20131209展現生命顯豐華The Wisdom of Silent Mentors
Living bodhisattvas are bodhisattvas in this world. Our world contains so many profound, wondrous truths. How vast this universe we live in is. But our heart and mind can also be so open and vast. That is what the Buddha I like having transformed selfish desires and worldly cleverness into wisdom. Our problem is that we don’t understand the true nature of everything so we are very materialistic forever pursuing more money and status, etc. So, in our lifestyle, we have endless wants. No matter how much we already have, we are not satisfied.
In learning Buddha’s way, we need to deeply understand the truths in how time, space, and people operate. So, we often sum it up as everything having the nature of emptiness, but we must also understand what truly exists. Learning the Dharma, we should understand that all material things are ultimately not lasting. But, we need to be very clear on what is in fact real… when we give for the good of others, we create karma stored as a seed in our eighth consciousness. But, we mundane beings still do unwholesome things and create bad karma. This karma determines where we reborn and our life conditions. The script of our life has been determined by the karma we created. Whether our life is long or short, good or bad, all depends on what karma we created in past lives.
For our surgery simulation program this time, all the silent mentors were truly admirable people. Look at Mr. Liou, who was 88 years old. Because his son, David Lir, Is involved in Tzu Chi, David knows that being filial is more than taking care of his father and being with him. He has to inspire his father to learn and realize the Dharma for himself and take these truths to heart to transform himself and broaden his heart to become spiritually rich. With his mindful efforts, his father was inspired to join Tzu Chi when in his eighties. He volunteered at our Da Ai TV, translating Tzu Chi materials into Japanese.
We also see our volunteer Chen Qiujiang who was a devoted volunteer from Tainan. He was an engineer. After he joined Tzu Chi, he was very supportive of Tzu Chi’s work. He had a beautiful plot of land in Sinying, Tainan City. It was located in the city and was very accessible. He grew coconut trees on that land. He wished to turn this land into a Tzu Chi gathering place where we can inspire and recruit new volunteers. So, he provided his land to Tzu Chi. Over the past ten years, his close to one hectare of land has helped nurture many local volunteers
I heard Master say that we have to seize every second of our time to do meaningful things because the script for our next life is written based on what we do in this life. Our script for this life and what we encounter in this life was determined by what we did in our previous life will determine our future lives.
I knew that he was suffering from cancer. So, I told him: You have to get more rest. He told me: For each day that I volunteer, I grow in wisdom-life. Isn’t this what you taught us, Master? I replied, But you have to continue with your chemotherapy and get treated. He promised me he would. So, even though he looked thin and weak, he still spoke with a lot of energy. When he later passed away, he also donated his body for medical education. This is truly touching.
Also, one of them is Su Yi-Chun. She was a volunteer mom for our students. For one gathering of Tzu Chi moms and dads, she came back to Hualien a few days early. Life is truly impermanent. In the early morning, and was sent to our Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital Nothing could be done to save her. It was like she had had this planned… She came back to Hualien on her own to volunteer at the Abode and listen to my teachings as if she were waiting for her time. In her luggage, she had preparing many snacks that students liked for their upcoming gathering.
There was also our volunteer Zhou Gua who had led a very meaningful life. From a young age, she had always lived a hard life and toiled in manual labor. Even before we started our recycling program in Tzu Chi, she was already collecting recyclables to earn extra money. So, she started doing recycling work very early on, even though at that time it was to support her family. But after we started building and our school, she started to help out. She worked as a housekeeper for a Christian family. Her mindfulness and hard work made her employer very happy. When she was about to retire due to old age, her employer gave her a gift of NT$1 mil (US$33,800). She then donated this money to Tzu Chi. She was very happy. See how she pushed the cart full of recyclables uphill.
This road is very steep. I used to push the cart like this. Sometimes, the cart was almost too heavy to move. It takes a lot of work to push the cart up the hill. There are so many mosquitos here.
There really are so many people with touching stories and moving contributions. It’s pity that life is so short. A few decades is not even one day for heavenly beings. But on Earth, life is only a few decades long.
Speaking of all material things in the universe not being lasting, our body is also a material thing. But for its sake, we give rise to many thoughts, both wholesome and unwholesome and do good and bad things.
Yet we also see these volunteers who used their bodies to do good and contributed their labor tirelessly and without complaint to care for the environment and humanity. At the end of their lives, they even donated their bodies to enable medical students to explore the mysteries of the body and benefit humankind.
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