20210912分妙盤點集善法Accumulating Good Deeds Every Day
I’m so grateful that Tzu Chi volunteers around the world always pay attention to Tzu Chi work, other volunteers, and where Tzu Chi is heading. Volunteers all care about affairs regarding Tzu Chi. We have many international affairs. No matter which country, if there is a great flood, big storm, or a wild fire, staff will come to report on the devastation.
Every day, I watch the news, and I’m grateful to Da Ai TV because it reports international news in detail. I’m also grateful to Da Ai TV for reporting the truth and real news. It guides people to have right views, so people’s hearts can be purified. Its programs let me watch and hear Tzu Chi volunteers, and certainly, they are doing Tzu Chi work. We see Tzu Chi work being done in around the world and they are all carried out by people.
These people, I often watch them and think: this group of people is not motivated by their desire that is stemmed from greed; truly, this group of people has a heart of sincerity and learns the Buddha’s way. Very sincerely, they learn the Buddha’s way and seek to be awakened. They don’t separate themselves from other people.
We do not separate ourselves from people but we do not get tempted by the desires of people. With the pandemic, again and again, I’ve talked about the grand lesson. Truly, it is a grand lesson, and we see such impermanence of the world as well as the many disasters around our world. Human life is so light, it is tiny and minuscule. Yet, people have it backwards, so they all think so highly of themselves, and place much importance on themselves.
Therefore, day after day, their ego is huge, they are arrogant, and they never forget about themselves, and as a result, there are so many disasters in the world now. This pandemic is related to people eating animals, which is an act that helps the livestock industry grow. There is such a gigantic livestock industry because the earth has a large population.
The amount of meat designated for human consumption is truly monumental, hence, we should seriously reflect on this matter. Everyone ought to have a great purpose in coming to the world, yet, what is this great purpose? Such great purpose is to accumulate wholesome actions. It is not so that we can enjoy life and create bad karma.
A life of enjoyment is a life spent in vain while consuming resources from Mother Nature. Whether we’ve created negative karma or not we have passed our life idly. Since we’ve used the earth’s resources, we should give back by directing our life toward the positive direction.
This is why recently I keep on telling everyone about being a role model. Everyone can be a role model. If we can do good deeds, other people can do good deeds too. If other people can do good deeds, we can do good deeds too. When people motivate, encourage and guide one another to do this, everyone can do goodness.
So, as long as we give rise to a kind thought and reach out our hand, one hand can inspire a hundred hands, which then inspire a thousand hands. This is equivalent to one Bodhisattva of Compassion. There are so many Tzu Chi volunteers around the world. If every volunteer passes the idea of doing goodness to one person, with 1,000 volunteers doing this, there will be 2,000 people doing goodness. If one volunteer can inspire 10 people, 1,000 volunteers would lead to 10,000 people doing goodness.
All we need is to put our thought of kindness into action. Buddha’s teachings on the ideal of living bodhisattvas were not actualized until the modern time. At that time, in that environment, the Buddha could not truly bring his teachings widely to people. In that era, Buddhism was very passive. Buddhism taught people not to fight for or go after things. It had its reasons for this.
The Buddha taught people to return to their innate nature, be pure-hearted and not to have desires, and this made practitioners keep to themselves. All in all, let us seize the present moment and live in the reality of life. The reality of life is passed by in seconds. Life diminishes by the seconds. As we live a day’s life, our life diminishes by one day. We need to take an inventory of what we’ve done in our life.
So, today, I will also take an inventory of what I’ve done since morning till now. All in all, everyone needs to take an inventory on their life and use their time well. I’m grateful to Tzu Chi volunteers for their care and support in carrying out the Dharma and devoting themselves to Tzu Chi’s Bodhisattva Path. For this, I’m grateful to them.
I hope Tzu Chi volunteers in any country can start making big aspirations, don’t be passive, but to have big aspirations and recruit more volunteers so they can plant a seed of Buddhahood in everyone’s heart. We must carry out the Dharma on the Bodhisattva Path. Everyone has a seed of Buddhahood in their heart, but they must carry out the Dharma.
Otherwise, a seed buried in the soil which lacks water and sunlight will never germinate and become what it is. I look forward to everyone walking Bodhisattva Path and paving the Bodhi Path.
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