Master Cheng Yen said, "In life, we must make good use of the present moment. It is a blessing to be able to serve wherever you are. By performing your roles well, you are leaving your marks in history. We will all depart from this world someday, but during our sojourn on earth, we must stand at the right place and perform to the best of our abilities." Lin Chin-lon is someone who always stands at the right place at the right moment and who is able to play his roles outstandingly.

Striding on the Path of the Bodhisattvas

On May 28, 2002, I had my first interview with him. We sat down in the reception room, and he volubly shared with me his experience of devoting himself to he Tzu Chi medical mission. After listening to what he said, I could tell that he was an honest, frank, and optimistic person who was always ready for challenges.

"Looking back at my life, I feel that I am a lucky person. I always got accepted into the schools that I wanted to attend. I went to the United States for further studies and then began to work. My wife is nice and wise. My children never make me worry. I can say that my life has been a smooth ride. I've never encountered setbacks. I've listened to a series of tapes about how some Tzu Chi volunteers got rid of all their bad habits such as smoking, drinking, or other misbehaviors after they joined Tzu Chi. Since I don't smoke, drink, or have other bad habits, I think it might be more difficult for me to become a Buddhist."

Lin was born in Panchiao, Taipei County, in 1943. He received his education at Chienkuo Junior High, Chienkuo Senior High, and then the medical college of Taiwan National University, all of which are prestigious schools in Taiwan. In 1970, he went to the United States. During his 25 years there, he served as superintendent and cardiologist at the Northridge Hospital Medical Center near Los Angeles from 1980 to 1995. After he returned to Taiwan, he again took some time to go back to America to pursue a doctoral degree in medical management at the University of South Carolina.

When he was living in the States, many Buddhist masters came to Los Angeles to propagate Buddhism. When he had time, he would attend the ceremonies with his wife. He also read Buddhist sutras, from which he learned that Buddhists should have faith in their religion, make firm vows and carry them out. However, he felt that most Buddhist sects were weak at putting their vows into action. His feelings persisted until he discovered that Master Cheng Yen of Tzu Chi was building hospitals.

The first time Lin met the Master, the Hualien Tzu Chi General Hospital was in the second phase of construction. It was enveloped in scaffolding and everything looked crude. On the second floor of the unfinished hospital was a big office. Inside, in a little space curtained off by a plastic sheet, were a desk and chairs. There Master Cheng Yen, who was in frail health, received guests and conducted meetings even while hooked up to an IV bottle. The scene shook Lin to his core. When the Master invited him to serve at Tzu Chi, he promised on the spot that he would do so after he retired.

After Lin went back to the States, he helped Stephen Huang, director of the Tzu Chi USA branch, set up a free clinic near Los Angeles. In 1995, the Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital was short of manpower, and the Master again asked him when he could come to work for Tzu Chi. Therefore, he retired early and returned to Taiwan. He served as the vice superintendent of the Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital until the Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital opened in 2000.

At the farewell party given by the Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Lin's coworkers told him that he must have been out of his mind to give up all that he had worked for in the past two decades in the States. If he returned to Taiwan, wouldn't he have to start all over? Why go through all that trouble again? But Lin said to them confidently, "First of all I am a Taiwanese, secondly I am a Buddhist, thirdly I am a doctor. I consider it a wonderful chance to be able to contribute my knowledge to a Buddhist hospital in Taiwan. There's no way I would let this opportunity slip by!"

Medicine and Buddhism

Lin could not stop talking once our interview began. Knowing that he is both a Buddhist and a doctor, I was curious about his thoughts on Buddhism and medicine. Lin saw many similarities between the two.

"Buddhism emphasizes causality and condition. A cause will only be effective when it meets a matching condition. The same applies to illness. A germ is the cause and the environment is the condition. The coming together of certain causes and conditions make one ill. The 23 pairs of chromosomes determine everything about a person, so isn't that like karma? Yet, even though we are born with karma, karma is not unchangeable. This shows that medicine and Buddhism share something similar."

Lin believes that the principles of Buddhism should be applied to everyday life. Medical education emphasizes the science of proof and applicability. The professors who win the most respect and admiration from medical students are not the ones who conduct interesting and easily understandable classes, but the ones who solve problems in emergency rooms, operating rooms, or intensive care units.

