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Tzu Chi Commissioners

What impressed many people about Master Cheng Yen was that she was able to mobilize so many women. Many housewives who did not become Tzu Chi members would simply spend their time in beauty salons, markets, or jewelry stores. However, the Master used goodness and charity to create a new path for these women.

Visiting the Poor
The work of the early commissioners was mostly helping the poor and the sick. On December 12, 1970, the Master and a group of commissioners went to visit Huang Ah-eh and his grandchildren in Fenglin. Their bus got bogged down while crossing a creek. Without a thought for the cold weather, the commissioners got off the bus and pushed. With their fearless spirit, the commissioners always kept on going, disregarding all complications along the way. Their industrious spirit became the model for future Tzu Chi members doing the work of the bodhisattvas, and it continues even today.

First Group of Commissioners in Taipei
On September 30, 1972, the first commissioner in Taipei, Sister Ching Ming (second from the left) led a group of over 50 Tzu Chi members to visit the abode for three days. At that time, the northeast railway had not yet been built, so transportation between Hualien and Taipei was extremely difficult. If the commissioners wanted to listen to the Master's speeches, the Abode would mail cassette tapes to them. The commissioners would listen to them at Sister Ching Ming's home, and then they would record their feedback and mail the tapes back to the Master.

Model Commissioners
On September 10, 1972, at the opening of the Tzu Chi Free Clinic for the Poor on Janai Street in Hualien, the commissioners (front two rows), wearing their gray summer chipao uniforms, gather and listen to the Master's speech. Their average age was 46. Except for Sister Ching Ying (far right), who worked for the Taiwan Railway Administration, the commissioners were all housewives. They could only work for Tzu Chi during their spare time. Although there were only a few of them, they were able to follow closely in the footsteps of the Master, so the early charitable work of Tzu Chi got its start.

A Mother's Heart, a Bodhisattva's Compassion
In December 1976, Master Cheng Yen and some commissioners listen to the complaints of a poor, lonely old woman and try to comfort her. Women are born with compassion, so when they deal with people who are in difficulty, they normally feel sympathy for them. The commissioners remember what the master said: "Regard everyone with a mother's heart, and educate your children with the bodhisattvas' compassion." Visiting the poor is the first lesson on becoming a commissioner.

Soft and Hard
In October 1991, a group of commissioners hold a groundbreaking ceremony for a housing complex for refugees in Chuanchiao, mainland China. There is a famous saying in Tzu Chi: "Women work like men, and men work life supermen." Women are normally considered as gentle and compassionate, but with the development of the Tzu Chi international relief programs, women have been stimulated to develop their hidden strength. They have gone to mainland China, Cambodia, Nepal, northern Thailand, etc. In these nations, Tzu Chi's female commissioners can use their gentleness to bridge the distance with the locals. They can also use their female tenacity to endure hardship and spread love in the most difficult areas. Carrying out international relief work also allows the women to broaden their views, attitudes and compassion.

The Heart of a Bodhisattva Is Like the Moon
Most of the commissioners are housewives. Master Cheng Yen puts a great deal of emphasis on education for women, and she encourages the commissioners to play well the roles of good, wise housewives. They should nurture their hearts life soft, tender moonlight. They should open their minds and radiate their wisdom, so that all those who come in contact with them will feel that they are bathed in pure moonlight.

Commissioners visit the Hualien Veterans' home.	With hearts filled with filial piety and respect for the elderly, commissioners in Penghu walk with an old lady.

Therefore, through charity work, the Master created a new path for women. Through the process of helping the poor and teaching the rich, these women learn to bring out their compassion and adjust their voices and facial expressions, so that they can bring love to their own homes as well as allow the poor and the elderly to be free form suffering.

A Space for Women
In the past, women offered their whole lives to their husbands and children, and their homes were everything they had. So they did not participate much in anything outside their families. After joining Tzu Chi, these women's perspectives have been opened up and their minds enriched with the many kinds of Tzu Chi missions. They have thus opened up their own space.

Commissioners go to a busy street in Taipei to promote bone marrow donation.	After Typhoon Herb, commissioners in Chiayi brave the dark streets to bring food to refugees.