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近含師，臺灣板橋市人，排行老二，生來又瘦又多病。因為家貧，每月生活費半數都支付了她的醫療費，為她貧困的家庭雪上加霜。她雖然幾次從鬼門關被救回來，並不覺得病苦；也許對童年的印象模糊，所以連帶病痛的記憶也隨風而逝。
因雙親為謀生而打拼，她和兄弟都是由祖母一手帶大的。祖母持素，每早念佛，深受祖母的影響，近含師對家中供奉的觀音像，有說不出的親切感。
在臺北商專念書時，一次偶然的機會去校內佛學社聽演講，深覺契機；見佛堂布置寧靜肅穆，佛像莊嚴，心生喜悅；耳邊傳來「五會念佛」悠揚的聲音，令她深受感動，便加入了佛學社。從此常研讀佛書，精神上覺得很寧靜，法喜充滿。
1989年，一日佛學社輔導老師宣佈：「有高僧自美來臺，要皈依的快去。」受到鼓勵，她趕到臺北縣寶纈寺去皈依，還是在大考期間呢！沒想到皈依師竟是上人，賜名果碧，何其幸運！當時也不知皈依時理應供養，禮拜上人時，輔導老師在旁說﹕「供養啊！」「供養什麼？」「我借妳一百塊（臺幣）吧！」如此才圓滿皈依儀式。
回去後，想多了解自己的皈依師父，果碧便去圖書館找資料；結果找到上人的開示錄，看後得知上人在美國、臺灣都設有道場，非常高興。畢業後，便直奔高雄六龜上人辦的佛學院就讀。原以為佛學院教的是書本上的知識，到後才知是「解行並進」修行的地方；心理準備不足，半年後退出，但是未斷佛緣，仍繼續研讀上人開示錄，並於93年上人來臺時，在板橋體育館受了五戒。
離開佛學院，在外工作了六年，其間她常細思佛經道理，開始體會生命的缺乏意義，和生死不能自主的痛苦，真正意識到修行的重要性了！於是踟踟躕躕，回到臺北法界印經會去拜「梁皇寶懺」，又抱病到花蓮彌陀寺打彌陀七。法會完後，感覺在道場好像回到了家，心裏一片光明，決心來萬佛城參加法會；順利拿到簽證，從此在美長住。
皈依十年後，終於99年10月24日觀音菩薩出家日，在聖城落了髮；法名親暉，號近含。上人已走了，所幸還有上人的道場在，有師兄們領著修行，也算大幸。近含師在工作之餘，背會整部《楞嚴經》。2002年夏，受了具足戒，她歷經人生的艱辛困苦和種種考驗，體會到法寶難遭遇，誓願在智慧大海中，不畏風浪，為正覺之音而努力！
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Born in Banqiao, Taiwan as the second oldest child, Bhikshuni Jin Han was skinny and sickly at birth. Because she was from a poor household, her medical bills took up half of their living expenses every month. Although she nearly lost her life several times, she never felt that her sickness caused her suffering. Perhaps it’s because she doesn’t have clear childhood memories that memories of the pain caused by her illnesses have also blurred and faded away.
While her parents struggled to make a living, her grandmother raised her and her brothers. Her grandmother was a vegetarian and recited the Buddha’s name every morning. Deeply influenced by her grandmother, Jin Han Shr felt an indescribable closeness with the Guanyin statue on her family altar.
While studying at Taipei Commerce College, she chanced to hear a lecture at the college’s Buddhist Society and felt a sense of belonging, of connection there. Upon seeing the peaceful and solemn Buddha Hall and the adorned statue of the Buddha, her heart was filled with joy. The harmonious, uplifting sounds of the Fivefold Recitation of the Buddha’s Name drifted by, and she was deeply moved, so she joined the Buddhist Society. From then on, she often studied Buddhist texts and felt spiritually at peace, filled with Dharma joy.
In 1989, one of her teachers in Buddhist Society announced, “A prominent monk from America has come here; hurry up if you want to take refuge with him.” With that encouragement, she hurried to Taipei’s Baojie temple to take refuge, and it was during final exams too! The prominent monk turned out to be the Venerable Master Hua, who gave her the name of Gwo Bi. Such luck! At that time she didn’t know to make an offering after taking refuge, so when she was bowing to the Master, her teacher – who was beside her – urged, “Make an offering!” “An offering of what?” “Here, I’ll lend you a hundred Taiwanese dollars.” In this way, she completed her taking refuge ceremony.
When she returned, she wanted to better understand the Master that she had taken refuge with, so she went to the library to look up some information. After finding some of the Master’s instructional talks, she was happy to discover that the Master had monasteries in both Taiwan and America. After graduation, she hurried to the Buddhist Academy at Liugui, Kaoshiung to study. She had assumed that all you had to do was study Buddhism. Only later did she find out that you also had to put the principles you study into practice. Without enough mental preparation, she backed out after half a year. But her affinities with Buddhism weren’t cut off; she continued to study and read the Master’s lectures. When he went to Taiwan in 1993, she took the Five Precepts with him in the Banqiao Auditorium.
Leaving the Buddhist academy, she worked for six years, during which she thought deeply about the meaning of the sutras. She began to experience that this life held no meaning, no purpose, and the suffering of not being able to control one’s birth and death, and realized the importance of cultivating. She went a bit irresolutely to the Taipei Dharma Realm Buddhist Books Distribution Society to attend the Emperor Liang Jeweled Repentance, and then, despite her sickness, to Amitabha Monastery in Hualian for the Amitabha session there. After these Dharma assemblies, she felt like she was returning home when on temple grounds, and her heart was filled with light and clarity. She decided to come to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, successfully applied for a visa, and settled in the United States.
Ten years after she had taken refuge, on October 24, 1999, which was Guanyin Bodhisattva’s leaving home day, she left home at the City. Her Dharma name is Chin Hui, Jin Han. After the Master passed away, it is fortunate that the Master’s temples are still here, and there are fellow nuns to guide the younger nuns in their practice. During her free time, Jin Han Shr memorized the entire Shurangama Sutra. She took the full precepts in the summer of 2002. She has experienced the hardships and trials of life, understands how rare it is to encounter the proper Dharma. She vows to work for the sound of Proper Enlightenment in the sea of wisdom, with no fear of waves or wind.
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