20150821一念心轉勤精進 A Change in Mindset Brings About a New Life
The disasters we see around the world every day actually originate from our minds. So, to mitigate natural disasters, we need to harbor a heart of sincere piety, and to quell manmade disasters, we must purify our hearts and minds. All this depends on our minds. So, for our world to enjoy peace and safety, we need to encourage one another to take good care of our hearts and minds.
In life, many people live in a dream-like state. Their minds have been covered in ignorance and delusion, so they cannot wake up from their dreams. So, I hope we can help to wake them up. It’s like how we clap wood boards and sound the bell and drum at 3.50 every morning here at the Abode to wake everyone up and start cultivating themselves.
Upon hearing these sounds, everyone will get up quickly to attend our morning service and listen to the Dharma to cultivate their body and minds, which is really very important. At this time every day, everyone learns the Dharma diligently. I really hope that everyone will take in the Dharma and let it transform their hearts and minds.
We see how Tzu Chi volunteers in Japan provide hot meals to the homeless. Twice every month, they’ll go to a park to give out hot meals to the homeless. This time, it was 38 degrees Celsius that day, but see how our volunteers still patiently gave out food under the beating sun and led everyone to pray together. What they did was really remarkable!
One volunteer helping in the kitchen said that as her house is air-conditioned, she seldom sweats. So, she often goes to take a hot spring bath in order to sweat. But by volunteering in the kitchen, she sweated a lot already. Because our volunteers care very much about hygiene, they always disinfect the eating utensils with boiling water. So, it was impossible for those working in the kitchen not to sweat.
Having sweated like this she fell very good and was filled with joy. She was happy that she could help the homeless and she felt good as she’d sweated. She did the work agilely, which made her body feel really good. See how much she’s benefited from volunteering.
We also see a Mr. Guo in Taiwan who owns a game software company. He used to pursue wealth and lead an extravagant life.
But nearly two years ago, he started coming to our office in Neihu every day to listen to my Dharma talk. Rain or shine, summer or winter, he some every day.
“After listening to Master’s Dharma talk and learning more about the Dharma I came to realize how restless our mind is. Our mind is truly restless. That’s why we are easily tempted by things and people and blindly follow others in everything they do. “We can only find peace when we let go. By doing recycling and eating vegetarian, I find that I have less and less desires.”
Seeing how much he’s changed, I’m very moved. In the past, he wore all kinds of peculiar accessories and unique clothing. But see how modest and dignified he has become and how he has taken the Dharma to heart. Now, he finds those accessories unnecessary and has put them away in a storage box. He also serves as our recycling volunteer.
“Have you done this before?”
“No. That’s why I find it very hard work.”
“Is this your exercise?”
“Yes. I work in the office, so I don’t sweat much. I told another volunteer that instead of going to a gym, I should do recycling. For every hour I work out in a gym, I spend 30 minutes chatting in a cool outfit.”
See, with a change in mindset, nothing is too difficult to do. Can you believe how much he’s changed? See how courageous he is to openly reveal his wayward past to others. Now, he listens to my Dharma talk and does recycling work every day. So, it’s not difficult for people to change. All it takes is a change in mindset.
Seeing how disasters occur around the world, we really must awaken. And all it takes is just a change in mindset. So, I hope that everyone can harbor sincere piety within. In our dealings with people and matters, we must be sincere, upright, trustworthy and honest. We must also learn the Dharma diligently. The world we live in has much suffering to bear.
So, we must learn the Dharma and gain joy from it. For the world to be free of disasters, we must take good care of our minds and eliminate our greed, hatred and ignorance. Only then, can the world enjoy peace and safety. We really must pray sincerely now for Typhoon Goni to make a turn quickly and stay away from Taiwan so we can all be safe and sound. All this requires everyone to pray sincerely.
Tzu Chi volunteers in Taipei have gone to Wulai, which was hit hard by Soudelor, to remind people to guard against Goni. They even helped a hotel board up its windows. One of our volunteers, Bao-zhu, also lives in Wulai and her house has also been flooded. But she and her son still went with our volunteers to help clean up others’ houses first. Now that the cleanup work is done, she wanted to clean up her own house now. But she didn’t want to trouble our volunteers.
When Tzu Chi volunteers learned of that, they went to help clean up her house. When they arrived, they saw that her house was filled with mud and as the mud has dried up, it took more effort to clear it out. Also, because most of our volunteers have all gone back to work, only housewives or elderly volunteers were available to help. But they said that their arms started to ache when they’d only shoveled less than 20 times.
But see how happy everyone was doing the work! This is how our volunteers care for one another. All in all, with all the work we do, all we hope is to benefit humanity and bring peace and safety to everyone.
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