Good evening. Yesterday morning, we had a summit talking about some of the transitions in our summit. Thank you. So I want to talk tonight generally about Sangha. Some of you were here yesterday and some weren't, but that's okay. So I want to talk about Sangha in various ways and hopefully have some more discussion. So Sangha is one of the three jewels or the three refuges in Buddhism. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. These are also our first three precepts. The rituals are Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And our first three precepts to take refuge, to return home, to support and be supported by Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

[01:14]

Buddha is, well, there's the historical Buddha who lived in It was now northeastern India in the fall, around 5,000 years ago. But Buddha also just means the awakened one. So it's about the awakenedness, the wokeness, is the current expression, of each of us on our seats here and online and everywhere else. So Buddha is that reality of awakening. That is everything and everybody. Dharma is the truth or the teaching about this reality. We have vast libraries of Dharma or teaching in Buddhist traditions. But Dharma is also about the teaching available in the sound of the cicadas around you.

[02:18]

December and in and. The lake and on this on the streets and past years and anyway. The teaching was why the nest. So the third jewel is solid and something means community. So it refers to specific communities like this. Community is called ancient drag in the same day and all of you are part of it. And. Also, it's the principle of community and communion of all practitioners and all beings. So this is the third jewel. And it's a jewel because it supports us. It supports our practice and we support it and each other. So about Sangha, well, How do we support each other?

[03:21]

How do we take care of this saga? So this is what we were talking about yesterday morning. And all of us participated in that. Just by being present, whether you're online or here in one person, just being present supports everybody else who's here. So we all have a, we all benefit from, we all are supported by And we all have a responsibility to Sangha. So Sangha, you know, in the sense of just this particular community, there are lots of things that we can do to support Sangha. Again, just being present, inhaling and exhaling, sharing that with each other is Sangha support. But also, there are particular responsibilities that you can take on.

[04:24]

So there are the jobs in Rosendo that people come to on this Rosendo. There's the reader job, there's the on-the-techno job, there's the go-on job, the appropriate job to lead the chats, the person who leads the service, Even for newer people, and part of what makes Sangha alive, what makes this Sangha alive is that we have more and more new people and young people, and that's wonderful. And so people who come to this presenter can talk to Jerry, who's our email and head of the meditation hall, about if you're interested in doing some of those jobs, how you need to do that. There's also support jobs. So we have a board, an elected board that is responsible for managing the administrative functions.

[05:32]

We also have practice leaders who are available to talk with teachers. And there are board committees that you can help with. And there are people online who can't get to... I see Mark in New Mexico. So everybody can help with that. We have jobs that are needed. Some of the committees, for example, there's a soundboard care committee. promotions committee, which is very important to let people know about our special events and our regular events. And there's a fundraising committee. And certainly you stop with that. So this is a particular saga. The ancient dragons then did something. And you are all part of it because you're here tonight.

[06:34]

You can kind of knock on the door here for the first time. Do you feel nothing? Are there other places? Yeah, you can't do that. I think you came once. Yeah. So, yeah. So Sangha is particular communities, but also Sangha is the principle of community. So in some sense, in this Gauri Satsa practice we do, where we are practicing for the sake of awakening all beings, not just Buddhists, not just Buddhists. Americans or whatever, all of us. In that sense, Sangha is about the community of all people, the community of all practitioners, the community of all beings. Sangha includes, as I see it, the lake and the trees and the sidewalks and pastures and prairies, forest lands around Chicago land.

[07:44]

There's a danger. in Sangha. That particular Sangha can become uninsulated. If we think that it's just about us. So, we're part of the Branching Streams collection of Sanghas, part of other groups too. We're connected with Japanese Soto school connected with the Soto Zen Buddhist Association and all American Soto Zen Sanghas. But you know, at the San Francisco Zen Center, well, I don't know if this is true anymore. So back in the old days when Peter Fahedy was talking about recently what Paul Disko talks about sometimes, There was a sense of, if you said Zen Center, it meant San Francisco Zen Center.

