20131126用愛鋪路接菩提Walking the Bodhisattva Path by Giving with Love
Although I can’t visit Yunlin and Jialy on all my trips, I‘ve never heard Tzu Chi volunteers here complain about it. They never said “Master seldom comes to see us” “Does she know how hard we-work? Take for example our volunteers in Beigang. See how mindful they are in running our Tzu Chi office on that large piece of land, inspiring many to join Tzu Chi.
So, I truly feel that I’m very blessed to have so many disciples and such a large place there, and I never have to worry about them I have never said: “I’m worried about this and that” “Can someone tell me about it?” I don’t need to do this as they all follow me closely. Such a bond between us truly warms my heart.
I also feel very indebted to our volunteers in Huwei. Before they had a place to do recycling, they had to move from place to place. Eventually, they were provided with land to set up a recycling station. Despite the difficulties they had, they’re very diligent in doing Tzu Chi’s work. This is truly not easy I believe that many of you here share the same heart, conviction, aspiration, and mission.
Although Yunlin and Jiayi may be considered rural areas, I’ve seen the spirit of culture and humanity in you. From your sutra presentations these two days, I know you’ve worked hard to practice, otherwise you couldn’t have been so beautiful. From your singing, I could also sense your piety. Indeed, sutras show us a path, which is meant to be walked upon.
Sutras point out the Bodhi path for us. Bodhi means awakening, so the Bodhi path is a path toward awakening and we need to walk upon it. If we only recite the sutras, we won’t make any progress. No matter how many times we recite them, we’re not walking the Bodhi path and we’ll stay where we are.
So, we must pave the path ourselves and give with love so that the path we pave will connect with the Bodhi path. Who can pave the path for us to walk on? Only we can. So, we must pave our own path. We see one of our Tzu Cheng members who is already 70 years old. But see how he still volunteers in the community, at our hospital in Dalin, and at our Tzu Chi office as well. He even went to our Abode in Hualien to help with our construction work and to pave the interlocking bricks.
With his help, the ground is now very smooth to walk on. See, to have an even path to walk on, we need to work hard to pave it. We also see a couple who are both very dedicated Tzu Chi volunteers.
My wife was recommended to be a team leader. At first, she didn’t want to take on the job, but one night she dreamed that you had abrasions on your shoulder due to the heavy load you carry. Hearing that, I felt very sad. So, Master, please don’t worry. We’ll work hard.
Her dream was pretty real. But seeing how dedicated you work, I’m willing to carry the load. Indeed, the load on my shoulder is so heavy that I almost have abrasion on my shoulder I may look fine to you, but I truly need everyone to work together with me as everyone has the responsibility to care for our world. Every one of us is a living bodhisattva with pure, enlightened love for others.
In Tzu Chi, we have a song called “Beauty”. The lyrics say that the beauty of Tzu Chi lies in everyone giving selflessly and tirelessly without seeking anything in return. This is how we embrace everyone and extend our love to people. Such is the way of bodhisattvas, which is to go amongst people to serve.
Although practicing spiritual cultivation is about having a pure heart, that’s not enough because all that you do is not to form bad affinities with others and you won’t work to sow blessings by benefiting others. To avoid forming bad affinities with others, we should keep our hearts pure and clean. But, we should further work to benefit others so we can sow blessings. We need to cultivate both wisdom and blessings.
If we only focus on cultivating ourselves, we’ll take care not to dispute with others. In a way, this is good because we won’t have afflictions, and by not being with the people we don’t like, we won’t get hurt. But this is not right if we want to walk the Bodhisattva Path. Lately, our U.S volunteers brought aid to those affected by storms in the Midwest. See how disasters can strike anytime.
So, we should know that apart from not fussing over things with people, we should give of ourselves to sow blessings. We do need to learn life’s principles and work to cultivate a pure heart, but that’s not enough. We should further go amongst people to serve. Everyone around us is a living sutra that contains Dharma for us to learn from. If we can go to them, we’ll learn many life’s truths from them.
Then, our wisdom will grow and we won’t be affected by anyone. But if we don’t learn the Dharma, even something trivial can afflict us. For example, when we’re upset about our family members or when other volunteers have bad attitude towards us, we’ll give rise to afflictions, hindering ourselves on our path of cultivation. All this is because we’re not well cultivated.
So, we need to take in the Dharma to purify our hearts and minds so that no matter what happens, our determination to cultivate ourselves will not be compromised. This is what it means to walk the Bodhisattva Path. Seeing how well cultivated everyone is, I feel very grateful I also want to thank you for fundraising for the Philippines.
It’s very important to inspire love in more people. This is a way to recruit living bodhisattvas. What I want is everyone’s love. Even when people donate just a coin, when they do so, they’ll think of the suffering in the Philipines. And, when they put their coins into the banks, they’ll feel for the people in suffering. When they feel for others, their compassion will arise and they’ll take action to help. So, we need to inspire love in people. That’s most important
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