One day Mrs. P'ang went into the Deer Gate Temple to make an offering of food.
The temple priest asked her the purpose [of the offering] so that he could transfer the merit.
Mrs. P'ang took her comb and stuck it in the back of her hair. "Transference of merit is complete," she said, and walked out.
Commentary
The P'ang Family -- P'ang-yun, his wife, son, and daughter -- were enlightened students and peers of Ma-tzu and other masters of the early Tang Dynasty. Together, they sank their possessions and money in a river, gave their house to be used as a temple, and began an itinerant life of practice and pilgrimage. Layman P'ang and his daughter, Ling-chao appear to have had a particularly close relationship and she was with him right to the end. As this story demonstrates, Mrs. P'ang herself had deep attainment of truth and function.
Source: The Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang by Ruth Fuller Sasaki, et al
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