It's been almost two weeks, but there's a kind of heaviness, I think, a kind of weight settling on everybody, and a kind of in-depth, deep feeling. with anxiety and feeling like we're walking the edge of a knife blade. And we could fall into one side or another very easily. So that keeps us in kind of a suspense. What will happen next?

[01:30]

Last week, last Saturday, I talked about what I felt were some of the causes of this incident. our karma and how we contribute to what happens to us. Today I want to talk a little more about, talk a little about karma in an ideal way about what we can do. in the long run, what we actually need to do to make our world work. I've told this story before.

[02:50]

A lot of you know this story. It's an old story about the difference between heaven and hell. In hell, there's a long table. Everybody's sitting around the table. And on the table is this sumptuous feast. And everyone is issued a pair of chopsticks. But the chopsticks are so long, that although they can reach the food, they can't put the chopstick, they can't put it into their mouths because the chopsticks are so long. So that's hell. Heaven is the same place, same table, same people, same sumptuous feast, same chopsticks.

[03:53]

But when a person on one side of the table takes something with the chopsticks, they put it into the mouth of the person across the table. So that's the solution to how to sustain our world. It's also like our body. Our body has many parts and many cooperating streams. The blood stream, the water stream, the intake, the outlet, all of the limbs and organs working together harmoniously. When they don't work together harmoniously, when the blood doesn't circulate well, then the body gets sick.

[05:03]

So the body is like a microcosm of the world. A city is like a microcosm of the body. goods and services and money don't flow to all parts of the population, the city gets sick, or the country gets sick, or the world gets sick. The various illnesses cause pain. and trauma and imbalance. So we're living in an imbalanced world. This body, this world that is actually our body is totally unbalanced.

[06:09]

We say the whole universe is our true body. the whole world is our true body. So, if we don't take care of our true body, our little body suffers. It's really necessary to start thinking about, I know a lot of us do, but for people to start thinking about how we take care of the world, not just how we take care of our little space. Suzuki Roshi had a lecture one time when he talked about money. He said, money is not clean or dirty.

[07:17]

Money is not the root of evil. Money is just money. It's like blood. It's the blood that runs through society. And when it's not circulating completely throughout society, then society becomes sick. So money and goods and goodwill and concern and compassion and identification with others. These are the qualities that sustain our world. Without these qualities, the world falls apart. So, in Buddhist terms, there are three roots of suffering, or afflictions.

[08:38]

And it's so obvious, and we talk about it all the time, and yet, We have to see and understand how we create afflictions through these three roots. The root of afflictions is greed, ill will, and delusion. So when one part of the body wants more of itself, too much of itself, starts collecting in a modular way all of the money and the goods,

[09:47]

and draws upon the rest of the body for its sustenance without circulating or giving something back or supporting, the body gets sick. So, greed means taking so much to yourself that not only do you imbalance your world, we imbalance ourself. So we can see our own personal greed. If we eat too much, the body suffers, right? If we collect too much stuff, we get weighed down with the stuff that we collect. We think that to have something, This is the delusion that to have something, have too much, is security, or keeps us occupied, or makes us happy.

[11:01]

But actually, the stuff that we have has us. We are captives of whatever it is that we own. If you own a house, you're captive to a 30-year mortgage. It's okay. But you should realize that that's so. So whatever we accumulate has two sides. It has a burden side as well as a beneficial side. So how to have just enough and how to share what we have with others. A wealthy person, a person who has old wealth doesn't show it off.

[12:07]

A person who has new wealth often likes to show it off. So a person who has old wealth often is very frugal and doesn't dress up in fancy clothes or show off that they have money because they arouse the envy of other people who don't have. And people who have old money often are much more willing to share it with others. It's very interesting. So many people who come from wealthy families, old wealthy families, look for some way to live a simple life unburdened by that.

[13:15]

That's often the case. But unfortunately, one of the problems we have as human beings is that we don't live long enough to wise up. Our lifespan, you know, not very long. And so, there is the accumulated wisdom of the world But we're too young to pay attention to it. And then by the time the end comes, we think, if only I had known that. So greed, the accumulation of wealth, the accumulation of something for her own benefit at the expense of others leads to imbalance in the world.

