April 21st, 2001, Serial No. 04023

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equally
oh today such is the target his words

my name is tear and daddy
i welcome you to zen center on though
it's a beautiful day outside and today we celebrate earth day and in the world are you doing here

you know when i was thinking about say i mean the when i hear myself say celebrate earth day it seems like such a misnomer for heaven's sakes and it seems so
poultry so small
so i
so human behavior
have you think about it we are going to celebrate beard
well actually when i think about it that's not a bad idea
we're the ones who should celebrate their a hero of going guarantee
i'm in the earth gives and gives and give and give and gift
so i think it's appropriate at least once a year that we stop and we actually
thank
thank the earth for ah
life or life and you know it's not our life
it's not our lives not my life it's life just think thank you enough no earth know me no nothing just life happens
miracle some mistake for 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
thank you ma'am okay
thank you
and well you know we're saying fancier to the earth we might as well just stop and thank ah be thankful for whatever
we receive
because whatever we receive is our life arising at that moment and way suffer when we push that away and we suffer the earth's pain if we push the earth away if we push your awareness of the earth
and what it needs a way we human beings will suffer that resistance that unconsciousness because life doesn't have a problem life is yeah doesn't know about pollution or anything like that
i'm sure that life is going to keep right on guy and it'll just be as human beings who will slip away along with tigers and elephants and innumerable other species that we take for granted
a little guppies and bergersen
do you know that bees are intelligent do you know i read an article the other day and the newspaper how many people saw that article
he did you never hear the staggering
okay here's the it here's the experiment how they found out that better intelligent
they set up a saying where there was a an entrance and then right after the entrance there was a fork in the roads is an entrance and then they will be little bee flew in don't we all love bees
the little bee flew in and then it could choose to go to the rider go to the left fork and right up here the experimenters clever clever people the people the clever people put it
put a round that a yellow dot and on one of the forks they had a yellow duck and on the other for if they had a blue dye i think i might get be getting the colors wrong but something like that
so and then they had lots of bees go in there and the be 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 it was a yellow dot so they understood that there was a lotta there and there was a lotta up there and at the end there was sugar
okay so then the experiment is it a second experiment which was at the door they had horizontal or vertical lines i think it was and then where the sugar was they were vertical lines and then on the other fork in the row they will horizontal lines or guess what
these little wheeze these fat little bays 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 a but i like dragon five you know bedroom see you have
most i get to last year
were we talking about the earth in these are the beings a little beings that make it possible for us to live there the more of these that we can cross off the less possible it is going to me for human beings seem to be here pay here did you give it a good

anyway the bees understood that whatever was at the foot at the beginning of the door if they they knew that this was the same as what was that you know at the at the fork in the road in there they did if they flew where the sameness was they'd find the sugar
so they understood a concept concept same or different
smart little beast
i'm way i way i did i say excuse me
oh okay so there's a display of we have a display of the or of earth day it's right where you walked in it's a beautiful has green green two thousand and one
and it has some good ideas on it so where are the little black posters
the korea there's some other posters also to a lot of information about earth day and
i hope that some of you look at look at the information and although you know i have a feeling that those of you are here i might talking to the chorus i think
however you know we each have to take responsibility we each one of us are responsible for whatever we see were 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 outlook which is you know don't we live what i mean we live about like that we know our eyes are open but we're not saying 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 anywhere just one light
i left to lie down this morning when i wear was a new turn it on kathleen's office i didn't want it left it on david turned it off
but david forgot
i'm a cameo

i wanted to talk about the sanga jaw actually
i wanted to talk about the sanga jewel in the context for the earth
so
i take refuge in buddha
i take refuge in dharma
i take refuge and sanga
we go for refuge in the vast silence of total dynamic working
we go for refuge in the understanding of dependently colorizing
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
to bees
the birds the trees
and each other

so on
you know
that the m
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 at reconnection we long for that reconnection and many of us find that or did find that where we were young in in
in nature how many of you go to nature for solace and selma
what
so here's some
here's some nature stuff
this is from mary oliver

