So today is Christmas Eve, which I'll come back to, but it's also a few days after the winter solstice, which I want to talk about. The winter solstice is the darkest day of the year, the darkest time of the year. But it's also the beginning of the light. It's the beginning of when the days grow lighter. So I want to read just a few Zen poems about the winter solstice. But also just to say that Traditionally, the winter solstice is an important time. And it's not an accident that there are many other holidays around this time, Christmas and a tree filled with lights, and Hanukkah with a festival of lights, and Kwanzaa with candles, and in many pagan and indigenous celebrations which are celebrated with lights because it's when the light starts increasing.

[01:24]

In Chinese terms, it's when yin is strongest and yang starts to increase. It's the dark time. And yes, it's a dark time in our world. And yet, it's the beginning of the days getting longer, more light. So it's a pivotal time. And it was recognized throughout human cultures as a pivotal time in the year, in the world. So I want to read a poem by Su Tung Po called Winter Solstice. This is from 1071. Su Tungpa was one of the classic great Chinese poets from the Song dynasty.

[02:38]

Also a great Chan adept. He studied with Chan or Zen teachers. Dogen quoted his poem about when the, wrote an essay based on his poem about, as he said, the shape of the mountains is Buddha's body, the sound of the valley streams is Buddha's tongue. And Dogen wrote an essay based on that line. Situangpo, like a number of other of the great Chinese poets, was also a government official. Situangpo was a man of great wisdom. was, became a governor of a major province, but this was a precarious position. Su Tung Po also suffered having to go into exile when he offended the powers that be.

[03:43]

So this is Su Tung Po. Su Tung Po lived from 1037 to 1101. This is his poem in 1071 at the winter solstice. He says, I took an outing to Lone Hill and visited two Buddhist priests, Hui Chin and Hui Su. So that's the title of the poem, the epigraph of the poem. And it goes like this. The sky threatens snow. Clouds cover the lake. Towers appear and disappear. Hills loom and fade. Clear water cut by rocks. You can count the fish. Deep woods deserted. Birds call back and forth. Winter solstice. I refuse to go home to my family. I say I'm visiting priests, though really out for fun. These priests I visit.

[04:53]

Where do they live? The road by jewel cloud mountain twists and turns. Lone hills, alone indeed. Who'd live here? These priests, the hill's not lonely after all. Paper windows, bamboo roof. Rooms sheltered and warm. In coarse robes they doze on round rush mats. Cold day, a long road. My servant grumbles. brings the carriage, hurries me home before dark. Down the hill, looking back, clouds and trees blend. I can just make out a mountain eagle circling the pagoda. Such trips, simple but with a joy that lasts. Back home, I'm lost in a dreamer's daze. Write a poem quick before it gets away. Once gone, a lovely sight is hard to catch again. So for winter solstice, Sertangpo escaped from his obligations, his duties, his work in the world, his governmental obligations to go on an outing.

[06:19]

to go up to the mountains to visit two priests on Jewel Cloud Mountain and Lone Hill on the winter solstice, on the darkest day of the year. And he depended on his servant to get him home before dark. So there's this tension in this poem between his wanting to get away and needing to get back. He says, winter solstice, I refuse to go home to my family. So this time of year when there's so many family events, maybe we can relate to that feeling.

[07:24]

I refuse to go home to my family, not wanting to deal with family. I say I'm visiting priests. They're really out for fun. He says he's doing this as a religious obligation, but he's really just, you know, wants to go out to the mountains. What do we think of on winter solstice? What do we think of in this dark time of the year? How do we get away from obligations? This is a man who has many obligations, and yet he wants to go off to Lone Hill, to the deep woods. And then he gets home and he wants to write a poem quick before it gets away.

