The world of Tzu Chi July-August 2022 (Vol.142)

01 TZU CHI 142 By Dharma Master Cheng Yen Translated by Teresa Chang aster’s Teaching Those of us who are fortunate enough to live in peace and safety must remember that while we are enjoying our blessed lives, a group of people far away are suffering and facing an uncertain future. When we pool our love together, we will accumulate limitless strength and allow love to reach every corner of the world. The Power of Combined Love S ince the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, Poland has taken in the largest number of Ukrainian refugees. Our foundation has been helping to offer support to the displaced Ukrainians there. Volunteers from more than ten countries travelled a while ago to Poland and combined forces with local volunteers and personnel from other humanitarian organizations to hold distributions and provide other aid to the refugees. The Ukrainians who had fled to Poland were not staying in just one place, but were distributed mainly in four cities. Nearly 40 Tzu Chi volunteers divided themselves into groups and worked in the four cities to help. Their mission was to provide material aid and to bring warmth and emotional support to the refugees. They listened as the displaced people shared their pain and anguish, and they gave them hugs and a shoulder to lean on. Seeing how our volunteers gave to ease their suffering really touched my heart. This illustrates how living bodhisattvas go wherever there is suffering. Besides giving aid and support to suffering people, our volunteers worked to inspire love wherever they were. For example, a group of Taiwanese students studying in Poland joined our efforts in Lublin, eastern Poland, to provide relief to displaced Ukrainians. Our senior volunteers treated the students as mothers would their children and shared with them the Tzu Chi spirit of “gratitude, respect, and love”. They also shared with the young people how to go about a distribution to convey our love and care to the refugees. I hope the warm bond formed between them will inspire these youths to continue giving of themselves and become seeds of love wherever they may reside. Our aid missions on the front lines could not have happened without the help of many people. Take the blankets we have distributed for example: they are a labour of love of countless people. Our recycling volunteers had to first collect used PET