Welcome, everybody. The class topic tonight is right speech, right action. So we're going to start. I'm going to just read a very short something from Suzuki Rosh. After that, Laurie and I will each talk about our understanding, give you some ways that we've been thinking about the topic. Then we'll share with you four types of. actions that we've been considering as we've studied right action. We want to give you some examples of these groupings. And after each of those, we'll stop for questions, comments and other examples that you may have. And at those times, you can raise your digital hand or you can put a question in a box. which will go to Yoni, our tech host.

[01:04]

So here we go. Suzuki Roshi says, as long as we're alive, we're always doing something. But as long as you think I am doing have to do this or I must attain something special, you're actually not doing anything when you give up. When you no longer want something or when you want or when you try not to do anything special, then you do something. When there's no gaining idea in what you do, then you do something. In Zazen, what you're doing is not for the sake of anything. You may feel as if you're doing something special, but actually it's only the expression of your true nature. But as long as you think that you're practicing sake of something, that is not true practice. When you do something, if you fix your mind on the activity with some confidence, the quality of your state of mind is the activity itself.

[02:17]

Concentrated on the quality of your being. You are prepared. the activity. So Lori do you want to start? Sure. So as I think we all can sense speech and action are where our practice comes out into the world It's where we express the silence and stillness of Zazen in the world and in our relationships. When I asked my teacher what he considered right action or he said, well, he thought for a minute and I said, well, it has to include non-action or be based on non-action. And I think we've seen this in some of the other steps of the Eightfold Path, you know, that right view, no view or no views and you know maybe right effort has something to do with no effort you know and so speech has something to do with silence and action has something to do with stillness and maybe to say the same thing the simplest way from a dharma perspective is that

[03:44]

our effort and our training is to have our words and actions be based on the truth of interconnectedness, you know, some deep insight that we have into the truth of interconnectedness. And maybe that's where our confidence that Suzuki Roshi was talking about can come from. You know, and I don't know, I feel there's no real way to know whether our words and actions are right. And, you know, since they care, maybe start first. The first result could be right, but it could turn into wrong and, you know, vice versa. So where does our confidence come from, given that that we can never know? So, you know, maybe that's another question to to keep. So in the traditional presentation of the. Eightfold path.

[04:46]

These steps are right in the middle of the order. And even though Thich Nhat Hanh rearranges the order, he also has them right in the middle. And the implication there is that to me, maybe, you know, our outer lives have to come into some kind of alignment with the truth before we can even have concentration or meditation um but i did this we set this up in the practice period because it really does feel like you know almost like everything else is supporting and leading to where the rubber really meets the road you know with our words and our actions um hon says in another quote It's a fairly well-known quote of his, but I like it a lot about meditation and action.

[05:48]

He says, mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what is the use of seeing? We know that we're not supposed to be involved in the use of it. But anyway, to continue with his understanding, we must be aware of the real problems of the world. Then with mindfulness, we will know what to do and what not to do to be of help. Are you planting seed? Peace. I try to do that with every step. Peace is every step. So we could say for tonight, you know, right action is in every step we take. And we decided to not do like present present. and then have a discussion and then present on right action and have discussion, but rather to kind of combine them both in our presentations.

[06:49]

And in the reading from Thich Nhat Hanh, he emphasizes something to me that mindfulness is at the root of both right speech and right action. And when Susan and I discussed this, she mentioned that mindfulness, she had the caution that mindfulness has become such a buzzword. So, you know, maybe there's like present mindedness or even just remembering, remembering our vows. You know how I think Karen mentioned this in her talk about mindfulness, that the Sanskrit word that we use for mindfulness is shmurti and it really means remembering. So, and this kind of remembering, for me, you know, it's what gives us a choice in a moment. It creates a pause where we can choose to do or say something out of our vows, perhaps rather than what we might be inclined to do, habit tendencies.

[08:01]

So, you know, in our practice, whether you've stated them explicitly, you know, there's implicit vows to align with the precepts to bring benefit to ourselves and others, equally perhaps, you know. You know, because habit energy is always naturally arising and it kind of points us in various directions, sometimes beneficial directions. We might have good habits that point us in beneficial directions, but. Often it's. Habits that are, you know, I think of the way I think about is they're kind of playing out old battles like. establishing that I'm okay, establishing my value in the world, my relative value, or establishing that I somehow belong, you know? It's those kind of unconscious drives, you know?

[09:03]

So if there's a pause, and it doesn't have to be a long pause, but the pause is key to choice for me. And where we can, choose to respond, taking them just to go to maybe a deeper intention or deeper intuition. You know, as Sojan Rashi used to always say, you know, find a response, not a reaction. And so, and also for me, it's in line with Thich Nhat Hanh, right speech and right action arise out of the precepts. Thich Nhat Hanh's term for the precepts is mindfulness trainings. And when I say precepts, I'm not so much talking about it conceptually, you know, but practice, we bring the energy of this precepts into our own bodies and our own sensibilities.

[10:07]

So they're not so much commandments coming from outside, but something like our own conscience. which we can develop and train by trying to get along, you know, simply by trying to get along with each other and also by studying and practicing precepts. And maybe when we start, there may be more coming from outside, but as we practice them, we find that place inside that aligns, you know, and it's... You know, or maybe both from inside and outside, kind of in a conversation with each other. And, you know, for right speech, Thich Nhat Hanh stresses something important that doesn't come in a formulation, which is deep listening. And I think we're learning more and more the importance of listening.

