for Buddha, for the Buddhanness in everything and around us and on our seats. We are grateful for the Dharma, for the teaching, and we are grateful for Sangha. So Sangha has various contexts. So it's this Ancient Dragon Zen Gate Sangha. Here we are again. It's great to be together physically, more or less, and for the people on Zoom. And also Sangha reaches out to express this gratitude in our lives and in the world. How is Zazen an expression of this gratitude, this practice of gratefulness?

[01:06]

In our lives. So, again, I want to acknowledge that the American holiday of Thanksgiving, there's a couple of people here, at least from Massachusetts. Historically, in our country, Thanksgiving is supposed to commemorate the pilgrims. But actually, the holiday of Thanksgiving is a cause for great consternation and grief for Native American people. The pilgrims, after they were welcomed by the Native peoples, did not treat the Native peoples very well. And that's the story of our country. So we're not celebrating Thanksgiving according to, you know, Plymouth Rock and all that.

[02:10]

But what underlies this, again, is gratitude. Grateful that we're still here. Grateful that we found a place, temporary, to meet today. Here we are. And then, generosity actually is the first paramita, the first transcendent practice of bodhisattvas. So, giving has many, many aspects. How do we give ourselves to our life? Just showing up here today is an act of generosity for the people here in this parlor room, as well as for the people on Zoom.

[03:26]

Just showing up is a great gift. Showing up in our life, showing up for each other, supporting each other. Generosity is, maybe that's the essential practice of sangha. How do we give support to each other? Dogen says about generosity, seeing a flowering tree on a distant mountain, we give that to the Buddha. So how do we appreciate and give all that is beautiful in this world to all beings, to Buddha and sangha and dharma?

[04:31]

So there's many kinds of giving. Just to be kind, just to acknowledge each other, to listen to someone or something inside us even, is generosity. To not hold back from our lives, to be kind, generosity is about kindness. Can you still hear me back there, Douglas? So generosity is something we do for friends and family and loved ones, but actually for all beings.

[06:03]

There's the sangha of all beings, we give respect to all beings. We appreciate Buddha nature, the quality of awakeness in everything and everyone. Or the capacity, sometimes we have trouble seeing it, but the capacity to wake up, the possibility of waking up, even with those we may disagree with in many ways, to respect the possibility of waking up. I would be remiss if the board would not appreciate it if I did not also mention that giving is physical giving, financial giving. So our year-end letter to support Ancient Dragons Zen Gate is out now and that's a kind of giving too for those who can.

[07:15]

We all are working together as sangha, thanks to many, many, many, many beings. Dylan and Wade have done a lot to make today's event possible. But all of you have given to sangha to help out as dowan or greeter or in many ways. So I'm very grateful that we're still here. Generosity also applies to ourselves.

[08:39]

So Zazen is training in generosity. How do we be kind to ourselves when our shoulders ache or our legs hurt or we're wondering when the bell will hit the bell or whatever. Or more deeply all the thoughts and feelings, the stuff that comes up that we might not feel kindly towards. But how do we express thanksgiving, gratefulness as well as generosity to all our ancient twisted karma, to all the things that brought us to this practice, to all of the things that brought us to be children of Buddha. To have the experience and capacity to just listen to each other, to ourselves, to our anger or fear, to our greediness, to our confusion.

[09:57]

So being generous doesn't mean indulging those things, but how do we just be kind when we feel that stuff. There's so much, there's so many depths to this practice. But today I feel like thanksgiving, gratitude and generosity is at the heart of how we can live a life of kindness, awakening, helping others to awaken. So we do this for ourselves and this body mind sitting on a cushion or chair, but we also, of course, express thanksgiving to all beings. And that's challenging sometimes.

[11:03]

So thanksgiving is also about persistence. How do we just continue, just show up? How do we find sustainability for our practice? How do we support ourselves and everybody else in the room? This room or various wider rooms, the room called Chicago, all the rooms beyond Chicago. How do we listen, express respect and find ways to try and be kind? Sometimes that's difficult. And I'll add, I heard in a talk recently that all beings are good in nature, but institutions are not good, do not have good in nature.

[12:15]

So we're kind to beings, human people and other kinds of people, cats and dogs, people, trees and mountains, people. But the institutions that people put together, some of them maybe do not express good in nature and we can acknowledge that. How do we relate to the people involved? This is a challenging practice and we're in a challenging time, but I still say happy thanksgiving. Maybe we could go around the room or in discussion, people could say things they're grateful for, beings they're grateful for. And I was just thinking about this mask and all the mask people in front of me.

[13:24]

Some of whom I think I'm recognizing, but I'm not sure. Where we're trying to be socially distanced in the room and wearing masks and trying to be careful and only the Kokyo gets to chant. Help keep us safe. So how do we persevere? How do we persist? This has to do with vow, resolve. Bodhisattva vow, we'll be chanting at some point later the three, the four bodhisattva vows three times. But many vows. Some of you had somehow took on a resolve or a vow to show up here this morning.

