Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me okay? So for new people, I'm Taigen Leighton, the guiding teacher at Ancient Dragons Zen Gate. I want to speak this morning about Buffalo and Yuvaldi. our whole country is traumatized and in grief. I want to start by invoking Ehe Dogen Zenji, the founder of our branch in the 13th century. Just a couple of things from his extensive record. He says the family style of all Buddhas and ancestors is to first arouse the vow to save all living beings by removing suffering and providing joy.

[01:05]

Only this family style is inexhaustibly right and clear. So how do we remove suffering and provide joy? Joy is at the heart of our Zazen practice, feeling the joy of being alive, being together in Sangha. Dogen also said, those who are true practitioners must maintain the commitment to strength and intense determination. And it should erect the banner of diligence and fierce courage. Finally, they must hold forth the key of Buddha ancestors open the barrier of going beyond and carry out their own family property to benefit and relieve all the abandoned and destitute. So our commitment is to save all living beings, especially including all the abandoned and destitute.

[02:08]

Our Soto Zen meditation and devotional practices are strong teaching traditions of compassion and insight are more important than ever in our situation today. The Buffalo shooter targeted black people and killed 10 in a grocery store in a black neighborhood. He traveled 200 miles to do that. And he is a self-described fascist and white supremacist. This was a hate crime. The Uvalde, Texas shooter killed 19 fourth grade children and two of their teachers. Both shooters were 18 and had easy access to military style assault weapons, much more deadly than the weapons that our troops carried in Vietnam. Understandably, black people now are afraid just to go to the grocery store.

[03:18]

And children, fourth graders, and all children are afraid to go to school. This is unspeakable grief and horror that our society is facing. After Buffalo and Uvalde, I want to, I feel I need to speak about the so-called Republican Party. The current Republican Party is no longer a legitimate political party, but a violent, thuggish cult of bullies. I'm not talking primarily about the last president. I am certainly not speaking about all Republican voters. subject to very skillful campaigns of disinformation, and many with legitimate economic insecurity and fears, understandable.

[04:26]

I voted for Republican candidates, and I am not advocating for the Democratic Party, many of whose officials seem to me very timid in supporting same-gun laws or supporting oppressed and marginalized people. This is difficult to talk about. But with extremely few exceptions, all the Republican Congress people and national officials and Republican state and local politicians apparently stand only for white supremacy, support white supremacy terrorism, and support billionaires, especially fossil fuel and other harmful corporate executives. The current Republican party is a white supremacist cult, supporting unregulated assault gun use by teenagers, even against children. We now have legalized unregulated assault weapon purchase and open carry in numbers of states with such harmful laws likely to spread.

[05:39]

This is of course, as opposed to gun use by responsible gun owners. the great majority of whom support sane regulation of assault weapons and other firearms. Further, the current Republican Party now spreads anti-choice persecution of women and persecution of LGBTQ people, actively persecuting women and LGBT people with an array of new laws, only starting with bans on women's reproductive rights and free choice, They speak of planning to ban contraception and gay marriage, for example. This is shameful. The current Republican Party bans books and teachings of real American history, including slavery and the history of racism.

[06:42]

They seek to pervert children's understanding of our real history. What is happening when we are a country of book banning? The Republican Party did used to be a real political party with coherent policy positions. For example, back under Richard Nixon in 1973, Republican senators and congressmen, like Howard Baker of Tennessee, persuaded President Nixon to resign peacefully. However, now, most current Republican Party officials apparently stand only for cruelty, hatred, and mass murder. The mass murderer in Buffalo was an avowed fascist and white supremacist, and he was encouraged by these politicians.

[07:52]

The shooter in Uvalde was able to purchase an assault weapon on his 18th birthday, thanks to these same politicians. For me, this is not at all about politics in the usual sense, but about basic human decency and ethics. I feel I must speak out and oppose purveyors of American mass murder. I need to say this as a clergy person representing ethical precepts. This needs to be said. So Eve just joined us. Can you hear me, Eve? I've been speaking about the indecency of the current Republican party that supports white supremacy terrorism, open access to assault weapons and terrorism.

[09:01]

But I also want to say that I do not personally hate any of these people causing great harm. More hatred does not end hatred. Hatred is painful, corrosive to everybody. Our Bodhisattva precept about anger is not to harbor ill will, not to hold onto anger and make it a context for hatred of whomever. But this does not mean that Zen is always nice, calm, chill, or passive or numb. One commentary on the precept about anger says that not to feel anger when it is appropriate is a violation of the precept.

[10:07]

So I need to say, I do not personally hate Mitch McConnell or Ted Cruz, for example. But I do wish they would no longer control our national government, as they seem to now, and that they would stop causing great harm. Since Yuvaldi, there have been 20 mass shootings. Maybe it's more by now. There have been over 230 shootings this year. Maybe it's more by now. People in our sangha have often asked about family or friends who voted Republican and how to respond and stay engaged with them. This is appropriate.

