Good evening. The last several days, Alan Sanaki from the Berkeley Zen Center has been here speaking, talking in various ways about the three refuges. I spoke a little bit about that last Monday. I wanted to just review some of the some points that he made, and then have some discussion. So now, and just I wanted to respond a little bit. So most of you were not here for his talks, but so again, I wanted to share a little bit. So Saturday, he spoke at DePaul University about radical Buddhism and the three refuges. And he posed them as liberty, equality, fraternity, based on formulation of Dr. Ambedkar, who was one of the three figures he talked about.

[01:13]

So again, I'm just going to touch on some main points of a little bit of what he said. If anyone's interested, I have the text of his Saturday talk. I can send you the document. In talking about this, he first talked about Shakyamuni Buddha and the situation he was in 2,500 years ago in what's now northeastern India. And one thing that Alan said is that he was calling this radical Buddhism, but in a way, it's redundant. The Buddhist teachings were, so I'm just going to read a little bit from Alan's talk. The Buddhist teachings were radical for their time and place, and for ours. The Latin etymology of the word radical means going to or forming one root, forming the root.

[02:16]

The first dictionary meaning is relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something. So this is our practice. whether we formally do the ceremony of taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, just to come and sit zazen is, in some ways, to look for the fundamental nature of things. So Alan said the Buddha quest was to realize the fundamental nature of being and to become free from delusion, thereby from the endless cycle of birth and death. He did this by going to the root of his mind, and by extension, the source of all his actions, and then spent the next 45 years creating a community, and with them, traveling and teaching throughout northern India. And he invited his followers to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, originally in an order of monks and nuns.

[03:21]

But this has a deeper meaning as Buddhism evolved, awakening, the awakened one, Dharma is the truth and the teaching about it and Sangha community. But he talked a lot, Alan talked a lot about Dr. Ambedkar. who's a very important figure, mostly unknown in American Buddhism, maybe only recently, and in some significant part thanks to Alan and his work. So Dr. Ambedkar lived, I'm not sure of his dates, but he was born into the untouchable caste. and the untouchable caste is still a part of the Indian Hindu caste system, but really treated very poorly.

[04:27]

They have the lowest jobs, live in constant fear of being publicly humiliated, paraded, naked, beaten, and raped with impunity by upper caste Hindus seeking to keep them in their place. merely walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a life-threatening offense for one of the untouchables. In rural areas, this is according to statistics from a little while ago, but not so long ago. In rural areas, 37.8 percent of government-run schools make Dalit children, Dalit is the name for the untouchables, sit separately from other children. In 27% of rural villages, Dalit are prevented from entering police stations, even if they want to report something. In 33% of rural villages, public health workers refuse to enter Dalit homes.

[05:32]

48.5% of Dalit villages are denied access to water sources. So it's a pretty terrible situation. 70% of rural villages in Dalit and non-Dalit cannot eat together. So that's the situation that Dr. Ambedkar was born into. But he was extremely bright, and he found a patron who was able to, who helped him to go to prestigious Bombay University. He won a scholarship there and then ended up getting scholarships and doctorates from Columbia University in New York and the London School of Economics and passed the bar and became a lawyer in London and then came back. So he's one of the best educated men in India. a kind of colleague and peer and actually rival of Gandhi, and that's a whole complicated story.

[06:42]

But one thing that happened in the 40s, well, this actually started earlier for Dr. M. Barker. He realized that for his people, for the Dalit people, living as Hindus in India was untenable. He did a study. He decided to study what was the best religion for himself, but also for his people. Actually, so it was earlier. By 1935, Dr. Ambedkar concluded that Well, no, that was when he started his research. And he resolved to leave Hinduism. He said, I was born a Hindu, but I won't die a Hindu. And after studying Christianity and Sikhism and Islam and various religions, he decided that Buddhism was the best religion.

[07:52]

He saw the rational side of Buddhism And in 1956, finally converted and took refuge in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. And then in October 1956, and then did this radical thing of turning around, received the five ethical precepts which are common as lay precepts and turned around and there was a gathering of 400,000 untouchables to witness this and he converted them immediately. So there is now in India where the Buddha started, where Buddhism started, a large millions of Buddhists, thanks to Dr. Ambedkar. There are also Buddhist communities, thanks to China and their expulsion of the His Holiness the Dalai Lama from Tibet.

