A charity auction, "Embrace the World With Love," was held at the Hsinkuang Art Gallery in Taipei on November 8 and 9. On Saturday, November 8, some art works were auctioned off, and on Sunday more than 210 pieces of jewelry were completely sold out. The weekend activity raised close to US$7 million [all figures in this article are given in United States dollars] for the construction of the Tzu Chi General Hospital in Talin and the Disabled Children's Rehabilitation Center in Taipei.

The whole event originated from a conversation among three women two years ago. Li Chia-yin suggested auctioning off old watches for charity, and this idea immediately received support from Sister Tzu Yin and Lin Chen-ying, a famous fashion designer. While discussing the plan happily, a thought suddenly came across their minds: wouldn't it be even more wonderful if they added jewelry, calligraphy and antiques to the auction?

After they agreed to the plan, they began to carry it out. Sister Tzu Yin is quite knowledgeable about jewelry, so she went to her good friend Tsai Chen-yang, a well-known tycoon and the owner of My Humble House Development Company. Tsai at once agreed to her request and started coordinating the event.

Tsai went to visit the Tzu Chi headquarters in Hualien, and he was quite touched by what he saw. For this auction, he personally donated a jadeite statue of the Great Compassion Bodhisattva which he had owned for years. This piece was once displayed in the Beijing national museum. People had wanted to buy it from him, but he had never agreed to sell it. Thus, the three women were quite surprised and admired him very much for his willingness to give it up for the auction.

After Tsai put up his dearest treasure, Sister Tzu Yin also donated all the jewelry from her safety-deposit box. Before she went to Canada a long time ago, she had asked her secretary to open a safety-deposit box to store all her jewelry. However, when she went to retrieve the jewelry this time, she was astonished to see that the number on her safety-deposit box was the same as the number on her Tzu Chi commissioner's ID card. At that moment, she felt like she had been hit by a bolt from the blue. "Suddenly I realized that I had stored all this jewelry just for this auction."

"Do you really want to donate all that?" Li and Lin were staggered by the sight of the expensive, sparkling jewels. Many of the jewels had the same color and weight, so they knew it had not been easy to collect them into a set.

In order to make the love of all the jewelry donors shine more clearly, Li obtained their permission to redesign the jewelry. She herself absorbed the designer's fees.

As a fashion designer, Lin is quite sensitive to all beauty. Besides donating her own jewelry and calligraphy collection, she also designed the auction catalogue. She said that there were loving people in every profession, as demonstrated by the My Humble House company, which was helping them free of charge.

While collecting donations for the auction, the women were moved by the stories behind some of the items. For instance, Kuo Yu-chin of Singapore and her husband were a successful business couple, but she later contracted leukemia. She was cured by a bone marrow transplant. After this incident, she realized that material goods were not vital in a person's life, so she donated all the gems that her husband had given her.

As the owners of the Heart of Buddha Cultural and Art Co., Ltd., He Tung-yao and his wife, Lin Ting-chun, are acquainted with many artists. When these artists heard that Tzu Chi was raising funds for its medical mission, they unreservedly donated all their works. "Some of these artists are not rich," Lin said, "but they touch my heart when they are determined to donate their works for a good cause."

Kao Ming-shan of Seattle used to be in the art business, so he has a large collection of art works. For this auction, he donated many done by famous artists. "Actually, giving is happier than owning! Because when you own something, you greedily want to collect more. But if you give, you will be happy, relaxed and at ease. Once your greed is reduced, your mind will become vastly wider."

Another commissioner, Wen Su-chen, also donated all the jewels from her safety-deposit box. Before joining Tzu Chi, she was a great lover of jewelry, but after joining Tzu Chi, she felt that jewelry could not add anything to a woman's beauty. "Love shouldn't be locked up in a safety-deposit box. A woman's charm isn't brought out by jewelry. It comes from her own radiance and warmth."

Gary K. C. He, founder of the He Chuang-shih Foundation and director of the Tzu Chi Canada branch office, is very fond of calligraphy because of the influence of his father, He Chuang-shih. He too donated many art works done by famous artists.

The weekend auctions were conducted professionally, but there were some tiny differences from traditional ones. For one, there were solo singing recitals during the rest break on Saturday and before the auction started on Sunday. Many buyers also brought their family members along, so the fair was rather exciting. Furthermore, all the jewels were auctioned off on Sunday, a record never reached in any previous auction.

Because of the recent shocks in the stock market and the currency exchange rate, not many art works were sold on Saturday. Thus, at the beginning of the auction on Sunday, Yeh Shu-shan, a well-known Tzu Chi member and TV news anchorperson, encouraged everyone to raise their bids because they were not there to buy jewelry, but to promote their love. In the first half of the auction, some small items were quickly auctioned off at close to their estimated prices. A diamond ring estimated at between $2,600 and $3,300 was sold for $4,700. A set of diamond rings estimated at between $5,000 and $6,667 was sold for $8,000.

When Tsai's emerald statue was put up, the bidding started at $600,000, less than the statue's original cost. Tsai insisted that the statue would not be sold if the bidding did not go beyond $660,000. Thus, a collector from Hong Kong immediately raised the bid. A Mr. Chang from Taiwan at once raised the bid to $730,000, allowing the statue to stay in Taiwan and winning applause from everyone in the audience. Auctioneer Tsai Chen-yang opened the bidding for a matched set of ruby ring and earrings at $667,000, and finally sold them for $900,000, the highest price of the day.

This Mr. Chang was the largest buyer. He also spent $90,000 on a star-shaped sapphire ring and $300,000 on a diamond ring with sapphire.

There was a stir among the audience when Sun Jo-nan, wife of the CEO of the Hsinkuang Group, appeared with thirty-five perfectly round pearls. After fierce competition, a Tzu Chi member bought them for $126,000. Then, before he had even touched the pearls himself, he immediately donated them to be auctioned off again. They were sold the second time for $133,000. Thus, these pearls collected almost $300,000 for the Tzu Chi Talin Hospital. Many people were moved to tears.

Before the auction started, Master Cheng Yen in Hualien urged the audience not to be too concerned with auctioning off all the items. Instead, they should all look at the whole event with an equitable frame of mind. After the auction was over, the Master told the public that she was quite grateful to all the volunteers for putting the whole thing together and the participants for helping out.

The Tzu Chi Foundation worried that the auction and the large amount of money collected would give the public a wrong impression. The foundation hoped that people would give serious thought to the main purpose of the auction, which was to provide necessary medical services to rural districts in south-central Taiwan and to build the Disabled Children's Rehabilitation Center in Taipei.

The motivation to build the center came about seven or eight years ago, when a group of mentally disabled children and children with cerebral palsy went with their families to Hualien to ask for help from Master Cheng Yen. One mother tearfully told the Master that she was over sixty years old, and that she did not know how much longer she would live to look after her disabled child. She worried that when she passed away, no one else would look after her child.

Moved by their plight, Master Cheng Yen decided to lend a hand. After she had sent people to study treatment for disabled children in Japan, she decided to build the first disabled children's rehabilitation center in Taiwan.