An Afternoon of Compassion and Appreciation

We attended the 2007 Year End Appreciation and Blessing Dinner (well, perhaps a misnomer of sort since the event was held in the afternoon) organized by Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation U.S.A, Orlando Chapter held at USF today. This is our second time, the first being in 2005, a dinner held in the evening.

Themed Gratitude, Respect, and Love and Reverence to Heaven and Earth for Merit Accumulation, the event included dispensation of Words of Wisdom from Master Cheng Yen, the founder, the Review of 2007 Community Service and Tzu Chi Events, both as documentary films, and live performance of the sign language troupe, culminating in the Light Up Your Heart Ceremony.

The Themes in Chinese, with the bylines: Use the eyes of compassion to contemplate the various forms of all sentient beings; Use the ears of wisdom to discern the voices of all sentient beings.

Abiding by their motto “First to arrive, last to leave”, Tzu Chi volunteers have been over in 47 countries, rendering assistance, both medical, mental and physical, wherever and whenever calamities hit: earthquakes, fires, floods, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes, as documented in the films. Their first priority is to provide personal assistance, through physical presence and demonstration of great love.

Seeing them in action, selfless and expecting nothing in return, the documentary nearly brought tears to my eyes. And here I am, lamenting about the inconveniences in life in relative affluence, mouthing compassion and yet staying within my comfort zone. One can pray and transfer merits as much as one so wishes, but nothing is more welcome to the victims of misfortunes than personal care and immediate relief. The Tzu Chi Foundation is deservedly a movement of compassionate relief, actualizing and propagating the Buddha's teachings in saving humanity from hardship, especially those who are least able to fend for themselves, transcending creed, ethnicity, and status.

It's patently clear that their relief efforts harbor no religious overtones nor overtures, with compassion as the sole driving force, as evidenced by their universal acceptance wherever their footprints cover. While its dedication to helping the aggrieved is beyond question, the Tzu Chi Foundation, led by its far-sighted leader, Master Cheng Yen, has also recognized the potential disasters that await the Earth in the not-so-distance future, a rather warm and wet one as projected by the International Panel on Climate Change, in the form of sea level rise and extreme meteorological events.

Mother Earth's inhabitants, the supposedly thinking ones, are spewing greenhouse gases, chief among which is carbon dioxide, in unprecedented amounts, thus setting off a chain of events that start from global warming, to ice sheet melting, to sea level rising, and to the loss of the coastal fringes, even entire islands. One of the messages in Master Cheng Yen's dispensation has to do with carbon reduction, and that it's everyone's responsibility. Everyone matters in this bid to save the world, and there is no better place to start than right from the very home of each and everyone.

Saving electricity by switching off unused lights, electrical appliances, and computers. And yes, those computers in sleep mode are still consuming electrical power as we speak, or I write to be specific about it. An attendee informed that merely by switching off the water heaters when not in use and having them turned on just half and hour before shower time saves his household electricity bill by $50 a month. And to think that the hot water in our home is always on demand, the electricity that is, I realize that I have played my part in contributing to the rise in energy consumption, and by extension, carbon loading.

Carpooling or even bicycling. Human energy is the most environmentally friendly, not to mention the health benefits accrued from pedaling. The majority of us are indeed pampered so much by technological advancement that we have to resort to indoor gyms to exercise, a classic case of using technological fixes to shed the extra pounds gained from eating gourmet food, again made possible by advances in amenities.

Using washable utensils. Tzu Chi volunteers always carry metal/porcelain chopsticks, spoons, and containers wherever they go. Even when they are not, they do not use disposal items.

Indeed as lamented by Master Cheng Yin, we have neglected the wellbeing of Mother Earth, abdicating our duties as responsible children of Mother Earth by sucking out every last ounce of her resources, and succumbing to greed, to grandeur that blinds us to the injuries inflicted on Mother Earth. Hence, the exhortations to cherish the treasure that we have, and to use the resources wisely.

Another message is that doing good and doing filial piety are two things in life that cannot wait. We must be grateful, respectful, and loving to our parents, our elders, and our teachers. We must curb our personal cravings, and reinstate/revive the filial way, observing decorum.

The performance by the sign language troupe was well executed, exuding warmth and softness of touch. This was followed by the lighting the candle and transmitting the light ceremony as a symbolic act of Lighting Up the Heart. The day's event ended with the making the vow ceremony and gift giving, after which the attendees adjourned to savor refreshments comprising various tidbits.

The sign language troup performing, transmitting the universal language of love and compassion.

