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The following events happened before I left the home-life:
One day in 1989, I planned to make an offering of money to the Venerable Master. I didn’t have anyone to accompany me to the bank, and I was afraid of being robbed, so I placed my palms together before the Master’s photo and prayed everything would go well. I withdrew the money and then went to Gold Buddha Sagely Monastery. As soon as I stepped in the door, I saw the Master coming down the stairs. He asked me,
“Is something the matter?” I had just been wondering where to put the money so it would be safe. I immediately took the money out and offered it to the Master. The Master said,
“OK!” I then bowed and withdrew.
In 1992, I wanted to go to the Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas to participate in the Jewelled Repentance before Ten Thousand Buddhas, but I hadn’t found anyone to accompany me. I faced the Venerable Master’s photo and said,
“Master, I probably can’t go to the Sagely City to join the Jewelled Repentance before Ten Thousand Buddhas this year, because I don’t know English and there’s no one to take me.” After two days passed, a Dharma Master came from Seattle to Gold Buddha Sagely Monastery to take care of some matters. The Venerable Master wanted her to go to the Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, and so I went with her to bow in the repentance ceremony.
In the afternoon of July 13, 1991, I went to the Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas to receive the Bodhisattva precepts. After the newly-ordained Bhikshunis walked out of the Ordination Hall, the laypeople waited in front of the Patriarchs’ Hall for the Precept Masters to come out and to be photographed with us. When I didn’t see the Venerable Master come out, I felt very bad. I thought the Master must not be feeling well. I didn’t feel like eating dinner or going to evening recitation, and so I went back to the dorm to wash my clothes and rest. When I was walking back to the Buddhahall at 7:30 p.m. to hear the Sutra lecture, I saw the Master in the distance, wearing a yellow sash and walking slowly from the Patriarchs’ Hall into the Buddhahall. I rushed to the Buddhahall to bow to the Master, but the Master had vanished, and the other people were still sitting down. After bowing to the Buddhas, I walked into the Patriarchs’ Hall. Seeing two Dharma Masters there, I asked them,
“Did the Venerable Master just come by here?” They said no. I told them I had just seen the Master. They said,
“It must be because you were thinking of the Master
that the Master manifested himself for you to see.”
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