080405 Doing Work in the World with a Transcendent Spirit

Date: April 5, 2008 (Saturday)
Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan

Place: March 30, 2008 – Tainan Region

I am truly very grateful. Forty-two years ago, if we had not paved a path through our acts of love, how would we be able to continually expand and grow worldwide? This is the result of all that we have done through time, through space and between people. All of you sitting here today live in Taiwan with me. Taiwan is not very big. Tzu Chi began here in Taiwan on this tiny island in the ocean. Here on this tiny island, there is so much love and from here, seeds of love are continually being scattered outward to many countries around the world. With love, the people in those countries let these seed take root locally. As we consider this, don’t we here in Taiwan, Tzu Chi’s birthplace, feel a sense of pride and honor at that? All of us in Taiwan, therefore, must be even more attentive and conscientious. It was karmic affinities that brought you into Tzu Chi. But if you become complacent about it, when the affinities end, the Dharma will no longer be accessible to you. Though in your past life, you had formed the karmic affinities to come into Tzu Chi, however, if you don’t take in the Dharma, in your next life, you won’t have the chance to come in contact with the Dharma.

As we carry out Tzu Chi’s mission, we must pass on the dharma of our dharma lineage. If you don not listen to my dharma talk, “Wisdom at Dawn”, how are you pass on our dharma? Self-discipline, diligence, frugality, and persevering in hardship — these are our principles. How do we carry out these principles? We need to pass on these principles. The program “Wisdom at Dawn” contains the Dharma. It teaches you how to be a good human being, how to run your family, how to abide by moral principles, how to create harmony in the home. These are all interrelated. As Tzu Chi members, you also need to watch the program “Life Wisdom”. Though we are in Taiwan, we’re able to know about the world. In the program “Life Wisdom”, I share with you what Tzu Chi volunteers in other countries are doing to benefit the local community, how they have overcome various difficulties, and what impact they are having locally. Indeed, we should have more awareness of things that are happening around the world. So, we ought to make effort to learn more and gain more knowledge.

Moreover, know that self-discipline is a principle of our Jing Si dharma lineage. The Tzu Chi path, meanwhile, stresses propriety. So while walking the Tzu Chi path, you must uphold propriety. That means you most uphold precepts follow the rules of conduct and etiquette. There are so many people in this Tzu Chi dharma family. Young and old need to respect one another, have gratitude toward one another, and love each other. Moreover, all must uphold the precepts so that we don’t forget the proper boundaries. Tzu Chi members need to be a model human being as well as a model Buddhist in order to inspire more people to join us, we need to first have good character & be a model. We need to uphold Tzu Chi’s Ten Precepts. The first five of these precepts are fundamental precepts that the Buddha set down for lay Buddhists: no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, no taking of intoxicants. These are precepts that all Buddhists must uphold. Moreover, Tzu Chi has five other precepts: One is obeying traffic laws. We must obey traffic laws. That’s protecting ourselves. There are many traffic accidents nowadays. In order to protect everyone’s family and let others be safe and well, we should follow all traffic laws. Abiding by laws and rules is to uphold. We also have the precepts of no smoking, no alcohol, no drugs, no chewing betel nuts. These are all very harmful to our health. So we must stay away from them. Another precept is to remain amiable in manner. If you tend to speak harshly, don’t think that’s just a small thing. We all need to be more on guard. We may lose our temper sometimes and have these bad tendencies. But, each time we do it, it will add up, and it will damage our character. So, when we speak harshly to others, or don’t treat others courteously, these all damage our character. That’s why I ask you to be amiable and mil-tempered, and learn to tame our temper, and adjust the way we speak to others. Otherwise, we wreck our image, but we also wreck the beauty of the entire group. The beauty Tzu Chi comes from everyone upholding precepts & propriety. We must uphold precepts as well as proper decorum. Only then can we truly preserve Tzu Chi’s principles and spirit and help Tzu Chi’s spirit to spread, not only in Taiwan but even abroad. You are all a Tzu Chi member. When people speak of Tzu Chi members, they’re speaking of Tzu Chi members as a whole. There are already Tzu Chi members all around the world. So, everyone, you must not neglect to practice, the practices for a lay Buddhist. And, amongst yourselves, there must be unity. We need to have unity, harmony, mutual love and teamwork as we carry out Tzu Chi missions. If, within the organization, there is no unity, harmony, mutual love and teamwork, then it will not be possible to truly make the Tzu Chi school of Buddhism become well-established. The Tzu Chi school of Buddhism has already been established. So, all of you must continue the Tzu Chi path by passing down the dharma of our Jing Si lineage. It involves the practice of self-discipline, diligence, frugality, perseverance in hardship. Moreover, you must continually learn more about the dharma of the Jing Si lineage. It is to do work in the world with a transcendent spirit. You must open yourself up to the Dharma. All of you truly must listen to the Dharma. Only then can you cultivate blessings and wisdom simultaneously. Our dharma path truly is precious and rare. All of you are my first generation disciples. The Tzu Chi school of Buddhism has already been established. We must assure that it is continued into the future, with generation after generation of Tzu Chi people passing on the dharma of our Jing Si lineage and continuing to extend the Tzu Chi path and bringing more people onto the path. We must do this with love. We really must believe in the Karmic law of cause and effect. We are now in the era when Truth is in decay. The planet is also in the stage of decay. There are disasters everywhere. So, we must truly wake up to this. In such a time and age, if we don’t take in the Buddhist teachings, even if we have seeds of love within, yet, without having Dharma within, we cannot spread the Truth and the Buddhist teachings cannot continue to be preserved. So, we are truly fortunate now to have been born in this era, to be able to live in Taiwan, and have this karmic affinity to be a part of Tzu Chi where we help each other grow and where we have opportunities to help many people in need. If we can set a good example of the Tzu Chi way here in Taiwan, then, naturally, we can become a model for others. Nowadays, people from other countries come to Taiwan to learn from Tzu Chi. So, Taiwan is Tzu Chi’s birthplace and all of you Taiwan Tzu Chi members have responsibility to preserve the Tzu Chi way.