The Dharma of Money

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BZ-02329

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History of BZC Finances, Saturday Lecture

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after them
today i'm going to talk about the unsurpassed penetrating and perfect dharma and fundraising
the money is dharma
in case you didn't know
you may have thought it was
something else but

this afternoon we're going to have been
fundraising fun
well as you saw when you can in
to set up and say
so this is a annual whenever annual
raising events
and
some going to talk about live of the history
a fundraising
ah
for the be represents him
magnate and fifty seven
when we started
hum
we didn't have any money
every rigid weird was very big house for it
kind of a quasar victoria enough dwight way
well
there were the rent was thirty dollars a month
i'm i used to back when i'm when i went to the gas station to get less discipline undisciplined terms with death under oath
it will never fill it up at ellsworth again for them and twenty five cents ago
that was a long ago
and we left for me
and so i decided to pay people would be five month five dollars a month in dues
is a good for it
hey my bank here
there's a first bank
the
balkan so brian
smoking mixture
in most days actually most people smoked
and emily vm
the slow
the progress of
no smoking
isn't it took a like it took awhile for several years but its employee you know everybody that movie almost
so that's that's a first thing is is the fact that money does and then i just used it to bite
food
we didn't really have much money
and
but that was okay because it didn't cost much to live in says
that he had love with almost nothing i never counted my money
if i had some early in my pocket
i always ended up strangely enough
so never meant for much
pellerin as a blue
so one day
i never thought about incorporating the center
because it a incorporated a musician
that sounds really strange to me at that time
but then one day i said well i think since everybody's off
visitors are incorporated as incorporate and then we got together a board of directors
and actually have bank accounts put the money is of africa and then i had three room and board
and awesome
i'm
hundred and fifty dollars a month step it which left long time
didn't even have to we removed here
so we didn't really need much money at that time but what's removed here
the whole different thing
we were looking for a place to establish will be her own place because the pavement and we couldn't really you know is wonderful zendo he had that
i'm so i rode my bike all around town for months looking for a place to buy even though we need everybody
i didn't know how are we gonna do that
oh but as someone who has actually remember him for a while the nurse she knew the man who had this place for buildings to us
two hundred and twenty five dollars and in thousand out
and he will develop to us so we should defy it
and so will have gonna do that
so
and at that time and know if you remember est

