20200227靜心反思集福德Encouraging Goodness in All to Sow Blessings for Our World
Recently, I’ve been mentioning that in the face of the coronavirus break, we all need to calm and settle our minds. The authorities have been urging people not to hold or attend public events. We’ve also canceled many Tzu Chi’s events. To prevent infection, we must keep a safe distance from each other.
Yet, although we must keep a safe distance, we should bring our hearts close together and care for one another. We all need to protect ourselves from the virus and follow preventive measures. We should remain vigilant and sincerely pious and not be worried about the outbreak. As long as we follow preventive measures, we will not be infected.
Why is the epidemic spreading so quickly? Because of frequent interaction between people. Why do people interact so frequently? Partly because of tourism. With less travel, the outbreak would be less serious. In truth, when our minds are beautiful, we will see beauty in everything.
Let us open our minds so they can embrace the entire universe. In times of an epidemic, we truly need to draw our hearts close together, support and encourage one another, and call on everyone to go vegetarian. Vegetarianism is the only way to end the outbreak. We must calm and settle our minds, harbor sincere piety, and most importantly, adopt a vegetarian diet.
In eating vegetarian, we are creating merits. We must stop the killing of animals and abstain from eating meat. We must also urge everyone to go vegetarian so they will no longer create bad karma by eating meat. Led by ignorance, some people have been speaking ill words. So, we must eliminate our ignorance.
In all, we must work mindfully to create merits and sow blessings. For that, we must go vegetarian. Vegetarian meals can provide us with sufficient nutrients. We must also speak good words and call on everyone to practice vigilant prudence and go vegetarian in order to end the outbreak.
By speaking good words and eating vegetarian, we can sow more blessings. Only by sowing more blessings and eliminating our ignorance can we rid ourselves of karmic hindrances.
After a Buddhist chanting session, we always recite the verses of Dedication of Merits—-May we rid the Three Obstructions and all afflictions. May we attain wisdom and true understanding. May all eliminate their bad karma and walk the Bodhisattva Path life after life.
We must vow to eliminate our bad karma and afflictions. We must reduce our desire for meat. This way, greed will be less likely to arise in our minds. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, many public and events have been canceled. As we attend less activities and avoid getting together with a lot of people, now is the time for us to contemplate and reflect on our wrongdoings.
For example, have we ever offended others? Have we ever had conflicts with others and thereby given rise to afflictions? Have we been so deluded that we cannot penetrate the many true principles in life? Many people do not understand the life’s truths. Instead of taking the Dharma to heart, they disparage the Dharma and defame those who do goodness. Have we ever done that?
Think about what we eat everyday living. Have we consumed many animals and thereby created much bad karma? How much bad karma have we accumulated? We humans have also created much garbage, which has caused environmental pollution. The air has been polluted and many people’s minds have become imbalanced. The imbalance in people’s minds and the environmental pollution have brought about many disasters. So, we all share collective karma.
Due to all the bad karma we’ve created, Mother Nature is striking back against us. To mitigate disasters, there is no other way than to practice repentance with utmost sincere piety.
My name is Mak Kee Sung. I used to work in a restaurant. Back then, I slaughtered chickens, ducks and suckling pigs. I cut, cured, and roasted their meat. During the SARS outbreak, I stopped eating meat. Yet, I’d eat vegetables in meat dishes. Later, I became a strict vegetarian. After I joined Tzu Chi, I learned that a vegetarian diet is better than a meat one.
If We eat meat, we kill many animals. This is not right. I often recall how I’ve killed many animals for meat. When the animals faced death, they shrieked loudly in pain. It was really horrifying. I deeply repent for killing them. I have to pray. Otherwise I can’t sleep. Animals are sentient beings. When we are about to kill them, they know it and feel scared. We shouldn’t kill animals to satisfy our cravings. Let us go vegetarian to save the Earth. This way, we will also be at ease and at peace.
In all, we must understand the law of karma and vow without hesitation to adopt a vegetarian diet. It is not enough that only Tzu Chi members eat vegetarian. Everyone must go vegetarian. Please encourage all your family to go vegetarian. If we eat vegetarian, we will feel peaceful and at ease. Through a vegetarian diet, we can enjoy good health and bring peace and harmony to society. We will have peace of mind.
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