20180106盡心拔苦長慧命Growing in Wisdom-Life through Devoting Our Life to Serving Others
No matter where Tzu Chi volunteers go, they would inspire the locals to join Tzu Chi; once there is a local Tzu Chi volunteer, he or she is able to recruit more people to carry out Tzu Chi’s mission and help people in need.
We have heard and seen many stories like this, and it takes aspiration for people to take up the responsibility of helping people in need.
No matter which country it is, as long as there are local Tzu Chi volunteers, people in hardship needing help would be able to receive help from many Tzu Chi volunteers. I am truly touched by this.
To achieve this, we need people with aspiration to come forth and take up the responsibility. If we do this at any place or time, people will have good interactions and their power of love can be widespread.
In Malaysia, we see a group of students. Tzu Chi volunteers have been helping this group of students who are Rohingya refugees to receive education. Due to the refugee crisis, they fled with their parents to Malaysia.
We also see children in Mozambique. Since they were born, they’ve lived in hardship. In Taiwan, children live a life of material abundance. Living in this world in this era, children in different countries live in different environments and have completely different lives.
However, we see that children in hardship have good karmic affinities to encounter Tzu Chi volunteers. The people receiving aid from Tzu Chi have karmic affinity with Tzu Chi. Thus, they have the chance of receiving help.
It’s the same with those children. Because our volunteers learned of their situation, Tzu Chi has a chance to help them. Whether they are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia or in Mozambique, when we see these children living in hardship, we help them, and plant Tzu Chi’s seeds of love in their hearts.
In Taiwan, people give with their power of love regardless of age. We see on footage, people in old age still contribute themselves to serving others. We have a good example here, this nurse is over 70.
Take myself for example, I am also getting old. I took my retirement at 60, but I wasn’t really retired. I’ve been keeping the elderly in company, and giving them general medical care.
The more I accompany the elderly, the more I enjoy being with them, and come to realize what the elderly need is love and care. In the countryside, young people have to seek jobs somewhere else and their children and aging parents behind.
In our community, we would try to invite the elderly to come and interact with us as much as possible, even for just a little while, thirty minutes will do. We encourage them to establish this routine. The goal is to prevent them from getting ill. Being ill and confined to bed is the saddest thing.
She retired at 60 years old, and has been a public health nurse ever since. She’s very energetic in leading activities with the elderly, and does an excellent job. She’s agile and her mind is sharp. There are many elderly who actively volunteer with Tzu Chi.
We’ve got to seize time to serve!
Or others will snatch up that opportunity from us.
Even when you’ve lived to be my age, like me, I gotta keep on moving, if we want to serve, we have to get on with it. This is what I think about life; do more good deeds, don’t do bad deeds, That’s it.
Do you feel like you’re over 80?
Nah, not really, I’ll do anything you put me to; I can do it.
Several years ago, in Taoyuan, a commissioner in her 80s told me, “Master, I’ll be serving as a team leader!”
Everyone sees you as a role model, so, if you request, they’ll come help you.
Yes, everyone has vowed to be my left and right hands.
Good. Then, that means you’ll have a thousand hands. They’ll all be your left and right hands. You’ll have a thousand hands.
Everyone says they’ll be my helpers.
Best wishes to you.
Thank you, Master.
I was at the Jing Si Hall in Taoyuan. At that time, her team happened to serve as culinary volunteers. She also prepared the food with other culinary volunteers. After lunch, she came to see me. She said, “Master, after I finished preparing the lunch, I went out and collected three carts of recyclables.”
Such is the life value of our elderly volunteers.
They value their life so they don’t waste it. They make use of themselves and grow in wisdom-life. They make good use of their time and life to carry out Tzu Chi’s missions everyday and grow in wisdom-life.
This is how they nurture their wisdom. They are grateful for having the time and good health to accomplish Tzu Chi’s missions. Through volunteering, they grow in wisdom.
This is how we accumulate karma. In doing good, we accumulate good karma in our eight consciousness. When we pass away, we take nothing with us except the karma we’ve created to our future lives.
What happens to us in this life is the result of the karma we’ve created in our past lives. Therefore, we must cherish our life now and try to create a better future.
Though the past is already in the past, we ought to be grateful it. Be grateful to the past for the karmic affinities we have now and make the best use of them in this life. We should live our life to the fullest so we can grow in wisdom-life for future lives.
On my previous tour, I saw an 80-year-old volunteer in Taipei. He spends almost all of his time serving as a hospital volunteer or a recycling volunteer. He doesn’t take a day off; he also participates in home visits. He will be serving as a Xieli team leader.
All in all, we can grow in age, but let us not give in to old age. Don’t let people say that the elderly are problem to society. The elderly are not a problem! They are less of a problem than youngsters.
All in all, as we are becoming advanced in age, we ought to show people that we still can contribute a lot. So, we need to take good care of our health, and keep our mind sharp, while maintaining our energy and stamina. Keep on volunteering! Thank you.
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