This is, we say this is a seshin, but actually it's more like a zazen kai. Zazen kai is you set aside a certain period of time where you just set. And this is a zazen kai with a talk. So it's a kind of hybrid as things tend to be today. Be that as it may, I'm thinking about, you know, how grateful I am to all of our members who are making a really good effort to continue our practice, given all the topsy-turvy of the present. The world is going through great transitions.

[01:04]

And for a Zen student to keep our mind calm and focused and each moment completely is being our practice. I really commend you all. When I began, when we started the Berkeley Zendo in 1967, we thought of it as serving the local community of Berkeley. And little by little, it has developed in over 50 years or so, maybe 51 or two now, I don't know. And what I realize is that it's a kind of international, world welcoming place to practice.

[02:18]

I was going through our directory, Berkeley Zen Center directory, And looking at where everybody comes from, last week we had a, or maybe it was this week, last week I think, where we had people say, to talk about their background, their inherited background. And so I was looking through this directory to see where in the world these people come from. All of you, actually. There are immigrants.

[03:24]

And there are also people of heritage, one heritage or another. And all the way from the Midwest, the deep Midwest of the USA, to Afghanistan and Japan, all over the world. And so I wrote down the various places where people come from. I'm going to read a little bit. It won't take too long, although it's pretty extensive. Every place in the world, almost. We have Iranian people, plenty of Jews. They love this. You know, I got to thinking about Ukraine, Eastern Europe, and so many Jewish people. come from Eastern Europe and Ukraine to America.

[04:28]

Their ancestors came in the late 19th century, as mine did. And all of their offspring, mostly grandchildren, all mate at Zen Center. I think that's really remarkable. There's a great reunion of students from the Ukraine and Eastern Europe and Mid-Europe and other places, but it goes heavily in Eastern Europe, who all meet in Berkeley at the Berkeley Zen Center and the San Francisco Zen Center and all of the people in America. So that's remarkable. I don't want to talk about that anymore. So we have people from France, Native Americans, Africans, Scandinavians of one sort or another, English, Japanese, Finnish which is Scandinavian, German, Korean,

[05:51]

Norwegian, Irish, Chinese, Afghan, Italian, Mexican, East Indians, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Filipino, Dutch, Turkish, Swedish, those are Scandinavians, but still,

[06:55]

are the diverse Europeans, because the borders in Europe are always moving. So there are diverse Europeans and diverse Asians and the various heights, you know, and the unknowns, the great unknowns. people who don't really know what their heritage is. Because in my experience, and I know the experience of many others, is that when people came to America, they wanted to not remember what was going on in Europe or what was going on in their homeland. They just wanted to let go and start a new life. And so the children don't really have much information. A lot of the children don't have much information about their background.

[07:57]

But it's all very interesting. But what pleases me the most is that all of our diverse backgrounds are meeting together in this wonderful way. And the reason we can all do that is because we don't depend on anything. As soon as you depend on something, then you attach to it. And then you think you're better than or more important than things that people attach to. So with nothing and with no attachments, we can all meet in this zero space. and realize that we're all the same and all totally. Although we have all our differences, we can let go of all the differences and meet together in this emptiness, which is where we all come from and where we all go to and where we are all the time anyway.

[09:13]

Practice is vital and lets us include everyone. Whoever comes, we don't care where that came from. As long as we all throw our lot in together in this empty space. So I think about this a lot. And it's the thing that makes me the happiest. What makes me really happy is the fact that we can all harmonize. Everyone, no matter where we come from, our diversity is what gives us our energy and what gives us our happiness. Realizing that we can enjoy people from various places and everyone adds something to our practice.

[10:18]

So, to me, the most... What makes me happiest is when everyone is practicing together, upholding and appreciating where each one of us comes from. So to me, I grew up thinking that way. I grew up in the 30s, the 40s, the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, you know, three weeks. I think, a little over three weeks, I'll be 91. So I've had a lot of experience, a little bit of experience, and seen the various changes that have gone on in this country and the world over that time. And when I was growing up in the 30s, I never knew a president who helped me. until the middle, almost the end of the first, second world war.

[11:25]

That was a long time to have one person, four terms. And then everything started to change after the war. America, it was all, we all believed in democracy. Everyone believed in democracy, almost. I mean, everyone I knew. And then things started to change. We trusted the police. We had all this trust. And then it all started breaking down when the extreme selfish started taking over and leading us to where Democracy is hanging by a thread. Democracy to me always meant everybody shares together, appreciates everyone else.

