Heart to Heart with Teresa Hsu, 112
Laughter is the best medicine: Hsu sharing a joke with the audience during the talk
Heart to Heart with Teresa Hsu, 112
“My wish is to smile throughout my life,”
“Everybody is a brother and sister,”
“My religion is LOVE.”
The Power of Laughter
The Star Online | Tuesday January 26, 2010
By K. KASTURI DEWI, Photos by K. E. OOI
CENTENARIAN Teresa Hsu kept some 200 people in stitches during her talk on ‘Love All Serve All’ at the Malaysian Buddhist Association hall in Penang last Friday.
For the bubbly Chinese-born Singaporean, who is affectionately known as Singapore’s Mother Teresa, laughter is definitely the best medicine.
Born in 1898, the 112-year-old social worker extraordinaire keeps young and active by happily doing charity work.
Kicking off the question and answer session, Hsu, who was accompanied by her friend Sharana Rao, said she was born “very, very poor” and the toughest part of her life was when she had to pick grass to eat as she was “very, very hungry”.
Pearls of wisdom: Hsu (third left) answering a question from the audience. With her are Rao (second right) and Loh (second left)
“It was at that moment I thought to myself that no one should ever go through what I went through,” she said.
When asked the secret to her longevity and good health, Hsu responded, “Ha, ha, ha! Make sure your heart is always happy”
She also said eating one raw egg every day for breakfast could be another reason for her good health.
“Once someone told me that raw egg is poisonous to which I replied ‘never mind, I thrive on poison’,” she said.
Hsu, who was born in Swatow, Guangdong Province, China, attended school only at 27. She ran away to Hong Kong when she was 16 to escape an arranged marriage.
Having witnessed the suffering of the wounded during World War II, she recognised a calling to serve and at the age of 47, managed to convince the London Nursing College to accept her as a mature student.
She subsequently travelled around Europe to help the sick and needy and was even invited by German Jewish refugees to work in a hospital in Paraguay.
In 1961, Hsu arrived in Singapore to care for her ailing mother and founded the Home for the Aged Sick in Singapore. She has since made the republic her home. In 2005, Hsu received the Special Recognition Award from the Singapore Government in recognition of her contribution to the country.
Hsu had the audience laughing with her sharp and witty answers to questions. When asked how much rice she ate every day, she replied, “I don’t eat rice, I have no teeth and therefore, I cannot chew”.
To another question on whether she had ever fallen sick, she quipped, “The sick demons forgot to visit me.”
Hsu also imparted words of wisdom to the audience by telling them that when somebody says anything unpleasant, just don’t listen.
“If someone also says they are not happy, go all out to make them happy because if you love everybody with all the love in your heart, then you’ll be happy, ha, ha, ha,” she laughed.
On death, Hsu said she normally does not console the relatives of the deceased but instead makes them laugh. She told the audience how she got a lady whose uncle had died to laugh and sing along to a Cantonese kindergarten song.
Tickled pink: The audience enjoying the question and answer session
Hsu also said whenever she was faced with a problem, she would try to solve it but if she could not, then she just accepted it. To another question, she said she wasn’t born naturally caring but shared an incident that deeply affected and changed her. Her late mother once dug up potatoes to feed the family but gave away the entire pot to a starving beggar who arrived at their doorstep with a child.
“That was the day I learnt that to give what you have in your hand to others is a great blessing,” she said.
When asked how important religion was to her, Hsu said, “Nobody ever told me what a religion was”. She cited an incident when a Buddhist man and a Christian lady were arguing and singing praises about their respective religions.
She told them, “Brother and sister, there’s just one door”.
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A lady youthful at heart. She has her own way of thinking, and it does not has to be right or wrong, but it makes her happy, it lets her do good, be more caring. She can be easily read as a lady with strong determination and perseverance. As a result, there is one more shiningly positive soul on earth who not only do good herself but at the same time exert Social Influence naturally onto people around her and the society at large. Thank you Rinpoche for this inspirational article.
It’s really sad. She had to eat grass because she was so poor. And her mum is really kind to offer the whole pot meant for them to a beggar and child. She is really a wise person with good and kind heart. From her interview she sounds happy, funny and cheerful. May she always have a healthy, kind and happy body. She looks at life in such a optimistic way and I aspire to be like her. She went thru so much pain but she is always happy.
Hey, I haven’t checked in here for a while, but I will put you on my bloglist so I don’t forget to check back.
Smart and witty madam Tsu, though said to be “very very very” poor lived a life full of satisfaction, laughter, joy and happiness. Deeply caring and sharing, though she was said to profess no religion, yet her daily life action showed indication of real Dharma instincts in her. In record, she founded the Home for the aged and sick in Singapore and subsequently travelled around europe to help the sick and the needy, even was invited by German jewish refugees club to work in a Hospital in Paruagay. Even at todays current age of 112yrs, inspite of the suffering pains yet still continue doing social work-what a real Bodhisatva in the making.
Although Teresa Hsu is from China. Her destiny and karma made her to be active in Singapore and founded a home for the aged and sick, for which she has received a recognition award from the Singapore government. She has made her home in Singapore since. Her method of speaking or teaching to the audience is similar to Tsem Rinpoche, making jokes and humor and laugthers to prove a point. Teresa Hsu does not have a religion or Dharma teaching to help her to show her virtue of helping others. It’s her own spontaneous effort from the heart. In other words to be kind and compassionate and practice like a Boddhisattva is universal and notonly applies to Buddhist.
What an example to teach us how kindness, helping other and a good sense of humor are precious elixirs for real life. Religion from the latin le ligare means :
to be linked with, to be connected with,
respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods,
obligation, the bond between man and the gods.
Madam Hsu is living religiously as a “way of life” . Her life stance is to be at service for other.
