20140113珍惜分秒聚善緣To Take Hold of Every Second
On this second trip to host our Year-end Blessings Ceremonies, I’ve traveled from Hualien to Yilan, Taipei, Tayuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Qingshui, Fengyuan, and now Changhua here. Throughout my trip, I’ve been very moved, grateful, and happy because at every Tzu Chi location, I witnessed truth, goodness, and beauty, making Tzu Chi a place full of bodhisattvas.
Seeing so many people living the life of a bodhisattva gives me much comfort and reassurance because as human beings in this world, we live on the land, with they sky above us. We need to be very grateful. When the climate is favorable, the land will be free from disaster and crops can grow well, allowing us to have abundant harvests so we need not worry about food shortages.
But if there is extreme weather and disaster devastates the land, we human beings will face very worrying conditions.
For the Buddhist descriptions of the Three Major Calamities the Three Major Calamities have to do with unfavorable climate which brings disasters of water, fire, and wind. There’s also earthquakes these come from disequilibrium of Nature’s forces. When disasters result from this, humankind suffers major crises. On top of that, there are also manmade crises when people can’t live in peace with one another. This is all because of people’s mindset.
I often say that every second is the one and only for our lifetime. This is true for everyone. Once it passes, it will never come back. What immediately follows is a new second. There is continuous turnover second after second. With the passing of a second, a new second arrives, followed immediately by another second. Time keeps moving onward and we can’t ever get it back.
So, we need to really pay attention to every second because every second impacts our entire life. When a good thought arises, we need to take hold of it. Don’t let this good thought disappear. We need to seize it and always continue in that good thought.
Just like how 48 years ago, it was in one particular second that I resolved to bring the Buddha’s teachings into the world and let the Buddha’s teachings be of practical benefit to society by turning its spirit of love into concrete actions. Hence, we established Tzu Chi. At the time, I had nothing. But with causes and conditions coming together, in that moment, I made up my mind. From that moment on, I’ve been walking that path.
Look at Tzu Chi in Malaysia. In fact, it started only 20 years ago. When our Malaysian Tzu Chi volunteers returned for the board of directors meeting last June, they reported on the number of donating members they had I told them: You have so many volunteers in Malaysia. You vowed to recruit 100,000 donating members. That’s not enough. If each volunteer can recruit two people, you’ll have 300,000 donating members.
Thank you, Master, for your blessing. Do we have confidence that we can do it? Yes!
Last August, they returned again I told them that reaching 200,000 donating members is not enough. They should aim for 1,000,000 donating members. I knew they’d listen and work hard at it. To reach this goal, they now reach out to not only the Chinese people, but to the Malays and Indians in Malaysia also. Their aim isn’t fundraising, but to inspire people’s love and wisdom.
They hope to plant a seed in people’s hearts so that the people have the chance to encounter the Dharma and take it in. Taking in the Dharma, their hearts will become more pure. Only when people’s hearts become purer can we have peace in our society. Only when the hearts of all are harmonious and well-balanced can the climate become balanced again, because abnormal climate and natural disasters have their causes in human activities.
Also, we see that in Jordan, our volunteers are taking care of Syrian refugees who live in tents in the icy cold winter. Children need to study. But it’s freezing in the classroom tent. Our volunteers delivered gas bottles and gas heaters for them to have some heat in their classroom tent. It’s truly heartbreaking to see them living in such miserable conditions.
Also, in Haiti, a major earthquake devastated the country in the beginning of 2010. Our volunteers, starting with those in the U.S., immediately went there to provide disaster relief. Then, we helped rebuild three schools established and operated by Catholic nuns.
Indeed, we are grateful to Tzu Chi volunteers from dozens of countries for fundraising and sending resources to Taiwan for us to use for the Haiti quake relief while our U. S. volunteers went to Haiti in shifts to give the locals care and aid. So, this is our power of love that reaches beyond the boundaries of religion and race. Where is a disaster we utilize available resources for our work.
For Haiti, we assemble our U. S. volunteers and pool together resources from dozens of countries to provide disaster relief for that country. This all comes out of a beautiful heart of sincerity and goodness.
So, I am truly grateful. As I travelled to our various Tzu Chi offices, I saw our big Tzu Chi family increase in number. This year, we have over 5,000 volunteers being certified, so we now have over 80,000 certified Tzu Chi volunteers. The lotus flower you’re wearing symbolizes purity of heart for lotuses grow from a muddy pond without being tainted by the mud and can further beautify the pond.
That is what living bodhisattvas are like. The world is now filled with impurities, so disasters and unrest are happening frequently. Because of this, bodhisattvas will come forward to go the aid of those in suffering. It is precisely in such times of many disasters. Everyone can be a living bodhisattva.
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