Good morning. She became my student in 1987 when I was out at the San Francisco Med Center. We were at Tassajara and she was the shoe-sewer head student. And so she's been my student ever since. And we've practiced together for many, many years. A long time.

[01:00]

I actually became your student in 1970-something, but I'll talk about that more later. Yeah. My memory for dates is really bad. That's okay. I'll try to live up to that. Good morning, everybody. Old friends in the Dharma, people who are brothers and sisters who I don't know yet as well.

[02:05]

Is there anyone who's here for the first time? Welcome. Welcome. You've come to a happy place. Happy doesn't mean perfect, okay? So your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to know that and understand that we're humans trying to follow a great tradition and that you've chosen an incredibly auspicious day to come in for the first time. So, and as our founder said, or founder's founder said, Zen mind, beginner's mind. So everybody is inspired by beginners. And this is the spirit in which we do our best to practice for a lifetime together

[03:10]

And as you know, the time of the beginning of the day for us usually is at sunrise. And at sunrise, the rooster says, wake up. And today is the beginning of the year of the fire rooster, which is different from the year of the monkey. And so actually in Asia, it was yesterday, not today, but who's quibbling, right? And in places where the entire country celebrates this Lunar New Year, there are fireworks and all sorts of things happen. But I think for today, we can celebrate new beginnings and the spirit of beginning. and the spirit of refreshing ourselves through finding the clarity and openness, the transparency and the devotion of beginner's mind every time we sit down and every time we stand up.

[04:19]

So it's actually an important part of our tradition. So it wasn't just Suzuki Roshi who said beginner's mind and or meant beginner's mind. Even in one of the most intimate ceremonies that we do, there's a little phrase that says, well, I don't actually know how to do this in gender neutral language, but two auspicious roosters light the lamp. You can also say two auspicious chickens or a rooster and a chicken, but we could also say two auspicious phoenixes like the lamp, and then that's already gender neutral. A phoenix is also a bird that may be part of this tradition for today. And what's interesting about a phoenix is that it, It also is a symbol of beginning, but it's a symbol of an end as a beginning.

[05:24]

So when a Phoenix dies, it's fiery nature sets it alight and it burns entirely to a cinder. And then in the middle of the cinders, there's a little bright red egg that bursts forth wings and a body. And, um, becomes a bird who can give dragons a run for their money. So I mentioned this, and this is the fire rooster year, but it's not an active bright fire. It's kind of a banked fire or a the ashes of the fire, it's a yin fire from which the phoenix can arise. So sometimes our hearts and minds are in that situation where something has happened that's overwhelming or we don't understand what nature is bringing us.

[06:32]

And yet from those ashes, something new and pure can come up. This is true of us, it's true of groups, and it's true of some of the most inspiring people in our history and in our culture. I was reading about the Sangha in particular, in particular refuge in the Sangha, and what does being in a community mean? that was important to me over the course of a week. I was very interested to know what is being in a community and how can I help? And even more than just being in a community, what is the practice of taking refuge in Sangha? So as Reverend Martin Luther King said, the beloved community that's strong enough to arise or

[07:38]

become an intimate place of enacting one's deepest values under the direst of conditions. And we can hold that example in our hearts of the beloved community of people who were willing to lay down their lives for their freedom. So let's backtrack it a little bit to a lecture that I'd just like to read you some parts of because it's so perfect for today. And this was a lecture given by Suzuki Roshi, Sojin's teacher and my grand teacher or great grand teacher. And he gave a lecture on a an oral teaching by one of the teachers in the Zen tradition. The Japanese name of this teacher was Fuketsu.

[08:43]

And so the lecture was quoted by another teacher many years later. That teacher's name was Engo and commented on by yet another teacher named Setso. So this is, and it's part of a collection of stories called the Blue Cliff Record. And these stories are the literature and poetry, some of the literature and poetry of Soto Zen, as well as Rinzai Zen. They're different types of Zen, different flavors of Zen. But these stories are called public cases. And like legal cases that have precedence for action in the world, these cases have precedence for how we bring what's in our hearts into our lives. So the introduction is by Engo. Setting up the Dharma banner and establishing the truth.

[09:50]

This is a job for a teacher of profound attainment. To distinguish a dragon from a snake, to distinguish black from white. That is what a mature teacher or practitioner must do. Now, if we momentarily put aside this topic of how to give life or death with the blade of the sword, which means how to act in life, to promote, to nourish, or to cut off, tell me, How will you yourself judge the matter of occupying your heartland all on your own? To test or to talk about this, I'm going to present this case. So in the introduction, basically he's saying, the Dharma is the teaching, so setting up teaching or truth in our lives.

