Good morning, everyone. Welcome. And happy Valentine's Day. So today we celebrate love. And I did a little research. I don't know how historically reliable this is, but it has, it has said that St. Valentine, for whom this day is named, was a Roman priest or perhaps even a bishop. He was beheaded, executed in 270 or 273, as sources say. And he was beheaded for supporting Christianity at a time when it was illegal. It's said that he was so heretical to the Roman Empire as to perform weddings for Christians, Christian couples. So that's

[01:08]

maybe why St. Valentine's Day is considered a celebration of romantic love, his performing Christian weddings. He also, it's said, cut out hearts from paper and gave them to his parishioners. So that's part of our tradition of celebrating Valentine's Day with hearts. And he also signs his notes, Your Valentine, which might sound familiar. So I want to talk today about love. And from a Buddhist perspective, the topography or structure or anatomy of love might be defined by the ten transcendent practices, the ten Bodhisattva liberative practices. We held an all-day workshop on all ten of these yesterday that some of you

[02:17]

attended. So just to say the ten are generosity or giving, which is something that happens on Valentine's Day, ethical conduct, patience or tolerance, effort or energy or enthusiasm, the fourth. The fifth is meditative settling, meditation. And the sixth is prajnaparamita, the perfection or transcendent practice of wisdom, which I would translate more as insight. And I'm going to talk about that particularly, but then there's four more, skillful means, vow or commitment, also relevant on Valentine's Day, powers or abilities and how to use them, and then knowledge, which is not the same as wisdom. So I want to say a little bit about prajnaparamita. We will track the heart sutra at the end of this. So there are many different prajnaparamita sutras,

[03:19]

usually translated as the perfection of wisdom sutras. The heart sutra is one of them. There's also the diamond sutra, the perfection of wisdom sutra in 8,000 lines. And then there's one that's in 100,000 lines. And then there's others. But at any rate, as a practice, prajnaparamita is about, um, well, we can say wisdom, but more insight, seeing what's true, seeing into any particular situation, seeing the fullness of any particular situation, seeing clearly just what is in front of us. So we can, we can take prajna as a verb, to see into the hearts of whatever is happening, whatever is we're involved with in our lives, to see clearly.

[04:22]

So this is also about seeing the sameness of all beings, seeing the emptiness of all, so-called objects, seeing the interrelatedness of each person or a thing or being. So we could talk about prajna as realizing sameness or oneness, or we could talk about it as suchness rather than emptiness just to see this situation. So all of the 10 aspects of love, the 10 paramitas in Buddhism, are informed by and, in some sense, sponsored by prajnaparamita, wisdom or insight. But I want to talk today particularly, even though, you know, in the consumerist holiday of Valentine's Day, where we're supposed to buy gifts and so forth, and where we can celebrate romantic love, which is wonderful. I want to talk today, though,

[05:29]

about love of country and patriotism. So patriotism is not about supporting one particular, it's not the same as tribalism, it's not supporting one particular part of the country, one particular ethnicity or race, one section of the country. And of course, it's not separate from also loving beings all over the world. So one of our precepts is to benefit all beings. So patriotism is not at the exclusion of, sometimes it's called globalism, but just seeing the value and worthiness of all beings. But I've driven across the United States a couple times. It's a beautiful land. And I love America, or I love many things about America. I love jazz, and rock and roll, and Hollywood movies, and baseball. Many wonderful things

[06:37]

about American culture that we can celebrate. But in the context of loving my country, I have to say and talk about today what's happened in the last week, that the so-called Republican Party has formally, officially, declared itself to be a party of white supremacy and of domestic violence. I don't say that lightly, but it's very clear. So yesterday, thanks to 43 Republican senators, Donald Trump was acquitted of inciting, and sponsoring, and supporting the violent terrorist mob that attacked our Capitol on January 6th. And if you followed what was reported in the last several days, it's very clear that

[07:44]

Donald Trump was responsible. He incited it. He was communicating with members of the mob during the attack, sending tweets that they were yelling out on bullhorns, the terrorists, the violent people. And it was much, much worse than we realized on January 6th. And when he was formally acquitted by the Senate yesterday, Donald Trump celebrated and said, we'll be back. We're just beginning. So our country's in danger. And I have to say something about that. So I want to also say that Buddhism is not just about being nice. Buddhism is about peace. But also, in terms of Prajnaparamita, it's about speaking truth and seeing what's really happening. So Donald Trump incited this mob for months and months, supporting acts of violence.

