Date: August 5th,2010 (Thursday)
Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Cherishing Our Blessings and Living with Prudence and Humble Piety 善愛為寶‧虔誠戒慎
Seeing these images, do you feel that you are very blessed? And can you imagine what it is like to suffer?
Like family, all living beings in this world are interrelated and interconnected.
This is what we all must understand. The Buddha described the world as a big house.
No matter where you are in the world, we all live under the same sky and on top of the same piece of land.
So, the Earth is home to all living beings, and the Buddha describes it as a big house.
Now, parts of this house are being affected by major disasters.
These disasters may be far from where we are, but if we think about the world as one big house, when one corner of this house is on fire, can we still feel safe and at ease and not be affected by it?
In fact, such large disasters are due to living beings’ collective bad karma.
What we see in the footage is Russia where wildfires have been burning since late July, and are still continuing to break out every day.
Apart from the heat wave and dry conditions, officials have found that many of the fires were actually caused by humans.
One of the culprits is smoldering cigarette butts thrown away by smokers. As small as they are, cigarette butts can easily ignite fires when discarded carelessly.
Just think, one third of the fires are due to heat while the remaining two thirds have been caused by man.
See how the people there are like being surrounded by walls of fire as the weather is so hot and the nearby forests are on fire.
A resident in Moscow said:
“It’s indeed very serious, especial in the mornings. I can’t even open the windows as the smoke will keep blowing in from the doors and windows.”
Another resident,Ru-DiMa said:
“I feel very bag every day. It’s almost impossible to go out. I can smell the smoke even when I’m asleep.”
Apart from forest fires, what’s even more difficult to control are peat fires that smolder underground and spread quickly.
Doesn’t the Ksitigarbha Sutra speak of hell surrounded by iron walls?
That’s how Russia is being surrounded by fires now, not only are there forest fires, but the peat is also smoldering underground.
We can imagine how hard it is for the many people whose lives have been affected by this, especially those living in Moscow.
My heart truly goes out to them.
However, everything happens for a reason.
Russia is known to be the third largest polluter of planet-warming gases in the world, yet during the Copenhagen climate summit last year, Russia said they would not curb their development in order to limit carbon emissions.
To them, warmer temperatures could be a good thing.
As Russia is usually very cold all year round, they believed that warmer temperatures would be more beneficial for their agriculture.
They had such a thought because they had never experience the suffering caused by such severe heat wave before.
In pursuing development for their country, they have been producing so much carbon emissions without being aware of its serious consequences, and were even happy to see warmer temperatures.
Now, with the heat wave and forest fires that they are experiencing, what are they to do? I truly feel for them.
We also see that Pakistan has been devastated by severe floods for more than a week now, which is indeed heartrending to see.
Up till now, more than 1,500 lives have been lost and some 3.2 million people have been affected with many losing their homes.
Many of the affected are in dire need of food and supplies. What unspeakable suffering it is.
A few days ago, I saw on Da Ai News, how people scrambled to get the aid supplies.
Out of hunger, they pushed and shoved one another, fearing that they would not receive the supplies.
But all they hoped was to get something to eat and quell their hunger.
To control the chaotic situation, the police began swinging their batons at the crowd and beating them down.
It truly breaks my heart to see that.
A survivor in Pakistan said:
“I’ve lost everything to the flood. I never thought this would happen to us.”
Another survivor said:
“I lost my son to the flood. The government hasn’t shown any concern or tried to provide shelter for us.”
Another survivor said:
”My house has been completely destroyed. I have no place to go but to live on the street.”
We see them walking along carrying rolls of plastic sheets, not knowing where to go or what to do.
See, although these disasters seem to be very far away from us, we must still be vigilant, prudent, humble and pious. We really must carefully reflect upon our words and deeds.
For such a long period of time, how have we been living our lives?
Everyone, seeing how others suffer, we must realize how blessed we are.
And seeing all these disasters, we’re remember of the disaster brought by Typhoon Morakot last August.
As it will be one year since Morakot hit Taiwan, there have been many reports about the disaster.
Compared to the disaster survivors we saw earlier, Morakot survivors in Taiwan are much more blessed.
In this year, the government has given its full support to those affected.
Most importantly, many people in Taiwan mobilized to do whatever they could to help the survivors settle down both physically and emotionally.
Such is the love and goodness we’ve witnessed in the people of Taiwan.
Since the disaster, Tzu Chi has so far built nearly 1,000 permanent houses for the survivors.
When designing the house, we took everything into consideration.
For example, in front of the every house, there is a yard for people to grow plants and landscape it to their liking.
Indeed, no mater how big a house is, true blessings come form knowing to be content.
See, in less than one year, many Morakot survivors have moved into the permanent houses built by Tzu Chi, as well as World Vision, Red Cross, Fo Guang Shan, Dharma Drum Mountain, and many other charity groups.
A few days ago, Taiwan’s Ministry of Interior awarded over 250 religious groups of the charity work they have done in Taiwan.
Everyone, Taiwan’s greatest treasure is the kindness and love of its people.
We must cherish what we have and count our blessings.
We must also encourage one another to do good and praise others for their good deeds.
Apart from that, we must take action to do good.
Only then are we leading a life of wisdom, creating blessings for our society, and helping to quell disasters around the world.
All in all, life is indeed filled with much suffering. May everyone reflect and learn from our past experiences, and live each day with prudence and humble piety.
(Source: Da Ai TV 人間菩提)
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