So yesterday, a number of us sat all day here in this room and we began the practice period, the spring practice period, focusing on the archetypal bodhisattva figures and the bodhisattva practice. And tonight, we have a Shuso. So thank you, Haitian, for doing this. I want to start by talking about what that means, what the Shuso is. So here at Ancient Dragon, we have kind of followed, tried to follow the forms and the positions from the old monastic context, going back to San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara where I practiced for several years, and that goes back to Japanese monastic practice, and adapting it to this obviously very different

[01:10]

context of a non-residential storefront temple in the middle of Chicago. So this is an experiment that we're still trying to figure out. But what the Shuso is, is the head monk for the practice period, basically the model monk, the model student. And in residential monastic form, they do things like ringing the wake-up bell early every morning to get everybody into the zendo early in the morning, and taking care of the garbage and the compost and cleaning the toilets. We don't have that situation in a non-residential center. But we follow some of the forms. So here, the shuso, this practice periodation, will do some of that. She'll be doing extra cleaning of the bathrooms and doing extra cleaning around the temple, but also meeting with the students.

[02:17]

doing tea with several students at a time. Assisted by the Benji, Bo will be the Benji for the practice period, helping her. And also giving talks. And traditionally, the Shuso, it's the first time, when the person is Shuso, it's the first time they give Dharma talks. But here, many people give talks, so Aishen has given many talks before. But her first talk will be, as traditionally, how she first came to practice. So that'll be two Sundays from now. She will also be leading the practice commitment period discussions. So she'll be helping and giving many talks, helping talk about the Bodhisattva figures. And she's also available for individual practice discussions. So please, Take advantage of her experience and her position at leading this practice period, helping lead this practice period.

[03:20]

So I'm very glad to have you doing this. Thank you very much. Well, it's the right time. So when we talked about this event this evening, Aishan reminded me that this week is also the 50th anniversary of the assassination, the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 50 years ago, Wednesday, in Memphis. So, I want to talk about that also. He was in Memphis leading a poor people's campaign. So, he was only 39 years old. He was talking about the economic divide in the country at that time. perhaps even more so now.

[04:23]

And, you know, talking about this, I'll come back to this, but, you know, it's appropriate in the context of talking about bodhisattvas and the response to the bodhisattva context of responding to suffering and helping support awakening. And I have on the altar tonight an image of Samantabhadra, the Bodhisattva, who, amongst other things, works at deliberate campaign, deliberate, steady campaigns of social action. So I'll come back to how Dr. King is related to Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, one of the Bodhisattvas we'll be talking about more in this practice period. But I want to say more about Dr. King because for people who weren't around back then. His image has been kind of sanitized, ironic since he was killed when he was leading a strike by sanitation workers.

[05:29]

He talked a lot about right livelihood, one of the most important for us of the Buddhist Eightfold Path. He talked about respecting the dignity of labor, and how any work that serves humanity is deserving of dignity. The sanitation workers in Memphis at that time had starvation wages. And we still have this problem where people who work in many jobs, in restaurants, for example, in many situations, do not have living wages. Many people have to work at numbers of jobs and still struggle to earn a living. And so we have this great inequality in our society now.

[06:38]

So Dr. King would be talking about that if he was still alive. And during that strike, so we know him mostly. He's mostly talked about as a proponent of nonviolence. And that's a Buddhist ideal as well. But he was also very militant in a non-violent way. The slogan for that sanitation worker strike was, I am a man. Not referring to gender, but just to be a human being. And the sanitation workers were not, did not feel they were treated as human beings. Now we see many teachers on strike trying to find living wages. There was recently a strike in West Virginia that secured living wages for teachers.

[07:46]

We have quite a few teachers in our sangha. Matt, what grade do you teach now? Second grade. We have a number of teachers in our Sangha. It's really wonderful. In some ways the most important job in our society, helping to raise young people. And it's one of the worst paying jobs in our society. after the West Virginia strike, and there's now a strike in Kentucky, I heard, or there's going to be, or there may be. So Dr. King was waging a poor people's campaign. He was talking about economic inequality. He talked, of course, about civil rights and about racism and about nonviolence, but also he was talking very strongly about poverty.

