20170306勇猛精進菩薩道Walking the Bodhisattva Path with Diligence and Dedication
I hope everyone in Myanmar can save a handful of rice to help others. My children will continue this practice as well.
We use the rice from eight villages to help people who live alone as well as those in poverty and need in these villages. One person’s strength is limited. We need to combine the strength of many people to help more people in need.
In 2008, a tropical cyclone caused severe devastation in Myanmar. Tzu Chi volunteers went to Myanmar to provide aid and relief and formed affinities with people there.
When volunteers first went to Myanmar, they saw many poor farmers who had to borrow rice seeds at high interest rate to plant their fields. Thus, after paying off the interest, there’s only enough rice to feed their families, which was why they always remained in poverty.
What could we do to help them? We distributed rice seeds to them so that they don’t have to borrow seeds. There were local residents in Myanmar who have love in their heart.
When volunteers shared with them the idea of Tzu Chi’s coin bank, they understood immediately. Despite being poor themselves, they pooled together their love to help people by saving rice instead of coins.
The practice of saving rice to help others has spread in villages there. I was told that farmers there can provide themselves with enough food to eat and also help those in great poverty, shuch as elderly people living alone, and widows.
The poorest people have given the less poor who have love in their hearts an opportunity to walk the Bodhisattva Path. Even though they are not well off and have to work hard to obtain enough harvest to make a living, they still aspire to help those in need.
Since the cyclone disaster, Tzu Chi volunteers have inspired locals to volunteer with Tzu Chi. We also see that from 2011 to 2016, TIMA doctors in Myanmar performed cataract surgery for more than 5,000 patients. They truly benefited people.
As a monk who spreads the Dharma, I need good eyesight to read sutras. I feel lucky that I received surgery for free here and that I could restore my eyesight at this age.
I can use my professional expertise and work with foreign charity groups so that patients in need can receive treatment. I feel comforted that patients are cared for, and I will continue to work with Tzu Chi to provide free clinics for cataract patients.
Tzu Chi is holding a free clinic for cataract patients. In restoring their eyesight, they receive love. After they return to their hometown, they can use this love to give of themselves and help others.
I’m very grateful that wherever Tzu Chi volunteers go, (people in need will receive the help they need.) Tzu Chi volunteers are living bodhisattvas who provide help to those in need. This is truly not easy to do. They also conduct free clinics in rural areas.
Seeing people looking forward to doctors’ visits, I feel their dependence and trust in me. Though the medicine for high blood pressure and vitamins that we provide can be purchased in Yangon, the joy I have when seeing smiles on their faces is indescribable.
Being poor, people in Myanmar rarely go seek medical treatment. They don’t go to hospitals even if they are sick. Patients in the hospital who are poor don’t have money to buy food. They truly suffer a lot.
Thus, Tzu Chi volunteers started to provide rice porridge to patients. Once, volunteers who have been to Myanmar came to the Abode. They said that there were many patients there (who had nothing to eat.)
I replied that we should provide meals to more people. The volunteers were hesitant about this, so I encouraged them with this idiom “those who open restaurants don’t turn customers away (to not set limitation on themselves.)
My words pushed the volunteers, thus they increased the servings of rice porridge from 200 to 800. In the past nine months, they have provided over 70,000 servings.
Some critically-ill patients don’t have family members to care for them, and they stay upstairs. There are no elevators at the hospital, so volunteers carry heavy pots of rice porridge upstairs and offer it to the patients lying on their beds.
The patients in beds are truly miserable, and there are beds in the corridors as well. We also see that two women who have just given birth sharing one bed.
They hold their baby in their arms and take turns sleeping on the bed just after childbirth. They are truly suffering. Some family members use straw mats to sleep on the floor.
This is the condition in a big hospital. When local farmers in rural areas heard about this, they aspired to provide meals in hospitals in rural area. The resources there are more limited than those in the city.
Tzu Chi does charity work all over the world, so I have become a Tzu Chi volunteer to give of myself with love.
Although I cannot make earning when volunteering, I earn merits by giving of myself. We are unable to donate money, but we can donate our strength. Serving as volunteers despite hard work makes us feel honored.
They use Jing Si instant rice to make rice porridge for those in need. It is indeed very touching. Before providing food for patients at the hospital, volunteers met with the superintendent or the doctors first.
They presented the Jing Si instant rice to them and make the rice porridge right on the spot. When the superintendent and the doctors ate the porridge, they were pleased and arranged for the volunteers to provide food.
The poor patients were also very happy. When they ate the rice porridge, they said that when they bought rice porridge (from vendors, it was always thin and watery.
But Tzu Chi’s rice porridge, made from Jing Si instant rice, is very thick. The patients were grateful and content with the nutritious food. Local volunteers in Myanmar dedicate themselves with great sincerity.
The volunteers in rural areas who save and donate rice also give of themselves. They carry heavy pots of rice porridge to provide meals to patients.
Seeing that many living bodhisattvas dedicate themselves diligently despite all the challenges and difficulties makes me think of the Buddha’s time. The living bodhisattvas of our time are no less dedicated nor diligent than those during the time of the Buddha.
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