To care for others is to care for ourselves, and to help others is to help ourselves. Let us pave the road and build the bridge with love.

Ladies and gentlemen, Amitabha!

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival [also called the Moon Festival] this year, only people in southern Taiwan could see the moon. In other places, it was either cloudy or rainy. Especially in the eastern and northern areas, it rained all day long. However, in spite of the wet weather, many Tzu Chi members still came to the Abode of Still Thoughts to celebrate the Moon Festival. More than twenty medical personnel and volunteers from the Philippine free clinic team as well as some Tzu Chi members from Indonesia came back especially for this occasion.

I was really touched and grateful. Although we couldn't see the moon that night, a moon of sincerity and love was shining in each of our hearts.

I remember a few years ago, several overseas Chinese from the Philippines and Indonesia came to Hualien. They said that many overseas Chinese in those countries had been robbed or kidnapped. I asked them why such things only happened to the overseas Chinese. The main reason was perhaps because the overseas Chinese didn't know how to reciprocate. They are intelligent and hardworking and they make money everywhere, but they seldom pay back to their local communities.

I encouraged the Tzu Chi members from the Philippines to meet hatred with love. They used local laborers and acquired local resources. While they were making money, they should reciprocate at the same time by helping to care for the local people. When there was a catastrophe or any emergency, they should immediately render assistance.

Having heard what I said, those members returned to the Philippines and immediately went to work. The mother of Dr. Ker Sian-chi, a physician from the Chinese General Hospital in Manila, had deep love for Tzu Chi and had been a volunteer for many years. She encouraged her son to help plan a free clinic. Dr. Ker had always respected his mother, especially for the Tzu Chi work she had been doing, and so he talked to Dr. Liu, the deputy director of the hospital. "My mother is a Tzu Chi member. She suggested that we organize a free clinic for remote areas in the Philippines. I wonder if you can help." Dr. Liu agreed immediately.

Thus the call went out to people to come to the free clinic. The first clinic only had 173 patients, but at the second clinic a few months later the number increased to 961. All the doctors were very happy. They felt it was great to help people. Although they had to work under the scorching sun in remote locations, they felt happier and more fulfilled than they did working in the hospital.

I was really surprised when I heard that they had operated on more than seventy patients with thyroid problems, because in Taiwan such operations must be done in a sterile room. In the Philippines, the operating room was a school classroom with several desks put together to make an operation table.

Incredibly, those patients could walk the following day and they went back home with gratitude. It seemed to me that poor people have more tenacity and strength to resist disease. In addition to thyroid problems, eye operations and tooth extractions were also done in that classroom.

Under the continuous efforts of the volunteers and medical personnel, the number of patients coming to the free clinic has been gradually increasing. Now each clinic treats more than 5,000 patients. The free clinics take place about once every three months. The fourteenth free clinic will be held in a few days. You wouldn't believe that at the end of each clinic, there is a basket full of extracted teeth. The Tzu Chi members in the Philippines always choose some remote area to hold a free clinic. Many people in those places have never had a chance to see a doctor in their whole life. Very few people care about oral hygiene, and that is why so many teeth have to be pulled each time.

A free clinic is very tiring because some of the doctors have to go to the site in advance to make arrangements. If there is no electricity or water, they have to establish connections. If there are no screened windows, they have to nail up screens. Otherwise flies and mosquitoes would be everywhere. Sometimes, the power is suddenly cut off halfway through an operation, and they have to use flashlights to finish the operation. Everybody works until very late each day. In the night, they have to look after patients who have been operated on. The next morning there is a long queue of patients waiting to see them. But even though they have to work so hard, they feel very happy.

Three years ago, Dr. Liu led the free clinic team to the Abode of Still Thoughts. Since then, each year at the time of the Moon Festival, they have come back here. Regrettably, this year we had rain. Although we couldn't see the moon in the sky, a full moon was shining in each of us--a loving heart. I spent a wonderful evening in the Abode of Still Thoughts with Tzu Chi members from the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, the United States and different places in Taiwan. We illuminated each other with the moonlight in our hearts.

Relief in Indonesia

Tzu Chi's operations in the Philippines and Indonesia started at the same time. In the Philippines, Tzu Chi's free clinics have been very successful. As a matter of fact, they are the most successful of all our free clinics in the world. As far as patience and love are concerned, Tzu Chi people in Indonesia are just as good as those in any other place. However, there are only four Tzu Chi commissioners there, and the Indonesians are very much anti-Chinese. It is really not easy to work there.

