Karma is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million galpas, having it to see and listen to, remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good morning. It's like an overcast winter morning here in Berkeley. Can you hear me okay? I want to note that Ellen's bells are quite beautiful. They really sound good over Zoom, which is not always what's happening. So this morning, we're having a one-day sitting here at Berkeley. And I think a lot of you are participating in this sitting. I woke up not feeling well.

[01:04]

And so I'm been somewhat on the sidelines for your part of this morning. And I'm just taking care of my energy and taking care of my stomach. But hopefully I can offer you some words or something. will resonate. So earlier this week, I participated in a discussion with a number of people that I found very provocative. Lori's sister, Debbie, is a skilled genealogist. And she's done quite a bunch of work on my family and has located several cousins on my father's side who are now in my life.

[02:21]

A few years ago, she connected me with... someone here in Berkeley that I didn't know. It's Professor David Levine, who is at UC Berkeley's Haas School. Wonderful man. And he's an economist who works on understanding and overcoming barriers to improving health in poor nations around the world. And so this has been a rich and valued family connection for me. So David wrote a couple of months ago, wanted to put together a discussion with himself, a student, a former graduate student of his,

[03:28]

become a spiritual seeker. And then also with David's his brother-in-law, who is his brother-in-law is Rabbi Bert Jacobson, who was the founder synagogue in in Berkeley, which is a progressive Jewish community that some of you may actually attend. And we've met a couple of times, but this was the first one of these meetings and discussion that Bert was able to attend. And it's the first time that I've met him. It was really wonderful to meet Bert Jacobson. He's really the kind of rabbi and teacher that I would have met in my youth. I'm sure that the rabbis that I encountered in my childhood, I'm sure they were good people and well intentioned.

[04:47]

There was something of the, it was just, I didn't get the spirit of the teachings or the spirit of the religion. And if I had met someone like Bert, you know, perhaps my spiritual path would have been different. This reminds me, you know, it reminds me of a speculation that that Sojan Roshi had or something in his autobiography. He wrote about his early religious. And he writes, I wanted a spiritual teacher and community. I wanted to connect with a Hasidic rabbi, but I couldn't find one. This is when he was a young man in San Francisco. Jewish mysticism was frowned upon and ignored at that time in favor of materiality.

[05:50]

This attitude had always turned me off. My understanding was that the Jewish people had a mandate to bring peace and harmony to the world. I longed for a universal practice that would embrace everyone through choice rather than verse. I was inspired by Martin Buber's Hasidic tales. I was completely swept away by the deep mysticism, the simplicity, the power of faith, the idea of the person as the pillar connecting heaven and earth, and the insightful logic of the tzaddik, the holy man. disciples gathered around the teachers in small communities, studying and practicing together. I also liked the idea of the hidden tzaddik, the one who appears as an ordinary person, a fool or an idiot, but in reality is a great sage. I found some of these parallel qualities.

[06:52]

I studied a little bit of Kabbalah, a little bit of the inner mysteries, And I realized at that time that the great meaning of all this mysticism was just to be a true person, a mensch. That's all you have to do. That's what the whole thing means. When I met Suzuki Roshi, and he said, beginner's mind, I knew right away what that was. I just totally connected with it. that Suzuki Roshi was the Hasidic master that he had been looking for. And maybe that's the case. Anyway, in this discussion last week, I was listening to Bert Jacobson that the spiritual model that he invoked was not a Hasidic wise man from

[07:59]

Martin Buber's tales or of the or the stories of the Baal Shem Tov. But the model was the Buddha. And the Buddha's story had inspired him. From the time he had begun his rabbinical studies. And. He said a little bit about why. So the Buddha, as we know him, Shakyamuni embodies or epitomizes the spiritual seeker. He was born to great privilege. And he had been promised a position as a wealthy. And he intuitively sees there's something wrong with this picture.