so you know ultimately were not asked to do anything
particular except wake up
but why were asked to wake up just so that we can enjoy the mystery that his life so that we don't forget that all we have to do is basically play with the energy and we are
it's not a struggle
that 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 he knows it's not about your drama it isn't when things happen in life you know it's about
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 although while anyway hopefully respond appropriately although mostly we make you know a huge mistakes all the time
and then that's ok 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 that there's nobody's fault in that it's nobody's blaming
or at fault for any of that carm it's all dependently curve 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 wearing some kind of pain and just mean a red flags should go up all the time as soon as you soon as you're blaming somebody and you can't laugh it you know when somebody tells you something
that might be close to the truth yeah
then to clue oliver's are clues
and the more when we when things happen in our lives and and we can actually walk through even a 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
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 than the way the sun every evening relaxed and easy floats towards the horizon
and into the clouds were the hills where the rumbled see
and is gone
and how it slides again out of the blackness every morning and the other side of the world like a red flower
streaming upward on it's heavenly oils say on a morning and early summer and it's 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 as it warms you as you stand there empty handed
or have you to turned from this world
or have you to gone crazy
for power
for things
she's really good

in physics i recently made that there is a some theory about a small movement in a very complex event and that small change actually can greatly influence is really very complex event that seems to make sense to me
me and
i heard on the radio the other day somebody who is 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 a kind of eight a m what where did they use a m
ah
significant minority so long as we have a significant minority that will that significant minority this 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

so i'm kind of optimistic today
here's another one about goldfinches
in the feels we let them have in the shields 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 dropped from the sky a buttery gold they swaying on the thistles they gather the silvery down they carry it in their financial beaks to the edges of the feels to the trays 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 lives in africa free a year
africa in africa the africa i don't know i don't understand about africa is just incredible place
some of you may have been there also we can share this together but the thing about africa is it dominates
in africa the earth really dominates and human being you feel like you're the appropriate size like when you see in an elephant in africa doesn't look big looks like yeah that's right fit
and when you walk around fits in your food like everything else
i mean really this is a if you fit right in there in your place you know a little bit lower than the lions and a 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 hear 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 way
wings and broken things and stuff like that and here among all of this stuff
it's incredible it's really it's just incredible it it feels so girth
and what a and if you if you stop for a moment and feel was going on there
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 teachers everything transmit 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
we all arrived 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
course i didn't understand him i always whenever i go to tissues and i asked him a question i never understand two 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 their see if you can fill in your own body
that connectedness
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 gives me it's gift
may i know your story i want to know who you are teach me let me be with you that me understand
morning flour 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 has gone colors changed it is day his son it is hate all his son everything hot i know
i knelt i am hate and sweat
i take the shirt off my back high 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 and blue than 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 may wind hate recedes i put the shirt back on it is changing color time of dark salmon pink 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 had with her safe as long as i am still
and still
we watched the night come
for hours we watch for hours it comes one star than three four 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 touched you friend come into may dwell in my home i wait no longer wanting i am open i am surrendered i am change take me
night called 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 and 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
mon covers shirt covered and rocks i lie down 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 stopped him there was a movie a long time ago called koyaanisqatsi
it was a craziness as god sees a hope a word i believe that means out of balance

i 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
too many people did you see that movie amadeus long time ago
and if you remember the time when the you know most i just wrote this incredibly beautiful
after out what it was and it was part i think what an opera that he did well i don't remember any way it was incredibly beautiful and then the emperor it was too long though so the emperor comes on the stage after it he says terrific terrific is 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

so we have to sail 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 to succumb of human beings generation before generation before generation before 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 and society and it gets that's how sanga gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger
janet from generations ago all my ancient ancient ancient twisted karma
from being kidding less
greed
hate and delusion
born of body speech and mind
i now cannot acknowledge i avow
and i i hoped 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
what he understanding
up the middle way
we must walk in the middle
we must understand that our life is the same life is everything we live altogether one life
and at the very same time
it's our own personal life
so we are as individuals completely responsible totally for their survival
of the earth
but the way we're totally responsible
the way we're totally sober 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
or not
anyway i just read another singer to

so you know when you take the precepts we take the first precept fifth sixth seventh precinct we take his 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 the 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 ah we have to try and turn each other even though i make mistakes constantly
right so here is
here is couple of for
indian things
native american
this is from to the chippewa
has my eyes searched the prairie i failed the summer and spring
his pima
far on the desert bridges stands the cactus
low the blossoms swaying to and fro
the blossoms
sway

and here's the last one

do you see me
they all help me my words are tied in one with great mountains with great rocks and great trees in one with my body in my heart
they all help me with great energy and you day and you night all you see me one with the world

you know i do and i think we all do sometimes we had this romantic thing you know that and the time when it was a simpler life at people were
i know more happy maybe i will 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
the chance for being saying yes to chance for being same is closer anyway
hank
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 where 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 this

we're never alone