I vow to taste the truth of the Tagata's words. Good morning. For those of you who are new here, my name is Ross and our abbot, Sojan Weitzman, is away this weekend on a retreat with an Esalen elder, little bear, down near Tassajara. want to thank David for asking me to give the talk today. He apologized for the short notice which for me it wasn't so short it was a week and for me I feel as a practitioner the way that we should always keep the question of what is it in the forefront of our inquires about Buddhism or meditation in an innocent way or in a very penetrating way,

[01:04]

if you're practicing you should be able to bring something forward. So certainly a talk like this is different in that it does require some preparation, but all of us who've come through the gate to learn about ourselves and about each other and our relationships should keep the question up front so we're prepared. also as a little preamble to this talk. There's a tendency for myself and I think most people who give Saturday talks or presentations of any sort to prepare something that they've been working on for a while or been studying and that's a good thing because it's an opportunity to test your understanding and sound it off to other people. in a context like this, which is very special. And that was my first inclination. And then I began thinking, well, there's always something at hand and if we're aware

[02:15]

of all the things that influence our lives moment to moment wherever we are that actually we can start right with this first step or with this first breath and go off from there to give a talk and share a little bit about our practice. So that's what came up for me. Mel handed me a letter by a gentleman in a prison in Alaska. and he was responding to a letter that Mel had written and I read it through and I thought, well, here's an opportunity to give a talk, try to give a talk on basic Buddhism and the Four Noble Truths as I saw in this letter. In the letter, the gentleman was making a request of our temple for some simple recipes that could be used. at the prison.

[03:17]

He wasn't writing about the Four Noble Truths or the Eightfold Path, so I'm reading a little bit into his letter, but I think if you've been around for a while and studying, you'll be able to also see and feel what this gentleman is asking and how it fits into our practice. Dear Sgt. Mel Weitzman, I am writing to personally thank you for your April 18th letter verifying vegetarianism being an essential part of Buddhist practice. It was very beneficial and instrumental in my quest to have a vegan diet recognized at the facility I am incarcerated in and after a 32-day fast to show faith in my convictions and with your

[04:29]

affirmations as well as other Buddhists around the world, I am now allowed a vegan diet, and many thanks are in order to you and all who made it possible for you to assist me in this endeavor. I want to say now that this is not a soapbox for me to go on about vegetarianism and vegan diets. I want to stay clear of that. Mel's not a vegetarian. I think most people who practice here aren't vegetarians. I happen to be one, but it's the spirit of the letter that I want to address. So please call me on it if it feels like I'm proselytizing about my dietary preferences. Now that I've won approval for a strict vegan diet, the true work begins educating a food service diet cook on meat-free meals, and herein lies the second purpose of this letter. I would at this time respectfully request that you discuss this issue with your Zen Center kitchen cooks and ask them if they could copy down any simple recipes for meals that are vegan and taste good, too.

[05:37]

I say simple, meaning simple to prepare and with simple ingredients as the food service department here is not real enthusiastic about this diet to begin with. But if I can present them with some nutritious and tasteful vegan meals that won't increase their overhead, I stand a better chance of actually receiving something other than fruit and hard vegetables to eat three meals a day and a nutrient a nutrient supplement to make up the difference and any lacking nutrients. I will thank you now for any and all assistance you may be able to provide me in this endeavor and may I someday be in a position to pass on your kindness in like manner. Siddhartha always. And this is from Seward, Alaska. I'm not sure where that is, but it's a prison somewhere far away. A friend of mine gave me some encouraging words for this talk to remain open.

[07:03]

I tend to be very opinionated and hold on to my fixed views. So when I read this letter a few times and was studying, I wasn't filled with so much emotion. But just now, there was a feeling of being overwhelmed by someone whose life is restricted and some degree of suffering, which is our first noble truth that the Buddha taught. There's some discomfort in our life. and trying to alleviate that. I don't know anything about the gentleman who's been incarcerated, whether he murdered someone or whether he bounced a bunch of checks. It doesn't really matter. What I felt as I was preparing for the talk was that whether you're very rich living in opulence or very poor and restricted and living in a prison that suffering cuts through all of the lines of position.

