20191208共行宗門傳法脈 Bringing Out the Beauty that Highlights Our Life
I am grateful to Master for established Tzu Chi which helped me get through the toughest time in life. To repay Tzu Chi, I collected donations for Tzu Chi first, and the joined its recycling effort. As Master’s disciple, I vow that I will volunteer with Tzu Chi until I take my last breath and follow Master life after life.
A while ago, I took my dad to seek medical treatment in our Tzu Chi hospital. The doctor saw him and knew he is a Tzu Ch volunteers. He said to my dad, “We’ve been cared by you elderly volunteers. Now it’s our turn to take good care of you.” His words truly touched me. Last year, my mother had a fall and hurt her leg right here, and I saw many Tzu Chi volunteers kindly give their care and love to my mother. I was deeply touched by it, so I am here to vow that I am going to serve with Tzu Chi.
Seeing the family of the Tzu Chi commissioner and the Tzu Cheng share onstage, I felt that in life, we cannot be sure whether we can always stay healthy and safe; this would happen to me too. Despite not feeling well, I also made this tour. Every day, I experienced physical pain in my body, yet, I felt truly happy and was full of joy. I cannot see the road clearly, but I have a clear vision on the Path I took, which is to create the broad Bodhisattva Path in the world. I am clear about that.
Therefore, we should create a path that helps open our hearts so we know clearly about where our direction is. What we need to have is life’s truth, which is intangible and invisible. Does everyone understand and accept the Dharma I expound? Yes. That is good. I have seen notebooks of volunteers who wrote down what they learned in my Dharma talks.
By reading these notebooks, I can tell that each volunteer has been pious and neatly written each stroke of characters. The volunteers truly have the Dharma and have taken in to heart to write each stroke mindfully while taking notes. Every word and phrase of the Dharma, they listened to it, took it to heart, and remembered it.
How do you prove that you really remember it? How do you prove that you have taken in the Dharma and remembered it? Do you know? Practice it. Practice it. That’s right; listen to the Dharma and take it in, understand it, and practice it. Please know that, I have often said, when I expound the Dharma, I’m not describing something with great familiarity. I had into the sutra treasury, take all of the real treasures, and exhibit them outside of the treasury for you to see.
In the Lotus Sutra, there is a parable of the poor son; this person was a child of a wealthy family; when he was little, he was so focused on playing that one time he wandered off without knowing his way back. Being away from home, he lived a tough life. Ever since he went missing, his father began to look for him. This father kept looking for his son. Do you remember this story? Yes.
This is not a story, the Buddha felt that people sis not understand his teachings, so he had to teach people using parables. Within each one of us, there is an innate nature and everyone has it. It wasn’t given us by the Buddha, and it wasn’t given to us by God; each one of us has an innate Buddha nature. The Buddha taught with true Dharma, and did not claim credits for himself, he did not say “I am the one who gave you this.” He never said that. The Buddha nature is innate to all people; not only people, all living beings have it too.
When I was in Taipei, one day, I went over to our hospital, and saw that on the fifth floor of the hospital, there was a beautiful garden. I was strolling around, and saw a rock. Several turtles were sunbathing on the rock; they seem serene and at peace. One of the turtles, I didn’t know where it emerged, positioned itself to face where I was standing; its head was high up high, and I saw its eye’ they were so bright. Remember to turn; don’t lose your way.
The day, the turtle seemed familiar to me. We had a spiritual dialogue. Truly, the turtle warned us about karma. It needs to accept its karma for this life and cultivate now for a better future life. It had created negative karma in the past, and its retribution has manifested in this life. So, it need to accept the retribution willingly, repent in this life, and, moreover, cultivate a pure heart for future lives. So, we need to nurture a tranquil and pure heart.
Though there are a lot of problems and issues in this world, it is very peaceful and pure in Tzu Chi’s world. Everyone is happy and they want to do good deeds. When they do good deeds, they so do without asking anything in return and are grateful. Such is the spiritual world of Tzu Chi volunteers.
Everyone, how was the Tzu Chi world created and developed? It was through everyone’s power of love, accumulated little by little. Just like the knot of a bunch of rice dumplings, it was made by braiding many strings together. There are steps in braiding the strings. Just like we connect volunteers to our Dharma lineage with harmony, mutual love, and connected efforts. So, we must follow the Jing Si Dharma lineage diligently and walk the Tzu Chi Path in this world.
No matter how many years you’ve been volunteering with Tzu Chi, you’ve continued to serve all these years. Since we’ve been serving nonstop, we have woven something beautiful in our life. Though we have all aged, we have created something beautiful that highlights our life history.
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