Hsi Mu-jung, a famous poet, once wrote a poem, "A Tree Full of Blossoms." The first stanza reads:

How shall I let you meet me at the time I look most beautiful?
For this I have been praying in front of the Buddha for five hundred years, begging him to let us meet again that way.
The Buddha transformed me into a tree growing on the side of the road where you are bound to pass by.
Under the sunshine, the tree is full of blossoms.
Each flower stands for the wish I had in my previous life.
How shall I let you meet me at the time I look most beautiful?

This very moment, as we meet at this very place, is the time we look the most beautiful. The most beautiful time in our lives is in Tzu Chi. This "beauty" doesn't mean our figures or our faces. It means our hearts-hearts with kindness, compassion, joy and unselfish giving-just like the heart of the ancient Buddha.

Plant Seeds of Kindness, Compassion, Joy,
and Unselfish Giving

Right after the entrance examination last year, a mother brought her daughter to see the Tzu Chi College of Medicine. I was just stepping out of the office. The girl came up and asked me whether I was a teacher here. I said I was.

"Do all students have to study Buddhism in this college?" she asked.

"No," I said.

"Does every student have a compassionate heart?" she asked further.

"Not necessarily. All students are assigned here by the Board of Examination. We don't get to choose them. However, when they graduate, they take with them the concepts of kindness and compassion and the seeds of joy and unselfish giving."

Not everyone comes here as a Buddhist. Nor does anyone have to study Buddhism. But I am sure the seeds of kindness and compassion are sprouting. If the seedling is not carefully cultivated and trimmed, it will eventually wither.

The goal of Tzu Chi's mission of education is to cultivate compassionate hearts with the hope that each person who has a karmic relationship with Tzu Chi will grow by his or her own will and strength into a big, flowering tree that can provide shelter for other people and extend help to suffering beings.

Tzu Chi University in the Next Century

When the Tzu Chi Junior College of Nursing was established in 1989, there was only a two-year program [for high school graduates] in the department of nursing with 102 students. Now the department of nursing also has a five-year program [for junior high school graduates], and there are two-year programs in the departments of rehabilitation, medical management, preschool nursing, and radiation technology. Altogether there are more than 1,800 students.

In 1994, the Tzu Chi College of Medicine was founded with the three departments of medicine, public health and medical technology, and with the graduate school of nursing. At that time, there were 132 students. Today the number of students has increased to 480, and we have added the graduate school of medicine.

In the past eight years, the nursing college has been evaluated twice by the Ministry of Education. One time it received an "excellent" evaluation, and the other time "grade A." The college has always ranked the best of its kind. Two years after its establishment, the College of Medicine was also rated by the Ministry of Education. It ranked sixth among the twenty-five private colleges in Taiwan and third among the six private medical colleges.

While the Tzu Chi College of Medicine has been growing steadily, we still hope to develop and expand even further. In 1998, the College of Humanitarian Sociology and the College of Life Science will also start to accept students. These three colleges and their related departments will form the basis for the Tzu Chi University, which we hope to open in 2001.

Education With Great Giving

In response to Master Cheng Yen's idea of a complete Tzu Chi educational system, we are now actively preparing for a Tzu Chi Middle School and Tzu Chi Elementary School. The elementary school is expected to open in 1998. You may ask, "What about a nursery school and a kindergarten?" Well, I tell you: we al-ready have those in the College of Nursing.

In the Master's concept, when a baby is born to a Tzu Chi family, he is already blessed with goodness and virtue. As long as he is willing, he can receive a complete education from Tzu Chi, from nursery school all the way through graduate school.

One may ask whether such plans will cost a tremendous amount of money and what return there will be for such an investment.

The Master has said that education is a giving, a great giving, without expecting anything in return. The Master has never asked the students or their parents for anything. Her only hope is that our schools will educate students who love themselves and others, respect life, and have a good quality of living. With such conditions, she will cultivate talented persons for our society and raise hope for humanity.

A Small, Shiny Pearl

There are more than 1,800 students in the Tzu Chi Junior College of Nursing and 480 students in the College of Medicine. In the nursing college, the tuition and fees can cover all expenses except for the construction. As for the medical college, tuition and fees cover only five percent of the total expenses. We would need 4,000 students to break even.

As a matter of fact, we can't run a profitable school, just as we can't depend on Tzu Chi Hospital to make money. Since the Master decided to build Tzu Chi Hospital in a place where it is needed by poor patients, service far outweighs making money. So both the hospital and the schools rely on the support of loving people.

Although the two schools together enroll over 2,000 students, they are still the smallest such colleges in Taiwan. Dr. Lee Ming-liang, dean of the Tzu Chi College of Medicine, hopes that the college can be like a small shining pearl. Although it is not big, it has a dazzling brilliance. Compared with other similar schools, the space for students is the largest. We believe that it is important to create a beautiful view and good, spacious surroundings for the soul.

Someone told the Master that providing classrooms for students to study in was good enough. Why should we make the schools so beautiful? The Master replied that when we do everything well and give everything to the students with consideration, they can feel it. When parents send their children to our schools, they can feel our thoughtfulness to the students. Then they will have no worry in turning their children over to our hands. Their freedom from worry will make their children grow well. We have a responsibility to all parents.

Breaking Out of the Box

Specialization in one area is only for a certain period of life, but being human is for the whole span of life. In today's society, every person is like a frame or a box. They speak to each other only in the language with which they are familiar. People who study computer, engineering, arts, etc., encircle themselves with a comfortable box in which they can get along well. Once they step out of that box, they feel it hard to talk to others. Actually, they can communicate with each other in the areas of beliefs about life and humanitarian care.

Once we come in contact with Tzu Chi, our boxes open and we find a new way to reach people. We don't have to "talk shop" about our specializations or knowledge. We can talk about life from birth till death, how to create a valuable life, and how to turn our normal lives into lives of wisdom.

Although there are many ways to communicate outside the boxes, some people still shut themselves in. They only want to communicate to others through a computer, which has no warmth and cannot show happiness, anger, sorrow or joy. Each person is a living being. Only through direct contact can we feel warmth.

Return of the Soul, Respect, Care, Love

Humanitarianism is something in the environment. The humanitarianism of Tzu Chi does not only show in the classrooms, but everywhere in the schools.

Take the anatomy course as an example. At the beginning of class, the teacher first asks a nun from the Abode of Still Thoughts to pray. Then the students remove the cloth that covers the body. We respect, care for and love the body, and we hope that through this simple process, the students will learn what "respect" means. After class, the teacher requires the students to stitch the body back together as neatly as possible. When that is done, then they wrap the body with cloth.

In the course of such contact, the body acts as a silent teacher. It is also like a senior relative or an old friend. The Master even designs clothes for the bodies, so that they may leave the world respectably when they are put in the coffins to be cremated.

No matter how specialized an education is, it must ultimately serve life. We hope education will improve the relationships between people and bring care and love into our lives.