The world of Tzu Chi May 2021 (Vol.134)

TZU CHI 134 59 right away. I was so overwhelmed by his honesty and insistence on declining a token of appreciation from me that I forgot to ask for his name. Somehow I remembered to ask for his permission to take a photograph of him before he left. For one who loved recording and sharing my life experience on Facebook, I decided to share these eventful, yet beautiful encounters. I ended my sharing with this note: “I would not say I deserve the good return because I have been a nice person, but I am very sure he is an honest and nice young man. Terima kasih, dik! (Thank you, brother!) Although our meeting was brief, his kind deed will stay with me for a lifetime…” Since I did not have his contact information, I decided to make known of my quest to locate him on the Facebook. Little did I expect this heart-warming story would trigger a rippling effect—my cousin shared it on ten social media pages, and it was forwarded and shared by many people, saying that my story touched them deeply as it exemplified the spirit of “Kita 1 Malaysia” (We Are One Malaysia). Besides social media, my story also earned a spot in the local Chinese and Malay newspapers. Some websites even approached me to seek permission to publish the same. As the saying goes, web-news travel far and wide with no boundary, my story also found its way into a Malay website; and soon I managed to obtain the young man’s mother’s Facebook account, and from thence began our correspondence. She told me that the reason behind his son’s kind act was because he empathized with the distress and helplessness that I must have endured and did not want the same to happen to his family in the event that the same should happen to them in the future. His thoughtfulness touched me deeply. If everyone could be kind and helpful, then we could transform a world of individualistic and self-centred culture to one that is truly beautiful, peaceful and harmonious. Looking at the lost and found cash, my son suggested that I donate it so that the young man’s kindness can be circulated further for a charitable cause. I agreed and made a donation in the name of the young man, hoping that this gesture would trigger a butterfly effect for others to do more good. At this point of my writing this article, my heart still lingers with touching moments of the past two days’ events. I am truly grateful to be a volunteer of Tzu Chi Documenting Team and to be able to live up to the expectation of its mission in reporting the beauty and kindness of mankind. I am also grateful that I was lucky to meet a kind young man who helped turned an otherwise unpleasant episode into a happy-ending one, that marked a wonderful opening chapter for a new year. Lastly, I would like to share words of wisdom from Master Cheng Yen’s Dharma talk on the Wondrous Lotus Sutra : “If we behold a virtuous and positive mind in us, such Dharma value will become inherent in our daily life’s conduct. On the contrary, a deviant mind will make one an ordinary people, who fails to see the truth.”