I want to talk this morning about a few things, partly in preparation for tomorrow evening's talk by our guest speaker, Gene Reeves, who is a translator and scholar and practitioner of the Lotus Sutra. I'm going to refer to his text. He's going to be speaking at our regular sitting tomorrow evening. about Kenji Miyazawa, a great Japanese, early 20th century Japanese poet and bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas are enlightening beings, people who committed to universal awakening. And I want to talk more about that. And I've been speaking some about, and will continue to do so about, from a Buddhist ethical and moral perspective about the difficulties of what's happening to our economy and our environment now.

[01:08]

But also, it's important for us to share the comfort and support of this meditation practice. of this settling into wholeness that is our practice, and of the Buddhist teachings about it. So I want to talk about some of those teachings this morning. We've been speaking the last couple of months about teachings of Ehe Dogen, the 13th century founder of this branch of Zen in Japan. And people have commented on particular teachings, how they felt comforting. And in difficult times, it's important to feel the comfort and support of the practice and of the teachings as a guidance for how we can be in the world.

[02:10]

And today I want to do that in terms of the Lotus Sutra. So there are many, many aspects of the Lotus Sutra. But one thing that goes on in, this is a early Bodhisattva Mahayana Buddhist text with many different teachings, very important in Japanese Buddhism. One of the things that goes on in the first half of the sutra is that the Buddha, who's preaching to a large assembly, keeps asking who will return and keep alive these awakening teachings of the Lotus Sutra in the future, distant future, evil age. So just a couple of examples of that. He says, just for example, speaking to

[03:18]

a Bodhisattva called Medicine King. You should understand Medicine King that these people have relinquished the rewards for their pure deeds by themselves and that after my extinction, out of sympathy for living beings, they will be born in an evil age and proclaim this sutra everywhere. After my extinction, so this sutra was supposed to be said by the Buddha shortly before he passed away into Nirvana. After my extinction, if any of these good sons or good daughters are able, even in secret, to teach to one person even one phrase of the Dharma Flower Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, then you should understand they are emissaries of the Buddha, sent by the Buddha to do the work of the Buddha. So again, this reference to a future evil age, and how will this teaching of awakening and of relieving suffering and of supporting beings enter the path of awakening, how will that happen in such a time?

[04:29]

Another example of this, he says, if one stood on the highest heaven and for the sake of others preached countless other sutras, that, too, would not be difficult. But after the Buddha's extinction in the midst of an evil age, if someone teaches this sutra, that indeed will be difficult." He says also, if someone took the whole earth, put it on his or her toenail, and ascended to the Brahma heaven, that would not be difficult. But after the Buddha's extinction in the midst of an evil age, if someone reads this sutra aloud for even a moment, this indeed will be difficult. So we've just together done something very difficult according to this sutra. And it's not just about me. Dogen says very clearly and elsewhere in Buddhism that it's not about just the teacher up here speaking the Dharma, but also it's that Buddhas listen to the Dharma.

[05:40]

So all of you here, even if you're here doing this meditation for the first time, in some way are expressing this possibility of awakening. So one other place. Just another example. The Buddha tried to encourage the bodhisattvas, the great beings who were there amongst the assembly, to return and to keep alive this teaching. He says, if anyone in an evil age to come teaches this preeminent dharma or teaching, they will gain great benefits such as the blessings above. Dharma is an important Buddhist word. It's one of our three treasures, along with Buddha, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Buddha is the historical Buddha, but also many other Buddhas. It's also the quality of awakening that we connect with in this practice.

[06:42]

And then Dharma is the teaching about that, specific teachings like the Lotus Sutra. There are many other scriptures, too. But also, Dharma means truth or reality. So these are the teachings about reality and the ways of approaching reality. That's what the Dharma refers to. So after that last one in the Sutra, there's this amazing event that happens. Well, basically, to paraphrase, Some great Bodhisattvas have come from a different solar system, a different world system, to hear the Buddha preaching the Lotus Sutra. So these Bodhisattva Sutras have this vast, you know, you can think of them as science fiction or something, but they have this vast kind of panoramic expression of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in many places, in many times. Anyway, in the story, there are these Bodhisattvas who come from a different solar system where they practice there also, to hear the Buddha speaking the Lotus Sutra.

