Good morning, everyone. Welcome. Good morning. So yesterday was July 4th, so I'll say today Happy Independence Day and Happy Interdependence Day. This is one of my favorite American Buddhist holidays, so I want to talk about that. So for us, independence is related to and dependent on interdependence. So one of the things that we start to realize, kind of physically realize through this zazen practice, is our interdependence, the dependent co-arising mutual causality of everything. that we do not exist as separate, isolated, individual entities. We sometimes feel that way.

[01:01]

We sometimes feel separate and estranged, and that's the other side of our interdependence. But actually, each of us is here this morning thanks to innumerable beings, thanks to everybody we've ever known, in some way. Some more than others, but of course, We each can be defined by everything we're not. So everything in the universe has come together to allow each of us to be here. We have this interrelationship, actually, with all the beings on your own Kushner chair, as well as with everybody else in this room and everybody else you've spoken to in the last week or the last ten years or whatever. So we're independent because we are interdependent. We are connected to the universe, to wholeness, to everything that is.

[02:07]

And because of that, we can appreciate our particular expression of that. Each of us has our own particular abilities and interests and awarenesses and experiences and our own particular portion of sadness and fear and frustration, as well as our own particular way of seeing wholeness, seeing our connectedness. So Fourth of July represents a kind of freedom and liberation. And through this relationship of independence and interdependence, we can become free of personal estrangement. We can see that we are connected, each in our particular way. And our liberation, as Buddhists, has to do with acknowledging this interconnectedness and this interdependence.

[03:18]

So, in many ways, I feel like the ideals represented by the Fourth of July, are important to us as American Buddhists. In fact, part of how... I've just started, just barely begun to develop an American Buddhism, but Buddhism is being supported and helped and growing and developing thanks to many aspects of our coaching. and very much including our idea of freedom and liberation. So the Declaration of Independence that was specifically celebrated 4th of July says, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all, well it says men, are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So I just heard that actually that sentence was written by Ben Franklin, not Tom Jefferson, as is commonly thought.

[04:31]

So part of what I want to talk about today is the principles represented on the 4th of July and how important they are to us as American Buddhists and also the limitations of that. So again, it said that all men are created equal. And of course, that didn't include, that only included men with property. So there's a class aspect there. It certainly did not include African American men. And it didn't include women. Women only got the vote about 100 years ago. So, you know, this sense of liberation, freedom, that we celebrate Fourth of July is something that's in process, that's growing, that's very far from fully realized. So I like a lot of what Thomas Jefferson, a lot of his writings.

[05:35]

And also, we know he was a slaveholder. We know that he tried to, he was against slavery early on, but then he became, Caught up, he was economically dependent on his own slave plantation. And actually, all of American economy is, the whole American economy is dependent on slavery. In that sense, the way it developed. But Jefferson has some Dharma sayings that I really like. He, amongst other things, he vowed eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the human mind. That's a good bodhisattva vow. Not to be hostile to particular people we think of as tyrants, but every form of tyranny over the human mind. Our project, as we just sit upright and enjoy settling into being the person on our cushion or chairs, to see how to

[06:45]

how our mind can be free and not be tyrannized, internally or externally. So this is, you know, part of our inconceivable bodhisattva vows. You know, Jefferson also said some very interesting things. that are interesting and ironic for us now. If there be one principle, he said, more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest. So tell that to the people in the Middle East. He also said, I hope we crush in its birth the aristocracy of our money corporations, which dare already to challenge our government. to a trial by strength and a big defiance to the laws of our country. And President Eisenhower warned against the military-industrial-congressional complex. So the situation we have now, part of liberty, part of liberation is to face the problems that we have.

[07:55]

So this applies in our own life, all of the different difficulties on our own kushina chair, but also applies in our communities, in our sangha, more widely, and in our culture and society as a large, and the world. So this idea of liberty and justice for all is very important. So I'm going to talk about some of the problems we face, but actually I think the Fourth of July Interdependence and Independence Day shows us some realistic possibility of change. It allows us some hopefulness. So again, I think this is very important to us. We need to face the problems we have and the sadness of all the difficulties we have.

