So welcome everyone. I want to speak this morning about a writing from Dogen from his Shobo Genzo to Dharma Eye Treasury. So for those who are new, Eihei Dogen was the founder of Zen in Japan in 1200 to 1253. He brought this lineage and tradition back from China to Japan. Okay, thank you. Can you all hear on Zoom? Yes? No? Can you hear me? I can. Can you hear me over there? Okay, thank you, Jan. I'll start over. So we're in this interesting, strange situation where some of us are here at Ebenezer Lutheran Church. And thanks, Dylan. And some of us are on Zoom. And we're still working out how to make this all work for everyone.

[01:06]

So it's a work in progress. So my talk this morning is about total dynamic activity or the whole works. This is a writing by Ehe Dogen. Can you hear me, Jan? Yeah. Good. Let me know if you can't again. Thank you. So this is from one of Dogen's two masterworks, True Dharma, I, Treasury, Shobo Genzo. And it's one of the shorter essays in Shobo Genzo. So in Sino-Japanese, it's zenki, which could be translated as total dynamic activity or the whole works. Now I want to spend some time just talking about the title of this essay. which is about our Zen functioning, our Dharma functioning, how we express ultimate reality in our body minds. So, the Zen of Zenki is not the same as Zen Buddhism.

[02:13]

It's not the Zen of meditation. This character, pronounced Zen in Sino-Japanese, means wholeness or everything or totality. all included. And the character ki in Zenki is very interesting. It has many meanings. It means, well, it means mechanism, like something like the workings of a machine. It also means the workings of the whole universe. It also denotes Well, it's also the word for a loom, where things are weaved or woven together. It also has many meanings. It means potential. It means energy. It means impetus. It also means the pivot, a pivotal moment. And it's a character in the Jewelmare Samadhi that we chant also, where it also can mean arousing energy.

[03:23]

So it has all these meanings. Again, workings, mechanism, pivot, pivotal moment, impetus, allume, potential. So one literal translation is total dynamic activity. So this is about the expression of our practice for Dōgen. But Thomas Cleary translated it as the whole works, which is a nice colloquial translation that actually gets to what this is about. The whole works. This word zenki is also The name of my teacher, the Dharma name that Suzuki Roshi gave to my teacher, Reb Anderson, is Tenshin Zenki. Tenshin is heaven or nature. Shin is genuine reality. It's not the shin of mind.

[04:24]

And Zenki. So, Zenki Roshi is named after this, this essay by Doken about the whole works or the workings of everything or wholeness. And so again, about 10, it means everything, totality, everything is included, everything. So in our practice, in our sitting, in our awareness, everything is included. This is, kind of hard to get intellectually, that everything is included. But I know it experientially. The first time I had Zazen instruction with my first teacher, Japanese Soto priest in New York, I had this feeling, as I sat, of wholeness, of everything is okay just as it is. This is a challenging idea, and I'll talk about some of the current implications, but it's all right here.

[05:32]

And now we're living in this situation where it's all right here in this wide room. I can't see everybody in this room. It's like, you know, kind of move around. And it's also all the people on the Zoom. So here we are all together. And somehow, There's a dynamic function, a working, a full expression that comes from that. So I will read some parts of this essay. It starts, the great path or the great way of the Buddhas in its consummation is passage to freedom, is actualization. We can say realization of freedom, liberation. So I'm reading Thomas Cleary's translation, but there are other good ones. So again, the great path of the Buddhas in its consummation is passage to freedom or liberation, is actualization, realizing, actualizing everything, wholeness, awakening.

[06:41]

That passage to freedom, in one sense, is that life passes through life to freedom, and death, too, passes through death to freedom. Therefore, there is leaving life and death. There is entering life and death. Both are the great path of consummation. Can you hear me, Jan? I guess. Good. There is abandoning life and death. There is crossing over life and death. Both are the great path of consummation. So he talks a lot in this essay about life and death. And in some ways, Death represents emptiness. We could say existence and non-existence. So the death side is emptiness or non-existence. The life side is all of the 10,000 things, all of the myriad phenomena, all of the experiences and feelings and thoughts of our life.

[07:44]

So seen in that way, again, I'll read this. There is leaving life and death, there is entering life and death, both are the great path of consummation. So this is the consummation of freedom and actualization, liberation and actualization. And he says there is abandoning life and death, there is crossing over life and death, both are the great path of consummation, how we actually fulfill this practice, this awareness, this great awakening. I'll read a little more from here. Actualization is life, life is actualization. When that actualization is taking place, it is without exception the complete actualization of life. That includes everything, all existence. And, he says, it is the complete actualization of death. So this is the actualization of emptiness.

