20131111轉向正念天地寬Overseas Commissioners and Tzu Cheng Certification
Time passes by so fast. Every year, I await this time of the year when I can certify every one of you. Being certified does not mean the end of your training. Actually, being certified, this is just the beginning of your Tzu Chi Path. You are now starting to walk the Tzu Chi Path and starting to learn the teachings and spirit of our Jing Si lineage. Starting from now, you have to move forward diligently and earnestly.
Some people may wonder, why add Tzu Chi their life? Doing good deeds why do they need to learn the Dharma? Actually, as a human being, we do not know we are born into this world. Some people are born in good and loving families. How come they get to have such good fortune and we don’t? Everyone wants to have a very ideal and perfect life. But, is that possible? No matter how rich they are, they can’t always get things to go the way they wish.
Do you understand? Yes Good. So, in life, there are many things that do not go our way, so we feel suffering. Why is life this? When I was young, I had such questions and searched for answers about life. In particular, when I was young, I saw the impermanence of life. My father, who was a healthy person, suddenly had a stroke and died the next day.
His death shocked me and prompted me to ask questions about what’s the purpose of life and where does one go after death. This incidence was a big shock to me when I was young. My father’s death made me realize the impermanence of life.
Ever since then, I began searching and started walking another path in life… the enlightened path and the teachings of Buddhism I started to learn more about the Buddha’s teachings. After I became a Buddhist monastic, I came to better appreciate and realize the boundless wisdom of the Buddha.
The Buddha’s teachings point out to us the right direction in life and enable us to realize that our circumstances now result from the karma we created. So, if we want to know what karma we created in our past life, we only need to look at our life conditions now. If we want to know what our future life will be like, we have to look at what we’re doing in this life.
In this life, if we do good deeds that benefit the world, it will be for certain that our future life will be full of blessings and wisdom. A life of blessings and wisdom is the life of walking the Bodhisattva Path.
Today you all received your certification. The flower in your corsage or boutonniere is a lotus flower. Lotus flowers grow from the mud yet are unsullied by it. Back when we were raising funds to build the Tzu Chi hospital in Hualien, we held a charity bazaar. Our slogan was Inviting all kindhearted people of the world to cultivate the field of blessings.
With hearts pure as the lotus flower, together we create the Tzu Chi world. Yes, I hope you all have such a pure heart. So, as you wear this lotus flower, you have to know that the lotus flower beautifies the muddy pond. Our world now is full of turmoil, evils, and suffering. It’s because people’s hearts are very turbulent due to the greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt in their hearts. The world has become a place where people feel very afraid and insecure.
So, Dharma is what’s most needed by people now to they can find the enlightened path. We not only need to purify our own hearts. We need to help purify our world. Also, having gained happiness, we hope to show people how they too can stop suffering and attain happiness. So we need to help others become enlightened too.
This is the bodhisattva spirit we need to have. We need to go out into the world help others because our world now has so many problems. As we go to help and witness all kinds of suffering, our eyes will be opened to our own blessings. So, in giving, we need to be thankful to the people in suffering, for it’s because of them that we can come to realize life’s impermanence and learn of the suffering in life and in the world.
Their suffering awakens us to life’s realities and truths so we need to be grateful to them. In giving, we need to expect nothing in return and be grateful to the people we help. Then, our mind will be free of attachments.
At the certification ceremony, some volunteers told me as they came up to receive their badge: I used to be helped by Tzu Chi I’m grateful for Tzu Chi’s help. Hearing this touched me very much. They once suffered hardship in their life. With the help of many loving volunteers, they left their poverty behind and became rich in heart.
So, perhaps their living circumstances did not improve a lot, but they have transformed their heart. That’s because even though they still live in hardship and lack material goods, they aspire to and are willing to help others. So, people only need to turn their mind around and they can live a different life.
I often say that, as a human being, we need to be good and upright, be grounded, and live wholesomely, with a clear conscience. Being rich or poor is not the issue. Most important is having good character. When we’re doing good deeds, it’ll create peace and harmony in our family, in our society, in our society, and in our world.
It is people’s mentality which leads to harmony. We learn the Buddha’s teachings to help us turn our hearts toward the good. So, we need to be sincerely pious.
Our world now needs the Buddha’s teachings. The Buddha’s teachings can inspire people to become living bodhisattvas and to go amongst the people in need to alleviate their suffering. So, what we really need now is to use our utmost sincerity to take the Dharma into our heart and apply it in our life.
Do you understand this? Yes. All right, I wish you all gain more insights about the Dharma, take the Dharma to heart and practice it in your life. Best wishes to you all I hope everyone can cultivate both blessings and wisdom, and walk on the Bodhisattva Path every day. My best wishes to you.
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