I was born to an ordinary family. My mother was a vegetarian. During my childhood and school days, I always accompanied my mom to bow in the temple. I didn’t understand anything about religion then, but when I was bowing, I felt pure and peaceful. I also conceived the idea of one day leaving the home-life and cultivating, although I didn’t know why I had that kind of an idea.

Time flew by, and in a flash I had graduated from school and begun working in a telephone company. As I was preparing to enter military service, a thought suddenly arose in my mind and kept telling me, “You have to be vegetarian.” Since I was about to enter the army, I wondered, “Do they serve vegetarian food? Would it be convenient for me to be vegetarian?” With all these questions in my mind, I put aside the thought of becoming vegetarian for the time being. While I was in the army, the thought of becoming vegetarian constantly came up. Sometimes when I was eating meat, I would smell its putrid stench and be unable to swallow. During that time, I started reciting the Great Compassion Mantra and the name of Amitabha Buddha, and I continued doing so until I was discharged from military service. After being discharged, I immediately told my mother of my intention to be vegetarian. However, occasionally I would still be invited by friends or relatives to parties to eat meat. In May, 1987, a certain incident caused me to finally make up my mind to become a complete vegetarian. At a party given by my boss, I was eating meat in order to conform with everyone else. When I was eating one of the foods, its foul stench made me so nauseated I almost spat it out. But I looked around and saw that all my colleagues seemed to be enjoying their food, so I endured the nausea and swallowed the food. After that, I vowed to become vegetarian and stop accepting invitations to parties from my friends and relatives.

I took refuge with the Venerable Master in 1988 when he went to Taiwan to propagate the Dharma. Afterwards, I constantly read the Master’s Dharma talks and realized the great suffering of transmigration in birth and death. Leaving the home-life is the only way to end birth and death. My wish to leave home became stronger and stronger. When the Venerable Master went to Taiwan to propagate the Dharma in 1993, he compassionately allowed me to fulfill my wish. After leaving home, I received training in Kaohsiung and at the Dharma Realm Monastery in Liugui, Taiwan, for more than a year. On May 29, 1994, I came to the Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, where I have enrolled in the Sangha Training Program and sometimes help out in the administration office at the City.