20141208 人間菩提 菩薩胸懷同志願The Common Goal in Medical Mission
It has been half a year since I last visited Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital. This time coming here, everything looks different. Everywhere I see people are truly sincere and with bright personality. I can see this everywhere.
Sometimes, it is better for me to come for a visit once in a long while than regularly every month. There was a Buddhist story about a king. He had a daughter, and he loved her dearly. The girl was very young, but the king hoped to see her grow up quickly. However, day after day, the young girl still looked very small. The anxious king started looking for doctors who could make his little princess grow up quickly.
Then, a renowned doctor came to the king saying that he can help the king to see his daughter grow up. The king believed him and employed him. In the palace, he told the king: “I can make your daughter grow up quickly, but you need to give me time to make her grow up.” The king asked, “How much time do you need?” “Fifteen years.”
“Alright, will I have a grown up daughter 15 years later?” “Certainly, please rest assured.” Time passed by very quickly. Fifteen years had passed, and the doctor took the girl back to the king. The king was very happy to see his pretty and grown up daughter. “So skillful!” the king exclaimed. Was it true that the doctor was so skillful? Actually, time is the main factor here.
It was the 15 years’ time that made the girl grow up, not the doctor. However, I also saw time doing its wonders on Tzu Chi’s hospital. All the staff in our hospital from every department share one common goal and utilize their time to help the hospital grow and expand.
The reports that I saw and heard from the doctors and nurses from 11 or 12 departments made me feel that they are truly remarkable. They came up with ingenious ways to treat patients because they really care about their well-being and their future life.
Life is truly full of suffering, as I can personally feel this. I have felt deeply the suffering that illness brings, especially the ache and pain when getting old. Sometimes I feel that since this is a natural part of life, I just need to accept it. Then, it would be better.
However, there are people who suffer from unexpected illness. Some patients are still young, yet were befell by a very serious illness. Their illness caused them to seek for treatment, one doctor after another until they finally came to Tzu Chi’s hospital. Tzu Chi’s doctors are nurses treat patients attentively as though they are caring for their own family with love.
Of course, we need to first properly diagnose the patients’ illnesses. Therefore, I am very touched to see Tzu Chi’s doctors provide the right medicine and perform the right surgery to cure patients. I also saw a case of a young man who suffered from scoliosis. After our orthopedic doctor operated on him, he was able to walk upright again and live a normal life. This will benefit his family and our entire society.
I often say that in curing a patient, we are actually helping one family and our society because this person might be a very talented person and a great contributor to the society. Then, early this morning at Taichung Tzu Chi office, I met the family of an organ donor who was also a Tzu Chi volunteer. Her children and their spouses were all there.
They came to thank the medical team of Tzu Chi’s hospital for helping their mother to fulfill her wish as a donor. Her wish is to donate at Tzu Chi’s hospital, a place she regarded as her home.
This was her selfness donation with love. When she was healthy and able, she gave of herself to volunteer at Tzu Chi. She volunteered in all four missions of Tzu Chi with dedication and love. At the end of her life, she even donated her body and organs to Tzu Chi. This is truly very touching.
In the hospital briefing I heard reports from doctors who are young and very courageous in helping patients through difficult challenges. Such courageous love and wonderful skills are indeed the specialty of amazing Tzu Chi doctors.
Though we hear from the Tzu Chi school anthem that youths need Tzu Chi to blossom like lotus flowers, actually, our hospitals really rely on these youths. I hope, in the future, these youths can forever blossom beautifully like a lotus flower which symbolizes purity of heart, untainted by afflictions.
Tzu Chi’s nursing school has a school anthem. Tzu Chi’s medical college also has a school anthem which describes the grand task of medicine in treating patients as sailing a ship of compassion in the vast ocean to save living beings.
The school anthem for nursing shows caring and gentleness.It uses the lotus flower to show purity of heart blossoming beautifully and being a person whom patients can rely on. I hope that this is the spirit in which the doctors and nurses in Tzu Chi’s hospitals can forever carry out in our medical mission.
In Tzu Chi’s medical mission, we see hopes for a better future because we are one in heart and working toward the same mission. With this meeting of the mind, our mission is to create best practices in the medical field which takes an above the average noble calling and strong will.
I look forward to seeing Tzu Chi’s medical mission becoming the model of medical practices in Taiwan. This takes team work, vision, perseverance and everyone working in harmony. Can Tzu Chi absolutely achieve this? (Yes.) I believe we can if we are very mindful. There is so much I want to say and to be grateful for.
The love between doctors and patients is truly heartwarming. Nurses, whom we refer to as the Bodhisattva of Compassion are like compassionate mothers full of gentleness and genuine love. There is so much love in Tzu Chi’s hospitals as I see several staff who are working in Tzu Chi’s hospitals or in other Tzu Chi missions are students from our nursing school 25 years ago. Tzu Chi’s education really inspires love.
Moreover, they all share the same goal and have dedicated themselves to Tzu Chi’s missions to pass on this spirit of love. As this continues for a few more years, all the doctors and nurses in Tzu Chi’s hospitals will receive and be able to pass on this spirit of love. This will require much effort. I am very grateful to them for doing this。
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