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 20121216—Nurturing Compassion by Living a Simple Life (簡樸增長慈悲心)

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20121216—Nurturing Compassion by Living a Simple Life (簡樸增長慈悲心) Empty
發表主題: 20121216—Nurturing Compassion by Living a Simple Life (簡樸增長慈悲心)   20121216—Nurturing Compassion by Living a Simple Life (簡樸增長慈悲心) Empty周一 12月 31, 2012 3:07 pm

Lecturer: Master Cheng-Yan

Subject: Nurturing Compassion by Living a Simple Life (簡樸增長慈悲心)

Date: Dec. 16, 2012

People say that when beginning a new year, we need new resolutions. Everyone, for the coming new year, our resolution should be to live a simple life and nurture our compassion.

For our society, we need to promote and encourage everyone to live a simpler life and go back to the basics. A simple life like this shows our compassion in cherishing resources.

Aren’t all our recycling volunteers cherishing resources? After people use things and throw them away as garbage, we collect and recycle these things because we cherish resources. We don’t see them as garbage. We call them “recyclable resources.”

When foreign visitors visit Tzu Chi, I usually tell them our recycling volunteers are as wise as Ph. D. experts.

They’d ask, “How so?” I would tell them that environmental protection is a major issue in the world and plastic is especially problematic. You and I only know when something is plastic, but we don’t know what kind of plastic. Without looking at it, just by touching it and listening to the sound it makes, our recycling volunteers can tell if it is PP, PC, PE, or other types of plastics. Just by touching and listening, they know the type of plastic. They visitors said that “experience can make one an expert.”

I replied, “Yes, our recycling volunteers have become experts in recycling materials. The hottest topic in the world now is environmental protection.”

Our recycling volunteers really are meticulous in their recycling work. Our recycling volunteers in Taiwan sort out recyclables in fine detail. That is how we cherish everything with compassion. In order to nurture our compassion, we must live a very simple life. Our theme for the coming year is about nurturing compassion through living a simple life and nurturing wisdom and love through doing good with sincere intention.

We need to have a heart of charity motivated by sincere kind intention. This nurtures our wisdom. Our love should not be irrational or impulsive. It’s very important to practice Great Love with wisdom.

I remember when I was in Hualien, on Da Ai News, I saw inmates participating in a sutra adaptation and eating vegetarian. Can sending people to prison to make them change? Not really. Many people who had been released from prison ended up being sent back again, because they couldn’t give up their wrong ways.

So, retired teachers from Tzu Chi Teachers’ Assn went to the prison to help. They have many methods for teaching students. With the heart of a parent and the wisdom of a Bodhisattva, they bring Jing Si Aphorisms into the prison.

They said that in the beginning, the inmates didn’t have good manners. So, they had to think of ways for the inmates to learn etiquette, such as sitting properly as a form of respect for others. They started by telling them stories, then Jing Si Aphorisms. Gradually, they taught them about the sutra adaptation. They had to train 30 of them in four months. Our volunteers were able to teach the inmates and transform their bad manners.

Now, when my Life Wisdom program is shown, they sit upright and put their palms together to show their respect. They also learned our walking meditation with orderly steps. When they presented the sutra adaptation, they presented it very well, and were very earnest and sincere. They showed their sincere piety by eating vegetarian. They learned the sutra adaptation and presented it to an audience of over 400 people. On the stage, they also shared with everyone what wrong things they’d done in life and they publicly repented. I really commend them for this.

When I was upstairs, a group of volunteers came. One of them was a young man. He said he was in prison before, but with good behavior and record, he was released early. That’s how he was able to get out of prison early. Now, he lives with his grandparents. He is now an apprentice in bakery and gives his earnings to his grandparents. He also gave me a donation for our hurricane disaster relief in the U.S. He has changed so completely.

You see, isn’t this a “recycling of human resources?” He is a very fine young man. He has the potential to be a good, kind person. If we don’t reach out to him and just leave him to go in and out of prison, wouldn’t that be a great pity? I’m truly grateful to our volunteers.

I hope all of you will serve with such wisdom and love. In your daily lives, if you can live simply and frugally, it will set a very good example for the rest of society and educate people. I often say that Buddha’s teachings are about everyday life. So, as long as we awaken the simple and pure love inside us and follow the Bodhisattva Path, naturally, we’ll understand many truths. Walking the Bodhisattva Path is what leads to enlightenment and Buddhahood. There’s no other “secret method” so don’t fall into false beliefs.

The Buddha’s true teaching teaches us to have compassion. When we have compassion without greed, our wisdom will naturally arise and our inner light will be lit. Then, with the light of our inner wisdom, we can guide people to walk on the right path. So, please be mindful in this.

Everyone, it will be a new year soon. Year after year passes like this as the days pass, one after another. If I ask, “Is it still light out? And it is already dusk that means another day is ending. It makes me wonder how much time in life do I have left to share with all of you what I see and hear and to pass on the Buddha’s teachings I understand.

How much time left to do this? And, how many people will cherish this Dharma that I share? So, I also feel that with the day ending, I can only await tomorrow, but will I live to see tomorrow? I myself don’t know. So, we must cherish the Dharma here and now.

(Source: Da Ai TV Life Wisdom program)
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