The world of Tzu Chi October 2020 (Vol.127)

2020 • 10 32 Helping people is not the privilege of the rich. When it is time to harvest, Denise will accompany the volunteers to gather the fruits of their hard labour and donate the vegetables to the care recipients so that they can experience the Jing Si aphorism, “Blessed are those who give.” Transforming the outlook on life through Jing Si aphorisms The volunteers in Mozambique are mostly women. In the 18 years of the Mozambican Civil War, many lives, especially men, were lost, with thousands more fleeing violence in mass exodus. The war had contributed in a very low level of education. In the post-war recovery, being a backward and conservative country, the level of education of the women is very low. Many women had no opportunity to attend school. Worse still, some are not only illiterate, but do not even understand Portuguese. For many years, Denise has always used basic Portuguese, while teaming up with the local native translators to communicate Master’s Jing Si aphorisms, so that the volunteers can return to the community to share the teachings with the villagers. As a result of the crisis caused by Cyclone Idai, Tzu Chi adopted 23 schools in the central region. Besides building the best facilities for the students, the Master also cares about the teaching of humanistic qualities in these schools. To this end, Tzu Chi specially designed a set of Portuguese Jing Si Aphorism picture books for the students. This group of volunteers naturally assumed the important task of training the schools’ future teams of Great Love Mothers. Further on, Denise held a two-week Jing Si aphorism intensive training classes, allowing the volunteers to revise the Jing Si aphorisms that they have learnt over the years through picture books. Every day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Denise’s Jing Si aphorism teaching was conducted by none other than herself. The easy-to-understand Jing Si aphorisms, coupled with Denise’s patience, much like a kindergarten teacher, explaining word by word, with the help of native language translation, allowed the volunteers to quickly understand the Master’s teaching. Once, when going through the Jing Si aphorism, “The more you do, the more you gain; the less you do, the more you lose; those who are lazy are the poorest,” Tzu Chi Commissioner, Elina, shed tears of shame upon seeing the picture of the lazy boy in the book. “This lazy boy is none other than me. I’m just so lazy. My father left me with a large piece of farmland, but I didn’t bother to cultivate it and just let it go to waste. I even complained that prices were so high during the pandemic that I couldn’t afford food. I’m ashamed that I have a large farm but didn’t cultivate it. Looking at my lazy self... I want to make amends.” After years of learning, many volunteers have transformed their lives thanks to Jing Si aphorisms. In full appreciation, these volunteers have written a song to express their joy of learning: “Our hearts are very much at ease, because we have learnt Jing Si aphorisms. Our lives are no longer difficult, because we have learnt Jing Si aphorisms.” The daily life of volunteers has not changed much, and they still live in poverty. But with the Master’s teaching, they have been relieved of suffering. Poor, but without bitterness, they have truly embarked on the journey of transformation. To achieve the transformational goal set for Africa, Denise guided the volunteers through Jing Si aphorisms and Dharma teaching, eature