This morning we had a Bodhisattva ceremony, just now, which is a ceremony of acknowledging our actions and renewing our intentions. That's what the ceremony is. Acknowledging our twisted karma and renewing our intention to, or our vow, I say intention because vow, not everyone feels this is a vow, but it's, vow is a pretty strong term. it under the word intention.

[01:12]

Of course, you have good intentions, which someday may turn into vows. which I talk about often but today I want to talk about karma because it's bound up with what is a as a Buddhist or as someone who acts as a Buddhist thinks like a Buddhist would How does someone who feels in this way relate to something like the conditions of war?

[02:17]

And karma is a very important factor in how we think and act. The term karma Strictly speaking means volitional action. It just means an action which comes from our intentions. That's all it means. But the actions which come from our intentions are classified as either good actions bad actions or neutral actions. And all the time we're giving rise to good actions, bad actions and neutral actions. This is the Buddhist classification. So actions, because of the law of cause and effect, actions lead to results.

[03:30]

And the results of the actions come back to the doer of the action in some form or another. And it's called retribution. It's something that comes back to us from our actions. You can also call it result. And then there's also the fruit of our actions. So, the result of our actions may be immediate, or it may be sometime in the future, or the result may be sometime in such a distant future that we puzzle over why something happens to us when we didn't do anything. So we don't always know exactly why something's happening to us.

[04:50]

And sometimes we do know why something's happening to us. We know a result. When we have a result from our actions, which is immediate, we know the cause. Sometimes in the future, when something happens to us, we'll know the cause. But sometimes the cause comes, the effect comes in such a distant future that we just don't know why something's happening to us. So for someone who practices Buddhadharma, it's very important to be very careful about what our actions are, what our karmic, intentional, volitional actions are, because they always produce results. So, if we want

[06:03]

good results for ourselves and others, then we have to be careful to know the difference between right and wrong and make an effort to produce good actions or good karma. It's not always possible to do so, but it's important to make the effort. Bad karma, so-called, has three roots. The root of greed, the root of anger or ill-will, and the root of delusion. So, greed produces lust for material things, and ill will produces bad feeling and harm to beings, and delusion is like ignorance, not knowing what the effects of karma are.

[07:29]

Delusion means just not understanding what our actions lead to. So these are the three roots. And the three wholesome roots are moderation, goodwill, and knowledge or understanding. And so, as Buddhists, we should always be cultivating the three good roots and not cultivating the three poisonous roots. So, when we're faced with a problem of our country going to war, there is a powerful vortex which the country becomes involved in, everyone becomes involved in this powerful vortex and unless we have some good understanding and desire to see things

[08:59]

in a wholesome way, it's very easy to give way to creating bad karma. Or, I think that in this war there are elements of greed, elements of ill will, and elements of delusion, which are which no one can deny. So how do we keep ourselves free from being sucked into the vortex of that greed, ill-will and delusion? Greed is for power and material things. Ill-will is a tool to arouse emotions.

[10:03]

If we say, Saddam is Hitler, we're taking an image of one person and superimposing it over another. And then we see this person with that image superimposed, and we say, oh, that's who that is. This is delusion. exacerbated by ill will in the name of greed. So we have to be very careful not to be fooled by things and to keep our own perspective There's also what is sometimes called group karma or national karma, which, strictly speaking, isn't really karma, because karma is an act by an individual, and the retribution of our act comes to that person, and no one else can receive someone else's karmic retribution.

[11:30]

a result. My karma produces my result, or a result which comes back to me. But loosely speaking, we can talk about national karma or group karma, where a whole nation or a whole group of people together do some act which, through some attitude, which the result returns to the nation or the group. So, I think it's important how we respond to the feeling of the times, whether or not we contribute to it or resist it.

[12:41]

Everyone will be affected by this particular war that we're in now. I can't say what everyone should do. Each one of us needs to make some decision for ourselves as to what our attitudes are. Someone would say, well, what is the Buddhist attitude? What is the doctrine? What is the party line for a Buddhist? I would say each one of us should follow our own conscience because what I believe is I stand on and I might want to convince someone else to stand that way too or encourage someone to stand that way.

[13:58]

It's important that each one of us is true to our own convictions and understanding. But I think we should all try to understand more deeply what really is the cause of these things. It's very easy to get caught up in the superficial aspects, rattling the sword and And blowing the trumpet rouses great feelings of bravado and patriotism. But it makes it more difficult to look at the underlying issues and what really are the reasons for doing what this country is doing. And the more we look underneath, what is happening for the real causes, deep causes, the more the whole scenario just falls apart.

[15:11]

One fact of our karmic retribution is that the military equipment which we have spread out in the Middle East is coming back at us. That's kind of interesting retribution. We're fighting our own equipment. Anyway, So I think we have to be careful what we do as a country. And it's the responsibility for each one of us to figure out just where we stand. And I think one big problem is that a certain one side says, we're patriotic.

