(Photo by Alvin Tan)
Most people opine that “love and kindness” are meant to be given to others, but in fact, they must be given to ourselves first. Why is that so? It is because a loving and kind heart is a heart that loves and cares for ourselves. We must take good care of our own heart and constantly be mindful of whether we are holding kind thoughts in our heart.
But our mind often wanders wildly. Sometimes it dwells in evil thoughts; sometimes it gives rise to kind thoughts. At other times, it may have neither good nor evil thoughts, and is thus vulnerable to temptations. This means that we are not looking after our mind properly.
If we do not take good care of our mind, once our evil thoughts are tempted to take the lead, we would be capable of doing and saying anything evil, displaying a really bad image of ourselves. Ordinary people usually harbour these negative qualities: greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt/suspicion. The existence of these five “mental toxins” is a result of not taking good care of our heart and mind, so these “toxins” will manifest one by one when triggered.
The aim of setting up Tzu Chi is to “help the poor and educate the rich”– we work to relieve the poor from hunger and distress, as well as to inspire the rich to cherish their blessings, and spread their love and kindness to others. The needy and impoverished lack material necessities, and it is not difficult to meet these needs. However, what the rich often lack is spiritual nourishment. If a rich person is insatiably greedy (due to the lack of spiritual wealth), wouldn’t he have the same thirst and hunger as a pauper?
The modern day society is in dire need of love and kindness. I hope that everyone will look after their hearts and minds well. When we take good care of our hearts and minds, we will care about people’s lives, and naturally, we will give of our love to others.
Extracted from “Huan Xi Zi Zai” 《欢喜自在》
Translated by the Tzu Chi Singapore translation team
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