Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me all right? Okay, this morning, I'm going to talk about Sangha in the time of Corona. First, I want to talk about some traditional teachings about Sangha or Dharma community. Then I will want to talk about Sangha and what it means now in our particular situation. So, traditionally in Buddhism, we take refuge in the three treasures, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Buddha is, the awakened one, which refers to particular Buddhas. And there are many Buddhas. There's the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, of course, but as some of us were reading Friday evening in the Flower Ornament Sutra, there are innumerable Buddhas on the tip of each hair and in each atom.

[01:09]

So Buddha is the quality of awakening in everything, in everyone, in all beings. which is available to everyone and to all beings. Although we beings don't necessarily always realize it. But Buddha is what we express when we sit upright. All of the 16 precepts are just the expression of Buddha. and the three refuges are the first three of our 16 precepts. Dharma is the teaching of Buddha, but it's also just the truth or reality. So we take refuge in truth. We take refuge in reality. We could say we take refuge in science, in what is, in the reality of things as it is, and teachings about that.

[02:10]

And then Sangha, what I want to talk about today, is the community, the community of practitioners, the community of all beings. And each of these three jewels are treasures or jewels because they support our practice. So Sangha is the Sanskrit word translated in China as harmonious assembly. Sangha is the harmonious assembly and any harmonious assembly that supports our practice. So Dogen says, Dogen, our founder in 13th century Japan, who is the founder of our branch of Buddhism, says that Sangha is about precepts, about how we express Buddha in our lives, and the precepts are guidelines to that.

[03:15]

So Sangha, again, is a community in many ways, but it's also, it's the particular community that we're practicing in. So this is Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, whatever that is, and That's what we're talking about today and this month. But also Sangha has a number of meanings. So Dogen talks about three kinds of triple treasure, three kinds of Dharma and Sangha. So there's the single body triple treasure, the manifest triple treasure, the maintained triple treasure. Dogen talks about this. I'm not sure where it originally comes from. I suspect maybe it comes from Zhiyi and Chantak. But anyway, in the single body triple treasure, the Sangha treasure is the virtue of peace and harmony. So how do we express and support the virtue of peace and harmony, the harmonious assembly?

[04:19]

Sangha is about that. In the manifest triple treasure, the Sangha treasure is learning the Buddha and Dharma, learning, studying, soaking in Buddha, soaking in Dharma. That is Sangha in the manifested triple treasure. In the maintained triple treasure, the Sangha treasure is to relieve all suffering, being free from attachment to the house of the three worlds. he still then says, so that's, there's two, well, the three worlds could refer to the three times, past, present, future, also the desire realm, the form realm, the formless realm, but really it means attachment to worldly realms. We live in worldly realms, we practice in worldly realms, but how do we become free from worldly realms and relieve all suffering? This is what the Sangha treasure is about, and the maintained triple treasure. So in practical terms, the importance of Sangha is to find community.

[05:27]

We have formal Sangha, and there are particular Sanghas all around the Buddhist world. Ancient Dragons Zen Gate is just one of them, but there's also the Sangha of all Buddhist practitioners, and there's also the Sangha of all communities that support us in our practice. So, having community that allows open discussion Mutual support. How do we support each other? That's what Sangha is about. So, Dogen, in one of his essays in the Chudarmai Treasury, Shobo Genzo, says in terms of three treasures that are the essence of reality, the Sangha treasure is the merit of learning what is beyond learning.

[06:30]

beyond study, beyond our conventional abstract ideas of what is happening, what is this deeper learning? Maybe we could say yogic learning, practice learning, zazen learning. What is it that we find that we really explore and explore? and absorb in this world. So that's another kind of Sangha treasure. In terms of the three treasures as one treasure, the Sangha treasure is living in accord with reality, being harmonious and free from stagnation. So Sangha is about being flexible, not stagnating. being harmonious, being flexible, willing to shift with situations. So Sangha is alive. Sangha is a living being.

[07:35]

Sangha does not get stuck or looks at how we might be stuck and then breathes, inhales and exhales and is willing to shift, is willing to be flexible. One of my teachers, Joanna Macy, says that Sanghas are islands of sanity. How do we become, how do we sustain ourselves as an island of sanity? Again, a place for open discussion, exchanging viewpoints and mutual support. The Bodhisattva vows, the Bodhisattva precepts, which Sangha supports and sustains, in some ways are about radical respect, radical respect for each other, radical respect for all beings. That doesn't mean that we have to agree with each other all the time or agree with all beings, but how do we, within the context of discussion, within the context of looking at and exploring and studying our life and our situation, underlying that, what is radical respect?

