This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. It's very nice to be at City Center giving a talk. I want to thank Rosalie for inviting me. The last time she invited me, I... I was sick, and someone took my place in a surprising manner, I think. So yesterday was International Women's Day. And this is a time of year in the liturgical calendar of, oh, and Christina, I didn't see you. I'm so happy to see you. In the liturgical calendar where we celebrate and have a memorial service for Maha Pajapati, who has never heard that word before, Maha Pajapati.

[01:09]

Maha Pajapati, that small picture on the altar is an image of Maha Pajapati. She, I'm going to tell you the story of Mahapajapati today. And also I want to link that up with our need for telling stories and the importance of stories in our life, teaching stories and encouraging stories and also recognizing that we carry with us stories about the world. So Maha Pajapati, her name means great. That's the Maha part. Pajapati is leader of a great assembly.

[02:11]

So she was a great leader of a great assembly. And the stories that have come down to us are, I would say, you might say few and far between, but there are stories. She... She was from India in the Buddhist time, and she was from the Koleon clan. And the Shakya clan, Buddha was a Shakya, Shakyamuni, the wise one of the Shakya clan. They were close together geographically. And her older sister, Maya, married the... Sometimes we hear the story as king of the Shakya clan. Other times, actually, it was like the chieftain of this clan, and it was a rotating position. But the teaching story often is that he was the king.

[03:14]

Anyway, her older sister, Maya, married this head of the clan, king or chief, Sudodhana was his name. And they wanted to have children very much. It wasn't, she wasn't able to conceive. And finally, as was the custom, he took a second wife, which happened to be her sister, Gautami is another name for Mahapajapati, Gautami. So Maya and Gautami were sisters, and they were both married to Sudodhana. Well, after she married Sudodhana, she became pregnant, as did her sister, her older sister at about 40, Maya became pregnant. They were both pregnant at the same time. And Maya gave birth to Shakyamuni Buddha or Siddhartha or Gautama. And you may know that story where she was traveling back to give birth in her parents' home and she stopped at a beautiful grove to look at flowers in Lundini Garden and ended up going into labor and had...

[04:27]

her baby standing up in a miraculous way. The Buddha supposedly came out of her side, which might have been cesarean. We don't know. And at the same time, or soon thereafter, Gotami, or Mahapajapati, gave birth. And same father, Suddhodana. So the Buddha had a half-sister, and her name was Sundarinanda. And we chant her name when we... chant the acharyas, the women. And Steve, I didn't see you either. Nice to see you. And Blanche. What a wonderful gathering this morning. And all of you. So the Buddha's half-sister was Sundarinanda, whose name is mentioned when we chant women, teachers from India, China, and Japan. Now, seven days after the birth of Siddhartha Maya, Maha Maya, Queen Maya, died.

[05:33]

Now, this is often just mentioned, seven days after his mother died. But if you can imagine the suffering and the pain of some... Maybe she died from complications of childbirth. She was an older mother that... We don't know. But... just imagining the loss of his mother, the baby, and what we know today of the connection in utero between mother and child, the sound of the voice, the heartbeat, the fragrance, everything, and then that be gone. So this is the impermanence, the teaching of impermanence so early. and also the sadness, everyone around him. His aunt, Mahapajapati, and the king, and just everyone.

[06:34]

It's not really ever meditated upon how that must have been for that family. And at that point, Mahapajapati, who had also just given birth to Sundarinanda, became a Gautama, or... Siddhartha's foster mother. She was his aunt and foster mother, and she ended up nursing him, it says in the literature, and Sundarinanda had a wet nurse. So she actually nursed the baby Buddha and brought him up as his mother, foster mother. So very, very close, and... close connection and close, lots of loving care. Now, I'm not going to talk that much about the Buddhas going forth when Shakyamuni set off on his spiritual quest, and different stories have different details of that.

