The Practice of Altruism as a Common Spi
The Practice of Altruism as a Common Spirit For Diverse Religions
Giving the Example of Buddhism Tzu Chi Foundation
Dharma Master Cheng Yen founded Tzu Chi Foundation in 1966, with the philosophy of “helping others, helping yourself”, and emphasizing altruism. The four missions that carried by Tzu Chi members for more than four decades include charity, medicine, education and humanity. All these four missions aim to provide “selfless giving”, in the other word, to be altruism. Being altruistic enlivens the Buddhist concept of “Emptiness of the three entities – donors, recipients and alms”, modernizes Buddhism, and makes the concept understandable and executable.
The growth of Tzu Chi is due to the distinct history of
Her model is pertinent for many other Chinese who have lived in countries away from their own and in societies dominated by capitalism: they have been unable to find their own identities and cultural position in their new societies. The Tzu Chi movement has been broadly accepted by ethnic Chinese around the world, as well as non-Chinese, whose traditional cultural and moral values could not resist the compelling forces of westernisation. In countries like
As NRMs scholars, Peter B. Clarke states that churches were traditionally separated from the secular world and non-church spirituality has become a common phenomenon among all new religion movements. This vision has been highly emphasized by Dharma Master Cheng Yen.
She considers every place a temple and every moment an opportunity for awakening, when we maintain a pure and a devoted mind. For Tzu Chi, a hospital is a perfect place to practice Buddhism, when patients can be well cared for both physically and psychologically and physicians and volunteers can learn from suffering patients of the constant state of change in which we live: old age, sickness and death are the inevitable human cycle. Therefore, we have to comprehend that life itself will vanish and realize that nothing is eternal. Only by pursuing the wisdom of enlightenment can people reach the ultimate truth of their lives, and this means supporting others. As Dharma Master Cheng Yen has said: “we have to transform the hell-like hospital into a state of heaven. All volunteers and medical personnel are like Buddhtisava who vow to enter hell to eliminate all the afflictions of people.”
Venerable Cheng Yen also considers the sites of disasters as ‘temples’ where we learn from the suffering of victims and provide compassion and relief. Recycling sites can be a temple too, where more than 200,000 Tzu Chi volunteers use bare hands to protect the earth, clean their communities and learn to cherish our natural resources. By doing this mission of recycling, the volunteers also transform their spirits and realize that a simple life is the most fortunate. A Buddhist should aim not to reach the
As peter B. Clarke states “the New Religion Movement and a new kind of holistic, inner-directed spirituality have introduced a new cognitive religious style, which appears in the growing number of non-church people. This is a style that places the emphasis on experience not on faith. One can, thus, be spiritual or religious without faith.”
In recent years, many Christians and Muslims have joined Tzu Chi as volunteers without changing their beliefs. This is mainly due to the common spirit of altruism that emphasized by every religion.
Dharma Master Cheng Yen brings Tzu Chi members into the secular world, which differs significantly from the traditional Buddhist emphasis of self-reflection and self-purification leading to the
The Chinese Confucian concept of family also significantly impact the practice of Tzu Chi. Dharma master Cheng yen does not only want Tzu Chi members to walk into the secular multitudes, but also wants the volunteers to take care of their families before doing Tzu Chi – which is noticeably different from the traditional Buddhist concept of leaving the family behind. Under the influence of Confucianism, Dharma master Cheng Yen emphasizes Family as the core value of the society. Early in the master’s life, she read the “Four Books of Chinese Classics” in addition to the Buddhist readings “The Lotus Sutra” and “The Immeasurable Sutra”, which had a considerable influence on her thoughts.
Even though Tzu Chi values Family tremendously, and that the master always wants the volunteer to take care of their families before volunteering, there is also considerable difference from the Confucianism concept of family. In traditional Chinese society, once a person gains wealth and power, the whole family leeches off it. In Tzu Chi’s world, once a person is enlightened, he/she spreads the knowledge and love.
