Andrew McLachlan (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I bring to the attention of the Senate the incredibly valuable work of the Taiwanese Buddhist international humanitarian organisation Tzu Chi and its founder and spiritual leader, Dharma Master Cheng Yen. Around the world, Tzu Chi conducts year-end blessing ceremonies. They are usually an occasion for great fellowship and celebration, attended by members and volunteers alike. During the ceremonies, leaders distribute red envelopes of blessings and wisdom as a token of Cheng Yen's appreciation for their unwavering support of her organisation's mission throughout the year past.

Tzu Chi is active in my state of South Australia, and we are very grateful for their charitable work. Upon entering public life, I have had the privilege of attending their year-end blessing ceremonies held in Adelaide. It is always a joy to spend time with Tzu Chi volunteers, who do so much great work in our community.

As senators would be well aware, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused restrictions to be imposed on large gatherings all over the world. This challenge has seen organisations such as Tzu Chi take an innovative approach to engaging with their membership. So, whilst the format in which this year's ceremony was conducted had to be changed, it still went ahead earlier this year, but in a digital setting.

I, along with my state parliamentary colleague the Hon. Tung Ngo, a member of the South Australian Legislative Council, had the opportunity to deliver a message to the Dharma Master Cheng Yen on behalf of all those South Australians who have benefited from Tzu Chi's valuable charitable work.

In 1996 Tzu Chi began with a group of 30 women who Cheng Yen asked to save 50c per day from their family budget and store it in a bamboo savings bank to help needy families. When the women asked Cheng Yen why they could not give the same total just once a week, she replied:

Because giving is a practice and we need to give every day. If we have a yearning or a positive desire in us, we must nourish it and bring it to fulfillment. Just as Buddha was guided by a noble desire to help others, we too can listen to those who are sad or help those who are in pain.

As I've said, a key part of the year-end blessing ceremony is when members of Tzu Chi are given a coin. It also symbolises the 50c those 30 women saved at the time of the founding of the organisation. It is amazing to think that, at the age of 83, the founder, Cheng Yen, still wakes at 3.45 each morning to start her work and devotions, including a daily morning broadcast address known as Wisdom at Dawn. She is considered one of the most influential figures in the development of modern Taiwanese Buddhism and is recognised as one of their four heavenly kings. I had the great honour and privilege of meeting Dharma Master Cheng Yen during a parliamentary visit to Taiwan in 2016.

Tzu Chi has now in excess of 10 million members worldwide and branches in over 63 countries. It operates over 6,500 recycling stations and provides disaster relief aid in over 85 countries. Its critical work is based on the concept of four endeavours, standing for its major causes, which are charity, medicine, education and humanity. This translates to eight footprints which include, among a number of others, medical research and hospitals, international disaster assistance, volunteering in the community and environmental protection. Around the world, Tzu Chi has undertaken many long-term and complex projects, such as building schools, hospitals, homes and places of worship for those communities devastated by natural disaster. I have witnessed firsthand the work they are doing to assist those in need, especially during the bushfires in my home state of South Australia.

I will conclude my remarks with the words of Dharma Master Cheng Yen, which not only apply to the objectives of the humanitarian organisation that she founded and she continues to inspire but also the challenging times that we are all facing: 'With perseverance and courage, the roughest roads can become smooth.'