20131228學習菩薩除眾苦Serving as a Bodhisattva to Alleviate Suffering
“What are you here for today?”
“To bring out people’s love. Then, they can be Tzu Chi members.”
“Why did you bow to them?”
“We have to thank them.”
“Would you like to donate to help survivors of Typhoon Haiyan?”
“What are you doing?”
“Giving love to the people in the Philippines.”
“I saw houses all gone and all destroyed. I feel very sad for them. I donate money to help them to buy things. I also pray for them.”
“Their houses are broken. They have nowhere to live. It is so sad. This morning I brought my bamboo bank from home to donate to Tzu Chi’s international disaster relief.
Our volunteers in Malaysia are having a drive for “A Million Bodhisattvas”. Even children are supporting this drive, especially to help fund our relief aid for Typhoon Haiyan. We see such pure and refreshing love from children. So many of them are coming out to help like bamboo shoots popping up after a spring rain. We can see these small children stepping up one by one to help Tzu Chi. They are all seeds of love.
We also saw footage from our Da Ai TV reporters of the children in Tacloban, Philippines. Seeing these children, I really admire them and feel for them. Their parents participated in our cleanup program. Our volunteers told them: “Amongst the debris, there will be some lumber and wooden boards that are still usable. “If you can sort them in different piles,” “you all can reuse them to rebuild your homes.”
So, when they were cleaning their community, and clearing away all the piles of debris, they sorted out the lumber that could still be reused. Who went to collect these to reuse? The children. Because the adults were cleaning up the streets, the children would help collect the lumber. We saw children as young as five or six years old carrying 5 or 6 pieces of lumber on their shoulders, walking barefoot back and forth amongst the piles of debris.
Seeing it, I was very afraid they’d get hurt. For the material they collected, their father would find the time to one by one pull put the rusty nails from the lumber. It made me think of how dangerous it is for these children to carry the lumber on their shoulders. They are truly brave. In the aftermath of the disaster, we can see the resilience in these children.
This time I am also very grateful to our documenting teams, composed mostly of volunteers. They worked hard, paid for their own expenses and overcame great challenges to go to and stay in such a devastated area. All around them, everything was in a deadened silence, with no sign of life or hope, both the survivors and the surrounding environment.
The people looked numb or in a daze. Our volunteers went there and motivated them to take action to rebuild their lives, so that vitality can be introduced back to them, both physically and psychologically. Now, their vitality is back, like new sprouts growing. Hope has fully reemerged in people’s hearts.
This morning I saw three drawings brought to me by our staff from Da Ai TV. On the first, the child had drawn the sky covered by gray clouds and how his home was destroyed. Then, after the Tzu Chi volunteers arrived, he drew a blue sky with white clouds, and the temporary classrooms from Tzu Chi. Next to them were lush green trees and playing children. In the sky, the sun was smiling. This all shows the wisdom of these children.
Dear bodhisattvas, no matter how much I describe it, I won’t be able to tell you everything that our documenting volunteers have recorded and sent to Da Ai TV. After our Da Ai TV organizes these reports, they are broadcast on Da Ai TV, I hope you can all watch it every day because Da Ai News has reports daily on our relief program for Typhoon Haiyan.
Everyone, we need to walk on the Bodhisattva Path. In order to really become full of wisdom and free of afflictions, we have to go out into the world which is full of impurities to help living beings in suffering. Their life stories are like a sutra which show us life’s profound truths. Some peoples’ lives are very hard. They are trapped in a very hellish situation, with many obstacles every step of their way.
We need to go to them. Coming face to face with their suffering can make us realize the Buddha’s teachings such as his teaching on the reality of suffering, its cause, and the way suffering can be ended. After becoming enlightened, the Buddha wanted to tell everyone about the ultimate Truth he had awakened to.
But, everyone was too deluded to be able to comprehend. So, he had to first tell them: “the reason we suffer so much in life is because while we are suffering, we still continue to create the causes of more suffering. That’s why we keep ending up with circumstances that make us suffer. But, during this, we again have errant thoughts and create the causes of suffering.
It is a vicious cycle.” So, the Buddha wanted to let everyone know that the many hardship and suffering in life result from the causes we had created. So, he clearly explained what actions will create the causes of suffering, which lead to the consequences of suffering. Then, he taught us how to stop creating the causes of suffering.
Eliminating the causes of suffering requires that we learn to live wholesomely according to the Dharma. In this world full of impurities, we can see people going through all kinds of suffering and hardship. Only by seeing this will we realize how blessed we are and come to cherish our blessings. Then, we will know we must create blessings.
To create blessings for all, we need to do good and benefits others, which allows us to form wholesome affinities with living beings. The Tzu Chi path takes us into the world. Through Tzu Chi’s work, we lay out a path that people can take to turn their lives around so their life can go from rocky to smooth.
Then, they can go on to walk on the path toward enlightenment. I hope that everyone can be very mindful in taking the Dharma to heart and conduct yourselves in accordance with the Dharma. Then, you won’t take the wrong path can create blessings for this world.
In conclusion, it is the people who are suffering or lost who help make us into a bodhisattva because their life stories help us gain insight into the realities of life. This is our great good fortune serving as a bodhisattva in Tzu Chi.
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