20180404祈求平安需調心Cleansing the Mind to Clean the Environment
Thinking of the many disasters in the world, I feel great concern and I am worried every day. Indeed, Nature's elements have become imbalanced, so there are many erratic weather patterns and disasters in the world. And as a result of people's imbalanced minds, there are also many manmade disasters. So, every day, I truly feel deeply concerned.
Nowadays, when a downpour strikes, flooding often comes in a very short time. (Although downpours are responsible for floods, ) clogged ditches and rivers are also to blame for frequent flooding. For the past few decades, garbage has remained a problem. The public awareness of environmental protection has yet to improve.
Everybody knows that climate change results from the rising global temperatures, and that the rising global temperatures are mainly caused by poor environmental protection. Although we all all know that air pollution brings about global warming, many countries in the world still strive to gain profits through industrial development. Since profitability is still prioritized, relevant measures are seldom taken.
This is why I often say that if we only share an understanding but don't take action collectively, we'll remain subject to the consequences of our collective negative karma. What can we do? Just leave the problem as it is? We need to purify people's minds, which is the only solution. I remind you of that almost every day. And to purify people's minds, we mustn't only do it with words. rather, we must take action.
If you listen to my Dharma talks every morning, you'll know that I often say that we need to purify people's minds, and to meet this goal, we truly must take action. We must also recycle to care for the Earth. I'm very grateful to our recycling volunteers as they all take action to recycle. And as we can dedicate ourselves to recycling, we must do ti by going all out.
We collect recyclables not for the sake of selling them for proceeds. What is most important in promoting recycling is to teach people the correct concepts. By promoting recycling, we wish to teach every household how to cherish resources and live a simpler life.
We also must do all we can to encourage everyone to drink boiled water in stead of mineral water. Boiled water is supposed to be even safer than mineral water because oftentimes, we are no informed of the sources of mineral water. If we boil tap water at home, we can make sure the water is sterilized and is thus safest to drink.
Nowadays, water resources are not distributed evenly. See how some places are hit by extreme drought, while some suffer severe floods brought by heavy rains. When extreme drought strikes, it is difficult even to have a sip of water. So we truly must cherish water resources.
We also need to encourage everyone to rinse plastic bottles before recycling them. It's best if everyone can rinse and sort out their plastic bottles at home, as this is easy to do and requires no extra manpower. Contrarily, if people just toss them away so we have to collect them from garbage heaps and sort them out, this will cause poor hygiene. Moreover, after we sort them out, we need to use a lot of water to wash the dirt and filth off the bottles. Such is wasting water resources.
If we can spread the word and encourage everyone to drink boiled tap water, then there'll be no need to buy mineral water and plastic bottles can hence be reduced.
Also, whenever we have an opportunity to interact with the citizens, we must encourage them to prepare homemade lunches in the morning. In the past, people in Taiwan would pack lunch in metal lunch boxes for their children. If we can have breakfast at home and bring homemade lunches to work or school, we do not need to buy boxed lunches. Once we buy a boxed lunch and cannot finish it, it'll be very wasteful and the leftover food will also attract pests. So, we should share these ideas with others whenever we can.
In your evening activities to promote recycling, you can also share these ideas so people can learn more about how to care for the Earth, cherish water resources and maintain good hygiene. As you do so, you create boundless merits and also purify people's minds. To purify minds, we need to change our way of life first. This is what we can do every day. So, everyone, with mindfulness, nothing is unachievable.
We work to spread love all around the world. Wherever there is a disaster, Tzu Chi members mobilize to reach out. If we have local volunteers in the affected area, I'd feel more at ease. If there are no local volunteers, our volunteers in other countries would ned to travel there to do relief work, which is truly hard work, and I'd also be very worried about their safety.
How to safely offer relief is of my concern. I have the responsibility to ensure the safety of our volunteers, and I care very much about their safety. In all, serving as living bodhisattvas, we need to live out the Six Paramitas by findings ways to help and guide others. We need to practice giving, moral discipline, tolerance and forbearance, diligence, samadhi, and wisdom. By living out these six principles with perseverance, we show the power of love that Tzu Chi members share.
Also, I'd like to remind you that as we live in peace and safety, we must all the more be mindful and sincerely pious. With sincere piety and mindfulness, we can sow blessings in Taiwan and the world. Those who live in safety and peace should benefit others through giving regularly rather than helping out only when disaster strikes, for it'll be too late then. It is when we give in our daily life that we can truly sow blessings for the world.
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