Good morning, everyone. For new people, I'm Tygan Leighton, the Guiding Dharma teacher at Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, and I wish you all happy Interdependence Day on this 4th of July. Today, we celebrate independence, interdependence, interconnectedness. I think of this as an The ideals, the American ideal of freedom resonates in many ways with the ideals of Buddhist liberation and Bodhisattva principles. So this liberation is about acknowledging interconnectedness, interdependence, dependent co-arising, and meeting it in our lives. Buddhist liberation also means enjoying and expressing the possibilities of wholeness and of healing, which we sense and learn about through zazen and through sangha connection.

[01:18]

So in this time of interdependence this past year, of the pandemic has been a great lesson in interconnectedness. This last year, during the pandemic, we've had to go beyond our usual comfort zones. along with the tragic loss of life, more than 600,000 people in this country, and loss of livelihoods, we have all practiced radical interconnectedness, radical adjustment of our lives. This practice from this past year will be important and useful during upcoming climate catastrophes, which clearly will be happening and are happening now, adjusting to different ways of being.

[02:33]

This interconnectiveness has this past year shown that we are connected with the whole world. And even though vaccines have been available in this country and in Chicago, we're getting out more and that's wonderful, until we have vaccines for Africa and South America and India and other places that are not as, affluent as the United States, there's the danger of the pandemic spreading further and with more variants, and it may come back to us. So we really are very interconnected with everyone in the whole world. On this 4th of July, I feel my responsibility as a clergy person is to speak about how our country is doing. from the perspective of bodhisattva values, from ethical values, to speak difficult and painful truths as I see them.

[03:43]

We need to face these truths to really practice full interconnectedness. In my conclusion, I will speak about positive hopeful aspects of interdependent state. Usually when I talk on this occasion, I of Independence Day and Interdependence Day, I speak about Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence that we celebrate today. But I'm not going to say much about him today. I used to think of him, you know, because of his writings, I used to think of him as kind of heroic and noble. However, We now know that Thomas Jefferson not only owns slaves, but he fathered slaves. Some of his own children were slaves on this plantation. Not only that, he helped to spread this genocide of Native Americans through the Louisiana Purchase that he executed.

[04:51]

So instead of talking about Thomas Jefferson today, I'm going to talk about Frederick Douglass. But I'll just mention a few of the quotes from Thomas Jefferson that I appreciate. Jefferson vowed, quote, vowed eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the human mind. A wonderful Bodhisattva principle. He also said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. And I think of this as a good Zazen instruction. I paraphrase it some, the price of liberation is ongoing vigilance. So even when we're sitting relaxed in Zazen, this ongoing vigilance is necessary and in our everyday life as well. Thomas Jefferson, I forget if it was 1801 or 1805, but way back, he said, I hope we crush in its birth the aristocracy of our money corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

[06:02]

Well, That hope of Jefferson's was certainly not been fulfilled given the current aristocracy of our money corporations. But passing from Thomas Jefferson, I want to talk today about, I want to read excerpts from a speech by Frederick Douglass called, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July. This was a talk Douglass gave on July 5th, 1852. in Rochester, New York to the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Association. It's a very, very, very long talk. I think back then before television and all, I think going and hearing long orations was a major form of entertainment. I don't know. But it's a long, it's a very strong, long talk. Jefferson, Frederick Douglass, excuse me, had been a slave but he'd been freed, and he was a leading abolitionist during the 1850s.

[07:07]

And again, this was in 1852, before the Civil War, before the Emancipation Proclamation, before Juneteenth, when slaves were supposedly free. Now in 2021, We know that slavery continues through mass incarceration in which prisoners, those who cannot afford good lawyers, very disproportionately black people, are forced to work for little or no wages as prisoners akin to slavery. So, again, these are just short excerpts from Frederick Douglass' speech. He starts off by acknowledging our founding fathers and the ideal of independence and of freedom. So he says, Frederick Douglass said, the signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too, great enough to give fame to a great age.

[08:12]

It does not often happen to a nation to raise at one time such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not certainly the most favorable. And yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots, and heroes. And for the good they did and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory. So he said this celebrating the 4th of July, and yes, the principles of our founding fathers, the principles of freedom certainly remain important to us. Frederick Douglass continues, what have I, or those I represent, American slaves, to do with your national independence?

[09:12]

Fellow citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, those I represent, to do with your national independence? Excuse me, I repeated that. Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in that Declaration of Independence extended to us? And am I therefore called upon to bring our humble offering to the National Altar and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary, Douglas said. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by our fathers is shared by you, not by me.

