Good morning, everyone. I'm here in Chicago area, very snowy morning, Thanksgiving Sunday. So I want to talk today about gratefulness and generosity. I think of Thanksgiving as an American Buddhist holiday. because those are two important practices to us. But first, I need to say something about this history, even as history is being expunged from our schools and our culture by some politicians. For American indigenous people, this is not a day to mark gratefulness. But I am grateful that indigenous people in this country, some survived, and that their spiritual practices survived. This is despite the genocide that started soon after the pilgrims landed in 1620 at Plymouth Rock, which I actually got to see as a kid in Massachusetts.

[01:15]

But for example, in 1637, there was the Pequot Massacre, where several hundred Native peoples were killed. Anyway, but these practices of gratefulness and generosity are part of our practice. So I'm glad that this holiday commemorates them. This week I heard a Tai Chi teacher say, usually we talk about aging gracefully. And she said, actually better to think of it as aging gratefully. So I'm grateful to still be here. I'm grateful for many things. So today is a day to remember and be mindful of gratefulness and And, you know, as we age, we can appreciate being present.

[02:19]

And the richness of memories and experiences and old friends. So we all each have many things to be grateful for. I'm very grateful for our Sangha, for Ancient Dragons Zen Gate. And each one of you and us who participate, it's wonderful to be able to practice in this Sangha, whether at our wonderful Lincoln Square Zendo or online, as many of us are this morning. You know, this gratefulness, I... I've often wondered about why it's not exactly in our precepts or our paramitas. Generosity is the first paramita, giving or dana. And so we have talked about generosity and all the complexity of giving and receiving and gift that arise in the practice of generosity.

[03:30]

But I realized as I was preparing this talk that gratefulness is also part of our precepts. In the 16 Bodhisattva precepts, the 10th precept is to not disparage Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And all of our precepts have a positive as well as a negative side. So a disciple of Buddha does not kill also means a disciple of Buddha supports life and vitality and others not killing. A disciple of Buddha does not intoxicate mind or body of self or others. The positive side of that is to support awareness and awakeness of ourself and others as opposed to intoxication. And each one of these precepts has that kind of meaning. But I realized that the 10th one, which I'd always thought was a little weird, the disciple of Buddha does not disparage Buddha, Dharma, Sangha.

[04:32]

And I realized the opposite of that, the positive side of that is this disciple of Buddha is grateful. for Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. So I am really grateful for Buddha, for the Buddha of all beings, for the Buddha on each of our seats, for historical Buddhas, but also Buddha as a way of seeing reality, of being awake. And Dharma, of course, for all the wonderful teachings of truth that we have, and Sangha. And the multiplicities of Sangha. So, again, I'm very grateful. I don't disparage, but instead I'm grateful for all these jewels, for these wonderful qualities that are part of our life as practitioners. And even for people who don't. maybe realize they're practicing or aren't practicing explicitly.

[05:35]

Buddha, Dharma, Sangha is everywhere, and I'm so grateful. I'm also grateful for the maturing of American Zen. When I started Zen practice, it was at least to some extent what we might call macho Zen. There was this idea that whoever sat in the most difficult sitting posture for the longest without moving was the most enlightened. People really felt that. And there was this idea that you have to push yourself really hard to sit. get something some uh delusion that people called enlightenment so anyway we practice ongoing awakeness and i'm grateful for that and i'm grateful for the practical ways in which american zen has matured it's still we still maybe have a long way to go until we have a real american zen but um

[06:45]

I'm really happy to be part of American Zen. And I'm happy that we don't have to sit in difficult postures anymore. So as those of you who come to our Zen don't know, I sit in a chair now. So does my teacher, Reb Anderson, and my old translation partner, Shabak Gula Gamora. But I just wanted to say how it is that I sit in a chair. And I'm grateful to be able to sit in a chair. I still miss sitting cross-legged. And I did that for, what, 48 years until last year. But I'm sitting in a chair now partly because of an accident that I had at Tassajara. bakery, which was part of Zen Center back then. This was in 1985, the year before I was priest ordained by Rev and his first group. And I was opening the transom above the front door and was up on a ladder and I fell and as I fell I twisted my leg and anyway, I had to have surgery.

