Good morning, everyone. Welcome. Last Sunday, we finished our two-month spring practice period. We were focusing on the serene illumination teachings of the 12th century Cao Dong, or Soto, a Chinese teacher in our lineage, Hongzhi. A few main points were just this practice of meditation in which we commune with the deep source of awareness and creativity and this deep settling that is available in this practice, but then also that we get up from this practice and, as Hongshuo puts it graciously, share ourselves in the world.

[01:06]

I also talked last weekend about wanting to emphasize more ancestral Zen. speaking from the teachings of the ancestors, but also carrying on the practice, carrying on the practice tradition, carrying on what Hongzhi calls the family business. So this involves responding to the world. And part of our ancestral Zen, part of our tradition is these Bodhisattva values. the bodhisattva precepts and ethics and basic bodhisattvas are enlightening beings dedicated to universal awakening and liberation. So this involves caring about the quality of our lives and the world, basic kindness, helping rather than harming in the world, and benefiting all beings.

[02:10]

So I want to talk about responding from this ancestral way, from these bodhisattva values, to our current global crisis. So I maybe referred to that a little bit over the last couple of months, but tried to put that aside to focus on Hongxia. Currently, our federal government Well, basically represents billionaires, not the people of our country or the world. The United States withdrawal from the Paris Climate Treaty and encouragement of climate destruction and environmental destruction, not just in terms of that, but environmental destruction in terms of deregulation of poisoning of many of our national lands.

[03:14]

Anyway, now thanks to that, I think most of the world sees the United States as the world's number one rogue nation. I just have to say that. We also, our government also encourages terrorism, the horrible terrorist attacks now happening around the world. We have committed $110 billion more of weapons to Saudi Arabia, and a lot of those weapons that we've given them have gone to arm jihadi terrorists. And we've been increasing our bombing of civilians in the Mideast, which leads to more terrorism. and direct causing of genocidal famine and epidemics in the Mideast in Africa and countries like Yemen and Palestine and Ethiopia. So our government now is dedicated to profits for fossil fuel companies and war merchants and not to protecting people.

[04:26]

This is what, how it looks to me. So I'm just saying that. And also the government has now decided to encourage, our current government to encourage an increased war, increasing the stupid war on drugs. which has led to racist mass incarcerations for the sake of profits for privatized and increasingly privatized prisons. And there are many more things, many more things I could cite while while everyone was distracted by the former FBI head testifying under oath on national television that the current president was lying. Meanwhile, the Congress was working to deregulate Wall Street to

[05:32]

from all of the regulations that were put in place after the last Wall Street crash. So our government, our current government, is dedicated to the profits of billionaires and to really, to harming basically everyone else. And this is going on now, and we have refugees, and we have environmental destruction, and okay, this is what's going on. How shall we respond? And lots of people are responding in lots of ways. We live in a very interesting time, a very dynamic time. And our bodhisattva values and bodhisattva precepts and bodhisattva vows mean that we can't ignore this.

[06:41]

Of course, we also work on looking at our own particular situations and interacting in our own, in the problems in our own lives, in our own situations, in our more, in our relationships with family and friends and coworkers. But we can't, our practice is not about ignoring the problems of the world. Our practice is not about an escape from facing the situation of the world. And it's not about fixing everything in the world either. This is complicated, complicated. This situation that human beings are in now is this ancient karmic legacy. We have this ancient tradition of spiritual ancestors and many other kinds of ancestors, cultural ancestors in many ways.

[07:54]

So we venerate, we're chanting last weekend the names of the lineage of ancestors in our particular Soto Zen lineage and tradition going back to Shakyamuni Buddha. We also can venerate ancestors in cultural traditions, in literature and music and many other, and in progressive traditions trying to encourage justice and equality. We now do not have equal justice under the law. We have one legal system for billionaires and maybe another for white people and another for colored people. And it's very clear. This is just obvious. And this is not something that we can fix very quickly.

