| For
every moment |
 |
by Susannah Lin
February 1, 2003
(Lunar New Year)
Chinese Version
It all
lead up to this moment -- to see Master Cheng Yen walk out towards
the open crowd, as if sunlight suddenly manifested itself, sharing
its warmth through the form of a gentle being guided with the
grace of Great Love. As she stepped outside into the morning
sun, she looked down at her own master, Master Yin Shun. Sitting
in a wheelchair wearing a tan robe and a coffee brown winter
hat, the toothless monk, now 98 years old, smiled so deeply
his face crinkled. He was abounding with what I could only describe
to be euphoric pride, happiness and limitless gratitude.
Master
Yin Shun looked up at his disciple, as she appeared to float
down the steps to meet him. She held his two hands in hers.
Her face was full of emotion. I could see her eyes glisten with
approaching tears. She had this look on her face. It was the
look of meeting a long lost friend whom you have never stopped
thinking fondly of. It was the look of a mother hearing her
child tell her he loved her for the first time. It was the look
of coming home again. But what did that moment mean to Master
Cheng Yen to give her this look? What was she thinking of right
then and there?
Moments before Master Cheng Yen
walked out to greet Master Yin Shun
The
Path of the Bodhisattvas
Forty
years ago and determined to become a Buddhist nun, Master Cheng
Yen, then known as Chin-yun (Magnificent Cloud), stepped into
the Temple of Informing Sun in Taipei. Earlier, she had approached
the Temple of Lin Chi in hopes of becoming initiated as a nun,
but was turned down because she did not have a master to determine
she was qualified and arrange for her initiation.
~~~
The
beginning of Chin-yun's path to relieving the world of its suffering
was marked with challenges to the heart. Convinced that women
could assume as much social responsibilities as men, this journey
led Chin-yun to believe that religion could be used as a vehicle
for extending care to the global family.
During the last
five years and torn between devotion to her family and her resolution
to help all beings, Chin-yun had run away from home more than
once to pursue her intentions of becoming a Buddhist nun. She
had challenged tradition by shaving her own head, a right reserved
only for one's master. And, in making a vow to never to accept
anything unless it was earned through her own labor, Chin-yun
refused to take offerings or free meals from people. She earned
her keep by gathering greens, peanuts and sweet potatoes for
food and working in the rice paddies. Chin-yun endured hunger,
the cold and sickness with a single devoted companion, Master
Xiu Dao whom she had met back home and had inspired her spiritual
cultivation.
Later on, when Master Cheng Yen first started Tzu Chi, she
and a handful of devoted followers established a charity fund
under the resolve to assist people less fortunate by inspiring
those more fortunate to give of themselves. A small group of
two housewives and four nuns earned their living by hand-sewing
five to six pairs of baby shoes per day. They would sew an extra
pair to bring in additional money for the charity fund. And
every day a group of thirty housewives would each place their
fifty-cent donation into a bamboo "piggy bank" on
their way to the market. Because of their tireless dedication
of raising funds for charity, during the first five years they
were able to assist fifteen families, helping a total of thirty-one
elderly and ailing individuals in Hualien with their medical
and daily living expenses.
News that help was possible from only fifty-cents a day spread
quickly beyond the mountains of Hualien. Even with growing support,
these early years were extremely trying for Master Cheng Yen
her followers. Circumstances such as losing land or not having
enough to eat threatened to dissolve all their hard work. Yet
throughout the hardships the group never touched the charity
fund to help themselves. Instead, they persevered and worked
even harder in other ways to earn enough money. They never gave
up on their mission to "Show Great Mercy to Strangers,
Great Compassion for All."
~~~
Chin-yin purposefully
went to the Temple of Informing Sun to ask Master Yin Shun,
a well-known Buddhist scholar from mainland China to be her
master. She had already purchased The Complete Teachings
of Master Tai Hsu and was in the process of pleading with
one of his students to tell him she wished to be his disciple,
when he happened to walk out of his room. It was an unusual
request, as Buddhist masters usually got to know their novices
at least two years before their initiation. Regardless, she
had no idea that he rarely accepted disciples.
~~~
There were two critical
moments in Chin-yun's life that compelled her live a life for
the purpose of relieving all living beings from suffering. When
she was 19, her father suffered a heart attack and then a stroke.
Shortly after the stroke, her father passed on. The doctor had
come to treat her father's hypertension with a shot and left
without further instruction for Chin-yun.
The office that her tired father was lying down in was noisy.
Concerned about his comfort, Chin-yun called the pedicab so
that she could accompany her father home so that he could rest.
When they reached the house, her father could not move. He soon
fell unconscious and slipped into a coma.
Chin-yun was not
supposed to move her father. In that single moment where the
doctor forgot to instruct Chin-yun to not move her father, it
had led to her father's death. Yet Chin-yun turned the blame
to herself and her immense shock intensified over the next several
months. She had thought that she was the cause of her father's
death. Because of this, a deep and desperate sadness overtook
Chin-yun and she began searching for the whereabouts of her
father's soul.
