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師父上人，各位道友：
十五年前，什麼是佛教，什麼是佛法，我是統統不知道。可是無形中有一個意識對我說：「哎！妳要去找，找妳過去走的路！」我覺得很奇怪，可是我一直找不著，所以很煩。
大概在一九八一年左右，我大弟介紹我看《大佛頂首楞嚴經淺釋》。我雖然看不懂，卻覺得好像是我要找的那條路。從那以後我心就安下來了，以後又找到了臺北法界印經會，得到很多上人的開示錄和書，也得到《智慧之源》，就將書中道理像講故事講給兩個孩子聽。我加油加醋加味，他們也聽得津津有味。
「法界」那時在臺南沒設道場，我們就去當地一座寺廟跟著誦《阿彌陀經》，念佛，近一年左右，很喜歡。一九八八年上人回臺弘法，到臺南正覺寺打三皈五戒時，我跟同修和兩個孩子去皈依了。很奇怪，我看了一年上人的書都不想吃素，可是從皈依那天起，心裡就說：「從今天開始，我絕不再煮葷的給你們吃了。」他們也被逼得吃素了。從那開始，我也更能夠深入上人所教的佛法了。
那時我好奇，想看看其他佛教徒或者法師寫的書，但很奇怪，其他一些知名法師的書，我看幾頁就看不下去了，覺得很不對機，還是上人的法，不知怎麼我就是非常喜歡。
當我剛看上人講解的《楞嚴經》時，一晚我夢中好像被個危險的東西追著，我穿過海洋，大概是跑到美國來了，因為我到的地方很像萬佛城的大悲院和喜捨院 -- 迴廊、建築物什麼都像。
一九九O年上人回臺灣弘法時，家父正病重，我發心去做義工，藉此迴向功德給父親，希望他早日康復。那段時間我看過上人說《大悲咒》的威神力多大，可是我就是不誦持。一直到《大悲懺》時，我看著懺文念，覺得「啊！觀世音菩薩那麼慈悲！我一定要求觀世音菩薩。好！我每天持《大悲咒》一百零八遍。」
一九九六年我來了萬佛城，可以說是被「騙」到學校去教中文。她們對我說：「哎！妳看起來很像教書的！妳可以去試試教中文，學校缺老師缺得很嚴重喲！」我聽說自己像老師，一高興，就去教了。
上課第一天我就嚇倒了，學生有躺地上的，有歪歪坐的，我想怎麼這樣！我又想我該學上人，不管什麼樣的人，我們要慈悲平等，觀機教導。所以《大悲咒》和上人教給我的心得，讓我一直教中文到現在。阿彌陀佛！
※編按：親恩師，原為林果蘭居士，2000年12月10日星期日慶祝阿彌陀佛誕時，在聖城落髮，其女為沙彌尼親毅師，較早落髮，現為本刊翻譯及初排。
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The Venerable Master and all friends in Dharma:
Fifteen years or so ago, I didn't know anything about the Buddhadharma. However, the idea came to me: "You must find the path that you walked upon in the past." I was puzzled.
Around 1981, my younger brother introduced to me a book called
A Simple Explanation of the Shurangama Sutra. I did not understand it, but I felt it to be the path I was looking for. Since then, my mind has settled down. Later, I found the Dharma Realm Buddhist Text Distribution Association and obtained from them
The Source of Wisdom, The Venerable Master's Instructional Talks, and many other books. I related the lessons from these books to my children like stories, spicing them up with my own "flavoring", and the kids savored them. During that time, the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association did not have a branch monastery in Tainan, so for nearly a year, we went to a local temple and recited the "Amitabha Sutra" and the name of the Buddha. We enjoyed this very much.
In 1988, the Venerable Master came to Taiwan to transmit the Three Refuges and the Five Precepts at the Proper Enlightenment Monastery in Tainan. I went with my husband and children to take refuge with him. Up to that time, I had not thought about becoming a vegetarian, but after taking refuge, I told my family: "From today onwards, I will not cook meat for you any more." Thus we all became vegetarians, and gradually I gained deeper insight into the Buddhadharma as taught by the Venerable Master. I had read some books by other Buddhists or Dharma Masters, but I could not read beyond a few pages even if they were works by renowned Dharma Masters. The Venerable Master's Dharma alone appealed to me. When I first started reading the Master's explanation of the
Shurangama Sutra, I had a dream. In it, I was being chased by something threatening. I ran along a path that cut right through the ocean. I think it meant that I came to the United States, because I arrived at a place where the corridors and the buildings resembled the Great Compassion House and the Joyous Giving House at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas.
In 1990 when the Venerable Master returned to Taiwan again, my father was critically ill. I made a vow to the Bodhisattvas to do volunteer work and transfer the merit to my father, so that he could recover. The Venerable Master had spoken of the awesome, beneficial powers of the Great Compassion Mantra. At that time I did not recite the Mantra. But when I bowed the Great Compassion Repentance, I was moved: "Guanshiyin Bodhisattva is so compassionate! Every day, I will recite the Great Compassion Mantra one hundred and eight times."
In 1996, I came to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas where I was "tricked" into teaching Chinese. They described it so wonderfully. "You look like a teacher! We are in dire need of teachers!" I was overjoyed to hear these words. However, on the first day, I was shocked by the students. Some of them were lying on the ground and some were slouching in their seats. It was not like a class at all. I thought, "How can this be?" But I tried to emulate the Venerable Master. "We must be compassionate and impartial towards all people as we wait for the right conditions to educate them." And it is the Great Compassion Mantra and the Venerable Master's teaching that guided me to continue. Amitabha!
※Editor's note: Chin-En Shi was known as Upasika Guo-Lan Lin before. She became a novice nun at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas on Sunday, December 10, 2000 during the celebration of Amitabha's Birthday. Her daughter, Shramanerika Chin-Yi Shi, had become a novice nun earlier and is currently doing translation and first-draft layout for this journal.
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