The cloud moves along and leaves the sky behind. What a blue blue sky! Water flows in and out. Take life as it comes and goes!

Born in 1967, Shi Rurui is founder of the Buddhist School for Nuns at Pushou Temple, Mount Wutai. She has a strong interest in Buddhist education and the Buddhist religion and has helped repair the Jixiang Primary School so that poor children have a decent environment to study in. Her other projects include improvement of infrastructure in mountainous areas, and providing financial support to people with different abilities. She has helped with the construction of the Qintai Home for the Aged.

A native of Shanxi Province, China, Shi Rurui became a Buddhist nun in 1981 after graduating from Taiyuan Teachers’ College. Education has always been close to her heart and she has worked for the education and capacity building of Buddhist nuns. She strongly believes that women have an equal responsibility for building a world in which people live in harmony with each other and with nature. In 1992 Shi Rurui, a disciple of the late Monk Tongyuan, called for donations from the public to build the Buddhist School for Nuns from the ruins of the historic Pushou Temple of Mount Wutai, one of the Holy Mountains of China’s Buddhist religion. The school, as part of the now renovated Pushou Temple, has received hundreds of nuns from various parts of the country. Shi Rurui does not hesitate to strive for what seems impossible. As a nun with little resources, she has helped mobilize nearly one million Yuan to support all kinds of social projects. Among others, the Jixiang kindergarten and primary school in Shanxi’s Taiyuan municipality and Wutai county were rebuilt with public donations collected by her, and she personally helped sponsor the educational expenses of three poor children. Apart from this, Shi Rurui has helped mobilize funding for the construction of a bridge in a village in Northeast Shanxi, thus significantly improving the transportation situation that local villagers have faced for many years. The problem of the elderly is yet another issue Shi Rurui has taken up by providing financial support to single elderly people in the old revolutionary district west of Mount Taiheng in Shanxi Province. She is now working on the construction of the Qintai Home for the Aged, an establishment that provides care and services to the marginalized single elderly communities. The project has received strong support form local government.

China Buddhist Association Qintai Home for the Aged