Good morning. Today is the first talk of the new year and so I want to wish everyone a wonderful new year. We usually say happy and so I won't in the world. So whenever I say, Happy New Year, I have to think about that. Like, what do I mean by that? And what do we all mean by Happy New Year? So, given all the suffering in the world, I just wish everyone Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Shakyamuni Buddha's first sermon, well one of his, not his first sermon, one of his first talks, it's called the Fire Sermon, where he says, everyone is burning, everyone's

[01:25]

Everyone's heart is burning with desire brought about by greed, ill will and ignorance or delusion. And if we look at our world today, our out-of-control world today, We can see the fires and the smoke. The world is getting smaller and smaller and our influences, the influences of one side of the world are influencing the other side of the world. We're no longer local, just local.

[02:35]

We have our local problems, but our local problems are also connected to all the problems in the world. So this is not easy to talk about. Once in a while, I talk about the statement But the state of the union is not just the state of the union anymore. The state of the union is the state of the world. The state of Berkeley is the state of the world. The influences that are happening all around the world pop up right here. So we say, well what's the matter? What's wrong with this and that? And we look for local reasons. But local reasons are not, there's something deeper than just the local reasons.

[03:40]

So a few weeks ago, we had this great tragedy in Newtown, which kind of shook the nation. It shook the nation. And people are looking for their reasons. Why did this happen? Why did this happen? So when we look for the reasons, we look for local reasons. What's the matter with this person? Maybe he was crazy, or maybe there are too many guns in the world, which are not mentioned. True, of course. Those are local reasons, but it's much So we have to look much deeper for the real reasons why things happen like this. It's not just local.

[04:44]

Our heads are burning. The world is burning up. No, we're not. We're mostly interested in local affairs. You know, finding work, supporting the family, making sure that the kids go to school. But as far as interest in what's happening worldwide, it's not so... people are not so interested. It's hard to focus on that. There are certain boundaries which have always been taboo. But those boundaries are crossed more and more until finally there's nothing that's taboo anymore.

[05:49]

We just take what is happening now for granted. If we take since 9-11 and the invasion of Iraq, which totally changed the world. Nothing's the same anymore. And even before that, you know, when we look at barriers, As an example of barriers, we have glass windows. Glass window is not a barrier, it's a psychological barrier. But you can just take a rock and smash a window. But windows were not smashed very much a long time ago.

[06:53]

I lived long enough to know what were barriers before and what are not barriers anymore. I've had so many smashed windows in my car, I can't tell you, but you roll up the windows and lock the doors. You think, well, now the car is safe. But it's just a psychological barrier. It's really easy to break the window. So, I remember when people were not killed indiscriminately on the street, gets to be killed indiscriminately on the street. And then one day, people started being killed indiscriminately on the street, and it was like, wow, that was really a surprise. But now, people are killed indiscriminately on the street, and it's no big deal. It's just taken as part of society. Even though, of course, we don't like it, and we complain about it,

[07:58]

but the barrier has been broken, transgressed, and it's hard to reinstate the barriers. So, of course, in the case of weapons, the people who produce weapons do not care about you or me or anybody except themselves. This is greed. The fire of greed. Pumping up the temperature. Just fanning the flames. Putting out all these weapons on the street. No business being there. And you know, for men, Guns have always been a fascination.

[09:02]

I wrote about this in the newsletter. When I was a kid, guns was it. I always played with guns. And we invented, you know, the area of cowboys and Indians. And so we would play cowboys and Indians. Bam! Bam! And the more beautiful, the more realistic the guns. the more you fell in love with it. It's a love affair with the weapons. And the way they feel, the weight, the beauty. I remember taking my gun, my pistol, and putting it on the pillow next to me when I went to sleep with my girlfriend. And of course, you know, weapons are an extension of a man's sexual desire. as we know, and so it's very important.

[10:03]

But when you're a child, you play with these things, and it's the influence. But when you grow up, you leave childish things behind. The problem, one of the big problems that we have is that we don't leave childish things behind. So many men continue with the love affair with the gun, and it just escalates, and sex, guns, and money, and entertainment are the great distractions that people take advantage of and just keep bumping and heating up the economy, heating up the desires. Recently there was a group of men who just wanted to carry guns around in public.

[11:08]

Remember that? Just little boys who can never grow up. They just want to carry their guns around in public. It's just... So, you know, here's another thing. The suicide bomber on the other side of the world, right? And the suicide bomber... I remember the first suicide bomber, everybody thought, wow, can you imagine that? How awful. But one suicide bomber after another. Every single day, there's a suicide bomber, or one or more, who blows themselves up with people. We think about the tragedy in Newtown. That's just the tip of the iceberg in the other side of the world. That's just kind of brushed off in the other side of the world.

