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2003年10月8日比丘尼恆庵在中國東北往生，1991年恆庵師於萬佛城受具足戒，過去參加王鳳儀的道德會，曾是一位中國大陸知名的演說家。下文部份內容由恆庵師弟子提供。
恒庵師，俗名門翼屏，一九一四年出生於今黑龍江省雙城市（原吉林省雙城縣），今年十月八日圓寂；滿族，十三歲喪母，僅讀過一年書，但她生性好學，常打著電筒在被子中看書，故能年幼而知今古。1933年她19歲，參加王善人道德會，經40天訓練後，在中國巡迴演講。因為她有通達人性的天賦，兼有堅實的正見和辯才，故有傑出的表現；二十歲出頭就被譽四大演說家之一。有一次她跟著道德會去拉林鎮演講時，她認識當時十六歲的上人。上人對她關於人性的分析與見解，留下深刻印象。
一九八七年，她接到上人兩度函邀，赴美國講學，並在世界婦女代表大會上就女權發言，榮獲倫理學博士。不久，上人邀她在萬佛城常住，並開講座。上人是這樣介紹她：「我們都需要先學習如何建立起做人的基礎。佛教徒應該首先發展人格；要發展人格，就要能認識自己的本性；認識本性，才能增強所長補足所短。小時候我去道德會學習認識本性，研究自己本性上有什麼過多和不足的，這對以後的修道是有很大的幫助。門老居士是東北人，她善於解說身心性三界，識智心和身四處，金木水火土五行。我特別請她來替我教你們，好延續先聖之知識，以開啟後代和平之路。」
一九九零年，上人自歐洲歸來，代眾生受苦而病倒；恒庵師深受感動，於同年彌陀誕發心出家，一九九一年觀音誕時受戒，戒期一百零八天。
九一年底向上人告辭，回黑龍江省哈爾濱市。臨行前上人交給恒庵師四千美金，她將這筆錢大部分用在家鄉佛教事業。先在哈爾濱市極樂寺掛單；一九九三年在三緣寺附近的哈爾濱市平房區四屯子籌辦極樂精舍，從一間小平房發展到可容納近百人的道場
(四屯子地處貧窮的農村，期間艱辛，可想而知)。並於一九九五年農曆三月十六日（上人誕辰日），經中國政府批准，極樂精舍正式成立；時恒庵師八十有餘矣。
恒庵師精通儒學及道家五行學說，入佛門後勤研佛學。其一生致力教育不遺餘力，特別是婦女教育；認為婦女乃國民之母，惟有女人素質提高，民族素質才能提高。回東北這些年她大力宣揚上人的六大宗旨，流通上人的書籍和錄音帶。她從不讓弟子記錄她的任何言語，認為她不過是重複以前上人的話而已。受其感化而出家的男女眾有二十多位，信眾遍及北京、武漢，天津及山東等地。二零零三年十月八日示寂於極樂精舍，世壽九十，十五日荼毗，三千餘人參加，在當地極為罕見。火化後，得舍利子，及無數舍利花，特別七顆牙舍利（她臨終前只剩七牙）。恒庵師回國後仍極為懷念師父宣公上人和萬佛聖城，曾言自己去世後最想去的是西方極樂世界和萬佛聖城兩個地方；臨終留言：將骨灰撒到海邊，流回萬佛聖城（因此她的弟子於二零零三年10月18日，乘火車到遼寧省海邊城市大連，次日將其骨灰撒到太平洋）。
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On October 8,
2003, at the age of 89, Bhikshuni Heng An passed away in
Manchuria, China. She received full ordination at the City
of Ten Thousand Buddhas in 1991 and was a nationally
renowned speaker for the Virtue Society founded by Wang
Fengyi. Part of the information was provided by one of
Bhikshuni Heng An's disciples.
