I vow to face the truth with a thousand dark and senseless words. Morning. Morning. Do you remember old Zoey Gone? Yes, I do. Zudagon was an old Zen teacher, and every day he would say to himself, Master, and then he'd say, yes. And then he'd say, be awake. And then he'd say, yes. And then he'd say, don't be fooled by anyone or anything.

[01:02]

And you say, okay. This was Zuligan's famous koan. And this kind of practice of Zuligan's is kind of epitomizes the essence of Zen practice. Master? Yes. He asks, he requests, he says something, and then he answers himself. So, the first koan is, who is the master? This is a very famous or well-known koan in Zen. Who is the master? all of you should be studying this koan."

[02:05]

Or, who is the mistress? So, Zuligan asks himself the first koan. He says, Master. Then he answers, Yes. And then he says, be aware or be awake. He says, yes. And then he says, don't be fooled by anything. So, Know where the source is. Stay awake and don't be fooled. Yesterday was my 64th birthday.

[03:18]

So I realize I've been in the world for 64 years, as we say. I don't know how long I've been here, In our world, our world seems very unstable right now. We're going through a tremendous transition, and the boat seems to be really rocking, and things are falling down from the shelves on us, and falling off the tables onto the floor. It's pretty, getting very chaotic. And right now, it's getting more and more, every day, a little more unstable and chaotic and uncertain and scary.

[04:25]

I was born in 1929, the year of the Great Depression. said that she thought that I brought it on. But I think she was only kidding. And then at that time, during the 30s, things were really, people were having a very hard time. They didn't know how to handle it. They didn't have all the resources that we have for the kinds of recessions and depressions that we have nowadays. But I remember, I don't remember, but she told me that She used to send me to the butcher for a bone for the dog and then she put it in the soup.

[05:38]

So I grew up with almost nothing. I remember I never had any money at all when I was a kid. And 10 cents was a lot of money in those days, 15 cents. was a lot. You used to be able to get a hamburger for a dime. So people learned how to get along with nothing. It was actually a terrible time and a great time. The terrible thing was that nobody had anything, and the great thing was that nobody had anything. So people learned to take care of each other.

[06:47]

And then Roosevelt came in with a new deal, And the country started to get back on its feet, and there was a lot of integrity in the country. He tended to trust the government. I remember how, when I was a kid growing up, the government was so trustworthy. A completely different state than we experienced in the last 15 years. So, and then came the Second World War. I remember when I was a kid, we used to play war. This was before I was about 12. We'd play war, but it was always the First World War that we would play.

[07:50]

And then came the Second World War. And after the war, we had built up such a tremendous military complex that everybody wanted to keep it. People wanted to keep it and develop it. And then men came out of the service and started to rebuild the country. And at some point, the quality of life changed. I can remember very distinctly how the quality of life changed from one of internal integrity, societal integrity, to it's okay to get what you want. It doesn't matter how you get it. That was a big shift in the way people were living.

[09:02]

And it became normal after a while for selfish motive to become the norm. And the country just continued to escalate that way, and many people got wealthy, and the poor just got poorer and poorer. And this big shift split between the wealthy and the common people. And a lot of the people that were getting wealthy were people who had no sense of ethics. They were, a lot of them, very poor people before the war. And then they took advantage of getting what you can get and became very wealthy.

[10:05]

And along with it, a lack of morals and a lack of ethics. So the country just became ethically corrupt. And if you were born just a few years ago, like 20 or 30, or 40, it all seems normal. It all just seems normal to you. Right now it seems normal for people to go out on the street and get shot. It's just the way things are. I remember a time when, if there was a murder, it was the biggest thing in the paper. One murder. Now, you know, they don't even print them anymore, there's so many. So, I really seen the country

[11:09]

over a long period of time, kind of go up this way, and then... But it seemed to be going up, but it was really going downhill. Superficially, we were going uphill, but actually we were going downhill. And even though we have much more money, everybody has lots more money, but it doesn't mean anything. So we're actually, people are actually poor in a way. And even though we have more trinkets and more toys to keep us pacified, we don't have any values. And sometimes I see people with the latest state-of-the-art toys and their sense of the values of life. like, actually, like animals. Although animals have a much better sense of it.