[07:50]

One is that at that point his wife, Yasodhara, became pregnant. right when he left and was pregnant the entire time of his journey, six years. And upon his enlightenment, she gave birth to their child. That's one story. Another is that he had a child and he left. Anyway, I'm not going to talk about that, but he left the family. And, you know, Mahabhajabhati... Missed him, I'm sure, and wondered, you know, had she done something wrong that, you know, made conditions for him to leave. But whatever her feelings about this, after his enlightenment, it was a couple years before he came back home. And she knew right away upon seeing him that

[08:50]

even before he taught that there had been this big change. Now, about five years, this happened about five years after the Buddha was enlightened, there was, he established an order of renunciates, male order of renunciates who followed his way, and also the men and women's lay sangha, lay men and lay women, So three of the sanghas, traditionally there's four sanghas, three were established within five years or so of his enlightenment. And right around this time, there were wars between the Kolian tribe clan and the Shakya clan over water rights. You know, this is 2,500 years ago. We have these stories come down, but it's not unusual, right? This is still... water you know and water rights these very close clans had big fights and the Buddha tried to stop it and did at first but then he wasn't able to many people were killed and there were left many in India at this time women were either under the auspices under the tutelage and protection of either their fathers

[10:17]

their older brothers, their husbands, or some male relatives. So it would have been very unusual for women to have sort of an independent, outside of the home situation or outside of relatives' life. But there were many women left without husbands and fathers and brothers and so forth in these clans. And they came to Mahapajapati and... And also the Buddha had been teaching and people were very moved by his teaching and they saw this possibility of leading a whole different kind of life, the life of a renunciate and with meditation and few possessions and living a completely different kind of life as a possibility. This was very unusual at the time. So they... talked with Mahapajapati and also Mahapajapati's husband Sudhodana had died at that point.

[11:19]

She was older. She was, well, in her 50s or maybe early 60s at the time. And they decided that they wanted to also go forth and lead the life of renunciates. All these women, they say there were 500 women, mostly from these two clans. And so the story goes, And I want to come back to the fact that I'm even telling this story in a moment. That Mahapachapati, on behalf of herself and all these women, went to Shakyamuni Buddha and asked to go forth into the life of a renunciate. And the story is that the Buddha said, no, this is not, this will be not well, this is not well. and refused. She asked three times and he refused. And then the Buddha set off to teach in another place.

[12:20]

He went to Veshali. And Veshali in India was the place just recently, just a couple weeks ago, where the International Buddhist Women Conference, Sakyadita, Daughters of the Buddha, which meets... about every other year or so, just had their international conference in India at Vishali because it was there that Mahapajapati finally succeeded in establishing with the Buddha the fourth Sangha, the renunciate women Sangha. So anyway, the Buddha set off for Vishali and Mahapajapati and these 500 women or so shaved their heads donned rags. The Buddha's robes were made of pieces of found cloth, and they made some kind of robes out of rags, and they set off on foot, barefoot, to walk to where the Buddha was teaching in Vishal.

[13:27]

It was about 150 miles away from where they were, and they walked. And you can imagine this large group of women on the roads needing to beg for food, water, shelter, maybe not used to that kind of life, but very clear in their resolve that this was how they wanted to live and wanting to make their intentions known in the strongest way possible. And the Buddha, for 25 years, had for an attendant... his cousin actually, his father's brother's son, Ananda, who is always depicted iconographically as kind of fat cheeks and very soft and sweet and compassionate face, gentle. And Ananda wasn't enlightened until after the Buddha died. However, he was very close with the Buddha, served him daily for 25 years.

[14:34]

also had a phenomenal memory, memorized everything the Buddha said. So all the sutras say, thus have I heard, which is Ananda saying what he heard the Buddha teach. And those were passed on orally and then finally written down. Ananda saw these women arrive in Vaishali in a sorry state. It says the detail is their feet were bloodied and they were, you know, they had been on the road. And he spoke to the Buddha. He interceded on their behalf and asked the Buddha something that's a core teaching. He asked the Buddha, is it not true that men and women can equally realize the fruit of the religious life, can equally realize their true nature, become...

