Starting from 17 November, 2007 at the 3rd level Dharma Hall of Tzu Chi Singapore Branch, there were many rows of tables and chairs neatly arranged for the volunteers to participate in the pasting of rice ears onto the Year End Blessing Red Packets. All volunteers put in their most earnest and utmost efforts to work towards the goal of getting ready 10,000 red packets. These red packets carrying Master Cheng Yen’s blessings will be given out during the forthcoming Year End Blessings Ceremony to be held on 29 and 30 December 2007 to each and every Tzu Chi members and volunteers of Singapore. - Many parent-child partnerships peppered Jing Si Hall as these heartwarming pairings strived to put in their best.

Tzu Chi Foundation Singapore Branch members putting in their most earnest and utmost efforts to work towards the goal of preparing 10,000 red packets.  These red packets carrying Master Cheng Yen’s blessings will be given out to everyone during the forthcoming Year End Blessings Ceremony.

The volunteers were conscientious and put in their full concentration whilst pasting the rice ears onto the red packets.

Sister Zhou Yi Ting (Ci Ya) (right) shared with the volunteers on the significance of the Year End Blessing Red Packets and also the meaning of the rice ears before they started work. The job of cutting the grain stalks was mostly taken care of by the senior volunteers who got themselves actively involved in their task with the aid of their reading glasses. Lin Yu Heng from the Tzu Chi Teenage Group came with his mother Sister Lin Cui Lian to participate in this event. Yu Heng felt that pasting the stalks of rice ears was a fun job which brought him a sense of accomplishment. Tzu Chi Youth Group graduate Chen Liang Zhou was able to learn from his mistakes and put all his effort into the task at hand, thus cultivating patience and diligence.

◎   Heavy rice ears symbolizing pure and untainted love

On 17 November 2007, at the 3rd level Dharma Hall of Tzu Chi Singapore Branch, there were many rows of tables and chairs neatly arranged for the volunteers to participate in the mission of “Pasting of rice ears on Year 2007 Year End Blessing Red Packet”. There were clear signs on the tables indicating the various designated areas for activities such as cutting and rice ears pasting. Such layout was for the convenience of the volunteers so that they would be able to proceed to each section to do what they were good at.

At 9 am in the morning, melodious Tzu Chi albums can be heard from the 3rd level of Jing Si Hall. Tzu Chi volunteers arrived continuously to participate in this meaningful event, by pasting the rice ears onto the Year End Blessing Red Packets. In order to let the volunteers understand the significance of such activity, Sister Zhou Yi Ting (Ci Ya) shared with all volunteers the meanings of the Year End Blessing Red Packet and the rice ears before the volunteers started working of them.

The design of this year’s Year End Blessing Red Packet was inspired by our Mother Earth, with the golden coin symbolizing happiness and fate (the word “with fate” in Chinese Hokkien dialect “wu yuan” has the same pronunciation as the Five Dollars coin). Upon opening the Year End Blessing Red Packet, one will see a stalk with six grains of rice ears on it and another six rice ears spreading out which symbolize “spreading the seeds of great love” on the earth. To be more specific, the stalk of six rice ears connotes the Six Perfections (paramitas) – generosity, ethics, patience, joyous effort, concentration and wisdom.

In the process of pasting the rice ears, the volunteers were all very diligent and disciplined, putting in their utmost concentration in the job. 

Volunteer Sister Shi Yue Hua, who had undertaken the task of organizing the day’s event together with Tzu Chi staff, Sister Pu Xiu Zhen (Ci Kai) had displayed strong perseverance. The day before on Friday afternoon, Sister Shi arrived at 1 pm and only left at about 10 pm so as to get ready all preparatory tasks. On this day, Sister Yue Hua came again, bringing along both her younger sister and her daughter to participate in the event. Although staying in the Northwest part of Singapore, which is quite a distance from Jing Si Hall, she showed exceptional tenacity by reaching Jing Si Hall in the early morning on the following day. The intrepid Sister Yue Hua emphasized that since this was something she was responsible for, it was only right for her to put in all her efforts in accomplishing the tasks.

