| People Who Give Are the Happiest | ||||||||||
| By Dharma Master Cheng Yen Translated by Teresa Chang | ||||||||||
The sky is beautiful as the first light dawns on a spring day. A wide swath of hazy blue becomes dotted with orange and red as the sun gets ready to rise. But how long does such beauty last? All things are in constant flux, a constant state of change. Time relentlessly marches on. How can we not seize every moment? When I took refuge in Dharma Master Yin Shun over 50 years ago, he said to me, “Our karmic affinity as master and disciple is something special. Now that you have made up your mind to take refuge in Buddhism, you must remember to be constantly committed to Buddhism and all living beings.” The scene lasted but a few seconds, but his voice, the place, and the ambiance were forever etched in my mind, never to fade. Across the years, whenever I ran into difficulties posed by people or events, those words always crossed my mind: “Be committed to Buddhism and all living beings.” It was a vow I took upon myself, a vow that gave birth to Tzu Chi, and a vow that has continuously motivated me to move forward. If I cannot carry through my mission in this life, I will continue to do so in my next life. If I had failed to hold on to that aspiration, there would not be so many Tzu Chi volunteers around the world today. If I hadn’t persevered in my commitment, the missions of Tzu Chi would not have spread to more than 50 countries. Reflecting on this, I sincerely hope that all Tzu Chi volunteers seize every moment to work for Buddhism and all living beings and persist on this path life after life. We held a board of directors meeting this April, at the Jing Si Abode, where 446 volunteers from 17 countries shared their experiences of carrying out the Tzu Chi missions in their respective nations. The purpose was to learn from each other and improve our work.
The reports from every country were impressive. They showed how our volunteers have taken solid steps to spread love in their countries. My heart was truly touched. Hong Kong, “the Pearl of the Orient,” is a densely populated place. Behind its glamorous exterior there are many dark corners. Some people there live in so-called “cage homes”—a type of housing only large enough for one bunk bed confined in a metal cage. Some people can’t afford to rent a place at all and are forced to live on the streets. When night falls in winter, they curl up shivering in the cold. Seeing their suffering, Tzu Chi volunteers deliver blankets and hot food to them. They squat down next to these homeless people and gently express care for them. Their actions bespeak genuine compassion and care. How beautiful this is! Last year, I expressed a hope that all Tzu Chi volunteers in Malaysia would unite their hearts and spread love all across their nation. They immediately began working toward a goal to recruit one million donating members for Tzu Chi. As of this April, in less than a year, the total number of Tzu Chi donating members in Malaysia grew from 300,000 to over 900,000. I hope all this love will motivate more people to do good and do no evil, and thus bring about a more harmonious society. Africa is 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) from Taiwan, where Tzu Chi originated. Despite the distance, Tzu Chi volunteers in Africa are close to us in spirit and action as they work with one heart to carry out charity work there. Though the native African volunteers speak languages different from ours, they keep my teachings in mind and live them out in their actions. They never forget my expectations for them. When they hold gatherings in villages to inspire people to join them in doing good, news of the gatherings is spread by word of mouth. People even bring their own chairs. When the crowd grows too large to fit in the room, people sit outside and listen. To ward off the hot sun, blankets are draped over clotheslines to create shade. Despite having only limited resources available to them, our volunteers in Africa do what they can to plant seeds of goodness in the hearts of everyone. Such is great loving-kindness—they hope to bring out the love in everyone’s heart and to help them gain happiness. Most of the African volunteers are impoverished themselves, but they have limitless power to give because their loving-kindness has empowered them to continually create blessings and form good affinities with others. They have truly transformed their materially deprived lives into spiritually rich ones. Their examples prove that a blessed life does not depend on material wealth, but on a spiritually rich heart. If we abide by our vows and keep to the right path, we’ll be content and happy every day. At the board of directors meeting, as I listened to our volunteers share about the philanthropic work they have conducted in their countries, I enjoyed the truth, goodness and beauty I was exposed to, and I witnessed unconditional loving-kindness and compassion. The volunteers work not only for their own happiness, but also for the well-being of the world. They do so by spreading the Great Love of Tzu Chi in their countries and sowing seeds of love in people’s hearts to help them gain spiritual abundance. “From one comes infinity, and infinity grows from one.” Every person can be a seed of goodness. I hope every seed can grow into a bodhi tree and give shade to people in need.
