Good morning and welcome and happy Mother's Day. So I want to talk about Mother's Day today. And I want to start with the origin of Mother's Day, at least in modern times, which surprisingly was not started by Hallmark Cards. but actually it was a proclamation in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe. She was more famous for other things, which I'll get to, but she made a Mother's Day proclamation in 1870 that was the beginning of Mother's Day. And this was soon after the Civil War and all the blood and carnage. of that. And so Mother's Day actually began as a peace day, a non-violence day, an anti-war day.

[01:04]

Hogetsu, would you please read the original proclamation by Julia Ward Howe, beginning of Mother's Day? Mother's Day proclamation penned in Boston by Julia Ward Howe in 1870. Arise, then, women of this day. Arise, all women who have hearts. Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears, say firmly. We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure them.

[02:05]

From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says, disarm, disarm. The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor. nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first as women to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace. each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God. In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general council of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest possible period consistent with its objects.

[03:20]

to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace. Thank you. So as you have heard, Mother's Day was originally proclaimed by Julia Ward Howe. And we've somehow forgotten this, or many. as a day of peace, as a day of counsel, as a day to work for peace and nonviolence and disarmament. And this is, I think, a big part of the spirit of Mother's Day that I want to talk about. But I want to say a little bit more about Julia Ward Howe, just because she was the founder of Modern Mother's Day. She was born in 1819 in New York City. Her father was an educated and established Wall Street banker, of all things. Her mother died young, though.

[04:22]

Her mother was a poet. And so Julia was able to learn by herself and immerse herself in education. She was also a writer and wrote poetry and plays and travel books, including A Trip to Cuba. She eventually married Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, who was a hero of the Greek Revolution. They married in 1843 and had six children. He died in 1876. They were very important in the abolitionist movement against slavery. Her husband distributed a newspaper in Boston that was abolitionist, and also funded people like John Brown, who was known for the Harper's Ferry raid. Julia Ward Howe that was probably most famous as the author, the writer of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which was the song that Union soldiers sang to fight slavery.

[05:33]

In addition, though, to her role as an abolitionist, she was important in the early women's suffrage movement in America. So she was forced by her husband to be a traditional wife, even though she was very well educated and a writer, and he ended up spending most of the inheritance she had on bad investments, so she had to struggle on her own. Anyway, she proclaimed, eventually she became very well known as a preacher of the women's rights movement. In addition to announcing Mother's Day, And I think of Mother's Day in this spirit, in modern times, in terms of Cindy Sheehan, who went to George W. Bush's Crawford Ranch, mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, and asked, for what noble cause did my son die? And helped to invigorate the anti-war movement.

[06:35]

Of course, we still have American soldiers fighting in wars abroad. But anyway, Mother's Day is traditionally an anti-war day, a peace day, a day for remembering nonviolence, remembering kindness, remembering nurturing, and the spirit of mothers. So I wanted to also, in that spirit, talk about a couple of different ways in which that nurturing motherly spirit is important in Zen and in Buddhism. First, I thought I'd talk about grandmother Zen, grandmotherly mind. This is particularly honored in Soto Zen, the branch of Zen we do. Not that I want to enforce too much the stereotypes because the differences between Rinzai and Soto depend a lot on the individual teacher. But anyway, rather than

[07:36]

trying to accomplish some particular experience. Sato Zen, going back to its founder, Dogen, in the 13th century, who I often talk about, emphasizes this grandmotherly mind. So when I lived in Japan in the early 90s, I saw this myself. I lived in front of the Shin-Yodo, an old Tendai temple on the foothills of Mount Yei. And it felt to me like the real spirit of Buddhism and compassion was most clear there in the grandmothers who would be out in the street early in the morning, sweeping the street, cleaning off the street, encouraging the children as they were going off to school. I mentioned this to Tanaka Shinkai Roshi once, who was the Zen teacher who I sat in numbers of sessions with and liked very much in Japan, and now Abbot of Hokyoji, an important monastery, and he agreed.

