Get on with it. How much time do I have? Half hour? Half hour? Something? Something. Wearing glasses is new for me, so it's going to be interesting. I can barely see you. I can see this sometimes. And if I lift my head too much, I can't see that, but I can see you. Interesting. Welcome to everyone who is new. I hope you have a well, I was going to say a good life. Good is such a smelly word, you know. Louder. Thank you. OK. I hope I hope you're well, your family's well, you have health, there's some contentment, you know.

[01:09]

I know everybody is doing their best. Everybody is always doing their best. So let's get down to it. You know, I'm going to tell you the basic thing that I want to say first. The basic thing I want to say is that there are many things that go through the mind. There are thoughts. There are energies we call emotion in the body. There are sensations. All of that is changing all the time. if you identify with those things if you make them the truth of things if you imagine that they are not changing if you identify with them as you there will be suffering in your life guaranteed

[02:39]

There will be suffering as opposed to pain. Pain comes with life. You lose an arm, you lose a friend, you lose your life eventually. It comes with life. Suffering is a choice. If you identify with whatever is passing through, there will be suffering. you don't identify with what's passing through, there's a different kind of life. So the question is, are you whatever changes Or are you, when the mind is no hindrance, no fear exists?

[03:47]

Are you living as the noise, as the divisions of your life? Or are you a bird flies like a bird, a fish swims like a fish? am the chaplain of a school, a high school. I teach high school. I teach at the Bay School of San Francisco. And this is how I talk to the kids. Originally, I wanted to talk to you guys around three or so years ago, and I wanted to do a PowerPoint in the dining room about what I do in school. But I couldn't because Zen Center doesn't have a PowerPoint, you know, set up. So I couldn't. And so we've waited really a long time. And it turns out that I'm talking here in the Buddha Hall, which was not how I thought I was going to do this. But what I do want to do is partly share with you what I do with the kids.

[04:59]

So this talk is going to be partly what I do with the kids and partly a kind of a Dharma talk. But they're not really too far apart. Because one of the main things that we do in school. One of the main parts of the mission in school is the idea that the kids as teenagers have spiritual questions quite naturally. And one of the main spiritual questions that they ask that the school promotes even is the question, who am I? The kids are not far away from truth of that answer. They have not identified with the thoughts that run through their minds or the emotions that run through the body. They are not yet really identified with those things. Their minds are still quite open, kind of like beginner's mind where all possibilities are still there.

[06:06]

All creativity can happen. Their minds are very open and very close to their true nature. It doesn't take much for them to have a real taste of the gap between thoughts. So the other day I was walking around school, which I do a lot, and I happened to sit down on a bench with a kid. I think he was a sophomore. And... I sat down and I looked over his shoulder and he was doing something on his computer. I looked at the screen. Seemed okay to me. So they're so tricky. They're so smart. The kids have already kind of broken into our school, whatever you call it. And they're posting something or another on the web. I don't know. But it took down our interest school system for a little while.

[07:06]

They're so sweet. I love them. They're wonderful. They're hilarious more than anything. Anyway, I sat down next to this kid. He was all of, let's see, sophomore is 15, 15 years old. Well, I have to tell you this. Every day we start school with meditation. All the kids come in and hubba hubba hubba and they You know, first see each other. It's Monday morning. They first see each other from the weekend and they're all, you know, wanting to they they they're like puppies, you know, they flop all over each other and they hug and kiss and, you know, and some kids are kind of on the side, kind of loners. And we try we watch them and see if somebody says, oh, you know, we try to really take care of them in school. But anyway, and then the head of the school comes around and he brings this gigantic gong. and the kids sit down and there are about 275 280 kids in school plus around 30 some 35 teachers and a few staff members and then we're all in this big room together with pillars and they sit down and then it's my turn and this is what I say every day and by this time they're already Pavlov like Pavlov dogs

[08:32]

As soon as I say, please sit up straight, already they're turning inside. And sometimes I have to say, please unwind yourself from each other. I want them to be in their own space. And then I say, please close your eyes, because I don't want them to think that other people are looking at them. That's a big no-no. And by the time I've said, please close your eyes, already the room is settling. And when I ring the bell three times, the room goes thump. And then there are all these teenagers. Well, actually, I don't know what they're doing, to tell you the truth. I mean, I've I've told them over years about meditation, about You know, aiming and sustaining the mind.

[09:34]

They can use counting. They can follow their tummy in and out, their chest in and out, the air, how it feels on the lips. They can follow sound into silence. Or best of all, they can just sit there feeling life. They can just be. And they can. So this is I sit down next to this kid and I asked him, after our conversation got going a little bit, I asked him, well, what do you do? I'm just curious, you know, what do you do in the morning during meditation time? And he said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't meditate. I said, oh, OK. What do you do? And this is what he said. He said, well, the first thing I do is relax my body. And then I dive into a cool, quiet pool.

