20180824人中貴人長慧命Growing Wisdom-Life by Helping Others
The recycling station at Bade of Zhongshan District is full of treasures in terms of people and things. Commissioners and Tzu Cheng members there are very senior and have a lot of experience. Since they were in their middle-age, they have followed my steps.
From the time I started building the hospital and inspired people to join Tzu Chi, they have participated and accomplished the tasks in every aspect. Even now, they are still sharing their experiences and recruiting donation members.
Many are in their old age now. Even though they’ve never stopped volunteering, they feel old sometimes. Since I set up the “age treasury”, everyone feels young again, as if they were in their prime. Look at them, they are in their thirties. Because they’ve deposited 50 years in the age treasury, they are now in their thirties, and some are over forty.
They are firm in walking the Bodhisattva Path and volunteering for Tzu Chi still paving the path, and doing recycling. They are Tzu Chi’s treasures; many of our senior volunteers live in the Bade area.
We also see the treasure of “things” there, including antique items, household furnishings, and other items. We have a very nice space. Arranging these things nicely is also a way to teach people to cherish the past, so people know that our ancestors lived this way.
We also saw big and small antique reproductions. Every item was looked after by our volunteers attentively with love. I saw a group of Tzu Chengs there. Among them was Mr. Yang, who knows all the stories behind every item. He could tell us how long ago a piece arrived there, and he would polish it slowly and carefully.
He polished them one by one, and arranged them for display. Now they are like collections in a museum. Volunteers take great care of them and meticulously have them catalogued. Reproductions or not, we regard them as antiques. This is how we treat them. When people donate these things to us, they trust us to take care of them, so we should always treasure them.
So, Tzu Chi volunteers, everything is valuable. And we handle everything with selfless love. We do not think, “This is beautiful, I will take this home and keep it there.” Tzu Chi volunteers have sincerity, integrity, good faith, and honesty. So, people trust us with the items they have donated. We accept them and cherish them. This is the treasure of “things”.
Other than the treasure of people and things, what brings me joy the most is volunteers’ enlightened love. Because of this love, these volunteers accompany and love one another. They work closely and well together with enlightened love. This path is filled with love. It is heartwarming to see them accompany one another.
It’s good that Tzu Chi helps volunteers reach out to the world and broaden their views to embrace everyone as their family member and view the young as their children and the old as their elders. We respect the elders and love the young. The value of our life has expanded.
By joining Tzu Chi, we learn to help people. The meaning of our life has been brought to a new horizon.
My heart is a heart of gratitude. I’m truly grateful to you. I work hard and am diligent in spiritual cultivation. Oh, dear Master, we thank you for your kindness, thousands of times.
Thank you. Everyone said, “thank you, Master,” but if we change the word order a bit, it becomes, “Master thanks you.” I thank my disciples thousands of times because everyone dedicates their time and life. Everyone safeguards their wisdom-life. As time passes by, volunteers who were once young and beautiful have now become solemn volunteers.
The Buddha taught is that our body undergoes the four stages of birth, aging illness, and death. It is the law of nature, just as all material objects in the world inevitably go through forming, abiding, decaying, and annihilation. Our thoughts constantly arise, abide, change, and disappear. These laws of nature are permanent.
Even the most advanced science and technology cannot keep us young or live forever. As the Buddha has said, this is the karmic law of cause and effect. All things are connected and the cycles keep on going.
So, our life is very valuable. We should make our life worthwhile. We can inspire others to join Tzu Chi and relieve the suffering of others. With a heart of compassion, Tzu Chi volunteers have been walking the Bodhisattva Path with determined steps.
Recently I have often mentioned about passing on Tzu Chi’s spirit and values, which we see in the senior volunteers in Tzu Chi’s early days. They introduced Tzu Chi to people they come across and inspired them to join Tzu Chi. All of the cells in their body are Tzu Chi cells. If volunteers now can emulate the spirit of the volunteers in the early days, the world will be purified very shortly.
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