The catastrophe shocked the whole world. Many countries, whether friendly or antagonistic to the United States, expressed their condolences and willingness to assist the victims in the wake of the hurricane. Even with such on outpouring of support, it will be a long time before the lives of these victims are made whole again.

The richest are those who give

We should treat everyone in the world as a member of our own family, giving them care and love in times of safety, and helping them pick up the pieces of their lives when disasters strike.

An example of this was the response of the United States to Taiwan after World War II. At the end of the war, Taiwan was in very bad shape. Thanks to aid from the United States, many children had food to eat and schools to attend. The assistance helped society to rebuild and allowed many people to get back up and stand on their feet again.

Over fifty years later, hundreds of thousands of people in the Gulf Coast region have lost their homes and need urgent assistance. Although the United States has long been the strongest and most affluent nation in the world, that offered no protection from the power of this storm. Even though over a million people were evacuated from their homes, tens of thousands were not able to make it out of the region when the unprecedented catastrophe suddenly hit. They were left helpless in the path of Hurricane Katrina. Old and young alike screamed for help. How many families were shattered? How many people were traumatized? My heart grieves when I think of the pain that this storm brought to those affected.

On September 3, I made an urgent plea to Tzu Chi members all over the world to reach out and help by sending love and emergency money to New Orleans and other areas affected by the hurricane. Just as aid from the United States helped Taiwan rebuild after World War II, I hoped that the sincere outpouring of love and support from Tzu Chi could help the victims of this disaster begin the process of healing and recovery.

The response to my initial appeal for assistance has been amazing. Tzu Chi members in nearly 30 countries have held fundraising bazaars or solicited donations on the streets. As of mid-October, financial assistance to victims across the 11 states impacted by the hurricane has surpassed US$3 million. Thousands of families have received help in the form of shopping cards or checks, food, medical kits, or household items. Tzu Chi volunteers in the United States have directly handed these relief materials to the neediest evacuees [as a sign of respect]. In some cases, volunteers even opened their homes to evacuees, warming the hearts of the displaced and rekindling their hopes for the future.

One of our volunteers related a story about comforting an elderly victim. As the sobbing old woman recounted her ordeal of survival, the volunteer could not help but break into tears as well. Seeing that the volunteer truly understood her dire situation, the old woman stopped crying and broke into a smile. By the time she left, she was even comforting the volunteer! "Don't be sad for me, I'll live!" This amazing anecdote shows how simple love is powerful enough to bring hope to those in despair.

In another situation, an elderly lady with a severely hunched back approached Tzu Chi members soliciting donations outside a supermarket in the United States. Although her upper body was virtually parallel to the ground, she slowly moved from one volunteer to another and put a donation into each of their boxes. The volunteers were very moved by her actions and her generosity. When a volunteer asked her if she had enough money left over for groceries, she replied with a smile, "Don't worry, I've already bought everything I need. I'm just giving away what's left."

If you are wondering how to express love, just consider the actions of this elderly woman. Satisfied to have just enough for her needs, she willingly curtailed her own desire for more material goods and donated what she had for the victims of the hurricane. This was a true expression of love.

Help and love from around the world

Grace is a volunteer with our foundation in South Africa, and ethnically a member of the Zulu tribe. To solicit donations for survivors of Hurricane Katrina, she climbed mountains and walked through wilderness to visit her tribal people. Although members of her tribe were not rich, she reminded them of the importance of helping the poor. Even though she was short of money herself, she prepared a lot of coins for her people so they could donate the coins with their very own hands. Grace understands that the act of donating can bring out the love hidden in people's hearts and create blessings for each of them. She is very wise indeed.

She told her tribal people, "It doesn't matter where disasters might strike. By living on the same planet, all victims are relatives of you and me. Just as we would help members of our own family, we must give these victims unselfish love and pray for peace in the whole world."

Even though these South African tribal members were poor, they gave what they could. By donating out of their poverty and extending assistance to strangers who were suffering, they demonstrated that the power of love was just as significant as that created by the rich.

In Taiwan, the medical staff of our hospitals donated a day's income to the relief efforts. In Malaysia, Tzu Chi volunteers held a bake sale. In Canada, our volunteers went to the streets with boxes in their hands to solicit donations on Vancouver's Tzu Chi Day.

Regardless of where you live or whether you are rich or poor, you can reach out, give love to those in misery, and offer a helping hand to those in despair. Expressing your love in a spirit of mutual care and compassion will make your life truly abundant and fruitful.

Blessing and calamity lie in thoughts

On October 13, 2001, not long after the 9-11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Tzu Chi members launched a series of candlelight vigils. Through this campaign, called "Sprinkling the World with Great Love," they intended to activate the love of people within their own communities. Four years have passed since those candlelight vigils, but Tzu Chi volunteers continue to bring out kindness, generate compassion, help the needy, and spread love in their own communities. They keep on urging people to open their hearts and cultivate blessings by doing good deeds.

