who can’t come out for medical care.
For these patients in suffering who can’t come out for medical care, we reach out to serve them. This is the power of love creating many touching stories.
We also see an elderly volunteer in Taiwan. She is called Grandma Aye, and lives in Keelung. She is 83 years old now, yet when she goes up and down the steps on hills, she can keep her breathing and her pace very steady.
“I carried on walking even with my injured leg. People give me a nickname, “Iron Legs.”(You are truly known for your perseverance.)I’ve never complained about having sore legs. (Yes, because you are Grandma “Iron-Legs”.)I am given this name for a good reason. I’ve never complained about having sore legs.”
She has volunteered for more than a decade in Keelung where most of its lands are hilly. She goes up and down with sacks full of recyclables on her back and carries three sacks of recyclables at a time.
“Why don’t you volunteer at a recycling station? Why do you take the responsibility to collect recyclables around here? Before my leg’s injury, I was the only one collecting recyclables here. There is no one else who can do this. (How come?) Most of us are old. What about you? I am used to walking up and down. They are not used to this type of walking, so they get back pains or sore legs. I am fine, so I carry on.”
On such cramped and narrow steps, she can still find her way to pass. All in all, I had once talked about the story of a shepherd boy from a Buddhist sutra. He has a young cow. Because it is very young, it can’t cross a water ditch. The shepherd boy carries the cow to cross the water ditch every day. As this boy grows up, so does the cow. By carrying the cow every day, this boy unkowningly increases his strength.
Our wisdom-life is like this. As we grow old, our wisdom-life increases unconsciously just like this boy’s strength. Isn’t this elderly volunteer like this? Because she collects recyclables every day without slacking off, she accumulates her contribution to society. Seeing her story, I truly admire her.
In a word, we shouldn’t just admire her. We should train ourselves to be like her. When there are right things to do, we should just do it. Then, we can bring peace to society and give our life a greater value. We need to seize every second of our life to do this.
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