Date: October 14th, 2010 (Thursday)
Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Practicing Compassion and Wisdom with a Pure and Tranquil Heart 靜寂清澄如琉璃
I often say, “With a good heats, blessings will come.
One who has blessings is one who forms good karmic affinities with others.
If we do not form good karma affinities with others, it will be hard to inspire people.
To inspire people, we must first sow blessings by forming good affinities with others.
Only then will people give rise to joy at the sight for us and join us without any doubt when we invite them.
So, if we can all give rise to a good heart and sow blessings by forming good karmic affinities with others, we will be able to inspire many people to share the same spirit and ideals as ours.
This is what every one of us can achieve, so we must not underestimate what we can do.
Everyone is born with a heart of boundless goodness, so every one of us is inherently kind and good.
The Buddha said that the mind of the Buddha and living beings is one and the same, so we all share the same nature as the Buddha’s.
The Buddha has great loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, and so does every one of us.
This is because we are all born with an abundance of goodness within our hearts.
And in everything and everyone in the world, there is wondrous Dharma for us to learn from.
If we realize that, we’ll see that everything and everyone is speaking Dharma to us.
Through the work we do, we’ve come across many things and people in the world, and every one of them contains Dharma for us to learn from.
Everything that happens to this world concerns every one of us.
See how much suffering there is in the world is other people’s suffering unrelated to us?
It has everything to do with us because everyone in the world is interrelated.
That is why we must mindfully learn from everyone that we come across in life and realize that everyone is a living sutra that contains boundless wisdom for us to learn from.
In this world, different people in different places suffer from different hardships and disaster, and some of the people and places are far away from where we are.
To relieve suffering, we must exercise both compassion and wisdom.
It’s important to have compassion, and even more so to have wisdom.
Such wisdom can be found in everything and everyone we come across.
I often analyze something layer by layer until it comes down to nothing and something comes into being from nothing.
This is to share with you the truth of emptiness and real existence.
From everything and everyone, we can learn marvelous Dharma.
As long as our minds remain tranquil and clear, we’ll be able to take in the Dharma as it is just like how a clear mirror can reflect everything that comes before it without blurring or distorting its image.
Being able to serve is a true blessing and also our life mission in this world.
So, we must persevere in everything we do.
It would be a lie if we say our work is not tiring.
But after we give of ourselves, we’ll have sweet memories.
This is how we can help others in their times of need and how others can give us a hand when we are in need of aid.
To do that, we must use the Dharma we learn to give of our boundless strength and persevere in the work we doing order to create miracles.
Over the past 40 plus years, through our Four Missions of Medicine, Education, Culture and Charity, we have been able to bring aid to more than 70 countries around the world and set up chapters or liaison offices in 50 or so countries.
How inconceivable karmic affinities truly are.
Our missions are made possible because of the faith we have.
Everyone, as we work for Buddhism and for all living beings, we must see the Buddha as the heart of our faith.
The Buddha is the Great Awakened One of the Cosmos. (佛陀是宇宙大覺者) So we must have faith in him.
We should abide by the teachings taught by the Buddha and practice the Four Immeasurables of loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. (四無量心- 慈 悲 喜 捨)
That is what we should strive to achieve.
So, we must always harbor love and compassion and maintain a heart of tranquility and purity.
This is the state of mind that I hope everyone one of you can have.
As you practice the Four Immeasurables, I also hope you can pass on the light of wisdom.
May every one of us light up this lamp of wisdom within our heart and use it to illuminate an even and bright path and use it to illuminate an even and bright path that leads people in the right direction.
All our doctors and staff at our Four Missions---
I hope you can help to light up the heart of every person as well as your own hearts.
With the light in every person’s heart shining upon this world, we can truly bright light and hope to the world.
I also hope that every one of us can return to our original Buddha-nature, which is a heart of tranquility and purity.
This is what I hope for the most.
Thank you for your dedication and for making vows to take on the responsibilities of our Four Missions.
I am sure every one of you shares the same heart as mine and I hope we can all share the same heart as that of the Buddha.
Not only must we reach out to those around us, but we must also take it to the next level and deem everything that is happening in our world as our own responsibility.
I hope every person can vow to walk this path because life is indeed very short and time passes by very quickly.
In this world, everything is constantly changing.
Nothing is permanent.
There is not a moment that our body is at stasis as it is constantly changing at every moment.
Life and death is only separated by a breath.
So, we must seize time as life will come to an end sooner or later.
Since life will end sooner or later, the time will also come when we must part with one another.
So, we all must understand that our time is limited and finite, and work hard to seize time and forever maintain our original resolve.
After making a vow, we mustn’t just forget about it soon afterwards.
Instead, we must seize time to carry it out and, most importantly, do so steadfastly.
(我們要把握當下, 最重要的要恆持剎那)
This is very important.
All in all, even if I am not with you in person right now, our hearts are very close together.
Remember, you and I share the same heart and we must all emulate the Buddha’s heart.
In addition to taking the Buddha’s heart, and my mission as your own, you must work hard to nurture wisdom.
Thank you for your dedication and for passing on Tzu Chi’s spirit and ideals.
Thank you and may you always be filled with spiritual joy. (感恩 祝福大家法喜充滿)
(Source: Da Ai TV 人間菩提)
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