[08:46]

Of course, now, I don't know if this, I think there's still a tendency for people in San Francisco to hear Zen Center or San Francisco Zen Center. But there's actually many Zen groups here. This is a Zen gate, not a Zen center, but anyway, there are many, many Zen groups. And one key, one part of that is the branch extremes, which is all of the different groups that are connected or affiliated with Suzuki Roshi lineage, which is the Zen center. So there's going to be a branch extreme conference in September and a couple of years. And Douglas, Ruben, and Wade, our board chair and president, will be attending that on our behalf. They'll be out in Santa Cruz area. So, Saga actually is about networks.

[09:48]

That, you know, we take care of this particular community, but we're related. We're interconnected. with other Sanghas. So, some of the people in this Sangha have gone and done practices at Milwaukee's Incentive, or at Hokkyoji, which is related to Minnesota Sanghas, or at a friend and translation collaborator, Shimabukuro Mori's Asanshin Sangha in Indiana. So, Sangha is about this principle of interrelation, and each of us in this room or online now is interrelated and interdependent and connected. So, again, in the old days of San Francisco Zen Center, people weren't so welcoming. If you came to the door of San Francisco Zen Center City Center and knocked on the door, somebody might come to the door and open the door and say, what do you want, or something like that.

[10:55]

I'm exaggerating only a little. I don't think it's that way anymore. I don't know. But since I've moved here, beginning of 2007, with Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, I've encouraged welcoming. So the song is about welcoming. welcoming people who show up, whenever they show up, people, new people, or people who haven't been around for a while, but have come at the answer. How to welcome all beings, actually. Sangha means that in our practice, we're welcoming all beings. So our fundamental practice in this branch of Buddhism is Sazen, just sitting in meditation. And When you are sitting while you eat and upright, we also have to welcome all beings, all the thoughts and feelings.

[12:03]

All the people that you've ever known are part of what is happening on the sheet that you're sitting on. Sugi Roshi used to say to welcome all your thoughts, but don't invite them in for tea. So we don't have to get hung up on all the beings that are present on our seat, but we welcome them. We're connected with them. We are part of them. So this is rather elaborate, and it's, you know, one of the images of Sangha is from the Flower Ornament Sutra, the Tom Sarkar Sutra that we chant here once a month, is called Indra's Net, that the whole of the universe is a network, and at each mesh where the net meets, there's a jewel, and each jewel reflects the light from the jewels around it, and then around them, and so each jewel reflects the light of the whole universe.

[13:12]

This is an image of Sama, that we're all deeply, deeply connected to everyone we've ever known, including the people we've forgotten, somebody we met at a party ten years ago or whatever. Everybody we've ever met is part of what we is, sitting on our cushion. So, how do we include all beings? So I want to, you know, basically this is welcoming. And also taking responsibility. For, while we are going to chat, the fourth body sacrifice at the end, where we say we free, we've got to free all beings. And that's one of these inconceivable vows. It doesn't, you know, if we think of all the difficult things people, let alone all the other beings, the spiders and fish and the lake and the birds, anyway, all beings.

[14:15]

Our practice is about all beings in a radical way. It doesn't mean we have to go out and convert them and get them to sub-sazan or to understand this or to think of it. It's just that we acknowledge This network of being that we is. So Sangha is complicated. It means we're connected with each other. And it means that we're supporting each other. We're being supported by each other. you know, the people in what I'll call ancient driving Zen gate, which includes everybody here and everybody who has been in this room and everybody who has joined us online and, you know, and sometimes, you know, people who are our practice companions in Sangha, people we might not ever, you know, have anything to do with.

[15:26]

Otherwise, even sometimes people who irritate us, you know, it's, it's, It's about being a spiritual friend, but that doesn't mean that we have to, you know, from the beginning like everybody. It doesn't mean we have to dislike anybody either. But just, you know, it's about something much more fundamental. It's about our commitment to practice for and with all beings. And this is complicated, practically speaking. But that's what our practice is about. So at our meeting yesterday, I mentioned that I had been to the World Parliament of Religions, which was here in Chicago for the last week. It was a couple of days ago. And we're living in a difficult world. So part of the The theme of this Parliament of Religious Confidence was to help heal the world, to help all beings.

