d its insatiable desires," a lecturer quoted Master Cheng Yen, founder of the Buddhist Compassionate Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, as saying yesterday. In a special report presented at a monthly meeting of the Presidential Office, Ho Jih-sheng, spokesman for the foundation, said that, as Master Cheng Yen has often preached to her disciples, natural disasters are rooted in man-made misfortunes, or the "collective karma" of mankind.
He quoted the master as saying that the endless expansion of human desires has caused irreparable damage to the earth's resources by depleting the forests and emitting unsustainable amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
As the global population has been increasing, fresh water resources have been dwindling, and the area of livable land is expected to shrink as a result of the inevitable sea level rise due to global warming, Ho said.
He also said that the widening gap between the rich and the poor and the rapid increase in the number of people living in poverty are the problems faced by all countries, and that the best solution to the problems lies in the "expansion of human love."
Concluding his report, Ho again quoted Master Cheng Yen and claimed that Taiwan has "nothing else to treasure but love," and that the people of Taiwan should make Taiwan "the most distinguished island of love in the world" by beginning with themselves.
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