1 Introduction

In an interview in 2010 in Shanghai, one informant, Woo, spoke about his experience of conversion and how he converted other people. It was an occasion on which he used three different meanings of the term xin in one page of transcription. “The possession of diligence, confidence (信心), and courage is the source of morality. One must be very assiduous to do what he is supposed to do, and believe (相信) there always will be nature’s way to achieve the goal. To tell people the vision of Tzu Chi is the idea of saving people and holding the belief (信念) in compassion …” (認真, 信心和勇氣都具備的話, 這也都是個酵母[ 功德母], 只要他自己很認真去做自己該做的事情, 相信一定會有水到渠成的時侯 … 告訴他慈濟的理念, 救人的觀念, 慈悲的信念 …), Woo said.

What are the institutional meanings of xin 信 (faith, belief, or trust) in the teachings of the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation (hereafter Tzu Chi)? One might easily discover hundreds of thousands of online articles referring to the term xin which are represented as the organizational positions for the concept of xin. In this paper, I intend to understand the denotation and connota- tion of xin in practitioners’ accounts of their conversions and practices. My data is based on practitioners’ conversion narratives from 2010, when I conducted on-site interviews, and in 2018 I revisited these accounts. In their stories of conversion to Tzu Chi, the narratives share common features: first, the common trigger for their conversions was their Taiwanese friends’ invitations. Secondly, the tie among Taiwanese merchant networks in the region remains strong. Tzu Chi, one of the few non-merchant-based organizations, provided an alternative for Taiwanese associational life. The distinctiveness of their stories is evident in the various ways they appropriate the concepts of xin (belief) and how the interviewees tended to reconstruct their vivid religious experiences during the interviews. When I reviewed those transcriptions eight years later, I came to the conclusion that these conversion narratives do not represent institutional positions. In these stories, the themes, claims, and the experiences that one might call “original,” are quite different from the institutional teachings. Woo’s multiple usages of xin are an exceptional case among all of the interviewed informants because most of interviewee did not refer to the word xin. I will provide data and analysis to demonstrate these variations. The intention of this work is to demonstrate Tzu Chi practitioners’ interpretations of xin in practice.

The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation 佛教慈濟基金會, with its millions of members in Taiwan and overseas, is indeed the largest NGO in Taiwan today, with more than 300 Tzu Chi offices worldwide.¹ As the record from 2012 shows, there was a total of 77,621 certified Tzu Chi commissioners 慈濟委員 globally in 34 regions. Of this total, there were 50,240 certified commissioners and 27,381 Tzu Cheng Faith Corps members 慈誠委員.² Among them, 29,766 commissioners and 19,064 Faith Corps members are in Taiwan. Additionally, 3623 commissioners and 1324 Faith Corps members are overseas members. Commissioners and Faith Corps members are lay leaders who serve as the backbone of global missions. The spread and settlement of ethnic Chinese immigrants in many major cities worldwide is the most significant factor behind Tzu Chi’s global network. In China, they require at least two to three years of training in each local area and are certified by the Religious Bureau 宗教部 at the headquarters in Hualien City 花蓮市, Taiwan.

The focus on social and humanitarian services distinguishes the Tzu Chi Foundation from other Han Buddhist groups not only in Taiwan and China, but also globally. The founder, Cheng Yen 證嚴法師 (1937–),³ was initiated as a Buddhist nun in 1963 and was influenced by her master, Yin Shun 印順 (1906–2005), who taught his followers to “be committed to Buddhism and to all living beings” (為佛教為衆生).⁴ This reform is truly Ven. Cheng Yen’s own innovation. The followers of Master Cheng Yen must also join the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation in Taiwan. Therefore, the identity of being a devoted Buddhist is associated with the secular charitable identity of Tzuchian (i.e., Tzu Chi members).

