Supported by her wealth, she indulged in lavish and costly luxuries. She flew to France to eat the best pate de foie gras, she ate soup made with expensive sea whelks imported from the United States, and she drank only brand-name mineral water.

But when she became a Tzu Chi volunteer and saw how the money she had squandered away could have gone a long way toward improving the lives of the poor, she renounced her profligate ways and tried her best to help the needy.

A couple of years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer. When undergoing chemotherapy, she had to endure a great deal of physical discomfort. Nevertheless, she visited other patients in the same hospital to encourage them and cheer them up. She calmly arranged for her funeral and filled in a body donation form to donate her body for medical study after she dies. "I can see that she cares a lot about whether she’ll be able to live or not," remarked Dr. Li Ming-zhe of the Hualien Tzu Chi Medical Center. "But she never complains about why she should be afflicted with cancer and why her life should be so short. Instead, she just makes each day as fulfilling as possible by diligently doing things she considers meaningful."

Hard-working and ambitious

Bao-cai, 46, was born in a country district in Nantou County, central Taiwan. Her father was a civil servant who supported his family with his meager salary. Being a loving and kind father, he always spent as little money as possible on himself in order to provide his children with a more comfortable life. So at a time when most families in Taiwan were still grappling with poverty, Bao-cai already had apples to eat and TV to watch, both of which were considered luxuries back in those early days.

Despite the good care her father provided, Bao-cai still did her best to help with household chores and even the family's finances. She learned to cook and do the laundry when she was only four or five years old, and she even began to work before she entered elementary school, earning a little money by carrying firewood down from the mountains.

When she graduated from junior high school at 15, she got a full-time job at a shoe factory. Later, she went to Taipei to seek better job opportunities. Before she succeeded in landing a job, she was so financially strapped that she ate only one steamed bun every other day and slept at construction sites at night.

At last she got a job at a garment factory, where she cut thread ends, ironed clothes, swept the floors, and prepared tea. At that time, she earned only NT$600 (US$15) a month. In order to make more money, she often stayed up late to work overtime.

One year later, she was finally given the opportunity to learn to operate a sewing machine. Dexterous and hard-working, she quickly mastered the requisite skills, winning herself the appreciation of her boss. During that period of time, she also worked her way through a vocational high school. Because of her diligence and abilities, she was promoted to the position of factory director several years later.

Everything seemed to go well, but she was not content. "Should I spend the rest of my life working at a factory?" Wanting more than an average lot in life, she left the factory and went to work for an American-owned company. Nevertheless, her new boss did not value her at all because she did not have a good academic background and her English was poor. "At that time, I was quite a hotshot in the garment industry," Bao-cai recalled. "Many companies wanted me to go to work for them. So I felt really hurt that my boss in the new company looked down on me."

Bao-cai made strenuous efforts to improve her command of English. When she had succeeded in doing so, she went to work for another American-owned company. After only half a year, her outstanding performance again garnered her the admiration of her boss, who gave her a large bonus to reward her for her hard work. She was only 29 years old then. Young and ambitious, she wanted more challenges to test her mettle. She decided to go to Hong Kong and expand her company's business there.

Work hard, play hard

When she first arrived in Hong Kong, things did not go well for her. Being a complete stranger there, she did not know anyone and thus had a hard time getting orders. When she returned to the company headquarters in Taiwan for a meeting, her boss gave her a severe tongue-lashing: "You get such a large paycheck every month, and yet you've done such a poor job at getting orders. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" His acrid comments seriously wounded her pride.

"Was my past success in the garment industry due to luck?" Bao-cai began to have doubts over her past achievements. Yet, she still encouraged herself not to succumb to failure. She vowed to procure her first orders in three months.

In order to achieve her goal, she spent a lot of time visiting prospective customers. Her initiative and gumption, coupled with her fluent English, soon got her her first order. Soon after, more and more orders poured in. Bao-cai's colleagues were surprised by her success and described her transformation saying, "The crow has turned into a phoenix."

"When you can get orders, you're somebody; but when you can't, you're nobody." Knowing well the cruel realities of the business world, Bao-cai went all out to drum up business. Sometimes in order to get orders, she even lied to her customers about the quality of some dress materials. "In the end, lying again and again just wore me out. I felt I was losing my credibility."

Having taken a dislike to her job, she decided to leave the company and set up her own business. This time, she insisted on maintaining good credit and moral integrity. She told herself she had to be honest in her dealings with her customers.

In partnership with several friends, she started a new clothing company--with only a cell phone and a fax machine. The business expanded rapidly, and soon she was getting orders from Europe and the United States. She was doing so well that her company attained an annual turnover of NT$300 million (US$8.6 million). "My success came about because I was able to earn the trust of my customers. I could always assure both the quality and a steady supply of the goods we provided. My name, 'Li Bao-cai,' was the guarantee of good quality and credit."

With her business booming, she took to enjoying a luxurious life. She wore designer outfits, ate all kinds of delicacies, and bought only the most expensive and fashionable commodities.