[08:54]

It was predictable what happened January 6th. And he said, he declared that the election was a fraud, that he won by a big majority. Of course, the courts and Republican officials in various states all refuted that. There was no evidence of that. But what he meant by it was a fraud is that because of black people in Detroit and Philadelphia and Atlanta and in Milwaukee, those particular states, that's why he lost. And how dare black people vote? That's what he meant when he said it was a fraud. It would have just been white people voting and not black people or Native American people or Latinx people. Yeah, he probably would have won. So the Republican Party, by acquitting him, again, it's officially a party of white supremacy. There's just no other way to say it. And I'm not talking about the people who voted for Trump,

[09:59]

necessarily. I'm talking about the leadership of the Republican Party nationally. So in some ways, it's not about Trump. It's about the Congress people, the Republican Party officials who supported Trump, even when they said that he had done this. So Mitch McConnell, as a prime example, the head of the Republican Party in the Senate, talked about how Trump had, yes, that the Democratic congressional management had proved that Donald Trump incited this violent mob, supported it, brought it together, and created this assault, this treason, this sedition against the American democracy and American country. But he voted to acquit. And Mitch McConnell said he voted to acquit because Trump was no longer the president. And Trump was no longer the president when the trial

[11:05]

happened, because Mitch McConnell himself refused to have a trial until after he was no longer president. I mean, the statements that a Republican Party leader should make are just obvious hypocrisy, but they do it in support of their party of white supremacy and violence and terrorism. I have to say this because I'm speaking with love of country. Probably many of you saw parts of the hearings, but just to say some of what we now know happened that we didn't really know until recently, and there's more information always coming out. But for example, the crowd was chanting, hang Mike Pence, and they moved into the Capitol

[12:08]

and literally were hunting for Mike Pence and for Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader. And in the middle of that, in the middle of this terrorist assault that was being shown on television, including on Fox TV, that Mr. Trump watches, Republican officials were calling and Donald Trump and pleading with him to stop it. And many of them said, these were Republican leaders, Governor Chris Christie, for example, but many others said that only Donald Trump could stop this. He had brought it together and only he could stop it. And he received a call from a Republican senator, or he called a Republican senator who was a supporter of his and said, I can't talk now. They just let Mike Pence out. After which Trump tweeted

[13:09]

attacks against Mike Pence. So he basically tried to have his own vice president assassinated. And also, he delayed, even when he was pleaded with to send in the National Guard to support the Capitol Police, he delayed that. He didn't do that. He never was involved in calling in the National Guard, who arrived several hours later. So the Capitol Police were incredibly brave, 140 of them were injured. One was killed, two committed suicide afterwards. One lost his eye. Others have, one is paralyzed because of injuries to his back. It was just, the house managers showed just brutal, brutal, vicious attacks by this Trump mob, this white supremacist mob who included people with Auschwitz

[14:15]

t-shirts saying 6 million was not enough, referring to the Holocaust. So I probably, maybe all of you know about all of this, but I feel like I have to speak about it. It came very close to being mass murder. It very easily, almost, it was very, very close to having senators and congresspeople, dozens of them being slaughtered. It didn't happen, thanks to the bravery of some of the Capitol Police. So I'm going to send a valentine out to Eugene Goodman. He was the Black Capitol Policeman who made himself a target and led the assaulters, the mob, away from the open Senate door.

[15:17]

He also personally saved the life of Mitt Romney, who was unbeknownst walking towards the mob, and Eugene Goodman got him to run away from it. So there were a lot of brave Capitol Policemen who were totally overwhelmed by numbers because they didn't get support and backup from the National Guard. So again, probably many of you know all of this, but I just, I want to make sure, because it's important to understand, again, that the Republican Party is now officially a party of white supremacy and violent terrorists, at least its leaders. Many of us have family or friends who may have voted for Trump. Some Saga members, I think, voted for Trump. That's not who I'm talking about. I'm talking about the leadership of the official Republican Party. Just a few other things. Well, again, these marauding terrorists were within, you know, yards of some of their targets.