[09:00]

his own insight, he understands that this predestined prince or a king is not going to bring him real happiness. And, you know, he's plagued by doubts and dissatisfactions, you know, all through his. You know, I've often wondered if the Buddha could have, nowadays would be, have a diagnosis of depression. None of these things were satisfactory for him, even though he was surrounded by prosperity and love and all of that.

[10:02]

He was kind of a late bloomer, perhaps. The age of 29 to actually take a journey outside the gates of the palace. It's kind of a long time within one building, you think. Sort of gives a new meaning to the expression of sheltered existence. So on this excursion into the city of Kapila Vastu, he takes in four sites. You all, but I'm just going to repeat it. So he sees, as he's driving through the city, he's looking out the windows of his chariot and he sees an old man, a sick person at the side of the road and a renunciate or a monk.

[11:17]

And at least in the context of the story, all of these, these sites were new to him. He had not encountered them before. And he takes inspiration from the model of the renunciate and decides that there has to be another way to live. And I think that was some of what inspired Bert. And I think I would imagine that this is true for some of us here, right here. That come to a place in our. And we. Recognize there has to be another way to live. And we have this path that's been that's been well tried for us.

[12:24]

But this is. And I think this is. Sojourn story. At the point at which. he begins his spiritual quest, you know, go in a serious way. He was in his late 30s. And, you know, he was looking for a way to live that was meaningful. So The Buddha to be renounced his royal positions and he renounced his family, which I think understandably might raise some other questions for us, which we won't go into quite yet.

[13:28]

And he went off to the forest. He shaved his head and made the vow to live as a renunciate depending on alms for his food and all of his needs. So hearing Bert's story, which of course is quite familiar to me. In a sense, it was his for the first time. And the lesson that he drew from this story and that I think we can reflect on is simply the Buddha's determination, his absolute determination to wrestle with

[14:32]

the problem of human suffering and how to end it. And, you know, Bert saw this story through the lens, the Jewish tradition that, that he felt at home and very close to. And I feel some resonance with that. You know, I've often been asked why, you know, many of our prominent Buddhist teachers are Jewish in background. Think about Sojin Roshi, Bernie Glassman, Norman Fisher, Hartman, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein.

[15:35]

Biku Bodhi, John Kabat-Zinn and so on. I once did talk to a for the Los Angeles Times who was doing a story on Judaism and Buddhism. And he had made this This wasn't that long ago. This was about 10 or 12 years ago. Great discovery that there were all these Jewish Buddhist teachers. It was like really big news. Actually, it was the article when he wrote it appeared on the front page of the Los Angeles Times. So this is real news. Jews are doing Buddhism. It was very funny to me. But My response to why this is the case is that as a people, the Jewish people are intimate with suffering.

[16:50]

And I've been wrestling with the problem of suffering for many centuries. You know, if you, you know, if you would proposed to a Jewish person. It's like, oh, here's a way to end. Sounds good. Or that sounds good. Maybe. What's the catch? But this is not just true of people who are Jewish. I think what we're seeing is that this focus on nature of suffering and the end of suffering is also deeply appealing to people in other oppressed communities. You know, and so we see the growing presence of African American students, African American teachers, and practitioners from other communities here.

[18:03]

I think that With the work that I've been in India, you have a vital Buddhist movement among the most oppressed classes in India because the practice that we have addresses the nature of suffering. So Bert Jacobson decided to continue on the path of Judaism. And, you know, he completed his rabbinical studies. He met some of the other prominent people in the Jewish spiritual world who were also wrestling with the problem of suffering and also looking at

[19:05]

suffering, not just personal dimension, but in the context of society. And so in the 80s, with others, he founded Kehillah in Berkeley, which describes itself as a spiritual Jewish spiritual home of people based on a spiritual mandate, getting this from their website, a spiritual mandate to heal and repair the world, which is a central theme in Judaism, which is exactly what Sojin saw, what Judaism meant to him, a central theme in Judaism by showing compassion to all and actively working towards social justice, peace, and environmental sanity. So, honestly, although I have this Jewish ethnic and cultural background, I don't feel called to Jewish religious practice.

