Good morning. Today we are having a one-day sitting and dedicating our sitting to the victims of the Japanese quake, tsunami, and radioactive catastrophe. So I'm going to talk a bit about that. And since this is a Dharma talk, it's going to be hard for me to not lay blame. And if you think I'm being too political, you don't have to listen. Oh, there are.

[01:02]

Oh, you can't hear me. How's that? Is that better? I've written down quite a bit. Of course, as we all know, we have natural disasters, like earthquakes, tsunamis, forest fires, landslides, floods, and so forth.

[02:04]

And then we have human-made disasters. like human-made disasters, like climate change, pollution. I could go on and on, but I think you understand. And then we have, in human, there's not much we can do about natural disasters, and we say, well, you know, that's the way it is. Many people are killed in these disasters, like in Japan, unfortunately, the enormous earthquake and the tsunami. The tsunami probably killed more people and destroyed so much housing and

[03:07]

The greatest disaster, of course, is the Dai-ichi. Dai-ichi means great one. Dai is great. Ichi means one. And the Dai-ni. Ni means two. The great one and the great two. And then there's the great three and the great four. They're not so great right now. So that fallout. is going to be, is and will be taking its toll for years and years to come. I was thinking that Uranium is, I think, the basis of the Sun, the heat of the Sun, and the center of the stars. and it keeps them from being uninhabitable by us.

[04:18]

But the Earth also has uranium. But the reason the Earth didn't burn up is because it's only in small quantities, in balance with the rest of the elements that we find on our Earth. So, left alone, it's not a problem. But Madame Curie created a big problem for us and the children too. So as the population grows and as the needs we feel that we need, our standard of living and our development as humans at some level demand this kind of power. And unfortunately, it's beyond our ability to control. We think we can control things.

[05:22]

All of the uranium that has been used so far has really no permanent place to live. Even though some people say it does, but actually it doesn't. If we find a containment place for all the uranium that's used and will be used, who's going to guard that for 50,000 years? The events in the world change so quickly, how can we possibly take care of all that? Who's going to remember? Who's going to be hired? And who's going to do the hiring? We think that our countries are all kind of permanent. No, no. Nothing is safe, actually. You thought that your money was safe.

[06:27]

But it's not. And, you know, as we can see, All of the countries are getting poorer and poorer. Fewer and fewer jobs. Everybody, people are getting laid off right and left. There's no prosperity. That's going to lead to, in the Middle East, it's already led to revolt. So, the financial institutions are sucking up all the money. and everybody's losing money. I don't want to go any further into that. But if you don't believe that, you're naive. So climate change is one of the big human associated disasters.

[07:35]

I don't say it's completely The ice caps, glaciers all over the world are melting. The sea is rising. Even here, every day it rains. It never used to rain every day here. It's great that it does though. I mean, that's wonderful. But when will it stop? The east is continually being flooded. But it's hard to stop. There's a little story, the county hearing used to say, tell us, there's a guy on a horse, and the horse is racing through the town, he's uncontrollable. And as he races through the town, he knocks over the apple cart, and the butcher cart, and so forth.

[08:38]

And somebody yells after him, where is that horse? Where are you going? And the guy says, ask the horse. And then the other little story. Remember Jack Benny? I tell his story a lot. But it's a good story. Jack Betty, you know, made his reputation on being a miser. And so one day he was confronted by a robber. The robber stuck the gun in his grip and said, I'll give you the money of your life. And there was a long pause. And he says, come on, your money or your life? And I said, I'm thinking.

[09:41]

That's actually where we are. We'd much rather make the money and destroy the earth that we're standing on. That's the moral of it. Money, the wealth, is the most valuable thing. And the earth doesn't mean anything. It's just a place to stand for a while. That's the dichotomy that is happening to all of us. The Earth is kind of, you know, just a dumping place for so many, for the wealthy. So, this has been going on since the beginning of time. It's just that now, because we're on a global scale, we're all affected by it. So we developed what we call democracy in America, which was a great step forward. But, unfortunately, democracy is being used to kill itself.

[10:41]

Unfortunately. It's being used against itself. Who believes in democracy? Schoolchildren, maybe. When I was a kid, when I was a kid, The government meant something. They meant something wonderful. You felt safe because the government was protecting you. The government was your government. Now, our government is dying and the corporations are the government. The corporations are the government taking over the government and trying to destroy it. throw it in the trash can. So there's no accountability. Where's the accountability? Only one person of note from the cash mill town that we just experienced has gone to jail.

