Welcome, everyone. Good morning. Good morning, folks. I'm Tai Nien Leighton, a Tai Nien teacher at Ancient Thread and Zen Gate, and I want to say a little bit about right livelihood this morning. Right livelihood is part of the Eightfold Path, along with things like right effort, right knowledge, right action, part of the Four Noble Truths. I believe right livelihood is one of the most relevant early Buddhist teachings for our modern practice. Traditionally, right livelihood included things like not butchering animals, not fighting in wars, not producing weapons of wars. Today, in our so-called advanced consumerist culture, livelihood, would include all those things, but also many ways in which we can help rather than harm.

[01:15]

So not encouraging addiction as a means of livelihood, not encouraging discrimination or divisions, Not using hate speech or encouraging violence. Also things like knowing the product of your work. So if the people working on some form of assembly line to know what the results of your work is. We have in our modern world, many of us are involved in multitasking. But Right Livelihood would include work that allows space for presence, for awareness, where we're not too busy or not so rushed. So Saga is a way of encouraging Right Livelihood, being together, practicing together with others

[02:22]

And I'm very proud that this song by Ancient Dragon Zen Gate includes many people who are clearly doing the right livelihood. So many examples. We have many school teachers, numbers of grade teachers, also grad school teachers. We have many therapists. We have doctors, attorneys, internet workers, many chaplains. So I've lost count, I don't know, it's 12 or 15 chaplains in our chamber, some of whom are now practicing in different states or countries. All of these, also attorneys and doctors and a whole variety of conservationists, environmentalists, a whole variety of vocations that a right life leader, or can be a right life leader, can be helpful, productive for awareness and kindness, even in our modern society.

[03:36]

So there's a lot to say about right life leaders, but I'm going to keep this short. We'd like to have discussion. But I want to say that we're celebrating today David Hill, who was the founder of Arshona, the other three people who were layered in because they were all here. David was important in the history of Arshona. He located the Irving Park space where we had our sender for a long time in a rented space that we had to give up because of the pandemic. When I first met David and talked, he was spooking me as a stockbroker. And it's not that stockbroking, stockbroking, whatever the word is, could not, cannot be right like we do it.

[04:44]

people who specialize in socially responsible investing, for example. But David was not happy with that job. So I think of David Hill, cut to Lively Dragon, David Bill, as a pioneer in creative modern livelihood. So we'll have a ceremony for him after the talk. But I just wanted to say this about David and about right livelihood that David took his interests and found a way to make the right livelihood. Creative, productive, helpful right livelihood. David was a An athlete. He ran marathons. He ran ultra-marathons.

[05:46]

100 miles. He was awesome. Great athlete. He also loved dogs. I believe his father was a veterinarian. David figured out how to have a right livelihood. It combines his loving and his loving dogs. So he created the Chicago Dog Lunch Company, where he would go out with sometimes several dogs at a time and run with the dogs that needed activity. Dogs that needed exercise. Dogs that had lots of energy. And.

[06:47]

This was a very successful company. And it is still going. He moved. David moved to Denver. A while ago. And he created the Denver Dog Lounge. But that's still going too. But I don't know if it's what it's called. Maybe it's called that. So. How can each of us find a way to develop a livelihood that is instructive, that is helpful, that spreads kindness? And as I said, we have in our song many people who are doing this. Many grade school teachers, many chaplains, environmental workers, therapists, counselors. This is not easy in our world today where there are so many pressures from consumerism.

[07:57]

It's not easy. I have more time to speak, but actually maybe I've said all that I need to speak and to say. How do we think about our work? How do we think about how we spend our time? How we make a living? That allows us to be helpful in a world that needs kindness, that needs help, effective activity. There are many ways to do that. But David was very creative about building inspiration. So I wasn't going to have a discussion, but actually I've said what I wanted to say.

[09:03]

So we have a few minutes if there's somebody. We're going to have time to talk to or about David as part of the ceremony. Thank you, Professor, for accepting the ceremony today. The service we will have after this for David. But if anybody has something, you know, just maybe a couple people online or in person to say about How do we make a living in a way that is constructive to our troubled world? Comments? Responses? I think I just want to add to what you were saying, that as you said, the world needs kindness.

[10:08]

we think about maybe right livelihood as being what we do for a living, but it can be what we do not for a living. So sometimes when people are between jobs or lose a job, they might do some kind of volunteer activity or something. And I think that there are, I know that I, my life has transformed by taking on some volunteer activity many, many years ago. it turned me in a totally different direction in my life. So I think it's worth noting that right livelihood can also involve in finding something that brings you happiness, that also brings happiness or makes things better for others. Thank you, Aisha. Yes, so how can we volunteer our energy and activity The things that are helpful, helping to join with whatever concern we have, helping to help groups that are giving productive students.

