Good morning. It's a beautiful almost summer day. We have the summer solstice coming up soon. And This is the end of the school year. I know there's been a lot of graduations that have taken place, and I hope you're able to get some rest and think about your vacations. This afternoon, we have a ceremony And it's called a bodhisattva initiation ceremony, also called lay ordination.

[01:12]

And this ceremony is not a graduation, but an initiation. A graduation is a kind of completion of certain grades, actually, certain steps and grades, and sometimes you get a degree, right? But an initiation is... really a beginning, letting go of the old and starting something fresh and new, initiation. So we have five Ordinese who are sitting one, two, three, four, five right there on the Sai Tan, and they've been sitting for the, having a one day sitting and quiet time and reflecting on this step they're about to take, this ceremony.

[02:17]

Now traditionally in many, many cultures there's initiation ceremonies and they often include certain elements. One is sequestering, Another element is an ordeal, going through an ordeal. And a third is receiving teachings. And then the fourth part is emerging, coming out, and often with gifts and wisdom to share. So I was thinking about this for the Bodhisattva initiation. And maybe the ordeal part is that part of the ceremony is to sew your own robe. which for many people is a real ordeal. They've never done hand sewing. They need lots of help. And for others, for almost everyone, the practice of sewing one's own robe that will be received in the ceremony is very meaningful.

[03:24]

Sometimes it takes a long time and sometimes a shorter time, but the act of stitching and taking refuge as you stitch becomes, is part of the ceremony. So this bodhisattva initiation, what is it, the beginning of the bodhisattva taking up formally bodhisattva way? And a bodhisattva is an awakening being or one who has turned, in some way turned from habitual ways and actions and actually wanting to turn and make a vow to turn in a new way. And that way includes living for the benefit of all beings.

[04:28]

And when I say all beings, I mean including yourself. Your self isn't out of that equation. It's not a compulsive caregiving kind of a vow. It's living for the benefit of all beings living in the most beneficial way. And that, as soon as one realizes they want to live in that way, what comes up almost immediately is all the ways that we're not doing that, that we are harming ourself or others, that we're not living skillfully or with an awake bodhi mind. Bodhi is awake. So the process of, that's why I say it's a beginning and they're like baby bodhisattvas, you know, it's not a ceremony where

[05:28]

they lord it over anybody else, but it's more understanding thoroughly. I have lots of work to do, and I want to work in this way. And not only that, I want everybody to know. And so I'm going to wear this garment that says to everybody, I want to work in this way to help beings, and I want you to help me. Help me be accountable. So... there's been an inward change, and the ceremony seals this in an external way with witnesses. And you're all invited to come if you'd like to. Three o'clock. So our ceremony, in the ceremony we received 16 Bodhisattva precepts, and this form comes down to us from the 12th century Zen master Dogen Zenji, and he, from my understanding, there are many different precepts, and in different schools, different numbers, 250, 338, 58, 48 minor, 10 major, and Dogen Zenji actually

[06:56]

in responding to the needs of the situation in Japan at that time, he I think crafted something that was very, that was just right for that situation and took up the 16 Bodhisattva precepts and along with mindfulness practices for living together in community and personal mindfulness practices and practices with the environment. So those are a separate, almost endless group of standards and guidelines that at Zen Center and different practice places will have their own customized set that go with the situation that you live in. So the 16 bodhisattva precepts and then that coupled with mindfulness guidelines and practices for life together in more detail are taken in this lineage by both lay and priest.

[08:08]

The 16 Bodhisattva precepts are, there's no distinction in terms of precepts that you receive between attaining the way or realizing the way, tokudō, and either staying at home or leaving home. It's still attaining or realizing the way. So as one begins to take up these precepts that include taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, embracing and sustaining right conduct, all good and all beings, and then ten precepts that include not killing, not taking what is not given, not misusing sexuality, not lying, not intoxicating mind or body of self or others, not slandering, not praising self at the expense of others, not being possessive of anything,

[09:25]

not harboring ill will, and not disparaging the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. So those are the sixteen. So as I was saying, when we begin to come into alignment with this shape of life, we see and feel the pain of not being in alignment. And then that helps us to see, I need to work here, I need help here, I need to talk about this and acknowledge this area over here. So this is an ongoing process, endless process I would say, of working with the forces of our life in different situations. Our karmic habits, our actions that flow from not so awake thinking, not so awake speaking, not so awake actions of body.