[11:51]

And yes, the places of note are the criminals. People say, I don't listen to the news, I don't read the newspaper. What's going on? One of the, you may not believe this, but one of the tools of corporations is to educate some people highly and uneducate the rest. Why are our schools so dumbed down? Because it's much easier to manipulate uneducated people. So, in Buddhist terms, the world turns on greed, hate and delusion.

[12:57]

It also turns on loving-kindness, wisdom, and values. But they're being squashed. They're no longer respected. Wisdom is not respected. And loving-kindness is not respected. Only power is respected. So we're kind of turning into a master-slave paradigm. You know, master-slave paradigms have always existed. But in the old days it was, you rode, you know, in the boat, or you hauled the stones, you know, that kind of master-slave.

[14:09]

But people are enslaved through television, through computers, through entertainment, through games, through finance, through mortgages, through all of this stuff. But we don't see that we're enslaved until our credit card fees start rising without being asked. That's just a little thing. So our world, of course, is really out of balance. It's always out of balance in some way, because it's a moving organic thing. Because it's a moving organic entity, it's always falling out of balance.

[15:11]

As Suzuki Roshi used to say, everything is falling out of balance and regaining its balance, moment by moment. If you think about it, we're constantly falling out of balance and regaining our balance. what our life's about. But there are times when you can't regain the balance. The ship is listing so far to one side that it's hard to balance it with the other side. Somebody said, well, aren't there good things in the world? Yes, there are. But the balance is really one-sided. The ship is really listing. by June, as I understand, if our financial balance in this country is not solved in some way, it's going to be really disastrous.

[16:12]

So, when finances are circulating throughout the society, then the society is healthy. It feels like when there's a tsunami, the water in the bay moves out dramatically before the tsunami comes in. So what it feels like, in a way, is like the wealth is being drawn out before there's some kind of catastrophe that's happening. I really wanted to have a discussion on how people feel about the tsunami and the radioactivity and the situation because we haven't talked about that yet. And I think people would like to express themselves or discuss it in some way.

[17:21]

So I'd be happy to. This is just my spiel. You may feel differently here. has something that you'd like to discuss about it. Yeah. We just had our Bodhisattva ceremony. All our ancient tangled karma, beginningless greed, hate, delusion. Yes. And so I think your talk is a good extension of that. I wanted to talk about karma, because karma means our volitional action. We talk about karma in various ways, but strictly speaking it means a volitional action. And a volitional action has a consequence. Every volitional action has a consequence. And the consequence either is immediate, like I'm going to hammer this nail, but I hit my

[18:24]

thumb instead. And so the retribution or the result is immediate. Or I may insult somebody but they don't, they just accept it. But then a couple of years later their resentment grows so big they do something to hurt me. And I don't know why that happened. Then something way down the line, something that you, some incident you had maybe with somebody or something you did, and way, way, way down the line, there's a result from that. And I say, why did that happen? is very poor and so forth, but they're all very good. And the family next door are really rotten people, but they're very wealthy, very affluent, and happy.

[19:26]

Now, why does that happen? Well, I think that's a false argument. But everybody, you know, we all have retribution, or I think retribution is a good word, result from our actions. So we have to examine our actions so that we understand or get a handle on what's going to happen in the future. This is called destiny, it's not called fate. Because fate means something, it means your life is already kind of preordained. Maybe just fill it out. But a destiny means you make up your own life. And because of your actions and the result of your actions, you're destined to go in a certain direction. You can see that that's what's happening in your life through what you're doing now.

[20:30]

What we did in the past has an effect on what we're doing now. And what we're doing now has an effect on what will happen if we believe there is a future. So, that's karma. Karma and its effects on us. So, there's personal karma, and then there's national karma, or group karma, where a great number of people act in a certain way that reflects back on it. So, if we want to know why things are happening the way they are happening, we should examine the past. Examine our actions in the past to understand why things are happening the way they are happening and not blame fate.

[21:31]

Because we are all self-creating. This is the dharma. Each one of us is creating our own our destiny. And our destiny may look like it's going to some destination, but we don't know what that destination is. But if we take a good look, we can see how it's going. This is how the prophets understood what was going on. and mourning the people because of their karma. Because of your karma, this is what I see happening. And the people say, oh, you know, you're just blowing the wind. It is. Yeah. So, I agree with what you're saying, but I think one... I guess one risk of... If you're talking about taking responsibility for your actions,

[22:35]

I think it's very common for people to review their actions. I certainly know I've done this and review things I've done and get into a lot of self-blame. And so the difference between, there's a subtle difference here between taking responsibility versus getting stuck in self-centered, self-loathing. So what do you do to fight against that? The way to deal with that is called repentance. We just had this ceremony which is called repentance ceremony. We avow our ancient karma and then we take our vows of practice again. So it's not like we're, you know, about each and everything that we ever did.

