1984
Asking Earth Store Bodhisattva to protect Gold Buddha Monastery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and the entire world

Gold Buddha Monastery was already familiar to me when it came my time to serve there in fall of 1985. After the monastery opened in spring 1984, when Dharma Masters Heng Sure and Heng Chau were the monastic managers, I had the good fortune to travel to Vancouver in the Master’s entourage on more than one occasion. The monastery was big enough to have rooms for the Master, for the monks, and for guests. So I would stay in the women’s quarters, join the daily schedule of activities, and then return to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas after a few days’ visit. That was the routine. But then one time when I went, just four of us traveled: the Master, a monk, a laywoman, and me. When it came time to leave, the Master asked me how we would like to stay—the laywoman and me—and join a month-long Earth Store Bodhisattva Sutra recitation session. It was to be the first annual, the Master explained and was therefore historic and would generate a lot of good energy.

I was packed to go and had not had any hint of this proposed change in plans. So I was taken aback and yet how could I not want to accept such an offer! I had heard the Master explain the Earth Store Sutra and enjoyed reciting it. So I agreed with the idea and after bowing our goodbyes to the Master, the laywoman and I unpacked and stayed that entire month. It was, as anticipated, a great session! And for twenty years, to this day, Gold Buddha has kept that tradition.

Gold Buddha Monastery’s vigorous and devoted Dharma protectors

When I visited Gold Buddha while the monks were still serving there, I noticed the tremendous support that the lay Dharma protectors were offering—in all kinds of ways. They washed the place down, gave it a new coat of paint, built appropriate shelving for the long life and rebirth halls, built dining tables, donated stools and school supplies and other necessities, cooked the meals, watched the door, played the Dharma instruments for ceremonies, and translated the monk’s lectures. They threw their hearts into the monastery; their helping hands were always there when needed.

Bright young men and women volunteered to translate the monks’ weekday sutra lectures. So we heard English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. On the weekends, we heard only English. That had to do with non-contention.

Manjushri Bodhisattva in the North guarding Buddhism in the West

In that first Gold Buddha Way-place, Manjushri Bodhisattva presided over the lecture hall, where two lectures were given daily. In China, Manjushri Bodhisattva resides in the north at Five Peaks (Wutai) Mountain, and so it is fitting that here in the West, he should reside in North America. And so the Master named Manjushri Bodhisattva host of Gold Buddha Monastery. As the host, the Bodhisattva of great wisdom watched over those two lectures a day during that early period and observed, I am sure, with satisfaction how the two American monks brought Buddhist principles into the hearts and minds, the lives and work of the growing group of Canadians who came to listen.

Exemplifying the First Guideline: Do Not Contend

As Dharma Masters Heng Sure and Heng Chau were completing their bowing pilgrimage, the Master set forth Five Guidelines for them to follow, but, as with all expedients the Master wielded, the scope of those Guidelines expanded, reaching to all his disciples, to all those who listened to his talks, to all those who were inspired to follow them. Time and again, the Master would bring home the meaning of each Guideline with opportunities for practical application. A case in point was the first Guideline about not fighting.

Vancouver already had several Buddhist centers, one of which had repeatedly invited the Master to speak Dharma and even to host the opening-of-light ceremony there. The Master was aware that the predominant languages used in Vancouver’s existing Buddhist centers were Mandarin and Cantonese. He was also acutely aware of how important each of the existing Buddhist centers considered their own Dharma-protecting laypeople to be. Their support was essential to the on-going success of each Way-place. Not wanting to attract any of those supporters from the Way-places they currently protected, the Master decided to activate his first Guideline. Knowing how popular his disciples Heng Sure and Heng Chau’s lectures on the Avatamsaka Sutra had been during their stay Gold Wheel Monastery in Los Angeles, the Master set down the Do Not Contend Guideline as soon as the monks became resident at Gold Buddha Monastery. How did it work?

Easy. No Mandarin or Cantonese translations of the monks’ Saturday and Sunday lectures was allowed. Only English was spoken. Brilliant idea! Totally non-contentious. The existing Vancouver Way-places continued their weekends of Cantonese and Mandarin, drawing their usual crowds of devotees. And Gold Buddha Monastery, with its English-based weekend Dharma talks, began to draw in a new group of English-speaking intellectual and practitioners. Thus, Buddhism’s scope expanded and Gold Buddha Monastery quietly exhibited wisdom and compassion born of non-contention.

The monks’ lectures grew in popularity, with many Canadians, from young to old, finding their way through Gold Buddha’s door to listen with rapt attention to the timeless teachings of Buddhism. During the week, Mandarin and Cantonese translations were done on-the-spot by a team of young translators. The weekend lectures remained English only for the duration of the monks’ stay in Canada.

