20140102以法療心自解脫To Heal with Dharma
We saw our volunteer Mr. Jiang. He and his wife are both very active in Tzu Chi, and have listened to my teachings for a long time so the Dharma has entered their hearts and let them face difficulties with the right mindset.
Although he lost his only son, he understands the laws of life and this understanding of Dharma was able to help him heal from the excruciating pain of losing his child.
With his knowledge of Dharma, he understood that he had only so much time with his son due to their past karma. He could understand. That’s why he was able to accept what happened and with his wisdom, swiftly make the decision to donate his son’s organs after learning his son’s life couldn’t be saved.
Such a decision is very correct.His son was transferred to our Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital and immediately he announced his wish to donate his son’s organs to save others. With Dharma, he turned his grief into an act of kindness to benefit many families.This is his compassion and wisdom.
Because he has wisdom and Dharma in his heart, he can free himself from the agonizing pain of losing a child and quickly shift his mindset.It’s because he quickly turned his mind around that his son was able to donate his organs in time to save many people’s lives.
See how he is so grateful for everything. It’s truly not easy for someone in his position to do what he did and face all with such an open, accepting heart of gratitude. It’s really not easy.But he did it. He was able to turn his loss and pain around. He had the wisdom to quickly use the Dharma to overcome his grief.
It’s truly admirable. He’s able to let go of what is hard to let go, because he has been learning the Dharma regularly.So, he was able to apply the Dharma to free himself from afflictions.
He was able to quickly turn his grief around and right afterwards, carry on with his volunteer work as usual, even returning to the Abode with other fellow Tzu Chi volunteers to volunteer.He truly has been able to liberate himself from suffering. That’s true learning of Dharma.
So, our direction is to live piously, with vigilance and do every good possible to help others purify their hearts.But we’ll need to first successfully purify our own hearts by overcoming our afflictions to be able to show others how they can do it.So, we need to constantly work on our own hearts.
Moreover, to walk the Bodhisattva Path, we can’t cultivate in isolation. We have to go amongst people to serve to broaden our understanding of life. Otherwise, if we don’t get involved in Tzu Chi work all we know would be what happens in our family and work place.
But, by participating in Tzu Chi, we can know what happens around the world and we can go to people to help them.Every person’s life story contains stark truths about life. Every family has its difficulties and suffering. So, we need to truly go to people to help them.
That’s how we will start to see the profound laws and principles at work in life and gain the clarity of wisdom. So, it is amongst people that our wisdom-life gets awakened and grows. The true Dharma is not separate from the laws governing life in this world.
Life in this world contains so many problems and complicated situations as well as suffering. When we go to help others and learn deeply about their lives, we will come to see more clearly how much suffering there is in life. By witnessing and understanding suffering, we are awakened to life’s blessings and grow in wisdom.
So, we must dedicate ourselves to go help people suffering from poverty or disasters and comfort them with our love and care.The mission of bodhisattvas is to go to people’s aid and relieve suffering.For our disaster relief in the Philippines, it’s important that everyone watches our Da Ai News and special reports on Da Ai TV.
Our Philippine Tzu Chi volunteers again held distributions to nearly 10,000 families. With three to four people in every family, over 30,000 people benefitted from this aid. So, we’re still continuing with the relief work.
But I heard our volunteer Meizhu, who is now in the Philippines, share with us that now, in Tacloban, they are seeing cases of mental health issues surfacing after the disaster.
She gave an example of a college student from Tacloban who was studying in Manila. His family had 10 people. After the typhoon, he returned home to find his family gone and his house destroyed.It turned out that none of them had survived. They found him looking dazed and unable to focus. There are cases like this.
There is also a young girl who was bitten by mosquitoes. The bite area started to fester and maggots started growing on it.What this young girl is going through is truly painful.
So, I want to remind everyone that here in Taiwan, we are truly very blessed to have been relatively disaster free and remain safe and sound.So, we must have gratitude and be grateful for every day that allowed us to remain safe and well. We need to face each coming moment with piety and vigilance.
In life, it is by doing good to create blessings for all that we amass positive collective karma. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas all teach us to truly be mindful in seizing every moment to work for the good of all.
Though there are so many people suffering in the world, it is precisely because of this that bodhisattvas are needed to help people out of suffering. We must do all we can at every opportunity.
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