Today's the truth the doctor's words I My name is Tia and I welcome you to Zen Center, although

[01:02]

It's a beautiful day outside and today we celebrate Earth Day. And what in the world are you doing here? You know when I was thinking about Saying I mean the when I hear myself say celebrate Earth Day It seems like such a misnomer for heaven's sakes. It seems so Paltry so small So So human I Mean think about it we right are going to celebrate the earth Well, actually when I think about it that's not a bad idea I Mean the earth gives and [...] gives

[02:06]

So, I think it's appropriate at least once a year that we stop and we actually Thank Thank The earth for Life our life and you know, it's not our life It's not our life. It's not my life It's life. Just think Thank you is enough. No earth. No me. No, nothing just life happens and for some Miracle Some mistake or some, you know quirk of the universe human beings Have a mind that is aware of awareness so we get to stop for a minute and And And What can you say, you know, thank you, okay

[03:15]

Thank you And Well, you know, we're saying thank you to the earth. We might as well just stop and thank Be thankful for whatever We receive Because whatever we receive is our life arising at that moment and And we suffer when we push that away and We suffer the earth's pain if we push the earth away if we push our Awareness of the earth and what it needs away. We human beings will suffer that resistance that unconsciousness Because life doesn't have a problem life It you know Doesn't know about pollution or anything like that I'm sure That life is going to keep right on going and it'll just be us human beings who will

[04:22]

slip away along with tigers and elephants and innumerable other species that we Take for granted, you know Little guppies and birds and Do you know that bees are intelligent Do you know that? I Read an article the other day in the newspaper. How many people saw that article? You did yeah a number of you. It was staggering Okay, here's the here's the experiment how they found out that bees are intelligent They set up a thing where there was a an entrance and then right after the entrance there was a fork in the road So it's an entrance and then they would be little bee flew in don't we all love bees? you know the little bee flew in and then It could choose to go to the right or go to the left fork, right and right up here

[05:24]

The experimenters clever clever people the people the clever people put Put a round dot a yellow dot and on one of the forks They had a yellow dot and on the other fork. They had a blue dot I think I might get have been getting the colors wrong, but something like that So and then they had lots of bees Go in there and the bee would go in there and at first it was kind of didn't know what to do and some of them You know went this way or that way, but eventually They kind of got that The sugar was the at the end of the yellow The hallway where the yellow dot was and they noticed That in the very front of the door, there was a yellow dot So they understood that there was a yellow dot there and there was a yellow dot there and at the end there was sugar Okay, so then the experimenters did a second experiment Which was at the door they had horizontal line or vertical lines

[06:25]

I think it was and then where the sugar was they were vertical lines and then on the other Fork in the road they were horizontal lines. Well, guess what? These little bees these fat little bees who according to physics aren't even allowed to fly did you know that? Because they have really fat bodies and these teeny weeny little wings Already, they're very unusual. Anyway, but I like dragonfly, you know, but see Let's not get too lost here But we're talking about the earth, you know These are the beings the little beings that make it possible for us to live You know the more of these that we kind of cross off the less possible It is going to be for human beings to be here. Be here. Did you get that? Okay Anyway, the bees understood that whatever was at the beginning of the door

[07:28]

if they they knew that this was the same as what was, you know, at the fork in the road and if they did, if they flew where the sameness was, they'd find the sugar So they understood a concept. It's kind of like the concept of the world It's a concept. Same or different? Smart little bees. Okay, so there's a display of We have a display of Earth Day. It's right where you walked in. It's a beautiful it has green, you know green 2001 and It has some good ideas on that so and where are the little black posters? In the courtyard there's some other posters also. There's lots of information about Earth Day and I hope that some of you look at

[08:29]