[09:01]

And yet, just that we have these principles of liberty and justice for all and participatory democracy, even if they're far from realized in our world today, just these ideas are very important. They're very different from anything that was part of Asian Buddhism. to make a really sweeping generalization, but it's true. Asian Buddhism developed in a very feudal society run by warlords. engaged Buddhism in Asia was about trying, mostly not resistance, but trying to educate the rulers and warlords to be kinder in their rule. So this is, in terms of thinking about bodhisattva practice and engagement in the world, just the fact that we have these ideals, now that we celebrate them every Fourth of July, even if they're not realized, it's very important. It's very hopeful.

[10:04]

It's just a possibility. So our previous president from Illinois said that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. There's a statue of Lincoln at Lincoln Square near where I live that has that on it. And again, that's another wonderful principle. The fact that today we have government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires should give us pause. But at least we have this principle of people having some voice. So I feel like on this 4th of July, I have a responsibility as a clergy person to talk about our precepts of liberation, to speak about how we're doing, and that clearly not all the people who have been endowed with certain inalienable rights in our country, like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

[11:11]

So on our altar here, there's a rock on the left in front of Bodhi Dharma, my left, closer to Claire and Josh. And that was brought here last year by H.C. and Nancy Artenza after a holiday She went through the Badlands in South Dakota and Mount Rushmore, which celebrates our history. And there's this fellow, was he from Romania? I think he was, yes. Yeah. I guess it's his son now who's carrying this on. But they're building a giant, to match Mount Rushmore, they're building a giant statue of a crazy horse. And that's a rock that was part of what's blasted away towards making that statue of a crazy witch. So, you know, that's on our altar to honor the people who were here before the European Americans. And, you know, so I want to talk about racism too, but we know that

[12:16]

Native Americans and African Americans have never really had a full stake in American democracy. And the reservation near Mount Rushmore, Pine Ridge, is one of the poorest, has one of the greatest poverty rates in the country. The proud Lakota people. So we need to talk about this stuff after the massacre in Charleston. And I've mentioned it before, and we've talked about it before, but we need to talk about race. We really do. I feel it's my responsibility as a clergy person, for all clergy people, whatever so-called religion, And we have the names of the people who were assassinated on our altar still from the memorial service last week. So we have these principles, and they're really important, I think.

[13:31]

And they're really important to our practice. And yet, we have this reality. And we need to face this stuff. We need to talk about it. Not just that massacre, there have been, I think, seven churches burned down in the South, African-American churches burned down in the South since then. Some of them may have been accidental, we don't know. And we know that many unarmed African men have been shot by police. It's like an epidemic, or maybe it's just that we're seeing it now, you know, the videos, videos from cell phones. Maybe that's the way it's always been. So there's also, you know, the hopefulness of this, of the Black Lives Matter movement. And, you know, our sangha is, we have African-American people here sometimes, but we're mostly white. Although I know there's some people in our sangha who have Native American ancestry.

[14:34]

So what it means to be African-American, what it means to be white, you know, is kind of a construct, right? We're all from many different places and ethnicities. But we need to talk about this. We need to face white privilege. We need to recognize how uncomfortable it is to even hear about this. It's uncomfortable for me to talk about it. It's uncomfortable to hear about it. But part of our practice is to be uncomfortable. Not, you know, painful. So for the people who, we have a few people who saw Zen instruction this morning, and it's, you know, to sit still for, you know, 30 minutes or whatever, it's, It's strange to us. This practice we do here is not something that, you know, we don't usually sit on the floor, and it's not something that's part of our culture.

[15:36]

And yet, it's very natural. So, in Native American, pre-Columbian culture, they found figurines in South America of people sitting in zazen. Basically, you know, same posture. This isn't necessarily Buddhism, it's just something natural for people. Some people think it started going back to hunting times when people had to sit quietly and wait for the game to arrive. So it shouldn't be, you know, terribly painful, as Paula told you, if you need to change your position during a period, that's fine, just do it quietly. But there's some discomfort in just being still and upright and facing ourselves, and facing our own fear and sadness and frustration and all of that stuff.