Only this type of unselfish love can bring warmth and harmony to the world. Only when the world has love will disasters cease to strike. I sincerely hope the power of love you display can soothe the uneasy and restless minds of disaster victims and help bring blessings to everyone you encounter.

Appropriately, the Chinese characters for "blessing" and "disaster" rather resemble each other. Indeed, whether an event turns out to be a blessing or a disaster is often based on one's attitudes and thoughts. When a world-shocking catastrophe occurs, we should seek to learn a lesson from it. As we reach out to help the suffering, we should look into ourselves, question our own attitudes and thoughts, and contemplate the question, "What can we do to help reduce this pain and increase happiness in the world?"

A little wickedness can create a spiritual storm

The world seems stuck in a tug-of-war between good and evil. Disasters are mostly the result of the collective bad deeds of human beings. A hurricane can serve as an analogy to help explain this concept.

A hurricane begins as nothing more than a light breeze moving across the balmy ocean. The breeze draws energy from the warm water and eventually spins into a hurricane, bringing disaster to everyone in its path. The same thing can happen with our thoughts and attitudes. If we take our blessings and happiness for granted, thinking that we are entitled to everything we own and failing to be humble and thankful, ignorant thoughts will start to arise in our minds. Like the breeze that develops into a destructive hurricane, our trivial ignorant thoughts can grow into towering waves and storms within our mind. Similarly, if we let the outward environment stir up storms of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt in our minds, there will be adversity between individuals, disharmony in the family, and instability in society.

People want to possess everything and are reluctant to share; in other words, they are stingy. Buddhist scripture says that people suffer from five kinds of stinginess: stinginess in sharing shelter, stinginess in helping others, stinginess in giving praise, stinginess in sharing wealth, and stinginess in sharing the Buddha's teachings.

Some people move to bigger and bigger houses, but their minds get narrower and narrower. Some want to gain all they can for themselves and become jealous if others accumulate more material benefits. Some people want to be the center of all the praise and cannot bear to hear others being complimented. Some are unwilling to share their wealth and get angry when others donate freely. Some want to keep life's wisdom for themselves and are unwilling to share with others.

When individuals give themselves over to evil deeds such as these, society will become less cohesive and stable. Such a society is more likely to be devastated by future disasters. Just as a catastrophic hurricane grows from a gentle breeze, a little wickedness in our mind can grow into a spiritual storm and create disasters in the world.

Is there a path to happiness and security?

Is there a way to prevent disasters from happening? Is there a way to truly help people who are suffering? Is there a way to spread happiness and security around the world? The answer is "Yes," and it all starts from purifying our minds.

If we are open-minded and live each day with simplicity, purity, and peace of mind, every day will be peaceful. Peace within individuals leads to greater harmony within society. This harmony is derived from the accumulated blessings that individual citizens have cultivated within themselves. The more people practice kindness and accumulate blessings, the more stable society will become.

Instead of letting storms of vice gather strength in our minds, we should be grateful if we were born into a peaceful land. We should open our hearts, utter good words, make good vows, and cultivate more blessings for the world. Let us keep in mind that the good deeds we do could help avert potential disasters that might otherwise bring much destruction and devastation for us.

A reporter once asked me, "Master, I heard that you have Three No's--no one in the world you can't love, no one in the world you can't trust, and no one in the world you can't forgive. How could you be so sure?"

I replied that I believe my intentions are selfless and that innate love resides in everyone. Since I harbor no selfish thoughts for myself, I can have faith in life, trusting that everyone has this innate, pure nature called Great Love. Even if others hurt me, I know they did so only because their innate purity was temporarily clouded. Once they are touched and inspired, they will return to their pure nature. With such an understanding, is there anyone that I cannot forgive?

I hope everyone can bring out their compassion and uncover their innate love and purity to end their ignorance and worries. When everyone lives in harmony, mutual help, and love, the world will be bright and peaceful. Peace is a blessing. Knowing that we are blessed, we must cherish our blessings and create more blessings by doing good deeds. Then, disasters in the world will decrease.

Those who only want to pamper themselves and are not willing to help others are merely wasting their lives and squandering their blessings. They fail to understand that the value of life lies in using our bodies to benefit the world. Those who help others are truly blessed.

May everyone persevere in helping those that suffer, bringing out their compassion, and always harboring love for every living thing. In this way, the world will be safe and free of disasters. Please be ever more mindful in doing your best to help those in misery. Be a lantern for those trapped in darkness. Together, let us light up the world.