[09:00]

But for many centuries, there was no Buddhism in India. So this is a very modern situation. Alan is very much involved with this community. He goes every year and teaches there. And it's in southern India. And Dr. Ambedkar passed away about six months after the conversion. So I had heard that. And I had thought, I wasn't sure that really any significant community developed out of that. They continued, and so the 2001 census put India's Buddhist population at 8 million. More than 90% were from the Dalit communities, the untouchable communities. And Alan again has been going and teaching there, and the communities are fairly activist, engaged Buddhists.

[10:08]

and the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order teachers starting from England also have been going there. One thing about Dr. Ambedkar and taking refuge. Well, this is a quote from Dr. Ambedkar. Positively, my social philosophy may be said to be enshrined in three words, liberty, equality, and fraternity. which we could take as community, is parallel to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. But Dr. Ambedkar said, let no one, however, say that I have borrowed my philosophy from the French Revolution. I have not. My philosophy has its roots in religion, not in political science. I have derived them from the teachings of my master, the Buddha. So it's an interesting modern way of thinking about Buddha Dharma Sangha. And it makes sense. Liberty, liberation, Buddha is about awakening and being free in some radical sense.

[11:16]

Equality, the Dharma is about the wholeness and the oneness of things. So in social terms, equality. You know, we could see that as a reflection of dharma. And then community and the importance of community. So this is a modern Indian understanding of Buddha, dharma, sangha. And yeah, so this is an interesting way of thinking about this. Al on Saturday also spoke about Dr. King, Dr. Martin Luther King, and his teaching about the beloved community. So talking about how the practice of taking refuge, the practice of, well, including meditation, ethical conduct, and insight,

[12:20]

has always been rooted in some ways in community life. So again, the Buddha founded an order of monastics and monks and nuns. What we're doing here and throughout most of American Buddhism is applying this to this kind of lay community, non-residential community. There are places to go to experience the the value of residential practice. But this idea of community parallels in many ways what Dr. King called the beloved community. And Alan said a lot about this, but there's a description that Alan quoted from the Martin Luther King Center in Atlanta. Dr. King's beloved community is a global vision in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth in the beloved community.

[13:28]

Poverty, hunger, and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood in the beloved community. International disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict resolution and reconciliation of adversaries instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict. So this is the vision of Dr. King and beloved community. And in some significant way, this is what our practice tradition is about, this turning to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and or we could say liberty, equality, and community.

[14:38]

So this is a modern way of looking at it, and an ideal way of looking at it. But in terms of what Alan was talking about, engaged Buddhism, and in some sense all Buddhism is engaged. I mean, disengaged Buddhism is not really. way of awakening. But what that means in terms of our practice and how we respond to the world around us. So our main practice in some ways is just this sitting we've just done, just sitting facing the wall, facing ourselves, facing our own personal situation being present to thoughts and feelings, sensations, discomfort, loss, sadness, and joy. And yet we recognize our deep connectedness to all beings.

[15:52]

So, you know, Alan was talking about this in various ways, and I talk about this in various ways. In his talk yesterday morning out here, Alan emphasized The way of talking about this, of Bernie Glassman, who passed away a couple weeks ago and who we did a service for a couple Mondays ago. He founded the Zen Peacemakers Order. Maybe you all know, do you all know about Bernie Glassman? He was a leading successor of Maizumi Roshi from the Zen Center of Los Angeles. was a character. He really was. He was funny and outrageous and at some point put away his robes and just led a community also practiced at being a clown. I mean, formally, he took lessons in clowning and wore a red rubber ball on his nose sometimes.

[17:01]

Anyway, he was an interesting guy, but he founded this Zen Peacemakers Order. Alan talked about the three tenets of the peacemaker's order, which really could be parallel to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha in some ways. So the first of the three tenets is just not knowing. This is so important in our practice. This is what Tsukiroshi called beginner's mind. It doesn't mean that we don't know some things, but that fundamentally we can't get a hold of some set definition or knowledge and use that to decide who we are and what we should do and so forth.

[18:04]

So this openness is another way of talking about that. openness to learning more, openness to hearing others, openness to, you know, it doesn't mean expressing. So we do. I would encourage you all to express your sense of Awakening your sense of zazen heart-mind, your sense of awareness that grows. It's not a set thing that grows and opens in sustained zazen practice, sustained meditation practice. But we don't hold to fixed views. So Buddhism is not dogmatic. There have been branches of Buddhism that maybe have strayed there. basically just to not know, which means to be curious, to ask questions, to wonder, to enjoy what is wonderful.

