Although the official ceremony for taking refuge concluded at the Masonic Hall, people thereafter also took refuge at the Woos' over time. There was a little interlude there too. Bhikshu Heng Sure had mentioned this during the City of Ten Thousand Buddha's Sunday lecture on February 4, 2001. As mentioned, no one knew of [a visitor,] a woman who could "see." This woman was in the entertainment business, but perhaps she really did have some history to her. She knew that a good teacher had arrived so she came to the Woos'. She asked the Venerable Master to give her a hand in her career. When she came, someone told the Venerable Master that she could "see" things. The Venerable Master took out his hand to let her see and she saw there were lots of eyes in the Venerable Master's palm. She also saw that the Venerable Master was incredibly bright and that there were lots of beings around. She ended up sobbing! The Venerable Master said that what she saw was right. She even took pictures with everyone. It was really inconceivable!  

Later on the Venerable Master came to Los Angeles to speak Dharma every month. He would stay for four or five days each time. The Woos' house served as a temple. He patiently answered questions from the audience and taught them about Buddhism and cultivation. He tolerated every possible mishap and impoliteness on the part of his disciples. According to the laity present at the time, "Now that we think back on it, our behavior then was truly embarrassing and shameful."

After half a year, the number of participants increased gradually, everyone felt that they ought to have an official place for the Venerable Master to speak Dharma. So they located a kindergarten at North Huntington Drive. Guo Hsiang loaned her table from home that she used for opera to the temple so that it could be used as an altar. She also brought over from home her wooden Buddha statue; it became Gold Wheel Monastery's first Buddha statue. Guo Hsiang said, "I really didn't know the rules at the time. I went to the temple as if attending a party. Besides bowing and meditating, we also brought food for potluck. We had a good time chatting and laughing."

Because the monthly expenses were considerable, some people suggested that they collect membership fees. Some recommended charging fees for classes that they could start. Hence, classes on geomancy and fortune-telling began. It was a mess and hardly dignified. Guest lecturers were invited too! The Venerable Master still came every month, but he never said anything directly. He still gave talks and wrote verses to teach Buddhism so that everyone would change themselves after they understood the principles. Guo Hsiang recalls, "The Venerable Master knew that the people in this group were successful in their careers, had a relatively high level of education, and considered themselves highly. So he could only use expedients to help us recognize our own faults and change of our own initiative."

Eventually everyone came to understand the principles; hence the Venerable Master's demands increased too. He said so clearly during a talk: "The Wayplace is a place for cultivation, not a place for socializing. You cannot turn it into something worldly...." Not only did the Venerable Master request that everyone be serious and earnest in the Buddha Hall, but even when working in the kitchen they must be mindful of the Buddha and not talk and laugh as they please. If anyone chitchatted in the kitchen that day, the Venerable Master would not eat that day. Sometimes he was here for three days and wouldn't eat for three days; sometimes he was here for four days and fasted for four days. The Master would say, "I don't know how to teach people. It's my fault because I lack virtue." Everyone would feel ashamed and change his or her faults. This is how the temple gradually fell into place.  

At that time Guo Hsiang had arthritis, but every time she entered the the Gold Mountain Monastery Buddha Hall, she would feel her body warm up, and feel much better. She didn't believe it at first, but she purposely left and returned several times to experiment and every time she went to rest in the dining hall next door, she would become uncomfortable. Again, she would feel better as soon as she entered the Buddha Hall. She really didn't know how to explain it!

In the winter of 1976, Gold Mountain Monastery at Huntington Drive was officially established, so the Venerable Master wrote a couplet especially to be posted by the entrance:

Giving; precepts, patience and vigor are the causes.
Dhyana, Prajna, vows and Bodhi are the fruition.

The following year, on February 19,1977, the Buddha Hall with space for fifty people was completed. On May 7th of the same year, Bhikshu Heng Sure made the resolve to bow once every three steps from Gold Wheel Monastery to the City. Shramanera Heng Chau volunteered to act as his protector. It was quite an event because it was the second time that a three-steps and one-bow pilgrimage was to take place in the West (the first was by Bhikshus Heng Ju and Heng Yo). After travelling this way for 800 miles over the course of two years and ten months, they continued to bow once reaching the City. As early as October 16, 1973, Bhikshu Heng Ju had completed a three-steps and one bow pilgrimage from the San Francisco Gold Mountain Monastery to Washington State's Marblemount. The entire trip covered over one thousand miles and was completed on July 20, 1974. Bhikshu Heng Yo acted as the protector for this unprecedented event in the West.

The three-steps and one-bow trip that lasted two years and nine months for Dharma Masters Heng Sure and Heng Chau was initially protected by disciples of Gold Wheel Monastery. They would drive food, drinks and necessities to them and bow behind them for a ways just to personally experience the hardship and cultivate the Buddhadharma. It was approximately a year and more later, when they had passed the midpoint of the trip, that the protectors in northern California took over. After numerous requests by the laity, in 1978 the Venerable Master began having disciples take turns to manage this monastery and named it Gold Wheel, meaning that the Wheel of Dharma is to turn constantly. Gold Wheel Monastery and the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas were established the same year. The Master said, "Gold Wheel symbolizes [a wheel] that cannot be destroyed by anything and always moves forward. It also represents the proper Dharma that can subdue heavenly demons and those of externalist persuasions. For cultivators, the Gold Wheel symbolizes the solid resolve for the Way: not retreating if confronted by a thousand demons, undaunted by the myriad hardships."

The Venerable Master hoped that everyone associated with Gold Wheel Monastery to pay attention to the meaning of the Gold Wheel: in life after life not retreating from the resolve for Bodhi until they realize Buddhahood.             

 ~ To be continued