Good morning, and Happy New Year, or Happy New Year's Eve morning. So a new year. And with New Year's, there are often New Year's resolutions. And those are usually forgotten by mid-February, if not long before. But I wanted to open up resolutions or commitments as a Buddhist practice, as a bodhisattva practice. We could relate this to one of the paramitas, one of the transcendent bodhisattva practices, the practice of vow. But basically, a new year gives us the opportunity to rethink What is important?

[01:01]

What is important to you? What is important for you to be mindful of, to keep in mind, to work at, to hold in your heart throughout this year, this new year of 2018, starting tonight. What's important? Suzuki Roshi used to say, what is the most important thing? Maybe there's not one most important thing. But what is it? What are the things? What is important to you? What is most meaningful to you? How do you find out? How do you look at what is your intention, your deepest intention or intentions for this year?

[02:12]

So, you know, maybe it's somewhat arbitrary. January 1st in the Gregorian calendar. We could do this for the winter solstice or any other time of the year. We could say, oh, this is the beginning of a new year, of course, any day. But, you know, we do have this number, 2018. So what's important for you to take care of, for you to care for this year? What do you care about? What do you want to take care of this year? And probably it's not just one thing. What is important for you to take care of this year personally, on your cushion, on your seat, in your life, in your body-mind, and maybe in your family?

[03:17]

in your Sangha or in your various communities, in your work life, or in your vocation, whatever it is that is important to you, and of course in this world. But I would say that not just on this first day of, or the eve of the first day of a new year, not just to think of what is important to you for this year, but maybe it's an opportunity to think What is the most important thing? What is it you want to commit to caring for, to resolve to looking at for the next five years in your life? This is an opportunity to think about. where you are in your life, and how you see yourself five years from now.

[04:22]

This isn't a matter of planning, because the world and our lives change day by day, and we don't know who we will be five years from now, or one year from now. But what is our intention? What do we care about? What's the most important thing or what is important to us? So what do we want to take care of this year? What do we want to take care of in the next five years? This is an opportunity for us. And I would say beyond that, what do you want to take care of? What do you want to take care of personally in your life in the next 50 years? Now, some of us are not going to be alive 50 years from now, but some of you will be. So, there's the Native American saying in the Iroquois peoples to do everything you do considering the next seven generations.

[05:38]

Well, that's one way to look at it. But, you know, since we're talking about a new year, how do you want to take care of your life considering 50 years from now, 2068? that might inform how you want to take care of your life, your world, our world together in the next year. and maybe more important than how do you want to take care of yourself and what is the most important thing over the next year and over the next five years and over the next 50 years, what is the most important thing for you to take care of in your life today? How do we take care of this day today?

[06:39]

Not as some, and none of these are some burden or some, you know, something that, you know, your parents are telling you, you know, you should be good. But, you know, for you, what is it you want? What is your intention? What is it you care about? How do you want to be over the next year? over the next five years, over the next 50 years. And today, how do you want to find the meaning of what is it you care about? What is your intention? What is your life? Again, taking care of yourself, self-care of the body-mind on your seat right now, Caring for your family, however you want to define that.

[07:46]

Whatever family members you really consider your family. And for Sangha, so we do this together. Sangha is spiritual community, but each of us in this lay non-residential community have many communities. How do you want to take care of your work life? Whether it's a particular job or your vocation, what you care about in your work, in your life. Doesn't mean necessarily your livelihood, it might be. Again, this is related to this practice in Sanskrit pranidhana, one of the paramitas one of the transcendent practices of bodhisattvas.

[08:54]

Sometimes there's a list of six of those, generosity, ethical conduct, patience, very important, patience or tolerance, active patience, and then enthusiasm or energy, and meditative stability, and insider wisdom, prajna, and then there's four more. which start with skillful means, being helpful, trying out things that might be helpful. And then this one that I'm talking about today is related to this idea we have in our culture of New Year's resolution, but I want to open that up, this practice of vow or commitment. which, you know, vow is a kind of heavy word, you know, like marriage vows or bodhisattva vows or priest vows or, you know, something like that. But also we can see vow as a practice that we take when we decide to take on some project.

[09:59]

Like if you take a commitment to, if you take a course in some academic or adult education situation, or if you take a commitment to a certain job or whatever, vow is a flexible, this practice, this paramita, this transcendent practice has a range of possibility, but it means a certain kind of commitment, a certain kind of taking something on. And I'm suggesting now that you not do it as something you think you should do because somebody said you should, because you think you should, because it's, you know, something you think is good.