[16:38]

But that's not all we feel when we sit. We also can feel a sense of stillness and calm and settledness is an important part of our practice. And also a sense of openness and spaciousness. But we have to face the difficulties we have. And that applies for us individually and for all of us as a society. So just a quote from Frederick Douglass talking on July 4th in 1852. And I won't read the whole thing, but he said, a great African-American leader who was a free man in 1852, whereas most African-Americans weren't. He said, what have I or those I represent to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us?

[17:40]

And am I therefore called upon to bring our humble offering to the National Altar and to confess the benefits and express the devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us? This was an occasion when he was requested to give a talk on the 4th of July. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, property, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you and not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. The Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice. I must mourn. It goes on, I'll just say a little more, what to the American slave is your 4th of July? And I say, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim.

[18:45]

To him, your celebration is a shame. a sham, your posted liberty and unholy license, your national greatness, swelling vanity, your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless, your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence, your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery, your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, and piety and hypocrisy. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour." So he said that in 1852, but given the situation for African American people in this country today, I think many of them might feel something very similar. So as white people, we don't have to feel guilty about that, but I think we have to the discomfort and face the reality of that and face our privilege.

[19:50]

There's all kinds of privilege. So I'm, as a white male heterosexual, I have more privilege than some here. There's problems for females. I'm happy that we do have quite a diversity in terms of LGBT people here. We need to face However, these ideals that really resonate very deeply with bodhisattva intention, bodhisattva vows, are not fully realized. So just to hear about this, just to talk about it, just to listen to it, is really important. But then also, how do we respond? It's not enough to just listen to the suffering of the world. This is compassion for us, to hear the cries of the world. Just returning briefly to our history, there's an idea now that the War of Independence, we call it, was in part, now history is always complicated, but in part it was a pro-slavery rebellion against British abolitionism.

[21:05]

So it's interesting to consider this history from different perspectives. This is from a recent book by an African-American historian. What helped to prompt July 4th, 1776 was the perception amongst European settlers on the North American mainland that London was moving rapidly toward abolition of slavery. This perception was prompted by the case decided in London in June 1772, which suggested that abolition, which not only was going to be ratified in London itself, was going to cross the Atlantic and basically sweep through the mainland, thereby jeopardizing numerous fortunes, not only based upon slavery, but the slave trade. So there's this whole thing now about taking the Confederate flag down and in the state houses in the South, and that should happen, of course. But the underlying causes, you know, the North benefited just as much from the slave economy in lots of ways. Slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1807, long before it was here.

[22:10]

So we need to face this situation of racism. It's not just in our country, it's part of our karmic legacy, and each of us in our own particular way. And just to face that is difficult, but it's something we need to do now. and what to do about it. Some of us are thinking about things we can do as a sangha that relate to helping with inequality. And part of this is an economic thing still. So there are many other problems. There's, of course, the climate damage that I've talked about before that is destroying our habitat for short-term profits. There are things that can be done about that, fossil fuel divestment. It's not easy for a lot of institutions.

[23:14]

But basically, fossil fuel needs to stay in the ground if we're going to have a reasonable habitat. We're already in the middle of a mass extinction. There's an exhibit at the Field Museum that I was connected with that has a tally of how many species have gone extinct today. What's the average? 30 species go extinct every day. Yeah. So, you know, this is serious. And this is carried on because of, you know, the business plan of the fossil fuel companies means they have to liquidate, so to speak, their assets, their oil. Fortunately, well, there are things that are happening to change this, though. It's not hopeless. It's really important to hear that it's not hopeless. The Pope's, Pope Francis' encyclical about climate is really good news.