[20:24]

So I have come to respect it. And I have been in recent years. You know, having to set aside, I had a lot of Jewish education when I was preparing for Bar Mitzvah. But as I said, it was, it was quite. But I'm not looking for another spiritual path. My path is the Buddha's way. It's Sojin Roshi's way, Suzuki Roshi's way. And that is complete. But if I listen carefully, I hear in their teachings that call to heal the world.

[21:25]

What mystical Tikkun Olam. which is the practice of drawing together the divine light that inhabits everything. But the koan, each of us has his or her own light, but it's hard to see it sometimes. So that's true. We're in the practice of effort of repairing the world. We're drawing together these light, light which has been dispersed in the shards of our broken world. And our broken or our difficult world.

[22:34]

That's the world that we live in. That's the Buddha field that we inhabit. So sometimes if you read, you know, in the early texts. The Buddha field that we live in is called the Saha world. And. So every. In sort of Buddhist cosmology has his or her own Buddha field and it has certain characteristics. So the Buddha field of Shakyamuni Buddha that we inhabit is the Saha world, which means like the world in which you have to endure things. So we have to endure various kinds of suffering, personal suffering, social suffering.

[23:44]

And that in the course of this endurance, that in the process of of living in this world is the process by which we wake up. We wake up in this world. And. the opportunity of the Saha world is to become a Buddha. So for me, this expression tikkun olam points is really beyond Judaism. It's something profoundly human. I think that widely there's an impulse that have to heal and repair, to set ourselves at ease, to set those around us at ease.

[24:59]

And it's also true that our understanding can be incomplete or flawed. The challenge is that it can be obscured by self-interest. At the same time, we yearn for happiness and for ease of mind. Sometimes we wish for God, Buddha, or some great being to hand us this happiness. or this piece. But the practice that we have been given is that the kingdom of heaven, if you will, is already within us. Of course, so is hell. But we have the opportunity to choose.

[26:02]

And we're encouraged to make that choice. So the Buddha is often described, I mean, think about healing the world. The Buddha is often described as a great physician. And all of his teachings are very specific for healing. You know, if you read the Pali suttas, or you read any of the sutras, What the Buddha is teaching us is a way to bring ourselves back into balance in the context of the whole world. So it's healing for ourselves as individuals, but also as individuals who create communities and societies. Bringing ourselves, bringing our communities into balance.

[27:08]

So not only did the Buddha present himself as just a singular and exemplary model of individual enlightenment, but he did this by creating a Sangha. He did this by creating A model community. That was based on. Equality. That was city and kindness and on compassion and wisdom. And I think that we do our best to realize this right here. In the midst of our own song. We've been doing this in Berkeley. what we were encouraged to do by our teacher.

[28:12]

And in his teachers. And it's quite amazing that we've been doing this, you know, even through these two weary in years of pandemic. We're still we're here on Saturday. You're in session. We're here. Caring for each other. So when the Buddha began to teach, it's really interesting to look at the arc of his teachings. When he created the Sangha, the first thing he did was

[29:22]

He went and he found his five close friends and he showed them the Dharma. And then he traveled about through the region of North India. And he just traveled down. After having received food and talked with people who came to visit with him. He listened to them. He allowed them to ask questions. He asked questions of them. Whether they were sincerely seeking his teachings or even if they were inclined to challenge him. He met them each and drew them into his community.

[30:27]

I think it's also noteworthy to see that in time, even though he had stepped away from his family, which we might see as a really painful event. Painful to us anyway. Painful to me. In time he brought his. His mother. His son. And his wife. Into the Sangha. And all of them. Became. Arhats. They all became. Enlightened beings. Who. were then free from the cycle of rebirth. So. And he taught his own his own Chakya clan and the other communities in that region of North India, what's now North India and Nepal.

