and surpassed and trading and perfected karma. It is already met with even a hundred thousand million kathas. To see and listen to, to remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the Tatakata's words. Good morning. Good morning. How wonderful it is to have these voices chanting. I always love chanting, but it has a different feeling. It surprises me each time. And so thank you. Thank you all for coming on this very chilly morning. I'm glad to see you're all mumbled up. Now that it's warming up, we can open the doors. formative sort of.

[01:09]

So a lot has happened in the last not quite two weeks, which seems impossible. It hasn't even been two weeks yet. And I realized that the voices that I've been hearing and reading that have sustained me through this time have been women's voices. I wasn't conscious on my part. I realized, looking for material to share with you today, that it was women's voices that were standing out to me and that I had flagged and reread. I'd like to share some of that with you. So, Buddhist women's voices from today and And I will say that always my heartfelt intention is to encourage you in your practice, but it's really to encourage all of us in our practice because in sharing the heart of my practice, I feel deeply encouraged as well.

[02:27]

And in the process of how do I meet this? How am I... How can I be a support? Falls forth more in me, and I find that deeply. So I want to thank Colleen for inviting me to lead the sin this day and do this talk. So the first voice that resonated for me was Zenju Earthland Manuel, and I'd like to share some excerpts of something she wrote after the election, and you can find it in Lion's Rule. and it's called To Have and To Hold Each Other. Our fear that things will get worse tends to lead to things getting worse. When driven by fear, we fall to those who prey on our terror, rage, pain, loneliness, and need for salvation.

[03:32]

Our collective fear today is whether anyone can live as who they are in this country or in the world, despite being right, middle, or left on the political continuum, or off the linear political path altogether. Our fear is whether or not our own strategy will eventually work, but has failed many times. When I read that, it was just like, yeah, I could watch all my own strategies trying to work. Mine is often trying to fix or control or predict or understand it. I want to understand. It's like, yeah, that's not gonna be enough. And then she says, our shared suffering is less than one degree from each other.

[04:35]

Our shared liberation must be the same. Okay. This is what I'm here for. Collective liberation and the fact that it's not even one degree of separation from each other. Zenju says, there is something that we must all do more than ever. We must keep faith in those around us. We must relish and cherish the relationships of family and friends, no matter their human flaws. It doesn't mean we have to suffer, others suffer, but the way to our liberation is to forge within our heart all that is broken in this country into a kind of freedom we never have that we never imagined we have the power to shake.

[05:38]

There is something that we all must do more than ever. We must keep faith in those around us. We must relish and cherish the relationships of family and friends with their human flaws. It doesn't mean we have to suffer others' suffering, but the way to our liberation is to forge with our heart all that is broken in this country into a kind of freedom we never imagined and have the power to shape. This is the freedom that the Buddha taught all of his life. It is not the freedom from circumstances. It's not the everyday suffering, pain, physical pain, sitting in Zaza.

[06:44]

And it's not even the pain of old age, sickness and death. It's how we relate with them. And it's how we relate to each other. is how do we live our lives in relation to each other? We forge in our hearts all that is broken in this country into a kind of freedom we never imagined we have the power to shape. I think most of us, maybe all of us, know that the freedom we experience from our practice is due to going into our suffering, opening to it, softening into it, and just letting it be until we find a way through, until we find a way of being, of receiving it, sometimes of being taught and transformed by it, no matter what it is.

[07:48]

Let this time be the same. And I think that happens through our relationships, our genuine relationships. Zenju says, I say this because it is only us that we have, and only us who will need to stand at the doors to protect our free communities, free loved ones, and walk. not as protectors of people only, but protectors of what has always been sacred, and that is life itself. We must value all life, even in the middle of what is valued. To protect not only people, but protectors of what has always been sacred, and that is life itself.

[08:53]

Somehow in a longer view, in life itself, regardless of what happens in my own life, or even in the life of mental love, of protecting life itself. And capable of dismantling the distorted perceptions we have of each other that are now strangling us, personally and collectively, no matter what gender, what skin tone, and there are more than two genders and two skin tones, we know what it is that causes us to do or fear not doing what we know shouldn't be done. How will we lift the noose from around our own necks so that we can do the same for another? How do we find freedom within our own circumstances so that we can help others be free as well.

[10:08]

It doesn't have to look like sitting in the Dharma seat or having a brown robe or having been chusev or having practice for X number of years. We can all love and support each other from your own place, from your own heart, with what is uniquely yours. we will live in the difficult, and in the more difficult, and in the difficult after that. Not because we are becoming stronger, but because we know that freedom is tied to what we create out of what sits at our feet. Freedom is to not long for what a president alone could never give us. Can we feel the freedom we already have despite things causing us to feel otherwise?