Look at that information and although you know, I have a feeling that those of you who are here I'm like talking to the chorus, I think Okay However, you know we each have to take responsibility We each one of us are responsible for whatever we see we're responsible for Whatever comes into our awareness like If a light is on in a room, that's ours. It's our responsibility Even if you didn't want it There it is So and you can you know, you can walk down the hall and not look Which is you know Don't we live well, I mean we live a lot like that We don't know our eyes are open, but we're not seeing anything. I Can't I can't do that right now. It's too I'm going someplace else. Somebody else will turn off the light It's not that big a deal. Anyway Just one light. I Left the light on this morning when I where was I You turned it off Kathleen's office right in the morning left it on David turned it off

[09:32]

But David forgot All right, here we go I wanted to talk about the Sangha jewel actually I Wanted to talk about the Sangha jewel in the context of the earth So I Take refuge in Buddha I Take refuge in Dharma I Take refuge in Sangha We go for refuge in the vast silence of total dynamic working

[10:35]

We go for refuge in the understanding of dependently co-arising Mysteriously interconnected life And we go for refuge over and over again To The community of practitioners Who intentionally Live their lives to wake up For the benefit of each other so that we don't forget the bees The birds the trees And Each other So You know

[11:44]

The the the thing about the earth, you know is We all already Understand that we're totally connected Someplace inside. We totally know this. This is not a mystery to anybody here in the room and We long for that Reconnected that reconnection we long for that reconnection and many of us find That or did find that when we were young in in in nature How many of you? Go to nature for solace and so on Lots So here's some Here's some nature stuff This is from Mary Oliver So

[12:56]

You know ultimately we're not asked to do anything Particular except wake up But why? We're asked to wake up just so that we can enjoy the mystery That is life so that we don't forget that all we have to do is basically play with the energy that we are It's not a struggle It Doesn't have to be a struggle. It's definitely not dramatic as soon as it starts getting dramatic You know, we're way off course You know, it's not about your drama It isn't when things happen in life You know, it's about whatever that karma is. We don't grab on to karma and make it our own unless it's our own karma It's none of those things we basically just let Things be the way they are and wake up and live in that moment and hopefully

[13:58]

Although well, anyway, hopefully respond appropriately, although mostly we make You know huge mistakes all the time and then that's okay We learn from them and then but we have to be responsible for that karma We have to actually walk through the karma of that arrives as your life right now Whether it's your you know, there's nobody's fault in that. It's nobody's blaming or at fault for any of that karma It's all dependently co-arisen It's how we respond To what arises as our life that makes our own lives free or bound That's the key So once we respond in a way that is Not stuck whenever we're caught. We're in some kind of pain It's just you know red flags should go up all the time as soon as you're as soon as you're blaming somebody

[15:03]

You can't laugh it, you know when somebody tells you something that might be Close to the truth, you know Then it's a clue all of those are clues And The more when we when things happen in our lives and and we can actually walk through even the really difficult times with Some amount of flexibility or presence actually to be there on the page when it's really happening With some appreciation even when it's difficult You know, this is this is a life of This is a life like a bear, you know, or like a leopard or an antelope Just being where the next thing is when it's happening right now This is called the Sun Have you ever seen anything in your life more wonderful

[16:08]

Than the way the Sun every evening relaxed and easy floats toward the horizon And into the clouds or the hills or the rumbled sea And is gone And how it slides again out of the blackness every morning On the other side of the world like a red flower Streaming upward on its heavenly oils Say on a morning in early summer at its perfect imperial distance And have you ever felt for anything such wild love Do you think there is anywhere in any language a word a word Billowing enough for the pleasure that fills you as the Sun reaches out

[17:12]

As it warms you as you stand there empty-handed Or have you too? turned from this world Or have you too? Gone crazy for power for things She's really good In Physics I recently read that there is a some theory about a small movement in a very complex event and that small change actually

[18:15]

Can greatly influence this really very complex event that seems to make sense to me and I Heard on the radio the other day somebody who was talking about Earth Day That we don't have to be what they said was we don't really have to be Depressed At what's happening to us in the earth? Because what they said was just as long as we have enough a kind of a What word did they use a A Significant minority As long as we have a significant minority That will that significant minority that's awake about what's happening right now on the earth will be able to turn So that we go in a way that we can save ourselves