The town of Dalin has a population of less than 30,000 people, but it has a hospital with 1,200 beds. Most people thought it would be better for a big hospital to be situated in a densely populated city. Yet Master Cheng Yen thought otherwise. When Tzu Chi was evaluating where to build the hospital, the Master said that although the towns around Dalin were small, the total population added up to 500,000. A hospital built in this vast and medically underserved area would surely be able to perform to its fullest.

The sophisticated medical equipment at Dalin Hospital ensures quick and accurate diagnoses. In order to avoid polluting the environment, the hospital uses filmless X-ray machines and paperless electrocardiographs. Doctors and nurses can retrieve patients' medical histories directly from the computer, which saves them a lot of time and enables them to provide efficient services to patients. A complete physical examination, for example, can be finished in a day.

Unadorned wisdom

Every morning, volunteers at the Hualien and Dalin hospitals share their volunteering experiences in a teleconference connected by satellite. Lin, who goes to the meeting almost every day, said that he had gained much wisdom from it which greatly helped him to reflect on himself. He said that although some volunteers were not highly educated or were even illiterate [not uncommon among the older generation in Taiwan], their life philosophies were very inspiring. Full of unpolished simplicity, they touched a cord in him. As Master Cheng Yen said, the words and deeds of these volunteers are "unprocessed and unadorned wisdom."

Lin often tells his coworkers that whether they are keeping patients company or sorting through recyclable materials, Tzu Chi volunteers always perform all kinds of tasks cheerfully. Compared with volunteers who have to travel afar to offer their services, employees at the hospital are lucky because they can work at a place where patients come to them for help, saving them the time to look for opportunities to help others [in order to create good karma and merits for the future]. "We shouldn't consider it simply our job to treat patients; we should also take it as a good chance to give our care and love. If we fail to seize the chance, it will truly be a great pity."

Lin accredited his continuous spiritual growth to the volunteers' meetings that he often attended. "When I first returned from the States, I was really arrogant. Nothing looked right to me. I scolded almost every doctor. But gradually I came to understand the differences in culture, environment, and the medical system between the U.S. and Taiwan. Moreover, I realized that everyone has different merits and different functions to fulfill. Nobody is perfect. We must look for the best in people and help them overcome their weaknesses. Give people the chance to improve."

A man who faces the sun

When Lin was small, his family was rich. He had Western-style clothes and leather shoes to wear when he was only three or four. He owned the first children's tricycle that ever appeared in Panchiao, where his family lived. Yet when he was in junior high school, his father's investments failed and a lot of debt was thus incurred. This drastic change in life inevitably made a deep impact on the young Lin. Kindhearted and strong by nature, Lin soon adjusted to the new circumstances and formed a habit of economizing.

When his shoes were torn and worn-out, he would mend them himself and continue to wear them. When his school uniform became too small and short for him and attracted his teacher's attention, he would explain to the teacher that the uniform had shrunk in the wash. He dared not tell his parents about it after he came home.

He overcame all the difficulties he encountered with equanimity and did not feel bothered by them at all. He only felt worried when he saw his parents rushing about to rustle up money to repay the debts. He was the oldest child of his family. Although he went to a public school, his two brothers and his sister all attended expensive private schools. In order to ease his parents' financial burden, he found himself a tutoring job. After he graduated from university and began to work as an intern at the National Taiwan University Hospital, he gave all his salary to his parents. When he decided to go to America for further studies, he even had to borrow money from classmates to pay for his plane ticket. He decided to go to the United States for two reasons. First, he wanted to expand his horizons. Secondly, he was looking for chances to make money to help his family.

Despite all the tests and challenges he had to tackle in his life, Lin still remains optimistic and hard-working. That is why he is so successful today. If his family had been rich all along, he might not have been so highly motivated and ambitious in the pursuit of his goals.

Lin's wife, Hsiu-mei, also commented on his optimistic attitude: "When the Dalin Hospital first opened, there were a lot of problems. But the superintendent kept saying that the problems were nothing and that they were simply something they had to deal with in the establishment of a hospital. No wonder Chien Shou-hsin, vice superintendent of the Dalin Hospital, said that the superintendent is an incorrigible optimist."

Hearing that, I couldn't help but think of something Master Cheng Yen once said, "If you face the sun, the shadow will be behind you. If you stand with your back to the sun, the shadow will be in front of you."

Lin is a man who faces the sun.

