The world of Tzu Chi (Vol.108)

2019 • 03 46 * This article is extracted from the book “Three Ways to the Pure Land (Revised Edition)”. THREE WAYS TO THE PURE LAND The Buddha wished to save living beings and relieve them of suffering, but can he do this alone? He cannot! Therefore, he had to inspire and guide us. Then we will have the mind of a Buddha and the hands of a Bodhisattva, so that we can give rise to Bodhicitta and walk the Bodhisattva Path to save and transform all living beings. When we save living beings, we accumulate blessings; when we give aid to the poor, we plant the causes for becoming a Buddha. By putting the teachings into practice, we awaken our understanding of principles. So, by seeing suffering people and actually doing something to help them, we gain insight into the truths that the Buddha taught. We must learn to give with equanimity; if we are reluctant to give, we will never be able to eliminate our afflictions. Most of our afflictions in life arise from desire. The way to eliminate desires is to “give away worldly wealth and cultivate spiritual wealth.” When we give material resources to the poor, we will naturally obtain spiritual wealth. The ultimate purpose of chanting the Buddha’s name is to be mindful of him so we can cultivate both blessings and wisdom. To that end, we must know how to give up the desire for worldly riches and instead seek spiritual wealth. The rich among the poor Life is suffering. All living beings follow their past karma to be reborn into different realms and different places; they have no control over this. This is because they are unenlightened beings. The Buddha came into the world and taught all living beings to understand the truths of life to lead them to become awakened. How does one awaken? We awaken by giving rise to Bodhicitta , and following the Bodhisattva Path. And how does one follow the Bodhisattva Path? By vowing to go out and help suffering beings. There are all kinds of suffering in the world. From the media, we see suffering from poverty, war and famine. In Palestine, endless conflict caused the food supply to be cut off and led to a famine. Palestine relied on foreign aid for the necessities of life, but due to continuous fighting, the supplies were interrupted and many Palestinians were on the verge of dying from hunger. To stay alive, they were forced to eat cats and dogs. This illustrates how fighting can disrupt people’s peaceful lives and place them in constant danger of death and famine. Compared to their misery, we in Taiwan are incredibly fortunate. Nevertheless, in our prosperous nation there are also people suffering from hunger and cold, who urgently need our aid. Therefore we should vow to help these people and call for those with love in their hearts to join our efforts. If we look at it from another angle, the poor in Taiwan are comparatively more blessed than those in many other places. I say this because in Taiwan, there are charitable organizations such as Tzu Chi—which amasses the love and contributions of millions of kind people—that give them warmhearted care and aid. As for people in distant warring regions, even though we extend our helping hands, we are often unable to reach them due to dangerous and complicated situations in those places. (To be continued in the next issue)