Date: July 26th, 2010 (Monday)
Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: The Cumulative Power of Small Contributions (點滴累積‧善小當為)
“Do you see that many disasters are occurring around the world?”
“So, every day, if we are safe and well, shouldn’t we be grateful?”
We should feel grateful all the time.
Such gratitude comes from us being disciplined, prudent, pious, and humble.
Being disciplined means conducting ourselves properly.
We often seen adorable young children. Their adorableness comes from their proper behavior.
They know to be filial to their parents and be kind and caring to others.
So, what they do make people feel happy and delighted.
From the footage, we see students of our Tzu Chi kindergarten in Tainan.
Every time I visit Tainan, I find these children very sweet and endearing, because they are good kids and they do good deeds every day.
One day, when I was in Tainan, children graduating from our kindergarten came to the assembly hall.
Everyone was holding a small coin bank. They were also pushing a heavy cart.
The cart itself wasn’t heavy. It was because of the big urn on it.
The big urn was filled with coins. The coins were from these graduating students.
Every day, they each had saved a coin.
When they were well behaved, their parents would reward them with money, and, rather than spending it, they would save the money in their coin banks.
These coins, people together, filled up a big urn.
It’s like the saying: “Drops of water converge to form a river”.
Adding up these individual coins, they had more than NT$30,000 (US$934).
See how saving coins every day can lead to a big result.
From saving a little bit of money every day, they can help people in need.
So, we mustn’t discount tiny good deeds.
Why do some parents reward their children with money?
Because these children are well behaved and don’t do things that upset their parents. They also help their mother with chores. This is filial piety.
At our kindergarten, these children have nurtured this sense of filial piety.
When rewarded for their filial acts, they decided to help others by donating the money.
So, these children also do good deeds.
So, we must take good care of our heart and mind and always be pious and vigilant, thinking carefully about things, conducting ourselves properly in accordance with life’s principles.
That is the way to establish our safety and wellbeing for when we uphold life’s principles, our natural world will be more balanced and without disaster.
Recently, there have been a series of earthquakes occurring in Taiwan and the Philippines.
In Taiwan, an earthquake of magnitude 5.6 struck Pingtung, it had a shallow depth (19.5 km).
A tourist said:
“I felt shaking and I was startled”.
“Then someone shouted “Earthquake!”
“Then I realized it was an earthquake”.
Residents live in San DiMen in Pingtung said:
“It was scary. Everyday ran outside”.
“We all ran outside. We were scared. It kept on shaking, so we quickly ran outside”.
Fortunately, there was no report of casualties or damage.
Yet, many people were frightened by the quake.
What about the Philippines?
It also experienced three earthquakes in one day with the largest measuring 7.6 in magnitude. It was very powerful.
That’s more powerful than the earthquake that stuck Taiwan in 1999.
Fortunately, it occurred at a great depth. Earthquakes happening at a greater depth cause less damage.
An earthquake of shallow depth would be devastating.
These past few days, weather conditions have been problematic in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
It has either been overly hot or overly cold.
In the northern Hemisphere, it’s been very hot.
Two days ago, when I was in contact with our volunteers in California and New York, they told me that where they were, the weather was extremely hot.
But, they told me that they and other local Tzu Chi volunteers are committed to doing humanitarian work and no matter how hot or cold it is outside, they will fulfill the work.
They are even willing to travel to other countries to provide aid.
I’m very touched by their spirit. They are truly living bodhisattvas.
They dedicate themselves to benefiting others and they wake up to the lessons from disasters and as a result they give rise to sincere compassion for others and work to alleviate the suffering of others.
In the Philippines, there have been many fire disasters.
Local Tzu Chi volunteers have already conducted 53 aid distributions since January benefiting a total of 7,989 families.
They’ve helped over 7,000 families since January. Now is only July.
So, in the space of just seven months, there have been so many fire disasters.
Moreover, the recent typhoon, Conson, significantly affected the Philippines.
Local Tzu Chi volunteers offered timely help.
A Tzu Chi volunteer, Mr. Lin GuoRong in the Philippines said:
“The people affected by disaster really need help. So, even though it’s still raining, we must carry on with distributing aid”.
Besides giving aid, they also inspire people to help others.
They encourage the people they aid to in turn help others and do good.
So, these people affected by disaster, willingly save money in a coin bank, to donate.
Even though, every day, they only drop in a small coin, every tiny coin represents a kind, altruistic thought.
A victim, Mrs. Luo LiTa said:
“We know that Tzu Chi only wants to help us and won’t try to change our religion. Their aid helps us a lot because we’ve lost our possessions. We are very grateful to Tzu Chi for their help”.
The priest, Boyet Alcantara said:
“Besides giving aid, Tzu Chi also shares stories with people to inspire them to help others and not only think of themselves”.
Given all the disasters that are happening, we need the collective love and contributions of many people, in order to have the capacity to relieve suffering.
I’m very grateful to Tzu Chi volunteers in the Philippines. They’ve truly been busy helping people in suffering.
Everyone, we mustn’t look down on small acts of kindness.
Every little bit that we contribute can create good and bring blessings and helps to alleviate disasters.
Everyone, we must live with piety and vigilance.
(Source: Da Ai TV 人間菩提)
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