Good evening. Great to see you all. So tomorrow evening I'm part of a forum at DePaul University on Buddhism and Politics, Mindful Social Engagement During an Election. 6 to 8 p.m. at the theater school at Racine and Fullerton at DePaul University. I'll be doing this, presenting this with Jack Lawler, who's the Thich Nhat Hanh group teacher up in Evanston, and Charles Strain, DePaul professor, will be moderating. He's spoken here before. And I wanted to do a kind of preview here tonight. I spoke about this a few weeks ago on a Sunday, But I wanted to do this tonight also. And the forum tomorrow evening will be very much interactive.

[01:02]

There'll be students there talking with each other and responding. And so I hope we have some discussion here, too, tonight. So how do we be mindful and responsive to all of the issues that are up in our society, in our political and cultural world. So I think of these starting from the bodhisattva precepts and how to respond from them. These are guidelines to how we express the sense of connectedness and inner integrity and calm, that is available, at least in our upright sitting, sitting facing the wall, facing ourselves.

[02:02]

And our practice is about doing that practice of settling and opening. But also then, how do we share that? How do we express that in our lives, in our personal lives, friends, family, loved ones, co-workers, neighbors, and the difficulties of that. And also, in terms of the topic tomorrow evening, in the midst of all of the political issues, so I don't want to speak about this in terms of partisan politics. I don't think that's helpful in a way. And also I don't think it's, you know, it's just about elections. Really the issues that confront us in the world and in our society, you know, don't go away between elections, far from it.

[03:11]

And, you know, in some ways, our elected leaders are into change and wisdom and caring in our governance often doesn't happen as a result of elected leaders, it happens through people speaking out. So how do we speak out in a respectful way? But really a lot of the positive, what I consider the positive change that's happening now as a result of popular movements, climate change movement, Black Lives Matter movement, and that influences topics in our election. So, just to come back to precepts, we have in our, such as our tradition, 16 bodhisattva precepts, and I've been talking about them and we'll talk about them more,

[04:17]

They start with just taking refuge in Buddha, returning home, turning to awakening, to caring. And they include things like a disciple of Buddha does not kill, does not take what is not given, does not harbor ill will. And I like Thich Nhat Hanh's kind of versions of those. commentary on those. He has 14 precepts of interbeing. But I think what they come down to is being helpful, not being harmful, and then also helping others to be helpful and not harmful. And one of our precepts is to embrace and sustain all beings, to be inclusive. I want to talk about some particular issues from my perspective, from my opinion, from the point of view of precepts, but in terms of all of the issues that are up in the world around us, one thing I think is very important is to not indulge in hatred or demonizing.

[05:36]

So even people who we might think are promoting hate speech, To hate anyone, to hate somebody who disagrees with you individually is not helpful from the point of view of these precepts. We might disagree and we might speak, and part of the precepts is to speak our truth, but to not do it in terms of name-calling or even thinking that way. People who we disagree with, we may think they are confused or caught up in anger or whatever, part of what makes for a constructive civil discourse during times when there is a lot of partisan feeling, as there is now, is to listen, to listen to those we disagree with. It doesn't mean we have to agree with them, but to listen, to listen to

[06:38]

Here, what is behind that? People who get caught up in what we think of as hate speech, what is their fear or pain or suffering that is behind that? So, part of what our practice encourages is deep listening practice. Listening to others, listening to ourselves. We have partisan, conflicting voices within each of us sometimes, too. So how do we really listen and not speak disrespectfully, and yet speak our truth? This is, of course, an advanced, challenging practice, but this is the world we're in. We're called to do that. How do we listen to all the different voices Part of what happens in that kind of discourse is the strong feelings are aroused.

[07:42]

So we have to acknowledge that in ourselves, but to make an effort to be respectful. And it's possible for some people, if we listen to them and really hear their concerns and fear, that they might be at some point ready to listen to us And that's where actual dialogue can happen, and that's what we need. And it looks like with a polarized society, there's going to be not so much of that this year, or not enough of that, or maybe just to say, I wish there would be more of it. I want to go back to How Thich Nhat Hanh presents the precepts, because I think that he unpacks them in a way that's relevant to a modern situation.