[08:47]

He said that the spirit of Buddhism today in Japan is really held by the grandmothers, that grandmother mind. And actually, a couple of temples I practiced at, I remember particularly at Shogoji, the monastery in Kyushu where I did a practice period, there was an old woman who was living there and very respected by the monks, and she'd been there through several abbots, but she just was part of the temple. Anyway, this grandmotherly spirit goes very far back, including to the old, peddlers in front of the temples, the old grandmother peddlers in front of the temples that we heard about from Stephen Hine when he was here. There's a story about this, though, that goes back to Dogen, and one of his great disciples was named Tetsubikai. He eventually became the third abbot of Eheji after Koen Ejo, who was the main successor of Dogen.

[09:48]

There's different versions of the story. This is from an old Sato Zen book called Two Moons. So I'll read how they tell it. Gikai became a disciple of Dogen Zenji and 10 years passed. Then from the autumn of the year when Gikai was 32, this was in 1252, Dogen Zenji became bedridden and Gikai, along with who became the second Abbot of AAG, nursed Dogen diligently. One day, Gikai was taking medicine to Dogen Zenji's sick room, but when he arrived at the door, he heard voices coming from inside, and he stopped to listen. And Dogen was saying, I feel sorry for Gikai. He tries hard. He's a very capable man. I'm not going to live much longer." This was late in 1252, and Dogen realized that. He said, he was talking to Koen Ejo, he said, I'd like to give him what he wants, but I can't treat the Dharma lightly, just because I feel sorry for him.

[10:52]

Pity is pity, but the Dharma is the Dharma. First of all, it wouldn't be good for him. Also, it would be a crime against the Dharma, so I just have to ignore my sympathy for him and protect the Dharma. If Gikai only had a little more grandmotherly kindness, I could transmit the Dharma to him. But, well, it's just too bad, said Dogen. And Ejo added, yes, that's right. Gikai certainly wants to be enlightened, but he's just too attached to his opinions. So Gikai was listening and heard this conversation. And this book says he could not move and hot tears ran down his cheeks. This was the second time he'd heard Dogen Genji say he needs more grandmotherly kindness. Four or five days earlier, he had taken advantage of the fact that he was alone with Dogen and requested, I want you to transmit the Dharma to me. And Dogen said, wait a while longer. If you had some grandmotherly kindness, I would give you the Dharma whether you ask or not. So Ajay, Gikai wondered, just what was this lack of grandmotherly kindness?

[11:57]

He nursed Dogen carefully. He had practiced Zen without regard for body or life. Just where was this grandmotherly kindness lacking? Gikai was anguished, and even the energy to wipe away his tears of remorse seemed to have left him. So it goes on to tell how this question remained unresolved. And as it moved into spring and then summer of 1253, Dogen's condition got worse. Finally, in the summer, he was persuaded to go to Kyoto to try and receive some healing. We don't know what that illness was, Anyway, as he was leaving, Dogen said to Gikai, I don't think I'm going to recover from this illness. This is the version of this book. However, Eheji will never perish. This very Eheji is the center of and the training ground for the Buddha's teaching.

[13:00]

I want you all to work together to preserve it. And so it still is there. Naomi and I were there last December. Eheji, it's more splendid and wonderful than it was in Dogen's time. But he decided, he told Gikai he was appointing him to take charge of the temple in his absence and said that if I am able to return to Eheji, I will grant your long unfulfilled request. Anyway, he did not get back to Eheji. and Koen Ejo became the second abbot. Eventually, Gikai apparently did gain enough grandmother mind, grandmotherly kindness. So the emphasis going back to Dogen is not, you know, sitting perfectly or having some great understanding or some great enlightenment experience or having studied thoroughly, but just this deep

[14:06]

nurturing and sustaining grandmotherly kindness. This is very important. And Gikai did eventually become the third abbot of Eheji. So what is this grandmotherly kindness? Actually, it's not only a matter of gender. So there are There's a kind of nurturing and nurturance that men are capable of as well, not only making war. One example in the Soto history is the great Soto monk, Ryokan. He lived in the early 19th century and is famous as a poet and a calligrapher. In his own life, he was a famous calligrapher, but he was also famous for playing with children, and also kind of considered sort of foolish, naive, innocent.