[10:40]

I thought, okay, don't meditate. That's fine. You just keep doing what you're doing. There's no need to invent life. There's no need to control anything. There's no need to fix anything. There's no need to manipulate. There's no need any longer to fight. You can just stop, settle down, relax your body every day for a few minutes. relax your body and just allow yourself to settle into a cool, quiet pool.

[11:50]

It's not like when we fight there's somebody in there fighting. The fighting itself is the separation. The fighting itself is the building and maintaining of a me. We don't have to struggle anymore. We don't have to grasp. We don't have to seek. We fight inside all the time with ourselves. Now, does that sound funny to you? It should. There's no me in the first place. So who is this me That's fighting with myself. How does that happen? I should be this way. I should be that way. I need to make this choice. I'm not enough. Yes, you are. Constantly we're fighting. We're fighting with our relationships. Why did you say that to me?

[13:01]

You're right. I'm right. We're fighting in community. This is my point of view. This is the way to do things. we fight in the world we've been watching for seven years the mind of that sets up enemies the mind that creates other the mind that fights I was in class the other day in history class because the history teacher asked me if I would come. They're studying right now the civil rights movement in school history. And I was in Mississippi the summer of 64. So he asked me to come in and tell them my experience a little bit, make it more alive for them than watching it on a TV.

[14:08]

So I did. And it was difficult because you have to kind of relive a little bit. That situation is very wonderful and awful and both were intense. So I talked about it. And at the end of the talk, one of the guys, one of the students raised their hand and said, while you were down there, was there any time that you thought that nonviolence and not fighting? was not the way to go. And I thought about it for a while and it was a really good question. But then it came up for me, you know, when do you stop? Do you stop right after this fight? Do you stop right after the next fight? When do you stop? When do you stop struggling with yourself inside? When do you stop struggling with your relationship? When do we stop fighting the other?

[15:10]

So I said, no. No, because the fighting has to stop with me. If it doesn't stop with me, how is it going to stop? So one of the ways in school I use to help them turn toward this extra being that is fighting with their selves is through a re kind of translation of the precepts that you'll be familiar to you. These are our guiding precepts in school. These are not rules. These are prompts, we say in education. Prompts are something that help you reflect on your own life. And in this case, help you reflect on how you are living from selfishness, living from a me, living from separation.

[16:18]

Every time you don't do the precepts, there's a good chance that you're living from identification with a thought. To these we aspire. We value living with kindness and honesty. We are careful truth-tellers. We value the importance of boundaries. We take only what is given. We value respecting ourselves and our friends in relationship. We don't misuse sexuality. We value a clear mind and a healthy, strong body. We don't intoxicate ourselves with alcohol, drugs, unhealthy food or the misuse of technology. We value kind speech. We don't slander or gossip. We value the richness of difference and diversity. We don't praise ourselves at the expense of another. We don't bully or haze. We value communication.

[17:22]

We don't harbor anger or ill will, especially toward ourselves. We value generosity. We share giving and receiving help. We value patience with ourselves and others. We don't rush to judgment. We value the earth, our home. We don't pollute. We recycle. And we are careful, conscious consumers. And with each one of these precepts all over the school, we have questions that help them reflect. Like, for example, we value kind speech. We don't slander or gossip. This is really a big one for a community. You know, it's really easy to gossip about somebody, to slander, even when we think we don't think we're slandering, but we actually it comes out that way.

[18:24]

So all over school, there are these little black little pages says kind speech. We don't slander or gossip. And then there are questions. Have you noticed how you feel when you or others are trash talking someone? Do you feel bonded? Do you feel powerful? Do you feel mean? Do you feel scared or hurt? Do you trust people who talk like that? Can you stop to think how the person who's getting trashed feels? Do you think other people do this about you? How does that feel? How much courage do you think it would take to stop? Do you have the courage to stop? Or walk away? All of the precepts have just questions around the school to help them reflect on their behavior.

[19:30]

I teach an emotions class to everyone in junior, all the juniors. And in the emotions class, you know, they don't know what emotions are. Emotions are just sensations that go through the body. And I teach them about RAIN, this acronym that I've talked about before, RAIN. The R stands for recognize what's happening as it's happening. Acknowledge, name it. There is anger here. It's not like I am angry. There's not an I that's angry. Anger is the I. If you identify with the anger, that's a me. It's not me that's angry. The I is investigate sensations in the body. Let the body process the event.