[14:27]

So this is grasping. We say the self arises with grasping. So with greed and grasping and desiring so much, more than we need, we create a self. The ego becomes expanded and the ego justifies itself. You know, self-justification is one of the worst problems because It makes it hard to admit to ourselves our own faults. And when we start defending our faults, we fall into this trap. The more we defend our faults, the more we fall into the trap of defending our faults. And then we have to think of more excuses, more reasons to defend our faults.

[15:37]

And then pretty soon we lose sight of the fact that we're defending our faults. And we just become lost in it, lost in self-defense. This is actually kind of where we are at this point in time, lost in self-defense, because we're unable to acknowledge our own greed. and how it affects the world. And then, ill will is aversion, pushing away, demonizing, in this case, name-calling, you know.

[16:38]

We're on a crusade, right? Well, to the people in the Middle East, the Crusades were a way of eliminating the Muslim world. So, we don't even know how we alienate people. We alienate people right and left. Believe it or not, most of the world feels alienated by our country. I know you believe it. You have to believe it because it's true. You know, for so many years, through our alienation policies, there's been this growing animosity from all over the world.

[17:40]

And it's coalesced into this BAM. It's not just this one guy. This one guy is just a focal point for the way the world feels. Surgical strike? Ho-ho. I don't want to talk too much about politics. But then delusion is just not understanding how you cause your own problems. That's delusion. Delusion is not understanding the root of our own problems.

[18:43]

In other words, it's like ignoring the law of karma. The law of karma is Undeniable. And it has nothing to do with whether the Lord thinks you are good or bad. It's retribution, but simply the law of cause and effect, which is impartial. No partiality. If you do this, that happens. Simple. But in our delusion, we don't take this into account. If we really took the law of karma into account, we'd be very careful how we acted. But since our actions are out of greed and ill will, we're blinded.

[19:45]

So, I think in an ideal world, you know, we say, how do we create peace in the world? Well, that's good. But I think it's more like, how do we create an infrastructure that supports the whole world equally? Some people would say, well, that's socialism. Well, socialism has its point. Not so bad, because it means we treat everybody equally. Terrible idea. But there's a socialism which is an ism, right? I don't know if that's good or bad.

[20:58]

There's a communism which is an ism. When communism sprung into this world, ideally it was to share everything with the common people. because the haves and the have-nots were so polarized. But then it turned into something else. So, there has to be some way of universal interdependence that's recognized. and an infrastructure set up that includes the whole world. Because from now on, it's not going to be possible to not do that.

[22:00]

It's either do that or there are other possibilities. You know, we play King of the Mountain. That's the game of the world, King of the Mountain. It means whoever is the biggest and strongest dominates. And then one nation topples another. One system follows another. But that might happen, continue, maybe. Living in fear for the next 20, there's this thing, Well, we're going to have to maybe live in fear for the next 10 years, or maybe 20 years. Oh yeah, where did they get those figures anyway? Someone said, instead of dropping bombs, why don't we drop butter?

[23:09]

Good idea. It really makes the cows work hard. But, you know, it's like if we went to Afghanistan and just gave those people some goodwill, some food, support, not for our own sake, but for their sake, You know, we have this saying, when we support people, we say, it's in our national interest. And when we don't support people, we say, it's not in our national interest. A very selfish idea. It's always really deeply hurt me when I hear that. Well, we can't help these people in the Sudan because it's not in our national interest. So, this is what keeps the world separated, what keeps the body suffering and unbalanced.

[24:29]

Our national interest is wonderful, a wonderful terrible thing, or a terrible wonderful thing. We have to take care of ourselves, but we also have to extend ourselves to everyone. It just can't work any other way. It would be so much better if we were the benefactor instead of the bully. But the problem with that is, we just don't have enough. Isn't that a shame? We just don't have enough.

