At the same time, we also bade farewell to the devastation and the sorrow of the earthquake of September 21, 1999. While we felt very sad for the loss of more than 2,000 countrymen, we were also grateful to them. Through their deaths many people who did not know each other gathered together and contributed their brotherly love without receiving anything in return. The ranks of the bodhisattvas have become even longer because of their participation.

Disaster regions have returned to normal three months after the earthquake. The scarred, devastated land is revealing its tenacity and vitality against its unfortunate fate. We will continue to care for and bless that piece of land and the people living on it, just as we have since the very beginning.

However, we do not simply care for and bless the earthquake victims. We could sense the supporting power coming from all sides at the year-end ceremony. Within a little more than two months, 180,000 volunteers shuttled back and forth, sweating profusely, to complete 1,741 prefabricated houses. They never felt tired--they simply felt the joy of helping the needy.

Master Cheng Yen once said, "To love is more blessed than to be loved." The words are very simple and it is very easy to talk about love. However, unless we give our love to others, we cannot realize its true meaning.

Only when we actively mingle with the underprivileged can we fully perceive that the most intrinsic quality of life is its impermanence. Only when we compassionately care about others can we walk out from our personal anguish, feel the unselfish giving of life and gradually broaden our spiritual realm.

Devoted Tzu Chi members should be able to understand what the Master said in many blessing ceremonies around Taiwan at the end of the year: "Blessings do not come from prayers; they come from hard work." In a large organization like Tzu Chi, where kind thoughts and kind deeds are merged together, there are so many members helping and blessing each other. No wonder Tzu Chi people always feel happy and grateful no matter how exhausted they are from hard work.

This thought has changed the traditional folk beliefs of many Chinese, who used to think blessings were obtained by praying or were predestined by fate. Thus at the lunar New Year, most people paste the Chinese character for "blessing" upside-down on their doors to indicate that blessings come from heaven [the Chinese words for "upside-down" and "arrive" are homonyms].

Tzu Chi volunteers, who have vowed to walk on the Path of the Bodhisattvas, have learned to nourish compassion by helping the poor. The volunteers do not care about their own material gain nor do they calculate how much good fortune they can acquire. Instead, they bless others as well as themselves.

Those who actually go out and help are blessed. Such people optimistically believe that there is infinite potential for exercising their abilities. Tzu Chi has committed itself to the reconstruction of 43 schools (both elementary and middle schools) in the devastated areas in central Taiwan. We named this "Project Hope," with two meanings: (1) developing talents for society and planting hope for the country's future; (2) signifying the limitless hope for developing the capabilities of the Taiwanese people.

We hope that all of you can bless yourselves, that you will have a better understanding of the blessings in today's society, and that you will reap more blessings.