It's all rejuvenating for me. We say this is a sashin, but actually it's more like a zazen kai. Zazen kai is you set aside a certain period of time where you just sit. But this is a zazen kai with a talk. So it's a kind of hybrid as things tend to be today. Be that as it may, I'm thinking about how grateful I am to all of our members who are making really good, effort to continue our practice, given all the topsy-turvy events of the present.

[01:03]

The world is going through great transitions, and for a Zen student, to keep our mind calm and focused. living each moment completely is being our practice. I really commend you all. When I began, when we started the Berkeley Zendo in 1967, I thought of it as serving the local community. And little by little, it has developed, and over 50 years or so, maybe 51 or two now, I don't know.

[02:04]

And what I realize is that it's a kind of international world welcoming place to practice. I was going through our directory, Berkeley Zen Center directory, and looking at where everybody comes from. Last week we had a, or maybe it was this week, last week I think, where we had people say, take two minutes to talk about their background, their inherited background.

[03:08]

And so I was looking through this directory and to see where in the world these people come from. All of you, actually. There are immigrants, and there are also people of heritage, one heritage or another. And all the way from the Midwest, the deep Midwest of America, of the USA, Afghanistan, Japan, all over the world. And so I wrote down the various places where people come from. And I'm going to read a list. It won't take too long, although it's pretty extensive. Every place in the world, almost. We have Iranian people, plenty of Jews.

[04:13]

They love this. You know, I got to thinking about the Ukraine and Eastern Europe. And so many Jewish people come from the Eastern Europe and Ukraine to America. Their ancestors came in the late 19th century, actually, as mine did. And all of their offspring, mostly grandchildren, all mate at Zen Center. I think that's really remarkable. There's a great reunion of Zen students from the Ukraine and Eastern Europe and Mid-Europe and other places, but those heavily in Eastern Europe. who I'll meet in Berkeley at the Berkeley Zen Center and the San Francisco Zen Center and all the other Zen centers in America.

[05:21]

So that's remarkable. I don't want to talk about that anymore. So we have people from France, Native Americans, Africans, Scandinavians of one sort or another, English, Japanese, Finnish, which is Scandinavian, German, Korean, Norwegian, Irish, Chinese, Scottish, Afghan, Italian, Mexican, East Indians, Spanish, I have this.

[06:30]

Danish, Finnish, Filipino. I have to put my glasses on. Dutch, Turkish, Swedish, those are Scandinavians, but still. And then there are the diverse Europeans, because the borders in Europe are always moving. So there are diverse Europeans. and diverse Asians, and the various hybrids, you know, and the unknowns, the great unknowns. People who don't really know what their heritage is.

[07:33]

Because in my experience, and I know the experience of many others, is that when people came to America, they wanted to not remember what was going on in Europe or what was going on in their homeland. They just wanted to let go and start a new life. And so the children don't really have much information. A lot of the children don't have any information about their background. But it's all very interesting. But what pleases me the most is that All of our diverse backgrounds are meeting together and practicing together in this wonderful way. And the reason we can all do that is because we don't depend on anything. As soon as you depend on something, then you attach to it. And then you think you're better than or more important than all the other things that people attach to.

[08:43]

So with nothing and with no attachments, we can all meet in this zero space. And I realized that we're all the same and all totally different. Although we have all our differences, we can let go of all the differences and meet together in this emptiness, which is where we all come from. and where we all go to, and where we are all the time anyway. And so it makes our practice vital and lets us include everyone. Whoever comes, we don't care where they came from, as long as we all throw our lot in together in this empty space. So, I think about this a lot, and it's the thing that makes me the happiest.

[09:48]

What makes me really happy is the fact that we can all harmonize. Everyone, no matter where we come from, our diversity is what gives us our energy and what gives us our happiness, realizing that we can enjoy people from various places, and everyone adds something to our practice. So to me, what makes me happiest is when everyone is practicing together, upholding and appreciating where each one of us comes from. So to me, that's I grew up thinking that way. I grew up in the 30s, the 40s, the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90s.