[08:47]

of non-existence, of what happens when we're gone, when all our phenomena is gone. This pivotal working, which I think is a translation here of Zenki, of the key of Zenki, this pivotal working can cause life and can cause death. At the precise moment of the actualization of this working, it is not necessarily great, not necessarily small, not all pervasive, not limited, not extensive, not brief. I'll skip down a little bit. It's a short essay, but I'm not gonna just read it all. Life is like when one rides in a boat, Dogen says. Though in this boat one works the sail, the rudder, and the pole, the boat carries one, and one is nothing without the boat. Riding in the boat, one even causes the boat to be a boat.

[09:50]

That's very interesting. So when you're driving your car, you are causing your car to be a car. It's not until you are riding in it or driving it. Tolkien says, one should meditate on this precise point. At this very moment, the boat is the world. Even the sky, the water and the shore all have become circumstances of the boat. So as we drive the road, the buildings on the sides the trees or grass in the sides, all are circumstances of our automotive vehicle. So the shore, all of those have become circumstances of the boat, unlike circumstances which are not the boat. For this reason, life is our causing to live. It is life's causing us to be ourselves.

[10:53]

When riding in a boat, mind and body, object and subject, are all workings of the boat, the whole earth, and all of the space, are just workings of the boat. We that are life, life that is we, we are the same way. So as we move through our life, whether it's walking or riding on a boat or riding in a car or riding on the L, everything is the circumstances of life, the circumstances of existence for that situation. But also, death is the absence of those circumstances. Then Dogen quotes Yuanwu Keqin, a Chinese master of the, I think the 1100s, who in Japanese, Engo Gopugon, this is how you say his name.

[12:01]

He was the commentator of the Blue Cliff Record. He's the one who put the Blue Cliff Record collection of Zen stories together. The original cases and the verses were chosen by a previous teacher. Yuan Wu said, in life the whole works appears. In death the whole works appears. Dogen says about this, one should thoroughly investigate and understand the saying. What thorough investigation means is that the principle of in life the whole works appears, or total dynamic activity appears, has nothing to do with beginning and end. This is not something that starts at some point and ends at some point. Though it is the whole earth and all space, so the extents of all, everything around us, not only does it not block the appearance of the whole works in life, it doesn't block the appearance of the whole works in death either.

[13:12]

So everything is here. in non-existence and in existence. He goes on to say... Let's see, I think I skipped something. Yeah, well, just to say that it has no beginning and no end is to say that this total dynamic activity, the whole works, exists throughout all time as well as all space. So this is not how we usually see things, think of things, experience things. This is the whole works, all of everything is right here in our life, in our thinking, in our thoughts and feelings, during zazen and our sensations.

[14:15]

And it's also all here in the absence of that. So maybe you could say after you die. But it's also in... So there's this interplay of existence and non-existence that is part of what Dogen is describing here. So we can look at this in terms of the Huayen or Avatamsaka philosophy of the interplay of the ultimate and the particular, or the universal and the phenomenal. Everything is right here. Everything is right here when everything ends, too. So, I want to think about this with all of you, and I look forward to our discussion.

[15:16]

in terms of the situation the world is in now. So this invasion, this brutal invasion in Ukraine is terrible and it affects all of us. And how to bring peace and sanity and diplomacy to the situation is not clear, although there are good people working on that. So there are many causes and conditions to such an event. And in terms of what Dogen's saying, how do we include that in the whole works? How is that the total dynamic? How is this war two and a half million refugees from Ukraine in two weeks?

[16:20]

How is that part of the wholeness of everything? How do we include that? How do we respond to that? How is the life and death of Ukrainians part of this whole working that is on our seat right now? Out there, I'm looking out the window and seeing Foster Avenue and the school across the way. Everything is right here, though, beyond what I can see with my limited human perceptions. And, you know, we might think of the Russians as monsters attacking and invading poor people of Ukraine, but also there are incredibly brave people in Russia who are protesting the war. And there are people in our country protesting the war.