[19:17]

So I'm kind of optimistic today Here's another one about gold finches In the fields we let them have in the fields we don't want yet where thistles rise out of the marshlands of spring and spring open each bud a settlement of riches a Coin of reddish fire The finches wait for midsummer for the long days for the brass heat For the seeds to begin to form in the hardening thistles Dazzling as the teeth of mice, but black filling the face of every flower Then they drop from the sky a buttery gold they swing on the thistles They gather the silvery down They carry it in their finchy beaks to the edges of the fields to the trees

[20:29]

as though their minds were on fire with the flower of one perfect idea and There they build their nests and lay their pale blue eggs Every year and every year the hatchlings wake in the swaying branches in the silver baskets and Love the world Is it necessary to say anymore? Have you heard them singing in the wind above the final fields Have you ever been so happy in your life? You Know when I came back from Africa, I lived in Africa for a year Africa in Africa that Africa. I don't know. I don't understand about Africa. It's just incredible place Some of you may have been there also we can share this together, but the thing about Africa is

[21:30]

it dominates in Africa the earth really dominates And human being you feel like you're the appropriate size like when you see an elephant in Africa. It doesn't look big Looks like yeah, that's right fits And when you walk around it fits, you know your food like everything else I mean really this is you you fit right in there in your place You know a little bit lower than the lions and the snake certain snakes on the food chain The thing is in Africa you see this life thing happening you can't avoid it like we can here in the United States You can't avoid it right out in the open you see birth death sex mostly birth death and sex and illness and hurt wings and broken things and

[22:32]

Stuff like that and you're among all of this stuff It's incredible, it's really it's just incredible it feels so earth And what and if you if you Stop for a moment and feel what's going on there and Settle deeply and allow your mind to spread out over the land It teaches Just like it does here if you really if you really live in San Francisco on the earth Everything teaches Everything transmits to us the truth all the time. It's just easier to see it in nature But everything is always telling us the true nature of our own lives everything changes

[23:32]

We all arrive together we're all interconnected none of us are separate we all arise out of the same life and In that way there is no birth and no death When my mother was dying my brother and I went to category Roshi and asked him about death and He said no difference Of course I didn't understand him. I always whenever I go to teachers and I asked him a question I never understand till years later Here's another earth Feeling of earth and if you close your eyes and you put yourself into some place on the earth that you Like to go to even if it's a tree in your backyard As I read this see if you can feel in your own body That connectedness

[24:35]

This particular thing I'm going to read is about the desert Above it is blue below suddenly color a flower I Bend down close and smell Will it give me its gift? May I know your story I Want to know who you are. Teach me. Let me be with you. Let me understand Morning flowers slowly opens. I watch waiting new shape and color and desert smell I kneel down Pebbles and sand press into my knees and palms Flower and I smell eyes Smell flower Slowly now the heat penetrates Dawn is gone Colors changed it is day. It is Sun. It is heat

[25:40]

All is Sun everything hot I melt I melt I Am heat and sweat I take the shirt off my back. I glisten I Feel the wind on my body and walk to find my spot. I'm tired. I sit down This is my spot Show me earth. I will watch and wait I Lie down to the sky and watch it is white cloud then blue then nothing vast nothing The cells of my eyes move in the blueness of sky It is I Wind comes up Teach me wind wind moves and touches Feel me wind Heat recedes. I put the shirt back on it is changing color time of dark salmon pink

[26:48]

beige and lavender glow The skylight rests on the earth more wind I go back to the rocks a Snake friend also returns and huddles in the cracks. I huddle with her safe as long as I am still and still We watch the night come For hours we watch For hours it comes one star Then three For hours the sky darkens the colors fade to glow to shape and then darkness a Sharp in-breath catches the moon suddenly it appears the huge round moon I touch you friend come into me dwell in my home. I Wait no longer wanting. I am open. I am surrendered. I am change

[27:52]

