20230423譜寫藏經愛傳承Collecting Tzu Chi’s History
Typhoon Herb was in fact an important turning point for Tzu Chi because Master made the decision to have volunteers engage in serving their community. At the time, Tzu Chi volunteers were quickly mobilized in Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Nantou, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung. They not only surveyed the disaster and provided hot food, they also cleaned up.
On August 4, 1996, which was after the typhoon had passed, master said this in her talk: “Typhoon Herb has passed. When the typhoon was here, despite the strong wind heavy rain, our tzu Chengs and commissioners utilized their Great Love amidst bad weather.” Actually, when there was a flood, there would be no running water or electricity, and Tzu Chi volunteers would show up at the disaster area, and began cooking.
We can see on the screen, they were squatting near the ground, cooking; they didn’t have a lot of gadgets like we do now. We were still learning how to do many things back then. Master went on a tour around Taiwan on August 7, because the disaster was quite served. Master visited many locations to understand the disaster situations and see the affectees.
Master specially visited Nantou and Chiayi, where the disaster was severe, and showed her appreciation to our volunteers. On the other hand, Master spread the message about establishing volunteers to serve in the community. As I looked at the images of the past, I truly think that our land is indeed fragile! So, what is there to fuss about in life? Can we just sit idly by? Really, let us seize time. Keep a record of the deeds we have done; they’ll be a part of our history in the future.
Remember what you’ve heard in today’s presentations, as they were all about our history, and they are valuable information. Events of the past are very important to know; watching the presentations, I was quite moved. In life, let us be mindful in setting our direction and going toward it. Each step we take is meaningful and valuable.
Sutras are Dharma expounded by the Buddha, and he spoke of the principles of our world; the past that he spoke of were many different eons in the past. With a past that’s so long ago, how can we truly comprehend those events? I would not know how. Yet, we can hold on to our current century. The current century is the 21st century; let us begin here. We can even look into the modern history. Most of all, we can look into hat Tzu Chi has done in the timespan of half a century.
I’m grateful to the Tzu Chi volunteers who carried out Tzu Chi work in the past; they were brave and diligent. In today’s presentations, we were reminded that Chiayi, Hsinchu, and Tainan all had experienced typhoons, floods, and severe disasters. Tzu Chi volunteers’ courage and diligence were all a part of our history. When the event is more recent, we have a more comprehensive history on it. It can be in the forms of visuals, audio, radio shows, or footage.
Tzu Chi’s history will be stored in this kind of technology. I’m ever so grateful to Tzu Chi’s four missions for keeping our history in its entirety and making it simple to access since we have DA Ai TV. We also have two departments recording down our history. We are to collect Tzu Chi’s history on what we had done in the past. The history of Tzu Chi is very precious. This is modern history. The history of Tzu Chi’s work around the world is especially precious.
Right now, Tzu Chi’s aid in Turkey is still ongoing. All these are history. Tzu Chi’s work around the world and its history are happening right now. So, we need to quickly and timely collect our history from around the world and organize it. We need to quickly document Tzu Chi’s history. I also hope to archive Tzu Chi’s history. This is called wisdom-life, which is also our Dharma lineage.
We want to collect Tzu Chi volunteers’ acts of love, whether they are in the form of stories, videos, or written texts. I’m truly grateful. It’s like what our volunteer and staff shared with us today about a book on the history of Tzu Chi’s recycling efforts in Pingtung. Recycling contains many principles. Since that speech where I mentioned “using your clapping hands to do recycling”, Tzu Chi started its recycling effort.
We explained to people in detail the idea behind recycling. As to the proceeds from selling the recyclables, I designated that money to support our Da Ai TV. Thus staff from our Da Ai Tv indeed documented many precious footage of Tzu Chi’s work around the world. As Tzu Chi volunteers, we are to cherish this.
There were many deeds that other people did not accomplish, but Tzu Chi volunteers were able to. There were also precious footage and information around the world that other people did not record, but Tzu Chi has plenty of these information. This is very worthy. All theses are in our database.
So, we are to be very mindful in documenting Tzu Chi’s work. Tzu Chi’s sutra treasury, our history, is very precious to people in the future when they look back on Tzu Chi’s work. I hope everyone can be mindful in doing this. Right now, it’s not possible for me to recount Tzu Chi’s history. Even though I have a lot of memories of Tzu Chi’s work and I’m full of sentiments, I’m not able to recount those history now. So, I need to rely on Tzu Chi volunteers and staff to document Tzu Chi’s work well.
It's like that time when I went to survey a disaster area. In that place, the mountain collapsed, and roads racked open. I was there trying to cross that cracked road. This is a piece of history. Those were the areas we went to; they were also Tzu Chi’s history. Seeing these events in our history, I praise myself for living through that time, through that piece of history.
Without documenting and organizing our history, Tau Chi’s existence in history would be null. Volunteers, as you have been through that time, if you can organize your writings from those times, Tzu Chi’s history will be grand and memorable.
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