[25:35]

Last Saturday, Stan said, maybe we should consume less, which I think obviously is a great idea. We should all consume less. That's one half. The other half is that we should share with everyone else so that it's not a matter of having more or less. So everyone has what they need. I was at Green Gulch giving a talk Wednesday night and there was some concern about, well, you know, this is a monastic community and, you know, what can we do as a monastic community to help people

[26:56]

I think traditionally a monastic community has been self-sufficient and unworldly. In Dogen's time and throughout history, most countries have been monarchies of one kind or another. So there wasn't a lot of input from the people. to change society, except through revolution and, you know, various pressures. But here in this country, we have the vote. And only half of us use it. Less than half of us use it. It's just amazing. You know, I've always said, if you don't vote, don't complain. But we have the privilege of being able to influence what happens here.

[28:10]

So even people in a monastic community have the privilege of being able to influence what happens here in this country. And I said, well, just sitting Zazen and doing your monastic life, showing people that there's a way to live, being an example of a way to live frually and honestly and spiritually, peacefully, harmoniously, is a great contribution to the world. And there was a guest, and he said, I just want to say as a guest, I really appreciate this community being here, doing what it does.

[29:13]

He said, when I come out from the world and I come to this community, it's like sanity, a place of sanity. And I just feel... So, I don't think that people in the monastic community need to feel that they're helpless or not doing something or that by sitting Zazen you're escaping from the world or something. This is the practice that stabilizes the world. And this example is very precious and necessary. Just think, if everybody just sat down for 40 minutes and did Zazen, it could change the world.

[30:24]

So I would like to open up a little bit for discussion. Peter? It's one thing to be an example, but personally I feel very impatient with the world. And I just wish that, you know, and the people I meet out there, they just don't It's frustrating. No matter what you say, they won't listen to you. But is being an example the only thing? Well, being an example is the basis. So from that basis, knowing who you are, knowing what is real and beneficial, then you can act out of that, do many things, whatever you do.

[31:53]

This is our practice. Ginjo Koan, as it's extended from Zazen. How do you extend that into your life? How do you extend that to stabilizing the world. You know, you say, I'm impatient. Where's your patience? You have to be patient. You know, the character, Suzuki Roshi said, the character for patience is based on a person kneeling in front of someone who has a sword at their head. That's the origin of the character of patience. So, you know, you're impatient.

[32:58]

But what about those people, those generals, who are impatient? That's what makes you impatient, is their impatience. Well, maybe your patience can help make them patient. If you add your patience to the patience of all the other people who are asking to be patient, then each drop of water... I'm always amazed, you know, when it rains a little bit in the mountains, You think, well, just water, you know? But then there's this torrent of water that rushes down the canyon from what looks like a little bit of rain. So every drop counts. All these little drops add up to a big force.

[34:01]

So your little voice is important. Your patience, your one person's patience is very important. Don't lose your patience. And you don't know the far-reaching effect of your patience or of your attitude. Even though you can't see it, it has an effect. Everything has an effect in this world. Everything is affecting everything else. Last week you talked about how sort of the karma of our nation is we just continually don't look at the causes that we put out there that bring this type of thing back to us. than black turban, except for one, which

[35:20]

Well, there are more and more articles like that. And there's more of a groundswell, I think. The disheartening thing is when you read the statistic that says 80% of the people want war. But if you think about that, polling 800 people, Also, what does that mean, want war? That can mean a lot of different things. It can mean, yes, we should do something. Or it doesn't necessarily mean, let's get on our horse and blast them. It doesn't necessarily mean that. This country will not have some retaliation. It's just inevitable. that there is some kind of retaliation. Otherwise, too many people would lose face.

[36:57]

The military would lose face. The president would lose face. The Congress would lose face. People would lose face. There has to be that response. It's just the nature of nations, unfortunately. But what kind of response and when, that's the problem. What kind of response and when. We don't want that to happen, but it's in the nature of nations to have to respond that way, otherwise it's called a cowardice. Then there's, you know, the surgical strike, right? But good luck. Just a minute.

[38:03]

So there seems to be this kind of battle of forces going on in the Congress, or between the military and the White House. The generals want to go ahead and do something. And Powell saying, wait, [...] wait. Restrain yourselves. Hold your, hold your horses. It's an old term from when they had horses. And I think that's wise. I just hope that that holds out so that at the right moment, they can fight their battle without killing everybody off. Anne.

