Heng Hsiao Shi came from Tai-shan County of Canton Province. Her family worshipped Guanyin Bodhisattva. On the first and the fifteenth of every lunar month the whole family ate only vegetarian food. She and her twin brother were born after her parents prayed to Guanyin Bodhisattva. With the birth of the twins, the whole family was elated and threw a banquet on their one month anniversary. Who would have expected that over a dozen Japanese soldiers would break into the house and seize her mother. This was in 1942. The Japanese army had already entered deep into Chinese territory and was seizing young women everywhere. Heng Hsiao Shi suddenly broke out laughing as her mother was resisting the Japanese soldiers. They dropped her mother and came after her instead, saying that they wanted the little one, not the big one. Her father was holding her at the time and refused to let go. In the ensuring struggle, he banged his head against the wall and started bleeding profusely. He cried out, "You cannot take her. We prayed to Guanyin Bodhisattva to get her. Whoever takes her will have to give her back to Guanyin Bodhisattva." Then he died. Her mother also banged her head against the wall and committed suicide. Seeing their son and daughter-in-law gone, her grandparents also banged their heads against the wall and died. Four people died in one day and the banquet turned into a tragedy.  

Her maternal grandmother was grief-stricken, so her uncle took her home as soon as the funeral was over, leaving Heng Hsiao Shi and her twin brother to the two servants in the house. The next day the two servants sold her and her brother. When her uncle heard about this, he immediately went to buy them back. But by then her brother had already died.

Heng Hsiao Shi's grandmother had arranged her marriage before her birth. So, at sixteen she went to Hong Kong to marry her husband, who was 23 years her senior. After the wedding her husband went to Nicaragua to do business, and she stayed behind for 18 years before joining him. They were doing well in South America, but the Communist party took over and confiscated their business. They then immigrated to the United States.  

In 1991 when she was listening to the Earth Stare Sutra tape in Seattle's Bodhidharma Center, she heard the Venerable Master say, "Causes and effects are entangled in complex ways, and only when they are sorted out clearly will retribution cease." She reflected on her life and had a sudden insight. The shadows in her mind cleared, and from then on she looked to Buddhism to help her clear her debts in cause and effect and set her free from retribution.

In March 1993 when the Venerable Master's disciples were celebrating his birthday at Long Beach Monastery, the Venerable Master pointed to her and said, "She can leave the home-life." "No, I can't." "Why not?" "I have not told my family yet." "Okay, you win. You don't have to leave the home-life now but be sure to come to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (CTTB) on May 20th to take refuge." She came on time and took refuge and received the Five Precepts. She was given the Dharma name Guo Cui. After staying at CTTB for two months, she began working as a volunteer at Jun-kang Restaurant in San Francisco.

She then went to New York to tell her husband's brother and sister-in-law. Her husband had passed away in 1984, and his brother and sister-in-law were the only elders in her family. While in New York, she fell and broke her left wrist. After returning from the doctor's, she recited the Great Compassion Mantra and contemplated the Venerable Master's presence nonstop. That very day she saw the Venerable Master in his red sash, waving at her with his left hand and saying, "Take care of your business quickly and return soon." The next day, the doctor noticed a tremendous improvement in her wrist. It had only been 24 hours, yet her wrist was no longer twisted as in the previous days X-ray. Amazed, the doctor called her son and asked, "What is your mother's faith?" Her son answered, "She is a disciple of the Venerable Master Hua. She only reads the Venerable Master's books." The doctor gave her a 50 percent discount on her medical bill.  

Upon returning to Gold Mountain Monastery, before she had a chance to say anything to the Venerable Master, he asked her, "How is you hand?" Then he added, "You must have it massaged nine times, or else you will lose the use of your hand." After the eighth massage, the clinic closed. Someone said that Bhikshu Heng Tsung Shi knew how to massage, but she hesitated because he was a monk. The Venerable Master said, "In saving people, make no discriminations of male and female." So she got the ninth massage and her hand recovered.  

On September 19,1994, the anniversary of Guanyin Bodhisattva's birthday, her head was shaved at Long Beach Monastery. She received the Dharma names Guo Wei, Heng Hsiao. Soon afterwards, she went to the City of the Dharma Realm in West Sacramento as well as the Buddhist Lecture Hall in Hong Kong for training. In the summer of 2002, she was fully ordained at CTTB and is now stationed in at the Buddhist Lecture Hall in Hong Kong.