[12:13]

But for us, it's a great tragedy because it's local. But everything is local. Everything is local. The suicide bombers. is a way of life for people now. And if you open the newspaper, the first few pages of the Chronicle are about what happened in the Middle East by suicide bombers, mostly. And so you just kind of turn the page. Because, oh yeah, I know about that. You can't comprehend it in your being. And just stay sane. So these influences are worldwide. So the boy who killed all those children and teachers, what was his influence?

[13:21]

Nobody knows. But, you know, the suicide, the escalation of people killing people with guns here in America, there's a pattern. The pattern is, you kill the people you want, then you commit suicide. Almost invariably, the person that does the killing commits suicide. So that's the pattern. It's not just random. We're not the source of that killing, of that attitude, for many different reasons. I'm not going to go into the reasons, because they're all a little bit different, but there's still a pattern. It's the pattern of influence.

[14:25]

And where does the influence come from? Who created that? There's a saying, you know, it's a famous saying, we have met the enemy and he's us. We're creating our own suicide. More and more suicide is becoming a way to go. And if you see, it's just escalating. This is just the beginning. I don't want to scare everybody, but this is just the beginning. of a larger pattern of truly justified killing people, and the justification is, okay, I'll kill myself too. We used to think of the suicide bomber as not discussed, never hear about, and just go, why is this happening? We brush it off as,

[15:28]

Oh yeah, they meet 72 virgins, and these guys meet 72 virgins in heaven, and so it's okay to, you know, it's a good reason to kill yourself. But that's not the reason, that's just our excuse for not really finding out what people are thinking, what their real attitudes are, and as long as we don't have a discussion about what people's actual, real attitudes are, we're just fooling ourselves. There needs to be a discussion about why are they doing that? That's an extreme way of making a statement, and what we're not listening to the statements And we're not taking responsibility for the mayhem we've caused.

[16:33]

I've written down some things here. So what does that mean for us? How do we practice with it? Religion is a kind of... doesn't help. Religions are as much a fault as they are a help. I don't say that religion is not a help. But it's as much a contributor as it is a help. So when I think about religion, I think it's a necessary evil. It's necessary. but it's so easy to be, to corrupt it. I always used to think of religion as, when I was young, I was very naive, and I've always been this way, kind of a naive thought.

[17:47]

Religion is directed toward promoting the goodness in people. I still do. I think that's real religion. So I have a lot of contempt for religion, which is only self-serving. So much of religion is simply promoting itself for its own purposes, which to me, that's just business. It's not religion. Religion shouldn't have anything to do with business. It should just spiritual reality and bring out the goodness in people. It doesn't matter what religion it is. Everything should be... We should be promoting that universally without drawing attention to ourself or promoting ourself or promoting our own religion.

[19:01]

I remember Suzuki Roshi saying, the reason I like Buddhism, or the reason I can trust Buddhism is because it's not perfect. And I'll be glad when I can take off this troublesome robe because there won't be any need for Buddhism anymore. So Newtown is a symptom of the world's disease, the diseased world. If you think of the world as a person, I won't say which part is which, but if you think of the world as one body, and it infects all the parts.

[20:11]

So how do we bring the world back into balance? How does the world get back into balance? That's a big question. We can answer it in various ways, but how does that really happen? But the world is always out of balance. It's eccentric. So peace means concentric, balanced. So how do we find peace, a balanced state, in an unbalanced world? That's our big goal. It never will be peaceful, unfortunately. Never will be peaceful. But within the diseased bodies, we can find some peace.

[21:18]

So we say that for a Zen practitioner, we should have a cool head and warm feet. This is Zazen, warm feet and cool head, to find our composure within the disturbance all around us. It's like finding the center of the cyclone, being in the center of the cyclone. Thich Nhat Hanh used to say about the boat people in Vietnam, that one person who has calm mind will keep the boat from tipping over. We also recall nirvana is called the cool state. Cool head and warm feet.

[22:28]

So I think we really have to pay attention to what's happening in the world in order to understand what's happening here. We want justice when something bad happens, but that's very difficult. So, there's a problem with guns on the streets, which is a big problem for us, and guns proliferating ever since the Newtown tragedy, and some people challenging the National Rifle Association, which is simply a front for the munitions industry. That's a diversion.

[23:38]

You know, if you want to complain about the munitions industry, there's no place to go. How do you do that? Well, there's the NRA. But the NRA is just a fabrication. So we focus on that. Nothing will happen. There's a lot of... Already it's kind of fading. Already it's kind of fading out of our consciousness. Because if you read the news, it's too big to fail. It's too big to challenge. Because when the senators challenge it, the NRA gets people to vote against it.