[07:51]

And they say finally, oh, we will come after your extinction in the future evil age and keep alive this teaching. And then the Buddha said to everyone there, there's no need for you to protect and embrace this sutra, actually. He said, OK. because in my world itself there are as many bodhisattvas, great ones, as there are sands in the 60,000 Ganges rivers. Each one of these bodhisattvas has as many followers as those sands. After my extinction they will be able to protect and embrace this teaching." And when the Buddha had said this, in Jin's translation, the earth of this 3,000 great thousandfold world trembled and split open. And from it, innumerable tens of millions of billions of Bodhisattva Great Ones sprang up together. Previously, they had all been living in the world of empty space, open space below this world. And when these Bodhisattvas heard the sound of the voice of Shakyamuni Buddha, who is the historical Buddha who lived 2,500 years ago, more or less, in Northeast India, when they heard him speaking, they appeared from below.

[09:03]

And he goes on to describe how wonderful they are. So as for all scriptures, one can hear it in some sense literally, but also these are metaphoric teachings as for scriptures in all traditions. And the point of this wonderful scene of bodhisattvas springing forth out of the open space under the ground to keep alive the teaching, to share that in what the Buddha describes as future evil ages, is that the teaching is here. The Bodhisattvas are here. Underneath your Kushner chair, there are great resources of awakening beings who are practicing and ready, and maybe you can't always see them, but when needed, they can spring forth This is what the Lotus Sutra says, and again, Gene will be talking tomorrow evening about one of the great 20th century poets of the Lotus Sutra.

[10:14]

He doesn't, Kenji Miyazawa, I think, doesn't talk so specifically about Buddhism. He doesn't claim to be a Buddhist, but he is clearly deeply informed by the Lotus Sutra. The story in the sutra goes on after this that one of the great bodhisattvas, Maitreya, who is supposed to be the future Buddha, And who you've all seen, well, have you all been to Chinese restaurants? Anybody never been to a Chinese restaurant? Okay, then you've seen one version of Maitreya, the fat, jolly, laughing Buddha, who in China is called Miloufen, means Maitreya, the future Buddha, who was based on a historical Chan or Zen monk in the, I think, 11th century, who kind of walked around being jolly and playing with children. and giving gifts. Anyway, but this Bodhisattva Maitreya, maybe not in that form, asks the Buddha, wait a second, where did all these Bodhisattvas come from?

[11:22]

We've never seen them. These are great ancient Bodhisattvas. How did they get there under the earth? who was their teacher, and so forth. The Buddhist says, oh, well, actually, I'm their teacher. And I've been their teacher for a long time. And this leads to one of the key revelations in the Lotus Sutra. The Buddhist says, actually, even though it looks like I was born and after a while left the palace and wandered around and finally awakened under the Bodhi tree and am about to pass into nirvana, actually, my lifespan is very, very, very long. It doesn't say it's infinite or eternal, but it's very long. and it'll be twice that long in the future. So, in this Lotus Sutra, there's this encouragement that there are awakening beings, bodhisattvas, under the ground, ready to come forth and help us. And also, that Buddha is also around, and is continuing to teach. And how we understand that again,

[12:23]

Actually, my last book is about Dogen and the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is not talked about so much in Zen, but actually it's very important for Dogen, and he talks about that in terms of our practice. Here, we are Buddha, keeping alive Buddha in a future evil age. But I want to talk about this a little more today, and I hope, I expect we will have time for discussion also, but I want to talk about this primarily today in terms of two people, Nichiren and Joanna Macy. So Nichiren was sort of a contemporary of Dogen in the 13th century in Japan. I'm sure they never heard of each other, but he founded a main branch of Japanese Buddhism. We were part of the Soto Zen tradition that Dogen founded, but Nichiren founded what's called Nichiren Buddhism, And it's very much focused on the Lotus Sutra.

[13:27]

And I want to talk about his approach to this story and how I feel like it's relevant for us practicing today in this world with a deeply damaged environment and our planet and deeply damaged economy and discourse in our country and so forth. Nichiren was devoted to the Lotus Sutra. And some of you may have heard of some of the offshoots of Nichiren Buddhism, Soka Gakkai, which has a... Actually, there's Nichiren and Soka Gakkai temples in Chicago. Nichiren Buddhism focuses on chanting just the name of the Lotus Sutra, Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Many of you heard that? This is one branch of Buddhism, not Zen. We focus on meditation. But again, Dogen and other people in Soto Zen have also very much appreciated the Lotus Sutra and talked about it.

