20220626勤耕福田積善德Cultivating Fields of Blessings to Gain Dharma Joy
I’m very happy to have this opportunity to come with the honorary board members; we bid you well, Master!
Due to the pandemic, many activities have stopped, but we’ve done all that we can to gather everyone together, though we cannot meet in person, every week, we hold study groups online. Children from disadvantaged families cannot afford computers at home, so we ask entrepreneurs to give of their love so that disadvantaged families can have computers to use.
At that time, India was in dire need, so we raised funds to help. Since we were raising funds, we wanted to invite people to give love, so we raised funds from friends and strangers. They became our donating members. It doesn’t matter how much they donate, what matters is the sentiment to give. Master told us to be vegetarian and invite people to do goodness and donate, and that our kind thoughts and acts should be nonstop. Hence, in my company, over 200 employees participated in the fundraiser this time.
As I heard your sharing, I felt like I could see your hearts twinkling like stars. Your deeds were not for self-gain, nor did you think: what will I gain from doing this? You sought nothing and lost nothing. That’s why we say, you shall receive when you do not seek for anything. If you did not serve, you’ll not gain despite you seek for it. If you served, you’ve done right by serving.
Seek for nothing in return and just do it. This way, you’ll not need to seek for anything, but you will gain. You’ll gain naturally, without you asking for it. This gain is gaining Dharma joy. How much blessing will one gain from serving? We needn’t ask that question. We only need to ask our hear, are we happy? Having serve others, are we happy? We are happy, so we have gained happiness.
I often say, I don’t do anything special, but every day, I harbor gratitude in my heart, and being safe is a blessing in itself. Because we are safe, let us serve others. When we give, what we give is truly ours. If we don’t give, no matter how much money you make, it is just stored in the bank.
It is just sitting in the bank. What you have is just one more zero on your account balance. Zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, however many zeros you have, what you have is zero. What have you gained with your life? Zero.
Master said if you don’t do your business, there will be others doing that business. There won’t be a difference in the business industry without you. Yet, in the area of charity, with one more person like you, it’s like a bridge letting more people see your kindness and your aspiration, and they will come around to do good.
People talk about how much money, they have. Actually, one needn’t boast about their wealth. When people just talk about numbers, happiness is far away. Don’t talk about wealth, talk about enlightened love.
What I mean is, talk about what the Dharma is teaching us, talk about what kind of view and direction we should have in life. Lately, I have been talking about direction, the direction of our life. I change my topics from time to time, so you must listen carefully.
For now, I have been talking about having a direction for life. We must set our direction correctly, otherwise, a slight deviation will lead you far off course. If, day in and day out, all you talk about is how much money you have made, the conversation will not be a happy one. What makes me happiest is for volunteers to roll up their pants and cultivate fields of blessings.
That’s right. Life should be like this. In growing rice, one has to bend down or kneel down to weed by hand. While doing this, one moves forward. Volunteers, you should often boast what good deeds you’ve done, because one should boast about what he has done differently. What is different is you say that I’ve done this. Let me tell you how happy I’m in doing this. I’ve also done that. Let me tell you the challenges in doing that. I invited many people to help out. I was so moved.
People will be touched by you. You then work harder and tell people what other good deeds you’ve done. Seeing you do this, some people will be aspired to join you to do goodness. Both of you then praise one another in doing goodness. Again and again, the happiness you gained is different each time. You share your experiences with people, and they wonder why you are so happy in doing goodness, so they also want to try to do good deeds with you. This is transforming people.
I often tell volunteers to recruit more new volunteers. If you solicit someone to donate one million NTD, he will donate it because of you. Yet, he doesn’t understand Tzu Chi. He will feel that sine you’re talking about it, and Tzu Chi is doing good deeds, I’ll join. If he doesn’t understand Tzu Chi, he will not develop fondness toward Tzu Chi.
I often talk about recruiting people. Bodhisattvas are beings with enlightened love. We must help people awaken and let them know that people in suffering live a difficult life. They realize that I have blessings. So, I have the means to help people in need, and doing this will make me very happy.
We help people and see that their problems are solved we further give them our well-wishes. We give without asking for anything in return and hope that people in need can receive the help they need. After their life has improved, it’s their turn to look for us, and they tell us they want to join us in doing goodness. This is called transforming one’s life and turning poverty into richness.
Over 2,000 years ago, the Buddha told us about the Bodhisattva Path but lacked the affinity to actualize it. In this century, we have the condition for this. The world has nearly 8 billion people. With nearly 8 billion people, in looking at the map of the world, if volunteers can urge people to donate money, no matter the amount, even a coin can help the world.
It’s like adding a drop of water into an urn. As long as that urn contains that one drop, they’re forming good affinities with all the people being helped. This is cultivating fields of blessings. Doing good deeds is called helping living beings widely. For you to have the affinity to add a drop of water is because I am telling you that even adding one drop is good. Your one drop contributes to the urn. Your help is not one drop, but the whole urn, which can be provided to many people.
In all, let us give rise to the thought of helping people. That thought can become the purest Dharma water and spread widely in this world. Volunteers, I want to tell you that when something is right, just do it. In following me, I will never let you regret about it.
In doing Tzu Chi’s work, every step you take is solid, and what you do is all correct. Yet, you must not waste your life. I want to tell you this now as I don’t have much time left to my life. I want to tell you this now and your must listen to me, don’t idle your life away.
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