20131102 慈善深耕掘湧泉Digging for the Wellspring of Love
All of my companions said: “Let’s all go together and cross the river! Each tire ferries three people. We packed clean clothes to change into when we arrive at the training. We are very happy to learn that we are attending training at the Tzu Chi Foundation.”
“It is really worth it because for me as a student, I only think about myself, how to be happy. In this session, they taught that happiness lies in helping other people.”
“I am a Muslim. Here, I see people transcending religious boundaries to help one another. Also, I see a lot of good deeds. This changes my life,” said Nursy Engalla.
We saw our volunteers in the Philippines. A few years ago, Typhoon Ketsana caused major disaster there. Tzu Chi then started a cash-for-work program to help disaster survivors and also to develop local volunteers. Now, local volunteers are growing in large numbers.
In each training session, there are about 500 to 600 new volunteers. We see that they recently held another orientation for new volunteers. The majority of the local Filipinos are Roman Catholic or of other Christian denominations.
When they join Tzu Chi, we do not ask them to change their religion. When they take part in volunteer training, and there are spiritual programs such as the walking meditation, they also participate. They also listen to talks about Tzu Chi’s origins and how Tzu chi’s work developed to become worldwide.
They followed our discipline and code of conduct. This is all part of learning to be a bodhisattva.
We can see that their charitable work has truly become localized. This is like digging a well instead of just providing water, so as to help them to tap into the water source rather than just enabling them to have water one time. We want them to be able to have water always.
So, we want them to be able to find the wellspring of pure water so the water can keep coming forth. So, now, in the Philippines, when a disaster happens, a large group of local volunteers very quickly come forward to help. This is manpower, compared to before when we wanted to give aid, some would say, “We have too little manpower.”
Some projects are difficult for our local Chinese volunteers because they come from a wealthy background. They have servants at home, so some relief projects would be challenging for them. Now, it is different.
In the Philippines, fire disasters still occur frequently in poor communities. If one family has a mishap with a candle or lamp, the fire would spread quickly to hundreds of homes. Every time, when the buildings were still smoldering, the residents would see a large group of Tzu Chi volunteers showing up to help.
Our local volunteers would know to prepare hot meals for hundreds of families. So, some volunteers would buy vegetables to prepare for cooking. Our volunteers are very efficient. They understand how Tzu Chi conducts relief aid. They know that post-disaster, they need to help the community to clean up.
They all know what to do. So, many would come and quickly carry out the work. Also, to provide relief, they had quickly package material supplies for distribution. Our work needs a lot of manpower. This manpower comes from establishing a group of local volunteers and inspiring everyone to bring forth their love. That’s like tapping into a wellspring. We need a lot of people to carry out our work.
So, we see people who live in hardship and poverty themselves. Yet, they have opened their hearts wide to embrace a virtuous and moral life and in their hearts, they have now laid down a path of cultivating blessings and wisdom which is a broad, enlightened course.
Taking that course, they are now so at ease and at peace. Many people are like this. Though poor, in their hearts they are rich. But, most people, though comfortable and not poor, are experiencing spiritual poverty because they are not happy.
All in all, when people turn their hearts toward creating blessings for others and cultivating wisdom, which are like the track of a railway, meaning that both are needed, in parallel, then won’t they be at peace and at ease? They can help others while becoming more enlightened themselves. Doesn’t that give them a lot of happiness and joy?
Also, we saw news from Malaysia. Today is the start of Deepavali, a Hindu festival. The festival is to celebrate the “victory of good over evil”, which is the overcoming of our “inner demon”. “Inner demon” means our afflictions. This is a festival of the Hindu religion.
On this celebration, people are to light up lamps, which signifies eliminating our “inner demon” and sweeping away our ignorance and afflictions, and then lighting up our inner light. So, Deepavali is a major festival for Hindus, on the scale of Chinese New Year for Chinese.
Our Tzu Chi volunteers there have been providing care and aid to people in need, and some are of the other faiths. Every year, they hold distributions to our care recipients who are Hindu. They used to hold the distribution at a rented venue. But, this year, it is different.
A Hindu temple in the area provided their place for us to hold our distribution. The people at the Hindu temple also spoke about the spirit of love and how it helps foster harmony in society.
“Tzu Chi is a Buddhist philosophy organization. It is also focusing on spiritual thoughts and thinking and movement. We also took part of it to give whatever we can give to you people to use this space,” said Dr. Jeevan.
“I work 24 hours. Every weekend, I will bring recyclables to Tzu Chi’s recycling kiosk in Seri Kembangan.”
“I saw a video about Master Cheng Yen. She helped many poor people. Every day, I save 1 Ringgit from my grocery money to put in the coin bank.”
Only love can make people become rich in heart. Acts of love can be accomplished when we pool together everyone’s tiny contribution. I often say that grains of rice can fill up a basket and drops of water can form a river.
If every person can contribute even a little, a great deal of good can be done. We saw how our volunteers in Malaysia have already amassed a large capacity of love to share with others.
And, we see how different religions can get along and work together when people have cleansed away afflictions and have brought forth their inner light. This is how we create peace and harmony in our world.
首頁 