[15:16]

And yet, his stories about him have remained, and he didn't have any disciples. He had one disciple who died young, but he basically, after he finished his training, went back to his home village, lived in a little hut outside the village and went on begging rounds to support himself, but often would put down his begging bowl and play ball with the children. One famous story is he was playing hide-and-seek and it got late and the mothers called the children in The next morning, a farmer went into his barn and there was Ryokan hiding. And the farmer said, what are you doing here, Ryokan? And he said, the children are here. So he was still playing his game and maybe he was just in deep samadhi and didn't realize the night had passed or it didn't matter to him.

[16:22]

Anyway, there are many silly stories about Ryokan. But he had this... You know, it's kind of the example in Soto Zen of this great grandmotherly mind. So one of the stories about him. Once a relative of Ryokan's asked him to speak to his delinquent son. Ryokan came to visit the family, but did not say a word of admonition to the boy. He stayed overnight and prepared to leave the following morning. As the wayward boy was helping tie Ryokan's straw sandals, he felt a drop of warm water on her shoulder. Glancing up, he saw Ryokan looking down at him, his eyes full of tears. Ryokan returned to his hermitage in his hometown, but the boy had a complete change of heart. So an example of

[17:25]

kindness without saying a word. So again, how do we sustain this practice? This grandmotherly kindness is something that we try to support, to help each other, to support people in sangha, to support people in our life. How do we have this spirit, which I think is also related to Julia Ward Howe calling for Mother's Day as a day of peace, a day of nonviolence, a day to work for dishonourment, the end of war for nonviolence. Rilkhan, again, was very kind of simple. In some ways, he's a radical extremist. He was a radical extremist non-consumerist. He lived this very, very simple life. He was quite learned and studied. He had this little grass hut, actually.

[18:34]

There's a story about a thief breaking in Ryokan didn't have much, he gave him his blanket and the thief left and then Ryokan wrote a poem saying, I wish I could give him the moon. So it's not necessary, you know, here we are in this storefront in north central Chicago trying to share this kind of practice. It's not necessary to give away all your worldly possessions or live in some grass hut, but this spirit of, contentment of simplicity, of not needing all the things that are in the television commercials or on the billboards. We can learn something from Ryokan. So one of his poems, I translated a number of his poems together with Kaz Tanahashi, who was here recently and painted that, the one that's out front in the hall. We translated some poems, and this one kind of hits it for me. Ryokan wrote, without desire, everything is sufficient.

[19:38]

With seeking, myriad things are impoverished. Plain vegetables can soothe hunger. A patched robe is enough to cover this bent old body. Alone, I hike with a deer. Cheerfully, I sing with village children. The stream under the cliff cleanses my ears. The pine on the mountaintop fits my heart. So this is an important part of Zen and of Buddhism, just simplicity, appreciating the life we have, the situation we have. Again, as modern people in 2009, Mother's Day 2009, we don't have to give away all our possessions or, you know, go to the extremes that Ryokan did, but how do we find this deep satisfaction, appreciating the life we have, contentment with what we have, I think this is also part of this grandmotherly spirit.

[20:46]

The last thing I want to talk about on this Mother's Day is the mother of all Buddhas, so going back to the great Mahayana Buddhist tradition that Zen came from. I've been... Fortunate to have women teachers, as well as my main teacher, who was a man, my first Zen teacher, who was a man, Blanche Hartman, sewing teacher and former abbess at San Francisco Zen Center, was my teacher for my period as head monk at Tassajara. And there have been a few others, but I wanted to mention particularly Joanna Macy, who's been a mentor and is a last week. So, Joanna, if you hear this, happy birthday.

[21:50]

Happy Mother's Day. So, Joanna's a well-known activist and scholar and spiritual teacher, and she has in one of her books, World as Lover, World as Self, she has a section on the mother of all Buddhas, and we have today, Maha Prajnaparamita, the mother of all Buddhas, on the altar. So afterwards you can look and see her in the picture on the altar. And Jelena talks about her, and the mother of all Buddhas. Jelena says, about five centuries after the Buddha, the wheel of the Dharma, they say, turned again. The hero figure of the Bodhisattva, or enlightening being, appeared. no longer limited to former lives of the Buddha, but extending to all beings who are able to perceive the interdependent nature of reality.