[17:22]

People in Russia protesting the war are beaten up and can be put in prison for 15 years. Incredibly brave. And the people of Ukraine have been incredibly brave. So, you know, this Zen philosophy of wholeness, this Zen experience of wholeness, of the whole works, we have to consider in terms of the difficulties in our own lives and the difficulties in our world. And there's so many more besides the Ukraine war. And also we can include that this invasion in many ways was provoked by our government And when the Soviet Union collapsed, a little history lesson, the United States promised that NATO would not expand to the east, to the former Soviet Union countries. And then it started to, and then we promised that there would not be weapons.

[18:28]

But now the whole border around Russia is weaponized. And of course, Russia is weaponized. It's a very dangerous situation. Even more dangerous because the Russian army has taken over Chernobyl, where there was the greatest nuclear power plant meltdown and disaster in our history. There have been some others, Fukushima and Fiume Island, for example. But now it's controlled by Russia and the International Atomic Energy Commission has no idea what's going on there. And also there are more nuclear power plants in Ukraine than there are in any other country in Europe, just like there are more nuclear power plants here in Illinois than in any other state. So there's tremendous danger here. How do we include that in the total dynamic activity of everything is just working?

[19:34]

Integrating the particular phenomena with the ultimate universal that we get some taste of through our zazen. Whether we get a jolt of, oh, everything's okay, there's wholeness. or whether we struggle and feel the pain in our knees or wherever, and feel the pain in our heart, all of that, facing all of that is the total dynamic working. And of course, we want to think, how do we fix that? How do we take care of that? Is there any way to fix that? And we don't know. And not knowing is one of the great joys and benefits of our practice. We start to realize how much we don't know. But I can't see the wall behind me except I can see it on the Zoom window.

[20:39]

And the people on Zoom can't see all the people here. And I can't see all the people here unless I lean over. and the people here can't see the people on the Zoom screen, but here we are together, and somehow the whole is working. How do we see this function, this total function of reality, of existence and non-existence, interacting in a way that is complete, I could speculate about this, that maybe this invasion in Ukraine, and of course there are many other invasions and wars all around the world. This one is in front of us now and very horrible, but there are many people who are refugees from war, besides from the Ukraine.

[21:42]

But how do we seal that, and how does that give us an opportunity to wake up? each of us, but also all the peoples of the world. And the people in Ukraine are responding with incredible courage and incredible desperation and sorrow and sadness. But there are people in other places around the world who have similar situations. There's war in Columbia and the Western Hemisphere, there's anyway, there are refugees trying to get in from other war zones to our country who are not being allowed in. Anyway, I can go on and on about all the situations, but how do we use this? And by we, I mean each of us, but also our species, human type beings to see, to support peace and to try and see the dangers of war.

[22:47]

So again, Dogen is talking about this total functioning, that somehow everything is functioning together. And may it be that this situation in the Ukraine inspires peoples around the world and governments around the world to act for peace. And not to promote war. So I said that our government was responsible in some ways for provoking all of this terrible situation, pushing NATO East, but also our whole economy is so reliant on weapons makers. So just to add to this. Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed, General Dynamics, those five are making huge profits because of this war.

[23:54]

And they're saying it, that, oh, this is a great opportunity to sell lots of more weapons in Europe and elsewhere. Just as many billionaires and the pharmaceutical company is making fortunes from this horrible COVID pandemic that we're easing out of, hopefully. So it's a difficult situation, but somehow, Dokken claims that it's all weaving together. How do we see the whole thing? How do we respond? How do we bring peace and sanity? And of course this applies not just to situations in Europe or South America or Africa, horrible situations for the Rohingya people who are refugees from Burma and so forth. It also applies for each of us as we sit in our own hearts.

[24:58]

How do we separate ourselves from others? How do we make some other groups, white people or black people or Latinx people into others who are not worthy of being part of the pivotal opportunity, the loom, the weaving loom of our lives? How do we do that in our own hearts and minds? How do we see some people as unworthy of including on our seats, in our hearts? So this short essay by Dogen challenges us in many ways. So I could keep on babbling, but I want to hear what you all have to say, or some of you. So David, could you please take the Zoom screen back?

[26:02]

And people here in the Ebenezer room, if you have comments or questions or responses, you can raise your hands. And Dylan, please help me call on people here. And if people in the Zoom have something to say, you can indicate that and David Ray will call on you. So thank you all for your presence, for your practice, for being part of this whole of working together. Comments, questions, responses. talk today reminded me of that, and also reminded me of the work that Joanna Macy has been doing to raise awareness of the interactiveness of all things.

