"May I have your name and address so I can mail the receipt to you?" asked the lady.

"That won't be necessary," Keh replied.

But the lady insisted on having his name and address. She said that there were four principles that Tzu Chi volunteers abide by--sincerity, integrity, trust and honesty. She had to be responsible for her donor and for every donation collected by her. Keh had no alternative but to scribble down an address.

He never thought he would get a receipt, because the address he had scribbled down was a made-up one. Yet seven years later, he finally got that receipt.

When life is going nowhere

William Keh, a medical doctor and successful businessman, had enjoyed a brilliant career in his first forty years of life. He had moved to New York from Taiwan after obtaining his medical doctor's degree from the College of Medicine of the National Taiwan University. Besides being a practicing physician, he also helped his wife start their own business. The business prospered and they had factories both in the United States and Honduras. Because running the company took a lot of his time and attention, he gave up his medical practice and focused his whole attention on keeping the business going smoothly.

By the time he turned forty, he had everything a man could possibly dream of--a beautiful wife, two wonderful children, status, wealth, a big house in Long Island, a luxurious car. If he had told people he was extremely unhappy and his life was miserable, they would probably have said, "You're crazy." But indeed, that was how he felt. For years he had set goals for himself and worked hard to reach them. By the time he had everything, he had begun to feel disoriented.

He had trouble falling asleep at night, and oftentimes he would wake up with a start and ask himself, "What have I done with my life?" It seemed to him that the first half of his life had passed in the twinkling of an eye. How about the second half? Wouldn't it also slip away in a flash? "When Judgment Day came, what could I say I had done with my life? All that I had earned and owned would mean nothing then, because I could take none of it with me."

He began to fear going to the office day after day and solving never-ending problems. He also feared the sound of his wife's footsteps. She had a room next to his in the office, and every time she came to his room it meant that there was a problem waiting for him to solve. "Whenever I heard her footsteps, my heart would begin to pound faster. But the rapid heartbeats were completely different from those I felt every time I saw her when we first fell in love." Keh smiled as he remembered that time.

Just when he felt his life was going nowhere, he met the volunteer on the airplane. The kindly lady told him that Tzu Chi had branch offices in the United States, and she suggested that he go to one of them to learn more about the foundation. But after he got off the airplane, he forgot all about it and went on with his life as usual.

It was not until one or two years later that he heard the name of Tzu Chi again. One day his wife said to him, "Are you interested in going to a tea party held by a Buddhist organization called Tzu Chi?" The encounter on the airplane came to his mind. "Tzu Chi, I know Tzu Chi!" Because of the good impression the lady on the airplane had made on him, he went to the tea party with his wife with high expectations. When they returned home, his wife asked him, "What did you think of the party?" "The food was good." "And?" "The songs accompanied by sign language performances were great." "What about the rest?" "The rest was... so-so."

At the tea party, the topics discussed centered mostly on domestic cares and problems such as how to get along with one's mother-in-law. What had that to do with Buddhism? He began to consider Tzu Chi a women's organization. His wife, on the other hand, took to it warmly. After the tea party, she became a Tzu Chi enthusiast. She often went to its gatherings, and every time she came back her temper would get better. Considering himself a "beneficiary" of the foundation, Keh began to support it and regularly attend its tea parties. He also donated money, visited old people's homes and prepared hot meals for street vagrants along with other Tzu Chi volunteers.

All seemed to go fine until one day his wife suddenly said to him, "The Tzu Chi sister in charge of the Long Island liaison office resigned and someone recommended you to succeed her." "What! You must be kidding." "They said if you refuse to do the job, I'll have to do it, or else they'll have to close down the office," said his wife. Keh heaved a sigh. He knew that he had no choice but to take on the responsibility. After all, Tzu Chi was a good organization. After spending two years participating in its activities, he had grown to like it. Besides, it shouldn't be hard to be the person in charge--all he had to do was organize visits to old people's homes, cook meals for the homeless, arrange for volunteers to perform sign language songs, and so forth.

In order to learn more about Master Cheng Yen and the ideals upheld by Tzu Chi, he read both volumes of Still Thoughts, the collection of aphorisms from the Master's teachings. But he was not in the least impressed. "I thought the ideas and philosophies of life presented in Still Thoughts were very simple and plain. Even a child could understand them." But because Tzu Chi people lavished praise on the books, he read them again. Still he came to the same conclusion--Still Thoughts could not hold a candle to the profound, abstruse Buddhist books he had read before.

