一九七九年，我跟眾多苦難的同胞，幸運地在國家－－越南淪亡前，平安地移居法國。臨走時我師父（一九七七年授我三皈依）的徒弟要我設法親近美國一位高僧－－上度下輪法師。我於是到處找；還透過僑居美國的中國朋友代為打聽這位法師在哪裡。
有一天，聽說有一位中國籍法師帶領弘法團到法國，心裡真是高興極了。在法會上有一百多人來聽開示，其中有六人立刻發心斷殺持長齋；另有十多人決心在十齋日戒殺茹素。我呢？在苦等了十一年的度輪法師始終不曾出現的情況下，決定不再等了，我要和其他五十六人一樣，當場請求皈依。
今年（一九九七）分別是六九、七一、六一歲的盧果銀、鄭親珠、郭金鸞三人，聯袂於趕來參加《萬佛寶懺》，滿臉紅光，娓娓道來「萬里尋找度輪法師」的奇遇記。
她們異口同聲地說：「啊！好事多磨哦！當我們申請皈依的時候，竟讓上人拒絕了。上人說：『你們早就皈依過了，已經有你們的師父，不可以又要皈依我。』」我們聽了猶如晴天霹靂，難過得傻在一旁不知如何是好。幸好，有人急中生智，勇敢地回稟上人：「我們的國家淪亡了，再也見不到我們師父了，我們已經有十多年沒有師父了。」上人聽了，這才滿了大家的願望，從此我們總算有了慈悲的師父得以依止修行。
雖說是踏破鐵鞋無覓處，飽嚐尋尋覓覓的淒苦，找不到那位度輪法師；但是皇天不負苦心人，能得遇宣公大善智識，大家都慶幸再三。誰也沒有察覺到近在眼前的師父宣公，正是苦尋多年不得的度輪法師。
那是皈依後一段日子了，我們各自請到一本〈上人開示錄〉，閱讀之餘不忍釋手。啊！赫然發現「新」的師父就是度輪法師時，非同小可，半天都按捺不下悲欣交集的情緒。直到現在，從一九九Ｏ年到一九九七年的今天，想起來都仍禁不住熱淚盈眶。
盧果銀、郭金鸞、和其他同時皈依的道友們，都感受到上人的大威德力，攝受了流離失所多時，求法若渴的有情眾生。她們說：「聽師父講法，沒有那種熱騰騰叫人興奮的感覺，而是一種安詳平靜的氣氛，形成一股力量，幫助我們在亡失國土後，更要堅固道心走向極樂淨土。」木訥的鄭親珠坐在一旁靜靜地聽著，頷首贊許同參道友口裡敘述的「我們師父」。最後，她也說了：「我喜歡上人的法，所以我要皈依上人。」
盧果銀還提到從一九九Ｏ年皈依後，連著九一、九二、九五、九七年回到聖城，各人都受了五戒、菩薩戒。她們停留在聖城的時間也正逐年遞增，今年（一九九七）長達兩個半月。每次從法國出發前，一定有人－－即便是外教人士－－都託她們把「供養儀」帶上，好在抵達聖城的時候，隨喜恭敬供養三寶和上人。
她還去信給早先那位老師父（現年八十歲，駐錫越南），稟明「受戒」之事。老師父高興地在回函上寫著：「這是過去生奠定下來的殊勝大福德因緣啊！」
郭金鸞稱：「就是那次在法國華人區的法會護法人員佈置會場時，有人因求好心切而引起爭執。法會開始後，師父囑人交下一張字條給那位憤憤不平的護法人員。該員一時忙得無暇細看紙條內容，隨即往口袋中一塞。稍後意識到字條是師父給的「殊榮」，於是趕緊從口袋理掏出來讀。讀完後，慚愧得紫了一張氣得發青的臉，拉著同伴直說：「師父怎麼知道的？剛才我們吵架的時候，師父並不在場啊？」字條上上人寫著：「難忍能忍；忍別人所不能忍。」有許多的人都領會到一項可貴的經驗：那就是：「我們好幸福啊！師父無時無刻不在默默中教化我們往正知、正見、正信、正念的路上，筆直走去。」
目前聖城沒有足夠的法師可以前往法國領眾修行，於是她們請示上人，獲准現場錄下每天萬佛城大眾共修的功課，及各種不同法會時所唸誦的經咒：《普賢行願品》、《地藏經》、《阿彌陀經》、《大悲懺》等等。每天除了各自在家做完必修的功課外，還按時集會聆聽錄音帶，舉行共修法會。早課也認真誦〈楞嚴咒〉。她們本來覺得會背大悲咒課也認真誦〈楞嚴咒〉。她們本來覺得會背大悲咒就夠了，不想再背五百多句的〈楞嚴咒〉。後來上人的美籍弟子告訴她們：「我是美國人，都學師父教的；你們中國人怎麼不學呢？」因此把又長又難的楞嚴咒全背下來了。郭金鸞特別指出：「很奇怪，不知不覺順口就背好了。」三人童心未泯，為這一連串的妙事頻頻點首，開心地笑著。 |
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“ In 1979 I safely immigrated to France with a large group of Vietnamese compatriots right before the fall of Vietnam. Before my departure, a disciple of my teacher (with whom I had received the Three Refuges in 1977) urged me to find a way to draw near an eminent monk in the United States by the name of Dharma Master To Lun. I searched everywhere and even asked Chinese friends in the United States to make inquiries for me.
