Forty years is quite long in a lifetime. This is made more meaningful and precious when Sangha disciples of the Buddha effortlessly spread his teachings on compassion and non-self. I had the great fortune to meet Venerable Giới Hương during the years she has been spreading the Dharma in the US, a land of the greatest civilization but yet the most challenging place for those who wish to transmit the Buddha’s Dharma. Senior Venerable Giới Hương has sauntered down this path, bringing the Dharma to life with wholehearted goodwill and skills. In spring 2019, Venerable Giới Hương published the first issue of Hương Sen Newsletter for the lunar New Year in bilingual Vietnamese and English. For the celebration of the Buddha’s birthday and Ullumbana Festival, two more issues were published and distributed to monastics and lay devotees in Vietnam and the US. Hương Sen Buddhist Temple has published four issues of Hương Sen Newsletter so far, which will be continued in the future. Such merit is worthy of praise and admiration.
I still remember Senior Venerable Giới Hương used to remind us to diligently study and effortlessly propagate the Dharma using our merits and skills during her lectures at Điều Ngự Buddhist Temple’s summer retreat. She said, “If you start writing after you become perfect, that would be endless waiting.” This saying was so meaningful to me personally. I was afraid to write about her deep in my heart because words cannot describe the virtue and merit of a great master. However, taking her saying that year, I gathered my courage to write some lines. Please forgive my “false” words.
Together with a Korean nun and a Chinese monk, I came to visit Senior Nun Giới Hương in late winter 2015 for the first time. There were not many nuns at Hương Sen Buddhist Temple at that time. Venerable Giới Hương gave us many of her books as gifts and told me to bring back a lot of cookies, fruits, and juice and share them with my Dharma friends at the University of the West. I would guess she has forgotten all of that, yet it has stayed with me for many years already. It was such an honor that a great master like Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương cherished me that way. I’ve kept reminding myself to study and cultivate hard so that my master (Venerable Bhikkhuni Hạnh Thanh) and Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương would be happy.
Those who have read the venerable nun’s books would realize that she has written a lot about the teachings of sunyata, vajra and prajna, and so on. Therefore, I believe whatever she has done, such as building temples, giving ordinations for Buddhist nuns, writing books, or printing sutras, were not beyond the application of sunyata nature. Doing Buddhist works is just like not doing anything: after finishing a work, she is not attached to it anymore. She is not affected by worldly blame; she only focuses on working for the Dharma and all beings. I will try to follow such an attitude and stance.
On the occasion of commemorating forty years of Dharma propagation by Senior Venerable Giới Hương, we wish that she and her nuns have good health and that Hương Sen Buddhist Temple becomes more and more prosperous and a great Buddhist place protecting all of the younger nuns’ Sangha, in the present and in the future.
University of the West, November 23, 2019
Respectfully yours,
Bhikkhuni Nguyên Hiếu
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Bhikkhuni Nguyên Hiếu (sixth, in the middle of the bridge)
Please read all articles and view all photos: 4.10._Sangha-_a_worthy_Master_of_human_and_heaven-_Sc_Nguyen_Hieu.pdf