1985-1987
My first assignment to a branch was Gold Buddha Monastery

After thirteen years of being part of the assembly that daily attended the Master’s lectures on the Buddhist sutras, I was asked to go on an assignment. One day the Master stopped me and asked out of the blue if Heng Ming Shr and I would be willing to serve at Gold Buddha Monastery in Canada. I knew that two other nuns had gone to Gold Buddha to replace the monks, who had been assigned to other duties. Those nuns had gone on a temporary basis, the Master explained. Now he was asking me to serve there for a three-year period. My response was immediate and sincere. I completely trusted the Master and knew that this assignment must be right for me in ways I could not see, and right for Buddhism in Canada, or he would not have made the suggestion. Of course I would go, I replied respectfully. My internal misgivings were enormous. I had never managed a monastery. I had never left the Master’s side. I did not know Cantonese at all and knew Mandarin only a little. I would miss the sutra lectures. I would miss the support of the Sangha and most of all, the direct teaching of the Master.

The Master kept the time frame short. As I recall, he gave me a day to pack and find replacement for my duties at CTTB, while Heng Ming Shr, who was stationed in Gold Wheel Monastery in Los Angeles, got herself back to CTTB. The day after that, we received the Master’s instructions, climbed into one of the Association’s well-used vehicles, and began our journey by car to Vancouver, British Columbia, where neither of us had ever been before.

For the mid-day meal we found a lovely spot by a river and enjoyed an air of freedom that resonated with our monastic discipline. More travel and we arrived after dark, pulling up to the side door on Gore Street in the heart of Chinatown to unload our wares. The Buddha Hall looked magnificent with its towering ceilings and high stage adorned with softly-lit images. The nuns, we found out, had been given even shorter time frame than we. The Master had instructed them to leave at dawn’s light the following morning, driving back in the same rickety car that had brought us. We had only an hour or so that evening to learn from them the bare basics of this monastery and its administration. By the next morning they were gone and we were on our own.

As we explored, we discovered that monks had left a Gold Buddha Monastery Record Book, which contained lots of helpful information, including calling cards for local companies that serviced the monastery and detailed instructions about the building and its idiosyncrasies. Those tips and points proved invaluable. We arrived in October, which was the end-of summer-but-not-yet-fall—Indian summer, we used to call it back in Ohio. But we had been warned about keeping heat in the building as the days grew colder, so as not to let the pipes freeze. All the rest of it—the schedule of activities, the topics of lectures, the division of monastic duties, the administration of affairs, how to communicate with the lay congregation—all of that was now in our hands.

Wise guidance by telephone

Ah, but then we had forgotten about telecommunications. The Master, we discovered, was ultra-modern and quite inventive in his use of teaching expedients. And we soon came to agree that his prowess in wielded the phone was heretofore unmatched.

A Long and On-going History with Gold Buddha Monastery

From that first assignment to date, Gold Buddha Monastery has provided an inspirational focal point in my monastic life. It has been two decades since I first became resident at Gold Buddha and I have watched and learned from both the enduring stability and ever-changing growth that has transpired.

The enduring stability that enhances change and growth has two sources, as I see it. The first is found in the Venerable Master’s vows to establish an orthodox monastic Sangha in the West, to promote education that provides youth a solid foundation in character development, to translate and disseminate the teachings of Buddhism, and to encourage dialogue among the various faiths and philosophies that advocate the betterment of humankind.

Over the decades, I was able to observe how the Master’s every effort was dedicated to perpetuating the force and thrust of those vows. I also see that the Master’s monastic disciples who guide the development of the Way-places he established are trying their best to maintain the impetus of those vows. Gold Buddha Monastery is a prime example of how the emphasis on straightforward and diligent practice is unwavering, the dedication to disseminating Buddhism is expanding, and the education of youth that provides them with tools for making positive and innovative choices for the betterment to the world is on-going.

The second source of the enduring stability at Gold Buddha Monastery is found in the hearts and minds, the spirits and souls, of its lay community. People of all ages find Gold Buddha exactly the right place to be. Many arrive new to Buddhism and unfamiliar with the how’s and why’s of putting into the practice the Buddhist teachings. But they listen and they learn. And once the spark of insight ignites, their diligence becomes fired by the truth Buddhism tells and tempered by the wisdom Buddhism offers. Their dedication to truth and their recognition of wisdom allows them to tread an even path in their study and practice. The give-and-take of that results in amazing changes and growth, but those are solidly grounded in the enduring stability that is essential to a balanced way of life.