She gives us two very important messages:
“When somebody says anything unpleasant, just don’t listen.”
“If someone also says they are not happy, go all out to make them happy because if you love everybody with all the love in your heart, then you’ll be happy, ha, ha, ha,” she laughed.
Thank you so much for offering us this wonderful blog Rinpoche. Thank you Andrew and Shirley and all of you for your such beautiful and inspiring comments.
Dear Rinpoche, thank you for posting this. Madam Hsu is a shining star, living a life with no regrets. Every step and decision she makes is to serve and benefit others. Going to school at age 27, colleage at age 47. Even now at age 112, still doing social work, so much compassion, not thinking of any pains or aches which she probably has some due to her age. No ego and attachment in this lady. Her daily actions and life is determined by how she can help someone. To let go of a problem or issue if there is no solution, simple and effective whilst the smarties and brannies chew on their fingers, stressed up trying to solve it because of face. I like the way in which she says there is only one door when we die. Death happens to every one of us irrespective of religion and at the time of death, if we have regrets, we can only carry the baggage into the next life. Real Superwoman.
And she is also a VEGETARIAN. I read up more about her when I googled her name. Truly a remarkable lady! All stemming from a deep rooted compassion for others.
I just love her zest in life. Most of us live comfortable lives but are never happy. She is a real life example of what the Buddha always taught. Everyone wants happiness. When one is happy, one’s sufferings reduce. Whether she professes to have any religion or not is not important, but to me she is a spiritual person. Her motto in life is love for others and serving others. That has brought her so much happiness and kept her young and healthy. Her looks belie her 112 years! So if we want happiness and to keep young and healthy, we must serve others.
Looking at the picture of Ms. Hsu reminds me of my own mum who is 92 this year. Mum had been a strong woman, working very hard to bring us up and was the one who financially supported 3 of her 4 children through expensive overseas education despite the small pay she had, working as a head nurse. I wonder how she managed to stretch her pay for all that plus feed and clothe us. She has had a hard life and sadness and worry were her constant companions. Despite having an authoritarian husband who was an angry man always to be feared, she stayed in the unhappy marriage till Dad died at age 67 wrecked with stress related illnesses.
Life was an endless financial struggle for Mum. We are where we are today because of all the sacrifices she made. Unlike Ms. Hsu, Mum’s face is etched with lines, evidence of her suffering and toil over the years. She is lucky to have survived a few major illnesses, 2 bouts of cancer in 2 different organs that were supposedly contained. Now, she has just been diagnosed with lung cancer. Now that Mum is already 92, her onco. does not recommend any aggressive treatment for the time being as quality of life would be of utmost importance. She is a spritely old lady and still takes the bus and MRT (in Singapore) by herself to go where she wants to and we would rather let her continue her that way rather than curtail her independence and knock her down with aggressive chemo unnecessarily. But we are aware that the time is drawing near.
Mum had not been a religious person though she had been a “Christian” on paper. It’s rather late for her to do dharma practice, but whatever practice I do, I would dedicate the merits for her easy passing when the time comes, and for a swift and good rebirth. This is a fact of life that all of us have to face. Rinpoche had said a few times recently that some among us, or close to us would be facing death soon. I take that message very personally.
My heart goes out to this wonderful lady who has lived a rich and fulfilled life. A simple life filled with laughter, happiness, love and a positive attitude, caring, compassionate and full of wisdom. Even though she claims she has no religion, yet the life she leads is what the Buddha taught, to have compassion and wisdom.
Thank you, Rinpoche, for sharing this wonderful article.
I echo what Andrew said about learning from this blog. I certainly learnt more from this blog than all the years that I have spent in school – all the way to college.
This lady proves again that life is best lived through giving and helping others. What a fantastic story!
Whoever said that monks do not know life because they have not seen much of life by being stuck in monasteries ARE ALL SO SO WRONG!
In actual fact, monks may know more about life than those who apparently live their lives to the fullest!
The greatest teachers are those who teach from their own experiences, because they understand each subject matter personally.
Rinpoche is such a teacher! That is why we all love him so and are happily learning from him.
By the way, I really like the Chit Messages. It’s really cool. Type Pad does have a lot of functions. Rinpoche is always improving!
What a lady! It’s interesting that although she professes no religion, by her actions of kindness and compassion for others, non-attachment and lightheartedness, she is rather Buddhist by life philosophy! So there we go – the secret of longevity – generosity for others and while she tries to solve problems, she accepts it if she cannot. That sounds like a stressless life.
Thank you for sharing this lovely article, Rinpoche.
WOW! How incredibly insightful this person is. Perhaps an imprint from her previous lives or perhaps she is here to teach us all a great lesson.
Everything that she says is so simple yet profound (as things should be!). Her story on how her mother gave away the pot of potatoes to the starving beggar with child touched a core in me.
I remember in a period of my blessed and priviledged life, when my father left us, we too fell into dire straits with not much on our plate for a short while. My mother’s family came to our aid and we came out of it stronger but I remember vividly how my mother would sacrifice her own meals for us and still go to work each day hungry. Of course she would not let on that she had not eaten and would claim she did. Somehow I knew and I remember hating my father for the situation we were in. Perhaps I still do!
This story makes me realise two things:
1. How much my mother has sacrificed for us and I believe will continue to do so every chance she gets and how thankful and humbled am I by her selflessness. If only we all viewed others as our own mothers… I am sure this world would be a much better place!
2. Life is really too short to hold on to a grudge and/or not forgive. Surely Madam Tsu is a living example of how we can make our lives “lighter” without all the baggage we impose on ourselves and just live and laugh!
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing. I have learnt more here in your blog then in my 39 years of life. Truly inspiring! I remain with folded hands and much love