Life Wisdom: Encouraging People to Do Good and Promoting a Vegetarian Diet
Last February, after the Lunar New Year, the pandemic started in Hong Kong as well as in many places in the world. In April, the chairwoman of the company asked of ways to help disadvantaged families at this time.
“As Master’s disciple, I seized the affinity to share with the chairwoman. Tzu Chi’s spirit and values, and suggested for Shangri-La to work with Tzu Chi. I knew deeply that this affinity would be a great chance to promote vegetarianism, so I summoned my courage to suggest to the chairwoman that the food bags must be strictly vegetarian. The chairwoman did not agree at first, but after she learned the reasons to be vegetarian, she agreed right away. Master says it’s easy to get people to do good but hard to get them to be vegetarian,” said Chen Zuan-qiang, a volunteer.
“I take comfort in that for the past year, every month, there were two packing events as well as distributions, and the reasons to be vegetarian and the reasons to be vegetarian had begun to take root in the hearts of our staff. At our hotel, vegetarian Chinese casseroles were among our recommendations at this Lunar New Year. We marketed vegetarian rice dumplings for Dragon Boat Festival, and received great feedbacks from our customers. The feedback boosted the confidence in our chefs; in the past, the hotel offered only a few vegetarian set meals, now there are a whole page to choose from, as there are more customers complementing on this, it becomes more common. As it’s more common, more and more people will become vegetarians,” said Chen Zuan-qiang.
Hearing Shangri-La Group can be involved in promoting vegetarianism, I’m grateful to Mr. Chen’s courage and mindfulness. With only one or two people changing their mindsets, it has reached to many people. Of course, it is hard to make a hotel vegetarian, but in terms of reaching people’s minds, there are ways to encourage people to become vegetarian and everyone is happy.
I’ve been saying that humans need to return to eating food in nature, which is a vegetarian diet, because for humans, a vegetarian diet is the healthiest diet. Hence, I often talk about having gratitude toward nature, as grains and plants can provide a complete diet for humans. Seeing everyone being so mindful to promote vegetarianism and doing their best within their abilities, their deeds truly bring countless merits.
As long as we are determined, aspired, and have vowed, it isn’t impossible to purify people’s hearts and help all living beings. Now, everyone has started doing so; people have aspired and vowed, and taken the first step. Each step is a solid step. We start with ourselves and then inspire our family and friends to do so, even in places where we work, we can call on others to become vegetarians.
The power of this is truly immense, it can change people‘s eating habit in the whole world. Especially in Hong Kong, with its dense population, communicating with one another to promote vegetarianism is not hard, as long as people are determined. Working with people with the same goal is truly a happiest thing. I hope that everyone can be united in heart to have aspirations and make vows to do good. I believe that when volunteers gather and serve as bodhisattvas, they are full of Dharma joy.
They have the same goal in mind and are kind-hearted good friends to one another. Everyone can walk the Bodhisattva Path and witness the suffering in the world. Each time, be it physically unwell or encountering some difficulties, my heart and my mind would be always thinking about that life is full of suffering, which includes poverty, hardship, aging, and illnesses.
Take myself for example, I now only have to face aging and illness, yet, I still have a lot of blessings; I have many disciples around the world willing to respond to my call and follow my teachings. At this crucial moment in every community, we need to be wholesome friends to one another more, and get together often to serve as living Bodhisattvas whether to promote vegetarianism, do good deeds, or do recycling, which is also a way to inspire people.
I heard that volunteers have been carrying out Tzu Chi’s work continuously over a long period of time, this shows that each volunteer has a firm aspiration of cultivation. Although Hong Kong has disparity of lifestyles, volunteers there have remained pure-hearted and have kind thoughts; they are willing to do recycling.
To do recycling, they have to deal with a lot of dirty recyclables and sort them into categories. So, they turn recycling into an opportunity to tell people about the Dharma. This is using wisdom to create blessings, which is cultivating both blessings and wisdom.
Volunteers, I respect you. I truly respect everyone. You have been earnestly devoting yourselves to Tzu Chi’s work for years and caring for your fellow volunteers. I feel much comforted in this. I see that you’ve also learned lessons from this pandemic. I keep urging people to learn the grand lessons. Now is the time to truly awaken.
Everyone needs to raise their vigilance and awaken. Because of disasters, climate change, and people’s minds out of balance, we need to help people get in touch with the Dharma and wholesome friends. This can purify their hearts and help mitigate the effect of climate change. Protecting lives and stop killing animals is a powerful force. We need to truly protect lives.
Pooling together everyone’s kindness is a blessing. By creating blessings, we can mitigate disasters. I hope all volunteers in the world don’t just focus on benefiting themselves, but to take the action of encouraging others to be kind and do good. This is something we must do urgently now.
Volunteers, I call on you like I pray to bodhisattvas and wish for everyone to be Bodhisattvas, do good deeds, and promote vegetarianism. I’m grateful to you. Your power of love is unlimited.
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