20191220有進不退真實行 Walking the Bodhisattva Path with a Sense of Responsibility
Master asks us to have unity, be content, understanding, tolerant, grateful, and know what it means to be gentle and tolerant. Master asks us to have harmony, put on our smiles, the Tzu Chi facial cream, and bear in mind the Buddha’s heart, Master’s vows.
Master asks us to have mutual love, act out the spirit of Great Love and lasting compassion, loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and giving. Master asks us to have concerted effort, know that there’s no one I can’t love, forget, or trust; work together to help the poor and teach the rich. With the structure of volunteer’s communities, we will obtain both our Dharma lineage and Path.
To come together in unity, harmony, mutual love and concerted effort is a common goal of ours; we are of one heart and have the same mission. Our aspiration and sense of mission must be firm, because the direction we have chosen is a correct one. We have all been learning from the Buddha; we learn the Dharma and understand life’s principles.
Because we know life’s principles, and we are clear about them, we shoulder responsibility of serving willingly. The volunteers sitting in the audience now are indeed those who are willing to shoulder such responsibility. We call that “serving willingly,” and those who are brave to take on the tasks will not be put off by challenges because they have a sense of responsibility.
Some might think, “Ah, there are many difficult tasks, if I can just be a ‘happy volunteer’ I will just volunteer sporadically, I serve when I’m happy and I don’t when I’m not.” This is called a “happy” volunteer, those who serve when they feel like serving.
But, who will shoulder the responsibility then? If we are willing to take up the responsibility, there is hope for Tzu Chi. Or else, if it’s just talking about “Tzu Chi”, “Tzu Chi” is just a noun, without any actual strength. I speak of Tzu Chi, which means compassionate relief; as you willingly take up the responsibility, and do the good deeds, we can truly benefit the world. If you are not willing to serve, and did not help to benefit the world, “Tzu Chi” is just a noun without meaning.
Therefore, I am grateful to you. Without you who truly and willingly serve, there will not be the strength of Tzu Chi. So, it is I who want to express my gratitude to everyone. On the other hand, I understand why you have gratitude for me, because I have come to know to goodness of the Dharma, and share it with people, so they know what our world is about, what is the value of us coming to this life, and what can we do to benefit society.
How do we apply the Dharma and in what ways? Such is what I have realized, that the Dharma ought to be applied to the world, and it takes strength to apply it. I see all of you walking and serving on the Bodhisattva Path, and everyone is so diligent, while working together in unity, harmony,
I truly praised you, and feel deeply moved. I look forward to Tzu Chi volunteers around the world to come and see the deeds of Tzu Chi volunteers in Kaohsiung. They can listen to these deeds, learn about it, talk about it, see it, and then do it.
After people have learned it, and can practice it, they can share their experience and insights about it. Of course, in this era, in this time period, shouldering responsibility is difficult. In nurturing volunteer leaders, we give volunteers the chance to gain leadership experience. Without shouldering the responsibility and going through the experience, we will not know a person’s capacity. So, we let volunteers try it.
For example, if I’m carrying a load that is 48 kg. I ask another person to carry this load and see if he can do it. If this person can carry it easily, more weight can be added, such as adding another 1.2kg, 2.4kg, 3.6kg, or 7.2kg. All in all, we keep on adding weight to it. If the load becomes too heavy, he will say, “This load is too heavy for me. It needs to be shared to other people. He then shares the load to other people.
This is how we keep passing on the responsibilities. It is not the case that, after we give the load to other people, our baskets become empty. Carrying two empty baskets is meaningless. With the baskets empty, they will shake as we walk with a carrying pole. Carrying empty baskets is of no use. What we should do is keeping some of the load while sharing some with other people.
“Let me share some of my load with you so you can be like yeast. Like yeast, you can grow further” By keep passing on the responsibilities, our seeds of goodness will be sown all over the field of blessings. We need to keep on sowing the seeds of goodness in the field of blessings. One lifetime is not enough. We need to make the vow to expand our field of blessings in future lives and that we will have a bigger field of blessings with more fertile land.
With a better land, the more seeds we sow, the bigger our harvest is. We will always be on the Bodhisattva Path life after life. As living bodhisattva, when we have formed good affinities with countless living beings, we’ll be close to attaining Buddhahood. The treasures will be near. We are now in the magic city.
That’s right. That’s how we cultivate ourselves. Even if we know we’ve in the magic city, and we are learning the Dharma now, how do we know what is real and what is not? When we put the Dharma in action, we’ll know. After we’ve done good deeds, have we benefited people? “I’ve helped and benefited people. Hs is saved, and I feel Dharma joy.” This is the feeling we get. This is our spiritual gain.
Otherwise, some would ask, “Master, what would gain in helping people? It’s not the future yet.” When you are in your future lives, you would not remember this life. So, I want you to know the principle. Now that you’re learning the Dharma and giving of yourselves, do you feel what you do is meaningful? Do you? Yes. If you do, you’ve received spiritual gain. If you don’t, you let your life pass by emptily. When we serve, we add history to our life. And this added history is meaningful. And this added history is meaningful.
And this added history is meaningful. We need to establish a household registration for living bodhisattvas. Do we have a large family with descendants from each generation counting the line of this large family? If you do, this is like Tzu Chi in Kaohsiung which keeps on adding new volunteers. Tzu Chi in Kaohsiung is growing and flourishing. This shows that volunteers in Kaohsiung aer very solid in Tzu Chi’s work.
So, we need to continue to pave the right path and broaden it. This is the right thing to do. This is creating a field of blessings in the world and creating a broad path for living bodhisattvas. Do you understand this? Yes. Good. I’m very happy.
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