[08:58]

This is this ancient karmic legacy of racism and slavery. Our economy is built on slavery, North and South. And this isn't just, you know, our country. This is also our human legacy of greed, hate, and delusion that Buddhism talks about. So we all have some part in this. And for those of us who are quote-unquote white, we have white privilege and benefit from this. But war has gone on as long as, well, as long as our history is a history of war, the parts of history that are usually told. And then we have, counterbalancing this, sangha. the Bodhisattva's teachings, the possibility of kindness and caring and benefiting all beings, being helpful, not harmful.

[10:08]

It's possible for people to live in cooperation rather than trying to fight each other. It's possible for people to live with kindness and caring. It happens all the time, it happens in crises. There's Rebecca Solnit's wonderful book, A Paradise Built in Hell, talking about the response of people in difficult situations. Hurricane Katrina, after earthquakes, that people actually come together and help each other. This is also part of the natural response of people. So how do we respond? How shall we respond? So I want to suggest from our ancestral way an approach to responding.

[11:12]

I want to cite a case from the Blue Cliff Record. one of our great Koan collections. This is from Yunmen, who's not one of our direct ancestors, but part of our ancestral way. Yunmen died in 949. He founded one of the so-called Five Houses of Chan. So Dongshan, one of the houses is Xiaodong, which became Soto in Japan, which is what we do. Going back to Dongshan, who I've talked about a lot, Yun Men founded the last of the five houses, and many of the Koans are Koan cases come from him. He was known for very brief responses to questions, although not only, sometimes longer. But there are many, many Koan stories, dialogues about Yun Men.

[12:19]

So he's part of our legacy. So this story, Blue Cliff Record, case 14, a monk asked young men, what are the teachings of a whole lifetime? Sort of means, what are the teachings of a Buddha's whole lifetime? And that's an interesting question, because we know from the Lotus Sutra, which is an important, very important sutra in our Sao Dong or Soto tradition, very important to Dogen, that the Buddha's lifetime in the Lotus Sutra was considered inconceivably long. So one way to hear this question is, what is the teaching of a whole lifetime of a Buddha? or of a Buddha ancestor? Interesting question. But then also, you know, we might hear it as, what are the teachings, what is the basic teaching for the Buddha's whole inconceivable lifespan?

[13:27]

What is the basic teaching of Buddha? What are the teachings of a whole lifetime? The monk asked Yunmen. And Yunmen said, an appropriate statement, or we could hear, an appropriate response. So that's the whole story, that's the whole case. An appropriate response. Or it could be read literally as the teaching meets each. It's a very interesting Very interesting response. Part of the commentary says, if you want to know the meaning of Buddha nature, you must observe time and seasons, cause and conditions. This is called the special transmission outside written teachings, the soul transmission of the mind seal. So it's not about some ultimate statement of universal reality.

[14:28]

It's not some principle that's an abstract ultimate reality. It's an appropriate response. How to respond appropriately to the situation. And I described the situation of our current global crisis. Parts of it, there's so much to say, and it's all interrelated, and it's all a product of this historical karmic web of greed, hate, and delusion. and what's happening to our environment and our climate. And I didn't even get into nuclear power and nuclear weapons, which threaten our survival. And yeah, what's an appropriate response to all of this and the injustice that our government is now very busy enhancing and increasing?

[15:38]

How shall we respond? Yunmin says, an appropriate response, a response that's appropriate to the situation. So through the course of all the lists of the names of ancestors we chanted last weekend, going back to Shakyamuni Buddha 2,500 some years ago, through India, through China, through Japan, now a few ancestors in this country, What's our appropriate response? That may seem like it's not so helpful. OK, well, how do we respond? Well, something appropriate. Well, oh, gee, thanks. But there's more to say. There's more commentary. Yuanmu, the commentator of the Blue Cliff Records, says, as usual, within one sentence of Yunmeng, three sentences are bound to be present. These are called the sentences that enclose heaven and earth, the sentence that follows the waves, and the sentence that cuts off the myriad streams.

[16:50]

He lets go and gathers up. He's naturally extraordinary, like cutting nails or shearing through iron. So this is a traditional commentary or interpretation about not just this story, but all of Yun Men's comments, that there are, within Yun Men's comments, there are, each comment has three, three phrases or three aspects. So these are interesting, and again, don't, you know, tell us exactly what to do, but this maybe gives us a way of thinking about how do we respond. So the first aspect is that this appropriate response, And all of Yun Men's statements contains the whole world. It encloses heaven and earth.