[24:41]

who's supporting them, their members, and then something else. But that's just all kind of phony, because the NRA is backed by the whole industrial military complex. It's just, when there's money to be made, it doesn't matter who suffers. So it's just a fact of the world. and it's fueled by ill will. You know, in order to sell munitions, you have to have war of some kind. You have the war on the streets. This sells handguns, this sells handguns. And then we have the wars of aggression. And we even have wars

[25:54]

somebody, some country of aggression, we preempt them. I mean, really, that's just having an excuse to do something which sells munitions. Many of the battlegrounds in the Middle East are simply testing for our weapons. just to test our weapons. Africa is a really good test case. People have nothing to eat, but they have plenty of guns and ammunition. How did that happen? How can they always have guns and ammunition when they can't afford to have anything to eat. In Africa, you know, it's king of the mountain.

[27:11]

After the First World War, all of Africa and the Middle East was all divided up into arbitrary countries through profit motives. And so it's all mixed up. And the countries aren't real countries, they're just phony countries, really, because they're arbitrarily, the demarcations are just arbitrarily. And tribes that were unified were cut in half, just arbitrarily by borders. So it's just king of the mountain, one despot after another, gets the means, supported, to overthrow the next one, and overthrow the next one, so that the mining companies can come in and exploit the country.

[28:16]

So in our country, we're deluded by the toys. Since we never grew up, we still play with our toys. And our toys seem to be very important. It looks like our toys are really necessary. If the toy industry, the toy industry is not games, not toys or us, the toy industry, automobile manufacturers, technical manufacturers, TVs manufacturers, all of the stuff we can do without. But we can't do without it because we depend on it. We've grown up to depend on things which we don't really need. And then we raise our standard of living Our standard of living is so low, but we think it's high.

[29:33]

It's low in that it's unnecessary. We're pumped up. That's the real inflation. Our real inflation is our standard of living, so-called. We don't need all that stuff. But it helps to support the society. That's the only redeeming thing. part of it instead of supporting society. But we're so dependent on it that when it fails, the society falls apart. So, I don't know. So, how to live a reasonable lifestyle without eating so much? This is a Buddhist practice. How do we save the world, basically? Impossible. But we have to do the impossible.

[30:34]

We have the vow. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. We say, I vow to... what do we say? Awaken with them. Yeah, same thing. I vow to awaken with them. And illusions are inexhaustible. So this is an impossible vow. But because it's impossible, it's our vow. It would be nice to vow something that's possible. That would be nice. But sometimes people say, well, you know, I can't say that vow because I can't do it. But you don't express that vow because you can do it.

[31:40]

You express it because it's far more than you could ever do. You express that vow because it's your intention, even though it's impossible. It's not that if it was possible, It's just your intention. And it always is bigger than what you can accomplish. That's the Dharma. The Dharma is always bigger than anything you can possibly accomplish. And at the same time, you can accomplish it moment by moment. is saving the world, without thinking, I'm saving the world. So, you know, we have, what is our world?

[32:53]

Right now, our world is this space, but it's also But what we can actually take care of is limited. But taking care of our limited space is how we take care of the world. How you take care of yourself, then how you take care of your surroundings, and how you show concern for an awareness. of what's happening. Even though you can't control what's happening, to be aware of what's happening helps you to find your balance in the world without being to know what the issues are, to realize the suffering of the world, and that you can't deal with every aspect, but you can deal with what's in front of you.

[34:21]

Just taking care of what's in front of us, because everything is connected. As we know, everything is connected. So, although we think we're Totally dependent. Totally dependent. In the old days, you know, people lived in villages and the rest of the world was unknown. No longer unknown. So our village is the world. So, how do we take care of our own suffering? How do we take care of, help people take care of the suffering around us? And then that has enormous consequences for the rest of the world. We may think that we don't influence, that we're helpless and we have no influence on the world, but we do.

[35:30]

Everything we do as an influence in a way that we think it should be, we just act that way. And it has far-reaching consequences. I remember back in the 50s and the 60s, when there were just a bunch of nuts running around North Beach. But that turned out to be a great artistic and poetry center. And it flows the world. But for us it was just, you know, a bunch of bums doing what they thought was right. I think the Dharma, Buddha Dharma, in the Bay Area has a big effect on the world. Us practicing sincerely has a big effect on the world, influences the world.

[36:38]

just like all the other things in the world influence us. So there is a way to not feel despair. You may feel it, but not to be inundated by it, not to be controlled by it. So it behooves each one of us to practice sincerely and get down to the root, to find the real root of what is world suffering and how to deal with it. But just to do it right here. I want to say again, we don't know the far-reaching consequences of our practice and how it reaches the world. So, you know, I think the Dharma always presents the problem and then presents the cure.

[38:17]

Like the Four Noble Truths is the foundation of the Dharma. There's always going to be suffering in the world. Every one of us knows suffering and is subject to it. Ill at ease, and what is good will change into what is not so good, and back and forth. And there's a reason for it. The reason for our ill will, the reason for our suffering is That's the foundation. And that there is a way out of that. And the way is to follow the path. If we sincerely study the Dharma in that way, keeping that in mind, we can never be a victim.

