Yes and No

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who knows
right
so ah
i think my subject today is half yes and no
ah fan i wanted to begin with
piece of a palm
by allen ginsberg from an early nineteen fifty four
from a longer palm of song

canada
it goes this the stanza goes like this
yes yes
that's what i wanted
i always wanted
i always wanted
to return to the body where i was born
i read that again yes yes that's what i've wanted i always wanted i always wanted to my turns wanted they always want
he can't get any respect

yes yes that's what i want to
i always wanted i always wanted to return to the body where i was born
so that guests are set time i don't know that other speakers here at and center and elsewhere but
ah sometimes i really don't know until like containing for
or later what it is i'm going to speak about or sometimes i have an idea you know a week or two before and in go all this kind study and thinking and then just throw it out at the last minute so
what i want to talk about today i wasn't sure
ah
what my subject was until i guess on thursday evening lori my wife and i gave a report back from our recent trip to india
and as i was looking at the slides i saw a slide a we were teaching at a school and i'll say look more about that but i saw slide
that with some stuff i'd written on the board they're talking about ah you're teaching about the civil rights movement and
also teaching about
how fun construct a for nonviolent movement and
it came to me that are there is intervention of know that is required
ah and if that know also has to go hand in hand with yes
ah and that they function last weekend we had a study session with sodium low sheen and we were studying this
tang dynasty
test song sandow kites called the japanese are the merging of difference in this is my translation and we were studying for a few was teaching from
a commentary on the side okay and suzuki roshi comes up with this really interesting word
talking about the relationship between difference in sameness relative and absolute
black and white and instance you could say yes and no ah and the worker says if you were she makes up his interdependency
what indians of their independency ah right independency which has see it has it contains dependent
and also he has it
so ah
this is
i will circle around this again but i think that this applies to what was it came up from me as it was a teachings in india and why think it's relevant to our practice so i should say a little of
about our time in india i've been going there for the last four or five years
in the winter for a few weeks and a now that our kids are one is a college in the other is working in new york they're gone from home alas ah
it was an opportunity for laurie to actually travel with me with first time we've got to do that in the less twenty few years ah and so i
plan a trip pretty carefully so she could have
what i thought would be a good experience and it turned out to be
what i do in india
i've been building a relationship with a
a wider community of ah
in buddhists who are all their background is from what used to be called of the untouchable
sector of society so below the caste system which is very which is very solid and deeply entrenched you have ah groups of people most they they are hereditary and
in the past they had a hereditary occupations like sweeping the ship in the streets or a cleaning up the bodies of animals that had died or various other things that were seen as impure ah and because of their supposed an imp
purity they were seen as uncomfortable and this was a ah
because of the rules around cast and their rigidity with wish ah you one does not marry outside one's caste the cast one is born into is the cast that one grows up with ah and
this is only now beginning to shift ah but it's ah it's still very deeply entrenched in there are
really astonishing forms of oppression and violence that are imposed upon these communities and these communities are not small
once you start running the numbers you see that this is roughly a third into a half of the population so we're talking about maybe four hundred million people ah
linda shaking her head
a you think less less
it's a large number
at any rate
there is a buddhist movement that days are from a buddhist revival in the middle nineteen fifties that was created by a remarkable figure a dr b r ambedkar himself
was from an untouchable background
he is quite brilliant and managed to get a vast a quake astonishing number of degrees
including a a phd from columbia in economics degree from the london school of economics a he was admitted to the bar in england and he came back to india and became a very powerful advocate for the right
it's legal and civil and cultural rights of these communities
ah
and he
advocated for them
ha up until the end of his life
he also realized that ah it was the caste system which he felt was embedded in the have the terrorists if hinduism which is of
it's hard to say what it was amiss it's not there's not any one thing in the same way that there's not any one buddhism but he felt it of
certain of the social and religious rules are within that he saw within hinduism would never going to allow for a kind of mobility inequality ah and in the late nineteen thirties he said i was born he knew but i will not die
and do
and he began to have to a systematic investigation of ah all of the world religions
and to make a long story short he came to the conclusion that buddhism would be the most appropriate choice for his communities to to take up because he saw you saw in buddhism
a founding of rationality of ah
clear experience of equality ah and all of the the principles that he believed would be best for for himself in for his communities and so in nineteen fifty six ah as he was so
still quite ill
he was ill and and he probably didn't have long to live he converted to buddhism in not work the city that we were visiting most of our time ah in front of four hundred thousand people and then he turned around and
and actually gave a the three refugees in the precepts to all of those who were present and he began with that a buddhist revival that continues to this day now i can talk about this endlessly and i won't
but