[24:20]

So, this, and he's going to be speaking to Congress, and, you know, this is changing how many people see all of this. My friend Alan Sanofi, who's spoken here, was at the Vatican last week and met the Pope and the Archbishop of Chicago that was there too. But Alan was talking about Buddhist views of the environment and a Buddhist-Christian dialogue there. So part of how we are liberated is to be willing to face these difficulties. Facing the economic difficulties, the class war that's been going on for several decades in our country, maybe more now. The bankers who caused the economic crisis receiving big bonuses, none of them going to jail for what have been clearly demonstrated to be crimes. The increasing lack of opportunity for many.

[25:25]

The high debt for college graduates. Ah, so terrible. I think, well, this is an old statistic. There's maybe more now, but there's a trillion dollars overall there was last year in student debt. The average student in these colleges now owing $40,000. Maybe more now. And there's also, for many politicians, this war against women. to decreasing health options for women, the incidence of rape on college campuses continuing with perpetrators receiving minor or no results. Anyway, I want to leave some time for discussion. But in conclusion, for many people, Native Americans, African-Americans,

[26:25]

people who don't have a decent measure of resources, young people. The official American values of democracy haven't been realized. We know this. But I want to go back to just the basic principles of freedom and the notion of justice. Even the politicians who are opposing those things will give lip service to them. That's not insignificant. Change is possible. Change happens. We don't know how change happens. We don't know what to do to help soothe and lessen the racism that's so much part of our society. But change happens.

[27:26]

So even the Supreme Court has now allowed gay marriage. This was unthinkable five or ten years ago. Change happens. That's one example. There are many others, the Berlin Wall coming down, apartheid ending. Change happens and we don't know how, what to do, but everybody responding in our own way and trying to find ways to respond together can make a difference. So Dr. Martin Luther King said that the arc of freedom is long and moves towards justice. The Bodhisattva idea also is this long view of history. Sangha, the Buddhist community, was originally created by Shakyamuni Buddha 2,500 years ago in order of monk and nuns, partly as a kind of counterculture, partly as a way of turning against the dominant fashions of whatever society Sangha was founded.

[28:33]

So we can see Sangha in many ways, specifically Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, which you're all part of, even if you're here for the first time. But also, each one of us represents a collective of communities, a collective of Sanghas. How intentional they are varies, but part of this idea is that in community we can do the Buddha work of relieving suffering, of helping beings onto the path of awakening. So this isn't about fixing all the problems in the world. We're not going to do that just by sitting sasa, but by being present, by facing ourselves, by not running away from ourselves or the world and the problems. We can start to talk about that together.

[29:40]

We can start to see how to respond. So the good news is that there's so much that needs to be done. The problems seem so huge. It can seem really overwhelming. But the good news is that that means anything you do in response is part of helping. There's lots to do, and we each have our own responses. So we need to listen and to respond. And that's possible. My first teacher, Bob Goldman, said, strengthen the things that remain. So we have these principles that still remain. These American bodhisattva values.

[30:43]

And it really has the power to change what Buddhism is. We're creating American Buddhism. Just barely starting. But there are many aspects of American culture that are creating something new and valuable and worthy. So liberty and justice for all. and government of, by, and for the people, someday, maybe, thanks to each of us paying attention and trying to respond. So, happy Interdependence Day. I really hope you, amidst all of the recitation of all the problems, hear that there is possibility for change, that hopefulness is actually realistic, not kind of, oh, I hope something happens and somebody else will take care of it, but are acting on our own best hopes.

[31:45]

We can do that. And we each have our own way of doing it, and we have to pace ourselves and enjoy that which we have to enjoy, and there's plenty. Be grateful for it. But also, we can We will chant the Bodhisattva vows at the end of this. So maybe I'll stop, but I'm interested in any comments or responses that any of you have. We have a little bit of time. Hey, Josh. Hi. I was just thinking of freedom and liberty, and my understanding of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson's idea of freedom and liberty is much different than Shakyamuni Buddha and Dogen Suzuki, which is, I think, very different.