what were your inner invited and priests and people priests in psychiatrists to come and have a weekend
and it costs everybody he didn't cost us anything we were three but
ordinarily would cost two hundred dollars to do the training and that was an enormous amount of money is no stage two hundred and to do something like that in a wig of on spend one hundred dollars on a meal for four people or something and don't think anything of it in those days twenty five dollars for portability
is have been an enormous
leah
anyway
vanessa well he can do that i can do that
so i asked everybody to
submit two hundred dollars for our campaign and that stimulated
interest
i think if you're going to raise money you have to stimulate interest
should i can't everybody going in some people contributed two hundred and ten people in vivid and worse and implicated is list but we got something to go on and then people gave us loans
that was unsecured loans
eighty thousand dollar unsecured loan which is very risque the people believed in us and members believed in us my idea was to have a grassroots zelda
i didn't want to collect money from outside i wasn't interested in going to big donors getting money i just one as the effort that
if it if the members are really sincere and interested in making this they happen that the members will was supportive it's always been my philosophy
ah we actually came up with a down payment
and then we bought this place and then
we had to observe
well
this building
was originally a house and there was a law going down to life in the building and it was to go package
oh and we wanted this to be xander that in order to have this to zendo you cannot take living space off the housing roles in berkeley without replacing it with something else because the tight
rentals
he can come anyway berkeley thicker
so we had to substitute
some other place in order to turn this into zendo
so
the building next door had a basement which was about
five will retire to
and so my idea anyway with to raise it up from the beginning
and building a apartment of nice
so
we had another wrangling with the city but it's and the city approved as raising of their building so movers came in lifted out a building in the building was
i'm up there i'm still on pilings for a long time while we worked on agenda
and we had carpenters at that time this is an interesting thing know when you need something when your practice of sincere and you need simply something appears to help that's always been
have total faith in it so we had lot of carpenters at the time and the carpenters we had to pay them
so we had to collect money to pay them but the people were willing to do that and
we built as end of this floor all of this
cedar that you see and zendo
one of the carpenters and i went down and bought some rough cedar planks and third grade and we took it all to the mill and we started every piece milled
slice
this way because
the boys' rooms but this fish
and i really slice and they're a little less than three quarters so and so we've put in all of this always porch on ceiling was a great project and because it was such an interesting project people were willing to work on everybody worked on the whole saga
i'm making this happen
filling those pieces
that line
how nicely they fit together
sometimes one born to a coming together to call day to match
it looks easy well but they don't have any sleep
so everything time a labor of love and
the every the peoples of the saga supported it
then
we've had to work on that building
and so
we put up the walls and put up for me we've got down for the foundation everybody that they were picked up pick axes dean and three sheets to pour the foundation
and
with with done for the foundation toward the foundation put up your structure
lower the building down and it took about two years to outfit that the yeah
the apartment downstairs
so that was a tradeoff
there's a lot of drama going on at temperature
scare you
and wasn't bill milligan and county were living up in that building at the time and they had a ladder
and building was
you put a marble on a flourish
and so they hold their groceries you know that the letter and with a little content
and then bill put down the country
so i was pretty great project we a lot of pictures you know this projects to several years to actually create a zelda and of departments next door
then people who is were very generous in the chicago though a generous and supporting we have some outside
ah support but not much
one of my
and cohorts contributed twenty five thousand dollars that was a huge and you contributed to thousand dollars

thank you for
why should remember is at my favorite memory or cases cut karmapa from us
that the other tobacco in ha
i have a tradition however this helps me a everything's trash
after hours
after a lot of this jacket ambulance and so on and a camera that other half full what he was baffled role of rick was pretty or me i'm scared
ah
hey that was agree that
the has been
the zendo wealth the zelda was here is to be in a community room before while revealing
believe it or not and i come up again the the guards and compliment citibank incorrect orange again toby the
and how the just that and suits and ties limousines part of the industry in the karmapa a great guy he came in with his his retinue and they had his chair they will bubble like notices
atmosphere and they placed the atmosphere's and
and gonna room
and of my life wanted to serve him tea but they wouldn't let her because they had to certainty to with off

so
the song is always been very generous to me i never asked for money for the saga always provides many here's when my philosophy was that i don't want it i never wanted to nickel and dime people like you know get many other people and
they were allowed to do it and so we always existed and a kind of bears it's just subsistence level and we never have had a financial problem
that we can deal with usually
i flick in kicked him forty five and how long it's sixty seven
the safest remedy
getting close to fifty years she never had a financial a real financial crisis and would say
problems coming open you know you deal with those
and i attributed to
not
worrying about money but one thing i never worry about money you know when i was put that was abbot of san francisco zen center the you know they go through other tribulations about money which is difficult because they are three practice places in to support
but i never worried about the money they wouldn't let me
is he didn't have to worry about fundraising
but a little worried about it it's implied everything works
i'm
i i don't recommend that everyone
the
but
whenever we needed something
i asked the sangha to support whatever we needed there they just come through
because we never asked much of people and they're always willing to get
so i think that's just great
it was going to support an that way
and this did we have four buildings you to support and when a to teachers who are super and founders and am
to those are the three supported positions
kids out
part of our fundraising that we do now
ps for now
the three positions
and
a for are remodelling and our maintenance capital lateness so painting the buildings keeping up the trailer
placing this left and recently we've been dealing with how do
a remodel the kitchen self works better and how to use the porch and back porch so that it is not just the porch but it's actually adds to the space of kitchen
and we're so fortunate to have a couple of architects who descended have cover architect who are given their and then time and expertise to making all this work
and
so
that building over there
now has always less decibel you so you need the most attention these for buildings
when removed from
the playground over there
across the street and martin luther king day for buildings removed over here i can remember i don't know what year that almost exactly that's a long time ago i guess the bittner to build that park they will reflect on filmmaker and that one reason why the noise the if the most attention
so
look or remodelling the the downstairs we've already done how to remotely
but the community room but now the kitchen and the back porch for little make access
and storage
more convenient we have to walk through the kicked through the kitchen to get to the tuition room and when people are cooking in there especially during session notes this traffic problem so i don't know if that'll never be eliminated but
oh so that's kind of what we're one project that will really intent on fundraising for
am

