20230707傳善成美心清涼Documenting and Persevering Stories of Tzu Chi
One day every week, our staff seize the opportunity to talk about their latest projects. Actually, our four missions have plenty to do. Our missions cover many, many areas, and staff share the same direction in one particular thought; this though is to benefit the world. For example, how many houses were built in the reconstruction project of Typhoon Morakot? Perhaps the people currently living safely and securely in those houses have no idea who built the houses.
They have no idea who had done such a good job in designing their village. It’s fine that they don’t remember, but er mustn’t forget this piece of history. This is because we hold a responsibility to the public, because our funds were donated by people with loving heart.
“My Granny and Grandpa serve with Tzu Chi” is a project my team has been working on lately. We put in a lot of effort. So, what we have noticed from making this program? I think it’s beyond the grandparental relationship between them but their legacy. What is this legacy? It’s not just the passing familial values, but the elderly is also passing on their Tzu Chi spirit, their religious faith, and their spirituality to their grandchildren.
Grandma couldn’t read or write before. Grandpa wrote down her donating members for her. Then, grandpa passed away, so grandma learned how to write for the purpose of keeping a record of her donating members.
That year, she was 77. Grandma said that she hoped I could follow her footsteps and be a Tzu Chi volunteer, but I always believed I don’t need to be certified to do good deeds. Then, she got older and older, and often told me she wanted to be a body donor. So, one day, I told Grandma that I’ll be in training to be certified.
I find the program of young people telling stories of their grandparents to be very heartwarming. The young person says, “My grandpa or grandma could carry very heavy things. They took on many responsibilities. Now they’re old but they’re still doing recycling. “Stories like that are very genuine and they depict volunteers’ perseverance, that they serve with a sense of duty.
The one about the drawing grandma stood out to me; grandmas have a lot of stories, and their grandchildren would see their grandma as a treasure. This also serves as an education for their family. All in all, we see that kindness has been passed down in that family.
With programs like this, Da Ai TV is recording history; these are real pieces of history, history of humanistic culture. There are also programs that educate viewers about family values, about our society, about technology, about nature, and about outer space and the universe. This is quite incredible!
There was another report today which mentioned sounds. Actually, silence is a wondrous sound. It’s the finest, the most wondrous sound. The best sounds come from nature. Listening to the sounds of nature, we can hear the sound of the Earth breathing. I’ve always said that the Earth is a living thing. Everything on the Earth is alive. Be it a pot of flower or bamboo plants, or the various varieties grass, I always pay mindful attention to their roots, their veins, and how they are connected throughout plant.
I stand there looking down at the tree roots. They are two different trees, yet they interact with one another with their roots. The roots of one tree pass beneath the second tree. The roots of the second tree pass through the territory of the first tree. Both trees accommodate one another. I feel that all living things ca live in harmony with one another in the space they’re in.
Then I thought that trees must also talk to one another. When they communicate, they must also make sounds. The sounds they make are imperceptible. Trees also talk and make sounds. The form of things is also imperceptible. In fact, the things that we see also go through changes. Take books for example. When we take out an old book from the shelf, we see that its pages have turned yellow and have brown spots. The changes that the book went through are invisible to the eye.
Hence, the world and everything in it go through the changes of formation, continuation, deterioration, and annihilation. Our thoughts go through arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing. Of course, our body go through aging, illness, and death. These processes are called the laws of nature. For the laws of nature to take place, time is needed.
Time creates formation, continuation, deterioration, and annihilation as well as birth, aging, illness, and death. The arising, abiding, changing and ceasing of our thoughts are very subtle. We are very to be mindful of this. There are precious treasures around us. When we enter a treasure mountain, but we do not know how to make use of the treasures, our time would be spent in vain.
What I mean by “treasure” is not a sapphire or a diamond, something that feels hard in our hand. Or when we accidentally step on it, it hurts our feet. Such gem rocks are of no use, and they can hurt people. True treasures are something that do not bring harm and can be enjoyed by our mind because, when we die, we take nothing with us except our karma.
If our mind doesn’t have memories of something beautiful, it’ll be filled with afflictions, which would give rise to greed, anger, and ignorance. We are to provide images of humanistic culture for viewers to take into their mind and enjoy. For me, I enjoy my own state of mind. Thus, I don’t have any memory of hie I was treated unfairly or the bad things that happened to me to recollect. I’ve forgotten them, though I have some impression of how I was treated unfairly.
Yet, for me to talk about those unfair treatments, I cannot, because I’ve forgotten them. I’ve always felt that I have no afflictions in my heart. My mind is always immersed in a state of beauty filled with good people and good deeds. We have our own media, our Da Ai TV. So, we are to document well volunteers’ stories and Tzu Chi’s history and present them.
This is what I look forward to the most to seeing. We are to set a goal to create beautiful programs. Our culture mission encompasses beauty. So, we aim to carry our cultural mission well.
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