Volunteers are a very important part of public life. To volunteer one’s work without any monetary reward is a type of moral duty, which not only bene… - Hsing Yun

In Buddhism, human beings are referred to as “sentient beings.” In other words, they are beings that come into existence once the necessary conditions gather together. In this world, there is no such space or time that enables an individual to exist alone, because beings must depend on each other in order to survive. Only when the conditions around us gather together will we be able to live. For this reason, we must allow these conditions to gather together, and then share them with others, and allow other people to benefit from them. We must never leave the crowd and become selfish practitioners, because buddhahood can only be attained by interacting with sentient beings; without them, not only are we no longer able to survive, buddhahood will also be out of reach.

Exposure to an appropriate amount of hardship is healthy for one’s growth. Parents should not spoil their children if they want their children to grow up to be resilient. Nor should young people spoil themselves. There is an ancient Chinese poem that describes the life of limestone. The raw limestone endures thousands of strikes to be dug out of the deep mountain, after which it is burned in scorching flames without ever flinching and then ground to dust without ever complaining, just so it can fulfill its destiny to become lime. If one wants to make his or her mark in the world, he or she must be able to withstand hardships like raw limestone. Young people nowadays are referred to as the “strawberry generation”, which means they lack spiritual vitality and a sense of mission and tend not to give much thought to personal growth or what they want to achieve in their lives. Endurance, wisdom, benevolence, responsibility and confidence—these are the qualities which give us strength and which we should work to possess.

Today, as members of the global village, we are all responsible for caring for the continuous existence of the global village. Because the Dharma clearly explains that sentient and non-sentient all exist “because there is this, there is that. If this is not, then that will not be.” Thus we coexist as one. Thus, within the continuous flow of change, even something as tiny as a speck of dust has a subtle relationship with the environment. While there is no doubt that we should strive to eliminate the dusts in our inner world and change them, we must also raise people’s awareness and take action to preserve the external environment. Not only is the 21st century the era of environmentalism, it also will be a beautiful era of purified minds.