In the closing ceremony, all participants sat down in a heart-shape arrangement around the ten lotus lamps while listening to the Master’s teachings. (Photo by Tan Cheng Hwa)
Accompanied with light drizzle, the morning of 8 August 2013 was the perfect weather to sleep in. Yet that was not the case for Singapore Tzu Chi Foundation. That drizzling morning, a bus drew up in front of the Jing Si Hall and a group of energetic Tzu Chings dressed in their Tzu Ching uniforms alighted happily. Amidst the smiles and welcome song sung by the awaiting staff members, they entered the Jing Si Hall in two orderly lines.
8 August 2013 was Vesak Day, a public holiday and also the annual Singapore Tzu Ching Leadership Camp! On this day, a total of 89 Tzu Chings, Tzu Chi seniors and parent instructors took the chance to gather together to embark on a journey of self-improvement and the re-discovery of their initial resolve in joining Tzu Chi. As August was the start of term for the universities, the new campus contact personnel also prepared to take over their predecessors’ jobs to continue their mission in spreading the seeds of love and compassion in the different campuses.
With the introduction of the lively song – Young Hearts, the Leadership Camp commenced. During this period of time, Tzu Chings and parent instructors from different campuses took the chance to break the ice and started to interact with each other. “What is the value of my life? I started thinking about that seriously only after my mother passed away. Then, I decided to share my views with my friends.” This speech was part of the many interviews with different Tzu Ching seniors that were shown during a short presentation at the start of the Leadership Camp. The interviews were shown with a purpose too – to guide everyone to search within themselves for that which drove them to be a Tzu Ching Leader; it was the search for the forming of their “Resolute Heart”.
Brother Liu Lun Qiao sharing Master Cheng Yan’s teachings with Tzu Ching participants in the segment, “Master’s Inner World”. (Photo by Ng Sher Lin)
A slip of paper showing different phases in life. It allows participants to plan their life ahead, enabling them to set aside time to contribute back to the society and for self-cultivation. (Photo by Lian Ya Hui)
Increased Understanding Leads to a Stronger Faith
“Why can Master (Cheng Yan) remain committed for 47 years straight without fail?” Brother Liu Lun Qiao posed this question to the ground shortly after sharing the Master’s major achievements in the segment, “Master’s Inner World”. He continued, “It is because Master always reminds herself of the following in the face of difficulties – ‘Faith’, ‘Will’ and ‘Action’.”
“Faith” is the building of a steadfast trust that can only be achieved when one has a deep understanding in the Jing Si thinking, at the same time, has an unwavering trust in Tzu Chi, on top of having an unwavering heart. As such, Brother Liu Lun Qiao thus encouraged Tzu Chings to start nurturing their belief in that ‘one can be selfless, and everyone can love’. He continued, “Master has already shown everyone through her actions that it is very important for one to have a proper faith. When her sick followers request to see Master just to receive her blessings, Master will often remind them humorously that a mere touch of their heads will not get rid of their illness, if not, why would she build a hospital? True understanding happens only when we step out of superstitions.”
In the recent years, the environment has been plagued with frequent natural disasters, and as the health of Mother Earth degenerates, more and more people are starting to show their bad side as well. Brother Liu Lun Qiao remarked, “Good and evil are in a perpetual tug-of-war, and the side with the most people wins. Hence the turbidity of life has to be washed down with more streams of clear water.” That said however, Mother Earth is urgently “out-of-time”. In the face of such urgency, Master urges everyone to practice the Great Compassion as learnt from Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha, where everyone should set an example for others in reaching out, listening to and showing empathy to the difficulties that other people encountered in life. “So how can we attain spiritual enlightenment and gain a fulfilling life through Tzu Chi activities,” Brother Liu asked again. “Through enriching ourselves from the experiences we gained in Tzu Chi activities of course! With ‘Faith’, ‘Will’ and ‘Action’ in mind, as long as we put our heart into whatever we are doing, we will be able to discover the wisdom deep within us and our actions will result in blessings in the later part of our lives.”
Participants gathering together to plan and discuss upcoming Tzu Ching activities. The team involved in the planning of orientation activities realized that “keeping the motivation going after Orientation Camp is even more important!” (Photo by Chua See Siew)
Communication skills are very essential during the preparation process for activities. Through working with each other to piece up the big picture, each participant is made to understand the essence of cooperation. (Photo by Ng Sher Lin)
Having a Broad View of the World, Will Arises
In June 2013, Tzu Ching seniors, Yu Cheng Han, Li Jia Wen and Xu Cui Qin joined the Singapore Tzu Chi Foundation’s staff in visiting Hualien in Taiwan, to take part in the Tzu Chi Annual Board Meeting, where Tzu Chi Foundations staff from all over the world fly in to report on their progress. Upon returning to Singapore, the three of them then decided to share this precious experience with the Tzu Chings in the Leadership Camp.
