Welcome, everyone. Good morning, folks. I'm tying in late and that I am teacher of engine thread and send dates. And I want to say a little bit about right. Lively this morning. Right lines is part of the 8 fold path. What things like, well, things like right effort, but not in front of us. Not action, but the 4 noble truths. And I believe that is one of the most relevant. Early British teachings for our modern. Practice practice. Traditionally, not included things like not butchering animals. Not fighting in wars, not producing weapons of wars. Today, in our. So, called advanced consumerist culture.

[01:03]

Would include all those things, but also. Many ways in which we can help. Rather than harm, so not encouraging addiction. As it means, right? Not encouraging discrimination. Of divisions, not using hate speech or encouraging violence. Also, things like knowing the product of your work. So, if the people working on. Some form of assembly line to know what the results of your work is. We have in our modern world. Many of us are involved in multitasking. But my livelihood would include work that allows. Space for a presence. Awareness where we're not.

[02:06]

Too busy or not so. So, is a way of. Encouraging being together, practicing together with others. And I'm very proud that. This includes many people who are. Clearly doing so many examples. We have many school teachers, numbers of great teachers also grad school teachers with many therapists. We have doctors, attorneys. Internet workers, many chaplains. So, I've lost count. I don't know. It's 12 or 15. Chaplains and ensemble summer for now. Practicing at different states or countries. All of these attorneys and doctors and.

[03:11]

A whole variety of conservationists environmentalists. A whole variety of locations that. A right line for you or can be right line for you. Can be helpful, productive. For awareness and Congress. Even in our modern society. So, there's a lot to say about, but I'm going to keep this short. We want to have discussion. But I want to say that we're celebrating today. It was just founder of our sound. Founders, the other 3 people who were layered in with them are all here. And David, I was important in the history of our shop that he located.

[04:13]

The urban park space where we had our. Center for a long time rented space that we had to give up because the pandemic. When I 1st met David. He was looking at least a stockbroker. And it's not that stop properly stop properly. Where it is could not cannot be right. People specialize in socially responsible investing, for example, but David was not happy with that job. So. I think David Hill cuts you. David bill as a pioneer. And creative, modern, right? So, we'll have a ceremony for him after the talk, but I just wanted to say this about David and that, right?

[05:22]

Live with you at that. David took his interests and found a way to make the right library. Creative, productive, helpful, right? David was a. An athlete, he ran marathons, he ran ultra marathons 100 miles. It was awesome. Great, actually, he also loved dogs. I believe his father was in better area. David figured out how to. Have a right. It combines his loving and his love of drugs. So, he created the Chicago dog. Where he.

[06:25]

What go out with. Sometimes several dogs at a time and. Dogs that needed activity, dogs that exercise. Dogs that had lots of energy. And this was a very successful company. And then it's still going. He moved, they would move to Denver. A while ago, and he created the Denver dog letters, but that's still going to, but I don't know if it's what it's calling me. So. How can each of us. Find a way to. Develop a livelihood that is. Instructive that is helpful that spreads kindness.

[07:28]

As I said, we have in our song, but many people who are doing this. And a great school teachers, many chapters, environmental workers. Terrapins. This is not easy. In our world today. Where there are generally pressures from. It's not easy. So. I have more time to speak, but actually, maybe I said all that I need to speak to say, how do we think about our work? How do we think about how we spend our time? How we make a living that allows us to be helpful? In a world that needs partners.

[08:30]

It needs help. Yeah. There are many ways to do that. But David was. Very creative about. Building installation. So, I wasn't going to have a discussion, but actually, I've said what I wanted to say. So, we have a feeling as if there's somebody we're going to have time to talk to, or about David as part of the ceremony. Thank you for the ceremony today to service. We will have to have to this for. But if anybody has something, you know, just maybe a couple of people online, or there's something to say about. How do we.

[09:32]

Make a living in a way that is constructive to our. Troubled world comments responses. Spot people. Alex. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think I just want to add to what you're saying that, as you said, the world needs happiness. And often we think about maybe right livelihood as being what we do for a living, but it can be what we do not for a living. So sometimes when people are between jobs or lose a job, they might do some kind of

[10:40]

volunteer activity or something. And I know that my life was transformed by taking on some volunteer activity many, many years ago that turned me in a totally different direction in my life. So I think it's worth noting that right livelihood can also involve getting involved in finding something that brings you happiness, that also brings happiness or makes things better for others. Thank you, Ishan. Yes. So how can we volunteer our energy and activity? The things that are helpful, how can we join with whatever concern we have, how can we help groups that are doing productive things?

