The unsurpassed, profound, and wondrous Dharma rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million kalpas, now I can see and hear it. Accept and maintain it. May I unfold the meaning of the Tathagata's truth. Good morning, everyone.

[01:09]

Good morning. For newer people, I'm Taigen Layton, the teacher here at Ancient Dragons Zen Gate. And this morning, I want to talk about, I don't know what. So I have some notes scrolled down here. And even if I can read them, I want to talk about I don't know what. So that's my name for reality this week. Dogen, our 13th century founder, Japanese monk, founder of this tradition of Zen, sometimes just called it what? Or what is it? Or what is this that thus comes? And some of you have heard me talk about it as what it is.

[02:17]

But today I'll just say I don't know what. I don't know what. Reality is another word for that. So our practice is exploring reality. Is there even one reality? Maybe there are multiple realities. That seems to be, from what I can gather, Modern physics is saying, whether you're into quantum or string theory or whatever, there's multiple realities. Or maybe there's not even any reality. And certainly, reality is not a thing.

[03:20]

Because in reality, there are no things. Brook Siporin, who was here recently in his wonderful new book, Emptiness and Omnipresence, talks about thinking thinglessly. Pretty hard to do in our language, or maybe in any language. I don't know what. And this isn't even a function of my stupidity or my limited human faculties, reality itself, if there is such a thing. So I'm feeling more and more recently like certainly I'm not in control of anything. I don't know what.

[04:27]

Of course, there are times when I want the dough-ons to run on time, you know. And I imagine, you know, that things might happen that way. So this is another way, this, I don't know what, is another word for our zazen practice, our samadhi. This wonderful practice we do. This settling, this upright sitting, this practice that includes all beings. It's about helping all beings. That is totally beyond our control.

[05:32]

I mean, even if you're a high-class meditator and you can focus your mind and dispel all thoughts for a few minutes or a few hours or whatever, and actually manage to count to 10 with your breaths or whatever, I don't know what. But the reality, if there is such a thing of our samadhi, is that this is the practice that includes all beings. Everything. Everybody you've ever known. Everybody you've never known. All beings in the past and future are part of what's happening on your seat and in this room right now. And also this helps all beings. So I want to talk about our samadhi as a social practice.

[06:35]

Our samadhi together and each one of us. Our zazen supports the samadhi of all beings. This is wonderful. This is a wonderful situation. And it's a terrible situation. This is beautiful and glorious and awesome and it's terrible and painful. Here we are just sitting together with all beings, each one of us, in our own way. I don't know what is happening on each of your seats or even on mine.

[07:40]

And yet, here we are, and we're sitting for many beings, for all beings, but many beings in particular. So I feel like I'm sitting for this terrible thing that happened in Orlando and all the attacks on the LGBT community, which is under attack in so many ways. And I'm sitting with them and for them. And today is Pride Day. And there are marches in Chicago and many places. And I feel very sad. But I also have to acknowledge that I'm sitting for the people who cause harm. I'm sitting for the people who think that

[08:43]

We need to have assault rifles. Matt, who's not here today, but who'll be here tomorrow, teaches in grade school. And there are people who think that all grade school teachers should have assault rifles. And most of those people, I think, are the manufacturers of assault rifles, or the people who, you know, the lobbyists in Congress, people who are paid off by them. But my sitting includes them too. I really think that's a terrible idea. But as some dude in one of my favorite American Buddhist movies says, that's just my opinion, man, you know? But I do think it's a terrible idea that we have assault rifles, that we have guns on the streets of Chicago.

[09:54]

Because there's so much hatred There's so many people who don't think they're sitting and practicing for all beings. So, you know, the people in Congress sat down. Maybe they did Zazen, you know, for, I don't know, 24, maybe more than 24 hours last week. They sat down, led by John Lewis. You know, they sat for some tiny little modest gun control. But maybe they should be doing, maybe the people in Congress, maybe we'd be better off if they just sat Zazen all the time. You know, if they sat Sashin. If they didn't pass any laws or do anything else, but just sat Zazen all the time. You know, Sashin, 24 hours. That would be beautiful. They would be sitting for everyone. They would be really taking care of the American people.

