The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

Please visit our website at audioderma.org. So in this fifth talk I'm finishing the series on the poems of the elder nuns, the poems of the poems of the poems of

that are preserved that are attributed to the first generations.

And I say it in plural because it's often said to be the first generation of disciples of the Buddha, female disciples.

But rather, I think it's,

they probably composed over a longer period of time,

maybe several hundred years.

So those first generations and I wanted to

today begin by reading a little bit more from the introductory words I've written

about these poems that I've translated.

And then I'll read some of the poems that for me touches the warmth and friendliness and support with which the ancient nuns provided

themselves or experience that allowed them to do their practice.

So, the enlightened women who are featured in the Teregata represent the first generations of

female Buddhists who contributed to establishing the spiritual foundation for succeeding generations

of all genders.

With few other surviving records of the first Buddhist women, the Teri-Gata provides an invaluable

window into the lives and religious experience of these pioneers. Prior to becoming nuns, many had years.

Prior to becoming nuns, many had been wives and mothers. Some were widows, some of the mothers of

dead children. And one was a widow who had lost both her children, Patachara.

A few of the nuns had been prostitutes and courtisans.

Some had been poor, others had been wealthy daughters of royalty in high-ranking families.

Some were old and weak, others were young in the prime of their lives.

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