20161225身心環保修福慧Keeping Our Mind and Body Healthy to Cultivate Wisdom and Blessings
The New Year is approaching, we will soon renew our calendars. Time flies so fast. Look at the daily wall calendar. We take off a page each day as each day goes by. In Buddhism, we have a saying “As each day passes, our life diminishes.”
I often say that as I become one year older, the time of my life is also shortened by one year. That is why I’ve been mentioning and reminding everyone every day, that there is not enough time.
There are so many things for me to do and so little time left, I am running out of time. I don’t have enough time. I truly do not have enough time, because there is so much to do.
Yet, each day, I make good use of my time, and do not waste any second, simply because there is not enough time. We are all the same, Of cause, there are quite a few of you are about the same age as me, but the majority are much younger.
Those who are younger must cherish your time. I really cherish the time that had passes. if I hadn’t been through the days of my youth, how would we have Tzu Chi as we know today? Fortunately, when I was young, I did not waste any of my time.
I seized the moment to carry out an original idea and started Tzu Chi. Doing good deeds needed not being rich, even without money, we still wanted to do good.
As long as we gave rise to compassion and love and gave of ourselves together, the old the poor and the sick, would have a chance of being relieved from suffering. that was my only thought.
A long time ago, on of the volunteers who followed me to carry out Tzu Chi’s work is Mr.Wang Cheng Zhi from Yuli,Taiwan. He is 101years old now and still goes around Taiwan to collect donations from his members every month as usual.
He travels around Taiwan to collect donations. Last year, I asked him “Do you still go out now?” He replied, “ As usual, Master” “ I’m may be old now but like a Chinese saying "a cherished knife never gets old.” Yes, He never stops walking.
Whenever I think about his old age, I wonder what is his secret for being so healthy? He keeps walking and never thinks of himself as being old. His mind is totally focused on encouraging people to do good and collecting donations, with every single dollar goes to help people.
He gets enough exercises by being active and keeping a pure heart with a simple intention. With a very open mind and a broad heart, his only intention is to encourage people to do good. That is his secret for been healthy.
Therefore, I have to say to everyone,” Senior volunteers let us not limit ourselves for being old. We have to stay active and contribute ourselves, to keep us healthy, not just physically but mentally as well."
"Doing this will also keep our brain healthy and functioning well. We all understand the law of karma, which is we reap what we sow if we want to reap good fruits, we must sow good seeds.
To plant good seeds, we have to think positive all the time and do good deeds. You may think. Now that we are old, what more do we have to do? A very important issue nowadays is environmental protection.
I'm very grateful to you recycling volunteers, You are very mindful in devoting yourself to recycling every day. Not only do you do recycling, you also participate in group studies.
There are seven places in Yilan that hold group studies. five of which open to volunteers for my morning Dharma talk. With these learning you’ve spent your time meaningfully. You collect recyclables and sort them in detail categories.
There are so many disasters in this world, the PET bottles we recycled are made into our eco-blankets, which are often shipped oversea to aid people affected by disasters.
For example, Italy suffered from earthquakes in August. Our volunteers in Europe gathered in Italy to survey the damage, then, they left to prepare the relief supplies. After they had everything ready on December 17 they began their aid distributions.
The weather is freezing in Europe now, so our volunteers distributed eco-blanket along with cash aid to the quake affecters. This distribution took place only a few days ago.
In our relief work nowadays our eco-blanket have become a necessity. And these eco-blanket come from living Bodhisattvas like you. Who recycle and sort plastic bottle.
In disaster relief besides distributing eco-blankets, we also distribute foldable beds. It’s a pity having to sleep on the cold ground. Affecters can sleep on the foldable beds and when folded differently it functions as a chair.
The blankets and beds are made of plastic, which is derived and processed from crude oil. By discarding plastic products without recycling, we damage Mother Earth greatly because plastic won’t decompose, and within some years, our land will be barren and filled with plastic waste. What do we do then?
Fortunately, we have so many living bodhisattvas taking care of Mather Earth, with our recycling efforts; we recycle and reuse plastic, and use them to help people.
Everyone, this is how we generate the power of love we give of ourselves mindfully with love to protect the Earth every day, this is your love to the world, so people can be healthy, safe, and well.
Everyone, your power of love matters. Everyone has a function. Doctor and nurse have their function of saving lives. What about the recycling volunteers? They also have their functions, which are to protect the land and love humanity.
How do we give of ourselves? Each of us has our own function. Don’t
underestimate our ability. Let us make use of our time to do good deeds. The more good deeds we do, the more blessing we create.
I hope volunteers in Yilan can pool gather your power of love to make Yilan safer and more peaceful.
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