20131118覺悟人生最富有The Richest Life
Today, at this time, we have volunteers from 25 countries and regions gathered together, with volunteers of all faiths. Actually, though there different religions, the love that they teach is the same in essence. Be it called compassion, Great love, benevolence, or universal love, all describe a spirit of vast, all-encompassing and boundless love. Such vast and boundless love is an essential part of all religions. No matter what religion it is, all teach love.
In the Buddha’s way of teaching, he spoke of this spirit as the great loving-kindness of caring for all, even those you do not know. Tough we do not know one another, yet we can still work with others with the common goal of relieving suffering because we can’t bear for people to be suffering. Their suffering pains us.
Though they are the ones suffering, yet we feel the pain in our hearts. This is the great compassion of felling others’ suffering as your own. Though the people suffering are of no relation to us, yet they’re suffering and it’s just as if it were us suffering. This is called caring for all, even strangers and feeling people’s suffering as our own. This kind of love is vast and all-embracing.
This year we have volunteers from Haiti, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Mozambique returning to be certified. We also have volunteers returning form. Chile which is very far away I heard that their flight coming to Taiwan took 36 hours, and their return flight will take 44 hours. We also saw our local volunteers from Africa.
They are like precious black pearls to me I really treasure them. They live in very difficult conditions. When our volunteer in Zimbabwe, Mr. Chu, was explaining our ten precepts to them in a training session, the training was held outdoors the training was held outdoors under the scorching sun. Attendees had to sit on the rocky, uneven ground. They wrote Tzu Chis’ ten precepts on a board. Despite having the sun in their eyes, they continued their training.
I truly admire them for this Tzu Chi originated in Taiwan and this spirit of love has now radiated our to all parts of the world. People of all different ethnicities and faiths who speak a different language are now all giving of themselves with genuine sincerity, goodness, and love, from the bottom of their hearts. This indeed is hard to come by.
Also, we see more local volunteers from South Africa and Lesotho being certified now. Of course, I am very grateful to Taiwanese volunteers there who serve as seeds such as Jennifer Chen in Lesotho. She has been in Lesotho for a long time. For all this time, she has been giving of herself with love. Indeed, everyone can see her contribution.
It is truly very moving. For South Africa, I am grateful we have a big group of local volunteers there who are inspired and guided by our Taiwanese volunteers there. What touches me most is their volunteer outreach of other countries these past one or two years. They go from South Africa to Swaziland and Mozambique. This is truly very special and admirable. See how they made do with what they had when they had no place to stay overnight
For South Africa, I am grateful we have a big group of local volunteers there who are inspired and guided by our Taiwanese volunteers there. What touches me most is their volunteer outreach to other countries these past one or two years.
They go from South Africa to Swaziland and Mozambique. This is truly very special and admirable. See how they made do with what they had when they had no place to stay overnight. Bringing sleeping bags and Tzu Chi’s Instant Rice they can go anywhere.
What touches me even more is seeing these bodhisattvas from South Africa giving with joy, cultivating with diligence, and enduring rejection. To prepare for our rice distributions, they had to visit recipients’ homes one by one for assessment.
Facing people’s harsh response, they patiently endured it all. Not only that, they went back again and again with a very humble attitude to connect with people they are helping. They displayed such wisdom and love. That’s why I praise them very much.
This is why I often say they are really so close and dear to my heart. For the places I can’t reach, they help me to go there. For the people I can’t reach, they help me to help them. Look at them dance and sing with such joy. Although they lack material resources, when they sing, they change to a happy mood.
Because they are spiritually rich in heart they can find ways to help others. Because they have Dharma in their hearts, they are able to help and enrich themselves and also enrich others’ lives with their love.
The causes and conditions in Mozambique are even more incredible. Though we had brought the seeds of love there, yet because there is Denise there to take on the mission, such love is able to be carried out more solidly there. There are several Mozambique volunteers like Ana I hear that Ana didn’t use to be like she is now. Her mother is very happy now because Ana has become a completely different person.
Master, thank you for giving me back a daughter. Because of this, I’m willing to give my all for Tzu Chi’s mission. We vow to Master that each us of will inspire 100 more volunteers. One person inspiring 100 people. Then, next year, it’ll be one person inspiring 1,000 people. Can you do that?
We see that people living in material poverty can still be so happy. So, in life, don’t demand so much. Just seize the present to do as much as you can to reach out to as many as you can so more people can wake up and have a good life. That is the best kind of life and the most rewarding kind of life
首頁 