[11:09]

You know, deep listening means to listen to the other with the intention to hear them completely, not interjecting or own perspective and her own response. I asked Marie. I don't think Marie's here. I asked her. Part of my preparation for this class was to ask a bunch of people what they meant, what they thought was right action. And she said, and I asked her about right action. immediately went to listening she described how you listen and you reflect back what you're hearing and then you listen and you reflect back and you listen until you get the head bob as she called it because when she says that when someone really feels heard there's this natural nodding you know when you finally get it you know And sometimes it's a process.

[12:11]

And it can be really an interesting process. Oh, I heard this, you know. And no, no, that's not quite it, you know. And then, oh, well, okay, so da, da, da. And then, yeah, and the nod, you know. So listening is really important. And so going to the more traditional or traditional thing about right speech, there are several Pali Sutras where the Buddha sets out his approach to right speech, and that basically, you've probably heard this before, words can be true or not true, they can be beneficial or not beneficial, and they can be spoken at the appropriate or not at the appropriate time. And right speech for the Buddha is words that fulfill all three of these, true, beneficial, and at the appropriate time. uh and uh i'm also i'm interested in more contemporary because there's so much about right speech and maybe some of it is not so deep you know but some of it is pretty interesting for some reason and i had i don't remember anything about it but i flashed on that book getting to yes you know that and i looked up the publication date was 1981 ago

[13:40]

I don't know if more people have gotten to yes in the last 40 years due to that book or not, but there's a lot of, and people talked about that like it was a helpful teaching. And more recently in contemporary times, we're exploring to talk to each other across our differences or also how not to talk to people who we are imagining to be different. so you know that's where i have you in a box and i let you know by my words and actions about the box i have you and some oftentimes you know in this in the times that we're in you know studying around skin color or some physical difference you know um i have all my unconscious ideas about what those things mean and somehow i can't them slip out. So part of this learning is, you know, in the first place, not to put each other in boxes.

[14:48]

Like that's what the Buddha really taught is not to be caught by. That's like being caught by views or caught by our conceptions. So first, not to be caught by our boxes, you know, not to be caught boxing people, but also It matters how it lands on the other person, learning how to really have that matter, how it's landing on the other person. And that's sort of a practice. And waking up to the boxing and then waking up to how what I'm saying is landing on the other. That's making sure it is beneficial, you know. As it's sort of easy just to blurt things out, right? We kind of blurt things out. And we're not always fully awake to what we're up to. So I think another really important part of both right speech and right action is learning how to repair, you know, how to apologize or make amends for what happened.

[15:51]

And, you know, for me, maybe this is a place that confidence could come from, not so much being sure that is right, but having some sense or having some training or having some skill in how to repair how to make things right and move on together you know with somebody and I think we can use these three criteria I hope I'm not almost done here I think we can use these three criteria true beneficial and at the appropriate time for our actions as well so when we so-called do are we expressing something authentic are we considering the impact on the other And our timing. It reminds me, this thing about the timing reminds me of that koan, what is the teaching of the Buddha's whole lifetime? An appropriate response. So that's about it for me.

[16:57]

And Susan, for your thoughts. Thanks, Laurie. So for me, some themes have kind of emerged from the literature, from the readings. There's the teaching that the essence of our life, our effort to understand the meaning of life directly without being kind of misled by our rational or logical thinking or language. that Zen practice is about direct way. So a question might be something like, what is it that we take into our speech and action that's actually beyond words and action? A kind of koan, maybe, for our times.

[18:01]

points us to seeing that the meaning of everything that we do, all of our actions lie in our attitude, the attitude that we bring to life and the effort itself that helps to shape our attitude. So the true meaning is found. We bring to all action, all activity from our our true nature that we touch in our practice. And when our activity is one, when we're one with the activity, then we're not divided. No gaining idea. A Sangha member told me the other day, I've been asking people also, what's your idea of right action? And the Sangha member told me the other day that watching another Sangha member during a work period, Pruning the tree was exactly what he thinks of as right action because he said that person was so one with the activity, so focused, so right there, no distraction.

[19:17]

And he said it was tiring. When I think about right speech now in these times, There's so much division, so much effort to cancel out other. And I think just walking around with the question, what is right speech is a good thing to do every day. That the question itself is really valuable because there really isn't just one answer that will fit all situations as far as I can see. all the situations that we find ourselves in. And so if the meaning of what we do lies in our attitude, then we can learn to deeply trust that attitude that's emerging in our practice when we practice. And that isn't formulaic.

[20:21]

It's something that's needed in a moment of choice, really. And that moment of choice is really influenced by how we're how we're practicing skillful means. You know, in the neighborhood that I grew up in, in the time when I was growing up, there were an equal number of Republicans and Democrats and people really loved each other, despite their opinions or their positions. to all these neighborhood parties. There were a lot of parties indoors and outdoors with our parents. And I really remember watching the adults argue politics. They would disagree. They would get heated. They would be really unbelieving of each other, each other out. And still. They would dance together.