[12:38]

This is the melting pot of the world. The thing that makes America great is not Donald Trump. The thing that makes America great is our diversity and harmony of diversity. And it's about to be, I'm not going to tell you who to vote for, but if you don't vote, don't complain. You have no room for complaint. I remember, you know, I'm trying to put this into words. I don't want to talk about politics.

[14:14]

Not a good idea. It's a good idea, but I don't want to do it. This is a time... No, no, it's fine. This is a time when... We're going to start living in a totalitarian state. That's the idea. It's the big takeover. So that we have an emperor instead of a president. Someone who is a president for life is called an emperor in the Emporium called the United States.

[15:17]

So I wouldn't be fooled by anything. But I don't know if everybody really wants to live in a democracy. I always thought everyone did. The thing that made America great was the fact that of its diversity. You go to other countries and they're like tribes. You go to Israel, Israel's a tribe. I couldn't join that tribe, even though I culturally belonged to it. I was looking for a teacher. I was looking for a Hasidic rabbi in the Bay Area. There was nothing like that. That was way back there when I was about in my early 20s. But when I found Suzuki Roshi,

[16:22]

Japanese priest. He was actually the Hasidic rabbi that I was looking for. So naturally he became my teacher. I didn't have to try very hard to find him. I just fell into his lap. and realized this was the teacher I was looking for. He wasn't attached to his tribe anymore than I was attached to my tribe. And so we could rise, all rise to the occasion of real, true democracy, whatever that is.

[17:26]

To me, it means we all share together. And we choose leaders who promote that. So, Suzuki Roshi, you know, always talked about depending on our mind, residing in our big mind, not in our small mind, but turning over our small mind to our big mind. That big mind which includes everything. It sounds like a cliché in a way. Well, big mind, big mind, you know. But actually, big mind means it includes everything.

[18:30]

And wisdom comes from the mind that encompasses the whole universe. It doesn't come from the selfish mind, small mind, or desire, or gaining mind. When our mind encompasses the world, we begin to understand the world. When our big mind encompasses the whole universe, we begin to understand something that we don't know. Not knowing, the more we know, the more we realize that we don't know. So anyway, what I have to... to say is that, you know, how do we stand upright in the top, when the world is... That's our kind of practice at the moment, you know, for a Zen person, not letting anything

[19:57]

upset us, even though we become upset by things. But how do we find our balance? How do we find our balance moment by moment and improvise? When something that we depend on is no longer there, how do we improvise? And that's what makes our life interesting at this particular time. You know, we have our ways of doing things, and when those ways of doing things are no longer there, what do we do? We just live each moment at a time, one moment at a time. This is our Suzuki Roshi's teaching. Of course, it's his teaching that he learned from his predecessors. Just be in each moment totally.

[21:01]

Be in each moment totally. One moment at a time. Don't think about, well, when are we going to get back to the Zendo? Don't think about that. Where you are now. How do I practice now? Not how will I practice? I wish I was back in the Zendo. I do wish so. This is great being back at the Zendo, but I don't depend on this. So wherever we find ourself, wherever we find ourself in whichever situation, that's where we are. That's what we practice. Don't get ahead of ourself. As soon as we start thinking about wishing it was different, We lose the presence. There's nothing more precious than our present moment. That's all we have.

[22:09]

So it's wonderful to be here. It's wonderful to be in a hermitage. It's wonderful to walk the dog, to pet the cat, to study the books, to try and hopefully support ourselves. That's a big trick for a lot of people, supporting ourselves. But then that's our practice. How can we help people? If there are any of our students or members that need help, we should know about that. And of course our neighbors, if we can help our neighbors. So how we actualize our practice can be a gift to our neighbors and our friends.

[23:21]

Our Sangha. And the far-reaching effect of our sincere practice, and the way we support each other, and the way we practice Siddha Zen together, has its effect in the world around us. So rather than dividing us, how do you unite us? That's what we are. So it's our Zen practice. Because that's what's happening. Our Zen practice is simply about what's happening right now. It has no special shape or form. Even though we have the trappings, you know, the Zendos, the robes, blah, blah, blah. But actually it's taken care of each moment as it appears. So I just wanna encourage our practice, that's all.

[24:28]

Everything I talk about is simply to encourage our practice. So maybe this is a good time to question or two. Okay, thank you, surgeon. For Q and A, we have about 20 minutes And we want to hear as many voices as possible, so we ask that you be brief and with no more than one follow-up interchange. There are ways that you can ask a question. You can raise your hand in the participant box, or you can chat and chat your question to me, and then I will relay that to Sojin. If you do raise your hand, please unraise it once you have it. Okay, so Ben has his hand raised. Can you unmute yourself Ben? Hi Ben.

