How has Tao affected my life（道如何影响我年輕的心）-Blair Ye

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How has Tao affected my life?  Tao has had a positive effect on my life. To begin with I believed Tao was just another word used by my parents and the other adults around me, a word that had no significance to me. I would go to temple because it is the right thing to do and pray, then sit down and read a book or do my work because I did not understand what they were saying, there was a language barrier.  Though I wish I could understand what they were saying, I was somewhat sad at myself since I go to temple and did not understand anything they were saying.   I’m lucky enough to have people around me that want to pass this information about Tao to the next generation in English preventing the language barrier.  We began with fortnightly lessons about Tao and I began to understand. Though I am still learning about these things I can only believe one day I will understand it all whatever it may be.  These lessons we had brought up ideas and values that we should follow. Things like Enduring and Harmony were brought up during our lessons but a topic that really made me change was a simple idea of being nice to one another and helping each other. I have a friend. He had been my friend for a very long time and he had an excursion that he had the opportunity to go to but a teacher that we had would not allow him to go since he had not handed in much work for the subject. So I helped him I was weary to begin with because I normally would not have helped anyone in that situation even if he was my friend. I felt good for helping a friend and when you feel happy your surroundings are usually going to suit your mood. I’ve learnt from lessons about Tao to be nicer to each other and lend a helping hand because if you help one person that person can help others and others in  good  . because they remember how nice you were and want to try and change their lives for the better.  If you want to know more about Tao, the way to begin is by asking questions and things will become clearer because nobody will help you unless you ask for it and that is something I have learnt over the years. 譯文： 「道」給了我正面的思維,影響了我年輕的心。 一開始，我認為「道」這個單詞只受用在我的爸媽和其他大人的身上，對我來說沒有任何意義。我都會跟我爸媽來佛堂獻香，因為我認為獻香禮佛是件很好的事情，但因為語言上的障礙，我都聽不懂臺上講師所講的道理，所以每次班會我都會坐在一旁讀書或做我的功課。 我希望我能明白他們在說些什麼，我感到有些遺憾，因為我來到佛堂卻無法明白他們說些什麼。 不過幸運的是,我身邊有許多慈悲的前輩們願意將‘道’的訊息傳遞給我們這些英語的下一代，克服了語言上的障礙。 我們開設了『英文茶會班』, 每兩星期的週五,我開始明白「道」是什麼，雖然我還在學習，我相信總有一天我會明白這一切的。 在班會中,我們互相探討一些正確的觀念和價值觀，例如‘忍辱’與‘和諧’,當中提到一個簡單的道理，真的讓我改變了我的想法，懂得善待彼此、互相幫助。 我有一位認識很久的朋友，他本來有機會可以去參加校外活動，就因為他沒有完成老師所交代的功課，老師懲罰他不讓他參加。於是我便主動開口幫助他。一開始，我有點不太習慣，通常在這種情況下我是不會主動幫助任何同學完成課業的，即使他是我的朋友。但當我主動開口要幫助他時，我覺得心情非常好，原來幫助朋友是件快樂的事。當你感到快樂時，你周遭的人也會因你的好心情而改變。 經過幾次的「英文茶會班」後，我學習到「道」是要互相伸出援手，因為當你幫助一個人，那個人也會因此而去幫助別人；因為他們會記得你的好，因此想嘗試改變他們自己，讓自己變得更加美好。 如果你想知道更多有關「道」的一切，方法就是把疑問提出來,事情就會變得清楚，因為除非你請求，否則沒有人能知道如何幫助你~這就是我多年學習到的道理。 By 九達文德長老院 皓彰組 澳洲單位 葉昱顯 - Blair Ye (1996年次) 譯：傳拓、周如真