[14:32]

Some by Zoom, some here in the room. So how do we take care of, be grateful to and give to our commitments? And these can change over time sometimes. But how do we persist? How do we keep showing up? Can't read my notes, but that's okay. I'm thankful for the notes. I can't read it. Going back to gratitude, you know, there are times when we don't feel so grateful.

[15:46]

When difficult things happen to us or our friends or family, loved ones, or to the world around us, in the world around us. But we can also be grateful that we can, that we have these situations to try to respond to, to try and be helpful with, to try and be kind in. So there's this radical respect involved in gratitude and in generosity. So thank you all for being here. Thank you all for your practice. Thank you all for continuing and persisting in your practice, even through pandemics and all kinds of difficulties.

[16:50]

I'm interested in your comments, questions, responses. If anyone wants to share things that you are grateful for, feel free. Thank you. And also the people on Zoom. So maybe, Wade, you can channel questions from Zoom people too. So Hoketsu. Thank you, Taigan. I want to just share what's happening inside for me in response to our situation and to Taigan. Can you hear her on Zoom? Great. Our Sangha has been ravaged in some ways by the pandemic. And it feels so wonderful to resume something that feels consistent and connecting.

[17:56]

But I see this as such an opportunity. I saw it this morning when I was greeter. I hadn't felt this position before in this way. This is a whole new beginning in some ways. And I was like, oh, I want to be a welcoming greeter. I don't want to be as like uptight, dressed in black, you know. Zen person, but I want to infuse warmth and gentleness into this situation. It's kind of nice that we're in this, you know, kind of totally different space without all of the trappings of many Zen places, which can feel almost imperious. And I realized like even as a greeter, I didn't welcome every person who came in. Like I didn't say my name and, you know, to some people.

[19:02]

And I realized that I'm like, oh, this is so great. I get to redo or relearn and reconnect to something important. So I just feel like, you know, maybe business as usual doesn't have to be reinvented. And I'm grateful for this opportunity to think maybe this not only has shifted the direction of certain other institutions or areas of sphere of human activity, but in our own ancient dragon. You know, I just invite us to enjoy the opportunity for growth. And really, I'm so grateful to every single one of you, even those I don't know. But especially, I think, to people who have kept the dragon going during this difficult time and will keep it going. And Dylan and Wade, but everyone has done such amazing things and Taigen and every single person.

[20:11]

So I just want to express that and express also the pain at sort of being ravaged and felt like the tempest in some ways. And I look forward to us being together as much as we can. Thank you all very much. Thank you for that, Hoketsu. And just briefly to respond. Yes, we lost our temple. So our little storefront temple on Irving Park Road was wonderful. I miss it. And now we have this new situation and we will need to adjust and be creative. And the greeter position that Hoketsu did not only involves, and Jerry did outside the door, but downstairs, Hoketsu greeted people, directed them up to this room.

[21:22]

And tomorrow evening, people will be directed to a different room. So this is a complicated situation. And also, having to check people's vaccination certificates. And I feel sad for people in our sangha who have not been vaccinated. I feel bad. But anyway, here we are in this new world. And how do we persist? How do we appreciate and be grateful for this opportunity that we have now? And again, just showing up this generosity. Thank you, Hoketsu. Other comments or expressions of gratitude or anything else?

[22:25]

Or people on Zoom, too. Wait, we'll... I can't see. Oh, hey, hi. Who is that? I can't tell by the backlight. We're meeting for the first time in person on IA. Oh. So, yeah. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. I moved to Chicago over a year ago. I moved to Chicago almost a year and a half ago from St. Paul, Minnesota, though I'm not from there. And I'm still a member of Clouds and Water. And love that community. And I'm letting go so that I can claim a new community in Chicago, where I just decided I'm going to stay.

[23:32]

I love Chicago. I'm leaving. Welcome. Thank you. And Taigan, you said something and then you did something that I'm going to ask about. When you were reading, you said something about not being able to read something, but also being able to do something and feeling grateful for that. And I wanted to know how you made that what seemed to me an immediate shift from recognizing something you weren't able to do to feeling gratitude for it. Why did you not linger on? Well, I'm having trouble seeing in the light. And so my notes that I wrote down, sometimes not only other people, but I have trouble reading my own handwriting. But that's an opportunity. Every situation, every difficulty is an opportunity.

[24:36]

Leaving St. Paul was an opportunity for you. We have a number of people who are involved in Clouds and Water, and I have friends there. So, you know, there's this thing about being grateful for Sangha and being generous with Sangha. There's this, especially now in the pandemic and in our Zoom times, this interlocking of Sangha, this interconnectedness of, you know, we have people on our Zoom from, I don't know, more than a dozen different states regularly and several different countries. And so the reality, the dharma of interconnectedness is so fully replete now. It's just right in our face and not just on Zoom, but with the pandemic in so many ways. We're connected to so many beings, even the difficult ones.

[25:43]

And so how do we respect that? And each situation, each difficulty we have is an opportunity. So I'm grateful. And Dogen talks about our 13th century. He talks about making mistakes. That life is mistake after mistake. So we can be grateful for mistakes. So we're trying to recreate in this new space the Doan role, the Doshi role, and how we're doing all these wonderful ceremonies and rituals that express this Thanksgiving.