so we've divided our
fundraising efforts into two parts
one part one of one year we fund raise for the building extents
and one year we fundraise for
the teacher expense
show this time it's for the teacher expense
leave guess
we just happen to have this really tremendous board of directors are mostly professional people's a lot of them are professional people and they know how to manage money that my dad you know which scares me a little bit
the
i'll tell you why that scares me because we've always done so well
with
ah
hand to mouth
and so we have was that the board like the plan for the future
planning for the future is not something that i'm interested in
except that i think we should keep going to win in order to
to support the future
i always think the future you will take care of itself if we do or if we are practices sincere now to shoot you will take out with them
i'll fetch just trust that f
and so
wow
i have a little bit of interplay with
the usual way of making something work with money in my way
without money
and so that but it works well well we were very well into the and right well integrated with the board and i respect the porch need and ah
who wishes to do this and but i don't wanna see get to
i'm worried
i watched it too worried
and i'm jester
ah
it's nice to be financially secure i agree with that
but not to to you
i think we you know we should have money but we should not pinned and money too much
we should detail her practice
we should depend on the seriousness or the integrity of our practice in about with a practice has integrity
every i really believe that the universe will support us
so
i've ever since if you're actually giving a talk when time and money
really guitar
he talked about how many is not clean or dirty money is just money and it's needed it's it's the the exchange value that makes everything work it can make the blood that runs through your veins in a way
it makes things work and so you should also can be a me
was the less the lessons
gimme your wedding people in those days people used to think young people to you don't need money you know
i
buddhist free you know god and free in why should we have to pay money for religious practice and she's accuracy didn't like that he said you have to contribute
yeah country are you simply for the support of the place and the end of people you're practicing with
if everybody's contributing huge contributor tesla
so time
so far it's always worked
i'm time i really appreciated the with the board has taken this seriously and is
planning for the future in the present
i wouldn't do you have any questions
such a yes so you're saying about how the universe works through the market forces in some way yes exchange value yeah so how is that a similar different to but you're also often thought about it just need of financial system
let's agree that the financial system works against us
the the proper flow of money works for out everybody
so yeah
the body or body mind is a microcosm of the universe
our country is a microcosm of the universe the world is a congress
so if you look at and the body as an example
when all the parts are balanced
we're healthy
when we parked in that balance were unhealthy
so
where the flow of money is passing through all the parts of the of the country so we're limited to the country that's like a body being healthy and as we know the body totally unhealthy i mean we're dying plants time do you know
i just found out yesterday the fukushima is far worse than anybody thinks
i mean it's gonna poison the world if it's not taking care of
the funny money going into that but plenty of people are being are starving to death on the other side so we have reckless use of money
the and money should be
flowing through the
society
so that everyone is is supported
and then were healthy so but in our case
there's something about
the dharma death
if we practiced into the dharma
sincerely we will be supported this has got to be at this is the priests
where living
yeah in the up in the old days and as emotional go into town but there with a bowl
is that and if they didn't get anything they will need
so why would they be supported just because they're much
because as we say in the in the mail jeanette does my practice i hope that my practice virtual practice deserve this meal
so if the most virtuous practice is sincere
somebody will put some good in the bowl
and i can't tell you how that works but it works if is necessary we won't get anything made manner or even if you are sincere your mission
you can count on it but your trusted
yeah has to be some trust otherwise we always scrambling
for ah
if for to assuage her is security
the most wealthy people must be totally insecure
otherwise why would you need to much
so i'm kind of pity there
the people that are most secure are the ones who trust the universe to to support them
by through their perch and practice
this is no it also talked about this
justin have food to feed mill
is just enough to support you
and that are ya chemo that we eat with his com the dollar just enough
chestnut
and