[08:25]

So there's, The Winter Solstice is this You know, there's part of it that's this tension between this dark time of the year. It's starting to get light, but it isn't yet. And family responsibilities, work responsibilities, wanting to get away, wanting some refuge, wanting some connection with nature. wanting some connection with the Dorma even here. As I left the house today, it was supposed to snow, but it wasn't snowing when I left the house. By the time I got to my car, it just started to snow. And I looked outside just now, and there's no snow on the ground. So here we are in the middle of winter and yet the days are getting longer.

[09:45]

The light is coming. What does that mean in our world? This winter solstice is an interesting time. How do we find our... So, Tsongpo is talking about an actual outing to this mountain temple. Eagles flying above the pagoda. Where do we find our refuge in winter solstice? How do we trust that the light will come the darkest time of the year?

[10:49]

So, moving forward a few centuries, a couple centuries, I want to read two verses on winter solstice from Ehei Dogen, our Japanese Soto Zen founder. This is from his extensive record. And I don't know the exact year, but these are late in his career. And after he moved to Heiji, the late 1240s or maybe early 1250s. So they're short. There's two of them. He says, yesterday was short. Today is longer. Though without edges or corners, the solstice is good to examine. I encourage you to look closely. Stop asking for the sun in the sky. This is good to examine. Look closely.

[11:56]

How do we examine this darkness? Stop asking for the sun in the sky. How do we just settle into this darkness? The sun is coming. Eventually, there will be spring arising and everything, but not yet. It's a dark time. Still, yesterday was short, today is longer. It's true. Maybe we can't feel it yet. And the snow, the real snow of Chicago is just starting. Yesterday was short, today is longer. Though without edges or corners, the solstice is good to examine. I encourage you to look closely. Stop asking for the sun in the sky."

[13:00]

Here's another one. This is the second verse from Dogen on winter solstice. Everywhere you meet him, completing your face, turn your body and head to pervade the heavens. In this transition, though borrowing the strength of the dharma fist, from the beginning, the effort of your nostrils has been to exhale. Interesting, strange poem. Everywhere you meet him, completing your face, Who is it that you meet everywhere? Everywhere you meet her, completing your face. Who is this, where is this original face? Maybe this is Buddha, but you know, you don't have to give it a name. Everywhere you meet him, completing your face.

[14:08]

So this is kind of a poem about Zazen, maybe, but also, he says, this is a poem about winter solstice. Everywhere you meet her, completing your face, turn your body and head to pervade the heavens. Right in darkness there is light, it says in the Harmony of Difference and Sameness. How do we meet this darkness? Everywhere you meet her, completing your face, turn your body and head to pervade the heavens. How do we face this darkest day of the year? In this transition, though borrowing the strength of the fist, we could say the teacher's fist or the Dharma fist, In this transition, they're borrowing the strength of the fist.

[15:15]

From the beginning, the effort of your nostrils has been to exhale. It's a strange thing. What is the effort of your nostrils? Well, we breathe automatically, right? And yet, when we pay attention to our breathing, What is that effort? Maybe that's the same effort as the days getting longer. Why does he say the effort of your nostrils has been to exhale rather than inhale? So this is something about how it is that we meet, what it is we meet everywhere.

[16:28]

What it is that is already on your cushion and that maybe is deepest at winter solstice. from the beginning. And yet, there's a transition. Everywhere you meet him completing your face, turn your body and head to pervade the heavens. When we meet this darkness, this space of our cushion. Maybe it pervades all of the skies. In this transition of borrowing the strength of the fist,

[17:40]

Borrowing the strength of the teaching. From the beginning, the effort of your nostrils has been simply to exhale. Something very natural. So here we are. Just today, coming out of the winter solstice, the days are getting longer, but it's still dark time. So, you know, every day is a good day. Every day is, you know, some cynical Zen students say every day is a bad day, whatever. Every day is today. Every day is just this day. But somehow some days, you know, are turning days.