[16:42]

And there was a global effort, and I'm not going to read it out because it's long, but it includes things like commitment to a culture of nonviolence and respect for life, Commitment to a culture of solidarity and just denial of labor. Commitment to the culture of tolerance and a life of truthfulness. Commitment to the culture of equal rights and partnership between men and women, also between classes. So, yeah, a commitment to a culture of sustainability and care for the Earth. So there was a large part of the conference was about climate, the dangers of climate. So, as 47 practitioners, we pay attention to what's going on in the world around us, as well as taking care of a particular zombie.

[17:46]

So, taking care of, as we talked about yesterday morning, taking care of just Ancient Dragon Zen Gate is complicated and difficult and wonderful too. We have a wonderful song. So many wonderful people. People doing all kinds of helpful activity in the world. Doctors, lawyers, grade school teachers, grad school teachers, many chaplains. Anyway, people working, helping in that way. So, How do we help the beings of the world is a fundamental practice question. That includes, how do we take care of ourselves? Because we benefit from this practice, each of us, in our own way, in ways that we can't necessarily monitor or even notice. But to be up, to do the practice of sitting upright and paying attention, and breathing, and enjoying our intelligence,

[18:49]

just being present in our body, mind, in our lives. Doing that regularly is transformative in ways that we don't necessarily see. But how do we help beings? So I mentioned yesterday, you know, how do we help, you know, work in the world? And we have, Our sangha has done work together in the world at times, up in the soup kitchens, sitting at a pro-immigrant rally years ago downtown. There are many things to be done. So this parliament I went to just a couple of days ago, but there was one group that I attended of faith people through many different religions. So this parliament included any religious tradition you can imagine.

[19:53]

Baha'i people, Sikhs, of course, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and anyway. But how do we take care of each other? So that I was an interested group of faith leaders who are working actively in the United Nations, with the United Nations, trying to encourage response to climate damage. And very skillful people. It was interesting. I also went to a panel led by Bishop William Spurn who's been working for a long time to increase awareness of nuclear weapons and to try to limit and to actual abolish nuclear weapons. So there are all kinds of things to do in the world. And there are people in our sombra who do some of these. And you know what? The feeling yesterday was, well, we have enough to do right now just to take care of this sorrow with all its transitions, which we could talk about more if you'd like, but also just to be, without necessarily having any programs, just to be aware of all of the suffering in the world

[21:19]

This is important now in our time because we have powerful politicians who promote policies of cruelty as opposed to policies of caring. And there is politicians who are promoting persecution of particular groups of people. Of course, Muslims and blacks, but more especially LGBT people. I'm being persecuted in some states, actively. So, okay, what does this little ancient dragon's end date group have to do with that? Well, just to be aware of it. Awareness changes things. Just to support each other, to welcome people from any marginalized group. Part of, there's a wonderful teaching from Thomas Merton, a great Catholic teacher who died visiting Asia instead of talking with the Dalai Lama and other Buddhist leaders.

[22:31]

He was executed. But he talks about what is a monk. So he was a monk, a Catholic monk. But I think, and we've talked about this here, an American Zen, we're all like people. Even those of us who are priests or lay priests are not committed to not eating in the afternoon or not touching money or celibacy or some of the things that monks are committed to. But dedicated practitioners, Thomas Merton said, are marginalized people. We live in the margins. We recognize that All beings, all people are part of the ultimate community, what we call Sangha.

[23:33]

So how do we respond and recognize and welcome and be welcomed? So Norton says these practitioners understand the need to love and to be loved. So anyway, this is what this practice is actually about. And as Sangha, we come together to try and support each other to do this. So maybe I've said enough. But again, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are all the three refuges, which means we come home to Buddha. We return to our basic awakeness in Buddha. We return to basic reality in Dharma. And we return to community.

[24:35]

And one of the things about our country and our culture is that there's not so much sense of community. They're not communities. So in some sense, some of those like Ancient Dragon's End Gate and Milwaukee's End Century Assumption and other sanghas are refugees. They can be an island of sanity in a world and culture that is promoting cruelty. So Karen and we had lots of time and we have lots of books to study, but the point of that is just to support a practice. So I could keep that one, but I will stop and welcome your comments about. Saga or this saga or follow-up discussion has been working for anything.

