This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. My voice may drop. I have a soft voice, so if you can't hear me, please let me know and I'll do my best to adjust accordingly. Again, it's a joy to be here in the physical zendo of Green Gulch Farm. Aside from about two weeks ago when I was here for Sojamal Weissman's funeral, I haven't been to Green Gulch in a number of years because of the pandemic, of course. And so this is my first Dharma talk in the zendo in, I think, over three years. So remember, it's... the joy to be here in person. And I got very used to the online world. I actually like Zoom.

[01:01]

I'm one of those strange people who like Zoom. So this is an adjustment for me. And I wanted to offer a special thanks to Abbas Fu and Tanto Jiru. And hello to everyone in the virtual Buddha field. It's wonderful to be with all of you. I'm used to Zoom to seeing everyone's faces or at least their avatar. So I miss seeing that. representation of your presence as well. So I will have to just imagine it. So this morning I thought I would share with you a collection of reflections and musings on the future of American Buddhism and Zen. And I'm going to warn you in advance that my musings are still somewhat rudimentary and by no means comprehensive. And last month I gave a Dharma talk on the same theme because it's been on my mind a lot and for several reasons. The first reason is that in early June, I went to New York to the Garrison Institute where I attended a conference on the future of American Buddhism.

[02:11]

And this was a four-day collaboration between the Roka Institute, which is out of Boulder, Colorado, and the Lens Foundation, and included 100 in-person attendees and more than 100 online attendees. I think they were affected by COVID, so their participation wasn't as great as they had hoped. But the participants were from various Dharma traditions, various geographical traditions, and social location. So a very broad mix of people were showing up. And the premise of the conference was that American Buddhism is in a time of major transition, instigated in part by rapid social change, as well as the aging and passing of many of its founding members. So I'm going to say a little bit more about, you say, the gleanings from the particular conference a little later in my talk. And it just so happens that next week, I'm actually going back to New York to participate in the kind of semi-annual Next Generation Dharma Leaders Conference.

[03:25]

I've been going to these for a number of years now. And the theme for our conference is Buddhism, Past, Present, and Future. And in September, The Soto Zen Buddhist Association, which also has kind of a biannual meeting, they're also meeting, and their overarching theme is embracing the past, present, and future. So many, as it seems, many Dharma folks are actively reflecting on where we've been, where we are now, and where are we going? with a particular curiosity about the latter. The second reason that the future of Zen in America and Buddhism in America has been on my mind recently is there is currently a significant generational change happening in the leadership at San Francisco Zen Center. Apparently it was noteworthy, what was it, a little over three years ago when I took the mountain seat, became the abiding epit of City Center.

[04:34]

that I was the next gen, the first next gen abbot of Zen Center. And in part that meant I was not a founding member, a founding generational member. And then last week, many of you are aware, Zen Center officially announced that in March of next year, 2023, Abbas Fu and a central abbot at Sarasan, both are older. we'll be stepping down and we'll have a ceremony to install two new abbots, also both of the so-called next generation. So this is Drew Richmond Beiler and Marco Volco. And I just want to note, this will be the first time that all three abbots of Zen Center will be of the next generation and under the age of 60, at least for a little while until I tip over to the other side there. And it also happens next year, beginning in the fall of 2023, a significant number of the senior residents who have been at Zen Center for many, many decades will be transitioning to Enzer Village, to Zen Center's new Zen-inspired senior living facility to our community, excuse me, in support of their retirement.

[05:57]

And then the third reason. I have the future of Buddhism in my mind right now, is that many North American communities and institutions have been facing a series of significant changes and challenges in recent years that I feel consequently thrown into question. The shape and continuity of our practice, our practice forms, our traditions, our communities, and even our lives. And while the coronavirus pandemic has certainly contributed to much of the disruption and the upheaval, there was already various issues facing contemporary American Buddhism prior to the onset of the pandemic. For example, while many Dharma communities have provided a much-needed refuge for personal spiritual growth, many have also been sidetracked and interrupted, struggling with many challenges related to issues such as sexual impropriety, privilege, a lack of diversity, cultural insularity, and spiritual materialism.

[07:21]

And of course, many of these issues and these challenges that Dharma communities are grappling with are simply You could say echoes or micro versions of the tensions and problems found in the wider society and the world at this time. But to my mind, the last two years of the pandemic, or two or more years, have merely served to accelerate and intensify many of the challenges and questions that American sanghas will have to sooner or later face. as Buddhism continues to inform and be integrated into, if you will, the nervous system and the structures of American society. And this is true and true at San Francisco Zen Center. In many ways, I see the issues we face here as perhaps more difficult to address in some cases because of our size, how long we've been around as an institution and a community.

