20210718守護生命守護愛Giving Great Love to Protect Lives
We are from the Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital. Today, all the people you see here are the department heads. They are very passionate, and they choose to come to serve at the frontline.
All the frontline medical workers have felt fear at one point or another, so people in the community must also feel it, too. We being here can calm the hearts of the people, and this is very important. It’s not enough to be in the hospital looking at the X-ray of a patient and think that his condition has improved. What we want to see is an x-ray that shows the community feels safe and calm. This is only possible when we go into the community.
Na matter you get a positive or a negative result, the best way is to stay at home; that’s helping the medical staff, can you do that for us?
I’m truly grateful for our medical mission. They protect people’s health and lives with love; this is indeed enlightened love. They are not afraid of the hard work in caring for each patient, even though this virus is highly contagious. Such is the enlightened love of doctors, not only do they care for the patients, they also education them. Though every step is difficult, they are not afraid.
Truly, this is protecting and safeguarding life as well as teaching others with what they do. At this time, with the grand lessons, the medical professionals are living bodhisattvas who shoulder a very big responsibility. With what they do, they protect people’s health on the one hand, and on the other, help people’s wisdom-life to grow.
They set their goals to be doctors, and they protect lives with Great Love, aren’t they noble? This is a very extraordinary spirit in life, and in Buddhism, we call it merits and virtues. At this pandemic, they use their lives and their thoughts to observe all the ways of life and analyze them.
This pandemic cannot be seen nor touched, but how it comes about must have its principles, which is eternal yet it cannot be seen nor touched. This tells us that, within nature, all lives are to coexist with others. Typically, we coexist peacefully, that is because nothing has gone against the flow of cycle within the law of nature. Hence, we coexist peacefully.
Once something has gone against the flow, or a tiny imbalance arises, an issue will appear. It is like a gigantic machine that has a speck of dust stuck somewhere; however big the machine is, there will be an issue. This is the same principle; in everyone’s body, we have tiny bacteria and germs. Once we disturb them, and they become active our life will be disrupted.
This is why I often say that life hinges on a breath. We don’t normally sense our breathing because we breathe so naturally. We are not aware that being alive depends on breathing. We are not aware that we’ve received many favors from our environment within the laws of nature, because things go smoothly. We are not aware of it because many things work harmoniously and smoothly.
Take eating for example. Our stomach is constantly digesting what we eat. One or two hours after eating, when food is put in front of us, we feel like eating again. Our stomach is like an endless pit. Such are humans. In the course of our lifetime, how many resources do we use? How much food do we consume?
In fact, however much we consume, the resources do not come easily. Yet, we take them for granted. It’s just like our breathing. Living in a clean environment and breathing without trouble every day without being aware of it, we forget to be grateful.
Once we have trouble breathing or we fall ill, we feel frightened. The pandemic is like this. Back in the Buddha’s time, the Buddha warned about pandemics happening, which are invisible and intangible. This is why, right now, I keep on talking about the grand lessons to remind and warn people. I hope that, because of the pandemic, people can be good and accept the teachings.
Indeed, when one falls ill, it’s not just the body functioning out of balance; the mind might also lose its bearings. This is what people nowadays say both mind and body are ill and out of balance. Such are ordinary beings; people all have illness, spiritually and physically. It’s just that their illnesses broke out differently.
So, this pandemic is warning us in a more extreme way. I hope that people can stay vigilant. Those who have medical knowledge are not only able to treat patients but also care for them. They should furthermore educate the public from the illness. This is called the grand lessons.
The principles are profound, but they are a part of our life all the time. So, we need to safeguard lives and give of our Great Love. To safeguard lives for everyone to be safe, the simplest and the most natural way is to have love. Give love naturally and may everyone give of their Great Love.
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