[10:59]

I don't know. I don't know. That's just my opinion, man. But anyway, there are those people who think that everybody should have guns, and teachers in all the classrooms should have assault rifles, and anyway. So my zazen has to include all of them. Mazarzin has to include the people who want to make regime change all over the world and all of the dictators or governments they don't like that America should go and change those governments and send weapons to people who will take over those governments and And then who knows who will replace them. So we've got this war on terror thing happening.

[12:01]

I don't quite understand this. It's a war on terror or a war on terror. And then there are people who want to build walls to keep Muslims out or Mexicans or somebody. I don't know. So I have to sit for those people too. I don't know who the terrorists are. I really, I just, you know, they all, if everybody just sets those in and we just included everybody, if everybody included everybody in their Samadhi, you know, I think that might help a little bit. So, Maybe we should keep all foreigners out. Maybe we should keep all Muslims out. I don't know. But you know, it's funny. I saw that the United States government bombed or occupied at least 14 different Islamic countries since 1980.

[13:07]

So maybe those people think we're the terrorists. I don't know. It's, you know, it's hard to say what's going on. But, you know, it's, if you look around, there's, this revolution's happening all over the world. Maybe that's always happening, you know. We're always turning. The Dharma wheel is turning. People are turning. So how do we sit with all of that? How does our samadhi include all of these beings? How do we help all beings by including them all? So I've heard that people who do dedicated samadhi practice, sitting up in the mountains, really focusing on settling and opening and being present, are doing social practice.

[14:26]

They actually, by being, by really sitting well, by really deepening their samadhi, by really just opening their awareness and doing this Bodhisattva practice, caring for all beings, sitting up in the mountains, they really help the world. And I kind of believe that. It's a kind of social action practice. A kind of dedication to caring for the world. It may not look like it, to people living in Chicago. But I think maybe that helps somehow. But I also think maybe people living in the city, maybe people living in north central Chicago, doing this samadhi, sitting, being present, deepening our samadhi, really caring for all beings, considering all the beings, all the people in revolution,

[15:34]

You know, the British people leaving Europe, and now the Scots people wanting to leave Britain, and the Irish people wanting to leave Britain, and all this stuff going on everywhere. It's really interesting times. How can we sit here in our Samadhi and just include them all? That's a social practice. Open our hearts to all the beings. That's one kind of social practice. Just sitting in samadhi, this samadhi of all beings, this samadhi of I don't know what. I don't know what. I don't know what's happening. In the world and even in our own lives, of course, I don't know what. We can't fix the world and most of us can't even fix our own problems.

[16:42]

Occasionally, you know, we can figure out something and we do something. That's, you know, great. Whatever works, whatever helps, you know, we try things. We try skillful means. We try to respond. So just sitting in Samadhi doesn't mean ignoring the problems. It doesn't mean not responding. This is a responsive practice. How do we help? and maybe just talking about it or listening deeply. Maybe that helps. Prajwal was here yesterday doing this dancing practice. And he also, Thursday night I heard him, and he was talking about the different ornaments and how they're related to different paramitas. And he talked about earrings as the practice of patience. and how in his tradition from Nepal, Bodhisattvas wear big earrings. So I don't know, I've never worn earrings, but maybe I should start.

[17:44]

But, you know, that earrings represent patience and listening and really, really this active, listening, the ears. He suggested just massaging the ears sometimes as a practice of developing and activating our patience. So the samadhi is to listen to all the beings. So, you know, there's the social practice of deep samadhi, whether in the mountains or in urban, little urban zendas. There's also the Samadhi practice of people on the streets. And that's a relevant practice these days, too. The Black Lives Matter people marching in the streets, really helping us to be aware.

[18:48]

of our racism, of the racism in our society, of the problems of black people afraid to walk out on the street. Who knows who the next young black person, unarmed black person, will be shot by the police. We should be aware of the police, too, and the difficulty of their job. You know, 100 years ago, women were not allowed to vote. Only 100 years ago. And I'm not sure why that was. Was it that they thought that women were too stupid to vote or that women weren't, you know, I don't know. Does anyone know why they didn't let women vote? What was the, what was, What was it about women that were just not good enough to vote?