[11:02]

It's an opportunity for you to see what's important for you. The other two after those are... the practice of powers or abilities, using your abilities to be helpful in terms of bodhisattva work. And then knowledge, which is different from wisdom, knowledge about knowing about things. So all of these are related and we're going to be studying these in the practice period this spring in terms of the different bodhisattva figures. But this is an actual practice to take on. How do you want to commit to What do you want to commit to? What is important to you?

[12:05]

And intention is very important in our practice. What is the most important thing to you? And maybe what are the various important things to you? And those change. And yet, I'm suggesting we can think about how that applies to the year ahead. What do you want to accomplish? Or what do you want to enjoy? So we can think about accomplishment or we can think about what are the things that you want to include in your life. They might be things that seem frivolous but that might be important to you. How do you want to include play in your life?

[13:08]

How do you want to more fully or more thoroughly enjoy your life? How do you want to respond to the situation of the world in your life? So just to acknowledge at this juncture that these are dark times in the world, and there's lots to say about that. You know, maybe I don't need to say much about that because we all know about the injustice and the inequality in our world and our government sponsoring wars all over the world in a bipartisan way and our economy depending on warfare and more and more

[14:11]

aimed at supporting the extremely wealthy and damaging everyone else. So, how do we respond to that? Well, this is a great challenge. How do we want to live our life in a way that we're not overwhelmed by the challenges of our life, by the darkness of our world? How do we want to creatively respond to the difficulties of our world? How do we want to express resistance to the difficulties of our society. There are lots of possibilities and there are people all over the world who are working at this and none of us know exactly what the answer is or how to do this.

[15:18]

So for me this is part of my resolution or commitment or vow, but there's not one right way to do that. We each have our own sense or expression of what is important. So I do not want to tell you what's important for you. We have all these Buddhist teachings, we have all the social teachings, we have all the ways of looking at the world, and part of Sangha is that we can share that together. suggest possible responses and possible ways of being helpful, and we have teachings about that. The precepts, the paramitas, guides to how to express helpfulness and try to diminish the harm and harmfulness in the world.

[16:27]

So that's also part of, you know, looking at what's important for us to be doing this year and the next five years and the next 50 years and today. And I want to also suggest that part of how we look at what's the most important thing, what is our commitment or resolution this year and the next five years and so forth is to appreciate what this practice that we've just been doing makes available to us, this communion that's available, this possibility of communion with deep spirit, with ultimate realities. This is a tremendous resource. for finding renewal, creative renewal, as we enter a new year, as we enter a new day, as we enter the next five years, and so forth.

[17:53]

So doing this practice regularly sometimes coming and doing longer sittings, doing this regularly, or just coming for a period of stopping and sitting and facing the wall and facing the world and facing ourselves and settling, settling a little, settling more than a little, we can get a glimpse of something deeper. that beyond our ideas of ourself, beyond our ideas of the world, beyond all of the damage that's happening in the world, there is this, well, anything I say about it is not it, but there is this deeper

[19:13]

ultimate truth, the Dharma, that it's not just an abstraction. It's something that we can access that provides a kind of, that can provide a kind of source and resource for creative energy. for seeing other possibilities, for a freshness. And we need it because we all do get tired and feel overwhelmed and sometimes we get exhausted. Sometimes we don't know what to do. Sometimes we forget about what's important. We forget about resolution and commitment.

[20:19]

So New Year's resolutions, maybe even the frivolous ones, I don't know. But this is an opportunity to find a fresh sense of what is important to you. What do you care about? What do you want to take care of this year, the next five years? How do you want to do that? How do you want to use this resource that we have here of Sangha, of community, where we can talk together about these things? And I want to try and, you know, stop talking soon to hear what you all have to say about this, to hear some of you say what you feel is important for you for the next year or five years or for today.

[21:23]

And, you know, what would Buddha do? What would the Buddha on your cushion do if she were asked What's important? What's important to you? And what is the Dharma resource that can help us each find our creative renewal? And I just want to mention, sort of on a personal note, so I mentioned, you know, that what we do in the year ahead is also, also implicates, you know, how do we think about the next 50 years? And this year in particular, 2018, puts me in mind of 50 years ago, which was an important year for me personally and historically for this country in 1968. So I will be mentioning 50-year anniversaries, particularly this spring, that were important

[22:31]

to our country and in my life, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and of Robert Kennedy, and something I was involved with, the takeover of the buildings at Columbia University in April, 50 years ago. as part of the anti-Vietnam War movement and the civil rights movement. So there were important issues in our society 50 years ago, and they're all very much alive, and maybe even more so here 50 years later. And, you know, one can feel, oh, gee, well, there hasn't been any progress, and here we are still talking about the same things. I don't think that's very helpful, and I don't think that's actually realistic.