[18:57]

So winter solstice is a day of turning. And it's celebrated in lots of different ways in many cultural traditions. The dominant culture in our society, it's Christmas Eve. So turning to Christmas Eve 50 years ago today, Christmas Eve 1967, The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a talk. And he said some interesting things. So this was his last Christmas Eve, his last Christmas. And he told his congregation at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta 50 years ago today that we must develop a world perspective

[20:03]

As nations and individuals, we are interdependent. It really boils down to this. All life is interrelated. So it was a kind of ecological environmental talk in a way. Very Buddhistic in some ways, but he was coming from a Christian tradition. And he was talking of emphasizing the connections between racism and militarism and economic injustice as a civil rights leader, and seeing that all these struggles weren't really connected, particularly in the context of the anti-war struggle in the time of Vietnam. that racism and militarism and excessive materialism were inseparable, that the civil rights movement that he was part of was part of a broader revolution of values forcing America to face all its interrelated flaws, unquote.

[21:27]

So this is from an op-ed piece in the New York Times yesterday that talks about this. He said, we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. So this is much more obvious today in terms of the problems of the environment and climate damage and how that's related to climate justice.

[22:41]

And, you know, Dr. King back then, 50 years ago, expressed concern for the survival of the world. The person who wrote this letter said, 50 years later, so many of our challenges represent a failure to understand our interconnectedness. Excuse me, white supremacists and neo-Nazis emboldened in these times preach a time-worn hatred that corrodes community, corporate capitalism with its widening gulf between the ultra-rich and the millions of people living in poverty, strains our social fabric, while the worsening climate crisis provides unforgiving reminders of the Earth's delicate interrelatedness. Anyway, Dr. King said, 50 years ago. Quote, this is our faith as we continue to hope for peace on Earth.

[23:48]

Let us know that in the process, excuse me, we have cosmic companionship. So this relates very much to things I've been talking about. From a Buddhist perspective in terms of Dharmakaya and the underlying reality that perhaps we can see in the winter solstice that which is there from the very beginning, that there is a deeper reality in which we are very much connected, in which there are resources for support, in which there are resources for light in dark times.

[24:59]

So it's interesting that, you know, we're in this new year, there's echoes of things that happened 50 years ago, which was a pivotal year and I think we're living in a pivotal time too. So, as Tolkien says, we might well, he says, I encourage you to look closely stop asking for the sun in the sky, we might look instead for the light right in our own lives and in our companionship and in the possibilities in this world. So, right in darkness there is light. it says in the Harmony of Difference and Sameness.

[26:06]

So we can celebrate this winter solstice and this time of the year as a time of the beginning of the light. And we don't know how to work for this and how to respond to the darkness, but we know that that there's a transition. In this transition, Dogen says, the borrowing the strength of the fist of the teaching from the beginning, the effort of your nostrils has been to exhale. So what is the effort of our nostrils? What is the effort of our breathing? So that's what I have to say this morning. Does anyone have any comments on the winter solstice or anything else?

[27:10]

Or questions or responses? Yes, Blunt. Yes. Yes. it's the same that Mr. Pinter's post is actually even more important than the Chinese New Year. Because that is the time when people who work hard for the New Year long, that is the official day to follow the Chinese New Year. And in the old times, that's actually literally turning off the stove.

[28:20]

Oh, great. So it's actually a celebration of achievement, career, happiness, and peace. Peaceful celebration time. So it's kind of just... I guess I'll just add to the topic. It's a two-fiddle. It's a two-fiddle. And like I said, it's everyday. So... Thank you, that's very helpful, that part of winter solstice, the darkest day of the year is, yeah, in the darkness to rest, it's important to rest. So, yeah, so Sutongpo,

[29:22]

Took a break from family to rest by going off into the hills. And I'm recovering from being sick since solstice, which forced me to rest, which I needed. But yeah, that's very good, yes. We need to rest. So these rhythms, this is also about the rhythms of turning within, going out and engaging. Yeah, thank you very much for that, Belinda. Chris. I have a question. In the second poem by Dogen, where he talks about turning, in the Song in the Grass, how that has sort of thinking a lot about the line, the great and penetrable source cannot be faced or turned away from.

