Category: Blogging

Lê Mẫu Đơn – Thân Hàm Mẫn

I return to the ever-present home of the true mind. Downing my hair is like letting go of a heavy bag full of suffering as well as job and daily life responsibilities. Like a child coming home from a trip rushing to her parents’ arms, I happily take refuge in the Buddha and receive warmth, care, comfort, and healing from Kuan Yin, Bodhisattva, Grand Master Hsun Hua, and Shr Fu Heng Chang.

Like what parents do, Shr Fu takes care of his disciples in every way, from our sleep accommodations to room temperature, food quality, and making sure that our veggie meals are nutritious, cleansing, and healing. I don’t have to worry about what to cook three times a day. Instead, I practice repentance bowing daily to the Buddha, to Shr Fu, to my parents, and to all living beings, asking their forgiveness for all mistakes I have made due to dark thoughts created by my ego.

The posture of prostrating on the ground takes me back to a child’s position in the fetus when the true mind is still clear. Becoming gentle and relaxed, I can feel my true nature that has long been buried. By taking refuge in the Buddha and Shr Fu, I can absorb more dharma and the teachings of the highest truth to equip myself on my journey along the Bodhisattva Path.

When participating in the XGVT program, in addition to receiving ten precepts for a novice, I also receive transmissions for the Precious Bowl Dharma and the Six Hands Dharma. The Precious Bowl Dharma helps me practice the serenity of the great earth to open my heart and mind, embrace all things, accept all life experiences, and to transform all my karmic forces. The Six Hands Dharma helps me recognize the ability to use my hands as expedient means and my eyes as wisdom in outlook and viewpoint when engaging with the world to save life and living beings. I feel better equipped on my mission to do good deeds.

This year, I’ve been told that all XGVT participants will receive the special dharma of the Four Lotuses. We’ll practice visualizing the process of the lotuses from the mud rising above the water surface, similar to the process of our consciousness moving from the subconscious to conscious, then to super conscious level, helping us develop the intuition to recognize the ever-present principle of cause and effect, of seeds growing to become lotus flowers.

Every year when I return to the XGVT sangha, I have the familiar feelings from the first time I joined. As soon as we get off the bus or car, dharma brothers and sisters from all over the world rush over to hug us warmly like family members and dear friends. Perhaps because we all belong to the same web of affinity from many lifetimes and our subconscious has been awakened that very moment.

Like a worry-free child in a big family, I just follow the schedule, bell, or group leader to wake up, go to dharma class with a notebook, eat, sleep, practice CK10, and exercise for a healthy body and peaceful mind. There are times when we do walking meditation in the forest, sitting meditation on a rock by a hilltop, feeling close to nature and far away from the mundane world. We are mindful when meditating, listening to dharma lectures, cultivating, and eating. But there are times when we’re quite playful, climbing up and down the bunk beds like young kids, sharing joy and laughter, taking care of each other, and developing genuine love for those we meet and live with during the short-term home-leaving session. This is the special characteristic of the sangha in the 21st century, a very loving, open, friendly, and congenial sangha.

That’s why XGVT participants keep coming back to the program as if they are “addicted”! Like a dish of food, you have to taste it yourself to feel all the true flavors. The same with XGVT, a path that many people have described to us, but only when we go on this path ourselves can we feel all the wonderful things about it. It is a sangha that unties all knots and weaves a web of lights from hundreds of precious jewels of the True Mind.

Lê Mẫu Đơn

Nguyễn Thị Mộng Vân – Thân Hoá Tự

tell me that her 6-year-old daughter’s blood test result showed that she had acute leukemia, an incurable disease making life very fragile with very little hope for a cure. My heart sank with shock; everything seemed to fall dark before my eyes.

I have been studying the Dharma with Thay since 2005, but the intention of joining the Altruistic Home-Leaving Program (XGVT) to become a temporary nun on behalf of others had never occurred to me. I loved my niece so much but I didn’t know what to do at that time.

My little sister agonized over her little girl’s condition. She took leave from work to stay home and take care of her baby. If she had to go somewhere, she would want to hurry home to hug her little one who was her life force. One day, she cried to me on the phone, telling me that she had to take her daughter to chemotherapy the next day. She didn’t have enough courage to watch that kind of treatment her little girl had to go through. So heartbreaking for me! At that very moment, the thought of joining XGVT on my niece’s behalf suddenly came to me, like a flash of lightning, unstoppable. From that explosive moment in my deep consciousness until now, I still feel that I’m more blessed than others who have been suffering. Even now, I still pray for my niece.

Nowadays, my niece is a beautiful and smart young lady. Only 22, yet she already received a Master degree in Bio-Chemistry, and has a good job. Because of her, I have changed into a new person, become more responsible, and have enough courage to let go of my old attachments. As the saying goes, “When love is big enough, all limitations are erased!” So poignant!

Before ending, I would like to express my gratitude to Thay and all dharma brothers and sisters who helped create the XGVT program and build a sangha foundation for our annual Mandala to give everyone opportunities to practice the dharma, to self reflect, and to live and sacrifice for their loved ones.