we're friends with people over there ah with a a movement in india that has been really developed in propagating or this buddhism that was shaped by dr in baker and one of the
places that i'm really deeply committed to his school in a not for not porous in maharastra and it's kind of like the geographic center of of india actually this milepost is a post in the center of town which is mile zero
so i guess the highways they radiate from there
but anyway ah
there's a large dolly or excellent vegetable community there and our friends and built a school that's called in the guard you know training institute or naga loca
and
dugard she knows one of the great philosophical ah
teachers of of early buddhism real pivotal figure between an early buddhism in mahayana buddhism but at any rate this school is a wonderful place and that's where i've been going for
for the last number of years and teaching there
and just being with the students and also raising money ah
given small or large amounts of money which support students there if cost about three hundred dollars a year with food and room and board to support a a student and tough
we've been been able to have been able to raise a significant amount of money
the students are about age eighteen to twenty two twenty three so they're roughly the age of my own children and they're really bright really alive ah and
what we can discovered because one of the things we did the morning we would teach a session and in the afternoon we would have
we had sessions where we collected life stories which were in the midst of transcribing and thereby gaining students who were there for a year they medicate twice a day the first thing that happens is they are taught
very strong basic meditation
mindfulness of breathing mehta and a first their lead and then after a couple of months they learned to they need their own vegetation ah and the men and women meditate in separate halls ah there
pretty they try to be careful about a teenage sexual energy if it has the socket contain off
and it's it's important if it's not like you know gone roughly high or something
most of these young people come from all of actually all of them come from rural backgrounds from either villages or or not sizable towns they don't tend to come from the cities
come their students and not a look at their been students from twenty five states in india so they're from all over india and while they might all be designated from scheduled or x untouchable group
whoops there's a tremendous variety in what those a group swept their backgrounds are ah but what's unified this is the difficulty for them to acquire education
the difficulty in ah ah
finding jobs difficulty briefly since they've come from villages in really overcoming what is most conservative and living about a rural background
so when they come here to when they come to not were to the school psych
really feeling of freedom and there's great joy among them you can see that doesn't you saw the photographs are you can see that joy in their faces
so
what i thought about teaching this year was to do have a week on the history of in america history of slavery
and the history of race
and
to talk about the civil rights movement
as a parallel history too
that have a question of a cast in untouchability in india and this was you know this was really eye opening to them it's updated and really known about this
and it was interesting the as laurie pointed out the first question the question that came up on the first day was so how did you end up having barack obama as president
and you know how is actually a great question how you actually setting set the the course for our
what does and unfolding freedom look like
ah
and
so one of the things i think on the last of the next to last day
i was talking about ah what a
what a nonviolent movement looked like in the late nineteen fifties early nineteen sixties in the civil rights movement which was largely
in the sass not entirely ah
but so as i was thinking about it i realized well there's there was a very important component of say no
no to segregation
no to oppression no to economic a limitation no to ah educational limitations are no to the status quo of a kind of cultural violence all of these things
ah demanded a say no no to the illusion
and then as i was talking what i realized was ah the recent that this movement was successful
did the extent that it was successful as that
ah it also said yes
it said yes to ah community
it said yes to connection he said yes to building alliances
it said yes to have a say if you want the
ah the dimension of enlightenment
and so you know in a sense ah this is this is really directly
relevant to our practice
if you think about
everyday we are
we chant the heart sutra
and we're
it's very everything
no eyes no ears no knows no tongue nobody in or mine or form your feelings or sensations is no no no no no
but right at the beginning
is
hello kitty's vara
practicing deeply
prashant r mika
so the context of these knows
is yes
yes to practice
yes to that kind of determination yes to what is positive
and that sets of context for a negation which is not they're they're they're not when we think of yes and no as opposites
but they're not necessarily happened since they're actually different set of conditions and different responses that create a whole
so
you know if you
if you have
say a movement or an activity which is just saying no
ah then in a certain way
the life
is drained out of it
one know does not sustain us
ah it is necessary it's necessary to distinguish ha
what is delusion
what is unwholesome
what is destructive and to say no to that to to cut that off
but if that's all that you will if you only have no ah
you're not completely alive
and so it has to do you have to say yes to something
but of course if all you're doing is saying yes
then you're not you have no discerning
ah if all you're doing is saying yes ah
your thought processes your actions cursing is pretty mushy
and you can't live that way either so no is not enough the realm of know was not enough and the realm of yes is not enough

in our practice on
we come in here
and we sit down
and we face the wall
so
ah
we're saying no to
in a sense saying know for this time to the outside world war two aspect to the outside world
ha were saying were limiting our sensory input
turning around and facing facing the wall