Wandering from temple to temple, it was in her search for answers
about life after death that she met Master Xiu Dao. With the
guidance of Master Xiu Dao, Chin-yun came to understand that
death is relative to how one lives. Chin-yun then realized that
all will suffer the same and unavoidable fate of death and that
it is beyond our control. With this, she began to embrace Buddhism
and commit herself to making the most of her days on earth.
~~~
With only an hour before
the registration for the initiation ceremony was about to close,
Master Yin Shun had accepted Chin-yun's request to take her
as his disciple. As there was now little time left to return
to the Temple of Lin Chi for the ceremony, Master Yin Shun said
to her, "Our karmic relationship is very special. As a
nun, you must always be committed to Buddhism and to all living
beings." From that moment on, those words have been the
closest thing to Master Cheng Yen's heart.
~~~
One of Master Cheng
Yen's first encounters with the sad plight in east Taiwan was
when she noticed a pool of blood in the foyer of a local hospital.
Upon inquiring, she was told that a poor and critically ill
aborigine woman had been suffering a miscarriage and was turned
away because she did not have the money to pay the deposit fee
required by the hospital before surgery. Four individuals from
the woman's mountain village had carried her on foot for nearly
four hours to receive urgent care. The small group had no other
options but to turn around. The woman had died on the journey
home.
To Master Cheng Yen, there was nothing more heartbreaking or
disturbing than this moment of society showing a lack of compassion
for its own. After her father's death, she had come to realize
that a meaningful life is determined by how we spend our days.
She had realized early on that while Buddhism was a religion
of peace, it must not be disconnected from the greater society.
The only significant thing we can do is to be kind to others
along the path of life. And since we do not know how long our
path is, every moment is precious to create lasting good impacts
on society.
This memory remained
with Master Cheng Yen, and she established the Tzu Chi Foundation,
known then as the Tzu Chi Merits Society, to begin raising the
money necessary to prevent such an occurrence from happening
again. In promising to relieve all beings of their afflictions,
one must bring their compassion forth with devotion and the
thought -- If I don't do it, who will? At the end of Tzu Chi's
first year, enough money was raised to keep one person from
being turned away from the hospital. This was the spark that
lit the flame of "compassion in action" and became
the achievement of actual deeds that address the problems of
society. "Without action,
great mercy means nothing."
~~~
Upon recollecting the
first day Master Yin Shun first met Master Cheng Yen, he confessed
that he had accepted her as his disciple because the monk he
considered as his mentor wrote the book she had purchased. Over
the years, Master Cheng Yen has come to him as her own mentor,
and sought his advice on everything from her spiritual cultivation
to major Tzu Chi projects. When she had approached him about
building a hospital in the underdeveloped part of eastern Taiwan,
he could sense the overwhelming difficulties that would accompany
this monumental task. He said to her, "Just like the time
you told me you intended to do charity work, I reminded you
to think whether you would have the strength and the money when
more people came to you for help. The task can only be realized
with unwavering commitment." Master Cheng Yen did not waver.
We create our hope
Today, Tzu Chi Foundation has branch offices around the world
and over four million members worldwide. In Jordan, Tzu Chi
volunteers are providing school children with school supplies.
In the outskirts of Tibet, Tzu Chi medical professionals are
providing free dental care. In Australia, they are providing
free access to medical attention by traveling to geographically
isolated areas. In El Salvador, entire residential townships
called Great Love Villages, are nearing completion for earthquake
victims. These communities have the capacity to house over 1,000
individuals at a time and include community centers, medical
clinics and schools. Tzu Chi doctors treated 10,000 Salvadorians
and Tzu Chi volunteers distributed US$350,000 worth of food
and supplies. Flood victims in Indonesia rendered homeless by
torrential rains also now have a Great Love Village to go home
to. And throughout 2002, Tzu Chi and Knights Bridge International
conducted a series of humanitarian aid relief missions for refugees
in Afghanistan.
Here in Taiwan, there is a woman who is a simple Buddhist nun
who has never left the shores of this small island. As a young
girl carrying home a basket filled with groceries for her family,
she instead had the thought that she should fill the basket
for the entire world. In Taiwan, Tzu Chi hospitals were the
first to not require deposits and provide free medical care
to those in need. Tzu Chi has established medical and nursing
schools to bring society conscientious medical professionals.
If a single thought can create this much goodness, then it is
just as possible that a thought can create as much suffering.
When we look at the state of our world today we are able to
see what has become of such seeds of thought. We can also see
how much there is still yet to be done to help our injured world.
The moments of today are what we have to use wisely. In that
sunlit moment when all things became still within my memory
-- that moment where a smile traced across the Master Cheng
Yen's face and her eyes filled with loving tears -- it was the
look of a dream coming true, that everything all these years
has truly been worth it. Such has been the promise for every
moment of the past thirty-seven years of Tzu Chi -- creating
hope.
Author's note: Many thanks to
King-Pong Liu, Editor in Chief of Tzu Chi Quarterly, for his
time in insuring the accuracy of the facts within this article.