[10:21]

The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This 4th of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean citizens to mock me by asking me to speak today? So again, these are just excerpts, but Frederick Douglass continued. Fellow citizens, above your national tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow, this day may my right hand to forget

[11:27]

Her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, to forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with a popular theme, would be treason, most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare with all my soul that the character and conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slaves on this occasion.

[12:30]

I will in the name of humanity which is outraged and the name of liberty which is fettered in the name of the Constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon dare to dare to call in question and to denounce with all the emphasis I can command everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great sin and shame of America. I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will use the severest language I can command. And yet not one word shall escape me that any man whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just. What am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay them, their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them

[13:37]

at auction to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? No, I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. And Frederick Douglass continues, in 1852, the conscience of the nation must be roused, the propriety of the nation must be startled, the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed, and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.

[14:40]

To him, your celebration is a sham. Your boasted liberty, an unholy license, your national greatness swelling vanity. Your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless. Your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence. Your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery, Your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings with all your religious parade and solemnity are to the slave mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety and hypocrisy, a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour. So again, this was Frederick Douglass speaking in 1852. And he goes on to talk more, I agree, about the horrors that face slaves in the American slave trade.

[15:47]

In 2021, We have mass incarceration in which prisoners very disproportionately Black, but all who cannot afford good lawyers are forced to work for little or no wages. This is akin to slavery still today. And we have police murders of unarmed Black people, it seems every week. Massive voter suppression now, especially against Blacks and other minorities. The Supreme Court acted this past week to support voter suppression and to allow wealthy individuals and corporations to make unlimited secret donations. Looking back, we can remember that the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution in those, the vote was given only to white men and only to white men of property.

[16:56]

So we're in a time of multiple crises now in 2021, just to look at our situation now. Of course, there's the climate emergency. And I'll just mention briefly the record heat in the past week or two in the Northwest. British Columbia was the hottest place on the planet at one point this week. And in cold, usually cold Siberian areas, there was record heat. Permafrost is melting, methane is being released to increase climate damage. And climate damage, of course, most impacts the poor and minorities. So that's just another of the crises we face in our world today. I want to also speak a little about the United States militarism. The United States has 800 military bases outside our borders.

[18:04]

This is compared to eight for Russia. and all other countries have less than that. 53% or more of the United States annual national budget now goes to the military. Much of this goes to weapons contractors, including for outdated and irrelevant weapons systems. Our quote unquote defense unquote department did not defend us from the COVID pandemic with 600,000 plus Americans dead. Our so-called defense department did not defend the Capitol from white supremacy terrorists. And it does not defend us from the climate emergency. Much of all the money used for the military might go to healthcare or to infrastructure. to education, to housing, to renewable energy implementation to respond to climate damage and other real human needs.

[19:13]

Our national budget has been described as a document of moral and ethical priorities. So 53% or more of it goes to the military. I should say this is not at all to criticize all the individual soldiers who now volunteer for military service, often for noble or understandable economic reasons. But the military might of the United States is a high priority for our government now. In addition, the United States is now continuing a very dangerous recent nuclear arms race Continuing from the last administration, the Biden administration announced it would not rejoin the Open Skies Treaty, a major institutional arms control deal signed by the George H. W. Bush administration in 1992.

[20:16]

So President Biden is now seeking $43 billion for nuclear weapons including money to develop a new submarine-launched nuclear cruise missile, which as a candidate, he described as a bad idea. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, or ICANN, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, they've just published a report revealing global spending on nuclear weapons increased by $1.4 billion last year, despite the pandemic. The report found that the world's nine nuclear armed countries spent $72.6 billion on nuclear weapons in 2020. That amounts to nearly $138,000 every minute for nuclear weapons.

[21:31]

The United States spent by far the most, $37 billion. That's almost four times more than the next country, China. which spent 10 billion. Russia was next with $808 billion, and followed by lesser expenses for nuclear weapons by the United Kingdom, France, India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea. More than 20 companies are currently involved in producing nuclear weapons in the United States. Just to name a few, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Honeywell International. In 2020, 11 of those companies received new or modified contracts to work on existing new or new nuclear weapons systems amounting to a total of more than $27 billion.

