One controversy after another has followed the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation because it has monopolized and misused people’s kindness and compassion over the years, leading to an outburst of discontent. Just as aftershocks follow a major earthquake, the Tzu Chi incident is normal.
Of course, damage has been done to Tzu Chi’s golden brand and to its donors.
There is no need to talk about how to turn crisis into opportunities. What is needed is consideration of how to reshape Tzu Chi’s role to prevent history from repeating itself.
Tzu Chi’s Dharma Master Cheng Yen (證嚴法師) is said to have been inspired by Mother Teresa and aspires to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
However, a look at the life of Mother Teresa shows someone who devoted her whole life to helping others silently, without seeking to make a big name for herself.
She was “the world’s greatest beggar,” so poor that kindness was the only thing in her possession. She did not possess vast properties or a long string or titles, like CEO or chairperson of some corporation.
She was usually pictured humbly stooping down to serve people on the front line, neither playing the role of a supreme master nor instructor giving spiritual or theoretical lectures to followers.
This is something that Cheng and her followers should reflect upon.
Asking the Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital to emulate Mother Teresa by giving wholehearted free services to the poorest of the poor instead of the rich might be a little too much, but they could at least emulate Saint Mary’s Hospital Luodong in Yilan County, which destroys patients’ IOUs and receipts every three or five years.
That should not be too difficult to do, should it?
A group or foundation that is purely religious or charity-oriented usually faces market limitations.
By contrast, Tzu Chi receives tens of billions of New Taiwan dollars in donations each year from its donors, both big and small. The combined force of religion and charity are undoubtedly inseparable, just as the combined effect of religion and charity is undeniable.
However, Tzu Chi should take into account religion’s high standards of morality and the compassion of charity when managing and dealing with public donations.
It is not a problem for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — a pure charity organization — to make large investments in stocks, but questions arise when Tzu Chi, which is both a religious group and a charity organization, puts religion aside and does the same as the Gates Foundation as if it was purely a charity.
There is no reason why Tzu Chi should not be able to implement the openness and transparency that is demanded of politics.
No one is denying that Tzu Chi has done a lot of good deeds, such as charity, disaster relief and humanitarian work. The problem is that just because these deeds are noble does not mean the process is perfect and flawless, and thus need not be transparent.
If Tzu Chi knows that a large donation comes from bribes or embezzled money, taking it and using it to perform good deeds is not acceptable.
Moreover, Tzu Chi claims that special donations are used only for a stated purpose, but it beggars belief that its donors have asked that their donations be used to purchase stocks, funds and land in industrial areas and conservation zones.
As if that were not outrageous enough, donations have been used to purchase stocks or risky high-yield bonds in Monsanto, Boeing and tobacco company Altria, as well as to buy land in industrial areas and conservation zones for rezoning and development.
As for Tzu Chi’s disaster-relief accounts, it is shocking to find that its disaster relief staff wages, year-end, Mid-Autumn Festival and Dragon Boat Festival bonuses are all listed as disaster-relief expenses.
Society apparently mistakenly thought that its disaster-relief personnel were “volunteers.”
Lay devotees are urged to see the emptiness of liquor, sex, fortune and temper. Is it not reasonable to ask that ordained Buddhist monks and nuns should also be able to see the emptiness of fame and fortune?
Chang Kuo-tsai is a retired associate professor from National Hsinchu University of Education.
Translated by Ethan Zhan
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