After he had been the director of the Long Island office for some time, his wife complained to him, "You're not doing a good job. You are far from dedicated. If you go on this way, I don't know where you will lead us. You have no Tzu Chi spirit at all." "What is Tzu Chi spirit?" he asked his wife, but she could not answer him. "You must go back to Taiwan and spend some time with the Master. Then you will understand what Tzu Chi spirit is." By that time, his wife had visited the foundation headquarters in Hualien and was greatly touched by what she had seen and experienced there.

Thus challenged by his wife and thinking her criticism unfair, he decided to go to Hualien to see for himself what was so special about this Buddhist dharma master.

A change of mindset

After returning to Taiwan, Keh accompanied Master Cheng Yen on the trips she regularly takes around the island. [During these monthly trips, the Master visits the Tzu Chi branches in Taiwan, inspects the philanthropic projects undertaken by the foundation, and holds meetings with commissioners.] He found that she was busy every day. However, she was never busy for herself, but always for others. She spent every moment of her days doing things for society. Keh thought this incredible. He had lived for more than forty years, but except for his own family, he seldom did things for others. He lived only for his own interest, but the Master was completely devoted to the interest of others. And she had done so for more than thirty years.

Every day people from all walks of society visited the Master to ask for her advice concerning their problems. Politicians asked her how to run the country; people in mourning for deceased loved ones asked how to get over the pain; businessmen wanted to know how to solve the conflicts in their companies. Miraculously, their doubts and worries were often swept away by a couple of words from the Master. When Keh listened to what she said, he always had the urge to applaud the profound wisdom behind her words. But he also found them familiar. Then it occurred to him that he had read them in Still Thoughts. Later a Tzu Chi sister said to him that the Master practiced everything she said in Still Thoughts before she offered any advice to other people. In other words, Still Thoughts was not only a collection of things the Master had said, but a collection of things she had done.

After Keh went back to the States, he took his dust-covered Still Thoughts from the bookshelves and read them for the third time. This time he took care to see whether he had been able to do what was said in the aphorisms. He found that as simple as the aphorisms seemed, he had failed to do almost all of them. Since he realized that Still Thoughts were not intended for people to read, but for them to practice, he resolved to practice them in his daily life. "There is a large treasure house in Tzu Chi, but it is impossible to find the door to it unless you have really begun to practice its philosophy. No wonder the motto for Tzu Chi people is 'Just do it.'"

He read all the books by the Master and even organized book clubs at the Long Island liaison office. He hoped that by studying the Master's books with other Tzu Chi volunteers, he could further remind them to practice the ideas contained in them. As the director of the liaison office, he often had to deal with a lot of interpersonal relationship problems among local Tzu Chi volunteers. Sometimes one volunteer would find fault with another or disagree with other people's ways of doing things. He found that most of the troubles and problems arose from the volunteers' failure to fully understand or practice what the Master had said. "The ideas espoused by Tzu Chi are all very good. As long as we all understand where the Master is leading us, there shouldn't be any dissent or disagreement."

In addition to the trip to Hualien, one other thing also led him to a deeper understanding of the Tzu Chi spirit. He went with a Tzu Chi disaster relief team to deliver aid to Guizhou, mainland China. There he found that the foundation was not just a caring organization suited for women, but a well-organized, methodical association which showed respect for its aid recipients. The volunteers could not distribute relief goods to aid recipients while seated, but had to stand up to show their respect. They always wore smiles on their faces, no matter how tired they were. When night came, they did not go to bed early after a grueling day of hauling and distributing relief supplies; instead, they gathered together to exchange what they had learned from the experience and share their feelings. Almost everyone cried when they told others how they felt about being able to participate in the relief work, and how grateful they were to the victims for giving them the chance to give and earn spiritual merits. At first Keh could not help thinking these people strange. "They travel long distances to carry out relief work, and they even have to pay for their own travel expenses. The aid recipients should thank them, and yet they thank the recipients for giving them the chance to help..."