[07:59]

My left leg, the ACL, anterior cruciate ligament was almost severed. And on the operating table, I was offered that he could sew up the ACL. But then he knew that I did this funny sitting meditation thing. And he said, but you're not going to be able to get full flexion with that anymore. And so I can just leave it. bother you and um so i did that because i was looking forward to ordination and all these all this time i've been able to sit cross-legged not full lotus anymore but um then um last year a year ago this month um our new puppy ella uh i was walking her and it was raining and i was not wearing the right shoes and she she's very strong and she's very fast and she pulled me down

[09:00]

and I bruised my knee again, and it remains bruised, so I'm not sitting. So I'm sitting in a chair now, and I can't do prostrations fully. But I'm still grateful as I'm aging to be here, and I'm grateful for our puppy, who's very sweet, even though she sometimes jumps around a lot, and she's got lots of energy, and that's lovely. Anyway, so, you know, this gratefulness, has to do with contentment. This is a basic Buddhist teaching, not to build up desires and wishes and all the things we think we need or want to have, but just to actually appreciate this situation. our life right now, even if I have to sit in a chair, that's okay. How to be grateful and appreciate all the things that we have, all the things that are possible for us to be grateful for our situation, whatever problems we have.

[10:15]

And of course, we know that the world has many, many, many problems. Climate and wars and, you know, it's injustice, racism. Anyway, it's a difficult world. And each of us personally, you know, have various problems. Suzuki Roshi once said that the problem you have right now, you will always have. I don't necessarily agree with that. Some problems go away. They do. But then somebody else will come and give you their problems. So there's always some problem. That's the nature of our existence in this world, in the world at large and also personally. So how do we enjoy and appreciate our problems? How do we see our problems or opportunities for awakening?

[11:19]

Mind leads, as Suzuki Roshi said, that we can kind of plow under as support and nourishment as we move along. So, you know, contentment, appreciation, gratefulness, aging gratefully, being young, gratefully to appreciate what we have to. So Thanksgiving is a time when we remember this. So it's, it's, it's wonderful holiday. And, um, yeah. So desire and neediness leads to suffering. And there's some kind of neediness that we, you know, that is quote unquote objective. The people who are, um, who don't have enough food to eat or don't have the resources to live in a reasonable way and cannot think about gratefulness.

[12:25]

Anyway, maybe, but sometimes even people who don't have much are extremely grateful and express that in a way that is wonderful. Anyway, so that's half of this holiday. the practice of gratefulness, thanksgiving. And we all have the opportunity to be grateful. But then there's also giving, generosity. And when we're grateful, naturally, we want to give. We want to give to others. We want to give to our friends. We want to give to Sangha. We want to give to ourselves to appreciate all that we have that we can be grateful for. Dogen, our founder in 13th century Japan, talked about giving in terms of when you see flowers blooming on a distant hillside, just giving that to Buddha, which means giving it to everyone.

[13:36]

We can see something that's beautiful and feel it as a gift. So right now, it looks like it's still snowing outside. I can look up and see trees. And so I want to give this snow here in Chicago to Buddha and to all of you. It's a winter wonderland, and it's beautiful. And I know there's people here from down south in New Mexico. I don't know if it's snowing in Michigan, Nathan, or if it's snowing way down in Hyde Park, Anastasia, or out in California, Deborah. But anyway, I give you all this snow. And so how do we see the underlying practice of generosity? Generosity has many, many aspects. So when we see people who are unfortunate, when we see homeless people, as we do in all cities now, we can give a little money, but we can also give a smile or a greeting or even a little bit of a conversation.

[14:56]

just to give smiles. You know, Thich Nhat Hanh said that when you're sitting in zazen, along with your mudra and uprightness, to have a little bit of a smile is part of zazen. To appreciate zazen, to appreciate sangha, to appreciate the truth of dharma. So, This generosity means giving in lots of ways. And actually, this practice we do, this Zazen, this Samadhi, this concentration practice we do, we give our Buddhist Samadhi to each other and to all beings. When we are sitting Zazen, whether it's at our Lincoln Square Zendo or online even, we are giving our settledness, our samadhi, our deep awareness to each other and to Buddha.

[16:02]

And in terms of, well, the teaching we're going to, Hogetsu and I will be talking about during Rohatsu Sesshin coming up is the samadhi of the treasury of radiance, or it could be translated the womb of radiance. This is given to us by Buddha. We sit with Buddha and Buddha allows us to feel or get some glimpse or sometimes some strong feeling or, and it's not just a feeling, but this awareness of this, the radiance of our world and our life. So how do we give our practice, give our zazen and our informal practice, or our practice when we get up from the seat, to Buddha and to all beings?

