The study of the Five Great Treatises is a mountain with steep steps to me. It is as though, whenever you push through the suffering to climb a mountain, you see even more endless, dangerous, steep mountains behind it. In the face of this long journey, besides our spiritual teachers and the nuns accompanying me, my parents are always by

Dawn. A beacon of light shone through the sky. A group of novice nuns marched vigorously towards. Accompanied by laity on either side, they were on their way to receive their precepts. Suddenly, in nimble footsteps, a laity came to my side and continued to walk at the same pace. “Mom!” I whispered, breaking the silence. A smile flashed across

The air was chilly. I lay there wearing only a thin, green sterile gown. I started to hear voices around me. I could feel my limbs again, followed by a sharp pain, which spread all the way up from my toes. I was pushed out of the recovery room. Through the haze, I saw your face. “Are you alright?” You leaned

n these two years, my grandpa is getting old and sick. My mom insists on taking care of him even though she wears more than one hat. She often drives back and forth to visit Grandpa, gets his medicine from the clinic and drives him up North to see the doctor. When she is unavailable to pick up Grandpa, she

When I was twelve, I made up my mind to be a vegetarian. My decision seemed to be a great challenge to my mother who was known for her non-vegetarian cooking. In order to fulfill my wish, mom started experimenting with different ingredients, went around seeking advice on vegetarian cooking and frequently shopped at Leezen stores, but she also visited

During the first few years of my brother’s renunciation into the monastery, mother would be reminded of him every corner she turned. Be it the clothes he’d worn, the fruits he’d eaten, the toys he’d played with to the words he’d spoken, everything triggered her longing for him. Seeing her in tears, I knew how much she missed him. However, mother fully

When I was young, some parents would prepare birthday cakes as treat to the whole class to celebrate their child’s birthday; some brought candies, cookies, snacks as gifts to the whole class on special occasions such as sports day or school celebrations. Back then, I always hoped that my parents would do the same. After disappointment time after time, I

Ever since I was young, my parents would ask my sister and me to read scriptures and memorize classic books with them. We never stop this family activity even after we went to school. After it became a habit, reciting sacred texts comes as a natural thing to me. However, I had real difficulty memorizing the passages while we started

This year, GWBI’s Chinese Collective Topics class will be holding its debate exam for the very first time. Nuns who usually shoulder the monastery’s general affairs strive to come up with open up various thoughts on the debate field. Yet truth to be told, we found the news of the exam quite nerve-wracking when it was first announced half a

When I was born, my father—perhaps spending a few months’ wages—purchased a custom-made gold necklace with “Blissful” engraved on the heart pendant. The necklace has since been stored in my mother’s jewelry box and—from the beginning of my memory—in my heart.  My father was a big play toy for my little brother and me. When I was young, my favourite

Ever since I was little, I have had many goals and aspirations but had always ended up changing them as I grew older. After joining the monastery, naturally I again set goal, but this time, I kept it to myself or occasionally revealed it to few people close to me. Most of the responses were only smiles, or a few

When I was in elementary school, my mother would deliver lunch boxes to my sister and me by bike every day. On a rainy day, while Mom was riding her bike with our lunch boxes, she slipped and fell. After the accident, all she cared about was not herself but the lunch boxes, worrying whether the previously well arranged dumplings