[10:33]

So the teaching around precepts is that our zazen practice, our meditation practice, and living in this awakened way are not two separate things. I can sit zazen over here, and then I can do whatever I want in my life. They're actually... non-dual, is what we say, or completely interconnected. But it may take us time to fully, fully accept that, to fully realize that. And we might say that the one precept, that the 16 Bodhisattva precepts are just maybe a fuller explanation of or fuller way of looking at them from different sides is the one precept of interconnectedness so that we're all completely interdependent and that there aren't separate that we're not separated from others separated from our environment separated from that what we see and feel and hear so this you might say is

[11:58]

taking refuge in Buddha or understanding truly awakeness. And when part of this interdependent understanding is that we see that things go a certain way, there's cause and effect that when such a thing arises, this comes to be. When this doesn't arise or ceases to arise, this ceases to be. that there is a way that things operate that's called the truth, or it's called dharma, or the teaching of awakeness cause and effect. So when interdependentness and the way things come to be, how things operate really, are in harmony That's what's called sangha, or harmonious life between our understanding of oneness or interdependentness and cause and effect and our actions.

[13:11]

So when those are in harmony, this is called the sangha. In the widest sense, we usually think of sangha as practitioners, but to widen it to... awakenedness in harmony with cause and effect and the way things are, is truly sangha life. So, I wanted to talk now a little bit about a... journey, a pilgrimage that I took with 11 other people to Columbia, South America on a peace delegation, a delegation to visit the peace movement of Columbia.

[14:12]

And I bring this up in the context of the precepts because this Extending our life, extending our zazen or our practice life into the world or into every interaction that we have is in itself, I would say, peace work. To become peaceful beings, ourselves, harmonious beings, and then all of our interactions helps to create peace, the conditions for peace. And right now in the world, we are experiencing the extreme painfulness of wars, many wars. There's our United States, Iraq tragedy, and this recent thing that's happening in Palestine between Palestinians and Darfur.

[15:25]

And wherever we look, almost, we see this all around the globe. And Colombia is a country that's been in civil war, actually, for the last 40 or maybe 50 years, since the 40s, late 40s. So in some way, and we also have our own wars of the inner city and high schools in our own, in the United States of America, were not exempt from wars of different levels. So one might ask, well, how come you brought a delegation of Buddhists to Columbia? There's enough to do here. Go downtown LA. How about right here in our own backyard? Why are you going thousands of miles? So in answering that question for myself, I realize it comes out of relationship, as do many of our decisions, many of where we're drawn to work, where we're drawn to put our energy, where our energy could go in many, many places.

[16:39]

There's so many places that need attention and energy, but there is a relationship with Columbia that's been developed over the years through the fact that my daughter, who co-led the delegation, through her own karmic activity, went to Columbia to do peace work in a peace community and lived there for about three years and developed relationships and spoke about it and then wanted to bring people back, her Buddhist friends and practitioners. to see for themselves what's going on there. So there's that relationship, as well as the fact that the United States of America gives more money to Colombia. It's third in line after the Middle East and Egypt, Israel, Middle East, Egypt, and then Colombia comes in a third.

[17:45]

So billions of dollars have been given of our own tax money. to fund a situation which is more and more increasingly militarized and with human rights abuses. So we are completely interconnected with this situation. But because of our privilege as living in this country, for those of us who live here, we have the luxury of not paying any attention. It's not in our face. We're not affected in a daily way that we have to deal with it. So this delegation went to Colombia, and many of you supported this delegation. I want to thank you, those of you who contributed and donated. The Buddhist delegation went as a peace to visit the peace movement and to learn.

