Date: July 28th, 2010 (Wednesday)
Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Awakening to Life's Truths and Taking Action to Care for the Suffering 一念善心願堅定
See how the torrential rains in central and southern Taiwan have caused landslides and damaged roads and bridges.
The heavy rainfall due to the southwest air current this time is no less than that brought by the tropical storm.
Seeing that, I’m very concerned and worried. It seems that I’m speaking of disasters every day.
It is because this is what’s occurring now, and we must seize this opportunity and use what’s happening around the world as an example to remind people of life’s Truths.
If we pass up such an opportunity to do so now, when exactly are we going to do it?
This is why every day, I speak of disasters and events that occur in this world, which are very heartrending too see.
Living together on this Earth, we see how people in different parts of the world are being affected by either heat or cold.
In the North, there are people dying from heat stroke, while in the South, there are people freezing to death.
Despite such erratic climate conditions, we see that the rich actually make use this to enjoy themselves---
They see blizzards as a chance to enjoy the sight of snow and to go skating or skiing.
As for those in hot places, they go to the mountains or beaches to cool down.
See, living together in this world, the rich are able to go away and enjoy themselves while the poor can do nothing but live in very impoverished conditions.
See how the rich go to faraway places to build villas for holidays while the poor live a life of hardship also in out-of-the-way places.
That’s how extremely different the lives of the rich and the poor are just like the extreme climate conditions in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
But in seeing all this, some are able to awaken to life’s Truths and come to realize that life is impermanent.
So, they won’t indulge in a comfortable life nor can they bear to see others suffer.
And that’s why they are able to seize the time and chance they have to give of themselves as much as they can.
What we are seeing now is South America. Winter in South America has indeed been extremely harsh this year.
Fortunately, there are local Tzu Chi volunteers providing regular aid for the sick and poor.
Take Dr. Lin for instance. Though he is a Christian for over six years now, he has been part of our medical association, working with our volunteers in Paraguay to hold regular free clinics to relieve people of their suffering.
It is indeed very touching to see.
Despite having a different religion from ours, the love he shares for others is the same.
His efforts to bring medical care to the poor and ill have continued for many years, so I’m very grateful to him.
In Chile, we saw that our local volunteers had held their first free clinic there.
Tzu Chi’s work in Chile began after major 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country in February this year.
The destructive power of the quake indeed caused much devastation.
Because of the quake, Tzu Chi volunteers began looking for people they knew in Chile so we could bring aid to quake survivors.
That was how we came across Dr. Yang, a Taiwanese doctor living in Chile.
While carrying out our relief work there, we told him about the work of our international medical association.
Hearing of this, he vowed to take on the task of organizing free clinics in Chile.
An International medical association’s Dr. Yang ChuangLong said:
“As it is winter now, and it’s especially cold this year in Chile, and it’s there are more cases of tracheitis and pneumonia”.
“So we thought we’d seize this time to hold a free clinic and give medicine to people who need it”.
So, on July 24, eleven doctors and one pharmacist along with 19 volunteers held a free clinic for the impoverished.
A patient attends a free clinic said:
“Tzu Chi’s free clinic has helped us a lot. They even gave us medicine”.
“We are all every poor, and every time we need to see a doctor, we need to wait a long time for our turn”.
Another patient attends a free clinic said:
"The entire left side of my body has been aching, but I didn’t go get treatment because I don’t like having to wait from 5 a.m. to see the doctor”.
We must also be very grateful to Dr. Xu, who is an ophthalmologist at a local hospital.
For the free clinic this time, he needed to borrow special equipment from the hospital he works at, so he could examine the eyes of the patients.
(A screen shows Dr. Hu JhangJhe takes care patients attending a free clinic)
In total, he examined the eyes of 33 people. Having received the eye examination, apart from those that need medical treatment, many needed to be fitted with glasses.
As the local government was aware that Tzu Chi volunteers were planning to hold a free clinic for the locals, they really agreed to lend a hand by providing glasses for al the patients that needed them.
See how the love of Tzu Chi volunteers inspired these doctors to join our medical association and the love of these doctors inspired a local hospital to provide us with the eye examination equipment.
Even the local government was touched by our efforts and did their part in caring for their own people by providing them with free glasses. This is how everyone united to do good.
Seeing this, we truly feel very grateful, touched, and full of admiration.
Our team of volunteers in Chile has truly grown very quickly.
They formed earlier this year, yet in less than six months, they’ve already carried out Tzu Chi’s missions of charity and medicine to serve those in need.
What they have achieved is truly very touching.
There are too many touching things to recount.
However, with climate conditions continually changing and affecting people around the world, we must all remember to interact with one another with pure and genuine love.
We must further spread this love by continuing to inspire others to join us.
May the pure, genuine and sincere love of people reach the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas above and many we all bear the heart of the Buddha and carry out the work of Bodhisattvas.
Indeed, we must live out the Buddha’s teachings, otherwise we will continue to experience extremely hot or cold weather, which would be truly unbearable no mater where we are in this world.
All in all, we must bear a heart of gratitude at all times and work to safeguard all the suffering in this world with sincere piety.
(Source: Da Ai TV 人間菩提)
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