Bhikshuni Heng Yin says, "Gwan Yin Bodhisattva gave me the courage to fulfill my resolve to the left-home life. Reciting her name always gives me peace and the strength to cultivate. With great compassion, Gwan Yin Bodhisattva contemplates the sounds of the world and uses a thousand hands and eyes to rescue living beings from suffering. This kind of selfless wonderful function is just the antidote for counteracting my selfish ego and arrogance. I vow to learn all the Dharma doors of Gwan Yin Bodhisattva, so that I can expediently gather living beings into the Buddhadharma. Especially now that the Buddhadharma has taken root in the West, we need to translate the scriptures into Western languages on a wide scale, so that Westerners can taste the full flavor of the wonderful Dharma."

How did Heng Yin herself meet up with the Buddhadharma? She was an A-student at the University of Texas who enjoyed all the ease that blessings can bring: keen intelligence, material abundance, extensive travel, and best of all a family that always seemed happier to her than any of the people she saw around her. Venerable Master Hua has said, "Good fortune is like a bank account: accumulated deeds make a store of blessings. But if you just spend your blessings by enjoying them, soon you will have none. To undergo suffering is to end suffering, for suffering which is endured with courage will never have to be endured again."

"I remember that the Master talked about how he bowed when he was young," said Heng Yin, when asked about the first lecture she ever heard the Ven. Master give. "He said that his arrogance and anger changed after he began to bow every day." That first lecture Heng Yin heard was in November of 1989 when the Ven Master and a delegation visited the University of Texas. There hadn't been a lot of publicity about the lecture and so the turn-out was not large. But, as the Sixth Patriarch put it, "One's own nature contains all seeds and with the timely rain they sprout." For as a result of that lecture, a Buddhist Group was formed at University of Texas and the membership quickly grew to thirty. The group is still in existence and growing, and some of its members have visited the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas.

Also as a result of that lecture, Heng Yin came to The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas the first time in June of 1990 for a week's meditation session: "There were many monks and nuns. Walking 'round and 'round the hall with them, I couldn't tell the monks from the nuns and I didn't speak to anyone the whole week, but I had a feeling I belonged there and that I wanted to be one of them."

Returning home, she made a vow that she would go back to the Sagely City as soon as possible. Meanwhile, her "happy" life had taken some turns and she began to experience the bitter taste of suffering, both directly in her relationships with people and vicariously through her less-fortunate friends' experiences. She began to read books about Buddhism. One primary guidance she found in that reading was: if you want to enter the Buddha's teaching, you must first take refuge with the Triple Jewel. That summer she went to Taiwan and, seizing the first opportunity, she took refuge. Upon her return, she informed her parents that she was going to the Sagely City. On the day she was packed to leave, preparing to attend a Gwan Yin Bodhisattva Recitation Session, she received her acceptance into the Dharma Realm Buddhist university.

One time in an instructional talk by one of the Dharma Masters at the City, she was struck by a comment: "Amitabha Buddha is the father of us all. He is our true parent. The parents who bore us have a temporary relationship with us in this life." That made sense to Heng Yin. She had been fortunate to have parents who could provide her with security and happiness. Her parents were giving people-people with a deep concern for the welfare of education in the United States, people who worked hard on the practical level and planned for the time when they could realize loftier ideals. "My parents are so much better than I am," exclaimed Heng Yin. "Their generosity and empathy win my respect." But with the simple explanation by the Dharma Master, she was able to see them in a new perspective, without fear of abandoning her filial duty. After the session she called her parents to say she was staying to "try it out for a month."

Two months later, taking advantage of another first opportunity, she decided to leave the home-life. But she needed her parents written consent and they were visiting Hong Kong. Although they were not at all easy to locate, Heng Yin persisted, making many calls, until she finally reached them. " Isn't it too soon?" they asked. She replied, "This is the path I want to take and so sooner is better than later" They faxed their signed permission and Heng Yin's head was shaved on January 1, 1991.

Having drunk deeply of both the blessings and the sufferings that are to be found in this Saha world, Heng Yin reacted decisively to the conditions that led her into the Dharma. Once she had shaved her head, she plunged into the mastery of written and spoken Chinese, studied the precepts and deportment along with her sister-novices and taught in the schools. She soon began to travel with the delegations to help with translation and also practiced giving instructional talks.

Recently, in the September 1992 Seventh Transmission of the Three Platforms of Precepts, Heng Yin was selected the serve as Leader of the Shramanerikas.