[31:50]

And within several hundred years, the power of his healing words and his practices spread throughout India. And they remain very strong cultural influences in that hundred years. You know, when you go to India, you know, you can you can visit these. Temples and caves and architectural remains that point to this practice going back. Going back very long, very long time and also enduring for a very long time. And. Here we are 2500 years later. We're still practicing the Buddha's way to the best of our understanding. And. We include his teachings, but also we include the wisdom of many generations of teachers from different cultures and different countries from our own.

[33:11]

So all of this I think is his, you could see as the practice of tikkun olam. of drawing these pieces back together to repair the world. We talked on Thursday evening in the class that I've been leading on Three Doors of Enlightenment. We talked about the meaning of liberation. So for for Sojin, looking at Sojin's teachings, he says that enlightenment is the reconciliation of all dualities, which sounds kind of abstract.

[34:18]

But then when you put it into actual terms, actual events. He writes, you and I may be angry with you before enlightenment. And when we become enlightened, when we become enlightened, we reconcile anger with serenity. After enlightenment, we may still get angry. But that anger is not the same. We are not attached to that feeling. Enlightenment is the beginning of our practice. Enlightenment is what motivates us towards practice. The fact that you want to practice means that enlightenment that is always with you somehow to be expressed. So I think it's. That the light.

[35:20]

that appears to have been scattered. What we wish to do is to draw these pieces together and inhabit that light ourselves and to include everything. Thich Nhat Hanh writes about an enlightened being or an awakened being, as one who is able to embrace the whole of space, his capacity includes all the three chiliacosms. Three chiliacosms are universe. It means the capacity of the heart is very great. The capacity of his or her heart Can include.

[36:22]

All the sand. Include all the worlds. Even though there is numerous. So this is. When I think about. The meaning of awakening. Or the meaning of liberation. I can think of it in the context of. Tikkun olam. Together. And they are the pieces, the fragments of my own life and mind and feelings. But also the fragments of society and culture and world. And this is an important light to. sustain these days.

[37:23]

Because I can't think of a time when in my life that seems more volatile and divided. And so as a practitioner, I want to be devoted towards. The shaping of wholeness. The shaping of connection. And not the shaping of division. And this is really hard. This is really hard practice. I mean I just. All of us I think read stuff that. We find deeply disturbing. Irrespective of what our. social or political ideas may be.

[38:27]

I think about a very simple expression that our friend Karen Dakotis shared with shared with us. It's a very simple sentence. Do you want to be right? Or do you want to be in connection? Do you want to be right or do you want to be in connection? And it's really good to speak about that, especially when you feel right. I have to remind myself of this all the time. So How can we continue to embody the Buddhist principles of healing?

[39:42]

The Buddhist principles of include whatever arises in our world and not excluding it. But acting towards it with curiosity and compassion. It's not that I have the answer. But I can't see any other way. To live. And I think this is what. This is what we get from. All of our teachers and I hope that we can take it. Each of us can take it deeply into ourselves and allow it to blossom in the world. Because we need the light. We need the flowers.

[40:45]

We need the connection. So I think that's where I'm going to end. You may have some comments or some questions. or some thoughts and I will turn it over to Blake for the call on people. So thank you and just, you know, for those of us who are in Sashin, this is the practice that we can continue for the rest of the day. Good morning, good Sangha. As usual, we raise our digital hand. You can also put a question into the chat. And sometimes when we put a question into the chat, it gives us some time to sort of abbreviate and be clear about what we want to convey. And I urge you to do that as you unmute yourself.

[41:47]

Just be clear about what you want to say. Digital hands, please. or type in the chat. Yes, Sally. Or Ed, I'm not sure. Thank you, Hosan. When you were talking about the story of Buddha kind of after he was enlightened, wandering around India and hanging out and talking to people. He didn't advertise. And it made me think about our teacher, Sojin, and how BCC got started. Because in a certain way, he found a house.