In the beginning, I also told Tzu Chi members in Indonesia that they should repay their communities and help the local poor people. They have really been doing their best to help the poor. Unfortunately, there are too many of them. In spite of the anti-Chinese sentiment, Tzu Chi's relief work in Indonesia has never stopped, even during the riots in May 1998.

That series of riots caused the closing of many Chinese businesses, which in turn made many poor Indonesians unemployed. Disasters piled up one on top of another. Those poor Indonesians live in filthy, really pitiful conditions. Tzu Chi members in Indonesia provide relief every week. Each time there are 700 to 800 recipients.

There is a saying: "Hatred should be disentangled, not entangled." I hope the Indonesians and the Chinese will no longer fight each other. When the Tzu Chi members came to Hualien, I asked whether it was possible for them to combine the strength of the overseas Chinese in Indonesia to provide a large-scale free clinic or distribution of relief supplies. An entrepreneur named Huang heard my suggestion. He immediately told his son and his company staff to make the preparations.

At the Moon Festival, Mr. Huang's son came to Hualien with a proposal for a relief project, including a plan of bringing greetings and gifts to army units. The local soldiers had not been paid in several months, and their families were already having difficulties making ends meet. The overseas Chinese needed the police and soldiers to protect them. If they could provide large-scale relief either to civilians, soldiers or policemen, they could all love each other and be grateful.

In fact, the purpose of the relief in Indonesia was to combine the loving hearts of the overseas Chinese there to help the poor. I even had the idea to build houses for the poor. Mr. Huang heard this and immediately offered to donate some land. I asked him how much it would cost to build a house, and he said it was about NT$20,000 [around US$620].

Since it was so cheap, the overseas Chinese there should be able to donate a lot. If those poor Indonesians could live in better houses, their sanitation and environment would improve, and their health would improve as well. Certainly they would be grateful to the overseas Chinese and not hate them.

The Buddha once said, "Keep the mind broad enough to accommodate the whole universe." Love knows no boundaries. There are Tzu Chi members in many countries. Wherever there is a disaster, Tzu Chi members immediately extend their supporting arms. They raise donations locally and also spend the money locally. We don't have to send them money from Taiwan. On the contrary, they sometimes send money back to Taiwan to help with international relief.

Pave the road and build the bridge with love

In the recent disaster relief mission to mainland China, I did not dare to make a strong appeal in Taiwan due to the fact that there were so many negative voices here. I had too much pressure on me. Fortunately, Tzu Chi members abroad gave me strong support. They held charity bazaars to help provide relief to disaster victims.

Those who were against our relief on the mainland said, "Why do we want to help people in the mainland? Why don't we help people in Taiwan?" Actually, "help people in Taiwan" is a kind of curse. Why should we say those words? We should wish Taiwanese peace and good fortune. Unless there is a disaster, we don't need to be helped. After Typhoons Doug and Herb attacked Taiwan, we also raised money to help victims here. That was "helping people in Taiwan." I am really afraid to hear those words. I wish from now on that curse would never be heard again.

I remember in May this year we sent medicine to Afghanistan. I saw some pictures in which women, who were either doctorsor nurses, all had rifles in their hands. You would think that doctors are supposed to save lives. Why would they hold guns? Well, they were protecting their own country. Even though they were saving lives, if the enemy came, they had to immediately take up arms and join the fighting. Why did women as well as men do the fighting? The answer is that most of their men were either killed or wounded in the battles, so the women were obliged to protect their country. Even children at the age of twelve or thirteen had to take the responsibility of protecting their country, even though some of them were shorter than their rifles!

Just take a look at those countries in which natural disasters and man-made catastrophes never stop. Then look back at Taiwan. If we wish for timely wind and rain, if we wish for a peaceful society, and if we wish that everyone in Taiwan could be well-fed and well-dressed, we have to rely on great love. To care for others is to care for ourselves and to help others is to help ourselves. I hope everyone will pave the road and build the bridge with love.

To sum up, all our hearts must be filled with love. Only by so doing can we resolve hatred and enmity and enjoy a life of abundance.

We gather here today with love and care. To purify people's minds, we need your strength. I hope all of you will continue to support Tzu Chi in carrying out its missions. I also appeal to people outside of Tzu Chi to give us assistance. With love and sincerity, we pray that society will be peaceful and that there will be no disasters in the world.

However, just praying and chanting sutras is not enough. All of us must take action.