[09:01]

All of our 16 precepts are about that. And then, Benefiting all beings is one of our 16 precepts. How do we, you know, our Bodhisattva vows include freeing all beings. How do we live so as to benefit all beings, to free all beings? This is a huge challenge, but this is the direction of our practice. This is the direction of Sangha. Of course, this is a huge challenge. This is a huge koan, but this is our bodhisattva commitment and the heart of Sangha. Challenging, but this is the goal, the direction,

[10:05]

aim of our practice. So I also want to say, following what Paul Disko spoke about last Sunday, Zen is about physical practice. We express Buddha with our bodies, with our activity and conduct. It's not theoretical. I mean, there are all kinds of theoretical teachings and philosophies and systems that we can study, but they're only a value in as much as they support our physical practice. How do we actually sit upright physically? You know, each of us in our own way with the limitations of our own body. And then in our activity, how do we physically express this this awakening of Buddha.

[11:09]

So this is a challenge now. I feel like Zazen for me is about being together in the room where it happens. How do we do that in this Zoom room? Well, you know, I can see a bunch of you. It's a little different. I have trouble seeing how to do this, how to do an all-day sitting in a Zoom room. We're not actually sitting in the same room. I know some of the large residential centers are doing that. Maybe it's easier when you have an altar in a large room and somebody can be in there socially distanced. So I want to talk about our zendo and our practice place. But anyway, sangha is different now during this pandemic.

[12:20]

What does sangha mean now? So I want to talk about that. This is challenging. How do we do this? We are all together and I can see many faces, but we're, you know, so is this physical practice together? Well, you know, maybe it is in a way. How do we adapt? So Zen, I guess Sangha, And Zen needs to change somehow now. And we don't know how long this situation will go on. Maybe a long time. So, Sazen and Zen and Sangha are changing now. And, you know, for Dharma talks like this, this kind of works. And I hope we have time for some discussion.

[13:21]

I think so. So one thing is that with this Zoom space, we have a wider outreach. I was looking at one point and I think maybe almost half of the people here are from outside Chicago. We have a wider outreach and that's wonderful. And whenever we have a whenever we are inhabiting either our, whether it's back in our Irving Park Road, Zendo or in some new larger Zendo, we will continue to have a Zoom capacity. Clearly we need to do that. And just to say we have had people visiting our Dharma talks from Indiana and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin and Minnesota and Oklahoma and New York and Boston.

[14:31]

Nashville is here, Kansas City, Argentina is here, Canada has been here, Israel is here. So, you know, that's really cool. And that's part of Sangha. Sangha is So I want to talk about that. I want to talk about the limits and extension of Sangha. What does Sangha mean? Deborah from Pennsylvania is smiling. So what does Sangha mean? And how do we adapt to this new situation? And what does this mean for Sangha itself? Again, Sangha is about being flexible. That's part of it. So our practice, this Soto Zen practice, emerged from a monastic tradition.

[15:35]

But in America generally, and especially here at Ancient Dragons Zen Gate, we have focused on how to apply our teachings creatively to the particular challenges of our current society and our everyday lives. Our Sangha meetings together are starting tomorrow evening. We're having three meetings this month to consider how to move forward now, including the future of our beautiful little storefront temple. The lease expires at the end of the year. It's not particularly COVID friendly. It's small. And so, I don't know. The board will decide after these Zonga meetings what to do. We want to hear from many people in our Zonga. And my is obstructing my notes right now.

[16:37]

She wants to be part of the Sangha too. My cat. So how do we engage Sangha as a physical practice in our new situation? So, you know, some things will happen physically. Ishan is probably going to have some camping sessions or some outdoor sessions, probably for a smaller group of people. We're going to be trying that in the coming months. Paula has had full moon ceremonies in her martial arts studio and may have some other She has a little more space in her studio. We need to adapt now. That's part of Sangha and part of what our Sangha needs to do. So again, the point is, how do we support each other's practice in this different time? So, you know, there's some ceremonies that we can perform on Zoom.