In the 1990s, as a foreign and organized religious group, the commissioners of Tzu Chi Foundation behaved as missionaries who risked their business interests by insisting on conducting Buddhist evangelism among Taiwanese immigrants in Shanghai. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Tzu Chi identities served as a tool for distinguishing themselves from the members of the Taiwanese Merchant Association by preserving strong group ties. This result was different from what had been suggested by the early model of migration theory in the United States, where religious identities were applied or assigned along ethnic lines.⁵ Once Tzu Chi was successfully registered in the PRC in 2008, its NGO legal status permitted the organization to recruit local Chinese members, a significant breakthrough for the expansion of organization membership that crossed ethnic boundaries to include local Chinese. Many cross-group interactions were documented in Tzu Chi activities in Shanghai.⁶ My research showed that the indigenization of Tzu Chi members in China (which is also a growing phenomenon in various Tzu Chi overseas branches) mirrored another phenomenon, particularly in China: the overriding of ethnic divisions through religious affiliations. However, the data I use in this paper is limited to Taiwanese who agreed to be interviewed and recorded in Shanghai. Only two interviewees are Chinese entrepreneurs. In addition, the discourse analysis among Taiwanese entrepreneurs is separated from the discourse analysis among local Chinese in Shanghai by both ethnic and class variances.

Class also has been another important variable separating the working and social lives of the Taiwanese and Chinese in China. Most Taiwanese immigrants, entrepreneurs, and business professionals live a completely different expatriate life through maintaining separate working spaces and dormitories in the industrial parks.⁷ The ethnic separation in urban areas is different. Taiwanese business expatriates live their lives as transnational migrants traveling between their family homes in Taiwan and “guest” homes in China. The population of Taiwanese entrepreneurs and business professionals in my research⁸ are Taiwanese born.⁹ The first generation of Taiwanese in China were entrepreneurs running their own manufacturing companies, but usually had no college education, while the younger Taiwanese business professionals who worked for them tended to have college degrees.¹⁰

This article will cover the following themes. First, I will start by stating my research method and research period. The definition of major terms, such as “conversion,” will also be included. Second, the set of interview data in 2010 will be studied for the patterns of word choices. Tzu Chi core teachings on xin will be analyzed as the institutional position. The materials of this investigation include Tzu Chi mottos, catchphrases, and Cheng Yen’s key statements, such as the declaration of the establishment of a “Tzu Chi School” (慈濟宗門). Third, I will analyze the relationship between Tzu Chi institutional teachings and the vocabularies adopted by practitioners, concluding with discussing the connotations of xin among interviewed practitioners. In the conclusion, I include summaries of two Tzu Chi high profile commissioners’ interpretations of xin and discuss how those interpretations align with the institutional position.

2 Research Methods

In James Beckford’s article, “Account for Conversion,” he critically questions if actors’ self-reported accounts of religious conversion are objective or unproblematic reports on experiences. He problematizes “religious actors’ own views of reality and their own accounts of experience as the primary materials for interpretation.”¹¹ His research illustrates how Jehovah’s Witnesses’ conversion accounts are typically constructed based on a set of guidelines, which fits well into the Watchtower movement’s evolving organizational rationale.

The Tzu Chi practitioners in some ways show the multifaceted nature of conversions. This paper will focus on, first, a narrative analysis of lay practitioners’ accounts, particularly on their employment of the term xin. More than seventy Tzu Chi volunteers were interviewed during 2010 and 2014; however, only seventeen of them had been recorded during their interviews. The research methods involved participant observation and formal and informal interviews, but this data could not be admitted in this paper because of the lack of recording for semiotic analysis. The transcriptions of these interviews were made in 2013 and 2014. One of my informants, Sister Chiou, provided valuable connections and referred me to other Taiwanese Tzuchians in Shanghai in the first year of my research. The second kind of data I employ is the organizational teachings of Tzu Chi Foundation based on its publications, especially on Master Cheng Yen’s key statements. As the master’s publications are so numerous, I deliberately focus on the recurrent usage of xin and its associations or subordinations. By comparing practitioners’ narratives and the master’s teachings, I seek to determine if the practitioners were reporting on their own accounts and processes of “believing.”

All of the Tzu Chi followers I interviewed were involved with either poverty relief or disaster relief in rural China; therefore, they reported on their actions rather than an abstract idea of their belief without following any specific organizational instructions. It was Tzu Chi’s motto that xing 行 (practice) is a crucial part of belief. It has always been Tzu Chi’s policy to invite the wealthy to experience “impermanence” by participating in disaster relief. During this effort, thirty or forty of the “bosses” slept in one room. They were physically involved with cleaning streets, cooking for victims, delivering relief goods, and visiting households in need. In the evening, they gathered in groups and shared their thoughts on Tzu Chi practices. Witnessing others’ sorrow is the way of reaching the upper class, whom the master considers difficult to teach enlightenment to because they have too much pride to give to the needy. The method is to teach them to witness impermanence and suffering in order to live with gratitude for whatever they experience at the moment. This method is also adopted by the bosses to teach their high-ranking staff.