[14:31]

But Nichiren's approach was pretty interesting. Part of what was happening in that time in Japan in the 13th century, the time of Dogen and the beginning of formal Zen in Japan, the beginning of Pure Land Buddhism, which some of you may know about in Japan, where they chant to Amida Buddha, Namo Amida Butsu, and also the beginning of Nichiren Buddhism. Those are the three main branches of Japanese Buddhism. In that period, particularly in the early 13th century in Japan, many Buddhists had felt like it was the time of, in Japanese it's called Mappo, the final age of the Dharma. Now, we don't talk about that in Zen. They don't talk about it so much anymore because, you know, it wasn't the end of the world. Things have gone, continued. But there was this one historical theory in Buddhism that after the Buddhist teaching, the teaching would gradually decline until there would be this future end of the Dharma age when enlightenment was no longer possible.

[15:40]

The Dharma was no longer really available. And so for the Pure Land people, they thought that the only thing that was really available was to chant to Amida Buddha and hope to enter into Amida Buddha's Pure Land. I won't go into all of the historical footnotes about this, but Nichiren's approach to Buddhism, which was very influential on Japanese Buddhist history, and still, is just to chant, homage to the Lotus Sutra. He believed very strongly in the Lotus Sutra. All of these different forms of Buddhism came out of an earlier form called Tendai, so they all came from the same source. Actually, the Lotus Sutra was the main teaching of Dogen, also trained in that. But the point I want to get to is that Nichiren Whereas the Pure Land people felt that this ending age of Mapo was a terrible time, and there was not much that actually could be done.

[16:42]

Meditation wasn't really possible, enlightenment wasn't possible. And Dogen actually didn't believe in that theory, didn't talk about it much. He sometimes uses it to encourage his students. But in Zen, it wasn't really taken seriously, this idea of this difficult time. But Nichiren did take it seriously. But what he did with it is very interesting to me. So in my book on Dogon and the Lotus Sutra, I talk a little bit about Nichiren, too. Nichiren actually believed it was this final age of the end of the Dharma, and he said, this is the best time to practice. So he was coming from a Bodhisattva context. this idea of the bodhisattva again, which is the basis of our practice too, we will chant at the end of this talk, we will chant the bodhisattva vows to free all beings, to cut through all delusions, to enter all gateways to the dharma or truth, to realize the Buddha way, to realize this path of practice

[17:56]

that all of you are doing now, even if this is your first time here, you are part of this now. You don't have to be a Buddhist, but that's fine. But you have experienced this practice in which we have a chance to glimpse this possibility of wholeness and support that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas give us. And that we also can express it in our sitting. And when we get up from our sitting, you know, in how this meditative awareness can express itself in our everyday activities in this world, in all the difficulties of our lives in this world. But going back to Nichiren who thought that he was living in this terrible time, and actually it wasn't just this historical theory, there were in this period in Japan earthquakes and famines and big civil wars and terrible storms and the capital moved from Kyoto after 400 years to Kamakura, what's now Tokyo.

[19:01]

It was a time of great upheaval and difficulty for everyone, aside from this Buddhist historical theory. And Nichiren considered the assembly on Vulture Peak, where the Lotus Sutra was spoken, a symbol of those who, having received the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, are able to transform our world of endurance. In Buddhism, going all the way back in Buddhism, this world is called the Saha world, or the world of endurance, because it's difficult. We have to... This world always, in all times, in all ages, is a place where we have to learn patience. and we have much to endure. And there is suffering in the world. This is a basic Buddhist teaching for all times, even times that aren't so difficult. But anyway, Nichiren felt that we are able, that those who received the Lotus Sutra teachings are able to transform this difficult world into a resplendent land, since the world where humans live is also the original world in which the Buddha attained Buddhahood.

[20:07]

phenomenal reality itself becomes the ground of the most complete enlightenment, which opens to ultimate reality. So, in some way, Nichiren felt like, as a bodhisattva, this was the fulfillment of the Lotus Sutra's prophecy, and living in this difficult time in Japan was a wonderful time to practice the bodhisattva way. And he actually, later on, came to think of himself as a reincarnation of one of the leaders of those bodhisattvas who sprang out from under the ground and so forth. So that's Nietzsche's version of this. I want to shift to our times. So Joanna Macy is a Buddhist practitioner. She's mostly practiced in Theravada traditions in Sri Lanka, and also in Tibetan traditions. But she's also a scholar, an author, an activist, and a good friend of mine, and teacher of mine.