[17:41]

Some we can't, and I'm trying to think about how to do that and what to do. Our sewing teacher, Hogetsu, may be able to start sewing raksus in her space with, you know, at social distance. So, but I don't think I can perform lay ordinations on Zoom in terms of giving raksus and doing wisdom water. There are limitations to what we can do when we don't have a physical space. Maybe we can find a space outdoors with a few people and then project it on Zoom. I don't know. I'm thinking about all this. I think in October, we will do a sagaki ceremony on Zoom. that we can do to feed the hungry ghosts. And we'll miss some things like putting food on the altar. But we can do some things. We can do the tyrannies to assuage the

[18:43]

the restless spirits, we can chant the Gato sweet dew. Someone can read the names of people deceased in the last year who we want to honor. These are all part of the Sagake ceremony for feeding the hungry ghosts. In November, I'll announce now, I believe I can do on Zoom, a lay entrustment ceremony for Douglas Floyd. I've been wanting to do that. We will not, We'll have to wait to give him his new green rock suit till after he can sew that. But I want to have that ceremony, which will include a handful of people or so asking him questions. I'll make a statement, he'll make a statement. Some people will congratulate him. So that formal entrustment of Douglas as a lay teacher, I think we'll be able to do in November. And in the coming year, I don't know how long we'll be just on Zoom. This is all something we have to explore as a Sangha.

[19:47]

How do we practice as a Sangha just on Zoom? And there are things that we could we can do in our, you know, that we could do before COVID in our beautiful little temple, storefront temple on Ring Park Road. Some of you have seen it and Many of you coming from a distance have not been there, but it's beautiful and we'll see what happens with that. So we have to be flexible and we don't know. We don't know. And not knowing is an essential part of Zen. Living in uncertainty. And this is at the heart of what we're living with in these times. living in these pandemics. We don't know how long this will go on. Many people are restless and want to just go out and be like they were before, and that's making it take longer.

[20:52]

So anyway, how do we take care of Sangha now? So many things are happening. Right now, we are mixing sanghas. Some of you are involved in sanghas elsewhere. And people from our sangha are going and participating in Zooms at other sanghas. I think this is healthy, you know, for inter-sangha learning. And again, going back to the history of sangha, originally in Buddha's time and in India, sangha meant only Members only ordained monks and eventually nuns. Ordained monks and nuns only were members of Sangha. And you needed four monks or nuns to have a Sangha. Gradually, as the Mahayana developed, Sangha was seen as wider, including lay people.

[21:57]

And that process of widening Sangha has continued. So at Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, everybody here is part of the Ancient Dragon Zen Gate sign. Some Zen groups have membership members, formal members. We have monthly supporters, people who pledge each month to support Ancient Dragon Zen Gate. And that helps us stay present and helps us to pay the bills and we're still paying rent. We have other overhead, but anybody who participates, you know, we have, we back at our storefront temple, we had a sliding scale. So people could come to our all day sittings and pay whatever they could afford. And that, that was important to me that people not,

[23:00]

be prevented from participating because of finances. There are Zen groups in America where you have to pay some, or other Buddhist groups where you have to pay some, sometimes large amount to participate at all. All of you who are at the Zoom now are part of Ancient Dragons Zen Gate, and anybody is welcome to come to our Sangha meetings. The first one is tomorrow evening at the time of our usual Dharma talk, and there'll be one next Saturday afternoon from one to two, and then two Sundays from now. So my sense of Sangha is wide. But, you know, Gary Snyder, one of our great American Zen patriarchs said that Zen comes down to zazen and sweeping the temple. And it's up to us to see what are the boundaries of the temple.

[24:07]

So I want to thank Dylan Toropoff and Jason our work leader who cleaned our temple at Irving Park Road yesterday. Yeah, was it yesterday? Yeah. Thank you very much. So I think Sangha is like that. You know, Sangha could be just the people who, we could say Sangha is just the people who, you know, financially support Ancient Dragons, Zen Gate. But Sangha is also the people who are here How wide is Sangha? In some sense, there's the Sangha of all beings. There's also the Sangha, the Maha Sangha of all, you know, say Soto Zen Sanghas in, you know, in America. We're part of Branching Streams, which is the, all of the Sanghas, all of the groups that are affiliated with San Francisco Zen Center, where I was trained.

[25:12]

My teacher, Tenshin Anderson Roshi, and his teacher, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, were part of that lineage, but also on part of Soto Zen Buddhist Association. So all of the different, from all the different lineages of Soto Zen in America were part of that Sangha too. So there are many levels of Sangha, but there's also the Sangha of all beings. we are interconnected with people around the world. There are people here now, I'm assuming from Israel and from Argentina, and I'm not sure if there's other countries represented, but many states represented. And then, you know, Dokkan talks about the grasses and trees, mountains and lakes, fences and walls, tiles and pebbles. Are they part of our Sangha? You know, there are those who have suggested that forests and rivers and mountains should be represented in Congress, that there should be someone speaking for them in Congress, speaking for their interests, for maintaining the forests, for maintaining

[26:41]

the cleanness of the rivers for maintaining the mountains. You know, a hundred years ago, women were not seen as competent to vote in our elections. They just, you know, women weren't worthy of voting until a hundred years ago in our country. The men still are not treated equally as men. That's true in our country. Originally, in the United States, only men with property, a certain amount of property, were allowed to vote. Of course, black people couldn't vote until later on in our history, and still, their vote's being suppressed, and there's active voter suppression now all over our country. People under 18 can't vote.