[23:37]

That would be too much. But we say, all of my ancient tango karma, it's all one big ball, I now fully avow. Born through body, speech and mind, I now fully avow. That's the bodhisattva avowal of your karma without naming each and everything. And then we take the precepts. We honor the Bodhisattvas, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of our own mind. And then we take the precepts. So this is like a cleaning out and renewal once a month. This is basic Buddhist practice. But you can have your own. It's good. It's good for us to do that. Because then you recognize and you're not blaming.

[24:40]

Repentance is not about blaming. It's about freeing you. It frees us from our past actions. It acknowledges our past actions and frees us from attachment. Which doesn't mean you don't remember. You should remember, so that we don't do something again. So the Sixth Ancestor says, real true repentance is to avow what you're actually repenting about, and then just turn and go in another direction. Without self-flagellation or self, you know, all this stuff. Getting back to the whole political situation, I can well understand why the top cats do what they do.

[25:45]

It's in their self-interest to do it. But what I cannot understand, and have you thought on this, is why do so many people in the lower strata of life What is it? Going against? Going against everybody's best interests. And their own? And their own, yeah, going against each other. Because, well the greatest cause is, one cause is, because they are sold, see, someone has a special something special that they're focused on, like abortion or some special, you know. And that becomes more important than anything else. So instead of taking a balanced view, people tend to take a perspective on one issue.

[26:49]

And that one issue is totally unbalanced. This is one of the biggest causes, I think, of that. It's like not taking this whole lack of education. And people are so easily fooled. And there are so many lies. You know, now you can't trust the government, you can't trust the banks, you can't trust corporations, you can't trust the insurance companies, you can't trust... you know? Although you want to. And you can, in some instances. It's very uncertain. Because we are manipulated. Yeah. I just want to say, I'm Japanese. When this incident happened, like you said, Kama, I felt very, very sad because Japan is the only country without a nuclear bomb.

[27:52]

And then here's another nuclear incident. Yes. I really felt that Japan has As a nation, do we have some nuclear power there? But I have my family in Tokyo. I have a lot of friends in Iwata and Sundan. But I think one of the things I'm very, very impressed this time is this catastrophe. People there are so calm. They're helping each other. And the fabric path is open. for free for everybody a restaurant giving free food people suffer a lot but these people are really helping each other and no stealing going on I think that was so amazing so the earthquake and the tsunami are natural disasters people sometimes feel that something in their karma has caused this

[28:56]

But I don't think we cause natural disasters through our karma. It's not our karma because our karma is our volitional action. So the karma would be through the nuclear reactors because Japan decided to accept that power. And so they're suffering now from the karma result. That's true. It's just that they made a mistake. Some people don't think they made a mistake. Some people say, you know, I was listening to this program, Charlie Rose, and one of the three panelists said, oh, you know, just a little setback, you know, it's no big problem. You know, like an apologist for the, you know, nuclear industry. That's the karma.

[29:59]

And everybody's suffering from it. But Japanese are a Buddhist country, and have the values of Buddhism and Shinto, but they forget. But when something like this happens, they remember. And so there is this... It's a built-in to the culture. When they're awakened, they don't become very generous anyway. But those values, they lay back on those values. That's a good thing. It's a wake-up call, actually, for Japan. You said earlier that today's sitting was dedicated to the people in Japan. What does that mean? I mean, when we dedicate something we're doing, what is the practical reason for doing that?

[31:12]

What do we think we're doing? It's totally impractical. It doesn't mean anything. It just means that this is our offering. That's all. It doesn't mean we're going to carry everybody's pants. It's like a kind of consolidation or memorial or kinship or something. There's somebody in the back. There's an underlying tone in this Dharma talk and in this conversation that feels a little uncomfortably judgmental for me. Because I'm very judgmental. Growing up in Berkeley, I've always believed that I'm right.

[32:14]

Just having been Buddhist for a long time, that also for my ego has generated a lot of self-righteous ego trips for me. And I'm finally trying to kind of strip that away, but how can we be passionate about our practice, passionate about the Buddha's teachings, and also passionate about our economic or political views, without pushing others away, without condescending or patronizing or attacking other sides? Right. So, that's a good question. There are three levels, you know, upon which we have to understand. But first I want to say that I would love to be proved wrong. So what I'm presenting is a view. It's true. I'm presenting a view. But I'd love to be proved wrong. It would be great if I was wrong.