[27:22]

And I think it's probably the most important concept, and it's been slowly filtering into more and more general awareness. And I think Dogen was an early adopter, and Buni Shakyamuni certainly and anyone that awakens to the emptiness, the dependent-arisen nature of all things. I think what we do here, striving to awaken individually, but also to see that that's part of the collective awakening that we're trying to create, is the most important thing. Well, I'll just stop there. Thank you for the talk. Thank you very much, Bryant. And just one comment, since you mentioned my good friend Joanna Macy, my mentor, she has a very, I think, very helpful way of talking about how to produce or appreciate wholeness.

[28:30]

She talks about the great turning, the turning towards I could say towards sanity, towards cooperation, towards peace rather than competition. But she says there's three aspects of the Great Turning. One of them is what she calls holding actions. So all political or any kind of action to try and stop the damage, all the damage in the world. holding actions. And she talks about alternative institutions, so micro banks in South Asia, for example, or collective farming. There's a public field out here for growing things for agriculture. And the third is changing hearts and minds. And that's what we're doing here. When we sit, we're doing it for ourselves.

[29:31]

We're observing our hearts and minds. And through us spreading, we're changing the way people see the situation of the world. Rather than aggression and responding to any problem with military, we want to support cooperation. and kindness, and changing the way human beings feel that is important. So that's another part of that. So thank you, Brian. Other comments, responses, questions? David. Your talk has made me curious in a new way about the word pivotal, which is also in the translation of the Song of the Jewel-Bearer Samadhi, or pivotal moment brings it forth. So I'm curious how it is that this word both means the whole works and then also a pivotal moment. Is every moment pivotal?

[30:32]

Sure. So the part of zenki, ki, workings or works, the workings of the universe or the activity also has to do with this pivotal situation. And yes, yes, absolutely. Each situation, each moment, there's a pivot. We can switch from seeing others as separate from us to seeing others as totally integrated with us. We can switch from seeing the Russian people as the enemy to seeing how they are victims of this as much as we are. And so each, yes, and in Zen practice sometimes they talk about a pivotal moment as a moment of realization or awakening, but each moment is a pivotal, is a possible pivot. And maybe it's up to us, our responsibility is to see that.

[31:37]

in each situation, in each moment, how do we turn it? As Joanna Macy talks about turning, the great turning. So thank you, David Reed. Bo? Thank you for your talk. I guess I was just thinking about this idea of changing hearts and minds. I guess how to do that, I feel like our culture, people can be very, just generalize, like resistant to like, that kind of, I don't know, how to do that without being kind of evangelical about the practice a little bit. And then, I also have a question about the particular circumstance in Ukraine It strikes me that you have to change the heart and mind of sort of one person in this case, maybe.

[32:44]

I'm thinking of Putin, you know, like in a situation like this where someone has so much power, it's, it's so sort of aggregated to him, you know, with probably a few other people I get, but how do you practice with that a little bit where it just seems so Um, yeah, I don't know. I don't, how do you change Putin's term? I mean, I don't know if I'm really asking that, but like it's a very particular circumstance too, right? So yes. And that's part of the point. Every circumstance is a particular circumstance and it also is an expression of. emptiness or wholeness or the ultimate. So people were asking the same questions about how to change the heart and mind of our last president. So I don't think it's one person.

[33:46]

So talking as Brian was talking about systems and systems theory and he just talked about You know, I was talking about the weapons makers who are making a fortune in this country. There's also the mass media, the corporate media, which is encouraging us to think about responding militarily. This is the kind of old, you know, basic, idea of how to respond to situations in the world rather than responding with kindness or responding with sending food, let's send more weapons. And the mainstream corporate media in this country, it seems to me, is encouraging us to feel antagonistic and, well, Putin's the enemy or whatever. And yeah, what is being done by

[34:50]

His government is terrible, his soldiers, who are victims of this as well, as all soldiers are. You know, just one example, the mainstream corporate media, I'm not talking about Fox News, even MSNBC and CNN to name names. They have all these pundits on, and a lot of them are former generals. And most of those former generals now work for Raytheon or General Dynamics or Boeing or some of those weapons companies. They don't say that. They don't issue disclaimers. So in Russia, there's tremendous propaganda. They're not allowed to say the word war. They're not allowed to say the word invasion. This is a peacekeeping mission that the Russians are doing in Ukraine, in Russia. But we have some of the same problem. We see it in this militaristic way. How do we see, how to change, you started off by asking about how to, the awesomeness of changing hearts and minds.