[27:44]

And I wonder about that. Some of you may have the experience of having a song going through your head sometimes. And now, is Ashen still here? I thought I saw her. Oh, hi, yeah. Ashen and I talk about songs that are going through our heads sometimes. Recently, the last couple of weeks, I've been having the song, Summertime Blues, Eddie Cochran's song. Some of you might know it. There Ain't No Cure for the Summertime Blues. This year, particularly, the summer has been interesting and different, but there's a line in there I went to my congressman and he said, quote, I'd like to help you, son, but you're too young to vote. And I recall, it was a few years ago, there were a bunch of young people, maybe from Sunrise Movement or Greenpeace, sitting in at a veteran senator's office in Washington, asking her to please support Green New Deal, please support ending fossil fuel subsidies, please support taking care of climate.

[29:02]

And she came out and said to them, You people can't vote. I'm not going to listen to you. She literally said that. So there you go. Summertime blues. Okay. So we have the situation of our wider sangha, forests and trees and, you know, the Amazon being destroyed and, you know, all of that going on. So in addition to this COVID pandemic, we have climate damage, which was partially caused by, partially caused COVID. Moving more to COVID. And we're now waking up. in our country to this 400-year pandemic of systemic racism and white supremacy.

[30:04]

Can you hear me? I may have to turn off my visual, because if my sound goes off. So we have various pandemics. So one question for Sangha is how can Sangha, the wider Sangha, help us face and support bringing life to all the mass disruptions ahead? There may be more pandemics. We don't know if, when, how this particular coronavirus pandemic will end, whether it will even end sometime next year. Maybe there'll be a vaccine. We don't know. And not knowing is basic Zen teaching. to be living in uncertainty. And that's actually the way things are all the time, but now it's really brought home to us. Okay, all that's our larger sangha. However, we also need to take care of our particular sangha, ancient dragons, zen gate.

[31:07]

How do we keep alive this particular practice and teaching, Dogen from Suzuki Roshi, that we've been taking care of in our little storefront temple for almost 12 years now. In our particular way, in a different way from, you know, the large institutions like San Francisco Zen Center with this warm, small, welcoming, temple that we've had. How do we do that on Zoom? So we welcome everybody to come to our Zoom events. We have lots of them now. And so how do we take care of each other? This has been my koan since the pandemic started. How do we keep alive this sense of

[32:14]

supporting each other in practice, each of us in our own way. Each of us has their own way of being Buddha for Sangha and supporting each other. So that's what I wanted to say today. You know, because of this way of practice and teaching, I think it has some value in whatever continues as the human world as these pandemics arise and develop. move around. So here we are. And I want to hear from whoever has some comments, responses, questions. So those of you who I can see, I can call on. If you are not visible, you can go to the participant window, and there's a way to, at the bottom there, you can raise your hand. So comments, responses, questions, please feel free.

[33:27]

Thank you all very much. Hey, Shin. Thank you for a very timely talk, Taigen. really appreciated everything that you have to say about Sangha and the timeliness of this talk because it coincides with our upcoming three Sangha meetings, which I just want to mention while we have everyone here. Starting tomorrow evening after the Dharma Talk, on next Saturday the 15th, and then again on Sunday the 23rd after the Dharma Talk, or actually before the Dharma Talk, we will be having Sangha meetings to talk about and share our thoughts and feelings about how Zoom practice is, things that we would like to see, and how we can move forward together with and beyond our Zendo.

[34:35]

So as Tygan mentioned, we will be, the board will be making a decision fairly soon about what we do about our soon to be expiring lease. And we would like to get feedback from as many members of our community as possible. So I just want to put in a pitch for those and please come and share your thoughts and feelings about Sangha then too. So thank you, Taigan. Thank you, Ishan. Alex. Hi, Taigan and hi, everyone else. Thank you for a great talk, Taigan. I just wanted to say when you were speaking about, you know, should the mountains and should the rivers have representation, In the government, I just wanted to plug, there's a book called Earth Beings that deals with this exact question and it's talking about this campaign that happened successfully in, I want to say, Peru, where it was a group of indigenous organizers who pretty much got together and they had this one mountain legally recognized as a person by the government to prevent mining companies from coming and extracting it.