[17:52]

And we have from one of Yun Men's successors some verses about each of these three. So I'll read those. Fundamental reality, fundamental emptiness, one form, one flavor. It is not that a subtle entity does not exist. It is not a matter for hesitating over, clear and lucid. This contains the whole world. So one aspect of an appropriate response is to include, is all-inclusive. include the whole world. And we might think of our precept about benefiting all beings. So we chant in one of our chants, the Metta Sutra says, may all beings be happy. So apply to this situation that I described parts of our global crisis about the climate and about

[18:55]

The warfare, the ever-present warfare and increased warfare and threats of warfare and our government's seeming desire to resort to bombs rather than diplomacy and war on drugs to imprison rather than provide opportunities to minorities and so forth to benefit all beings. This includes the whole world. How do we see How do we see all beings in however we respond? All beings. So each of Yunmin's statements encloses heaven and earth. What is the appropriate response that includes everything and everyone, that benefits all beings? The second aspect is that it cuts off the myriad streams. The verse about that says, it is fundamentally not a matter of interpretation or understanding.

[19:57]

When you sum it all up, it's not worth a single letter. When myriad activities abruptly cease, that is cutting off the myriad streams. So, you know, I'm offering tentative or partial interpretations of how these might apply. Cutting off the myriad streams. Just say no. Don't kill is our first precept of our ten precepts. So just cut off the myriad streams. Stop damaging our planet. Stop destroying the climate. Cut off the myriad streams. There may be other ways of interpreting that aspect of Yun Men's appropriate response, but that's what comes to mind first. Just cut off the myriad streams. Just stop. No more war on drugs.

[20:59]

It's stupid. It has only caused destruction, for example. The third one. when you allow the presence, so that's the one that, going along with the waves. And that's interesting. Following the myriads, following the waves, following the myriad streams. And the commentary, the verse commentary by one of the young men's disciples says about that, when you allow the presence of another, follow the sprouts to spy, the ground, understand the person by means of his words. This is going along with the ripples, following the waves. So we might see that in terms of, well, looking at what's going on, following the waves, seeing all of the ramifications. Maybe going along with, well, how do we work with the situation as it is?

[22:04]

Maybe this might be, you know, what's actually possible politically. I don't know. Following the waves. It's interesting, though, to think about what is the appropriate response to this whole situation in terms of how do we respond, in terms of these three aspects. including all beings, cutting off the stream, and then following the waves, going along with the ripples and waves of the stream. These are not mutually exclusive. How do we respond in a way that sees all these different aspects? The third one also, you know, part of this third one seems to me also to be, there's another description of it.

[23:12]

Maybe this is listening to everyone. Maybe this is compassion. The bodhisattva of compassion listens to the cries of the world. So following the waves might be listening to everyone involved, listening to the suffering. Part of the appropriate response might be just to see what is happening for everyone. So I don't know how helpful that is. Again, when I talk about this, I say that there's not one right response. And we each have our own particular way of responding. And we each have our own particular context and ability. That's part of what the appropriate statement is. We each have a statement, a response that's appropriate for us. But part of what our practice gives us is the possibility of responding from some settledness, from some calm, from some positive energy.

[24:25]

Not succumbing to despair about all this, because that's not helpful at all, and it's not realistic at all. There are possibilities. Change happens. The situation in terms of any one of these aspects is extremely complicated. So there was just an election in Britain where the candidate who was against austerity and for a more liberal approach won. The situation all around the world is very fluid. And now people are looking to China, of all things, as the leader for the environment, and maybe even for human rights. The United States, amongst other things, recently withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council.

[25:34]

Big changes in every way that we see. And yet, here we are in Chicago. There's a big council of progressive, I forget what it's called, there's a progressive council happening in the city this weekend. Lots of people are thinking about how to respond in lots of ways. So there are many possibilities, and how do we respond? So to keep looking at the situation, to not run away from the situation. It's easy to feel like politics sucks, it's really horrible, and I don't want to hear about it anymore, and let's turn away from it. And sometimes maybe we need to do that, because it is, you know, we hear all this stuff, discouraging maybe, but also, you know, there are various possibilities.

