I was really proud of the simplicity of what it was. I had a beginning to see and listen to a word. Did you ever give it a word? [...] Good evening, everyone. Delightful to be here with you. Thank you for making some time to come and explore the Dharma together. I'm Dan Gudgel. I'm a resident and a priest here at Beginner's Mind Temple. And whether this is your first time here or your hundredth time here, whether you're in the room or...

[14:05]

online, now, or in recorded format sometime in the future, I'm glad you're here. We're all really glad you're here. I'll be speaking for a little while tonight, and I intend to leave some time at the end for comment and discussion. And as well, if anyone has any questions after the talk... I will be available. And if you have any general questions about the temple, about Zen, about what it is we do here and why we do it the way we do, feel free to ask anyone who has a robe or a rakasu whether they know the answer or not. They can probably point you in the right direction. So I have had a practice image in my mind lately. I keep returning to it and exploring it. And so I thought I would bring it here for us to turn over together.

[15:09]

And this is the image of Indra's net. And this might be familiar to some. This is a relatively frequently used image, often explained as a vast, or perhaps infinite net of jewels, each connected across this vast net, and that each jewel reflects every other jewel in the net. In the Buddhist context, this is often used as a sort of way to talk about interconnection and the ways that we are influencing and experiencing each other, whether we realize it or not. And there are some additional layers to this image that I have been holding close lately and finding helpful.

[16:18]

A major one is those threads that connect these jewels. on the jewels, but without the connections, those jewels would just fall away. And I think one of the important things about those connections, those threads between the jewels, is that they give a little something for us to be tugged by and for us to tug on other jewels, sort of a handle. to reach out to others. And in my imagining of Indra's net, I also think that it is not just humans in this net. I think it's possible by sort of thinking of these jewels as, oh, each of us is a jewel, we sort of subtly reinforce this notion

[17:24]

individualized, self-focused perspective. And so to expand this view of the net to include more than just individual human beings I think can be helpful. It also seems important to me that we can't leave this net. There is no no way to extract our jewel from this vast net and go be our own net. One jewel is not a net. So whether we feel at ease with it or not, we are in this net and we are obligated to work with these conditions. And the sort of Last kind of subtle alteration of this image that I have been working with is thinking of each jewel not just as its own jewel, but if we zoom in on each jewel, each jewel is itself its own net made up of many individual pieces with their own connections.

[18:50]

At the same time, we can zoom out on that net and take certain sections or resonant areas and think of those as their own jewel. At different levels, family or friends or locality or culture or nation, these might be some of the jewels that appear as we change our perspective on this net. Each grouping of characteristics might show up as its own jewel, depending on our perspective. So there are a myriad ways to draw these boundaries around what we generally perceive as unified wholes. But none of these points of view are really more or less real than others.

[19:57]

So with this particular perspective of Indra's net, it seems to me that the choices that we make, our volitional action, is one of the main things that... activates these connections between jewels. We push and we pull, maybe trying to bring things that we like towards us and trying to push things that we don't like further away. And as I tighten my own position on the net, trying to control things, trying to control my life, I put tension into that net. I am pulling at other jewels, whether I am aware of them or not, whether they are the jewel right next to me or a distant jewel.

[21:02]

We are connected to everything. So if we pull this view back yet further, This question arose for me a while back. Where is that net? What is it strung on? And fundamentally, I think it is not strung on anything. This jeweled net perhaps is in freefall. It is in motion. It is not sitting still. motion maybe is the flow of time that seems to have some um imagistic resonance for me in the same way physical motion if we are falling seems unstoppable so our passage through time continues whether we want it to stop or not and i think being in this net

[22:15]

and feeling the rush of the wind past us, it's very easy to get quite scared about what's happening, what is my position in this vast conglomeration of jewels, and to tense up about What's going to happen next? But I think this jeweled net in free fall has the benefit of not having any ground to hit. It is forever falling. And falling forever is not so different from flying. So I can sort of imagine how my attempt to secure and guarantee my own place creates an area of tension in the net, maybe creates a little constricted ball around my own jewel.

