Being born in this life and having a human body is a great blessing. Meeting, knowing, and respecting each other is another great blessing, based on predestined relationships. The more noble we are when we meet while doing good for the same ideal in the miraculous house of Dharma, the more special we are. That reunion is necessary for all of us. I know about Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương; this is a special connection among many different predestined relationships. I came to know and enjoy reading or listening to her valuable works, research materials, articles, Dharma talks, awakened songs, gentle lyrics, and so on before I had the opportunity to meet her.
Some of her awesome works on the Buddha's teachings include
Bodhisattva and Śūnyatā in the Early and Developed Buddhist Traditions (Bồ-tát và Tánh Không Trong Kinh Tạng Pali và Đại Thừa), A-Hàm, Mưa pháp chuyển hóa phiền não (Agama–A Dharma Rain Transforms the Defilements), (two volumes), Pháp Ngữ của Kinh Kim Cang (The Vajracchedikā-Prajñāpāramitā-Sūtra), Tập Thơ Nhạc Nắng Lăng Nghiêm (Songs and Poems of Śūraṅgama Sunlight), and many other treatises, genres, and languages, which I have read (please read them on the website, www.huongsentemple.com). This is a great achievement, marking her effort and study over a long time. Through these works containing many valuable research resources, I learned more about her path of learning, what she has been engaged in for over forty years in the middle of an immense path, with fruitful, enlightened flowers but also many sharp, challenging thorns. I was very honored to have the opportunity to visit Hương Sen Pagoda in Perris, which is full of wind and sunshine and is always dry, for a Vu Lan (Ullambana) ceremony to inaugurate the bell, Avalokitesvara statue, and other construction. She has just settled here for more than a year, but she has built and decorated Hương Sen Pagoda nicely in this semi-desert environment, which is an ideal place for nuns and Buddhists to study.
What I want to say here is that Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương and I, neither of the same temple lineage nor classmates, do not have many opportunities to work together. We just live in a vast Dharma house, looking in the same ideal direction as neighbors (my Bảo Sơn Temple is about a thirty-minute drive from her Hương Sen Temple). However, I have special respect for her and the nuns of Hương Sen Temple. I would like to list here some points on Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương, as follows:
- STUDY: To gain immense knowledge is not easy for many people. Aside from intelligence and natural gifts, learners need to be persistent and determined until the end. Genius is hard work and perseverance. Her time invested in learning is great; she is a university lecturer today, but she still does not give up the pursuit of learning at a university to deepen her knowledge about the East and the West. This is a very admirable thing. Many monks and nuns also have the dedication and conditions to go to university, but because of Buddhist administrative work, unfinished construction of pagodas, and many other conditions to which they are subjected, they fail to persevere in their learning. She is a role model for many young monks and nuns to emulate, and this is how she guides her monastics and nuns in the present and the future. Birds have two wings that allow them to fly, people have two legs to walk far. Monastics should possess insight and virtues to be able to achieve much Buddhist work.
- ENGAGEMENT: Service is a great form of conduct among the thousands of virtues for monastics to cultivate. Monks and nuns who do not nourish this noble form of conduct all the time and do not vow to perform it suffer from a great lack. Serving the Three Jewels, adorning the Buddha's world (through developing precepts, meditation, and wisdom), and committing to the holy life for the sake of the many make up the responsibilities and career of monastics. If we failed to take action, we would be like ruined wood and cold ashes in the house of the Buddha. After many years studying in India, she has committed to serving Buddhism by going from this temple to other, here and there and abroad, to share the liberated message of the Buddha. Hương Sen Temple is located in a semi-desert area, a place where there are not many Vietnamese people and few Buddhist communities. It is very difficult to live here, but here in this remote area she is engaged in preaching the Dharma and ringing the meditation bell, even as a weak female. How respectable she is with such conduct!
- DYNAMISM: From the beginning, I noticed that she works in silence, as part of her personality. This dynamism means she is always available to serve, regardless of time or distance; whenever there is an opportunity to serve, she is ready, whether big or small, whatever is entrusted to her by monks and nuns, Buddhists, and the Sangha. This dynamism is very necessary for ordained people serving in a preaching role in modern times. With today's rapid progress in industrial and social processes, it is difficult for monks and nuns to sit still in monasteries, serving and practicing Buddhism. This dynamic conduct is the core of the teachings of the Buddha, who guided his disciples, especially in the noble work of propagation.
4.MODESTY: Progressing slowly in modesty is another of her special virtues. Modesty is a necessary virtue for renunciants; is also hard to actualize for everyone, especially those who hold higher academic degrees and have greater intelligence. Only those who have good conduct and knowledge can demonstrate such modesty.
Many, many things could be used to describe Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương: it can be said that she is a monastic role model in modern times, having the two wings of virtue and insight. I always appreciate her and think that she is an example for many young renunciates, who need to learn and follow her for the benefit of the many. Learning much and having much knowledge does not really help a person to attain enlightenment. On the contrary, learning without practice is useless and sometimes becomes an obstacle on the spiritual path. The unity of theory and practice is the basis for cultivation and a required process for the path to enlightenment.
Commemorating a religious journey, recording what has been passed: one may think it may not be necessary for enlightened liberation. However, to mark a spiritual journey with a beneficial direction for future generations is really much needed!!!
With gratitude for what has been gained on the immense path of studying the Dharma, I would like to write some lines to show my heart full of admiration at her life, contributing fragrance to the book Forty Years in the Dharma: A Life of Study and Service—Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương, as a gift to her and all the nuns and lay Buddhists of Hương Sen Temple in the spring of the mouse year, 2020.
Winter in California, December 27, 2019
Abbot of Bảo Sơn Temple
Venerable Thích Huệ Giáo
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Rev. Quảng Đạo at the Buddha's Birthday Ceremony
San Diego Left: Rev. Viên Chan, Bhikkhuni Giới Hương, Venerable Huệ Giáo (center)
Park, May 11, 2014
Venerable Huệ Giáo (left), Rev. Quảng Đạo, Rev. Ân Giáo,
the Most Ven. Phước Thuận, Ven. Bhikkhuni Diệu Tánh at the Vu Lan Ceremony at Hương Sen Temple on August 24, 2014
Please read all articles and view all photos:2.26._Huong_Sen_I_have_come_-_Ven_Hue_Giao.pdf
