Life Wisdom: Goodness Within Begets Goodness Without
“I hope he will enjoy good health so that we can do good together even in old age,” said Shi Yueying, Zeng Yongfu's wife
“As my wife, she has suffered a lot. People used to call me a boozer. I see. She's the one who brought me to Tzu Chi. I've changed a lot. Joining Tzu Chi was a turning point in my life,” said Zeng Yongfu, a Tzu Chi volunteer.
“She used to indulge in Mahjong and lottery and lost a lot of money. After joining Tzu Chi, she quit. When invited to gamble, she'll just turn it down,” said said Cai Lian, Shi Yueying's friend.
We'd sown blessings in our past lives, so we were born as humans in this life. Of course, we'd created bad karma. It's just that we'd also cultivated goodness, so we were born as humans and have the opportunity to correct our wrongs, cultivate ourselves, form good affinities with others, and sow blessings.
Only in this world can we cultivate ourselves, and the Buddha came to this world to teach us the way of cultivation. See how our recycling volunteers cultivate themselves by cherishing resources and collecting discarded things. Through recycling, they make the land cleaner, reuse existing resources, and most importantly, inspire more people to take up recycling.
While some young people buy things and then simply discard the containers, our recycling volunteers, many of whom are advanced in age, bend over to collect these discarded things even if they might get wet and smelly. They bring items that cannot be reused to waste collectors and recycle those that are reusable. Through recycling, our volunteers have been cultivating their hearts and minds.
Knowing how discarded things pollute the land, they collect and sort them. They've awakened to the principle of how waste can impact the land, and as they understand how things can be good or bad for the environment, they take action to collect and sort discarded items. Such is how they cultivate themselves. I'm very touched. Whenever I see these elderly volunteers of ours, I always feel touched and grateful from the bottom of my heart.
I'm grateful that they always follow my words. They often say, "As Master asked us to do so, we all follow Master's words." By following my words, they are also cultivating themselves. So, everyone, every day I see how our volunteers, who all have deep affinities with me, bear in mind what I wish to do and take action to carry it out.
There are Tzu Chi volunteers around the world, so although many of them are far away from me, there are always volunteers doing Tzu Chi's work, listening to my talks, or cultivating together in some places. I'm grateful. There is much to be grateful for. We Tzu Chi members share the same aspiration thanks to the good affinities we'd formed over our countless past lives.
I often say to our Tzu Chi members: "As Master and disciples, we are committed to each other to come to this world and walk the Bodhisattva Path together life after life." Only in this world can we cultivate ourselves, so we must vow to come to this world life after life. As there are both good and evil in this world, we have many opportunities to learn to tell right from wrong and practice the Dharma to benefit others.
I'm grateful to all our Tzu Chi members for giving with love. It seems that I speak the same words every day. Yet, has everyone lived out my words? I've been told, "Master, by giving of myself, I've been changing my bad ways bit by bit." So, we must work continuously to eliminate our bad habitual tendencies and nurture good ones. If we develop good habits and cultivate good thoughts in our mind, this world will naturally turn into one filled with goodness.
For that, we must inspire goodness in everyone. I've been reminding our Tzu Chi members around the world that the COVID-19 pandemic is teaching us crucial lessons. It is teaching us that to practice goodness, we must be careful about what we eat and go vegetarian. When having a meal, we must harbor gratitude within.
With many people's hard work, we can satisfy our palate and enjoy good health. So, we must express our gratitude more often. We must also go vegetarian. Only then can we mitigate disasters. I hope we can all encourage everyone to go vegetarian. By passing on good principles and pooling everyone's good thoughts together, we can create countless merits.
In all, we can enjoy delicious foods without harming or killing animals. We must not eat meat, or else we will become indebted to animals and have to pay double the debt in our future lives. When we keep killing animals for food, we keep accumulating bad karma even if we do charitable acts.
If we practice vegetarianism, instead of being killed for food, animals can follow the natural cycle of birth and death and live freely and at ease in their habitats. So, everyone, please listen to my talks more often and mindfully take in what I say. We truly must be mindful at all times.
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