[42:52]

He didn't advertise. And he waited, and people showed up. And he didn't say he was a teacher. He just used himself as a practice. And he sat, and people came. And so it reminded me of that story that he told me about how he got started, how BCC got started. similar to what... Yes, thank you. I mean, that's also how Suzuki Roshi got started. And I think that in the memoir section of Sojin's book that I quoted, he said, I like the way the disciples gathered in small communities studying and practicing together.

[43:54]

That's actually his model. And there were other models of Buddhist teachers at the time, some whose practice was to go around and lead. But the model that we've been given is just to stay in this place and really dig in. I think it's important for us to dig into our community and then gradually the tendrils of that community can extend. But if we're not located, if we are not in some place, then there's something really missing. And I think that a lot of what I see in... spirituality around the world is that almost all of it has very powerful roots in place.

[45:04]

And this is why it's very good for us to acknowledge the ancestors of this place. So the indigenous people, the Ohlone and other groups that lived here. And to recognize that we're living in a space that others have lived in for thousands of years. And that their displacement may not be. Their displacement may be by virtual. violence or exclusion, but still these energies and spirits remain with us. Hi, Hosan.

[46:36]

Morning. Hi. I wanted to really express my gratitude for such strong medicine. It's really open. I do feel it blooming. And I think it's funny because I'm wearing the BCC shirt. I see. I see. Yeah. It's like a portal. Oh, my gosh. The universe is so funny. I attended Lucy's talk last week at the San Francisco Zen Center on the Zoom. And she expressed her offering to Sojin in memory of his anniversary of his death. And it nearly brought me to tears. I was so thankful. And I wanted to acknowledge that Sojin's presence. And my mind is so visual, so I feel like I can feel the roots going in and the flower blooming.

[47:42]

And Lucy's talk last week was about the Chinese plum blossom that blossoms in this time of winter. In the winter, yeah. And so it's a stunning bright yellow burst of glory against this magnificent snowy backdrop. So she shared pictures during her time. I was on a journey with her. But what I wanted to share is I feel like that blossom is blooming. So I feel hope arising. And thank you for that. Thank you. You know that the name of our temple is Old Plum Mountain. And it was very, some of us who've been here a long time remember right in the middle of the courtyard, there was a huge plum tree, which every winter rained down white blossoms, you know, covering the court.

[48:59]

And then every spring, I guess, rained down sticky plums that got more than anyone could eat. And it was very sad when the tree was ill and had to be cut down. It was like when those arborists came to cut it down, it was just like... a friend, because it had been there from the beginning. But yes, that image of plum and plum blossoms is really, it's very powerful for us. Thank you. Judy Fleischman. Well, that's funny because I didn't put my hand down on hearing that interchange.

[50:05]

I just, Hosanna is very taken by your, so very much with me, our Bishop, Archbishop Tutu's recent passing and MLK Day approaching. So just this sense of these pillars in our midst and that somehow it threw out the power of spiritual friendship, you know, like Bishop Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama or Dr. King and Thich Nhat Hanh. So it's wonderful just to hear of, in a way, one perspective on that in what you read of Sojin's early journey. I once heard someone speak of another Zen teacher saying, Roshi is my Rebbe.

[51:18]

And at Congregation Romamu in New York, there's been a wonderful course going on. called a thing based on Rabbi Alan Liu's book about his own journey of practicing at BCC for 10 years and then becoming a rabbi. So just a lot of these streams and not just Judaism and Buddhism, but just it feels like we're entering an era or maybe we're revisiting that the path isn't about labels or identities so much as inhabiting those to harness the power of true friendship, you know, pointing to his connection while being in integrity with our identities, communities, cultures, expression.

[52:20]

And that... feels to me like a very exciting and a very hopeful time. So I really appreciate you offering that perspective. Thank you. I kind of assumed that you know Bert Jacobson or, you know, I've heard him and he brought up Alan Liu to me as he was close to him. One of the things in this conversation that we were having that my cousin facilitated, what's clear to me is that I need to know where my home is. My home is here and my home is in this tradition. And having the confidence of that. allows me to really see the values and the virtues of other traditions that people find their homes in.