Dharma Master Cheng Yen teaches her disciples to love everyone in the world as their family. This enlarges the family love, and rectifies the selfishness of the Confucian concept of family. In the Tzu Chi world, we are all family. This family is not a selfish one, but one that loves everyone, and one that is altruistic.
Through the unselfish love, the person who accepted Tzu-Chi's help before, now start to help others, this is a love circle in equal position, this spirit has been implement in both Christian and Muslim worlds.
Buddhism Tzu Chi Volunteerism In Christians World
In
God’s Messenger is a Buddhist
The first black commissioner is Gladys Ngema, a 55-year-old Zulu woman in
The Archetype of Cycle of Love
Pan, who has been volunteer with the Tzu Chi Foundation for ten years, initiated the collaboration between Christian and Buddhists. The Christian Zulu members were used to be recipients of Tzu Chi. By practicing the philosophy of Dharma Cheng Yen, she teaches her disciples “to educate rich to support the poor, and then support poor and educate them to have rich mind.” By practicing the principles of giving with gratitude and always delivering respect and love to recipients in spite of providing materials, many recipients eventually join the volunteers to devote their love and efforts to other suffered people. This archetype of the “cycle of love” continues to be fulfilled in the many areas that Tzu Chi volunteers have worked, including
Pan visited villages and found those, which were eligible, to which the volunteers delivered the aids in person. He picked several families at random to examine their living conditions. “The shacks of the very poor did not have proper floors, only soil, and the roofs were built of scrap metal. Through the holes in the metal, they could see the sun during the day and the stars at night.” Often he could not deal directly with the poor but had to negotiate through the village chief, whose approval was a requirement. “We had to use our money with extreme care,” Pan said. “We had to present the goods to the recipients directly and extend our gratitude to them.”
After years of experience, Pan began to realize that the village were not involved in industry or agriculture. He became convinced that job training would be more useful than donations: “instead of giving them fish to eat, we should give them fishing rods and teach them how to fish.” He observed that some aid recipients knew how to sew and, after consulting other members, decided that a sewing class would be the most useful.
Support Poor and Educate Them to Have Rich Mind
He started in May 1995 with three sewing classes in Umbumbulu, a one-hour drive from
It was an enormous challenge to launch the classes. First, Zulu communities are scattered far apart, involving Pan in hours of travelling in his four-wheel-drive, nine-passenger van over poor roads through wide prairies and rocky plains. Second, there was a high security risk. Most people advised Pan not to enter the black areas at all. Not only was there a high incidence of crime, by the poor and unemployed who steal and kill to make a living, but also political violence between the ANC and the Inkatha Freedom Party, under Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a major Zulu leader. A total of 15,000 people died in fighting between rival Zulu groups in
Changes Them Both Financially and Spiritually
One Taiwanese volunteer who was visiting a black village had his van stolen by armed bandits, who fired a bullet that grazed his cheek and then drove the vehicle away.
The growing number of classes and attendees had an unexpected result – it changed the lives of the students both financially and spiritually. It gave them a means to earn money and improve the life of their families and also inspired them to help others as they had been helped.
It is these students that account for most of the 2,100 volunteers in
A Christian Deliver the Spirit of Buddhism Tzu Chi
Like Gladys, Dlamini was a former recipient of aid from Tzu Chi. In the winter of 1995, he received food and, in 2005, joined the foundation as a member. “I want to teach others about Tzu Chi and teach the young about HIV, not to use drugs and to love one another. Before, nobody helped. I lived on the streets begging and surviving somehow. I did not know what a normal life was.”
Gladys and Dlamini are examples of the virtuous circle in the Tzu Chi philosophy -- a person in need receives help, a process that awakens his sense of giving and inspires him also to help others in need. The volunteers are devout Christians (Protestants) and their faith has been not an obstacle but an incentive to them to take part in Tzu Chi. Its work has empowered hundreds of poor women, trapped in poverty and despair at home, to find a new purpose in life by working together with others for the common good.