[08:13]

And so without any further ado, I want to explore the letter and the Buddha's teaching in a little more depth. The first teaching of the Buddha is that life is dukkha, which has been translated in various ways as suffering, discomfort, dis-ease, and we all feel that. And that's the first feeling or sensation that arises. The second noble truth is that there's a cause for that. And the cause is when one actually identifies that there's something amiss, something askew, and what is it? What is that problem or discomfort? and there's a sense of separation at that point because we're identifying something looking at something objectively in the pure state of discomfort there is just there is just suffering and in Buddhist teaching especially in Mahayana teaching the way it's presented that samsara is nirvana that if one goes truly into suffering and discomfort without any

[09:35]

it turns on itself, and in fact, right there is the seat of enlightenment. For all intents and purposes, today in this letter, we're looking at the teaching more objectively. So in the first part of the letter, this gentleman is talking about his desire to be taken care of, that he's not accepting the food that is being offered to him for either ethical reasons or some kind of physiological needs that he might have. Again, it doesn't really matter. There's some discomfort in his life, as there is some discomfort in our life, and he wants to alleviate that. So the hunger strike, in a sense of protest, is a way, is non-doing. It's not eating, it's refusing to eat and sitting upright, if you will, without saying anything, without writing anything, without speaking to anyone.

[10:52]

Not too dissimilar from what we do in Zazen, that when we sit upright there's a the potential for non-doing and just being completely present, which is what the Buddha did for six years underneath the Bodhi tree without doing. And from that non-doing insight hopefully will arise and then one can take appropriate action. And further in the letter when this gentleman is talking very compassionately about what he needs to do for himself as far as getting this particular food and the people who are responsible for preparing it and asking for a simple menu, simple food that's not going to burden the prison and the overhead, If one has some inkling of cynicism, one could say, well, he just wants to get a particular food, and he's trying to make sure it happens for him, and he's just being careful not to step on anybody's toes.

[11:59]

And there's probably some level of truth in that, that if he's too demanding, if we're too demanding about what we want and we put other people out to help us in our lessening our suffering, there's less likelihood of people accommodating us. So in order for us as well as this gentleman to make this work, we have to meet the people that are going to help us intimately and respect what they can do, what they're willing to do and what might be a a test and Have some kind of dialogue about that. So just sitting upright doing nothing is is a very strong symbolic gesture of Seeing clearly what needs to happen, but we can't just sit here and do nothing we have to get off the cushion and take the next step speak the next word and Save all beings and manifest compassion

[13:01]

And in reading this letter and hearing this man's kindnesses about trying to not burden the institution of this prison and doing something very unusual to me speaks a lot to his caring for others. And basic Buddhist teaching is that, you know, we save all beings. That's one of the Bodhisattva vows. And as the Sixth Ancestor says, saving the beings in one's own mind first is saving all beings. And so when you take care of yourself, you take care of others. And the inverse, when taking care of others, you see them as yourself, and it just comes full circle. So the cause of this man's suffering is not being able to freely get what he needs.

[14:09]

And this is another basic teaching in Buddhism, which is causes and conditions, that nothing arises in and of itself isolated. So he's in prison for some reason, paying some debt back to society. And when things befall us and we have some discomfort about our job situation or our relationship with our partner or some such thing. It's not an isolated event. And again, if we sit upright and do nothing, we'll be able to look back and see what the conditions, hopefully, what the conditions were that brought this on to ourselves and that we're still in this muck and how to work through that. And again, another metaphor in Buddhism is a lotus that is a beautiful flower that blossoms and it comes out of the mud, which is the mud and muck of our life. and there are numerous stories, especially in the last few years in socially engaged Buddhism, of prisoners who actually have these turnings in prison and are working to save all beings inside a prison and out through their writings, through their... and just the way they are in a situation which is not particularly hospitable or conducive to waking up.

[15:29]

So there's a cause of this discomfort which is not having what one wants and there's a way of getting out of it or lessening this discomfort and that is the Eightfold Noble Path. And the Eightfold Noble Path, this is a basic book in Buddhism that we sell at Saturdays called What the Buddha Taught, which I recommend to everyone. The writing itself is rather dry, but it illuminates the basic teaching of Buddhism and is very helpful in illuminating what we're doing here. And the Eightfold Noble Path is divided into three areas, or they're just divided into three groupings. There's ethical conduct, mental development, and wisdom.

[16:42]

And the Eightfold Path is right understanding and right thought. which is the wisdom side of practice, right speech, right action, and right livelihood, which centers around ethical conduct, and right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration, which is around mental discipline. And all of these folds of the path relate to us most definitely and this man in prison, except for livelihood, he probably has some task at prison doing dishes or the laundry. what have you, but there's not real choice in the career path and right livelihood, strictly speaking, in Buddhism is a livelihood which doesn't engage in selling or use of intoxicants or making armaments and things of that sort.