[19:50]

Anyway, that's what they thought for a long time. in our country until less than 100 years ago. And it wasn't that men suddenly said, oh, yeah, we should let women vote. Women are good. We like women. It took women marching in the streets, women suffrage people marching in the streets for many, many, many years. And finally, men said, OK, we'll let you vote. And we sort of take that for granted now. It's been almost 100 years. There was some political pundit, I won't say from which party, who was recently suggested we should take away the women's vote. I don't think that's going to happen, but still, women's health is under attack, so I'll sit for women, too. And now we might have a woman president.

[20:54]

Wow. That's strange. And people marching for climate you know, to try and stop climate damage have made a difference. So I'm actually thinking about going in July, that's this month, to Philadelphia. There's going to be a, the day before the Democratic Convention, there's going to be a big climate march and people of faith are going to be represented. So I don't know if I can figure out the logistics and all, but I'd like to go there. So yeah, there's people sitting in Samadhi in the mountains or in storefront temples for all beings and people marching in the streets for all beings or for various beings trying to take care of

[22:04]

lessening the damage of climate marches, certainly for all beings, for many beings, before they go extinct. I don't know what, I don't know what to do. I don't know what this Samadhi is, but I know that, or I feel that somehow everything is right here. Everyone is right here, all beings, all beings are right here. Even all the beings, you know, not just in this world, I've heard that there are many planets where there might be, you know, sentient beings. So I'll include them too. So this isn't just kind of this, I don't know what, isn't just about some consideration of reality or multiple realities or whatever there is instead of reality.

[23:44]

This is about our caring. We practice this samadhi of all beings, this zazen, this uprightness. Of course, this isn't just a self-help practice, but of course, we're included. So this does, in practice, for people who've just come to, it does have transformative function for ourselves. We're part of all beings. It does help us settle. It does help us calm ourselves enough to consider all the beings, including all the beings on our own seat. It does help us develop our patience to listen. to all the beings out there and on our own sea. But we also try and help rather than harming. So it's kind of up to us.

[25:12]

Even if you think you're voting for the right person, she's not going to be able to fix everything. No leader can control or know the fullness of what is here right now, all the beings. But this samadhi of being present for all beings, sitting uprightly, being able to open and respond, I don't know what. And yet, we can be open to I don't know what. We can be upright and responsive and open to the impossibility of knowing, of controlling.

[26:16]

And that that's okay, and we can actually live here. How can we be open to this? Brook Siporin defines emptiness as ontological ambiguity. It's not just that I don't know. Reality itself doesn't know reality. Whatever that is, I don't know. What? But we can look around and see what we think causes harm and try and respond to that.

[27:25]

We can see who needs help and who we should try and take care of and try and respond to that. So I encourage you to do this samadhi of all beings, whether you're sitting in the forest somewhere, in our camping session coming up, or sitting in our storefront temple, or marching in the streets when there's an occasion for that, to include all beings in this, I don't know what, So I can keep babbling, but I don't know what. Does anyone have any comments, or questions, or responses?

[28:27]

Please feel free. Yes, hi. You mentioned some kind of events. I'd just like to bring up that. I'd just like to bring up that Columbia appeared to have ended their 52-year-long civil war. Yes. There's lots of good things happening. That's right. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. So I sometimes focus on all the problems, and I'm sorry about that. I used to work in TV news, so I have this habit. Yes, the country of Colombia ended this long civil war. So peace breaks out sometimes. Yay, peace. Thank you for mentioning that. There are good things happening. And who knows what's good and what's not. Maybe we don't know what the effect of England leaving the European Union, you know, we don't always know what the effects of things will be.

[29:30]

But thank you for mentioning that. That's good news this week. Appreciate it. Anybody else have some good news? Yes. Oh, okay, Miriam, that's okay, you can say whatever. So I said, well, maybe she can do this. And she got really upset and said, don't call me she. I have a name. My name is Carol. And she was really upset.