if we're facing the wall in the sense were also saying no to a kind of fear
because if we're facing the wall we actually have to trust
we're saying yes to trust yoda fear yes can trust we have to trust that we're safe in this environment without you know anxiously looking around
and
we are
by saying no to kind of the ordinary stimulations of our life as we walk into this room we're actually seeing yes to ourselves for saying yes as in the poem ah when we turn around to face the
lol
we are enacting the fact that i always we wanted i always wanted to return to the body for i was born
and so as we face the wall we're actually saying yes to ourselves
and this is a radical wonderful ass
and we don't stay there we also then at the end of period or the intercession we walk through that door
holding onto our mindfulness as best we can depending on how deeply rooted in his hand go forth into the world ha
but knowing something about ourselves
it's interesting this this word i was researching today i've been thinking about
mindfulness in terms of yes and no
ah
the word in know
in poly for that's translated as mindfulness is sati
and in sanskrit it's smirky a set openness communication
it's really murky yeah anyway
ah and something i was reading faces of mindfulness is not really
a great translation of it we translated as right mindfulness usually ah but it also contains in it's awful lot of meaning ah
something like recollection
and remembrance
ah so is remembering where i am recollecting all of the factors that are arising in my mind any given moment
so what what occurs to me i really liked this term right remembrance
so remembering is like saying yes to what is arising
but it also seems to me that
in order to say yes to what is arising
there's a dimension of saying no
so any given moment
ah
is there could the answer ethnos's of rhetorical question along with right remembering ah is there such a thing as right for gay
in order to remember one thing
by flying our attention to that do we turn our attention away from something
ah i just erase that has a question or i don't necessarily have the hamster of on
we do this in so we just had the
bodhisattva ceremony
ha can we
we recite the precepts of we we say
just a great piece of is that correct
ah
we will it's a it's a the prohibitory to the ten grand to a precepts
right
when we have other ceremonies so those precepts
fifteen get
three refuges three pure percents need to we weren't called increase a threat letter i can do whatever we want to follow
that's actually you can call them the grave or prohibitory precepts
and that is the know dimension
that's the dimension of i vow not to kill for food we also have but that how to to so guess that's where i was born
there's a small my rather than the same about it
so when we do ceremonies we actually always we we have what we call the clear mind precepts
which is both the prohibitory and the of affirmative version of this precept so ah
a follower of the buddha does not killed but protects life ah a follow follow of the buddha doesn't steal but honours the gift not yet given so for each of these ten precepts we have we have we have one asked
devitt that says no
and the other aspect that says yes
yeah that's not exactly the opposite of the know if something that fills it out were completely
and this is
the setting what's essential a better practice ah we have to be able to use the sort of wisdom
you know when we come in here for example half
ah please
when you're as you're sitting facing the wall
don't use the time to plan your determine
you know or what you have to do at work tomorrow we try to set that aside and that fits of conscious action
is this for me maybe not for you yes
that thought comes up set it aside comes up again i set it aside and i
a ten to
the actual the setting aside is is us all part of the awareness or of of mindfulness if you were you not to notice that's what's coming up i'm thinking about lunch and and well okay from that lash let's put that aside
how is my posture
how is my breathing
so on
there's is no dimension in this yesterday it
ah in the sand okay ah
he says light and darkness or pair like the front and back foot in walking
yeah ah in another transition is front and back
light darkness or pair the are like got this oppose each other like from best foot in walking which are
false kind of opposition it's not really an opposition in our usual thinking
we think of light and darkness as opposite we think of yes and no as opposite
but they're not they actually create are actually part of the inevitable whole
h w h belly and this is what we're doing as we practice
we're simultaneously saying no and yes
as we work in the world were seeing no and yes
yes is incredibly important if you knock on social grocery store
he will say yes after zeta japanese really
the actually
if it's is more it's possible that actually what he says is high which what actually meters or
ha
but he says yes and this is a practice than i i heard you describe you know it's and i'm really try to learn you know he will say yes to interruptions
and very consciously
set aside whatever work is doing an email or writing a and direct his attention to the person who comes to the door
and ah
this is
this is not so easy you know really isn't
but it's practice
can we do that practice as we're sitting here
has were sitting facing the wall if a thought or sensation knocks on the door can we say yes to it turn our attention to it for the moment that is
that is required and then return to
return your posture return to your breath
this is a profoundly creative opportunity

suzuki roshi sir
words about beginner's mind
ah
in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities in the experts mind there are a few
reminds me of
again this yes and no
if we're stuck on know
there's a power to it
ah yeah but it
it blocks something
if we're said if we follow yes he has the it has a creative potentiality i was thinking some of you may know i've spoken to before a book called impro by a in hacking teacher keith johnstone ah
wonderful book and he talks about the
kind of the
keane principle of improvisation is if someone
it is to say yes to whatever if you're in a in a dialogue or in in some improv as i improvised stage setting somebody offers you something
you