Take me Night cold on my body the wind again restless Stop, let me rest. I can't stand the sound it answers Now open to me. Let me be wind. Let me caress you as I am. Let me be I huddle in rocks waiting Then standing shouting I am wind. Let me be It is night Stars beyond stars I Want to lie down on the earth Put body down on pebbles and sand Gently put my body down and wriggle into the earth The night is cold Stars cover moon covers Shirt covers and rocks. I lie down

[28:52]

snake and I sleep It is all like that You could say the same thing of the city as we live in it As long as we are open physically To being itself There was a movie I'll stop soon. There was a movie a long time ago called Koya Naskatse It was Koya Naskatse is a Hopi word. I believe That means out of balance I

[30:01]

Think I believe personally that as much as human beings are out of balance is how much the world is out of balance They're just too many of us There are too many people. Did you see that movie Amadeus a long time ago? and if you remember the time when the You know Mozart just wrote this incredibly beautiful I forgot what it was. I think it was part. I think it was an opera that he did Well, I don't remember. Anyway, it was incredibly beautiful and then the Emperor it was too long though, right? So the Emperor comes on the stage afterward and he says terrific terrific It's just that they're just too many notes too many notes just just take out some of the notes So anyway, there's my personal opinion is is that they're just too many people

[31:03]

So We have to say all together you don't have to I'll say it for us All of our ancient twisted karma and it's true, you know all of the ancient twisted karma of human beings Generation before generation [...] It's our karma Just as our individual karma is brought to us by our parents and grandparents and so on so forth in society and it gets that's How sangha gets bigger and [...] bigger? Jenna from generations ago all my ancient ancient ancient Ancient twisted karma From beginningless Greed Hate and delusion Born of body speech and mind I

[32:18]

Now, you know acknowledge I avow And I Hope that it only takes us, you know a few things a few decisions Like when you shop, you know, read the label and see if it has You know genetically altered food in it and buy something else Or even better yet don't buy very much You know So that we all have a chance to make it I Think the way we can do this the only way that we can do this Is to live With the understanding Of the middle way We must walk in the middle

[33:23]

We must understand that our life is the same life is Everything we live all together one life And at the very same time It's our own personal life So we are as individuals Completely responsible Totally for the survival of the earth But the way we're totally responsible The way we're totally Responsible is in the context of it's all one life. So all we can do is take care of How we shop? Whether the next car we get is an electric car Whether we use wind Energy whether we vote for I won't say

[34:26]

Or not Anyway, I'll just read another thing or two So You know when you take the precepts we take the first precept the sixth seventh precept we take is don't kill life So that's what I've been talking about if we think about it in terms of You know oneness so called oneness We can't kill life. There is no such thing as birth and death. We can't It's too big But on the other hand, we really have to pay attention don't kill it Don't kill yourself and what you feel And don't Try not to anyway, and I know we all do our best all the time but try not to

[35:32]

We have to try not to hurt each other even though we make mistakes constantly All right, so here is Here's a couple of Indian things Native American This is from Chila Chippewa As my eyes search the prairie I feel the summer in the spring Yes, Pima Far on the desert ridges stands the cactus Low the blossoms swaying to and fro the blossoms swaying And here's the last one Do you see me?

[36:40]

Do you see me? Do you all help me? My words are tied in one with great mountains with great rocks and great trees In one with my body and my heart Do you all help me with great energy and you day and you night All of you see me one with the world You know, I do and I think we all do sometimes we have this romantic thing You know that in the time when it was a simpler life that people were I Don't know more happy maybe I really I actually don't know But surely I sort of think that the closer we are in touch with the earth in touch with our own true nature

[37:47]

the chance For being sane, you know the chance for being sane is closer Anyway, I think So if you live in the city, you know, I hope you have a plant at home Or a cat Or a dog, you know Or if you don't have something in your immediate thing when you walk down the street don't miss the trees They are really speaking all the time They're telling us who we are They don't ever reject us We're never alone I

[39:02]

I You

[39:57]

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