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「如果我不結婚，那我長大以後該作什麼呢？」小沙彌尼果荷師出家前就被這個問題困擾著。曾有人告訴她，每一個人長大後都要結婚生子；她脫口而出地回答說：「我一定不會結婚的。」現在果荷師終於解開了當年的疑惑，找到了最圓滿的答案。
果荷師的父母是越南人，小時常帶她去禮佛。以後她每星期都去金輪聖寺學中文。搬到萬佛聖城前，鄰居告訴她要小心，因為出家人都是很嚴肅的。可是到了聖城完全改變了她對出家人的看法。
以前在他處寺廟她看到比丘在堂上唱歌，聽眾鼓掌；她覺得很奇怪，出家人怎麼會是這樣子的？聖城的出家人過著比較清淨的生活，也很和藹，並不嚴肅。她於是對自己說：「長大後我一定要出家。」沒想到在聖城育良小學讀了一年多就出家了。
那是有一次小沙彌剃度，她去觀禮後，滿心歡喜也想出家。三個月後，又舉行剃度法會，幾經周折，父母終於答應她跟著姐姐一塊兒出家。童心未泯的果荷師很坦白地承認：出家後才知道自己為什麼要出家，為了生死、度眾生。她為自己生命中所做的抉擇而感到慶幸。正是：
果上正直因地真，荷出宿願不染塵。
師懷悲天憫人志，願斷無明生死根。
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"What will I do when I grow up if I don't want to marry?" This was a question that bothered little Shramanerika Guo He Shi before she left the home life. Someone once told her that everyone has to marry and raise kids when she grows up. The child retorted, "I refuse to marry." Guo He Shi has now found the perfect answer to her question from those yesteryears.
Guo He Shi's parents are Vietnamese who often took their baby daughter to pay respects to the Buddhas. This child later attended weekly Chinese classes at Gold Wheel Monastery. Before moving to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, Guo He Shi's neighbors warned her about stern monks and nuns. Once the young lady reached the Sagely City though, this perspective changed.
When Guo He Shi saw Bhikshus sing for an applauding audi ence at another temple, she thought it strange, "Why are left- home people this way?" Sangha members at the Sagely City are a bit different; they live a more pure life, Guo He Shi later realized. In addition, they're kind rather than severe. Thus, she told herself, "I will be a nun when I grow up." Little did she know that she would become a novice after only a year at the Sagely City's Instilling Goodness Elementary School.
She was so happy after witnessing a head-shaving ceremony for young Shramaneras (novice monks) that she wanted to join the monastic life. Another head-shaving ceremony was due in three months. After some twists and turns, her parents finally agreed to let Guo He Shi and her older sister leave home. The innocent Guo He Shi admitted that she only knew why she wanted to leave the home life after she became a nun—for the sake of birth and death and for living beings. She was glad to have made this decision on her own. This verse describes her perfectly:
A fruit (Guo) of candor born from the causal ground of truth;
A lotus (He) untainted emerged from past vows.
The master (Shi) embraces the compassion of heaven and
empathizes with people,
Vowing to sever ignorance—the root of birth and death.
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