20211112歡喜行善德無量 Seizing Time to Sow Seeds of Goodness 中英
Yesterday, after I arrived in Taoyuan, I listened to our Tzu Chi volunteers here share how they’d been caring for one another. Some told me that they were safe and well, and some told me how they’d been taking turns to care for some elderly-volunteers.
Hearing that, I was deeply moved. I’ve been thinking that thankfully, these elderly volunteers are our Tzu Chi family members. Perhaps their children can’t be by their side. Thankfully, there are so many volunteers visiting them and preparing meals for them every day. Sometimes, when they have to go to the hospital, other volunteers will also pick them up and accompany them to the hospital.
I’m truly touched. I’m touched because our volunteers always give of themselves with selfless great love and care for the needy on a long-term basis. This year marks Tzu Chi’s 55th anniversary. Over the years, a lot of people have joined our rank. I’ve said that I hope you can all save 50 years of your lives in the “age bank” that I have set up.
Yet, during my tour this time, some volunteers with great wisdom said to me: “Master, in addition to the 50 years, we wish to save 20 more years in our age bank.” With 50 years plus 20 years, they will have 70 years of their lives saved in the age bank. See how they do not let their age hold them back.
Indeed, when I was at the Abode, I often said that we must not let our age hold us back. Our wisdom-life is eternal. Those of us who are advanced in age all the more need to seize the time we have and must not let any second slip by in vain. The more goodness we do in this life, the more we nurture our wisdom-life and sow more seeds of goodness in our consciousness.
I’ve said that we perceive the external conditions through our consciousness every day. Recently, I’ve often heard that although some of our elderly volunteers are still in good health, their memory is not as good as before. This is why I keep reminding Tzu Chi members to excise their brains. To do that, we must work hard to do what we should do.
In life, we must sow more seeds of goodness and form good affinities with more people. We must get acquainted with more people and form good affinities with them. This is q way to excise our brains. Some volunteers have said: “I do not forget those old acquaintances, and I’ve even made new ones.”
As they make more acquaintances, they’ve been revitalizing their brains. This is why I’ve taken this tour despite my poor health. I can still breathe and give a talk to you all. As you find my words useful and are willing to take them in, I dare not stop giving talks.
I often say that the COVID019 pandemic, which has been raging for a long time, is teaching crucial lessons to all of us. The Buddha taught all of us to cultivate enlightened love. So, we must awaken ourselves, care for all with love, and inspire love in them. We must not be deluded or let our desires run rampant. We must not do this, but instead give with selfless great love and inspire others to do the same. This is what we must do in life.
If we only wish to enjoy life, we will crave more wealth, seeking to add more digits to our bank savings. Even if we’ve added eight digits tour savings, we will seek to add the ninth one. Yet, when we’ve added the ninth digit, we still to add more digits to our savings. When we have 100 billion dollars, what will it be if we add one more digit? Trillion. Do you know “trillion”? “Chuo” is a Chinese character meaning “to run” and in Taiwanese, it sounds the same as “to run away.” If we combine “Chuo” and the Chinese character for “trillion,” what Chinese character will we create? The character for “to run away.”
Our time will be up if we always seek wealth. So, instead of seeking wealth, we must awaken ourselves, count our blessings, and sow more. I hope we can all keep our desires in check rather than endlessly seek what we want. We should be content when we have enough clothes to wear. There are piles of discarded clothes that are like mountains, which is very saddening.
So, I hope that we can all make good use of what we have and stop buying anything we do not need. If we have something we no longer need and want to take it to a recycling station, we must clean it before taking it to the recycling station. I cannot bear to see our elderly volunteers bend over and sort piles of dirty recyclables. Yet, they do recycling with great joy. They’ve truly created countless merits
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