Maw-Chang Lee (Kuo Chang Shi)  
In our life, we plan many things very well, but things change suddenly. Thus is birth and death. We are not sure whether after this breath, the next breath will come in again. You never know whether an earthquake or other disasters may happen at the next moment causing our death. This is a major reason I decided to leave home. Last week at lecture time, we heard the Venerable Master say on the tape that scientists are the stupidest people in the world. Unfortunately I was one of them I majored in physics in Taiwan and came to the United States to attend graduate school in physiology. After that I worked and taught in the field of biomedical engineering for over twenty years. I didn't encounter Buddhism until 1989. Fortunately I met the Venerable Master Hua, who was the first Bhikshu I had ever met in my life. I didn't know what taking refuge was; I might not have even bowed to him. I feel that science is not ultimate, because there are many limitations. Buddhism, on the other hand, is ultimate. Scientists are like people who count the sand on the beach and are never able to finish that. So, I guess, that's why the Venerable Master said that.  

Another important reason is that as soon as I met the Master I really liked Buddhism I went to Gold Wheel Monastery and felt that I had come home. So I started to study Buddhism and particularly liked to listen to the Master's taped lectures. I remember once he was talking to a disciple from Manchuria, saying, "Come back quickly to join the team! " That struck me so deeply. It was like he was talking to me personally. Even though he was in the U.S. and I was in Taiwan, I have never forgotten this.

It wasn't an easy decision to resign my job which many people would am have coveted. I like to attend sessions. The first session I attended was an Amitabha Recitation Session. I had such a good experience in that session that I felt I had taken a trip to the Western Pure Land. During the session my mind was very calm and that helped me to make the best decision of my life. It took me two or three sessions like that to confirm that my resignation was right. So finally in 1995, I submitted my resignation.

The Venerable Master often said, "If one cannot forsake the false, one cannot obtain the true." What is false? What is true? It is up to you to decide.

Rebecca Lee (Jin Rou Shi)
Today I received a new name, a new left-home name, and I also received a bowl, robes, a razor, and a place in line. After being here at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas for eighteen years, I finally made the decision to leave the home life.

What I want to talk about as far as the resolve for Bodhi is concerned is a statement: "The resolve for Bodhi to me is the joy of the first thought that I had of disentanglement." Before I met up with Buddhism, I liked to be tangled up. I was always being tangled up in love and beauty and having a good time and the good life. But then I heard the story of the Buddha's life and I heard that at the end of his life when the Buddha realized Nirvana, his body shone with golden light. When I heard that story, I felt my heart also shone with golden light. And that was my first thought of the joy of disentanglement. Now maybe there is a way to get untangled.

Now the second time I had this thought was a few years later, when I was almost forty years old, maybe I was thirty-seven years old, and someone said, "Well, you know, at your time of life you probably have two choices to make. Most women your age choose to restore their beauty. They try to be beautiful and young and healthy. They want to have a lot of boyfriends, they want to have a lot of sex, they want to really enjoy life as long as they still have some of their youth. And there are other women who choose a spiritual life." I thought, "Oh, the second joy of the thought of disentanglement. I would like to pursue the spiritual life."

After that point I came to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. And coming here, every lecture I would hear the Master give, every monk I would see, every nun I would see, would be an opportunity for me to have more joy of disentanglement. Even a flash of yellow or a flash of brown of a robe, and the thought would come, "Oh, I should bring forth the Bodhi mind and leave the home life." But I stayed with my mother and I did not leave the home life because I wanted to spend time with my mother before she had to depart, because she was getting old and she depended on me to help her. So in January this past year she passed away and at that time Heng Ch'ih Shr says, "Well, Rebecca, there is a new law at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a new rule, and the rule is that you have to be under 65 years old to leave the home life." And I said, "Gee, I'm sixty, that means I have five years or I have one day. I think I'll do it right now. I don't want to wait five years." So I made the decision right then. If I left the home life, I would receive two years of training and then I could receive the precepts.  

I want to share with you what someone else told me: "To leave the home life is the very highest position." I thought about this for many, many years and this is one other reason I have been working to leave the home life. So today when I received my bowl, I held my bowl in my hands, and then I remembered, I remembered the bowl. I remembered that I held this bowl before, at some time, many times perhaps, in my past lives. It was very vivid to me. So tomorrow I hope to join the family of Sangha.  