[35:54]

And it starts with each one of us, but also we can share that. And Zazen, Zazen does something. So some of you here I can see have been practicing for decades. Some of you are fairly new to practice. I remember, Someone at, we had our group at Rockefeller Chapel in Hyde Park, someone who had just started sitting, oh, I don't know, after six months or a year, she said, you know, I was riding in the elevator in my building, and somebody in the elevator said to me, what are you doing? Something about you has changed. So our awareness of ourselves and everything is we express as we walk around in the world. We cannot help but express that. That's one way to create change. The other is, you know, you can see groups that you think are being helpful in whatever situation and support them.

[37:04]

And this isn't something that happens like that. We have the whole, karma of human history and warfare and aggression and slavery and racism as part of the air we breathe. But also transformation is possible. That's what Togan says again and again and again. Sorry for the long-winded answer. Other comments, perspectives, questions, responses? Eve has a question. Hello, Eve. I can't see you, but I hope I'll hear you. Yeah. Well, it's about the death part. Frankly, I have... Eve, are you there? Can you hear me? Are you muted, Eve?

[38:06]

I'm not supposed to be muted. Well, Jane also has a question. Eve, maybe we'll come back to you. Okay. Hello, Jane. Can you hear me now? Yes. All right, but come back to me. Let Eve go first. I can hear her. Can you turn up your volume? Okay. Well, anyway, I was saying I have trouble with the deaf part. Um, an acceptable opportunity in this world is, is all of these technologies which can bring us together or separate us. Eve, are you, can we hear you now? I don't know. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you now. I hear you. Okay. Well, anyway, I was saying I have trouble with the death part. And, and, I mean, in general, um, and yes, we all have trouble with this. Okay.

[39:07]

Well, um, yeah. So can you say anything more about that? And Okay, I'll try. Maybe others have something to say, too. And there's just, you know, women and children dying in Ukraine as schools and hospitals are bombed. But death also refers to emptiness, non-existence, that which will be after us. or was before us. And right there, there is also this possibility of actualization. Wholeness is right there. We can't see it because it's non-existent. But this is what Dogen is saying. Total dynamic workings.

[40:13]

are independent of our personal life and death, are independent of our personal view of existence and non-existence, and permeates all of it. And that's not something we can easily see or understand. So I sympathize, Eve, with your question. So, you know, Dogen, in Dogen's style, and maybe you could say rhetorical style, but also in a lot of the koans, it's not about demonstrating or proving some assertion in some Western logical way. It's just, this is what it is. So, you know, we can take that as perplexing and as a dilemma, or we can take it as reassuring that the wholeness of kindness and caring and mutuality and cooperation does not depend on what we see, what we think is existent.

[41:31]

There are many realms beyond our human cognitive and spiritual and perceptive limitations. I don't know if that helps, but anyway, that's a little. Well, it helps some, but I guess also, you know, it's part of like, you know, letting go and when something is good and it ends, you know, being able to accept that. I mean, um, like, Andy's Fruit Ranch, which is the store on Kedzie that I liked, it closed, and I'm upset about it. Being upset is part of the whole working. It's not that you should just be cool and calm. Zen is not about being nice or being calm and peaceful in every situation. We do have responses.

[42:35]

Oh no, the fruit stand closed. Oh. And if you want to cry about it, that's okay. There is crying in Zen. Maybe not in baseball, but there is. But I forgot a quote that you're, that I wanted to say that's actually from a different Shobo Genzo essay by Dogen, an essay about the Lotus Sutra. And this sort of relates to your question indirectly maybe. Dogen says, give up holding back your life to hold on fully to your life. give up holding back your life to hold on fully to your life. So we hold back, we hold back from food stamps closing, from wars, and how do we not hold back from the difficulties? How do we not hold back from the distress of the pandemic and our distress about war and cruelty?

[43:43]

How do we hold on fully to our life and respond with our life as best we can see? Yeah, that reminds me. When my father was dying at one point, he started crying and my mother told him not to cry. And I was upset with that because I was like, you know, let him cry. I mean... Yes, we all respond. And somehow, somehow, this is really hard to even hear, but somehow all of it, the crying and telling people not to cry and wars and cruelty and pandemics, all of it is part of the pivotal opportunity of the whole working now and long ago and in the future.

