The Bodhi Lectern
INTRODUCING
THE EMINENT DHARMA PROTECTOR
UPASIKA
KUO TSONG BACH
Upasika
Kuo Tseng (Sunny) Bach was born in September 1948, and raised in New York City,
one of two daughters. When she was still an infant visiting her grandparents she
died, temporarily, and then rumbled back to life with violent internal shaking.
As a young child she was very sensitive and aware of her surroundings, and even
then she wondered how people made it through the suffering of life. When she was
twelve she discovered a picture of the Buddha in a magazine, and made an altar
for it, an unusual thing to do for someone who had not studied Buddhism, had no
Buddhist friends, and young as she was, had no contact with Buddhism. She has
maintained an altar to the Buddha ever since.
After
a typical high school career, she went on to many majors at five different
colleges. She took an assortment of different Jobs, and tasted a variety of
cultural artifacts and styles in the same experimental way—looking, searching,
investigating, and always finally penetrating through to find them false and
illusory. Not yet having discovered the ultimate teaching which reveals the
emptiness behind all appearances, she moved restlessly from one thing to
another, worked, studied religions, dropped out, traveled, and finally got
married.
Continuing
to travel and search after she was married, while she and her husband were
visiting some friends in Oregon, she heard the name "Abbot," and
instantaneously knew, in a moment when everything became unusually clear and
understood, that he was to be her teacher. She also heard the Great Compassion
Mantra, and contemplating "great compassion" she settled into a solid
feeling of protection and security, and could "see very well in the
dark." With her interest in Buddhism awakened, she spent the next period of
her life in a small seacoast town investigating the teachings and learning the
Heart Sutra. Later she and her husband traveled to Canada intending to take up
farming with some friends, but an intense desire to meet her teacher, the
arrival of several issues of Vajra Bodhi Sea, and a desire to meet people who
were honestly cultivating cut this trip short, and she and her husband left for
San Francisco and the Buddhist Lecture Hall.
When
they arrived In San Francisco to study with the Venerable Master Hua and became
disciples they began to study the Sutra of the Past Vow of Earth Store
Bodhisattva. The Sutra spoke primarily about filial piety, which is what the
Master lectured on the first night they heard the Dharma. The Sutra also
mentioned certain things to do if, for instance, a child was expected to be
born, and the parents wished for a good child. The Sutra said that, the name of
Ti Tsang (Earth Store) Bodhisattva should be recited ten thousand times within a
short time after the birth, and that no parties involving liquor or meat should
be held on behalf of the child.
Since
they were expecting a baby they did what was required. The baby, when born and
for several months thereafter would cease, crying upon the recitation of Ti
Tsang's name. Now she likes Amit5bha. She is an especially bright and happy
child, and is also a disciple of the Master with the Dharma name Kuo Fang.
Kuo
Tsong decided to mantra the baby's crib with the Great Compassion Mantra as a
precaution against possible disaster. Not long afterwards a fire burned most of
the top of the apartment building In which they live, and their apartment on the
top floor was covered with flames and thick smoke. After the fire was put out it was found that the crib, and all the
blankets and baby toys in it did not even smell of smoke, how much the less show
signs of being scorched, and the image of Avalokitesvara the Bodhisattva of
great compassion, above the crib was also untouched. Outside in the street while
the fire raged they recited the Great Compassion Mantra and felt like they were
on lotus flowers, and "none of the local demons could get near them."
Before they chopped through the wall where the altar was placed, the
firemen carefully moved the altar and all the images to a safe place.
On
another occasion her little daughter, Kuo Fang, ate a big piece of hard candy.
It became lodged in her throat in such a way that it wouldn't move, and she
couldn't breathe. She turned blue and collapsed, and when her father picked her
up she was limp and still. Her parents were panic-stricken, and rushed the child
before the Master, pleading with him to save her. He didn't touch the child but
merely pointed his hand at her throat. All of a sudden Kuo Fang came to life as
the candy miraculously melted.
Her
family has had many remarkable responses from reciting Earth Store Bodhisattva's
name. They have been free of illnesses, and ever since some serious skin rashes
immediately disappeared upon recitation of the name, they have recited it 1,000
times a day. Once when Kuo Tsong was getting very scattered in her recitation
she watched-first amazed, then awestruck and terrified—as a creature grew out
of the image of Earth Store Bodhisattva. She
started reciting more vigorously and then noticed that the creature didn't have
any teeth. The situation then became a little humorous, and the creature merged
into the immediate environment, where it now seems to be lending its benevolent
protection. Kuo Tsong has said that she knows that many blessings have been
derived from reciting Earth Store's name, and that they have witnessed only
minor manifestations of a truly inconceivable response.
"Ever since
I became Involved with the study and practice of Buddhism I have witnessed
inconceivable responses which always help to pull people out of the suffering of
their own karmic net. Once when I was about to scold my mother a ray of light
shot out of the Master's picture and stopped me cold. Later when we took the picture out to reframe it we found that it had
reproduced itself on the backing paper. So many times I have had illnesses of
body and discomforts of mind cured by a rap on the head at Gold Mountain.
Sometimes it only takes walking in the door.
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