[26:44]

An appropriate response. What is an appropriate response? Well, it includes heaven and earth. It cuts off all the streams. It follows the waves and ripples. So, in addition to this appropriate response to the current crisis in our country and the world. I think Yunmin's appropriate response, we could apply to our own particular situations, the problems that we have in our own life with family members, co-workers, neighbors, whomever. How do we respond appropriately? Not from some, so I don't mean to make Yunmeng's, there's these three aspects into some absolute ideal either.

[27:55]

The point is, what's the response to the particular situation? That's what Yunmeng is saying. And how do we use these approaches to look at the particular situation? and respond to that particular situation. So we can apply this to our own particular interpersonal situations. We can apply it also, all of this, to the problems we have on our cushion in our meditation. How do we find an appropriate response to our own difficulties with ourselves emotionally, with our own physical and emotional pain, with our own difficulties facing ourselves. How do we include all of heaven and earth on our seat?

[28:59]

How do we just cut off all of the thoughts and feelings, but then also how do we flow with them? Each of those three might be appropriate in a different context, in a different time. How do we see appropriate response? This is not about offering some solution or answer. This is about thinking about how to work with questions, work with a situation, how to respond, hopefully, maybe more skillfully. So skillful means is one of the Buddhist practices, and this is a guide to, Yun Men offers us a guide to perhaps more skillful means. So, I welcome anyone's questions, comments, responses, reflections on any of this.

[30:04]

Please feel free. Yes, Jonathan. Yes. Yeah. Just to make a very basic example, when you're selling things, or you want something to reach another person, you want your idea.

[31:10]

I sometimes talk about not falling into manipulation. So our usual way of being in the world is to manipulate things to get what we want or get rid of what we don't want. We manipulate ourselves too. But I hear what you're saying. You're trying to convey something to someone. So I think from our perspective, I would try and rephrase that as not to manipulate them, but to actually offer something, to share something. So we also talk about giver, receiver, and gift, and the mutuality of offering or giving something. So sometimes somebody doesn't want to receive something that you have to give.

[33:19]

So the practice of generosity. It's another way to think about what you're talking about, I think. So rather than thinking about effective manipulation to sell something, which is how we usually think about this kind of thing in the world now, right? So what you're saying is the very usual way of thinking about this in the world, and how do we manipulate them to buy what we want to sell. the traditional way from the Bodhisattva perspective of thinking about that is, okay, you have something to offer. And how do you allow them to see that they actually will benefit from it? If you think they're not going to benefit from it, then you're just trying to make a profit from them. That's manipulation. But if you actually believe that they will benefit, then there's this relation of giver, receiver, and gift.

[34:28]

So part of the practice of generosity, the first bodhisattva practice, actually, is generosity, is learning to receive also. So by giving to them, you're receiving something. Maybe you're receiving payment in some way. But also, you're receiving the benefit of knowing that you're helping them. So to take it out of the commerce model, which we're all stuck in in capitalism, to put it into the model of generosity and mutuality. So there's a circle of giver, receiver, and gift. in monastic tradition to learn generosity. I did this in Japan when I was in the monastery. Monks go out and go on begging rounds, and we learn, and you go around walking around with a begging bowl, and you, it's like sashin, but walking and chanting, and you receive whatever's given, and that's what we lived on.

[35:34]

So, learning to receive and learning to give, it also means listening. What does the person you want to sell something to, this person you want to share your product with, to put it that way, your whatever it is you have to give, how do you hear who they are, what they need, what would benefit them, and then you can more skillfully, so the listening is important, then how can you skillfully tell them how what you have to give is really the appropriate thing. for their particular needs. So that's more a transaction, but still it's based on really listening to what they need. So another example, Sarvodaya Sramadana was a social welfare work in Sri Lanka where monks would go to villages.