[16:43]

Who managed to escape? Nancy Pelosi's staff hid behind a door that they barricaded in another room. I mentioned Mitt Romney being very close to the mob. They were looking for Nancy Pelosi. They were yelling, hang my pants, at the encouragement of the president. So, again, I say this, you know, well, I will admit to being angry about this. Again, Buddhism is not about just being nice. Buddhism is about being peaceful. But what does that mean? Our precept about anger—so this is part of the ethical conduct,

[17:46]

transcendent practice—our precept about anger says not to harbor ill will. So I don't personally wish harm, physical harm, to any of these white supremacist, Republican leaders and senators or to the white supremacist terrorists who Trump incited and led to the Capitol. It's not about that. I do wish that they did not have any power, that those senators should have accused themselves, because a lot of them contributed to this. I think they're perhaps more responsible for what happened and what we still face as danger than Trump himself. They supported him. They went along with the obviously false

[18:49]

disinformation about the election being a fraud. And they don't say it's because Black people were allowed to vote, but that's what they mean. So our precept about anger—one of the 16 Bodhisattva precepts that we follow—says not to harbor ill will. There's a commentary on the anger precept that says if you don't get angry when it's—if you don't feel anger when it's appropriate, that's a violation of the precept. So I would say love is more about speaking truth than about being nice and seeing clearly. So again, I don't wish any of these senators or Mr. Trump personal harm. I wish they did not have any power to interfere, to harm the country. And perhaps, you know, and they all

[19:50]

now afterwards, they talk about unity and moving on and being nice. But without accountability, we can't be united. We know what these people did. So without wishing them personal ill will, probably for their own good, some of them should be in prison—these Republican leaders, in my opinion. So I'm not speaking for Buddhism or for ancient dragons and gay. I'm just saying what I see. And, you know, in some ways, this is not a unique event. Black people know that there's a 400-year old history of slavery. And since the Civil War of lynching—actually, it was before that, too—this was a lynching of our Capitol. And they had a gallows and a hangman that was ready for Mike

[20:58]

Pence if they caught him. That's just incredible. He's been one of the most loyal of all the Republicans, Trump's vice president, and yet they were calling hang Mike Pence. And they came so close to doing it. I mentioned Officer Eugene Goodman, who directed them away from the Open Senate. There were many other Capitol police and staff and other people who were, in some ways, under assault. And I don't know if it was Eugene Goodman or one of the other Black Capitol policemen, but after everything was cleared, at the orders of Donald Trump, when he finally said after several hours, I love you. Please go home. Basically, you've proved your point or something.

[21:59]

And they immediately announced his orders. So they were working at the orders of Donald Trump. But after that, when the terrorists, domestic terrorists, whatever you want to call them, white supremacists, were cleared from the Capitol, one of the Black Capitol police officers, an introvert, hugged and broke down crying for 15 minutes. And he said, amongst other things, I was called the N-word 15 times. And he talked about how terrible this was. And then he said, is this America? So that's what we face. And I'm talking about this today. Because I feel responsible to talk about it. And what we do about this depends on,

[23:02]

voting depends on, speaking to representatives and Congress people and senators, and speaking to each other about this white supremacy danger that we all face, whether we're Black or Latinx or Asian or white. This is a threat to the safety and the well-being of our whole country. So again, this is a piece from, this is something we have to face. This is an issue for our whole country. And at Asia Dragon Zen Gate, we now have a Friday morning after Friday morning Sazan, Dylan Toropov is leading an anti-racist discussion group, which has been really helpful and instructive. Welcome to join that Friday morning Sazan at 8, at 8.30, the discussion.

[24:10]

And we have Black speakers coming in next week. Prisha Wade is a former Sangha member talking about her new book. I'll announce more about that in announcements. But this is not just something we can ignore because we have white privilege, we're safe. This is something that is a threat to everything we might love about our country. So part of Sangha is to offer a space to look at these things and to speak together. And of course, we don't, you know, this is not something that's going to be fixed or solved, you know, in one election or whatever. I'm not speaking as a member of the Democratic Party,

[25:12]

independent. I hope the new administration will help take care of getting vaccines to people, getting past the COVID pandemic, and will address another huge threat we face, which is climate damage. But, you know, we're all citizens. We used to have, a long time ago, when I was in grade school and high school, we used to have civics classes and talk about what it means to be a citizen. Politics is not just a matter, you know, again, this isn't about politics, this is about basic decency, I would say. But it's not something that is relegated to, you know, November when we have elections. So love in Buddhism on St. Valentine's Day is about speaking truth, speaking truth to power, seeing clearly, and then being willing to listen to each other. So

[26:18]

maybe I've said everything that I wanted to say. I'm looking at my notes. So this is how we can see what is happening in our country, in our world. And again, I'm not talking, when I say that the Republican Party officially is a party of white supremacy and violent extremism, I'm not talking about all the people who voted for Trump. Many of our family members and friends may have done so. But how do we talk about love? And how do we talk about real patriotism, real love of country? And not hatred.