[22:33]

One notable positive development, there was a new bill introduced at the House of Representatives this week to cut the military budget by $350 billion. That would be a good start. So the good news, after all of that, all of the horrors that are going on now, different from the horrors of 1852, but still. The good news is that interdependence means that we are all connected. This means that our actions, our speech can change the current situation and make real change. It's possible. As Bodhisattva practitioners, This is the best time to be alive. That may seem like a strange statement, but for bodhisattvas, our actions in body, speech, and mind can make the biggest, most consequential difference now.

[23:57]

Change is always possible. And how we speak to our Congress people, for example, or to each other, how we act, how we think about a world of interconnectedness rather than a world of aggression and competition will make a difference in this world. This is the time when Bodhisattva practitioners are most needed. So again, we are fortunate to be alive now. as horrible as the situation may be in some ways. We can face the challenges of the world and the challenges of our own lives. So I've been talking about interdependence in terms of the situation of the world, but also this applies to our personal transformation. We can change our situation. we can address our personal karmic issues.

[25:04]

This is also part of our practice as Bodhisattvas, important part. Because of interdependence, we can, as Dogen says, study the self, study the ego self, see how we, how our habits of anger, fear, confusion, greed, and so forth, how we have patterns of reaction to them. We can have the possibility to change the self when we study the self. We can receive Sangha support to study the self. This is something we each do, but all together. We can become intimate with ourself and not be caught by our patterns of attachment and reactivity. This is also part of the declaration of interconnectedness and interdependence, which we celebrate today. And our personal work, our personal awareness, our personal liberation is not separate from the world around us and issues of liberation that confront our world.

[26:14]

We can face the challenges of the world and our own lives. We do not know the outcome of any of this. The outcome is not set. Climate damage does not mean necessarily the extinction of human beings, even though many species are going extinct or in a mass extinction. but we don't know how we can adapt and how things will happen. However, we can apply bodhisattva vow and respond appropriately as we each see best and as in community, in sangha, we see best. So it's not hopeless.

[27:18]

It's very important to hear that. How we think, how we act, how we speak now, it's very important. Can we face these challenges in ourselves and in the world? Can we respond helpfully? We don't know what that means. Skillful means is a matter of trial and error. It's a matter of making mistakes. But how can we each in our own way respond to the situations of our world? Change does happen. A little more than a hundred years ago, 1920, women were finally allowed to vote in this country. That's not so long ago. Before then, one of the reasons that it was thought that it was impossible for women to be allowed to vote was that, one of the arguments was that if women were allowed to vote, then men who were married would have two votes.

[28:33]

This assumes that women cannot think for themselves or vote for themselves, that they would only vote for what their husband wanted. I don't know if, So change happens. We can lobby Congress people to support cutting the military budget. For example, we can lobby our Congress people to pass the voting rights bill that is now up for debate, or if the Republicans will allow it to be debated in the Senate. We can lobby Congress people to end the filibuster that blocks responses. So we're living in a very difficult time. And yet on this Independence Day, this Interdependence Day, we should note that we are interconnected with everyone, with everyone. We're not separate.

[29:38]

We may individually sometimes feel hopeless or isolated or alone, but actually we are all connected. We are all interdependent through dependent co-arising. Everything we do makes a big difference and changes happen. So maybe that's what I wanted to say. I welcome and look forward to your comments or responses to any part of this. Happy Interdependence Day. David and Ruben, would you help me call on people? For people who are not visible on the screen, you can go to the participants window and raise your hand there.

[30:46]

But I'm interested in any responses or comments any of you might have. Please feel free. Alex Peltz. I was just hitting the gallery view on my iPad, but thank you for the great comments. Any comments since I called on you? Sure. I mean, it's always just a sobering thought to consider what this holiday represents. And I really appreciate the screaming of the sort of the lesson that we can take from this idea of the price of freedom and how that applies to the Billy Salka values. I think that's a very productive way to look at a holiday that as you sort of led on has such a ambivalence kind of resonance for so many people for a holiday that celebrates things that for many, there's not a whole lot to celebrate.

[31:59]

Thank you. Other comments? And feel free to disagree with anything I said as well. Paul, just go. There we go. I would just like to point out that you're Your demonstration and talk of interdependence is one of the most important parts of our Buddhist practice, and what that means is that what we actually do ourselves affects everybody else. So we can start our practice right there at home in our own bodies, our own minds. And maybe as a Buddhist, maybe that's the most important place to practice, to examine our attachment to consumerism, our attachment to

[33:15]

comfort at the expense of the environment, our chauvinism, both racially and nationally. We all have a tendency to be national chauvinists. America is special. This is a point where we can actually do something. We can think about how we deal with our trash we can think about how we do with our food. We think we can think about what we throw away we can think about what how we relate to our neighbors. since we are not separate from everybody else, that what we do affects everybody else. So that's a place for us, the most powerful place we have, the most powerful fulcrum we have to move the world. Thank you.

