20130901《人間菩提》圓滿法會‧災後關懷Seventh Lunar Month: Sutra Adaptations Purify Hearts
Yesterday, in our Hualien Jing Si Hall, Sun Tsui-feng’s Taiwanese opera troupe presented a Buddhist story with a heart of sincerity and piety. The story they presented about Buddha inspiring hunters to give up hunting is a story I had spoken on before, but after they adapted it to the stage, it became even more rich and interesting. We saw a very young child onstage who though so young, could still sing and perform the part so well. That’s not easy.
This small child was born with such natural talent and in the role, displayed such innocence and kindness of heart. When his father caught a mother rabbit, he wondered what will happen to the children rabbits and imagined it’d be just like if his own mother were gone. He was able to feel for the rabbit.
The aim of this story is to help us all learn to respect life. A young child has such a pure heart and innate goodness. In fact, we are all born with the virtue of wishing to protect life and we all have such a pure and kind innate nature.
Apart from the Taiwanese opera presentation, we could also see how our local volunteers, teachers, students, and the staff of Tzu Chi’ missions all participated in this event. They presented a short program about animals being killed by hunters and the pain and suffering animals go through. The program alerted the audience to the cruelty in killing animals.
In the seventh lunar month, we’ve held a total of 12 stage presentations. The first presentation started in Taichung with Sun Tsui-feng’s Taiwanese opera troupe. Tzu Chi volunteers and community residents were very happy. They were very moved by the presentations and came to appreciate how the Buddhist teachings are in fact so connected to life in the world and can be brought to people in such a way that suits the public and purifies people’s hearts. The last of the presentations was again by Sun Tsui-feng’s Taiwanese opera troupe.
We see that they came to Hualien on Aug. 30, in the wake of a tropical storm, and started setting up the stage. Our staff at the Jing Si Hall also worked with them to set up the stage so that the presentation can manifest truth, goodness and beauty---truths are contained in the story, had all those involved dedicated themselves with a heart of piety, and the scenery and props had to be just right. Everyone was very mindful in doing it. There was also the lighting. Indeed, many staff and volunteers worked behind the scenes to set up the entire venue.
Our Dai Ai TV staff worked especially hard. For each of the 12 stage presentations during the seventh lunar month, from Taichung to Qingshui, Taoyuan, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Hualien, they had to go to all six locations to set up the venue. It really was hard work. For the lighting in each presentation---our Jing Si Halls are not equipped with such advanced stage lighting systems. But for the beauty of the program to be brought out, scenery, lighting and sound are all needed. Setting up all these required professionals. So, our Da Ai TV staff really worked very hard in this past one month to make the presentations possible.
Of course, for the opera troupes, all three: the ones led by Sun Tusi-feng, Hsu Ya-fen, and Tang Mei-yun were all truly mindful and prepared productions that educated people on life’s principles such as the law of karmic cause and effect. I am very grateful to all three opera troupes for being so sincere in presenting the Dharma as to abstain from meat the whole time. They did not treat it as a show. They were sincerely using their movements to bring the sutra teachings to life. what they did truly created boundless good.
With them abstaining from meat to convey the Dharma with their movements, these were not your typical Taiwanese opera shows. So we should watch it with a sense of respect. They are speaking the Dharma and passing on the teachings. I hope all these bodhisattvas involved in the three troupes can, because of it, draw closer to the Dharma and continue to use their stage to form wholesome affinities with living beings and guide them to learn the Dharma. This is my hope for them. Theirs is one method that can inspire people to learn the Dharma.
Indeed, we see such lives of peace and harmony where people are dedicating themselves to inspiring the good in people’s hearts and guiding people toward a state of peace and harmony. This is what bodhisattvas of our times are doing.
We also saw impermanence in life. A train ran into mudslide as it was approaching a tunnel in Fangshan, Pingtung County. The train was carrying around 250 passengers. Four carriages came off-track and people were injured. The train was stuck in the tunnel, unable to move. With it raining and with mudslides occurring, imagine how anxious the passengers were when they were stranded in the train for several hours. The injured were sent to Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taitung and the Taitung Christian Hospital, Tzu Chi volunteers also went to the hospitals to care for the injured people.
Life is truly impermanent. So, when we’re safe and well, we need to be grateful. Though Tropical Storm Kong-rey has passed Taiwan, its cloud system stretches over 4000 km. Some of the clouds are still covering Taiwan, so torrential rains will continue. Therefore, we have to continue to be prudent and humbly sincere.
Kong-rey was only a tropical storm, relatively weak in intensity, yet it caused such severe flooding in southwestern Taiwan. For the past few days, our volunteers have been working non-stop to assess the disaster areas and distribute aid to affected residents.
We also see that our Beijing Tzu Chi volunteers have started their winter aid preparation work. They already went to Laiyuan County to visit more impoverished mountain villages to survey people’s needs. These people are suffering many hardships. Think about it, how blessed we are.
We are surrounded by bodhisattvas and we all treat one another with love and care and continually give this love to people in need. So, we need to cherish our blessings at all times and furthermore be more vigilant and aware. We need to be even more committed and active in inspiring more people to become bodhisattvas.
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