“In South Africa, more than five thousand local volunteers looked past the fact that they were poor and did not have much resources, and they also overcame religious differences while they took care of nearly five thousand children infected AIDS. How is this possible? Very simple; they each had Great Compassion and Love. In Zimbabwe, Brother Zhu Jin Cai led a group of local volunteers all by himself. When faced with language barriers while trying to teach them to master the 90 degrees bow, Brother Zhu personally demonstrated it to them. In Indonesia, despite the anti-Chinese riots in 1997, the local Chinese were still active in volunteer work. From the cleaning up of the Angke River to the building of the Pesantren in the Da Ai Villages, their spirit of using local resources had touched the heart of several local leaders. In Philippines, the land was often struck with tropical cyclones. After the rampage, the streets were often destroyed. Yet the relief work program set up by Tzu Chi had successfully helped the locals to pick themselves up…”
Only when we secure a local foothold, then can we help the world. Looking at the photographs taken in different countries, each of them may differ from the other, but the beauty of kindness behind them was all the same. “So what can we do in Singapore? What have we learnt from other countries?” Yu Cheng Han expressed, “The heavier our responsibilities weigh, the greater our harvest.”
Tzu Ching seniors, Li Jia Wen, Xu Cui Qin and Yu Cheng Han (left to right) sharing their experience from the 2013 Tzu Chi Annual Board Meeting. Yu comments that “the heavier our responsibilities weigh, the greater our harvest” in urging an overall view despite the difficulties in securing a local foothold in other countries. (Photo by Lian Ya Hui)
Uniforms were issued to youth volunteers who had fulfilled the stipulated requirements in this simple yet formal Tzu Ching Conferral Ceremony. With that, Singapore’s Tzu Ching family grows once more! (Photo by Tan Cheng Hwa)
Finding Time for Self-Improvement
A long strip of paper with the numbers depicting age 10, 20, 30 all the way until 100 was handed out to everyone in the Camp. Under the guide of the host, after striking away the years behind and the years after retirement, the time left on the strip of paper could be further divided into three portions – one-third of the time is for sleeping, the other one-third is for learning or working, and “the remaining one-third is the time for us to contribute to the society and self-improve.” Of course, the time remaining after the calculation varied for everyone; some people were left with 10 years, while some had nearly 20 years.
The time remaining on Xu Zhi Sheng’s strip of paper was very long. Upon further inspection, it turned out that he had set his retirement age at 70 years old! He remarked, “I want to be a teacher till the very last. What is longevity without meaningful contributions in life?”
As a current student in Nanyang Technological University, Zeng Shu Hui felt that both education and medicine are very important. “Education shapes a person’s character while medicine helps to improve the health of many people. Hence I hope that I can take part in more medical volunteer activities from now on, and that I can be part of the international relief efforts after graduation too!”
Apart from planning their own schedule, the host also challenged the participants in planning Master Cheng Yan’s schedule. “Master’s schedule includes morning service, recording of “Wisdom at Dawn”, watching international news, participating in morning volunteer meetings, meeting of guests, directing issues in the Foundation, going through official documents…” As the list trail off, the participants came to a stunning conclusion that Master Cheng Yan was actually utilizing every second of her time in order to complete everything in her schedule! Xiao Jia Chen remarked, “Looking at Master Cheng Yan’s schedule, I feel that I am doing too little work! I should plan and complete my tasks more efficiently!”
Apart from the planning of schedules, communication skills are also very important in the planning process of any activities. During an activity, participants were assigned to different teams and were tasked to piece up a jigsaw puzzle together. “The jigsaw puzzle is so small!” “The colors of every piece are so similar, how can we differentiate them!” Every now and then, such exclamations could be heard from the participants.
What made things more surprising was that the two hosts started “arguing” among themselves too. One host asked, “Why is the difficulty level of the jigsaw puzzle for each team so different? Didn’t we agree that every team will get the same type of puzzle?” “This was agreed during our second meeting. You were not around during that time…” the other host countered. At the end, everyone finally realized that this “argument” was staged and that this activity was meticulously planned to teach the participants that communication was extremely important in a team.
Wang Xin Ling shared, “I will remind myself frequently not to blame others nor speak ill of them. Nobody is perfect, and since I cannot guarantee that I myself am correct all the time, why should I be prejudiced against others or view their opinions in a negative light? We should try to put ourselves in their shoes and maybe we might end up having the same opinions as them.”