By expounding the Dharma, the Buddha hoped to help people realize that they all had the potential to attain enlightenment. We must open our heart to truly take in his teachings. Since karmic affinities have brought us to the Bodhisattva Path of Tzu Chi, let’s open up to receive the immeasurable Dharma around us so that we can penetrate life’s truths. The Thirty-Seven Principles of Enlightenment are the Buddha’s basic teachings for our spiritual practice. Among these principles is the Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Behavior, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. Following the Eightfold Path helps spiritual practitioners to keep their minds and behaviors from going astray. If your mind is upright, your understanding of things will be correct and you will stay on track. Whenever you become aware that you have slacked off or your mind has veered off the right path, quickly bring it back so that you will not waver in your commitments to follow the Buddha’s way. If you can do this, then no matter where you are or what circumstances you are in, your thoughts and behaviors will not go astray. Denise Tsai (蔡岱霖), a volunteer in Mozambique, once shared the following experience with us. This February, she and some other volunteers from Mozambique went to Durban, South Africa, for a Tzu Chi training session. After the session ended, they arrived at the border too late and found it closed. Since they couldn’t cross over to Mozambique, they drove to a nearby town to look for accommodations. However, it being late at night, they couldn’t find a place to stay. The 23 of them ended up finding a gas station that was closed for the day, spread some blankets on the ground, and slept there. Denise said that she used to stay in luxurious hotels and eat extravagant food when she went on business trips with her husband. Even so, she was not happy at all because her husband would often get drunk at dinner parties. But that day, lying there on the ground gazing up at the sky, she felt happy and secure because she knew deep inside that she had found the right direction in life. She and the other volunteers talked about Tzu Chi, sang some songs, and then fell asleep peacefully.
The group of people did not grumble or feel unhappy, even though they had to sleep in the open air on the hard ground. Instead, they were completely at ease, and they used the time together to encourage each other to seize time to give. I was truly touched by their diligence and dedication. Among the group was a woman named Victoria Manhique, a native of Mozambique. Though she lived in poverty, she was very dedicated to her volunteer work with Tzu Chi. One day her 14-year-old son, Alfredo Mabote, disappeared when he went grocery shopping. Victoria asked Denise and her husband for help, and they immediately called the police. Despite the situation, Victoria held up bravely. When Denise tried to comfort her and ease her mind, Victoria said, “I feel Master Cheng Yen is here with me. I’m not scared because I have love and the Master’s teachings in my heart.” It turned out that Alfredo, along with 14 other youngsters, had been kidnapped to South Africa by an organ trafficking ring. Luckily, he managed to escape. With the help of Denise and her husband, Victoria hurried to South Africa and was reunited with her son. Victoria truly embraced Right View and Right Thought. She did not complain and say, “I’m doing good deeds—why was my son kidnapped?” Instead, she told Denise not to worry about her because with Tzu Chi in her heart, she was at peace and had faith that her son would be safe and sound. Her mind was unruffled in the face of adversity, and she was able to deal with the matter with composure. She displayed a deep confidence and faith that showed that she was doing very well on her path of spiritual cultivation. If we take the Dharma seriously, we will be able to understand its meaning deeply and our mind will be determined and never waver. If a volunteer so far away from Taiwan can do it, those of you in Taiwan can definitely do it, too. It is so much easier to be exposed to the Buddha’s teachings in Taiwan, and we have many fellow spiritual cultivators walking this path with us. We should therefore work even harder to cultivate ourselves. We are all getting older, and one day we’ll come to the end of our life. It would be a great pity if we let time slip by in vain without mindfully nourishing our wisdom-life [as opposed to only taking care of our physical life].
