20131119人間菩提 真誠奉獻增福慧 Giving with a Broad and Pure Heart
I am a Catholic from Germany but I take refuge in Master I admired Buddhism, but I wasn’t wise enough to understand it and even dozed off listening to sutras. It wasn’t until 2011 when I started helping to translate Jing Si Aphorisms into German that I began to take in the Dharma and was filled with joy every day.
Germany is a well-to-do country, so we should inspire the rich to help the poor I think it is our responsibility to spread the Dharma and love all across Germany. Thank you.
I used to think: “What can I do for Tzu Chi in France?” Master said I should take action, not just “think”. So , when I go back, I’ll carry out Tzu Chi’s work in France and dedicate my whole life to Tzu Chi’s work and inspire the rich to help the needy.
I vow to Master that after returning to Cambodia, I will use all of my love and energy to share Master’s teachings and Great Love with people in my country.
The world truly isn’t big at all. See how Tzu Chi volunteers from so many countries gather together here, and every one of you shares the same heart and vows to do much work in your countries of residence.
Each and every one of you really harbors sincere love in your heart. I often speak of a broad and pure heart, and it is such a heart that has brought us together. Seeing how our volunteers from many countries in Europe work together to help those in need, I’m very moved. But there are too few of them.
The number of Tzu Chi volunteers in any African country is more than that of our volunteers in Europe combined. Although our volunteers in Africa are very poor and have scarce resources, they’re very wealthy spiritually. This time, our volunteers from Mozambique brought four large coin banks to me. Each coin bank was very heavy, but they carried them all the way here.
Initially, they hoped their coins could be used in our hong-baos next year. But, when they learned of the disaster in the Philippines, they told me that they wished to donate the money to the Philippines instead. So, I asked my monastic disciples to count the coins and convert the amount in to Taiwanese currency so I could donate to the Philippines for them and keep their coins.
It was NT$1,150 about US$39 in total. These coins from Mozambique can be used to make our hong-baos next year to be given to our volunteers in Mozambique. Although NT$1,150 may not seem much to many of us here, it is great amount of money to them that can be used to buy many things with.
I remembered when I was building our hospital in Hualien, a lady, who worked as a hired maid, was so moved that she decided to help. So, she collected the piece of gold that she received over 20 years ago as a gift for her newborn daughter and another one for her grandchild, and then she brought these pieces of gold to a jeweler and asked the store to melt them into a gold ingot that weighed 1.2 ounces.
She said that she had little money but she was very moved by my decision to build a hospital. So, she wanted to donate the gold ingot. She gave the gold ingot to her employer, a Tzu Chi commissioner, who then handed it to her team leader.
The team leader went home and told her husband: “I am very moved by a hired maid” “To help Master raise funds to build a hospital,” “she melted all the gold she had” “into an ingot” “and donate it for our fundraising event” Her husband replied: “How do you dare to accept this?” “Take this to Master and see if she’ll accept it”
The next day, she brought the gold to me. After hearing her story, I accepted the gold ingot. At that time, a Tzu Chi commissioner also donated a check of NT$3 million. But, in my heart the gold ingot and the check were of the same worth.
This is also how I cherish the coins that our volunteers from Mozambique carried here, and why I decided to keep them. Next year, we can use these coins in our hong-baos for our volunteers in Mozambique so they’ll better understand the cycle of love. When we give of love, the love will come back to us eventually.
I also hope that our volunteers in Europe can work hand in hand to spread love there. Although you may be hundreds of miles away from one another, to inspire the rich to help the poor, you’ll need to work together with one heart. I hope that you can spread love all across Europe and help people understand that all religions are the same and we all uphold the same Truth in our hearts.
It doesn’t matter what our religions are. What’s most important is that we all harbor the same sincere love within. So I hope you can have a broad and pure heart and go amongst people to serve as bodhisattvas. Many of you have traveled a very long distance to be here and get certified I hope that, apart from caring for what’s happening in your countries of residence, you should also be concerned about what’s happening around the world
And when you are safe and well, you should reach out to those in need with love. For those in well-to-do countries, you should inspire the rich to help the poor. For those in less well-to-do countries, you should inspire love in those you help. Living in this world, we are all interrelated. The Earth keeps rotating and the sky has no boundaries
So, we all live under the same sky and on the same piece of land and we all breathe the same air I hope that we can care for others with love and feel their suffering as our very own. As you are certified today, please remember to remain untainted in the impure world like lotus flowers in muddy water I hope you’ll emulate the Buddha’s heart, take my missions as you own, and walk the Bodhisattva Path and walk the Bodhisattva Path. Do you understand? Yes.
May you cultivate diligently so your blessings and wisdom will grow every year, and may you go amongst people to serve. My best wishes to you. Thank you
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