[16:26]

We're real Americans. And it makes the other side look like we're not patriotic or Americans. And I think we should be very careful not to allow that split to happen. Everyone should have a little flag so that one side doesn't say, well, this is the true way because we have a flag. That's dangerous. So, the Buddhist way is to create good karma and to promote peace. In Orwell's 1984 book,

[17:29]

He said, people in 1984 will say, war is peace, and people will go for it. Anyway, war is war and peace is peace. Sometimes it's inevitable to go to war. Sometimes it's inevitable to kill something, somebody. But it's the last resort. some people, even as a last resort, will not do it. There are many examples in history of Zen and Buddhism of people who were attacked by bandits or military people who said, go ahead.

[18:40]

If you want to kill me or kill us, go ahead. Here's my head. But I'm not saying that everyone should do that. Sometime you may feel, well, it's time to fight back. But For someone who is promoting peace, it's better if it's the last resort to try all other means first. If when you use your military to solve problems, then you don't need to resort to other means. But when you put it down and don't use it, then you have to use other means and you have to figure out how to do it.

[19:44]

When you have nothing, no weapons, you have to figure out how to create peace. And so if you just use weapons as a means all the time, who needs to figure out peace? Why go to all the trouble? So it's hard to go around disarmed. But if we are going to promote peace, then we have to disarm ourselves. Otherwise, it's too easy to reach for the sword, to reach for the weapon, to solve the problem. So we had a nice discussion yesterday afternoon in the Zen Dojo. I wonder if you have any questions or... Yes?

[20:54]

You talked about karma and that sometimes the retribution or consequences are so far down the line and it seems like sometimes Buddhists really reach for a reason, and the reason is karma, the explanation is karma. And if a child in Iraq gets blown up, no doubt that's happening. Is that some retribution for something? We have to be very careful what we attribute retribution to. It's too easy to say, you know, Oh, that's because, you know, in the past life, you know, that's very easy, easy way out. And sometimes Buddhists fall into that easy explanation. No one can say, you know, but what someone else's karma result is, way down the line.

[22:02]

Everything that happens to us is not necessarily the result of our karma. I think we have to understand that. Karma is the result that comes from our volitional action, but it's not everything that happens to us. Things happen to us because of circumstance, place and circumstance. That's different than karmic retribution. We have to understand that that's a different thing. Otherwise, every little thing that happened, you could attribute it to yourself. Karma has its limitations, and the result has its limitations. It's not that everything that happens to me is the result of my bad karma, or good karma. But good karma, good action, leads to good results. evil actions lead to evil results.

[23:13]

It doesn't cross over. And in those channels, there's karmic retribution. But it doesn't mean that if I'm walking along the street and a brick falls on my head, that I cause that to happen through my karma. No. My karma is that I happen to be there. But the fact that something happened because I was there doesn't necessarily mean that was caused by my karma. So we have to be a little bit careful. But in the world of cause and effect, we do create actions which cause effects. And those are the results that we're talking about as karmic results. our karmic fruit.

[24:26]

Our karma does create results for other people. Our actions do create results for other people, but it's not necessarily something they created for themselves. So, if I do certain actions, that result may cause suffering for generations of people. So, I have to be careful what I do. You know, karma is also impersonal. This is an important point. Karma is not personal because in the realm of reality there's no person.

[25:30]

It's only our idea about what our life is that we call ourselves people or call myself a person. But karma itself is impersonal and it's Actions creating results. Just karma rolls along. Actions continue and create more actions, which create more action, going in a certain direction. This is what karma is. But we take it personally. Because we think about ourself in a personal way. And it's not wrong to think about ourself in a personal way. It's conventional. It's not absolutely real. It's not real in an absolute sense. It's real in a human sense. I'm sort of confused by what you just said and what you said about karma strictly speaking as only comes back to the individual.

[26:40]

Yeah, we own the person. So who is this person that is coming back? The impersonal person. Because each one of us thinks of ourself as a person, right? So that's what karma comes back to. But in fact, who does it come to since there's no person? It just rolls along. Because what we call this person, keeps continually transforming and changing. So there's no person to pin down, right? But the transforming and changing is affected by the action. And the actions determine how these five skandhas continue to transform and be recreated.

[27:45]

But, you know, we speak about it in personal terms, and I think it's important not to get off the personal track, otherwise we start just thinking about people as scoundrels, you know. But we need to understand both sides, that there are no sentient beings in reality. We all feel like sentient beings. And so we have to act the way we feel, out of the way we feel, that we are all people and we all want to live in the best way we can. And we don't want each other, to support each other to live in the best way we can, without creating too much problem for each other. In absolute sense, they're not real beings.