[22:55]

And here that saving insight itself is personified, emerging in the same era as did her Mediterranean counterpart, Sophia. This wisdom, too, is female. She is the perfection of wisdom, the mother of all Buddhas. So the perfection of wisdom, Prajnaparamita, and as an image on Buddhist altars and this morning on our altar, the mother of all Buddhists. Joanna goes on, she presents an archetypal structure very different from the feminine attributes we have inherited from patriarchal thought. Freed from the dichotomies which oppose earth to sky, flesh to spirit, the feminine appears here clothed in light and space as that pregnant zero point where The illusion of ego is lost and the world, no longer feared or fled, is re-entered with compassion. So it's very interesting. Usually in Mahayana Buddhism, there's this idea of the balance of wisdom and compassion.

[23:58]

We have wisdom personified as Manjushri Bodhisattva, who sits on our altar, always in front of the Buddha, riding a lion, holding a teaching scepter. And he's sometimes considered the teacher of all Buddhas, because he teaches emptiness and this fundamental wisdom. And then we have Bodhisattvas like Kanon, Kanzeon, Bodhisattva of Compassion. representing sometimes the feminine side of compassion. But as Joanna points out here, Prajnaparamita, as a goddess, as a Bodhisattva goddess, is personified as wisdom. There's this feminine side of wisdom. So Joanna goes on, to get acquainted with her and learn more about the wisdom of interbeing, let us look at one of the richest and most beautiful scriptures that honor her, The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines, written down some 2,000 years ago. I don't know if we have that in our library, but we should. We will eventually. There's a good translation by Edward Kahnze.

[24:59]

So Joanna quotes just a little verse. a different kind of wisdom. As Buddha's world teachers compassionate are your sons, so you, oh blessed one, are grandmother of all beings. He who sees you is liberated and he who does not see you is liberated too. The text, and then Joanna goes on, the texts which bear her name are central to all major developments in later Buddhism from Madhyamaka philosophy to Vajrayana and to Zen. these prajnaparamita, or perfection of wisdom sutras, like the heart sutra, which we chant here sometimes, also reiterate tirelessly her categorical difference from earlier and more conventional notions of wisdom. Because she pointed to a reality which eludes classifications, this wisdom or prajna was called perfection, paramita, that which goes beyond, to the other side, the other shore. To those who were dryly and doggedly analyzing the Dharma, she offered not theories, but paradoxes.

[26:01]

Quote, countless beings do I lead to nirvana, and yet there are none who are led to nirvana. The bodhisattva will go forth, but he will not go forth to anyone. In the Buddha's teachings, he trains, but no training is this training, and no one has trained. In his jubilation, he transforms all dharmas, but none are transformed, for dharmas are illusory. So the mother of Buddhas, Prajnaparamita, says these things too. Get us unstuck from the ways we see wisdom. Joanna goes on, this wisdom is not the kind one can think oneself into. It is a way of seeing. Without it, the very practice of virtue and meditation can be an ego prop to which we cling in pride or desperation. With it, liberated by it, the world itself, samsara, is altered, not suppressed or rejected, but transfigured. We don't have to leave this world to see this wisdom."

[27:05]

And then Joanna offers a poem. I don't know if this is hers or from the Perfection of Wisdom. Clear, light, deep space. The Buddhas in the world systems in the ten directions bring to mind this perfection of wisdom as their mother. The saviors of the world who were in the past and also are now in the ten directions have issued from her, and so will the future ones be. She is the one who shows this world for what it is. She is the genetrix, the mother of Buddhas. Maybe that's from the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, then Joanna goes on, the mother, like the wisdom she offers, is elusive, signless. She is barely personalized in the sutra, no stories attached to her, no direct speeches accorded her, no physical descriptions of her are offered, although there are now many images of her, like the stone image that there's a picture of in the altar. None of the gestures, colors, adornments that we'll figure in the images made over centuries later are presented here, okay, in the early sutras.

[28:09]

The dozen or so anthropomorphic epithets for her in our sutra appear most frequently in passing, as if self-explanatory. Prajnaparamita, the mother, or mother of the Tathagatas, the thus come ones, or mother of the Sugatas, another name for Buddha which means the victorious ones. mother of the Bodhisattvas, or instructors of the Tathagatas in this world, or genetrics and nurse of the six perfections. As children revere the mother who brought them forth, so, quote, fond are the Buddhas of the perfection of wisdom. So much do they cherish and protect her, for she is their mother and begetter. She showed them this all-knowledge. She instructed them in the ways of the world. All the Tathagatas, past, future, and present, windful enlightenment, thanks to her. So finally, one more passage from Joanna's description. The mother of the Buddhas does not call the Bodhisattva beyond this world to find only one.

