(Photo credit: Tzu Chi Singapore)
How time flies! It’s been more than half a year since I returned to Singapore from Taiwan. For the past three years, I was working as a translator in the Foreign Languages Department at Tzu Chi Cultural Center (慈济人文志业中心) in Taipei. Soon after my return at the end of June last year, I signed up to join the sutra adaptation of the Water Repentance Text which was to be held in December. Then I was asked to attend my first practice session held at a community centre near my home.
Upon stepping into the practice venue, a Tzu Chi sister asked me: “Do you want to join the chorus or sign language team?” Before I could answer, another sister replied on my behalf, “Sign language, sign language!” Having joined the sutra adaptation in Taipei in 2011 as a chorus member, I thought I should try and learn something different this time and besides, I was already quite familiar with the songs, so I did not put up a protest. Once lost in materialistic pursuits in my younger days, many scenes of the sutra adaptation struck a deep chord in me, so I very much cherished another opportunity to partake in the event.
The first practice went well and so did the subsequent practices in the first three months that followed. Because of the prior experience I had in Taipei and my past experiences in doing Tzu Chi sign language during group activities, learning the hand signs was not so much of a difficult endeavor. In fact, I found the practice sessions in Singapore quite “relaxing” compared to those I had in Taipei where all the participants were expected to be present at every rehearsal and the slightest mistake we made during practice would cause us great embarrassment and even cost us the opportunity to present the sutra adaptation onstage. Moreover, since I’m already a full-fledged vegetarian, I did not have to make an effort to switch my diet to fulfill the 108-day vegetarian fast required for participating in the sutra adaptation.
In October, however, the first challenge came. It was the day of our first combined rehearsal for all the participants on the same stage. We went onstage group by group to present our songs in accordance with the program of the sutra adaptation. Soon it became obvious to all that much work still needed to be done before we could put up a presentable rendition. A number of us were still not completely sure of our hand signs and/or positions on stage and many of our movements and hand signs were not in sync. Yet, we were just two months away from our presentation at the Singapore Indoor Stadium!
On the night after the first combined rehearsal, I could hardly sleep. As I was lying on my bed, images of our less-than-satisfactory rehearsal during the day kept flashing in my mind. I thought hard on what we could do to turn around and redeem our sutra adaptation. Then I came to a conclusion: the reason why our hand movements were not in sync could only be the lack of practice as a group. No matter how much we practised alone by ourselves, we could never learn to synchronize our hand signs with others’.
As one of our sign language teacher-facilitators had said: even if our hand signs were perfect, if we could not sign in sync with those around us, we had failed in our presentation. All the participants must be united in heart and mind in order for their hand signs to match with one another’s. But all along I was thinking that so long as I “took care of myself”, I wouldn’t make any mistake, and that was good enough. So I was filled with remorse and repented for how selfish and complacent I had been and how I had not made a conscious effort to connect and relate with my fellow teammates at a deeper level. I recalled that back in Taipei in 2011, I was so well taken care of by my fellow participants in the same team, and they had always contacted me to arrange to go for practices and rehearsals together. Yet, I had not passed on the love and care that I had received in Taiwan to my fellow participants in Singapore.
Therefore, I started thinking of how we could organize group practices and shared that idea with a couple of my teammates. Before long, my wish was answered. Through a teammate, I learned that a Tzu Chi sister, who was a fairly new Tzu Chi volunteer, and who was living in a nearby town, had already organized some group practice sessions, so I immediately contacted her to sign up for the practices. Another sister kindly offered her flat as a practice venue, and a small group of us met in her flat a few times in the evening to practise our hand signs together, staying late till after 10pm on each occasion. It was only then that I began to feel I was part of a team that was going to present a sutra adaptation together to help propagate the Dharma.
At our second combined rehearsal, our efforts paid off ─ we were more confident and our hand signs were much more in sync than before. In the days that followed, even on the days of our presentations, we always seized the time to practise together. Once, a few of us were even practicing our hand signs together while waiting for the bus at a public bus stop, oblivious to the curious stares of others ─ a teammate had just come back from her two-month stay in China and we were eager to help her catch up with us before our first rehearsal with the chief choreographer of the sutra adaptation, who had flown all the way from Taiwan.
Indeed, our sutra adaptation would not have been possible without the strong teamwork from all. In one of her addresses to participants of the sutra adaptation, Master Cheng Yen said, “Participating in the sutra adaptation is not about staging a performance. During every practice and rehearsal, if the participants’ hearts are not united, their movements will not synchronize. It is only when everyone works together in harmony with their hearts united as one, can they truly express their sincere piety.”
The sole reason for putting up a sutra adaptation is to share the Dharma with more people in the hopes that they, too, can be inspired by, and benefit from the wholesome teachings, and we can only do that through showing our sincere piety. Such sincere piety can only come about when we continually make an effort to humble ourselves, take the initiative to connect with others, and unite our hearts at a spiritual level.
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