[10:52]

You know, three weeks, I think, a little over three weeks, I'll be 91. So I've had a lot of experience, a little bit of experience, and seen the various changes that have gone on in this country and the world. over that time, and when I was growing up in the 30s, I never knew another president other than Roosevelt until the middle, almost the end of the First, Second World War. That was a long time to have one president, four terms. And then everything started to change after the war. America, it was all, we all believed in democracy. Everyone believed in democracy, almost. I mean, everyone I knew.

[11:55]

And then things started to change. We trusted the military. We trusted the police. We trusted it. We knew we had all this trust. And then this all started breaking down. when the extreme selfish started taking over and leading us to where we are today. Democracy is hanging by a thread. Democracy to me always meant everybody shares together Everyone appreciates everyone else. This is the melting pot of the world. The thing that makes America great is not Donald Trump. The thing that makes America great is our diversity and harmony of diversity.

[12:59]

And it's about to be. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for. But if you don't vote, don't complain. You have no room for complaint. Sojin, can we get your mic a little bit closer to you? You're a little bit unclear. OK. I'm not going to repeat what I said, though. No, no, don't repeat anything. I'm just asking for that. How's this? Better? Sure. Better? No. That's too much. Oh, that's too much. But how's this? That's good. Okay. I remember, you know, I'm trying to put this into words. I don't want to talk about politics.

[14:51]

Not a good idea. It's a good idea, but it won't do it. But, This is a time, no, no, it's fine. This is a time when if we don't do something, we're gonna start living in a totalitarian state. That's the idea. It's the big takeover so that we have an emperor instead of a president. Someone who is a president for life is called an emperor in the emporium called the United States.

[15:53]

So, Don't be fooled by anything. But I don't know if everybody really wants to live in a democracy. I always thought everyone did. The thing that made America great was the fact that of its diversity. You go to other countries and they're like tribes. You go to Israel, Israel is a tribe. I couldn't join that tribe, even though I culturally belong to it. When I was looking for a teacher, I was looking for a Hasidic rabbi in the Bay Area. There was nothing like that. That was way back there when I was about in my early 20s. But when I found Suzuki Roshi,

[16:58]

Suzuki Roshi, a Japanese priest, he was actually the Hasidic rabbi that I was looking for. So, naturally, he became my teacher. Just naturally. I didn't have to try very hard to find him. I just fell into his lap. and realized this was the teacher I was looking for. So he was a very unusual person. He didn't, he wasn't attached to his tribe any more than I was attached to my tribe. so we could all rise to the occasion of democracy, real, true democracy, whatever that is.

[18:03]

To me, it means we all share together, and we choose leaders who promote that. So, Suzuki Roshi, you know, always talked about depending on big mind, residing in our big mind, not in our small mind, but turning over our small mind to our big mind, that big mind which includes everything. It sounds like a cliche in a way, when you talk about it, big mind, big mind, you know. But actually, big mind means it includes everything.

[19:07]

And wisdom comes from the mind that encompasses the whole universe. It doesn't come from the selfish mind, or small mind, or desire, or When our mind encompasses the world, we begin to understand the world. When our big mind encompasses the whole universe, we begin to understand something that we don't know. Not knowing, the more we know, the more we realize that we don't know. So anyway, I do totally, I don't know what we got here.

[20:11]

We got Zoom. You hear me still? Something happened. Can't see you. We can, but not see. Yeah. You got very small. You got the small me. Good, yeah. Well, the small me counts. Serene Garden, you're sharing your screen. Please unshare. I'm not doing anything. No, it's not you. It's Serene Garden. You're sharing your screen. Please unshare. Who's supposed to unshare? Oh, there. There we are. Sharing. Thank you. So anyway, what I have to... to say is that, you know, how do we stand upright when the world is upside down?

