The sight of these blessed children reminded me of the first commencement of the Tzu Chi Junior College of Nursing (now known as the Tzu Chi College of Technology) eleven years ago. I remember the ceremony was held in a simply decorated hall, since the construction of the nursing college had not been completed yet. I stood on the platform, and one by one the students walked toward me. When they came before me, they bent down so that I could shift the tassels on their mortarboards. When some of them looked up and whispered "Thank you!" to me, I saw tears glistening in their eyes. The air was full of the sorrow of parting.

Since then, I have attended each year's commencement. With the increase of graduates each year, my feeling varies from year to year. Now I can feel their sorrow at leaving the school, but I can also see the joy on their faces as they take off toward a bright future.

In the ceremony at Tzu Chi University this year, Chancellor Lan shifted the tassels for each student. Many students embraced him tightly, which brought tears to his face. The intimacy between the teachers and the students resembled the old warm feeling that I sensed eleven years ago.

Grow into big trees

Many young people nowadays grow up in affluent families. They have the care of their parents, the guidance of their teachers and the company of many friends. Tzu Chi’s students are even more so, because Tzu Chi people all over the world are imbuing our schools with love, both tangible or intangible, at every single moment. Everyone says, "This is our school and these students are our children--I want them to have my blessings."

On the day of the university's commencement ceremony, Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital Superintendent Lin Chin-lon and his wife were present. They had just attended their son's graduation in the United States three days before. But because the sixteen students whom they had accompanied throughout their university days were graduating, they flew back to Hualien just to give their benediction to these "children."

All Tzu Chi volunteers give unconditionally. They only hope that all seeds planted in Tzu Chi schools will be well nurtured and will one day grow up to be big, firmly rooted trees that shelter people with their shade and bear fruits of love for the whole world.

For a tiny seed to become a big tree, it must be amply nourished from its earliest stages. Our society has paid much attention to university education; however, the foundations of our education system--kindergarten, primary and middle schools--should not be neglected.

In 1989, Tzu Chi set up the Junior College of Nursing. In 1994, we established the College of Medicine, followed by the College of Humanities in 1998. In 2000, the Tzu Chi College of Medicine was upgraded to Tzu Chi University by the Ministry of Education. Our Tzu Chi junior high, primary and kindergarten began recruiting students in June of the same year.

Because our society truly needs a complete educational system, Tzu Chi has rapidly set up a system from kindergarten to graduate school. Education is like planting trees. For a tree to be deeply rooted in the soil, it must be properly planted and nourished from the beginning--how tall the tree can grow depends on how long and extensive the roots get. That is why we put a lot of emphasis on basic education at our primary school.

Nurture good students with love

Tzu Chi Primary School is only in its second year, and it already has seventeen graduates. In the graduation ceremony, the teachers introduced each graduate's merits. As I listened to the introductions, I saw in them the hope of our future society. One of the students had a very special merit: he often voluntarily scrubbed and cleaned the school toilets. Since he took delight in doing work that others disliked, I am sure he will grow up to be a law-abiding and hard-working citizen.

In April of this year, I took part in the flag-raising ceremony at Tainan Tzu Chi Day Care Center. As students chorused the school anthem, three children under the age of five steadily raised three flags at the same speed; not one flag was higher or lower than the others. How concentrated and calm their minds must have been!

The little children kept their classrooms neat and orderly by keeping the washbasins very clean and hanging the hand towels in order. Although these are all trivial things, yet as the Chinese saying goes, "If one cannot perfect little things, it will be impossible for one to accomplish great deeds." Etiquette and good manners must be taught when one is little. The order of the group requires each individual's mindful effort to maintain. How can this be achieved? It is by adjusting oneself, of course. I always say that the beauty of Tzu Chi lies in the ability of every individual to exercise self-discipline, which allows the entire group to constantly maintain its beauty.

All of the Tzu Chi educational institutions are nurturing our students, the hope of our society, with love. We not only impart knowledge to them, we also try to cultivate their wisdom and teach them the correct way of living, including the proper way to dress, eat, live and behave. As human beings, we must have a decent character. How do people judge your character? They start by judging the way you dress, eat, live and behave. Thus, our teachers mindfully teach our students to behave and remind them to fine-tune their manners and hearts to display the demeanor of decent people at all times. Such is the genuine function of education. I am deeply indebted to all our principals and teachers.

The power of love

With the arrival of summer vacation, many members of the Tzu Chi Collegiate Association volunteer at our hospitals in Hualien and Dalin. They ride in hospital vans and help transport physically challenged people from outlying areas to the hospitals. These youths extend their hands to assist senior citizens into the vans, help them fill out registration cards, and then tenderly aid them out of the vans into the hospitals. These saplings chat warmly with old folks in the waiting room. With such youthful company, the senior citizens feel happier despite their physical illness. After their treatments, everyone, young and senior, smiles.

When I witness such sights, I always marvel at the power of love.

Students of the Tzu Chi Junior High School do not lag behind other Tzu Chi members in doing good deeds. Every month they join adult volunteers and visit nursing homes for senior citizens. They help bathe the senior residents, give them massages and bring them joy, as well as help tidy up their living environment. Other students visit nursing homes for physically and mentally challenged children and serve children of their own age or even younger. After interacting with these children and orphans, our students realize how blessed they are to have healthy bodies and minds, the love of their parents and a comfortable life. Hence they learn to appreciate the grace of their parents, and they vow to cherish and create more blessings by bringing more joy to those less fortunate children.

Every day in May, under the guidance of female adult volunteers in our Kaohsiung branch, a group of youths learned to make paper lotus flowers. Each of these flowers bore a little card on which an aphorism from Still Thoughts was written. When the children folded paper into lotus flowers and read the Still Thoughts aphorisms, their minds were also purified. When we plant a simple good word in children's hearts, it is like planting seeds of love in the untainted fields in their minds, which will eventually sprout the buds of love.

The senior volunteers took these children out to the streets to solicit loving kindness from pedestrians by selling the lotus flowers they had made. The children hoped all passers-by could cultivate the field of love lying dormant in their hearts. In the process of giving, these children were learning how to express their love in a way that others would accept willingly. Regardless of whether their love would be accepted or not by others, they saw that giving love was their duty. As I often say: "Learn while doing things and attain enlightenment while learning to do things."

One's living environment plays an important role in shaping one's character. If everyone can benefit society with his or her conscience and talents, then a benign social climate will be created. If everyone can keep cultivating the pure undefiled fountains in our hearts and cleanse corrupted and unkempt human minds with that spring water, we can nourish seeds of kindness which will then sprout and grow sturdy. When the goodness in people's minds grows stronger, evil thoughts will wither. I want to express my gratitude to the volunteers in Tzu Chi and many other charity organizations for engaging in charitable activities with their selfless love. By doing so, they set up good examples for others to follow.

Encouraged and inspired by actions of love demonstrated by other people, many youths are able to voluntarily spread love to those around them and even to people living in other countries. With their spirit of love, I can see hope for our future society.