Date: July 27th, 2010 (Tuesady)
Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Caring for the Suffering and Helping to Free the Worlds of Disasters 以善與愛作依怙
Every day, we praywith utmost sincere piety for a world free of disasters.
But can we really have peace on Earth just by praying for it?
What’s most important is people’s minds?
When people’s minds are not in harmony, the weather cannot be favorable either.
The term “global warming” that we use nowadays is referred to in Buddhist teachings as the “imbalance of Nature’s Four Elements”.
We see that in Europe, Russia has been affected by forest fires and peat fires that spread over a large area of land.
The fires have been burning for almost a week now.
In Taiwan, we see that a fire broke out at a naphtha plant.
The burning of such chemicals will impact the environment and cause pollution.
All this is caused by people due to the disharmony in their minds.
When they give rise to greed.
There are also disasters brought on by typhoons.
As we all aware, recently, two consecutive typhoons have affected some areas in the Asia-Pacific region.
The first was Typhoon Conson, then it was Typhoon Chanthu right on its heels.
These two typhoons formed in less than two weeks of each other, bringing devastation to the southern provinces of Hainan and Guangdong in China.
In Hong Kong, a book fair was held over the past week and our Jing Si bookstore also had a stall there.
Although the typhoons did not make landfall in Hong Kong, the torrential rains brought by Chanthu led to flash floods and mudslides. In the mountain areas.
When our volunteers heard of this, they quickly mobilized and formed teams to go survey the situation.
As soon as our commissioners volunteering at the book fair heard of such news, they quickly organized themselves into groups and some went to the disaster area.
Despite wearing Tzu Chi’s formal uniform of qipao and embroidered shoes, they still trod on the muddy paths to go to the disaster survivors.
After the typhoon passed, many groups and organizations went to bring aid.
Tzu Chi volunteers went to the worst hit area to visit people who have been affected by the typhoon.
They came across a few families that were greatly affected by the disaster.
In one of these families, a wife helplessly watched her husband being swept away by the floodwaters after he refused to open the doors to go in their house, fearing the floodwaters would rush in and put his wife in danger.
It was only on the following day that her husband’s body was found.
We can only imagine how hard it must be for this wife to accept all this.
When our volunteers went to visit her, she was being interviewed by several media outlets and had her face covered by a surgical mask.
Seeing how saddened she was and how she wished to be left alone, our volunteers gently told her that they’d just give her the emergency relief cash and not disturb her anymore.
However, as they were about to leave, she pulled down the surgical mask she was wearing, hugged our volunteers and broke into tears.
Our volunteers comforted and calmed her and promised that they’d return to support her through this.
Our volunteers also reminded her that there are still many people who love her, and that she still has her children.
There’s another family that has gone through a lot.
Tzu Chi volunteers began caring for this woman and her children after her husband died of cancer on July 14.
As she still has three children to look after, when Tzu Chi volunteers visited her, she couldn’t help out shed tears as life has been hard for her.
Our volunteers comforted her and learned of her difficulties.
Because she was from China, she does not have legal status in Hong Kong.
But with her children being so little and her husband passing away, she wishes to stay in Hong Kong.
So, our volunteers have been looking for ways to se if they could help her apply for permanent residence in Hong
Kong.
This was what our volunteers did for this family before they were affected by the typhoon.
Knowing that the area they lived in was also affected by the heavy rains brought by the typhoon, our volunteers made their way there by walking on rugged and muddy mountainous roads, bringing food, aid supplies, and care to them.
When our volunteers discovered that they had no power or drinking water, they immediately went down the mountain to buy bottled water and brought it back to them.
Tzu Chi volunteers are truly living bodhisattvas who reach out to love and care for those whom I love.
Whenever there are people in suffering, they go to their aid immediately and report back to me, telling me not to worry.
Such mindfulness truly moves me very much.
How could I not be grateful to them?
Everyone in the world is our family.
So, seeing our volunteers caring for others in need like family truly moves me deeply.
We see that China’s Sichuan Province has also been affected by flooding.
When the floods struck, our volunteers from Dazhou, Sichuan, happened to be in Luoshui attending a training program to learn more about Tzu Chi’s recycling mission so that they can share it with people in their hometown when they go back.
Upon learning that Dazhou was also affected, our volunteers called home and were told that everything is fine at home.
However, roads and bridge have been damaged and some areas have been severely affected.
Hearing that, they know they have to work harder to learn more about recycling so that they can help promote it.
A Tzu Chi volunteer, Li JhihJhen came from Dazhou said:
“My home is not affected, but many people in Wanyuan have suffered great devastation. So, we are still a bit worried”.
“See, if we throw plastic bottles everywhere and they are washed into gutters when it rains, the gutters will be blocked and there’ll be flooding. So, we’ll be waiting here for more information about the disaster situation and also seize time to learn more about recycling, we’ll go care for those affected immediately”.
Another Tzu Chi volunteer, Yan SianLan came from Dazhou said:
“We’ll visit people and share Tzu Chi with them so that more people can be guided to do recycling. So, we must work harder. All of us from Dazhou share the same mission and we’ll go from county to county to spread the word about recycling”.
Everyone, we must be disciplined, prudent, and sincerely pious.
Taiwan is also being affected by torrential rains these days, flooding some parts of southern Taiwan and cutting off roads in the mountains.
So, if you live those areas, please try to stay home and only go out when it is safe to do so.
Life is filled with suffering, Living in the world where many disaster are occurring, every one of us must pray for peace and safety as being safe and well is blessing.
For those of us who are safe, we must still stay aware and vigilant.
Taiwan is truly very blessed, but we mustn’t let down our guard.
Even when all is safe and well, we should still be prepared as well as be disciplined, prudent and pious.
With such a heart of sincere piety, let us pray for a world free of disasters and for everyone to be safe and well.
This is what we must pray for at all times.
(Source:Da Ai TV 人間菩提)
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