[23:35]

And that self-focus keeps me from collaborating with the jewels and the threads around us. So if this net is falling through vast space and each of us is pushing and pulling, paying attention only to our own immediate area and immediate circumstances, we're really making chaos. I can imagine this sort of boiling, messy net just falling and turning and... getting really tangled up. But I think if we are able to cooperate a little bit, to collaborate and to look a little bit further than our own immediate position in the net, we might be able to be a little more like a skydiver, controlling and riding those air currents.

[24:45]

the net might be able to unfurl a little bit and feel and enjoy the wind rushing past us rather than being scared by it. So this image has been particularly alive for me in this moment of great political tension and division and othering that I see happening in the world. And that's fundamentally what I wanted to look at a little bit tonight. Not what to think or what to do, not what positions to adopt, but maybe a a few points of what I find the Buddhist teachings to be suggesting about how to approach being a human being in this complicated cultural social world that we live in.

[26:00]

And I'll maybe first just say that rarely does Buddhism have a single answer. I think perhaps one of the most Buddhist answers to any question is, it depends. Because it always depends on the details and the specifics of any particular circumstance. So while I'll be perhaps talking a little bit about the abstract or the hypothetical, I'm not really trying to give specific advice on what to do, but more a place for us to start. I'm, I think, just highlighting some of the directions that I try to pull from my particular position within Indra's Net. So in this...

[27:07]

In this particular nation, in the United States, we often celebrate three particular principles, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And this is not a promise or a guarantee of happiness, but a direction towards an honest effort towards happiness. And from the Zen Buddhist point of view, one of the foundations that I see for true happiness is understanding and experiencing things the way they really are, according with the reality of things as they're actually happening. Rather than my ideas... of what might happen or what I wish would have happened or what my limited perspective takes in of the whole story.

[28:19]

If I can stop struggling against the basic facts of existence, I remove one of the sources of my own suffering. letting go of this can't be happening, this shouldn't be happening, I deserve better. If I can let this sort of thinking go, I'm more likely to actually meet what's happening right now and have some agency in this moment. Now, probably pretty obviously, I think quite highly of Buddhist practice. and of the Buddhist point of view. But I think on a deeper level, before we can really pursue this happiness of awakening, we have to safeguard life and liberty. We have to create the conditions to allow awakening to happen.

[29:24]

So I said earlier that there is no way to leave Indra's net. And I see that there really is seemingly no way now for people to opt out of being a part of human society. I've found this place in a Zen monastery system. Some people might do things like going off-grid to live in the woods. And these are quite privileged choices that are not available to everyone. And even those choices to seemingly disengage don't actually take us outside of this single, vibrant life of the planet. And in the United States, practically, we've made it illegal for people to attempt to withdraw. to not be part of the government system, to not be part of the economic system.

[30:33]

And so it seems to me that if people are obligated to participate, it's incumbent on us to create the conditions for people to thrive. One way that I sort of conceptualize the grand process overall Buddhist project is to reduce the burden of suffering for living beings and to encourage awakening. And in this moment, in this particular world, from my perspective, I see what appears to me to be a lot of meanness and cruelty in this world. And these choices that people make to be cruel, to be mean, I think are really quite short-sighted, self-defeating, and socially destabilizing.

[31:48]

They don't really accomplish what people think they accomplish. perpetuate and spread suffering further. So to support life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, three concepts or exercises I might suggest are compassion, curiosity, and cooperation. I think compassion for all beings is essential, starting with compassion for our own selves. For me to notice what experience I'm having and to be gentle with myself about it, to see when I'm having a human experience of fear or anger or sadness, to feel that fully,

[32:58]

and to be gentle with myself rather than beating myself up about having the experience that I'm experiencing. Once I've met myself compassionately, that lays the groundwork for me to then extend that compassion out to others who are suffering. And eventually, I think by staying close to compassion, the possibility arises of also having compassion for those who are causing harm. And I deeply believe that people who are causing harm must be greatly confused. Because given the choice, I really do believe that most human beings would rather not cause harm. The curiosity that I think supports life, liberty, and our pursuit of happiness is a curiosity about the deep layers of cause and effect, the karmic conditions that lead to each moment.