Tan Sook-lai (Jin Da Shi)  
Four years ago at Christmas time I attended the first time Amitabha Buddha recitation at the Venerable Master's temple in Malaysia. At that time I didn't want to be like an ordinary person, graduating, getting married, raising children, getting old and dying and doing it all over again in the next life. There should be a way to escape this revolving cycle.  

This recitation session was quite strict. When people fell asleep during the silent recitation time, the proctor would come to wake them up. I looked up on the wall and saw the verse for requesting Dharma, "Will the greatly virtuous Sanghan, out of compassion, for the sake of this assembly and all living beings, turn the wonderful Dharma wheel to teach us how to end birth and death and quickly realize non-birth?" For those seven days I looked at the words 'to end birth and death.' That's what I want to do. At that time I saw the Venerable Master's picture on the wall. I said to him in my mind, "This is really suffering. I am really tired and in pain. I wish to sleep but am constantly woken up."  

In June 1999, I came back to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (CTTB) to attend the Avatamsaka Sutra Recitation Session. After a stay of three months, I decided to stay as a permanent resident so I went back to apply for a visa. I got the support of my family for which I am very grateful. In 2000, I came back to CTTB. I also appreciate the Venerable Master and the Sangha for allowing me to leave the home-life this year. Amitabha!

Hsiao Pei-chi (Jin Lin Shi)
When I was an undergraduate in Taiwan, I would join the Vegetarian and Precepts Society during my summer and winter vacation to observe the eight vegetarian precepts. I felt calm for the subsequent ten days. I did not understand that this was actually Dharma bliss. I came to the City in the year of 2000 to attend the Ten Thousand Buddhas Repentance Ceremony. At that time, my mother learned from the Source of Wisdom about the Ten Thousand Buddhas Repentance. She allowed me to participate in the ceremony. It was April 1st. I had to leave on April 13th. I had never traveled overseas before. I did not have a passport, photo, or visa. I was not even sure whether I could make it on time. After I prayed to Guanshiyin Bodhisattva, I obtained my passport on the 7th and then went to apply for a US visa on the 8th. I got it on the 12th and I boarded the plane the next day. Before I left, my younger sister predicted that I would not come back home after I arrived. It turned out exactly as she had anticipated. As I had never been so far away from home, I was physically and mentally unprepared. Every time I encountered a state, it was a big test for me. But I kept reminding myself that I should not be resentful because this is what I had chosen. I tried to seek for a way to lessen my worries and I deeply believe that leaving the home life is the only way to liberate ourselves. Amitabha!  

Kuo Pi-yu (Jin Yi Shr)  
I was in a temple in Taiwan when I saw the Source of Wisdom and read the instructional talks by Venerable Master Hua. They were very unique. In 1995, I volunteered to help in the Venerable Master's Memorial Service. The Dharma image of the Venerable Master seemed to be smiling at me all the time, as if he had not left us.

In 1998, during the DRBA delegation trip to Taiwan, I again volunteered my services, from receiving through sending off the Sangha members at the airport. I was indeed happy to do this work and didn't feel tired at all. In October, together with three Dharma friends from Kaohsiung, we traveled to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (CTTB). My visa application was processed smoothly as a result of assistance from the Venerable Master Hua and Guanyin Bodhisattva.

Upon our arrival at CTTB, on the first night, the sky was very beautiful, and the stars looked as if one could just reach out and touch them with one hand. I could strongly feel the difference between being in a turbid world and in a pure place. Ever since I have arrived here, many events and advice from good friends in the Dharma have made me aware of impermanence and my own lack of control over birth and death. I left home in order to repay the kindness of the Triple jewel, and hope that through hard work in my cultivation, I can go to the Land of Ultimate Bliss in a high grade of lotus .

May the construction of the Wonderful Enlightenment Sagely Hall be completed soon, so that everyone on the path to Bodhi can gather together and turn the great Dharma Wheel. I wish everyone will seize the opportunity of their good roots to leave the home life without obstruction. May those with sentience and those without sentience together realize perfect wisdom.  

  ~ To be continued