20130915 醫療培育‧同體大悲Great Compassion and Love for All
To keep our world safe and well, people’s hearts first have to be in balance. If people’s hearts are not in balance, it will be hard for disasters to cease.
We see how people in Tzu Chi are mindfully working toward this. In Tzu Chi’s four missions, such as our hospitals, people not only fulfill their job duties, but give of their love to care for the whole world. In their medical profession, they also work hard to cultivate a sound medical system, motivated by love to truly safeguard the health and life of patients.
They do this by nurturing and strengthening the love and convictions of all staff, so they can find the capacity inside them to give of themselves with boundless love to relieve people’s suffering.
These two days, our Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital is holding a training program for new coming staff at our Tzu Chi Banqiao Complex where they hear from Tzu Chi volunteers where they hear from Tzu Chi volunteers about they are serving the community and learn about how as medical staff they can join Tzu Chi volunteers in the mission to give their love and protect the environment.
Through modern technology, without having to travel anywhere, we are able to see what happens around the world, which broadens our horizons and allows us to understand more about our world. As I said in this morning’s Dharma talk, the Buddha’s wisdom is vast as the sea, His heart and mind are in touch with the entire universe and all its workings.
So when considering our one little planet with such a capacity of wisdom and understanding, he can indeed discern the principles underlying life in this world. So, from the very beginning when he began teaching on these truths, he explained about the suffering in this world, the impermanence and transience of life on Earth and the many kinds of suffering people experience.
He explained the cause and way to end suffering, saying that we can eliminate suffering. Yet it is also we create the bad karma that results in disasters and crises which bring suffering to so many. So, from the very beginning, the Buddha wanted to guide us to understand this principle, so that we can wake up to our wrong ways, turn back from our wrong direction, and begin returning to our pure true nature.
In the news this morning, we saw that in Syria chemical weapons were used against its people. So, the U.N. has started a session for its member countries to voice their concerns. The United States had planned military strikes but Russia came forward to propose not using military force, but instead start diplomatic talks.
We saw that they reached an agreement today. Hopefully, this will bring peace. This agreement demands that Syria destroy all of its chemical stockpiles by next year, and not have any chemical weapons. If so, military strikes will not take place.
Indeed, Syria has truly been through a lot and there is destruction all over the country. Many of its citizens have become refugees in other countries living an extremely harsh life.
But we can also see the warmth of humanity. As winter is coming soon, Tzu chi volunteers in Fujian, China are already preparing for the winter distributions. See how the volunteers in Fujian visit our care recipients like children returning home to visit their elders, as if they are caring for their family members.
Bless you. So, having such a heart of compassion and love, we care for all, even strangers. See how these elderly people hug the Tzu Chi volunteers with such feeling of closeness and familiarity. This is truly warmth and kindness in life, which is also what Buddhism calls “enlightened love”.
They have awakened to people’s suffering and know the workings of karmic affinities. Because we have karmic affinities with them, we can reach these people and help them in person. But without the karmic affinities, even if we have love in our heart, we won’t have the chance to reach them. The care recipients have the favorable karma to encounter our Tzu Chi volunteers.
Our volunteers also have this karmic affinity with the care recipients for them to encounter one another. So, they cherish this karmic affinity very much. In Indonesia, we see people who are “the rich among the rich “, giving of themselves to help the poor. We see that staff of a business company participated in our relief distribution. What a heart full of gratitude and respect, they gave their love by carrying heavy bags of rice for women, children and the elderly.
At the distribution, they gently guided the recipients through the site, so the recipients can experience dignity in the distribution process. After giving them the rice, if the bag of rice was too heavy, our volunteers carried the bags of rice for them, while holding their hand. How heartwarming this is.
People responded very well to this rice distribution. Recipients could feel the care from business entities. Recipients could feel the care from business entities. As volunteers in this event, we also learned how to help others. This is really what we should encourage in the world. When people have such a loving heart, they won’t resort to violent actions that lead to destruction of society and families. With love, people can live together wonderfully in peace.
Look at our recycling volunteer Mr. Lin. He turned his pomelo orchard into a recycling station. Mr. Lin then took on the responsibility for this recycling station. He takes care of his fellow recycling volunteers like his own family and participates in the recycling work himself. A few years ago, he developed cancer, but he makes good use of his time to do recycling work. He has been doing this for many years. His spirit is truly admirable.
Doing recycling is like exercise if you tell me to rest, I can’t. I have to do recycling. It makes the days go by easier. My heart is all devoted to this recycling station. All in all, it’s not hard to do good deeds. As long as we have the will, we can do it. Such resilience he has comes from the love in his heart, which naturally gives him inner strength and indefatigable spirit.
See how he keeps on working. He gains a lot by this. If he stopped working, all his time would just go to waste. Thank goodness he likes to work and seizes every second of his time to contribute. It is very touching. So, we can still see love and warmth in this world. I hope we can inspire this spirit in more people and wisely spread this energy of love.
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