[23:36]

But anyway, it's a poignant year for me personally, and I think for our country in a way. Anyway, what's important for us to think about and take care of in our own lives and in our response to the world this year? What's important to you? How do you find meaning in your life in the year ahead? How do you find creative enjoyment today and in this new year? And of course, many things may happen this year. Many things have happened in the last year. We live in interesting times, as the Chinese curse says, but that's also an opportunity.

[24:43]

So, okay. Happy New Year. Really, Happy New Year. Please find ways to enjoy this year. So I want to ask, for any of you, what is important? What resolutions? What commitments? What do you want to take care of in your life or in your response to the world or in your caring about the world and your life in this new year. Please feel free. I would love to hear from any of you. You're there.

[25:56]

sort of fresher and more refined than ever. And so, you know, for me, you know, the particularities of what's coming here in my brain remain to be seen, but the basic, you know, basic Okay. So, you know, I think that's one clear response, that our resolution and commitment this year continues our resolution and commitment

[27:40]

of our life that we have been living, and that's true. It doesn't have to be like something different. But still, it's a chance for renewal, to rethink what's important, what we care about. So, thank you, Nielsen. Other comments? Aisha? Along those lines, I don't know where to start. But you're talking about problems, and you're literally talking about problems that have been with us for a long, long time and have deep tendrils into so many parts of our individual lives and are coming from such complicated places long before they emerged as physical problems that for me, and this is really just my own personal you know, valence in the situation.

[28:45]

But for me, the thing that I think I take most personally is the wish to help people stay hopeful enough that they can continue to engage with these problems, which are not likely to be resolved quickly. Good. So it's to, I think we can get so overwhelmed by things that we turn away or we make jokes about it, or we're so overwhelmed that we don't even notice them anymore. So it's like I want to try to find a balance between helping people look at something and not get overwhelmed by it, whether it's a problem in society or a problem in their own personal lives. It's not over until it's over. Good, yeah. So it's not about fixing problems particularly. It's about commitment, and part of that is commitment to enjoying our lives as well. And I maybe didn't talk about that enough, but there is plenty to enjoy in our lives.

[29:51]

Thank you. Other responses, comments, intentions? Yes, David. It's the process that is important. What happens is going to happen. How do we behave during the process? How do we act? It's important. I'll share that with you. Thank you. Yeah, that's very good. Resolution or commitment or vow is not about some result. It's about our engagement, our practice, our intention and effort and how we engage with our lives this year, today.

[31:10]

Sid, any reflections on commitment or resolution or deep intention? you Yeah, yeah.

[32:31]

There's all kinds of work and play to do to engage with caring for our world. Caroline. Okay.

[33:33]

And hoping that that somehow is doing my part to help change the world. It's changing other people. I just don't feel I have a lot of... I don't see myself as a solid person who's good at persuading other people to think or do differently. and where the energy is focused. It's the same, but it needs to keep changing in its refinement and energy. Yeah. It's definitely something. I mean, I find myself thinking myself through the same things sometimes, thinking, well, I remember that from 20 years ago, but it's the same, and it's not.

[34:41]

Right. I'm still a different person than I was 20 years ago. Good, yeah. Yeah, things are the same, but they're the same in subtly different ways. And that's actually interesting. And we can get interested in that. But also what you said before that about how we see ourselves as shifting, that becomes an example that is part of the change that has to happen. So our work on ourselves is not irrelevant to what needs to happen in the world. We are connected in so many ways to everybody and everything. So it's, yeah, it's subtle. Jerry, any thoughts? And so I have to close the microphone.

[36:09]

That's a, just to say, that's a wonderful, you know, for all of us that, I mean, I echo that, and that's a wonderful particular resolution that we could take on, you know, to respond more to particular people. Thank you, keep going. Yeah, the long arc of history leads towards justice, yes. Thank you, thank you. Belinda, any reflections?

[37:43]

I think my resolution is to deepen my knowledge of studies and to share that with as many people as I can. At the same time, exploring new ways to do so. It's always changing, so it's always something new. Lovely, yes. And that's, yeah, that's part of what I wanted, was trying to express about New Year's Day. It's an opportunity to feel that, that there's something fresh and new and that we don't know.

[38:48]

We can share what we have, but we don't, that there's something new. And that actually, you know, we can feel that every day, but New Year's is a special opportunity to remember that, to open that up to to look at how do we want to take that on, really. So, thank you. Anyone else? How about you? Me? Well, I've been talking about it. Yeah, well, yeah, I want to try and, just thinking about this and preparing this talk, I've been feeling exhausted the last couple of months, and this, you know, I want to try and, well, I am, from thinking about this, finding new energy, how to express what's important and share that and encourage that.

[40:02]

in all of you and all of us and find new ways to express that. How do we find fresh energy? It's a new year. So, yeah. That's what's important for me now. So, thank you all very much. Happy New Year.

[40:34]

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