Morning. Well, when you came here this morning, you probably noticed that there's a lot of bustling activity directed toward fundraising. So I'm going to talk about that this morning. I think it's important. Can you hear me? But we don't usually put a lot of emphasis on it. Since the beginning, since we started this Zen Center 45 years ago or something like that, I don't know, something like that, we haven't really put a lot of emphasis on money or fundraising. Well, I was born in 1929, which ushered in the Great Depression, so I was responsible for certain things.

[01:23]

So I was brought up without any money. I never had any money when I was growing up, in the 30s, all the way up to all the way through school. We moved away from my high school, but I still wanted to go to my high school. And my mother would give me 25 cents for bus fare, but I always hitchhiked. And 25 cents was my spending money. You won't believe that, but it's true. 25 cents went a long way then. Actually, a penny actually meant something. We had penny candy. And nickel would buy a lot. You could get a hamburger for 10 cents. So people were poor, but they managed very well, you know. And so I never thought about money when I was young and my parents never talked about it.

[02:29]

They never said how much money they had or It was just a subject that was taboo. And my father worked for the WPA, the Works Progress Administration, which they should be having right now. And then during the war, he got a job in the shipyards, or just before the war. So I was brought up in a totally naive way about money. I remember I had a friend when I was in junior high or something like that, and his parents had money, and they had money all over the house. Piles of money all over the house. And the kid just had all these toys and stuff, you know, and I just thought it was so extravagant, you know, how could they do that? It was just like unbelievable to me.

[03:31]

I went to art school after I lost my service, but I didn't have any money either, but I knew how to get along without it. I always knew how to get along without money. I guess that's my message. Whenever I needed something, money always arrived in some magical way. So I felt that I was somehow blessed, that if I was doing what I needed to do, Sincerely doing what I needed to do and was totally dedicated, money would arrive. And it always has. It's always been that way. So, when we started the Zen Center, we didn't have any money either. I had a little tin can that we kept the dues in, five dollars a month. And that was our bank account. It was a Balkan Sobrani tobacco can.

[04:43]

I still have it on my altar. So that was our bank. And then I take a box of donated books down to Mohuth and give it to them for trade. And then this is when Buddhist books were just beginning to appear. And there were Buddhist studies of cattle and the students would And so then I would go to Moe's and get them with my trade-ins.

[05:50]

And so I didn't have to spend any money on books. It was all simply trade. And we built the beginning of the library that way. And I also educated myself through reading books as they came out. The Zen Center Library at Sokoji when we first started sitting, Zen Center first started, was a bookcase, a small bookcase about the size of this town. Because there were very few Buddhist books at the time, believe it or not, no publications, no magazines, And Paul Retz, and Alan Watts. So it was the basic books that were at the time.

[06:55]

So little by little we built a library, and now we even spend money to buy books. But at that time, I never spent a dime on books. So we got along on nothing in my usual way. And then when we, of course, Dwight Way, our first Zindo, we rented. And it was a big house, wonderful place. We built the attic in Zindo, the Zindo in the attic, for nothing. I remember driving down the freeway, and there was this huge piece of plywood that somebody dropped, and so I stopped my car in the middle of the freeway and put it on top of my car, And we put it on the floor. So fundraising was not an issue. It wasn't an issue. But when we got this place back in 87, 88.

[08:03]

79. 79, thank you. Ron was one of the early residents at our old place. And Peter lived in a house a few blocks away. I also lived with this incident. He also lived with this incident, yes. You're away. So we fundraised for this, to get this place. At that time, we wanted to buy the old place on Dwight Way. At that time, the average price of a house was about $45,000. And so we offered to buy the house, but the owner, he could see the prices were rising, and he just kept speeding us along until finally I said, we really want to have our own place, so let's fundraise for it.

