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恆丙師是越南西貢人，小時跟姐妹們每年暑假到鄉下祖母家住三個月，跟著祖母做晚課，誦《阿彌陀經》，念大悲咒，拜佛，吃素，有時陪同祖母上寺廟參加法會，不知不覺中接觸了佛法。祖父那時已出家，是附近一座廟上的方丈，有時也回來跟家人說法，教念經，打木魚。
1980年共產黨統治越南，她一家七口乘船經馬來西亞來到美國東部費城定居。她就讀於湯馬斯
· 傑弗遜大學，主修護理，周末與姐妹們上寺廟修習佛法，誦《普門品》，拜佛。
畢業後，在費城愛因斯坦醫院的手術前準備房當護士，看盡病苦，深感人生苦多樂少。父親於1989年的早逝，讓一家人嚐到了無常之苦，卻在佛法中得到慰藉，度過難關；姐妹倆於是發心出家，願了生死。一日聽一位參訪過萬佛城的越南尼師說，「我喜歡聖城，道風好。」由是得知萬佛城，打電話來申請，告以，「這裏很冷，很嚴，妳們受得了嗎？
」一聽，滿心歡喜；再聽，「這裏日中一食。」更合意了！申請獲准後兩姐妹即刻就來了。
1978年兩姐妹在越南時雖已皈依三實，但師父不在美國，不能親身受教，於是91年再皈依上人。
上人給法名果南，姐姐為果越。後改果月。一年後，於1992年受具足戒，上人給法號恒丙，取其「東西南，甲乙丙」之意；姐姐為恒涼，取其「清涼月」之意。受戒後，分派在分支到場服務，接觸了每日，才體會出真正的「訓練」才開始哩！
恒丙師先後曾在加拿大溫哥華金佛聖寺、舊金山金山聖寺服務，並自修學會中文，能說能看。現在金山聖寺常住，幫助越文佛經。及上人開示的書籍校對，對越南信眾的接引，回答問題，盡心盡力。問起恒丙師出家的感想，她不作答，只引述在聖城住了一年之後，母親來看他們時所說的話，「你們出家太晚啦，應該早點出家的！」
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Heng Bing Shi is a native of Saigon,
Vietnam. She and her sisters stayed with her grandmother in
the countryside every summer, and during those three months
they followed her in doing evening recitation, reciting the
Amitabha Sutra and the Great Compassion Mantra, bowing to
the Buddhas, and being vegetarians. Her grandfather was an
abbot at the nearby temple. Sometimes they went to
participate in Dharma assemblies and sometimes he would come
home to give talks to his family, to teach them to recite
the Sutras and play the wooden fish.
When Vietnam fell under Communist rule in
1980, she and her family of seven became boat people. By way
of Malaysia, they went to Philadelphia on the East Coast of
the United States. She attended Thomas Jefferson University
and majored in nursing. On weekends, she and her sisters
went to the temple to study the Buddhadharma, recite the
Universal Door Chapter, and bow to the Buddhas.
After graduating, she worked as a
registered nurse on the Medical Surgery Floor of the Albert
Einstein Hospital in Philadelphia. She has seen all kinds of
sickness and suffering and has a deep sense that there is
more suffering than happiness in life. And her father's
early death in 1989 made the whole family realize the
suffering of impermanence. But by studying Buddhism they
found some comfort and gradually got over the difficult
time. She and her sister then decided to leave the home-life
to cultivate. One day, Heng Bing Shi and her sister heard a
Vietnamese nun who had visited the City of Ten Thousand
Buddhas say, "I like the City, it is an excellent place for
cultivation." They called and were told, "This place is very
cold and very strict. Can you stand it?" That made them very
happy. They were told again, "In this place we only eat one
meal a day at midday." They felt that it suited them even
better! They came as soon as they were approved.
In 1978, Heng Bing Shi had taken refuge
with the Triple Jewel in Vietnam. Her master was not in the
United States and could not teach her personally, so she
took refuge again with the Venerable Master Hua in 1991.
The Venerable Master gave her the Dharma
name Guo Nan (south) and gave her older sister the Dharma
Name Guo Yue (Vietnam), changing it later to Guo Yue (moon).
She received the full set of precepts at ordination in 1992,
and the Venerable Master gave her the Dharma name Heng Bing,
taking her name from “East, West, and South; jia, yi, king
(the first three of the twelve Celestial Stems).” Her older
sister’s name became Heng Liang (Cool) as in “cool moon.”
After receiving the precepts, she was assigned to work in
various branch monasteries. Only after becoming involved
with duties in the temple on an everyday basis did she
realize that her real ‘training’ had just begun!
Heng Bing Shi has served at Gold Buddha
Monastery in Vancouver, Canada. She taught herself Chinese
and can read and speak it. She now lives at Gold Mountain
Monastery in San Francisco and helps with the proofreading
of Vietnamese Sutras. She works very hard in taking care of
and answering questions from Vietnamese Buddhists. When
asked how she feels about becoming a nun, Heng Bing Shi
doesn’t respond directly. She only describes how after
living at the City for more than a year, her mother came to
visit her and her sister and had this to say, “You two
became nuns too late. You should have done it earlier!”
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