After the time management and communication skills segment, Brother Chen Rong Guang then shared with everyone the meaning behind presenting the “Dharma as Water” stage adaptation– to achieve a state of purity of the body and mind through the combination of hand signs and singing the lyrics. He advised, “One of the five prohibitions in learning Buddhism is to think that you are still young; why learn now when we can learn when we are older? However, life is full of uncertainties; nobody can be sure how long they can live.” As such, Brother Chen encouraged everyone to reflect on their bad habits while practicing the “Dharma as Water” sutra adaptation so that they can be aware of any attachments that they harbour, their negative habits, and if they are still only capable of seeing the faults of others.
CEO Low Swee Seh lighting the candles for the instructors, Tzu Ching contact personnel, campus contact personnel and the students, signifying the continual passing down of Tzu Chi’s heritage from one generation to the other. (Photo by Tan Cheng Hwa)
Preparing the New Tzu Ching Leaders
After understanding the meaning behind cultivation in society, and the various time, space and communication difficulties one might encounter, the participants were then assigned into groups to plan and discuss about an upcoming Tzu Ching activity. From there, many ideas were generated and immense creativity was shown.
“Protect the Environment, Provide Food for the Needy!” This was the slogan used by the campus Charity team to attract students to participate in environmental protection activities. Unknown to all, this seemingly simple slogan has a deep meaning behind it! “Not only can we eat together after the activity, the donations we received can also be used to provide food and warmth for those in need!”
On the other hand, to better present the contents of the four main missions and eight main endeavors, the propagation team in-charge of the orientation activities in the Camp decided on various activities including acting out in a small play showing the founding of Tzu Chi’s charity, medical and education work, organizing tea and flower arranging ceremonies to project Tzu Chi’s humanity activities, conducting talks that allow Tzu Chi seniors to share their experiences from international relief work, coming up with games that enable others to understand the difficulty in finding a bone marrow match, and using sign language to invite friends to protect the environment together. After the whole event, the team concluded that “keeping the motivation going after the Camp is even more important!”
After that, Tzu Chi seniors also shared with everyone that Tzu Ching activities are focused on active communication with each other so that everyone can continue to learn and improve, and through Tzu Ching activities, mercy, compassion and the cherishing of the present can be spread to others. As one can be part of the Tzu Ching for only a few years as it is a collegiate grouping, the seniors also encouraged everyone to continue the sharing of their experiences with each other and keep doing things together as these are the ways to pass down the Tzu Ching tradition.
A Resolute Heart Precedes Our Actions
Behind the prayer hall, Tzu Chings and Tzu Chi seniors sat around a small round table and began chatting with each other under the dim light. The juniors shared their experiences gained and the difficulties encountered when they were in the capacity of a Tzu Ching leader, while the seniors drew upon their own experiences and gave gentle advice and encouraged them.
Tzu Ching member Lin Yu Jing shared, “Sometimes, the workload in studies is extremely heavy and sacrifices have to be made between being able to obtain higher grades and volunteer work.” Tzu Chi senior, Wang Sui Xi then advised that instead of viewing it as a sacrifice, one can also look at it from a different perspective, where one can question oneself if it is worth it when volunteer work is chosen overhigher grades; the joy derived from the decision is very important. Ex-Tzu Ching member, Zhang Wen also tearfully shared that due to having a weak constitution, her parents would not approve of her going on a vegetarian diet. Tzu Chi seniors and parent instructors then encouraged her to convey the correct knowledge regarding a vegetarian diet to her parents, and at the same time, advised her to take care of herself by taking a balanced diet so as to not let her parents worry unnecessarily.
After the small sharing session, the participants were surprised to realize that ten lotus lamps had been silently placed in the center of the prayer hall in a heart-shaped arrangement. After that, the Tzu Chings, Tzu Chi seniors and parent instructors then gathered and sat around the lamps in a similar heart-shape formation. The CEO of Singapore Tzu Chi Foundation then proceeded to individually light up the candles held in the hands of the parent instructors, Tzu Ching contact personnel, the new campus contact personnel, till everyone’s candle had been lighted. With the gradual lighting of candles, the prayer hall was gradually bathed in a sea of light. CEO Low Swee Seh then continued to address Tzu Chings present : “Tzu Chi is like a stream of clear water in society. Many of the first generation Tzu Chings are now holding huge responsibilities in society, and as their juniors, I hope that you will look up to them.” Furthermore, he also encouraged Tzu Chings to take part in the “Dharma as Water” stage adaptation together with the other Tzu Chi volunteers so that they can further cultivate themselves, while at the same time, seek to rid themselves of existing bad habits.
At the end of the closing ceremony, everyone held their lighted candle in their hands and raised it to their brows while singing their oaths. After that, they placed their candles down to form an even bigger heart-shape arrangement. As such, just like the expanding heart-shape arrangement, it is hoped that the number of Tzu Ching Leaders in years to come will continue to grow in numbers; at the same time, may the force of good also grow from strength to strength.
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