20191209分秒精進願無窮Being Diligent Every Second to Carry Out Infinite Vows
In Los Angeles, Buddhism is able to make a very good contribution to society. This is truly remarkable. Being here, I want to thank Dharma Master Cheng Yen. When people need help, regardless of their religion, ethnicity, or where they are from, Tzu Chi Is there to help them.
Yesterday, we saw Tzu Chi USA celebrating its 30th anniversary. Looking back 30 years, memories of its development are vivid in my mind. Seeing the screen, a group of senior volunteers went on onstage to speak. Many religious leaders also attended the celebration. At Tzu Chi USA’s Headquarter in California, for the whole day, they had activities including a musical sign language presentation to celebrate the anniversary.
From the scene sent live from the celebration event, A Catholic priest also went onstage to speak. He talked about how Tzu Chi partnered with Catholic Church and worked together to help people in need, respecting peoples religions. People interacted with one another at the celebration. Guests from other religions, including a Dharma master, also participated and expressed their well wishes.
Our mission is to establish the school well and set a right direction for education. When the school was first established, Its main purpose was to solve the problems of employment and education for local young people and to transform their lives. Now, we hope to expand our goal. We hope to transform the life of disadvantaged students around the world.
We also saw the 30th anniversary celebration of Tzu Chi University of Science and Technology. It brings back many memories. People who helped create Tzu Chi’s history appeared one by one. We saw Dr. Yang Sze-Piao, the first president of the school. Thirty years have passed. He looks different now and is in a wheelchair.
Once a person starts to look old, he will then look older and older as he ages. When one’s aged look appears, other signs of aging well quickly emerge. However, after this year and the Chinese New Year, he will be in 101 years old. Life seems to go by so quickly. When I first saw him over 30 years ago......
To set up a nursing school on the east is not such an easy thing. Where could we find the faculties? So, when we heard for the first time that Prof. Yang Sze-Piao was to be the president, no one believed it. Prof. Yang Sze-Piao Headed retired as the thing off the College of Medicine at National Taiwan University; He was also the superintendent of the National Taiwan University Hospital.
For him to come and serve as a president of a private nursing school, People wouldn’t laugh their heads off. However, that was his will to support Tzu Chi back then, so talking about it now, that was truly admirable. I also heard Dr. Kuo Hann-chorng said when he heard Prof. Yang Sze-Piao was coming to Hualien to be a nursing school president, he said, people would laugh their heads off.
How could that be! That was Prof. Yang’s fearlessness; he was willing to let go of being a professor at the National Taiwan University, and came to Hualien to help me. Maybe it’s affinity; I retired from NTU, came to east Taiwan, and never stopped doing Tzu Chi work. As I keep doing this, I get a sense of mission. Why have you kept supporting Tzu Chi? Is it because you are moved? I am moved, by Master.
Starting with building the hospital and establishing the school, he has been a part of it and has continued being so; there is this sentiment. He has been keeping the practice that, when he is here, he reads patients’ x-rays because he is a specialist of lung diseases. He told me once, Master, please don’t tell me that I have to retire!
Indeed, in life, let us not retire from serving. I also will not retire and will serve to my last breath; this is the value of life, I sense that, this is how he is; yesterday, he looked healthy and strong aside from needing to use a wheelchair; These are all a course of life.
All in all, with the law of nature, the climate changes; our bodies go through changes as we age. Look at how he looked in the past and now, and the same thing goes for me, too, as I watch Da Ai TV re-running the Introduction Chapter of the Lotus Sutra, I would think, wow, I looked so young back then! That was 10 years ago; now I look different.
Our look at changes as time goes by; It is a law of nature that our appearance do change. As time goes by each day, our life also diminishes. Take the day for example, which reflects nature’s four seasons.
I give my morning Dharma talks in the morning and experience the four seasons. Every day, around 4 AM and 5 AM, I come out and walk to the Buddha Hall. During spring time, as I walk, I could see the sun about to appear above the sea. Although it is still dark, the dawn has almost broken.
By the time I finish the morning Dharma talk and step out of the hall, the sun has risen. It is so bright that it dazzles my eyes. In the summer, before I enter the hall, The sun is already above the sea, and its color is really red. It is truly beautiful, and the sunlight is not so blinding. By the time I finish the talk and come out, the sun has moved and I can see the shadow of the building in front of me.
The views are all different in the morning, at noon, and towards the evening; the views also very in spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Indeed, we are the same; in life we may go through stages of childhood, young adulthood, middle age, and old age; we live our lives second by second. It’s truly important to seize each second in life.
No matter what, I cherish my life even more now. I cannot speak with a loud voice; I cannot walk steadily; So that I can walk the steadily, step-by-step. All in all, we must be diligent and make the best of our lives until we take the last breath. Such is the value of our lives as humans.
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