Page 46 - 37-Fall 2013

Once Caught,

Learning to Release

Chunshan Chen | Translated by Mei-li Hamilton

fter Dharma Master spray buckets of pesticides
Cheng Yen began her over the fields as they
Aseries of teachings on the walked in their bare feet.
Compassionate Samadhi Water Both of her brothers died of
Repentance text in March 2011, liver cancer at a young age,
volunteers all over the world perhaps because they had
gathered in groups on a weekly inadequate protection from
basis to discuss the teachings and the pesticides.
share their own stories in an effort Out of deep concern for
to better understand the true her followers, Dharma Master
meaning of the teachings and how Cheng Yen began teaching
they can be applied in our daily Water Repentance in 2011
lives. to give people the chance to
In Northern California, a Yueyun Wang shares her story rid themselves of bad karma
fishing reference in the text led with other Tzu Chi volunteers. from the past and gain good
Yueyun Wang to share her own Photo: Ping Yao Lee karma for the future. Wang
story one day. She told a story regrets that her father and
from more than fifty years ago, because she brothers did not have the opportunity to hear
understood that we should repent for every the Master's lessons because they left the
mistake, including the unintentional ones, and world too soon, but she took advantage of
that there is no statute of limitations on karma. the opportunity by making a sincere vow to
When Wang was young, her father and become a vegetarian and help protect all life in
brothers had to fish every day all year round the hopes that her good works may also help
just to feed the family. Even though Wang was her deceased family members.
little, she still needed to help them. She said, Losing family members one after the other
“My father and my older brothers used fishing in a short period of time is one of the most
nets to block the river. Then they would tighten painful things that can happen in life. Yueyun
the nets to prevent fish from escaping, and they Wang's husband was an orthopedic doctor at
would have me move all the fish from the net Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei. One day in
to a big bucket.” She regrets that she helped kill 1985, he went to the hospital’s Tamshui Branch
countless fish. Fortunately, she was too young to visit patients. Just as he was about to arrive
to catch every fish, so some escaped with their at the hospital, he was hit by a fourteen-year-
lives. old boy who was riding a motorcycle too fast.
Her father and brothers had to cultivate Despite a month of intensive treatment, he
nearly seventeen acres of farmland, so they ultimately died from his injuries.
always started before dawn and returned after The boy who hit Wang’s husband had
dark. She remembers that her brothers would grown up in abject poverty; his parents were

4 6 Tzu CHi uSA FALL 2013