“One day I heard that a Chinese Dharma Master was on a Dharma-propagating tour in France. I was overjoyed. Over a hundred people attended the Venerable Master’s lecture, and when it was over, six people immediately decided to stop killing and become vegetarians. More than ten others resolved to be vegetarian on the ten vegetarian days of the month. After waiting eleven years for Dharma Master To Lun to show up, ‘having worn out shoes with metal soles’ looking for him, I finally gave up hope and joined fifty-six others in requesting to take refuge that day.”
Coming together to join the Jeweled Repentance of Ten Thousand Buddhas this year (1997), with rosy, glowing faces the three women—Lü Guoyin, Zhen Qinzhu, and Guo Jinluan—aged sixty-nine, seventy-one, and sixty-one, told their extraordinary story of their ten-thousand-mile search for Dharma Master To Lun.
They said in unison, “Ah, there are many obstructions when you want to do something good. When we applied to take refuge, the Venerable Master refused to grant permission. He said, ‘You have all taken refuge long ago and have a teacher, so you cannot take refuge with me.’ His pronouncement was like a peal of thunder out of the blue, and we were dumbstruck and at a loss for what to do. Fortunately, one of us had her wits about her and bravely explained to the Master, ‘Our country has fallen and we will never see our teacher again. We have already been without a teacher for more than ten years.’
“When the Master heard that, he finally granted our sincere wish to take him as our teacher and transmitted the Three Refuges to us. Although we had “worn out the metal soles of our shoes in our futile search,” Heaven did not fail to grant us our sincere wish and now we had a compassionate teacher on whom we could rely in our cultivation. Although we had not found Dharma Master To Lun, we could congratulate ourselves for having met this greatly wise spiritual teacher. None of us realized that the teacher in front of us was the Dharma Master To Lun we had been searching for all those years.
“Some time after we had taken refuge, we each obtained a book of the Venerable Master’s Dharma talks. We were overjoyed with it and could hardly bear to part with it. We were totally amazed to discover that our “new” teacher was none other than Dharma Master To Lun. This was not a small matter. For half a day we could not suppress our mixture of joy and sorrow. Since we found out in 1990 until now, 1997, every time we think of it tears well up in our eyes.”
Lü Guoyin, Guo Jinluan, and the others who took refuge at that time felt that the Master’s awe-inspiring virtue gathered in all the long-lost living beings who had thirstily sought the Dharma for such a long time. They said, “When we listened to the Master speak Dharma, we didn’t feel excited. Rather, his words gave us a sense of peace and calm. They gave us the strength after we had lost our country to bolster our resolve and advance towards the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.” Zhen Qinzhu sat quietly, smiling and nodding her head in agreement as her fellow cultivators described “our Master.” She herself added, “I liked the Master, so I took refuge with him.”
Lü Guoyin also said that after taking refuge in 1990, in 1991 and 1992 they came to the Sagely City and individually received the five precepts and the Bodhisattva precepts. Each year they stayed longer at the Sagely City, staying a total of two and a half years this last time. Each time before they set out, people, even non-Buddhists, would give them donations to offer to the Triple Jewel and to the sage-monk, the Venerable Master.
Lü Guoyin even wrote to her original elder teacher (now 80 years old and living in Vietnam) to tell him that they had taken the precepts. Her old teacher wrote in reply, “This is due to supreme blessings established in past lives.”
Guo Jinluan said, “At that time when the Chinese laity in France were setting up the hall for the Dharma Session, there was an argument because everyone was too eager to make things perfect.” After the Dharma Session began, the Master asked someone to pass a slip of paper to the angry layperson. Not understanding what it was, the layperson busily stuffed it into her pocket without glancing at the contents. A little later, when she realized that the piece of paper was from the Venerable Master—a great honor—she quickly dug it out of her pocket and read it. After reading it, her face, which was pale from anger, turned purple in shame. She grabbed her companion and asked, “How did the Master know?” The Master had written, “Endure what is difficult to endure. Bear what others cannot bear.” Many people later had this valuable realization: “We are so lucky because the Master is constantly and invisibly teaching us and guiding us on the straight path towards proper knowledge, proper views, proper faith, and proper mindfulness.” |