[21:04]

Whenever there's a thought, there's an echo in the body. Let the body process the sensations and investigate. Curious. Be curious. It's interesting. And the end is no identification. Don't identify it as a me. It's not like I'm angry. It's just there are sensations I call anger passing through that are called anger passing through. And the kids have insights all by themselves. And every time they have an insight, I make them live it. I never let them forget it. Because if you have an insight and you don't live the insight, it goes away. If you have an insight, you have to become that insight.

[22:07]

You have to live, you have to embody that insight. So here's an insight one of the kids had, Annie. She had done a introduction to meditation retreat. I take the kids on a introduction to meditation retreat. It cringles for them. this is their insight she liked this guy and at the end of the day they had this list of notes to each other that they were writing to each other and she saw the guy write this note she saw her name and so she went she felt this is what she told me she felt like this you know happy and then she read it a little bit more and it said something like I don't like and she felt herself go down and then the next Part of it was, I don't like that she's so pretty. And then she went up like this. And then it said, because you distract me.

[23:10]

And then she went down like this. And within two minutes, she saw her mind go bleep blop, bleep blop, bleep blop. And this was her insight. Her insight was, listen to this insight. This is what she got from it. Her insight was, my happiness. does not depend on what happens outside of my own mind. Sixteen. And I never let her forget it. Never let her forget it. Every time she comes with me, my dad, blah, blah, blah. I don't go to school, blah, blah, blah. Oh, really? And your happiness comes from where? Annie. Her name is Annie. This is from Alex. He was 16 when he had this insight. He's walking around school and he's watching. And of course, he likes some people. He doesn't like other people. Likes this guy, doesn't like that guy.

[24:13]

This guy does blah, blah, blah. Terrible person. This guy, blah, blah, blah, blah. Terrible person. This guy doesn't do anything right. Terrible person. He's walking around like that all day and keeps walking around like that. He's getting evidently tired of it. Anyway, it comes to me one day and this is his insight. Comes to me, knocks on my office. Tia, I have this insight. Oh, come on in. What could it be? Tell me. Do you know? I said, what? What I don't like in other people is what I don't like in myself. 60. years old and he understands what projection is he understands about not blaming other people what I don't like in somebody else is what I don't like in myself Alex I never let him forget it they don't know when they come and tell me these things but I'm never going to let them forget it

[25:25]

She understands about mindfulness. All by herself, she discovered mindfulness, being attentive to things in her life as they happen. Willa gave a talk at the school just the other day in the morning during our morning meeting, and she talked about how little things make her happy. And what she said was, if you really pay attention to small things she's talking about being awake in her life that it makes a difference in your day between being happy and not being happy these are kids teenagers they are so close they are so close The problem with teenagers, unfortunately, is they're also very distracted.

[26:36]

But they are so close. What are they close to? They are close to the mind. which you are looking at me is the same mind that I am looking at you Paul in his office I was standing in his office just before coming down here he has a little thing near the phone that says mirror to mirror it means that when I look at you I am looking at me you look at me you're looking at you it's the mind of silence the mind of the still quiet pool that we all know and we have a choice we have a choice between identifying and bothering with the busy mind the mind that changes it's like

[28:17]

you know what they say moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic you can keep trying to make yourself happy by manipulating everything and stuff like that and the boat sinking you know or you can let go you can give up give up is not a good word you can surrender to life as it has come to be and open yourself to that without fighting without identifying with the stuff that changes and dive into a quiet, cool, silence, stillness that is everything, that manifests as everything. It's a choice. It is our practice. Every time the mind contracts, notice it and release.

[29:18]

It becomes more and more subtle. Every time the mind contracts, relax and dive into a quiet pool. This is a poem I like. It's by Ajashanti. of mind demand so much of silence but she does not talk back does not give answers nor arguments she is the hidden author of every thought every feeling every moment silence she speaks only one word and that word is this very existence No name you give her touches her, captures her.

[30:20]

No understanding can embrace her. Mind throws itself in silence, demanding to be let in. But no mind can enter into her radiant darkness, her pure and smiling nothingness. The mind hurls itself into sacred questions, But silence remains unmoved by the tantrums. She asks only for nothing. Nothing. But you won't give it to her because it is the last coin in your pocket. And you would rather give her your demands, your seeking, your struggle, than your sacred and empty The point is to love each other.

[31:37]

To just be nice. And it turns out that seeing This no identification or this silence helps us be nice, that's all. It just helps us be nice. So every moment of the day when you are not nice, be nice to yourself when you're not nice. You don't have to judge. You're doing the best you can. Really, it's true. Everybody is. And when you have it, when you give up the fighting, the struggle, and you have any kind of insight, live from that insight, embody that insight. And when silence comes, let yourself, allow yourself,

[32:44]

to dive into that pool and surrender to life as it has come to be for you in that moment. It's here now.

[33:04]

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