[25:33]

Hi Sojin, can you hear me? Loud and clear. Okay. So my question is, is my big mind the same as your big mind? How many minds? There's only one. There's only one big mind. I'll share it. We share it in diverse ways, but we all belong to the one big mind. Yes. So the big mind of the ancestors and everyone in the past, that big mind is the same big mind? Yeah, including the crickets and the ants. Thank you, Sojin. Peter Herzog has his hand raised. Yes, hi. Hi, Sojin. What prompted you to grow a beard?

[26:36]

Laziness. This is beard time for disembodied Zen students. Women can't do this, I'm sorry. They have some other way of doing this, I think, but for the guys, you know, I noticed that I've never really grown one like this before. So, and I don't really enjoy shaving. And so, you know, like, I see this time also as a kind of whew. time. And there's a kind of relaxation because there are certain things you don't have to do that you do them.

[27:43]

And for me it was kind of laying back, getting a nice laying back. For a while it was laying back, now I'm busier than ever. initial time, I could let go, you know. Let the hair grow. Let your hair down. So that's it. No special reason. More like amusement. Susan Osher has written to ask that to let you know that you look very handsome. Thank you. Thank you, Susan. Raghav has a question. Who? Raghav.

[28:45]

Oh, Raghav. Hi, Raghav. Hey, Susan. Can you hear me okay? Yeah. Okay, great. Because I have my headphones on. I wasn't sure. So we come from emptiness, and then we go back into emptiness. No, no, we don't go back to emptiness. We don't. Emptiness is not a coming or going. It just is. Emptiness is our life. Our life is totally empty, which means that it's totally full. Right. So there's no place to come. It's not like you go to emptiness and come from emptiness. Emptiness just is. This is it. This is it. Empty means interdependent.

[29:50]

So everything depends on everything else. There's no coming or going. Within coming and going is emptiness. It's not like, you know, nothing there. There's no such thing as nothing. Except everything is nothing. Right. We just have... current experience this moment experience that's it yes but also we have the memory and the imagination of other realms but basically this is where we are and we have to take care of we take care of things you know

[30:53]

We just do certain things. And we get entangled with whatever it is. But this is like... This is going to keep... The circle of life is just going to keep going on. You know, energy goes... energy keeps going. Yes. Yes. But we have to find our stable presence in whatever we do. Everything is falling out of balance. Every moment. Every moment. Like, I'm sitting here, And I have to find my balance every moment. We don't even necessarily think about it because it's so common.

[32:02]

The most common thing is the most real thing, which we don't really ever usually recognize. We have to sit still to recognize. And that's all we can do, right? And that's all we do. We sit still, we take care of everything that comes into our view, and we keep doing that over and over again. Well, that's a simple expression. Coming back to your original question about empty. Form, empty is form.

[33:04]

So that means that all forms are empty of inherent existence. That's all. In other words, in order for anything to move, Otherwise, everything would still be here. So movement, there's stillness within movement, movement within stillness. In other words, as soon as you start dividing things into like good and bad, right and wrong, this and that, the opposite, you're eliminating the opposite. You're saying, oh, this is right and that's wrong. But right has to include wrong. Good has to include evil. Evil has to include good. Because we live in a dualistic world. As soon as you start separating and saying, well, this is the right one and that's the wrong one.

[34:11]

Although there is right and wrong, good and bad, and all those things, because we live in a dualistic world, one side brings up the other. But sides together as one is our practice. That's called living in emptiness. Thank you. You're welcome. We have a question from Blake. Did Suzuki Roshi speak about the civil rights movement and or the death of Martin Luther King Jr.? Never. He was from Japan. He probably knew about Martin Luther King, I suppose. He had been through the Sino-Japanese War, and he had seen the World War,

[35:24]

and so forth. And he knew that no matter how much we try to make things right, as soon as you make them right, they . As soon as you make . These are our problems, our prison problems, you know, civil rights and so forth. Those are very, you know, but in a higher and a different level, on a bigger, wider level, these things are always going on. And there's something called progress and called regress. And progress is what we're always looking for.

[36:27]

We're not looking for regress. But as soon as you start making progress, regress is there because it's the opposite. So you're always calling, whatever you do, you're calling forth the opposite. So that's not what he was interested in. He was interested in us rising above. all these dualities, basically. I remember when there was the Vietnam War, I think it was, and somebody said, why aren't we out there marching against the war? It made him very angry.