[17:06]

This is the reality of our practice, the deep reality of our practice. There's also giving as donations. So our song, Ancient Dragons Zen Gate, is currently, most of you should have received by email and will receive hard copies of our year-end fundraising letter, which is a good part of the budget each year for Ancient Dragons Zen Gate. we're hoping to do more sittings and teachings and classes and seminars this year, which also will help us to support our Sangha. And so, anyway, I encourage you all to be generous and give to Sangha. And that could mean making a donation, which will be important for our continuing.

[18:11]

But also, Just your presence, as I was saying, your presence and your samadhi, each one of you, gives it to everybody else. So there are many and there are many other ways to be generous to Sangha. And we're exploring how this can work for people who are at a distance and only can come online. But for people who can show up at our Lincoln Square Zendo, there are many, many other things to do. There's ringing the bells or being greeter and many, many opportunities for practice. So how do we, and also our Ancient Dragon Board has various committees, promotion committee, fundraising committee, sangha care committee, and others that people can join from a distance. So anyway, how do we give to each other?

[19:13]

How do we support this wonderful practice of appreciation and generosity, gratefulness and generosity. Part of generosity is also to acknowledge the limitations of our generosity. We don't always know how to give or what to give or how to help. Generosity is a complicated practice. We may give something that is not wanted, or we may not know how to receive. So part of the practice of generosity is also to receive, to receive this gratitude or gratefulness on Thanksgiving, to share this together. How do we practice collaboration, cooperation, and support that? Seeing our togetherness.

[20:17]

not emphasizing separation or combativeness or competition, but we're all on this limited planet with these limited bodies and awarenesses and minds. How do we open those up to generosity to gratefulness. How do we support that for each other? So, again, I'm very grateful on this holiday weekend to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Buddha being the reality of the world as awake, as all of us, as having this deep capacity for awakeness.

[21:31]

We don't always realize it, but this is something that all beings have, are. Dharma, all of the extensive teachings of the Buddhists and ancestors, which takes lifetimes of study, and that study is just also in, not in some linear understanding, but in just how we feel as we sit in this samadhi of gratefulness to all the Buddhas, of generosity to all beings. And Sangha, again, community. So Ancient Dragons Zen Gate is a wonderful community. As you know, we are in this transition. Hogetsu and I are talking about all this every week, and

[22:34]

having really deep, wonderful conversations and working this all out. And for some people, it may be scary to think of change. Change can be scary, but change is the way the world is. Transformation. So I'm not going away anywhere. I'll be here still, but I'm really looking forward to Hoketsu also leading us. And then finally, I want to mention Rohatsu Sesshin. This is the annual Sesshin traditional in Zen around the time that we commemorate the awakening of Buddha, which we commemorate traditionally December 8th. And so I'm so grateful that for the first time since 2019, Remember 2019 before the pandemic, before all this stuff, before zoom. Anyway, we used to have five days sessions in early December and we're doing it again this year.

[23:39]

We're really excited. So we have a five day sitting session, December 6th to 10th. I'll get, so when I will be meeting it together. And so that's a Wednesday through Sunday. Um, The time for signing up is this coming Friday. But anybody who can sign up beforehand, it helps us in the planning. So you can go to the website and register. And you can participate in person at our Lincoln Square Zendo or online. And you can sign up for any one or two or three or four or five of those days. So I'm really looking forward to it. And it's an opportunity really to deepen practice, to sit for a day or two or three. Things happen. We open up to the truth and reality of our lives.

[24:41]

difficulties, our problems, and also our appreciation. So anyway, I want to encourage those of you who have not yet, you can sign up again in person or online for any of those days. And everything that we do is sliding scale. So you can go to the website to see that. Anyway, I want to, I think I've said what I wanted to say and we still have time, which is great. So I'm interested in hearing anything that any of you have to say about what you are grateful for, or what you feel generosity about, or any comments or responses to anything I've said. So this is our Sangha time for hearing each other. So thank you very much. Please feel free to comment. And, Beau, you're – no, yeah, who's techno today?

[25:47]

Ruben. Oh, Ruben. Yeah, Ruben, could you help me call on people? And I can't really see the people in the room, so maybe somebody could help with calling on those people too. We'll do our best. Oh, somebody here must be grateful for something. Please share with us. I'll start out. Can you hear me okay? Is that Kathy? Yes. Hi, Kathy. Yes, I can hear you. Hi. I just came back from traveling to Decatur, Georgia, and while there,

[26:49]

my niece and her wife and I went to the Carter Center. And so we spent some time reviewing Jimmy and Rosalind Carter's early and the entirety of their lives and what they contributed. And it was, I don't know, it was just a nice reminder of When people respond to the need in terms of giving where they are in the moment, responding to what they see, being aware of what's going on around you, it can make a tremendous difference. And I don't know, it was just kind of inspiring because I admire both of them and their lives. So I'm grateful for them. Thank you, Kathy. And for those who don't know, Rosalind Carter passed away this last week in her, I think, late 90s.

