May 12 of this year is the 38th anniversary of Tzu Chi. As we see the past 38 years off with gratitude, let us welcome the 39th year with sincerity. The rugged path we have taken over the last 38 years has never been easy. I am grateful to see that more and more people are willing to devote themselves to Tzu Chi’s charitable activities. Today Tzu Chi members throughout the world are mindfully helping the less fortunate with one heart and one mind.

Let us sincerely seize the moment to help out the needy and bear this moment of enthusiasm that we have now always in mind. That’s the meaning of the Buddhist phrase, “Seize this transient moment, commit yourself for eternity.”

Our spiritual cultivation ground

Additionally, we should continue to invite more people to join us to serve the needy, in the hope that the seeds of kindness and compassion hidden in their hearts can thus be activated. Tzu Chi people should take their community and neighborhood as a spiritual cultivation ground where they can purify their minds. When numerous minds can be purified, the world will also be purified.

Recent abnormal changes in global climate reveal that Mother Nature is seriously ill, a result of excessive exploitation and reckless destruction by human beings. How can we heal the illness of the Earth? This task should start with cleansing human minds. Yet violence has permeated our society and polluted the hearts of any number of people. Our ill society must be refreshed and purified with streams of purity flowing in. If we can work in unity and harmony and love and help one another with common efforts, we can bring out endless streams of purity in our minds without end. When countless pure streams converge into a big ocean of love, the combined force will be able to cleanse and soothe this badly wounded world and make it harmonious and fresh again.

May Tzu Chi people purify not only their own minds, but also those of others. As the Infinite Meaning Sutra points out, “Be an uninvited teacher.” This means that we should take the initiative to promote or help in a good cause, instead of passively waiting to be asked to do so. We should guide people to do good deeds by setting our own good examples first. When others see what we do, they will be inspired to follow suit. The community where you reside is your best spiritual cultivation ground where you can motivate your neighbors to take action and offer help to the needy.

The Four Immeasurable Minds

The Ten Merits Chapter of the Infinite Meaning Sutra teaches us to “inspire bodhisattvas who have not yet made altruistic vows to bring forth their bodhi-mind.” Everyone has the innate buddha-nature. When we share with our neighbors our experiences in practicing the Buddha’s teachings in our daily life, very likely our words will resonate in their hearts. Consequently, they too will be activated to act as bodhisattvas (beings who put off entering nirvana in order to stay in this world and help others).

How can the bodhi-mind be activated? It is when relentless ones bring out their loving-kindness, belligerent ones bring out their compassion, jealous ones rejoice in other’s success, and ones who have attachments are willing to let go. In essence, the bodhi-mind encompasses the Four Immeasurable Minds of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and giving.

Loving-kindness means to give joy to all beings. The Tzu Chi missions of charity, medicine, education, and culture all aim at bringing people happiness. By participating in these missions, the givers realize how blessed they are and the recipients feel joyful. Furthermore, suffering people, touched by the unprejudiced concern shown by Tzu Chi people, open up their hearts and find love within. They may eventually move from being helped to helping others.

Compassion means to eradicate suffering. When others suffer, we feel their sorrow; and when they get hurt, we feel their pain. Knowing that all beings are one interdependent entity, we naturally feel the misery of others as our own. Because we cannot bear to see other people suffer, we rush to their aid the moment we learn of their misery. We should be kind to animals as well and refrain from slaughtering them and eating their flesh due to our respect for all life.

In addition to being kind and compassionate, we must maintain a joyful heart. It means that as we strive to purify people’s minds, we must also try to get rid of our mental afflictions such as jealousy. Jealousy is the subtlest form of affliction. What is jealousy? It means we get upset when we hear others receive a lot of praise. The flame of anger arises especially when we feel that we are doing a much better job and we wonder why it is him, not me, being recognized and praised. Jealousy is like a rope that coils around our hearts and narrows our minds. It even causes confrontation between us and our colleagues and ruins the harmony in our team. We must learn to rejoice over others’ accomplishments and feel as happy when we hear other people being praised as if we were being praised ourselves.

Not only should we avoid jealousy, we should diligently abide by the Buddha’s teachings in order to purify our minds and amend our conduct. Then surely when people see us they will trust, esteem, and like us. Furthermore, they will be happy to join us in doing good deeds. Do not be stingy in praising others. To appreciate others is to respect yourself. Such is a characteristic of the Tzu Chi culture.

The origin of human suffering is attachments to the things of this world. We tend to cling stubbornly to our selfish small love, the kind of love given only to our family members, intimate relatives and friends. To end suffering, we must be willing to give unselfishly. Why do Tzu Chi volunteers give their time, energy, and money to engage in activities held by our foundation? Because they want to fulfill our common ideal of helping the poor and educating the rich. They help the poor materially and then enrich their lives spiritually. They educate the rich to activate the love hidden in their hearts by sharing what they have with the less fortunate. As we teach others to give, we must remind ourselves to let go of our attachments. After making a contribution, we must remain humble and be willing to accept all results without thinking of what great things we have done and how much praise we deserve to gain.

Human nature is innately good. Everyone is a future buddha. May Tzu Chi people hold the hands of their neighbors and together march from the realm of humans to that of the bodhisattvas!

