Life Wisdom: The Best Remedy for the Pandemic
I’m Suwen. We’ll suit up at about 9:15. You guys should, too. Our mission is to care for patients with communicable diseases, so we have to protect ourselves well. Besides caring for the patients, the biggest pressure and challenge come from thinking that if I get infected, will my family get it from me?
Actually, this is what all frontline medical workers worry about, especially many of us have young children at home. I have two children; they’re quite young. When I leave for work, my daughter would say:“Mommy, please be really, really careful.”
I truly hope that as I’m working in this ward, I can return home safely every day. (The nurses) have overcome their fear and stress because they know at this time, the hospital truly needs them. So this is similar to... Master has said it often that, everyone has geared up to battle this pandemic.
But, who isn’t afraid to go into battle? They are, too. Stress is inevitable, but the support from our family as well as the many encouragements from the management and the public give us the courage to keep going.
Thank you. I want to tell everyone that I appreciate your hard work. Everyone has been (ensuring the welfare) of our world by safeguarding people’s health with love. You have earnestly shouldered this responsibility regarding the public, and truly, you’ve worked so hard; it was a very heavy load on everyone. Every staff of our hospitals has been working together in unity and harmony with love. People have been shouldering this responsibility so willingly, and it is so remarkable.
You have upheld your vows and lived out the Dharma in the way you remained at your job post without complaining about the work. Everyone is so mindful and full of love; truly, you’ve carried out your great vows. This kind of great vows is akin to the oath you took when you first set out to be a medical professional. The Dharma also talk about making great vows; the medical professionals also take an oath to their profession, and right now, we can witness this great aspirations and vows in how you fearlessly gave of yourself and shouldered the responsibility. However, I still must say, besides having gratitude and respect for you, I hope that you will protect yourselves well. You take care of the public’s health, so, you medical professional must stay healthy.
Every day, I keep on reminding everyone that the remedy for this pandemic lies within our hearts and spirituality, this is very important; may all of us have piety in our hearts. Interacting with others piously and working together harmoniously are the best remedy. As I hear about the pandemic, I recall that, for the past couple of years, I’ve talked about this multiple times; I hope everyone will encourage one another. Recently, I keep talking about the need for us to stop, listen, and look. If we don’t have any necessary errands that we need to do, we should stop going out. Yet, we can continue to do recycling. (When our recycling stations were closed,) many elderly volunteers said, “I have nothing to do.”
I hope that our recycling stations can be a place for them to get together. Yet, the elderly volunteers need to follow the regulations.
At our Donggang recycling station, the first thing recycling volunteers do after they park their mopeds is to place their meal box here. Then they sign in, get their temperature and blood pressure measured, take a face mask, etc. The important thing is, as we are in a pandemic now, we now have one more thing to do, which is gloves. We ask them to put on the plastic gloves to protect themselves and then put on another pair of cloth gloves.
This is to protect our volunteers and prevent them getting infected. Keep distance. We’re in a pandemic, we need to space out. Protect yourselves. Did you all put on the plastic gloves? Yes? Good. You need to wear them. Some recycled cans and bottles here have dirty water inside. You need to protect yourselves. Keep your distance, 1.5 meters. Let’s take good care of ourselves.
We’re limited to have 50 people inside. Right now, we only see around 20 people here. We only have around 20 because we take shifts. One group come on Monday; another come on Tuesday. We have three shifts, where different groups of volunteers come in. We need to follow regulations and keep ourselves healthy. This is important.
At this time, everyone has a responsibility. It is everyone’s responsibility to keep our society healthy and safe. Young people nowadays need to fulfill the spirit of filial piety. We need to think about our parents. Are they lonely?
Can they live with us? If they cannot live with us, we should visit them often. The grand lesson from this pandemic also reminds us of our responsibility. Besides caring for our children and (spouse), we need to remember to respect our parents and fulfil our filial piety. This is an education of social ethics.
So,“a great responsibility conferred to everyone”means if we have fulfilled our responsibility. Have we, as a person, done things that benefit society? Right now, we need to cultivate ourselves and take good care of our family. Besides taking care of our family, we need to help society be peaceful and help people be healthy both in body and mind
so that everyone can be safe and well. This is to take on responsibility. When a great responsibility is conferred to everyone, everyone has a responsibility.
When this pandemic comes to an end, we can have the mobility, peace, and safety as before, then society will prosper. So, we need to be very mindful in seeking ways to end this pandemic. The best and only way is for people to eat a vegetarian diet. Buddhism talks about the Four Bodhisattva Virtues. The first is giving, which means charity work. Charity work benefits society as well as help with medical care. This is creating blessings. (This requires us to use wisdom.) This pandemic is truly teaching the rich to give. The act of giving and charity is to benefit society.
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