Good evening and welcome. I had planned to speak this evening about the next case in the Book of Serenity Koan Collection, a series of talks on those that I'm doing. However, after the events of this weekend, I will speak on something else. I want to share my personal connection and responses to the shooting Saturday at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where 11 people were killed and six wounded. My bar mitzvah was at the Tree of Life Synagogue. It was a few blocks from where I lived while growing up from age of six to 17. So Saturday it was kind of surreal to see on television the temple where I went to Hebrew school and Sunday school with soldiers and swat teams massed in front. I've not lived in Pittsburgh since 1972, And I have not stayed in regular contact with anyone from there.

[01:06]

I don't have any family there now. But I was there a year ago, September, and enjoyed my 50th high school reunion. One of the 11 victims, Irving Younger, was a high school classmate of mine. It was a very large class. We were not close, but I recognized his name. Another victim, Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, was on HIV. specialist, a doctor who helped many with HIV. So I want to say with a few exceptions in our sangha, we are mostly all first generation Buddhists. We're Zen practitioners, but most of us still deeply conditioned by our Judeo-Christian roots.

[02:07]

Not true for some people, but we're connected to different faiths through interfaith dialogue, and also often our own internal dialogues between traditions, different traditions of spiritual practice. So a number of you have asked me about Buddhist-Christian interaction. So just as an example, I want to mention, I wrote to a few of you about him, Paul Gaffney, who's a Christian minister from the Disciples of Christ, who was also a Zen practitioner and board member at my Mountain Sorsanga group in the Bay Area before I moved to Chicago. Paul's going to be joining us for all of the Rohatsu Sesshin beginning of December. He'd taken classes with me on Dogen and Zen and other Buddhist topics at Graduate Theological Union, and later received lay ordination from me at Mountain Source.

[03:15]

He also asked me to participate as a mentor in his Christian ministerial ordination. Paul became the Marin County homeless chaplain, spent a great many years on the streets of San Rafael and elsewhere in Marin as a dedicated minister to the homeless community there. He's now, he trained his successor and he's now completing studies to train chaplains at the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo. But I like Paul's definition of God, speaking as a God. Christian and a Buddhist. As a Buddhist Christian and a Christian minister, Paul says, I experience God as the flow of energy in relationship between self and other. God is the movement that connects us all, the whole creation, now and forever. So this is a way to see our radical interconnectedness and a way to see all of these events, I think.

[04:17]

All the mass shootings are horrible. From Parkland in Florida to Sandy Hook, to all the terrible shootings every single day on the south side of Chicago. But somehow a personal connection intensifies the horror. So, the Square Hall neighborhood where I grew up has been much in the news with vigils. The shooter at Tree of Life was virulently anti-Semitic, but also he was very specifically anti-refugee. He was targeting a particular Jewish group that supports refugees, Hebrew Immigration Aid Society. Groups at Tree of Life synagogue were supporting current refugees fleeing violence, including from Central America. And it's a liberal congregation.

[05:20]

The rabbi has been speaking about gun control. Also last week, the person in Florida arrested for sending bombs to former Presidents Obama and Clinton, as well as a dozen other Democratic leaders, such as Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, was a nationalist, a nationalist white supremacist who was very longly anti-black, anti-Semitic, and anti-refugee. Last week also, a white man in Kentucky unsuccessfully tried to break into an African-American church. and then shot and murdered two black people in a nearby grocery store. So our bodhisattva commitment, the expression of our sustained zazen practice, leads us to feel like we must work against hatred.

[06:21]

and for communication and understanding so difficult now. So I want to talk about refugees. All of us are descended from refugees or from immigrants seeking a better life. Of course, some Sangha members are descended from people forced here in slave ships or from Native Americans whose ancestors came much, much earlier across the Bering Straits So the issue is the complexity of our intertangled, ancient, twisted, collective karma. And how to respect all, including all these victims of hatred. And it keeps going. but also those who have been manipulated into seeking scapegoats for their real fears and suffering.