Mộng Vân

Kim Bằng Lê – Thân Cảm

Gathering, organized by Master Hang Truong and the Compassionate Service Society in Orange County, California. I never understood until now what motivated them to leave home for two weeks during the preparation of the holidays, shaved their head, and prayed for others. How did they do it and why did they do it?

In 2014, I decided to do it, not because of anyone’s challenge or dare, but because I believed there must have been a spiritual transformation or something magical happening during those weeks of being a novice nun or monk. I did not participate the first time when they were organizing World Peace Gathering (WPG) in 2009, for fear this event was for other people: shaving my head and having to go back to the office bald was beyond my limit. That was a very tough challenge for me. Friends and family would think that I have cancer; makeup and dressing up sure will not look good with a bald head. I was so very vain. Giving up our hair is like giving up our best effort to look beautiful to the world around us, for acceptance, for compliments, and for identity. That is a big sacrifice for any woman. We like to look good every day. As soon as we get up, we look at the mirror to check how we look, how others might perceive us, from morning till night, from youth to adulthood, to our golden age. Most women like to shine in a crowd, stand out in a party, to be admired, to be envied.

Little did I know that, when you conquered that big challenge the first time, it becomes easier and easier the next time. This is just the beginning. I still remember vividly now, my first time waiting for my turn to get my head shaved by Master Hang Truong. For every lock of hair that he shaved off, each one was a commitment to cultivate for my parents, for my husband and children, for our family members, for our friends, and for all living beings. I still can’t believe that I did it. I felt so light. What you sacrificed to offer to your loved ones for their good health and well-being, it sure gave you back a great feeling of letting go of your mask, a faked persona that you have to wear for different activities, different situations (at home, the office, a reunion, a dance, the market, etc.).

That mask is definitely not you. Once you took off your mask, you feel free and have no worry about other people’s remarks or judgements. You are truly free, free to be the true you!

During the two weeks of training, we did a lot of repentance bowing to diminish our karma. We learned and discussed part of the Avatamsaka Sutra teachings to lift us to a higher consciousness. We meditated to see our inner self and stay aware of our big ego at all times. And we learned how to live harmoniously as a community of good brothers and sisters ready to share our knowledge, our wisdom, and our life. We didn’t just repent and pray for our own karma but also for our loved ones’ karma or our web of affinities.

There are things in life that you wish to do for others that you can’t force them to do. Joining the Short-term Altruistic Home-Leaving sangha and transferring all your efforts and merits to them is a great way to give and contribute to your family, friends, and all the people around you.

I do cherish all the times I spent with Master Hang Truong and my extended family so much that I’m committed to attend the World Peace Gathering every year when I can. For 12 years now, I’ve experienced this spiritual transformation again and again, and each time I learned more about letting go of my own identity. My ego is slowly diminishing and my true self starts to shine slowly, each year better than the last.

Now when it comes time to make that first step into the Mandala at the World Peace Gathering, you just feel like flying out of your cocoon to become a free and beautiful butterfly. It is a magical moment. When we meditate and pray inside the Mandala, I feel that the whole universe is listening and is praying with me. Their voice is my voice and my voice is the whole universe’s voice. We are one. I become one with the universe.

The feeling of love, care, and blessing just poured down on me like a beautiful summer rain. I am surrounded by love and warmth. My whole body seems so at ease and relaxed, that I feel that I am home. I am truly home.

I invite all of you to feel the same wonderful feeling with all of us at the next World Peace Gathering.

Kim Bằng Lê

Châu Yoder – Tâm Lưu Ly

part in this wonderful and profound program. I hope that all conditions are right so I can attend my 3rd XGVT this year.

Some of you may know that the impetus for my becoming a temporary nun of the 2019 XGVT sangha in Koyasan, Japan was to pray for our grandson Wesley to be able to walk normally and for my husband Jim to recover fully from his mild strokes. Thankfully they both are doing quite well. I am so grateful to have my family support. In 2019, my daughter Lynn and her family came from New York to be with my husband for me to go to Japan which was one in a lifetime cultivation trip for me and many other members of the sangha.

At the closing ceremony to end my time as a temporary nun, I vowed to attend the XGVT program every year. I believe making this vow helped me make it a reality. I want to encourage everyone to make vows to attend the XGVT program if that is what you want to do.

With deep gratitude, peace, joy, and hope, I truly appreciated the right conditions for me to attend the XGVT in 2021. Again, this year I greatly appreciate the support of my husband, our daughter Ann and our niece Trang who will again come from Portland to keep my husband company while I will be at the XGVT. Planning to attend the annual XGVT also helps me to dedicate my time and effort to practice more diligently with Thay and CSS members during the year. The grandeur of the Mandala design as part of the XGVT in 2021 was breathtaking. I hope you can see it for yourself in 2022.

Thanks to Thay’s encouragement, these are my vows after the 2021 XGVT:

With deep appreciation to Thầy and to all dharma brothers and sisters in CSS.

Châu Yoder