[35:46]

Just wanted to recommend that book, Earth Beings by Marisol de la Cadena. Thank you. That reminds me that there was some Thai monks who, there was logging going on and there were some very old trees and they actually did ordination for trees. And they sewed robes and put them around these trees so that the loggers who respected Buddhism would not chop them down. Other comments or responses or questions, please? Again, I think Xinyu and then David Weiner and Fu Xinyu have their hands up. Xinyu? Hi. Thank you for the talk, Taigen. And I think the ancient dragon, Zengate, has so far It really gave me the sense of vitality every time I come here and just listen to the Dharma talk and sit with everyone.

[36:53]

Can you all hear me? Yes. Okay, cool. So while you were talking, I was just reminded of this word, vitality, that I recently found in your book, Zen Questions. And I just find that it's really important to, like I say, moment to moment call on to show or realize this sort of vitality in our practice. But I actually find that it feels so much easier when I'm in, like say, a Zoom meeting, a Zoom talk or session at Ancient Dragon, but it's so hard to stay vital or have the sense of community when I'm actually on my own. And I can easily feel very, I feel very not motivated. Yeah, so I just wonder if you have any comments, suggestions for that.

[38:02]

I mean, technically we are still in a Sangha, just as you said, Sangha can be defined very differently, like in each moment, but it still feels to me that when I'm on my own, so to say, it feels less vital. Well, something some of you have heard me say numbers of times is that, and I don't know if this will help Xinyu, it may not, but actually it's impossible to really sit alone. Even if you're sitting in your room and there's nobody else there, apparently, on your seat, there are many beings. You know, your grade school teachers, your parents, your friends, your family, all the people you've ever known are part of what is happening on your seat. And if you feel alone, you might just remember some of them and know that they are part of what is happening on your seat, and they are part of your Sangha.

[39:10]

So we each, you know, we have this Ancient Dragon Zen Gate Sangha that we are all part of now, right now. But also, each of us is a combination of many Sanghas. All the beings who've ever supported you to be able to be practicing right now are part of your Sangha. So we're each a combination of sanghas. And so when you're feeling alone in your own room, trying to sit, or sitting actually, you might just take a breath and be mindful of all the beings who are supporting you. So that's a kind of sangha too. I don't know if that helps, but maybe. David Weiner had a question. Thank you again, Taigan, for a wonderful talk. Two thoughts came up to me while you were talking.

[40:12]

I remember for me one of the highlights of a practice period was talking about Dogen and talking about the trees and the sky and the fence and the tiles. They're all part of us. I used to be a Native American shaman in the Blackfoot tradition. And one thing is, again, going back to Ching Yu, if you may, you're not alone. When somebody spoke to the greater group, They always said, in the name of all our relations, and that every time we speak, we speak for the trees, for the flowers, for the grass, for the buffalo, for the fish, those who, you know, the four-legged that walk on the earth and the two-legged that fly in the sky. And that's part of our sanga, too, and what you're talking about, having representatives.

[41:16]

of like a mountain being a representative of Peru. I thought that was interesting. And thank you for everyone who mentioned earth beings. I have to take a look at that book. But that might be another way to think of Sangha and that we're really not alone, but we're with all beings, both sentient and non-sentient beings. And then the other thing is, and just a question, that maybe one way which we could possibly enhance ourselves because we're all scattered in different areas is maybe somehow making Dharma partners that each individual can contact someone that they feel an affinity to and asked to be a Dharma partner to check in and be with at various times. I know right now I'm going through a very emotionally hard time. And it's not so much that it's going to be therapy, but, but this could be with somebody to be able to talk with someone about, about the Dharma, and what it means to be connected, and how that can

[42:33]

and the isolation, so to speak. So I'm wondering if that's something that we as a sangha should consider as establishing dharma partners for ourselves. Yeah, to respond to that, one of the things I've been doing since the pandemic started is trying to reach out by phone or email to people within the sangha just to check and see how people are doing. As far as I know, Nobody in our sangha has had COVID, but I may be somebody and I don't know about, but I've been, you know, calling and checking and I know some members of the board and some of our practice leaders have been doing that too. So whether it's formally, as David is suggesting, or informally, I would encourage you all to just check in with each other, you know, when you have time and, you know, call or email or just, you know, part of Sangha is just friendship, spiritual friendship, just, you know, befriend each other, email, call, just talk to each other.

[43:50]

And then the other thing I was going to mention, Matt Vogel, who is our ENO, is going to be, I think it'll be announced later in this month on our website or something, is going to have a study group with a limited number, but with maybe eight people to study a particular text over several weeks. starting in September. And we can have various things like that. And that's one of the things also that I want to explore. And I don't know when we'll get started with that, but having seminars or workshops on Zoom or maybe classes over four weeks. So anyway, ways to study together. But I think more fundamentally and responding to David to just, you know, talk to each other apart from the, you know, all the various formal Zoom events we have. And I want to make a pitch for our happy hour that Beau started.