[08:49]

and that part of his legacy is not so well remembered. He also, a year to the day before he was killed, not irrelevant, he spoke out against the Vietnam War very strongly. That was very controversial. Many of his colleagues in the Civil Rights Movement asked him not to speak about that. They thought it would dilute his message, and many establishment people attacked him very strongly. But he talked about how he could not preach nonviolence to young African-American people in the ghettos if he was not talking about nonviolence in terms of what was happening in the Vietnam War, which was brutal.

[09:52]

And differently from the brutal wars that are going on now in the Mideast and in many other places in the world, it was on television every night. We could see it. And so he said very strong things. He said the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today was the United States government. That's not a quote that is commonly spoken of about Dr. King. His I Have a Dream speech is quoted, but he spoke out against the militarism of society and he said that that every dollar that goes to the military budget is taken away from productive things that could go to helping feed people and helping educate people and helping health care. And the issues that he talked about, you know, are still very alive and we have a bloated military budget and I think he would probably be

[11:04]

be helping the students who are campaigning against gun violence and the violence here in our city in Chicago, which I think is connected to this bloated military budget where so much of our national resources go to sending arms all around the world. So I want to talk about this history from 50 years ago. And I'll talk a little more about it later in the month in terms of demonstration about race and about the war in Vietnam that I was very much involved with. But also I want to bring it back to the Bodhisattva context again. in different ways, each of the six bodhisattvas we will be talking about this month respond to suffering in the world. And each of the different bodhisattvas have a different style, a different approach, different combination of practices that they represent.

[12:13]

So there's the stories about these bodhisattvas can act as inspirations for our own practice, can resonate with aspects of our own practice, can speak to aspects of practice that maybe we would like to express. And I mentioned Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, and actually in the Faces of Compassion book I did on the Bodhisattvas, I used Dr. King as an exemplar of Samantabhadra. So these Bodhisattva figures from the different Asian cultures are alive in different ways as archetypes of different Bodhisattva practices. And I speculate in the book about culture figures who in some ways represent aspects of those practices.

[13:16]

Samantabhadra, just to say a little more about that bodhisattva, in the image on the altar, he's riding an elephant, and that's common mode of Samantabhadra. He's often paired with Manjushri, who's also on the altar, riding a lion. Manjushri represents wisdom, and Samantabhadra represents action, active practice in the world. And it's active practice in the world informed by a sense of interconnectedness. So he's connected with the Avatamsaka and the Hawaiian teachings about interconnectedness. And so Samantabhadra also represents a kind of devotion. He has a set of vows that he expresses. And also kind of aesthetic quality. So each of these figures is a complicated combination of things. that they express.

[14:20]

So I'm going to read the part of the section in the book about Dr. King in the Samantabhadra chapter, but let's wait. We have some guests coming. Possibly from great distances. From great distances. So they were delayed by forces out of their control. Yes. And part of Samantabhadra is that riding an elephant, it takes a long time. So Dr. King was involved in these campaigns that were deliberate and took a long time to fulfill. And maybe you could open that chair for one of the people. And there's a few chairs back there. No, I think there's enough chairs. I don't know how. I think maybe there's maybe four people. So thank you, Suzanne. You can just bring that chair out. Maybe that'll be enough. We'll see. We'll see, Michael, if there's four.

[15:23]

I think then we have four. So that's good. Or if they want to sit together and you can move forward. Hi, come on in, Rob. There's chairs for you. You all missed the wonderful ceremony where we inducted Aisha Nancy as Shuso, so. But we can redo it. So welcome, and Aisha Nancy Easton is our new Shuso. We had a wonderful ceremony with all kinds of things happening. And now I'm talking about, at her request, Yeah, you can move the chair around a little bit. I'm talking about Dr. Martin Luther King, who Aishan reminded me, Nancy reminded me, was murdered this week. And so I'm talking about him in terms of one of the bodhisattvas we're going to be talking about during this practice period.

