Now we're getting it. That's good. I can hear myself. Thank you. That's okay. So, good morning. Oh, we have to do something first, right? So, last night, before I went to bed, I mixed up matcha. Do you know matcha? Matcha is powdered green tea, and it's very concentrated, and you put it in a tea bowl, and you put some water in with the the tea and then you whisk it with a whisk, a bamboo whisk, and it's very popular in Japan. But you should not do it before you go to bed. So, I woke up several times during the night, you know,

[01:06]

And various thoughts came into my head each time. So the first time the thought that came into my head was politics. And then I related all, I thought of all the related terms that go with politics like polite, polarized, police, And I think there are more, but you get the idea. Actually, politics, we're always doing politics, right? But we assign it in a to government, government and politics. And there are politicians, right? But we're all politicians, and all our interactions, not all of them, but so much of our interaction is politics. You know, we're deciding how to interact with each other in a polite way.

[02:13]

So, polite. has the meaning of, the feeling of respect, right? When we interact with each other, we try to do it. Someone asked me, what is the Buddhist attitude toward all this stuff that's been happening in politics for the last two years and after November 8th? how do we deal with all this stuff as a Buddhist? Polite has taken on, you know, words change, the meaning of words change over time, but a polite, I feel, has the meaning of trying to understand each other and working things out in a respectful way, which has lost totally lost, because people think now, could always have been, but being smart and clever is what we aspire to.

[03:30]

We always say to people, they're smart, that person is really smart, or they're clever. Clever, but smart, but we've traded in We've substituted wisdom for smartness. We never say, that was a wise idea, or that was something, wisdom was underneath this move. We say, oh, that was smart, because we're always vying for position to see who is the most clever, and cleverness, aided cleverness, underlying smartness is the most valued. Wisdom is rarely valued, but it's understandable because we're all driven by ego. When we're not driven by ego, wisdom comes forth. But since governments and

[04:32]

people who seek power usually find it, and that's driven by ego. So wisdom rarely rises up, and if it does, its head gets cut off, because people don't value it. I don't say people don't value it, but people who are looking for power don't value it, because it goes against their principles. So we have a hard time as Buddhists a really hard time. And they're usually aided by police to keep the peace, so to speak, the polarization. So for some, polarization is peace. You keep everybody in their places and then you have peace. Peace means restriction rather than freedom. So this is where we find ourselves. after two years and a few weeks.

[05:38]

So, in two years we built up a lot of anxiety. So, the second time I woke up, the word despair came into my mind. And despair is related to desperate, despondent, and desperado. I think desperado must be a Spanish word, of course. We use it for Mexican militants back in the Mexican wars, desperados and crooks, riding their horses into the sunset with their .45 attached to their hip after shooting a bunch of people. So, but desperado is, can be,

[06:46]

Like when you don't know what to do, you do something. Because the hardest place to be is where there's no movement. So in between November 8th and today, there's a place called Limbo, where things are not moving, but there's a lot of angst. which is related to anxiety, which is, yeah. So despair, disparate, difference, things are so differentiated that it can't be related. And despondent, despondent is where you are, there's a big wall, and you can't get through the wall and so you drop down and try to curl up.

[07:50]

Hillary Clinton on November 9th said, I just want to curl up in bed with my dog and never get up again. That's despondent. But it puts us in a disparate position, which is not bad. actually, because out of despair comes courage. So we talk about encouraging. How does one become encouraged in this situation that we find ourselves? Not every one of us feels this way, of course. So I'm talking about myself and whoever can relate to what I'm talking about. So then somebody says, oh, just get over it.

[09:00]

That's good. Actually, everything has a good side and a bad side. Just get over it means to rise above your despair so that you can actually do something. So I agree with that in my own sense. I don't agree with it in the sense that it's offered. But if we use what's offered and turn it to our benefit or turn it to something useful, that's our practice. Buddhist practice is to take in what is not useful and produce something out of that that is useful. We say to take in all the anger and negative energy that comes forth and digest it, embrace it. So Buddhist practice is to embrace with big mind.

[10:08]

A responsive mind is big mind. Reactive mind continues to create tenseness. Reactive mind continues to produce that which we don't want to receive from the other side. It doesn't work because when we react, we just create another unwholesome situation and keep the unwholesomeness perpetuated. Response is to step back and come from where you are instead of coming from the energy that's coming towards you. You take the energy that's coming towards you and you digest it and you hold it. and you transform that energy into some energy which is beneficial.