[18:49]

and to expand their understanding and come back and tell the story and see what they saw for themselves and tell others. And this is more and more I see that this is non-dual with practicing the precepts, practicing the harmony of understanding cause and effect and interdependence. and finding some peace, inner peace, and bringing that, being present enough, working with one's own difficulties in the presence of suffering and pain, and transforming through that process. You know, this may sound like, you know, activism, and there's these terms, engage Buddhism and activism, and they don't, those categories don't quite work for me.

[20:00]

I actually see more and more that this kind of work is, it's just extending our Zazen practice in different ways. People are drawn to different ways of expressing their understanding and wanting to express compassion or interact with the world. Some people care for sick people in many different ways, home care and hospice and nursing, and other people teach children and adults, and other people do gardening, construction, artwork, architecture, you name it. The bodhisattva of infinite compassion has infinite hands and eyes that relate to the world. Whatever we do in the world, which we all have to relate to the world because we're alive, can be flowing bodhisattva, compassionate, peaceful activity.

[21:07]

So to call it activism or social justice worker, to me it's too narrow. And unless it's informed and infused with peaceful mind and body, it isn't peace work, or it isn't social justice work, it's just contributing to the problem. So, in receiving the precepts, we admit to ourselves how much work we have to do, but let us... not let that stop us from interacting with the world in different ways. So when we went to Columbia, the group of 10 plus the two co-leaders, we actually signed something. It was a commitment statement. And the commitment statement started out with, we commit ourselves to observing the 16 Bodhisattva precepts.

[22:14]

That was the delegation's kind of bedrock way they wanted to function, not taking what is, not giving, not killing, not lying, and so forth. We wanted to act in that way together. We committed to act in community with the people in Colombia, respecting their lives and culture, committing ourselves to honesty, openness, and respect in our relationships with one another, committed to mindfulness, patience, awareness, and compassion with ourselves and others. And all these words, you know, we had to draw on in many situations. We had a day of training when we first arrived in Bogota, and one of the activities was to write up on a board what we were afraid of.

[23:16]

And, of course, when people think of Columbia, they think immediately of, I mean, you know, drug war and killings, kidnappings, torture, etc. And we put those all up on the board, definitely. Plus other things like being overwhelmed and not being able to be there for people, becoming numb. People were afraid of being by the pain to such a seeing and hearing that they would go numb. There was also fears of getting very sick, fears of disappointing the people who had kind of sent them there, or getting hurt, or anyway, lots and lots of fears. And I was afraid of giant insects jumping all over me. So it was quite a range of fears. It only happened once with a giant cockroach, tropical cockroach.

[24:23]

Anyway, so afterwards, when we were finished with the Dalgish, we had three days of retreat and we revisited our fears. It was very interesting that those things that people had an expectation that they would be afraid of, they weren't afraid of at all, actually. They were meeting those situations very thoroughly. Other things happened that they didn't expect at all that they were afraid of. So often our dread and fear that we carry with us, when we meet it, we actually find we're not so afraid of that. And then we're surprised by what really triggers our fears. One person thought they would be very, very afraid of things, but they actually, what was the most fearful was they thought they had lost their passport, and they really got into a frenzy around that.

[25:33]

But other things, meeting up with painful situations at, energetic situations that they weren't familiar with, that didn't bother them. So the practice of going to Columbia, I think we were making an effort to hear, to listen to others, not to impose anything, to listen, to learn, to see, and to reflect back as best we could what we heard, what we saw. And this, I would say, is the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion's basic practice of listening, listening to the cries of the world. And not only listening, but it's called the sound seer. So it's listening and seeing both together, the sound seer.

[26:39]

And staying... gazing back or reflecting and not running away. Once you hear and see, to not escape, but to stay there and reflect it back. So I wanted to tell you one story of just an encounter that we had with a group that, and how people practice with that. The group was a group of mostly women who had been in a very traumatic situation. Many of the groups we met were, I would say, had been in trauma, had been traumatized by their loved ones being disappeared, them being displaced from their homelands, everything taken from them, and also assassination, the worst human rights abuses and violence, extremely violent.

