Home › General News › Article

Summary of the 5th College Student Organic Agriculture Workshop: Little Lights of the Heart Shine Over the Land

General News By Emily Carter 0 views

This year, I was finally able to come to Cixin's Agricultural Promotion Center and welcome the arrival of the participants of the fifth Organic Agriculture Study Camp for College Students, and I was truly happy. At first, my idea of wanting to return to the camp as a volunteer was very simple: I just wanted to come back and see the Agricultural Promotion Center, and to give back for all the care and looking after I had received from the teachers and volunteers back then. Over these two years, I would often recall the warm memories of how, whether during classes or work sessions at the camp, there were always people around selflessly caring for us participants. But later, the discussions and learning before the camp began, as well as the various tasks I encountered during the camp, made me realize again and again that this kind of heart is not strong enough, not resolute enough.

What kind of heart is truly strong and powerful?

Whether it was Teacher Murong's care and looking after for all the participants and volunteers; the constant, careful observation and care from care group leader Yanyi and Brother Wan of the transportation group; the warm service and tolerant heart of Teacher Zujun, a participant from the previous year; the selfless sharing of all the resident staff, farming friends, and volunteers; and the effort of every teacher behind the rich course content, with the teachers constantly interacting with the care volunteers and participants to understand everyone's learning situation and adjusting the main focus and content of the classes in good time, all with the sole hope that the participants could gain the best possible learning here.

Watching the various conducts of all the teachers and virtuous friends, I found the answer: "The aspiration is very important."

When one's aspiration is small, the things one can do are also only that little. But when one truly feels the full love and care of every teacher toward us, and places many people and many things within one's own aspiration, the whole mental strength is elevated, and one can become a superman who can steadily take on many affairs. This is also the self I saw during this camp:

From the very beginning, when I had to call to care for small-group participants I had never met; to taking the initiative to compile the learning insights and blessings shared by senior students who wanted to come but could not; to reminding myself, while happily attending class with the participants, that my main task was to care for the participants; to remaining settled amid the frequent task changes at the assembly, even as the host of the evening gathering, something I had never done in my life; to reminding myself to remember to pay attention to the participants' learning status and living conditions and report them to the teachers and volunteers; to caring in good time for the extremely hard-working teachers and volunteers; and to seizing every opportunity to record the daily learning summaries. Looking at myself along the way, I was very surprised, and also very joyful.

Joining the camp had an impact on my life

Recently, a friend said that I am quite good at taking the initiative to talk with people, but that is completely different from me three or four years ago, before I had entered Blisse & Wisdom and Cixin to learn. In particular, the things I saw and heard and the learning here at the Organic Agriculture Study Camp for College Students have had an immense influence on my life.

Because Master Richang heard that egrets had been poisoned to death by pesticides at the edge of the fields, he resolutely launched Cixin organic agriculture on Retrocession Day in the 84th year of the Republic of China, hoping to restore the land through the promotion of organic agriculture, free the land from decades of poisoning by pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and restore its former vigorous vitality; so that the sentient beings on this land, whether people, birds, insects, or fish, would no longer die from the poison of chemical agents; and so that farming friends would not be unable to support their families because they farm organically. Such a warm and broad aspiration deeply moved me, and also inspired a good intention to emulate the Master and the senior students by protecting life through eating organic and using organic.

At this camp, I also shared with the group members that what each person can do is not as small as they think: after firmly establishing one's faith by earnestly listening to and contemplating the correct teachings of the teachers, try to muster a little courage to make some changes, whether by choosing to skip meat for one meal and eat plant-based food instead, sharing with relatives and friends any of one's observations and learning at the organic farm, taking the initiative to ask a shop whether it can provide plant-based meals, or inviting relatives and friends to enjoy delicious plant-based meals together, and so on.

As written in a book I very much like, "The Alchemist," "when you truly want to do something, the whole world will help you accomplish it." As long as one's heart is good, these attempts will gradually receive good responses. This is also the various attempts I have made after learning Cixin's ideas over these years. Although not every attempt has already received a response, I can now face the impermanence of this world calmly, and continue joyfully striving to change this world in my own way. What is even more joyful is that I am not alone, because many teachers and virtuous friends walk arm in arm with me. Happiness is nothing other than this.

(Part of this article was published in Cixin Dadi in the 202nd issue of Blisse & Wisdom Voice, and there is much more rich content as well. Welcome to visit)

New July 2012 information: The Agricultural Promotion Center has now joined WWOOF TAIWAN. Friends who are interested are welcome to apply for a WWOOFer experience!

Welcome to take a look~

Also showing~

*Full text reprinted from: Mufeng Life News: Hearts of Light Shining Brightly on the Earth - Summary of the Fifth Organic Agriculture Study Camp for College Students
http://blog.yam.com/koisjo/article/49006839

Related Articles