20131112用心聞法有法度 The Need to Take in the Dharma
In every part of the world, Tzu Chi volunteers have been working very hard to inspire new volunteers. For many of our newly certified volunteers today, before they came across the Dharma, their minds were filled with much ignorance, so they were easily influenced by the unwholesome tendencies in society.
They took the false as truth and did whatever they pleased without realizing what they did was all wrong. Indeed, when we are deluded and unenlightened, with what we do, we’ll being disharmony to our society. All this actually star4ts with our minds When our minds are in turmoil, we’ll go astray and give rise to afflictions due to our greed, anger and ignorance.
When our minds become like that, our society will become unwholesome. So, our minds can decide what our society will become of, and what our society is like will affect Nature. When Nature’s balance is disrupted, there’ll be disasters. And all this originates from people’s unwholesome minds which have in turn brought about many disasters in the world.
That’s why I often say that we need to be prudent, sincere, and pious and take the Dharma to heart. By taking in the Dharma, we can learn the principles of everything in the world and eventually come to realize that these principles are closely related to our mindset and actions. Only when we learn the Dharma can we be awakened, act in line with true principles, love and respect Mother Nature and sow blessings for our world.
To do all this, we need to walk the Bodhisattva Path. In recent years, I’ve been saying that time is running out because I feel that there is more and more work to do, but I don’t have enough time. Sometimes, I also feel very sorry to our new volunteers because I don’t have much time for them.
With each passing day, I have one day less; with each passing year I have one year less. So, my time is diminishing. That’s why I’m very sorry to many of our volunteers because I don’t have much time for them and so, I’m very anxious.
But, hearing how diligently everyone is learning the Dharma I am very happy because this is what I care about very much now. At this point in time, I can no longer wait. The Buddha entrusted us with a great mission, which is to awaken everyone to the Truth. This is also what the Buddha came to this world to do. I’m also the Buddha’s disciple, so I hope that all Buddhists, who are the Buddha’s disciples must learn the Dharma diligently.
If you linger back and forth and remain deluded, I’d be very ashamed before the Buddha. So, I hope that every one of you. So, I hope that every one of you can learn the Dharma with an upright mind. Only then can we head in the right direction in life.
Three years ago, four Tzu Chi volunteers came to my husband’s company to share Tzu Chi with us. They’d truly appeared at the right time of our lives because ten days later, my sister lost his son. She was devastated. I’m very grateful to Master because Tzu Chi has saved my sister and led us onto the correct path in life.
Here, I’d like to vow to Master that after we return, we’ll turn our aspiration and gratitude. Into action to inspire more entrepreneurs to save the world together with us I go to Tzu Chi’s office to listen to Master’s Dharma talks every morning. When my husband first found out he scolded me, “What’s wrong with you?”
“The day hasn’t broken yet” “You’re obsessed with Tzu Chi” He kept nagging like this. In the past, I’d just yell back at him. But after learning the Dharma, I stayed calm and said: “Would you like to come with me” “to listen to Master’s Dharma talks?” He said nothing, so I left.
For several days in a row, he continued to nag and I continued to invite him to come with me. Now, he has gotten used to it and will even remind me that it’s time to go.
It is truly very important to learn the Dharma. If we have Dharma in our hearts, we’ll cultivate ourselves diligently. Recently, I.ve talked about the parable of the burning house in the Lotus Sutra. Thinking about this burning house makes me very worried. So, what we really need now is the Dharma. Only with Dharma can we find ways to get out of the burning house.
Without the Dharma in our hearts, we can’t get through the door of the house. This burning house has a door leading outside. But why can’t we get through it? Because we have a small head and a big body. The small head means our weak aspiration to learn the Dharma and the big body means our many afflictions.
We can get our head out of the door but not our body because the door is too small for our body. But, is the door really too small? No. It’s because our body, which represents our afflictions and desires, is too big. Due to our desires, we keep on producing afflictions.
As a result, our aspiration to learn the Dharma is very weak. This is why we cannot get out of the burning house. So, I hope that everyone can work harder to learn the Dharma, live it out, and make it a part of our daily life.
As living bodhisattvas, we truly must seize every opportunity to inspire more volunteers so that our world can have more living bodhisattvas and be more peaceful and harmonious. Do you understand this? Yes. My best wishes to you all.
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