Since 1995, Tzu Chi members have provided care to residents in an orphanage in An Thong, Thailand, located 90 minutes from Bangkok. Residents in the facility range from 5 to 18 years old, but not everyone in the home is an orphan. Some children have parents, but the parents are just too poor to raise them. Even children with families seldom have visitors; parents and relatives often live far away and cannot afford the trip to An Thong. However, Tzu Chi members have kept faithful company with the residents almost every day for more than a decade.

Our members were shocked at the living conditions in the home when they visited it for the first time. The facilities were very crude, lacking all but the most basic amenities. Many children suffered from malnourishment or painful skin conditions. The need for materials and resources was so acute that our members immediately mobilized to provide residents with daily necessities and food supplies.

But the children needed more than food and sundries. More importantly, they longed for a parent's love. Our volunteers decided to make regular visits to the home to demonstrate the love and guidance that parents would normally provide. Tzu Chi members loved and cared deeply for the children. Even so, the children were not spoiled or pampered. Hoping to teach the children how to properly care for themselves, our volunteers taught the children basic hygiene practices and how to keep their living environment clean.

Furthermore, they taught the children etiquette and the value of life. By learning from Master Cheng Yen's Still Thoughts Aphorisms, the younger children discovered that they should count their blessings and create more blessings by doing good deeds. To encourage the older children to study hard in middle school, our volunteers provided scholarships. Those who received the first set of scholarships are now preparing to graduate from college. In fact, 11 people from the home are now enrolled in college.

Tzu Chi volunteers served as excellent role models for the children as they matured. For example, Tzu Chi members regularly took the youth to visit the poor and abandoned. In this way, the children could see firsthand that although they had a tough life, they were better off than many others. These visits helped foster a sense of compassion, and encouraged the youth to care for the lonely, the elderly, and the poor.

These lessons of love and compassion have followed the children into adulthood. Eight of the 11 college students have joined the Tzu Chi Collegiate Association. After receiving assistance themselves, they are now helping to spread Great Love by serving the needy and the poor. Seeing how these young people are repaying society through concrete action makes the Tzu Chi volunteers who have accompanied them over such a long period of time very happy.

It is wonderful to see these children becoming independent, polite, and, above all, very close to the Tzu Chi members who have been there for them over the past 11 years. Looking at the warm and beautiful bonds of friendship that have developed between our volunteers and the children makes me very happy and grateful.

Four kinds of spirit

Tzu Chi has been promoting the missions of charity, medicine, education, and humanitarianism for 40 years. The spirit behind the four missions includes kindness, compassion, joy, and unselfish giving.

Kindness refers to all the charitable activities in which we are engaged. The world is full of suffering. Wherever a disaster strikes, Tzu Chi members quickly arrive at the disaster site to offer food, supplies and medical care. We also try to soothe the survivors' tormented minds so that their lives can get back to normal as soon as possible. We hope that everyone in the world can be happy.

Compassion is embodied in the mission of medical care. When you suffer, I can feel your sorrow; when you hurt, I can feel your pain. We should compassionately take others' pain as our own. As the doctors and nurses in our Tzu Chi hospitals regard patients' illnesses as their own, they will naturally endeavor to give the best treatment and make the patient as comfortable as possible.

Joy is the spirit behind the mission of humanitarianism, which means to spread joyful stories and positive information among people. Tzu Chi's media outlets, such as the Great Love TV Station and Tzu Chi magazines, aim to promote the bright side of human nature by covering and reporting the positive news that is happening around the world. Through these stories, we can help calm agitated and worried minds and bring people happiness and peace. This helps guide them toward the right direction in life.

I feel thrilled when I see participants of Tzu Chi camps having fun and happily sharing their thoughts of gratitude with one another. Although I cannot physically participate in every camp, my heart is with everyone. Sensing the harmonious and joyful atmosphere permeating the camps puts my heart at peace.

Although the world is full of suffering, when everyone in a group puts their hearts together, a sense of harmony will naturally prevail. All Tzu Chi people take the Buddha's compassion and my commitment as their own, and they interact with other people with sincerity and integrity. As they cultivate the principles of sincerity, integrity, trust, and honesty within, they begin to demonstrate kindness, compassion, joy, and unselfish giving without. Seeing this fills me with joy and gratitude.