[16:25]

And Nancy will be also talking about these bodhisattvas. So I'll just read a little bit of what I said about Dr. King in the book about Samantabhadra. Dr. King has most fully come to symbolize and embody in the national consciousness the struggles for social justice of that movement, the civil rights movement. With his indomitable spirit and willingness to speak of the truth and suffering of many people, he bravely persevered while facing numerous arrests and threats culminating in his assassination. Dr. King's example encouraged and galvanized many to live and act with hope for a promised land of justice and equality, which he saw in the distance even if he could not enter himself. He forged from his Baptist background and ministry a strong spiritual vision of a racially just world with his vision still alive in our society. His celebrated dream of a just and harmonious pure land

[17:26]

in which the very mountains and valleys ring out freedom, included a vision of all people fighting for human rights with nonviolence and dignity, but also determination. So part of what Samantabhadra represents as one of the bodhisattvas, each with its particular style and approach to these bodhisattva practices, is a kind of determination and steadiness and deliberateness. So riding on an elephant, as he does in the image, there's a kind of deliberate steadiness and determination over time. which was required in the civil rights movement and as I said in his determination to speak out against the Vietnam War and his determination to speak for economic justice and right livelihood and the dignity of all kinds of labor, not just high-status labor, high-status professions, but for sanitation workers and for people who work in all kinds of ways.

[18:30]

So really a great advocate in our time for the Buddhist ideal of right livelihood. So in terms of remembering him this week, I think we can think of this particular bodhisattva. So we're going to be talking about the six particular bodhisattva figures. And again, I started by talking about the role of the shuso, or the head student, head monk, who A.C. and Nancy will fulfill this as helping to be the model student and guide the others in the practice commitment period, and other people who come during these two months, whether or not you're formally doing a practice commitment period, to dedicate your practice and to express, we'll be studying these Bodhisattva figures as examples, but also just to deepen

[19:39]

and strengthen our awareness and our practice. So I wanted to call on the Shuso to add anything you want to about the role of Shuso or about Bhaktivedanta Mahaprabhu. Wow, I don't really feel very qualified to say anything about the role of Shuso, having only been one for half an hour. I don't really know what is fully, you know, that's going to be like. But I would like to say something about Samantabhadra that I have always appreciated. People who are behind the altar can't see the image of Samantabhadra, which is on the little card on the altar. But he is the bodhisattva of action. And he's riding an elephant. And elephants, as you were pointing out earlier, move really slowly. And I always think of that as sort of a metaphor for how change works.

[20:46]

Change moves very, very slowly and sort of inexorably. you know, piece by piece and, you know, changing things in this world is, it's very inefficient because we all have to be born as human beings and learn some things and then, you know, maybe learn other things and then maybe teach other beings that are being born and then we die before it's all completed and, you know, it's, change can take a long, long, long time and And it's important to be hopeful about the change that we want to see. So I especially appreciate, you know, just that image of things that move slowly. Thank you, Aisha. Hector, maybe you could please just pick up the card and just hold it and show it to the people behind the altar, just so they can see. And I'll call on anybody who has comments or questions for me or for Ayshan about the Shuso position or about Samantabhadra or anything to add about Dr. King.

[22:00]

Ayshan? I would like to add something about riding an elephant. I rode an elephant once in Nepal, and it was very, very hard. And my glasses. So riding an elephant is not only slow, it's also very hard because they move in this way. And you're up there and you get to run all around. So that's just about it. So one of the things about the Samantabhadra image is that He doesn't have any particular characteristics. He's sort of a generic bodhisattva, but very stately. It looks like it's no problem riding an elephant. Because he lost his hat and glasses. So any other comments, questions about the practice period, about Samantabhadra, about Dr. King, or anything else?

[23:07]

Anne. Well, I taught English as second language to adults. And part of the job is that these were introduced to America. about Martin Luther King. And this is the first time I did it, very, very beginning level English, not very much English. And we had a video, but you can't just put on a video of Martin Luther King for half an hour. They won't understand it. So I had to choose some sentences from his talk. And what I do first is put the words on the board and talk about this one out and add this one. So I watched the video again and again, you know, just for my lesson plan. And after watching it again and again, I feel like you want to understand and watch Martin Luther King again and again on video.