[33:02]

that I try to do is liberate myself from the self. Liberate yourself from? From the self, from the ego self. Okay. Without that, in any action that I do, it's tough. It's tough. So, I mean, obviously you can't be fully enlightened until you act. Because none of us are. But I was just thinking freedom and justice for all. If Shakyamuni Buddha said that, that would be a much different statement than Franklin. So that's just about it. So good. Thank you. Thank you for that question, because that's the central issue for me, is that, yeah, of course, Jefferson. Oh, there's another saying by Jefferson that I was going to add.

[34:07]

He talked about the price of liberation is eternal vigilance, and to me that's... he said the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and in the context that you're talking about exactly, of social organization, and he was talking about paying attention to what's going on in the government and so forth, And yet, you don't need to change it much to be a wonderful Zazen monk. The cost of liberation is constant attention, constant vigilance. So part of our style of Zazen is somewhat relaxed. It's not edge of the seat, but we pay attention. And we need to continuously pay attention. By bringing these two ideas together, of course, liberation in Buddhism is about, in large part, working on the self and letting go of our self-grasping, as you talked about, the ways in which we're caught by ego.

[35:19]

Maybe we can't have social liberty and justice for all without that. So, just trying to... politics, as it's usually understood in this country, is not enough. We have to change our own clinging and grasping and open up our own hearts and minds to connect with others and with all the other parts of ourselves. So, yeah, so they're not exactly the same, but what I'm pointing to is a way in which I think that the social context was part of what Shakyamuni Buddha was concerned with. He was very radical for his time. He included untouchables in the Sangha, and they were not lesser in the Sangha than people who came from a Brahmin class. It was just by seniority in the Sangha. And he also included women and started an order of nuns.

[36:22]

And the story we have is that he had to be pressured, but this is always the way change happens, from people saying, hey, we should, in that case, limit his own stepmother and wife and other relatives, and then saying, we want to be part of this too. he did some things that were very radical socially. And again, I'm suggesting that the Sangha community is dedicated to the kind of liberation that you're talking about, where we face our own self-thinking, where we see how we're connected, where we start to let go of our own craving and anger and frustration. We can't get rid of it, but we can be less caught by it. This is what our Buddhist precepts are about. That's very radical and subversive. And being not a residential monastic retreat sangha,

[37:28]

and there are plenty of those, but we're here right out on the street in Chicago, and we're all involved in the world of Chicago each in our own way. This is very challenging and very radical, but working on ourselves is working on the world around us, being a little kinder in our workplace, being a little more willing to listen to the fears and frustrations and problems of relatives and co-workers, and not to just demonize evil others, but to actually be open to this kind of dialogue that we need to have to face the race issue, for example. So I think they're connected. But you're right, it's not so obvious how they're connected. So I'm saying that we have an opportunity to make a difference in the world as well, and at the same time, as we work on ourselves and look at our own patterns of grasping and anger and so forth.

[38:38]

But thank you for that, Josh. Yes, Claire. Just to follow up on that a little bit, I think they're deeply connected even through influenced Franklin and Jefferson, because going way back to the origins of that and consistently coming through it, there is the thought that liberty or freedom tend to, if they're not approached thoughtfully, collapse into entanglement and grasping. And you can't have, you can't achieve political liberty without the kind of controlling and giving up of that radical pursuit of desire at the same time. And that seems to me to have roots in very much the thing that we're pursuing here. Yeah, and it's the root of the problem of our time, where we do have government of, by and for, the billionaires, and that's what needs to be changed, and what we're doing here is connected to that.