The spirit of unselfish giving means giving without asking for anything in return. This type of giving means more than just the giving of one's possessions; it also means giving freely of one's time and energy.

For example, there is an elderly woman living in Taichung, in central Taiwan, who collects recyclable materials every day in local apartment buildings. She moves from floor to floor, from the ground up to the top. She doesn't take the elevators because there are recyclables to collect on each floor. Her resolution in helping protect the environment has touched the security guards in those buildings so much that they have begun to pick up recyclables too. The woman insists on doing such hard work because she says that only after she has sweated and done her share of work does she have a happy feeling of "I've made it!"

One time, another elderly recycling volunteer told me that her bones would become rigid and her body sore if she skipped collecting recyclables, even for just one day. After she does the painstakingly hard work of recycling, she feels very relaxed and comfortable, both spiritually and physically. Ironically, she told me that she was not familiar with the great philosophy of "being delighted and at ease."

The gratitude I have felt for the recycling volunteers' sincere commitment and full devotion is so deep that I cannot express it in words.

Acting out of kindness, compassion, joy, and unselfish giving is in itself an education, teaching us to carry out worldly tasks with an otherworldly spirit. As we cultivate our spirituality in the world, we must seize every possible moment at every possible place to serve the needy. Only through taking solid steps to give of ourselves can the value of our lives be revealed and improved.

The act of giving

If a person appreciates group harmony and is willing to help others, then such a life is meaningful and valuable. On the other hand, a person who is only concerned about himself finds it hard to get along with others, and he often bickers with others in order to get a bit more benefit for himself. Not only is he unwilling to share, he continues to want more and more. Gradually, greed taints his mind and drives him to do nasty things.

Self-indulgence and failing to get rid of your bad habits will make it difficult to move forward on the Path of the Bodhisattvas. When you are not diligently improving yourself, then you are falling lower and lower.

I remember a story from one of the Buddhist scriptures. A little boy was born into one of the richest families in an Indian kingdom. The boy's father passed away when he was still young, so the loyal butler carefully guarded the family wealth for his young master. When the boy grew up, the butler gave him the family treasure. As he handed over each item, he recalled its origin. "This diamond ring was from your mother, these gold nuggets were from your grandfather, and that emerald was from your great grandfather." Each treasure came with its own story.

As the young man listened to the butler's explanations, he could not help thinking, "My ancestors have been rich for seven generations, but none of them could take even a tiny piece of jewelry with them when they left the world. I want to use my wealth to do something that I can take with me when I'm gone."

The young man made a public announcement that he would help whoever was sick but could not afford medical treatment. He also proclaimed that he would feed whoever was too poor to buy food. Every day he carried food and money to different places and gave freely to the poor, the hungry and the sick. When he had finally given away his last possession, his mind became completely unencumbered and free. He had become free to walk joyfully on the path of spiritual cultivation.

When you can give up earthly possessions, you can gain peace of mind. Although the rich young man in the story gave away large quantities of wealth, it is not important how much you give. You must not become discouraged with your seemingly insignificant giving. When all the small donations and seemingly insignificant contributions are put together, they become a tremendous force, strong enough to help many suffering souls in the world.

Tzu Chi encourages the rich to share what they have with those that are less privileged, but we also encourage the poor to help those who are even poorer. We want to inspire everyone to be willing to give and to share their material gains and love. If we can broaden this kind of love through unselfish giving, many confrontations and squabbles could be reduced. The whole world could be purified in this way.

Silent teachers

On March 5, 2006, Tzu Chi University held a memorial service for 29 "silent teachers," individuals who kindly donated their bodies after death for the anatomy classes in our medical college.

Every part of the service--from decorating the memorial hall to placing the bodies into coffins and respectfully delivering the coffins to the crematory--was planned and implemented by the medical students themselves. The students even went so far as to clean the crematorium beforehand. All of this was done to provide the silent teachers with a dignified memorial service.

