Namo Sakyamuni Buddha.
Dear Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương,
I have just received an invitation to write an essay for her book: Forty Years in the Dharma: A Life of Study and Service—Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương. In the Dharma sisterhood, I was happy to meet her at the Retraining Course at Việt Nam Phật Quốc Tự Temple, Sàigòn, in March 2018. Then, in November 2018, I was invited by her family in Bà Điểm, Hóc Môn, to attend the 49th day ceremony of her deceased father. In December 2018, she came to teach at the retreat at Thiền Lâm Temple, where I am the abbess. Later, she invited me, Bhikkhuni Thanh Nhã, and Bhikkhuni Thông Tịnh (sister of Bhikkhuni Chánh Tuệ, as her dharma sister under Master Hải Triều Âm) to come to Hương Sen Pagoda in the USA to attend the ceremony for the Buddha's Birthday (May 26, 2019). As for me, she assigned me to give a lecture, while Bhikkhuni Thông Tịnh was the leader of the ritual.
Later, Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương and I attended the summer retreat at Điều Ngự Pagoda (Westminster, California) and Như Lai Meditation Temple (San Diego, California) to exchange Buddhism and spiritual practices. Since then, the sisterhood between us has become closer and we understand each other even more. Although the conditions of each person’s missionary activities are different, we always expressed joy in the Dharma, and when we must say goodbye to return to our duties at the local monastery, we always bring spiritual energy, harmony, practice, training, and love from the summer retreat and Huong Sen. With every beat of our heart, in the future on the path of cultivation and service, despite facing the storm of hardships, I will use this energy to determine faith in the Dharma and encourage the sisterhood to turn on the light of the Dharma lamp to benefit living beings.
We would like to praise the virtue of Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương, a daughter of the Tathagata leading a noble, enlightened life. With the position of a bhikkhuni, no matter where you go, living in any environment or situation, you carry the wish, “Wherever human beings need us, we are present”—that service is very widespread. Because of the Buddha's noble and compassionate ideal, he declared that "serving beings is making offerings to the Buddhas.”
May the Three Jewels protect Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương and her nuns at the Huong Sen Temples (in Vietnam and the United States). Always attain success in all parts of the country and be full of health to transform sentient beings on the liberated way.
Thiền Lâm Pagoda, November 8, 2019
With metta,
Venerable Bhikkhuni Tường Hạnh
Thiền Lâm Pagoda: 4/54 Đặng Thúc Vịnh,
ấp Nam Thới Hamlet, Thới Tam Thôn Commune,
Hóc Môn District, HCM City
Phone: 0909 185578
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Bhikkhuni Tường Hạnh (left)
and Bhikkhuni Giới Hương, November 8, 2019
A peaceful one-day retreat
at Thiền Lâm Pagoda on November 8, 2019
Please view all articles and photos: 3.15.Meet_again_in_a_cycle_-_TN_Tuong_Hanh.pdf