[34:20]

Part of what you're pointing out is that we each have some responsibility. And as Bodhisattva Zen practitioners may be more responsibility than many people, because we have this practice of awareness of Zazen that we can bring to everything in our life and everything in our world and our society. We have this situation of being able to just stop and sit and be aware, sit upright and be aware of our breath and be aware of our thoughts and feelings, let them go, let more come, pay attention. So despite Jefferson's actions, his recommendation for ongoing vigilance is very relevant for us.

[35:26]

We have a responsibility to that. And then, as Paul was saying, how do we act? How do we in our everyday activity? What do we do? How do we consume? How do we relate to our friends and neighbors and so forth? All of this is part of, uh, changing the way things are in a positive way. And it's also possible to respond, you know, um, to national and political things and do things like lobby Congress people. But we, we each in our own, in our own being have some, some increased responsibility now, So thank you. Other comments, responses, questions? Thanks, Ruben. You saw my hand earlier. Thanks very much, Taigan, for that talk. One thing that I found myself thinking about is, I guess one word for it is cognitive dissonance.

[36:35]

Like, how is it possible to hold a set of principles and not to live up to them? But that feels like a very general human condition. When Jefferson talks about freedom, his words have such a long ancient tradition. So you guys know I teach classics. So Seneca, the philosopher, talks about freedom and slavery. And Seneca admires a Spartan boy who was taken into captivity and said, I will never be a slave. And he suicided instead of allowing himself to be broken. And Seneca says, he never obeyed a master's single command. He never allowed himself to be enslaved. And in another letter, Seneca says, slaves can be friends. Slaves are human beings. And everybody knows that Seneca was the richest man in the world, except for the emperor. And he owned more slaves than he could ever learn the names of. And students will often say, how could he do that?

[37:35]

I guess it's the same kind of cognitive dissonance that I suppose I confront every day in my own delusions. I appreciate the optimism of the end of your talk because I feel so impressed by a sense of awakening around social justice, partly in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, but now all around the world. So anyway, thank you for your talk. Thank you for that, David. I don't know much about Seneca, but it sounds like the same situation of Thomas Jefferson, who I used to really admire just because of his writing, but anyway, sorry. He embodies in some ways the American koan. We have these really wonderful noble principles, and yet cognitive dissonance to call it that.

[38:40]

What is happening in our world, in our government? So, yeah, to talk about freedom and independence and own slaves and owns slaves that were his own children. It's just, this is the difficulty that we face in our country today, an embodiment of that. I see Dylan's hand is up, hi Dylan. Hello, I wanted to get on the good news train. So we had the flower ornament scripture reading group on Friday and book 20 started off with this sentence that delighted me immensely that I wanna read for you all. So it starts off, Then due to the spiritual force of the Buddha, a great enlightening being from each of the 10 directions, each accompanied by as many enlightening beings as atoms in a Buddha land, came from beyond as many lands as atoms in 100,000 Buddha lands and gathered in an assembly.

[39:54]

And that last part of just, and then they just gathered in an assembly. The conceptualization of, you know, you know, every every atom in the universe just got together and went to a picnic, you know. So, but I'm bringing it up here, because I know it doesn't feel like it often. But we are gathered in an assembly in this country, you know, that we that and so I'm bringing that up as the immense potential of teamwork in this. And that I don't even know if we've really even discovered just how powerful the potential of our teamwork is. And that comes with learning how to be a team together. I think there's lots of history that white folks in particular have to learn. But I think I'm optimistic about

[41:00]

the potential of what we're going to be able to do once we're fully operational, you know, as a team. And so I just wanted to bring that up. Thank you very much. You know, Dr. King talked about the long arc of history moving towards justice, long arc of the moral universe moving towards justice. So even though there's mass incarceration, which is the form of slavery today, you know, we can see how compared to the situation that Frederick Douglass describes, I don't know, I don't know about progress anyway. Things have shifted and things can continue to shift. And, you know, we have this huge problem of this, of this huge division in our country. How do we express kindness?

