In December of last year, along with some of the supervisors from other departments of our Taipei Cultural Center and Tzu Chi TV station, I returned to Hualien for our monthly meeting with Master Cheng Yen. There, the Master told us how she became acquainted with Huang Kuei-chuan, a 94-year-old resident of Lesheng.

Back in 1978, the Master and some Tzu Chi members visited the sanatorium. After visiting and holding hands with each patient, the Master asked if there was anything that Tzu Chi could do to make their lives a bit easier. She was told that some 21 senior patients were seriously ill and needed to be taken care of by special nurses. The Master immediately agreed to provide them with a monthly subsidy of NT$15,000 [US$375] so that four younger patients who were in better shape, each earning $2,500, could look after the disabled patients. The remaining $5,000 would be used to improve the meals at the sanatorium. Huang Kuei-chuan was one of the four chosen to do the nursing.

However, the monthly subsidy was discontinued two years later at the request of the residents when they discovered that the money they received from Tzu Chi actually came from the regular small donations of many kind people, not big tycoons. As the Master often says, "Palm down is to help people, palm up is to ask for help; helping people is happiness, asking for help is painful." The residents decided to put their palms down and give instead of putting their palms up and taking things from other people. "The original ugly hell of Lesheng no longer exists because its patients have all been transformed into bodhisattvas who are eager to give of themselves," said the Master.

Take Huang as an example. Instead of discontinuing his service to the old and disabled patients, he has been helping each of them as a volunteer every day over the last 22 years. He gets up at two o'clock every morning to serve his fellow patients by cleaning the urinals, refilling their thermos bottles, and doing their laundry. When breakfast is ready at the canteen, Huang helps deliver the food and then he feeds each of the patients. Only after finishing all this will he go and have his own meal. In order to show their appreciation to Huang, the physically challenged patients give him a little money each month. Huang then donates it to Tzu Chi instead of putting it into his own pocket.

Huang went to see Master Cheng Yen a few months ago. He told her that he still had some savings. He would keep a little for his funeral and he would donate the remainder of $300,000 [about US$8500] to Tzu Chi. "It seemed like he was telling me his funeral affairs," remarked the Master with gratitude and a sigh of emotion.

Huang also told Tzu Chi members that he met that day, "I'm old now, but I'm so happy that I could donate this sum of money to the Master for building hospitals. You are all blessed to be able to follow the Master and do good deeds. And you are so young... Be sure to work a little harder!"

In January of this year, Sister Chen Mei-yi, a Tzu Chi commissioner, received another $100,000 from Huang at the sanatorium. He wanted to donate the money to build the Hsintien Tzu Chi Hospital, which will be operating within three years. Out of curiosity, Chen asked him where he got the money. Huang explained that the government would soon dismantle the sanatorium in order to construct a maintenance center for the Taipei Mass Transit System. The money was given to Huang as compensation since he had created a little recreation area in the compound with a stone table and chairs. Along with the maintenance center, the city government is also going to build a high-rise condominium building to accommodate the patients.

The famous Lesheng Sanatorium will soon be buried under the ashes of the modern history of Taiwan, but the bodhisattva-like Huang and many other compassionate residents of the sanatorium will forever be remembered by many people.