[08:44]

He was a monk in Vietnam during the height of the Vietnamese War and ended up being Being in danger from both the North and South Vietnamese, because he was trying to moderate, it's difficult, it's challenging. But we say a disciple of Buddha does not kill. Of course, that means also supporting life. Thich Nhat Hanh says, do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever is possible to protect life and prevent war. So I want to come back to that as one of the issues. He also says, do not live with a vocation that's harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. So that's very relevant in terms of the climate situation. So I want to speak specifically about a few issues and just raise them from my perspective in terms of these precepts.

[09:45]

So I'm going to talk about climate, about economic and racial injustice, and then about peace issues. Thich Nhat Hanh says, do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to live. Select a vocation that helps realize your ideal of compassion. In terms of the precept about speak, we say do not lie. The Buddha does not lie, but that also means to speak truth and to encourage truth. So Thich Nhat Hanh says, do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest or to impress people. Do not utter words that cause division and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things of which you are not sure. Then he says also, always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.

[10:50]

So it's an interesting way of putting that together, to be careful, to speak carefully, to speak kindly when possible, but also to speak out about true situations. This is the difficulty in this electoral situation. He also says, you know, this thing about listening, being open to learning and open to hearing other people's perspectives. In the Buddhist context, he says, do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means. They're not absolute truth. So a lot of the problem of the world is fundamentalist kind of views of religion, and it's trying to impose our idea on others. especially when we have strong feelings about issues, to speak it clearly, but also to listen to others.

[11:53]

He says, do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn, throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times. He also says, do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others to renounce fanaticism and narrowness. So how do we encourage ourselves and everyone else to listen and to be open and to consider and also to look and see? truth about situations of injustice and problems in the world. And the last thing about anger, one of our precepts, is to not harbor ill will.

[13:00]

So this is especially relevant in this situation when we disagree strongly with something that's happening or with something that someone is saying. It's easy for anger to arise. That's okay, that's part of the reality of our human situation. We say not to harbor ill will, to turn it into hatred. Thich Nhat Hanh says about that, do not maintain anger or hatred. Learn to penetrate and transform them when they are still seeds in your consciousness. As soon as they arise, turn your attention to your breath in order to see and understand the nature of your anger and hatred and nature of the persons who have caused, or I would say allowed you to feel your anger. So, he's talking about turning to breath as a kind of physical yogic practice, and we have, through our zazen, experience in that, when anger arises, rather than, you know, I at times can yell at the television when people say things that I think are harmful, but, you know, to stop and breathe, okay.

[14:10]

So how do we be helpful? How do we not feel hopeless and overwhelmed either in the midst of very contentious issues? So these precepts are not about being perfect. They're about listening. And they're also about speaking truth. recognizing that other people have different perspectives and other truths. And how do we encourage not falling into hatred or demonizing of others, but actually speaking truth? So I want to try and speak about this in terms of three particular issues, which I'll mention tomorrow night, too, to spark discussion. All of these are my opinion about what's happening in the world, and all of these are things I've spoken about here before, but they're huge issues, I think, now for our country and the world.

[15:21]

One is climate damage, which I think of as a bigger threat to our national security, to put it that way, than any foreign group. The glaciers are melting in Greenland and the Arctic, and the oceans are becoming are inhabitable to beings that live there. Anyway, there's tremendous danger to our habitat, human and other beings. And what we've learned recently, relatively recently, is that ExxonMobil and basically all the other fossil fuel corporations knew about the reality of climate damage back in the 70s and did research and knew that what they were... that their business plan was creating a habitat that would be extremely dangerous to humans. And instead of trying to adjust and develop alternative energy systems, they spent hundreds of millions of dollars on disinformation and trying to pretend it wasn't happening and lobbying, controlling governments and media and so forth.