[10:55]

establishing that that is the truth, which is what we're all doing here, that a person with a profound attainment can do this. And to make the subtle distinctions that we have to make in order to distinguish true from false, that's also a matter of attainment or accomplishment. So let's put that aside. and say something directly about our own experience and our own lives. How will each one of us ourselves go into and judge what to do in our own heartland? And this case is gonna be about that. It's gonna be an example of that. So this is the case. In a talk, Fusetsu said, if a single particle of dust is raised, the nation flourishes.

[12:11]

If no particle of dust is raised, the nation perishes. Later, the commenting teacher, Setsuo, held up his staff like this. This is his comment on the case. When he heard, single Adam, nation flourishes, no Adam, nation perishes, he commented, holding up his staff. Who here is willing to live together and die together? That's a very interesting comment, isn't it? If you set up something, there's flourishing. Don't set up anything, there's perishing. You could also say it the other way. If you set up something, there's perishing. If you don't set it up, there's flourishing. You can set it up either way, but the important thing is who is willing to live together and die together.

[13:20]

That's what Sangha means. Sangha means that we're committed. Sangha refuge means that we're committed to the community of all beings. And within that community of all beings, we're committed to people who want to study the heartland of our own life. And we're willing to do that together. We're willing to look at our own behavior and other people's behavior to establish a place of trust in which such vital and intimate work can be done. Now, does that mean we're perfect? No, it does not. I don't know of anyone who's perfect. I don't know of anyone who doesn't make mistakes. Even really serious mistakes are sometimes made.

[14:20]

Even serious issues that can take years to resolve sometimes occur. But where is that commitment? Who is willing to just jump in with our entire life and our entire death? That means who's willing to establish his or her heart right here, with all beings. So Suzuki Roshi commented about this and I would just like you to read a little bit of what he said because it's so fresh and it's so true. And there isn't any way in the world that I could say anything that was better than that. The thing is that When we think of this case, our own response is maybe the best commentary on the case. And anything we can say about the case isn't as good as what we do when we are living in and establishing our own heartland based on truth.

[15:34]

This is what Suzuki Roshi said. But what he did is more important than what he said. But I'm going to read what he said anyway, because that's what we have. What he did is this. What he did is that. What he did is here. That's the really important thing. But these are words which are kind of chicken tracks for what he did. They stand for what he did. Suzuki Roshi said, Whether you are a layperson or monk, there is some important point which we should make clear. To put more emphasis on big mind rather than small mind. This is the point we should make clear in our practice. In this way, more and more you will develop your Buddha mind, which is your awake mind, which is big mind.

[16:37]

When you have big mind, when you are involved in some practice, experiencing big mind or expressing big mind, at first you'll feel, oh yeah, I'm developing big mind. And you feel you have big mind. And you developed your big mind to everything, to your friend, to your food, to your household, to your monastery, everything. But actually, if you continue to practice developing the big mind, you eventually, you don't feel as if you have big mind or you're developing big mind. That is so-called no mind. Okay? Big mind is, you know, something big in contrast to small mind. So it isn't real big mind because it only exists in contrast to small mind. No mind is actually the great mind. When you don't have an idea, this is big mind or small mind.

[17:43]

The same thing will be true for our Tassajara Institute or our Zen Center. So the temple that was being established right then. Why we have a Zen center is to develop our big mind so that we can develop our big mind. We have a Zen center so that we can continue to practice our way and develop our way. We have a Zen center. But if you have the idea of a Zen center too much as an organization or as an institute, that is still, and he laughed, you know, something wrong with it. The point should be at the same time carefully examined. We should know what we are doing." Then he starts talking about a case, the case. This was a koan or Zen story told by Fukutsu Enshou, who, three or four, fourth generation of Rinzai. And on some occasion, maybe, he mounted up on the altar and told the students, here's my translation.

[18:48]

If you pick up one dust, nation becomes prosperous. If you pick up one dust, nation becomes prosperous. If you don't, nothing happens. That is the first part of this case. That's what he said when he came to the altar. To this, Setso says, taking up his staff. You know, staff is long stick. Setsho said, is there anyone who would go through birth and death with you? Is there anyone who would go through birth and death with you? And then Suzuki Roshi says, and that is the whole story. So, um, Anyway, he repeats this and he comments on it some more, but I won't read the whole lecture, but I will refer you to it. It's Suzuki Roshi's lecture on Fuketsu's story, One Particle of Dust.