The Song of Great Love: Thank you for the warm embrace, helping me to tide over the ebbs in my life. A heart filled with love to the brim, is not swayed by forceful wind. Learn to lend a shoulder for support. Smile with sincerity and understanding, and solve your worries by your side. Seeing the halt in your crying, even for a fleeting second, when you raise your head, envelops me in warm feeling through and through. I believe there is love in this world worth bidding. A heart long sealed is bound to open up. Understanding and forgiving will undo hurt. And loving kindness will remove suspicion. The most moving kind of love is trust.

The gift giving ceremony.

And these are our gifts: healthy non-meat powder food and packets and coins with inscriptions of wisdom gems, the former to ingest and the latter, to digest.

Drum roll ... the Tzu Chi volunteers, in the same resplendent and distinctive wear that is the hallmark of the Tzu Chi troupe.

Seeing is believing, we came home deeply moved by the experience, and at the same time thankful that there are such noble people amongst us who brave the elements, who traverse the uncharted territory far and wide, and who render assistance in far flung corners of the Earth just at a moment's notice. While wify and I have not committed ourselves to following their peerless paths, we do resolve to help out in their local assignments any way we can, both financially and in kind.

A Day of Compassionate Shower

Looking strenuously through the swishing movement of the front screen wipers and beyond that, a translucent sheet of pouring rain, I gingerly drove to Clearwater yesterday morning. The warning signs were already present early in the morning: overcast sky darkened by ominous rain clouds. My passengers: my wife and her retinue of Buddhist friends. And the mission: release life activity followed by a vegetarian lunch at a Largo Thai food restaurant to be graced by Bhante Dhammawansha.

Upon reaching Bhante’s residence and joined by Tom of the Middle Way Buddhist Association, we found ourselves confined in due to the seemingly incessant rain. The decision was then made, while I was browsing through the collection of Buddhist books on the bookselves (Bhante’s residence also doubles as the meeting venue of the Dhamma Wheel Meditation Society) to have Bhante deliver a Dharma talk to us while waiting for the rain to subside. [In what follows I would be paraphrasing what Bhante actually said as gleaned from my notes and my recollection, including those in quotation marks, which have been inserted to break the monotony and secondarily, to add emphasis. I have also taken the liberty to sprinkle my own thoughts here and there, to stretch the imagination a bit if you will.]

We congregated in the front room, facing a gleaming white stately status of the Buddha, with Bhante seated to one side. “When you wake up early in the morning to do something good, be it engaging in releasing fish, helping others, reading a spiritual book, or doing any wholesome activity, it’s always a very auspicious, very lucky day,” Bhante started the session. Forget about what the horoscope says as Buddhism has no place for superstitious beliefs. And we can change the prophesies of the horoscope by changing our mind, Bhante continued.

In view of the wholesome deed we had set out to do, one that resonates with compassion, Bhante elected to speak on compassion. It so happened that compassion was also what I had been reflecting on after I finished Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes as blogged here. I don’t think this is coincident, not even for a minute, but rather symptomatic of what the world sorely lacks, and that reiterating and reminding ourselves of this universal value would surely go a long way toward alleviating the world’s suffering, one step at a time, and one sentient life at a time.

What is compassion? In a nutshell, compassion is the ability to see the world’s suffering in its many manifestations: poverty, sickness, anger, difficult situations, etc., and to feel the warmth, the hurt that emanates from these observations, and to melt in the sea of suffering, and to act on these feelings, driven by the overarching desire to help the needy. At the fundamental level, Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, connotes compassion to all. Bhante further quoted His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama: My religion is compassion. And King Asoka, one of the two great people of the world from India out of the seven listed by HG Wells of the History of the World fame, the other one being the Buddha, was credited with building the first hospital for animals.

How to be compassionate? We can cultivate compassion if we know the answers to the flip-side question: Why can’t we be kind?

Firstly, we are blind to suffering. We see, but we don’t notice. We hear, but we don’t listen. We read, but we don’t ruminate. We choose to personify the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality, nor do we have any qualms in embracing the NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) one.

Secondly, this detachment (I guess this is one occasion where detachment is less than welcome) translates into our inability to understand that one day we will be like them too (old, helpless and hopeless).

Therefore, we can be compassionate when we can identify with the suffering around us, and we can realize that we are not immune to suffering. Just like we need medical treatment for the sick, we need mental uplifting to relieve suffering, and compassion is that spiritual antidote that can work wonders for a troubled mind.

