980105人間菩提英文版 Continuing to Give of Our Love Despite Hard Times

人間菩提--續植愛心度時艱
Continuing to Give of Our Love Despite Hard Times

See all the fruit I’ve prepared for you.
You must have some
Are you making an offering to Bodhisattvas?
I’m very grateful for having the chance to serve a living bodhisattva like you who are here to save people’s lives.
The woman we see is Shu-qing.
I think she is really brave.
Although she herself has devoted to Tzu Chi’s work for a very long time and was qualified to be certified long ago.
She was mindful of her family’s feelings and decided that she would only become a certified Tzu Chi member after she had gained her family’s full support.
(So, she waited until 203 to become certified)
That year, she took up the work of interacting with and caring for potential marrow donors whenever she was notified of a matched donor by the hospital.
(Her work is very important) because some potential donors families can’t bear for their loved ones to donate marrow, (so they don’t want them to donate)
Yet, those who need to receive a marrow transplant are in a lot of suffering.
What kind of suffering do they endure?
(It is something we can never understand)
However, Shu-qing knows it all as she was once diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a form of bone marrow stem cell disorder, and she underwent a period of treatment for it, so she can understand the suffering that patients with blood diseases are enduring.
I was sick myself, so I know what it was like
So, in the future, I expect myself to spread the word about bone marrow donation so that more people can understand that donating bone marrow won’t harm our health and the marrow will grow back.
I hope that everyone can know that and work together to inspire more people to join the rank of bone marrow donation.
So, she is able to go to the potential donors’ homes to share with them her feelings and try to convince the potential donors’ families to let the matched donors donate.
Today, there are 60 marrow donors in the audience.
I am very grateful to every one of you donors.
Back when we wanted to set up a bone marrow registry, we encountered many difficulties.
It was truly not an easy task.
It was a great responsibility to shoulder and it was also very costly to set up such a registry.
But why did we persist despite all this?
To save lives.
When lives can be saved, we must not give up on our efforts.
However small the chances stand as long as there is any chance, we’d never give up.
Besides, one of Tzu Chi’s Four Missions is the Mission of Medicine and one of the aims of our medical mission is to elevate the quality of medical care in Taiwan.
(While one way of doing that) is improving existing facilities and equipment, if a marrow registry could be set up in Taiwan. The medical services provided in Taiwan would be more comprehensive.
But setting up such a registry requires many people to give of their love.
(Technical issues such as matching donors and )
(recipients as well as conducting transplants) are not problems.
But, if a matched donor is found, and procedures have prepared the recipient’s body for the transplant should the donor suddenly changes his mind.
It’ll put the recipient’s life in great danger because the recipients’ marrow have all been destroyed through total body irradiation.
Without a transplant, the patient would die.
That’s why we need volunteers to interact with potential donors and encourage them.
(to hold on to their resolution to donate) and let them know that there is someone out there who is much like a candle in the wind and needs the donor to help block the wind so that the candle wont’ be extinguished and can still continue to give off its light.
(So, it’s about saving a life)
So, see how loving Shu-qing is in making the herbal soup for the donors in making the herbal soup for the donors.
She is not related to the recipient in any way but she is grateful to the donors for their love and so she takes care of them by making herbal soup for them with her own money.
Seeing her story, I was very touched.
She has inspired many to donate their marrow.
For that, I am very grateful to her.
By saving the life of one person, the entire family of the person is saved.
Maybe the person we save is someone who can make great contributions to society or someone who can benefit humanity greatly.
All in all, by saving a person’s life, unlimited possibilities are opened up.
(So, it can benefit others tremendously)
There are also our recycling volunteers.
I am very grateful to our recycling volunteers for caring for our Earth.
While we work to help people and save lives, we must also care for the Earth so that the Earth can remain healthy and well.
The Earth is home to humankind.
No matter where we live in the world, we are all inhabitants of the Earth.
So, only when the Earth is well can we be safe and sound, too.
We now have Tzu Chi volunteers in 47 countries, who have provided aid to people in nearly 70 countries around the world.
Whenever there is a natural or manmade disaster, the local Tzu Chi volunteers will mobilize at once to go to the disaster areas and provide aid and comfort to those affected.
We have been carrying out such aid work worldwide for years.
Everyone, Taiwan is truly very blessed and we must count our blessings.
We have good land and favorable climate conditions.
Living on such a blessed land, as long as we work hard, given the good land and climate we have in Taiwan.
We can grow a great variety of crops to sustain all people in Taiwan.
But, besides good land and climate, what’s most important is harmony among people.
Only when people live in harmony can our society be safe and peaceful.
(Otherwise, the police have to work very hard)
Every time when something happens in society, the police are taxed to the limit in their effort to try and maintain the public order.
So, we must take good care of our mind at all times and live in harmony with one another.
If we can do so, no matter how bad the economy is, we’ll be able to pass through the difficult times safe and sound.
All it takes is for everyone to live a simpler life and work harder without overspending.
Everyone will be receiving the consumption voucher from the government soon.
(Please do not spend it on things you don’t need) and use it to benefit others instead
We should make use of this economic downtime to educate people (about the right way of living)
In a word, seeing how people in other countries are suffering.
Those of us living here in Taiwan should count our blessings and further work to sow more blessings by benefiting others. Only by doing so can disasters in the world be quelled; only when everyone gives of his or her love can our society be peaceful and harmonious and people have harmony and peace.


































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