Conversion is understood as the adoption of new religious beliefs or identities that are different from the convert’s previous systems of belief. In the case of my informants, some of them already believed in Buddhism before they joined the Tzu Chi group. Although they may not adopt a new worldview, the critical changes new Tzu Chi converts face concern the commitment to practice the faith and the change in social identities. The converts must devote themselves to religious voluntarism. The converts also identify themselves as Tzuchians rather than pan-Buddhists. The “new” reference that members learned from the Tzu Chi group, based on my interviews and observations, revolves around enthusiastic devotion to benevolent works.

3 Xin 信 in the Lay People’s Narratives and in Organizational Teachings

In this section, I will summarize the use of the word xin in two different accounts.

3.1 Transcription Data

In this account of interview recordings in 2010, there are seventeen Tzu Chi followers, eleven males and six females. The gender ratio of Tzuchians entrepreneurs does not reflect the gender proportion among the rank-and-file members, which is about eighty percent of female volunteers. Fifteen of them are entrepreneurs and the other two (one male and one female) are Tzu Chi full-time office staffers in Suzhou 蘇州. Sixteen of them are older than 50 years old and only one interviewee is younger than 40 years old (and thus belongs to the second generation of Tzuchians). The bias in this sample is that the majority of interviewees are economic elites with modest educational backgrounds. Therefore, those entrepreneurs (particularly the ethnic Taiwanese) do not reiterate sophisticated Tzu Chi vocabularies in the conversation.¹²

The informal interview questions are designed along three lines of inquiry: first, their histories of belief and practice before they joined the Tzu Chi Foundation; second, the stories concerning immigration from Taiwan to China; third, the influence of Tzu Chi teachings in their lives in Shanghai, particularly in their business practices. Therefore, the open-end questions were never specifically designed to elicit their understandings of xin. Here is an overview of the variety of associations with their usage of xin:

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Usages of xin and their associations.

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The translation of terms related to xin (from Chinese to English) in the informants’ narratives:

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Translation of terms related to xin

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In this set of data, xiangxin 相信 (to believe) has been used in fifty-eight instances. Xinyang 信仰 (religious belief) has been used in thirty-five instances. Xinlai 信賴 or xinren 信任 (trust, to have faith in) has been used twenty times. Xin fo 信佛 (belief in Buddhism) has been used nine times. Xinnian 信念 (belief, principle) has been used eight times. Xinxin 信心 (confidence) has been used seven times. There are two negatively connotated combinations in the above summary of usages of the term. One is mixin 迷信 (superstition) and the other is yuxin 愚信 (ignorant belief). Mixin has been used six times and yuxin has been used in one instance. A positive connotation, zhengxin 正信 (righteous belief), is actually in contrast to mixin 迷信 (superstition). Other terms associated with xin were used less frequently, but they will be brought back into the discussion in later sections when I compare the relationship between xin used in spoken language during the interviews and in the core teachings of the Tzu Chi Foundation.

4 Analysis of Practitioners’ Narratives

By examining the conversion narratives from the interview data between the years 2010 and 2014, I found that

1. The conversion narratives were not strongly in line with the institutional core teachings. Most of the stories related to personal experiences and showed considerable variation; therefore, those narratives did not represent the institutional position.

2. The conversion narratives have little focus on the process of xin. Like many other religious stories on conversion, there was a “before” and “after” scenario to the conversion experience. But most of Tzu Chi interviewees believed in Buddhism, or at least had some spirituality, before they joined Tzu Chi as members or committed to Tzu Chi practices. The major turning point came with the physical involvement in benevolent work. Money donations are still important for entrepreneurs, but the devotion of time and efforts are the critical performance of belief.

3. After joining the Tzu Chi group, practitioners are required to actively volunteer for organizational missions. In order to engage in cultivation (xiuxing 修行), they need to methodologically work on their belief. The procedure is to take a vow of one’s devotion after the conversion; then one must act on one’s vow afterward.

As mentioned earlier, the bias in this sample is that the majority of interviewees are economic elites with modest educational backgrounds. Consequently, those entrepreneurs do not reiterate sophisticated Tzu Chi vocabularies in the conversation, particularly the ethnic Taiwanese. For the ethnic Chinese, the three interviewees tend to use cultivated vocabularies. Although the majority of interviewees are male, the wives of those male informants are all involved with Tzu Chi missions, except the only one who is under 40 years old and is single.