[21:20]

That's our kind of practice at the moment, you know, for a Zen person. not letting anything upset us, even though we become upset. Of course we become upset by things, but how do we find our balance? How do we find our balance moment by moment and improvise? When something that we depend on is no longer there, how do we improvise? That's the trick. And that's what makes our life interesting at this particular time. You know, we have our ways of doing things, and when those ways of doing things are no longer there, what do we do? We just live each moment at a time, one moment at a time.

[22:25]

This is our Suzuki Roshi teaching courses. his teaching that he learned from his predecessors. Just be in each moment totally. Be in each moment totally, one moment at a time. Don't think about, well, when are we gonna get back to the Zendo? Don't think about that. Just think about where you are now. How do I practice now? Not, how will I practice? I wish I was back at the zen dojo. I do wish so. This is great being back at the zen dojo, but I don't depend on this. So wherever we find ourself in, uh-oh, wherever we find ourself in whichever situation, that's where we are. That's where we practice.

[23:27]

Don't get ahead of ourself. As soon as we start thinking about wishing it was different, we lose the presence. We lose our present moment. There's nothing more precious than our present moment. That's all we have. So it's wonderful to be here. It's wonderful to be in my hermitage. It's wonderful to watch the hog. to try and hopefully support ourselves. That's a big trick for a lot of people, supporting ourselves.

[24:29]

But then that's our practice. How can we help people? If there are any of our students or members that need help, we should know about that and support them. And of course, our neighbors, if we can help our neighbors. How we actualize our practice can be a gift to our neighbors and our friends and our sangha. And the far-reaching effect of our sincere practice and the way we support each other and the way we practice Zazen together has its effect in the world around us. So rather than dividing us, how do you unite us? That's where we are. So it's our Zen practice because that's what's happening.

[25:34]

Our Zen practice is simply about what's happening right now. It has no special shape or form, even though we have the trappings. but actually it's taking care of each moment as it appears with full attention. So I just want to encourage our practice, that's all. Everything I talk about is simply to encourage our practice. So maybe this is a good time to, if you have a question or two, Okay, thank you, Sojin. For Q&A, we have about 20 minutes, and we want to hear as many voices as possible. So we ask that you be brief and with no more than one follow-up interchange.

[26:39]

There are two ways that you can ask a question. You can raise your hand in the participant box, or you can chat and chat your question to me, and then I will relay that to Sojin. Once if you do raise your hand, please unraise it once you have spoken Okay, so Ben has his hand raised Hi Ben Hi Sojin. Can you hear me? Loud and clear. Okay So my question Sojin Roshi is Is my big mind the same as your big mind? There's only one big mind. I'll share it. We share it in diverse ways, but we all belong to the one big mind.

[27:45]

Yes. So the big mind of the ancestors and everyone in the past? That big mind is the same big mind? Yeah, including the crickets and the ants. Thank you, Sojin. You're welcome. Ed Herzog has his hand raised. Yes. Hi. Hi, Sojin. What prompted you to grow a beard? Laziness. This is beard time for disembodied Zen students. Women can't do this, I'm sorry. They have some other way of doing this, I think. But for the guys, you know, I noticed that I've never really grown one like this before. And I don't really enjoy shaving.

[28:50]

And so, you know, like, I see this time also, you know, as a kind of time. And there's a kind of relaxation, because there's certain things you don't have to do, that you didn't know you had to do them. And for me, it was kind of laying back, getting a nice laying back. For a while, it was laying back. Now I'm busier than ever. But for that initial time, I could let go, you know, and just let the hair grow. Let your hair down. So that's it. No special reason.

[29:53]

And more like amusement. Susan Osher has written to ask that to let you know that you look very handsome. Thank you. Thank you, Susan. Rahat has a question. Who? Raghav. Oh, Raghav. Hi, Raghav. Hey, Sargent. Can you hear me okay? Yeah. Okay, great. Because I have my headphones on and I wasn't sure. So we come from emptiness. We live in emptiness. And then we go back into emptiness. No, no, we don't go back to emptiness. We don't? Emptiness is not a coming or going, it just is.