[42:04]

You know, how do we express awareness? How do we help to shift, the situation of our teamwork. And then I just wanted to add that Dylan bringing up the Flower Ornament Sutra, in our Buddhist practice, in our Zen practice, and in our Buddhist tradition, we have so many resources for encouragement, for clear thinking, for beneficial activity. The Flower Ornament Sutra is a wonderful one. It's huge and all honor to Thomas Cleary who translated it for us and passed away a couple of weeks ago. But I'll just put in a plug for the resources of Buddhist study, the resource of Zazen and Zen practice, the resource of

[43:09]

seeing the possibilities of awareness and awakening and of Sangha, especially of Sangha, that we can work together to help with all of this. So there's a couple of hands up now. Matt Strait first. Yeah. Thank you, Tegan. Thank you for your talk. Thank you for what you just said. I want to get your feedback on something. We are in interdependence, but there is this other side of reality that is independence. We have agency over a lot of these things, and I appreciate how you brought up Zazen and the Flower Ornament Sutra. I wish I could have joined you all a couple days ago. I just got back from a two-week road trip, and it allowed me to catch up on some podcasts, and I got to listen to the wonderful talk that Juan Pablo gave about a month ago. And I heard Paul's astute comment that we are all addicted to consumerism, and very true. And that's where I want to kind of get your feedback, Teigen. This independence day, right? I would like to hear your idea about independence or liberation, you could say, where we can live in this capitalist society, this consumer society, but we don't have to be controlled by it.

[44:17]

You know, we can't choose. I was born in this country. You can't really choose where you're born. Maybe I could move to a different country, but I'm not going to. I have young children. So I live in this capitalist society, but we don't have to be controlled by it. We can be independent from it. You know, we can use it as we need to, but we don't have to be controlled by fear and greed. So I just want to get your feedback on that, the independent side of this perspective where we can be independent from greed, independent from fear. Thank you. Thank you, very well said. I think we have the possibilities of independence because of interdependence. Because we are so connected, each of us in our own way can express our own perspective. can in our thinking, in our speech and in our activity, we can look for ways to express our own perspective because we're interdependent, because we're connected and because we're connected, our independent, our individual activity can make a difference.

[45:26]

So as individuals, as independent individuals, we have tremendous power to be a part of something together that does make a change. You know, I mentioned women's suffrage 101 years ago, when women were finally allowed to vote. And, you know, we take that for granted now. And we've benefited from all of the teachings and wisdom of feminism. So there's change. There's change in lots of things. But that didn't happen just, you know, sort of automatically. That happened because many, many, many women before 1920 We're out on the streets, we're lobbying, we're campaigning for decades to get women the right to vote. A more current example is gay marriage being approved by the Supreme Court.

[46:27]

This would have been thought impossible five years before. So things do change and they change because of individuals working together. So yeah, the dynamic of independence and interdependence, the dynamic of individual and sangha and community is really important. One way that monastic life has been described as being alone together. We each are on our own seat. We face the wall. We take care of our own, uh, Dharma position or, or response or, uh, responsibilities in community. And then, but then that happens together. So it's a really interesting dynamic and I appreciate you bringing up that side of it. Thank you, Matt. Um, Eve, hello. Hi.

[47:29]

Yeah, thank you for talking about the military budget because I think there was important reminder that, you know, so often I collectively we talk as though we don't have resources to do what we want to do, to address climate change, to address inequities. And that's a reminder that, you know, we do have resources. We're wealthy collectively. It's even though, you know, the wealth is very inequitably divided, but it's, you know, so we should have the power to decide how we allocate our public budget. And, you know, and then when you're talking about shifts, like the women's voting and gay marriage, I mean, one thing, I started hearing about universal basic income a few years ago, and I thought, oh, that's crazy.

[48:33]

That'll never happen. But there's been more support for that idea. And I was just reading a piece on the economy in Ireland, and they were talking about there being two Irelands. as far as the way people were affected by COVID, but people there did have support. I mean, they didn't have to worry about unemployment running out, that there was continuous support. And we do have the power to do something like that. So I think it's important. Anyway, thank you for the reminder that we do have resources. and that we should have a collective voice in how they get allocated. Yes. Thank you, Eve. I think, you know, in terms of polls of the American people, they say that a lot of the

