All Good and Wise Advisors, Amitabha.  
My Dharma name is Chin Hui. I come from Maryland. My mom has always been a Buddhist as far back as I can remember. Sometimes, when I was young, she would ask me to recite mantras, but I only did it halfheartedly. After I graduated from college, I planned to enter law school because I did not want to work. However, because I'd partied too much in my last year of college, my grades were not that great. My mom urged me to recite the Great Compassion Mantra, but it seemed very long. My sister suggested that I recite the Junti Spiritual Mantra instead because it was much shorter. I started to recite the Junti Spiritual Mantra, and miraculously, I was accepted into law school. However, since I had majored in civil engineering as an undergraduate and had only taken two English classes, I wasn't really prepared for it.

Finally, I graduated and studied for the California State Bar Exam. Many of you have heard that it is difficult to pass the Bar in California. The passing rate was below 50% and I have friends who took the tests several times but still did not pass. I was looking for shortcuts and thought, "If reciting the mantras and Sutras have such a powerful effect, taking refuge must be even more powerful. That's what I should do." So I came to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas to take refuge and became a Buddhist. Miraculously, I passed the Bar the first time and was quite happy. When I came, I also looked at the Five Precepts and thought, "It probably isn't too difficult." But when it came time to do it, I thought, "Well, I'll just take refuge for now and see what happens." What I didn't realize was that during the ceremony, I had to repent of my previous offenses. I was supposed to stop doing evil deeds and start doing good deeds. Surprisingly when I went back to school, I became a different person. Before, I did feel any qualms about lying, but after taking refuge I would feel guilty.  

When I went back to Maryland after graduation, my mom told me that Avatamsaka Monastery needed a counselor for the three-day summer camp. I thought, "Since the Buddhas have done so much for me, maybe I should give back a little.” Therefore I agreed to supervise the kids for three days. The first day, when the kids were taking their noon nap, I went to the adult class to listen to the Dharma. I remember Bhikshuni Heng Shr was telling a story about a Dharma Master who had spiritual penetrations telling a man that the chicken he was about to eat was actually his mother from a previous life." For some reason, the story got to me; after listening to it, I no longer wanted to eat meat. During those three days I had to be a vegetarian, and when I came back home I decided to continue. My mother was puzzled by my sudden decision to become vegetarian, since I had never liked vegetables before. From that point on I began to study Buddhism. I read books and also went to Avatamsaka Hermitage to recite Sutras. It made me happy, and I eventually realized that my happiness was the joy of Dharma.

That was in July, 1996. In September there was an opportunity to take refuge and the Five Precepts in California. There weren't many disciples in Maryland, so the ceremony was not offered there. I talked to my mom. "I'm going to California to take the Five Precepts; if you like, you can come along." And she said, "I'm going to take them too." I had only a general idea of what the precepts were: no killing, no stealing, no intoxicants, no sexual misconduct, and no lying. But when I took them, I felt that receiving the Five Precepts was very good because it really simplified my life. For example, after you receive the precept against lying, you don't have to keep track of whom you have lied to. If you don't lie, it makes your life a lot easier. And you don't have to tell more lies to cover up your lies. There's a saying, "After you tell one lie, you have to make up nine lies to cover up the first one." So it made my life a lot easier.

A lot of people like to take advantage of bargains. But I think that no stealing is a good policy because eventually what goes around comes around. You have to pay back one way or another. When I was an intern, people used to abuse the department phone booth by making long distance calls. I started using my calling card and pretty soon everyone else was doing it too, following my example. I think it was really a pretty good policy not only because it saved the company a lot of money, but also because people wouldn't waste so much time talking on the phone.

I think the hardest precept for most people to keep, especially young people, is the precept against taking intoxicants, meaning you can't smoke cigarettes or do drugs or drink. Some of my co-workers go to happy hour after work to unwind, complaining about their work and bosses. It's part of the culture. I think some people worry about not being able to socialize when you take this particular precept, but the truth is that for the past six years it hasn't affected me at all. I still get invited by many people to join them for happy Hours. I get free sodas when I go to the bar because the bartender knows that I don't drink and assumes that I am the designated driver. I keep the precepts to keep a clear head. And I get to drive people home so they won't get into a car accident on the way back. These are some of the benefits of receiving the five precepts.

As for the precept against killing, when my friends ask what that entails, I tell them that "no killing" applies not only to humans but also to living creatures that are killed especially for you. For example, when you go to a restaurant and order a lobster, and they bring out a live lobster and ask, "Is this okay?" And you reply that it's okay, and they proceed to kill it specially for you. One friend mentioned that he doesn't like eating lobsters because once he heard the lobsters struggling in the pot while his mother was boiling them. He felt sorry for them, so he doesn't eat lobsters. Another friend also said that he doesn't eat crabs because he can't bear to see them struggling in the pot. Actually, everyone has a sense of sympathy, but because we don't personally witness the killing, we forget about it. For example, we buy chickens and ducks to eat only after they have been killed, so we don't witness their slaughter.

As a vegetarian, you don't have to worry about not being invited out for lunch or dinner or office events. You can arrange to have vegetarian food available. If they know that you are a vegetarian, most people will understand and respect you for it. One time there was an office picnic and seeing that that was not any vegetarian food, I jokingly said to a friend. "Well, it looks like there isn't anything for me to eat. I guess I'll eat hamburger buns with tomato sauce." And we laughed about it. He said, "Hold on a second, I know the guy who is in charge of this." So he called the man up. The man said, "Is Sally in your office?" He came down to my friend's office and apologized for overlooking me. And ever since then, every year there has been vegetarian food at the picnic for anyone who is a vegetarian.

To be continued