[15:35]

stream winners, you know, entry-ers, arhatsun. And the Buddha said, yes, that is true, there's no difference. This is a pretty important point that's kind of unassailable, that there's no difference between the capacity between men and women to realize the religious life or to practice thoroughly and fully. So how is it then, you know, Ananda, if there is no difference, they have the full capacity, then why don't you let them? And so with this further intercession, and I think credit goes to Mahapajapati and these women who made, they didn't take no for an answer and kept on with their strong request. The Buddha... And he changed his mind. This is the only place in the canon, in the sutras, where it's noted that the Buddha changed his mind.

[16:42]

It's the only place. Now, this is one of the stories that's been passed down. And you could say this is celebratory. The nuns... order the women renunciate order has been established cause for celebration I think they were very very happy and along with that is a kind of sadness you know or realization that cannot be separated from this of this story of that that that there was no first was no you know that uh And it's written down, and scholars, when you read about it, it looks like, and then the Buddha said they can take the renunciate's path if they follow these eight special rules, extra things.

[17:45]

And they're very gender-specific in relationship to the monks. Now, before I tell you about those, which are constraints, really, on the women, I want to say that it is not known, and scholars actually feel that these were later additions, maybe 500 years later, that these were added at the time when the old wisdom school was maybe weakening and the new wisdom school was getting stronger. And so these things that look like, when you read it, that came out of the Buddha's mouth right then and there from the internal... you know, language used from the scriptures. In studying them, scholars feel probably not, probably came later, added by other people for various reasons. And however, you know, for thousands of years reading this and not knowing and not being able to have that kind of scholarship and be able to sort that out,

[19:00]

the taking these on as... and institutionalizing these eight special rules. There's a kind of sadness there, even to this day. This is... I'm talking about things that happened 2,500 years ago, but it is as fresh... The issues are as fresh as fresh can be. These same... views that are held culturally and in our hearts, and we're still dealing with this daily in many realms. So I'll just say these eight special rules, whenever they were added, and this quote often quoted that the Buddha said he would allow this, but that his dharma would now last, you know, less time. It would be shortened because of this. Those, you know, it's painful.

[20:03]

You know, why the Dharma would be, you know, instead of last a thousand years or two thousand, it would only last five hundred years. But this is in the mouth of the Buddha and what you can read. And the eight special rules installed constraints, and one has to do with seniority, that a monk who's ordained for one day or one hour, a nun of even a hundred years ordination, a seniority of a hundred years, would bow down to him and he would go first, but he doesn't have to bow down. So it's instituting the cultural norm and gender differences of the culture. They got instituted. We don't know when exactly or by who, but they were part of the establishment or constraints put upon the nun's order.

[21:05]

Other things were there needed to be monks for women's ordinations, but women did not have to be present at monks' ordinations. Women could not teach. male monks, but the monks could teach the women. Monks could be at the full moon or every two week repentance ceremonies and also correct nuns, but not vice versa. Just a number of these things that really kept the societal norms in place within the Sangha. So in some ways, those eight special rules did not hinder a person's ability to practice meditation and to study and to lead this life. But there were consequences to that, that over time probably weakened the women's order and it eventually disappeared in India and in other countries and was weakened because

[22:14]

They were not allowed to teach. And if you think about this, if someone's not going to be teaching broadly, then the donations maybe flow to those who will be studying and teaching. And so these kinds of things had consequences in various ways. So after this, Mabha Chapti became, she formed the order you know, there was permission from the head of everything, but she was the founder of the nun's order, I would say. And many people studied with her. She lived to be, they say, 120 and taught. And also because she was older and had lived the life of the wife of this Klan's leader, she knew how to organize and do these kinds of things, which was a great help to this budding new sangha.

