Create More Blessings Every Day

Life is truly impermanent. Joy can turn to sorrow in an instant when loved ones are separated forever. Early on the morning of February 6, a devastating earthquake hit southern Türkiye and neighboring Syria, killing more than 40,000 people and toppling or severely damaging over 340,000 buildings. In a matter of seconds, everything changed. People might have been sleeping soundly or having sweet dreams before the quake. They might have had great plans for the future and were looking forward to waking to another new day. But all that was not meant to be. Their dreams and hopes evaporated when the tremor struck; everything they had was gone with them. Many of those who survived had to face the heartrending reality of losing their loved ones to the disaster, their hearts broken to pieces as they realized their loved ones had been snatched from this life so suddenly.

The weather in the disaster area was freezing. Our foundation quickly responded by donating Tzu Chi eco-blankets to help. Climate change has made some cold places in the world even colder. That’s why I started asking last year to have our blankets made thicker. More than 8,000 such extra-thick blankets have already been flown from Taiwan to Türkiye since the quake. I’m very grateful to our volunteers for their help. Our eco-blankets couldn’t have been produced without the combined efforts of many people. First, our volunteers have to collect and properly sort PET bottles to be made into fabric. After the fabric is produced, volunteers cut it to size, hem the edges, and pack the final products. With everyone’s help, we can quickly prepare shipments to help out whenever a disaster or other occasions arise in which our blankets are needed.

The Turkish Trade Office in Taipei appealed to people in Taiwan for in-kind donations for quake survivors after the tremor. At the request of the trade office, we provided our Neihu office in Taipei to be used as a center to receive the donations. Donated items flooded in as soon as the donation appeal was made—there was such an outpouring of love. Our volunteers worked with members of the public to sort and pack the goods. Culinary volunteers in northern Taiwan were also mobilized to prepare boxed meals every day for the thousands of people participating in the sorting and packing work.

A Tzu Chi relief delegation from Taiwan has arrived in Türkiye. The team is carrying out emergency relief and assessing how Tzu Chi can help in the mid- and long-term reconstruction efforts. Our local volunteers in Türkiye are also working to help survivors. I implore everyone to put their support behind our relief work in Türkiye. Let us all contribute what we can and pave the path to recovery with Great Love.

Not a day goes by that I am not concerned about the world. I am concerned about people living in poverty, about our world being plagued by disasters, about the impurities afflicting people’s minds. I ponder every day how to bring peace to the world. Just as we can create bad karma with unwholesome actions, we can sow blessings with positive actions too. Instead of negatively impacting the world, let us create blessings for the world by doing our best to do good. Allow your love to grow every day. Tell yourself: “I did something good today. I will do more tomorrow.” We can, for example, save our spare change every day to help the needy. It will not be much money on a daily basis, so it will not affect our livelihoods, but as it accumulates over time, it will grow to be significant enough to help tide people over in an emergency. When more people in this world are willing to give, we’ll be able to create more blessings. All the blessings combined will bring peace to the world.
I often suggest that people take stock of their lives to see how much good they have done to the world. I also encourage everyone to reflect on themselves to see if they are giving rise to more unwholesome thoughts than wholesome ones every day. A negative thought is like a drop of ink that can blacken a dish of clean water in no time. In the tug-of-war between good and evil, we must stay watchful and let good triumph.

The land is fragile and the world is impermanent. A disaster can strike at any time. Let us stay vigilant at all times, seize every chance to do good, and never hesitate to respond to people’s cries for help. I also encourage you to invite more people to come together to benefit the world. We can only do so much when we work alone but can bring relief to many more suffering minds and lives when we work together.