[12:11]

So it's a very weird mixture. And the whole world, of course, is getting closer. All the countries in the world are getting closer and closer. So that If you make a mistake, or whatever we do, everybody's affected. Much more so than it used to be. We used to be able to not be so concerned about the rest of the world, but now every day, whatever we do affects the rest of the world, and whatever happens in the world affects us. So, it's getting more and more sensitive. I had a Mexican student one time, and he said, the United States lifts its finger at Mexico.

[13:23]

So we don't even know, you know. We just turn around, scratch our nose, and something's affected. So people are beginning to understand more and more the laws of cause and effect, and how everyone is interrelated and interconnected, and how we all affect each other. And we can no longer just do whatever we want. People can no longer do whatever we want, but everyone wants to do that. So we have a big problem. Greed, anger, and delusion. the three roots of our problems are really being played out in graphic effect on this stage. We can no longer afford to be greedy, to build up our wealth at the expense of everyone else.

[14:37]

So the slave and master pattern has continued throughout history. And it continues to be played out, except that it's not always recognized. Now, the lower classes are the slaves, but they don't necessarily recognize it. They're given wonderful toys. So a lot of people remain pacified, but no one's contented. So we don't know how this whole thing is going to work itself out, but I think that it'll get a lot worse before it gets better. So what do we do? How do we take care of ourselves?

[15:41]

How do we take care of our surroundings? Without waiting for something to happen, you know, without waiting to see how things are going to be. I think for a Zen student, we should always be the same. The world goes through various cycles. Sometimes, you know, there are times when there are radical changes and the vehicle is really upset and everybody's really just hanging on and then change happens and it gets more calm and it leads to sometimes to a golden age and then that changes it starts crumbling and then it's back into chaos so this kind of cycle is We should expect this. It's not unusual. It's something that we should expect, and we should know where we are.

[16:47]

Be aware of where we are on this cycle. If the human race survives, which it might, there'll be probably a renaissance. That's what we all hope for. when the world, everyone recognizes that it's one world and supports that. And when people realize that by supporting each other they will survive and everyone will be much happier instead of everyone trying to take from the big cow, take their share. So, I want to come back to Zuligan because Zuligan's practice is our practice.

[17:55]

Whether we're in the chaotic state or in the renaissance state or the golden age, our practice is the same. No matter what's going on around us or in our lives, our practice is always the same. We call Master. Hi. Wake up. Stay aware. Okay. Don't be fooled by anything. This is very important. Don't be fooled by anything. You know, when the boat is going like this, you should be right here in the middle. So, it's going like this, but you're right there, right here.

[18:57]

This is our practice. That way we can help ourselves and we can help others. And we can be a stable influence on ourself and on others. In a world where everyone's panicked, where people panic very easily and get pushed off their base very easily, how do you maintain stability? When everything is taken away, how do you remain stable? When you lose everything, what do you have? This is important. So, before we lose everything, we should know where our best interest lies.

[19:59]

The thoughts that we have are called sometimes the scenery of our life. We're sitting very still and not creating karma and settled in self-mastery. And the scenery of our life just goes by. Like riding in a train. Thoughts and feelings just go by. But we're sitting in complete stability. And in some sense, the scenery of our life is going by in our daily life.

[21:24]

And the scenery of our life is going by so fast that yesterday's occurrence is hardly remembered today. Big events happen every day, all over the world. and they're hardly remembered a couple of days later. Then we go about our business, go shopping, have our interactions, drive our cars. Pretty amazing. So how do we hold our stability when we really start remembering what's happening and taking in what's happening and being aware?

[22:32]

That's hard. Sometimes people will say, how can you listen to all the stuff, you know, be aware of all the stuff that's going on in the world and still be able to do something, not be just torn apart by it. It's very important not to be torn apart by it, otherwise you can't do anything. Sometimes I will reply to someone by saying, even surgeons have to eat. Even psychiatrists have to forget what they've been through all day. You can't carry everything around with you all the time. So I think it's important to be aware of what's going on in the world and at the same time to have some detachment

[23:51]

It's important to have some detachment. We recognize our oneness with everything when we feel the pain of the world. And we also realize our individuality with some detachment. But not detached to the extent that we don't feel the pain of the world. If we're crying all the time, we can't be very helpful to people. So, having few desires, not being caught up in the fads of the world, but creating some stable practice, your own stable practice, not being caught up in a whirlwind.