[11:16]

We care for all beings. We should not abandon any of them. I would like to be friends with all Republicans, but I need to say some of this today. I also have Republican relatives. This is very difficult. Our society is now highly polarized. and divided. This is very painful for all of us. What do we do? As Buddhists, we are committed to not abandoning anybody. But I would caution that speaking about Republican hatred, so as to excuse it, even in amongst our family and friends, might well be very hurtful to people oppressed, to non-white peoples oppressed by this current so-called Republican Party.

[12:28]

Blacks, Latinx people, Muslims, indigenous people, LGBT people. The reality of this oppression, we need to understand and not to excuse Republicans for this, so-called Republicans. We need to remember the reality of systemic white supremacy and white supremacy terrorism. This is a reality in our country today. How do we transform hatred? Even with our own anger against terrorism, how do we transform hatred?

[13:36]

Adding more hatred does not help. So we need to practice with our own anger, each of us to transform it. into clear seeing, into determination to look for ways to be helpful in this situation. Again, I am speaking out against the current so-called Republican Party because I feel like it needs to be said. And it's kind of scary to say such a thing. But I feel a responsibility to speak about the shamelessness of what's going on.

[14:40]

How can we skillfully use our own hurt, our own grief, our own sadness and pain about fourth grade children afraid to go to school, gunned down in their own school, about black people just going to the grocery store and gunned down by a fascist terrorist. How do we work for contexts beyond hatred? There is so much negativity in our society now. It's so difficult. How do we express positive caring for the world and for all people and all beings, for all the animals,

[15:48]

endangered for all the trees and mountains and rivers endangered. This is difficult and difficult to talk about and we will have time. I want to hear your responses. Last Sunday, Hogatsu spoke about our Zen practice of peace and disarmament. So I do not seek to bear arms against the current Republican Party, but I am calling it out for the terrorism it supports. How can we promote non-violent, non-violence, non-aggressiveness, cooperation, active listening, diplomacy rather than combativeness and more war.

[16:58]

This is a challenging, difficult time. And it doesn't help to pretend otherwise. How do we acknowledge our situation? speak for peace, speak for understanding and for listening. As I said, many people who vote Republican have legitimate concerns and fears and insecurity. But that does not excuse the national Republican officials who spread hatred who spread white supremacy terrorism, who are bullies. We need to be able to speak the truth and not be afraid of bullying.

[18:08]

There's so much to say about all of this. And maybe there's not much to say about it. We just need to be courageous and face the reality of our society now. It hurts. We're all grieving, hearing about those 19 children just murdered and their two teachers. And then one of those teachers' husband died of a heart attack two days later. We need to feel the grief. but also to speak about the realities of what is going on now. This is difficult. We all need to respond to this grief in our own ways.

[19:13]

I have no desire to tell anybody else how to respond. We each have our own home countries, we each have our own space of awareness. But I felt I have needed to say this today. I want to close, at least my part of this, with a hymn for the hurting that Hoketsu mentioned last Sunday by Amanda Gorman, a wonderful young Black poet who spoke at President Biden's inauguration. So I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'm going to read selections.

[20:17]

This young person is so eloquent. She said, everything hurts. Our hearts shadowed and strange, minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new. We knew it as home, as horror, as heritage. Even our children cannot be children, cannot be. Everything hurts. It's a hard time to be alive and even harder to stay that way. This alarm is how we know we must be altered, that we must differ or die, that we must triumph or try. Thus, while hatred, hate cannot be terminated, it can be transformed into a love that lets us live.

[21:33]

I guess I'm gonna end up reading most of this. She continues, may we not just grieve, but give, may we not just ache, but act. They are signed right to bear arms, never blind our sight from shared harm. Maybe choose our children over chaos. May another innocent never be lost. Maybe everything hurts, our hearts shadowed and strange. But only when everything hurts, may everything change. So we need change, and change is always happening. Basic Buddhist axiom. This situation needs to change. And the powerful people who cynically support white supremacy, who support

[22:43]

open free assault weapons for all. This is an abomination. How do we change this? I don't have any answers, but I have needed to speak about this today. So, um, Any of you who have responses or comments or perspectives to add, please feel free to speak up. David Ray, would you please help me and call on people. For those of you who are not visible on screen, you can go to the participants window and get on the bottom and, um, At the bottom of that window, there's a raise hand function. So you can be heard that you can ask to speak that way.