[30:59]

Right. Emptiness is our life, our life totally empty, which means that it's totally full. Right. So it's not that you come back, go to emptiness and come from emptiness or not. Emptiness just is. This is it. This is it. Empty. Empty means interdependent. So everything depends on everything else. There's no coming or going. Within coming and going is emptiness. It doesn't depend on, it's not like, you know, nothing there. See, there's no such thing as nothing, except everything is nothing. Right, we just have our current experience, this moment experience.

[32:04]

That's it, yes, but also we have the memory and the imagination of other realms, but basically this is what we are. And we have to take care of, we take care of things, you know, um, we, we just do certain things and we get entangled with, with whatever it is, but this is like, uh, this is going to keep the circle of life is just going to keep going on and on and on, you know, energy goes, energy keeps going.

[33:05]

Yes. Yes. But we have to find our stable presence in in whatever we do. Everything is falling out of balance. Every moment. Every moment. Like, I'm sitting here and I have to find my balance every moment. We don't even necessarily think about it because it's so common. The most... I don't know what a squeaking is, but... The most... Do you see a screaming sign? The most common thing is the most real thing, which we don't really ever usually recognize. We have to sit still to recognize it. Yeah. And that's all we can do, right?

[34:06]

And that's all we do. We sit still, we take care of everything that comes into our view, and we keep doing that over and over again. That's the simplistic way of expressing it. Coming back to your original question about empty. Form is empty. Empty is form. So that means that all forms are empty of inherent existence. Right. That's all. Right. In other words, in order for anything to move, there has to be space. Right. Otherwise, everything would still be here.

[35:07]

So movement is, movement is, there's stillness within movement, movement within stillness. In other words, as soon as you start dividing things into good and bad, right and wrong, this and that, the opposite, you're eliminating the opposite. You're saying, oh, this is right and that's wrong. But right has to include wrong. Good has to include evil. Evil has to include good. That's because we live in a dualistic world. As soon as you start separating and saying, well, this is the right one and that's the wrong one, Although there is right and wrong, good and bad, and all those things, because we live in a dualistic world. One side brings up the other. But how to bring the two sides together as one is our practice. That's called living in emptiness. Thank you. You're welcome.

[36:12]

We have a question from Blake. Did Suzuki Roshi ever speak about the Civil Rights Movement and or the death of Martin Luther King, Jr.? Never. He was from Japan. He probably knew about Martin Luther King, I suppose, and civil rights. I, you know, he had been through the Sino-Japanese War, the, yeah, and he had seen, you know, and the World War and so forth. And he had, he knew that no matter how much we try to make things right, as soon as you make them right, they start falling apart.

[37:21]

As soon as you make... These are our problems, our present problems, you know, civil rights and so forth. Those are very important and they're very, you know, in a higher and a different level, on a bigger, wider level, these things are always going on. And there's something called progress and there's something called regress. And progress is what we're always looking for. We're not looking for regress. But as soon as you start making progress, regress is there because it's the opposite So you're always calling, whatever you do, you're calling forth the opposite as well. So that's not what he was interested in.

[38:26]

He was interested in us rising above all these dualities, basically. I remember Not more, I think it was. And somebody said, why aren't we out there marching against the war? And everybody was very angry. Not that he was not against the war. Of course he was against the war. He knows that wars, as soon as there's peace, there's war again. The war to end all wars. Remember that? That was the First World War.

[39:27]

This is the war to end all wars. And now we have more wars than we've ever had. Because people thrive on wars. So, you know, we should continue to fight for peace, even though it's impossible. We should work to end all wars, even though it's impossible. So if you realize it's impossible, you know how to work for it. But to expect it there will be a final solution? That's what Hitler thought. The final solution. There is no final solution, because we live in a dualistic world. That's the problem.

[40:29]

So instead of trying to deal with a dualistic world, how to make it into a unified world. So yes, we should work for a unified world. But a unified world also is only unified within the duality of the world. So he didn't talk about stuff like that. That's not what he was interested in. He was interested in the bigger picture. Because as long as we are just fighting in the little picture, it'll never work. Daryan has his hand up.

