Story World

 


By brother practitioner Wenqing Li,
Illinois, U. S. A. (Originally in English)

International Retreat, Cape Town, South Africa

The Cape Town retreat ended around noon on November 30. After lunch, buses started coming to take initiates from the camp site to the hotels in Cape Town where they would stay and attend the activities organized by the Parliament of the World's Religions. In the late afternoon, many initiates were standing with their luggage on the side of the main road at the campsite, waiting for buses.

A black brother from South Africa had brought a lot of things with him and was having difficulty packing some of his items in his last remaining suitcase. Noticing this situation, some initiates from Au Lac and China immediately came forward to help. They found a cardboard box for him to use for his remaining items. One initiate offered a string he had brought and two others tightened the box using the string. Then these initiates helped the black brother put his luggage onto the truck.

The brother, deeply touched by the help he had received, told the initiates around him that he loved Korean, Aulacese, Chinese, and other Asian people. He said he had never thought he would be treated so nicely during the retreat. As he was speaking, he bent over, trying to find his camera in his bag so that he could take a picture with the Asian initiates, but his bus was leaving and he did not get a chance. At that moment, in that place, the boundaries of race disappeared; only pure love remained. I was so touched by the love among our initiates that tears filled my eyes.

A couple of minutes earlier, I went to the beach outside the campsite to look at the nearby ocean and mountains. Although the view was gorgeous, at that moment, I felt what was most beautiful was not the beach, not the mountains, not the sea, but the love among the initiates and the love among all human beings.

On December 1, when we attended the Parliament activities, volunteer bus drivers and tour guides provided free shuttle service between the different sites. When I was talking with them, just naturally and without thinking, I found that I also called them "brothers and sisters"! Brother and sister- that is what we should call each other, regardless of where we are from, what religion we believe in, what cultural background we have, and whether we are black, white, or yellow. We are all brothers and sisters because we are all children of God.