[44:54]

Artenzo, Beau started a happy hour four to five on Friday, which is, you know, a limited number of us have been going to that, but just, you know, just to talk, no agenda. So, um, As David suggested, some of you could just partner with checking in with each other, or you can just informally contact other people in the sangha. I know some of you are very busy with jobs that you have, but if you have time, just call each other, check in. Thank you, David, for that. Fuxin was next. I don't know how many of us have each other's phone numbers. So one thing could be, and I would be willing to do this, to be the person who receives people's emails and phone numbers.

[45:55]

I don't know how many of us want to share that information with one another, but anyone, I mean, I can put my email address. So one of the things I want to say is how much appreciation I have for this sangha and You know, I know we're talking about going forward, but I really do feel like we need to appreciate just this because it is just so remarkable. And it's just this wonderful opportunity to share our presence with one another. And I love the double entendre of that word too. And So, you know, not only presence, but we can offer to one another. We have to offer. Short of, you know, feeling resentments and stuff, like Taigan was saying, some of us are really busy and have a lot of work. Others of us have more I don't know, time to offer.

[46:58]

And so anyway, whatever you think, I'd be happy to be a kind of a point person to gather email addresses. I think somebody has an email list, but I don't know if everybody has that. It's just important, I think, I agree with David that, and David, please call me if you want to. Just to say, Fushun, one way we could do that is if people want to contact Fushun to make your email or phone available, you could send it to info at ancientdragon.org and I will forward it or one of us will forward it to Fushun. Well, I could type it in the chat box too. Okay. Is that a possibility? That will be easier than doing several steps. Um, anyways, I just appreciate us. I appreciate you so, so very much. And I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here at this time, particularly, and

[48:00]

and showering the world with Dharma as you do every day. So thank you very much. So other comments, questions, responses about Sangha? Any aspect of it? I see Paul's hand up. Paul, hi. Hi, I enjoyed that talk and it made me think about several things. Number one, Zoom, which has allowed me to be with you folks, which I deeply appreciate because I think you're a great group of people. I feel an identity, I feel comfortable with you all. But I'm thinking of Dogen's painted cakes. It seems like Dogen would agree with Zoom. I think Dogen would be quite comfortable with Zoom as a way of doing things. I can see him getting behind it quite easily. And then I also appreciated you pointing out how that not knowing is the sea we live in.

[49:05]

We live in a sea of not knowing, but we sort of kid ourselves that we do know what's going to happen and what's going on. And this pandemic makes it quite clear that we don't know what's happening and what's going on. So it brings that to the fore, so we can't sort of miss that little piece of our existence. And also, I had the experience when the first shutdown, everybody went off to work, went off to be by themselves, that I was freed up from a whole lot of responsibilities that I didn't have to do because I couldn't. And that the idea of there's nowhere to go and nothing to do set in. And I kind of got behind it, and I got behind it so much that I lost a whole week, actually. I lost track of it for a whole week. Finally, I pulled myself together to have a little more of a schedule. But I think this is a great opportunity to learn many, many lessons and to practice many lessons just because we're shaken out of our usual routine, and it lends itself to a Zen understanding of the world.

[50:11]

Thank you. Oh my gosh, Zengyu, Paul, thank you so much for being here and for attending, I think, almost all of our Zoom Dharma talks. And this may be premature, because we're going to talk Wednesday, Paul. But I'm going to try and have Paul give talks at Ancient Dragon Zen Gate regularly. I also think the idea of Dharma Partners, David's idea of Dharma Partners, is a fabulous idea. I think we should encourage that and maybe even have it be If it's just somebody doing it on their own, then it's like, well, you know, do I really like that person? Do I not like that person? Is this, you know, is this, is it a person? It takes, if we had done more, more like a clearing house where people were, appointments were set up and take the personality out of it, that people could just relate to each other, whether or not they were their best buddy or not.

[51:12]

And I think, I think that would be a great way to put some dynamic energy into the community, but we're separated. Well, during our formal spring practice periods when we had our Zendo, we did have, I forget what we call them, Dharma Buddies during the practice period. So I don't know if someone can organize that during pandemic time, but you know, we'll look into that. But again, I wanted to say, Paul, I, and I'm sorry, excuse me for doing this publicly, but I want to invite you to be, to in some formal way, be a part of our song of Paul. So people who don't know Paul, he's actually, he was ordained by Suzuki Roshi together with my teacher, Tenshin Anderson Roshi, and they had their anniversary of priest ordination 50th anniversary, I think a few days ago. And so Paul is my dharma uncle and also dharma brother in a way, older dharma brother, because he received transmission from Tenzin Roshi.