Although “honest, righteous, faithful, and truthful” (誠正信實) was an important teaching directly relating to xin in the organizational core teaching, the phrase was used only once and it was used by the interviewer in the dialogue.¹⁷ This suggests that it was not considered as an important value in their conversion, immigration, and business experiences. Connotation refers to the variety of associations that a word carries. Here are the frequent usages of associations which practitioners employed during the interviews.

– To Trust 相信

Sister Chiu (邱師姐) was very eager to recruit new members not only in China but also wherever she traveled. She was the first person who introduced the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation to Taiwanese immigrants in New York. She remembered:

In the 1990s when there was some business that I needed to attend to at Citibank, I ran into Kang in front of Citibank and continued to persuade her to join the Tzu Chi Foundation. I told her that I recruited the whole family of my sister as Tzu Chi members when I first joined the Tzu Chi Foundation. I was afraid that she would not believe me (我就怕她不 相信), so I told her that I could show all of the member donation receipts to her (Kang) next time.

第二天我要去 Citibank, 剛好碰到康師姐, 然後就在 Citibank 門前我又和康師姐講, 講一講我就說其實當時我加入慈濟就把我姐姐全家當做會員, 然後我就怕他不相信, 我就和他講, 如果你不相信慈濟, 我下次可以把我姐姐, 我幫他們做會員 的那些收據都拿給你看.

Brother M11 (M11 師兄) said,

For example, the master (Shangren) told us that we have to believe in (要相信) people. We must give him (them) freedom and must not have restrictive controls. That was because the master is a good-hearted person. But sometimes in the issues of management, I have tried … the master said that we have to administer with love. We have to apply love as a way of management, which is not possible in mainland China and may not be workable in Taiwan either…. … Well, yes, in terms of management it is the first priority to believe in someone and let her/him unleash [their potential] freely. But you still have to be flexible on how to do it.

比如說上人說要相信人家. 要讓他自由, 不要管的這麼嚴. 因為上人是心腸很好的人, 但有時侯在管理上我確實有去…. 上人說用愛去管制度. 以愛為管理. 在中國大陸真的是行不通. 台灣都行不太通 … 對呀. 管理上就第一個去相信你, 讓你去自由發揮呀. 確實你還是要拿捏三四分起來.

– Confidence 信心

Sister Chiu (邱師姐) said,

I feel that the physical body might be gone, but the dharma will always be there. I believe that we must have this confidence (信心) if we think that we are truly on the path of a Tzuchian Bodhisattva. Even for me as a pioneer, if I don’t have this confidence (信心) and don’t have this belief (信念), I cannot continue my path.

我覺得肉身雖然不在, 法是永遠在的, 我想這是我們真的走在慈濟菩薩道上的都要有這個信心, 如果今天 連我走在這個拓荒的人都沒有這個信心, 都沒有這個信念的話, 我覺得根本走不下去.

Sister Chiu added,

That is, no matter where the Tzuchians are, we are all pioneers. But I think that we belong to that kind of people who have marvelous perseverance. That is all because of what the master has said, “There is nothing that you cannot achieve if you have confidence (信心), perseverance, and courage” …

就是不管任何一個地方的慈濟人, 我們都這樣在拓荒, 可是我覺得我們, 我還是屬於那種毅力 超強的, 那因為我們上人講過一句話, 「信心, 毅力, 勇氣三個俱備, 天下沒有做不成的事」…

– Trust 信賴／信任

Brother M1 (M1 師兄) said,

Actually, I can tell you that when you focus on community service, you need to gain the trust from everyone in the community. You have to serve the community, not only work on environmental protection or four missions and eight tasks.¹⁸ There are things that the residents are not able to solve. If you are able to help them and to relieve their pain, you can earn their trust (信任). This is the way to gain trust (信任) in a quick way. This is what I called speedy trust (信任). Being consistent to provide solutions earns you as a person the trust (信任) of others. You must help them solve all of their problems. You must keep finding solutions. This is what we have been doing.

其實我可以告訴你, 就是在做這個社區的時侯, 你要得到社區所有人的認同, 你要為社區做事情, 不單只是環保, 不只是四步八法印, 還有很多事情要去做, 他以前解決不了的問題, 幫他解決就好, 他的痛苦幫他去解決了, 這些東西才能搏得他們的信任, 所以這樣快速的信任, 這樣叫快速的信任, 不斷的堅持在那邊, 這是對你個人的信任, 但是你要去解決所有人的一些問題的時侯, 你必須要去想一些辦法, 這個就是我們一直在做的事情.