During the memorial service, our students expressed their gratitude to each of the silent teachers. Their words of appreciation and gestures of respect clearly demonstrated that they had learned the meaning of human-oriented medicine. In this way, the silent teachers are teaching more than the knowledge of anatomy. They are also teaching the students sincere love and unselfish giving. These lessons will accompany the students throughout their career as medical doctors.

Many Tzu Chi volunteers were among the 29 silent teachers. When they were alive, they served as my good companions in doing good deeds and walking the path of spiritual cultivation. They were unafraid to travel long distances to the darkest corners of the world to care for the poor and sick. When disasters struck, they were often the first on the scene to offer help. Their hearts and minds were utterly devoted to Tzu Chi's Four Missions.

Te En (德恩), a nun who became my disciple over forty years ago, was among this group of silent teachers. She served as my attendant and mindfully took care of me over the last four decades. In June 2003, she suddenly felt very weak and uncomfortable [Later on, she was diagnosed with fulminating viral hepatitis]. On June 9, the day she was hospitalized, she said to me, "Master, I'm ready to go to the hospital now." I replied, "Just follow your karmic conditions and don't be attached to anything."

From that day until her last moment on July 5, whenever I saw her, she always had a smile on her face. When she passed away, an ambulance took her body back to the Abode to let her visit her home for the last time. Even then, a smile was on her face.

During her forty years of spiritual cultivation, she always maintained a tranquil mind and faithfully performed her daily duties. At the end of her life, she educated our medical students by donating her body for their benefit. I was very happy and proud of her. Her final act of love was a beautiful culmination of her rewarding life.

Tzu Chi commissioner Deng Chun-zhi (鄧春治) was another one of the silent teachers. She was a member of our first-ever disaster relief team to China in 1991, and she worked hard for two years to build houses for flood victims there. Her dedication to Tzu Chi did not wane even after she was diagnosed with cancer. On the occasions when we met, I would encourage her to rest more. But she replied with characteristic wisdom, "Master, please don't worry about me. Each day I can contribute is another meaningful day I've added to my life." She seized the time to do good until her last moment came. When she was about to pass away, I went to see her and reminded her to return to the world quickly so that she could resume her mission of doing good deeds. She promised me she would.

We often said that our lives were interconnected and intertwined. In what way were our lives connected? By the same commitment that we all made. Although I was reluctant to see these two wonderful individuals pass away, they set yet another good example of unselfish giving by contributing their bodies for a greater good. It is indeed a valuable legacy they left behind. They have guided our medical students into the temple of life's mystery with their bodies, helping our doctors-to-be learn to lovingly guard the lives of the sick in the future. They also served, even in death, as role models for unselfish giving for all Tzu Chi members.

When they were alive, they lived out the value of life to the fullest. When it was time to go, they contributed their bodies for medical research. A life like that is eternal and invaluable.

"How long does a life exist?" the Buddha once asked his disciples. All his disciples knew that life was impermanent. Some answered, "Life exists in the span of a day." Others said that it existed in the span of a meal. But the Buddha shook his head to these two replies. When a third disciple said, "A life exists in the span of a breath," the Buddha finally nodded his head with satisfaction.

Indeed, life exists in the span of a breath. Once we stop breathing, we die. Each time I make my rounds at our hospital, from the ICU to the outpatient department, I let go of all worries. However, my heart often aches after witnessing the fragility and impermanence of life. The life cycle of birth, aging, illness, and death that I see reminds me to work harder while I am still able. I must seize every second to do as much work as possible. Every day I live, I will live it to the fullest with gratitude that I have one more day to contribute to the world.

Life is never easy, but if we cannot live out the value of life, then aren't our lives wasted? Buddhists often say that we can take nothing but our karma with us when we die. If we fail to increase the value of life in this lifetime or waste our precious time in conflict with others, we will create a lot of bad karma. Subsequently, we will never be able to emancipate ourselves from the bondage of worries in the next life or the many lives to come.

Living out the value of life means seizing the time we have to contribute to the welfare of the world, while we still are capable of doing so. Let's all do it together!