[17:45]

It's for careers that help people and help all beings. And briefly, right understanding is having understanding that things are the way they are, or as Suzuki Roshi says, things as it is. And right thought is a thought of renunciation or seeing things as it is or as they are, depending on how you look at it, and making the effort to have wholesome thoughts, thoughts of enlightenment, of waking up, of helping others. not thoughts which tend to restrict those expressions, even though the thoughts do come up. Right speech is useful speech which helps other people. Kind speech is another way of using words in a way which help others.

[18:47]

Right action, which is promoting moral or peaceful conduct. right livelihood, as I mentioned before, right effort, the mental discipline, right effort is energetic will to diminish unwholesome thoughts. And this is like making an effort to seeing unwholesome thoughts arise and trying not to harbor them and working on thoughts that help others. And depending on our mental state, we'll go around and around on a tape, getting further and further down into harboring ill will. And when we see what's going on, making the effort to undo that and to bring ourselves more upright in helping others. And right mindfulness and right concentration. Mindfulness is just pure awareness. And concentration is dealing with the various levels of meditation practices.

[19:49]

And this gentleman doesn't talk about his meditation practice, but given the insight that he had to the interrelatedness of all beings and how his needs are going to directly affect the people in the prison, there had to be some insight through some meditation practice, be it just sitting down and just looking out at the sky or a pattern of rocks in a courtyard or something had to turn in him in order to see truth. and not a truth that's more universal than what's true for me or what I need. And this Eightfold Path, while it has a feeling of progression, when we arrive at the so-called last or eighth fold, which is the meditation levels of practice or stages of practice, that through insight we go right back to the beginning, which is right understanding and seeing things as it is.

[21:08]

And depending on how deep our meditation practice is, we might not see things as it is. We might see things sometimes how they are and sometimes how they're not. But with a perseverance and making the right effort, there's more clarity and less self-centeredness and a more universal look onto how things really are. I want to close by putting a question out which I put to the bottom of my notes here is how has this talk been helpful to me and how has this talk been helpful to you all who came here this morning?

[22:15]

And it's still just a question because I don't really know how it is for you. Some thoughts I have for myself is we don't know what effect we have on other people quite often and simply mailing a letter out asking for help sends ripples through the universe and the effect that it has had on me certainly has been deep. I sent this gentleman a copy of the BCC cookbook and one of my favorite recipes and I'll keep his address and if anyone has a vegan recipe that they'd like to, a simple one, that they'd like to send up to Alaska, I'll forward it along. There's about 10 minutes left.

[23:20]

If you have any questions about the Four Noble Truths Eightfold Path, how they relate to this gentleman or yourself, we can have a short dialogue about that. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think reading this letter, I think part of what was helpful to me was hearing the voice of someone so, you might say, so disadvantaged. And so, the sound of kindness and good force and courage Sure, thank you.

[24:52]

Anne. Thank you for the talk. It also raised a question which I think about a lot in relation to Buddhism, which is the tension between accepting things as they are. My understanding of suffering is that it largely arises from wanting things to be other than what they are. The tension between that and the need and desire to act to change things. And here's an example of somebody who rightfully wants the situation to change so that he can practice the way as he sees it. it's always been clear to me that Buddhism is not passivity at all, it's right action. And so knowing, knowing when is the right time to change or challenge things and when is the right time to accept things the way they are is something I've struggled with a lot.

[26:06]

One, at one point I came to understand that part of Accepting things the way they are was accepting my own responsibility for things, because that was part of what things were. But I'm sure other people have many other insights into how unbalanced We touched on a really critical point which is your responsibility and that nothing arises by itself and we co-create our life. the sense of desire runs through everyone and the cost of life of incarceration, there's a sacrifice there, that looking at what I created in order to be in this situation and then looking further back, what has society created which caused me to act in a certain way which brought me here, so it kind of goes back

[27:16]

to the seven Buddhas before Buddha, right? my first question to my teacher when I started practice was that it seemed like Zen was about taking action and you know going here going there and taking care of things and he smiled he said yes and also knowing when to take a step back and I think that's every single person every situation is different when to take a step back and when to come forward and there's no set answer but through Zazen and sitting upright insight comes and then we do have a path to follow and every moment to be open to the effects of our actions. And I'd be curious to hear what happens at this prison after he receives a cookbook and letters from people if this transformation Diana Lyons behind you, and she works with people in prison, and I'm sure has plenty of stories of people who've come up against what their needs are, what can happen in a prison in this day and age, which is probably better than years ago, and how to be upright.