[23:18]

So at her death, she asked the Buddha to come and visit her, and he did. And she was, he called her the foremost in wide knowledge. And she was extremely accomplished as a meditator and so forth. And at her death, her death only was rivaled by the Buddha's death in terms of... This is not staying put. There we go. in terms of kind of miraculous things that have been reported, like earthquakes. And he asked her to show her kind of spiritual powers and these kind of yogic powers. And there's a poem from 2,000 years ago where it tells that she went into full lotus and then she sailed across the sky from right to left, which I thought...

[24:37]

would really be cool, you know, to see. And she also appeared and disappeared in the sky like a star in all different places and, you know, these kinds of yogic miraculous showings of, you know. So there was, you know, the earth shook in seven ways and there were these magical signs at her death. So one of the things that's reported is during her lifetime, she went back to Shakyamuni, her foster son, and asked for this first rule of the eight to be rescinded, the seniority rule. And this is, it's an industry of all the ones to say, could we please, could the seniority be treated equally amongst the nuns and the monks' order rather than this disparity? And it's reported that the Buddha said it would not be seemly.

[25:42]

It makes you kind of wonder. In fact, this whole story, and this is what I wanted to get back to, this particular story of the Buddha's reluctance to ordain women has been repeated and told and told and told. And I just told it again, I admit. This is the story that gets repeated, that the Buddha refused, that the Buddha was reluctant, rather than the great accomplishments of these Arahad women and their poems, which are collected in a book in the Pali Canon called the Terigata, the poems of the Teri, the women elders, these stories of their enlightenment and their practice, which we don't have a lot, but those are less... you know, what gets presented is this reluctance, which... And I realize, well, I fall into that, too. I tell that story, too. So... I wanted to read, with that in mind, Mahapajapati's poem, or maybe one of her poems, at the end of her life.

[26:57]

And it's interesting. She brings up her sister, Maya, at the end. Maya was, you know... Somehow in the story, Maya's forgotten. She died. She went to Tushita Heaven. She's fine. And we don't hear about her anymore. But she brings her up in this poem. This is one of her enlightenment poems. She says, this is Mapa Japati. Homage to you, Buddha, best of all creatures, who set me and many others free from pain. All pain is understood. The cause, the craving is dried up. The noble eightfold way unfolds. I have reached the state where everything stops. I have been mother, son, father, brother, grandmother. Knowing nothing of the truth, I journeyed on. But I have seen the Blessed One. This is my last body, and I will not go from birth to birth again.

[27:58]

Look at the disciples all together, their energy. Their sincere effort, this is homage to the Buddhas. This is homage to the Buddhas. Maya gave birth to Gautama for the sake of us all. She has driven back the pain of the sick and the dying. That's Mahapajapati's poem. And this... part here where she says, look at the disciples all together, their energy, their sincere effort. This is homage to the Buddhas. There's a story, one of the stories of Gautama, as she was walking with the Buddha, and he sneezed, and she said, bless you. And he said, Gautami, or Mapa Jabati, this is no way to bless the Buddha. The way to bless the Buddha is to practice hard and make effort. That is how you bless the Buddha. So in this poem, To me, it resonates or it kind of reverberates back to look at the disciples altogether, their energy, their sincere effort.

[29:09]

This is homage to Buddha. This is how you make homage, by practicing making efforts sincerely. So every year, right around women's... International Women's Day, which was chosen. You know, this is not a ceremony that's in the liturgical year of, I don't know, I think Zen Center created this ceremony in our efforts to make balance between a superbly or supremely androcentric, male-centered tradition wherein the teachings and the stories and the history of women was not recorded or passed on or equal. And this is a cultural thing in lots of different cultures in Asia and all over.

