A symposium for youth was held jointly by the Government Information Office, the Central Daily News, and the Chengkung Hill Training Center on September 11, 1997. The speakers were Dr. Ma Ying-jeou, Associate Professor at the National Chengchih University, Hsieh Kun-shan, a disabled painter who received an award as one of the ten outstanding young men in 1996, and Lu Fang-chuan, general director of the Tzu Chi Collegiate Youth Corps.

If you don't put goodness into concrete practice,
it will just be an empty slogan.

Dr. Ma Ying-jeou

When Dr. Ma Ying-jeou was still in middle school, he read an article in the Central Daily News titled, "Genuine Human Warmth and Social Morality ," written by an American student in Taiwan. In the article, the American student related his observations and understanding of Taiwanese youth. The warmth and the friendliness among the young people here were incomparable to those anywhere else, but the young people here were rather indifferent when it came to public affairs. As examples, the American wrote that Taiwanese youth never observed social norms of cleanliness and respect, they carelessly tossed their garbage everywhere, and they seldom gave up their seats to little children, women, the elderly and the disabled on buses.

This criticism from a foreigner really made people very uneasy. Some reflected on the article and tried to find out why social morals had degraded to such an extent as to be criticized by a foreigner. Had traditional Chinese society, which had always emphasized etiquette and justice, become apathetic and selfish?

Students from the National Taiwan University started the "May Twentieth Self-Enlightenment Movement," and students from other schools responded vigorously. Being then a young student himself, Ma plunged into that movement immediately. He put up a poster in his classroom and wrote, "We don't want to be a decadent generation-we don't want to become a blank page in our history."

Ever since he was a small boy, Ma has carried in his mind his grandfather's words: "Gold is not a treasure, but books are. Everything is empty except for kindness." Since then, studying and doing good deeds have been his goals.

Once while he was riding a bicycle to visit a classmate, he saw heavy smoke coming out of the second floor of an apartment building. He immediately put down his bicycle, dashed into the apartment and fetched a bucket of water to put out the fire. Although it was a small fire, the happiness he got from extinguishing it was indescribable, because he realized he had done something good that day.

In the summer of 1997, a typhoon raged through Taiwan and blew down many trees in a park near his residence. While Ma was jogging the next morning, he saw that trees had been pulled out by their roots. He thought that under the scorching sun, the trees would wither very soon and would no longer provide shade for people. Since he had always loved trees, he tried to push them up straight.

His actions were noticed by people exercising in the park. They immediately joined him. Some brought ropes to pull the tree trunks, some brought saws to trim the twigs, others dug up the soil and buried the tree roots deep underground. In a short period of time, they saved many trees.

People in Taiwan are not as apathetic as one might think. According to Ma's observations, what is needed is strength to activate enthusiasm and to light the torch of concern for others. Facing the problem of how to purify minds and how to elevate social awareness, Ma emphasizes that one should not point a finger at others, but at oneself. In other words, the people of Taiwan should change themselves first.

There is no shortcut in carrying out the idea of caring for society. People must simply put it into action. "Just go do it, and you will naturally get results." Ma also stresses that if people do not put this concept into concrete practice, it will be nothing more than an empty slogan.

Many observers think that the new generation today is too egoistic. To Ma, school campuses are not short of students who are concerned about public affairs and are ready to give of themselves. When he was studying at National Taiwan University, there was only one student club for social service. Now there are several clubs promoting environmental protection and providing services to aborigines and veterans. They have been performing quite well.

In Taiwan, the most serious social problem is theft. According to statistics, only thirty-three percent of theft cases are solved. Ma considers that if we only rely on the police, improvement is unlikely. The best way is for people living in the same community to help each other to prevent such cases from happening.

What is the best solution to social problems? "We should start with ourselves by caring about the people, events and things around us. By doing this, we can light the torch of social concern."

You are your own best friend
and your own worst enemy.

Hsieh Kun-shan

In August 1997, Hsieh Kun-shan and his wife went to the United States to accept an international prize for painting. One day as they were walking in Chinatown, a tall, stout man came up to them, told them he was hungry and asked for money .

It was unthinkable to Hsieh that a strong man with healthy limbs should ask a disabled man like him for money. He decided not to give him anything, worrying that his sympathy might encourage the man to remain idle. He realized that "You are your own best friend and your own worst enemy."