so when i think about often is if we want to do something we can do it like obama and
whether his name is from iran just had this fifteen minute talk
am telephone and enough to have heard about that the new president of iran and obama had a fifteen minute talk well the new president of iran and was going back to the airport
and the helena's congenial talk
why
because they wanted to
why are things
not working because people don't want them to people get one thing to want to see that's why it's not working if we wanted to work in weren't if we want iran
the united states that have a good relationship
it'll work because we wanted to if you want something to work it will work you can make it work
it's as simple as that but the recent things don't work because people that want a drink
people are funny
tough
anyway i think that the center has always been supported because people wanted to work
it's a simple affair we got every didn't want to work and won't happen
twitter there's always an exception
harris's is to requests in exchange for native that this route
you know it just brought up some some problems about the money system and
slideshare i was going to support for us
the
but our situation is relatively simple so you could say if we want to make it work we can make it work yes and in the world taste of work and that's largely because people with some lot of money don't want them to work just so money is snap simple money is complicated just like
yeah just like our body is complicated
billions of cells and that simple but if
and i think often
why we get sick
is the house were stopping something for working
when things are flowing you're right the people that they don't move them
so a lot of people one percent had all month and ninety nine percent know that sickness that's real real sickness imbalance i don't know what to expect to do in end
it boggles the mind so people in power because they are insecure needed money because they are insecure
and let me just ordered but he ran
make make your own world word that's what's happening
but expect that climate is bound to maclin i've always trusted that
i'm
i see people doing pretty terrible things but you can't do anything about it
but you can just wait for some patients
will change
patience is really important things will change with patients
and then you have to be ready to
hum
act when things change

for them not curious out there with his old
and knowing what he has no control over like a pit bull
it's one thing to trust net it will be held so what is the practice of seeing an empty and not knowing if it's ever going to be filled again
and then it's okay
if is not feel it's okay if nobody gives you something it's okay
you can think my the innocently
and then you can do some soul-searching maybe but ultimately it's like today there's something
tomorrow is nothing maybe next year sentence
i think they've been long period in in the history of people
sometimes they ate sometimes a little
we have we have a m
consistent
now supply of things to eat
and whether we have money you know you know we can only time a new dumpster
but
i intend to pick just didn't have an aunt in the episode in neutral on time and then when cooking
and this irish author who was popular few years ago managed to live and he was talking in a wonderful brogue about the difference between america and ireland
he said when we were drawing up and ireland if we had a cup of tea and a little biscuit in the morning that was wonderful and then he talked about little johnny in america his mouth and eat your hamburger johnny i didn't want my for your mama
and then these wonderful bro
the spoiled brat
can and a person who recently appreciating with that
just getting that have simply provide while so you really appreciate that point you do have with with
a lot of our needs are supplied but
what over supply
oh
a pet access
we live in a cornucopia of the world in berkeley
the breaking ball
and to moderate bucket
where does as far as we can destroy them
buying peaches in know
i can go on each
so
the wonderful thing about our practice is on saturday morning we can eat with our yogi
and appreciated our food
i'm just bear you know
i'm
rice
little afraid of and something else and appreciate it
hum
and we chant long chat before we eat in the human never hungry if we do the chanting
so
if we can appreciate everything in that way and even though we're in the midst of this problem of too much
who can survive
a