[11:17]

So reacting is one of our biggest problems. It's really hard not to react to that which comes at us with great force and wants to destroy us. And to digest the energy with compassion and transform it so that you actually can reform the energy that's coming toward you. This is how we influence others. So this is how, as a Buddhist, we should be. I say should, people don't like the word should, but I'm gonna use it. we should know how to, or be mindful and careful about how we respond using the energy that comes toward us.

[12:20]

So this is a big, we've just received, I think, I have just received a big dump of Trump. Excuse me. I couldn't help doing that. Forgive me. a big dose of negative energy that's going to affect everybody in the world for a long time if it continues. This is dangerous. We haven't been in this position. It's been coming, mounting little by little over the last 50 years. And now, as we know, it's come to this. Here are the stages. Disbelief. Anger.

[13:23]

Despair. Hopelessness. Fright. Anxiety. experience any of those feelings lately? All of them, yes. So, the definition of sociopath is one who cares only about their own well-being and will manipulate others to that end and who has little empathy for others. I've known sociopaths, and for me it's easy to identify. And I know the difficulty that comes with this kind of problem.

[14:29]

Matter of fact, back in the 80s, We had this problem at San Francisco Zen Center and it took years to get back to some kind of normality. So the question comes up, now what? You know, people think often of Buddhist practice as being passive. When we sit in zazen, we think that zazen is passive activity. It is. It's not just passive, it's a passive activity, or it's an active passivity. Both activity and passivity

[15:34]

are balanced in our Zazen. It's not just passivity. If it was passivity, there are people who do this, who would just be kind of doing this in Zazen. A limpid pool of protoplasm. But actually Zazen is to bring forth So one side is passive, which is receiving. The other side is active, which is doing. So doing and receiving are the two sides of zazen. We sit up straight and we use all our effort and energy to do that. So it's called total dynamic activity within stillness. So the passive, and the active are totally balanced, and then one is in the other.

[16:37]

So it's fine to do something active about the world. And you do that with the foundation of openness and acceptance. to be totally active and totally accepting of the situation. In other words, activity within stillness and stillness within our activity, which means when we do something active, we do it with concentration, patience, openness, and non-reactivity. So we will be dealing with the situation for some time.

[17:45]

My feeling, my experience is sociopaths always implode at some point. It's not sustainable in a wide situation. So I'd love to name names, but I won't. I'm just talking about the facts, folks. Anyway, I would like to open it up to see what your feelings are. We have not had a discussion about this because of the circumstances of our scheduling, but I would like to see what some of your feelings might be. Of course, we all know what feelings we have, but nevertheless... Yes, John? When George Bush put out the word that he didn't want to see coffins... Yes.

[18:51]

A bunch of us in New York got organized and used this as a way of making a very important message that the human cost of war has to be counted. Since that protest, people have been talking about the human cost of war as a thing to say. And the coffin became kind of the lingua franca of that period. Now we have Trump, and he's presenting something. I'm waiting to see. It's not a coffin. I'm waiting to see what it is that synthesizes our thinking to take the next step. Because we had to face, A, that we all have a bit of implosion coming with all this media and stuff that we're watching. I don't know what. But there's also a step of humanity. All the press was saying we needed a movement, and we got Hillary. We needed a movement, and that's why we got Trump. But what we really need is Trump as an, if you ask me, an initiator of a movement that is exactly the opposite of Trump.

[19:54]

It says, don't you see how obvious it is that we've gone this far? And what it will be, I don't know, but I believe it's a seed for us to sow and to nurture. Yes, I remember the coffin thing. Because we hired a private army. We didn't have a draft. we hired a private army. Don't you remember? Recruiting, doing all this recruiting and all. It was a mercenary army and we didn't have to know anything about it. And don't bring the coffin, don't show the coffins coming back because then you'll see that there's something happening over there. Yes. I just want to say one thing, if I can remember what I was going to say. OK. Yes. Well, you know, because of my work, I often get involved in politics as usual.

[20:59]

Right. I happen to have been signed up to the second day of session to be part of a congressional briefing from the University of California. And the topic was the global food system. And I was on a panel with a climate change expert and all various people. And I called up the day before and I said, do you really want us to come and do this? Because Trump had been elected. And the person on the hill said, absolutely. I said, you want me to fly out there and Well, wait, should I change what I'm going to talk about? It's a little too progressive for this situation, isn't it? And she said, no, come on out and let's hold a meeting. So I flew out and there's this big old building, marble everywhere, lots of offices with shields, the center of power.