[07:26]

So how do we understand the people who are manipulated, often by politicians, into hatred? How do we include all of all of this process, all of these beings with kindness, and still speak truth to power and join actions that stand strongly against hatred and harm. That's our great koan now. The current Central American refugees from Honduras and Guatemala and El Salvador, as well as Mid-Eastern refugees in Europe, are fleeing war and terrorism instigated and sustained by our government's policies. Recent reports are that 12,800 children remain in United States detention camps. That the policy of separation of children from their families at our southern border is continuing.

[08:32]

So I think about how our taking refuge in Buddha is connected to the refugees from war terrorism and the effects of climate damage as well. Somehow I feel a kinship as a Dharma refugee with all of these refugees and immigrants. We take refuge in Buddha and Dharma and Sangha to return home to something deeper. to some deeper communion and interconnectedness. But also, we find refuge from the horrors of the hatred, cruelty, and greed of the ordinary world in taking refuge in Buddha. And all of these are being exacerbated in the time we're in now. So this is our taking refuge. For people here who take refuge with Soto Zen precepts, I also recommend Thich Nhat Hanh's version of the precepts and his Order of Interbeing.

[09:42]

So especially relevant are the precepts not to kill. So Thich Nhat Hanh says, do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and prevent war. Also, the precept to speak truth, Thich Nhat Hanh says, always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety. So again, this is a big koan. Our society is full of hatred and division. And it's hard to know what to do. But, you know, this event in Pittsburgh this weekend touched me personally.

[10:47]

It happened right in the neighborhood where I grew up. I know the streets around there very well. I know that temple. And the issue really that motivated the gunmen was refugees and keeping out the others. Hispanics, the so-called caravan of people from Central America trying to find safety. And of course, we all, you know, there's this human habit of thinking of self and others and seeing some people, some beings, some as other and separate from us. So again, I feel this link between, as a Dharma refugee, taking refuge in, whether you formally do that ceremony of taking refuge or not, just by being here, sitting zazen, we are returning to somehow something deeper, to be upright and calm and responsive like Buddha.

[12:23]

to hear the truth, to see the truth in our lives, and to refuge in sangha and community. So I had to talk about this tonight, and I'm interested in hearing any responses any of you have. And also, as Dharma refugees, I hope we might strongly speak out. and act in whatever ways we can to support current refugees seeking sanctuary in our country. And then how do we work to oppose hatred? Hating those who hate, it doesn't work. How do we see, again, the real fears and pain of those who are manipulated into hatred.

[13:25]

How do we oppose that without hating them or hating what's happening? How do we openheartedly act against hate. So just one little part of this is a reminder to please vote, the election coming up, and vote against hatred, whoever you see that. So that's what I wanted to say. And I'm not sure what else to say, but I hope that some of you have some responses. So please feel free. Part of what Sangha is is a chance to share perspectives and share viewpoints and share how we think and respond about our lives and the world.

[14:38]

So comments, questions, responses, please feel free. Ben. I've been thinking a lot lately about resentment. A lot of research has shown that these particular kinds of shooters are motivated by a certain kind of white male resentment, and I think that We can see much more broadly in our politics in the US and Brazil just elected a right wing demagogue, most extreme right wing politician in the hemisphere. And I think that the politics of resentment is really driving that too. And I've been thinking about how to understand it and how to understand it through the dharma and how I see it popping up in my I think what it does is that it exteriorizes that.

[16:34]

If only those people weren't doing something to me. If only they weren't taking something from me. If only they weren't causing some kind of harm. And then in this really perverse way, it kind of circles back, and that sense of lack get sort of solidified by the sense of, you know, I am someone who has had something taken away. This sort of one's subjectivity is based upon disliking other things, and one's sense of fulfillment has been taken away by other people. And I know that that's a pattern that I see in my own practice all the time. And I know that's a pattern that I see in my own life. I'd be happier if only my boss paid more attention to me, if only my colleagues weren't such jerks. And we can see it in our practice, too.