[19:14]

I want to come back to that at the end. So that's the first one. The second one, which is very deep, is bearing witness. So Bernie particularly led sessions or long retreats at Auschwitz, at Native American sacred places or places where reservations. Also, street witnesses having people go out into the street with no money and just for a week be homeless. In some ways, this is artificial because at the end of the week, he'd go back to their whatever degree of comfort they had in their homes, but just to witness to what it's like to be out on the street. So this bearing witness is a deep practice.

[20:14]

In some ways, it's what we do in Zazen. We bear witness to our own hard minds, to our own confusion, to our own fears and aspirations, but just to pay attention. not necessarily to do anything about it, just to witness, is a deep part of our practice. And we have in our sangha many people who are studying, either working as chaplains or hospice helpers, or studying to do that. And that's one form, deep form of bearing witness to life and death, to illness, to suffering. But all of us, we can bear witness to the confusion in our own seats and also to what's going on in the world and the confusion to that, just to pay attention. So that's the second. And in some sense, that's what the Dharma is, to learn, to be open to learning, to see what is true, but not to hold on to some particular idea of what that is.

[21:23]

not a hold on to our fixed idea of ourself or of what reality is. The third one is what Bernie, well, Alan talked about how Bernie changed this definition of this, but initially it was just loving action. Alan said that he saw it as appropriate response, which is one of our main koans. Yunmin said, when asked what the whole life of the Buddha was, he said, an appropriate response. So this comes back then to, well, how do we pay attention, bear witness, and how do we appropriately express loving action in the world. Alan quoted one, Bernie's last words, challenging words in an interview, whenever you hear anything and whenever you say anything, say, keep in mind that this is my opinion.

[22:34]

I'm not saying this as truth or fact, it's my opinion. This comes from the Big Lebowski and Jeff Bridges and Bernie were friends and the dude says, hey man, that's just my opinion. So we can say that about everything. It's just our opinion. Some opinions may be more helpful than others. But anyway. Bernie said, if you hear somebody saying something, that's their opinion and opinions cannot be right or wrong. Those are my parting words. With that, you won't have any problems. So I want to talk a little bit more about that and then just hear comments and appropriate responses from all of you. How do we respond appropriately? I'm thinking again more always this week about what a guy I know in California has called climate trauma.

[23:44]

We're all traumatized by the reality of the climate disaster that our world is going through. It's like PTSD. It's a kind of trauma that we don't know what to do, what to say. But the floods in the Southeast, the fires in California are just horrendous and very much enhanced, scientists are clear, by what the fossil fuel companies have been doing since they knew about these effects 30 years ago, more. Alan had to go back to the Bay Area where the air quality is really terrible and he got extra masks here because they've run out of them there. People are wearing masks.

[24:45]

And somebody I was trying to reach today didn't respond to her phone or text, and I emailed her. And she said, I'm sorry. I'm just not able to really do much. I'm really sick because the air is so bad. And she was hoping that tomorrow evening is supposed to rain, and maybe it'll get a little better. But people are really sick. I mean, beyond all the people. who've been displaced, all the people, there's over 600 missing, and I don't know, the last count I saw, 70 dead. This is an effect of this, and one of the things that's happening in California, and maybe you all know this, but maybe you don't, that a significant number of the firefighters are prisoners, incarcerated people, and they're on the front lines. of fighting the fires. They get, for every day they're out there, they get some time taken off their sentences.

[25:46]

They also get paid, a dollar an hour. to be on the front lines in the most dangerous place fighting the fires, and these huge fires. Is this slavery? The California state is saving $100 million a year by having incarcerated Men, women, and children. There are camps, including a children's camp, who are fighting the fires. And California's saving $100 million a year by using prisoner labor to fight the fires. And maybe most horribly, after the prisoners get out of prison, they're not eligible to get jobs as firefighters, even though they've been trained and had all this experience, because they're former prisoners. It's like this catch-22. So this is just another example of what's happening and what we can bear witness to.

[26:59]

So what is an appropriate response? What is a loving response? The situation with the floods and the fires and things happening all around the world, terrible things, floods in South Asia. A lot of the refugees coming from Central America, Well, they're fleeing governments and gangs and violence. But some of that has to do with climate, too, because the coffee crops were failing. And so people from the countryside moved into the city where they were susceptible to gangs and so forth. So, I don't know, it seems to me we need a defense department to defend us from the fossil fuel companies and the government that they own. But how do we respond to this? How do we witness to it?