[08:28]

our current economic model, the complexity of our institution and our sangha. And for this reason, Zen Center leadership is beginning a process of earnestly questioning and considering our institutional structure, our financial and sustainability model, and our practice model, and how it is that we are training futures and practitioners and teachers and leaders. So the uncertain liminal times that we find ourselves in the midst of are requiring us to consider deeply, what are we doing? How are we doing it? And for whom are we doing it? And how we address these questions will not only shape the future of San Francisco Zen Center, but also Buddhism in the West.

[09:28]

Now, speculation about the future of Buddhism is not new, if you can imagine. To my mind, it started the moment after the Buddha's Paranirvana, and his followers at that time had to grapple with both the reality of the heartbreaking loss of their teacher, but also what it meant in terms of the future of their practice, their life paths, and the continuation of the Buddhadharma. So what's going to happen next to our practice? How long is Buddhism, it wasn't called Buddhism back then, going to last? I understand that at the time of Suzuki Roshi's death, many of his students and members of the Maha Sangha had similar questions and concerns, not only about San Francisco Zen Center as an institution, but also about the still-nacent expression of American Zen. I expect that many of you are aware that in the process of moving from one culture to the next over its 2500 year history, Buddhism is always

[11:00]

adapted to its new environment, absorbing aspects of its host culture, even as it has changed the host culture. You might also recall Arnold Thornby, I think I pronounced that correctly, the noted British historian. He remarked that the most important event for the West in the 20th century was to be its encounter with Buddhism. So we in the so-called West are to my mind, still in the early days of this encounter. And there are still many facets of this encounter that have yet to be worked out or made evident. And to my mind, Zen in particular in the U.S. is still in its, I would call it its adolescent stage. In many ways, it's still kind of awkwardly growing and navigating a rapidly changing body, mind, and environment. still trying to figure out what it is, who it is, what it wants to be when it grows up.

[12:04]

And so it's kind of all over the place in a number of instances. And I think it's going to take a number of decades before it comes into what we might consider as adulthood or a greater maturity, how it takes shape. And when considering the future of American Buddhism and Zen, I think we first need to ask ourselves, what are we talking about when we talk about American Buddhism? Who or what is America now? And what do we mean when we say American? And when you think of American Buddhism, what kind of Buddhisms or Buddhists come to mind? Who's included in your bucket? your mental bucket of American Buddhists? And who's left out? And why? We might also consider that when we ask the question, what is the future of American Buddhism?

[13:11]

The question itself lacks, let's say, specificity. Because there's no such thing as American Buddhism in the singular. But there is a... Think of it as a seemingly endless number of iterations of American Buddhism in the plural. And I imagine many of you already know this. Whenever you try to say anything about American Buddhism, we're usually talking about maybe one or two traditions or communities, much part of a larger whole. And from this point, any vision of what American Buddhism might look like totally depends on what part, of what tradition you might be talking about or be located in, whether it's Zen, Tibetan practice, Vipassana, Pure Land, etc. And as I am deeply steeped in Soto Zen, my orientation to so-called American Buddhism is obviously going to be informed by this positionality, and frankly by various other positionalities that I hold, including my gender,

[14:25]

race, class, sexual orientation, educational background, and so forth. Again, when we ask, what is the future of American Buddhism? And then, what are we talking about? Are we talking about our lineages, our institutions, or about the Dharma itself? So I think we need to recognize there's a difference between our temples and Dharma organizations. and the Dharma itself. Zen Center is a temple, and it's an organization. It was created by and for people, and as such, it's subject to change. And we need to be open to change, especially in times of crisis like we're encountering in the last few years. We need to think of new ways to organize our communities and our institutions, new ways to convey and support and share the Dharma. Because there's a difference between the organizations, such as San Francisco Zen Center, and Zen, the teachings and the Dharma.