[24:16]

Because I understood, recently I talked to my teacher, his name is Gil Constal in California, and I said, you know, Martin Luther King understood the Four Noble Truths. He had moved beyond suffering and understood the source of suffering. and making threats, but I fear no man." And he went to sleep. He's not afraid. I thought he had incredible freedom. Yeah, he talked about death, and that was the talk the night before he was killed. And he said, yeah, he talked about longevity.

[25:17]

Longevity has its purpose. has his right, has his way, and he also talked about having seen the Promised Land. I want to introduce Anne Overton. Excuse me. But Anne is an old friend from San Francisco Zen Center. When I was living in Japan, she was also there. She's the former Eno at Tassajara. Anyway. So anyway, it's great to have you here. And sometime you have to come when I can schedule you for a talk here. So it's great to have you here. Thank you. Do you want to add anything else about the bodhisattvas? The bodhisattvas? The bodhisattva practice, or anything. Just whatever. I think Martin Luther King is a better example.

[26:18]

Look again and again. You think we know who he is, but look again. Thank you. Anybody else, comments, questions, responses? Oh, Jan, hi. And they were discarding all of their old tapes. And he climbed into the dumpster and got that tape out. And he was responsible for preserving that talk that Martin Luther King gave in San Francisco.

[27:20]

His name was Alan Lewis. Yes, David. Something I actually learned from your friend, Pozen, this last summer, that Martin Luther King's involved the Franklin Institute. And the Franklin Institute is an organization that looks at society and tries to find a way. We always have this great wall who will agree to disagree. is not that we'll agree to disagree, but that we'll work to bring the best out from everyone. And I think that's what really embodied King, that he was really trying to bring the best out of everyone.

[28:23]

I've seen him talk on the South Side of Chicago, and he's looking at the white people who were there, things. Yeah, and I think that's at the heart of Bodhisattva attitude to one of the vows of Samantabhadra is to help awaken all beings and support all beings and so that's part of what we valid, freeing all beings. So that inclusiveness is important in terms of the Bodhisattva idea.

[29:28]

Hosan Alan Sanalki, who you referred to, will be here in November speaking here from the Berkley Zen Center and has actually studied Martin Luther King a great deal in terms of Dharma and comparing his talks to Buddha Dharma from that point of view. Thank you for that, David. Kyoshin. Yeah, and the issues that Dr. King was talking about are still very much alive, yeah.

[30:44]

So I think this practice period studying the different approaches to bodhisattva practice and bodhisattva work. We're looking at six different kind of archetypal bodhisattva figures, each with different kind of combinations of practices and styles of looking at this work of trying to free all beings and helping awaken everyone. And it's a way of, these stories are a way of looking at our own approach to practice and helping inform that. I think this is a great opportunity for us to work together. Whether or not you're formally in the practice period or not, just show up and we'll be looking at all of this. Any last comments or responses or questions or questions for Ayshan? Yes, Ben.

[32:05]

So as we're looking back, I'm also struck. I've been paying a lot of attention to the high school mobilization around gun violence in the past few weeks, because my daughter's in high school. Because I teach and worry about it all the time. And I'm struck at how savvy the kids from Parkland and other kids who have mobilized around this issue have been. And I think Dr. King would have liked two things. I think he would have appreciated that they're responding anger and hatred, but they're responding through love and humor and positive energy. And the Parkland kids, and just about every high school I've talked to, high school I've talked to about this, from the start, has responded with this incredible sense of inclusivity and a recognition that gun violence impacts differently situated people in different ways. And from the start, acknowledging the many different types of victims of gun violence, and especially using their position to draw attention to victims of gun violence who aren't usually listened to or seen or found.

[33:12]

So it's wonderful to see something that's here living on in a whole younger generation. Well, let's close then with the four bodhisattva vows that we chant at the end of each event. We'll chant three times.

[33:36]

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