Jesus and Buddha are the Same
“We are doing God’s work,” said Ngema, a fervent Protestant. “Master Cheng Yen has great love. Jesus and Buddha are the same. Tzu Chi people are like angels. In the hour of our greatest need, they brought clothes to us. From them, I have learnt the way of love. Now I hope I do the same thing and love my own people.
The Tzu Chi Volunteerism In the Muslim World
Tzu Chi has also crossed the religious divide in working with the Nurul Iman boarding school at Parung Bogor, a 90-minute drive from
In 2003, Tzu Chi volunteers visited the school and found that it lacked proper food and medical services. In October of that year, they agreed to provide 50 tons of rice every month and hold a free clinic every six months. In the summer of 2005, the school completed construction of a two-storey building, with 24 classrooms and 40 bathrooms, paid for by Tzu Chi.
At the very beginning, when Habib el Saggaf started to receive the support from Tzu Chi, other Muslim priests cursed him for daring to receive a pagan’s donation and support. However, Habib el Saggaf continues to accept the rice, and the number of his students increased from 3000 to
Tzu Chi’s Charitable Model in
In 1998, following the riot in Jakarta, Dharma Master Cheng Yen asked Tzu Chi volunteers not to leave; on the contrary, she urged them to stay and to use love to combat hatred. In that year, Tzu Chi volunteers and joined with local Chinese people to deliver aid to more than 130 thousands recipients. In 2002, during the
The Spirit of Direct Giving
The charitable project inspired by Cheng Yen was a completely new kind of project than has been seen in
Cheng Yen Becomes the Spiritual Model in
After visiting the Great Love villages in
Muslim Students Join Tzu Chi as Volunteers
In 2007, during the flooding in
Adopt the Jin Shi Abode’s Self-Support System
Dharma Master Chen Yen also asked Tzu Chi volunteers to suggest Habib to adopt the self-sufficient system for his school. Dharma Master Chen Yen and her disciples have been lived in a self-sufficient manner for more than 42 years. The Master and all her disciples work for their living needs. All donations that the Foundation receives go to the Foundation’s charitable works. They follow the rule of “No work, no meal.” All the Dharma masters in Abode not only work for their own living, they are also volunteers and have continuously donated to and devoted in the Foundation for over 42 years.
Inspired by Dharma Master Chen Yen, Habib started to ask his students to carry out the self-sufficient life style. Students initiated several efforts including farming works, baking breads, produce organic fertilizers, and selling water. Tzu Chi volunteers in
I visited Habib in June of 2007, and he told me “ everyone in the world has to learn from Master Chen Yen. She is like a sunshine that enlightens every suffered soul.”
In respect to Master Cheng-Yen’s as well as Tzu Chi’s contribution without asking for returning. In April 2007 Elders Habit asked for a Dharma Master Cheng Yen’s photo and hanged it on the institute’s main office together with Koran. In additional in August 2007 Habit hanged Mater Cheng-Yen’s photo in every classroom. At the beginning of each class the students will bow to Master Cheng-Yen as an appreciation of Master Cheng-Yen’s teaching. At this event the love held both Buddhists and Muslims together tightly.
This is the realization of the theory announced by a well-known author Karen Armstrong about “Religious Studies”. The world needs a new religion, which can accommodate the different, believes. Moreover, one religion can accept and tolerate the other religion’s belief. That is ideal of Dharma Master Cheng Yen who believes that people will join together through the selfless love and giving, and this is the ideal of altruism. Tzu Chi volunteers bring Buddha’s equality and love to every place in the world across the boundary of the different religions. It is ascertained that the spirit of altruism will eventually bring people’s belief and actions together and therefore, a pure land and great society can be reached.
Rey-Sheng Her
Assistant Professor of
The Director of Humanity Development Dept. of Tzu Chi Foundation
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