[19:51]

And there's a lot more, a lot of wonderful commentary about this. Suzuki Roshi says, don't get caught up in big mind. Don't get caught up in small mind. Don't get caught up in any mind. Just be willing to live together and die together to practice the fundamental point. And then he says, if you realize that you cannot be ignored from the universe, even though you are small, then you realize who you are. At the same time, you realize that because of some truth, being supported by the truth you are, you are alive. As long as you're supported by things, you cannot be free. Follow truth." And then he just says, thank you, thank you very much. Okay, so it's a simple message. Simple doesn't mean easy.

[20:53]

It just means be with your truth, in your own heart, be willing to uphold that in your whole life and in your whole death. That's the way. Setting something up is not meant to interfere with that, it's meant to help. And everything that we do when we set up a community has to support that truth. So, I was wondering, You know, who exemplifies this in life? And of course, what I realized was that Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha and Reverend Martin Luther King's beloved community are some of the greatest examples that we have of this. Even though they weren't Buddhist, you know, we can't say, oh, there's a Buddhist example.

[21:55]

There are wonderful examples. There's, of course, the Sangha in Buddhist practice is defined as a group of five people or more who's willing to do six basic practices of harmony together. And there are many communities who do this, and you can research them. When I googled Six Concords and the Sangha, I saw documents by literally hundreds of Buddhist communities who are practicing together. Really, you need five friends, including you, so four other friends besides yourself to practice with and to bring up the great matter of birth and death. because that's the central question we have. Who are we? What are we doing here? And so to have four other people who are willing to do these practices with you is really important because that's how we're supported.

[23:07]

That's how we experience the freshness of our lives with the truth. So I'll just tell you what these practices are, and we can see if they're actually occurring in this room right now. Share space. Check. Share the essentials of daily life, like air, food, and water. Well, you're gonna have, you can, we have a rain check. You have to let me know when you drink the tea and eat the cookies. if they count as essentials, or if so, in what way? Observing the same precepts. Well, we have the intention to not do bad, to do good, and to spread it around. So I would say check. I mean, I haven't verified that with everybody, but is there anyone here who wants to do bad stuff?

[24:10]

He doesn't want to do good stuff. I don't want to shame you. Speak out. Okay. All right. So share space. Share the essentials of daily life. Observe the same presets. Those are the first three. Now this is difficult. Use only words that contribute to harmony. What I would say is use only words that contribute to harmony, except when you don't, and then if you don't, notice that. And, you know, acknowledge it, apologize, start over. Okay? So use only words that contribute to harmony as an intention together. You in with that? Thank you. Okay. Check. Share insights and understanding. Well, I hope I'm sharing insights and understanding. And because of who you are and how you're listening, I can do this.

[25:16]

So from where I'm sitting, I say, check. But that's to be verified. We'll have a question and answer in a little while. Maybe someone could let me know when it's five to 11 or so so we can spend 15, 20 minutes, okay? And then the last one is respect each other's viewpoints. You ready to do that? I hope. Okay, so those are six. And so none of them is really onerous in and of itself, but in life, it becomes let's just say those practices have texture and we have to continually renew those intentions and acknowledge the ways in which we depart from them, not just individually, but together as a group and understand how we're relating to that incredible treasure of harmony.

[26:22]

that allows us the safety to understand this process of birth and death. So we have to continually refresh it, and that's beginner's mind in the context of big mind that isn't some particular or specified big mind, but can be seen in everything that we do, say, or are. So I don't want to disrespect the Buddhist tradition, but because of the marching that's being done and the activity in the country, I wanted to understand some homegrown examples a little bit. And so that's why I wanted to understand a little bit more about the beloved community. what might give people the oomph to do something as brave in the face of as much persecution as that group of people did and is still doing.

[27:34]

This is important to me. I mean, it's important to me personally because my family is a Holocaust survivor family. And if it weren't for the kindness of strangers, I wouldn't be here. If it weren't for the Quakers setting up the Kindertransport, my mother would have died when she was 16. If it weren't for the community of resistance workers, including my uncle, who were willing to live together and die together, my father wouldn't have gotten out. I'm only one of many, but there are people all over the world who have depended on this kind of willing to live together and die together intention of harmony and justice for everyone.

[28:42]

There's enough people who have depended on this, probably even in this room. I mean, just show of hands, in whose history has community allowed them to be here right now? That's quite a lot of us. And we don't even know, you know, last generation or the generation before, the generation before that, or who allowed our parents to find work or eat or our grandparents or, you know, people in the depression, people coming over in boats, all sorts of people. Anyway, the beloved community lives by the six principles of nonviolence that I think, Alan, you've presented them here recently, right? The principles of nonviolence. Can I just read them? Okay.