But when the turn came for him to speak, he was also so moved that tears rolled down his cheeks, because he realized that he had indeed received more than he had given. Seeing the suffering of the aid recipients--some of them had literally nothing at all--he realized how discontented he had been before. He had everything he could possibly have, yet he was far from happy. He feared the end of his life, because he was afraid of losing everything that he had worked so hard to obtain.

"Instead of making me happy, worldly possessions caused me worry and unhappiness," said Keh. "The smile of the Tzu Chi volunteer I met on the airplane came to my mind. I seemed to be able to understand why she could smile so brightly--it was because she, like the other Tzu Chi volunteers, had found the meaning of life, which does not lie in possessing wealth, nice clothes, or spacious homes, but in renouncing one's attachments and making the best of one's life to serve and help others." The revelation that came to him opened up a new perception of life.

Since then, he has participated in many international relief efforts carried out by the foundation. He went to the Dominican Republic, Columbia, and El Salvador to inspect the damage in disaster areas, to deliver aid, and to treat patients. When assessing the extent of the damage and the needs of the victims, he made sure to visit disaster areas where no aid had yet arrived in order to help those who were most in need of help. "Having known the Master, I know how she pays attention to every detail. We don't want any victim to suffer because we fail to reach the area where he or she lives."

From the responses of the victims and aid recipients, he confirmed the value of Tzu Chi and the direction he was going. Once he visited South Africa, where Tzu Chi volunteer Pan Ming-shui had implemented a job training plan to help local Africans to be self-sustaining and to stand on their own feet. Local people told Keh that the message of love Tzu Chi conveyed to them had changed them a lot. They used to harbor hatred in their hearts because of the apartheid policy, but now they had learned that only Great Love could dissolve disputes and soothe wounds. They even composed a song: "Let's welcome our friends from Taiwan, a far-away place. The leader of our friends is Master Cheng Yen. She taught us to love and help others. We will go to heaven with her. We will go to hell with her." Keh was puzzled by the last line of the lyrics. It made sense to go to heaven with the Master, because she encouraged people to do good and it was natural for good people to go to heaven. But why would they think of going to hell with her? "Because we want to save those who are condemned to suffer in hell." Keh almost burst into tears upon hearing that. He realized then that on the arid land of Africa, lotus flowers (an important symbol of Buddhism) had come into full bloom. "It proves that the wisdom of the Master and the Tzu Chi spirit of Great Love can really transcend all borders, despite the differences in religions, races and social customs." He hopes that he can also spread the seeds of Great Love on the American soil, and help them to take root, sprout, and grow into thriving flowers.

A beautiful denouement

Due to his commitment to the foundation, Keh and his wife decided to put an end to their business four years ago, in 1997, and devote themselves wholeheartedly to the humanitarian and philanthropic missions of Tzu Chi. "After adding up all that we had earned, I found that we had enough to keep us for the rest of our lives. Therefore we decided to quit pursuing wealth and spend the rest of our lives as full-time Tzu Chi volunteers." Becoming a volunteer enabled him to start afresh and find a meaningful direction in life. What fortune could buy him that?

Last year he returned to the Tzu Chi headquarters in Hualien and told an audience the story of how he had come to join Tzu Chi. Miraculously, the Tzu Chi volunteer he had met on the airplane heard of his speech. Before long, she came to him and presented him with the receipt she had promised to send him. "I knew the address you gave me was a made-up one, so I didn't mail the receipt to you," she said. Sincerity, integrity, trust and honesty--Tzu Chi volunteers do not merely talk about these principles, they adhere to them. It was really a beautiful denouement to the accidental encounter on the plane.

About one year ago, the Master appointed Keh to the position of vice CEO of the Tzu Chi US Head Office. Because of this new job, he and his wife had to move from Long Island, where they had lived for a long time, to southern California, where the head office is located. They did not regret having to leave their home; instead they were grateful for the chance to serve. "In Taiwan, about one in four persons is a Tzu Chi member. But in the United States, the seeds of Tzu Chi have just germinated. We still have a long way to go. But whatever efforts it might take us to reach our goal, Tzu Chi certainly deserves the devotion." From commitment comes strength--he hopes that in ten years Tzu Chi volunteers in America can say to the Master and all Tzu Chi people, "We did it!"