[21:24]

They would eat and drink together. They would hug and kiss. They would enjoy each other wholeheartedly. They would do anything for each other, and there was no harboring of ill will. In today's world, there's so much fear of saying or doing the wrong thing, and it really holds us back in some way. As far as I can see, the teachings are about identifying with other. You know, the other could be, but it could be a tree, a garden, a bird, you know, a pet, the mountains, the water. Identifying with other. Dogen calls this identity action, right? It means something like non-difference from self and non-difference from others. And then there's some questions that Laurie and I kind of posed together, not that we could answer them, but just questions that we brought up or listed when we were meeting.

[22:37]

Where did action come from? Do we ever know if an action is right? What is the mind from which actions emerge? What's motivation? What is our motivation? What is our attitude? Are our speech and results and outcomes? I'm not sure if we can ever really know if our actions are right or wrong, but having questions seems like a really good thing to me. We don't really ever know the full outcome of an action we take because it's always changing. And even what's acceptable changes over time and even in our lifetime. Speech and actions, what's accessible, acceptable changes. But Suzuki Roshi says that is kind of like shadowed by some preconceived idea that we have.

[23:45]

Then that kind of complicates the mind or it shapes the mind in some way. And when we do something from a place that's more clear, or you could call it a simple, then the activity's strong and straightforward. And he says in that reading that we sent out that there are traces, he calls them traces, that we can leave on our thinking of an activity. ways that we connect the activity to the small mind, like when we say something like, this is what I've done. And that kind of thinking, I think the Sojin Roshi called extra, you know. So in order to not leave training, we're encouraged to do something with our whole body and mind to be concentrated on what we do.

[24:50]

you know, to bring attention to the action. This is Zazen, right? I'm not sure that we have to love everything we do, but if we can bring love to everything we do, and what I mean by that is attention. We can bring attention to what we do, taking care of what's right in front of us. You know, wherever we are, maybe some warmth or some dedication or some, I guess, taking care of what's right in front of us. I was talking with a Dharma friend, a different Dharma friend the other day. And we agreed that our attitude in our actions has been influenced by our upbringing. by how our parents or caregivers or relatives, whoever it was that raised us, the attitude that we bring to actions in some way.

[26:03]

In my case, I had parents who were both kind of strongholds in the neighborhood. They were really friendly and always willing to lend a hand, and they were always involved in community large efforts. They were really great believers in small kind of continuous, supportive local actions. And I think that just came from they were kind of down to earth good people. I didn't really learn anything about in a broader way until I was out on my own as an adult. My parents' actions were alive as a kind of response to the connections they had to the people around them. And I didn't have any sense of shoulds, kind of unfolded, or I didn't sense that they wanted a reward for their actions.

[27:04]

So that was an influence in my life. And then I just wanted to say that actions can be fraught by appearance. It seems like it's important to examine our intentions. Our actions and our impulses might be kind of subtle. Are we acting on impulse or reacting on spontaneity? Trangpa Rinpoche attitude as well as the type of action. influences us and what we do. Many years ago when I was young, I farmed for a decade and I got to know a lot of different farmers and one very small scale farmer organic, which sounds pretty good, looked pretty good. But she sprayed the periphery of her land. with pesticides that were not condoned by the certification process.

[28:11]

And she defended that position. And another farmer, organic farmer, that I worked with, who I liked very much, a much larger farm, provided a trailer for three undocumented workers to live in, but they had no running water and no bathroom facilities. And, you know, and they used a hose. And I argued a lot with him about his responsibility to them. But he defended his position, said that what he was giving them was better than what they would have in their own country. And I'm giving these examples. I want to show that the kind of contradictions we all face as we try to determine, you know, what is a right action? How we can't say definitively what is right action.

[29:17]

They look some some way on the outside and not really be as pure as we may think it is. So I think that's enough to get started. Laurie, do you want to? introduce the first action type consider sure um thank you susan um i i i so our first type of action we're calling right action as following through on a commitment and basically the way we came up with the categories is we tried to think of what we right actions that we'd experienced ourselves and ask other people for examples of right actions. And then once we had a bunch of those, we noticed that they kind of went into these certain categories. So we come forth and we want to hear if you have an example of this category, but if you don't, we still want to hear your example.

[30:26]

So this first category, right action is following through in a commitment. My first, so I've tried to, and this is what I invite you to do is go inside and imagine what it feels like when you're and then see what memories you have or what comes up as an example. And so my first one was the action of sitting down on the floor, playing with my kids. That was the first thing that popped into my mind. And There's something about that moment when, like, are they going to happily by themselves or am I going to get down there with them and play with them, you know, when they're little? And something about that just, oh, I'm going to sit down and play, you know, and putting, you know, wholeheartedly going into the thing that I'm supposed to be doing, you know. And the other one that popped into my mind was watering my houseplants. I mean, and we want you to know that these very, These very small examples are fine, small or big, you know.

[31:28]

It's there's some feeling like I'm doing what I said I was going to do. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm doing my. And there's something very like I can be wholehearted because this is this is what I said I would do. And now I'm doing it, you know, and some feeling of rightness. And one more example. for me is Alex had a friend who just got back from a practice period in Nepal and she gave this. She was assigned the job of helping the teacher's elderly mother get to the meditation hall. And the reason I like this example is because there's an arc of development. So at first she had a really hard time because she was trying to get ready herself and there wasn't very much time and she felt very rushed and pressured. And then the elderly lady. really slowly all the way, and she's like inside, you know. But over the course of her time there, and this is why, you know, we can move towards right action, you know.

