Master Yin Guang Saves Those in Desperate Need

“He donated three Silver Dollars [roughly one months living expenses per person] to each of them.”

Note: I hope in our current era of escalating wars, pandemics and disasters, we can all emulate the Master’s humanitarianism and do our bit for those in desperate need.

Near Suzhou’s Baoguo Temple was a shanty town. One day, the whole settlement was consumed by an inferno, leaving behind wailing survivors in desperate need. It was truly an awful sight. Master Yin Guang pitied them, and after tallying the victims (there were approximately ninety in total), he donated three Silver Dollars [roughly one months living expenses per person] to each of them. However, Master Yin Guang’s Honghua Society (non profit educational association) had little in reserves, and to meet the need of the victims, every last copper penny was squeezed out. The chief staffer was worried that the society would go broke the next day. Fortunately, and quite unexpectedly, they received the next day a donation via postal remittance of several hundred Silver Dollars, and this allowed the victims of the fire to receive full relief. The Master said: “The donations given to us must be used to create merit on the donor’s behalf, and not held in reserve, so that after we are gone, people will not accuse us of being greedy ghosts.”

“As the bloody Suiyuan campaign raged on, Master Yin Guang donated the entirety of the 2,900 Silver Dollars he received from over a thousand people as an offering (for taking the three refuges) to help the victims. And when he returned to Suzhou, he immediately remitted another donation.”

In the ninth lunar month of 1936, the director of the Zhongguo Buddhist Association, the Dharma Master Yuan Ying, invited Master Yin Guang to preach the Dharma at the Shanghai Dharma Ceremony for National Salvation. The eight day ceremony enjoyed a vast audience. During that time, as the bloody Suiyuan campaign raged on, Master Yin Guang donated the entirety of the 2,900 Silver Dollars he received from over a thousand people as an offering (for taking the three refuges) to help the victims. And when he returned to Suzhou, he immediately remitted another donation.The Master was frugal his whole life, and whenever he had money, he used all of it to print sutras and save disaster victims. He did not harbor disciples, did not assume the role of abbot, built no memorials, and other than the clothes on his back, donated everything else to charity. He once said: “When I die, I will possess only my robes.”

— From the Collected Works of Master Yin Guang

Page 47 Treasury of Dharma Gems Edition II