For the month of January, Jian Hu Shifu—Shifu means "teacher" or "master"—taught young students at Sunnyvale's Chung Tai Zen Center a lesson on charity and compassion that resulted in $24,000 being raised to aid tsunami-affected areas in Southeast Asia.

As an offshoot of its Ancient Wisdom Enhancing School of Mindfulness and Enlightenment (AWESOME) program, the Zen Center started a program called K.I.D.S. C.A.R.E., which stands for Kindness in Daily Saving, Children Active in Relief Efforts.

Starting at the beginning of the year—about a week after the tsunami hit—the 50 students in the youth program began a month of saving their allowance and snack money. As part of their pledge to save, the parents of the 6- to 16-year-old students agreed to match what the students donated.

"We wanted to show the students they could be active in the relief efforts," Hu said. "We wanted students to be thinking about the situation throughout the month. That is an important part of developing compassion."

After a month, the students were able to save $2,000—matched with an additional $2,000 by parents—to go with the $20,000 already raised by donations from adult disciples at the Zen Center.

Once the money is collected and properly recorded, Hu said the group plans to send it to a branch of the Zen Center in Thailand, to aid efforts there. On Feb. 26, Mayor Dean Chu visited the center to commend its efforts and discuss charity and community work with the students.

For the students at the center, there are benefits of charity beyond just helping the needy, because charity is an essential part of Zen Buddhist teachings.

Hu says the most important part of charity is to make it truly selfless, by learning not to do charity work for personal gain but simply because it needs to be done. To do charity for personal gain—a facet of greed—is one of the "poisons of the mind" that Zen Buddhists try to rise above on their path toward Nirvana.

The Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Taiwan—of which the Sunnyvale center is one of 80 branches—does some low-key charity work, but the primary focus is religious teachings. According to Hu, in Sunnyvale the monastery has always donated to homeless shelters and local efforts. K.I.D.S. C.A.R.E. is the monks' first major international effort.

Hu and Shek said they hope to turn K.I.D.S. C.A.R.E. into an ongoing charity effort, to continue teaching the lessons of charity and compassion to students.

"What we want is a persistent effort," Hu said. "It's not enough just to do charity once in a while."