A refined character brings harmony

One must start by becoming a decent person. In a group, we must learn to be each other’s mirror and encourage each other to grow. Then we will naturally be in perfect harmony with people, events, and the proper ways of doing things in this world.

Confucius said, “One finds one’s place in life in one’s thirties and becomes free of confusion in one’s forties.” Tzu Chi, being 39 years old, is reaching the age where one is no longer confused about the proper ways to do things in the world. How does one live in accord with these principles of propriety? By being a decent person. It is of utmost importance to perfect one’s character. After achieving so, one will live in seamless harmony with everything that happens in the world.

Neil Huang, director of our Brisbane branch, and his wife, Cheryl, recently came back from Australia and shared their story with us. They said when they were living in Taiwan in 1984, their house was close to the site where we were constructing our Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital. Peeking through holes in the fences surrounding the construction site, they saw that the foundation was building a hospital. They began to make regular donations to Tzu Chi.

A commissioner visited Cheryl every month when she went to their neighborhood to collect donations. Cheryl later found out that the commissioner often had to make many trips in order to collect small amounts of money from donors. Cheryl offered to help the commissioner collect donations from other donors in her neighborhood. She even encouraged more people to make contributions since she knew it would cost a lot of money to build a hospital. Later, the whole family relocated to South Africa and then to Australia, but their participation in Tzu Chi has never stopped.

One day Cheryl was listening to a tape of one of my speeches. She heard a phrase, “Regardless of how kindhearted a person is, if he speaks unpleasantly, then he can’t be seen as a good person.” This phrase in my speech took Cheryl by surprise. She suddenly realized that she was not a good person since she was short-tempered and often spoke loudly. Wanting to change, she sincerely told her husband that whenever she lost her temper and raised her voice, he should call her “Tzu Chi Sister,” and she would lower her voice.

The system apparently ran well. Today, she is a model wife and mother in the eyes of her husband and children. The whole family even follows her lead and participates in Tzu Chi activities.

Such a simple aphorism was a wonderful lesson for Cheryl because she diligently abides by it. Tzu Chi has many volunteers. Everyone, like Cheryl, is a teacher and role model that we can learn from. Each person is a mirror that shows us ways to improve ourselves. Looking at others, let us reflect on ourselves and see if our demeanor is elegant, our behavior proper, and our faces smiling and amicable. Sometimes when we are not careful enough and act rudely, doesn’t the “mirror” in front of us immediately reflect our vulgar visage?

Confucius said, “Whenever three people walk together, one of them can be my teacher. If one of them is a good person, I should emulate him; if one has shortcomings, I should look for those same faults in myself and correct them.”

If you look at a chipped cup from another angle, it is still round. Likewise, when we see the shortcomings in others, let us not despise and give up on them. Instead, let us lovingly accommodate them with an open mind and be confident that they may eventually rediscover their innate pure nature. In this way, we can harmoniously deal with people and events and take other’s mistakes as a self-warning.

At the same time, we should ask ourselves if we become angry, unfriendly, or unwilling to put aside our egoistic pride and humbly accept other people’s advice when our own mistakes are being pointed out. If we react badly toward others’ comments, we will only make the chip in our cup bigger. It will tarnish our good image and that of the whole group we belong to.

Tzu Chi is a place for doing spiritual cultivation. All members expect themselves to act as living bodhisattvas, walking on the Path of the Bodhisattvas and helping all living beings. Hence we need to work hard at all times and cultivate our wisdom through our dealings with people and events in this world. If we refine our individual character, then everything we do and the principles that we work by will naturally be complete and perfect.

Putting the Buddha’s teachings into practice

Showing respect to the Buddha is not just about going to a temple to worship his statue. What is more important is to put what we have learned from his teachings into practice in our daily conduct.

For 39 years, Tzu Chi has relieved any number of people from their suffering, no matter whether it was brought about by natural or man-made disasters or invisible spiritual illnesses. We have opened our arms and embraced underprivileged people regardless of their religions, races, or national boundaries. Such strength comes from our strong determination to help and from Great Love--giving without asking for anything in return. Facing the suffering of birth, aging, illness and death, Tzu Chi people, while devoting themselves to charitable activities, also need to mindfully ponder the question of how to apply the Buddha’s teachings to help more people to eradicate their suffering and gain joy.

I am touched by the efforts of Tzu Chi recycling volunteers to protect our environment through collecting recyclable items such as beer cans and used clothes. Yet the more recyclable material they collect, the more uncomfortable I feel. Why? Because it shows people nowadays do not appreciate the things they own. Many usable things are thrown into garbage dumps. What a pity! Don’t forget that both living creatures and material things have their life span. Dumping things when they are still usable is equivalent to ending their life span prematurely.

“Turn garbage into gold” is a slogan we use for doing recycling, but promoting recycling is only one way to conserve natural resources. We also need to encourage each family to cherish things. If we can consume less, appreciate what we have, and discard things slowly, then the money we save can be used to help many more hungry and needy people throughout the world.

From the mindset of cherishing the life span of materials to the attitude of always wanting to do good deeds, we turn limited small love into Great Love, transform small functions into big functions, and make this transient moment eternal.

How much we are loved and cared for depends on how much love and concern we show to other people. Our community is our spiritual cultivation ground. Many people living in our community need our care and concern. It is important for us to be good to our neighbors so that they may feel moved to join us and do charity work.