[33:15]

I would love it if I was wrong. The other thing is Buddhist view, there are three ways to view something. One is just on the face of things. The way something looks like it's happening, you view it that way. And then in a dualistic way, right, wrong, good, bad, so forth. That's a kind of dualistic way. And then to view it from the point of view of neither good nor bad, neither right nor wrong. things are just as they are. Earthquake is just the way it is. It's not good or bad or right or wrong. It's simply the way it is. A tsunami is not good or bad or right or wrong. It's just the way it is. But from a human point of view, it hurts. And so it's not good. It's bad.

[34:16]

But everything has two sides as well as one side. So, yes, we should just be able to see everything from an overview of things are just the way they are. And good and bad, right or wrong, is simply the human view. So, when we get beyond the human view, we see that everything is just as it is. People are born, they die, things happen to everybody. That's just as it is. So it's important to be... that's how you can actually have some composure. But on the other hand, there's right and there's wrong, and there's good and there's bad, and there are things that hurt people and there are things that are beneficial. So we have to pay attention to all three of those levels. I didn't tell you about the third one. The third one is in between, where you actually act according to your understanding.

[35:21]

It's not prescribed. It's like precepts don't kill. Well, literally, you make a big effort not to kill. On the absolute level, there's no such thing as killing, because nothing is ever really born. On the in-between level, you're taking into account the understanding of both those levels, and then you act according to circumstances. So that's how we understand Buddha's precepts. I guess you and your, there are a couple of things to say, but one is the greed that we talk about is also impersonal. I mean we are hardwired neurologically to go after the things we like and to run away don't like. So to a certain extent, it's as impersonal as a tsunami.

[36:27]

So I think there's that. And I think also we have a limited view of things. I was really glad that this woman from Japan spoke up, because there's this promise in the Diamond Sutra that there will always be Buddhas. And we see that even in the most catastrophic situation, Buddha has appeared. Many, many, many Buddhists are here. So we don't know. We can't say it's all going downhill. We can say we're frightened. I don't like it. I'm afraid of it. I wish it was different. But I think more deeply, I don't know. Well, I think that's very good. More deeply, I don't know. That's correct. That's the absolute view. But in the meantime, People are out of work, they're starving, they're fighting, you know. So, and it's always been so, except that it's on a bigger scale.

[37:31]

And so there has to be some response. But I agree with you. I'm interested in the question about why people continue to do what they do. I think Laura touched on it in part. Last night I was listening to the news on the way home and there was a panel of experts talking about whether we could live without nuclear power. And basically the panel of experts said, well, you might make a plan like that but it would include blackouts. a big laugh from the audience. But I thought, what about that? What about just some time period where we didn't have everything that we think we need or we think we want? And what's really enough? And how often do I ask myself, what's really enough?

[38:35]

How often do I walk by a light switch that's on when it doesn't need to be and turn it off? How aware am I about what I'm doing in small ways that additively are about an attitude about how I live my life. And I think it influences how other people live their lives. What's it up? Can we live from that place? Yeah. Well, we live in a dream. So we create this dream. And then when the dream, when we wake up, we find ourselves bumping on the bottom. Also, things have a life of their own. So, on the way to Nintendo this morning, I was listening to the radio, and there was this neat guy, I don't know who he was, but he was talking about this, and he said, In this kind of society, you can't stop the momentum of something because it's out of our hands.

[39:47]

Once it gets going and it's so big, it's really out of our hands. And it has its own life. And you can see that that's true. It really has its own life. And then we become slaves to it. Like slaves to the internet. We are. What is the first thing you do? Or the second thing you do? When you go to your workplace or to your... Look, I'll see if there's an email. And what's going on? And then you spend more time there than you want. This thing is just taking up all my time. Yes. So, how do we get our dreams back? In the old days, there was no voting.

[40:52]

In Japan in the 13th century, there was nobody who voted. Everybody was appointed and you just had to behave. And the Buddhists went to the mountains. where they can get out of being manipulated by the powerful. But we can't do that. Because one thing we have is the power of the vote, which we don't take seriously. We do, but so many people Because we don't know what's going on. It doesn't mean anything. We're too busy doing other things, or don't know. We're lucky that some things work out.

[41:56]

So, as Tamar says, we don't know. But even though we don't know, You know, we have to stand up where we are, not knowing where we are or not knowing what we're going to do. That's what we have to do.

[42:19]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