[28:05]

First of all, witnessing is part of it, just to pay attention. How do we not, you know, it's easy, it's traumatic to even think about it. It's this existential threat to not just human life, but life of all large animals. Something will survive, clearly. So, you know, it occurred to me that This week, we are celebrating Thanksgiving. So of course, along with the difficulties, there are many things to enjoy in our world, things that are wondrous, things that we can wonder about, family, friends, just every day. the everyday satisfactoriness of things.

[29:07]

But really, this appropriate response, this loving response, might be summed up as thanksgiving, as seeing what we can be grateful for and then giving back in some ways in whatever way we can to the situation. So I'm suggesting that Thanksgiving is another name for this third tenant of Bernie's. So we have a little bit of time for discussion. And if anyone who was there Saturday or Sunday and wants to add something can, or just to whatever I've been saying, I'm interested in your responses. So please feel free. Thank you. So to take refuge in not knowing, to take refuge in witnessing, to take refuge in appropriate, helpful response, loving response, thanksgiving response.

[30:42]

And did you have something? And that by so doing, learn and become intimate with the experience of nonviolent response as an observer of what was going on.

[31:45]

that we then project onto the outside world. Self-identity, multiple ones, discriminating against them, oppressed them against one or the other. We also mirror the outside world. And that, to some degree, goes to some length in explaining the nature of violence itself. you. Yeah, I've participated in such role plays also of playing the policeman, playing the protester back in the 60s and since.

[33:33]

And yeah, to see the different sides and the different positions. And then, as you said, to see that within ourselves, our own capacity to oppress ourselves as well as others and to feel oppressed. And how do we... negotiate that from this place of witnessing and loving action. So yeah, very powerful way of looking at things. Thank you. Other reflections, comments, responses? Dennis. I'll just say in passing, I met Bernie last month. I heard him speak, which was really a great experience. I remember he was at a bookstore. He was, we all got together and he was doing a book tour. And so everybody said to him, well, why do you as a producer, you're so much about the pain of other people.

[34:41]

I've never forgotten that. about how change is so threatening and scary to people that they try to respond to change with violence. It is sort of a futile attempt to stop the change we're having, which we've been talking about. She said the other day, think about how fast social change has happened in America. Civil rights and women's rights and gay many people can cope with. I just throw that out, but I think she had a really good point there. They become afraid and angry, and sometimes react with violence to try to stop that, try to blame something for what's driving them crazy.

[35:59]

Yeah, well, part of the First Noble Truth is that there is discomfort, dissatisfaction, suffering, old age, sickness, death, oppression, all kinds of difficulties. And yeah, I think that's true in the world. where change is happening relatively quickly. Some people get left out. Some people feel threatened. And then we have politicians taking advantage of that and saying, I'll just blame those people. And if we can build a wall and keep them out, then you'll be OK. And of course, that doesn't work. But yeah. But trying to see not trying to seal, as you're indicating, different sides and the fear and suffering of the other hand as opposed to this hand. Yeah. Well, might I say one other thing?

[37:03]

Please, sure. One response to that that has been pretty good is for the people who are the object of that anger, to actually get to know the people who are part of the oppressor group, and have conversations. One example of that, I don't know how many of you have seen It's on Netflix. But it's really interesting and heartening that when people actually get to know the people that they have allegedly despised on a personal level, a real connection is formed. And suddenly, the fear, anger, and hatred starts to dissolve. Yeah, just to communicate.

[38:05]

Oh yes, Gershwin. That's what. That's great.

[39:22]

It's not perfect at all, but it was interesting to see explicit But it seemed like a good thing, all in all. It seemed really good. I mean, it seemed to work in a lot of ways, which I think, you know, I wasn't sure about that. And there were places that, I mean, there's some prejudice. They're terrified of China. They work with India. Maybe they're two neighbors. 700,000 people in the whole country.

[40:26]

That's probably apartment buildings in Chicago. And I don't know if it would work on a world scale, but it sure is an interesting idea, isn't it? Yeah. Somebody said, give peace a chance. I don't know. Imagine. I have jet lag, so excuse me. Thank you. No, you're never. Oh, good. Yes. Good, good, good. Great. Ah, good. Well, thank you for that. And this is the last comment. Maybe on that note, we can close.

[41:28]

But does anybody else have something they wanted to share? OK, let's close with the four bodhisattva vows.

[41:36]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v004
@Score_JJ