[27:23]

So practicing with anger is not about harboring ill will, not about holding onto grudges or resentment or wishing ill to the particular people who sponsored, the Republican Party leaders who sponsored this, in support of this sedition and treason, to call it that. But it's about seeing what's going on, and then how do we respond? So one principle for all the transcending practices of Paramitas, the ten I mentioned, is what is an appropriate response? How do we respond appropriately to what's in front of us? How do we see it clearly? And then how do we practice generosity, and skillful means, and commitment, and use of our abilities, and use of our knowledge? So again, Happy Valentine's Day.

[28:33]

Maybe I've said as much as I need to say, and I want to open this for your comments, questions, responses, discussion, and I want to listen to what you say, and see how we can talk about this together. So there's a lot of people on Zoom now, David Ray, maybe you can help me if you are not visible. You can hold up your hand if you're or else you can go to the participants box in the bottom, and there's a raised hand feature. And Paul Disko has already raised his hand, so Paul, hi, hello. Happy Valentine's Day. You're up. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. I think it is good to remember that we're looking at this from

[29:35]

the eyes of leadership, and that relationships, on this day we focus on relationships for some reason, but we have to realize that we are flawed, deluded human beings in relationship with another flawed, deluded human being, and that we have to not expect it to be different than that. And hopefully that with focusing on our own contribution to this problem, we can make space for somebody else to be in our life with their own understanding of who they are and how they are. It's a slow-building proposition and not necessarily an easy one, and I think this holds true for our greater government as well. There's an obvious problem when people start waving guns

[30:50]

and breaking things, just like in a relationship. It's not acceptable to have domestic violence in and it's not acceptable to have domestic violence in our political sphere, either. But on the other hand, we also don't want to be in a position where we're making people into the enemy. That's not helpful. In this case, it's probably very useful. I'm quite not pleased—it's not the right word—but I'm encouraged by this show of insanity and stupidity and narrow-mindedness that was exhibited in the attack on the Senate, because it makes it visible to the rest of America and to the rest of the world, and until things are visible, you can't work on them. So, I think this is a great advantage to us, to have this happen in a way

[31:54]

that is irrefutable that it's a problem. I mean, it's hard for anyone to defend this activity as a good thing. So, I think it's a plus for us, and it shows that we really need to do some serious work. But serious work—there's only one person from a Buddhist point of view that we can do serious work on, and that's ourselves. So, it means that we need to double down, examine who we are, settle ourselves on ourselves and see who we really are, see how we contribute to this misunderstanding between ourselves and others, and how we contribute to the world. Since this is a racially divided country, and we have these people that feel that because they're white, they have a special place in this country, and being white myself, I can

[33:01]

acknowledge how I've been able to do things in this world that my cousins and relatives that are couldn't do. But it just means that we have to put in more effort to counteract this injustice. Also, we have to realize that we all are involved in American supremacy, in American exceptionalism, and we all live off the fat of the rest of the world because of our system of exploitation, international exploitation, bringing all of this wealth into the United States, and certainly at the expense of the developing world. What we have to pay for coffee, for a cup of coffee, compared to what some worker in Central America gets paid for picking those beans. We live off the exploitation of the rest of the world. No matter where we come from,

[34:10]

what our background is, just being Americans, we're already in a state of taking advantage of the world. I think we need to be careful about casting aspersion and making good guys and bad guys. We're all in this together. We all are creating a problem that needs to be dealt with, and we need to start with the first place where we have some leverage, and that's in our own personal lives. Thank you. Thank you very much, Paul. I totally agree with everything you said. Thank you. Other people? Other comments, responses, questions? Yes, Randy has to. We can't hear you, Randy. You're still muted.

