A monk who served as abbot in a Zen Center complained, “Shifu, I am getting older, and I wish to rest. I don’t want to be the abbot.” The Master asked, “How old are you?” The monk replied, “Fifty years old.”

 The Master remarked, “I am already in my seventies!” He then added, “Age is irrelevant in cultivation; to liberate sentient beings is our fundamental duty.  ‘Live not for your own comfort, but to free sentient beings from suffering.’”