[32:31]

She just tried to turn over to it, tried to turn over to it, fought it, fought it, tried to turn over it, grew to completely love it and be totally joyous when she was doing it. So those are my examples. Susan, you want to say your examples of this one? Sure. And another way that Laurie and I kind of named this category was doing your duty. So and I was thinking, I just wanted to say, I think that those kind of actions can be done without referencing the mind kind of as habitual actions or they can involve some thought, you know, household activities and practice. work activities, kind of maintenance kind of duties to keep order or cleanliness or aesthetics. So another friend I talked to told me that he doesn't like to do the dishes.

[33:37]

Still, he does them. And he notices that once he starts doing the dishes, He gets into it, the process of it. He's right there doing the dishes. And I thought that was a great example. You know, we notice our likes and our dislikes. Let them pull us around. We're able to apply our Zen practice in this way, you know, the training. Suzuki, not Suzuki, Sojin Roshi always said that the most important period in Sushin is not Zazen, but work period. because we get it's where we get to take Zazen right out into the world of, you know, work and daily activity. And then that flows into our own daily life activities. So I kind of like that image. Another example for me of doing duty action is at work, at school.

[34:49]

You know, I work in a community college and in the advanced ESL classes, the students are. They're studying and discussing and writing about issues, and often the issues are controversial and they always want to know what I think, what my opinion is. And I have to be very clear here that the job I'm doing is to encourage their efforts. to think critically. The job is not about engaging them in what I think. Actually, it doesn't have anything to do with me because it could really undermine the integrity of the classroom if I share my opinion because some people may not agree with me at all. So I have to be very clear in the speech I use to explain to them that I'm not going to give them my opinion.

[35:50]

And I really see that as a kind of doing my duty action, taking the position, you know, that I'm in seriously. And then the last example I have is doing Soji in the morning, coming right out of the Zendo and just kind of automatically as part of the morning program. going to get the brooms and sweeping, you know, kind of like the place where the body and the mind come together. It's a natural sequence at the end of the morning. And I think of Sojin Roshi, how no matter how busy he was going to be that morning, he would always sweep. So kind of carrying out the. And doing our duty actions aren't necessarily all things that we enjoy doing, I guess. So we wanted to now pause for a minute and see if you have questions or comments or examples of your own of this action.

[37:00]

And if you would like to share, you can use your digital hand or you can put a question in the chat box and Yoni will get that. Dean. Thank you. I have trouble sort of splitting out the actions like a duty action or commitment action. However, This presentation as to now has just got my mind a little bit set afire, like a good kind of fire. And it's really made me think about, first of all, I think it's been a great presentation. That's really got me going. But first of all, in talking about right speech and right action, I've always

[38:04]

As you've gone on, I have a little bit more trouble separating the two. They seem to just sort of blend together a lot. But just this past week, I've had experiences that have, I thought, oh, this explains it, or this is the answer. The first one was I saw something, experienced something, and I put in a great deal of effort. to find the right words and put this all together so that it would come out in the way that I hoped it would, which would be helpful. And after a lot of time, a lot of effort, it wasn't received that way. So to me, that means I didn't present it that way. And then the other thing that happened is I had a knee-jerk reaction to something the other day.

[39:08]

I mean, there wasn't a second before I just reacted. So the first time I had this very long pause, I thought, working, working, this doesn't sound quite right. The second time there was none, and they both kind of ended up a little bit the same. Something that one of you said about when activity by some preconceived attitude, and then I couldn't remember what else you said, but what I wrote was activity gets muddy. I think that was the concept. So I've been sitting here thinking, was the first thing right speech? Was the first action the one I spent so much time on? And then the second thing, I was just hot in a heartbeat. So I was kind of clear that wasn't. But with that second one, it was immediate.

[40:12]

I am reacting all over the place. And I felt like I could rein it in. And I sort of recognized the first one, not so much. So I had to spend so much time on it. So I'm wondering if perhaps I'm looking at my notes. is perhaps the first one that there was something that was, that there was a shadow in preconceived attitude in this effort I was making. And that's why the effort didn't work, which sort of makes that not a whole lot different than having a reaction. The second thing. So I'm really kind of, Oh, this has something to do with what y'all are talking about. I know there's information in there. And I know that I really believe there's something that I'm not quite getting. But I think someone here might know what it is.

[41:16]

I'm not quite sure. The thing is, I'm on the right track. Keep going. That's what I say. Well, I don't know. I'm not really sure what happened because there was such intention. I'm losing you a little bit. You went away from the bike or something. The first one, like I said, there was a great deal of effort and intention and thought. And it kind of ended up, you know, it wasn't, it ended up being kind of a lot, not a whole lot different than it was. There's a question in the chat that kind of, you know, in some way relates to what you're talking about. I'm going to read it. I think the question of whoops, sorry. So for someone that is very duty bound, it seems right action may be no or even self care action.

