20131021出世情操入世行Working in the World with Transcendent Love and Wisdom
Time really passes by so fast. Second upon second, day upon day, week upon week, time keeps moving by I often say that there are so many things that I run out of time to share with everyone. There are many touching events that are truly worthwhile to share, but there is not enough time, not enough time to even talk about them.
It’s truly important that all of us know more about what’s happening in the world. Only by expanding the scope of our vision and understanding can we truly develop wisdom. The extent of what the Buddha knows and understands is very vast and encompassing. What we ordinary people know and understand is limited to our narrow sphere of life and we are always reacting with either pleasure of afflictions. Since we aspire to learn the way of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, we need to broaden the scope of what we see and hear. Every day, we need to tune in to what is happening around the world.
In Malaysia, our volunteers have been active in inspiring people to donate and do good. Their goal is one million donating members. See how they share Tzu Chi with everyone they encounter. They are truly living bodhisattvas who earnestly reach out to people to quickly help them to enter the door of wisdom. They hope to inspire love in people and bring out the riches in their hearts. When their hearts are full of wisdom and love, they’ll have both blessings and wisdom. If people’s hearts become more pure and they act with love in their hearts, then our society and world will have much more peace, harmony, and blessings.
We can recruit 400 to 500 donors in a month now whereas we used to recruit less than a hundred.
Just be brave and do it.
Doing good deeds to create blessings is a very good thing because we can help those in suffering.
See how diligent and mindful our Malaysian Tzu Chi volunteers are. We also saw our volunteers in the Philippines. The government saw how Tzu Chi volunteers always acted very quickly to help when a disaster happens, such as a flood. So, this time, the city government, knowing the importance of environmental protection, organized a boat-making contest. Our volunteers are very ingenious. See how they made a boat using 1,138PET bottles. The boat can carry up to 15 people. Their boat won first prize and received P20,222 in prize money. Of course, they donated the money to Tzu Chi’s charity fund. Such is the result of using wisdom.
We also saw news about the wildfires in New South Wales, Australia. If not brought under control, the wildfires could threaten Sydney. The extent of what humans can do in such disasters is limited. But, sadly, we human beings still continue to create pollution and carbon emissions. It has led to global warming, which is making climate patterns abnormal and extreme. So, a lot of disasters are happening. The fault lies with humankind. If people still don’t wake up, it really will be deeply worrying.
As I’ve repeatedly said in my morning Dharma talk, our world is like a great house that is on fire with fires burning from all corners. Yet everyone is still so blind and deluded and don’t realize the danger. In fact they find the fire beautiful. So, they continue to play with fire. They are still caught up in the fight for fame, profit, and power still seeking to enjoy life and every kind of comfort only caring about their own pleasure, not heeding the reality that the world we live in is already in crisis, with Nature and humanity all out of balance.
They aren’t interested in knowing about this. Actually, they know about it, but in a kind of self-denial, they turn a blind eye to it. Or they are so out of touch that they don’t think it matters. So, we need to quickly wake ourselves up.
For three days since last Friday, the management and staff from our Tzu Chi Missions returned to our spiritual home here in Hualien to refresh and update their understanding of Tzu Chi and its essential spirit and principles. These principles and this spirit of our Jing Si Dharma Lineage is the source of motivation that drives the creation and operation of our work in Tzu Chi.
This work is the Tzu Chi Path … the application of the spirit. So, they were here to learn more about the founding spirit and mission of Tzu Chi from its humble beginnings almost 50 years ago. Through discussions to explore the founding spirit and essential principles, they will naturally and gradually come to discover that it is about the heart of pure and selfless Great Love which is what all our volunteers have and embrace deeply to transform themselves in everything they do.
Through carrying out Tzu Chi work, they take in spiritual food from our Jing Si Dharma Lineage to help them move forward in their work.
The Buddha has great compassion for us because we’re ignorant of our blindness. We’re like children who stay inside a burning house and find the fire very pretty. I think in our search for awakening, we hope to put out our fire of ignorance and, at the same time, share the Dharma we’ve learned with people to help them put out their fire of ignorance.
Seeing such reflection of Dharma learned reassures me. Yesterday, some people also said there are people who worry about Tzu Chi’s future and what will happen to Tzu Chi when I’m not here with them. I told them yesterday that if they continue to actively and earnestly strive to understand the underlying Dharma and apply it well in their Tzu Chi missions. I think Tzu Chi will be even better in the future.
We have to see everyone in Tzu Chi as our family. We have to be very clear that Tzu Chi is based on a transcendent religious spirit, but is very active and practical in serving in the world. This is what our Jing Si Dharma Lineage and Tzu Chi Path is all about. I hope everyone can understand this.
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