 恆白師，臺灣內壢人，自小環境坎坷：不滿一歲過繼與人；七歲養母自盡；九歲養父離家，由外祖母撫養；十一歲隨姐出嫁至臺中；十七歲就讀臺中女中時，姐姐事業失敗，只得輟學外出工作；半年後結婚，生了三個兒女。童年多病，長大失學，婚後夫妻不睦，深感人生多苦，色身家庭皆不可靠，便對觀音菩薩發願，若能平安撫養兒女長大，四十歲時願出家修行。
許願後，每想到四十歲就要出家，什麼都能看開了，倒能專心扮演「賢妻良母」的角色。暇時常閱讀佛書，廣欽老和尚開示出家先要消業障，所以1992年取得家人同意，搬入「中華佛教文化館」，在廚房當值，準備出家。隨眾作課之餘，常住交待的粗細等活，無不任勞任怨，盡力而為，贏得館內師生一致尊敬。
在家時，看上人的經典淺釋及開示有六、七年了，嚮往上人德行及萬佛城道風，但不知從何入門。於是每日禮拜上人法像，請求指點，並默念「宣公上人」聖號及「慈悲普度，信者得救成正覺；過化存神，禮之獲福悟無生。」
感應道交，1993年得以入學「臺北正法佛學院」。失學廿七年，重拾書本，說不盡心中的感激。入學時不僅家人同意，「文化館」的執事，還特別加菜送別呢！ 1995年3月25日在臺出家；2000年8月30日在萬佛城受具足戒；現派駐臺北法界印經會服務。
出家後學法器、唱誦及各種禮儀、戒律。平時除隨眾共修外，自己又定功課持《大悲咒》、《楞嚴咒》，誦《地藏經》……。但你要是問恆白師哪個法門最受用，她一定說持戒、念「阿彌陀佛」聖號，最受用最溫暖。 |
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Heng Bai Shi, who is from Neili, Taiwan, had a difficult childhood. She was entrusted to foster parents before the age of one. Her foster mother committed suicide when she was seven. Her foster father abandoned the family, and she was taken in by her maternal grandmother when she was nine. At age eleven she moved to Taichung with her newly married sister. When she was seventeen, she quit Taichung Girls High School to find a job after her sister's business failed. She got married half a year later and had three children. Having suffered chronic illness in childhood, forced to quit school as a teenager, and experiencing marital disharmony, Heng Bai Shi had tasted the deep suffering of life and realized that neither her physical body nor the family could be relied upon. She vowed to Guanyin Bodhisattva that if she raised her children successfully, she would leave home and cultivate at age forty.
From then on, she was able to be a virtuous wife and a good mother, enduring any hardship by bearing in mind that she would leave home at forty. She read Buddhist books in her spare time. Following Elder Master Guangqin's advice that those who want to leave home should first purge their karmic obstacles, she obtained her family's permission and moved to the Chinese Buddhist Culture Center, where she worked in the kitchen in preparation for leaving home. Besides attending ceremonies, she patiently and diligently did all chores, large and small, thus earning the respect of the entire faculty and student body.
Having spent six or seven years reading the Venerable Master's commentaries on the Sutras, she admired the Master's virtue and the traditions at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, but did not know how to draw nearer. She bowed daily to the Venerable Master's photo, praying for guidance, and silently recited "Venerable Master Hsuan Hua" and the verse, "His kindness and compassion rescue all; / Believers are liberated and perfect the Right Enlightenment. / Transforming beings wherever he goes, his spirit remains intact; / Those who venerate him obtain blessings and awaken to the Unproduced."
Her prayers were answered in 1993, when she enrolled in the Proper Dharma Buddhist Academy. After having been out of school for twenty-seven years, it was with indescribable gratitude that she picked up a textbook again. Not only did she have her family's approval when she left home, the manager of the Culture Center gave her a farewell banquet.
She left the home life in Taiwan on March 25, 1995, and was ordained at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas on August 30, 2000. She currently serves at the Dharma Realm Buddhist Books Distribution Society in Taipei.
After entering the monastic life, she learned to play Dharma instruments and lead ceremonies as well as studying various rituals and precepts. Besides attending regular ceremonies, she maintains her own practices of reciting the Great Compassion Mantra, the Shurangama Mantra, the Earth Store Sutra, etc. If you were to ask her to name her favorite practice, she would definitely say that holding precepts and reciting the Amitabha Buddha's name are the most useful and heart-warming. |
