20130913人間菩提 ~民胞物與‧慎於防颱Protecting Our Trees
“It’s grown so tall. I’m very happy. When the tree was about to be chopped down, my son and I dug it out and replanted it here.”
“This is a beech tree. Over there is a Chinese pistache. Here are cassia and Taiwan white pine.”
“This is a nice spot. May you grow tall and strong.”
People can do harm to the environment but they can also protect it. Take trees for example. We all know that trees are beneficial to our environment and also help to better people’s lives because they provide us with fresh air, help to conserve soil, etc. Trees truly benefit people in many ways.
Not far away from our office in Taichung, there’s a big autumn maple tree. Every time I go to Taichung and pass by the tree, I can’t help but exclaim: “Wow! This autumn maple tree is so big and lush”. It is truly very big and has a dense canopy. Under the tree is a shrine. Many people often went there to pray and burn paper money.
During my trip in Taichung this July, I met with Mr. Ho, then-director-general of Urban Development Bureau in Taichung. He told me that he was very worried about the tree because a construction company was going to construct a tall building near the tree and many locals were worried that the construction would affect the tree. So, they wanted to protect it. Fortunately, things turned out well in the end. Learning of the locals concern, the construction company aborted the project.
To protect the tree, people at the 100 plus-year-old shrine under the tree even seated their furnace to stop the practice of burning paper money there. This is how sincere people are to protect the tree. Instead of burning paper money to pray for blessings for themselves, they sealed the furnace to protect the tree. And see how the construction company agreed to abort the project after the locals expressed their concern in a peaceful manner. Such a decision is truly sensible and wise.
In fact, after the 921 earthquake in Taiwan, we helped rebuild 51 schools, and for every school that we rebuilt, we were very mindful in designing buildings around trees in order to preserve them.
“There are many old trees here. When the school was rebuilt, we kept them all. Tzu Chi also paid much attention to constructing buildings around the trees”
“The mango trees are very old. There are also Formosan Ash and Mori’s Cleyera. They’re all very old trees. We wanted to keep them, and Tzu Chi did just that”
“To skirt around this Mori’s Cleyera, we constructed the building like this so that the tree can be right in the middle of the courtyard.”
See how mindfully we constructed the buildings so that trees would not be harmed. We did this, too, when we rebuilt schools in China.
In one school, there are two gingko trees. Although I have never visited the school, I studied the blueprint they showed me, so I know where the planned buildings and the trees are.
We strongly suggested to the school to keep the trees and not harm them in any way. We even modified the blueprint in order to keep the two ginkgo trees.
“To protect these two old ginkgo trees, we modified the blueprint many times I wouldn’t have done this in the past. I’ve learned that we must protect the environment. Our students also take good care of these two school trees.”
The autumn maple tree in Taichung I mentioned earlier is over 1,000 years old. For old trees like these, if everyone can mindfully protect them, they’ll become valuable assets of communities or landmark trees in schools. So, we should love, protect and value trees. This is how we can live in peace with Mother Nature and everything around us.
In life, we don’t know how long we can live as life is unpredictable. Trees can live for hundreds or even thousands of years to provide shade for people, but people can only live for a few decades. Compared to trees, people live a short life.
We have to leave this world when our time comes. So, we need to make good use of our lives with wisdom. When we are healthy and able, we should work to bring about harmony in society and live in peace with one another.
This is very important. To do that, we need wisdom. Without wisdom, we’ll give rise to many afflictions, desires and ignorance. When a few people are like that they’ll bring turmoil to society and affect the majority of people in a country.
Recently, I’ve been worrying about the people in the Philippines as the Muslims rebels are still in a standoff with government troops. So many people have taken refuge in temporary shelters and are in need of food and supplies.
Therefore, Tzu Chi volunteers have prepared food, supplies, etc. for the military to deliver them to the shelters. There are also people being held hostage by the rebels. Their families are very worried and we don’t know whether they can remain unharmed. All this is yet unknown.
Also, a tropical storm, Man-yi, has formed over the ocean. Even though it is not a typhoon and is expected to head toward Japan, we’re not sure where it will be moving as it is still very far away from Taiwan. So, we must heighten our vigilance and take precautions against the storm. It’s safer that way.
Last time, when Tropical Storm Kong-Rey passed by Taiwan, many people didn’t take it seriously and weren’t prepared.
But look at the severe flooding that the storm had caused in southern Taiwan. So, we must be vigilant and make the best preparations at all times.
首頁 