[29:14]

She retains him on this side of reality for the sake of all beings. Quote, in this dwelling of perfect wisdom, you shall become a savior of the helpless, a defender of the defenseless, a light to the blind, and you shall guide to the path those who have lost it, and you shall become a support to those who are without support." Here in such passages as these, the Bodhisattva path is, for the first time, fully expressed as a calling and a challenge to all persons. This skill and means, or upaya, by which the Bodhisattva responds and acts within the realm of contingency and need, is seen as essential to the Bodhisattva's enlightenment. Upaya, or skillful means, the readiness to reach out and improvise, is the other face of wisdom. Together they constitute both ground for ethical action and basis of delight, revalorizing samsara while assigning no fixed reality to its separate manifestations.

[30:18]

Such is the wisdom of the mother of all Buddhas, empty of preconception, pregnant point of potential action, beholding the teeming world with a vision which transfigures. When she is later portrayed as Tara, like out in our front hallway, or Guan Yin, her gestures will recall this active, compassionate aspect, for the right arm is outstretched to help. The right leg, no longer tucked up in the aloof serenity of the lotus posture, extends downward in readiness to step into the world. I think in that image, So this idea of Prajnaparamita, the perfection of wisdom, as the mother of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, I think we can use Julia Ward Howe's proclamation of Mother's Day as an example, on this Mother's Day, to remember this nurturing, supportive aspect of wisdom.

[31:23]

this sustaining and sustainable kind of practice. So, as the mother of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Prajnaparamita, the perfection of wisdom, emphasizes our connectedness, our interconnectedness, the teaching of emptiness, of dependent arising, that everything arises together with everything else. and that we don't have to flee the world of samsara. We don't have to leave the world of desire. Maybe we can be satisfied and content like Ryokan and not need to inflame our desires, but we can live right in this world, right out on the avenues of North Central Chicago and beyond. So this Mother's Day is a reminder to us of this motherly side of the wisdom of Buddhists.

[32:29]

Seeing how our, all of our, both our own and our society's aggressions and efforts at, and ambitions and efforts at trying to accumulate more and more for ourselves are falling. Our mother, the perfection of wisdom, shows us that we are here in this world. We can be content and satisfied. We can share together. We can realize that we are deeply interconnected with each other. So thank you, Prajnaparamita, and Happy Mother's Day to all of you. Do any of you have any Comments or responses on Mother's Day, proclamations of your own, or just questions. Is the cultivation of grandmotherly spirit or mind

[33:46]

stronger in some traditions than others. I just remember reading, years ago, Shinju Ken and Yoshi's books, and that was really a very important part of what Shinju cried about. And I was wondering whether that's more the case in some traditions, or soji-ji and nege-ji traditions, or is it just the individual teacher? I think it's always there. Sometimes it gets emphasized more than other times. But yes, we should mention G.U. Kenneth Roshi, who was one of the great early teachers of Soto Zen in America. She founded Shasta Abbey up in Northern California, but she had many, there are now many branches of that that are going to be teaching at a branch in London in July.

[34:47]

She did an amazing thing. She went to Sojiji, and one of the first Westerners to go actually train in Soto Zen in Japan. And it's not easy for any foreigner to train there, and for women, whether they're Japanese or Westerners. But she managed to go and train at Sojiji amongst all these men. received transmission there and then came back. I used to think it was a little bit odd that the Chasta Abbey tradition that she founded did the kind of sotos and chants that we do in Gregorian chant style. Because she was British, and that was how she thought of chanting. But now I think it's kind of sweet. And I think you can go online, or you can get tapes of their chants. And they're the same chants that we do in the traditional Japanese monotone, but with Gregorian chant melody. It's wonderful. And I think that's an example of bringing some kind of

[35:52]

motherly spirit, maybe. But yes, I don't know that there are some branches that are more grandmotherly and some branches that are more fatherly or something, or a Heiji way or Sojiji way. I don't think that matters. It's just that this grandmotherly mind that Ryokan exemplified so beautifully in Soto Zen, and of course it's in other traditions, too. It's not absent in Rinzai Zen, of course. Even the great Hakuin, a dynamic founder of modern koan and kensho, as I said, exhibited grandmotherly line in many ways. So I don't think it's one tradition or another tradition. It's always there. But I think on Mother's Day, it's a good thing to remind ourselves of that, that our practice is not about acquiring something or, you know, being the toughest. I mean, there's also Macho Zen, which you can find in Japan, where if you, you know, move in the middle of Zazen, you're going to be hit by a big stick.