"I worked hard to make money, but I also spent it like water." Bao-cai observed that maybe because her family was poor when she was little, once she got rich she wanted to indulge in luxury. It never occurred to her that her lifestyle was simply too extravagant.

A good heart

Yet, although she pampered herself, the kindhearted young lady never forgot her childhood wish: one day when she had the ability, she would do her best to help the needy. "When I was little, I heard the older people telling the story of Kuan Yin Bodhisattva. They told me how the compassionate bodhisattva answered calls of distress and relieved people from suffering. After that, I always wanted to do good deeds, like establishing an orphanage or old people's home." She was deeply aware that life is full of suffering and that those who can give are the most blessed. So she never hesitated to extend a helping hand to others.

When she first started her own business, she proposed to her partners that they set aside 10 percent of their yearly profits for charitable purposes. As the business expanded, the sum of money they donated each year also grew larger and larger.

On September 21, 1999, a massive earthquake ravaged central Taiwan, causing heavy casualties and losses. Bao-cai's parents' house, located in one of the disaster areas in Nantou, was also damaged in the temblor. After the calamity, she headed home to see her parents. It was during this visit that she came to know about Tzu Chi.

When she got there, she saw that her childhood home, made unsafe by the earthquake, was no longer habitable. It saddened her to see her family and neighbors taking shelter in tents set up by the road and eating together from a huge pot. Through her heartache, she heard a soft voice on TV: "Each house we build for the quake survivors must be partitioned into a living room and a bedroom. We must not make the victims feel they are living in refugee camps. Instead we should let them feel they are living in a homelike house." Master Cheng Yen, founder of the Tzu Chi Foundation, was on TV summarizing the key points that Tzu Chi volunteers had to pay attention to when they designed and built prefabricated houses for quake survivors. Bao-cai was touched to see how much the Master cared for the victims.

Curious about Tzu Chi, Bao-cai began to observe its volunteers who were working in the disaster area. She noticed that when they were distributing tents, they always said "Thank you" with respect and politeness to the survivors. She was impressed by the volunteers' humble, sincere attitude. Having ascertained that Tzu Chi was indeed doing its part to help the needy, she immediately phoned her company's accountant and asked her to draw up a check for NT$1 million (US$29,400) to donate to the charity foundation. She also asked a friend about the location of the Tzu Chi branch office in Hong Kong, intending to visit it some time later.

After she had returned to Hong Kong, she was just coming out of a movie theater one day when it occurred to her that the Tzu Chi branch office was in the same neighborhood. She decided to drop in for a visit.

"I walked into the office with my sunglasses propped on top of my head, sporting a name-brand bag, a fashionable T-shirt and short pants. I smugly thought to myself that I must be cutting a dashing figure." She said to the Tzu Chi volunteer who received her, "You don't need to explain anything to me. What I want is simple--take me with you on your visits to the poor. I can go to a hospital to care for patients too. But I'm afraid of blood and phlegm and other dirty things, so don't let me see them."

Thus Bao-cai began visiting Shatin Hospital with Tzu Chi volunteers. There she witnessed firsthand how attentively and caringly volunteers listened to terminally ill patients pour out their hearts. She was once again moved by the genuine sincerity of the volunteers. Her determination to join Tzu Chi was further strengthened.

Beginning in 2000, Bao-cai started taking part in Tzu Chi free clinics and relief missions. One time she went to Fujian Province, mainland China, to serve at a free clinic. There she saw a teenager about 16 or 17 years old who had gone blind due to a tumor. He could regain his sight if he could go to a major hospital for an operation, the cost of which was estimated at 6,000 renminbi (US$740).

"I often spent that much on a skirt," said Bao-cai. Realizing that the money she carelessly squandered on a skirt could easily help the poor boy regain his eyesight and change his destiny, she immediately decided to finance the operation. From that time on, she never spent another penny on designer items.

Some time later, she went on another relief trip to mainland China. In order to promote the idea of environmental protection, she told local children that when they went out to eat, they could bring their own bowls from home instead of using the disposable plastic bowls in the restaurants. "But the children told me there was no need to bring their own bowls because they were so poor that they never ate out. They said they always had cheap meals at school." A mere US$0.06 was enough to buy a child three meals at school. Bao-cai felt ashamed of herself since her regular breakfast would easily cost US$6 per serving.

"I used to spend over US$200,000 on food every year. [Editor: Yep, that's correct.] It would have been so great if that money had been spent on disaster relief or the education of our younger generations!" What she saw and experienced in mainland China induced her to change her old ways. After the trips to China, she completely changed her eating habits. She never ate expensive food again, and she tried to maintain a vegetarian diet to prevent more animals from being killed for her sake.

Facing a terminal disease with optimism

Two years ago, Bao-cai started feeling occasional pain in her lower left abdomen when she was walking. After undergoing examination at the Hualien Tzu Chi Medical Center, she was told that she was afflicted with ovarian cancer--what was worse, the disease had developed into its terminal stage. She was not shocked, but she could not figure out why the illness had not been detected earlier. "I had physical checkups every year, and I always maintained a healthy diet. So how could this happen to me?"

