Human's mind covey knowledge, thought, and sentiment. Man's spirit is determined by the structures of one's knowledge, ideology and sentiment. It is action itself combines and forms these three elements. According to empirical observation, action changes one's ideology and sentiment, and decides the way we receive knowledge. Action changes the state of one's spirit, especially, the altruistic action. The action with value shall bring people into a healthier, energetic and stronger state of spirit. As I conduct the researches on Tzu Chi volunteers for many years and bring me to conclude that the altruistic action changes the state of volunteers' minds, and value system that been empowered and given to volunteers also contribute their establishment of positive spirituality. Spiritual transcendence and alleviation may not be achieved by merely psychological analysis, for understanding is not adequate to alleviate spiritual suffering. It is only through action one can achieve the transcendence of spirituality. David Hawking stated that value and compassion would change the spiritual states of people. It is very true from my research on Tzu Chi that volunteers acquire spiritual strength from committed value that advocated and reinforced often by Venerable Cheng Yen. Pierre Bourdieu proposes that the materials which people contact with shall change one's disposition, and this theory also been proved by Tzu Chi recycling volunteers when they engaged in the environmental mission. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky believed that people learn knowledge and ideologies form the person that he interacted with often. Therefore, material, person and value that merged into action shall contribute the spiritual transcendence of volunteers. It is the value system that appears in volunteer's action and transfers into the material and the person, that specific action engaged with, produce the strength of spirituality to volunteers. The senior Tzu Chi volunteers empower the value to the junior volunteers and build the social milieu that enables the core value of Tzu Chi to be applied and actualized. The milieu that built by Tzu Chi contributes the spiritual transcendence of volunteers who might have been suffered in psychological disorder. This essay aims to elaborate the connections between, value, action, material and person that intertwined altogether to impact the state of human spirit. The material we interacted in action, the person we engaged in our life, all contribute to the state of our spirits. Especially, it is the value system that people uphold determines the alleviation and transcendence of human spirit.