Brother M11 (M11 師兄) said,

The strictness of the management is necessary. But Tzu Chi focuses on believing in and trusting (信任) people. It is because of this teaching that I slowly let go. I let go of administrating my business. I also let my employees watch Great Love television programs. The programs were played in the canteen.

管的比較嚴是一定的. 那慈濟是講相信. 信任他, 是這樣子我才有慢慢去放放放. 也讓我的員工看看慈濟大愛台. 我餐廳都有放.

– Faith-understanding-practice-attainment/testimony 信解行證

Brother M8 (M8 師兄) said,

It is marvelous to experience ‘faith-understanding-practice-attainment’ (信解行證) through practicing Tzu Chi. What I try to say is as follows: I used to work very hard but had little money. Since I was in high school, I started saving some money. When I first started my business, I borrowed money from a self-help loan group (biaohuia 標會仔) and from agricultural associations. My father borrowed money from neighbors on my behalf. You would feel that you didn’t see any money. Not that there was no money I made at all. But it was very little money … Once my friend told me that his firm went out of business while he was a Tzu Chi volunteer. I asked him, ‘but you practiced so hard as a Tzu Chi volunteer?’ My friend replied, ‘The collapse of my firm had nothing to do with Tzu Chi practice. The loss of my business was my personal matter.’ But when I started working hard as a Tzu Chi volunteer, my business was so great. I didn’t know why. I used to feel that I was chasing money but failed, but nowadays business has been doing so great. This was how I felt, so I donated money to be an honorary board member.

從做慈濟當中體會到信解行證. 其實我覺得不可思議, 就是說. 以前我很努力很努力, 但也因為沒什麼錢, 但我高中夜間部, 我存了一點錢. 可是當我要創業的時侯, 還去標會仔, 去農會借錢呀. 我爸爸跑去找鄰居信用貸款, 你會覺得說沒有看到什麼錢. 不是沒錢. 很少呀,…我一個朋友告訴我, 他做慈濟的時侯, 他的公司倒了, 你慈濟做的這麼發心, 為什麼公司倒了, 他說公司倒了跟慈濟沒有關係, 那是我自己的事情, 那我覺得說當我很發心做慈濟的時侯生意一直來, 我不曉得為什麼生意一直來, 然後我覺得以前我追錢追不到現在怎麼公司很順這樣子. 我覺得啦. 像我就捐榮董啦.

– Confident 自信

Brother M2 (M2 師兄) said,

Because we are confident (自信) that what we are doing is correct, the Chinese officials lately have been very supportive about our work. This kind of support is not shown on the media or any other public event. It is shown in the sense of not interfering with our missions.

因為我們自信我們做的事是沒有錯的, 大陸官方可以說是後來蠻支持的, 但是這種支持並不是說表現在媒體上面啦, 或公開的場合上, 而是說大陸官方完全沒有干涉.

Brother M8 (M8 師兄) said,

I read the Great Mercy Mantra and I have become very sensitive. For example, I could predict that I rode a motorcycle today and crashed into someone. What should I do? Instead, there was nothing that happened [to me after I crashed into someone]. I actually crashed into someone, but nothing happened, I just fell down. Why would that happen? I have the ability to predict the future. Another example was the passing away of my grandmother. It was 4AM. I was very self-confident (自信) about my prediction and somehow I knew that my grandmother would pass away that day. I kept tossing and turning in the big bed; the bed was so large when we were small. And I kept moving toward my grandmother until I could hug her.

我讀大悲咒, 就變的很敏感, 比如說我今天出去, 騎摩托車, 我今天跟人家撞到, 怎麼辦. 也沒什麼事, 可能今天真的和人家撞到. 也沒什麼事, 就跌倒. 怎麼會這樣, 有預知那個…. 像我那個奶奶要過世的時侯, 那一天清晨的時侯, 四點半的時侯就告訴我, 其實那時自信啦. 奶奶今天會過世, 我自己也不知道, 就一直滾. 小時侯那個床很大呀. 滾到奶奶旁邊. 抱著奶.

