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男校校友吳適有：
阿彌陀佛！大家好，我叫吳適有，我一九九五年在聖城男校畢業。九一年我剛來時不會講英文，我在這個學校學到很多東西，所得的生活經驗非常寶貴，讓我永遠不會忘記。我有一個小故事，大概很多人都聽過了，不過請你耐心聽我講完。
來美前，我是臺灣浸信會基督徒，假如我來美國之後還是基督徒的話，我會到教會去上主日學。我為什麼會來上這個佛教學校呢？因為我想來美國讀書，爸媽就說，「假如你到美國念書，你得住校，因為我們不能跟你去。」我說，「好吧！雖然是佛教學校，但是我可以去美國。」於是我就來了。
記得剛來美國時我很緊張，在辦公室胡老師跟我談了一個半小時，解釋學校的規矩三次；一條一條講，還問我懂不懂？能不能遵守？這些規矩包括不能聽音樂、不能騎腳踏車、吃全素、穿制服、不交女友等等。一個半小時之後我心裡很害怕，他說，「假如你在暑期班五個禮拜後，我們覺得你表現不好，那就請你回臺灣去。」這樣子。我就說，「好吧！我只好好好地表現啦！」因為我帶了四大皮箱的行李來，我不想再搬回臺灣去。
暑期班剛開始 -- 其實我不覺得很難 -- 我學了一些英文字，像投球、傳球啊。因為我一天到晚打球，交了很多朋友，他們幫我度過這個過渡期。第一年很困難，要學英文，還得適應環境。還有，我每天都得去做晚課。因為我是基督徒，剛開始每次拜佛時，就說，「主耶穌基」，然後再拜下去。這樣經過大約有一年左右，也不知道自己為什麼這樣做。
記得小時媽媽跟我說，一分耕耘，一分收穫；你下了多少努力，就有多少成果。這四年的經驗，可算是一個很不錯的例子。我們來時有好幾個人不懂英文，但畢業時大部份人都得到了來時想做的事，包括進自己想進的大學。當然，人的生命是一個永遠不停的學習過程，這四年中我們確實學到很多。
我們剛開始在一起打球時，跟人比賽都輸得很慘，但在最後一兩年中，我們打得很好，為學校贏得很多籃球獎牌和獎盃，還很有名呢！人家都叫我們「佛教仔」。但最重要的是：我覺得我們這四年學到了上人，跟這裡其他法師和老師，想教導我們的東西。
先從我自己講，我剛來時脾氣非常暴躁，很容易發脾氣。當然，經過這多年的磨練，脾氣自然少了一點，但是還沒有很明顯的成果。一直到最近在五月份時，我到西沙加緬度的法界聖城參加「法界佛教青年會」的一個研討會時，和我以前高中時的老師維荷文博士（果廷居士）兩人一起主辦科學跟佛教的一個短短的研討會；會是八點鐘開始，八點十分時很多人都還沒到，有些人就開始緊張了，「哦！我們是不是先開始？或去找人啊？」情況不很安靜了。我不很在意地說：「沒有關係，才剛過八點，這又是個長週末，再等五分鐘。我話剛說完，已經認識我十年的維荷文博士就說了，「你脾氣沒那麼大了！我看你也老了。」這我才瞭解，雖然壞習慣剛在開始時很明顯，磨練它時也看不出什麼成果，但經過一段時間，我們就一定可以看到顯著的進步。
待續
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BOYS SCHOOL ALUMNUS FRANKLYN WU:
Amitabha! My name is Franklyn Wu and I graduated from the Boys' School in 1995. When I first came here in 1991, I didn't know how to speak English, yet I learned a lot in school. The life experiences I gained in the City were really valuable and I will never forget them. I'd like to share a short story that I believe many people have heard before. If that's the case, please be patient and listen to my story.
I was a Christian before I came to the United States. If I was still a Christian after I came here, I would go to a Christian school. Why did I come to study at a Buddhist school? It was because I wanted to come to the United States. My parents made a deal with me, "If you want to study in the United States, you have to attend a boarding school since we cannot go with you." I said, "Alright! Although it's a Buddhist school, at least I can go to the United States." So I came.
I remember being really nervous when I first came here. Mr. Hu interviewed me for one and a half hours in the office. He explained the school rules three times, going over them one by one and asking me if I understood and could follow them. The rules include: no music, no bicycles, be a vegetarian, wear a uniform, no girlfriends, etc. After one and a half hours, I was scared. He said, "If we feel your conduct is not satisfactory after five weeks of summer school, we will ask you to go back to Taiwan." Then I said, "Okay! I just have to behave myself!" I had brought four big suitcases with me, and I didn't want to carry them back to Taiwan.
It wasn't that hard. Summer school was really fun. The first day, I played basketball all day. The first English words I learned were 'shoot' and 'pass'. People fouled me all the time. I made a lot of friends. It was natural for me to go into the Buddha Hall and bow even though I didn't feel like bowing, and I didn't feel like reciting, because I was a Christian. I'll tell you this really funny story. You're going to laugh at me. Every time I bowed I'd say "Jesus Christ" and then get up. I did that almost for a year. It was really difficult for me in my first year English class. My friends and the teachers here were really understanding and very tolerant. They helped me grow very easily.
During the first four years I was here, when I was growing up, my parents always quoted the Confucian classics or just old Chinese sayings. People say, "If you work really hard, you can reap the results later. You'll get what you plant." In the four years I was here, my classmates and my experience is a perfect illustration of that. There were a few of us who never knew how to speak English, or had some other problem (family pressures and so forth). We worked really hard together, and we learned how to live in a group. By the end of four years, I think I can say for them as well as for myself, we accomplished what we came here for, for the four years. Life is a never-ending learning process. Our group all went on to colleges, mostly of our choice. In those four years, we won numerous sports championships in the valley as well as in San Francisco. When we started we were really bad; we always were beaten pretty badly. But by the end of our career as basketball players in CTTB, we were really good...very famous, actually, because they called us the Buddhist Boys.
Most importantly we gained aspects of character that the Venerable Master as well as our teachers wanted us to learn. I'll go through a couple of them later. For myself, I had a huge temper, a very quick, very hot temper. And, of course, in four years, I saw that temper go away slowly, because I had so many people here as a huge community (to help). You bow to the Buddha everyday and with a lot of grinding and polishing, that temper sort of goes away slowly. I never really saw the result of it until recently, when I was in Sacramento at a Dharma Realm Buddhist Youth (DRBY) conference. Dr. Marty Verhoeven, who had been my teacher in high school, and I, were hosting a workshop on the topic of Science and Buddhism. It was about ten minutes past the scheduled time to start. A lot of people were saying, "You have to start on time. What's going on?" and things like that. People started getting nervous, and I just said to myself, "Oh, well." I didn't even see myself doing it. I just told the people that were getting nervous, "Well, it's 8 o'clock in the morning; it's Saturday...a long weekend. Why don't we give them a five-minute leeway, and people can come here a little later." Just as I was saying that, Dr. Verhoeven, who has known me for ten years, said, "That temper is a lot less now. I guess age has caught up with you." I said, "Yes, I guess so." I saw that right there. Even though it's a long, slow process, after ten years (I have been here for a decade now, since 1991), slowly bad habits are going away and good habits are developing.
To be continued
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