On October 26, 2006, I launched the campaign to "Return to the Era of the Bamboo Banks." I urged Tzu Chi members to harbor a good thought every day and to never underestimate their abilities, no matter how humble they are. As the saying goes, "Many drops of water flowing together will make a river, and many grains of sand piled up will make a pagoda."

Tzu Chi members around the world warmly responded to my call and began donating money every day. The money might have been just five or ten dollars, but it's not the amount of the donation that matters. What matters is that the act of donating brings out a thought of kindness, a seed of blessing, and a joyful heart every day.

In order to enable more people to join in this campaign, volunteers at our Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital have converted empty IV bottles into coin banks for people to take home. Every drop from those IV bottles had helped sick patients, and now every penny dropped into the bottles will help many more people in the world. It is truly meaningful. When we pool our individual wishes to benefit others, they will become a great force benefiting the world.

Our lives will end someday. If everything we do when we are alive brings nothing but trouble to us and others, our lives are miserable. On the other hand, if we can discover the meaning of life and understand its value, if we can see the ups and downs of life as lessons from which to learn, then we will always be happy. Although our physical life will end, our wisdom life will continue to exist forever.

Love needs determination and courage

In China, most Tzu Chi volunteers are businessmen and their wives. Before every Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, they spend a lot of time preparing traditional Chinese food, such as dumplings and moon cakes, for fundraising. Some people ask the volunteers if it wouldn't be easier for them to simply ask people to donate money instead of putting in so much time and energy to make food for bazaars. They reply that they want to bring out everyone's love. Some people may be kindhearted, but they may not have extra money to share with others. By helping to make the food for fundraising, they are indirectly making contributions. The people kind enough to buy the food can sense the food-makers' sincerity and love through the food.

By gathering many people's love and strength, they can help the less fortunate. One way volunteers help is to send poor students to school. In Guizhou Province, China, there are two shabby elementary schools: the Songlong Elementary School in Yahui and the Zhulou Elementary School in Nangao. Many children walk over ten kilometers (6.2 miles) just to get to one of these schools. When it is dark, cold and snowing, little kids often carry little charcoal heaters to keep themselves warm on the way to school. Sometimes, they need to hold the heater in one hand and carry a younger sibling on their back. All of this to attend school so that someday they can make enough money to help support their parents!

The students aren't the only ones that work hard. Some teachers spend almost all their time at school. They teach with passion and the students study hard in tiny, crude, dim classrooms. Seeing the teachers and students work so hard in the face of such seemingly insurmountable adversity truly breaks our hearts.

Knowing there are many schools like that, Tzu Chi volunteers in China have traveled from one village to another to give care and scholarships to students who cannot afford an education. Volunteers embrace the children as their own and help the teachers rebuild their schools. The projects are time-consuming and require much effort and money. But it is worth it. Our volunteers report a high level of satisfaction and happiness when they are able to help children attend school. Some volunteers have even pledged to provide additional financial assistance to help children attend college in the future.

The more our volunteers witness other people's tough lives, the greater courage and determination they have to overcome whatever hardships they might encounter in helping others. Such spirit touches me deeply. I am very grateful to them.

Holding helpless little hands

Education might be the best way to eradicate poverty.

On November 10, 2006, we saw the completion of a new classroom building at Marita Tzu Chi Elementary School in Tijuana, Mexico. Students and teachers of the school gave Tzu Chi volunteers a big surprise at the inauguration ceremony. Because most of the volunteers came from Taiwan, the students donned traditional Chinese outfits and performed a Chinese dance for them. How thoughtful and sweet they were!

In 1993, Tzu Chi volunteers from the United States first crossed the border into Tijuana. They saw many people living in poverty, enduring hardships and illness. In response, volunteers began holding charitable activities and free clinics in Tijuana. Later on they learned that children wandered the streets or the vast desert-like land all day because there was no school for them, so they began working with the local government for permission to build a new facility. The government eventually approved the project, and in 1996 the six-classroom Marita Tzu Chi School was completed.

After it opened, more and more children tried to enroll. The school was obviously too small and cramped to accommodate so many students, so Tzu Chi decided to enlarge it. The local government knew how much care the volunteers had been giving to both the teachers and students, so the government offered to share part of the building expenses. Furthermore, although most parents were financially strapped, over a thousand parents donated too. It is easy to see how the selfless love displayed by Tzu Chi volunteers brings out love from everyone.

Just a decade ago, Marita Tzu Chi Elementary School had only a couple of dozen students and six classrooms. Today, it has over a thousand students and occupies a new two-story building in addition to the original classrooms. Parents are happy that their children are receiving an education, and some even volunteer at the school. At the first commencement ceremony, all the parents dressed in their best outfits to congratulate their children for having completed elementary school. The students were ready to head toward another stage of learning. All parents sincerely hope that their children may have a promising future after receiving a proper education.