[15:36]

In other words, if we're going to be open to the future of American Buddhism and Zen, then we need to be open to change. We need to be open to new ideas and new ways of expressing the Dharma and manifesting our Sanghas and institutions. We need to consciously embrace the impermanence of our forms and institutions in the service of an authentic dharma. The future is always nothing more than a dream. And in dreams, we cast our imaginations toward the future and envision as best we can what the path ahead may bring. So what dream? might we conjure for the future of American Buddhism in Zen? Well, we can only conjure a future from where we're at in the present. Thich Nhat Hanh said that, if you want to know the past, look at the present, because everything you see is a product of the past.

[16:44]

And if you want to know the future, also look at the present, because the future is being created right now. So in other words, The future of Buddhism is now. We make the future in the present moment. And we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future to manifest, right? Because the future is an infinite succession of presence. So presently, we're at an inflection point, a turning point, precipitated by the pandemic and other myriad impactful circumstances in our world. And how we address the most pressing issues of the present will determine our future. So by examining some of the challenges and concerns that have arisen in this encounter with the present, perhaps we may be able to discern a possible trajectory of the future of Buddhism and Zen.

[17:50]

So this brings me to some of the reflections and gleanings I took away from my participation in the Future of American Buddhism conference. And panelists and presenters at the conference included over 40 well-known American Dharma teachers and Buddhist scholars who all offered their reflections on the future of Buddhism on this continent in the coming decade. And the invitation was for the participants to take up the inquiry of what we personally and collectively envision for the future of American Buddhism at this time? What things do we want to transmit onto, on and into the future, as we support American Buddhism to evolve? And what things do we want to leave behind that no longer serve the development of Buddhism in the Americas? And I appreciate some of the key questions that the panelists over the duration of the conference encouraged the assembly to consider.

[18:55]

To guide the direction of the conference, the organizers asked the wider Buddha Sangha through a survey, what are the most important and pressing topics to address? And so out of the responses from the survey, they came up with six primary themes around which they held a number of panels, three- to five-person panels. which the panelists all presented their thoughts, and then there was time for Q&A. And so I'm going to name these themes, and then we could share a few of my own thoughts and inquiries that I have in regard to them. And I think a lot of these are formed as questions, because I think it's actually more beneficial to pose the question and engage the question than trying to go immediately to definitive answers or solutions. So the first theme was that of tradition and innovation. How is Buddhism and Zen effectively and appropriately innovating in the American tongue context without losing connection with its Asian transmissions and roots?

[20:09]

How do we adapt and innovate how we hold and express the Buddha Dharma in ways that keep the essence of the practice? alive in the changes that we seek to make? And furthermore, how do we prevent what's sometimes referred to as the dumbing down of the power of Buddhist practice as aspects of the new culture are incorporated into it or into the culture, such as we're seeing sometimes with the mindfulness movement and countering its secular environments? I've been thinking for some time now about the question of what formal Soto Zen training in not only the 21st century, but the 22nd century might look like here in the U.S. Many of the Zen forms that we practice today here at San Francisco Zen Center have their roots, obviously, in Japanese and Chinese cultures, going back for many, many centuries.

[21:15]

And they still, surprisingly, hold tremendous power in terms of their effectiveness in training kind, awake, and compassionate bodhisattvas. However, many of these forms and ceremonies were developed to address the minds and bodies of those who were encountering Buddhism and Zen at that time that they were initially made up and utilized. And these minds and bodies of people conditioned and shaped by their particular cultures. They were shaped by their social and political systems, by the environments they were embedded in, and other circumstances specific to their times. So how they related to these forms were really a matter of the context in which they were swimming in, how they perceived and understood them. So the Zen teachers of those times made the effort to design Zen training forms that were skillful, and efficacious ways to point people to the awake mind and then live from the awake mind.

[22:23]

And obviously examples of some of these training technologies, if you will, include koans. And also, you know, maybe surprising at times, physical and emotional aggression as ways to shock the practitioner out of normal conditioned view. and open the space for a deeper insight to come forward. And many of these technologies, as you can imagine, aren't so appropriate for these particular contemporary times and society. It doesn't kind of work so well to be hitting people anymore, which is why we retired to Kiyosaku. So we have to come up with new, novel approaches that help us to break out of our conditioned mindsets and views. And I think it may take decades for us here in the U.S. to experiment and identify what these new forms of practice that are particularly skillful and efficacious for who it is that's showing up now as means to help support the liberty of mind.

