20210421牽手連心致祥和Working Together to Relieve Suffering
I’m indeed very touched as our Tzu Chi volunteers truly are living bodhisattvas incredible abilities. With the will to serve, they reach out to remote areas and carry out what seems to be impossible. We see how they’ve reached out no matter how rugged the mountain roads are. Because of their loving hearts, they cannot bear to see people suffer. They empathize with the elderly and feel others’ pain and suffering as their very own.
With a bodhisattva heart, they care for people around the world just like family and give of themselves with great compassion. This is how they live out their value n life by serving as living bodhisattvas. As they bring care to those in suffering, they no longer remain mundane.
The Buddha came to this world to teach the way of Bodhisattvas. We Tzu Chi members have taken the Buddha’s teachings to heart. When we learn of those in suffering, we serve with genuine sincerity and work together with one heart to reach out. This is how we form a great strength to bring aid to the needy.
We cannot form a great strength to do good if there are only a few of us. We must pool everyone’s efforts and love together so as to form a great strength. This is doable. And how do our volunteers feel when they do good? They are filled with spiritual joy. To help the needy, they are more than willing to help carry steel bars and other building materials even if they do not know how to build houses.
At our recycling stations, there are often beds, refrigerators, and other items that are still in good condition. Serving with mindfulness and love, our volunteers bring such items to the needy. Be it up the mountains or in rural areas, they’ve been doing this unceasingly. So, I often express my admiration for them. They truly are living bodhisattvas.
Also, thanks to our volunteers, children in need can have sufficient lighting to study and safe homes to live in, without having to worry about harsh weather. This is how our volunteers care for them just like their own children. Instead of asking Bodhisattvas for blessings, we must serve as living bodhisattvas and go amongst people to serve. We must work in unity and harmony and pool everyone’s love together so as to form a great strength to help the needy around the world.
Our young staff members have shared with me how we will carry out our international relief work. Industries and business around the world remain in the doldrums as the COVID-19 pandemic is still very serious. In India, there are different social classes and different levels of poverty. My heart truly goes out to the poor.
A Catholic nun said that every day when she opened the church gate, she’d see poor people kneel on the ground asking for food. The Catholic nuns are also financially strained. Yet, the poor need their help. I feel deeply for the poor and we’ve brought relief there.
I’ve often said that as there are no Tzu Chi volunteers there, we must work with the religious leaders. In India, there are Catholic and Christian leaders who have been serving for many years. There are many churches. So, followers turn to the churches for help. Yet, the churches cannot provide much aid. So, I suggest that we provide relief supplies and they help us distribute the supplies to the needy.
We see how they helped distribute supplies with utmost sincerity by hanging a banner with Tzu Chi’s logo on the wall behind them even though we didn’t ask them to do so. This shows the sincerity of religious leaders in working with Tzu Chi. We provide relief supplies and they help distribute them to the needy. We must continue working with them to help locals in need.
I keep saying that small bits of effort can accumulate considerably to help the needy, just like how drops of water can form rivers to nurture the land. In a time like this, only when we inspire everyone to give can we make a difference in the world. Only when we pool everyone’s love together and inspire sincere piety in all can we truly sow blessings for the world. I often say that to have blessings is to live in peace, harmony, and auspiciousness. Let us all sow more blessings to bring about harmony and peace in the world.
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