[28:56]

Nevertheless, we live our life in our joy and pain. And we continue to create ourself. According to the laws of karma, we're self-created beings. That doesn't mean that I'm, you know, God, but it means that through our actions we create what we are, who we are. There's no predetermination. Karma is not fate, but it leads to our destiny. Destiny is how our life unfolds and the direction it takes. It's not determined, predetermined. Destiny is determined by the the way we lead our life. So we create our own destiny given the causes and conditions that we meet together with various causes and conditions.

[30:09]

I was born in this place at this time and those are the conditions. And then the way I volitionally interact with those conditions is what creates this life. What you said about disarming as a way to peace is particularly meaningful to me this morning. It made me think of a number of years ago when my son was younger. because of my habitual ways of control and authority, always want him to think like I did, or what I did in that way. And I remember, and sometimes I would even hit him.

[31:11]

And then I remember I took a vow not to try to, not to hit him, but also not to force him to do things, and so make me figure out other ways to do whatever he can in places. So, of course, I haven't always been able to live up to that, but it's just the difference that it's made in our relationship is really remarkable to me. And I think in a lesser way, just to control, some also die not to control, our children, or in any relationship, really, makes me think of how this war is so much about control. And the way that we all try to control each other, we're all responsible in some way. That's right. Control and domination. And I went through the same thing when I hit

[32:20]

Daniel and say, you hit me. You're not supposed to do that. Don't you know that? I'm bigger and older than you. Kids are not supposed to hit their parents. Well, you hit me so I can hit you. Perfect logic. More than that. Who can deny that? So that's why I had to say, well, I have to figure out some other way. I had to put down my hand and figure out some other way. And it really forces me to do it. But as a last resort, there's always the spanking. There's always the threat. And then sometimes, whack. But it's the last resort. And it just means really sparingly, so that it's not a habit.

[33:29]

It's really easy. Once you do something three times, it becomes a habit. That's my assessment. You do something once, and OK, you bring it to attention. You do it twice, and OK. But you do it the third time, and then it's just easy to continue doing it. This goes for anything that you do, a drink, a cigarette, Be careful. Yes. So, I get plenty of time to meditate here.

[34:46]

My question is, in my own that happening in our country. And as many guns as there are here, it's very frightening to me. I'm starting a Buddhist Peace Fellowship chapter in Sacramento, and I've talked both with the anti-war protesters or the peace activists, depending on which paper you read, and I've also talked with the real desire for peace, for non-violence, and yet there seems to be something missing between the two.

[35:59]

My long question, paraphrased here I guess, is are there any particular Buddhist scriptures or any particular writings that I can refer to that would really be able to Well, I think that all the Buddhist scriptures are about this. I think that it's important to... One important thing is to be able to not take sides and think these people are good and these people are bad. Because we can get one-sided with peace and war.

[37:08]

We can get a peace side and a war side. And even though it looks right to be on the peace side, it's not really the peace side if it's antagonistic to the other side. So this is where a real koan of our life comes in. It's how to find a deeper peace without alienating or creating another side. Because as soon as you have the peace, then you're creating the other side. As soon as you get on one side, you're creating the other side. That's really hard to avoid. So it's important, I think, to understand what the other side is and to respect it.

[38:10]

Like you say, you talk to both sides and you can see how they really are sincere both in their own way. And so how do you tie both of those sides together so that they realize they're both two sides of the same thing? Or at the center, they really want to do the same thing. So in a sense, we have to be kind of neutral. And at the same time, promote peace. It's hard to be neutral. Thich Nhat Hanh was neutral in Vietnam, trying to bring both sides together, you know, and he ended up in exile. But we have to do that.

[39:16]

Not to criticize too much. or get caught up in anger too much. And if we want to promote something, then we should be careful how we promote it, and not fall into some other method, some way that creates antagonism. So it's hard, because what it means is that you yourself have to take the brunt of the persecution You have to be able to accept it. Which is hard. Very hard. Something you brought up, which is, as I listen to both sides, I can see reasons for both sides, which is even more confusing than saying, I think I already know this is the right answer.

[40:24]

I can understand why there's a feeling of wanting to stop, sit down, and say, I can understand. There's no boundaries. I mean, just throwing the oil into the water, it's real clear he's losing the boundaries of what we think's happening. I can see the other side of the coin, too, where you went too fast. I mean, this country. I mean, it's just, that's clear. So in the middle of that confusion, when I can really say, I don't know, then taking care of my everyday life and reassessing my life, it's hard to feel that is enough. because bottom line is body bags are coming back. And so it's, how do we just keep, I mean of course we keep doing it, like I keep doing it knowing that I'm just not gonna know if it's enough, I mean, or is there, how does that discomfort get met of me taking care of my everyday life

[41:40]

Well, it's uncomfortable. And I think that as long as you're feeling uncomfortable, that's correct. Because we can't really feel comfortable completely. But also the discomfort can lead you to do something. I can't tell you what to do, but it can lead you to do something that will make you feel a little more comfortable. There's this question, of course you support people who are doing this. the soldiers, but you don't support the war.