Why do we need to cultivate compassion? Because compassion does not come naturally while cruelty can be dispensed almost effortlessly. And one way to manifest compassion is Right Speech (one of the Eight Noble Paths). And no speech is part and parcel of Right speech too. When the Buddha was engaged in a discourse with his followers, he listened most of the time, always smiled, and seldom talked. We should do the same, especially when we are angry: Don’t talk and don’t react.

Bhante then related two stories to illustrate the point: first, the frog story:

The Buddha used honey words, not in the sense of sweet-talking, but words that are not hurtful, and his delivery can best be characterized as “the beauty of sound” that not only captivated the crowd of followers, but also animals, drawn in by the melodious renditions. One of these animals was a frog, which positioned itself to “listen” on one occasion. Then a man who had spent some time searching for a lost cow in the forest walked in. Feeling exhausted, he propped himself against the long stick used to herd cows, one end staked into the ground, without realizing that the stick had rested on top of the frog, which was engrossed in listening to the Buddha’s delivery. It was said that the dead frog was born into the deity realm in its next life.

The second, the parrot story:

It was said that one of the Buddha’s past lives was as a parrot. One day, two baby parrots, nestled in a nest perched up on a tree, fell off the tree in a wind storm. One fell into the community of ascetics, who practiced Right Speech, and the parrot picked up the same when it grew up. The other parrot fell among a group of thieves. Day in and day out it was bombarded with foul words that were meant to kill, to rob, and the like. So that became this parrot’s vocabulary, swearing and bad-mouthing.

The second story also brings forth the message that Buddhists teach by way of examples. That’s why Buddhists practice Buddhism, and they are Buddhist practitioners.

By way of another analogy, Bhante equated our mind to the blue sky, infinite in all directions. Sometimes there are dark clouds, which may dampen our spirits somewhat. But these clouds will come to pass. So just let them pass, and let go as they do.

We then stepped out under a blue sky, and proceeded to the Clearwater Beach for the release life activity. While there, the rain resumed, but in a drizzle. So armed with umbrellas, and led by Bhante, we accomplished the compassionate act of releasing life, under the watchful eyes of a pelican which had settled on the water surface nearby, but it was kept at bay by the group’s admonitions and shooing hand gestures, and the water canon shot from a hose by the owner of the tackle shop, who has grown accustomed to our regular release life activities.



The last business of the day was the vegetarian lunch at the Thai House in the Largo Mall. It turned out that the day of our visit also coincided with the birthday of the proprietor of the eatery, a Thai and a devout Buddhist. And to honor the presence of Bhante, he gracefully offered the lunch treat as on the house. So the day turned out to be one of compassionate shower all round.

Releasing or Harming Life?

I have blogged many times here about our release life activities, the latest one being here. I have also tried to read up on this intrinsically meritorious activity, one which has instilling compassion in all of us at its core. At the same time, the potential for abuse exists as blogged here, which admonishes us to temper the conduct of the activity with wisdom. Therefore, the pros and cons of release life activity as a benevolent act sanctioned by the Buddhist community have been debated at length.

Recently, the same disagreement, to put it mildly, surfaced in Malaysia in conjunction with the Global Guan Yin Dharma Ceremony (July 30 - Aug 1, 2007) . Among the activities planned to commemorate the occasion was the organized release life activity.

I am not privy to what actually transpired on the ground, but have this news article in Nanyang Siang Pau (Aug 8, 2007) to give me a sense of the undercurrents of conflicting standpoints.

Consider it a proposal for an alternative (the virtual) kind of engaging in release life activities. In the spirit of sharing, here’s my attempt at an English translation:

Do set up a release life website!

Many years ago, per chance I wrote an article commenting on the deviation of the practice of release life from its true meaning. A reader responded in support, saying that if anyone stops catching small animals for release life after reading my article, that itself would constitute a meritorious act of saving life.

The reader also attached an explanation on the significance of releasing life by Venerable Dhammananda, quoting him, “liberating all sentient beings from suffering is the best form of releasing life.”

Many years since, many small animals still suffer because of the practice of releasing life.

Releasing animals from immediate harm is saving life, but not one that is pre-meditated. However, the practice of releasing life in order to accrue good merits has gone astray, bringing much detriment over the long term to the lives of many small animals such as turtles, birds, and fish. For many years, many people have voiced negatively on the practice, as have many venerable monks and practitioners in the Buddhist community explained based on Buddhist scriptures the fine points and protocol required of the proper conduct of the practice. But twisted forms of releasing life rituals continue unabated.