Two dollars a month

After Lin settled down in the United States, he attended school and took a part-time job. Later when he became a resident doctor, he made US$10,000 a year, which was equivalent to NT$400,000. Back then the first prize of the Patriotic Lottery in Taiwan was NT$200,000, so his salary was relatively high. But he still managed to save every cent of his salary and mail it home to pay off his father's debts.

One day, not long after Hsiu-mei joined Lin in America, she went with him to a supermarket. She saw a beautiful pot of flowers that cost only $1.99 and she decided to buy it. But after they got home, she could not find it anywhere. When she asked Lin about it, he said he had put the flowers back before they checked out. Lin was so thrifty that his wife did not even get the chance to buy a pot of flowers!

During the first few years of their marriage, Lin seized every opportunity to make money. The Vietnam War was going on at the time and the United States was short of medical doctors. On weekends, he would fill in for other doctors and work at emergency rooms or wards. Sometimes he was so busy he could not even shut his eyes for one whole day and night. When he got home, he would be so worn out that he often fell asleep on the sofa.

With no family or relatives to help them, Lin and Hsiu-mei had only each other to depend on. Hsiu-mei had always led a comfortable life in Taiwan with servants to take care of her. Now she even had to learn to use an electric rice cooker by following the instructions in a manual. Their two children, Kai-chih and Kai-pin, were born in 1972 and 1974. As Lin was busy working and attending school, Hsiu-mei had to take care of everything at home.

New York was bitterly cold in the winter. Soon after Hsiu-mei gave birth to their first child, she had to go grocery shopping by herself. Dragging the baby carriage with one hand and carrying a heavy grocery bag with the other, she was tired and freezing. Every day before Lin came home from work, their little daughter would start bawling, knowing that soon someone would come to pick her up and hug her. Busy preparing dinner, Hsiu-mei had no time to soothe the baby, so she could only move the baby carriage back and forth with her foot. Although she looked weak outside, she was in fact a strong woman. She told herself that this was life and that she had to face it bravely.

After hearing Hsiu-mei's narration of the past, Lin said with tender affection, "I remember once I invited more than ten classmates to our home for dinner. One night when Hsiu-mei was sleeping, she suddenly called out the name of her family's servant in Taipei, "Come help me, Ah-hsiu!"

Although life was hard at that time, Lin never complained. Instead, he considered himself lucky to be able to work in a good environment. He lived and ate at the hospital dormitory, and there were even people responsible for washing and ironing his clothes. He spent only two dollars every month and mailed the rest of his salary home.

"The two dollars was my haircut money. After I got married, I asked my wife to learn how to cut my hair so I could save the two dollars too!"

When some people reminisce about their past, they only remember the hard parts, as if all the happiness that once existed in their lives was no longer a part of their memories. But Lin, who had undergone a lot of hardship in his life, always thought that he had a very good life and that he had never encountered any frustrations. It goes to show what a contented, grateful person he is.

A great doctor in an operating room

The next morning, Lin was scheduled to perform a cardiac catheter operation. Two doctors and the patient were already waiting for him in the operation room while I waited for him in the scrub room. He hurriedly arrived, looking as if he had just finished doing something, changed into a lead gown, washed his hands, put on a sterilized gown with the help of a nurse, and then entered the operation room. I also put on a lead gown and a sterilized gown and went into the room after him.

I had been in an operation room several times before, but I never had to wear a lead gown. Only later did I find out that coronary arteries, which Lin was now going to operate on, are not visible on x-ray film. So doctors have to inject iodinated colorless "dye" or contrast material through a catheter into the arteries to make them visible. During a cardiac catheter operation, the room is full of x-ray radiation, so patients and doctors have to wear heavy lead gowns to protect their internal organs. The operation room is, at times like this, a forbidden area.

In addition to the two doctors who assisted Lin in the operation room, there were two other assistants sitting before a control panel outside the room. To me, the scene resembled something one sees in a science fiction movie. It was so surreal and awe-inspiring.

There were four TV monitors in front of the operating table. Lin did not fix his eyes on the patient but on the TV screens. In his hands was a thin catheter with a needle-like tip. At that moment, I could strongly feel Lin's authority as an outstanding cardiologist. He looked attentively at the enlarged picture of blood vessels on the TV screens with his hands working carefully on the catheter.

Looking at the giant pumping chambers of the heart on the screens, I was stunned. Was that the heartbeat? Was that the rhythm of life? Does the difference between life and death merely depend on a single heartbeat? What is the difference between a meaningful and a meaningless life then?

