Our lives are shaped by our own minds. We will become what we think. The one who conquers himself is a thousand times greater than one who conquers thousands on the battlefield as the Buddha taught in the Dhammapada:
Though one should conquer
a million men in battle,
yet he indeed is the noblest victor,
who has conquered himself.
Dhammapada, Verse 103[1]
On March 22, 2020, Hương Sen Temple will hold a celebration for Venerable Giới Hương’s many years of service to the Dharma. The disciples of Huong Sen Temple will make a book of collected writings available, Forty Years in the Dharma: A Life of Study and Service - Venerable Bhikkhunī Giới Hương.
I am happy to write a few words for this memorial book. I sincerely wish for Ven. Giới Hương and her nuns to always be strong in subduing the mind to increase self-awareness. Then, you can help others to be awakened, like the Blessed One did after mastering his mind under a bodhi tree. Naturally, beings in the three thousand worlds and in the human realm, people from many places came to take refuge in him. Even today all five continents over the world search to learn the “wonderful method—how to conquer the mind for the Buddha.”
Namo Amitabha Buddha.
Đại Nhật Như Lai Pagoda, San Jose, March 2, 2020
Sincerely,
The Most Venerable Thích Thông Đạt
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[1]Dhammapada, Verse 103, tranlated into English by the Most Venerable Narada, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1963, 1971.
https://thuvienhoasen.org/a10361/07-pham-a-la-han-the-worthy-103
Left on: Rev. Viên Tiến, Ven. Thông Đạt (center),
Bhikkhuni Giới Hương, Quảng Hồng, Quảng Dũng, Quảng Hoa, Quảng Linh,
and Buddhists at Đại Nhật Như Lai Pagoda, San Jose, May 2018
Rev. Viên Trang, Rev. Viên Chân, Bhikkhuni Giới Hương,
Ven. Thiện Thái, Ven. Thông Đạt, Rev. Liên Tạng, Rev. Liên Hiếu
and Rev. Viên Tiến at Hương Sen Temple, Perris, in 2019
Please read all articles and view all photos:2.9._Victory_over_ourselve_is_the_greatest_-_Ven_Thong_Dat.docx