Today, Tzu Chi volunteers hold the schoolchildren's little hands. We believe one day when these children grow up, they will also hold other little hands with their hands. Love will keep on growing.

Living with etiquette

Tzu Chi values education. We try to give all children in impoverished areas a chance to receive an education, hoping to give them a lift from the dreadful life of poverty. But we do more than help educate those in poverty. We also teach proper manners and etiquette to children with plenty of resources.

It was reported that a middle school in Kyushu in Japan will include the use of chopsticks as part of next year's entrance exams in order to evaluate applicants' table manners. Although table manners might seem minor, etiquette is one of the basics of "life education." Such lessons are fundamental in order to nurture decent citizens. It is no coincidence that we have included the etiquette of properly holding chopsticks and bowls in the training courses for Tzu Chi commissioner apprentices.

Receiving an education is easy in today's modern society, and our children go to school much earlier than their parents did. Does this mean that the quality of education has improved? No, I don't believe so. Every time I talk with senior educators, they often express their worries about the negative effects of our unfavorable social environment upon the quality of teachers, the parenting skills of parents, and the level of morality of young people.

As a result, Tzu Chi humanitarian academies overseas are striving to instill in their students the concepts of filial piety and love. Most importantly, the teachers require their students to put such lessons into practice in daily life. For example, at a Tzu Chi kindergarten in Penang, Malaysia, the teachers wanted children to realize how loving and thoughtful their parents were in always taking care of them. To teach this, the teachers held a foot-washing ceremony in which the children washed their parent's feet. It was a truly heartwarming picture when we saw many pairs of little hands mindfully and gently washing their parents' toes and cleaning their feet.

Cleansing our minds

Although there are 19 Tzu Chi humanitarian academies in the United States, our first kindergarten accredited by the local government opened in Monrovia, near Los Angeles, in September 2006. After just two months, the children were already coming to understand that they should be thankful for everything they have, including the clothes they wear and the food they eat. Some children shared with their parents the sense of gratitude they learned at school. The parents were so impressed that they made a special trip to the school to express their own gratefulness.

Nothing in this world is impossible if we make up our mind to do it. Although today's worsening environment can be a challenge, if we have the determination to make a change, the environment will surely improve. If we can use education to increase the morals and ethics of individuals, society will improve as well. This gives us reason to hope.

In November 2006, 400 Tzu Chi volunteers from 19 countries flew to Taiwan to attend a training camp for Tzu Chi commissioners and Tzu Cheng Faith Corps members. Some of these attendees had never been to Taiwan, nor had they ever seen me in person. Some of them were not of Chinese descent and did not understand Chinese at all. Although the only way they could know Tzu Chi was through our publications and TV programs, the foundation's spirit and essence were deeply ingrained in their minds. With joy and sincerity, they flew to their spiritual home in Taiwan. To these volunteers with earnest hearts, the distance between us was just a plane ticket away!

Among the attendees were four Zulu volunteers from South Africa. Their skin color, race, and religious faith were very different from ours, yet their kind, pure nature was the same. Zulu volunteers do not lead a comfortable life in their home country. In fact, their lives have been quite difficult. But their noble minds have transcended adversity and hardship. By staying positive, they are able to help the less fortunate in their country. They often walk long distances and climb mountains to take care of AIDS patients. Although they have little, they often give all the money they have in their pockets when they meet impoverished people. Their lives continue to be hard, but their hearts are rich with love. They are truly admirable.

Great Love would embrace the world and all suffering people if more and more people could open their hearts to the misery of others and lend a hand to the needy. Not only should we perform good deeds, but we should encourage others to do them as well. When many good people constantly perform good deeds in many places, the fragrant merits of kindness and good thoughts will accumulate. We should therefore spread the seeds of Great Love to every corner of the world and moisten the withered minds and hearts of suffering people with our helping hands.

Our innate nature was originally untainted, just like that of the Buddha's. We once possessed pure love and crystal-clear wisdom. But through time, our minds became polluted by the exterior environment, shrouded in ignorance, and bound by worries. By getting in touch with the suffering of others, we are actually getting in touch with our own intrinsic nature. Witnessing so much suffering in the world helps us seek universal truth and free our minds from the bondage of worries and ignorance.

Let us return to a mind of simplicity, purity and brightness. Let us do whatever we need to do with wisdom. If we can all do "seemingly trivial" good deeds and refrain from doing "seemingly harmless" bad things, then we can lead a conscientious and bright life.