[16:37]

This, to me, is a huge issue. There's lots to say about it. The second issue I wanted to mention is, and I'll mention tomorrow night, is just the injustice in our society, the economic inequality. One example of that is I've heard that there are 62 people, particular people in the world, who own more than 50% of the people, of the other people, that there is that inequality of resources and lack of caring for beings who are in dangerous shape. And then there's also the racial injustice and the police shootings that the Black Lives Matter movement has responded to, I think, in a really noble way and called attention to. So again, I'm trying to express my view of major issues that, but without, you know, it's not about particular policemen who do this, or even particular politicians who cover it up.

[17:56]

This goes back to the karma, the systemic legacy in our society of slavery and racism, and it's just very deep in our society. So how do we acknowledge that and try and address it? And the example of Flint, Michigan, not so far away, and the water being poisoned. That's a largely African-American community. So we can hold accountable particular officials in government and otherwise without hating them. Maybe the governor of Michigan should resign. Maybe some of the people who caused the inequality on Wall Street should be held accountable and face indictments or whatever. People in the big banks. We can say that without personally hating them.

[18:59]

We all are subject to this karmic legacy of ignorance. in terms of just our human being, and in terms of the particular problems of our society. So the problem with ignorance is how do we educate, how do we awaken people to the effect of all of this harm? This is really difficult stuff to talk about, and that's part of what I'm trying to talk about tonight. How do we talk about this? in a way that's not name-calling, that's not hate speech, that is open to listening to others' perspective, and yet speak truth to power. So the third issue, again, I'm just touching on these to open these up as topics, is just the whole issue of war and peace, and we seem to have this endless war. I don't know.

[20:02]

In my teens, we had the Vietnam War, and it was terrible and horrible. I think there have been wars, our country's been involved in wars pretty much ever since, one way or another, covertly or overtly, and now we have Afghanistan, the whole Middle East mess. And, you know, it's not just a matter of Democrats or Republicans. I'm an independent myself, I have to confess. But, you know, there are people in both parties who are part of the problem of the control of, in my opinion, of the government and media by weapons contractors. But there's this tendency, and partly it's a human tendency, or one human tendency, and it's partly a bad habit, I think, of our society to, you know, go first to military solutions, you know, to somebody attacks us and, well, we have to bomb somebody to get even.

[21:14]

And it doesn't even matter because anybody who was related to whatever happened, you know, the 9-11 So diplomacy is about talking to the people we don't like, or talking to the people who we think of as enemies, or talking to the people who are doing things that are harmful. So that's what needs to happen in terms of international situations. And I think that works in terms of nonviolent conflict mediation, conflict resolution, interpersonally too. How do we try and speak kindly to and listen to the people in our lives who we have difficulty with? And sometimes it's hard to do. Sometimes we just have to... Sometimes there's nothing to do.

[22:21]

But if we're paying attention, which we can learn to do in Zazen, to pay attention to what's happening, We pay attention and watch. We sometimes can find a way to say something to someone who we think is acting harmfully or who's giving us a hard time or, you know, whatever. How do we... So, you know, in terms of peace in a global situation and in terms of all kinds of conflicts, how do we speak in a way that includes listening? And anyway, so this is just a little of... what I want to try and say tomorrow night, and what I want to say for us to talk about. With the Supreme Court issue, this election year is going to be very important. And yet, beyond that, how do we just talk about the realities of what's happening in our world?

[23:21]

So I can babble on and say a lot more, or open this up for other comments or responses at any point concerning the aspect of this. Please feel free. But the hard part that I have listening to today's news, how can you talk to somebody who is a sociopath? The fact that buildings that are clearly marked as hospitals are being I look at somebody like McConnell, who very after O'Connell was elected, said our business is to make sure he's not re-elected.