[21:11]

And I've been speaking with her about maybe coming here next July, so we'll see. But I'm hoping that she'll come and speak here. She's taught, she's really informed a lot of Buddhist context. One of the things she talks about is deep time. and re-inhabiting time and seeing time not just in a very narrow way, but it's very parallel to Dogen's teaching about time and time as not some external container, but actually time is us, time is our existence, our being. So time happens, one level of time is the clock time. but also time is our own experience and awareness and activity. So we just sat a period of meditation and that period of meditation was a certain amount of time and the dawn rang the bell after a certain period of time.

[22:13]

Those of you who've sat numbers of periods know that sometimes, even though it's the same time, time according to the clock, it feels like forever. And you're sure that no one has fallen asleep. And then other times it just zips by. Well, how is that? Anyway, time is not just some objective external container. Joanna's work has helped to inform that Zen sense of time by a connection to a sense of re-inhabiting time, of seeing our connection to the past and the future. So as an activist and teacher, and she teaches process theology too, she has talked about, she's done workshops, and I'm not sure what, I hope she'll be here to do a workshop next July, maybe with Buddhist Peace Fellowship co-sponsoring, but she's done workshops about meeting beings of the future.

[23:16]

really imagining someone walking by here on Irving Park Road in 100 years or 500 years. What will their world be like? What will they think of us back here in 2011? How will they see us? What would they like us to do in this difficult time? As well as beings of the past, actually see that our practice is about space and also time, that as you sit on your cushion or chair, many beings are here. So in some sense we sit alone, facing the wall, alone on our cushion. And this is what's challenging about Zen, because we have to face ourselves. This is a practice not of escaping into some bliss world. Sometimes that happens and it can be a pleasant vacation, and that's fine. But ultimately, this is a practice of facing our lives, facing ourselves.

[24:21]

And when you do that, you see that many beings are here with you. Many people who you have connections with in the past are part of who you are here this morning. Many people you have seen during the last week that may not have arisen in your thoughts as you were sitting, but they're part of who you are here. So in time also, we have many, I'm talking about the Buddha 2,500 years ago and Dogen and Nichiren. Nichiren was born about 20 years after Dogen and died maybe 30 years after. They don't think they knew each other, but again, that's 700, 800 years ago. Joanna Macy's alive now, but she's done these workshops and really connecting with maybe not 500 or 100, just who's going to walk by on Irving Park Road 25 years from now? Some of us will be gone 25 years from now.

[25:23]

I hope many of us will still be here, in this space or wherever we are in the world. How do we see the fullness of our own experience of time by seeing past and future? So Joanna's talked about that. She's also done workshops on nuclear despair. So she came out of being aware of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which this month is the anniversary of, and being aware of the fact of nuclear weapons and that we don't usually think of this, I think, in our culture now. We don't think of it so much. Even though we have a huge stockpile, and Russia still has a large stockpile, it doesn't feel like that's something that's imminent, but subconsciously, somewhere, we all know that that's a possibility.

[26:26]

Some of us were around, maybe not so many, but a few of us were around for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963, We came very close to having a nuclear war in 1960, I'm sorry, 1961. 62, oh, I was close. Thank you. So what Joanna has talked about is that whether or not we ever think about that, there's this sense that it might be that we don't have a future as a species. So now we can talk about that not just in terms of nuclear weaponry, but in terms of the climate damage that's not just something theoretical that may or may not happen in the future. It's here on this planet right now. The planet has changed. And I'll be talking a little more about that in upcoming weeks. But this is pretty major.

[27:31]

aspect of our reality. There are many species going extinct now. I think it's the most in history that we know. Geological history, too. It's a difficult time. What does that mean for us? We go through our week and we take care of our family and friends and work and all of the stuff that we do, and yet somewhere in our unconscious or subconscious, there's this sense that, and so Joanna has done workshops on this, on what is this underlying despair and how do we make it conscious and face it? Because the most difficult part of fear is being afraid of it. Courage is not getting rid of fear. Courage is, and this practice of sitting is that we're willing to sit and be present and upright and find our inner dignity and inner wholeness in the midst of Whatever fears, you know, we each have personal fears too, of course, not unconnected to this in terms of what's happening in the economy.

[28:39]

There are numbers of people in our Sangha who are unemployed, or threatened with unemployment. How do we face the realities of our world from a place of uprightness and dignity and wholeness? So this is part of the work of this practice. This is all background to sharing something that Joanna has said that I don't think she knew about Nichiren, but it's very similar in some ways. She said, this is the best time to be alive. This is the best time to practice. From the point of view of this Bodhisattva practice, and I know some of you just started this practice, just sat for the first time this morning, But even so, to hear this, this practice can, it takes patience and time, but it can give us the strength and inner resources to face the reality of our own life and our time.