[30:16]

lots of places. And so Zen Center has made this effort over the years to look at our liturgy, look at the language that may have genderized areas that don't need to be. When we're talking about bodhisattvas, we don't need to say he. So this has been changed as best we can. There's still more work to do, as well as remembering these teachers by chanting some of the names we know and also dedicating merit, dedicating positive energy every day to Mahapajapati, the first, we say, our first woman ancestor. And I think eventually we'll drop woman ancestor and just say, our great teacher, Mahapajapati, we don't need to add that. We'll just know who she was. so maybe eventually we'll drop that designation and just pay homage to her.

[31:20]

So in adding this ceremony for the year, this is the day that I think Norman Fisher has, Abbott, I can't remember if we talked about it, he chose that time. So I wanted to... come back to the importance of stories and these stories that I just told. And each of us has what we call karmic consciousness or a world, a world of thinking and beliefs and views. and experiences and emotions and thoughts and preferences and each of us, each of us has what we call this karmic consciousness, which is the way we see the world.

[32:24]

We can't give it away, we can't exchange it with anyone else. It's unique to us, it's unrepeatable, And each of us has a full and vast and fathomless karmic consciousness. Included in that are views that may be some kind of prejudgment about the way things are, the way certain people are, value judgments of all kinds. And we hold these and we act from there, we speak from there. And these held views, if unexamined, if taken as truth, or as the way things are, rather than, this is my experience, this is how I see things. If we take it as, you know, in a rigid way, this is the truth, this is the way things are, there will be great...

[33:31]

difficulties. And we know this. We know when we come upon where we're holding to our view. So these issues around gender equality and where for one person what is the norm is not the norm for someone else. And to make that effort to examine our thinking, to examine how we relate to the situations of our daily life. And rather than somehow settling down in this is how we see it and this is the way it is and resisting, you know, listening to someone else. I think this... the pain and the disharmony around holding to our worlds, our karmic worlds.

[34:40]

In some ways, it is what it is, and it's also flexible and movable and plastic. It can change. We can make new, literally, neuronal pathways and let go of old ideas and open. And this can be, you know, it's difficult. This is difficult. And we have work to do here. So there's a kawan in the Book of Serenity called, it's case number 12, Dijon, Planting the Fields. I'm sure some of you have heard this. So these are Chinese Zen masters. Dijon asked, Shushan, Shushan, Where do you come from? And Xu Shan said, from the South. And Dijong said, how is Buddhism in the South these days? Xu Shan said, there's extensive discussion.

[35:46]

And Dijong said, how can that compare to me planting the fields and making rice to eat? And Xu Shan said, what can you do about the world? And Dijang said, what do you call the world? And later in the koan, in the poem, there's this couplet, only those who have investigated to the full would know. Having investigated to the full, you clearly know there's nothing to seek. Having investigated to the full, you clearly know there is nothing graspable. There's nothing to seek there. But this particular exchange, where do you come from, the South? How's Buddhism going there? And you might say this to somebody that you meet who's practicing. These were two monks. How's it going? How's your group? What's happening with your group these days?

[36:50]

And he says, there's extensive discussion. And then Dishan kind of... you know, what is this extensive discussion? How does it compare to me planting the fields and cooking, you know, these very grounded, you know, and out of greenhouse we're planting. We just had a couple weeks ago the first seed sowing ceremony, you know, and the seeds are going into the ground and coming up and it's springtime and it's daylight savings time tomorrow. And cooking, you know, just... daily activities, being one with our daily activities. How does this extensive discussion compare with that kind of practice of just doing each thing completely, which is, in a way you could say, when we talk about zazen and stopping the mind, stopping the mind is completely just doing one thing.

[37:57]

That's it. And I think Xuishan, later, after he said about the planting, he said, well, what do you do about the world? Like, you're planting and cooking and involvement in that. How about all what needs to be done in the world and all these problems? And Dijon then says, what do you call the world? What do you call the world? And I think that's, these koans, you know, are not... even though they were written down for a thousand years ago. They are alive. That's what the importance of stories and teaching stories is they're alive for you right now. What do you call the world? What can you do about the world? Well, first of all, what do you call the world? What is the world for you? And are you clear about that? So these... these issues from ancient times are alive today.