[30:30]

Yes. And I was wondering if you could maybe comment on that and how they relate to each other. Yeah, well, we can't The vastness, the ultimate, the inconceivable, we can't actually meet face to face, we can't get a hold of it, but we can't ignore it either. once we've had some inkling, some glimmer of this deeper reality, which we get from doing this practice. So we have some relationship. It's like magnets, two positive or negative pulse of magnets. You can't bring them together, but they're move around each other.

[31:32]

We can't exactly touch, but we're in relationship to this deep source. this background of, Suzuki Roshi talks about the background of perfect, about losing our balance against the background of perfect balance. So, doing this practice of just sitting upright facing ourselves, facing the world, facing reality, we start to connect to this interconnected reality that Dr. King was talking about also, that reality is about interconnectedness, that this isn't a property of Buddhism or Christianity or any ism, that reality is deep.

[32:44]

So yeah, resting on the solstice, seeing the rhythm of light and dark, seeing the rhythm of engagement and self-care, taking care of ourselves. And always kind of being a little losing our balance, you know, being a little off balance. But yet there's something back here. We have some sense of some something deeper and we can't get a hold of it. You know, we can't define it. We can't grasp it. But it's a resource. You know, it's. It's a support for whatever work we each have to do in the world and with ourselves.

[34:01]

Yes, Katie. Good. Please. I guess that brings up a very important question to the group that I have. And it does actually feel, in the wintertime, like the light won't come. And I guess that's also how I feel about Both Tia and Salia talked about creating seasons and seasons because I do not hope to try again because I do not hope.

[35:07]

It's her last book and she's contemplating the death of her partner and child. Right. The poem about going up into the mountains, yeah, yeah. He was, yeah, he wanted to get away from his usual life and just be up in the hills. Yeah, so... No, that's good.

[36:39]

I'd like to... Yeah, I don't have... Yeah, there's the being in this situation. Not trying to escape from the darkness. Just resting in it. Michael. on grass and all the time, but to take something that seems sort of dark, you know, like hopelessness, and really go into it. Yes, sir.

[37:48]

uh... letting go thanks that helps yes that's good yes yes yes to see what's going on and take a good, good look at it. Fresh land is good. Maybe you want to move it into a place that can last longer. It's just kind of like you have to readjust and readjust in the sense of how do I cope with this?

[39:26]

how to cope, but also how to respond. There are constructive ways to respond, but then we don't know. So yeah, there's a hopelessness, and then there's letting go of our ideas of what to do and allowing something fresh to come up. And also then just the resting of not knowing. in the darkness. So it's a complicated process. Michael again. Yeah.

[40:33]

And part of it is just noticing all of this. Noticing these rhythms, paying attention to the darkness. resting but also with awareness, noticing when the light starts to increase, noticing possibility for response, but noticing also, you know, what you were saying before, Michael, that there is this sense of darkness or hopelessness, and maybe there is something, a kind of rest that's possible in that. So there's a whole, there's some ranges of different kinds of letting go that can happen in all of, in that whole range of processes, I think.

[41:43]

But without, you know, kind of becoming It's passive in a sense of inattentive. I don't know if that makes any sense. How to pay attention in the middle of letting go into the darkness and seeing what's possible. And what is the texture of the darkness? So Belinda, can you say something more about the solstice and the resting that happens in the solstice? I liked what you said. I don't know if there's more to say about that.

[42:45]

I don't know any more than what I just said, but it's just celebrated as a time. The harvest is finished, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, when I lived in Japan, in Japan there's the last, the week before the New Year's is like the, everything closes and it's like this time of kind of festivities. There's no good or bad? Yes, right. Yes. Yes, there's the rhythm and it's not that the light is better than the dark.

[44:00]

Yes, that's right. There's something going, there's something happening. Always. Any last thoughts? But somehow they've been living with that for a long, long time.

[45:28]

Okay. Good.

[45:35]

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