[35:19]

Randy, you're still muted. Sorry. I want to hear what you have to say. One more time. Oh, yes. We heard that. Okay. I don't understand. Yeah. All right. Just later on. Okay. We'll go back to you, Randy. Other comments, responses? Okay. Can you hear me now? Yes. Go ahead, Randy. I'm so sorry. When you were saying Buddhism isn't about nice, but being peaceful, whatever that may mean, that's so true, and we think of an appropriate response,

[36:47]

and what I thought of when you're talking about how close we came to on the 6th, they also thought of just the 70,000 votes over the top in those states that elected our current president, and I was listening to the historian, presidential historian, Michael Beschloss, last night, and what he said just was stark. I mean, he said, if Trump were re-elected, the administration would be very possibly begin to use the IRS against perceived enemies and anyone who voted against them and shut down the free media, and then my thought about that was earlier today before I've listened to your talk was that the U.S. has declared just wars in the past. They've also declared unjust wars in the past,

[37:51]

and from my way of thinking, war is a dangerous word because it's like so many people are complaining about the word fight, but these are words, and I was thinking about the Revolutionary War being a just war, the Civil War being a just war, World War II, even Afghanistan, with all the problems that arose from that. I don't know about the Korean War. I'm not a historian, and certainly not Vietnam and Iraq, but so I have to think of this in the context of the Civil War in a way, like the continuation of the Civil War, what has happened, and I think what we do about it is sort of since we speak out, just like you were saying, yeah, and do what is lawful and proper to make laws against the possibility of insurrection, and then the danger of that, of course, is going too far and infringing on free speech. So it's a very difficult problem, and I just wanted to share that. Thank you, Randy. Yes, it is a very

[39:01]

difficult problem, and just to echo something that Baltuskar said, yes, we're all involved. We all have this prevalent white supremacy, racist culture we're in. It affects all of us, and we all have to look at how we are part of that. Anyway, there's so much to say, but I'll shut up. Somebody else, anyone? All right. Yeah. Somebody else would like to speak? Kathy Ding, am I? Thank you for your talk, Taigan. This has definitely been a disturbing era, period of time. I was, yeah, I'm thinking how to set this up. I read an article that somebody posted from the Atlantic about how fractionated the U.S. population has become

[40:03]

and polarized, and there was some prediction in it that Trump being voted out, that possibly his following might decrease some, even though he still certainly is a danger, I think. But talking about that, if people who have followed him now see some of the extremes he goes to, that there will be some, and there already have been some people who have pulled away from him. The comment was, on the left, we can be very angry, and we have to make space for people who are willing to come back to the middle to come back. I think in the people who are in the Democratic or Independent or more liberal zone, I think we have to be careful that we don't

[41:07]

create walls that don't allow people to move back toward the middle, who have been more on the right, who might be trying to do that. And so it's like a balance there of needing to call these things out, and at the same time, how to open the door for people to come back closer to the center. Does that make sense? I hear you. Yeah. And so I thought the article was useful, because I think there's so many things that I read that are angry, and they're important to point them out. But there's also a need for sorting out, how do we begin to think about people who might be trying to come back toward the center?

[42:10]

And that is a tough one for me personally, and I think in general. Thank you, Kathy. Other comments, responses, reflections? And David Ray, please help me if I missed some hands. Eileen's hand up. Okay, thank you. Eileen. Thank you, Taigan, for your talk, and for everyone else, your comments. I wanted to add to what Kathy just said, and that I totally agree. I think it's so important. And it goes to what Paul was saying also, is that we don't polarize further, basically. And one of the things I've been saying for a long time is you have a white supremacist party, but there's more to it than white supremacism. There's that disaffection that gave fuel to the

[43:15]

fire. And somehow or other, that needs to be addressed in a big global way. And I think that has to come from the government, the executive government, but not just that. And I usually have a grand idea for about everything, or a fantasy. And this one stumps me a bit, but it's extremely important. This started... Trump was able to do what he did because of disaffection and people who felt that they weren't being heard, weren't being listened to. And he listened to them and then gave them the responses, the wrong response. He heard them and then gave them the wrong response. He did a lot of that. He got a lot of things right and then did the exact wrong thing, in my opinion. So how do we, as Buddhists, as human beings, approach that?

