The world of Tzu Chi (Vol.107)

2019 • 02 06 eature T he 15 sessions of Year-end Blessing Ceremonies hosted by Tzu Chi KL & Selangor between December 2018 and January 2019 saw a total attendance of over 11,000 people. The joyous and celebratory atmosphere reverberated throughout KL Tzu-Chi Jing Si Hall, with beautiful large and small red lanterns and calligraphy on large red scrolls extensively decorating the space. The participants immersed themselves in the activities organized for them regardless whether they were public members, recipients of Tzu Chi study aid, financial aid or caring aid, teachers and students from UNHCR Tzu-Chi Education Centre, or donors’ and volunteers’ families and friends. At the foyer was the “Bamboo Bank Zone”, where bamboo and colourful cardboard tubes were fashioned into displays depicting the Chinese characters of the Noble Eightfold Path, that is, Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Behaviour, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. These served as reminders for everyone to cultivate themselves diligently. After 82-year-old Lee Swee Kim emptied her savings in her bamboo banks into an urn, she struck the bell thrice while reciting, “Save a little more, deposit a little more, give a little more”, and made a wish for everyone to enjoy peace and good health. A teenage girl, Chong Shin Yao, and her two younger sisters also donated their savings for charitable causes. Thanks to the positive influence of her mother, who is a Tzu Chi volunteer, Shin Yao understood that “many a little makes a mickle” and has been keeping it a habit to save her loose change into her bamboo bank since she was six years old. Each time A young attendee striking the bell with a volunteer at the “Bamboo Bank Zone”. [Photograph by How Siew Heok]