20131125真實佛法在人間 To Use the Clarity of Wisdom to Face Life
In life, the most valuable thing is life itself. The next most valuable thing is good health. We are most blessed if we are born healthy and enjoy good health. Yet, being healthy, we also need to be healthy psychologically. If we’re healthy psychologically, we’ll be able make use of our life to benefit people.
In our society today, besides illnesses of the body, people also suffer from spiritual illness. This spiritual illness can be called a lack of love syndrome. Those who have this syndrome have countless desires. Their desires are endless. Because there’s a lack of love in their hearts, they always feel empty and not grounded.
In the past half-century, Taiwan has improved its economy. We also have good climate in Taiwan Compared to other countries in the world, we’re very blessed. Our children grow up living a very good life and never experience any hardship. An old Taiwanese phrase for such people describes them as being out of touch with reality. They do not cherish their existing life conditions, but are caught up in fantasies instead.
However, we in Taiwan are fortunate to have a group of caring and loving bodhisattvas. The first time I heard about our aid to students was from Supt. Lai who initiated a program to support students’ education. We can see our volunteers conducting home visits and finding students with a single parent, students raised by their grandparents, or students living in unhealthy conditions due to poverty or illness in the family.
We spend time with them, gradually guiding these students and their families. We provide help to the students so they can continue their stdies.
Now our aid to students has extended to all the families under our charity program. The Buddha teaches us to have equal compassion for all by expanding the love we have for our family to love families suffering from hardships. With the love we have for our own children and grandchildren, we love other people’s children.
We even invite the children’s parents to our educational programs. We teach the children to be filial to their parents and to do good deeds. We let the parents know what kind of parental love is healthy for their children. This is what families in our society really need .
If we have love in our hearts, but do not act on it, it doesn’t really count. It’s like when we recite a sutra but don’t understand what it means. Even if we understand the teaching, yet if we do not practice it, we’re not really cultivating and we don’t really have the Dharma in our hearts. Having the Dharma in our hearts means acting with wisdom.
We all saw the video reviewing Tzu Chi’s work for the year 2013. Do you know how many world events are in it? Each event could only be given a few seconds in the video. For the month of January 2103, we have Da Ai TV’s anniversary, a joyful event. With the advances in technology, we’re able to spread the Dharma to a wider audience for people to understand more about life’s truths. Then people’s hearts can be more steady. So, this is good news.
Yet, also in the same month, we saw that in Jordan, near its border with Syria which is a desert area, Syrian refugees are living there to seek safety from the war. Look at the canvas tents they live in. When the wind comes, their tents get battered and tilted.
These canvases get worn out very quickly under the scorching sun, the rain and the wind. Very soon, they became threadbare. So, how much do we know of the crises that have occurred over the year? We should pay more attention and learn more about them.
Every day, I make sure to learn about world events. You all should also watch Da Ai TV every day. It’s important that we know what is going on in the world. Only then can we transform our way of thinking and develop wisdom. How to overcome our afflictions and use the clarity of wisdom to face our lives that’s our spiritual direction and that’s how the Buddha’s teachings help us with life in the world Buddhism doesn’t provide supernatural solutions.
Please understand that life in this world inherently includes ups and downs, joys and sorrows. Such is the nature of life in the world. None of it has lasting permanence.
So, no need to be overly attached to achieving success. All your life, you toil away to make money, etc. but in the end, you’ll still leave with nothing. Even if you already have billions in assets, you’ll still try to make even more money. But, by the time your feel: OK. I have enough, your lifetime will be up. In life, when will enough really be enough?
So, it’s best to seize this moment to put our good thought into action and help others for real. When we see people’s suffering relieved, that happiness we feel is something money can’t buy. It can only come from reaching out to help others and giving unconditionally. This is the true emptiness that a bodhisattva achieves. But it comes from having given of ourselves genuinely.
That joy we experience from seeing others becoming better after our help… that inner joy is something real and wondrous. When we leave this life, all we take with us is our karma. If you’ve done good deeds, those actions planted seeds and those seeds will definitely carry over to our next life. What we reap in life is determined by what seeds we sow or what karma we create.
What I like most about the Year-end Blessings Ceremony is adding new members to our Tzu Chi family as new Tzu Cheng members and commissioners are certified. There are also our honorable board members. Hearing everyone’s vows makes me very grateful and happy. Being certified is just the beginning.
Don’t think that certification means the end of your training. This is really just the beginning for you to walk the Bodhisattva Path. Receiving your badge means starting today, you are a living bodhisattva. A living bodhisattva does not just sit there doing nothing but goes out to help people in need. It’s like the lotus flower you’re wearing which means rising out of muddy water unsullied. The same is true for being a bodhisattva. Our society now is full of misguided values.
You living bodhisattvas have transformed our society so that Taiwan is now known for its kindness and love. So, such kindness and love from your from your good works improved our environment in Taiwan. That’s why we need bodhisattvas in our world like the lotus flower, rising out of the mud unsullied.
The ribbon you are wearing says: to have Buddha’s heart and Master’s mission. Starting from today, you are to take the Buddha’s heart as your own and take my mission as your mission. For this mission, we must go to people in need.
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