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In 1987, I came to the Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas to attend a Guanyin Recitation Session. When I went to the Administrative Office, I happened to see the Venerable Master teaching a class to his disciples. I told the Master about my difficulty in getting a visa. The Master said,
“That’s your karmic obstacles!” I said, “Master, I’m scared of being caught in cause and effect.” The Master said,
“Okay! I’ll eradicate your karmic obstacles. Go on and teach living beings.” Afterwards, the Venerable Master bestowed aid on me for as long as half an hour. I’m only a common, worldly person who doesn’t know how to teach living beings.
One day after morning recitation, I went back to the dorm to rest. A Dharma Master came to call me, saying,
“We’re going to hear the Venerable Master give a talk!” I was still blurry-eyed and half-asleep, and I had no idea where the Dharma Master had gone. When I got to the Hall of Ten Thousand Buddhas, all the doors were locked. I thought,
“The Venerable Master must not want me! He must be
testing me!”
Everything is a test to see what you will do.
If you don’t recognize what’s before you,
you’ll have to start anew.
─Venerable Master Hua
At the time I asked myself how I could be so stupid, and I hit my head against the door. I even thought: I might as well die in the Sagely City. My tears kept flowing, and I kept knocking on the door. A layperson who happened to be coming back from the kitchen said,
“The Master is lecturing in Wonderful Words Hall!” I rushed to Wonderful Words Hall. When I got to the door, the Venerable Master was already waiting at the door. I went in and found a seat. The Master used his cane to tap the head of a little boy sitting one row in front of me, and then bestowed aid on my head for a long time. I felt,
“The Venerable Master has already brought me back to life!” After the Venerable Master gave his lecture, I returned to the Buddhahall to do the meal offering, chores, and evening ceremony. Everything was the same as usual, as if nothing at all had happened.
Emitting great light, he turns the Dharma wheel.
The lion’s roar is honored throughout the ages.
Living beings in the six paths all hear the sound
And attain the door of supreme liberation.
─Venerable Master Hua
After the Guanyin Recitation Session, I returned to Taiwan. With the myriad household and business affairs and the hectic work at Dharma Realm Buddhist Text Distribution Association, I felt very tired and afflicted. Being quiet by nature, I returned home and knelt in front of the Venerable Master’s image. With tears rolling down my cheeks, I kept murmuring the Venerable Master’s name. I suddenly thought of the Venerable Master’s verse:
Truly recognize your own faults;
Don’t discuss the faults of others.
Others’ faults are just my own.
To be one with all is called great compassion.
At that moment, the sky filled with dark clouds. In the midst of the thunder and rain, a ray of light shone in front of the Buddha image in the living room. In this dazzling ray of light, I saw the Venerable Master raising a hand to teach me, and the words
“You have ninety percent faith in the Master” appeared. I blinked my eyes, hoping to see more clearly. The words didn’t disappear, and a verse from the Vajra Sutra also appeared:
Those who see me in form or seek me in sound
Practice a deviant way and cannot see the Thus Come One.
The Venerable Master’s image remained in the air, and when the words appeared, the sky had cleared up. It was two o’clock in the afternoon. I felt extremely comfortable. The following day, all the pains and illnesses of my body and mind disappeared, and I felt very happy.
Shariputra is the solid and durable proof;
The name means “pelican”─the demeanor of his mother.
With precepts and samadhi complete and bright, the pearl-light
appears;
Practice and understanding interact, and his body is transparent.
How does there come to be great wisdom? Because the stupid make
their mark.
Already in his mother’s womb a fine eloquence had been born;
This real wisdom is complete within all people;
Grasp it at Jewelled Wood Peak at Tsao Creek.
From the Venerable Master Hua’s Verses without a Stand for the Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra
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