[27:56]

And she's on our Sagaki Memorial list. And yeah, what a great example. Thank you, Kathy. Other comments? David, online? You're muted, David. Thank you, Ruben. Just one little note about Rosalind. Jimmy Carter is also in bed, hospitalized, and they brought his bed into her room so they could be facing each other as she passed away. I thought that was something that was really important, that they had that sense of connection and he was able to be with her. during her passing. One thing that's interesting in talking about grateful, I'm in a group that meets once a month, and it's a group of older folks.

[29:06]

We're all in our 70s and 80s. One person is only in their 60s. And we talk about what it is to be aging and dying. And the other day somebody gave a list of renunciations. And they say, I will renounce my expectation, my right to live without pain and aging. I renounce my comparing myself to other people. And I read that, and it reminded me of something that actually Ray Reen up in Milwaukee told me a long time ago. And you mentioned it today, Tygen. And I think it's important. It's about being grateful. And it's funny, in this Asian and dying group, I'm the only man, and yet I'm with all this male. And these people are coming up with these, you know, I shall not, I shall not.

[30:11]

And I think that's so male-oriented. And Ray Rain told me that there was a group of Buddhist practitioners, women Buddhist practitioners, who changed the precepts into what you had said earlier, Taigen, that the first precept, instead of saying, I vow not to kill, but rather to something to the effect, I vow to honor all life. Instead of saying, I vow not to steal, I vow to accept only that which is given to me. And it continues on, instead of, you know, violating somebody's body sexually, you know, or physically, you know, it means that I honor all bodies. And even in the sixth precept, I vow not to find faults with, you know, others, rather than I vow to see the Buddhahood in each person. Now, all these can be taken from negatives and turn into positives.

[31:16]

And I think that's what is gratefulness. That's what allows us to be grateful. It is not a matter of shoulds and I should be doing this and I should be doing that, but rather a sense of appreciating the world the way it is. I had my own little Satori moment the other day, you know, and looking out and seeing the chimney to the building where I live. And I thought, what does it mean to be alive? How am I different from the chimney? You know, how me as a living person. And the part that came up to me was to be appreciative. To be appreciative of every moment that I have. That I could see the trees. I could see the sky. I could have relationships with friends. And have all that and be appreciative of all that. And I think that's what really... as part of Thanksgiving, as we celebrate this Thanksgiving weekend, is to just, excuse me, is to just to be appreciative of things.

[32:24]

Thank you, David. I appreciate your comments a lot, and I want to make space for... everybody to, or as many people as want to, to speak. So thank you, David, for everything you said, which I appreciate. And let's keep our comments brief when possible. And we have a couple more people online who want to speak. I don't know if there's anybody in the room. Yes, let's go to Yves. Good. Yves. Yeah, I'll be mindful and keep it brief. I'm grateful to American Buddhism for the strength to embrace complexity. I was reading a comment by the historian James W. Lowen, who wrote Plagues and Pilgrims, the truth about the first Thanksgiving. And he said the antidote to feel good history is not feel bad history, but honest and inclusive history.

[33:30]

And I mean, to be able to celebrate a cultural exchange and a moment of peace and also keeping awareness what happened before with the death by plague. Of of of 90 percent of the Native Americans in New England and what happened after with war. and be able to embrace that we do have choices. I mean, to me, in the context of the context of what's happening in the Middle East, the power, the strength to be able to not demonize either side or realize there's more than two sides and to be able to recognize that we all have choices and to you know, to do what we can to bring about the kind of work we want.

[34:30]

Anyway, that's what I'm grateful for. Thank you very much, Eve. You mentioned James Lowen. One of my favorite books is something he wrote called Lies My Teacher Told Me. And it goes into actual lessons about history that are not obvious. I could mention some of them. Anyway, but I won't. But I recommend that book. And thank you very much, Eve. Appreciate what you said. And Deborah has her hand up. Thank you. It's so wonderful to be with everyone on today with this wonderful talk on being grateful. And my gratitude is recent. I'm training in a crisis line out here to take calls from people who need information and also are struggling. And I've been just so touched by the volunteers and the workers there who I feel they're all Avalokiteshvaras, you know, listening to the cries of the world.