[53:35]

And, you know, I've had this, I felt it when I met Bert, I felt like, oh, we're talking the same language. I had an experience some years ago. I was in Bangladesh and somebody had taken me, a friend had taken me to meet a Sufi leader way out in the countryside. And he invited me in for tea. And I felt we're speaking the same language, which of the of compassion and wisdom of connection. And we have a different we have different. paths, but the same fundamental knowledge. So that's enabled me. You know, I just I didn't emphasize this. My Jewish education was pretty dysfunctional.

[54:39]

And by the time I was bar mitzvahed, I was pretty clear I never wanted to didn't want to have anything to do with it in an organized way again. And it's only in recent years that I've begun to revisit it and see what is there that actually does it instead of rejecting it. And this is, I think, the teaching of people like Desmond Tutu and And Dr. King is their, their inclusivist. They recognize the values and all of these religious traditions. And that's what's, that's important to me. And it's really not only is important, it's really interesting to me. You know, I'm interested in that just like I'm interested in, you know, having been in relationship with.

[55:49]

Bada monks who are down the block. The particularities of their lives are interesting to me because I can see our common humanity. So thank you. For our last question, Ross Blum, please. Good morning, Hozan. Good morning, Ross. When Sojin would lecture and talk about where is home? He would point to his hara, you know, just below his belly, where we hold our mudra. And I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about your home or place relative between this physical place in our gut and the physical place of this Ohlone land or wherever we happen to be in the world, with a relationship between the two. Yeah, that's a really good question. I think We need to feel, in order to really, in order to be home in our aura or home in our body, we have to have some experience of wholeness or ease where we are.

[57:18]

And I think they go, it's the same thing with, you know, being in relationship. If you're in a relationship and you're at home where you don't feel yourself in it, then you're not fully able to inhabit your body. But if the surroundings are comfortable, then you can set up. And be in and be in your be in your body, which is ultimately where we have to find our home. And I think this is this is one of the. One of the. The examples that we have in. You know, we have these we have these terms of this ordination home leaving and home dwelling. You know, home leaving is at least in an ideal sense that the monk or nun or practitioner is always in their body.

[58:30]

They carry their home. We carry our home with us. But it's also true that there are places that are conducive to that. There are places that are familiar and that put us at ease. Our hara is not necessarily located three inches below our navel. Our hara is when you're at home in your hara, then your hara is everywhere, right? Exactly. Yeah. I really like your answer and response. And also when there's intimacy, it feels homey or hamish. Hamish. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Thanks. Okay. Thank you. So thank you all. Enjoy the day. And we will see each other again. We do have an informal meditation on Monday morning, which is Martin Luther King Day, and a short talk.

[59:42]

And then we have community cleanup work, I think, from 930. I think it'll be... that Blake will read us in the announcements. So thank you, and let's close with the Bodhisattva vows. You may unmute yourself and chant along. Greetings are numberless. I am awake in heaven. The religions are inexhaustible. I am awake in heaven. Thank you. So, good morning all.

[60:48]

The announcements for today, this Monday, January 17th, will be as into a holiday, but we'll have lecture. It ends at 7.30, and then I think there's a lecture afterwards, and then I invite you to a neighborhood cleanup at 9.30 a.m., but please contact Hannah Mira. Her email is in the chat. If you want to do that, we need to sort of coordinate and keep a list of who's coming. This month, Hosan will be offering a class on Thursday evenings, beginning at 7.15. The details are available on our website. Next Saturday, Hannah Mira will be giving a lecture. Songer members who identify as BIPOC, there's a group that meets Mondays, 6.30 to 7.30. A group has been meeting to consider ways to address racism.

[61:53]

If you wish to participate, contact Heather Serrantis. If you've been attending for a while and are interested in learning about the membership, please contact us via membership.membership.bergleysinsider.org. And for more information, visit the website. And so today, because we're in session, we can not unmute ourselves and bow and then prepare for keen hand, those who are staying. Thank you very much for attending.

[62:27]

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