20190617綿密鋪路造福緣Paving the Path Solidly to Create Blessings
Tzu Chi volunteers from nine countries and regions have gathered at one place. Despite living in different countries and places, they come together in Taiwan. They have the same aspiration, vow, and mission.
If this isn’t karmic affinity that brings us together, how else can we explain this? This is incredible. It is indeed a great karmic affinity. We must know that in order for us to have a spacious and spotless place for this retreat, the local volunteers in Taiwan have strived their best to prepare a cultivation ground for Tzu Chi volunteer from overseas to learn the Dharma together, understand, and hear the Dharma in person.
No matter where the volunteers are from or who share their experiences onstage, we have witnessed how they have transformed their lives. Volunteers are from different family backgrounds, their living environment and the way they see things might vary.
But, since they joined Tzu Chi, their lives have been transformed, which brings their family closer. We see that volunteers in their 80s are also doing charity work and recycling.
Tzu Chi volunteer Hsu Jung Chu, “This grandma is 82 this year. She still listens to Master’s morning Dharma talks.”
Tzu Chi volunteer Cheng Chin, “I attended last year’s retreat in Taiwan. After that, I started listening to Master’s morning Dharma talks for one year now. I’ve taken notes and I’m on my third notebook. I’ve kept up with note-taking, and I feel like I’m on the kindergarten level. I am so happy that I’m learning the Dharma.”
Volunteer Tan Kua Chi, “I am Tan Kua Chui. I am only 32 years old. I’ve listened to Master’s Dharma talks for about one year. Thus, I learn to be grateful, embracing, and to love others.”
He heard me say, “Remember to deposit 50 years of your age.” So he said, “I am only 32.” Indeed, his age is 82. The difference between 80 and 30 is not significant in terms of wisdom-life, because it’s eternal.
When I came in, I saw a little boy, Boqian, his heart of love is the same as ours. He can recite Tzu Chi’s four missions, and he has made vows. He follows the relief efforts in Africa closely; one event after another, he goes onstage to introduce and raise fund for our relief effort.
A child of 5 or 6 years old, he has wisdom that is the same as the wisdom we adults are using now. There is a TIMA member in Taipei who is 103 years old this year; he is still serving as a doctor.
This shows that a loving heart can be found in the young and the old; there is no age limit. No matter how old we are, let us seize the time we have. By inviting our whole family to join us, we can volunteer in our local community; people of our community will work towards one goal and our community will become more harmonious.
This year, I have given you a couplet, do you know it? Nurture a love for life, be grateful, and respect one another; foster the spirit of harmony, prevent conflicts, and create blessings together.
Indeed, let us nurture a love for life, be grateful, and respect one another. When we see people and tell them, “I’m grateful, I’m grateful to you.” It sounds like we are familiar with each other.
And, when we talk about respect, being respectful is a little harder than being grateful. Oftentimes I would hear volunteers say, “When I first heard about Tzu Chi, I was happy, I was very hopeful that, I’d be quite at ease to volunteer with Tzu Chi. But, I faced many obstacles after I began.”
Tzu Chi volunteer Liu Yi Yun, “Doing Tzu Chi’s work in our country, we would face obstacles too. We need to know more about so that when we go home, we’ll work harder. This way, we understand why people volunteer with Tzu Chi.”
Tzu Chi volunteers and kindhearted people are all living bodhisattvas, as we are devoted to volunteering with Tzu Chi very mindfully, and share our experience with people.
We hear what other people do and we share with them what we’ve done. We are sharing this path together. Paved smoothly, everyone can walk on this path; a small road become a broad Bodhisattva Path.
Creating and paving this path is what I have been mentioning to people recently; I need to talk about it more clearly. Fifty-three years ago, I’ve paved the path with the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.
The sutra shows us life’s principles, pointing to us the right path to walk on; the path was then paved with the teachings of the sutra. It started with a few housewives I agreed on one condition.
I said to them, “If you want to become my disciples, you have to do the things I want to do.” The three of them replied, “Master, whatever you say we will do it.” What did I ask them to do?
I asked them to save NT$0.50 every day. This started Tzu Chi’s coin bank program. Since then, Tzu Chi bas been in service for 53 years. Volunteers keep on spreading the idea of helping people by saving a small amount of money every day.
One person passes on this idea to another person, who then passes it on to another person. I am not the only one who does this. Those who know do this and the number of people doing this multiplies.
Gradually, I come to have disciples around the world from different countries who share my ideals. This is what I just talked about it’s all about karma affinities. When we have formed good affinities with people and cultivated the field of blessings, we’ll reap its fruits. We must believe in this.
Our life is the accumulation of time. If we had not done good deeds at every second, we would not have had such a solid, meaningful life. Few days ago, I told people that since I started Tzu Chi, my aspiration has never stopped, not even for a moment. This is my life.
My thought of relieving people’s suffering and the work to realizing it are accomplished through time. I want to tell Tzu Chi volunteers that since you are my disciples and are doing Tzu Chi’s work, to accomplish your Bodhisattva Path, you must seize and make the best use of your time.
Time will not give us extra seconds. Everyone must make vows to multiply the number of living bodhisattvas. We must believe that we have an inner-field in our heart and that if we keep on sowing the seeds of blessings in our inner-field, in our future lives, we will have good karmic affinities with people and we’ll be able to deliver people widely.
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