[25:15]

You know, if you don't have a stable practice, if you don't have your own stability, then you inevitably will be caught up in the vortex of some activity in which you can easily lose yourself. So really the most important thing for each one of us is to find our stability, to know where is the master, and to stay awake and not be fooled by anything, no matter how enticing it is. And it is very easy to be pulled around and destabilized. And then at some point you say, how did I get here?

[26:18]

So what's important right now is to keep sanity in the world, because the world is rather insane. What's going on around us is not sanity. It's greed, hate and delusion really exaggerated. So in the midst of all this, we really have to make an effort to look at what is our greed and really look at our animosities and our delusions and make some effort to stabilize. When people know that there are people whose purpose in the world is to be sang, that really helps.

[27:43]

Do you have any questions? Well, I have a question that maybe the audience answered, but I want to ask it anyway. First, one comment, which was, Once in a while I see this Tibetan monk, or sometimes the Thai monks, walking around the city, and sometimes I feel like it would be really great if the priests here wore their robes. Because I notice, and I notice for myself, and I notice other people noticing, and it seems like they're noticing they're softening, like, ah, somebody's taking care of the world. Some difficulty I have is I have somebody, a friend who I care about very, very much, whose wife is so chaotic and she's kind of getting, she's married, it seems like she's about to have an affair with somebody.

[28:59]

She's totally in debt. And it just seems like, because I've been I have something to offer, but I don't know how to offer it. I can see what the problem is, but I don't want to say anything. I just don't know what to do. I don't feel like I can fix it, but it's just, it's really hard to watch somebody go through such a difficult, chaotic time, and they just seem powerless to do anything. facing powerlessness. Just so completely powerless, swept away. It's hard to just watch it go on and not be able to help in some really direct way.

[30:00]

Well, sometimes you can help people and sometimes you can't. It's very frustrating. The story I read was that when Moses was leading the people to Jericho, I think it was. And he got, he divided the people into the old people and the young people. And I think the young people, I don't know where the division was, maybe 21 or something. And he had the old people fight the battle, and the young people would do

[31:09]

I may be a little mixed up in this, but I know that this is part of the story. The old people left to fight the battle. The new people were to build a new society. Because the old people were so lost, they didn't feel they could be re-treated. And the young people We're not yet corrupt. So that was one way of dealing with it. But what I'm trying to point out is that, you know, even though we want us to save everyone, it's really not possible to convince everyone or to, you know, help every single person. And that's just a tragedy of life. But we should make some effort.

[32:15]

It doesn't mean we shouldn't make some effort. We should definitely make some effort. And so one thing you can do is say, well, how can I help this person? You know, that's a big koan. How can I help this person without, you know, sticking my foot in it or making it worse? What is real help for this person? And how can I you will come up with it. If you really concentrate on that, you will come up with something. That definitely is the essence of our practice. You don't know what to do, but you have to do something. And if you stay with it, you will come up with something. It's exactly like the third day of Sesshin. And you can't stay there and you can't leave.

[33:17]

And you're just dying. But you have to come up with something. And you do. If you stay there, you'll come up with something. So, that's how you put your zazen practice into practice in your daily life? It's a big problem. And you just stay with it. That's been my experience. One thing that I've been thinking about is that we don't live long enough to learn much.

[34:29]

I really believe it. By the time, you know, the end comes, Everyone has to figure it out for themselves, is the problem. We have a lot of accumulated knowledge, you know, human knowledge, but it's not our knowledge. We can appropriate it and make it our knowledge, but we don't do that so much. And so, you see, everyone growing up, we never quite learn enough. So we have to keep repeating this thing over and over. Every generation has to keep repeating it. Wars, and greed, and delusion. It's a playground, or it's a stage, for every generation. And the last generation gets off the stage, then the new generation gets off the stage and plays it out.