[23:47]

Eve's hand is up. Hello, Eve. Hi. Yeah, so thank you. And thank you for the poem and the support. So week before last, I went to the Pedagogy and Theater of the Oppressed conference here in Chicago. And I went to the workshop that Julian Boal conducted. So Julian, his father was Augusto Boal, who founded Theater of the Oppressed, which uses participatory theater as a vehicle to look for points of leverage to change the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed. But Julian has been feeling like some of the forms that his father developed exacerbate the difference and don't necessarily lead to openings.

[24:51]

And he was talking about what I came to realize is skillful means. And he said, well, and he's emphasizing allies and like using, the theater forms that he's developing to explore the possibilities for creating allies and finding people that, you know, with just, you know, small shifts will come together to support the change we want. And I think there's a lot of wisdom in that. And when you look at like why Trump was successful, I mean, he has some pretty unlikely allies. I mean, you know, who would have thought that like evangelicals would ally with Trump? But they did. And, you know, and look at the NRA, I mean, and the allies they have. So I think, you know, that I guess that was a positive message for me is to look for possibilities for allyship.

[25:57]

And I think, as we've been talking about on Fridays, to also think about who we can be allies for. Thank you, Eve. And I want to mention, as Eve just did, we have a Friday morning event that everyone's welcome to, led by Dylan Toropov, who couldn't be here this morning. It's about deconstructing colonial consciousness, something like that. And we've been reading How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. So this is about how to be an ally to people who are being terrorized now. So this, you're all welcome to come to attend this. I know some of you can't because of work schedules, but I see a few people here who've been attending several. So that's Friday morning on this Ancient Dragon Zoom, Zazen at eight, and then at 8.30, there's a discussion, and it's been a very lively discussion.

[27:12]

very tender and sensitive discussion about the difficulties of race in this country. We have to learn to be allies to those being persecuted, and to children who are now under threat, too. This is so difficult. Anyway, thank you, Eve, for that. I see that, does anybody, who else has, would like to say something? Eve's hand is up. Eve. Jan's hand. Oh, Jan's hand is up. Yes. Hi, Jan. Hi, and thank you very much for the talk. Teigen and Eve for her contributions and the information about Friday morning. I'm a person who couldn't come on Friday morning, but I'm glad you're doing that. And I've seen Ibram Kendi on Democracy Now on a regular basis.

[28:20]

So I've Really believe that it's important for us to deal with the present symptoms like Not allowing people to carry Any weapon openly, but of course the immediate thing is to forbid assault weapons and oddly and I think very oddly to restrict the size of magazines that can be put into these weapons. And these are two things that need to be done immediately. And they're so insufficient to deal with the problem. Though I disagree with Mitch McConnell in so many ways, and I disagree with his statement that the problem is mental health and safety in school.

[29:35]

Those were the two things he thought were the problem. They are. but he left out the immediate problem of allowing people to carry assault weapons with a magazine of 100 bullets. So I don't want to downplay the importance of the immediate solutions, which the woman who is president of New Zealand brought before Joe Biden in the last two weeks. But unlike Mitch McConnell, I think the basic problem is our interpretation of the Second Amendment. And this would take a very, very long time for people to comprehend.

[30:40]

and to change their minds about. A lot of people believe we should ban assault weapons, but they still believe that we have the right to bear arms out of context. Because the context for the right to bear arms is in the Second Amendment and it is ignored. just Everybody just skips to oh the right to bear arms. Well, you can't take our guns away and um This is the extremely shallow interpretation of what the second amendment says and what it means so Against my better judgment I recommend something to read and The Thing to Read is a book by Elaine Scurry, and her name is S-C-A-R-R-Y.

[31:45]

And the name of the book is Thermonuclear Monarchy. And in spite of that title, and it's a long book, it is an extensive meditation on the Second Amendment. It goes on and on and repeats important points. It sort of reminds me of Taigen talking about the importance of Zazen. And he repeats the things that we need to hear so often about why we sit and what it means And Taigen never gets tired of talking about this, which I really appreciate because I need these reminders on a regular basis.

[32:47]

But back to the book. She goes over and over the meaning, the real meaning of the Second Amendment. And she ties, and she does this so it's like a spiritual experience to read it. And of course, I'm an anti-nuclear activist. I don't wanna give just a book review, but basically her point is that since we discovered fission, our political will has been taken away by the bomb. The second amendment cannot exist at the same time As a hydrogen bomb in the hands of our government Um The book is not about gun control So As much as I agree with the idea that gun control is necessary To really get behind the problems

[34:04]

We need to understand what the second amendment is about and I cannot recommend too highly The meditation of elaine scurry in the book thermonuclear monarchy So that's all I'm going to Turn off my sound I'm I'm done Thank you, thank you, Jen. I've heard about that book. I have not read it, but I've heard about it and heard it recommended. So I have a number of responses. As I said, there are responsible gun owners, of course. And a vast majority of them want to ban assault weapons. And again, I need to say it, Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz and their cronies are responsible for not allowing that.

