When Cheng-chung lost his intelligent, sweet, lovely wife in a truck accident on the campus of the University of New South Wales, how did he cope with the nightmare?

Wu Cheng-chung and his wife, Chun, were taking graduate courses at the University of New South Wales. His major was finance and hers education. They planned to return to Taiwan after they received their master's degrees and contribute their acquired knowledge to Taiwan.

Although they came from well-to-do families, they did not receive any money from them. Instead they scrimped and saved their own money to pay for their studies. Chun received her degree this May, and Cheng-chung was scheduled to graduate in July. A bright future was opening up before their eyes.


A nightmare

Chun had been a good daughter. At the end of March, she invited her parents to attend her graduation ceremony and to do some sightseeing in Australia. Her parents had not been on good terms with each other since she left for Australia. Being a good daughter, she tried hard to bring her parents back together.

In order to make her parents' stay as pleasant as possible and go to places they would want to visit, Chun and Cheng-chung exceeded their frugal budget of US$33 per week. They tried out several restaurants to find ones that would please her parents. Cheng-chung saw how kind and thoughtful his wife was toward her parents, and he thanked heaven for giving him such a considerate wife.

On April 19, the parents happily took the plane heading back to Taiwan. Before they boarded, they made one last phone call to Chun. Over the phone, Chun told her parents that she would leave for school soon.

Like other students, Chun had walked that slope on campus many times. On that day, a fully loaded truck was parked on the slope. The driver got out to find out where to unload his cargo. Suddenly the truck started rolling downhill, faster and faster. Seeing this, students screamed and tried to dodge the vehicle. Chun instinctively jumped to the right. Unfortunately, the truck veered to the right at a tremendous speed as well, and in a split second it took away Chun's life. At that time, her parents' plane had been in the air for just one hour.

As soon as they heard the news, Tzu Chi members rushed to the school. Engulfed in excruciating grief, Cheng-chung cried bitterly in the arms of Sister Chi Ya-ying. "Why did heaven took away my dearest wife? Was it because heaven envied our happiness?"

Tzu Chi volunteers took care of Chun's funeral affairs. They prayed for her, put her in the coffin, held the funeral for her, and asked dharma masters to purify the site of the accident. Every day, Sister Ya-ying kept Cheng-chung company and was always there for him.

Cheng-chung's classmates took turns staying at his place because they were worried that he might collapse from unbearable grief. In front of other people Cheng-chung pretended to be strong, but inside he was bleeding. He couldn't eat and couldn't sleep. He constantly stroked the pictures they had taken together and kept calling her name. How he wished this was all but a nightmare.

With help from the agencies concerned, Chun's body was sent back to Taiwan on April 28. Cheng-chung's hopes were shattered, for he finally fully realized that his wife would never come back to him.


Transcending the suffering

Sister Ya-ying went with Cheng-chung to take Chun's body back to Taiwan. They took care of the funeral affairs with Tzu Chi people in Taiwan, and they also visited the couple's parents. The parents on both sides couldn't stop their tears from flowing, for they had lost such a good, considerate daughter. At the same time, they were worried that Cheng-chung himself might collapse.

Seeing how Cheng-chung suppressed his grief in front of the parents and forced himself to smile, Sister Ya-ying was worried that he would eventually break down. So she invited him to attend the Global Tzu Chi People's Annual Conference, hoping to help him walk out of the darkness.

At the conference, Cheng-chung was consoled to learn that since his wife had always been willing to give a helping hand, such as frequently helping at the Children's Autism Center, she had actually been carrying out the Path of the Bodhisattvas as expounded in the Thirty-Seven Principles of Enlightenment. In Cheng-chung's heart, Chun had indeed become a bodhisattva. Yet in the confusion in his mind, he still wondered where his darling's soul had gone and why such tragedy had befallen her.

On May 15, after breakfast, Sister Ya-ying's fears came true. Cheng-chung fainted and fell to the floor, and his whole body hardened. Without even putting on her shoes, Sister Ya-ying rushed him to the Tzu Chi Hospital in Hualien.

The doctor's prescription should have put Cheng-chung to sleep for three hours, but after just one hour he struggled to get up. He wanted to leave, yet he didn't dare to, so he waited till Sister Ya-ying came. She finally decided to arrange for Cheng-chung to see Master Cheng Yen.

"Life is full of suffering," the Master told him. "Parting with loved ones is also suffering. You must accept the fact that your wonderful life with your wife has ended. The most important thing right now is to start to repay the kindness of others and to give of yourself to others. In the past, you gave conditionally in order to please your wife. Now you must enlarge this limited love to a greater love, repay the kindness of your parents, and give unconditionally for all people."

"Do you understand?" the Master asked.

Cheng-chung nodded.

"Okay, then tell me what you have heard so far!"

Looking straight into the eyes of the Master, Cheng-chung said slowly "First I must maintain filial piety towards my parents and my late wife's parents, and secondly I have to finish my degree." A clear light of relief glittered in his eyes. He could be as free as a falling petal unfettered by attachments and anxieties.

Maybe Cheng-chung no longer needs an answer to his confusion, because he has already found the direction of his life. And the heavy stone in Sister Ya-ying's chest has been lifted, at least for now.