[29:45]

So Joanna says, for the bodhisattva who is committed to helping everyone to relieve suffering and enter the path of awakening and universal liberation, of benefiting all beings, of supporting life instead of killing, of not harming, of not indulging in intoxication that helps us run away from who we are, but to actually face our experience. This is the best time to be alive. This is the best time to practice. It's a really radical, valiant thought. But this is Joanna's spirit, and I know she gets discouraged sometimes, and I do, and we all do, but here we are. We have a chance to practice uprightness in this world. And part of that may be in terms of responding to all of the larger difficulties of our world, but it also has to do with how we face our own lives, and the people around us, and our friends and families, and our own work situation.

[30:56]

with this resource from our meditation and from this kind of teaching of the possibility of supporting awakening, supporting kindness and caring, relieving suffering. So, Joanna says, these are very difficult times, and yet I'm very glad to be here in these times. this practice is most needed. And I think many of you may feel that now, with whatever your experience of the difficulties of our world is now, in your own life, with people you know, with friends and family, and also with awareness of what's happening in the world, it's a difficult time. So congratulations to all of you for and maybe especially those of you who are just here for the first time today, for caring enough about the quality of our experience and the quality of our world and wondering, well, how can we help?

[32:12]

So this is what this practice is about, to be at a pace that we can maintain in a way that is kind to yourself Two, that's very important. How do we find each of us our own particular way of expressing kindness in the world now? Each of you, I know, is already doing that in many ways. And in the way that you're doing it, because you're doing it now in these difficult times and this, for Buddha, future evil age, it can make a huge difference. So thank you for being here. Thank you for being willing to sit and face the wall and face yourselves and be present in this world, in this life. So, comments, questions, responses, on any aspect of this, or for people who are just here sitting the first time, if you have practical questions about meditation, also, please feel free.

[33:25]

Actually, maybe since there are many new people here, usually when I do this it's at the beginning, but let's just go around and say our names just because there are new people here and we don't all know each other. Hi, everyone. I'm not going to remember all those names, but I'm glad I heard them once. So comments, anyone? Tom, were you about to say something? No, I was just thinking about something that you were saying. OK. Yes, Joan, hi. I really like Joanna Macy.

[34:44]

One of the things I remember reading, I think, that she wrote about is the despair that she went through in thinking about the environment. I think it was on the topic of the environment. Speak a little louder. She talked about the despair that she felt about the environment and how she had to just sit with that and cry about it for a long time. I really can relate to that because when I think especially about the extinctions that are going on, I tend to feel despair. I feel like there's nothing I can do. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, part of what this practice is about is being willing to face our sadness, and even despair, and sit with it. And we don't know what to do.

[35:46]

And yet, each of us has a way of responding from some context of caring. We have the ability to respond. And from the Buddhist perspective, we have a responsibility, being alive now, to respond. And there's something we each, in each, each of us in our own way, in terms of our own interests, in our own areas of our own abilities, each of us has many different abilities, we have some way to respond. And together, it's a Sangha community, it's about that we do this together. So, again, I think it's important to acknowledge that these are difficult times, but also that there is some way to respond. Jeremy. last year that he was going to come and talk during the start of the discussion, and you had said, one year from now, we'll come back.

[36:54]

It's kind of cool that he's coming back. Yeah. He's been here the last couple of years, too, so yeah. Yeah, OK. So it was my first. I'm expecting, you know, he's in Chicago in August, so try and get him to come each time. Awesome. Awesome. He, everyone, I think you said, so you kept on saying, you know, even just smiling to somebody is, I don't know if you said it was enough, and it's getting off the bus and smiling at the driver or pass her by. It's not too creepy or whatnot. But yeah, I'm glad that one year from now, I can kind of see how that affects all beings, all future beings, all from five seconds from now. Yeah. So how do we, part of this is finding in the midst of all of the potential for sadness and despair, there's also joy to being alive. And Thich Nhat Hanh also talks about this, that we should, when we're sitting, smile a little bit.

[38:00]

Feel this possibility of enjoyment of ourself. Kastanahashi was here a couple months ago. He was also talking about the point of our practice is to bring joy. So I don't talk about all these things going on in the world to bring fear or distress, but that there's some satisfaction and joy that we can find our own inner joy and together enjoyment and smile to each other without having to run away from the realities of our world. Thank you, Jim. Yes, Ron. I find that comment really helpful. I think sometimes my tendency is, on things like the environment, to think, well, if we could get all of those idiots who deny it to get their act together, or if we could just educate people.