[09:15]

I had told you this story before, but I don't remember Est. So you probably are Estes. But Werner Erhardt invited psychiatrists, psychologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, training, I think it was two days or something, and it cost $200, which was huge. You had to really want to do something like that. So I said, well, we can collect $200 from each person to get our fund. So I said, let's do that. And so we asked everybody for $200. Some people gave $200. Some people gave $500. Some people gave $0.10. But it all worked. And we got, but we didn't get a lot of money.

[10:22]

We got about $16,000. But it seemed like a lot. And so I rode my bike all over town looking for places. And the effort to raise the money and me going around, you know, looking for property and And then a woman who was a nurse said, well, you know, I know this guy who has these four houses on two lots, and he wants to sell them, and he'd love to sell them to you cheap. Not cheap, but reasonably. And it turned out to be 1933 Russell Street and 33 and a half and so forth. And so this whole sangha got together and gave us wonderful non-secured loans.

[11:27]

And everybody contributed. Everybody contributed something. And the sangha was very enthusiastic. And we actually got enough money to make a payment on this. Of course, the owner financed it himself, because the bank would never do such a thing. and at a really high interest rate. Interest rates are about 3.5% or 4% now. It was 13% interest rate. Is that right? Yeah. Anyway, they found out about us seven years later and refinanced the loan because we were such good trustees. And then later, some of our members got together and paid off the loans.

[12:27]

And so we are very fortunate because our property has been paid off and we own it outright and we don't have any debts. We've never borrowed money for anything. If we needed something, people always contributed and we could always get what we wanted. So, it doesn't pad for your credit rating, but as far as staying clear of debt, I think it's a wonderful thing. So, when you own property, you always have problems of attrition property. And you have to keep it up. So every year now, we have a fundraising party at the end of the year. At the end of the year, we always ask people for donations.

[13:32]

But now, because our property is getting older and we need to remodel, we keep having fundraising parties, which have been very successful. last three or four years, our fundraising parties have been very successful and brings us all together. And I have to say how much I appreciate the effort and enthusiasm of our fundraising committee and our building committee. I don't want to name names. I do want to name names, but I'm not going to. But you know who you are, and everybody else knows who you are too. So our appreciation really goes out for all that effort that everybody's been putting into today.

[14:34]

We have some wonderful auction prizes and stuff. little things to talk about here. Well, one thing I want to talk about, to mention, is when you come in to the property, to the left, to my left and your right, is 1933. all the work that was done, but I came back just as it was finished. But you don't see it, but it's all that hidden work that makes the building secure.

[15:45]

And the other thing I want to say about it is that there's this balance between our own participation in volunteering participation to do our own work and hiring people to do what we can't do. So to maintain that balance is really important. As much as possible, I like us to do our own work. It costs far less, and it brings everybody together to work together, which strengthens the Sangha. And it also gives us a sense of ownership. I do not own the Zen Center. Actually, you don't own it either. Nobody owns it. But there's a sense of ownership, just the same. Sense that this is your place. And without you it doesn't work.

[16:50]

So, that particular project is hidden work. And the next project is our porch, our kitchen porch. The kitchen, you know, is very small. And if you've ever eaten here during Sashim, you know how small the kitchen is and how many people can actually work together harmoniously. So we're expanding the kitchen to include the back porch. helping to design and that's the next project, a visible project. It's easy to contribute to a visible project.

[17:52]

You can see what's happening and you can use it. So that's our next project and that's pretty much what this fundraising campaign right now is to help fund So that's going to be a great project, and it's going to be a combination of our own work and probably hiring somebody. So that's fundraising. What's always made our Zen Center work for everybody is the fact that we have what I would call a whole practice, not just coming and sitting Zazen.

[19:04]

People think of the Zen Center or any meditation practices, the main thing is meditation. come and you sit, and then you go home, which is very good. But our practice is a whole practice. In other words, we're not just sitting for ourself, for our own amusement, or our own well-being, but we serve each other. So we cook. for each other and we take positions within the Zen Center to make it work. And our position, we have so many positions and for every member we try to fit someone into a position because that's what makes the Zen Center work. So I always, my way of thinking about how to make this work

[20:12]

is modeled after my experience at San Francisco Zen Center in Tassajara, where people fill positions and then we rotate our positions and we can approach the practice from our position. If you're a board member, you can see the practice from the point of view of a board member. from that point of view. If you're cooking in the kitchen, you see the practice from that point of view. So the more positions that you can hold and rotate, the more experience you have and the deeper your practice becomes. It's not just sitting, but it's a whole practice which takes in all of the components that make something work. And maybe there are volunteers that do that.