[39:02]

What do you call the world? What do we do about the world? What do we do about these extensive discussions that are going on? And I want to bring something up that I think bears bringing up. And in the context of this question of examining, each of us examining our karmic consciousness, examining how we think about things. Are we clear? Have we investigated to the full? So, you know, how is Buddhism in the South these days? There's extensive discussion. Some of you may know about this, some of you may not know about this, but there's extensive discussion going on right now about various difficulties in... in the Buddhist world, you might say. And I say that in a very general way, because I don't want to talk about certain teachers, I don't want to talk about groups, particular groups, or teachers in other groups.

[40:07]

Actually, what I want to talk about is Zen Center, our group, our teachers, our Sangha, and this world of, are we clear about how we practice together and what views we hold? And have we investigated fully these issues around gender? You know, they play out in all sorts of ways that can be extraordinarily painful. Just this story of the founding of the nun's order, this is, it's painful kind of to hear about it. I think not just for women, it's painful for men and women to kind of, you know, hear about exclusion or extra constraints. Because why? How come again? Have we examined this to the full?

[41:09]

There was something I read where this person said all this nonsense about the Buddha refusing. It's absurd. The Buddha was very clear about wanting to establish the nun's order and all this stuff that came later is Where does it come from? So I found that very refreshing, kind of a usable story. I don't know where it was doctrinally found, but her sense was that these are accretions to the story that had other purposes, and that the Buddha, from the get-go, within five years of his enlightenment, established all four sanghas. forget about this reluctance. I kind of like that one as a very usable story for me. Anyway, when I say that these issues are alive today in the Sakya Dita International Women's Conference, there are lots of discussion about full ordination for women and that it's being not supported.

[42:19]

And it just... This is alive today. This is not 2,500 years ago. It's alive in our communities. It's alive where? In our minds. When we talk about karmic consciousness, it is a consciousness. And when there's a shared, similar consciousness about certain topics, and then we speak and act from that thinking, that's a kind of collective consciousness. karmic consciousness that societies can have, countries can have, groups that share similar backgrounds will have similar karmic consciousness, although also very different in ways, but kind of this shared view. And I, you know, in terms of the harm done, when these views are unexamined and actions are flowing from them in terms of misusing sexuality for one, which is one of our precepts, it behooves us to be not fuzzy about this, but extremely clear.

[43:36]

And I brought, I hope this is all right with you, a copy of our ethical principles and procedures. San Francisco Zen Center, you can find this online. Just as an education thing for all of us to be really clear about what Zen Center is saying about misuse of sexuality in terms of teacher-student relationships and seniority. Here's seniority again. When you have seniority in a sangha, this carries weight. It carries spiritual weight Whether it's true or not, that's part of the projections people have, that if you've been around for a while, then you're more wise or something. We have to be very clear about this. So I just wanted to read a little bit of this. So our ethical principles are based on bodhisattva precepts, and it says the Zen Center Sangha...

[44:44]

recognizes that sexuality is as much a part of the field of practice as any other aspect of our daily lives. Acknowledging and honoring our sexuality is part of creating an environment where conscious, mindful, and compassionate relationships can be cultivated. Special care must be taken when people of unequal status or authority enter into a sexual relationship. In particular, there are two forms of relationships which can lead to great harm and confusion. Therefore, both are considered a misuse of sexuality within our community. First, it is considered a misuse of sexuality for an adult within Zen Center to engage in sexual behavior with anyone at Zen Center who is a minor, full responsibility for avoiding such relationships lies with the adult.

