20220504人苦我悲菩薩行Gathering Boundless Strength to Help People in Suffering
The bowing pilgrimage is to pray for blessings. I hope there’ll be peace on earth, less war, and more warmth.
I focus on chanting the Buddha’s name and pray for wars to end.
Indeed, in order to have peace, we must show our piety as we harbor our well-wishes and be grateful. Peace comes when everyone has gratefulness in their hearts, only this will bring peace to the world. Hence, peace and gratitude go hand in hand. We are grateful and we wish for peace; this is what everyone in the world needs right now. We need peace, gratitude and well-wishes.
In our world, as we look up to the sky, on a clear, nice day, the sky is blue and the clouds are white. The blue sky is clear and beautiful, and all the clouds are white and spotless. Sometimes, when I look at the clouds, they look like many statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas up in the sky, which give an auspicious and harmonious feeling.
However, lately, one the news, I saw Ukraine. The sky of Ukraine looked terrifying. The sky during a war, and the landscape during a war…the magnificent buildings which signified its culture and used to look harmonious were destroyed in an instant.
There are evil thoughts that rise from greed, anger and ignorance in the human hearts. With disharmony in a few people’s hearts, along with their greed, anger and ignorance, conflict begins. As a result, attacks come from the sky as well as on the ground. Many have lost their loved ones and are miserable.
How sad! We feel other people’s pain and are sadden by their suffering. My heart is so heavy; happiness is far from me. I’m heartbroken like they are. I feel helpless; what is there to do? This is an example of manmade disaster, a manmade calamity. .
Manmade calamities are caused by people’s greed, anger and ignorance, and people’s hearts being in disharmony. On a large scale, it can cause unrest in the world, danger and suffering. On a small scale, it can cause trouble in oneself, in one’s family as well as the community; this is all due to people’s mindset.
Why can’t everyone adjust their mindsets? People give in to their greed and desires; they go after what they want as they give in to their greed to no end. Listening to people’s wants, I feel bad and I think to myself: how pitiful! They are so absorbed in themselves, filled with endless desires, and immersed in how much they own.
I often think that, for a person to be full, eating one or two bowls of rice is enough. When it’s cold, all we need is to wear one or two more pieces of clothing to keep us warm. Having a house to shelter us from the rain with windows that can close to keep out the wind…
Having a sturdy house that can shelter us from the elements, shouldn’t we be satisfied with this? Yet, nowadays, having a house is not enough, people want more and they buy a lot of properties. Have they thought about life being impermanent? Circumstances change, such as manmade disaster. When manmade disasters occur, society falls into unrest.
Due to the unrest in society, people’s families and assets, and whatever they owned could be gone like a bubble or a shadow. It’s just like the Diamond Sutra says, like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow. All material things are like a dream, a bubble on water, or a shadow on a screen.
So, being safe and well, having a roof to shelter us from the sun and rain, sturdy walls to keep out the cold wind, and windows to keep air ventilated, we need to count our blessings and always be grateful. Having material abundance, we need to count our blessings. Furthermore, we need to cherish our blessings and then create blessings.
So, right now, everyone needs to harbor good thoughts and kindness in their heart so that we may protect the world, make it safe and peaceful, and create blessings for the world. Volunteers, I’m grateful to you. After you’ve heard my calling and seen how sad I’m at the state of the world, your hearts are with me and you’ve given me boundless strength.
I’m truly grateful to you. On behalf of the people in suffering in the world, I say to you, thank you! Thank you! I can never say enough thank you to you. Right now, we are safe and well, so we need to take action to create more blessings and give more well-wishes to people. This is what we need to do all the time with our body, heart and mind.
I sincerely give everyone my blessings, I hope everyone always harbor the heart of a bodhisattva and that you’re always walking on the Bodhisattva Path. May everyone be safe and well!