Tzu Chi is like a colorful garden in which people with different life experiences and different personalities meet. With every step they take on this soil, they cultivate their souls.

When a husband or wife embraces a love that transcends individual sorrow and happiness, he or she will then act as a guiding light for the spouse. Once a seed of the Tzu Chi spirit has taken root in a home, we can expect harmony and a new life in the family. Seeds that float on the winds to faraway places still retain the goodness of their native soil, and they eventually land to grow another green field in their new home.

Thus each simple yet moving story becomes a colorful garden, which makes people stop and enjoy, or even walk into it and become a part.

Karmic encounters

"People meet each other in this life because it is their karma," says Sister Lo Mei-chu, director of the North Eleventh District. "Especially in the Tzu Chi world, we cherish our relationships with others for a lifetime."

Sister Lo humbly confesses that she is only a primary school graduate (not uncommon for women of her generation) and a simple housewife. But she has a warm and very approachable character. Tzu Chi members often consult her when they have problems. "The most important thing in dealing with people is to have a sincere heart and to set a good example." Many Tzu Chi members have followed in her footsteps and become commissioners.

Li Mei-feng recalls that she first visited the Tzu Chi Taipei branch when her son was going through a rebellious phase and causing her a lot of trouble. Not knowing what to do, she just wanted to find someone who could give her some advice. When she first saw Sister Lo's warm smiling face, she started to cry. Since that time, Mei-chu is always the first one Mei-feng calls whenever she has a problem.

"Ever since Sister Lo met me," Mei-feng jokes, "she hasn't had a moment of peace." Every time Mei-feng starts talking to her, she goes on for at least two hours. But Sister Lo always puts aside whatever she is doing and patiently listens to Mei-feng until she is at peace.

After many such sessions, Mei-feng became curious how Sister Lo managed to be so broad-minded and so patient. After observing carefully, she found that Sister Lo not only solved her own problems skillfully, but that she never neglected anyone who asked for help, even though she herself maintained a busy schedule of collecting donations, visiting the poor, sponsoring tea parties, and so on.

"That is what a Tzu Chi Commissioner is all about." Mei-feng initially didn't know much about Tzu Chi, though she could see the human warmth emanating from Sister Lo. Because she was moved by Sister Lo and respected her, and also because she wanted to help others the way Sister Lo did, she became a trainee. In 1996, Mei-feng was herself certified as a commissioner. By this time, Sister Lo had been at her side for seven years.

There are many other examples like this in Tzu Chi. New commissioners are guided by senior commissioners who teach through their words and exemplary behavior. Standing by others is a way of sharing life.

After the commissioners were reorganized into districts, Sister Lo and Mei-feng no longer belonged to the same team. However, Mei-feng still continued to call on Sister Lo for advice on trivial things. Later on, Sister Lo found out that Mei-feng did so just because she wanted to hear her voice.

"I am grateful to everyone I meet in Tzu Chi. They give me a chance to grow and to attain new insights." With this broad-minded attitude, Sister Lo, who joined Tzu Chi sixteen years ago, has nurtured forty-four commissioners whose ages span four generations. "I find that life as a Tzu Chi member is very full," she says.

Walking together on the Path of the Bodhisattvas

Anxious to have a son, Lin Chin-kui went to many temples to pray for divine help. One day, she went to the Abode of Still Thoughts to see Master Cheng Yen. After hearing her problem, the Master invited her to join the commissioners on their visits to the poor.

Chin-kui started out with some doubts in her mind, but when she had visited a number of poor families, things became very clear to her: "With so many suffering people in the world, how could I only see my own problems?" She decided right then and there that she would put her own problems behind her and devote herself to Tzu Chi. That was twenty-one years ago.

When her husband, Chiu Kuo-chuan, saw his wife making regular trips to Hualien, visiting the poor and recruiting new members, he was curious as to why she would do all this and decided to go along. Although Chin-kui knew that her husband had a hot temper, she was glad that he was interested in going to Hualien. "But his first visit almost scared me to death."

At that time, the only way to travel from Kaohsiung to Hualien was by a nine-hour bus ride over a rough mountainous road. Unable to bear the discomfort, Chiu Kuo-chuan quarreled with the driver. When they arrived safely, he was still angry and snapped at his wife, "What kind of place are you taking me to? I tell you, you'll never make me come again!"

However, when this man, wearing shorts and wooden clogs and chewing a betel nut, entered the Abode, he was awed by its dignified simplicity. He liked the place and decided to let his wife continue with her Tzu Chi work. "But whether or not I want to participate myself," he warned, "that will depend on my mood. After all, it doesn't make sense to have to pay for your own upkeep while working for others for free."

At the time, Kuo-chuan's own business was not going well. Because he had such a bad temper and couldn't get along with people, he finally had to close his shop and turn to driving a taxi.

Seeing that her husband was unable to accomplish anything, that he was hotheaded and had such bad habits, Chin-kui often cried and shared her feelings with the Master. "You are too capable," the Master said to her. "Why don't you let him take some responsibility?"

Chin-kui began to think of ways to get her husband involved in Tzu Chi. Since he was so stubborn, she could only do so in a roundabout way. In order to take Kuo-chuan to visit the poor, she lied to him. "We have a budget for transportation. Since you drive a taxi now, why don't you drive us?" Thinking that he could earn some money, he was pleased to drive them. He had no idea that the fare came out of his wife's own pocket.