[27:41]

Colombia has the highest kidnapping, highest disappearance rates, etc. So we met with a group and their human rights lawyer who accompanies them in a convent because they weren't safe to meet in their own neighborhood, which is overrun with one of the armed actors, the paramilitary. And they met in this convent and it started out sort of like It felt kind of like a church social. They provided lunch, which was what's lovingly called Colombian Tupperware, which was a banana leaf with rice and beans and different things all wrapped up in it, which is wonderfully portable and keeps everything fresh. So we had our bagged banana leaf packed lunch. And the women, many of them were older, older. We divided into, the room wasn't big enough for the delegates and this group of women.

[28:44]

And it was very lively and chatting and speaking, people trying to speak Spanish and flirting actually was going on, I think, between some of these older women and some of our cute delegates. Anyway, it was just like one would imagine any gathering of people. And then we all came into one room together. for the meeting part. And at that time, something changed, and the human rights lawyer, a wonderful woman, encouraged the women in the group to tell us their story, to tell us what had happened to them. So they live in a neighborhood called Comuna Trece, Community 13, Neighborhood 13, and that neighborhood had been targeted for an operation from the army and in league with the paramilitary where they thought there were guerilla, which is the guerilla, which is the army, the guerilla, the paramilitary,

[30:07]

and then you've got the mafia drug trafficking as a kind of fourth armed group. There was a belief that it had been infiltrated with guerrillas, so they had the paramilitary come in, and then the army on top of that came in and cleaned up after that. So they told their stories of what happened in an extremely... Intimate way and they wanted to tell many of the women wore around their necks laminated pictures of their loved ones mostly sons young men but not only there was also daughters and and then they told their stories of how they had been taken away and assassin murdered and or disappeared and chopped before their eyes. And each woman, mostly women, although men spoke too, would tell the story and hold their picture.

[31:16]

And the more they told their stories, then other women came forward and told their stories. And we, as a group, did our best and practiced our The hardest to listen, remain open, not turn away, not numb and freeze up, stay in contact, stay with it, stay with it. And there was one story after another story after another story. An old, old woman who was 86, her only son was killed and no one to take care of her anymore. just one story after another, and crying, they were crying, and we were crying, and one woman who couldn't even speak, the human rights lawyer, spoke for her. This is all in translation, so my daughter Sarah was translating all this and describing this one woman had tried to save her son, a 14-year-old who had been taken

[32:28]

as a child soldier, she had tried to save him and get him out and she couldn't and he ended up being killed and just on and on and on. And I felt that these people were traumatized And the human rights lawyer began passing out Kleenex and saying, this is good, this is the therapy, speak, tell your story. And we were all in it together. We were all just, it wasn't any longer white North Americans and people of color from Colombia. It was human beings joined together in our suffering and pain. and experiencing it in different ways, but together. And at the end, they thanked us for listening and asked us to tell their stories.

[33:37]

And we promised we would and that we would remember them in our chanting, which we did, that we chanted the Enme Juku Kanon Gyo, the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion chant for protecting life. And through the rest of the delegation, we included the people of Comuna Trece every day because they had to go back to that neighborhood, and it was still happening at a much smaller scale. We had the privilege, the luxury, you know, of going on to our next group in our hotel and coming back to our different domiciles wherever we were going, mostly Green Gulch and Tassajara. But they had to go back to that neighborhood. That's where they live, which is why they were meeting in the convent. And so we spoke to them and thanked them. And then at the end, the meeting was over, and we all got up, and we began hugging each other.

[34:39]

And I think all of them hugged all of us. There was an embracing and hugging and human body-to-body event of warmth and just human beings just holding each other and crying and more. And then we came out of this meeting room into this bright sunny, no it was raining actually, it was a bright rainy day and there was coffee and coffee cake and then there was laughter and fooling around and all of a sudden it was back to the church social. We had descended down into the hell realms together and stayed there and met there and listened to each other and come back into human realm. So... And there was a flowing back and forth, you know, and a kind of community feeling.