[39:52]

So, yeah, thank you. Other comments or questions, or for new people, questions about our practice? Also, it's all part of the same. Yes, Jeremy. You mentioned briefly white guilt. Yeah. And I was hoping to hear what you thought about the role of white guilt a role it can play in, maybe, its usefulness or just, you know, general accounts. Yeah. So, how we face the fact of our privilege as black people is complicated. You know, when we realize how differently we're treated by the police than African American men, for example,

[40:53]

You know, maybe guilt comes up, or just we feel the difference, or we feel sad, or whatever. What I was saying was not to get caught up in the guilt, but to actually, you know, how do we respond? How do we start to have relationships with, more relationships with, more open relationships with African American people, as white people? And how do we, you know, when we just took, again, the first step is just to listen and recognize and hear the fact of how differently, for example, police treat, you know, a young man your age who happens to be African-American is walking down the street and he's unarmed and you, I don't know, maybe you're armed, but it's, just to face that, just to listen to that. But then, okay, how do we respond? So the conference I went to beginning of last month in New York, there were some resources that

[42:03]

They've just sent out about working as one. So I'm going to share that with people in the Sangha. There's a website and there's some resources about how we talk about this. And I don't want that to be the focus of what we do as a Sangha, because we're here to do Buddhist practice and meditation. I think they're connected, though. So there are ways in which we can look at this more deeply The Promotions Committee is looking at ways we might be able to, for example, to have soccer days when we go and bow to the soup kitchen, which is addressing a class of issues. And I hope we can do that. We're going to probably start that around the time of Saddaqi ceremony, in which we ceremonially feed the hungry ghosts, but also, you know, feed the hungry. So practically speaking, what do we do? But yeah, if you feel guilty about this, you can start from there and look at, well, what would it mean to be African-American and otherwise be Jeremy?

[43:13]

Well, you can't do that, but anyway. Just to be open to looking at these issues, it really is necessary now, after Charleston, That is, that we start to talk about this. Issue. I just wanted to add to that from the perspective of studying the self, because I have studied what white guilt in particular formally in school and informally in studying the self. And one of the harmful things about Having one's consciousness raised a little bit about privilege is that we can start to feel guilty, and then one of the harmful things about the guilt is that, unexamined, it makes us kind of push it away and say, no, I don't want to, no, or don't want to look at that, don't want to think about how I am implicated in that, or my ancestors are implicated in that.

[44:16]

It also causes us to against the people that we are, or the hostility coming from the people that we feel, you know, have less of a privileged status. And so then we, you know, it just can do all kinds of destructive things internally to where it continues to sort of reinforce itself. You do something and then you feel guilty about it and then you just try to forget about it or, you know, let's make up a story about it and then you do it again. And so it's, maybe doubly important to examine feelings that we're having about, you know, when we do have a moment that sort of, you know, brings you to recognize your own level of privilege. Thank you very much. That's very, very helpful. Yeah, the basic practice with all of this is the same in a way as the basic practice we do just, you know, sitting facing the wall.

[45:18]

It's to face ourselves, to not run away from ourselves, to, as much as we can, see all the thoughts. So probably, you know, in the last period of Zazen some of you had some thoughts. It's possible. Some feelings, some worrying about what you were going to do tonight, or I don't know, whatever. And some of those thoughts may be uncomfortable. Thoughts of greed, or anger, or frustration, or not liking this person or that person who gave you a hard time earlier in the week, or whatever. This is kind of the same as that, except it's taking it further. It's like, actually, Our practice of sitting upright and being present and just being able to be with all of the thoughts that come up and let them go is a practice for facing our reality. And it's kind of the same practice for facing these situations that actually impinge on us.

[46:24]

All of us are affected by the karma of slavery and racism. We can try and avoid it, but the reality is right here in our city, unviolence and so forth. So, in some ways the practice is the same. Again, going back to Joshua's question, how do we face all of this? And it doesn't mean you have to kind of be overwhelmed by it. In fact, that's running away from it. feeling hopeless is kind of, you know, it's not realistic. But how do we face it? And Zazen, as a practice, sitting and facing the wall and not moving, basically, and just being present and still, and attentive for 30 minutes, or we have all day sitting sometimes, this gives us the power to be able and willing to face ourselves and all the confusion we have on our own cushion and chair, and also all of the stuff around us.

[47:29]

And it's work, and it doesn't happen like that. It takes time. But we can do it. This practice gives us the power to do that.

[47:38]

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