[30:32]

Well, you know, sometimes we try things, you know, and sometimes it doesn't work. But that can be helpful, too, because it was helpful to you. And we don't know. So it's okay to try things. In fact, making mistakes is an essential part of our practice. We don't know what will help, but we have to listen and try things. And that might have helped with some other person. That might have been exactly the thing. Well, there you go. Yeah. Other comments or stories or responses? Brian. I'm not thinking of living in fear.

[32:38]

Well there's, I'm not sure if I got the question, but say it again. Yeah, allowing and trusting the process and yeah, Not being afraid of our fear. If you're afraid, just, okay, I'm afraid. And there's lots of things to be afraid of, but it's okay to be afraid, trusting that. But it's not trusting some outcome. It's trusting, okay, I'm willing to be present here, right in the middle of this situation, and keep paying attention, and keep not knowing what. and yet trying to respond. So it's like hope, hoping that in some result is, you know, maybe delusion.

[34:23]

My friend Joanna Macy talks about active hope and not in the sense of hoping for something, but looking at one's best hopes and acting on that, acting on the hopes we have and trying to respond from that. So maybe that trust is trusting ourselves to do our best and to make mistakes and to, and like Miriam's experience of trying to fix something and getting it and not working, but then becoming friends with the person. So staying with it. This Samadhi is about we keep at it. This everyday Samadhi, this everyday being presence with all beings and however it works out or doesn't work out, okay, what's next? How do I respond to this?

[35:26]

This mistake, that mistake, and I don't know what. We can choose to be present. We can choose to be with all beings. We can choose to give our best effort. We can choose to pay attention. We can choose to take a rest when we need to. And it means also taking care of ourselves. It doesn't mean going out and trying to fix everything when we have to take care of ourselves too. How do we find our balance? How do we sustain this practice of the samadhi of all beings?

[36:30]

Hakusha. I'd like to be sent to Sicily. I don't know why. Yeah. Yeah. Build a wall. Keep them out. So are you afraid? Yeah, he's from Sweden, he's a foreigner. Are you feeling fearful about the future of Europe? Okay, it's good to admit it. Yeah, yeah. Well, action coming from this samadhi of all beings, this sense of including all beings, the sense of, you know, not, you know, not hating anyone, you know, that doesn't help.

[38:41]

We can see the people who do terrible things, and it doesn't mean we have to support them to do those things, but what's their problem? Where are they coming from? How can we? and help awaken them, and in most cases, or a lot of cases, it doesn't seem like there's much to be done, but instead of building a wall to keep them out, I mean, really, if we were gonna get rid of all foreigners, we should just give Chicago back to the Potawatomi, and have all Europeans forced to go back to Europe, where they came from. This is a Native American country, and there shouldn't be anybody from Europe here. Anyway, that's one extreme response. Enlightened action, yeah, yeah. Just action coming from a kind of samadhi, a kind of settling, a kind of... I don't know what.

[39:50]

Not having answers. Not trusting people who have easy answers. Not going along with easy answers. If everybody has a gun, you know, then has easy answers, then, you know, that makes me scared. It's easy for me to have compassion for Yeah, because I think that a lot of the people who have easy answers, it seems, are profiting off them. I don't want to mention any names.

[40:56]

uh... but it's uh... But that's a kind of ignorance, too, to think that you can profit off of promoting guns or promoting climate damage. Like the extreme, extreme example of the fossil fuel companies who knew in the 70s what climate damage would do and have been promoting it ever since and covering up the science that shows how serious climate damage is. And yet we've, you know, there have been, there has been good news. There have been changes, victories about changing this. So, yeah, there's no easy answers. Yes, David. but you don't know.

[42:04]

And I think what happens, and moving back to what Hakusho was saying, I think there are a lot of people who want to know and so they act out of fear, out of their fear, they want to know and they look for a quote simple answer. one answer boxes you in and limits your vision. I think part of our practice is to be open to everything. Yeah. And to allow, you know, to not know and allow whatever comes up to come up. And also to be flexible, to shift. We may know something, but we might know something else tomorrow. So on that note, we'll close.

[42:56]

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