[52:17]

And I, I think, you know, let's talk about it this week, but I want to formally give you some position in Ancient Dragon Zen Gate Sangha, if you're willing to accept that, and have you give talks regularly here, because I just really appreciate your, you know... Well, I appreciate that very much, but right now I have to go cook lunch for some people that are coming, so I have to go. Okay, we'll talk more. Bye-bye. Talk to you later. Thank you much. Okay, bye-bye. So, Yes, Brian Taylor, are you still here, Brian? Did you have a question or comment? Again, Debra's hand was up as well. Okay, Brian, then Debra. No, I didn't have a comment. I just posted a link to Dogen and Painted Rice Cakes. Oh, that's one of my favorite essays by Dogen. Yeah, it's great. Ask yourself. Okay, Debra from my hometown of Pittsburgh.

[53:18]

Hi. Hi, how are you, everyone? Yeah, I just I wanted to I am a outlier, so to speak. I'm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but I really love your saga. And it's been very vital for me to be part of it. I'm going to be going to the meetings to try to suggest ideas of expanding the connections. But I just want to support that gentleman who spoke earlier. And I don't know everyone's name, and I don't know his name. But this is a time of great challenge in humanity. We really are connecting to our humanity and our uncertainty. And it's a huge part of my practice to open to that type of unknowing. the structures are minimized or suffer, some of us gone. And I just really feel that this type of effort is so important. And one of the things I've been exploring, which is the parameters of generosity and patience, working with generosity of compassion toward ourselves as we deal with this.

[54:19]

But I just want to support the humanity that we continue to connect to that. this comes out of this group, because it's a smaller, more intimate group, I just feel that there is transparency that, you know, not everything's perfect and we're all in this mess together. So I just wanted to say that. Thank you. Thank you so much, Debra. Debra came on a pilgrimage with me and some other people led by Andy Ferguson to China in 2007. For those of you who've seen our, and Debra's come to our, our temple on Irving Park Road a while back. And there's the statue of Bodhidharma that's on our altar. It came from that pilgrimage to China from the Bodhidharma's temple. So anyway, it's great to have you here, Deborah. So you're very welcome. And all the people who are here from distant places, you're very welcome as part of our Sangha.

[55:22]

It really enriches all of us. So, and I, but I also want to note that I'm aware of, you know, many people who are, who were regular participants in our sangha at Ancient Dragons Zen Gate on Irving Park, who are not so comfortable with the Zoom, and who like being present physically together. So this is a challenge to us, where it's a strange time. But it's, you know, a challenge that, you know, sangha is about facing these challenges. Other comments, questions, responses, other thoughts or reflections, please. Eve's hand is up. Eve, hi. Hello, Eve. Yeah. So I was just wondering because I mean, there's always uncertainty, but I do feel like this is a particularly fraught time.

[56:30]

And I was just wondering in all the Zen and the broader Buddhist literature, are there any writers or writings that you would recommend where you feel that people have grappled with what it's like to be present in a time that feels like a turning? You know, on some level, all of the Zen teachers were in such times. I mean, maybe this is more than many, but Dogen, for example, just off the top of my head, Kyoto, during his lifetime, there were bodies littering the streets around him during his lifetime. There were civil wars. And in the period just before he was born, there were civil wars.

[57:37]

And in China, some of the great Zen masters lived during turbulent times of civil war. Many of the great Zen writings happened during times when there were famines or, you know, Hongxue, who I translated in Cultivating the Empty Field and who wrote the cases and verses in the Book of Serenity, he lived on a mountain top monastery, but he gave a lot of the food that he had stored up in his monastery to people down bottom of the mountain who were having famines. I mean, there's just so there's many, many such examples. I don't don't don't know how to pick out any, but maybe somebody Douglas or Hogetsu, any suggestions? Hogetsu? So, um, I can also recommend the poems of the first Buddhist women practitioners.

[58:45]

Many of them dealt with loss of their families, loss of their children, plague, and abuse. And so there's something inspiring. I think the recent first free women translated by Maddy Weingast, who kind of did a free form translation, quite a beautiful place to start with that. But even in the Pali Canon, you know, in Buddha's time, there was a lot of struggle and fighting, and there are really beautiful descriptions of how the Buddha met those difficulties. So, thanks for your questioning. Thank you. Yes, thank you, Hogan. So that's, yeah, very good examples. Yes. Other comments or questions? Yes, Juan Pablo from Argentina. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, Tiger, and thank you, all of you. I think all this pandemic time has given me the opportunity to hear you and all the Zoom that you are doing has given me the opportunity to be here.

