The Benefits of Being a Volunteer

A volunteer attaches importance to matters of love and virtue. He or she serves with love and virtue in his or her heart. Money is never part of the motivation. Since the service is nothing but pure devotion, it is priceless. Why do so many people willingly participate in volunteer organizations? Volunteer work differs from other jobs. Other jobs are always for money or for pay. Volunteers work out of joy and to form affinity. The motivation is different. Since I became a monk 60 years ago, I have worked my entire life to teach the Dharma and to benefit sentient beings, without taking a vacation or resting on a Sunday or a holiday. Being a  volunteer for 60 years, I have experienced Dharma joy and happiness that no money can buy. If someone can serve others with perfect willingness, i.e., becoming a volunteer, he or she will advance substantially in his or her spiritual realization.Volunteerism is an important component of civic life. Engaging in volunteer work without economic rewards is a moral responsibility. It not only benefits others, but also develops the ideal of co-existence. Through the unselfish endeavors of volunteers, we will be able to enhance our compassion and loving kindness and promote social justice and a benevolent environment. As a result, volunteers make a substantial contribution to governmental welfare projects and programs and charitable assistance and civic education. If everyone volunteers, a peaceful society will automatically emerge. When one serves as a volunteer, the purpose is not to be acknowledged, because “Buddha sees everything” and “the law of karma never fails.” Volunteering serves others, but it also accumulates merit and virtue. Well-cultivated virtue and merit will benefit one’s self in the many lives to come, leaving your later generations with peace, compassion,
wisdom, and virtue. These are precious properties that can never be taken away. If you do things you do not want to do, you will suffer a great deal. So service “with perfect willingness” yields intangible value. The main purpose of being a volunteer is to learn to be compassionate, to smile, to get along with people, to give pleasure to others, to plant the seeds of merits and virtue that will form good affinity with others. The actual beneficiary of volunteer work, therefore, is one’s self, not others as it first appears to be. In summary, there are eight benefits resulting from volunteer work:
1. Enhancement of self-confidence
2. Growth
3. Establishment of friendship
4. Broadly forming good affinity
5. Development of talents and potential
6. Fostering the sense of responsibility
7. Balancing theoretical understanding with practice
8. Achieving a win-win position for one’s self and others