[37:30]

Not that he was not against the war. Of course he was against the war. But he knows that wars, there's war again. The war to end all wars, remember that? That was the First World War. This is the war to end all wars. Now we have more wars than we've ever had, because people thrive on wars. So, you know, we should continue to fight for peace, even though it's impossible. We should work to end all wars, even though it's impossible. So if you realize it's impossible, you know how to work for it. But to expect that there will be a final solution?

[38:37]

That's what Hitler thought. The final solution. There is no final solution. Because we live in a dualistic world. That's the problem. So instead of I'm trying to deal with a dualistic world, how to get into a unified world. So yes, we should work for a unified world. But a unified world also is only unified within the duality of the world. So he didn't talk about stuff like that. That's not what he was interested in. He was interested in the bigger picture. Because as long as just fighting in the little picture, it'll never work.

[39:46]

has his hand up. Darion, you have your hand up, but where is your face? Can you see me? I can't see you. Can't see me? No. Can other people see me? I want to see you instead of me. I'm talking to you. I have a red shirt on. Oh, there you are! Hey, you look great. I got a picture of you for a moment in your red shirt. Right, right. That's me. There you are. Stay there. Why can't you stay there? What's going on? Why can't you stay there? I'm not sure. I'm not either. Maybe it's my internet connection is bad. There you are, anyway. It's so great to see you. You haven't changed a bit. Thank you.

[40:59]

It's only years ago we saw each other. Yeah, I want to... When you talk, he disappears. Oh, when I talk, you disappear. That's what I got told. So, anyway, you know, Darian is from Iran, and he was at Tassajara with me in 1990, I think, early 90s. But he was at Zen Center for a long time, San Francisco Zen Center. And so he went back to Iran. And he, somehow or another, he kind of likes my talks. I don't know why, but... And he wants to publish them. I've been working on it for a long time, editing my talks in Iran. And maybe put them into Farsi or something like that. And English. So... I just want to let you know who he is. Do you have a question? Yes. Yes, I do.

[42:00]

In the context of impermanence and your teachings of right in the moment we are dying, we're coming to life, the expression We're self-creating. Yes. How does that expression that we're self-creating apply to a situation where we are instantly dying, instantly coming to life? How do we apply that self-creation within that context? You know, everything we do leads to something, a result. So every action leads to a result, right?

[43:08]

Basically, you know, it's called karma. We're creating our own karma, which means that our volitional actions, karma is our volitional actions, and so our volitional actions create a result, creates a result. The action is the action of the moment, and the result is the result of the moment. So, whichever direction we take, when we do something once, we taste it. If we do it again, we question it. If we do it the third time, we're hooked. So, we create passages, passageways. And one thing because we do something, it leads to a result. And the more we do it, the more we become attached to the result.

[44:13]

And so we're self-creating all the time. It's a matter of which direction. You're recreating yourself, called recreation. So normally we do this, we live unconsciously in the sense that we live, but if we are self-creating consciously, in the sense of mindfully, therefore we can totally change our life. Yes, you can change your life. This is the thing about karma. Karma is not fixed. It's not fatal. It's not fate. Fate means fixed, whereas karma is not fixed. You can always... That's the Buddhist understanding which allows us to have our freedom, that we're not stuck, even though we may be stuck.

[45:16]

Yeah. You know, we choose our life, gives us problems. And so how we deal with those problems is how we create ourselves. So we're all dealt, everyone's dealt a hand. This is my hand, you know, nice or terrible, you know. So whether the hand we get is nice or terrible, the way we respond to it, and the way we work with what we're given is how we create our life. Thank you. I just wanted to say, this occurred to me this morning, there was this movie, Japanese movie called Transitions, where this young guy gets in an accident, you know, he's a hipster,

[46:21]

a Japanese hipster and he gets in an accident and he becomes a priest. And he becomes this priest. He's wondering why people commit suicide. And so people are all, you know, all these people that want to commit suicide but don't know how or are not sure. are calling him all day and all night, and he's dealing with these people all day and all night. And there's one person who has two children and committing suicide, committing suicide, you know. And the priest is taken in by this. And he tries to say, well, you know, your life is worth a lot, and you know, and you should be grateful and all this. And he tries, and this just goes on, on, on, on. I want to commit suicide.

[47:24]

And the priest would say, no, don't commit suicide. If I was a priest, I would say, you're already dead. That's why you can't commit suicide. You're already dead. That's why you can't commit suicide. You should try to find out how to live now that you're dead. Anyway, I just wanted to... But in a way, it's like you're making your own destiny. You're creating your own destiny. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you.

[48:04]

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