[11:43]

Bryant and then Eve, Bryant and then Eve. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Can you hear me? Please go ahead. Oh, I didn't have a question or a comment. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I said... Did I have my hand raised? Oh, maybe that was just the cursor. So, sorry. Well... Since you called on me, thank you for a good talk. And I never knew David. I never knew David, but I wish I would have. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It was sad for our song over David relocated to Denver, but you know, now, especially in the world of zoom is not limited to people in Chicago and

[12:45]

Many people have relocated from Chicago and are sharing their life energy elsewhere. So, Eve, did you have a comment? So, you know, I recently came back from going around the world and went to South Africa and Singapore and Australia. And I feel like white-lighting wood is a global problem. Yes. In this post-industrial age where, you know, I mean, people fought for over a century to have, you know, meaning good woodworking conditions for manufacturing jobs. And then in most places those went away and the struggles that people have it. you don't have reasonable working conditions seem to have gone for not. But I mean, in South Africa, people told me that for young people in Soweto, that the unemployment rate is 70%.

[13:50]

I saw in Australia with Australian Aboriginal people that, you know, some people choose to live in the bush and that's fine. Other people don't and don't have meaningful work. And, you know, so it's harder for people who are marginalized and disenfranchised. And I think, and it isn't just a matter of, you know, universal basic income. I see people really do need meaningful work. They need to feel like they're making contributions and that's part of something. And I think what you said is really important. prioritize it as a global problem. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, this is not just about Chicago or the United States. As Steve says, it's a global issue. And I think the thing you added that I think is very important, helpful and work that supports awareness, but also meaningful work.

[14:58]

that's what brought me to Zen. We're looking for something, some way to live in a way that felt meaningful because I felt like there wasn't so much meaning in our world. And so this is an important part of my life. So thank you for bringing that up. And what meaningful is, is different for different people. So this is about you, about each one of us. How do we each find our way of being productive and helpful in the world and in our work in the world. Kathy, did you have something? Maybe that'll be the last person. I guess I'm a little bit confused because I'm assuming this is a chance to talk about data. No, we'll have a time to talk about data later. So we will have a ceremony that will include a time So we're having a ceremony to honor David Hill.

[16:03]

People can, there'll be a time for people online or here in person to speak about David or to them. But I was just focusing on this practice that we all have some relationship to. How do we make our lives meaningful and helpful? I really appreciate it. That was one of the many things I really appreciate about it. So any other comments just about my livelihood and what that might be? Yes, Chair. I want to say something personal and it might be just personal to me. But right livelihood is extremely difficult.

[17:07]

I'm a retired person and I buy things in plastic containers and eat them, but then throw away the plastic container. And I use a cell phone and I use a computer that I'm really tied to. And Now I'm driving a car that uses gas. It's a global thing that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there are people who are risking their lives every day for $7 or $8 a day. And their product goes to people who own corporations.

[18:10]

And these people who own these corporations are known to collect $5,000 an hour and they become billionaires. And they're profiting from the extraordinary effort of people who literally risked their lives because they built tunnels into cobalt mines. And it's not like a tunnel in the United States in a coal mine where they raced the tunnel so that the people coming into it won't have the tunnel collapse on them. They just dig these tunnels and if the tunnel collapsed, That's the end of the person digging the tunnel. And the person who is digging it might make $7 a day, and you can see that they have risked their lives. And we can't get along, or I can't get along in my lifestyle without the cobalt that comes out of this mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

[19:26]

I learned this on Democracy Now! this week. And my struggle right now is to accept the life that I am in and accept the idea that my life depends on the people who are risking their lives to produce my computer, my cell phone, my car. And that's just one example. And with your permission, I would give another example. Well, I think we're getting close to time, so I think it's time to stop you there. But thank you for mentioning that. And I will just add to that that many of the people in the Congo who are doing this money are children, 6, 7, 8 years old, often less than $7 a month.

[20:29]

A day. A day. Yeah. So anyway, thank you for that. Yes. Thinking about the whole world, right, livelihood is very challenging. But for all of us in our practice to think about what we can do. And again, I feel inspired by David Hill's life because he really put together something. That was extraordinary. So it's time for us to stop this talk and discussion. But thank you all very much for being here. We will now pause and rearrange this for the service.

[21:13]

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