◎   Fostering better family bonds

Sister Chen Mei Feng, who is from the Southeastern district of Singapore, brought along her mother and three other relatives to participate in the event. Despite they being all quite senior at about 70 or 80 years old, they are still very agile as they cut the stalks of rice ears using the self-prepared scissors that they had brought along in case there weren’t enough. Sister Mei Feng and her relatives are active recycling volunteers. During the Southeastern district recycling day, Sister Lin Cui Lian (Ci Tai), who is the team leader of the Southeastern team shared with them about this rice ear pasting activity and that is how they got to know about it.

In today’s event, there were also many pairs of parent-child being present too. Sister Lin Cui Lian brought her son Lin Yu Heng from Tzu Chi Teenage Group so as to let him get to know the Tzu Chi family better while taking part in such a meaningful activity. Sister Zheng Mei Fen also brought along her 70+ year old mother Sister Chen Ming Yue.

It was Sister Chen Ming Yue’s first volunteering stint. Although she is quite senior, her perseverance is undaunted as she also supports and encourages her daughter in doing volunteerism. Delightedly, Sister Zheng Mei Fen shared with us that she is glad that her mother could also be of help in this event. As the Year End Blessing Red Packets’ design was inspired from our Mother Earth and it represents compassion, from the process of pasting the grains, Sister Zheng Mei Fen learnt that just as every single grain is unique, each Tzu Chi volunteer has dissimilar personalities too. Thus, it is important that everyone needs to learn how to be accommodating to accept each others’ differences.

Sister Lin Cui Lian also shared that since every single grain is unique, it also shows that every one of us has different capability. Hence, the reason why she brought her children to participate in this event is to – in a metaphorical sense – nurture them to become foliage-providing trees instead of bonsais. This is to let them be able to contribute to the society according to what they are good at, and not growing up in a way which is in accordance to her requirements. Brother Shen Fu Ji brought along his four year old son Shen Jing Ren as his working partner. While Jing Ren was responsible for cutting the stalks of rice ears, Brother Fu Ji’s task was to paste the rice ears. This picture of father-son collaboration was indeed touching. As little Jing Ren was steadfast in his duty, it showed a kind of diligence which is different from other children of his age.

◎   Sharing of experiences with each other

11 year old Zhuo Xin Ying is from Tzu Chi Children class. Today, she joyfully partnered with Lin Yu Heng who is from the Tzu Chi Teenage Group, with Yu Heng being in-charged of the more demanding task of pasting the stalk of rice ears while Xin Ying took care of pasting the rice ears. Yu Heng felt that pasting the stalks of rice ears was a fun job which brought him a sense of accomplishment. Although this is different from what he used to do and there was a certain amount of difficulty involved, Yu Heng knew that it could be considered as an alternate form of leisure.

Although at the beginning, Chen Liang Zhou, a graduate from the Tzu Chi Youth Group, does make some mistake, he was able to learn from his mistakes and concentrated well, he felt that it had helped him in cultivating his patience and diligence. He realized that the Year End Blessing Red Packets is not just something to cultivate good relationship, he has learned not to be complacent and we should all learn while contributing to those who are in needs.

Brother Guo Zhu Ming, who was one of the volunteers in charge of coordinating this event, said that initially they were hesitant about whether they should carry out this rice ears pasting activity. However, after seeing how devoted the volunteers were in going about their tasks with so much concentration and enthusiasm, it was very touching indeed.

With the continuous efforts poured in by the volunteers, we were able to finish about 3,500 Year End Blessing Red Packets. We believe that everyone will continue to put in their most earnest and utmost efforts to work towards the goal of getting ready the 10,000 red packets which will be given out during the forthcoming Year End Blessings Ceremony to be held on 29 and 30 December 2007, bringing along Master Cheng Yen’s blessings to each and every Tzu Chi members and volunteers!