Tzu Chi Members Around the World Gather
Together to Encourage Each Other With the Spirit of "Filial
Piety, Gratitude, and Diligence."
(Translated by Mike Lee, San Jose)
May 13 is both Mother's Day and the Buddha's
Birthday in Taiwan, and for the Tzu Chi Foundation it is also
World Tzu Chi Day. This year, the occasion coincides with the
thirty-fifth anniversary of the foundation. In order to celebrate
this particularly meaningful holiday, a series of activities
related to World Tzu Chi Day took place, starting on May 12.
It is expected that about a thousand overseas Tzu Chi members
from twenty-five nations will return to Taiwan to participate.
Also, Dharma Master Cheng Yen will draw upon the spirit of "Filial
Piety, Gratitude, and Diligence" to commend and encourage
Tzu Chi volunteers around the world.
The second Sunday of May each year is Mother's
Day. On its thirtieth anniversary in 1996, the Tzu Chi Foundation
also set this day as World Tzu Chi Day in the hope that volunteers
scattered around the globe would have a fixed day each year
to return to Taiwan and find their roots. Those who cannot return
can still celebrate the occasion on the same day, wherever they
are. Last year the Taiwan government set the Buddha's Birthday
on the same day as Mother's Day, so now Mother's Day has become
even more meaningful to Tzu Chi volunteers.
According to the foundation, Dharma Master
Cheng Yen once instructed, "Our mothers gave birth to us
and gave us these bodies of ours. Therefore, to celebrate Mother's
Day is to promote filial piety. The teachings of the Buddha
allow us to understand moral principles and develop wisdom.
Therefore, to celebrate the Buddha's Birthday is to express
gratitude for the growth of our wisdom life. The Tzu Chi spirit
of Great Love lets us understand the proper goals in life and
engage in meaningful endeavors. Therefore, to celebrate Tzu
Chi Day is to let ourselves become earnest and diligent, so
that we may perfect our character on the pathway of life."
Master Cheng Yen especially expects Tzu Chi volunteers around
the world to observe "filial piety, gratitude, and diligence."
Presently, Tzu Chi has established 146 branch
offices in 32 countries outside Taiwan. There are approximately
10,500 overseas members, including 1,082 officially appointed
Tzu Chi commissioners and 370 Tzu Cheng Faith Corps members.
Dharma Master Cheng Yen instructs these Tzu Chi volunteers from
abroad: "Since you reside in foreign lands, you must give
of yourselves wherever you are." Therefore, every day these
volunteers promote the four Tzu Chi missions of charity, medicine,
education and culture in their foreign homes. Not only do they
draw upon local resources to benefit the communities they live
in, they also manage to raise funds for Tzu Chi ventures in
medicine and education in Taiwan. Recently, many overseas Tzu
Chi members have been working especially hard to raise funds
for Project Hope (the Tzu Chi plan to rebuild schools destroyed
in the earthquake of September 21, 1999), thus doing their part
to help disaster victims in Taiwan. This is a precious time
each year when Tzu Chi people around the world can get together
and return to their spiritual home to recharge their souls and
receive the latest news on Tzu Chi.
Activities marking World Tzu Chi Day include
a Taiwan provincial Tzu Chi volunteers pilgrimage and a global
Tzu Chi officers' seminar. Between May 8 and 11, the first group
of 159 volunteers to arrive back in Taiwan paid separate visits
to the Tzu Chi Great Love television studio, the Dalin Tzu Chi
Hospital in Chiayi, the Kuanshan Tzu Chi Hospital in Taitung,
and the Abode of Still Thoughts in Hualien. Since reconstruction
after the earthquake of September 21, 1999, is the focal point
of concern for Tzu Chi members around the world, volunteers
also stopped by schools that were rebuilt with assistance from
Tzu Chi's Project Hope.
The global Tzu Chi officers' seminar will
be held at the Abode of Still Thoughts in Hualien from May 12
to 17, with 753 Tzu Chi volunteers from 25 nations in attendance.
On the evening of the May 12, Master Cheng Yen personally conducted
a blessing ceremony. Volunteers from Taiwan also shared the
spirit of Great Love with the overseas volunteers through a
musical entitled "Still Thoughts, the World, and the Spirit
of Tzu Chi." On May 13, an estimated 1,150 Tzu Chi members
will gather together to celebrate World Tzu Chi Day. They will
join in the ritual of "Washing the Buddha" (a traditional
ritual performed on the Buddha's birthday) and a joint celebration
of World Tzu Chi Day and the thirty-fifth anniversary of the
Tzu Chi Foundation. During this celebration, the program will
include a review of the foundation's work during the last year
and a reunion of bone marrow donors and recipients.
One item worthy of mention is that in the
review of the last year, reunions will be arranged between victims
or their families who were involved in tragedies abroad and
the overseas Tzu Chi volunteers who lent their assistance at
the time of the tragedy. These unfortunate cases include: a
major car accident in Canada, the accidental death of a Taiwanese
student at the Texas Institute of Technology, a major car accident
in Southern California in which several Taiwanese tourists were
killed, and the shooting death of a Taiwanese student in Savannah,
Georgia. According to reports, when these tragic events occurred,
local Tzu Chi members promptly provided the victims' families
with support as they accompanied the grieving relatives in confronting
the painful moments of life. From chanting the Buddha's name
on behalf of the deceased to assisting in the final arrangements
for the departed, the Tzu Chi members provided support and companionship
all along the way. For their efforts, the victims' families
were genuinely grateful. Thus they will advantage of the opportunity
when these overseas Tzu Chi members return to Taiwan and personally
attend to express their appreciation.
Furthermore, there will be a reunion between
bone marrow donors and recipients. This will be the eighth such
reunion, and seventeen pairs of donors and recipients will attend.
During the celebration, Master Cheng Yen will personally present
commemorative plaques to the donors. The ceremony will certainly
be filled with touching stories.
Every year the global Tzu Chi officers' seminar
attracts a great number of volunteers from abroad, who sign
up despite all the challenges and inconveniences. Many of these
volunteers make a meager living overseas, and a trip back to
Taiwan often implies an expense that drains their savings. However,
every one of these volunteers sees this trip as a spiritual
journey, and they grasp the opportunity to cleanse their weary
minds and to pour fresh life into the mission of serving humanity.