[42:21]

Laura, you want to say anything about that? Yeah, I think that's really good, really good. And then there's a follow up that says, and I think the question of am I planting seeds in peace is key to discerning between maybe action or no action is the way to go. And I guess. Dean, you said something about. Wondering if you had. an expectation, I think sometimes that might get in the way. Let's say we have Sue, Sue Osher. Yeah, I have a couple of comments. Well, one about what Dean said. I think if I spend a lot of time, I'm trying to figure out how to lower this hand is what I'm trying to do.

[43:25]

I think a lot of my speaking is sort of open mouth, say something, and then see the horrible reactions. So I learned something from that. And I have some opportunities coming up to keep my mouth shut, which is a good thing, and learn about other people, that deep listening. Hopefully I will remember that. When you talked about duty, I remember what Gordon said, things that apply to this. For those of you who don't know, Gordon died three years ago, and we were together like 37 years. So he used to say one thing, work is love made visible someplace. I'm not sure where he got it. And I have said that to some people and they get very confused because that's not how they think of work.

[44:29]

But I think it's like Soji and that how we love in the work we do even though it's how we have to make a living and it's not something we love in some cases. Gordon also used to say things like, Osiers pick people at the airport. That's what we do. It's like, that's right action. And you could count on him. He kept his word, keeping his word. We give you word, we keep your word. And that was something, well, I fell in love with that. So I'll stop here. Thank you. That's a great example. Right. I was thinking, what about action is love made visible? Not just work, but all activity is love made visible.

[45:33]

It looks like Ross has his hand up and then next category. Yeah. Go ahead, Ross. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation and providing so much information. and giving us an opportunity to think about it and try to come up with a response to mirror back what we've understood. In notes, I'm gonna try to put it together. One thought was for me, when Laurie said, Steve said, right effort is no effort. When someone said that right action is no action and To me, I was thinking that like with the Heart Sutra, no eyes, no ears, no nose, the eyes, nose and ears exist, but it's not the attachment to it. So how can, if I'm busy and wanting to do things, how do I not do things in a doing way?

[46:38]

I understand that to be not being attached to results. So I'm still doing it and not just sitting back and letting somebody else do it because I do everything, you know, all that. So that's one thought that I had. Another thought was when Laurie was talking about confidence. And with regard to the right speech, for me, if there's speech, then the opposite has to be raised, which is listening. We can't have speech without listening. So right speech includes right listening or correct listening or attentive listening. uh lately people have been commenting about sweet pea and her her coat is kind of all messy and she's not taking care of herself and she's old and kind of you know weird looking and stuff like that and i didn't defend her grooming technique or lack of grooming technique um and i have confidence i care for sweet pea and i didn't judge

[47:43]

what people were saying and observing. I wanted to respect what they were observing and what they brought up. And when she was on my lap a moment ago, I took an opportunity to groom her a little bit and she was fluffy and it made me feel really good. And I think that it helps to hear people not get defensive and have confidence in my own ability and I can use reminders and help from our Sangha members about doing, how Sweet Pea's doing, how we're all doing together. I mean, that's the beauty of Sangha and practicing together. It's really easy to practice alone, you know, I'm the boss and I make all the right decisions because it's me. But in community, we get mirrored and thankfully we have some really great mirrors here and I appreciate people observing me and giving me feedback. as well as what they observe with my dear friend, Sweet Bee.

[48:48]

Thank you. Thank you for those examples. Yeah. So I'll start with our second category. Something like catching ourself in a missed opportunity, another kind of action. So if we're distracted. thinking about something off in the mind, not paying attention, bored, angry. You know, we've all been in these situations. We might miss the moment, a moment, an opportune moment to respond to something that's right in front of us in some kind of helpful way. So when Laurie and I were talking about this immediately, this. I was once at the Berkeley Ball parking lot and I saw Sojin across the street. I was guessing he was coming back from Crixa Cakes.

[49:51]

He liked to go there in the afternoon and have a cup of coffee and read. And he was walking back to on Adeline. And as he approached Russell Street to turn right, there was a homeless person there asking for money. And Sojin walked right past him. And then a few steps down, he turned around and he came and he gave the person some money and they chatted and then off he went. And that simple example has stayed with me for years. It really touched me deeply. I never spoke to him about it. I don't know what. It just seemed to me that he perhaps caught himself and decided to go back, you know, to respond. And I could really relate to it.

[50:56]

The other is mistakes that I make with family members or friends or sangha members, you know, if I misspeak or. do something that isn't quite right. I can catch myself. And there's always the opportunity to to power glory said to to mend and repair. And certainly our Bodhisattva ceremony is all about that, admitting that we make mistakes on a regular basis. You know, I can acknowledge it and I can make. And the final example I had is in practice positions, all the mistakes we make, sounding the bells or, you know, being the chant leader or any kind of mistake, burning the rice. She always said that the most important thing is to realize that we made a mistake.