[29:44]

So, in, The establishment of a Kingian nonviolence, there are six main principles that everyone agrees to. And when they do and they support each other to practice them together, that's called the beloved community. And there's much more to that because the beloved community is continuously challenged by things that are neither beloved nor community and can be challenged to the death. establishes itself as a refuge for everyone to be appreciated in a heartfelt way. These are the principles. One, nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people. It is active nonviolent resistance to evil.

[30:56]

So it's not just that we won't do evil. It's that we would recognize evil and not participate actively. We would resist it. Principle two, nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding, i.e. messy truth. Okay. The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation. So first principle, nonviolence is a way of life. Second is the point of nonviolence is friendship and understanding. That's more important than getting our way. The third principle, oh, and the purpose of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community. The third principle, nonviolence seeks to defeat injustices, not people.

[31:59]

So it's not about personalized, it's not about finger pointing. It's about behaviors, not people. For people we forgive, behaviors we try to change, okay? Principle four, nonviolence holds that suffering can educate and transform. And I would say the arrow of that points this way, not that way. So please don't, you know, I think that it's our job not to go around saying your suffering is good for your practice, but rather to allow our own suffering to educate and inform us. For instance, if we're in a painful difference with someone, to allow those differences to educate us or inform us about what it means to do good. So one of the main practices of nonviolence in regard to suffering, educating and transforming us is that we do not retaliate.

[33:15]

So love is more important than retaliation or rightness. So the fifth principle is that nonviolence chooses love instead of hate. And the sixth principle is that nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice. In other words, that there are natural retributions that happen for violence and injustice. And the corollary is that that might take a really, really long time. Okay. And it's a time. For questions. Okay, so there isn't any, I mean. There isn't any ends to this presentation, but just quickly, I want to summarize that if we hold up a speck of dust, which means any, basically any thought or anything we do, anything we create, anything we create together is a speck of dust.

[34:25]

Or if we don't hold up a speck of dust, see ya, thank you. Tea, thank you. We need to share the essentials of daily life, do we not? So speck of dust, holding it up, putting it down. So coming to the Zendo, going away from the Zendo, cleaning the tea stuff, not cleaning the tea stuff. These are all things that we can do. We hold it up, we hold up cleaning, we hold up the jobs that the establishment flourishes. we don't hold it up, it perishes. But we can also say it the other way. If we hold it up too much, it perishes. If we don't hold it up too much, it flourishes. You can say it both ways. It's kind of like marriage. If you hold it up too much, if you hold it up the right amount, it flourishes. If you hold it up the wrong amount, it perishes. It's an art. It's dance.

[35:28]

Okay. So Sangha is a dance. And so the case is holding it up, not holding it up, flourishing, perishing. The comment is, where is there a community? Where are there people who are willing to live together and die together? in the service of living in our own heartland, establishing the ground that holds the fire that allows the birth of the new year today. Okay, so please, questions, comments, I just opened up this gigantic a tangle of stuff, I'm sure. Alan can probably shed some light on it, or Sojin, so feel free to jump in. Anyone have anything? Yes? Well, I did not address it specifically, but if you think about it, when are you not doing anything?

[37:07]

And when can you just appreciate what is? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count. You know, so what entirely useless thing do you do every morning? Often lasts for 40 minutes and, you know, you don't set things up and you just kind of sit there and you breathe in and you breathe out, you shut up, you sit still. I wonder what we do that's kind of like that. You know, when we get to discern what is the heartland in our own life. So when the Sangha shares insights and experiences, those are the insights and experiences we're talking about. What happens on your cushion, what happens with others.

[38:11]

So thank you for bringing that up. Yes. I'm thinking about how nonviolence is also active resistance. Okay, well, I want to say in America, that America is founded on the idea that people can disagree with harmony. Okay? But there are limits to the things that we can tolerate in the cause of agreement or disagreement, both being acceptable.

[39:17]

So active resistance comes in when we start, when whatever we need to resist is in conflict with our deepest values or sense of justice. And so, for instance, if there are human rights violations, we have to resist that because otherwise what kind of society do we live in? But if we resist human rights violations by hurting or killing people, who are we? What are we doing? One of the things that was most shocking to me about how the Nazis came to power was that if you look at the dogma that was around that, the understanding was that the society would become better, that the genetic stock would become better because my ancestors were impure.

