Since I watched DAAI TV, I felt in love with this one person "Master Cheng Yen". Falling in love here doesn't mean I love her in a romantic way, but rather than I really really like her as a person! I love all her teaching, her character, her aura, her attitute, and her deeds. Who doen't know her? (Maybe some people :P) She is the founder of Tzu Chi Foundation, the Buddhist philanthropic organization that has done a numerous amount of social movements all over the world. There she is...
She is known as "Mother Theresa of Asia" due to her virtue towards international disaster relief, environmental protection, community volunteering and many other virtuous actions.
Believe it or not, Master Cheng Yen is now 78 years old! Oh... She doesn't look like one. I guess I need to learn from her how to be that ageless.
Actually in DAAI TV, I only look for programs that she appears in, such as "Lentera Kehidupan" or "Master Cheng Yen Bercerita". Somehow, when I listened to her... my peaceful spirit inside emerged abruptly. I could feel her soothing charismatic aura full of compassion and love. Her Dharma teaching touched my soul, and I believe she has touched a lot of people's spirit too. What a gorgeous and honorable capability! When the melancholic side of me is in a very sensitive state (it happens some time, I don't know, maybe hormonal cause), I even cried listening to her teaching. I believe to have this kind of ability to touch other's personal button like this ain't no a tiny skill! She must have reached some kind of high spiritual holy stage.
I am a Buddhist. I was much taught about Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundarika / Myoho Renge Kyo), specifically in Nichiren Buddhism. I chant Nammyohorengekyo. I learned this Buddhist teaching since I was little, my parents are the believers of this religion. Shortly, this religion teaching is based on Sakyamuni Buddha's lattest Sutra, called the Lotus Sutra (You may find out more details here) that are developed more by Nichiren Buddha that apparently lived in Japan.
I don't really know Master Cheng Yen's Buddhism basic (since Buddha Dharma itself has a lot of streams and sects). However, when I listened to Master Cheng Yen's teaching, I found out that her teaching is really similar to what I heard in Nichiren Buddhism, such as the term of "emerging earth Bodhisattva", "three poisons", "heaven and hell inside our mind" and "emerge the Buddha soul within you". Then I tried to searched her biography and I read that her primary learned sutra was the Lotus Sutra. It is written that Master Cheng Yen's initial exposure to the Lotus Sutra happened when she abandoned her earthly (and reasonably wealthy) family in Taiwan and stayed away from the world by lodging in a small hut then accidentally found a Japanese version of the Lotus Sutra, and was pleased with what the book said. Later, she had a friend bring back a Japanese copy of the Lotus Sutra (Myoho Renge Kyo) from Japan, and was immensely enlightened by it.
So, no wonder that her teaching is not so different from what I learned in Nichiren Buddhism, they have the same basic source, the Lotus Sutra :D
Okay now folks, I have told you a loooongg story about my current thought. I hope you didn't get bored, hehehe. I am not a religious person, not that type of person who go to the temple so often, nor an activist of the Buddhist organization of what. Anyhow, I do respect and love to comprehend Buddha Dharma, that teaches me about this mysterious life we are now dwelling in.