[35:33]

And they're just wonderful people. And I've just been grateful to be part of it. And I also am grateful to see my fellow Dharma practitioner, Dennis Moran, who is an old Dharma buddy for many, many years. And he's on Zoom. So I'm really grateful for that. So thank you. And again, grateful to be with all of you in this wonderful Dharma talk today. Thank you. Thank you very much, Debra, out in California. Dennis, I don't know, are you in California as well? No, I live in Pittsburgh. Oh, I used to live in Pittsburgh. Oh, did you? Yes, that's why I'm on Zoom. And my gratitude, it's the older I get, it's becoming more and more critical for me to pay attention to it. I came into this through 12 Step some years ago. And

[36:35]

November is Gratitude Month, so you'll have a lot of AA meetings who are talking about gratitude. And one of the meetings that came to me, just the thought came to me once is, I'm grateful for the things I want, but can I be grateful for the things I don't want? And really, this practice for me has been, it shows the complexity of gratitude. and the need for me to broaden my conception of it. And I see gratitude as a practice, something I don't have, only something I can practice. So it's an ongoing process for me very much, particularly as I age. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dennis. Yes, how to be grateful for our problems. and to be grateful for our difficulties, and for change and transitions as time moves.

[37:44]

And these are the opportunities. These are the Dharma gates that we vow to enter. So thank you for that. And going back to the precepts, I think David was talking about vows. The way we say them, a disciple of Buddha does not kill. A disciple of Buddha does not take what is not given. A disciple of Buddha does not lie. So that allows both... what we are not doing, but also the positive side, as we've been talking about. So thank you. Other comments? There's a comment question in the room. Good. Hi, this is Dan. Can you hear me? Yes. Which Dan is this? I don't know if I know you. Dan Ashurst. I've only done a few times with this. I'm not my first time. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much for the talk. I'm very grateful to hear it and to have the space to discuss it.

[38:47]

I'm very grateful to have a feeling that the happiness of others is as important as my own happiness is at least as important as my own happiness. And you mentioned sort of the ways that we can kind of better our world. We see people who are homeless and things like this in our world. And I engage in a lot of political activism to attempt to sort of better the systems around that and that people can participate more effectively in democracy and have their needs met. But it's often very stressful thinking about how there's a lot of different issues that that need addressing. And so I participate in, I volunteer in democracy reform as well as environmental causes and advocate on a number of other issues.

[39:51]

So I guess my question is like how balancing what we as an individual are capable of, as well as like the time that we have to practice generating the kind of compassion that's necessary to do that kind of work. How would one kind of balance those things? Thank you so much for that question. As a longtime activist myself, I'm grateful to all the activists in our Sangha and beyond. So thank you. Yeah, there are innumerable problems in our world and issues, and some of them are huge. You know, the... climate calamities which are going to be increasing. How are we going to face and practice those? And the problems of wars and militarization and so forth.

[40:54]

Anyway, I'm grateful to all the activists. Many people in our Sangha are in various different ways active in terms of responding. I think that's part of our practice. But we also have to be generous to ourselves. So I know from long experience that it's very easy for activists to feel burnt out and overwhelmed. And when we look at the enormity of problems we're concerned about, how do we take on something and just practice with it? Jan Boudard, who's here, online keeps reminding us about the problems of nuclear waste and nuclear weapons, and I appreciate that. So thank you, Jan. But also we have to find balance in our lives, and it's not separate to be grateful for our own connection with Buddha, with awakening, with teaching, with community, with the truth.

[41:58]

Part of generosity is being generous to ourselves and, as I said before, accepting and working with our own limitations. Aging gratefully, struggling gratefully, graceful, you know, gracefulness is okay too. But how do we take care of ourselves, of our sangha, of the world? And yeah, so one of the things that happens is that people take on particular roles. situations and work with them and try and support and help them. So thank you very much, Dan. I'm very glad that you are now part of our Sangha. Other comments, responses, questions, things that you are grateful for or feel generous towards? Anybody else in this dendo?

[43:16]

I guess I'll say a couple words. Okay. Who's this? This is Ruben. Hi, Ruben. Hello. I just want to throw a vote for love. My experience... Love isn't different from gratitude. It's loving kindness. We are the same kind. We are not separate. And that is a stance that we can take, a stance that we can inhabit, that we can embody. And I am grateful for that. Thank you. Love is also not separate from generosity. How do we give love? In all kinds of ways. Giving the snow in Chicago.

[44:26]

I just looked up and saw that it's really coming down still. At least here. So I give that to all of you. But yeah, loving kindness is the background for gratitude, grace, gratefulness, and generosity. So thank you, Ruben.

[44:47]

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