20131110珍惜法緣‧行四正勤To Be an Awakened Person with Enlightened Love
This time each year is my joyful time because there are so many volunteers coming from different countries to be certified. Every one harbors the same vow and has the same conviction, which is to walk the Bodhisattva Path diligently.
Listening to everyone’s sharing on stage, I heard their mindfulness and commitment in serving others. As I listened, I was really moved and also admired them for their work.
I also saw an elderly volunteer from the Philippines. I am very grateful to her because she is the mother in a family with many certified Tzu Chi volunteers. She has come to be certified this year. She is in her 80s. she is so mindful as a mother in nurturing her children. She is a good role model and inspires her children to serve the public and to give of themselves to serve the community.
To do good deeds is to walk the Bodhisattva Path. Her children then turned around to help her to walk the Bodhisattva Path. Her children then turned around to help her to walk the Bodhisattva Path. In Buddhism, we often talk about a master guiding disciples at one point in time, but in a future lifetime, it will be the disciples’ turn to guide the master.
Here we see how that works. A mother gave birth to her children. Then, the children helped the mother to nurture her wisdom-life. How very wonderful this is.
I also saw our collegiate volunteers Tzu Ching. Many volunteers who came up to be certified said to me: “Master, your child has returned. Master, I was a Tzu Ching. I’ve come back. Every word they said to me really touched and heartened me.
The family of these young volunteers have also become involved in Tzu Chi. For some, it’s because when they participated in Tzu Chi’s youth groups when younger, their involvement influenced their family members to participate in Tzu Chi. This makes me very happy.
I want to tell Grandmaster: “Thank you, Grandmaster. It’s because of you that our family can be so happy and well. At home, we also live by Tzu Chi’s spirit and etiquette. Grandmaster will always be our dearest, most respected family member and our beloved wise teacher. When I returned to Taiwan in 2002, Grandmaster told four of us Tzu Shaos to be tolerant and to take up Tzu Chi’s mission. Now, eleven years later, I have come back.
I hadn’t dared to vow to shoulder Tzu Chi’s great mission out of fear that I’m not as capable as the senior volunteers. But, seeing the way Grandmaster was just now walking down the steps, I can’t help but feel: how can I just do the small tasks in Tzu Chi? I have to make big vows and shoulder more responsibility for Tzu Chi. I can’t make Grandmaster wait for me to grow up.
Seeing these children growing up to be adults, makes me feel that time flies by very fast and our life diminishes with it. At my age, with the passing of each day, I would say to myself: I have one day less to live. There are so many things that need to be done but haven’t been accomplished yet. What to do? Time is running out.
So, as every volunteer passed in front of me, I hoped in my heart that every one of them will make the best of their time to actively walk the path because time flies by very quickly. We need to seize the opportunity that karmic affinities give us now.
Tzu Chi has members who are of all religions. Yet, everyone shares a common goal, which is to become a person with enlightened love. It means that we need to have wisdom and have love for all the world’s people. This love has to be lasting and very big and broad embracing all people. This is Great Love. This kind of spirit may be called universal love by Catholics or Christians or benevolence by Muslims.
It is the same spirit as what we call “Great Love” in Buddhism. This love is the same. Though different religions use different terms for it, the nature of this love is the same. Only by waking up to life’s truths will we understand the need to give of ourselves.
If we still haven’t woken up, we’ll always be a mundane person lost in self-indulgence and pleasure, who blindly goes about life not knowing anything about life not knowing that our days are running out or that we might meet our end at any time.
So, we should be an awakened person with enlightened love. We need to understand clearly life’s principles and walk on life’s correct course. So, we need to cherish our time. Don’t let it just slip away.
Recently, you’ve heard me keep talking about how every second is the one and only in our entire lifetime. For every one of us, every second is the one and only. But for the thought we have in that moment, if it is a good thought and we take hold of it and set it as our direction and we go forward in that direction with determination, then that good thought will create our entire life.
When something is right, we should just do it. Then, that will set the course for our entire lifetime. So, we need to seize this moment and make it last forever. This good thought that we have at this very moment is something we need to seize and hold on to. We mustn’t let it go. If we can hold on to it, then even though our time in life diminishes with every day that passes, yet by holding on to our good thought and by doing what is right, we will grow in wisdom-life.
With the passing of each day, the time we have left lessens, but by working with others and learning from each other in our bodhisattva group, our wisdom-life is nurtured and grows and our heart and mind stay pure, with no afflictions. Also, we begin to see and understand the principles underlying human affairs.
This is wisdom. Having wisdom, we will dedicate ourselves to doing good. We will make the most of our time and our life to do what is truly meaningful and valuable, which is to help better people’s lives. I hope all of us have this conviction and heart to give of ourselves to help and guide others. This is to live the life of enlightened love.
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