[44:18]

How do we not turn all of those people into monsters? Because they're just going to start acting like monsters more. It just feeds the fire. So that's just a question. Thank you. Just briefly, yes, not harboring a will means not demonizing anyone. But looking at what people are actually doing and responding, and I synthesize with the feeling of wanting to support the middle, whatever that is. But the polarity, the polarism, is not just in one direction. Black people feel threatened every day now. So as white people, most of us,

[45:19]

how do we just recognize that? And then again, how do we look at our own part in all of this? So thank you. Other comments? Yes, Rona. Thank you, Taigan, for a very emotional talk, I think. Well, I'm not an American, so maybe I don't feel the pain as you do. But when you talked about love for your country, I couldn't help thinking about going to the army. Because here in Israel, you turn 18, you finish high school, and you go to the army. It's not like that you have much to say about that. And also in school, you get educated for hating your enemy, which are right now, which are Arabs, mostly. And there are Israeli Arabs.

[46:28]

So it's very confusing. And in the army, you get washed with a lot of violence. And well, just makes me think about, I used to really love my country, like I to go to the army, and to serve my country. And then, you know, just do it without even thinking, just because I love it so much. And now that I think about it, the love for my country has changed. Like I love different parts of the country. And I love other things, but I'm not sure I can see my government as something that is the maybe a manifestation of like something that is a part of my country. I don't see

[47:33]

my government at all as a part of my country, although it is. Because it's so separate from what I feel for my country. So I really, I feel your pain. We also have a dictator on the government now. So that's it, I think. Thank you. Thank you very much, Rona, for giving us a viewpoint from Israel. And as I talked about patriotism, I think love of country is not equal to love of our particular government, or government officials. And so again, I don't want to demonize all Republicans at all, or all Trump voters, and I appreciated what Kathy said. It's the particular leaders of this particular party who are now declaring themselves really to be

[48:35]

violent white supremacists or to support that. But yeah, how do we see love of country in a very inclusive way, and to love our culture and to love our land and people? And the United States was founded on not blind allegiance to the government in that time, the government of King George. So it's, this is complicated. But thank you. Thank you. Other comments, other reflections? Ira, stand this up. Sorry? Ira. Yes, hi. Thank you for your talk. I may have sort of a simplistic idea. But I do think that, you know, education, a good education across the board

[49:47]

of throughout this country is a really important aspect. And when I came to America, when I was eight, you know, I got violin lessons in Berkeley, in my public school, the public school I attended, and it was only in high school that I, having moved into different parts of the country, I lived in New Jersey and Houston, and then we moved back to California. And then I went to boarding school. Actually, the California schools were terrible. And they did pass a law in California. I mean, I could make a case with my parents to go to this boarding school. And after experiencing the New Jersey schools and the Houston schools, and they passed a law where the increase in tax, if you owned a home in California, prices were going up, your taxes didn't go up very fast, because they didn't want older people

[50:50]

to be out of a home because the values were going up. And what they also did was they gave corporations the same rights. So, corporations like Chevron have huge properties, but they also got their taxes. They go to education capped. And though they could afford to pay to support public schools, and they tried to undo that, seeing the loophole that was there for the corporations, and it didn't pass in this last election. So, California is still somewhat depleted of what it would need to have, in terms of finances, have a really wonderful education system for the public schools. And people who can afford it will send their kids to private school or live in a very good neighborhood. But I think private schools are better than even the schools in very good public, you know, public schools in very wealthy neighborhoods. So, there's a problem here, I think, in terms of education. I think, you know, the civic classes

[51:57]

you had when you were a child that, to some extent, that I experienced as a child in America, and in public school, it's not the same, I believe. But maybe some states, like, I think Illinois is better off in public school education than California. So, to me, that's so core, to give people an opportunity, and also to make them feel like the country cares about them. Or there's, it shouldn't be just the state, it should be like, we need to educate everyone, all the children, in a very rich way. Because that's really the future of democracy. It may have a lapse now, you know, we've gone down. So, that's one thing. And then I do think that the internet, I've always kind of felt like, you know, with television, too, when I had my children were born, we pretty much stopped, you know, started eating organic food