[39:36]

I'm going to have a question and answer afterwards in the community room, but there's time for one or two questions if you have a question. Does a munitions maker have buddha nature? You know, this is a big question. Does a munitions maker have buddha nature? as munitions makers. But munitions makers have not tapped into buddhanature. In order to express, in order to have, you know, it's not that munitions makers have or have not buddhanature. Munitions makers have the nature of Buddha.

[40:55]

Our Buddha. Buddha nature is expressed when a munitions maker repents. Then Buddha nature comes forth. Buddha nature goes forth through repentance and transformation. Linda has a question. The main question that you asked about practice, how do we find balance in an unbalanced world? And since you said about practice, I'm with you. completely, but I'm pretty troubled by some of the political things that you've said, and I'm going to say something about that.

[42:04]

For example, to equate the Newtown Columbine-type shootings with suicide bombers is a problem. I won't go on too long about this, but the Middle East suicide bombers are doing a political act that has a different kind of meaning. It's also the case that we have talked about it. It's not like everybody just thinks they're doing it because they're going to get 72 virgins. There's been a huge amount of writing and discussion about the political and psychological and economic realities behind it. Those things bothered me when you spoke of them. Also, calling religion a necessary evil was a little unbalanced, I thought. Oh, really? Yeah. But anyway, I just would have probably busted if I hadn't said a little bit of something. Yes. I appreciate your... First of all, when I was talking about equating suicide bombers with Newtown, I didn't mean they have the same meanings.

[43:19]

The meaning is very, very different. Yeah, the meaning is different, but one is more personal and the other is more for a cause. So they're not equated in that way. They're just equated in the way, not for the same reasons. I didn't mean that for the same reasons. It's just the way you do something. The means to do something is... Why would one want to commit suicide after they do an act like that? So, the reasons are not the same, but there's something that's similar. So, religion isn't necessarily evil.

[44:27]

There is evil in it. But it's also, you know, human beings need religion. I'm sorry. That's why we have it. The reason we have it is because people need it. But it's also, religion contains all the facets of human nature. which are both redemptive and evil. Yes, that's all there. And as for the middle one, I have never seen any studies, so that's just my opinion. Is there a measure of greed? Is the munitions guy committing a greater greed than me envying your beautiful teacup?

[45:36]

Oh, don't envy it. Just enjoy it. Yeah, envy is going, you can have it if you want. Even though it's not mine. Yes, it's not the same. In proportion, it's not the same. In essence, it's similar. Greed is, I mean, coveting, you know, what was the term you used? Measure of greed. Envy. Envy, yeah. Not the same. I think greed, in the military complex of life, is simply lust for power. Lust for power.

[46:39]

Lust for power also means fear. Fear of insecurity. Why do you need so much? If you're secure, why do you need so much? You only need so much because you're insecure. So insecurity drives all this. We need to get down to what drives us and what drives our needs. Basically, insecurity. For someone who is totally secure, you don't need anything. greed is measuring, and the root of measuring is ignorance, is the idea that we're alone and separate and not connected.

[47:53]

Well, of course. Alone, the separation, is the insecurity. Yeah. So we have this word, you know, alone, which has two meanings, the opposite meanings. One meaning is, as I was talking about, separate, alone. But alone really means at one with, etymologically means at one with. So alone means isolated, and the opposite meaning is So, when Buddha was a little baby, he says, I alone am a real honored one. It doesn't mean that I'm just by myself. I say, I am together with all beings.

[48:54]

I said that was a really good Donald Tuck. must maintain composure under all circumstances. important vow. Yes, yes, yes.

[50:12]

In the first place, when a speaker says something and then he says the other side in the next sentence, that's because he understands that he's speaking in a dualistic way. So if you say one thing, you have to also say the other side. in order to balance what you're saying. Otherwise, you're just simply trading one side for another. So, if you look at the altar, this figure here is Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. And on the other side is Samantabhadra, who is the Bodhisattva of Practice. So in the middle, we have Shakyamuni Buddha. So Shakyamuni Buddha is sitting there, and he has both legs crossed.

[51:16]

So wisdom and, of course, this is compassion. I'm looking at this little guy you can't hardly see. We have wisdom and practice, right? But the Buddha expresses wisdom, practice, and compassion by crossing both legs because you can't tell which is which. It's totally unified. Both with this side and this side are all unified. The left foot is monjushri. The right foot is samantabhadra. In other words, the left leg is emptiness and the right leg is form.

[52:28]

And so emptiness and form are one. And it's personified by the Buddha sitting with both legs crossed. I know we don't do that much. So Jin, it's 11.15. It's 11.15.

[52:53]

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