20200824 生命風華譜藏經Thirty Years of Tzu Chi’s Recycling Effort
Our recycling effort is entering its 30th year; it was thirty years ago yesterday, on August 23, 30 years ago, I was to give a speech in Taichung. That day, I was on the road when suddenly, a small, tornado-like twist of wind swept by; trash was brought upward and hit the windshield of the car I was in. I was startled.
When I gave my speech that evening, I recounted what had happened during the day. The audience kept on giving applauses. Everyone, you can use the same hands you’re clapping with to do something, which is collecting and sorting recyclables. Right?
I heard Master’s talk on August 23, 1990. After I heard the speech, went home, and sprang into action the next day. It’s a charity work without capital. With my busybody-nature and hero personality, I thought, this was right up my alley, this was the job for me!
I am grateful; the speech that year indeed formed many affinities. Many became Tzu Chi volunteers because of it.
If you started doing recycling 30 years ago and have been doing it all these years, please raise your hand. Thank you! In addition to you all, let’s welcome some volunteers who’s been doing this for 30 years on stage.
Yesterday, I was grateful to see on stage, the opera troupe of Ms. Tang Mei Yun. They are artistic, talented, and marvelous. Not just with Taiwanese opera, they are also able to present modernistic beauty. Truly, so much humanistic culture was shown, and it was so moving.
They presented the beauty of the Earth, the destructions done by humans, which changed the earth, and resulted in the Earth in crisis; then, many people worked hard to save the Earth. Yes, as there are so many people working hard on saving the Earth, the crisis will ease off little by little. In their presentation, they clearly showed the urgency of caring for Earth.
Ms. Tang Mei Yun’s Dharma name is Ci Hong. I told her, “You must expound the Dharma for me and introduce Tzu Chi in your plays on stage and let people know that Tzu Chi’s spirit comes from the Dharma.”
Ms. Chen Feng Gui and Ms. Tang Mei Yun both played the roles of two elderly volunteers onstage. They joined the recycling volunteers on stage. These volunteers are real recycling volunteers, and the opera singers interacted with them.
Ms. Cai Kuan is 102 years old, she went on stage to share with us how she has carried out the recycling effort. She is truly marvelous. She can bend down and touch the floor, can we do it? You will be able to do this as long as you start practicing it from now on. Every day, stretch your arms up, bend down to touch the floor with your hands, and keep your legs straight. Can you do this? I think you can.
I said this, because I myself can. Every day, I practice this. I have trained myself to loosen my joints and stretch my tendons by doing exercises like this every day. I kept on exercising for some time and eventually was able to do it.
You see the recycling volunteer on the screen. She cannot stand straight, yet she went on stage and shared with us her experiences, which is truly touching. In fact, everyone has a story to tell; each story is full of vivid experience.
The celebration yesterday truly moved me. I am truly grateful for it. Seeing volunteers of all ages on stage, I am truly grateful. We have a team of volunteers who put together the program. They and Ci Yue have been very mindful in designing the program. They paid attention to my Dharma talks on things happening around the world. They wrote down what I said and shared my talks with others.
They discussed what they were going to present in the program. They carefully designed and put up the programs together for the whole stage. Look at Atao and Xiuzhu, they are classic examples of Tzu Chi volunteers. They were talking to each other; one’s son was getting married, and the other one’s daughter was getting married.
Buying a gown for the wedding would cost over NT$40,000. They said, “Let’s go to a recycling station and get ourselves a gown for NT$50.” So, they went to look for a gown. For the wedding of their son as well as their daughter, they wore the same gown. Later, their donating members asked to borrow their gowns for their son or daughter’s wedding. See, such are Tzu Chi volunteers.
They try to save however they can, and they can save beautifully. Such are Tzu Chi volunteers. When you hear about them, you might think “wow, they are really odd.” Even their shoes are used, as well as all that they wear. They are truly treasures; both have funny stories to tell. Besides these two volunteers, all those in the audience have their own stories.
There are truly many life stories in Tzu Chi. I often say we need to write Tzu Chi’s history. If we record volunteers’ life history well, they are all beautiful stories. There are a lot of stories to tell, and I cannot tell them all. Every volunteer has a life story. Which volunteer does not have a life story of their own?
Tzu Chi’s sutra treasury needs the story of every volunteer. Volunteers, you need to know that our sutra treasury needs your story because we cannot leave anyone out for Tzu Chi’s sutra treasury. So, everyone needs to be mindful in this. In praising ourselves, we also need to praise others. Those all around us deserve to be praised by us.
I’m grateful to every volunteer for recording down their life history. I want to collect volunteers’ life histories. I hope to gather a team to organize Tzu Chi’s sutra treasury. This is the biggest wish in my life right now.
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