Assignment 3 - Nancy Chu

I would very much like to write about an important effect of Shifu or his teachings on me, but I think I am still figuring out the many ways in which I have been influenced. Like Jin Run Shr, I remember hearing as a kid that the Ven. Master was very frugal and that he could use a piece of tissue paper over and over before he threw it away. I think that if I had just been told that he was very frugal I wouldn't have made much of it, but since I also heard that he could use a piece of tissue paper however many times, whenever I had a piece of tissue paper I would be reminded of it and would try to be a little more mindful about the way I used it. So for me, hearing about specific, concrete examples or stories was beneficial in two ways: first, it made the Ven. Master more real to me; I could actually imagine a person doing things like reusing a piece of tissue paper and relate to him in a way I couldn't when I viewed his sharira in a tower or heard his voice during lunchtimes. Second, something like "he reused a piece of tissue paper 6 times" or "he walked last in line" grounded his values in very ordinary actions that, even if I couldn't imitate, I could also work towards. Simply hearing that he was very frugal or humble would have been much less powerful in terms of its effect on me, I think.