The world of Tzu Chi July 2020 (Vol.124)

2020 • 07 48 spiritual practitioners. Some spiritual training grounds only have a small number of practitioners, so they adopt young children, hoping that when these children grow up, they will become monastics. However, if the child has no wish to engage in spiritual practice but is forced to stay in the spiritual training ground, he will develop afflictions. Therefore, it is best not to do such a thing. The sixth is to not raise or keep slaves and servants. Aspiritual practitioner must let go of pride and arrogance, regardless of what kind of work he does. Everyone in the monastery must work together with one heart; we must not hire people to do labour for us just because we dislike manual labour. This is similar to “raising and keeping slaves and servants”. A monastic practitioner needs to be humble and should not hire people to do his work just because he is well-off. This will increase his arrogance. Seventh, do not raise livestock. Within the spiritual training ground, we cannot raise livestock, including pigs, chickens or ducks, to sell for profit. Of course, there is no such thing at monasteries nowadays, but some people misunderstand this precept and think that in a monastery, one cannot feed cats or dogs. In fact, the reason why people in temples do not wish to raise cats or dogs is they are afraid that cats or dogs may kill other living beings. Spiritual practitioners have compassion and cannot condone killing; a cat will catch mice, so practitioners do not like to raise or keep cats. If stray dogs or cats are adopted, practitioners need to put bells on them so mice can run away when they hear the sound, reducing the risk of killing. Eighth, do not undertake farming. Indian spiritual practitioners do not farm. However, the culture and living environment in Chinese temples are different— monastic monks and nuns rely on farming to make a living. Therefore, in the monastery, we need to do chores, meaning setting aside time for outdoor work. However, this time needs to be properly managed so that people will not feel troubled due to not having enough time, which could affect their spiritual practice. Zen Master Baizhang said, “A day without work is a day without food.” In our spiritual training ground, in addition to keeping the environment tidy, we also need to give of ourselves and contribute to Tzu Chi’s missions. The funds raised by Tzu Chi commissioners are used without exception on Tzu Chi’s missions, so everyone loves and cares for Tzu Chi. Therefore, the Jing Si Abode has many visitors. Since eating and lodging at the Abode are supported solely by the residents at the Abode, we all need to work hard. As long as we have the mindset to train our resolve, we will not risk making more mistakes just because we have more work. Rather, we can make use of these worldly affairs to train our mind and nurture blessings and wisdom. harma