The recent Global GuanYin Dharma Ceremony too has been criticized by the public including Buddhists as damaging the atmosphere of peace and serenity for organizing an activity that released more than ten thousands small animals. Perhaps some of these fish and birds have indeed been spared the fate of immediate slaughter, or regained freedom from captivity; however, many were likely innocent lives but were caught specifically to cater for the need of the ritual.

Even though the organizers have stated categorically that these animals were purchased on the spot from the markets, perhaps in an attempt to deflect the accusation of abetting those in the business of supplying animals for release life activities. But is this a practical method? How many times would it serve the purpose? How does one ensure that the “surprised” purchase is not anticipated by those with vested interests?

Whenever there is the practice of releasing life, then there will be businesses specializing in supplying the needed “commodity”. Today, when one walks past any pet shop, it’s not difficult to observe pitiful small animals that would hardly qualify as pets in cages.

The practice of release life has resulted in many small animals and birds being forced into captivity, even untimely demise. So many reports have chronicled the specter of releasing life being turned into an unwholesome endeavor that going into details here would seem superfluous.

As a result, some release life activities have degenerated into the abyss of hypocrisy, their purposes running counter to the notion that life is sacrosanct. Such meaningless pursuits have brought suffering, even death, upon the small animals. At the same time, the perpetrators have committed grave wrongs, instead of achieving the noble purpose of releasing life.

Today, we can access websites that worship Confucius or ancestors. There are also virtual shrines and temples, even those that cater to striking small likeness of people that have done you wrong [a prevalent practice in some Asian culture, digital likeness that is], though I’m not sure whether there is one for releasing life. If there isn’t, I would like to appeal to any web design whiz kid to make one, so that those who intend to engage in releasing life as doing a good deed can do so to their hearts’ content, on the Net, thus benefiting themselves, others, and the small animals.


Does that mean giving up participating in releasing life on the ground? I demur. There are checks and balances that one can follow as blogged here. But it does mean no publicity, for it’s naïve to think that in this highly commercialized world of ours, there is a dearth of enterprising souls who would spin any innocuous activity into a profit making concern where often the end (the sale) justifies the means (catching small animals that in all likelihood would not become pets).

Also, conduct the activity in small groups, over spatially/geographically divergent areas. Be random in selecting the sites (to ensure that the released animals have the highest chance of getting back to life in the wild, and not becomg part of the food chain, not so soon anyway), and in selecting the place of purchase (to ensure that the proprietors do not temporarily stock up more catches to meet the needs).

Here I would like to end with an excerpt from Reiki Blogger, which I chanced upon while googling “Compassion and Wisdom”:

“So, the basic practice of kindness becomes a unity of wisdom and compassion. Because without one the other suffers. Without the warmth of compassion our wisdom and clarity becomes impartial and cold. And without the clear seeing wisdom our kindness becomes mis-guided and perhaps only serves to perpetuate the problem.”

The Middle Way Session 2: Wisdom, Compassion, and Self-experience

Yesterday, we attended the second session of the Meditation & Dharma Talk and Discussion organized by the Middle Way Buddhist Association . Originally, the session frequency has been decided at bimonthly intervals. But today’s session, coming as it is just one week after the first one held last Saturday, is an ad hoc change to accommodate the planned one-month trip of Bhante Dhammawansha to Asia this month. Also, the organizers have decided to reduce the frequency to a monthly one, it being the second Saturday of each month. So the next session is scheduled on April 14. Do mark your calendar accordingly.

During the pre-meditation address, Bhante stressed the needs:

• to keep a happy mind and a happy face by thinking universal loving kind thoughts;
• to sit in a comfortable, relaxed posture, even on a chair if necessary;
• to close the eyes gently so that we cannot see the world but ourselves;
• to be mindful but do not get distracted by external sound/noise. Just be familiar with the sound/noise but do not react to it.

On my part, I heard the following but did not react to the hearing:

- cars speeding by (the venue is just next to a road);
- faint ringing of a cell phone (perhaps it was kept in a handbag);
- footsteps;
- chairs creaking;
- sitting pillows being squashed by bodies changing positions;
- Bhante’s soft droning voice;
- my own occasional deep breathing.

I find that it helps me to be mindful but not distracted by assigning a number to any sound that my audio nerves pick up, much like counting my own breaths.