[21:21]

But our practice is to serve each other. And working in a kitchen is a way of serving a sangha. And Dogen Zenji, our ancestor, was very concerned about how we serve each other. and not just serving each other, but how we serve when we're not at the Zen center, how we serve our community and the people that we're associated with as practice. So from Zazen as the center, all of the activities are an aspect of Zazen and practice. There's no limit to how our practice reaches out into the community, and our surroundings, and our environment.

[22:31]

Or balloons, don't worry. What? Balloons are popping, not ghosts. Well, see, it's coming back to us. So we really feel connected with each other through our daily practice and through our serving each other. And it's us in itself. It's not just your own personal activity. That's my main reason, not just to enjoy sitting. I do enjoy sitting, I have to say. But that's not why I practice. That's secondary. Primary is to encourage everybody else. In America, our practice is a work in progress.

[24:04]

It's a grand experiment. I don't like to use the term experiment exactly. I don't say that we're making it up as we go along, because we have inherited a tradition. We have inherited a tradition. At the same time, we are contributing to that tradition and modifying it and developing it to suit the times and the place of where we are and the conditions. So we're contributing to this development. that we can contribute in that way. Something came to us, and we're meeting that, and we're making it work.

[25:05]

So, I like the way that we have been doing this, and it works, but it can work better, and it will modify over time. But the main thing, I think, is our generosity, and our sincerity and our compassion and really helping each other to make this work. So, I wonder if you have any questions? Yeah? Are you and Alan singing again this year on the porch? Well, he hasn't asked me to sing, We never thought of that. Well, that was ad lib. Totally ad lib. So we could do that again. Yeah. OK.

[26:08]

Good point. That would encourage my practice, if you would say that. That's very encouraging. Hats. Oh, yeah. Well, I can probably find a hat somewhere. Last year, I think it was last year. Yeah, it was in April. Alan and I did an improv on the porch. What have been some of the major adaptations that Zen Buddhism has had to make in the United States that you've maybe personally seen? Oh yeah. And are there further adaptations that you see in the future? Well, I can name a few. One is of men and women practicing together, but of women practicing at all. You know, on Japanese forebears, forerunners, it's a masculine practice.

[27:17]

And if you look at, you know, if you went to Japan, Because it has a masculine aspect. Although, you know, there's some also women who practice it. You know, especially Suzuki Roshi and Maezumi Roshi. They were just open to everybody. They had no particular idea about who should be practicing or how. And they just accepted the way people came to them.

[28:22]

And men and women came. A lot of women. His first students were women. For Suzuki Roshi, you know, he was in Japan. was a typical Japanese temple, sort of typical, where nobody does Zen. And all the temples have Zen dojos, but nobody would sit in them, mainly because of the times, you know, in the Meiji period. kind of turned the monks out of the monasteries and allowed them to marry, and then it became a temple practice. And the monks would marry, they'd have children, and the temples had zendos, but it became more like a church

[29:37]

we've actually revived, through our teachers, revived Zazen as a practice, and for men and women and people coming, people who work for a living, coming in the morning to sit Zazen, which is like, I remember having some Japanese priests come over and they say, how does this happen? How do you make that? We can't understand it. But of course, it's because of their attitude that they can't understand it. And we have a, since the 50s, 60s, we didn't realize, we always thought, well, you know, I mean, we being men, always felt, men are equal, you know, we had that idea, but until we started actually making the practice develop, we didn't understand how much we didn't understand that.