At sixteen, Hsieh accidentally touched a high-voltage wire. As a result, he lost both arms, his lower right leg, and the vision in his right eye. In the eyes of many people, he had been crippled by the accident and had no future. However, he never gave up. Facing this trial, he only had one thought in mind: "What else do I have?"

After he was discharged from the hospital, he stayed at home alone for seven years. One day he saw his younger sister doing homework with a pencil. He thought to himself that before the accident, he could easily stretch out his hand to pick up a pencil and write, but now he had no hands. Was there any way that he could hold a pencil again?

After pondering this for a long time, Hsieh finally realized that he still had a mouth. Since he didn't want to ask for help from others, he started to learn how to sharpen a pencil with his mouth.

First, he fixed a pencil at the corner of a desk. Then he held a knife in his mouth with the blade pointing outward and started to sharpen the pencil bit by bit. As he sharpened the pencil, he also built up his confidence, which opened a wide door in his life.

Hsieh shared with the symposium audience a personal experience from his youth. When he was fifteen years old, he went hiking on a mountain in Neihu with a group of friends. On the way, they met an old woman squatting at the side of the road, begging for money. He dug from his pocket a five-dollar note [then about US$0.14] and put it in her bowl. Delighted with himself, he walked with a lighter pace. Some time later, an old man appeared at the roadside, also begging for money. Hsieh reached into his pocket again for another five-dollar note, but then he hesitated for a moment : he realized that it was the only money he had left. Nevertheless, he still respectfully turned the money over to that old man.

When they went back down the mountain to wait for bus, Hsieh had to borrow money from a friend to buy a bus ticket. When one of his friends found out what had happened, he laughed and told Hsieh that he was really stupid. Those two old folks were the largest landowners in this area!

When he heard this, Hsieh didn't feel the slightest bit annoyed, humiliated, or angry. He thought for a moment and then told his friend, "I am so rich!"

He could not imagine why those two rich persons who owned so much land had to beg money from people. Were their minds only concerned with calculating how much money they had?

Hsieh thinks that adversity is a chance to train yourself. If a person will only change his point of view, he can convert adversity into advantage.

He recalled that in his early days of studying painting, he received a lot of support and care from several instructors. They gave without expecting anything in return. They were the models he always wanted to follow. He also hopes that through sharing his experiences, he can extend his love far and wide.

"Life is like a small drop of water: it can evaporate easily. But if it is mixed in the sea, it will never dry up." Hsieh Kun-shan invites young friends to join the circle of kindness and the great sea of love.

What kind of people we will become depends on
how we decide to live our lives.

Lu Fang-chuan

From Lu Fang-chuan's experience, many young people live selfishly before coming to live in a university dormitory. They are intractable, egoistic and arrogant. They are even contemptuous of others. However, once they come to the dorm and learn to live with others, their eyes are opened and they mend their inappropriate living habits. What is more valuable is that they learn how to care about other people around them.

Ever since he became general director of the Tzu Chi Collegiate Youth Corps, he has seen many cases in which young people learned the real meaning of life by doing social service work.

One college student went to do volunteer work at Tzu Chi Hospital. He was assigned to the oncology department to bathe an old man, rinse his hair, massage him, and sing and tell stories to him. Several days later, the young man said with tears in his eyes that from his work of the past few days, he finally comprehended what a "fulfilling life" was. That volunteer work enabled him to realize how to exercise filial piety and gratitude. It made him understand the deeper meaning of life.

Lu shared with the symposium audience a story worthy of reflection. In southern Taiwan, there was an old, blind woman who ran a grocery store. One day, she used all her savings to hire an electrician to install a streetlight outside her store. The electrician was very much surprised, and he asked her why she wanted to install a light, since she seldom went out at night and couldn't see anyway.

The old woman said that her place was quite remote, so it could be inconvenient and unsafe for pedestrians at night. She had always wanted to install a road lamp, but she had never had enough money before. Now that she had, she could fulfill her wish.

Her kindness touched the electrician, who only charged her for the materials. News of her kind deed quickly spread through the whole village. Moved by her actions, the villagers donated money to set up streetlights in other remote places so that people coming back home late at night could be safe.

Quoting Master Cheng Yen's words, Lu said, "Many times, the problem is not a question of whether you can do something or not. Rather, it is a question of whether you are willing to do it or not. As long as you are willing and mindful and do the best you can, you will be able to overcome all difficulties. In the heart of every person, there is a window of great love and a mirror of gratitude. When you open the window of great love, you can make people around you feel the warmth of being cared for, and you can feel the fulfillment and happiness from giving."