[53:00]

and stopped watching television. And I would say to people, well, would you just open your front door and let anybody walk in? And that's kind of how, you know, you can be selective with television, but with the internet, you're just opening the door and anybody who's just passing by can come in. So, you kind of care about that. And then these divisions that have occurred because of everyone going to their own hearing themselves, basically, where they choose to listen to their news. So, those are two things that I really feel are big things, but I think they're foundational. Thank you very much, Ira. Just a brief comment that, yes, education is so important. And what's happening and the situation for our children now under the pandemic is really difficult. And, you know, our Sangha has two grade school teachers, two guys who are grade school teachers,

[54:04]

and they're struggling now in Chicago public schools with going back to work and without pandemic safety anyway. But I want to say something about education in the wider sense that just that in some ways our practice is about education. I was talking about it in terms of love, but all of our practice and our Sangha and these discussions are about educating ourselves. So, listening to everyone's and all these viewpoints, as Paul was saying, we have to see how we each in ourselves are involved. So, maybe Buddhism is about adult education or lifelong education, although children are certainly welcome here. But yeah, how do we take care of children

[55:05]

and how do we support each other to have deeper education? So, thank you very much, Ira. Thank you. Eve Hitzgerald, your turn. Yeah, I just wanted to say I totally agree with Ira's points and they're linked, that one of the problems with our educational system has been that people don't get enough support in developing critical thinking. And then that affects how you interpret everything. And I also think that Buddhism does help develop that, develop the skill to respond rather than react and to see the space sometimes between people's words and their actions. And as citizens,

[56:13]

I guess the best thing to do is, yeah, try to figure out how we can support, you know, better education for all and to support measures that don't leave it dependent on property tax. I mean, you know, I'm from Pittsburgh and my parents moved us from the city to Mount Lebanon in 1972 precisely because they felt we were going to get a better education in the suburbs. And because it wasn't the same, you know, it was in the city. And my mother taught in the city at that point and she saw what was happening. But, you know, not everyone has parents who will do that and it's not a fair and equitable system.

[57:18]

Thank you, Eve. Other comments, questions, responses? Please feel free. Yeah, Jason. Hi, thanks everyone. This conversation makes me think a little bit about my own family's history. I was born in Colorado, but my family's a Southern family and they left the South because of racism, essentially. And they did not buy into the lost cause narrative that fuels so much of what we're talking about in terms of white supremacy and the trickle down notions of what that ideology now gives us today. And I think in some regards, coming from that very

[58:28]

gotta get out of the South because of racism, there's still a lot of baggage in my own family and in my own personhood that's tied up with that lost cause narrative, which I'm also hearing, to some extent, like talking about allowing space for others to swing back to center. And I know in my own life, if I see a Trump flag or a Confederate flag or even a Blue Lives Matter flag, I'm pissed. So even allowing the space for, you know, the left for myself to swing back to center to, in some ways, actually give up that lost cause narrative that I see so often. I think that's a very valuable point. And well, Buddhism talks about holding up a mirror, and I think

[59:29]

I often need to hold up a mirror for myself more often. That's all. Thanks. Thank you, Jason. So this is a huge topic. It's, it will be, you know, this is a legacy of 400 years of slavery and racism and lynching. So we're not going to solve this in one discussion or in one month or one year, but how do we start looking at it more fully? It is, I feel, part of our responsibility, looking at it within ourselves, but then also looking at what's going on around us. Any last comments, responses, questions? I think we have time for one or two more. Yes. Hi, Thor. Go ahead. I guess for me, I see the rise of intolerance and white supremacy going hand in hand with a

[60:40]

period of rising inequality, socioeconomic inequality in the United States. And I think that these two are very interconnected. And I appreciate also, Paul, you know, reminding us of how we live in systems of international inequality and exploitation. So I guess my question is, are there particular texts or teachings in Buddhism, tools in the toolkit, so to say, that help us to address inequality or improving our skillful means in addressing inequality in general, in all of its forms? Yeah, good question. And I think a lot of Buddhist teachers and Sanghas are looking at that question. And I started by talking about the Ten Transcendent Practices, which is one of the many, many systems of looking at what Bodhisattva practices, how do we respond appropriately, helpfully, not harmfully, and how do we respond appropriately

