Master's Dharma Talk: Paying Love Forward by Inspiring Goodness in More People

I often share with you how we should reach out to people to purify their minds. Yet, we certainly can't do much without others' help. Indeed, to purity people's minds, we need many people joining forces. Take the little sparrow in a story for example. The sparrow dipped its feathers in water and flapped its wings, attempting to put out a forest fire. Would that put out the fire? Of course not. This is the situation we face now.

Oftentimes, efforts of only a few people are not enough in times of disaster. It is my wish that every one of us can take the Dharma to heart and bring harmony to our hearts and minds. To achieve this, we need to clear away our greed, hatred, and ignorance by first taming our arrogance and doubt.

Otherwise, we cannot relieve suffering around us, let alone quell the disasters around the world. We really must start with ourselves and further work with others to join forces to help those in need.

We see Ormoc City in the Philippines. In the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, our volunteers went to help those affected with sincerity and love. We launched the cash-for-work program and built permanent houses for them to restore their lives and bring peace to their minds. Then, we guided them to quit their bad habits.  We also inspired love in them. Many of them now serve as our volunteers.

“They take care of me. They help me bathe and put on clean clothes. Today it's the second time they've visited me. They give me a massage every time they come. I feel my health is gradually improving,” said Rolando, Tzu Chi Compassionate Housing Residents.

“After several home visits, these young volunteers have quit their bad habits. Now they know how to put themselves in others' shoes,” said Juanito, local volunteer.

Such is the mutual love between neighbors. In a community, if young people can take care of the elderly and those who are able can reach out to those who are physically challenged, the whole community will be like a big family. Isn't this a wonderful thing to see? This is how we can inspire people to help the needy with love.

We also see Indonesia. We started to carry out our work there more than 20 years ago. Back then, despite the anti-Chinese sentiments in society, Tzu Chi volunteers still dedicated themselves to doing charity work, bringing aid and care to the needy.

We also gave out rice to children at an Islamic boarding school. Habib Saggaf was truly a compassionate Muslim elder. He established the boarding school to take in orphans and impoverished youths. To accommodate over 3,000 students at the time, the school was financially strained. So, starting from 2003, our volunteers started to give out rice to them on a monthly basis.

Later, the number of students kept growing and the campus became too crowded. So, we helped to build classrooms and housing for them. We also held free clinics. Having provided aid for them for five consecutive years, they hoped we could continue to do that. So, I told our volunteers that it's better if we could help them to stand on their own feet.

Because the school has a piece of land, we taught them how to grow crops. We also taught them how to make flour out of wheat and use the flour to make bread. With our help, they also set up a baking room with baking equipment. With the money from selling the bread they made, they were able to sustain themselves and thus we discontinued our aid to them.

We also guided them to do recycling. In the meantime, we shared Jing Si Aphorisms with them, which are in Chinese. On a regular basis, our volunteers taught them Chinese and Tzu Chi songs with sign language. The students there are all well guided and have good manners. Back then, when we first offered aid at the school, there was a student aged 12.

Now, having grown up, he teaches Chinese at the school and serves as an interpreter for visitors. He always remembers to introduce the origin of Jing Si Aphorisms, Tzu Chi's humble beginnings, and how Tzu Chi has helped the school. He sees these histories of Tzu Chi as treasures and introduces them with great accuracy. Students there are grateful to Tzu Chi for helping to establish a good learning environment for them and guiding them with love and goodness.

In Tzu Chi, we embrace all religions. Wherever there is a disaster in the world, Tzu Chi volunteers are always there to help. Yet, what we do is much more than that. After we offer emergency relief to those affected and bring comfort and peace to their minds, we also help them sustain themselves financially and inspire them with wholesome thoughts. This is our comprehensive plan behind giving aid.

There are indeed many touching stories about how our volunteers around the world give of themselves to help the needy. But there are still not many people who have right faith in the Dharma. We really must be more diligent in inspiring the hearts and minds of more people. By doing so, even if each of us can only serve as a little sparrow, once we pool our efforts together, every drop of water we shed from our wings can build up to form showers of rain and extinguish the forest fire. In all, when we have determination, there's nothing we can't achieve.