During a charity bazaar, Chin-kui used the same trick. Not knowing the truth, Kuo-chuan happily counted his money while she only smiled wryly beside him.

Nevertheless, a man's heart is not made of stone. Seeing so many suffering people, Kuo-chuan began to feel some compassion. Not long thereafter, his wife's wish of having a baby boy came true. Contented with this himself, Kuo-chuan was no longer quite so difficult to get along with.

However, his temper rose again when he saw his wife neglecting her own beauty salon business and riding her motorcycle with the baby on her back to visit the poor and to collect donations. He decided to take his complaint to Master Cheng Yen.

"You have a car, you have a house, and now you have a son. What are you going to do next?" The Master's words woke him up like a slap on the face. He realized that while his wife had been working very hard all these years, he himself had accomplished nothing. "Okay, now I know what I should do."

For the next fifteen years, he and his wife together ran a store selling Buddhist articles, and they devoted much of their time to the work of Tzu Chi. In time, his hot temper and bad habits disappeared. The couple worked so hard to promote the Tzu Chi missions in Kaohsiung that everyone called them "the Tzu Chi fanatics."

"It's very difficult to change one's habits. It was the Master's personality and her kindness that changed him." Chin-kui always attributes her husband's transformation to the Master's teachings. But in fact, if it had not been for her own patience and her white lies during those early days, we probably wouldn't see this couple following the Path of the Bodhisattvas today.

Three generations of Tzu Chi members

When 58-year-old Huang Chin-se heard about Tzu Chi in a beauty salon in 1980, she immediately became a member. But afraid that her husband might object, she did so in secret.

However, after her husband, who was in the paint business, visited Hualien with her, he not only gave her full support but even took her to Europe to look for proper paints for various Tzu Chi buildings. Before he passed away in 1987, he instructed her to make sure their four sons participated in Tzu Chi activities.

Her sons did indeed try very hard to join in those activities, but the business left behind by their father kept them very busy.

"Your father has drilled a well for us," Chin-se urged her sons, "and we should always give water to those who are thirsty. The well will never run dry. On the contrary, it will become a clear running spring." She suggested that her sons donate a part of their profits to Tzu Chi, and she also motivated many of their employees to join the foundation.

Later on after the business was well organized, she again encouraged her children to take part in Tzu Chi missions. Her first and second sons went on international disaster relief missions, her daughter-in-law became a commissioner, and her youngest son, a businessman in Shanghai, often took part in disaster relief efforts on the mainland. Even her grandchildren joined the Tzu Chi Youth Corps.

Thus under her guidance, three generations of her family have become Tzu Chi members. "I told my children it didn't matter how much time they could spend on Tzu Chi activities. The important thing was to never stop."

In the workplace

Chiang Shu-yi's coworkers didn't understand. "No matter whether you are right or wrong, you always apologize first. Why?"

Shu-yi began as a member of the Tzu Chi Youth Corps. Now she is a commissioner. Over her many years in Tzu Chi, she has cultivated the habit of always reflecting on herself first when anything happens. Whether working with her trainee commissioners at Tzu Chi or with her colleagues in the office, she always humbles herself and accommodates others.

In modern Taiwanese society, more and more people are rational, self-confident, highly educated individuals. But the higher the general educational level rises, the more difficult it is to attract people to join the foundation. Newly certified commissioners can no longer promote Tzu Chi simply by religious appeal or by urging people to do good deeds.

Yet promoting Tzu Chi is the responsibility of the commissioners. Learning to build good relationships with others and persuading people to join Tzu Chi without any pressure is a difficult test for new commissioners.

"It's better not to touch the subject of personal values," says Shu-yi. "After all, this is a time when everyone can think freely. The important thing is to start with self-cultivation. If we can show the ideals of Tzu Chi through our words and our behavior in our daily lives, sooner or later people will notice our efforts."

Shu-yi's own approach is to do everything well and to cooperate with others at work in order to maintain harmony within the organization. Maybe because there are so many smart people who like to show off, Shu-yi's peaceful, modest manners present a unique style. Many of her business associates have learned about Tzu Chi through her. Because of her understanding nature, they first became her good friends and later also became Tzu Chi members.

In a society where people have many choices, some people may acknowledge the good work that Tzu Chi is doing, but not necessarily want to join. "Let nature take its course," Shu-yi says. "Don't make people anxious. The Tzu Chi spirit will always be there."

Responsibilities of a Commissioner Fund-raising Each commissioner collects monthly donations from her membership group, which ranges from forty to eighty households. Helping the poor In groups of two or three, commissioners visit poor households to identify special needs. With a government social welfare net having come into existence in Taiwan over recent years, commissioners now often play the role of counseling needy families and helping them access available resources. In order to enable its commissioners to do so, Tzu Chi cooperates with certain government offices in order to offer classes on government programs so that commissioners can become familiar with, or stay up to date on, the various benefits available to the public. This kind of middleman role between the public and the government is of special importance in a society that traditionally prefers personal relationships to dealing with government representatives. Families with needs that cannot be met through government aid may receive direct assistance from Tzu Chi. Advocacy and public relations Commissioners are spokespersons for Tzu Chi's ongoing programs and new initiatives. Through speeches and personal contacts, they encourage community volunteerism in general or invite the Tzu Chi membership and the public at large to participate in specific Tzu Chi activities. Because foundation programs respond to the needs of the society, they change over time. Activities currently include domestic and international disaster relief, environmental protection, recycling of resources, blood test drives for bone marrow donations, and advocacy of body donations for medical research.