[22:04]

And they march us in. There's a full room of people. Yes, for what it's worth. It helped me de-traumatize a little bit. It felt like the machine goes on. It's a very big place. One sociopath, a lot of people with a lot of agendas. People showed up to listen. Yeah. It was a learning experience. Yeah, that's good. We have to remember People say, what did we do wrong? But that's not true. It's over two million more people voted for Hillary. Something went wrong, but it wasn't that. Anyway. I forgot your name.

[23:08]

Abby. I want to thank you for this talk, and I feel very fortunate to be in this room at this time with this particular group of people. And my question to you is, based on your experience, how do we help the sociopath? Well, together with a psychiatrist, Truly, you have to want to change. You can't change people. They have to want to change. Like if somebody gets really angry and does angry things that hurt people, and then you say, well, we want you to take care of your anger, to do something about that. They have to want to do it. I know people who say, oh, I've been to psychiatrists or psychologists, you know, but they can't help you because you don't want to change.

[24:17]

If you want to change, anybody can help you. What are the causes and conditions that allow someone to want to change? Yeah, well, we'll see. It's called watchful waiting. What kind of medical term? Joel? Thank you for this. It was beautiful. I want to offer three things. The first just came up with how can we help Trump. I asked Colin that, and he said, why don't you try offering him the medal? Offering him? The medal. That's what he wants, actually. Yes. That's right. Yes. That agenda is all driven by fear. Yes. Yeah, number three.

[25:37]

It's two things. Oh yes, yes. quite well, a guy who was a car mechanic. And I've known him for years, and he's one of the sweetest people in the world. And so he said, how are you? And I said, OK, except for Trump. And I could tell immediately. But it was very nice. It's sort of a real poem.

[26:45]

I'm terrified of me because I'm afraid I'm going to scream and I don't want to scream. So anyway, that's good. Yes. Thank you. But you asked, what do we do? think about it, you have a spiritual basis, you have opposition to a petroleum economy, you have the need for clean water, you have issues of race with our Native sisters and brothers, you have a police

[27:57]

There's winter coming and people's lives are at risk. All of this, this is perfect coming together and there's almost very little precedent in the mainstream press. You see a blip here and there, but this is going on constantly. It's already coming together.

[29:07]

And I just want to give voice to that because I think it's an extraordinary event and an extraordinary opportunity to really look at our history. Whether we're going to do that or not, I don't know. But that's the challenge. There are many issues that all come together in that one spot. I'm happy to talk with anyone. Some of our friends are Buddhist researchers and from various Zen centers are there now. Wendy Johnson just got back. I also want to mention that if you want, One thing to be out there facing all this, and another thing to take a step back and compose yourself.

[30:11]

I think composure is really important for us to cultivate and keep in mind so that we don't just allow our negative feelings to eat us up. So I suggest coming to Sesshin next week. Hope to see you all there, seven days of composure. How much time do we have? We still have about seven minutes. Okay. Okay. Charles. I'd like to point out that when FDR died and Harry Truman became president, the large part of the country was aghast. And as time went on, he turned out to be the best president that we had. So I think it's better not to assume that all these terrible things are going to happen until they happen.

[31:19]

Well, yes. And no. Because what's already happened is a cabinet of sociopaths being chosen by a sociopath. A cabinet of sociopaths. That's what's so frightening. of course yes I think that's the point when the president-elect Donald Trump said beat the crap out of him will ya at a rally about somebody who was maybe pointing a sign or something like that that's that is not something that goes unanswered that creates a way of ignored or we can't dismiss it.

[32:20]

Yes, that's right. And what you see is what you get. So yesterday, a San Jose mosque was sent a very threatening letter. I forget exactly the words. You don't want to hear them anyway, but it was a very scary letter written to them. And a few days ago, I was at my friend Ilse's house, and she's 92. She lived through, she escaped Europe. She's Jewish. She grew up in Danzig and she left when she was 13. She saw the signs of the beginning of Nazi Germany coming through her town, people taking her property, her family's property, while they were living in the house.