[44:46]

Yes, Dylan. Your question reminds me of a story or a story from Tenshin Zenki. So when I was in Minnesota for a practice period a couple years ago, that was being led by Tenshin Zenki, somebody asked in the big hall with everybody there, what was it like to be there when Suzuki Roshi was passing away? And Tenshin Zenki said, well, Suzuki Roshi is practice. So I don't know if that helps, but that's what it reminded me of. And that's what Dogen is saying. Life is practice. Death is practice. All of existence is practice. All of emptiness is practice. It's okay if you disagree, that's practice too.

[45:55]

But emptiness is practice because it's connected with everything else? Emptiness actually is, you know, is one way of talking about suchness or interconnectedness or interrelatedness. So we are all interconnected by death. All of us know, probably know somebody who has passed. all of us, very, very likely, all of us in this room will die at some point. Right, yeah, that's about the most likely thing there is, yeah. But everything is connected, and former lives are connected. Tsukiroshi is dead, but he's also alive. How is it that we are, that the wholeness works through everything? And that's it. Oh, Jan, do you have a comment?

[47:03]

Yeah. Louder, so everyone can hear, please. OK. A long time ago, I read an article by a physicist named Cage, and I knew him. And what? I didn't hear you. I knew him, he was a friend of mine. His name is Kadesh. Kadesh, okay. He's a physicist. Thank you. And he made the comment that it's impossible in our universe for the immovable object and the irresistible force. The immovable object and the irresistible force cannot exist in the same universe. If there's one, there can't be the other. And so it's very difficult to imagine a situation where existence and non-existence can exist in the same place.

[48:10]

Well, they can't because existence is other than non-existence, according to our language. So it might be just a language thing that you can't... that it's difficult to conceive of those two concepts in the same universe. Yeah, so I don't want to dispute physics because I don't know much about it. And the science of physics does tell us so much about physical reality in some ways, but... It's also the limitation of what we can see and know, I think, is also a factor in everything. So maybe that's true in this universe and not in other universes. I don't know. You know, and I'm angry today.

[49:11]

Good. And my anger is focused on daylight saving time. But the background of it is so annoying to me because Daylight Saving Time is a mechanism for, I'm not exaggerating when I say this is my feeling about it, it's a mechanism for depriving the working class of something that they should be free to enjoy, which is the early mornings in spring and summer, when they wake up, and instead of being able to enjoy the hour of sunshine, they have to go to work. And I feel that the corporations and the capitalistic system is depriving them of something that was given to them by

[50:22]

nature. And I get really exercised and angry when we change time because, you know, if I were a minor or a secretary, instead of being able to stay home and enjoy an extra hour of sleep or whatever you want, you got to go to work. Well, yeah, it's Daylight Savings Time, and Jan is really upset about it, and I hear you. It's a futile anger. Well, you know, this is a whole other Dharma talk, but when anger arises, whether it's futile or useful, how do we appreciate it? How do we see it and not let it eat us up?

[51:27]

And I don't know that it would be helpful for you to go and find the person who's in charge of the clocks and beat them up. But you should feel what you feel. And thank you for telling us. Yes, Katie. Hi, just in response to Jan, I guess I'm a little bit confused about Can you hear her on Zoom? No. Okay, please everybody in the room speak up. We have our brothers and sisters in the Zim world. Yes, I'll do my best. I guess I'll recap that then. I'm a little bit confused about the distinction or correlation between irresistible force and immovable object and existence and nonexistence. I don't think these things translate into the same thing.

[52:29]

Existence and nonexistence I think in physics would both be the irresistible force and there is no immovable object. I think it's also the purpose of that essay is that there is no And so interesting. Thank you. Yeah, I think maybe. And also, it helps me in an existential way, because I frequently understand my own experience as an immovable object and one that tries to manipulate the circumstances around me. And so thank you for that confession. But I think you're an immovable force. You know, can I just say something about it? Yeah, I thought David Ray has a comment. Okay. And loudly, please, so that everybody can hear. I've often wondered, with Joanna Macy's philosophy, if it's really true that these mild and quiet and

[53:40]

unaggressive tactics of love and kindness and all that is really the immovable force. And that war, that war making and hatred is not an immovable object. Now, I think that's what Katie is. Well, I hope it's movable. I mean, there have been peace movements that have led to wars ended. That's true, historically. Yes, my comment is that Jane has a question and then Debra has a question. Hi, Jane. Hello, Chicago. Good to see you all. Thank you so much for this, your talk and the practice. Everyone's practice. I wanted to

[54:42]

talk a little bit or ask a question about that interface that the pivot perhaps and it's it's kind of the relationship between what you've been talking about through Dogen today and Hongzhi because he talks about functioning and functioning in this world over the course of the last Oh, year, two years, three years, I've been sitting with what my capacity is, you know, to, to experience all this. It's not such an intellectual process as it is an opening and heartfelt process, for lack of a better word, functioning and capacity to hold it all.