[17:38]

I'd be more comfortable if only I could move my leg. And I don't know if my practice has helped me. It's helped me identify it. It's helped me see why it's so powerful in emotion, it's helped me see when I get sucked into it too. And I think we're kind of challenged to understand how this big interconnected world that we live in is really promoting people basing their senses of who they are on grievances that they have about others. Now, you know, it's a twisted karmas collective, so recognizing how that also manifests itself in us differently according to our different dharma positions. I don't know if that offers any easy answers, but that's sort of what I've been thinking about. I don't think there are any easy answers.

[18:40]

But yeah, it's a collective karma. So people feel aggrieved, as you said, by those people coming from the South who are going to take our jobs or whatever. And really, the issue is Well, I would say, in my opinion, the corporations and the tax cuts for the very, very wealthy, a lot of people are having a really hard time. And on the surface, it looks like, oh yeah, the economy is booming. Anyway, so this huge, ancient, twisted, collective karma of the history of slavery and racism and so forth. It's difficult. I think seeing it, as you said, is the first step and being willing to speak about it and say no to hatred.

[19:45]

But it's, as you say, it can come up in all of us. Other comments? Thank you, Ben. Other reflections or comments? Yes, Dennis, hi. I don't know if I'll ever get to be president of the city of Rhode Island. Yeah, there are people who are profiting off of the manipulation.

[21:16]

That's true, profiting hugely. And so, yeah, we want to feel compassion for the people being manipulated, but also we should feel compassion and sympathy for the victims. Yeah, so how do we respond to this from a wider perspective? Maybe that's part of what our practice allows us. Yes, Jen. I was wondering how people responded to Trump's suggestion that it wouldn't have happened if there had been an armed Well I saw on television today some people from Pittsburgh officials and members of Jewish congregations in Pittsburgh who were kind of irate at that.

[22:33]

There were four policemen and squad team members who were very highly trained in using these weapons who were wounded by the gunmen. So I don't know. Ben, did you have something? I have a friend who's an Iraq war vet and a teacher and now is doing a lot of work on handgun control activism, gun control activism. he'll share and talks about all the training that he had to go through and how hard it was for him as a gunner in Iraq to learn how to respond appropriately while being fired at and how traumatic it was for him the first few times that he was actively being shot at and all the training and the emotional work that he had to do to learn how to respond in that situation and the toll that it's taken on him for having been in a whole bunch of combat situations.

[23:47]

And, you know, the idea that just a person with a gun could stop this is just ... Anyone who is a serious law enforcement officer who's been in combat will tell you that that's just false. Life doesn't work that way. It's just a misguided fantasy. It reminds me of a man who was Abraham Lincoln's bodyguard who was taking Anybody else who hasn't spoken yet? Yes, Laurel. I'm very sorry that you've had this personal experience. I'm sure it's very hard.

[24:49]

But one thing about it is it helps us understand it better. There was a headline today number this year and it doesn't seem real because Yeah, and these 11 people, and at this place that I know well,

[25:59]

is nothing compared to, actually, to all of the shootings and murders right here in Chicago, mostly on the south side, so we're a little distant, separated from it, but it's every day. occurrence and for all the people affected personally by those shootings and many people in Chicago affected by many, many of those shootings. An outsider.

[27:18]

And we all sometimes feel like we're outside of whatever it is we think is inside. But what you said about numbness, I think that's a key thing, that it's hard not to become numb to... Well... Yeah, we need to take care of our lives and enjoy all the things that there are to enjoy in our lives. And yet, part of what this practice does is to sensitize us, to cut through the numbness. There's a way to not be numb and to see all of this, the horror of every day in the south side of Chicago, the horror of what happened in this very peaceful neighborhood I grew up in. And also see, you know, I don't know what, I don't want to diminish the horror, but also, as you said, we need to live our lives.