[52:05]

So then there's always this opportunity to catch myself. and act again, return and try again. Lori, do you have some examples? I also thought of having an apology this year. I had to make, I went through a painful interlude where I had to apologize several times for repeated mistakes. And I think that what's nice about an apology to me is that it points to both taking responsibility as if you and you can't help but see that you didn't do anything. In other words, it just was conditions came together. You didn't pay attention or something. And so it's both taking the responsibility and also seeing the emptiness at the same time is one of the things I appreciate about knowing you can apologize and actually apologizing. Do you folks have some examples of

[53:07]

Catching yourself in a missed opportunity. Be nice to hear from some different people. I don't know how to raise my hand. You can go ahead. We hear you. You heard me? Yeah. Well, just one time I was going to. I'm not showing myself. Yeah. Not showing myself because I just, I've had a lot to do. as I'm listening. I have to right now. Anyway, one time I was going to Walgreens and there was a man out there and he wanted money. It was one of those days. It was right after I was in too. I just didn't feel like it for some time. My mind went, now you know you should be giving this man something. Then I found a soldier. The mind hit me. When I came out, I saw a soldier. And I said, I gave the man some money when I came out.

[54:14]

And I said, you know what, that man asked me for some money. And the soldier says, well, you know, when they ask me, I just give it to him. When people ask me, I give it to him. And I never forgot that. That's all. That's great. So you literally saw him. It wasn't like he was a voice in your head or something. He was a voice in my head. And when I came out, there was Kevin and Mary were there. I said, now see how it is? And I said to her, I used to talk to him like I talk to my kids at work. I said, oh, soldier, I just thought about you and here you are. That's good. Thank you. Thank you, Filani. Anyone else an example or question or a comment? Joe, is that you going to your button? Good eye, Lori.

[55:16]

Good eye. Sorry, laying down. I sort of had a little twist on this in that I can often go to apologize to someone for something that they weren't even offended with to begin with. It turns out that it's a story in my head. But that's also useful information. Something didn't feel right. I went to go apologize. And it turns out that it was kind of all in my head. And there's something I can learn about that situation. And so I find that happens repeatedly to me. And I'm thankful for it. those interactions with those people who are patient with me. And, and yeah, so I, I certainly feel much better after I apologize or mend things with people, but sometimes there's actually nothing there in the other person and it's just in my head, but it's still helpful.

[56:27]

Yeah. And even just to share reality, you know, align your reality. Yeah. yeah realign realign your realities yeah thank you that's a good example anybody else before we go to the next category um let's see we have something in the yeah I'm not sure there's always an opportunity to make amends, to act again, to apologize, to repair. In some cases, one must simply accept the action and find a way to live with or forgive oneself for the action or the consequences. Is there another way to see this in the context we're studying here? Forgive yourself sounds good to me, yeah.

[57:29]

Yeah, me too. sometimes you almost have to do that before you can apologize in a certain way maybe I don't know it's a vast the whole world of forgiveness and apologies is huge but Lynn has her hand up and then we'll go to the next one Lynn unmute yourself hello You know, this is Yom Kippur was yesterday. This has been Rosh Hashanah, the days of Allah, and this whole process of teshuva return. I mean, almost every significant word we've been using is part of this ritual and purpose and meaning. And it's really striking me so strongly. And in reading some of it, you know, Sojan just jumped out at me as well yesterday.

[58:36]

And I thought I might just a few pieces because, for instance, let's write action. That would be we strive to express our most authentic self through acts of loving kindness in our world. The tushuva, the return we seek now, the end toward the source of our wisdom and our strength. And this connecting inward, and also it is a forgiving within without. I mean, there's more history to that because some of it is historical, which is having denied their Judaism. And each year we ask for forgiveness in advance for not fulfilling our vow. There's this part. It's called Opening to One. We seek to meet the one in whom all else is. We seek again the fullness we all.

[59:38]

Reach right into the ordinary and discover the fullness of one. You know, there are words reaching out to us beyond time and space. Words that beckon us to remember the one we are. You know, so whether we're on the pillow or not on the pillow, it's, you know, daily. Words to carry in the mind, in the heart, words to breathe, words to walk, words to share through acts of love. These are words that speak to our essential nature. Everything is one. Everything that appears separate is one. There is only one. And then the Rebbe adds, we are the one. Thank you, Lynn. Thank you. Lori, you want to go to the third category? So the third category, I'm making sure I have the right third category. Planned actions.

[60:41]

So an action, you know, doing, you can have a plan that, you know, it's good to be spontaneous, but also when we have a planned action, that can also feel like right action. And what popped into my mind for this one is my sister and I are kind of in our relationship because of our history. You know, from childhood, we have these ways of triggering each other. So once a month, at least, we do an active listening session with each other and we plan that. It's a planned thing and we committed to do it and we do it. And so like if I have something, I know I have that opportunity to express it. And it's, you know, I don't have to worry and feel like it's going to slip out, you know, because I'm bottling it up or something. But at the same time, we make a safe space for that to happen. And active listening is like, you know, where I

[61:42]

I'll say what bothered me and then she just reflects back without any of her own opinions. And then we do that. We each take 15 minutes and we reverse it. So we've been doing that for like four or five years. So that's my planned action. Susan, do you have any planned action? Yeah. When I was thinking about this topic, what really interests me is being a schoolteacher, I plan a lot. I mean, I sometimes over plan so that I have enough things. Bag of tricks to be able to walk in and change it up. But what really interests me is. You know, kind of from our Zen practice is the ability to even with a good plan to throw it all out the window, you know, and rely on something that might be happening in the moment. So I've been teaching for a long time, so it's certainly not something I did in the beginning.