[35:10]

They control our government now. I mean, that's just the reality. I don't personally hate them, but I wish they'd stop causing so much harm. About the Second Amendment. And also, I want to say, I agree with you about the dangers of nuclear war and what's going on in Ukraine and other places where there's war in this world now. There's a whole other, many Dharma talks. I've spoken some about this. We need to promote peace, not more war. But about the Second Amendment, as I understand it, my study of history, American history. The Second Amendment was created to support militia who at that time were hunting down escaped slaves. The Second Amendment's roots are totally racist and supporting of slavery.

[36:17]

It's now become like the Bible or something for some people. Again, I'm not advocating suppression of gun ownership at all, but using the manner of the Second Amendment, these so-called Republican politicians are preventing any reasonable gun control. You mentioned New Zealand, which after there was a terrible shooting there and they responded with bans of assault weapons and other guns. Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada after the recent slaughters here has enacted significant gun control in Canada and banning of assault weapons period. And as you say, of magazines that have so many bullets, this is how in Uvalde and in Buffalo, these 18 year olds were able to massacre so many black people and children.

[37:28]

So the second amendment is, Yes, thank you. We need to understand what that really is and where it comes from. And to have sane regulation of weaponry. So thank you, Jen. Other comments, please. Yes, Kathy, hi. Hi, Teigen. Thank you. These issues have been very much on my mind, too. I was going to say one thing that is hopeful to me, even though we're stuck, is that I could repeatedly read that the majority of Americans want gun control. And so I don't know the research specifically, but I've heard that repeatedly. So even though I agree the Republican Party has hijacked our government right now.

[38:34]

It is encouraging to me to know that most Americans are pro-gun control. And therefore, it feels like there must be a way to harness that or to sort out how to be strategic and take action in some way. So that's all I wanted to say. Thank you very much, Kathy. Yes, it's not just a majority. The vast majority, I mean, I forget the numbers, but it's Like two-thirds of all Americans, including people who are registered Republicans, want sane gun control, want to abolish assault weapons. The vast majority of American people want all kinds of things that most of us would agree with.

[39:38]

real health care. So I'm speaking out strongly against the current so-called Republican Party, not about Republican voters, but about Mitch McConnell and Ted Cruz and their allied thugs in Congress who are blocking what the vast majority of American people want in gun control and in many other areas. I feel like it needs to be said, so I did. But yes, Kathy, I think the vast majority of American people want to ban assault weapons, for example. don't wanna ban books. I mean, part of the redress we have as the majority of Americans is voting and this so-called Republican Party cult is also working very, very, very hard to limit or ban voting, especially for minority people.

[40:58]

We're in a difficult situation and I think it needs to be said. And again, I don't personally hate Mitch McConnell. I've never met him or Ted Cruz or the other people who are, they're really controlling our government now. It's dangerous. And so to speak this, which seems taboo, you know, as a Zen priest, I'm not supposed to speak about politics. This isn't politics. This is about basic human decency. Insanity. And this bunch of thugs is controlling our government now. That's how I see it. Some of you may disagree. And, you know, I welcome anyone to express any perspective you have. Other comments? So the question is, how do we promote kindness?

[42:26]

How do we promote caring? How do we promote communication that includes everybody? How do we listen to the concerns of people who vote Republican? but also how do we remember the people who are being viciously persecuted? Black people, Latinx people, Muslims, indigenous people, LGBT people, women, all women. This is painful and difficult, and yet, Jen was talking about my always talking about Zazen.

[43:31]

Our practice gives us the strength, the depths to see wholeness, to see, you know, it doesn't have to be this way. It doesn't have to be this way. I believe that people are decent, that we have the capacity for caring, for love, for kindness. And our work as practitioners is to support that and share that and encourage it. And it's very difficult now, but it's not impossible. We can start with our own family and friends, but not at the expense of denying the persecution and terrorism that is happening. Any other comments, please feel free.

[44:40]

I had so much to say today that I wrote it all down, which I don't usually do. And there's so much more to say about all this. And just to feel the hurt, we have to feel the grief and the pain. Our practice is to feel what we feel and to digest it. Zazen is a practice of digestion. How do we feel all of this? And then how do we each find our own way to respond? Again, I'm not going to tell you how to respond. Voting might be helpful if we're allowed to vote. Speaking out to Congress people, politicians might be helpful.

[46:14]

Last call. Anybody else have anything to say? OK. David Ray, please, if you would lead us in the four bodhisattva vows, then we'll have announcements and then our service. Yes. Beings are numberless, I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to realize it. Beings are numberless, I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them.

[47:27]

Dharma gates are boundless, I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to realize it. Beings are numberless, I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to realize it.

[48:09]

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