(Photo by Chan May Ching)
The New Year is coming, and I am filled with gratitude and joy when I see Tzu Chi volunteers from all over the world returning to participate in the Year End Blessing Ceremony or become certified. Usually, we are physically far apart from the overseas volunteers. Still, as long as we have the intention, the distance of thousands of mountains and rivers can never separate us from this long-lasting love. This love is a Bodhisattva love. We all have the same vow – to follow the path of Bodhisattva in the past life, in this life, and future lifetimes.
Bodhisattvas are people who pave the path and lead the way. They inherit and pass on the Buddha's education, open up a broad path, and pass the baton to future generations so that it won't end at our generation. Whenever a young person comes to me and vows to "carry the rice baskets for the world", hearing them say "I do" is very powerful and makes me feel increasingly reassured. In the past few years, I have been aware that I am getting older, my body is weakening, and it is very difficult for me to speak. Now, what I look forward to most is that everyone can help me explain and spread Tzu Chi's Dharma so that all who are suffering can benefit from it and be helped.
When tracing the origins of Tzu Chi's achievements, one inevitably comes across the pivotal "Bamboo Bank Era". During that period, it was the advocacy of love education that enabled Tzu Chi's charitable missions to spread around the world. Recently, I saw in Bodh Gaya, India, where volunteers and villagers also used bamboo to make bamboo coin banks and distributed them for people to save every penny and donate it for charity. Although they live in poverty, they have cultivated a rich heart. If you have more money, you can help others.
It's not about how much money the person donates; it's about the "merit". The word "virtue" in Hokkien has the same pronunciation as "bamboo". Bamboo has knots called “节” (jié) in Mandarin, and what matters is the “气节” (qì jié), which is moral courage and integrity. Fundraising is about inspiring love and kindness in people, and what is solicited is the desire to do good deeds. Everyone's love is equal. A river or a stream with your drop of water flows to the sea and becomes as immeasurable as the sea. When gathered together, it is the force of love, and everyone's merits are immeasurable. The bamboo bank era is the beginning of inspiring love. I hope this intention will continue to be passed down from generation to generation.
Every day, I see and hear stories happening all over the world, including the suffering of poverty and illness, the suffering of being alone and helpless, the suffering of being ignorant, and the suffering of being troubled by trivial matters. To become enlightened, we always need to learn. Every day, I learn how to be liberated and broaden my love. Every day, I also aspire and hope that there are great causes, great affinities, and long-lasting love that will allow us to practice the Bodhisattva path and forge more good affinities with the masses.
We are very blessed to be able to choose the direction in which we intend to put our efforts and our purpose in life. We are also blessed to have a good karmic affinity to return to Buddhism. It is important to respect the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The most important thing is to practice "kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity" in our daily life. Compassion is about "giving joy"; we want people to feel happy, at ease, and warm when they see us, just like some people who are happy to get close to me, and I can listen to what they say. I also want to respond to the good things they do. It is because of his good connections with all living beings that he is recognised by so many people. We must also learn from him.
It is not easy to have the right knowledge, right views, and right behaviour that everyone respects and loves, and is willing to follow. However, you must have a firm determination to do it. This is also my expectation for myself. Every day, I say that the time is running out. It is the sense of urgency that prompted me to encourage and educate myself to seize the moment and be diligent. And that every word I say must be in line with the Buddha's teachings, which is to have the right view and follow the right path.
More than 2,500 years ago, the suffering in the world that the Buddha saw ignited his compassion. He realised that all things in the world are inseparable from the "three principles and four characteristics": Everything physical goes through the stages of formation, existence, destruction, and emptiness; everything in the mind goes through the stages of arising, abiding, changing and ceasing; while everything biological goes through the stages of birth, old age, illness, and death. All matter is subject to impermanence, not to mention the human mind. It is not easy to make a vow. Even if you have already made a vow and there are conditions for you to make it, it is difficult to maintain this vow forever, and it is even more difficult to vow to persist because there are too many troubles, ignorance, and obstacles in the world. "Faith is the source of merit and virtue." If there is no firm faith, the love will disappear very quickly, and merit will be difficult to sow.
Over the past fifty years, Tzu Chi has opened up people's minds with Buddhism and purified every Tzu Chi volunteers with Tzu Chi's teachings. Therefore, I often say that Tzu Chi has helped the world a lot. The greatest value of Tzu Chi is bringing together great love and allowing Tzu Chi volunteers around the world to work together as if holding hands around the entire earth, connecting long-term love and great love.
You will have blessings only if you create blessings, just as you will make progress if you start walking, and you can walk a thousand miles if you walk step by step. Every second that passes and will never come back. Time is very precious to us. We must grasp the causes and conditions and work harder. Those who can help others are blessed. We must accumulate blessings for ourselves. Everyone, please put in more effort and be mindful!
Translated by Tan Poh Ching
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