Everyone may have a different answer to that. But the appropriate answer would be: whether one can give altruistically to others.

Lin, the two doctors who stood by him, and all those who work at the Dalin Hospital are all life-saving medical workers whose contributions to the human race are invaluable.

Promoting vegetarianism

At the invitation of Tzu Chi commissioners in the Chungcheng and Wanhua Districts in Taipei, Lin gave a speech at Huachiang High School on June 29, 2002, to Tzu Chi members who lived in the two districts. Hsiu-mei also came with him.

Lin's first book, Be A Happy, Healthy Vegetarian, had been published and was selling very well. So today he was going to introduce the health benefits of vegetarianism in his speech.

Basically, as one grows older, it is easier for one's blood vessels to harden. Yet nine factors can speed the hardening process: smoking, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, age, gender, lack of exercise, and stress.

In addition to the above, diet is also an important factor. Generally, low fat, low sugar, and high fiber constitute a healthy diet. Vegetarian food is healthy because it is low in cholesterol, high in fiber, and rich in anti-oxidants as well as Vitamins C and E. Lin promotes vegetarianism because there is a scientific basis for it. Vegetarian food not only helps prevent cardiovascular diseases like hypertension, but also guards our bodies against cancer, kidney diseases, and diabetes.

The saying "Diseases enter by the mouth" is indeed true. Many diseases are caused by unhealthy eating habits. For example, some people fall ill by consuming pork or beef containing parasites. If you don't eat pork or beef, you will never get such diseases.

It is also good for our environment to eat vegetarian food. According to statistics, to produce one pound of beef, we need to chop down 55 square feet of primal forest to convert it into pasture. A cow has to eat 21 pounds of wheat to grow one pound of flesh. Just imagine how much sun and water is needed to grow that amount of wheat! And how many hungry people can 21 pounds of wheat feed?

Some people fear that vegetarian food will not provide them enough energy and will induce anemia and gout. These are all wrong ideas. In fact, meat contains higher amounts of uric acid [which causes gout] than beans. Someone once conducted a study that showed that meat-eaters have a significantly higher level of uric acid in their blood than vegetarians.

The auditorium of Huachiang High School was filled to capacity, and the audience responded warmly to Lin's speech. There was a rush to buy his book, Be a Happy, Healthy Vegetarian, after the speech. Many people stood in a long line to get his autograph. A Tzu Chi TV employee even decided to become a vegetarian after hearing the speech.

Seeing that it was unlikely that he would finish autographing all those books in half an hour, I decided to leave first and went to say goodbye to him. I asked him half in jest, "When are you going to publish your second book?"

As it turned out, he was already working on it. He had even come up with a title for it: What to Eat to Cure Your Heart Disease.

Lin is not only a good husband, a good father, a good doctor, a good hospital superintendent, but also a best-selling author who writes good books.

A brave and kindhearted man

Before leaving the Dalin Hospital, I took a picture of Lin and Hsiu-mei at the entrance of the hospital. It was only five days away from the second anniversary of the hospital, so I asked Lin to share his feelings and thoughts with me. He had a lot to say:

"The Dalin Hospital was established based on Master Cheng Yen's ideals and in response to the invitation of local residents. Setting up the hospital was an arduous task since we had to start everything from scratch. After two years' efforts, the hospital is finally able to operate smoothly. It can be said that a solid foundation has been laid for the hospital. Yet this is just the beginning. In the future, we will continue to build on our solid foundation and try to offer better medical services for local residents to fulfill our goal of protecting life in the region.

"I'm grateful to my coworkers. They've made it possible for the hospital to change from a state of confusion to one of order. Everyone who comes to the hospital for treatment feels like they have come home. For my part, although I'm busy, I don't feel tired at all. Perhaps it's because I'm always happy at heart. People take vacations to obtain happiness; if one feels happy at work, then it's as if one is on vacation every day. That's how I feel. Even though I have to work seven days a week, I'm full of joy every day. Since I came to Dalin, I have especially felt this way."

Listening to him talk eloquently, I could not help but think of something I once read in Master Cheng Yen's Footsteps. The entry dated August 5, 1995, records that one morning when Lin attended the daily volunteers' meeting, the Master praised him profusely: "He gave up everything in the United States to come back to Taiwan and serve at our Tzu Chi hospitals. He is like a living Buddha, a truly brave and kindhearted man."