[26:47]

But it's not about doing them perfectly. I don't think the Doan has made any mistakes so far today. But anyway. We can celebrate you for being here. Thank you for your question. Someone on Zoom? Yes, Eshen. Thank you. I also want to express my gratitude for everyone being here today, and especially for the people who organized that to make this possible. It's been increasingly hard for me to continue to practice on Zoom.

[27:49]

And my practice has really suffered, I think, because of not having that support. And I have not really been able to provide much support. And because of the way that the pandemic has impacted the rest of us, I'm so grateful that I can just come here and just take refuge here with all of you. And I really appreciate that. I also want to express my gratitude that my dad celebrated his third birthday on Friday because he had COVID last year and wasn't so sick at first. But we began to think that maybe he was having long COVID when he just continued to deteriorate. And back in August, we didn't think that he would still be alive right now. But something changed and started to improve. And I'm so grateful for that.

[28:53]

And I will get to spend it with him. For a long time. But it's also made me appreciate being able to spend time in person with people. Thank you. Thank you, Ishin. I'm so glad about your death. Dylan. I would like to express gratitude for two people in particular. The first is my grandma, Judy, who called me yesterday, kind of out of the blue. She has had some health problems recently, but has recovered really well. And she lived in the house that I grew up in for most of my childhood and was a primary caretaker for me for most of my childhood. She was from California and would talk about herself as a Buddhist in the house occasionally.

[30:38]

She took me to see The Matrix and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. She cooked our food and quilted and still quilts and does stitchings of fractals. So talking to her yesterday, she just called me and was talking about projects she was doing and people she was visiting. I'm very in depth to her, her spirit, her energy and her very deep love. She's here in this room because I don't think I would be here without her. And I also want to thank David Ray, who's here. David Ray, who's here. In the online context, to keep the online realm of the Sangha healthy and

[31:53]

incredibly reliable and dependable in the times when it was the only game in town and created beautiful slideshow presentations to help new people understand what was going on. And has just done a lot of amazing support for us to continue as a Sangha in a very challenging time when we kind of had to invent a procedure. And you really took that on and were a huge help. So many people to thank for each one of us.

[33:00]

So many people who for whom we could not be here without them. I want to thank Douglas for hosting this. So much. So many, so many details of things. I also want to acknowledge the people, Aishan referred to this a little bit, but many people from our Irving Park Sangha are, have been what is called Zumaverse, phrase I've heard. And I'm aware of them and sometimes have a chance to talk with them, but they don't, they very seldom have come to our Zumaverse. So I hope that as we grow into this situation in Ebenezer, as limited as it might be, that people will start returning.

[34:06]

Just wanted to add that. David Weiner. I would like to acknowledge and express thanks to Dylan and to Douglas for helping to get this space set up that we've become in person. It's really, it's so nice not to be on Zoom and to see people in person. And we want to thank you both for that. And to Wade and Michael for trying to make this available to people who cannot be here in person because they're far away or for whatever reason. And to make this a hybrid event so that people who are not in Chicago or people who are in Chicago who are losing hand not come partake in this. So I want to thank you very much for making this happen.

[35:09]

Thanks to people who showed up here from afar. David Ray came all the way from Hyde Park. Nicholas came from Indiana. Crossing state lines. I can't see if anybody else has their hand up. So thank you all for your generosity. Thank you to all the people on Zoom who are here. I can't see them because they're looking at Wade. I still can't see as well.

[36:35]

Thank you all. People on Zoom. Who's the furthest away of the people on Zoom? Probably Juan Pablo. Juan Pablo is here all the way from Argentina. Hey there. Actually Debra I see has her hand up. Debra. Debra I think you can just unmute yourself. Hopefully we can hear you. Thank you. As a faraway member of your sangha I'm just so grateful you're together in a physical place. And I think it's going to be a wonderful grounding that will blossom and benefit all of us. So just sending good thoughts and celebration. If I had some loud noises I'd make them. So I'm so happy you're in a physical place and starting again. Thank you. Thank you Debra. Debra is one of our assistant directors helping Douglas.

[37:38]

Are you in California or Pittsburgh now Debra? California. Okay. And co-are other assistant directors in Cleveland. It's strange to be back together again in some ways. I was getting a little too comfortable with Zoom. It was too easy to just hang out in my office and just turn on and look at the computer. So thank you Wade for giving me a ride this morning. So part of generosity, part of gratitude, part of respect is stretching. It's going beyond our comfort zones. For some people Zoom was never comfortable. For me maybe it was too comfortable. We have this opportunity, and thank you Debra for your kind words,

[38:49]

to stretch, to share, to make something new here at Ebenezer and at some point, hopefully, in the future in some permanent space. But with Zoom people, with the complexity that we can be grateful for in these difficult changing times. So any last words? We're going to do a service now. Okay, thank you all. Bye.

[39:25]

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