[35:40]

And this isn't magic, you know. I felt what happened there. This is our birthright of human beings our ability to listen, stay present, feel what we're feeling, because we're all feeling enormous variety of feelings and emotions, not run away, ride with whatever we were feeling, being with others. And I... was reading this article by this person, Hector Aristizabal, who's a Colombian person who started Theater of the Oppressed in Los Angeles and also Colombian Peace Project and a children's peace project. And he was tortured in Colombia and he came out of it and

[36:45]

realize the healing that's necessary aside from physical medical attention and and psychological attention is one that it's relationship and love that's the healing and there is a quote from this Canadian citizen who was sent to Syria by the US and was tortured he his quote is about what happened to him the pain was so great It makes you forget the taste of your mother's milk. All the connections are broken. All your connections to human beings when these things happen to us. And trauma of all sorts. So the healing is with relationship and love and this having someone who will listen to you and be there with you is one way of healing. I would say, a main practice that's necessary for healing.

[37:50]

And then joining with others to work together, to practice together, to be there for others. There was recently a great peace activist, not peace activist, a great monk named Maha Gosananda passed away. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, I think, five times. And he was a Cambodian monk. And he, during that Holocaust in the Khmer Rouge and so forth, he did these peace walks and established little shack temples in different refugee camps, and his practice, he didn't see it as sort of peace activism, and as I was saying in the beginning, it was just his Buddhist practice.

[39:02]

It was just the extension into everyday life of meditation practice, and the poisons of greed, hate, and delusion, and working with our to turn those poisonous greed, hate, and delusion into acts of body, speech, and mind that are beneficial to beings, that create peace, that sow the seeds and create conditions for peace. So I wanted to read you one of his poems. It starts out, Cambodia has suffered deeply From deep suffering comes deep compassion. From deep compassion comes a peaceful heart. From a peaceful heart comes a peaceful person. From a peaceful person comes a peaceful family and community.

[40:08]

From peaceful communities comes a peaceful nation. From peaceful nation comes a peaceful world. So this whole... you know, going out, out, out into a peaceful world starts with from deep suffering comes deep compassion. From deep compassion comes a peaceful heart. So the interconnectedness of our own suffering and working with that skillfully and thoroughly with the help we need, we connect with others' suffering. compassion for ourself and others and there's a peace that comes from there there's a settling a deep settling it's not that we don't suffer anymore or that our suffering is over but there's a compassion that's woken up a compassion that's already there our own bodhicitta

[41:16]

And then flowing from that, we skillful actions of body, speech, and mind with ourselves, with our family, with our community, with whoever we come in contact with. So he just passed away, I think, last month, maybe. Maybe some of you know this. And in doing these peace walks, he was asked, why are you walking? He says, we walk for peace, so there will be a peaceful election. I guess there were elections at the time. And then the interviewer said, who do you hope wins? And his answer was, peace wins. Can you elaborate? No. He was very, no-nonsense, very kind of pithy, often... He didn't take it. He gave away things. He had no ideas about, oh, I'm a peacemaker.

[42:20]

Look at me. It's just this was his practice, how he expressed his practice. So in the same way as receiving the Bodhisattva precepts or going on a peace delegation, it's not a way of... elevating oneself or setting oneself apart as do-gooder or I'm the helper and you're the helpee, that change often gets in the way of the flowing compassionate action, which to have it be true compassion, it's not even named compassion, it's just responding. So what gets in the way, the near enemies of compassion are pity, which is Oh, the poor thing, and I'll help you, and I'm the helper. That's sometimes called a kind of professional stance, professional in not a helpful way, but separating ourselves a little bit so we can handle it, a way of relating with suffering, pity.