[11:14]

No one can take your joy. No one can take your empathy. But it's up to us to work hard, very hard, not to give it away. Can we change the ritual? Look into someone's frightened or confused face today and say, I got you. I got you. Saying it out loud is one way, but saying it in your heart is also a way to access innate empathy, to recognize the world's grief, to recognize the world world's grief for the sake of everyone's well-being. Can this be our sacred campaign?

[12:31]

That helps me sit up straighter on this day. Somehow allowed me also to settle. So now for an ancient voice, I want to talk about Mahapajapati, the Buddha's adoptive mother and founder of the nun's order. So Mahapajapati was born a princess And at her birth, an astrologer prophesied that she would be the leader of a large volume. And Pajapati means leader of the assembly of the people and Maha means great. So she and her sister Maya were both married to King Suddana, who was the king, the head of the Shakya clan.

[13:36]

So that's why Buddha is called Buddha. Shakya is the clan. Anyway, and Buddha is the awakening. So Maya gave birth and died seven days later. So Japuri cared for baby Buddha and He became his adoptive mother and also had two additional children, Sundari Nanda, who you may recognize also, and a son, Nanda. And both of them later became disciples of Buddha. Buddha left home at the age of 29 on his spiritual bust and didn't return home for six years.

[14:37]

And by then, in her 50s or early 60s. And she and King Suddhodana welcomed the Buddha, listened to his teachings, and converted. She was respected in her age and her position. And she may have also been even more esteemed as a lay convert. Buddhism, to these new teachings, because she had direct access to the Buddha as his foster mother. So at that time, a number of men had either died in battle between warring clans or had decided to become mendicants. This was a time of tremendous spiritual seeking and a lot of

[15:39]

I think, oh yeah, the 60s, a lot of people did this. It was kind of this way, and a lot of people did this. I've never heard of other than men, but I imagine men did too, but that would have been much harder. And that was part of the whole scene, and what it was going on to be part of, study and practice with. So they'd left their families, and also men had died. So there were a number of women who were kind of left on their own in a place and a time where there are many still meant to be, meant to no longer have close male, put one in a very tenuous position. You don't really have this role anymore. You don't have a protector. And Dickens and Jane Austen often featured women who were in this predicament of not having ...means or power, but not having a man to, you know, around, to protect and look after him.

[16:50]

So when the Japanese husband Tsuda-Dana died, she was also in this position. The Buddha, her husband, they were all gone. And I think she may have like really resonated with these women. But for whatever reason, more and more women started coming to her for support and guidance and companionship and a sort of family. And they were a very diverse lot. All these women says they were displaced wives, widows, dancers, musicians, and courtesans. So they all bonded together, lacking other kin. And soon, it says 500 women were gathered around her. And 500 is a number that's used to mean a great many.

[17:55]

I don't know if they counted them, but many, many women. inspired at a certain point to immerse herself in the practice and to ordain with the Buddha as her son had and as many others had. So she decided to approach the Buddha. So I found this in Susan Murcott's account of Mahapachamati. but this is writing itself from the Kulavada. Now at one time, the Buddha was staying among the Sakyans at Kapila Bhasku in the Vanyan monastery. Mahapajapati Gotami went to the place where the Buddha was, approached and greeted him, and standing at a respectful place, spoke to him.

[19:02]

It would be good, Lord, if women could be allowed to renounce their homes and enter into the homeless state under the Dharma and discipline of the Tatataka. Enough, Gotama. Don't set your heart on women being allowed to do so. A second and a third time, Ajapati made the same request in the same words and received the same reply. and thinking that the Blessed One would not allow women to enter into homelessness, she bowed to him, keeping her right side toward him, and departed in tears. Nonetheless, she persisted. She cut her hair off, and put on saffron robes.

[20:03]

And a couple of followers followed her example and did the same. So think about this. It's like she's been told three times by the Buddha, it's not going to happen. And she basically does it. I mean she, you know, shaves her head, puts on the saffron robes. 500 women also do this. And they've set out for a massage for the women now was. And apparently there were some of these accounts, it's like, is this someone's interpretation? Or is there an account of it? I can't tell. But I think this would have caused quite a stir. They walked barefoot all the way. Different accounts, 150 miles, 350 miles, a long way. Rough roads, dusty roads.

[21:09]

500 women, all together. And there are not that many people around, generally. So if I was really nervous, people came out. I would have seen them. So when she arrives with swollen feet and covered in dust, she's . And she's at that point hesitant to go in because it has drawn attention and she has all these women with her. And she's worried that she'll be refused yet again. And at that point, Ananda comes out. Ananda is the Buddha's cousin and his closest attendant. And Ananda is the one where, whenever it says in the Pali Canon, thus have I heard, that's Ananda speaking.

