20220527法親關懷善相續Caring for Our Dharma Family and Helping One Another to Cultivate Diligently 中英
Though not certified, my husband was Master’s disciple; he’d been engaged in the recycling efforts on his own for over a decade at his job. While he was ill, our Dharma families gave us lots of love. Especially Biqing and her husband; they often brought ready-to ear fruits and flower arrangement when they visited.
One month before he passed, he was hospitalized. It was summer, and we lived in an apartment. I kept a garden on the roof, and Biquing’s husband rode his scooter for nearly twenty minutes, every day, to water my plants. I’m so grateful to Master. Because of you, I’m part of the big family of Tzu Chi. I have received so much warmth, care, and love.
I’m so grateful to them for opening their hearts, allowing me to care for them. I gave with sincerity and love, and they’d responded with much love. I’m also grateful that this had moved my husband; though he isn’t certified yet, he always comes with me to visit our fellow volunteer. He visits care recipients with me and witnesses suffering; he also helps recruiting for the bone marrow registry.
When people have good affinities, they’ll help, and love one another. When both parties are giving of themselves, they’ll spent time together happily. With the same aspiration, people will want to walk on the Bodhisattva Path together. Master, we’ll take good care of our Dharma family, please don’t worry.
We can be wholesome friends for one another, this is called ”caring for our Dharma family”. When we care for our Dharma family, we’d think: fortunately, I’ve joined Tzu Chi. I’m a part of this big organization, so there is the chance to care and be cared for this way. With today’s society, and the way things are, we are in an aged society.
Many people are not exactly old, yet, they’re not young either. Such is the reality. As time passes, we age as well. Older people are senior citizens. Many Tzu Chi volunteers are of advanced age, which is wonderful, they are near centenarians.
When one has lived for so long….Recently, I’ve been talking about an inventory of our life, which is to look at our life and think about what we have witnessed. Volunteers, in the big organization of Tzu Chi, as we come together to care for people in suffering, let us look behind us.
Don’t just look ahead, let us look behind us to see those we’ve recruited as well as those who’d recruited us, are they where we are? Have we been moving at the same pace? Let us give them our love and care. This is what we need to do, to look around us and care for our Dharma family.
Over three years ago, because of an accident, I didn’t take care of my mental health and my health; I suffered from depression, panic disorder, anorexia, and insomnia. I once went without sleep for seven days and nights. It was an extremely wretched experience; I almost collapsed.
I said to myself: “Wang Xianshu, You need to keep going. You need to be brave!” So, gradually, I started walking, for half an hour at a time, I just kept walking and training my body. With the love and care from my fellow volunteers, I was able to get better.
To be honest, my health has yet to recover, but I’m brave and I keep serving. When you serve, you forget a lot of things, and your body gets stronger. I’m the contact person for caring the elder volunteers. Since last year, we’ve had four elderlies that passed. I thought, fortunately, we extended our care to them in time, so I have no regret.
As the contact person, if I didn’t reach out to them, I’d be so sad, and wonder why didn’t I act sooner? I thought about my illness and realized that it was a test from the Bodhisattvas, it was also a gift from them. It was the gift of empathy. If you’ve been ill, you’d know why those who are ill cannot reach out. You’d also know why those with blessings should go to them.
As I listen to volunteers’ worldly matters, most of them revolve around problems of the physical body. We think with our mind. As long as we think in the right direction, our body is healthy, and we can still move around, we need to take good care of our mind and not think in wrong ways.
Don’t say that “I’m old. I’m going to take a break.” We mustn’t take a break. Like an old care, we must continue to drive it. For an old car that hasn’t been used, its engine gets cold. It would be very difficult to start it again.
Our life is like this. We ought to make a vow that in this life we do not take a break. For the sake of living being in suffering in this world, we should not take a break, but to continue moving forward. Bodhisattvas reach out to living beings in suffering. Let us not be living beings in suffering. We want to be bodhisattvas who care for living beings. Bodhisattvas come into being n this world. We are not born as bodhisattvas. Without spiritual cultivation, how can there be a Bodhisattvas Path?
To engage in spiritual cultivation is to reach out and help living beings in suffering. To people in suffering, I often say we need to be grateful to them. Without those people in suffering, bodhisattvas cannot come into being. In fact, their suffering is due to their karma and affinities. Yet, we too have our own suffering. As time passes, we’ll inevitably grow old and develop illness. However, our children or younger relatives might not be around us.
So, it’s good that we have our Dharma family. Look, as we are all sitting here, aren’t you all my Dharma family? We have affinity to be Master and disciples, which makes us very close. Especially Tzu Chi brothers and sisters all have the same teacher and the same Dharma, so their wisdom-life keeps on going. Thus, we should all know to give one another encouragement and help one another to cultivate diligently.
Volunteers, we should use our power of love to help one another to accomplish their spiritual cultivation. Living beings come to this world due to their karma, and they have no control over their karmic retribution. To cultivate diligently as a Dharma family depends on how determined we are with our own aspiration. Do you understand this? Yes.
That’s right. We gain by giving of ourselves. Remember this, only by being healthy, having the will and the strength, will we be able to give of ourselves. After we give of ourselves, we’ll gain. The happiest person is one who helps others.
In helping people, sometimes, a few words can have a great impact on a person’s direction in life. So, we need to always pay attention to our actions, speech, and thoughts. Our actions can help people and provide effort. Being able to speak, we need to make sure that we speak good words and encouraging words.
We need to always keep the Dharma in our heart. This is paying attention to our actions, speech, and thoughts. Do you understand this? Yes. Good. You ought to keep my words in your heart, and always think about walking the Bodhisattva Path with the correct Dharma. I give you all my blessings, thank you.
首頁 