[25:40]

So please share your perspectives, comments, responses, questions. So you can just raise your hand. I can see all of you because it's dark back there. Maybe turn off that light a little bit. That. Yes. People online so comments, questions, responses please. Wait. So I've been practicing for a few years now. And it's difficult to overstate the way that it's changed my life. Just really, truly changed my life. And that would not have happened without the Gita. You know, if there had been just the Dharma and the Uddhāna, maybe I would have read some books and enjoyed them.

[26:48]

But it would not have happened without Saṅgha. Devi would have happened with a different one, but it didn't happen with this one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. It's hard for me to fully express my gratitude. Thank you, Will. Well, the way his state is expressing his gratitude, particularly on the difficult, challenging job of President and Board Chair of the Sangha, But there's lots of other ways that any one of you can express your gratitude for the Dharma Sangha and for community. So, you know, Thich Nhat Hanh, I think, said that in the coming period, the Buddha will be Sangha. But Sangha is how we really connect with these, with the depths of the waking focus.

[27:54]

Other comments, responses? Thank you, Emily. Hey, so I wanted to touch on liking or not liking people in the Sangha. I don't think it's about liking or disliking anybody in Sangha. I think Sangha is about actively searching for in in your interactions with everybody uh how um awakening is expressed by everybody differently um and and like being open to um hard learning from everybody and and and

[29:01]

being flexible to be wrong sometimes and gracefully be wrong and to be ready for people to change you. or for there to be change that happens through relationships, I guess is probably a better way to put it. And when you can feel the mutual aid in a relationship with somebody, whether that be in a spiritual context or not, when you can feel that in your heart to trust that and to trust plant seeds in that garden. Thank you, yes.

[30:07]

So we all rub off on each other in different ways. And we learn from each other. Who we are is transformed by being present with everyone else. Yes. I think too, Saunders, about having someone to sit with. I mean, we can all go and sit by ourselves and have wonderful meditation practices. But sitting with other people is a whole different thing to do. And it brings a sort of normalcy to me, a sense of, oh, yeah, other people know what I know. I don't feel so, I don't know, isolated, I suppose. Or like you're a new one out there doing this. It gives you a real sense of having a connection with other people. So it's a really, it's one of the nice benefits of Saga.

[31:13]

Thank you. Yeah. This is kind of radical practice. Where else in our culture can people, there are some other places where people can just go and sit together and breathe the same air in the next day. I'll have to say, although, you know, after the formal sitting, I have to increase the tension after this. How do we Do this together. Other comments or reflections? Testimonials. Follow-ups. Yes, Dana. I really appreciate the type of welcoming that is present here. And I was excited to meet you. Thank you so much.

[32:17]

It's been a while since I've been able to sit with the group. And from here, I recently moved back and I tried one other meditation that was distinctly not welcoming. I was quizzed upon arrival for my meditation credentials. Oh my gosh, you don't have credentials? Safe to say I did not return. And so I just... You know, it's a very fortunate Dharma talk for today, personally. So thank you for making kind of a statement of your welcome, of your stance on Sangha. It's definitely felt. Can I ask you a favor now? Sure. Please check out our website. Please come again and say yes. You can also come online in the morning. We have lots of possibilities.

[33:20]

Please join us. Anybody from Edgewater? Thank you. Anybody else? Hi, I'll get you. So I've been thinking a lot about our saga lately, this community, the love and community that we have. And I've especially been meditating on how intimacy is expressed here. And that, you know, we're 20 years old now. So a lot of us have been together for a long time. And, you know, in any relationship, when you first walk in some place and you see someone, you know, you often, like, fall in love or fall in dislike. You go, I don't like that. You know, I love that person.