[61:45]

so, you know, I could hold that up and talk about each of those ten in terms of how it might be applied to responding to the inequality, which you, I think correctly, flag as one of the, you know, part of the heart of the issue. So, you know, skillful means you mentioned, commitment to look at this, to keep looking at this, to say or do something when it might be helpful. Skillful means isn't about, you know, perfectly knowing what to do, it's about trial and error and making mistakes, but being open to looking at it, patience, not as a passive practice, but as an active practice of looking at what's going on, waiting until we can respond appropriately and helpfully. Anyway, each of the ten that I mentioned, generosity, certainly, ethical conduct, each of those can be applied to the questions, and I appreciate your repeating what Paul was saying about how this isn't just

[62:53]

an issue of the inequality to Black people and Native American people and Latinx people in our country, but our country is, you know, not the only country where white supremacy is an issue, but certainly we have exploited countries around the world and continue to do so, and we continue to support our so-called defense department with a huge budget, 53% of our budget goes to military, and that defense department didn't help the almost 500,000 people who were dead of COVID. So, yeah, all of this is something we have to look at, and I think Buddhist practices are not solutions, but they give us ways to look at it and to think about how to respond. Precepts, transcendent practices, the Eightfold Path, all of these are, you know, right livelihood, for example, a huge challenge, very relevant to all of us now. How do we find

[63:54]

a way to support ourselves that does not cause us harm, and also to acknowledge that we're all part of the web of the interconnected web of harm and oppression, just by virtue of our situation as white privileged, mostly white privileged, being in America compared to people in Southeast Asia or Africa or Latin America. So, it's a huge, huge issue, and so patience and watchfulness, but also being willing to try and respond helpfully. But these aren't solutions, but these are ways of starting to look at what can we do. So, thank you for that. Thank you to everybody who's offered some comments.

[65:02]

If we have time for one more, if anyone has something else they want to share. I don't see anyone. So, David, oh, Ira has her hand up again, and Paul has his hand up again. So, okay, Ira first. I was listening to everyone and sort of the enormity of the problem, you know, the global aspect, historical aspect within America and so on. It's hard not to feel somewhat, what's the word, immobilized in some sense about what to do. So, I think for me, just listening to everyone, in a way, gives the possibility of just a little opening, because it just sort of feels almost impossible, you know, the weight of the burden and the problem.

[66:14]

So, yes, thank you for saying that. I think it's very, very, very easy to feel overwhelmed. Now, it's, you know, and so I hesitate to even talk about these things, but that's sort of my job. You know, we've had 11 months of a pandemic, which even for those of us who are in relatively comfortable situations, quarantining at home, it's wearying, it's tiring, it's difficult, and we don't know how much longer it's going to go on. We need to continue to be vigilant about that. We're in the face of climate crisis, and this racist legacy in our country, in the world, and so forth and so on. It's very easy to feel overwhelmed, and that's where the Buddhist practices do come in. So, one of the ten transcendent practices I mentioned is the practice of effort or energy or enthusiasm, and it's a real practice. It's not just some idea. How do we

[67:24]

actually pay attention to our energy and our enthusiasm and our willingness to be present and patient, but give our energy to not feeling overwhelmed, to looking at what's going on, to seeing is there some way to respond, to talking about it together? And that doesn't mean that we don't take a rest sometimes, you know, as you're saying, not watching television, just, you know, taking time to go for a walk or just enjoy our breath. How do we give ourselves a break from feeling overwhelmed? So, thank you. Paul, thank you. You've got your hand up, please. I'll give you the last word. Thank you. Well, I think that this is raising the question of what is to be done, what can I do, what should we do, is the important question of the moment. And of course, our teaching is the first thing you

[68:29]

need to do is zazen, so that you can see clearly. But also, there's many little things that you can do in our Valentine's Day. You know, we can explore what would make our significant other more comfortable. You know, we can take that on as a way of building that relationship. And then there's many little things that we could do. I have my own little quirks that I do, but I reminded me of Utah Phillips, which is a folk singer of my previous generation of me, actually. And he always traveled with a rubber chicken, a plucked rubber chicken. He carried it with him at all times. And when he checked into a hotel, he'd put it on the counter. And when he went to the restaurant, he'd put it on the chair next to him. And it's just, you can't be taken too seriously if you're carrying a rubber chicken. So I always thought that was a great way of neutralizing any kind of superiority he might

[69:35]

feel about himself. Anyway, thank you. Thank you for that. So we may all find our own, may we all find our own rubber chickens. So David Gray, we'll close now and have chanting and then announcements and then some informal open time. Thank you all for being here.

[69:57]

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