Bhikshuni Heng An (whose layname was
Men Yiping) passed away on October 8, 2003. She was born in
Shuangcheng County in Jilin Province (present-day
Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province), Manchuria, in
1914. She lost her mother at 13. Although she only received
one year of formal schooling, she loved to learn and often
read books by flashlight under her quilt, thereby mastering
ancient and modern learning at a young age.
Men Yiping joined the Virtue Society in
1933 at age nineteen. After a 40-day training period, she
began giving lectures throughout China. Gifted with an
intuitive understanding of human nature, firm in her upright
views, and eloquent and dynamic in her presentations, by her
early twenties, Ms. Men was hailed as “one of the four great
lecturers of the nation.” Once her speaking circuit took her
to Lalin, where the Venerable Master, then sixteen, heard
her speak and was impressed by her proper views and her
discussion of human nature.
In 1987, she received invitations from
the Venerable Master inviting her to speak at the City of
Ten Thousand Buddhas (CTTB). Also, at the International
Conference on Women, she spoke on Women's Rights and was
awarded a Doctorate of Ethics. Soon afterwards, the Master
invited Ms. Men to give a lecture series at CTTB. In his
introduction the Master commented:
“We need to first learn how to
establish the foundation for being a person. Buddhists must
first work on developing their human character. In order to
do that, we must first recognize our own nature. By doing
that, we can learn to enhance our good qualities and make up
for our weak points. When I was young, I studied how to
recognize my own nature by attending Virtue Society
meetings. There, we investigated the excesses and
deficiencies within our natures. Later this turned out to be
very useful in cultivating the Way.”
“Elder Upasika Men has come from
Manchuria, bringing her expertise in the matters of the
three realms (nature, mind, and body), the four domains
(will, intellect, heart, and physical plane), and the five
elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water). I personally
invited her to come to teach all of you on my behalf in
order to perpetuate the knowledge of the ancient sages and
to open a road for peace for future generations.”
In 1990, upon returning from Europe
with a delegation, the Venerable Master Hua became ill in
the process of taking the suffering of living beings upon
himself. Deeply inspired, Ms. Men made a resolve and left
home that year on Amitabha's Birthday. She was ordained on
Guanyin Bodhisattva's Birthday in 1991 and attended a
108-day precept training.
In the winter of 1991, when Bhikshuni
Heng An bid farewell to the Ven. Master before her departure
to Harbin, China, the Ven. Master gave her $4,000, which she
spent mostly on local Buddhist activities. She stayed at the
Ultimate Bliss Monastery in Harbin first. In 1993, she
planned to build Ultimate Bliss Hermitage at Si Tunzi near
Three Conditions Monastery. Originally a little house, it
was later developed into a Way-place to accomodate almost
100 people. (Si Tunzi was a poor farm village that endured
unimaginable hardships.) The hermitage received official
approval from the Chinese government in 1995 on the
Venerable Master's birthday, when Bhikshuni Heng An was in
her eighties.
Equipped with a thorough understanding
of Confucianism and the Five Elements as explained by
Daoism, diligently studied Buddhism, Bhikshuni Heng An
devoted herself to advocating education, especially for
women. She felt that since women are the mothers of a
nation, only when their quality improves will the quality of
the society improve. After her return in Manchuria, she
actively promoted the Six Great Guidelines and the Venerable
Master's books and tapes, never allowing her disciples to
record her instructions since she was repeating the
Venerable Master's words. She inspired over twenty men and
women to become monks and nuns, and also inspired many lay
people in Beijing, Wuchang/Hankou, Tianjing and Shandong.
She passed away on October 8 at Ultimate Bliss Hermitage, at
age of 89. Thousands of disciples and faithful attended her
cremation ceremony on October 15. Many sharira seeds and
sharira clusters were found in the ashes, including seven
teeth sharira. (She only had seven teeth when alive.) On the
night of October 18, about twenty of her disciples carried
her ashes and went by train to the coastal Dalian City, and
the next day they scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean
fulfilling her last wish: “Let my ashes flow to the City of
Ten Thousand Buddhas through the sea.
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