[59:51]

So thank you, all of you. Thank you, Ancient Dragon. And for the generosity, I appreciate very much the generosity of your sangha. So one thing that I was reading yesterday, it is an article by an indigenous scholar named Kyle White, and I think he's from Michigan. and he was talking about how we can understand environmental justice by kinship, creating kinship, creating relationships, creating... and I think it's very very very close to what I understand and what you were saying about the sangha, creating kinship. And one of the things he was saying in the article is that the main thing for Indigenous people, when they understand kinship, it's reciprocity.

[60:52]

So I just wanted to share that, how we can engage in relationships of reciprocity because What he says in the article is that all the colonialism and the environmental injustice that indigenous people have suffered is because it's caught in the kinship relationships with the trees, with the air, with the heavens, with the earth. So it was a very good point that I feel very close to what we should understand about sangha. Can you say the name of the author and the article again? I will write it in the chat. It's Kyle White. I think he's from Michigan. So, Kyle White. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you for making this happen.

[61:53]

And thank you for your participation. It's wonderful to have you here from the tip of the Southern Hemisphere. Thank you. So we still have time if a couple people have comments or questions or responses, please feel free and please do come to the meetings that Ayshan mentioned. Yes, Fushan. Just that today at noon Central Standard Time, Tenjin Roshi is going to be speaking at the San Francisco Zen Center and speaking about his 50 years as a priest. So I know it's kind of a lot, but if anybody's interested in that, I thought I'd let everybody. Thank you. Oh, Eve, do you have your hand up? Yeah. Well, first, if we want to go to that, we just go to the San Francisco Zen Center site?

[62:55]

I think so. I believe so. And then I just had a comment. So last weekend, I went to the, I do this improvisational movement storytelling set of techniques that called interplays and they had their leaders gathering last weekend and they had like two they called side-by-side ones one was for people in the eastern hemisphere and one was for people in the western hemisphere but you know some of us went to some of both but it was it was striking because so I went to the Eastern Hemisphere, one that went from 2 a.m. Central Time to 6 a.m., and there was people from England and the Netherlands and Malawi and India and Australia. And then at one point I was realizing it's like, so some of us were in summer, some of us were in winter, which we realized when the Australians were coming in in these funny

[64:05]

hats, you know, knit hats. Like one woman had this hat that looked like it was a stuffed monkey sitting on her head and they had vests on. And then some of us were in daytime and some of us were in nighttime. And I just feel like, but, you know, then people were doing moving and storytelling stuff together. And, and, and it just, it, it, I feel like this is the first time in human history something like that has happened. I mean, we had conference calls before, but it, you know, it wasn't like that. It was, you know, like with the different, you know, times of day or night and seasons of the year kind of being present to each other. Yeah, this Zoom situation does allow some very much very strange wider connection. So part of, you know, harmonic itself shows interconnectedness in a very deep way, biologically.

[65:14]

We're all connected, but Zoom also does that. Interesting time. Any other last comments before we do our closing chant? Tiger, if I may, I just want to remind everybody that today is August 9th, and about 8 o'clock in the morning, shortly thereafter, the Nagasaki 70,000 souls went immediately into nirvana, and many souls followed in the weeks after. We all remember Hiroshima. somehow the people in Nagasaki get short shrift. And so I would just like to remind everybody to please in your meditations or your prayers to remember those souls as well. Thank you. I want to add something to that.

[66:18]

I said this Friday morning, we have a thanks to Dylan who's here somewhere. We have a a Zazen and then discussion mindful of Black lives and systemic racism. There were in Chicago a number of events for Hiroshima Day, but There's a kind of consensus amongst many historians that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were not necessary to have Japan have peace and surrender to the United States at the end of World War II, and that President Truman and the military killed all those civilians really as a demonstration to Russia of what they could do.

[67:26]

And I commented Friday morning that this was another example of American systemic racism, that I doubt that they would have been, this is just my opinion for whatever it's worth, but that I doubt that America would have dropped atomic bombs in the same way on Germany or any European country. But to do this to Asians, to Japanese, this is another example of white supremacy. They didn't think of it that way, I'm sure, but unconsciously. So anyway, many hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians were murdered. So thank you for reminding us of Nagasaki Day, David. Okay. So please come to any of the Sangha meetings or as many as you can. And Sangha is a great treasure.

[68:30]

So let's take care of it. Thank you.

[68:34]

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