Mission of Medicine

Safeguarding Life and Health with Love

Tzu Chi's humanistic culture emphasizes the virtous cycle of love and kindness. Tzu Chi's hospitals are not profit-driven, and their medical services are guided by the principle of love. With the unity of the hearts of doctors, volunteers, and patients, the hospitals will be able to achieve the ideal of safeguarding health, saving life and upholding the spirit of love.

Building a Network of Humanistic Healthcare Services

The founder of the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, Master Cheng Yen, determined that with love, compassion, joy and equanimity to help those who suffer. Starting from Hualien Taiwan, Master carried out the Tzu Chi mission to help all beings. This mission developed as a clear stream flowed throughout the world.

The greatest suffering in life comes from illness. In the early years of Tzu Chi, through visits to the homes of the impoverished, Master Cheng Yen discovered that illness often caused families to fall into poverty, and the poor would suffer from serious illnesses because they could not afford medical care. To help the sick and needy, Master Cheng Yen then set up a free clinic in Hualien, Taiwan, in 1972.

Although the free clinic served many patients, the local medical facilities were still inadequate to meet the growing medical needs of the society. Thus in 1979, Master Cheng Yen decided to fundraise for the construction of a general hospital in Hualien. After overcoming numerous challenges and obstacles, the Hualien Tzu Chi General Hospital was finally inaugurated in 1986. Unlike most other hospitals in Taiwan in those days, which charged a deposit for admission, the Tzu Chi Hospital did not require a deposit from patients and even provided assistance to needy patients who could not pay medical expenses. Since its inception till today, the hospital is being served by friendly Tzu Chi volunteers, who provide invaluable support for the medical staff as well as emotional support to patients and their families.

After building its first hospital, Tzu Chi subsequently established five more hospitals in different regions of Taiwan, creating a complete and comprehensive healthcare network in Taiwan. Equipped with state-of-the-art medical facilities, the hospitals provide cutting-edge medical services, with an emphasis on patient-centred, humanistic care. Apart from establishing hospitals, Tzu Chi strives to make medical services widely accessible in Taiwan, by mobilizing teams of medical volunteers to hold regular medical outreaches in villages and towns.

"The Samyuktagama Sutra recounts the four great virtues to be possessed by doctors : good knowledge of illness (dedicated to understanding the illness of living beings), accurately identifying the cause of the illness (carefully investigate the cause of an illness), effectively treating the illness (prescribe the right medicine for an illness), and knowledge that the illness has been completely cured (the medicine has eradicated the disease, bringing relief and comfort to the sufferer). These four virtues of a good doctors can be seen in the lives of the staff and volunteer doctors in Tzu Chi's Mission of Medicine."
Dharma Master Cheng Yen