Sonya, a former flight attendant, has finally landed at the Sagely City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. It was her husband who brought her here. Sonya had been a Christian before she married. She liked to travel, eat out, go dancing, watch movies; her life was very colorful, and the people she typically associated with were dignitaries and diplomats. After she married, because her husband was a connoiseur of gourmet food and was in the business of interior design, her social life became even more active. Buddhism and cultivation seemed completely irrelevant to her lifestyle, and the idea of settling down in a Buddhist monastery of pure cultivation never entered her head.  

But the conditions must have ripened. One day, her husband finally encountered the Buddhadharma after having seen enough of the various cults in Taiwan. He immediately began to cultivate and also introduced his method of practice to his wife. Sonya thus joined her husband in reciting Sutras and mantras, bowing to the Buddhas, and cultivating faithfully. Even when he switched to a different method of practice, she continued to persevere and thus committed the Shurangama Mantra and the Ten Small Mantras entirely to memory. This served as the foundation for her to come to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas to cultivate.

In April 1994, she and her husband finally moved to the City, where she teaches in the girls’ school and helps out in the financial department. Giving up her glamorous life and cutting off ties with the outside world, she joins the assembly in morning and evening ceremonies and in bowing to the Buddhas. After living here for a year, Sonya feels her mind has expanded, and she no longer feels like going out to socialize. She feels that the best method of practice for her is bowing to the Buddhas, and so during the annual Ten Thousand Buddhas Repentance Ceremony, she never misses a period unless she has to teach class.