At the invitation of Dharma Drum, Taipei Mayor, Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), along with the former DDM Abbot President, Venerable Guo Dong (退居方丈果東法師), and the former Taiwan Vice-President, Vincent C. Siew (蕭萬長前副總統), jointly presented the Best Compassion Award to the Principle of Yu-Chi Junior High School (魚池國中), Lin Jiaru (林家如); Best Wisdom Award to Mr. Liu Datan (劉大潭); Best Group Great Aspiration Award to the Catholic Good Shepherd Social Welfare Foundation (天主教善牧社會福利基金會), to honor these role-models of “Caring for Life”, either as an individual or as a group. Under the warmth of the atmosphere, nearly a thousand attendees gave their blessings to all awardees in the ceremony.

DDM Abbot President Venerable, Guo Huei (方丈和尚果暉法師) shared that all awardees of the Care for Life Award, either of the individual or group, set themselves forth as "self-assured" and "aspired". Self-assurance, according to Venerable Guo Huei, referred to the ability to be clear about one’s own strengths and resources, and to face one’s shortcomings or limitations. Caring for life, on the other hand, is a characteristic of compassion, namely to actively develop one’s strengths and help others to grow. In addition, with aspiration for Caring for Life means taking altruism as one’s own duties. Therefore, DDM is honored to give praise and present the award to the winners for their self-assurance and aspirations.

On this occasion, Taiwan Vice-President Vincent C. Siew, also a perpetual volunteer of DDM, expressed his profound respect and congratulations to the winners, for they served as role-models and fully dedicated themselves to the society. Meanwhile, his sincere gratitude went to Master Sheng Yen and his dharma teachings, for which the public could come to know the way to respect life and be aware of its true meaning. DDM, by following such guidance and holding various activities toward positive attitude, is also able to strengthen the path of propagating “uplifting the character of humanity and building the pure land on earth.”

The Principle Lin Jiaru, who won the Best Compassion Award through her work utilizing local resources and introducing skilled teachers for talent training, was striving to cultivate the disadvantaged students’ living-making skills. She guided the students to find their confidence directly from their actual experience of practices and completely transformed their rebellious and negative attitudes in school. In this regard, she showed them the way to assure themselves and grow into forward-looking progresses in life. Over and over again, she expressed her gratitude to DDM for they granted her so much strength to carry on.

Liu Datan, who won the Best Wisdom Award, has suffered from polio since early childhood. Even suffering from muscular atrophy to his legs, he fearlessly continued to confront all the challenges of life with relentless effort. Furthermore, initiated from his aspiration to enhance the function of social care, Mr. Liu kept yielding his innovative products toward more than 200 patents in total, to fulfill his ideals. At the same time, he furthered his efforts to guide and care for the mentally or physically handicapped, and aimed towards building their skills to become financially self-sufficient. As the awardee of Care for Life Award, as he shared his most heartfelt feelings, the more he shared, the more confident he became to accomplish the innovative products, construct the factories for the handicapped, and conduct lectures to share his stories. When the abbot president squatted down to give the award to the little giant, all attendees applauded, bringing the house down.

Catholic Good Shepherd Social Welfare Foundation has long been engaged in caring for high-risk adolescents, women and children under domestic violence, single-parent families and victims of human trafficking; helping those in need returning to normal life and restoring their confidence through warm acceptance and loving care. Playing a preventive and therapeutic role, the Good Shepherd Foundation won the group award. Sister Tang Jinglian (湯靜蓮修女), born in Malaysia and devoted her life to those in need for 30 years, was grateful for the support from various sources; from good friends and the public, as well as the affirmation given by the DDM Humanities and Social Improvement Foundation in particular.

Before and after the awards ceremony, DDM Humanities and Social Improvement Foundation invited DDM chorus and Chi Yu (齊豫), Tang NaNa (坣娜), Roger Yang Pei an (楊培安), Kang Jiliang (康吉良) and many other famous singers sharing their beautiful vocals in the concert - to memorize the establishment of this award by Founder Master Sheng Yen . DDM said that the Care for Life Award is given by and returned to society. It is hoped that through the biennial election, the strength of life will be launched to the public, and the light and warmth of life will shine in every corner of the world.

Texts： Chang, Tian-Pei (張田沛); Chang,Yao-Chung (張曜鐘)
Photos: Lee, Fan (李東陽); Wang, Yu-Fa (王育發)
Translation: Elenda Huang (頤嵐達)
Editing: Christine Huang; DDM Australian Editorial Team