More than ten years ago, I, Thông Đạo, went to Kim Quang Pagoda in Sacramento to worship the Buddha. Luckily, I found volume 1 of Ban Mai Xứ Ấn (Dawn in India) at the table of free books, CDs, DVDs, and tapes. When I got home and read it, I realized that it was a ten-year diary journey (1995–2005) in India of a nun student, Bhikkhuni Thích Nữ Giới Hương.
At first, I paid attention to the pages about the four Buddhist sacred places, where the Buddha was born, attained enlightenment, turned the wheel of Dharma, and entered nirvana. With soft, smooth words narrating a gentle story, a bit witty, and providing many valuable documents about the stories, history, landscapes, and life in Buddha’s land, the author helped the Buddhist devotees who have not had a chance to go on pilgrimage look forward to a spiritual experience in the Buddha’s land, like her. After reading the table of contents, I felt interested in each chapter’s title; she skillfully shares the happy, sad, difficult, or favorable feelings of an international student. These experiences are very useful for those who plan to study in India; in particular, she details the master's and PhD programs as well as the topic of the thesis. Thereby, the reader more and more admires the efforts of the monks and nuns, especially regarding the ancient languages of Sanskrit, Pali, and Chinese. Monastics put a lot of effort in gaining wisdom and morality to become worthy of receiving the doctorate degree of Buddhist Studies in hand.
In the next part of her book, I was most impressed at the fact that Ven. Giới Hương volunteered to donate her body after death to the Medicine University in Ho Chi Minh City so that students can have flesh for observing a surgery on a body. This raised thoughts in me about donating some parts of my body, such as the eyes, kidney, and heart to those in need after my death. In addition, she also reported lovely, exciting, and touching details about student life in India on holidays, Vietnamese New Year, lectures, and discussions on dissertations.
The section about "wonderful scenes" is very interesting, showing that the author has been active as a good writer and journalist since the time she was still in school.
Later, I read more about Ban Mai Xứ Ấn, volumes 2 and 3. I liked the most her narration about the Sakyadhita World Buddhist Conference of Women. I came to know the first conference was held in Bodhgaya, India (1987), the second in Bangkok, Thailand (1991), the third in Colombo, Sri Lanka (1993), the fourth in Lek, Ladakh (1995), the fifth in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (1997), the sixth in Lumbini, Nepal (2000), the seventh in Taipei, Taiwan (2002), the eighth in Seoul, South Korea (2004), and so forth. The purpose of these conferences is to exchange experiences and support the practice of the daughters of the Buddha, including ordained and lay women. Starting from the Grand Master Gotami (Kiều Đàm Di), who was the first Buddhist nun to be ordained and the founder of the nuns’ Sangha in the Buddha’s time, nuns have had the chance to cultivate and realize the four saintly positions[1] of srota-āpanna, sakradāgamin, anāgāmin, and arhat and also propagate the Dharma, as the monks can.
In particular, she recorded great events such as in 2000, when sixty-five venerable nuns and monks from Vietnam and fifty monastic students in India held a conference and the Buddha’s enlightenment ceremony in Bodhgaya. The panelists were those who had participated in the collection of sixty-six articles entitled, "Nature and the Path of Enlightenment and Issues of the Age," which was edited and published by the Most Venerable Trí Quãng, Ven. Huền Diệu, and Rev. Nhật Từ. On this occasion, Most Venerable Trí Quãng and the Sangha set up an offering ceremony at the Vietnam Temple of Ven. Huyền Diệu. Nearly 200 monks and nuns participated, including forty visiting foreign monks from Thailand, Burma, India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Tibet, Korea, China, Taiwan, Sikkim, Japan, and Vietnam (living elsewhere, of foreign nationality).
In general, through the three volumes of Ban Mai Xứ Ấn, I grew to respect Ven. Giới Hương very much, although I did not yet have an opportunity to meet and talk with her. At the beginning of 2019, I met her in San Jose at a ceremony that many Zen masters and Buddhist friends attended. I came to say hello and pay my respects.
Recently, I have been translating the 500 honorable titles of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva from Vietnamese into English with the view to introduce it to young Vietnamese people who are not good at Vietnamese. I also would like to introduce English readers to this wonderful scripture, which was compiled by a great Vietnamese monk (although he was anonymous). I asked Ven. Giới Hương to edit the grammar; she was happy to help and did it quickly. Hopefully, this transliteration meets the predestined conditions to be published quickly and smoothly.
Visiting the Bảo Anh Lạc Bookcase in the website of Hương Sen Temple, I came to learn more about her missionary merit in the United States. In the Buddhist Sangha, we need many monks and nuns who are good at English, just like her, to guide young people to learn and practice the Dharma so that we all together contribute to American multicultural society.
On the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of Ven. Bhikkhuni Giới Hương’s study and service in the Dharma, I wish her good health, peace of mind, bright wisdom, and rapid attainment of Buddhahood.
Beginning of the year 2020, Đại Bảo Trang Nghiêm Pagoda
Best regards,
Samanera Thông Đạo (seventy-one years old)
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[1] From “The Four Stages of Enlightenment,” Psychology Wiki, https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_enlightenment:
One who begins sincere training on the Buddhist path becomes an āryapudgala (Pāli: ariyapuggala), a "noble person" who is eventually guaranteed enlightenment as an arhat, though not necessarily in this life. Their destiny is governed by the degree of attainment reached.
Stream-enterer: The first stage is that of Srotaāpanna (Pāli: Sotāpanna), literally meaning "one who enters (āpadyate) the stream (srotas), after an old simile that compares attaining enlightenment with crossing a stream. . .
Once-returner
The second stage is that of the sakṛdāgāmin (Pāli: sakadāgāmī), literally meaning "one who once ever (sakṛt) comes (āgacchati)". The once-returner will only be born one more time in the human world, where he will attain enlightenment as an arhat.
Non-returner
The third stage is that of the anāgāmin (Pāli: anāgāmī), literally meaning "one who does not (an-) come (āgacchati)". The non-returner does not come back into human existence, or any lower world, after death. Instead, he is reborn in one of the worlds of the Rūpadhātu called the Śuddhāvāsa worlds, or "Pure Abodes", where he will attain Nirvāṇa; some of them are reborn a second time in a higher world of the Pure Abodes, but in no case are born into a lower state.
An anāgāmin has abandoned the five lower fetters that bind the mind to the cycle of rebirth. An anāgāmin is thus partially enlightened, and on the way to perfect and complete Enlightenment.
Arhat
The fourth stage is that of arhat, a fully enlightened human being who has abandoned all fetters, and who upon decease (Sanskrit: parinirvāṇa, Pāli: parinibbāna) will not be reborn in any world, having wholly abandoned saṃsāra.
From left: Samanera Thông Đạo, the Most Venerable Thái Siêu,
Rev. Nhật Thành, and Buddhists in a one-day retreat at Đại Bảo Trang Nghiêm Pagoda in 2018
Please read all articles and view all photos: 6.1.From_the_dawn_in_India_-_Sadi_Thông_Đạo.pdf
