Selfless Giving - Tzu Chi

My wife, Felicia recently visited Taiwan for the first time. She found herself on the small coastal town of HuaLian. She chanced across a Buddhist foundation called Tzu Chi, or in hanyupinyin Ci Ji which loosely translates to the Assembly of Compassion. While many Buddhist societies usually focus on personal enlightenment and meditation, Tzu Chi focuses on community service and giving.

Its founder, Cheng Yen, a nun, grew up poor. In her early 20s, she realised that her calling was to spread love and that the expression of love was charity. Together with 30 housewives who put aside NT50 cents a day, she started the foundation that has spread globally today.

Cheng Yen went on to build one of Taiwan's best hospital and medical school. The story goes that one day she saw a pool of blood outside a hospital. She was told that it came from a woman, who suffered from heavy bleeding after giving birth. Because the relatives could not afford the hospital bill, they brought her home. She was so moved that she vowed to start a hospital that would never turn away a single person and one that would treat every patient the same way that they would treat one of their own family members.

Students who cannot afford to pay their school fees in the medical school are trained for free with no strings attached. Many stay back to serve in the hospital. The medical students are taught the value of love. Before cutting a cadaver to learn about anatomy, the students are told to bow before the cadavers as they were the "silent teachers". All students are also asked to pay a visit to the relatives of the people who had donated the body to thank them for their gift of knowledge. It is no accident that people while still living, pledge their bodies to the medical school.

Today, Tzu Chi is global, and they do all sorts of charity work to spread the love that only human beings can give.