[28:31]

And more broadly, the prisons that we all live in, by our conditioning, and where we have fear about stepping forward to say, hey, you hurt me by saying that or doing this. And when do we step back? So the prisons are not just the ones that are written about in the papers. They're harder. And I don't know which one's harder to get out of. But we're all in prisons in a way. That's a really good question. Thanks, Sam. sit and do non-doing and then somehow conclude that after we've sat that we should be in a passive state.

[29:35]

Who concludes that? Well, I mean, it's like, you know, it's like you address the question of, I mean, we say, yeah, once you've got out your cushion, I mean, once you finish your meditation, you have to get out your cushion and do something. Well, it's like we have to make a point of it to correct a tendency that maybe we all have. And it just came up for me, well that certainly must point to a deep misunderstanding of what Zazen is or what non-doing is. A deep misunderstanding. To me, I think what corrects it for me somewhat is non-doing is letting go of attachment to the ideas that come up during sitting so we're more flexible to act. we think we should be passive. It's such a heretical understanding. It's really good to point that out.

[30:38]

Yeah, and I think some of the activities that we engage in, which seem very active, are actually quite passive because they're not really addressing the matter at hand. And bureaucracy is certainly an easy example to look at, that there's all this so-called doing and spending, but nothing's really getting done. So, yeah, what is there to do? Yeah, what is there to do? Yes, sir? a crying type of joy. And then when he gets, he's asking for something, and when he gets it, he will pass it on to somebody else.

[31:49]

So if you do, in the future, when he gets, it's you. Yeah. It's pretty amazing how things come around. It's really amazing. You know, Mel's not a vegetarian, and we've talked about, he and I have talked about that a few times, and I just realized that we're, we just have two different points of view on it, and I don't know what he wrote in the letter back to this gentleman when he made the inquiry initially, but obviously there's this, you know, letting go of one's food preferences, and just supporting this man in his effort to be taken care of is just really, It's pretty good. I would have a hard time trying to support someone writing me a similar letter who wanted more meat in their diet, for instance. I don't think I have as magnanimous a mind.

[32:52]

I know I don't have as magnanimous a mind as Mel or other people who have that sort of free spirit of putting their own preferences aside and just what does this person need and to help them with that. So thanks for bringing that up. I think we learned a lot from just a simple yellow piece of paper. There's time for one more question. Mark? I know you probably didn't want to get into this, but connection, because about 90% of farmland in the United States is devoted to raising feed grain for cattle and hogs and chickens. So that land, and it's also very energy inefficient, like every time you take the energy from the grain and feed it to the cattle, it's not 90%.

[34:00]

By being a vegan, there's also a connection there of taking care of the world at large, of taking care of other forms of life, like allowing something else besides cattle to exist in the Midwest, which is happening. The buffalo are coming back, and that ecosystem is coming back. And so there is a larger connection there that I like. I like that aspect of it. There is. Yeah, we have the potential to end world hunger if we didn't eat as many animals. That's another issue. That's just like there would be more food available and there's certainly less so in the animal production that we are involved in. And it's really tricky because the society, cultural conditionings, history, kind of dictate other ways of being. And again, I think it's just the eightfold path of just being mindful and aware of what effect does this have when I take this grain of booger wheat or this morsel of chicken into my mouth.

[35:10]

And no matter what we eat, we always gosho and think, the universe for the offering of life, be it the life of grain or the life of a chicken to sustain us. My father was a veterinarian and the The first half or so of his career was based in the livestock industry and taking care of cows and chickens and hogs and all that for food consumption. His work later became just domestic animals, dogs and cats. But my life and support was directly caused by the career path that my father found himself in. It's pretty tricky stuff. I found that just sitting upright, doing nothing and gaining insight has enabled me to just take the next step and my ongoing practice is not judging and just what works for me and trying to hold back my personal agenda so I can help everyone that I encounter.

[36:22]

even while something comes up that I have some resistance about. Pete's is now carrying 20-ounce coffees and I don't think we need that much coffee. And I voice my discontent to my boss's boss and she told me this is the wave of the future and I have to go with 20-ounce coffees. So thank God we're out of time and I won't Bees are numberless.

[37:00]

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