Within one year, she underwent two operations and several chemotherapy treatments. In August 2005, the doctors found that her cancer had metastasized, and so they performed a third operation on her. The operation failed to relieve her condition, however. After that, even the doctors could not decide whether to operate on her again or to put her on chemotherapy. Bao-cai took the initiative to discuss her condition with her attending physician, Li Ming-zhe, who told her if her condition did not improve, she would have only two to three more months to live.

Bao-cai made up her mind to forgo further treatment, hoping that in this way she could lead a quality life until she left the world. She began putting her affairs in order. First she had a meeting with her family to tell them how she wanted to distribute her estate--some would be donated to Tzu Chi and some left to her family. Then she asked the doctors if she could donate her organs after she died.

Impressed by her philosophical attitude toward death, the doctors asked her, "Are you sure you want to talk about it now?"

"Yes. Death is not a taboo topic for me."

The doctors told her that because she had been infected with hepatitis B, she did not qualify as an organ donor. "In that case, I'll donate my body for medical study."

Later, her condition deteriorated so badly that her intestines became blocked and she could not eat or have bowel movements. She threw up everything she ate, and even the water she drank had to be removed from her body through a catheter. Seeing her suffer so much, Dr. Li Qi-cheng of the Department of Hematology and Oncology suggested that she try chemotherapy again. "What's the success rate?" Bao-cai asked. "About 20 percent," answered the doctor. "If you were me, what would you do?" Bao-cai asked again. Dr. Li said he would receive treatment.

Taking the doctor's advice, Bao-cai endured another chemotherapy treatment. Curiously enough, her CEA level (a rising CEA level indicates progression or recurrence of the cancer) began to drop even before the treatment began, and it plummeted more sharply after the treatment. Her alimentary canal unclogged and she was again able to function properly.

"This is really uncommon. How do we explain it?" Dr. Li Qi-cheng jokingly observed that he could only think of two reasons for the miraculous improvement in her condition. First, the tumors had shrunk out of fear the minute they knew medicine was going to be applied to them. Second, the patient's strong willpower to live had defeated the illness. Hearing the doctor's humorous explanations, Bao-cai burst into laughter.

After the chemotherapy, Bao-cai suffered from the attendant lethargy, nausea, and sickness. But however uncomfortable she was, she never failed to greet everyone she met with a smile. She did not look like a patient at all, and she even went to other wards to care for other patients. Dr. Li Ming-zhe said of her, "She doesn't take her illness as a grave matter, and she never complains. Although no one knows how long she's going to live--it can be anywhere from two months to two years--she says that she's contented enough with the way things are. She's glad that her health has improved, because it means that she'll have more time to do the things she likes."

When Bao-cai heard that Hurricane Katrina had wreaked havoc in New Orleans, Louisiana, she immediately made donations to help the victims. When the Hualien Tzu Chi Medical Center set up a Hope Station for cancer patients, she also came forward to cheer the patients on.

Two years ago, she was certified as a Tzu Chi commissioner by Master Cheng Yen. (A Tzu Chi commissioner must undergo a series of training courses and establish a roster of 40 people who make monthly donations to the foundation). The dharma name the Master gave her was "Tzu Miao" (Tzu means "compassion," and Miao means "second"). "This dharma name is very fitting," Bao-cai remarked. "It describes my present frame of mind perfectly--I must cherish every second left me and make the best of my time to do good."

From one who took pleasure in all sorts of delicacies to one who could not take in any food at all, Bao-cai has gone through a lot. After the chemotherapy, she started enjoying eating simple, plain food. "In the past, I ate a lot of meat and fish, never for one moment pausing to think that in order to satisfy my appetite for good food, animals were being killed and butchered."

She vividly remembered a strange experience she once had while shopping at a market. When the peddler she was buying from slit the neck of a chicken with a kitchen knife, she felt a sudden pain in her own neck. The same scenario replayed itself at the next stall she patronized. When the peddler landed a hammer on a sea whelk to crack its shell, her back hurt. Finding all this very strange, she decided to go buy a fish to see what would happen this time. When the fish seller slapped the head of a fish with a kitchen knife, her head immediately ached terribly. "At that time, an idea crossed my mind--if the same thing happened to me, what would I feel? On that spot, I vowed never to eat meat or fish again!"

Having had a close brush with her own death, Bao-cai has a deeper insight than most into the nature of life, and she has thought a lot about her past ways. She is grateful that the illness has given her a chance to repent and reflect on herself. "No matter how much longer my life is going to last, I will face the fact bravely. If my health deteriorates to such an extent that I can no longer live, I hope I can die in peace and return to this world as soon as possible to keep contributing to the well-being of society in whatever way I can."

Bao-cai's condition has stabilized thanks to the medical care she received at the Hualien Tzu Chi Medical Center and her strong determination to live.