– Belief; principle 信念

Sister Mei (Mei 師姐) said,

I have a belief. I remember that I participated in Tzu Chi activities when I first arrived in Shanghai. Once I ran into the vice president of the Taiwanese Merchant Association, and he told me not to take part of Tzu Chi events and said, ‘something bad might happen to you.’ I have a belief, if we are doing something good, what could people do to us? I always have this kind of belief.

我一個信念, 我記得我剛來的時侯, 參加慈濟, 碰到一個台商的副總. 他說你不要參加啦, 你會被怎麼樣. 我一個信念, 我們都在做好事, 人家會對我們怎麼樣嗎?我一直都有這樣的信念.

The lack of a close connection with the institutional teachings in the narratives of practitioners shows the agency of their individual belief and the process of “committing” oneself to the Tzu Chi group. The conversion narratives have little focus on the direct verbal employment of xin. Like many other religious accounts of conversion, converts are likely to frame their experience along the lines of “before” and “after” their conversions.

For Tzu Chi interviewees who believed in Buddhism before they joined as members and committed to Tzu Chi practices, the change of conversion was not about a new worldview, but a new method of cultivation. Social service is the central part of Tzu Chi’s missions and converts are required to actively volunteer for organizational missions to demonstrate their learning and faith. They need to continue to learn and work on their belief by continuing to volunteer for charitable works. Faith-understanding-practice-attainment (信解 行證) provides a methodology for cultivation.

5 Bringing the Institutional Guideline Back into the Discussion

As the above accounts suggest, the practitioners’ narratives diverged from the organizational guidelines. In the summer of 2018, I revisited two female high-profile Tzu Chi commissioners and interviewed them explicitly about their interpretation of xin 信 in their beliefs. Their accounts were very much aligned with institutional teachings.

When I revisited sister Mei on June 25th, 2018, we first talked about new developments in her life and the Tzu Chi community center in the Baoshan district. Sister Mei had just been appointed as the core senior leader (hexin 核心) at the top of the whole leadership of commissioners in the Shanghai region. It is a position with the power to appoint core members for Tzu Chi’s operational leadership in Shanghai, which was granted to her by the master in Hualien, Taiwan. She recently closed down the construction company that she had run for twenty years. She was not interested in renewing the contract with the local partners and wanted to devote even more time to Tzu Chi missions.

When I asked the question, “What do you think of the word or concept of xin 信?” She first recited Tzu Chi’s motto, “honest-righteous-faithful-truthful” (cheng zheng xin shi 誠正信實), to me, which means that to be a Tzuchian is to be an honest and trustworthy person. Then she switched the topic to “trust” (信任) and said,

I think to trust in people is more important. ‘There is no one that I don’t trust.’ That’s what the master teaches us. When I first moved to this district in Shanghai, I believed that there is no one that I don’t trust, including the party leader in the residential committee. We have to believe that other people also have love (xin ren you ai 信人有愛), so they have the power to take actions.

我認爲相信一個人是最重要的。‘天下沒有我不信的人’是上人較我們的。我剛搬到上海這一區的時候。我相信沒有我不信任的人，包含小區領導。我們一定要信人有愛，所以他們會“行”。

Then she switched the topic again to her concerns about the recent converts. She said, “The good news is there were many new converts who were local Chinese. They were young and willing to accept the trials of two to three years of training to be Tzu Chi commissioners. But once they were promoted as commissioners, they stopped showing up as community volunteers.” Mei’s concern was, “if there is no true belief (zhendexin 真的信) in one, one cannot be persistent to be volunteers” (如果沒有真地信，義工做不久，不能堅持). Mei insists that “the belief” is extremely important; “the belief is the source of morality and virtues” (xin wei daoyuan gongdemu 信為道源功德母), she said.

Sister Chiu was the first Tzu Chi commissioner who brought the Tzu Chi practice to China in the early 1990s as an immigrant entrepreneur. The last time when we had met and discussed Tzu Chi growth in China was in 2014. In my revisit over lunch with her in the summer of 2018,¹⁹ she stared recollecting how she “believed” in Buddhism. “The reason that I participate in Tzu Chi group (“zuo Ciji 做慈濟”) was influenced by the belief of my mother. Because we were Taiwanese, my mother also believed in Bodhisattva (xin Guanyin 信觀音菩薩) and also worshipped Bodhisattvas (bai pusa 拜菩薩)” (我會來做慈濟就是原來跟媽媽的信仰有關的。因為台灣人嘛，我媽媽也是信觀世音菩薩的，都是拜菩薩的). She added,

The belief drove us to the Bodhisattva worship. When we worshipped in the temples, we used to worship for our well-being, such as for the prosperity of our business. When I first joined Tzu Chi, I also had a similar mindset (xinnian 心念) when I wished for a reward for my good deeds. I wished for a good return for my virtuous work and thought that the running of my business should have become smoother … It was not until I stayed in the Tzu Chi group for a while that I realized that “to benefit others is to benefit yourself” (zili lita 自利利他).

