The world of Tzu Chi (Vol.107)

01 TZU CHI 107 By Dharma Master Cheng Yen Translated by Max Siew aster’s Teaching Seize every second and live a life of purpose. Spread the true principles of life and lead everyone to walk the Bodhisattva Path hand in hand. A t the end of each year, the big family of Tzu Chi grows even larger. Not only volunteers in Taiwan, but 2,000 volunteers from 31 countries/regions also attended a spiritual retreat programme in Taiwan. This included 1,570 people from 24 countries/regions, who received their certification as Tzu Cheng Faith Corps member or Tzu Chi Commissioner at Hualien, Sanchong and Banqiao. I sincerely hope that these new commissioners will continue to spread the seeds of kindness diligently and inspire more people to serve humanity. From the day I left Jing Si Abode on November 12, 2018, until I returned on December 9, I had completed the first phase in the ceremonies of conferment and year-end blessings. During that 28 days, I met with many veteran volunteers, some were still robust both physically and mentally, but some were visibly old or were plagued by illness. Seeing this I had mixed feelings. I was glad and felt a tinge of sadness. After all, life is characterized by dukkha . In every ceremony, I earnestly appealed to my followers to make full use of their lives to serve humanity so as to lead a meaningful life. As long as you can move around and talk, you may be able to preach the wonderful Dharma to the masses. During the visit, I also met many elderly recycling volunteers. I was deeply touched by their untiring efforts in reducing the environmental footprints by recycling as much as they could. They were both physically and mentally alert with nimble fingers. They told me that after depositing 50 years of their ages in the “Age Treasury”, they were only in their 20s, 30s or 40s. They are indeed pure hearted and full of wisdom. They have total faith in what I said, they protect the Earth for the sake of future generations, and they firmly believed in what I said, “If that is the right thing to do, then do it.” It is normal for elderly people to be inflicted by joint pain. They wear “waist gear” to keep their backs straight in order to keep on doing recycling activities. According to them, it was painful but it was worth the pain to hand down a clean Earth to our children or future generations. They would rather serve than be taken care of. The used PET bottles that they separated from other recyclable items were recycled into eco-blankets. These were then delivered to and warmed the hearts of the suffering people from the international community. Such contribution also made these elderly volunteers feel the value of their lives. Living a Life of Purpose