[40:34]

And people actually believed that. And so, my family, and I'll be proud of this my whole life, that my uncle actively resisted this and didn't believe it. And even though they were destroyed psychologically, they managed to live. So I don't think that means that we have to deny the disrespectors of human rights or the people who have been brought to the point of a huge delusion. I don't think it means that we have to deny them life. But I do think it means that we have to call them on evil. So the tricky part is that our ideas of evil may not be the same.

[41:37]

How do we understand what's essentially okay in human life? How do we not normalize evil? So this is a real question. I don't want to point fingers or prescribe what's good and what's evil. But I think we have a responsibility to understand that in our own lives. and with the people we meet. Humans, I think the essential human right is dignity. And as Suzuki Roshi said, if we call something, he was talking about big mind, but if we call something dignity, if we set it up, then it's not really dignity. But at the same time, we have to name it as best we can and uphold it as best we can, not knowing ultimately, not being able to describe it, not being able to, we have to know that whatever description we make has limits, but with that humility, we still have to uphold it as imperfect human beings in a difficult world.

[43:04]

That's a very awesome, challenging responsibility. And so, that's what I can say about this. Maybe Linda has some wisdom. No, actually, I confess to start with that I was thinking about my question more than I was listening to you just now. Okay. Sorry. That's okay, but what's your question? I've read a couple of them. I've thought a lot about and studied a lot about nonviolence. King is my hero, way more than Gandhi. In the field of nonviolence right now, there are people talking about a spectrum between principled and pragmatic nonviolence, which I'm sure you know. It's a way of life.

[44:06]

And pragmatic is more political. Anyway, some of those principles, like nonviolence seeks to establish friendship, or that's like harmony. Gandhi would back down. He would bend over backwards. He would lose what a pragmatic, politically conscious person would understand you shouldn't lose. So I just, this is a comment that maybe that principle and pragmatic for me are like emptiness in form. That's all. Yeah. What I'm saying is that even Gandhi was imperfect. Oh, he was. Yeah. But I mean, right. He was, he was almost perfect, but he was imperfect too. But, but, but he was imperfect with, uh, so, uh, he was so perfectly, he was so imperfectly perfect. It's way beyond any, any, you know, it's, he, he can be a hero.

[45:12]

It's okay. You know, um, I'd say that, um, Gandhi still has the power. Gandhi, no matter whether he leaned over too much for you, he still has the power to inspire and he was the inspiration for Dr. King, right? Satyagraha actually did occur and all you have to do is go to the Aga Khan's palace and sit in front of that cell with the spinning wheel you know, to feel it and walk around there to feel it today. And yeah, Alan. We are here in our temple. Yes. The locus for Kenyan nonviolence was the church.

[46:13]

That's right. And it worked in those circumstances. there in the southern communities. And one looks as you, and I've done a lot of reading and study about this, wasn't so effective in other places. Wasn't so effective in the north. Wasn't so effective where there wasn't a ground of common religious praxis that, you know, so this is what we have an opportunity to do. Because we have the six concords, right? We also have the precepts. We have a lot of values that are shared in this room. But yesterday, and I didn't talk about this so much, but I was thinking about the Right to Life March. of the day before yesterday as opposed to the marches of the week before, the women's march of the week before?

[47:23]

And how do I establish a community of harmony with someone who thinks that so differently than I do? How do I do that? What do I do? What do I do if there's a Sangha member who really feels differently on certain issues than I do? How do I be, how can I be that person's friend and supporter? And what I realized is I have to jump in and do exactly that. And maybe that's how I have to end this talk, just to say that that's what, you wanna give a word of wisdom without which this will not be complete? You wanna save it? Do we have time for one more question? What time is it? 11.14. We have time for 30 seconds of question, 30 seconds of answer. That was 30 seconds.

[48:57]

Okay, and my answer is, let's talk about that outside. And in the meantime, let's agree that right here, right now, and in here, in the middle, center of the chest, that we will say yes to each other and to the conversation. Okay? Thank you. So I want to thank you for your patience in listening to this talk. I want to thank you, Alan, because you're really a resource for the Sangha and for the wider community on these topics, having thought about them for your whole adult life and worked with these issues, not just

[50:18]

as political material, but even using the rhythm of the breath in a seed syllable kind of way. So from the social life and national and international life all the way down to yourselves. So I trust you with my life that way. So I want to say that. And I also want to thank you for inviting me and introducing me. but also for just in 1987 when Mel trained me, Nancy was there and Paul, a variety of people from this community were there too. And one of the most important ways in which you trained me was by sitting next to me and showing me with your body and with your hands what Oryoki or the Bulls, whose name is Just Enough, mean?

[51:25]

What is it to live together and die together? So, no words to thank you for that. Thanks, everybody.

[51:34]

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