202001203人間淨土聚福善Creating a Pure Land of Living Bodhisattvas
"My name is Lin Hu-wan. My commissioner number is 1130. Due to a traffic accident, I lost most of my memories. After going to a day care center for more than three years, I decided to continue to do recycling at our Tzu Chi Complex in Sanxia. Thanks to the recycling work, my memories have been returning gradually.
I often travel between Tucheng and Sanxia by bus and I always bring my coin bank with me. Master says that we must go amongst people to serve. So, I always bring my coin bank with me so that whenever I come across others people, they can do good by donating what they can."
Due to a traffic accident, he lost most of his memories. His memories have been returning gradually, (yet, despite his loss of memory,) he hadn't forgotten about Tzu Chi. He shares Tzu Chi with people he meets and encourages them to do good. He still works very hard. I'm very much relieved. I see that he has recovered very well. Yet, he is already advanced in age, too. He joined Tzu Chi 33 years ago. He and I were much younger at the time. Were we a little younger now, we'd be more agile.
I am feeling my age over the years. Although I was never very fit or healthy, at last year's Year-end Blessings Ceremonies, I could still take the stairs with ease and walk steadily. But now, it has become difficult for me. With the passing of time, our physical strength declines. So, we must seize the time we have.
"Our life diminishes day by day. Like fishes in a leaking tank, what joy is there?" This advice from Samantabhadra Bodhisattva cautions us that our life dwindles with each passing day. We are like fishes in a tank that is leaking. The fishes are swimming happily, but the water is slowly leaking away. Just think, if the tank dries up, how can the fishes survive? Mother Nature provides us with such a beautiful world. We must cherish it.
Before I went downstairs, I had a meeting with Catholic priests and nuns and our volunteer, Mr. Faisal Hu, who is a Muslim. Despite different religious beliefs, we gathered under the same roof, sharing the same aspiration of giving with love. How wonderful it is! Whatever their names are, all religions guide people to love all humanity.
See how our Tzu Chi members help and care for people around the world regardless of religion, leaving footprints of love in more and more places. For more than 50 years, we Tzu Chi members have all been giving with selfless love, and instead of asking for anything in return, we express gratitude to those we have helped. Our aid recipients are grateful to us, yet we bow lower then they do and also say thank you to them.
I often share with all of you that we can always find joy in helping others. Being able to give brings us joy. So, our Tzu Chi members always express gratitude to the aid recipients with genuine sincerity. They truly are living bodhisattvas. Also, they reach out to those in suffering without being asked.
The Sutra of Innumeralbe Meanings teaches us to relieve people's suffering without being asked. To serve as living bodhisattvas, we Tzu Chi members bring aid to the needy on our own accord. Bodhisattvas are not statues to be worshipped and asked for blessings. If we do not sow blessings ourselves, it'll be of no use no matter how much we worship. We must sow blessings by ourselves, and the only way for us to sow blessings is by giving of ourselves.
Let us give with love and care to relieve people's suffering. Whenever there are people in suffering, Bodhisattvas always reach out to them. So, to serve as living bodhisattvas, we must work to relieve people's suffering. This is the right direction in life and we must keep going in this direction and not deviate in the slightest bit.
In all, we must from good affinities with more people and (inspire them to serve as living bodhisattvas) so that in the future, living bodhisattvas can form a great strength to turn the world into a place filled with blessings. This is possible as long as everyone shares the same aspiration and lives it out. Maybe sometime in the future, kind-heated people can all gather together and create a pure land in this world.
The Buddha said that as long as we all harbor love within, we can serve as living bodhisattvas and turn the world into a pure land.
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