[34:23]

I think it's important to understand clearly I think it's very helpful to talk to other people about what their experience is. From my position, from my particular jewel in this net, I notice how easy it is for me to assume that I know what other people are thinking, what they have experienced. and why they are doing the things that I experience them doing. And every time that I have taken the time to get to know someone, I have always discovered that I was completely wrong in almost everything that I assumed about them. I think a great question...

[35:27]

to ask oneself, a question I really try to ask myself often, when I see people doing things that I think I would not do, things that I don't understand, things that I cannot justify, I find it helpful to ask myself, what would I have to have experienced in order to see the world the way this person is seeing the world? I really do feel deeply that almost all human beings love their children, want them to thrive, love being alive in this world, are capable of experiencing the joy of being a human being on this planet. And so when I see another human being, having a radically different experience and radically different view of the world than I do, this curiosity can be a real doorway into connecting with other human beings.

[36:46]

After we have compassionately and curiously gotten to know a person or the situation or the underlying facts as we see them, it is important to actually take some action. We cannot be completely inactive in this world. We have to do something at least once in a while. I try to talk to other people about what I think I might do, to listen to their perspectives. I take it generally as a good sign if other people want to get involved in that same activity. And in making decisions to not ignore the complexities and the nuance of individuals,

[37:59]

othering and categorizing the grouping of human beings and creating shorthand labels for them completely ignores the actual richness and complexity of human life. I notice how immediately I bristle when I think someone is assuming something about who I am or what my perspective might be. And when I notice that reaction so strongly in myself, I have to believe this is probably a reaction that other human beings have as well. So once we have gotten to know other human beings and the situation as deeply as possible, when... we feel settled about what action to take, it's important to take action in a spirit of generosity as a gift to other living beings in the hope of reducing suffering.

[39:11]

If I am doing anything as a form of payback or to get even, to balance the scale, to teach a lesson, any motivation other than generosity and reducing suffering is very likely to actually perpetuate that cycle of suffering. I find it helpful sometimes to ask myself the question, do I want to be right or do I want us to be whole? If I am sure that I'm right, then there isn't really any room for me to hear anything else. If I am trying to convince another human being of my point of view, I'm not really going to take in their point of view. And I think, as a species, as...

[40:23]

a nation, as groups of human beings, all too often we act as if the suffering of other living beings doesn't affect us. We act as if suffering at a distance somehow insulates us from the effects and the ripples and resonance of that suffering. But from the Buddhist perspective and from the evidence of my own eyes and experience, I know that this is wrong. Suffering anywhere ripples out to everywhere. As we zoom in and out of Indra's net, looking at small groupings and larger groupings, there is always going to be a perspective from which suffering anywhere and myself are both included.

[41:30]

And I think of this a little bit like a single human body. If my lungs were suffering, what would it be like if my heart said, oh, I'm not going to help the lungs? Because I'm the heart. The lungs can take care of themselves. this obviously would get us into deep trouble very, very quickly. The whole body is affected by suffering in any part of the body. So I want to bring us back to this image of Indra's net. My basic advice is to just... Look for these connections in your everyday experience, in your life, in the interactions you have out in the world. Look for the jewels and look for the connections between them.

[42:38]

I know I myself have a lot of views and opinions formed by my own particular karmic background And I don't think of them as all falling into any particular neat category or box. And just the same, people who I might not understand or might not agree with are also not set, monolithic, exact types or categories. All people are as complicated as I am. And again, this othering, this grouping and judging and action of groups of people as if they are a single thing is really ignoring the messy, complicated humanness that we actually live in.

[43:47]

We are each a jeweled net, tangled up and Moving through this world. Moving through a Venn diagram of other interrelated nets. So stay curious. Get to know the conditions around you. Be compassionate towards yourself first. And... after being compassionate towards yourself, direct that as widely as possible. And in the presence and the company of other human beings, find actions to take that feel wholesome, that feel supportive, and that tend to reduce suffering and tend to help create

[44:55]

conditions for awakening. And perhaps this image of Indra's Net can be helpful. It is, for me, a really rich practice image that I have been sitting with for some time now, and it just continues to unfold and become more and more rich the more deeply I look at it. So that's all I have to say tonight. We have a few minutes, so I will open it up. If anyone has any comments, anything that you'd like to say, whether it is specifically about this or about practice more widely, please feel free to bring it forth. And anyone online, if you have a question, you can just raise your Zoom hand.