[39:13]

Oh, it wasn't. It was you. OK. Last night I went to a mosque to demonstrate that all Americans do not hold all Muslims responsible. I said last night I went to a mosque in order to demonstrate that all Americans do not hold all Muslims responsible for the World Trade Center. I had an opportunity to practice patience because when I was going into the mosque, which was really like an old garage that they had turned into a meeting place, and the floor was carpeted and there was nothing else in the room, and it certainly demonstrated

[40:21]

non-consumerism for sure. It was in Oakland on 31st Street. When I got there, it wasn't a mullah, but it was some kind of a leader, took me inside and sat me down and began to preach Allah to me. and told me about all the levels of heaven there were and where infidels went, which is what I am. And then what level of hell the various infidels went to. And then a number of men came over. There were no women there at that time. Came over and sat on the floor. And all of them wanted me to acknowledge that Allah was the God of the universe and Mohammed was his messenger.

[41:28]

And so I had to, whenever they would say something that I could really agree with, I would say yes. But I'd keep in mind what I was there for, so that I didn't disagree with the things that I didn't agree with. I think it's a good idea, I would like to urge people to go to a mass celebration and also write to people like Barbara Lee and tell her that you're behind her so that we can do something positive to create goodwill in the world. Yeah. Thank you. Melody? I see many positive things happening in the middle of feeling sad, really scared and despairing and sad. I heard a woman from the Middle East on the radio who said this has been a revelation.

[42:38]

She said that this, that word is about unveiling. Americans find there are Muslims among us and have to quickly try to understand even geography, which we haven't known where these countries are. I've worked for years and years against the death penalty and I think my work just took a big step back I'm talking about patients now. I don't think the growing movement against the death penalty is going to be strengthened by this. We'll wait and see. Because of all the calls for vengeance and so forth.

[43:42]

But I do hear some things many people in my generation have worked for, for our whole lives. kind of coming to some kind of fruition because people, even the president has called for tolerance. And that's because we have spoken out for tolerance for all these many years from when I was, say, 15 years old. I'm 58 years old now. When I was 15 years old, it was a And I think because of all the work our generation did about the killing of innocents in Vietnam and elsewhere, a lot of Americans don't want innocents to be, quote, you know, civilian people who have nothing to do with it to be killed.

[44:49]

Including the families of some of the people who were killed are called out for that. And the other thing I've seen is a kind of funny epidemic of kindness going on. You know, I work in prisons and I've been to two of them in the last few days just on my job and both officers and inmates have been incredibly kind and concerned where, you know, very often My experience for 20 years has been some officers making it their business to be mean to me just because I'm a legal worker. People are asking, you know, asking, is everyone okay? Is everything okay? And I just wish that we could continue. There are some good things. There are. I think there are two streams that are coming.

[45:53]

One is the stream of vengeance. And the other is this stream of tolerance and compassion and retrospection and introspection. And it will be interesting to see how that plays out. As a source of... Well, you know, for a long time... For a long time, we were arbitrating between them. And then now, we, you know, the new regime said, you guys figure it out. So, we just abandoned them.

[46:56]

But it's not our fault exactly that they're having their problems. Maybe the fault of the British. But it's very complicated, very complicated. I think that the Israelis and the Palestinians should intermarry. They're what? No. They should get married and let go of their stuff. They should just let go of their... The only way is to let go of... But this is, you know... It's all ego on both sides. It's just all ego on both sides. We believe this, and we believe this. So when you have a belief system that creates clutching, clinging, you're clinging to your belief system.

[48:08]

And when you're clinging to your belief system, that creates ego. And then you keep defending your belief system, and then you keep defending and defending until finally there's no way out. There's no way out. So both sides have to give up their belief systems, which is what makes them what they are. Right? They have to commit suicide. They have to commit national suicide so they can have a spiritual life. That's the only way out. They have to give up their ideal. The Palestinians do not recognize Israel's existence.