早期也是有這樣的，應該是剛進來的時候，還是會有這樣的心念，就是善有善報啊，希望做慈濟啊，生意順順利利。可是一直來做了就知道，慈濟其實不是，就說，你這份來做慈濟的心，你不是為自己，你應該是自利利他。

I asked her how she changed her mindset to focus on the benefit of others. Sister Chiu replied,

The change is little by little. The change was caused by listening to the master’s teaching and gradually understanding that benefiting others could bring liberation or awakening of oneself. From benefiting others we learn that we have contentment. In our Tzu Chi practice, we used to say, ‘Learn about suffering by witnessing suffering.’ One gained the awareness of being in contentment when one saw others suffering. When you pray for rewards, you don’t have contentment. You will feel discontented even if you are rich … You will feel contented when you see others suffering. When you feel contented, you will not ask for rewards anymore.

但是如何轉變，我覺得那是從點點滴滴，從我們師父的開示裡面去轉的；從師父的開示。因為，就是從利他，你才能徹底的解脫，或者徹底的覺悟。從利他的行為裡面，譬如說我們慈濟常常講見苦知福，當你見到別人的苦的時候，你可能就不會一直再求自己什麼都不夠。……因為看到別人都比你苦，那你就會知足嘛。那你知足之後，你就比較不會說還在求。

Sister Chiu then gave two examples of unforeseen cases of sorrow and bitterness among Tzu Chi wealthier families to demonstrate that practicing Tzu Chi does not mean that one would not face life’s hardships.

To practice Tzu Chi, you must “believe” (xiangxin 相信) [in Tzu Chi]. One can be awakened no matter whether by doing Tzu Chi, or by practicing the law of benefitting others. Perhaps one follows the words of Shangren 上人 and has been awakened because of it. One can face any challenge in life.

其實真正做慈濟你要相信。然後相信這個，不管是用慈濟，用利他來覺悟；或者用上人的話，聽了上人的話來覺悟，你才會能夠心底能夠面對你所碰到的任何的荊芥 …²⁰

Her company was under restructuring or downsizing in 2015, but she would continue to spend more time on Tzu Chi missions. Tzu Chi China has gone through an enormous expansion since the institution’s legalization in 2008. Different locations have been established under the local leadership and they needed less supervision from the previous Shanghai leadership.

When I asked how she would interpret one of the most popular Tzu Chi axioms xin-yuan-xing 信願行 (“faith, vow, and practice”), she quickly emphasized that

Tzu Chi Foundation is more of a cultivation group, not just a simple benevolent organization. It is Master Cheng Yen’s hope that our practitioners are taught to cultivate through benevolent works. There are so many Buddhist Schools (fojiao famen 佛教法門) nowadays. But what [the founder of] Tzu Chi has established is a formal Buddhist Lineage called Tzu Chi School (Cijizong 慈濟宗)…. The method of Tzu Chi School cultivation is Still Thought Lineage (jingsi famai 靜思法脈). In the Still Thought Lineage, we are concentrating on the teachings of the Sutra of Immeasurable Meanings (Wuliangyi jing 無量義經) and Lotus Sutra (Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經). And this is the path being a bodhisattva. So Tzu Chi people are learning and cultivating through a bodhisattva path; therefore, the true way to walk on a bodhisattva path is that we must walk toward people (or walk into society; zouru renqun 走入人群). We must practice what we claim. We cultivate among people, to help others and carry out benevolent works. Why do we repeatedly say xin-yuan-xing 信願行 (faith, vow, and practice)? First of all, you must believe (xiangxin 相信) in the method [of the Tzu Chi School]. The foundation of this school is that you must take a vow. You will cultivate among people, not by chanting sutra or sitting for meditation in a peaceful environment under a tree. Xin 信, first of all, means that you must believe in this school. Yuan 願 means that you must take a vow. Xing 行 means that you must cultivate among people to walk on a bodhisattva path.

