But before I actually felt called to the priesthood, I had had other intentions about my future. I had never put any credence in the astrologer's predictions, so, being a little bored with the prospect of becoming a school teacher, I decided that after I finished Education College. I'd go ahead and enter Chiang Kai Shek's Military School (Whampao Academy) in Canton. Chiang was Commandant of Whampao in those days.
Because of this ambition of mine, my brother was forced to prepare himself as best he could to take over the family businesses. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he never had to prove himself in the commercial world. After the Japanese invasion came the Communist revolution and there were no businesses left to take over.
But in 1934, when I was seventeen, and in my first year of Education College, the War with Japan had not yet begun. Xu Yun, with the foresight of the truly wise, immediately discouraged my military ambitions. Actually, I had abandoned that idea the day I met him. I wanted to become a priest but I didn't communicate this desire to anyone becsuse I thought that it would sound vain and frivolous. To me it would have seemed less conceited to say that I wanted to become a general than to say that I wanted to become a priest. But later on, in one of my many private talks with Xu Yun, I did confess to him my hope to one day become a Priest. He simply said that he wanted me to stay in College and complete my education. Afterwards we'd talk about the priesthood.
In 1937, I was graduated from Education College. That autumn, at the Mid-Autumn Festival in mid-September, or the Eighth Month Full Moon by the Chinese calendar, I had my head shaved. Immediately I moved into Nan Hua monastery as a resident novice and awaited the Ordination Ceremony which would take place in three months' time. And sure enough, I and two hundred other monks were ordained at the mid-december, 1937, Ordination Ceremony.
It was on this occasion that Master Xu Yun gave me the name Jy Din which means "to understand and achieve peace". He also gave me many of his old garments which I felt very privileged to wear.
Shortly after I became a monk, the Japanese invaded China and I began to suspect that Xu Yun had had a premonition- that he had deliberately discouraged me from attending Military School because he feared that if I became an Army officer I might also become an Army casualty. He had other work for me to accomplish. And Xu Yun was a man for whom the word "failure" did not exist. He had goals; and to him, I was one of the instruments he would use to achieve his goals