[42:48]

Maybe you do, I'm not saying you, but it's hard to separate that out. Of course you support people who are risking their lives, even though you don't support what they're doing. That's really tricky. It's a very complex issue. That's why it's not easy to blame people for their feelings, whatever they are. Everybody has strong feelings about something, one aspect or another, and we should be careful not to go around blaming people for the way they feel about it, one way or the other, because it's complex and it's just easy to fall into one way of thinking as a matter. And unless you really have some very strong ideal about it, it's just easy to get carried along in the vortex.

[43:59]

I think it's easy for neutrality to kind of degenerate into a kind of inaction and lack of moral stance. It sometimes, for me, seems very easy to retreat into that. the comparison of Hitler with Saddam Hussein has to be taken very seriously.

[45:24]

And that the experience of the Holocaust was one in which a national psychosis was brought to bear on the attempted destruction of the nation of an entire people. And that in a situation like that, to espouse neutrality, seems to me highly immoral. And I don't know what to do. I kind of want to know what, as somebody that is committed to nonviolence, what do we do to help the people? taking sides one way or another on the politics. Is there some way that we, you know, what can I do?

[46:33]

Peace doesn't mean passivity. Maybe we can equate peace with passivity, but active peacefulness. And we may not be neutral politically. I don't know if it's possible to be neutral politically. But just because we have a political stance doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be a violent stance. And I think that that's where people are. A lot of people are. is of course politically, you know, we don't want this to happen, or we don't, you know, we want to control things, but not at the cost of escalating the violence. So, I think we ought

[47:41]

Everyone has to figure out how to come to terms with it themselves. I think that, you know, it's okay to see, if you want to see Saddam as Hitler, I understand that, but I want to see Saddam as Saddam. And the reality of that situation, and not have it be colored by some other situation, although there is some parallel. That's my feeling. Somehow I feel if I'm committed to peace, then I have to find that way to make it work. That's all. I don't know if there's any formula.

[48:45]

The gentleman from Sacramento asked if there were any Buddhist precepts that dealt particularly with peace. After he said that, it brought to mind to me the Tao Te Ching, which is not a Buddhist precept, but certainly it's not a number of sayings that deal with governance, actually statements to the emperors as to how China should be governed. And they're just based on natural law. And one that came particularly to mind to me, that I don't think the US followed, was govern a large country as though cooking small fish.

[49:49]

which basically says, the more powerful you are, the more delicately you must act. So I would just, I'd commend that. The Tao Te Ching is full of statements about peace. Yeah, Tao Te Ching, very good. That's right. Also, just the Buddhist precepts. commented on in Mind of Clover by Ekin Roshi. That's a very good book, very good text if you want to, for that purpose. Mind of Clover by Ekin Roshi. I've been thinking about the issue of neutrality.

[50:54]

One of the ways that I can understand it is that if I watch what happens when I'm taking sides, an incredible amount of mental and moral energy goes into deciding which side is right. Which, if I can stop that process, I have that much more available intellect and compassion to think of something else. To think of where I or anybody else might go. And to be focusing from that place of discomfort. Somehow there's more security in taking sides or knowing what's right. But it can just consume all of my thinking to think that I know what's right. And it doesn't move me any further forward with knowing what I might be doing or what position I might be taking.

[52:04]

So I think that neutrality is almost like a tool. It's not an end in itself. It's a way to be with the situation in order to Yes. That's right. It's not a position. It's the ability to not be attached to your own opinion. That's what it means. So, you know, your leading is to be either over here or over there. But you can get off your position in order to include the other side. That's active neutrality. It doesn't mean that you don't have some strong feeling about where you stand. I think that's really well said. You were talking about the sources of suffering, of bad karma, and one of them was delusion.

[53:11]

And it comes over me occasionally how we live in so much delusion and with this war it is just complete muck. And I started to think about what I do know about peace and what I do, at least not as a position, but like an inquiry into what I know at this point, not at any final place, and what works rather than what doesn't work. And what I see that has worked, United Nations programs, having our tax money go not to obscene military expenditures, but to programs that promote justice and peace. And I start to see that I do have some actions I can take to promote those things. And that seems to give me a sense of a place to stand. I get crazy about the fact that it needs to be expressed to people in some kind of places where I'm not going to be heard or I'm not going to express it very well.

[54:25]

But like the way you talked about the monk in Vietnam speaking and going into exile as a result, I think we need, I think, I need to speak about what I know and do it as much from a position of no position if I can. Yeah. Thank you. Well, there's plenty of things that people can do to express whatever it is our feeling is. the most we can do is put into action what our true feelings are and promote what's good, what we feel is good, because it does have an effect.

[55:18]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