[33:29]

Anyway, so she's so scared, she's terrified, and she's angry. And she's 92, you know, she actually has something, so she might not live for a long time. So I was reading her my poetry that I had written that's about this. It's about not hating, because the hating part can actually create what you were talking about. You cannot actually function very well if you're in a state of hate or if you're in a state of anger. The anger needs to transform so that you can hold yourself open enough to do something positive And to that end, I have my friends that I've worked on during the Bush years, and we're coming together on Buddha's Enlightenment Day, as it turns out, to work on some things. And I have an idea of something that's not, it's kind of below the surface that can change things.

[34:32]

I mean, if people take part in it, it's below the surface and it changes the fabric at the ground level so that people can't even they couldn't really say, hey, you can't do that, you know? There's like no, and so, anyway, we're all coming together with different ideas. And that's what, I feel like that's where our power is, is when we act, we don't feel so disabled. When we find our true action, then we are empowered and we can do something that's meaningful. It's one small thing, you have no idea what that effect, any action like that. So, I mean, this mosque, these people are incredibly brave, and there's things that we can do that are, we don't have to go to a protest line, but we can actually create and support so many people by our other choices.

[35:36]

and by not just living in our own world and just being afraid. So I hope everyone decides on a loving action that they can do, because there are those actions and they're not that complicated. Thank you. Thank you for your talk. Okay. I also couldn't sleep last night, And my thoughts were pumpkin pie, cherry pie, or apple pie. And I thought, well, that's my typical triple treasure. And then I actually did think then of a Buddhadharma Sangha while I was lying in bed. Because composure, recently, has become... I'm just more attentive to what that means. So I'm going to be Tsushima, that's for sure, and that's where I'm going to put my energy.

[36:40]

But I wanted to ask you what you mean when you say the sociopath will implode. Does that mean that you foresee some kind of stepping down, impeachment, some kind of end to it before four years? That's called hope. What does implode look like? There are desperate moves. One is a recount. That would be great if there was a recount, just to stir things up, you know. That might happen. And then you thought, well, maybe everything will change before the inauguration. Well, it's false hope, but it buoys your spirits. I remember Kadagiri Roshi saying, at the end of the war, Second World War, the Japanese lost.

[37:41]

They lost everything. And the phrase that they used was, you have to bear the unbearable. And he applied that to Zazen. But it's like, you know, you have to bear the unbearable. And ultimately, you're gonna die. That's very, what we think of is, what are you, why am I gonna die? You know, I like it here. But things happen that you just cannot control. So we have to be prepared to bear the unbearable, whatever that might be. Nothing lasts forever, you know, and everything goes in cycles. I've seen so many cycles. The only president I ever knew until I was in junior high school was Roosevelt. That's a long time.

[38:45]

And you had faith in the government. You had faith in the armed force. A general would think, wow, this is a great guy, you know, until the war started and everything changed. I've seen these cycles, I've experienced these cycles, you know, for 87 years. And one just follows the other, the pendulum swings. Now it's over here, then it goes over there, then it goes over here, and the clock goes tick, tick, tick, tick. So we have to have the flexibility Number one, if you don't have flexibility, you can do nothing but suffer. So you have to have the flexibility to accept whatever's coming and not get caught by it. That's why we said sadhana.

[39:47]

Yes? And not despair and resort to desperate action, destructive action. Well, you know, sometimes you have to do whatever you have to do. But it's outside of, sometimes you may have to kill somebody. There was a Tibetan, in Tibet, many, many centuries ago, where they had, there was somebody who was in power who needed to be eliminated. And this guy, the Tibetan monk, killed him because he's unwilling to accept all the karma that goes with that forever. because this is something that really has to be done. I'm not saying we should do that, but sometimes you have to go against what looks like the right thing to do or not to do. But you have to take the consequences of whatever you do and the karma that goes with whatever you do.

[40:50]

So it's better not to do that. It is. To do everything you can to not have to do that. But if you have to, then you have to and you take the consequences. It's hard to swallow. It's hard. You barely unbarrel. So this is what happens in war. People are drafted into the army. They don't want to kill anybody. They cannot be objectors. And you have to do that. If people are firing at you, you have to kill them. Unless you don't want to, some people do that. I remember, Kadagiri, you know, in Japan, during the war, everybody, all the men were drafted, right? But when, he said, the monks, when they were drafted, got onto the battlefield, they would shoot in the air.

[41:54]

Some of them. You got your hand on your lips, but I thought you wanted to say something. Okay. Thank you.

[42:13]

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