[28:33]

So how do we take care of I think our practice can give us the sense of openness to the horror and also appreciation for the trees changing and poetry and beauty and caring. Did you have a comment? Yes, Jamie. how many, what's it as, NPs? Maybe it's okay that it's totally disordered, and that kind of stepping back from a lot of these disorganized things, which has so much to do with media narratives and political narratives and all of these things.

[30:04]

And then there's the hate and the anger and all of those, and they're all so enmeshed, but just kind of choosing to step back from that. And I think the gesture that you made with saying, I take refuge in the Buddha, And kind of see the pieces that we can actually connect to, instead of this organization, which is kind of so overwhelming that it numbs us, or that it kind of takes us out of the reality. And when we become overwhelmed, it becomes so difficult to choose. Interesting, your word disorganization is interesting and I'm thinking about synonyms.

[31:08]

Not that that's where it doesn't get it, but also, you know, everything is so fragmented. There's a fragmentation in our world now and there's a chaotic, this chaotic quality about day-to-day occurrences on the level of the news, but also in all of our lives, there's this sense of confusion. Yeah, I think what you said, Jimmy, about stepping back from that, giving up our sense of trying to control it so that everything will be normal, whatever that might be, or organized. Just have a wider perspective to see that there's some, you know, in some ways this is human beings working out this collective terrible frustration and anger and all of that pain. And, oh, if we can just get through it.

[32:13]

But what that means, we don't know. So yeah, what you say about not being caught by the disorganization. Thank you. Thank you. Other reflections? Anyone who's someone? Yes, Ed. Hi. I'm choosing to recognize that our country is in a political crisis. Yes, sure. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah, you know, there's so much about our country that we can feel so negative about, and yet there's so much that's also beautiful.

[33:46]

And yeah, I think the aspirational quality, as Dr. King said, the arc of the moral universe bending towards justice somehow, and it's a long, long road, but there's so much that's to appreciate. And at the same time, there's all this disorganization, there's all this chaos. It's really something. And I don't know that there's any answers. The practice is to find a way to be present and upright and some measure of calm. and kindness in the middle of confusion and horror. And people come together after a tragedy like this.

[34:47]

So that's happening in my old neighborhood with people coming together in vigils, expressing caring. Yes, Gershwin. We're. The problem is most people don't have a faith at this point.

[35:59]

Some small percentage of people actually attend church or synagogue or whatever, mosques. So what is the mechanism for the people coming together? What's the community structure? What's the end of the answer? I think there's a, yeah, well our culture does not, one of the things we lack is sense of community, you know, in the sense of actually living communities like this where people can talk together. What happened in Pittsburgh is actually students from my old high school, Altered Ice High School, as a response, that day after the shootings, when there was an all clear, called for a vigil, and there was a huge gathering of people. And I think there's some, I don't know if we can name the vehicle or whatever, but there's some basic human caring and decency that

[37:07]

Rebecca Solnit has written a whole book about what happens in tragedies. I forget the name of the book, but- Paradise and Hell. Paradise and Hell, right. Thank you. Yeah. She talks about many examples. She starts with the San Francisco fire back in the 19th century, but after 9-11, after Katrina, people respond and somehow come together. So your question is good. How do we find a way to people who have faith communities, that's one vehicle. Yeah, which is also so poisonous. The shooter had his community of haters on the internet. disorganized at the time. So anyway, we're not going to find any answers to any of this, but I think it's, I mean, no shocks, but I just, I feel like, you know, I have to talk about this stuff sometimes and this was personal for me and I appreciate that we can talk together and listen together.

[38:26]

Does anybody else have something you want to say before we close with the Bodhisattva Vows? Beings are numberless. I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them, but the way is unsurpassable. I vow to realize it, beings are numberless. I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them.

[39:29]

Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to realize it. Beings are numberless. I vow to free them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to realize it.

[40:25]

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