A Ceremony for Renunciation was held in Than Hsiang Temple on Thursday, 26 April 2007. For the first time in Than Hsiang Temple, the Ceremony was held in English. The chanting of the suttas was still in Chinese, but when it came to the main part of the Ceremony, the Abbot of Than Hsiang Temple, Venerable Wei Wu spoke in English. This was so that Sis. Alvarez Diana Graciela, an Argentinian medical doctor could understand the whole Renunciation Ceremony she was going through.

Sister Diana was a medical doctor from 1982 to 2006. She started Vipassana M editation in 2002 in a Goenka organisation . She had such a strong experience from this meditation practice that she became interested in knowing more about Buddhism as she could see the fruit of her practice.

In 2004, she had an oppotunity to take Abhidhamma classes with Sayadaw U Silananda in the Dhamma Vihara (a Theravada Buddhist Monastery) in Veracruz, Mexico. Venerables U Silananda and U Nandisena are the spiritual leaders of the Dhamma Vihara. In 2005 she continued with her studies at the Dhamma Vihara learning Pali from Venerable U Nadisena. She then felt an urgency to live the rest of her life in the Dhamma, so she decided to leave her father and sister. Her father gave his blessings although he was not happy and did not understand what she was planning to do as it was all so alien to him.

Venerable U Nadisena provided her a written guide to Burma in 2006, but there was no Burmese embassy in her home town, so she went to Thailand instead and received ordination as a Maechee (or samaneri – novice Buddhist bhikshuni) in Wat Thaton of Ban Thaton in the Chiang Mai Province of Thailand.. It was a cultural shock for Sis. Diana as the two cultures were in opposite poles of each other. Women played a subservient role in Thailand whereas they were regarded as equal in Argentina.

It was thus a difficult first three months for Sis. Diana in Wat Thaton and she later moved to Bangkok to stay at Wat Mahathat Yuwarajarangsarit Rajaworamahavihara. She taught meditation and assisted Achan Suputh in teaching foreigners (non Thais) Buddhism. She was on the point of giving up being a bhikshuni in March 2007 when she met Zhen Yuan Shi at a Buddhist Conference in Bangkok and was introduced to Venerable Wei Wu then. Venerable Wei Wu invited her to International Buddhist College (IBC) to study Master of Arts in Buddhist Studies and a month later she followed the IBC students for the IBC Dhammaduta Tour of Malaysia and Singapore.

Sis. Diana's experience of life in Than Hsiang Temple convinced her that she preferred to be a Mahayana Buddhist as she felt it very important to develope Bodhicitta and dedicate her training for others as a better way than training for one's own liberation. When in Thailand, she had to stay alone with no teacher, no guidance. In IBC and Than Hsiang Temple, she felt more a part of the Sangha community. To Sis. Diana, the Theravada way was good for training the mind and enhance sila (morality). Her experience of the Mahayana way had shown her that it is oriented towards other beings, which is more to her preference. Thus it is that on the morning of 26 April 2007, she renounced the lay person's life to tread on the path to be a Mahayana Buddhist bhikshuni and take up the name of Hui Xing Shi.

Hui Xing Shi feels herself to be very fortunate to meet Venerable Wei Wu and finds him to be a very special person. She likened her meeting Venerable Wei Wu as a miracle as it had given her a new lease in life. She found Venerable Wei Wu to be very generous, hard working and putting in a lot of effort for others. She is inspired to follow in his footsteps and determined to learn the Dharma and cultivate her Bodhicitta towards the Bodhisattva path.