[41:38]

Hi, Daryan. You have your hand up, but where is your face? Can you see me? I can't see you. Can't see me? No. Can other people see me? I want to see you instead of me. I'm talking to myself here, you know. I have a red shirt on. Oh, there you are. Hey, you look great. I got a picture of you for a moment in your red shirt. Right, right. That's me. There you are. Stay there. Oh, now you're gone. Why can't you stay there? What's going on? Why can't you stay there? I'm not sure. I'm not either. Maybe it's my internet connection is bad. There you are anyway. It's so great to see you. You haven't changed a bit. Thank you. It's only 28 years ago we saw each other.

[42:42]

Yeah. When you talk, he disappears. Oh, when I talk, you disappear. That's what I got told. So, anyway, you know, Darian is from Iran, and he was at Tassajar with me in 1990-something, early 90s. But he was at Zen Center for a long time, San Francisco Zen Center. And so he went back to Iran, and he somehow or another, he kind of likes my talks. I don't know why, but, and he wants to publish them. And so he'd been working on it for a long time, editing my talks in Iran, and maybe put them into Farsi or something like that, and English. I just want to let you know who he is. Do you have a question? Yes. Yes, I do. In the context of impermanence and your teachings of right in the moment we are dying, we're coming to life.

[43:55]

Yes. The expression, we're self-creating. Yes. How does that expression that we're self-creating apply to a situation where we are instantly dying, instantly coming to life? How do we apply that self-creation within that context? You know, everything we do leads to something, a result. So every action leads to a result, right? Basically, you know, it's called karma. we're creating our own karma, which means that our volitional actions, karma is our volitional actions. And so our volitional actions create a result.

[45:00]

Every action creates a result. And so the action is the action of the moment, and the result is the result of the moment. So whichever direction we take, when we do something, once that we taste it. If we do it again, we question it. If we do it a third time, we're hooked. So we create passages, passageways. And one thing leads to another. And because we do something, it leads to a result. And the more we do it, the more we become attached to the result. And so we're self-created all the time. It's a matter of which direction you keep recreating yourself.

[46:02]

It's called recreation. So normally we do this, we live unconsciously in the sense that we live, but if we are self-creating consciously in the sense that mindfully, therefore we can totally change our life. Yes, you can change your life. This is the thing about karma. Karma is not fixed. It's not fatal. It's not fate. Fate means fixed, whereas karma is not fixed. You can always change your karma. That's the Buddhist understanding, which gives us, allows us to have our freedom, that we're not stuck, even though we may be stuck. Yeah, we, you know, we choose

[47:02]

life gives us problems. And so how we deal with those problems is how we create ourselves. So we're all dealt, everyone is dealt a hand. And so, oh, this is my hand, you know, it is nice or terrible, you know. So whether the hand we get is nice or terrible, the way we respond to it and the way we work with what we're given is how we create our life. Thank you. I just wanted to say, this occurred to me this morning, there was this movie, Japanese movie called Transitions, where this young guy gets in an accident, you know, he's a hipster, Japanese hipster and he gets in an accident and he becomes a priest.

[48:08]

And he becomes this priest. He's wondering why people commit suicide. And so people are all, you know, all these people that want to commit suicide, but don't know how or are not sure. are calling him all day and all night, and he's dealing with these people all day, and there's one person who had two children, and he's always talking about committing suicide, committing suicide, you know, and the priest is taken in by this, and he tries to say, well, you know, your life is worth a lot, and you should be grateful, and all this, and he tries, and this just goes on, [...] Because I want to commit suicide. And the priest would say, no, don't commit suicide. If I was a priest, I would say, you're already dead.

[49:11]

That's why you can't commit suicide. You're already dead. That's why you can't commit suicide. You should try to find out how to live now that you're dead. Anyway, I just wanted But in a way, it's like you're making your own destiny. You're creating your own destiny. Thank you. You're welcome. It was really great to see you. Thank you.

[49:41]

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