"You can tell whether a person has cultivation from his eyes. You can tell whether he has the Way from his style of walking." This was what Bhikshuni Heng Cai shared with her fellow cultivators in a class in 1989, not long after she had enrolled at Proper Dharma Buddhist Academy in Taiwan. In the five years since then, she has left the home life, taken the precepts, and become a Bhikshuni, and she has shown a steady and content disposition all along. As she has matured in cultivation and age, her inner radiance has also seemed to grow.
Before studying Buddhism, she had worked for several years. Whenever she saw a temple, she would bow without knowing the meaning behind it. Seeing worldly people busily indulging the five desires in the quest for fame and profit, thus bringing the moral standard lower day by day, she felt that living in the world was truly suffering. At a layperson's recommendation, she read a book about the benefits of studying Buddhism and becoming vegetarian. From the Buddha's teaching of compassion, she learned that all living beings have the Buddha-nature and can become Buddhas. Therefore, we should treat all living beings equally and see them all as relatives. This inspired her to resolve to cultivate the Way.
In 1988, when the Venerable Master Hua went to Taiwan to propagate the Dharma, she entered the Buddhist Academy through a friend's introduction. She was so delighted by the comportment of the left-home people that she resolved to leave the home-life under a Good and Wise Advisor who cultivated pure and ascetic practices. In 1989 when the Venerable Master returned to Taiwan, the conditions were ripe and she fulfilled her wish to leave home. At the end of that year she came to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. She will never forget the experience of studying the precepts in the Precept Hall, for it helped her to understand how important precepts are to a cultivator, and set down a solid foundation for her cultivation.
She makes her best effort to singlemindedly support the Way-place. Although she isn't talkative, her remarks contain much principle. Being easy to get along with, willing to take on any kind of toil, and rendering service in silence, she has become a natural role model for her fellow cultivators and is welcomed everywhere. People who work honestly, diligently, and untiringly like her, are indispensable staff members who keep the Way-place running. |
