20131203人心淨化遠災厄Inspiring Love in People to Mitigate Disasters
Seeing how erratic climate conditions have become around the world, I’m getting more and more concerned. In early October, devastating blizzards hit the Great Plains in the U.S., freezing 30,000 cattle to death. It was described as the worst storm in 150 years. See how extreme the climate was.
Also, in Italy, heavy rains have brought severe flooding. All these are natural disasters. We also see that in North Sumatra, Indonesia, there have been ongoing eruptions from Mount Sinabung since September. Then, last week, heavy rains triggered a landslide in a region around the mountain, killing nine people.
Apart from natural disasters, we also see manmade ones. Recently, the protests in Thailand have turned violent as clashes between anti- and pro-government groups broke out on November 30. The violence has stirred much fear and anxiety in people.
We also see the Philippines. The disaster this time is truly massive. The typhoon made landfall on November 8, bringing unimaginable devastation and destroying everything people had. Homes were shattered and over 5,000 people were killed in a short span of time.
Given the scale of the disaster, it was impossible to go to the disaster areas right away because roads were all cut off. It wasn’t until the fourth day that Tzu Chi volunteers were able to go to wherever they could reach and give out aid supplies to those affected. At the disaster areas, wherever our volunteers looked, there are heaps of wreckage and garbage.
How can we help the affected areas recover? We need to use both compassion and wisdom. Compassion and wisdom combined gives a person the strength he needs to help others. See how Tzu Chi volunteers from various countries went to the Philippines to help with the relief effort with our local Tzu Chi volunteers there.
Over the past 20 days, our volunteers have inspired the typhoon survivors to rebuild their own community through our cash-for-work program. In a situation where hope was lost, our volunteers gave them a ray of hope. Through doing work that requires physical labor, their spirit is uplifted. So, their body and mind are both revitalized.
The purpose of our cash-for-work program is not about hiring people to work, but to uplift their body and spirit with love and motivate them to take action to rebuild their own lives.
Tzu Chi shows us that to improve our situation, we must work. The typhoon took away our livelihood, but Tzu Chi gave us work
Having interacted with the locals with sincere love, Tzu Chi volunteers saw how everyone has been inspired to do their best to restore their lives. Our volunteers’ deep sincerity and love has touched the locals, opened their hearts, and got them back on their feet.
On the first day of our cash-for-work program, over 600 people participated, and the number keeps increasing every day. What an impressive sight it is to see tens of thousands of people clean up the disaster areas together. After some areas were cleaned up, Tzu Chi volunteers also encouraged everyone to help clean up the business areas and work together to bring their community back to life.
See how so many people pitched in to help clean up the business areas. We also see some of the typhoon survivors who took part in our cash-for-work program express that they didn’t want to be paid, but they wanted to serve as volunteers.
Tzu Chi volunteers don’t know us, but they’re here to help us. So, I want to help my people, too. Working without pay is okay for me.
As many people in the Philippines are Christians, churches are very important to them. So, I hope that our volunteers can visit churches and see what we can do to help them so that people can go to church again.
We should carefully ponder over how we can bring harmony to people’s minds. We should encourage everyone to be sincere in the upright religious faiths they have. No matter what religion it is and be it universal love, benevolent love, or great love that a religion teaches, all religions can work together to guide people onto the correct path in life.
Only then can everyone’s hearts be harmonious and everyone live together in peace. Moreover, we should overcome our desires, not be wasteful, and love and care for one another. Only then can climate conditions become normal again.
Due to human activity, we have caused great harm to the Earth. See how polluted the air has become. When the Earth is wounded, how can people be safe? Only people can help the Earth recover and be healthy again. But, if we can’t keep our desires in check, it’ll be difficult for the Earth to recover.
All in all, we need to work hard and learn from the lessons that major disasters are teaching us.
首頁 