20140114聞法轉業發大心 A Trip of Gratitude
I’m finally back from my trip of over 20 days. During my trip this time, what I saw and heard truly filled me with gratitude. When I arrived at my first stop, Yilan, it was very cold, but I heard many heartwarming stories that our volunteers shared with me one after another, and I was especially touched by the story about our recycling station in Daxi.
That recycling station used to be a fish factory. Two of the daughters of the factory owner, Mr. Chen, are Tzu Chi commissioners, and they’d been hoping that their parents and eldest sister could join Tzu Chi. So, the two sister often traveled from Taipe to Yilan to share Tzu Chi with their parents and sister and also invited them to take part in Tzu Chi’s events.
After participating, Mr. Chen was very touched by Tzu Chi. Learning that killing can lead to disasters, he realized that he shouldn’t continue doing what he did for a living. So, he truned his fish factory first into a recycling station and then a gathering place for Tzu Chi volunteers. By doing so, he hoped to inspire love in everyone in his town and to invite them to join Tzu Chi in doing good.
This is what Mr. Chen and his wife wish to do, and their daughters all give them their support. Seeing how they’ve made such an altruistic vow to promote Tzu Chi’s Dharma path in Daxi, which will benefit many people there, how can I not be touched? It’d be difficult not to feel touched. So, I’m very grateful to them.
After Yilan, I continued to head north and arrived in Taipei. At one Year-end Blessings Ceremony in Guandu, I saw Jing Miao. She is a very senior Tzu Chi volunteer and she is already 82 years old. Before our hospital in Hualien was built, she is already a Tzu Chi commissioner. Her commissioner number is 119. See how senior she is.
That day, she went onstage with those whom she’d inspired, including more than 30 Tzu Chi commissioners and over 20 honorary board members. She still has hundreds of donating members. This is not easy for an 82 –year-old. Ever since she became certified, she has been very active in serving as a volunteer in all of Tzu Chi’s Four Missions. For that, how could I possibly not be grateful and moved?
All those she’s inspired are very dedicated and have pure hearts. Every one of them is a pure seed of great love who emulates the Buddha’s heart, takes my missions as their own, and fully dedicates themselves to Tzu Chi. So, one seed can give rise to countless seeds. At our offices in Guandu, Banqiao, and Sanchong, every one of the sutra presentations I saw was very impressive.
So, Tzu Chi is not only a charity group with many volunteers doing good, it is also a group of truth, goodness, and beauty where people take in and live out the Dharma. Having learned the Dharma, everyone has correct belief and thoughts. They’ve truly taken the Dharma to heart I also went to our hospitals.
When I was at our hospital in Taipei, I saw our doctors and nurses presenting onstage teachings from Buddhist sutras about human ignorance and the tug of war between good and evil. When they tried to pull up and save the people dressed in black, representing the suffering, I saw how hard they tried. Our supt. and asst. supts. truly put in much effort in the presentation to show the reality of life.
Nowadays, not only are people ill, but so is our Earth. See how erratic climate conditions have become. So, we need doctors and living bodhisattvas to relieve suffering in the world. Seeing how vividly they’ve conveyed this message. I’m very happy. Our medical staff in Taichung also did the same. See how our doctors not only treat patients, but also took part in a sutra presentation to better understand the Buddha’s teachings.
It was truly very moving. Coincidentally, when I was in Taichung, the medical staff in Fuding Hospital in China also held a Year-end Blessings Ceremony and gave a sutra presentation.
And when I was at our hospital in Taipei, I certified 31 of our staff, including our supt., asst. supts., doctors, etc., as our honorary board members as they’ve each donated NT$1 million. Hearing their sharing that afternoon, I am truly very grateful. They’re really very dedicated to Tzu Chi. They not only serve their patients with Tzu Chi’s medical culture of humanity, but also give of themselves to help the needy and follow Tzu Chi’s spirit very closely.
On the path they choose to walk in life, they not only emulate the Buddha’s heart, but also serve as living bodhisattvas. There are indeed too many touching stories to recount them all.
All in all, there’s indeed a lot to share about what I saw over the past 20 plus days. So, please watch Da Ai TV or visit our websites for more stories. Da Ai TV has been reporting them every day. We see on the news that a low pressure area has affected the Philippines. There are indeed many disasters in the Philippines. Up till now, Tzu Chi volunteers are still giving out aid to those affected by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
Apart from that, they have also conducted volunteer training sessions for the locals. The locals know that Tzu Chi goes to people’s aid in their time of need. They’ve been helped, so they,re grateful and they want to give back. That’s why they took part in the training sessions. From this, we can see that Tzu Chi volunteers have formed a close bond with the locals, inspiring many of them to serve as our volunteers.
We also see how the children there can now study in our temporary classrooms. There’s really a lot to share. There are too many touching stories to share with you one by one. As Tzu Chi volunteers, we must know what’s going on in Tzu Chi. So, please do learn more about them.
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