[49:38]

to call it progressive. A lot of the human values that are possible are supported by a very strong majority of people in our country. That does not get echoed in the halls of Congress, but you might all contact your representatives to the House of Representatives. and encourage them to support this bill that Barbara Lee introduced this week to cut the military budget by $350 billion. That would be a start. We do have resources to take care of everybody. The way the world is, We could be giving health care to everybody. We could give a living wage to everybody. We don't need to have mass incarceration. The world has the resources to take care of everyone. And we're not doing that. But just to think about it, to speak about the possibilities, changes, and eventually ideas that seem outlandish

[50:44]

like gay marriage 20 years ago happen because people talk about them, because people are supportive of that. So we have tremendous power as individuals and as community to support positive transformation. And it seems And the people that don't want that encourage us to feel hopeless, like there's nothing we can do. It's the way things are. It's the way things have always been. But that's not true. So thank you for your comments. Other responses, comments, questions about any of this, please feel free. David Ray, are you raising your hand?

[51:49]

If there's no one else, I'll double dip. Please. I'm thinking about what sometimes seems to me the weirdest koan for me of them all, and that's what it means even to be an American Buddhist. You know, how to think about the interactions of those things. Lately, what's been on my mind is how whatever the discourse of Buddhism is, whatever it is in this community, like how I interact with Dylan, for example, as the Eno of the Sangha, and how I interact with you, Taigen, and you, Ruben, and so on. And that alongside our fellow citizen discourse and whatever other discourse. We sort of have the corporate team discourse. I sort of have the bro discourse along with the queer discourse. And how that all interacts with being a Buddhist is increasingly weird and mysterious to me. Amen.

[52:51]

I don't think we know what American Buddhism is. I mean, there's things we can say about it. But, you know, so just in terms of Buddhism, for whatever that's worth, you know, the Shakyamuni Buddha in this period of history started this 2,500 years ago or so in what's now in Northeastern India. And the practice and the teaching about awakening spread to Tibet, to China, to Korea, to Japan, to Vietnam, to South Asia. just, I don't know, 50 years ago. When was it that Suzuki Roshi came to California in 1959? And other people who came to the United States from Japan and from many other countries. So American Buddhism is like this great melting pot of different Buddhist traditions. And there are many, many resources in these traditions and in these practices, variety of practices.

[53:57]

And You know, one of the things about the idea of the melting pot, we've talked about this in the Friday morning anti-racism group, which I recommend to everyone, eight o'clock Friday morning, good discussions, but you know, one idea of the melting pot is everybody assimilates and we all become one thing, which is Americans, whatever that is. But also, you know, we can see the differences and appreciate the differences. People from Ireland, people from South America, people from the Caribbean, people from Asia, people whose ancestry is from all over different parts of Europe. Europe is not one thing. So how do we honor our particularities even as we see how we are totally connected? So American Buddhism is evolving. It's already, you know, American Buddhism is already different from Japanese Buddhism.

[55:05]

We follow some Japanese forms, but I can't be Japanese. I, even though I lived there for a few years and I, you know, appreciate the Japanese Buddhist tradition, I'm not Japanese. And this is, so how do we each in our own way express something that comes from our tradition of practice, of teaching, of looking at awakening, teachings and awakening practices. And then we have to adjust and see how it works. And so it's a process. It's not like American Buddhism is one thing. So forgetting about all the problems of our society, just in terms of what we each are doing here as participants in the development of American Zen and American Buddhism, we each can make our own contribution independently to the interdependence of that.

[56:06]

And the process of change of that is a very dynamic time, not just in terms of the problems of our country, but in terms of the process of spiritual awakening, spiritual teaching, so-called Buddhist teaching. So as difficult as the world is now, and as difficult as each of us may feel our own lives are now, there is this tremendous, uh, vital process that we each are part of and various processes. So, um, yeah. Thank you for your question, Dave. Any other comments on that or anything else? Yes, Ruben. It's good to be here. Thank you for your talk, Tiger. Um, When we talk about people in the past not being able to see the unacceptability of slavery, I think about now and how unacceptable poverty is, and how unacceptable punishment is, and the inability to see the bad karma, how it perpetuates that pain, that harm.

[57:30]

And I think about how one person can respond, right? And how we're not, I feel like we're not called to be one person, what we are, but also we're called to be sangha, right? And like, it's not you guys over there need to do this, but hey, let's. Let's all of us come with, please. And I think about sheep. Don't know if you guys are familiar with bellwethers, but like in a flock there is one sheep Who is impossible to find unless you're using computer computer programs to look at them the movements but there's one sheep who is just a little bit hungrier and Has a little bit stronger of a determination who leaves the entire flock from the middle and for me like Like the bellwether is our vows and the paramedos, right? The direction that we're going. And we go with everybody. Let's all go, let's all go. And yeah, that's what's coming up for me right now.