On April 6, 1994, an airplane carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down. All on board were killed. The Hutu and the Tutsi, the two largest ethnic groups in Rwanda, had long been in conflict, and the Hutus started to take revenge for the attack on the plane. Genocidal killings started the following day. Hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered. Later, the Tutsi defeated the Rwandan government forces. Fearing retaliation, an estimated two million Hutus fled Rwanda and became refugees. Such interethnic violence, a result of prejudice toward other ethnicities, was caused by unbalanced minds. An unwholesome, wayward thought can lead to hatred and even merciless killing between people. Prejudice, discontent, and hatred breed unthinkable man-made disasters and suffering. If we want to put an end to suffering, we must open our minds, eliminate antagonism and ill feelings, awaken to the Truth, and follow the Path. The Path is the Noble Eightfold Path of Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Behavior, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. When we stay on the Path at all times, our minds will be right on course and will not give rise to disasters. The civil war in Syria has been raging for over three years now. Well over two million people have become refugees as a result. The refugees placed in camps in Jordan live in cramped quarters that do not offer the best protection against the elements. Understandably they must have built up quite some frustration. In early April, a clash erupted between Jordanian police and refugees. An impulsive action could lead to irreversible consequences and more suffering. We should reflect on this. In the early days, people in Taiwan were content when they had enough to eat and enough to keep them warm. Today, many people live a comfortable life and yet they are discontented. They want more and ask for more, even though they already have plenty. As morality declines, people’s minds are easily agitated and they cannot discern right from wrong, which leads to social disturbances. I hope everyone reflects on themselves to see if they behave in accordance with the right way. A Chinese saying goes, “Those who follow heaven’s law will survive; those who go against it will perish.” “Heaven’s law” is the right way of wholesome, true principles. If people live according to these wholesome principles, peace will reign in the world. If not, man-made and natural disasters will unceasingly occur. Chaos and unrest will take hold of society. We will never be happy if we turn our palms upward and keep asking for more, hoping others will satisfy our wants and desires. Happiness will only be ours if we turn our palms downward and give lovingly to others and to the world. When every one of us does our duty and harbors gratitude toward each other, then society will prosper in harmony and stability, and people will have peace and happiness.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently warned that if global warming is not contained, human beings will face even more extreme climatic events and a scarcity of food and water. Erratic weather conditions are attributable to excessive emissions of greenhouse gases, which actually have much to do with our everyday lifestyles. Do not think that because you do not work in industry, you are not polluting the air. All the electric appliances that you use at home need electricity to run and thus produce CO2. The demand for electricity is especially high in summer, when many households turn on their air-conditioning. Although cool air enters the houses, a great amount of heat is discharged to the outside air, raising the already high temperatures outdoors. The heavy consumption of electricity also creates energy shortages. Some people might say that since so many people on Earth are consuming energy, one person changing his or her energy consumption habits does not make any difference. Yet in fact, everyone counts. When each of us saves water and power, cutting back on our carbon emissions at any time and any place, a big difference will be made and global warming will be eased.
The problems of global warming and climate change are worrisome, but even more worrying are people’s unsound views and attitudes. Many people nowadays like to indulge themselves and lead an easy life, and they are averse to being physically active. They avoid work that involves physical labor, and when they go out, they drive or ride a scooter instead of walking. They always use elevators instead of stairs. They drive to the mountains to go hiking, but complain when they have to walk up some stairs. Like the old saying goes, “Save for a rainy day.” When times are good, we should prepare for possible worse days ahead. I hope everyone cherishes our natural resources while we still have them. Lead a frugal life and use your hands and feet more. When we all conserve resources and energy, we’ll be able to reduce CO2 emissions and slow down global warming. This is a way to love our world and sow blessings. Therefore, if we don’t want global warming or climate change to worsen, we must first tame and transform our minds. Stop putting yourself before all else and indulging in the pursuit of pleasures, thus consuming an inordinate amount of resources. Instead, promptly change your attitude and lifestyle for the better. When you do that, you will be doing good for the world. When I say “we must tame and transform our minds,” I mean we must nurture loving hearts. A vegetarian diet is another way to nurture love in your heart and an effective way to curb global warming. All living creatures on earth, be they human or animal, are co-inhabitants of this world. As such, all lives are equal and we need to love and protect each other, especially as all living beings possess the buddha-nature. Humans are afraid of getting hurt, and so too are animals. We should be sympathetic to other creatures and not cause lives to be lost just to satisfy our craving for meat. People are capable of doing good as well as doing bad. It all depends on our mindsets. Let us awaken our inner good in time and bring blessings to the world. Let us be ever more mindful. This article is excerpted from a series of speeches delivered by Master Cheng Yen from April 1 to 20, 2014. |
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