[45:55]

We have time for about one or two questions. Well, I was a bit late to your Dharma talk, but I heard about Indra's Net, and I was curious to ask, what inspired you to talk about the topic of today? Yeah, this... You know, I noticed that I was giving this Dharma talk on July 2nd, and that closeness to July 4th, to the national birthday, certainly got me thinking, you know, is there something in that political world that feels like it needs to be spoken to? Seeing a great deal of suffering in... in this country and in the world that seems to be driven from political perspectives really was a big part of it.

[47:03]

And I wrote a whole other talk first that was really all about politics. And the more I read it, the less I believed it. And so I just kept digging down further and further, looking for... something more fundamental. The more I looked at that first talk, the less convinced I was of my own perspectives. And that really led me back to this curiosity and to really holding even my own deepest beliefs and thoughts as lightly as possible. Yeah. Don't believe everything you think. I think that is great advice. Thank you. Thank you.

[48:10]

Okay, so I think I have more of a question with regards to your practice because you said you are a priest. So I also read sometimes about Buddhist cosmology and all these symbols and all the intricate details of it. But in my practice as well, forming concepts, thinking about them from different perspectives and angles has been of great help throughout in propelling it. But then when I look into the masters and the text, there's also points where you have to... I think of it like you have to place the soccer ball after the penalty and you have to kick your concepts out. So how do you do that? Oh, that's a great point. And I certainly agree that the concepts eventually reach the end of their usefulness. I think of the reading and the studying and the endless discussion of Buddhist cosmology topics, thought.

[49:24]

It's useful in as much as it prepares us for the moment of actually taking action and waking up. I think study and thoughts about Buddhism can just as easily be a trap. They can be a distraction. My mind is capable of making really... beautiful and compelling ideas. And sometimes I really want to stay with those ideas. There's a certain safety in that world. But awakening happens right now. Awakening happens in the present moment and in the action of the body in space and in time. And so for me to just again and again remind myself, oh, this is interesting and it's not the point, it's not the thing.

[50:30]

I, yeah, I think of it as all of the training that goes into learning how to kick the soccer ball. When you get to the moment of kicking the ball, if you're still thinking about the theories of how to kick the ball, you're going to miss the ball. and you're gonna send it off in a direction you never intended. I don't have any particular tricks or suggestions for how to let go of the concepts other than maybe Zazen. We recommend Zazen here for a lot of things. But my experience has just been over the years, again and again noticing that eventually the concepts fail me and that there needs to be something else deeper, more grounded, and more fundamental to catch me in those moments.

[51:36]

I think just noticing that cycle in my own practice, in my own experience, has left me a real sort of faith and encouragement about From time to time, just letting the thoughts go and returning to the present moment. I think that's the, for me, that is, especially right now, the real sweetness of zazen is my mind will be far, far away, very worried about all sorts of things. And in that moment, I can still remember that I am in this body and in this present moment and return to that moment. there's a sort of joy of returning to the present moment and of letting the concepts go. But I think once I felt it a few times, it became another guidepost, just like the ideas, the teachings, the words and the concepts.

[52:50]

That feeling of... blissful, joyful return to just this present moment, just the direct experience. Yeah. I think it helps to get it in the body and then just be able to aim towards it once in a while. Thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you all again for being here. We'll chant together to end. May our protection be where they may stand, to elaborate in the beginning and in its ways. May the earth wish for the Lord who gave my life to the Lord who could be [...] the Lord and the revolution of the market with the source of the world.

[53:57]

I would like to be able to consume it. Don't you know what I'm going to give you a song about this? I would like to be able to understand that. But I would like to be able to understand that. I would like to be able to understand that. I would like to be able to understand that. Thank you.

[56:27]

Thank you. [...] I don't want to do that.

[57:53]

I don't want to do that. [...] This is true. Thank you.

[59:01]

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