因為慈濟這個修行的團體，首先慈濟不是純慈善的團體，其實慈濟人，上人他希望他所有的弟子，只是藉著慈善這條路來修行。那麼現在佛教的法門很多，但是慈濟自己創的慈濟宗。… … 那慈濟宗的修行方式就是用靜思法脈，那靜思法脈我們是修無量義經跟妙法蓮華經，那這個是菩薩道，所以慈濟人使用菩薩道來修行的。那菩薩道真正的用意就是要走入人群，要身體力行，去幫助別人，去做善事。所以為什麼我們講了很多信願行，這個法門修行的基礎就是你要跨越，再苦你都要進入群眾去修行。你不是發願坐在樹林下，在哪裡打坐、念經，不是。所以為什麼信，第一個是要相信這個法門。願，就是跨越；行，你就是要進人群中行菩薩道。

Both Mei and Chiu have volunteered as high-ranking commissioners for Tzu Chi Shanghai branch for decades. They have been appointed as the top leaders for the organization in China; I, therefore, apply their discourse on xin 信 as the institutional position. Similar to Johanna Lüdde, who writes in the present volume that the role of confidence is of particular significance for the nuns in their cultivation to be masculine heroes, Sister Chiu also stresses the importance of having confidence (xinxin 信心) for the unique cultivation method of the Tzu Chi School, which is to engage with the secular society and to cultivate among secular people in both the 2010 and the 2018 interviews.

6 Conclusion

What are the contemporary meanings of being a Buddhist? In this chapter, I used the Tzu Chi Foundation in China to demonstrate a manifestation of reformed Mahayana Buddhism in the workplace in China and the development of modern Buddhism in a transnational sense. The Tzu Chi teaching has provided a new reference for modern Buddhism in contemporary China. The entrepreneurs are able to incorporate their secular economic well-being into their spiritual missions.

By analyzing the conversion narratives from the interview data among Tzu Chi followers, multi-layered meanings of xin have been revealed: to believe (相信), religious belief (信仰), trust, to have faith in (信賴/信任), belief in Buddhism (信佛), belief (信念), confidence (信心), and righteous belief (正信). Two negatively connotated combinations in the usages are superstition (迷信) and ignorant belief (愚信). The analysis also detects that conversion narratives were not strongly in line with the institutional core teachings. Most of the stories related to personal experiences and showed considerable variation. The conversion narratives have little focus on the process of xin. As in many other religious conversion stories, there was a “before” and “after” scenario to the conversion experience. The major turning point came with the physical involvement in benevolent work. After joining the Tzu Chi group, practitioners are required to actively volunteer for organizational missions. In order to engage in cultivation (xiuxing 修行), they need to work methodically on their belief. The procedure is to take a vow of one’s devotion after the conversion; then one must act on one’s vow afterward. Money donations are still important for entrepreneurs, but the devotion of time and effort is the critical performance of belief.

With those new vocabularies and moralities, the modern monastery can establish a new relationship with corporate professionals who are actively pursuing earthly wealth; the entrepreneur who is seeking to reconcile the tension between their earthly professional ambition and the spiritual pursuit. Employers can create a not always consistent but amiable rapport with their employees. The new ethic, encompassing such values as honesty, diligence, frugality, punctuality, kindness, self-sacrifice, sobriety, generosity, gratitude, work, and social responsibilities, is shared by the emerging corporate class in China as well as by Tzuchians. Most of the entrepreneurs would recite the master’s teaching encompassing the view that “if the enterprise has Tzuchian humanism, the bosses will organize people with love. The employees will be willing to play their roles in building authentic blissful enterprises” (企業家有慈濟人文，就會以愛管理。企業家會扮演建立真實幸福企業的種子).²¹ The master’s popular idea is that Taiwanese entrepreneurs need to be devoted to the locals in China if they want to stay in China. This is the practice of their faith in business.

In the same summer, I also heard from one rank-and-file informant that master Cheng Yen was not pleased with meeting a group of recent new converts who traveled from China to Hualien earlier this year (2018). The new converts were about to take refuge (guiyi 皈依) under the master, but none of them knew how to make vows during the ceremony. In reality, how the rank-and-file members understand the institutional mottos is always a thought-provoking question. I hope this paper captures some aspects of Tzu Chi practitioners’ own interpretations of xin and opens perspectives for further research.