20130926施眾安樂起效應To Inspire More Good Actions
Yesterday, I brought up the earthquake in Pakistan. The sudden strong trembling of the earth registered a magnitude 7.7 on the Richter scale. So, it was a very strong earthquake.
As a result of the earthquake, a new island has formed, as we can see in the footage. Didn’t the Buddha describe this process of formation, continuation, decay and annihilation of all material things? Now that this island has formed, how long will it remain?
Perhaps with time, it will gradually deteriorate. Isn’t this what’s happening to the planet also, due to the damage from natural disasters, and even more seriously from manmade destruction?
With this accumulation of damage, the Earth is continually deteriorating. For how long can it continue to hold up?
As the Buddha explained, all material things form, continue for a time, deteriorate, and eventually are completely destroyed.One day, this will also happen to this planet, especially as disasters of wind, fire, and water and man-made catastrophes of war, famine, and pandemic disease all happen.
These are what make life in this world so insecure and full of uncertainties and crises.
Disasters and frightening incidents of violence happen every day. In Zamboanga, Philippines, we can see how anti-government rebels have occupied parts of the city. Inside a major hospital in Zamboanga, Tzu Chi has established an eye clinic which provides free services to those in need.
This large hospital is now in the area held by the rebels. So, for over ten days, Dr. Anton Lim, who is responsible for Tzu Chi in Zamboanga, has been very concerned about our clinic and how to keep it from harm. He is really very worried.
We also have a center that manufactures prostheses for those who are disabled. These prostheses are also provided for free to the people who need them. However, this center is also in the occupied area.
So, all this time, our volunteers in Zamboanga worried that the equipment might get destroyed. Though the situation is as dangerous as this, these volunteers still continue to provide food to evacuees living in shelters.
We see that people in Zamboanga learned about our collection of relief resources. So, one by one, local people showed their love by providing relief goods and food to the Tzu Chi office where our volunteers were sorting and packing relief supplies which were then delivered by the government to evacuation centers.We’ve been doing this for more than ten days.
Moreover, local faith-based charity organizations of Christian and Catholic origin are also working together with Tzu Chi. College students have also volunteered to help. The Rotary Club is contributing as well. In addition, Islamic groups and youth organizations are partnering with us.
So, out of this wave of social unrest and disorder, we see more and more outpourings of love from faith-based organizations who are working together to help.
We also saw how university students in Zamboanga wrote on Facebook thanking Tzu Chi for our help to Zamboanga and also for our trust in them, letting them participate in the aid activities and teaching them to express their respect.
The university students also shared how they were grateful that, apart from extending the love in their heart, they also got to learn humility, and how to show respect to the aid recipients.
According to the latest news, the rebels are losing ground in the city and people in Zamboanga are gradually returning to their normal life.Yet, they are still on high alert.
The current information gathered says more than 100,000 people have been displaced, over 20,000 homes are in the area controlled by the rebels, and around 10,000 homes have been destroyed.
Seeing the fighting in Zamboanga, my heart goes out to the people. Yet, comparing with the Syrian refugees who had to flee to other countries and in the process, sustain tragic injuries, the people in Zamboanga are still better off.
Yet, for the 10,000 families in Zamboanga whose homes have been destroyed, where can they return home to? We worry for them. As for those poor to begin with, they will face even more hardship. So, we need kind people in society to continue giving their love and come together to help the people affected by this siege.
I also learned that our volunteers in Manila are working to support the relief efforts in Zamboanga. For example, they’re starting to ship bags of rice donated by Taiwan from Manila to Zamboanga to supply our volunteers there. Volunteers in Zamboanga also need cash to purchase food there.
So, our volunteers from Manila have begun to assist in the process. This all demonstrates the power of love. Seeing such an abundant supply of rice being transported to Zamboanga reassure us greatly.
However, the next concern is where people will live and how they will rebuild their lives.Though this is the next concern, it’s something to start thinking about now.In a word, life in this world is truly full of hardships and suffering and the Buddha said that the world is like a house on fire.
Things in this world are impermanent, with some things suddenly being destroyed and some things suddenly forming. This is the nature of the material things we can see in this world and it’s people’s pursuit of desire and greed that causes a lot of crises.
So, the world is like a burning house full of suffering. Seeing such natural disasters happening and all the turmoil caused by people’s imbalanced hearts, it makes me even more focused on how to purify and restore balance to people’s hearts.
It also makes me even more active in reaching out to inspire people’s love. Just worrying is of no use, we have to be very active in inspiring more people to do good and inspiring the good in their hearts.
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