[11:43]

Brian, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Can you hear me? Please go ahead. Oh, I didn't. I didn't have a question or a comment. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I said I had my hand raised. Oh, maybe that was just the cursor. So sorry. Since you called on me, thank you for a good talk. And I never knew David. I never knew David, but I wish I would have. Yes. Yeah, it was sad for Ishan to be relocated to Denver. But, you know, Ancient Dragons, now, especially in the world of Zoom, is not limited to people in Chicago. Many people have relocated from Chicago and are sharing their life energy elsewhere.

[12:53]

So, Eve, did you have a comment? So, you know, I recently came back from going around the world and went to South African Singapore and Australia. And I feel like white livelihood is a global problem. Yes. In this post-industrial age where, you know, I mean, people fought for over a century to have, you know, good working conditions for manufacturing jobs. And then in most places, those went away. And the struggles that people have, you know, and have reasonable working conditions seem to have gone for not. But, I mean, in South Africa, people told me that for young people in Soweto, that the unemployment rate is 70%. I saw in Australia with Australian Aboriginal people that, you know, some people choose

[13:57]

to live in the bush and that's fine. Other people don't and don't have meaningful work. And, you know, so it's harder for people who are marginalized and disenfranchised. And I see, and it isn't just a matter of, you know, universal basic income. I see people really do need meaningful work. They need to feel like they're making contributions and that's an artist's something. And I think that 70% is prioritized as a global problem. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, this is not just about Chicago or the United States. As Steve says, it's a global issue. And I think the thing you added that I think is very important, helpful, and a work that supports awareness, but also meaningful work.

[14:58]

I think that's what brought me to Zen, looking for something, somewhere to live in a way that felt meaningful, because I felt that there wasn't so much meaning in our world. And so this is an important part of our time. So thank you for bringing that up. And what meaningful is, is different for different people. So this is about you, about each one of us. How do we each find our way of being productive and helpful in the world? Kathy, did you have something? Maybe I'll be the last person. Yes, I'm a little bit confused, because I haven't seen you get a chance to talk about David. We'll have a time to talk about David later. So we will have a ceremony that will include a time, so we're having a ceremony to honor

[16:00]

David Hill. There'll be a time for people online or here in person to speak about David or to David. But I was just focusing on this. This practice that we all have some relationship to. How do we make our life meaningful and helpful? I really appreciate it. That was one of the many things I really appreciate. So any other comments just about right livelihood? How, what that might be? Yes, Jan, you'll be the last person. I want to say something personal. And it might be just personal to me, but right livelihood is extremely difficult.

[17:07]

Um, I'm a retired person, and I buy things in plastic containers and eat them, but then throw away the plastic container. And I use a cell phone and I use a computer that I'm really tied to. And now I'm driving a car that uses gas. And it's a global thing that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there are people who are risking their lives every day for $7 or $8 a day. And their product goes to people who own corporations.

[18:09]

And these people who own these corporations are known to collect $5,000 an hour. And they become billionaires. And they're profiting from the extraordinary effort. Of people who literally risk their lives because they build tunnels into cobalt mines. And it's not like a tunnel in the United States in a coal mine where they raise the tunnel. So that the people coming into it won't have the tunnel collapse on them. They just dig these tunnels and if the tunnel collapse, that's the end of the person digging the tunnel. And the person who is digging it might make $7 a day. And you can see that they have risked their lives. And we can't get along, or I can't get along in my lifestyle

[19:18]

without the cobalt that comes out of the slime in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I learned this on Democracy Now! this week. And my struggle right now is to accept the life that I am in. And accept the idea that my life depends on the people who are risking their lives to produce my computer, my cell phone, my car. And that's just, that is just one example. And with your permission, I'm giving another example. Well, I think we're getting close to time. So I think if it's not me, I would like to stop you there. But thank you for mentioning that. And I will just add to that that many of the people in the Congo who are doing this mining

[20:22]

are children, six, seven, eight years old, often less than $7 a day. So anyway, thank you for that. Yes, thinking about the whole world right livelihood is very challenging. But for all of us in our practice, just think about what we can do. And again, I feel inspired by David Hill's life, because he really put together something that was extraordinary right livelihood. So it's time for us to stop this talk and discussion. But thank you all very much for being here. We will now pause and rearrange this for the service.

[21:13]

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