[43:39]

And as we know, nobody likes pity. Nobody wants it. Nobody is helped by it. We feel like, I don't need it. Give it to somebody else. Don't give it to anybody. Nobody wants it. We want this. We want to connect. We want the relationship. And the loving feeling is what's healing. And the other traditional, there's three traditional near enemies to compassion. Pity. kind of separating yourself, overwhelm, which is too much. It's all too much and feeling you can't, so you have to take care of yourself. If it's too much, take a break, take a time out, get the help you need. Don't go overboard. And the third is kind of the hands without the eyes. Bodhisattva has hands and eyes, so there's discernment and awareness in helping. But just the hands can be sentimental or at one's own expense or compulsive caregiving.

[44:45]

That's not helpful to anybody. Doing this work or receiving the precepts is not a way to set oneself apart. It's the most skillful way to express the reality of how we actually are, which is this interdependent being. And the more we study ourself, the more we realize that we're supported and connected, and our privilege in being able to disregard the oppression and the difficulties of the world, that luxury that we have is supported, by, not on the backs of others, but is completely connected with the people of Comuna Teresa and that they have to go back to their community.

[45:46]

The fact that we don't have to look at it, that is inter, that inter is the money that goes there that supports that situation, supports also our continued situation. You see what I mean? To see that with eyes open The more we see that, that that's how we live, the more we can become, not even a vehicle, but a being who in every action expresses this interconnection. And it flows, the actions flowing from someone who understands that are beneficial by definition. This is awakening to true nature and... the precepts or the shape of Buddha's mind, the shape of an awakened mind, the actions that flow from that are beneficial. And they flow out and flow back as one interpenetrating mutual event.

[46:57]

So traveling in this way, making a pilgrimage, taking a journey, we realized, oh, I've been looking through this lens, you know, my lens of privilege or my lens of habit. So it was very useful, very helpful to go to places we haven't been. And that might, as Pema Chodron's book, go to places that scare you. So I wanted to end with one of the delegates was a Vietnam vet and a medic in Vietnam and came back from that situation. His name is Ted Sexauer. He is a writer with the Veterans for War, Veterans for Peace, a book anthology, and he's done a lot of writing as healing, and we did some writing practice also in the delegation. To have a narrative of our story can be useful, very useful in healing, to see it in a wider way.

[48:12]

So he shared with us this poem, and I wanted to end with this poem about his healing, but not just his. It's called Transformation. Something happened. I don't know how to tell this. Something happened inside my head. I talked with a guy, a psychologist. I've been talking with guys like him for years now. Maybe it was all that preparation that has now changed me in an afternoon, in a heartbeat. Here's what happened. I talked with this guy, an alternative type of therapist. I mean, he has a PhD and his office is an herb garden in Bolinas. I've been trying to get to the last juicy part of healing myself after I learned how to feel Yes, I did. It took me about 15 years after I learned to like myself. And then it follows to love myself. I had this last thing to do, to deal with the trouble that came with feeling, with loving a self.

[49:20]

I then needed to protect because I love it. I needed a way to live with the persisting fear of all that can go wrong. I needed soul. So we talked and he gave me something to read. I read it. Here's a direct quote. It's a woman, a psychiatrist. She said, To work on not being frightened, you have to bring love into your life all the time. It's the only antidote to fear. Now, I think I knew that, but I can't say why. I could never set it in place before. She said, You think you're afraid of other people, or afraid of being attacked, or afraid of losing your money, or afraid of losing your mind, when in fact, you aren't afraid of that at all. What you're afraid of is that there is nobody there to love you. And she said, it all goes back to feeling that you're a welcome person in this universe, not an important person,

[50:29]

a welcome person. I read that and I walked on the beach and I thought, I should move to Bolinas. The way I always do when I'm there. And something very slight, nearly imperceptible, shifted in my chest. I'm lighter now. That's all that happened. I simply understood that these words apply to me. The universe loves me. I belong. So, this full expression of, I belong, and the universe loves me, and I'm not an important person, but loved on this earth. Oh, and I love so, so much.

[51:30]

And the pain of that love is, I bear that willingly and knowingly together with all beings. Thank you very much.

[51:51]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_97.84