[58:37]

Thank you very much. Yeah, each of us can inspire each of the rest of us to look at how we can act think, speak each of us and each of us and all of us together to help develop kindness and awareness in our world and in each of us. So, yeah. Thank you. Oh, Joe. Hi. Or Ed, I'm sorry. Ed. Hi. Ed Dunley. Hi, thanks, buddy. Thanks for your talk. I always enjoy it. You know, I want to just sort of mention the possibility that our American history, our shared history, it might be more intimately written by our Black authors than many of the authors that we regularly read. And the wealth of Black literature, Black American literature is immeasurable.

[59:40]

I mean, here in Chicago alone, you can talk about Douglass, Wells, Du Bois, Alison Wright, Baldwin, Morrison, Brooks, Hansberry, the list is endless, and the reading is profound. And I think there's a sense of liberation upon the part of the reader being exposed to these chronicles as well. And so the diversity of identity that you mentioned in your own experience with Buddhism, with the practice of Buddhism, certainly the practice of being an American has similar divergence. And I just want to observe that in response to your talk. Thank you. Wonderful point. And yes, we can. You know, Frederick Douglass's speech that I read a little bit, tiny bit of in 1852 is powerful. And it says something to us today, even though he was talking before the Civil War. I think the more we can hear different voices and just listen,

[60:42]

hear the pain and struggle of different peoples and include that in how we see everybody in the world around us. Yeah, it can make a difference. So thank you, Ed. Other comments? I don't see hands, but. Did you have your hand up? No. No, but I mean, I'll just say, I mean, one thing I've been thinking about is, and one thing you and I, Taigan, have talked about this year in particular, is the paramita of vigorous effort, if I'm getting that right, right? And I feel like that's, or energy too, I think of it as energy, and that's kind of, for myself, that's a resource that I sometimes wonder if I have enough of, you know, especially in the midst of practice and addressing the world and knowing how to do it and what to do, etc.

[61:58]

But I have found this year, you know, I mean, I was You know, a lot of you are aware I was like a first year elementary teacher this year and I often wondered if I would have enough kind of effort or energy to like kind of get through the day, et cetera. And I did. And I think a lot of that comes from practice. I don't know that Zazen is like, oh, you know, now I can, you know, because I sit, I can do a bunch more stuff. I don't think that's the relationship, but, um, I think we have more energy than we think sometimes. And that's similar to the resources that we can take from military spending to address education and climate, et cetera. We have more energy. And some of that comes not just from our individual practice, but from being together, I think, too, the energy issues from that. at letting go of our identity and identifying with larger and larger sort of circles of being.

[62:58]

So I don't know, just speak up for energy and effort as something that's an untapped thing in all of us, I think. Thank you, Bo. Yes. So sometimes we're challenged in our effort and energy. Sometimes we get tired, you know, that's reality. But yes, It's not, and as you said, it's not that Zazen kind of immediately makes some changes. It's a process of awareness and of being aware of energy, being aware of effort and how can we support that. in ourselves and in each other. And partly, you know, Sangha does that. You know, we, even on Zoom, I mean in person too, but on Zoom as well, we can support each other. We can hear each other. We can encourage each other to make our best effort and energy. And it's a challenge sometimes, but it's possible.

[64:00]

And even in, you know, Bo's situation of going into a, in elementary school in South Side of Chicago as a first year elementary school teacher. We've talked during this time and yeah, tremendous challenge. So I think in some ways it's good to challenge ourselves. as a Sangha, as an individual, how do I bring forth some energy or effort, even, you know, sometimes you need to take a rest. Sometimes we get tired, but we can encourage each other. So I think that's really an important issue and practice to be aware of. So thank you. So maybe we're close to wrapping up. We do have time for one or two more people if you have something to add or questions.

[65:03]

Please feel free, everyone, if you do have something to say. I don't see any hands going up. Going once, going twice. OK, so Ruben will lead us in our closing chant of the metta sutta and the dedication. After that, there'll be announcements. And for anyone who wants to stay for a little while, a chance to just hang out together informally in our Zoom room. So thank you all very much. Happy Interdependence Day. All right, I'm going to mute everybody. And bring up the PowerPoint. We will now chant the Repentance Vow three times, followed by the Mantasutra. All my ancient twisted karma, from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, born through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow

[66:28]

All my ancient twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, born through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow. All my ancient, twisted karma From beginningless greed, hate, and delusion Born through body, speech, and mind I now fully avow Metta Sutta. This is what should be accomplished by the one who is wise, who seeks the good and has obtained peace.