[24:53]

Not say, let's pass legislation, let's do business. He was just so rich in his opposition. And somebody like Putin, who I'm vilifying by saying he's a cluster crap. Well, I'm sorry, I need to stop, because I think what you're doing is demonstrating for us our own tendency, you know, and I can do it too, to Nankle. And you used the word vilify. So we can easily make people into villains, and I'm suggesting that from the point of view of precepts, so, you know, Mitch McConnell, I was trying not to name names, but, you know, the Republicans in the Senate, saying that they will not allow Obama to name a Supreme Court justice, and so forth, and other things. I don't know, technically, clinically, maybe you can speak to it, what sociopaths are, when you use that word.

[25:56]

I don't know if there are people who are, this is like the people who have no nature, people who are incapable of empathy. I think that's sort of one definition of that clinical term. and to think about how can... And certain people were not going to change their minds, or at least it's not obvious that we will. But how can we encourage dialogue that makes that possible? One example in our tradition was a serial killer named Angulimala, who was a serial killer in Buddhist time. And he was, I don't know, somebody persuaded him that he had to kill 100 people to get revenge. I don't know, I forget the story exactly. But the 100th person was going to be the Buddha. And the Buddha was walking in front of him, and just walking in a calm way.

[27:02]

But Angulimala kept getting further and further away. He said, stop, and the Buddha turned around and faced him and said, no, you stop. And somehow he got it, and he ended up becoming an Arhat. So anyway, I don't, I don't, I feel as a Buddhist that I can't write off anybody as hopelessly sociopathic to use that critical term. As a psychologist, can you just say something about, are there people who never can have empathy? Well, as a Buddhist, I think that all beings, without exception, are included, whether they have apathy or not. You know, as we were speaking, I was thinking, sometimes we chant this, like, All My Ancient Twisted Karma. Oh, I forgot to do that tonight, didn't I? I'm sorry. All my intentions was to conquer from beginningless delusion born through body, speech, and mind.

[28:09]

I now fully abound. Thank you for reminding me. So in these kind of discussions, I often feel like I, until I can fully abound my own role in the situation at hand, whether it's the bombing of people or racism or economic, you know, in equity and justice until I can fully accept my own role in it. And then there's another piece, like I think about how deep this karma is, you know? Like, I keep thinking about, we share like 90% of our genetic structure with chimps and bonobos. What's that? We share about 98% of our DNA with chimps and bonobos. Oh, okay. It's just like, you know, they reconcile their difficulties to like, you know, pretty violent with each other. And bonobos have sex with each other all the time to kind of calm themselves down.

[29:15]

And I think it's really hard for us humans because we have these tendencies. And, you know, when we're afraid or when we're pushed to the edge and everybody's edge is a little different, we do crazy things. Yeah. You know, to listen to someone, to really listen, to me means that that person feels that I completely understand them without judgment and with a sense of openness. And that's a hard thing for my chimpanzee-novo self to do. You know, and so it's, I mean, you're bringing up such an amazing kind of topic about how do we calm down enough. You know, it's often, Maybe Sosin gives us a hairspray of a chance to be able to do that, but I think we highly underestimate how hard it is to really, you know, like I feel like if I talk to Putin, you know, nasty question, especially for Russia, and if I was hanging with him, you know, like I would really want him to feel like I understood him, even though, like,

[30:24]

you know, I'm disgusted by certain acts. But if I can see, like, what's my connection to this whole thing? It's inconceivable. You know, it's such a hard thing you're bringing up, Tiger. I mean, I really appreciate that you can actually put this forward. And it's awkward, but I mean, it is so deep, this karma that we have. And how do we, you know, there's a psychologist named Paul Ekman, who's an expert on emotion. He actually found that across cultures all over the world, he did this research when he was a fairly young man, can be, when we feel an emotion, one of the six emotions that are common to all human beings, each emotion activates kind of very quickly different muscles in the face, so you can track them. and people who are good at reading other people actually can see these microscopic movements that show whether we're angry, upset, sad, and very interesting research.