[30:57]

So we went through this whole process. It took years and years of going through the process, men and women practicing equally. So, you know, whenever we think about positions and in practice. And there's no idea anymore of women do this and men do that, even though there are things that women do, and there are things that men do, which are natural to women and natural to men. But that can get all the kind of... I'm not going to say what those things are. what I would call the feminization of Zen in America, the feminine influence of Zen in America, which has created our own special flavor of practice, which also has its effect in Japan.

[32:09]

Not greatly, but little by little. It does have an effect in Japan. But, you know, any kind of change is very slow. Very slow. In America, change is more quick, quickly, because we're used to adapting, we're used to change in America. That's American life. Things change. In Japan, things don't change. I don't say a rule, but it's like when you make a commitment, that's it. You don't change. And when something is a certain way, you don't change. So it's very difficult. And so our Japanese counterparts have a really difficult time. They're very open to us. because they have a certain way of doing things.

[33:22]

And if we don't fit, they say, well, yes, of course, you know, we will adapt. But when it comes down to it, they're not. So I've been spending 25 years or something like that working with our counterparts in Japan. And every time it looks like something's going to change, But it's okay, you know. I never expect anything, so I'm okay with it. So anyway, that's one aspect. I mean, that's a pretty big change. And it's really affected our practice a lot. And that's also, I wouldn't call it an experiment, but I would call it the frontier of practice. We're on the frontier of practice. to think actually of big changes in our practice.

[34:27]

Fundamental changes that work are really important, and they have to be proven. I can see a number of people who just want to change things quickly to adapt to American life. It's like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and I don't want to do that. I'd rather have a little dirty water My practice has been to take what I was given by my teachers and plant it here. And then my successors will do what they do. As time goes on. But hopefully with the right foundation. For me, maintaining the right foundation is the most important thing. That's why, you know, I was always a radical. I'm no longer a conservative, but I think my conservativeness is radical.

[35:37]

Do you have any thoughts about the influence of Buddhism in the States, how it has grown? Oh yeah, I think Buddhism is really growing in the States. But, you know, people, the word Dharma, the word Tao, all these words, these terms are becoming part of the culture. And in college, people are studying Buddhism. When is it appropriate for children to come into a center?

[36:48]

When is it appropriate for children? Anytime. As long as they behave themselves. The reason I'm asking is I had a woman coming into our center across the country. She was oriental and brought four kids. The youngest, six. And he would stand up and jump on top of her. No, you can't do that. You have to listen to what I said. as long as they behave themselves. Anybody can come into the zendo as long as they behave themselves. Anybody. As long as they behave themselves. And pay attention to what's going on. But that's why kids don't come into the zendo. But it's not because... I can't hear you. Kid zendo. Yeah, we do have a kid zendo. Once a month we have a program for the kids. telling stories and whatever, and that's their participation. Yeah.

[37:50]

But they're also participating right now, outside, popping balloons. Yes, that's right. So, you know, it depends on your attitude. I remember, I don't know, Chino-sensei, I talked about this last week, I think, Chino Roshi, who was a wonderful Japanese priest, back in his 60s, he came in 67, probably 71 or something, and he brought his small kids to give us a talk. And we were sitting around in a circle, not too many people, and the kids were just crawling all over him the whole time. That's what it was. And he would mumble something. And that was it. It was wonderful. But it could have been different. But because his attitude was accepting and open, our attitude was accepting, and my attitude said, I like that kind of thing.

[38:58]

I wish we had dogs at the end of my song. I'd love to bring my dog to the end of it. When I have brought him, he said, oh, he sits right down there on the bounding mat. He said, this is my seat. There is a zendo in Pennsylvania where they have three or four dogs that sit there every day. So, you know, zendo, Suzuki Roshi said, no kids in zendo. No, this is adult activity. That's also true. It's not like one thing is true and one thing is false. It's just how you do something. If you have an open attitude, then what you do will be open. If you have a closed attitude, what you do will be closed. So, I like myself to have an open attitude, except there has to be limitations. So, to be as open as possible, but not let things get out of hand.

[40:05]

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