20191002真誠救度締祥和Peace of Mind, Pure Land on Earth
The world is filled with much suffering. We must always live with vigilant care and sincere piety and care for others with enlightened love because there are still many people suffering in this world. A refugee camp on a Greek island can only host around 3,000 people, but is overcrowded with more than 10,000 refugees.
European countries have closed their borders with Greece and Greece has also closed the borders of its islands. So, refugees are all stranded here.
Be it taking a shower, using the restroom, or receiving food, we always have to line up. Lining up takes me up to eight hours a day.
These are all manmade disasters. To flee, many refugees have suffered great anxiety and pain. They never stopped during the escape, and although some people escaped dangerous circumstances caused by the manmade disasters, they still lost their lives to the suffering they’d experienced. Some families succeeded in fleeing from their homeland, but unfortunately, they passed away after they arrived in their destinations.
We see that many refugees are truly in great suffering. Incidents about refugees are still happening. Although those incidents may seem far away from us, since we humans live under the same sky and on eth same land, we must always remain vigilant as we can all be affected by disasters.
Even a spark can trigger a large-scale forest fire, leading to not only the loss of many trees but also the loss of water that could otherwise be preserved in the forest. In this world, many disasters are caused by human beings. Deforestation and natural resource excavation have brought about large-scale disasters. In some cases, when a few people are together, their emotions may arouse conflicts, and increasingly higher levels of racial conflict can result in social unrest and manmade disasters.
Many people in Zimbabwe are also in great suffering. Because of scarce rainfall and drought, people there cannot grow crops, leading to a vicious cycle in which food shortage leaves people’s minds in chaos. Also, poor people there cannot receive relief supplies, which is what we’ve seen during these few days. There are truly many incidents like this.
We see that in Haiti, protesters committed robberies and clashed with the police. Across Port-au-Price, there was truly much chaos arising from arson and other violent acts. So, I quickly asked if our office there was at safety. Then, I learned that it was not affected by the protests at all. people there understand that Tzu Chi has been bringing them aid and supplies.
Although some have lost their reason, they know Tzu Chi has been doing good. We Tzu Chi members have never been involved in or interfered with their political affairs. Rather, we always do charity for charity’s sake by giving of ourselves for those who are truly in poverty and suffering. Many people there are poor, but they are very sensible and well aware that Tzu Chi has been giving out supplies to those worse off.
They are actually very pure-hearted; it is just that they are truly in extreme poverty. I earnestly hope that the local government and the international community can make possible a fair distribution of aid and supplies there. All in all, there is too much to share about problems caused by people. When we bring genuine love to the needy, they are all filled with joy.
At our aid distributions, they always line up and display orderliness without being asked to. Although there is much chaos in society, when they come to receive relief supplies, their minds will naturally be at ease and peace and they will harbor nothing but gratitude within. Their minds are without inner obstructions indeed. If our minds are at ease and peace, we will naturally live in harmony with everyone. When there is peace and harmony everywhere, the world will be a pure and untainted land.
All in all, life is filled with suffering. Tzu Chi members are all living bodhisattvas. We must be grateful that with the support of other Tzu Chi members, we can know what’s happening around the world and work with them to carry out relief, creating merits as living bodhisattvas although we never crave merits. After relieving suffering by giving of ourselves, we will be filled with joy. This is the merit we get.
Because it is rare to be born as humans, when we bring value to our lives by working to benefit others, we surely must harbor gratitude towards other people and Mother Nature. Even a few of us can exert a great influence by unceasingly working to inspire others.
By doing so, we can cultivate ourselves and also bring safety and peace to the world. One person can influence a family, one family can influence a community, and the joint efforts of communities can influence a society. All this would be impossible without us giving of ourselves first. So, everyone, please be mindful always.
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