DDM Vice Abbess Ven. Guo Goang Gave Lectures on Precepts at Sravasti Abbey

From January 4^th to 11^th, Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) Vice Abbess Ven. Guo Goang and the Director of Chan Meditation Center (CMC), Ven. Chang Hwa, were invited to Sravasti Abbey (located in the suburb of Seattle, U. S. A.) to participate in the first week of the Abbey's Bhikkhuni Precepts Seminar. During the summer of 2023, Ven. Guo Goang was invited to be the Abbess of the second International Joint Bhikkhuni Varsa (Summer Retreat), where she taught precepts and led a seven-day Silent Illumination retreat. Following the Varsa, Sravasti Abbey invited her to teach precepts and share insights into spiritual cultivation and daily life as a Bhikkhuni.

Founded by Ven. Thubten Chodron twenty years ago, Sravasti Abbey is the first Western Bhikkhuni Sangha in the U. S. The Abbey regularly hosts a precepts seminar every winter. In 2018, Ven. Chang Hwa, Ven. Chang Syuan, and Ven. Chang Shen attended as representatives from the DDM Sangha. Alongside the 23 resident nuns of the Abbey, six Venerables from outside the U. S. participated, making a total of 29 attendees in the two-week precepts seminar.

Since Sravasti Abbey will send five monastics to Taiwan to receive Upasampadā, Ven. Guo Goang and Ven. Thubten Chodron took turns delivering lectures for them. Ven. Guo Goang began with "Faith, Aspiration, and Practice of Renunciation" and proceeded to expound upon the significance of monastic precepts, sharing daily activities, attire, and the five compulsory daily tasks of monastic life according to the Chinese Buddhism tradition. Ven. Guo Goang then went on with topics such as the division of labor in monasteries, balancing assigned duties with spiritual cultivation, establishing monastic ethics aligning with the Dharma and precepts, and managing relationships between monastics and adherents. Participants were further guided to reflect on the challenges in "group practice" that require a harmonious communal life, the necessary requirements for "solitary spiritual cultivation," and the complementary relationships of communal and solitary spiritual living. 

Throughout the course, participating monastics were all inspired by the story behind Ven. Guo Goang's renunciation; her journey from being assigned to the kitchen to serving as the DDM Director-in-chief; and her experience of a six-year solitary retreat. Based on her own experience, Ven. Thubten Chodron also shared her insights on the different practice challenges faced by contemporary monastics in an internationalized religious organization and in a sole monastery.

On January 12^th, as Ven. Guo Goang's lectures came to an end, Ven. Thubten Chodron and the resident nuns of Sravasti Abbey expressed their gratitude to Taiwanese Bhikkhunis for their support and encouragement, for the guidance from Ven. Heng-ching of National Taiwan University, and Ven. Wu Yin of Luminary Bhikkhuni Sangha. In recent years, because of the extraordinary Dharma affinity between Sravasti Abbey and the DDM Sangha, multiple exchanges and mutual learnings between the two have also enabled this Western Sangha, , to persevere and keep striving forward in spite of various challenges.




Original text written in Chinese by Ven. Chang Hwa (常華法師)
Photos provided by Sravasti Abbey
Translated by Siang-ling Li
Edited by James, Keith Brown