[31:37]

But Ekman himself had a real problem with anger. He's an angry dude, and he was known to be prone to rage attacks that were shameful for him and really puzzling. And the interesting thing is he met the Dalai Lama at some like, you know, neuropsychology and Buddhism conference. And he said the Dalai Lama listened to him in such a way that it removed his anger. He was born again. The thing is, I think it's that kind of listening where you feel that person loves you completely and really understands you without judgment. And for, to do that, I'm a psychologist, I'm still terrible at it. I will admit, you know, my own karma gets in the way all the time. So, I mean, I think it's something great for us as practitioners. That's why I sit satsang. Every time I sit satsang, I'm like, oh, thank you, please. Maybe I can just have a shred more of that ability to be present and listen.

[32:43]

But it is, it's a tough order. Well, part of what I wanted to bring up, though, yes, I agree with you. I agree with everything you said. It's very difficult. And part of what we're called to do in this world of suffering is to respond. So some people feel like, until I'm perfectly enlightened and pure, I can't say anything about any of this. I don't think that's our practice. We live in this, you know, we live in Chicago where there's gun violence. We live in this country where there's incredible economic and racial injustice. It's all around us. It's part of... So we have to work at listening better, as you really eloquently described, and being more open, and acknowledging humbly our own piece of all of it, and at the same time, as Thich Nhat Hanh says, to try and speak the truth as we see it.

[33:44]

So that's what I'm trying to do and to encourage. And with all the issues coming up this year, I think we have to. And at the same time, I appreciate very much what you said, and that can give us some sense of it's not about vilifying somebody else. We can also vilify ourselves if we want to look at all of the stuff that we have in ourselves. But how do we talk together? open up, you know, caring and kindness. Anybody who hasn't spoken who would like to comment or add something or a question or a response, please feel free. Yes, go ahead. You talked just to me also of the fear that so often gets in the way of ever even engaging in these conversations with not only people that we think will agree with us, but more so people I feel encouraged to try to understand what it is exactly that I'm fearing.

[34:53]

Yeah, we have to look at our own fear, and our own tendencies towards anger, and our own tendencies towards vilifying, and how do we listen, and also try and respond helpfully, and it is possible to do that, sometimes. Yes, Cassidy. With those really heavy, dense topics that are kind of on the table. I think kind of some of my thoughts have been verbalized already. But in just in response, like how to speak and tools to get the ball rolling. think going to like fundamental values and starting with you know the just inquiring about the person that you're speaking with if you are on different pages about their fundamental values to see where your starting point is in terms of are you on the same page or are you not and where did you grow into such different

[36:08]

Because I think there's good intention behind everybody's beliefs and the things that we feel heated and emotional about, talking about, fearful about talking about, because it's very personal to us because it's part of our value system. But I think that there's a lot of connectedness in those values, even a note for tomorrow, right? Because actually when I talk about precepts, what I'm trying to talk about is values, fundamental values. And people who disagree with us, you know, sometimes they have different values, and that's interesting to explore. So in Buddhism we have values of cooperation and collaboration and connectedness. or at least some Buddhists do. I was in a panel with a Buddhist teacher who said, no, there's no such thing as interconnectedness. We're all separate. And there are values of competitiveness. I've got to do unto others before they do unto me.

[37:17]

People actually feel that. So yes, on one level, to look at the values and say, OK, we have a disagreement, and we can agree to disagree, and to do that civilly. But I think a lot of people who we disagree with when we get down to basic values of caring and kindness and well-being, maybe there are underlying agreements and the way it's expressed. Just an example, excuse me, since David mentioned political figures, I heard that there were people in New Hampshire who were really undecided and they were trying to figure out whether they wanted to vote for Trump or Sanders. So that's an example of. say it at one value, bringing forth what we might think of as contrary responses. Anyway, we're going to be talking about this all year, obviously. This is a momentous year in our history. And let's close.

[38:19]

And I apologize for leaving out the ancient history prior, but let's try and I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Trials are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to realize it. The endings are numberless. I vow to free them. The delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. The dharma gates are boundless.

[39:22]

I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to realize it. Beings are numberless. I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. The Dharma debates are groundless. I vow to enter them. The Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to realize it.

[40:09]

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