In the ensuing dharma talk and discussion conducted by Bhante for English speaking attendees (Brother Shieh was unable to be present this time and so I gravitated to the English class), Bhante answered an inquiry from an attendee as to whether Buddha is a God by way of a story:

One day, Buddha was accosted by a passer-by who was drawn to him by Buddha’s radiance, his robe, and his overall demeanor portraying him as a sage.

“Will you be God?”
“No,” Buddha answered.

“Will you be a dead person?”
“No,” Buddha replied.

“Will you be a dancer?” [prompted perhaps by the robe that Buddha was wearing.]
“No,” Buddha responded.

“Will you be a human being?”
“No, but I’m a supernatural human being.” Buddha stated and explained using the analogy of a lotus flower that blooms amidst the muddy water of a lotus pond.

The lotus flower does not carry any odor of the muddy environment, i.e., it is unattached to the mud. In that sense, the mud is the mundane world and we sentient beings are anything but the lotus flower, until we discover our Buddha nature. So while Buddha is a human being, the fact that he has attained enlightenment elevated him to the “superman” status. He has understood reality and he has tamed his internal enemies.

We are by nature lazy beings, and keep on postponing the surfacing of our Buddha nature because of worldly enjoyment. We are supposed to be attracted to Buddha, as naturally as iron is to magnet. But by clinging to attachments and being consumed by greed, hatred, and delusion, we are covered by rust.

A more accurate analogy is perhaps our Buddha nature is like gems under the earth strata. These strata are like defilements, covering the gem like an impenetrable cloak over our intrinsic Buddha nature. So by embracing and practicing Dharma (Buddha’s teaching, truth, law, and reality), we are making efforts to let our Buddha nature to come to the fore. In other words, Buddha is the greatest physician for diseases that afflict our mind, and no medicine is similar to Dharma.

Bhante also elaborated on the uniqueness of Buddhism, Buddha, and his teaching as summarized below:

• Buddha never discovered anything new; he rediscovered ancient paths.
• Nobody granted Buddha buddhahood; he did it without any external agency.
• The core values of Buddhism are wisdom, compassion, and self-experience. So Buddhist followers and practitioners are encouraged to think freely and decide for themselves.
• Buddhist monks are teachers, and not preachers as it is not the aim of Buddhism to convert anyone.
• The core teaching of Buddhism is enshrined in the Four Noble Truths (the word "Noble" signifying that the four truths are immutable and eternal). And they are:

1. Life is suffering/misery/distress (the last two are more common terms suggested by Bhante so that westerners may find it easier to relate to. Another connotation of duhkha, the original word in Sanskrit, is unrest).
2. Causes of suffering/misery/distress.
3. Cessation of suffering/misery/distress.
4. Path leading to cessation (“The Middle Way,” Bhante hastened to add.)

• “If you want to see me, see my teaching.” ---- Buddha

Bhante then brought to our attention several quotes from a western scientist and a western philosopher. The scientist is no other than Albert Einstein, the acknowledged genius whose greatest legacy is the General Theory of Relativity, Einstein’s own popular translation of the physics that shaped our “truths” of space and time.

I googled Einstein and Buddhism and located the relevant quotations here (where this picture is taken from as well) as reproduced below:

Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be
expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and spiritual; and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.
---- Albert Einstein

If there is any religion that would cope
with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.
---- Albert Einstein

And the philosopher is Arthur Schopenhauer, a fellow countryman of Einstein who lived more than a century earlier:

If I were to take the results of my philosophy as
the standard of truth, I would have to consider
Buddhism the finest of all religion.
---- Arthur Schopenhauer

Bhante also referred to H. G. Wells who is perhaps better known for his fiction works, several of which have been adapted into movies, the latest one being the remake of the War of the Worlds directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning (2005). But he was also an imaginative social thinker whose non-fiction works include A Short History of the World (1922). According to Bartleby.com, this work is “Wells’s tribute to “the needs of the busy general reader who wishes to refresh and repair his faded or fragmentary conceptions of the great adventure of mankind.”

Two chapters from the book are The Life of Gautama Buddha (Chapter 28) and King Asoka (Chapter 29). The latter was characterized by Wells in the following words:

"In the history of the world there have been thousands of kings and emperors who called themselves 'Their Highnesses', 'Their majesties' and 'Their Exalted Majesties' and so on. They shone for a brief movement and disappeared. But Ashoka shines and shines brightly like a bright star even today."

As his parting words for the second session, Bhante admonished:

“Do not get attached, but do your duty, instead of clamoring for rights.”

The image below shows the rapt attention on everyone's face during the post-session interaction while partaking of the vegetarian lunch. See you all on April 14.