This morning I received an invitation from Venerable TN Giới Hương in the US to write a few words to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her ordination. She is a colleague in bhikkhuni ordination with me (Ven. Hồng Phúc) and Ven. Thanh Đức (a cousin of Ven. Giới Hương) in 1983. The three of us were born in 1963, received the full precept ceremony at the same time, and were also roommates at Liên Hoa Temple, Bình Thạnh District. I have now settled down in France and Ven. Bhikkhuni Thanh Đức is in Vietnam, while Ven. Bhikkhuni Giới Hương lives in America.
The span of forty years is neither long nor short for a nun’s life. How many ups and downs, sad times and happy times, successes and failures were experienced from the time when I was a minor in the temple until the day I was mature enough to be out of the temple to live my religious life independently. Then up to the time I travelled abroad alone to practice as well as share Buddhism, I have overcome many challenges and obstructions. Sometimes I felt as if I were being pushed against a wall, but there was still an invisible hand that pulled me out so that I could strive to live. Forty years have passed, with many real lessons about rising and falling. These experiences only take time to examine, and we could not have purchased them with money.
Going to the temple to become a monastic is not easy; if you don't have good roots then you cannot stay long at the temple. The monks and nuns are like water flowing upstream; if they are not diligent, they cannot flow upwards and instead drift back to the mundane life. So practitioners need to force themselves in the Buddha's teaching. Otherwise, they will waste the religious life and pass time in vain.
There are many ways to practice; our Dharma sisters are very blessed because we have met the insightful and compassionate Master Hải Triều Âm, who taught us how to go upstream. Our teacher taught us carefully and wholeheartedly day and night, not only with theories but with disciplined actions. She guided us in a direction, which is the same guideline such that no matter how lost we are when we step towards the horizon of the sea, we also recognize the right direction of the Dharma light. That's why there is the saying: “In this life, we were guided on the right path by the insightful master. Then forever in the future, we just keep going straight to the shore of liberation.”
By the way, I would like to briefly explain the word “practice.” There are many who rely on the folk saying:
Cultivating from home is the best
Serving parents is a true practitioner.
Then based on the above two sentences, people suppose that filial piety for parents at home is the first practice and that one does not need to go to the temple to become a monastic. If you think like that, then it's called a mundane view.
I would like to explain a little that there are many ways to practice. The word “practice” means to correct and change for the better, such as in improvement, replenishment, training, and enlightenment.
If you're at home serving parents, this is called cultivating PIETY.
Going to charities, freeing animals, fasting, and preserving the precepts: this is called cultivating GOOD.
Going to the temple to make offerings, helping the needy, building bridges and roads: this is called cultivating MERIT.
Transforming craving for beloved ones to enter the temple to study: this is called cultivating LIBERATION.
These above four methods are all called cultivation, but each produces different results, depending on which one we follow.
The Buddha taught, “If there is no craving, then we will not be reborn in the saha world” (that means we are still in samsara). The Buddha thus teaches that those who want to escape reincarnation have to transform the craving for relatives, go to the temple to shave their heads, and lead the monastic life. Therefore, the monastic’s conduct is very noble, but few people can practice it without enough good roots. It is not easy to live in a temple, just as moving water downstream is always faster and easier than moving water upstream. If those who enter the temple to be like the water flowing upstream are difficult and slow, without patience, they will slip down the mundane stream.
1) The cultivation of PIETY
If anyone cultivates PIETY, then that person will have a warm and harmonious family, and their children and grandchildren will have disciplined guidelines, upper and lower order, filial piety, and gratitude, but they will be subject to reincarnation in the world and receiving the suffering body (therefore, the Buddha teaches that the flesh body is the root of misery).
2) The cultivation of GOOD
People who practice good karma will eventually be born in heaven because heaven is a place for those with a good heart. In the human world, those who often do good deeds will be reborn there to enjoy a peaceful, long life. But according to the Buddha's teaching, heaven still is subject to accidents because it is too full of material, form, and luxury, so that they only enjoy pleasures without creating more good. In the end, when they have finished enjoying all of the blessings, they will fall down to a lower realm.
3) The cultivation of MERIT
Those who often offer their labor and wealth to the temple, create Buddha statues, print sutras, build roads, build bridges, and help people reduce their poverty will be born with lasting wealth, fame, and prosperity. But no matter how wealthy they may be, riches will one day come to an end. The world is a temporary illusion, and they will eventually close their eyes and leave behind all possessions, such as houses, cars, wives, children, money, and so forth. So the highest teaching of Buddha is to seek for true liberation.
4) The cultivation of LIBERATION
Renunciation to lead a temple life is to practice the virtue of detachment and be freed from the cycle of birth and death. If there is rebirth, there is still suffering. In the Sutra of Eight Enlightenments of the Great Person, Buddha taught: “Rebirth is tired.” This means birth and death are full of suffering. Each instance of birth creates thousands of sufferings, such as miseries from husbands, children, love, money, homes, laws, officials, repression, exploitation, and competition with others because of earnings, feelings, positions, and reputations. In present society, thousands upon thousands of disasters and accidents happen to families and countries. While happiness is rare to see, sadness and misfortune abound. In life, tears flow more than smiles. That is not to mention the suffering of the sick without medicine or caretakers.
Therefore, the Buddha taught that when there is reincarnation, there is a body, and it must be still suffering. If you want to transform samsara, please find a way to get out of the three sense realms quickly. If you want to escape the three realms, there is only one way, which is to obey the Buddhist teachings of monastic life and renunciation.
Renunciation has three meanings:
- Renunciation from the secular family to lead a temple life.
- Renunciation from defilements to live a pure life with chanting, meditation, and precepts, to gradually discharge the three poison of greed, hate, and ignorance.
- Renunciation from the three realms: sense, form, and formless worlds. Once greed, hate, and ignorance are ended, then the suffering cycle of reincarnation is disappeared.
Each of the four CULTIVATIONS is good. Every level’s results will be different. Do not rush to bring your shortsighted knowledge to criticize it.
These few words are for my Dharma sister, who shares the same bhikkhuni ordination. I hope these words will contribute a bit to your forty-year monastic yearbook. May the Buddha bless Venerable Giới Hương and her nun disciples for the rest of their lives, and may their spiritual practice and service become smoother and better.
Namo Sakyamuni Buddha.
Paris, Fall of the Earth Pig Year (2019)
Best regards,
Venerable Bhikkhuni TN Hồng Phúc (Thanh Lương)
Abbess of Liên Hoa Tịnh Độ Temple, Razes, France
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Bhikkhuni TN Hồng Phúc (third from right), Rev. Viên Chân,
Ven. Giới Hương, and Hương Sen Pilgrimage visited London, 2016
Liên Hoa Temple, where Bhikkhuni Giới Hương,
Bhikkhuni Hồng Phúc, and Bhikkhuni Thanh Đức
shaved their hair to become nuns and received the full precepts
Please read all articles and view all photos:3.11.A_Colleague_in_Bhikkhuni_Ordination-_Ven_Hong_Phuc.pdf