[62:48]

But over time, you know, just this this willingness, if I walk into the classroom with a plan and there's something. or it's an energy or it's a need or something that the students voice to just be able to throw it out and respond to what's happening right then. And I kind of just feel that's really come from Zen practice. I had another one, but I think I'll wait because I'd like to hear if other people have examples of planned actions. Put your digital hand up if you'd like to share or put it in the. And don't be shy. I mean, just anything that just something that feels right that you have a feeling of rightness about, you know. Lynn?

[64:08]

Let's try to let somebody who hasn't spoken and then we can come back to you, Lynn. I see Dan has his hand up. Oops, you got on mute. I'm thinking about planning, planned actions that I do at work. And those involve coordinating with other people. And there's a kind of annoying aspect to see what needs to be done. But to actually do it, to make it really happen, I need to check with six or seven other people and get them aligned. And that's the real work of doing the planning. And what occurs to me is that, and then in that situation, once the plan is set up, it's momentum. Everybody's on board. Everyone's sort of pointing in the same direction. And you get a kind of force that's bigger than just, you know, my original idea. And what I'm thinking of there is the connection to others so that, and the annoyance that I feel is actually that I would sort of have to just make it up in my head and then it'll all happen.

[65:22]

And I actually have to go out and talk to other people, take their opinions into account and, you know, listen, you know, and in that sense of establishing connections with others so that the action that may in some ways seem to be mine, is actually an action that's taking a lot of things into account. Then, of course, like Napoleon said, no plan survives contact with the enemy. So the minute you try to implement your plan, that's where Murphy takes over. But if you have a plan at all, then you'll never get started. And you won't have a team that's all lined up to sort of deal with the unexpected stuff that comes up. So those are my thoughts about it. I really, in all of this, I'm thinking very much about how both in speech and action, it's about connecting, being, and being acting or speaking from beyond your own situation and, and, or your own, the illusion that you're isolated to take into account that what you're doing is part of a bigger connected whole.

[66:36]

And hence, non-action listening is actually making room for others or for other aspects to be emerged. And so if you're quiet, others can speak. If you listen, you can take them into account. If you wait and you forbear action, you may provide the opportunity for someone else to fill that space. That seems like an important part of the rightness of it. the sort of interplay. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, thank you. Well said. Several good points. Thank you. Helen? Helen, yeah. Hi. Hi. So I connect to this when I think about my desire to go to yoga class and how historically I have often plans to do things that then like half an hour before is meant to happen I no longer want to do it anymore and so the way I what I've done is I'm I do work-study for my teacher and so that way I know that they're expecting me to be there so that's the the planned action that comes to mind that's incredibly effective making a plan that's to do what you want to do basically yeah

[68:03]

Yeah, that kind of fits with what Dan said about the connection to your work. So, you know, right to the teacher. Exactly. Yeah, that's a great example. Harnessing social pressure and support. I really and I really resonate with that. And I think I meant to say at some point, yes, connecting right speech and right action are both about connecting. and somehow got lost. So I'm really glad that came out. Thank you. One, Susan. Sure. So our last category we're calling actions arising from unexpected circumstances. So we were thinking those are in which. We respond without referencing the mind.

[69:05]

And to me, that seems like the place that Laurie was talking about earlier from which the precepts emerge. So from the inside out, not from thinking. Rehearsing or accumulated knowledge or rules, but from a more intuitive. place where some creativity or spontaneity emerge. The mind is kind of free of ideas. Oh, let's see. Well, what popped into my mind is something that happened a while ago, but my husband and I and some friends went to a demonstration up in Sacramento. at the Capitol. And it's a while back, great recollection of the details, but we were on a large street.

[70:07]

So maybe in front of the Capitol and sort of my political group, the people I favored, I was standing on that side of the street and the other people were on the street and. They were screaming really loudly at us, you know, and big signs. And I think this was during one of the Gulf Wars. And I suddenly said to my family and friends, I'm going over to the other side. I want to see what it's like over there. And and I went across the street and turned towards my people. And I was suddenly being screamed at in the same way. as when I was on the other side of the street. And that's about all I have to say about it. It was totally . I don't know where the idea came from, and I don't know how it informed me, but it's always stayed with me.

[71:08]

And it's something about right speech and right action, but I couldn't tell you what. So I think I'll just stop it. And Laura, you give an example and we open it up. Sure. Well, one example that popped into my, two actually, they'll be short. Sojin, when he became abbot of San Francisco, he was already doing this, I think, here, but he made a very conscious practice of always being interrupted. Like no matter what happened, he would turn his attention to fully If he got a phone call, he'd turn his attention to that. If someone knocked on the door, he'd turn his attention to that. And many of us remember hearing that voice, hi, when you would knock on his door, hi. And that's, to me, he always was responding continuously to unexpected events. And the other example doesn't quite fit, but I want to tell you because it's what my son, Genpo, gave me as an example of right action, which is, he says, running to Dokasan, in his practice that he does,

[72:15]

In the Rinzai tradition, when the bell rings and everybody's you. And I think what he's pointing out there is something about like the wholehearted throwing yourself into something. And that's something we all, I think, have a sense of our Zen practice being wholehearted activity. So Ross. Thank you. Your story about seeing, hearing your. Friends yell at you, reminding me of Blanche Hartman's enlightenment experience she shared with us years ago about going to San Francisco State to support her son's anti-war protests. And she had an experience merging with a policeman on the police line. And she was kind of beside herself. I inferred that there was no separation between us and them. and someone recommended Berkeley Zen Center.