[36:41]

This started in, the 60s, I guess. I think it's still going. They would go to villages, and instead of saying, we're going to give you this, this, and this, you know, school, whatever, whatever they thought would be a good thing for them, they would go and they would listen to the villagers to see what they needed. And then they would help them with that. So you have to really listen to what those people, the people you want to help, the people you want to share something with need. Now, you may have something that you want to give. It's some product, some IT system, some teaching. So you have to listen to how it is that it would be helpful to those people. And then you have to see what it is that you can benefit from them with. So there's this circle of giver, receiver, and gift. So those are different ways of thinking about it rather than manipulation.

[37:41]

And I think they're healthier. So think about that. Other comments? Brian. You often talk about various ways in which we can appropriately respond to the world as it is and the problems of the world. I feel at least a lot of times that whatever it is they do, even if it's like abstract thinking, somehow they're contributing. They're sometimes doing a radical act that influences the world. And yet the stereotype often of making a difference in the world is either the social work model or the political activist model. And I find myself having to break that open. how whatever it is we do, if we're truly motivated towards the common good, it's that generosity and it's that world-changing activity.

[38:56]

I saw a segment, I think it was 60 minutes, about the order of that yogurt coffee. Is it Shabani? Is that correct? So the question for me is not so much what is it that we can do in order to affect positive change in the world, but how is it that we can lead that world truly motivated towards the common good? Yeah, so the question is how to respond. And in terms of creativity and artistic response, I agree with you.

[39:57]

You know, I was involved in the analogous protest movements to what's going on now in the 60s, and there was a lot of creativity in terms of theater and music, for example, and protest songs. That's happening now. It's not getting... the same attention because the media is so much controlled by the corporations, or a lot of the media. But it's happening, very much so. The songs aren't getting out as much, but they are there. Some of the marches I went to, the science march, for example, there were so many really wonderful, creative signs that people had made on their own. It was fun to go out and see what what people, I wish I could remember some of them, more of them, but I think there's a lot of creativity happening and I think that's really what, that's what really communicates, you know. I'm suggesting that even if it's not a protest song, if it's a sort of racist song,

[41:06]

I agree. I agree. I don't think it has to be directed at a particular issue. I think creativity, kindness, yeah, that's part of the response we need. And a community that is dedicated to awareness changes how people see reality. And that is part of the change we really need. It's not just about protesting about some injustice. It's about seeing a positive vision of what's possible for people. So to be dedicated to positive awareness, to helpful awareness, to transformation, to each of us developing our own possibilities and each in our own way being helpful and creative and alive in the most beautiful way we can be.

[42:36]

That's the change that also, that's the most important change in some way. All of it is possible. So maybe we can think of those. So I was, you know, those three aspects of Yunmin's appropriate response, I think we could look more fully at how to see each one of those in a wider way, including what you're saying. Thank you. If there's one more comment or question. One or two. Dave. I think what was the challenge for me you're going to survive a little longer.

[44:13]

how hard family life was, or trying to make sure that you're able to pay the bills. All of that is, I think for the majority of us, is considered a big enough project that the other stuff is considered extra. But that's the challenge, is that the extra stuff, the extra having to make a difference, I agree with you, Brian. I think that's a very multifaceted thing that includes art, activism, literature. There's a billion different ways to manifest it, but that's what frustrates me now, is that I can't blame folks who are just trying to wake up, go to work, and make the money that brings home what they need to keep paying the rent and feed their kids. Right, absolutely.

[46:12]

I guess maybe it's how, I don't know if this has an answer, but how do we move things forward from Good, thank you for that, all of that. Yeah, so I think blaming someone for not doing enough is terrible. Blaming oneself for not doing enough doesn't help. We all have to find our part of the practice exactly is finding our balance and finding what we can do to be helpful

[47:17]

taking care of ourselves, taking care of the people around us, finding what we can do to be helpful beyond that, and doing that in a balanced, sustained way. This is about sustainable energy on so many levels. And sustaining our practice and finding our balance. And from there, then, how do we respond? And what is the appropriate response? And there's not one right answer. And it changes. The point at what is appropriate changes. from day to day, from situation to situation. That's the whole point. So we have to keep paying attention. We have to be attentive and aware. And that's what it means to be responsive. So good luck, everyone. Please keep paying attention. And we will all keep doing our best.

[48:20]

And thank you all. for being here.

[48:25]

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