[45:45]

Second, it is considered a misuse of authority, responsibility, and sexuality for a Zen Center teacher to engage in sexual behavior with his or her student. If a teacher and or student feel at risk of violating this guideline, they should suspend their teacher-student relationship at least until they have sought counsel with the senior Zen Center teacher. Furthermore, it is considered a misuse of sexuality for a teacher at Zen Center to form a sexual relationship with a former student within six months of the termination of the student-teacher relationship. And then it goes on. Before forming a sexual relationship, all Zen Center priests, head students, this is lay and priest ordained, or other persons in a formal role that entail clear, Advantages of influence in relationship to others should discuss the appropriateness of the potential relationship with a teacher or practice leader.

[46:53]

Particular care must be shown toward new students. And I bring this up because I know there's many people who are new. You might think, why is she bringing this up here? But I just feel to have this be crystal clear, like no fuzzy-wuzzy. stuff around this, I think, to be, and we can do better maybe in our language here even, but particular care must be shown toward new students. And then it goes on about, we've learned it takes about six months for a new student to establish the foundation of his or her practice and to understand the complex nature of interrelationships within the Sangha in order to protect a new student's opportunity to practice We expect anyone who has been at Zen Center longer than six months to consult with a practice leader about a potential relationship with a new student during the first six months of the new student's residency. And I would say more than just residency, but lots of participation, even if you're not living here.

[47:59]

Everyone coming to Zen Center in any capacity has the right to be free from sexual harassment. Continued expression of sexual interest after being informed that such interest is unwelcome is a misuse of sexuality. So I, you know, how is Buddhism in the South these days? There's extensive discussion and I thought it would be beneficial or behoove us to be very clear about this because the this world, you know, what do you call the world? In many churches and religious situations there can be, you know, the intensity of feelings we have for our teachers and the projections of wisdom and compassion and full enlightenment and all sorts of things can cloud our minds

[49:05]

And also teachers' minds, teachers are human, and their minds can be very cloudy and may not act in the best interest of the student. The job of the teacher is to support and protect, care for a student, not to gratify one's own needs. So I wanted to make this point within the context of the ceremony of memorial service for Mahabajabadi celebrating the contributions of women known and unknown and contributions of all the teachers, all the interrelated way in which we support one another, and also to bring attention to this area that needs attention.

[50:10]

And it's not enough, needs attention freshly, you know, to fully examine freshly. Only those who have investigated to the full would know. I wanted to end with just a very brief Another story, this is a story from Lei Min Pang and his daughter, Ling Zhao. Ling Zhao is another Chinese teacher that we chant. And there's a few stories of Ling Zhao. And she just sounds really fun. I would love to have met Ling Zhao. I'm in this contemplative care year-long, nine-month offering that Zen Center is doing this year, training people in contemplative care.

[51:12]

And there's this story that I thought, this is contemplative care. Contemplative care is where there's an equality between sick and not sick. We... rather than a medical model, I'm the well one, and you're the sick one, and I take care of you. It's more, we're all in this together, and now it's your turn, and I can learn from you, who's having difficulty and sick, and I learn from you, you learn from me. Anyway, this story of Ling Zhao, her father was Layman Pang, and he sunk all their possessions in the middle of the lake, and then they made bamboo toys and things, baskets. Layman was once selling bamboo baskets. Coming down off a bridge, he stumbled and fell. And when Ling Zhao saw this, she ran to her father's side and threw herself down too. And Layman Park said, what are you doing? She said, I saw Papa fall down, and so I'm helping, replied Ling Zhao.

[52:16]

And he said, I hope nobody was looking. Anyway, I thought this was contemplative care somehow. He's not... Somehow he's not the old guy who's falling down all the time. Oh, there's dad again. It's like she's going to go there with him. And then we're both on the ground. And now what? So I hope my words didn't disturb you or cause any difficulty. my effort to make this clear and not look out at others, but look here and, you know, how is Buddhism going here? How is our practice here? And in this community and in that way, we can work together.

[53:21]

Thank you all very much. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[53:52]

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