[34:21]

You know, and inevitably there's a little disappointment when we get to know each other. after all those four months to calm down And that's what intimacy is actually about. It's finally people can drop into who they really are. And we find space for each other in that. And it's just been a really, you know, lovely thing. You know, there was some time story that doesn't like something like, teacher, why is it that intimacy feels like fantasy? You know, when we get close, we don't get what we want all the time. And so in Sondra, Even out of your power of sitting, actually, if we hang out with each other, that's when we're practicing in this really deep way. So I just really appreciate that, that we can tolerate disappointment and then let go and see, I think maybe what Dylan was talking about when he was saying searching for something, that we actually just see.

[35:29]

But it comes from this letting go of posturing, letting go of wanting somebody to be somebody else, and still figuring out how to be together in some way. So I also want to say that today I was gardening, and on the sidewalk there was what looked to be a dead cicada. And I picked it up, a kind of gnarly-looking thing, you know. I picked it up, and I was going to put it in some place next to a statue out there. And it got up and flew away, so maybe that's what we heard. But this is that practice of taking care of things, whether it's nuclear weapon problems or a cicada that's not dead. Thank you very much. Amen. Thank you. Any other last comments, questions, responses?

[36:33]

Yes, hi. So I think it was like my second night here. I was talking to Hogetsu. And we were talking about the effect of community on practice and like, just something popped into my head. It's been like hanging around there as it does since then. It's like, you know, when you're at home sitting by yourself, there's, there's no one, there isn't even the illusion of accountability. Like, Here, if I swallow too loud, I'm like, oh, God, no. I don't want to disturb anyone. Like you? Yeah, I'm sorry. And like even that, just having people around, just being there is like a very valuable thing. You know, everywhere we go, people are trying to meet us on their terms or get us to do what they want or, like, you know, manipulate us in some way.

[37:41]

And here we're just like, can you not swallow so loud? But one of the things that I really appreciate about Songa is, like, that increased accountability. Like, oh, like, where were you last week? Were you sick? Is everything okay? Like, oh, no, I was just lazy. Like... all of that, it's like, there's, there's no judgment. It's just like, Oh, well, you know, whenever, whenever you're feeling better, like come back, it's cool. And I just really appreciate that. Um, I just wanted to, I, I think the conversation that's, uh, just, uh, stirred up a memory for me of a very early sashimi that I went to where, um, it was a five day and I had out in the remote location and, um, it was sort of the break after lunch, you know, and the dish crews doing the dishes and everyone else is sort of just sitting around this courtyard, really just sitting there.

[38:50]

And, um, It was so profound for me to be in a place where you didn't have to talk. I mean, you weren't supposed to talk, but you didn't have to talk. You didn't have to entertain anybody. You didn't have to perform. And everybody just still stayed there. You know, I think it broke through some piece of me that was used to having to, you know, perform and entertain and achieve. And it was such a such a moment of just letting go of something that I didn't even know I was holding on to, that it really just has continued to have such a profound effect on me. And I am so appreciative of anyone who will just show up and stick around, even when it's like boring and painful. When the going gets tough. Because they sit down. Yeah.

[39:51]

And they're just still sitting there. Well, I mean, we'll stop on that note. It's wonderful. Unless there's somebody else who has something. I guess when you saw it, it's been, everyone's basically said two things that were just about accountability and also the normalcy. I really appreciate that. We actually went to school together. We were in choir and stuff together. And I remember you go there and the teacher was like, put your music down and now we're going to sing. And we're all like, oh, no, no, no. I haven't memorized the lyrics yet. But it was that whole, like, you've never put it down yet. So how can you tell if you've memorized it? There's a similar thing with song where you actually get to, there's that accountability. You're kind of like, okay. I don't want to move around all my other practitioners and stuff, but it actually kind of pushes you to, pushes you in practice to kind of, yeah, similar things.

[41:01]

I really love that. And that makes things more, it's just actually so beautiful, especially in this country. Yeah. It's so beautiful. Thank you. Can I ask you a favor? The next time you're in Chicago, come sit with us. And when you're back home in Michigan, we have other people who come from Michigan online. So you won't be alone. So check out our schedule, and you're welcome to join online these folks. There are some of these people in Chicago and some within a distance. And so please join us.

[41:49]

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