[49:10]

So if you don't recognize the existence, that's called racism. The Palestinians are at the racist conference, they're calling the Israelis racists, you know, and yet they're denying the Israeli right to exist. So that doesn't make sense. That's just, you know, and the Israelis, with Sharon, you know, who has totally threw the bomb into everything. on the Israeli side is nothing but vengeance against the Palestinians. So this is like, until they just all disappear. They might as well disappear their ideals so they can live. But they'll kill each other to the end, you know, and then it'll all be gone.

[50:16]

And that's one way to get rid of it, your ego. Might as well drop it first, right? Anyway, Charlie. Well, it's very interesting in thinking about Israel and Palestine to note that no bomb has ever been thrown in a yeshiva or a temple in Israel. What's been bombed are discotheques and pizza parlors. And this is not something that I figured out. I was listening to Richard Reeves on the radio the other day. Maybe some of you heard it. And he points out that at base, And the thought occurred to me that if ever the feminist movement had an opportunity to clearly define the issues, now is the time.

[51:37]

Because at least my understanding, and it's far from perfect, is that women have in Afghanistan and Taliban society. Further, they don't have CNN. They don't have the internet. They don't have newspapers. All they have is what the mullahs teach them. Other people hate us. Well, it's very complex. There are various things going on in the world. That's just one of them. Alan?

[52:39]

Well, at the risk of you know, how we see ourselves function in the city. And we'll be carrying on here.

[53:48]

on how we might conduct ourselves or anything else you want to say. Well, you know, there's maybe 15 or 16 or I can't, I don't know exactly how many now, but maybe 18 of us going to China for 17 days. This has been planned for quite some time. And there was some feeling about should we go or not go, you know, but we've decided to go. And we're going to visit places where Dogen studied in China. And this makes it more of a pilgrimage, in a way. Originally, it was a pilgrimage. But somehow, this incident intensifies it. It's like, well, what are we doing leaving the country? So for me, it really kind of bears down on, makes me more concentrated on the fact that this is actually a pilgrimage to those places where Dogen studied and where he met his teacher.

[55:30]

and to offer incense and sit Zazen and feel the presence and gratitude. So while we're gone, there will be, as David said, we set up a program instead of our usual practice period, which comes in the fall, we wanted to change the practice period to the spring, because people like it better that way, it works better. And so, instead of having two practice periods close together, we decided to have a aspects of practice, which kind of explains a lot of things about our practice, about the going into some depth in the chants and the meaning of different things that we do.

[56:36]

It kind of brings us all up to speed, you know, and gives us a chance to practice together. It's not exactly a practice period, but it's their requirements, as you know. So I have perfect faith in our practice leaders that they will be available to everybody and we hope that no more crises happen in that period of time. And if they do, I know that I really have confidence that the practice leaders and the sangha together, all of you, will keep things together and support each other. Because I know that you can do that.

[57:42]

So, Please support each other in any case. Howard? The fundamental understanding is that are bathed in that, I would assume, or they probably wouldn't get where they were. So, how can we speak of countries like they, Israel, and the Palestinians as an entity, when really they're composed of individuals with their own ignorance and greed?

[58:56]

out-of-control passion. Yes. So how to say that the Israel-Palestine have to surrender their self-identity? Well, when I say self-identity, I don't, you know, things start at the top. You know, the nation looks to the top, right? And when the leaders show wisdom, the nation prospers in that way. When the leaders show stupidity, that's what happens to the nation. So, how do we, how does, I don't know, How did the leaders rise up? Yeah, we can't expect them to suddenly come.

[60:02]

No, we don't expect them to do that. But they may be forced to do that. By? Circumstances. Brought about by? Brought about by this. Let's hope so. Yeah, let's hope so. You can ask a question if it's very short. There's a shift. I don't know how things are going to go, but because we are Americans and the cowboy sort of rhetoric comes out and all that.

[61:12]

On the other hand, apparently it's been politic to back away from that a little bit. and to actually publicly acknowledge them, the federal people, the people who are directing our government, and that it didn't work, and that we really, in this country, what's our identity, I think is becoming a little bit redefined. That's a good place to stop. We should let the powers that be know that there's more than one identity than the cowboy identity.

[62:16]

And so that we have the power to do that. So, you all have your computers? Whatever means you have, please do it.

[62:36]

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