20180726齊心圓志續因緣Recounting Tzu Chi's Humble Beginnings and Persisting in the Good Cause
Looking back on the past half a century and more (after the founding of Tzu Chi, ) we see that some Tzu Chi volunteers have been serving for more than 40 years. Back then, they shared the same understanding, and without attachments in their hearts, they vowed to carry out Tzu Chi's work even though they were financially strained.
These senior Tzu Chi volunteers began to give with great loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, and took action to carry out our work. And while they do so with great loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, they have no regrets, complaints, worries, or expectation of reciprocity.
As they've been inspired to give with loving-kindness, they'll always give without any regrets. And as they've aspired to give of themselves to relieve suffering, they'll always dedicate themselves willingly. Such is how our Tzu Chi volunteers have een serving as living bodhisattvas for decades.
Tzu Chi began with scarce resources. (For example, )the home of our volunteer, Jing Ming, which was a small apartment in Sanchong, was the only place where I could lodge whenever I visited Taipei early on. Jing Ming ceaselessly shared Tzu Chi with others and inspired more and more people to join us. To begin with, three ladies joined us and they were nicknamed "the three sisters. " Later, they inspired many of their friends to become Tzu chi volunteers, too.
At the time, I gave rise to the thought of building a hospital in Hualien and (our volunteers all gave me full support) in working towards this goal. Mr. Zheng offered his apartment (on Jinan Road), which was a little larger than Jing Ming's, as the site for Tzu Chi's office in Taipei.
Every time when we held a meeting for the construction of our hospital in Hualien, Dr. Tseng, Dr. Tu, Asst. Supt. Wang of Cathay General Hospital, and Mr. Kao, the architect, would take part. When I visited Taipei, they'd come to our office after they got off work and we'd discuss the blueprint for our hospital in Hualien. They would come around six p.m. and would not go home until they'd finished the meeting around midnight.
With a look into Tzu Chi's history, we see that after we set up our office in Taipei on Jinan Road, Mr. Lee became our volunteer and offered his place on Jilin Road as the site for me to expound Buddhist sutras in Taipei. His place could hold hundreds of people, but when I gave Dharma talks, some even had to sit on stairs and listen to my talks via the speaker.
Everything happens for a reason. Thanks to the help and support of these volunteers of ours, (many people were inspired to join us, one after another.) Also our volunteers truly worked very hard to guide and inspire others back then. Before we held the first fundraising event for our hospital in Hualien, I received a gold ingot which weghed one liang (about 37.5 g). The story behind is truly very touching.
The lady who donated the gold ingot helped our volunteer, Chen Mey-yu, clean her place. To provide for her family, she had to do cleaning work for eight or nine families every day. While cleaning Mei-yu's place, she'd hear the talks between Mei-yu and our commissioner, Mrs. Fang. Sometimes, Mei-yu and Mrs. Fang would have talks after returning from visits to our aid or care recipients. While doing cleaning work, the lady learned that I wished to build a hospital in Hualien and she was deeply moved.
Upon learning that we'd hold a fundraising event for the construction of the hospital, she collected all the gold jewels at home, congratulate on her daughter's birth, those to be used as her daughter's dowry, those in her possession, and so on. Then, she took all of them to jewelry store and had them weighed. As they altogether weighed less than one liang, she even added some cash, asking the jeweler to make her a gold ingot weighing one liang. So, the gold ingot she donated was a matter of centimeters long and weighed exactly one liang.
As the gold ingot was very precious to her, she wrapped it up one layer upon another and took it to Mei-yu's place, saying that she was deeply moved and that although she couldn't donate much, she wished to do her part to help me build the hospital (by donating the gold ingot.)
Our volunteer, Jing En, happened to visit me and donated a check valued at about 100,000 US dollars. I told her, "This gold ingot is no less precious than the check you donated because it was donated by a lady who saved money from doing cleaning work for more than 20 years. I'm grateful to you, of course, but I'm even more grateful to her. The gold ingot and the check are the same (in that both can help the needy.) Upon hearing this, other volunteers understood why I said the gold ingot was no less precious.
In all, we need to pool everyone's love together. See how Tzu Chi began with scarce resources and has become what it is today thanks to our volunteers who work in unity with one heart. We could build large hospitals and large Jing Si Halls where we can gather together because our volunteers have mindfully been inspiring love in people and pooling everyone's love together. Even a brick, a sack of cement, or a steel bar was made possible thanks to them.
Our Tzu Chi members, including all of you here, have deep karmic affinities with me, so they've all vowed to carry out Tzu Chi's work. They're all living bodhisattvas who give with love and work in unity with one heart to help with the construction of the facilities for Tzu Chi's four missions. And when carrying out our missions, they all support and care for one another with love.
May we all pass on our Jing Si Dharma lineage to people of future generations and work with them to keep carrying out our work. We need to persist on our work and continue our good karmic affinities with Tzu Chi and other people by walking on the path with firm conviction. I'm truly grateful to our Tzu Chi members for mindfully giving with love.
There is so much to share and be grateful for when looking back at our history of love for half a century. May we all continue to inspire people to give with love forever and ever.
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