[35:36]

Plays out the same dramas over and over again. And the human race hasn't learned how to evolve far enough to get some different drama for them. Little by little, you know, get a little set. And then they get picked up, but they don't dominate yet. So it's just playing out the same old drum. And we don't, even though we know what's going to happen, we don't learn it because we have to fulfill it ourselves. We have to live our own lives, you know. We can learn from the lessons from the past, but we have to live our own life. And so, it seems like that's what our life is about, you know, learning how to handle it. We have the drama, and how do we handle it? And so every person has to, is given some portion of this drama to work, to deal with.

[36:37]

Some of us live a noble life, some of us live an ignoble life, but it's all part of the drama. It seems to me the easiest way to lose the center in yourself is the temptation of involvement with others and the dilemma of being open and present with others. relationships with others and yet maintaining through it your own separateness and the solitude you need to maintain your own separateness. Well, that's right. How do you maintain your own integrity in the midst of relationships? So, you know, becoming a hermit is kind of an easy way to be a saint. In Japanese Buddhism, hermit life is not very popular.

[37:54]

It's not condoned. Because it's kind of the easy way out. It has its difficulties, of course. But... How to maintain... Well, that's, you know, that's the big koan. How do you maintain your integrity? when you have to relate to other people who want to do other things, and who want you to do other things, and they get mad at you, and you get mad at them, and you know, you want something, they want something. It's a great life. Well, I'm going to be 50 next Saturday, I was thinking about what you were saying about the world going to pot and hand basket, I guess you could say.

[38:55]

But I was born and raised in Berkeley, and I think that my perspective is different in a way. I remember talking, it was actually to a rabbi, who said, Berkeley's like a garbage dump. You can find anything you want here, you just have to put it together. And I find it a very exciting time to live in. And I remember in religious school, we had a very strange experience. We heard about how wonderful Castro was. That was one of Sunday school teachers. I didn't use that. I'm using it now. And he said, we used to hear about how the United States was What I learned, I guess I started to hear that maybe the government wasn't so trustworthy pretty early.

[40:03]

But I do think that the attitude that you can trust your government is really important. And I read a little bit about ancient Chinese reigns and how the people were well-governed at times. And it does seem very calm and sort of incomprehensible. Well, I agree, this is a great time, you know. It has two sides. If it didn't have two sides, then it would be a big problem. But, so, you know, imbalance also means, the other side of imbalance means that it's going towards something, you know. It's opportunity. The pessimist sees it as chaos and the optimist sees it as opportunity. So within one is always the other.

[41:10]

And I realize that. And also Berkeley is a very different place from anyplace else. Can you say more, please, about the third part of the koan? Do not be fooled by anything. Yeah. Do not be fooled by anything means don't succumb to delusion. Don't mistake, basically, don't mistake the demands of ego for the master. So, you know, don't be deluded by others is usually the way it's stated. But who are others? So basically, it's like, don't be deluded by your own delusion, by the way you respond and think about things in a dualistic way.

[42:27]

in an egotistical way, in a selfish way. Don't be fooled by your own selfishness, by your own self-centeredness, by your own egotistical demands and partiality and partial way of seeing how things are. So this is delusion. Don't be deluded. Or within your delusion, don't get caught. Because we're always in the midst of delusion. Our life is a kind of waking dream. So it's important to realize the dream-like quality of our life. So what dream will you actualize? If we don't have a dream, then we don't move.

[43:35]

We just sit there. If you watch TV all day, you become a couch potato, day after day. Because you don't have a dream of your own. You're only taking in the dreams of others. And the more you take in the dreams of others, the less motivated you are to have your own dream. So it's important to have a dream. It's important to be deluded, to have your own delusion. So, delusion is not so bad. Not necessarily bad. It's just delusion. But we should recognize, you know, what is reality and what is delusion. Delusion is a necessary part of reality. Right? We just live in the midst of it. It's called the life of this world. Whatever we do, You know, it's all just complete delusion. We think it's what it's not.

[44:38]

That's delusion. We think things are real because they're substantial. See, what we call real is just the opposite of what is real. We think that because something seems substantial that it's real. But it's reality is that it's not substantial. But the other side of the reality is where it is. It's something, right? For a moment. Momentarily something coalesces and it's a thing, you know, it's a tree or a Really? Promise, I mean. Really? Yeah, which? Is it really? No, I'll leave you to ponder this. He's a cardinalist!

[46:05]

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