Collected Writings:
Forty Years in the Dharma: A Life of Study and Service
Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương
Namo Sakyamuni Buddha
Dear Most Venerable Monks and Nuns,
Ladies, Gentlemen, Friends, Intellectuals, and Buddhists,
Fragrant lotus spreads everywhere,
Lotus mind always loves beings without fading.
In 2018, our teacher, Master Venerable Giới Hương, completed forty years of ordination, study and service in Buddhism. The period of forty years is not a long time for a person who puts wholeheartedness, perseverance and determination in practice as reflected in the Buddha's teaching, ”Light a torch in the darkness” and “Trust in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.” Yes, those forty years were short but held a very passionate penetrating of the Dharma Love, the Life Love, and the Humanity Love .From that feeling, we along with many Buddhist friends at Hương Sen Temple in Bình Chánh District, Sài gòn, and Hương Sen Temple in Perris, California, earnestly suggested that Master Giới Hương accept and allow us to put together a book of collected writtings with the title, Forty Years in the Dharma: A Life of Study and Service - Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương. We had to wait a while, because of the Master's humility, inherent modesty and “without desire” lifestyle. Then, fortunately, Master Giới Hương finally agreed to allow us to carry out this volume.
To us, this collection plays the role of an offering. It symbolizes our presence, our gift, our reward. Yes, all that good and beneficial is for Master Giới Hương, for us and for all Buddhists of Hương Sen Temple.
We could not hide our surprise of wholehearted joy and blessing because in just three months—from October to the end of December 2019, after the Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương’s invitation to the most venerable monks, nuns and close Buddhist followers, we received your 129 articles, poems, and calligraphies which encourage us practice, share living experiences and send the best regards. We always remember your precious gifts and teachings as we prepare our spiritual luggage on the way to practice.
This anthology celebrates a journey of forty years practice of Master Giới Hương, marking what has passed, looking back and then continuing on. The collection is the life experiences and lessons for future generations of nuns to follow. For anonymous enlightened practitioners, this book may not be necessary, but for novices and Buddhist beginners, this volume plays a very necessary role as a guided road towards the ultimate goal.
Openning each page of the book, we see beautiful memories of a young nun who committed to Buddhist service in a country abroad. It is well-illustrated with photos. These articles are written with sincere words, vividly describing a nun who has been ordained since a child, who preserved moral precepts, overcame difficulties in cultivation to gain religious and life knowledge, engaged in study abroad to collect East-West quintessence, nurtured great aspirations, built temples, wrote books, composed poems and preached in the new land. We sincerely pay homage to your noble contributions. We cherish each article, every image of the monks, nuns, brothers and friends who have been given to Master Giới Hương. You all have set an example of a Buddhist nun disciples in the modern time and maintained a beautiful image to encourage our nuns to diligently practice. These are beautiful flowers left for the human world.
The title of the book is Forty Years in the Dharma: A Life of Study and Service - Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương" (40 Năm Tu Học Và Hoằng Pháp của Ni Sư Giới Hương). It is bilingual, written in Vietnamese and English. Each language has 400 pages, so we would like to print two separate books in Vietnamese and English for our readers' convenience. In the English section, there are many passages, especially music and poems which are briefly translated, essentially keeping the main points. Please authors kindly accept it.
While editing, translating, designing and printing, it will not avoid shortcomings—we look forward to your guidance and suggestions so that the next edition will be more complete. On this occasion, the Editorial Board is also sincerely grateful to the English translation team (Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương, Bhikkhuni Hiếu Liên, Hisayo Suzuki, and Pamela Kirby), the Vietnamese correction team (Nguyên Tánh and Thanh Phi), the design (Bhikkhuni Viên Quang), the typing, printing, and publishing committee (Bhikkhuni Viên Tiến, Bhikkhuni Viên Nhuận, and Bhikkhuni Viên Khuông), and many more.
In regard to the layout, it is arranged by the Editorial Board as follows:
- Introduction (4 articles of the editorial board)
- The Dharma Rain (30 articles from venerable monks and nuns)
III. The Sisterhood (29 articles by Dharma friends)
- The Shadow of Pine Tree (17 articles of monastic and lay disciples)
- The Gratitude to a Teacher (23 articles by student monks and nuns)[1]
- The Pervasive Love (21 articles from intellectuals)
VII. The Calligraphy (the sentence pairs from 5 artists)
This English-Vietnamese collection is a small spiritual gift. We respectfully offer it to the venerable monks and nuns, and our Buddhist friends who have a close affinity with Hương Sen Temple. We especially and sincerely present this offering to Master Giới Hương.
Master came like a bright star
Helping us out of the ignorant cloud.
In the spring of the New Year 2020, we faithfully wish all Venerable Sangha, Venerable Bhikkhuni Giới Hương and Buddhist followers a happy New Year, the Rat year of 2020, in peace, love and joy from the Father Buddha’s blessing.
Huong Sen Temple, February 29, 2020
Respectfully paying triple homage
On behalf of the Editorial Board:
Rev.Viên Quang,
Rev.Viên Nhuận,
Rev.Viên Tiến
Rev.Viên Khuông...
[1]We received more than 200 articles from the monastic students. Due to the limitations of the collected book, the Editorial Board chose 23 writings. The rest will be presented in a new book, Teacher’s Day, number 42 of Bảo Anh Lạc Bookshelf, Hương Sen Temple. Please authors kindly accept it. Thank you.
Please read all articles and view all photos:1.1.The_foreword_of_editorial_board.pdf