[39:03]

I think sometimes that sort of response creates the backlash and creates an us versus them which ultimately to me seems the more basic problem and Finding ways of breaking down that us versus them something as simple as a smile listening being open-minded can do a lot more than sometimes all the activism that just Brings back the response of those with the vested interest on the other side Yeah I agree with you. How do we listen to others? I also try and listen to the activists, and that's maybe part of what we need also. But there's not one right way to respond. Steve. I grew up in Los Angeles, and I remember Santa Claus.

[40:09]

When I look at the old surf movies from the 50s and 60s, the beach looked relatively pristine. It doesn't look the same way as it does now. It's dirtier water. On the other hand, society, I think, has made huge strides technologically. I remember when transistor radio was a huge breakthrough. Some people here are too young to know what it translates to. The sexual morets, the options for society are just so much higher. And I was thinking in terms of environment. become a reality, sometimes there's a way to come back. When I was a kid in Los Angeles, in the fifties the air pollution was actually worse. People would burn their garbage.

[41:10]

So, not that it's a wonderful place and I wouldn't encourage breathing there, but really people did make it better. Yeah, things are getting much worse in some ways and much better in other ways. It's not there is great danger, but also there's much more awareness and caring all over the world, and many people working very hard to see how to bring awareness and kindness. So thank you, yes. So for newer people, part of what we do here is to have a time when we can talk together like this. As I'll announce later, we'll also have later tea and cookies and a time for talking informally.

[42:16]

Part of what Sangha or spiritual community is, is that we can discuss things together, even difficult things. Please feel free if you have any comment or question. Yes, hi. Is it Josh? Josh. I think as a newer practitioner, a big thing is knowing when to just sit. feelings, and when to just kind of take it in face, and when it's time for action. You know, specifically, I'm a nurse, so that ethics comes up a lot. Good, thank you. When to absorb it, when to act, and you know, on this environmental issue too, when do you speak, when do you know, when people will be receptive, and when are you speaking from anger, So it's tricky to kind of first kind of figure out where you're coming from and what your true motivations are.

[43:26]

I can't remember your name, but kind of what you were saying, us versus them. That's a big thing. What do you want to know? Thank you. Yeah. So I'm glad. I don't know if we have any other nurses in our sangha, but I'm really glad that you're here. One of the ways in which we can respond to the world is one of the basic Buddhist teachings that I talk about some, and I'll talk about again, Labor Day weekend is right livelihood. So, we have a number of school teachers as well in our sangha, therapists and artists and many different kinds of athletes. We have many different kinds of activities that people here do. But to actually do work in a way that helps people is very important.

[44:26]

And so there are ways in our own lives that we can be, you know, and whether or not we have one of those kinds of jobs, It's difficult, but to bring caring and kindness to just the people we encounter in the week, that's part of what I think Joanna and Michelin are talking about too. Thank you. Kathy. As you were talking, I think about the role of Sazen in this for me, and also in that sometimes it does create a lot of despair. ceiling that yes and so it's a study and there can be feelings of and lots of you know and so there's that I think it's important for me it has been to figure out how to deal with that

[45:43]

you know, part of this same hard work to realize that people who think about it very differently than I do are also very, very concerned and worried and upset. And so I do think it's important to point out how we can be open to other points of view and accepting and working with that. And one other thing, and so I think for me, so I was going to end with a paragraph. are extremely important in being able to clear away some of the angry feelings or the frustration, and giving it to my own dogmatic, I should do it this way. Good. Please continue. Yeah, so you mentioned anger. Along with facing fear, we have to face our own anger at what's happening in the world. And it's not really about that there are certain evil beings who are doing this.

[46:49]

There's a deep ignorance. We talk in Buddhism about greed, hate, and delusion. And there's deep ignorance in our world, in our country, about what's really happening. And to respond to that, we need to listen to others. We need to hear where we have commonalities, even though it may seem like they're big differences, the basic underlying concerns may be the same. And if we listen enough, well enough, maybe they will listen to us as well. So how to work with anger is a huge topic. That's several other Dharma talks, but part of that is, not to run away from it, but to use that energy to commit ourselves to listening, to responding, to caring. Can you? And to be open to the possibility that they might have a point that we haven't thought of.

[47:53]

Yeah, and that none of us see the whole truth. So part of this practice is also being willing to keep learning.

[48:04]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