[73:16]

That's where she began what took place. What a great story. I never heard that. Thank you. Andrea. Thanks, Susan. I was trying to hide myself. You and here I am again. Hold on. So I will make this story short. went to make a home visit on someone who lived in one of the Oakland hotels. He'd been very hard to get in under care and we had we taking care of him all had a lot of concerns for some of the decisions he was making and how he was how unwell he felt. When I got there he was in a really foul mood about someone who had just been there to ask him a bunch of the same questions I was gonna need to ask him in order to try and address those needs. And he had his TV playing really loud with a bunch of old 70 dance music and it was so loud I couldn't hear him.

[74:26]

And I asked him if he would turn it down and he said no and he turned it up even higher because he was so mad and he was taking control. And so I just got up and started dancing. Great music. And I started getting up and going with it. And then our social worker knocked on and came in and she got in and it was too much for him. He turned it down and we could proceed from there. I don't know where that came from, but it worked. Thank you. Pauline. What I was thinking about is, actually, it might not be that different from Yushin's story, but I'm thinking about various arguments I've had with people in my life, and usually they're arguments with people because that's how it goes. And there have been these moments where suddenly you see the other person sort of unilaterally disarmed.

[75:33]

They just... put their weapons down and suddenly become vulnerable. And, you know, more than once I can think of occasions where it's been such a gift to have that happen because then I can do the same thing and then the argument stops and then something else takes its place. And I think I've tried to become better about being the person who disarms first. Thank you. Judy. Hi. I was just remembering being with Hosan and a group called the Faithful Fools that partners with the unhoused community and the Tenderloin. And it was a There was a retreat we were having over the weekend for people from different spiritual traditions.

[76:38]

We were talking about how to meet the conditions of our time. And we decided as our action for that weekend that we would support a no on Proposition L, which was something in San Francisco, a bill. illegal to sleep on the street, to lie down on the street. And so there we were in the Tenderloin, and we did a sidewalk sit, you know, with our signs of no on Proposition L. And we had decided in our group, as we talked about what the function would be, that we would sit silently and that our presence and the signs would speak for themselves. And so all good plans, dot, dot, dot. So there we were sitting on the sidewalk. And, you know, a whole bunch of people did walk by and looked at us. Just kind of checked out.

[77:40]

Some people sat down with us. And then there were some folks who came up and, you know, tried to engage us in conversation. Like, what is this? Something about the signs, you know, wasn't sufficient. And so just spontaneously, there was recognition in the group. You know, one time it would be one person, one time it would be another. Oh, and David Loy was with us, too, for those of you who know who he is. He writes a lot about stuff like this. And we just responded. We got up and we talked to folks. And when we were done, we sat back down. And I thought... there you go you know zazen right speech right action um right there on the street and it's really stayed with me you think about inside and outside the gate what what is our practice kind of like karen sharing some of those library stories and of course stories that are shared here tonight so it's very encouraging thank you judy

[78:48]

One phrase that's recurred several times tonight, it stayed with me. Something happened many years ago, but it stayed with me at the point, too. Of course, there's right actions we do every day, but then there's those special ones that stay with us. Okay, well, Susan is muted, so I think that means I'm supposed to . the end right yeah yeah um and i'm it's i'm written down to do a quote which i kind of forgot but someone sent me this really great quote today and they're here so they can out themselves if they want but anyway this is from shindo eoyama and i thought it was so fitting to our topic she's a female zen contemporary female zen teacher from japan so continually continually does not mean without stopping. As in driving a car, when we go down the road of life, we cannot expect the traffic lights to always be green.

[79:58]

We have to stop at the red light of illness. Even if at first we are resolute, as soon as we run into trouble and the situation looks bleak, some of us say, oh, it's no use, and perhaps despair and give up. But stopping, retreating, or making a wide detour is far more inner strength than traveling down a straight and easy road. Zen master Genshu Watanabe in his last years called to his bedside a monk who had recently become a disciple. The master asked, how can you go straight on a steep mountain road of 99 curves? He replied, I don't know. He was told, walk straight by winding along. When told to walk straight, we stupidly think we have to cross mountains, hills, rivers, and the sea in a straight line. Ignoring traffic lights, we dash off like a race car looking neither left nor right.

[80:58]

These deceive ourselves into thinking we progress as we lurch forward. Instead, go straight by winding along. Oh, that's great. Thank you. Say the name again of the person. Shundo Aoyama. Her book is called Zen Seeds. Oh, right. So I think it's time. Is it time for our four vows? And I want to say also just if people think of things, I hope you'll email either Susan or I or both of us. If you get right actions that you suddenly think of. Things that stayed with you or things that you haven't thought of in a long time or something that happened yesterday or whatever. Please, I think I would love to hear some, you know, any kind of follow up if there is any. Good idea. And I want to say thank you. And thank you to Yoni for being our tech support.

[82:03]

So let's say the four vows. Beings are numberless. I vow to awaken with them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. to be commented.

[82:44]

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