[22:18]

So he had an amazing note. Thus have I heard. This is what I experienced. So seeing her standing there, the Venerable Anandas asked, why are you crying? Because, Ananda, the Blessed One does not permit women to renounce their home to the homeless state under the Dharma and discipline proclaimed by the Tathagada. Then the Venerable Ananda went to the place where the Buddha was bowed down before him and took his seat to one side. And he said to the Blessed One, Atravity is standing outside with smoke, covered with dust, and crying because you do not permit women to renounce their homes and enter into the homeless state. It would be good, Lord, if women were to have permission to do so. So I think Ananda was appealing to the Buddha's compassion.

[23:19]

But the Buddha says, enough, Ananda. don't set your heart on women being allowed to do so. A second and a third time, Ananda made the same request in the same words and received the same reply. Then Ananda thought, the Blessed One does not give his permission. Let me try asking on other grounds. Are women able, Lord? when they have entered into homelessness, to realize the fruits of stream entry, of non-returning, and of arhatship? Yes, Ananda, they are able. If women then are able to realize perfection, and since Pajapati was of great service to you, she was your aunt, nurse, foster mother. When your mother died, she even supplied you at her own . It would be good if women could be allowed to enter

[24:24]

If then, Ananda, Ajapati accepts the eight special rules, let that be reckoned as her ordination. So, eight special rules. The first one of which establishes that women will be forever, nuns will be forever less than monks. Monks were always to have precedence over nuns in matter of salutation, etc., irrespective of any other consideration. A monk of one day is superior and will always be superior to any other nun regardless. So the others are... Oh yes, I'm very fond of this one. Monks can officially admonish nuns, but vice versa.

[25:31]

And there is some thinking that, you know, it's like, why did the Buddha do this? You know, there's one thing to have a spiritual practice, and it's another thing to have a religion which involves organization. And I imagine that he had an eye on those. because he thought that it was the support of the daughter. That's still a hard one for me to sit with. I kind of get it, and, you know, but he came around, he came around. And Stogan says, we can only see as far as our eye of practice can reach, and that's not only in the outside, it's in the relative realm. Some things we just don't understand. no matter your level of realization, because it hasn't been your experience when you don't have the whole picture. So, it didn't happen.

[26:36]

And then, Jopadi resists and asks the Buddha to relinquish that first admonition that he did. However, there became a nun's order Although it was, the rules really played out because the men's order has never been seen as equivalent to the men's order. It's not as well supported. Died out at various times. So, and it continues. And I've gone to a Sakhandita conference with women, Buddhists. They're always held in Asia rather than here because almost everyone who knows is Asian nuns. It's amazing to see these huge numbers. What I went to was like a thousand women from all over. Some of them have pale bones and some of them have brown or saffron.

[27:42]

Not so many Japanese, not so many Americans. But in Southeast Asia, it's just amazing and so much joy. some really good men as well, which is fundamental, who are really, and then many of you are Westerners, so they really stand up because they figure they have nothing to lose, which is great. Sometimes having not a lot of status or whatever to lose is very important. I also want to share something from Rebecca Solnit, who's a wonderful writer. One of her more recent books is Hope in the Dark, and one of her early books explained things to me, which is hilarious. She's hilarious and writes about some of the most deep and dark and painful aspects of being a woman in a political world.

[28:56]

She's written, but this was also came out a day or so after, and this is just an excerpt. They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to breathe or scream or take time off, but you have a rule no matter what. And right now, good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what The pain has struck off her mind.

[30:10]

And finally, Sara Kenzior, who is not a Buddhist, but her writings have also sustained me in recent years. Let people surprise you. Let people destroy your preconceptions and burn your generalizations down. Let America open up to you, even if it feels shallow and cruel. The clearer you can see the beauty in your wreckage, the lighter you feel. when they're trying to, what they're trying to take away is empathy because then we can't forge connections that not only sustain us but give us power.

[31:12]

And also a friend, with his friend who is a, she's from the vice provost at UC Santa Cruz. It's a hard place to be in the upper reaches of universities, especially in California, especially UC systems right now. There's a lot going on. And she was a speaker a few days ago. And she was talking to the professors and academics and all of them saying, and she was reminding them, just what you are doing right now they become a revolutionary act. So you don't have to do necessarily a whole lot different, but just what you're doing is revolutionary. She didn't mean starting a revolution, it's just, we've always been a revolution.

[32:17]

So keep going in what we're doing. and we hold to what nourishes and sustains us and those around us.

[32:29]

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