kick it in gold and go forward and what johnston says which reminded me of suzuki roshi is the are people who prefer to say yes and there are people who prefer to say no
those who say yes are rewarded by the adventures if they have
those who say no are rewarded by the safety they attained
so this is a very non judgmental proposition
in each of us has to find that balance of no yes we have to find it in our lives
we have to find it in our society
we have to find it in our practice
and ah we need each other's help to find that really need a
we need to be able to rely on ourselves
but we also need to remember that ourself is not just within this bag of skin or self is this whole room
ourself as our whole community or whole society and so we look for wisdom where we can get it and then we take our stand yes and no it's i'm going to stop there and the some time proof for questions beards are pressing the
question i had about what is the dimension know
see you would you say that perhaps that you mentioned can be characterized say note distraction cliff
to clinging to the distraction yes distractions are inevitable ah the clean tends to be more options
i guess this is a visit your knowledge of relationship to distraction which is to follow joe know that as now
whatever yogi yeah actually right
his thoughts are inevitable
feelings are inevitable they are just gonna keep coming up as long as long as we're alive ah and there's nothing necessarily negative about them
but gets stuck to them
that's the cleaning part is creating a narrative
just been caught in our in our minds our bodies by
by that
yeah i think this is again and go back into for a poem you know is this was in his is really as deep buddhist period quite early and
you know he was really yearning to let go of his ah
of this kind of pay preoccupations and return to his body he saw that as a passive
open country
thank you get me some i've always loved that metaphor in santa fe front and back foot walking that i had thought of it until this morning of that how the front foot isn't always the front foot it becomes the back foot right is that infected only
worse if that's true if there's an impermanence between the front and back that's so yeah and so that's what makes the opposing energy
actually work in walking it so that so adding impermanence or dynamism to the know in yes have how yes becomes know how has the
of the how that works as well as an opposition yeah and with front back what you really can save one is yes and one is help
yeah let that doesn't work or one is like one is dark ah if you think about your back foot you know we're pushing off so the energy is constantly
it is constantly
re-establishing itself and rebalancing
that there is a know your name and a phrase keep coming back to gain from a father and by wallace stevens of sunday morning and it's yeah that's the other few they think this is somehow related to yes and with
oh could you say a little more about that line and what it means you it's in the context of a form which one is meditate about sunday morning sitting at home enjoying for morning cup of coffee and sunset but feeling of
guilty that she's not in church
so if the course of her inner dialogue out this she comes to the realization that why should she not enjoy what is happening right now the and so she comes to the realization of that in fact this idea of heaven and a
actually does not happen to see a gap there there's some sort of permanent thing that occurs it does not allow for the experience of beauty as it doesn't have the juxtaposition of death it so i think there's this this counterbalancing not
a yes and no embedded in that's great
i think you just unpacked it
oh now i'm gonna go back and recent form of have a volume of wallace stevens right next to
my bed demonization with the seven yeah that for is one of the most explicit descriptions of the natural world you ever really where he'll of evening and swallows falling sky it's a beautiful description of the this way in which the transitory nature
your of everything is also the beauty of everything and also valid stevens or upon whose first line is after the final know there comes a guess in
which is another explicit from which i'm going to send to you like the secondary
yeah well what i would say
and if i think this is ah
i feel like i understand this in the context of you can understand in the context of our practice in which we're dying and being reborn breath by breath and then of course we're also all die as well and
we're also all beautiful as we are living right now even as we
slant towards
death there's something that makes sense i think this is what you think there's something so precious in that activity and i think that that's also one of the thinks it's really inspiring about encountering these young people in india
and people within various kinds of movement is that they actually risk their lives
ah
and they are working exactly would that kind of dynamic and yeah so makes it all that much more precious this is just really off the top of my game but really thank you for that to thank you very much i've loved you to and i
thought about the tendency not to want to from one to hear from me as to the know and then for resistant to change generally roles enough to eat very low number lp records and i suddenly listening thinking of that
got this image of listening to the last movement of beethoven's ninth and had a needle stick
you know so that the same measures repeating over and over and over an acre
the one of the things that are in welfare remember about those refugees
after a while it's like that's actually your memory of that
after i can i have that advantage does it does
a degree of severity of fled the up and i can't hear in my mind without having to refute yes yoga one one markers jake so too are liars yes to know there's a mate perhaps
don't know mind so and yes to help give birth to
right i think that the don't moan know mind is is the ah ah
the pregnant potentiality it allows for you to move one way or the other when all of the conditions are right for yes and no to be burst ah so that's yeah
of maybe that's just a third piece that we should we should really consider
and it's late and i think i will be doing a question and answer if we have tea for a few minutes that the thank you all and it's going to be with you