[36:55]

Or even if you don't move, if you're a junior monk and the senior monk is carrying it. I've seen this in Rinzai temples in Kyoto. So there is a macho side to Japanese Zen, but there's also, somehow, they've managed to keep alive this grandmotherly side. In the literature that's translated into English, it does seem like the texts people have chosen to translate have a very intellectual, stern side and really aren't talking about an open heart. But really, that's all this is about, is an open heart. That's what our practice is about. So, here in this zendo, I don't emphasize sitting perfectly still, or sitting in the most, you know, when I first started practicing zen, San Francisco Zen Center, there was sort of this unspoken attitude that whoever sits the longest in the most difficult position

[38:01]

But there was that feeling in early American Zen, not just in Rinzai, but in Sojo too. But this, again, what Dogen emphasized to Gikai, this grandmotherly mind, this nurturing mind, this nurturing field of awareness is what's most important. So every day in practice, seeing in our ordinary activity, this uprightness and inner dignity, you know, which those old grandmothers on the streets of Kyoto still have. Anyway, that's, I think, what it's really about. How do we sustain that kind of openness? That doesn't mean that we can't sit with attention and make great effort and, you know, study and see clearly and so forth. And I think to see, in some ways, the integration of all that, Prajnaparamita as the mother of all Buddhas, as a figure now on our altar, really exemplifies that, because it's not just the mother of Buddhas as compassion, and we often think of Kanonus here and here as that, but wisdom, too, is the mother of Buddhas.

[39:27]

There's a wisdom to, wisdom and openheartedness are not separate. So she points to the side of it so that we see our connectedness. Yes, look at that. I was really struck by something you said quite a lot, and I'll try to go back. Something in what Joanna Macy was saying about Prajnaparamita as the mother of all Buddhas was that there was no real description or specifiers or physical characteristics described about the mother of all Buddhas, and I was thinking about, it reminded me of that passage from where Dogen says it's like reaching behind you in the night for a pillow, that there's something, you know, our mothers are the caregiver who is with us before we can even really think, you know, before we even really realize that she's not us. She is, you know, coming in when we're hungry or, you know,

[40:31]

dirty or tired and taking care of things in a way that we can't even, we don't even know that we're hungry. There's something disturbed and she comes and takes care of it and it's like, wow. And that's sort of how you come to learn to care for yourself. But also, I think I just was struck by that way in which there is a sense of caring and connection and wisdom that was a part of each of us before we were able to think or formulate words, and how hard it is when that connection isn't a good one or isn't present, that in some ways that maybe is kind of what can be healing about practice and about being in a sangha is having that just sort of that connection that's beyond any kind of words or thought.

[41:33]

And sort of that one passage and what she was saying kind of evoked that for me. And it also made me think of the line in the Mettā Sutta, even as a mother at the risk of her own life watches over and protects her own child, I think of that as being a really prominent aspect of what we are bringing to the world in Zen Buddhism. Yes, thank you, well said. So, Joanna mentions that the mother of Buddhas is about improvising. Skillful means is not about, in Buddhism, is not about having some manual for helping. It's not about having some system in place and some plan of how to act. It's about this kind of intuitive wisdom, this seeing, it's how we see the world, this seeing into, and then, improvise, you know, try things. It's not about, you know, knowing how to take care of things.

[42:34]

It's being willing to meet the situation. So that, yeah, I think there's something about that that's in the spirit of mothers and grandmothers. Okay. some training manual from something like, when you go to enter a new temple, remember that people do things differently in different places.

[43:43]

There's something grammarly aligned about that. How do I fit in here and harmonize the whole situation? Yes, good, exactly. Well, thank you all very much and happy Mother's Day.

[44:02]

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