[55:46]

And so I was wondering if you had thoughts about that that you might share. And the other thing I would like to mention is the work of Thomas Hubel and intergenerational trauma as a whole aspect to what we all experience. Thank you. Capacity is an interesting word. Dogen says in Genjo Koan, when Dharma fills your body and mind, you realize something is missing. So our capacity to pay attention even to all the difficulties around us, personally and in the world, you know, shifts and changes and pivotal moments we can open up to more.

[56:51]

Yeah. And it's not, it's not one thing. It's, Tolkien talks about birds flying and he says, when the need is small, their field is small. When their need is large, their field is large. So, We should respect our human limitations. Each of us has our own particular limitations and capacity to even pay attention or respond. I know people who won't watch the news because it's so painful and I sympathize. who don't watch the news. Or pay attention to what's going on because it's painful. And I sympathize with that.

[57:55]

Part of what Zazen does... So the other thing that you were saying, Jane, it's not intellectual. It's not a matter of deliberation and... logic is physical. And I think you were pointing to that. This is a physical practice. How do our, it's not just our thoughts, but our physical sensations, our bodies, open up and respond. So we don't understand it, but you know, how could I don't know. I'm wondering whether to say this, but if Mother Teresa or the Dalai Lama could have done what they did, that's a capacity of a human being.

[59:01]

If Hitler or Putin or Trump did what they did, that's also the capacity of a human being. How do we pay attention? Our practice is about paying attention, whatever's going on. So thank you for your comment, Jane. Debra, I think we're getting near to when we have to stop here at Ebenezer. So Debra, maybe you have the last word. Thank you. OK. Yeah, thank you so much. It's great to be with all of you. I'm ill today, so I'm not going to be on screen. But I was just supporting what Jane said. She kind of really was what I was trying to talk about, simply that as we sit Zazen, what is happening in that experience is also a way to maybe approach all the issues you brought up today. And I personally, that's what I do. And I just wanted to stress that, that often we don't know what to do initially. I know when, real quickly, Black Lives Matter was happening and climate change, I didn't know what to do.

[60:05]

But I just kept sitting with it and trying to see what my response would be. And it's just dealing with that, the fear, the anger, the sadness, the unknowing that's, you know, very alive, hard to be with, but I think is our truth. And I'm just going to leave it there. Thank you. Thank you, Debra. Are you in California or Pittsburgh now? California. Oh, hi. Okay. Yeah, no, that's just to sit with it. So important just to pay attention and skillful means appropriate response. Helpfulness is not about going out and just doing something for the sake of doing something. It's about sitting with it as you were describing. not knowing how to respond, but paying attention to the situation and to yourself, and then when you see something that you can do or that might be helpful, then we can actualize that.

[61:05]

And this whole process that we've been talking about is, I think, what Dogen is talking about in Zenkyu, in the whole works, in the total dynamic activity. It includes everything. That includes not knowing what to do. It includes paying attention. It includes making mistakes, hopefully making good mistakes, but sometimes making terrible mistakes. Anyway, we have to see that it's all part of us, each of us and all of us. So thank you, Deborah. Thank you, everyone. We should stop here now. Yes, thank you, Megan. I believe we do announce Bodhisattva Vows, the Four Bodhisattva Vows, and then some announcements. Which one's first? I think the Vows. Okay. What does it say on the schedule? I don't know. Wrap up, chant Four Bodhisattva Vows announcements.

[62:09]

Okay, that's what it is. Okay, I want to talk with you about quick fitness stuff, but okay. Okay. So Brian, would you lead us in the Bodhisattva Vows? Beings are numberless. I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Normalities are boundless. I vow to end them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to realize it. Beings are numberless. I vow to free them. Delusions are impossible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them.

[63:12]

Put us away as unsurpassable, I vow to realize it. Beings are numberless, I vow to free them. Delusions are impossible, I vow to end them. While the gates are boundless, I vow to enter them. Because the way is unsurpassable, I vow to realize.

[63:53]

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