[67:32]

Let one be strenuous, upright and sincere, without pride, easily contented and joyous. Let one not be submerged by the things of the world. Let one not take upon oneself the burden of riches. Let one's senses be controlled. Let one be wise but not puffed up. And let one not desire great possessions even for one's family. Let one do nothing that is mean or that the wise would reprove. May all beings be happy. May they be joyous and live in safety. All living beings, whether weak or strong, in high or middle or low realms of existence, small or great, visible or invisible, near or far, born or to be born, may all beings be happy. Let no one deceive another nor despise any being in any state. Let none by anger or hatred wish harm to another. Even as a mother at the risk of her life watches over and protects her only child, so with a boundless mind should one cherish all living things, suffusing love over the entire world, above, below, and all around without limit.

[68:49]

So let one cultivate an infinite goodwill toward the whole world. Standing or walking, sitting or lying down, during all one's waking hours, let one practice the way with gratitude. Not holding to fixed views, endowed with insight, freed from sense appetites, one who achieves the way will be freed from the duality of birth and death. May all awakened beings ascend with true compassion, their luminous mirror wisdom. With full awareness, we have chanted the Metta Sutta. We dedicate this merit to... Our original ancestor in India, great teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha. Our first woman ancestor, great teacher, Mahaparchapati. Our first ancestor in China, great teacher, Bodhidharma.

[69:52]

Our first ancestor in Japan, great teacher Eihei Dogen. Our first ancestor in America, great teacher Shogaku Shunryu. The perfect wisdom, Bodhisattva Manjushri. To the complete recovery of illness from, of Vivian Garrett, Bob Finn, David Martz, Susan Hawkinson, Mary Sue Gillan, Alison Snow Wesley, and Fred Wesley. The Mercers in Virginia, Catherine Flood, Michael Weisbrod, Jerry Lazars, Joseph Welch, Stephen Kane, Betsy Delahunt, Anna and Albrecht, Charlotte Iannone, Jacob Blake, Jeff Shepard, Mary Shepard, Susan and Albert Easton, Michael Soder, Sophia Wolanski, Susanna Taylor, Bill Olinger, Jeremy Hammond, Jackie Flood, Rebecca and Cole Lindberg, Avery Miller, Matt West, Ron Hagen, Alex Hagen, Marla Weiner, Tom Kelly, Jody Kretzmann, Joey Wieserich, Lise Ferrakian, Leonard

[71:20]

Peltier, Kerry Greenspan, Kinji Kawasaki, Joan Sophie, Herb Cutchins, Joel Orlove, Steve Hallef, Beth Joiner, Pyle D. Wade, Virginia VanCuren, Chris Summers, Dennis Olson, Jim Abrams, Lynn Easton, Jean Annaport, Barbara Matarese, Kate Lamothe, Paul Baker, Jenny Obst, Matt Wolf, Fred Mackelberg, Ed Bossler, Rui Hou, Iris Bestow, Carla Randall, Robert French, Shauna Ellis, Gil Young-Dutza, Jimmy Carter, Mary Mandarino, Rachel Stein, Norman Hughes, Bart Colopy, Ningshan Zhang, Zoe Nisa, Brenda Gross, Kathy Fleming, Howard Pollack, Pat Pollack, Faustino Dionisio Jr., Frank Ostaseski, Jeff Bridges, Shosan Vicky Austin, Peter Overton,

[72:51]

Thich Nhat Hanh, Kondo Nakajima Roshi, Jarvis Masters and all residents of San Quentin Prison, victims of gun violence, people under drone attack, all in the fracking zones, all facing fire and drought in California, all those threatened by the coronavirus in India and throughout the world, Amazonian and other indigenous peoples threatened by corporate invasion, the people of Columbia and the Palestine suffering from institutional violence, Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, peoples of the Mideast, and to all those who are lacking shelter, food, or safety, are suffering from physical or emotional distress, or are exposed to violence of any kind, and to the fulfillment of practice of all members of all sanghas, Gratefully we offer this virtue to all beings. All but us throughout space and time.

[73:56]

All honored ones, Bodhisattva Mahasattvas. Wisdom beyond wisdom. Maha Prajna Paramita. phone rings

[74:30]

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