[23:35]

The second theme was on leadership, power, and empowerment. And this theme took up the question of how American Buddhist communities are addressing the abuses of power to create healthy communities. How are leaders and teachers being held accountable for how they well power and authority? Also, how is power being shared? What might it look like to have our Zen institutions making decisions utilizing a shared leadership model that offers more transparency, around how decisions are made? And relatedly, how are leaders and teachers across diverse social locations and identities, particularly women, BIPOC, queer folk, being empowered? And furthermore, can we do more to address the structural factors and conditions that continue to perpetuate suffering in our communities and the world?

[24:40]

For example, many of our predominant and prevailing social systems are deeply shaped by patriarchy, hierarchy, and capitalism in ways that leave many people marginalized, disempowered, under-resourced, and physically and emotionally harmed. How do we break free of these limiting power structures, particularly within our Sangha? The Next focus was on the Dharma for the environmental crisis. So how is American Buddhism contributing to solving the critical environmental issues of our time? How are we using the teachings of the Dharma not only to take actions to address climate change crisis, but to also help us work with the various emotions that we might be having in the face of climate devastation? including fear, despair, grief, and helplessness.

[25:46]

We need to understand that the healing of our will begins with the healing of our own heart minds. The fourth panel was on engaged Buddhism and explored examples of initiatives in America that bring contemplative methods to social, educational, and political issues. So how might we do more to take Buddhism out of the individual practice realm and apply it to all these other areas of our lives and society to really manifest and engage Buddhism by applying Buddhist principles on a much wider scale to social and civic areas? For example, what would it mean to apply Dharma teachings and practices to school systems? to city planning, to corporations, not just introduce them, but actually impact the shape of them and how they operate. To support them, as Larry Wood said at the conference, not to become necessarily Buddhist, but to become wise, to become a wise society, to have wise institutions and structures.

[27:05]

And the fifth, was BIPOC wisdom and skillful means. And in this one, the panelists spoke about how BIPOC, Asian American and other Buddhist communities of color. I'm assuming I realize that everyone knows what BIPOC means. Black, indigenous, people of color. And they actually came up as an issue that many Asian Americans felt left out by that term. And so they came up with a new term, BIPOC. BIPOC. So to be sure that Asian Americans weren't kind of grouped under the people of color framing. And I think the term itself is still problematic, regardless, as many people of color have said. So how is the BIPOC, Asian American and other Buddhist communities of color, bringing innovative new structures and modalities to American Buddhism? There's recently been an explosion of wonderful books. by bhag-bhak dharma teachers and practitioners, particularly I'm thinking of some African descent, that speak to what Buddhism can teach us about race, resilience, transformation, and freedom.

[28:18]

At the same time, it's important to remember that two-thirds of the American Buddhists, and this is based on a survey that I think was done by the Pew Foundation, if I remember correctly, a number of years ago, about five years ago, had said two-thirds of American Buddhists are Asian American descent, and that many so-called heritage Buddhist temples are tied closely to immigrant communities that tend to foster the cultural religious expressions of their countries of origin, even while engaging in just as, you could say, interesting evolutions and experiments with expressing Buddhism in the United States as that of the predominantly white so-called convert Buddhist communities. So the question for us, particularly as a majority white convert community, is what can we learn from them?

[29:20]

And the final explanation was on digital dharma and virtual sangha. And the panelists on this spoke about some of the new virtual platforms and menus that are propagating dharma in America, and how this has changed the face of American Buddhism. Of course, the pandemic obviously accelerated the use of video streaming tools, such as Zoom. I remember still hearing many senior people, you know, questioning, we will never do online dharma. That is just not real dharma. And here it is now, predominantly what we have had to do. And realize that is quiet in a quite a powerful modality of way of sharing the Dharma. So we're creating not only, we're not only making the Dharma accessible, but we're actually creating new Dharma communities through these virtual platforms and tools. But there are other technological advances that are breaking new ground in both, you could say, exciting and also somewhat unsettling ways.

[30:24]

For example, I've seen a few articles recently about how Japanese Buddhists are using robot priests, and bodhisattva figures such as Kenan to lead services and to teach the Dharma. So if you have a chance, you might want to Google that and check out the videos. I think they're kind of cool. And also, I learned at the conference that there are AI programs that allow practitioners to either access or create virtual reality zendos, as well as digital avatars for Dharma teachers, including those who have died. So in other words, in the near future, you could attend a Dharma talk and have a practice discussion with an AI version of Suzuki Roshi, right? Might be a hologram sitting here, right? And you can do it not only here, but also from your own home where you could beam Suzuki Roshi into your living room and actually have an exchange with Suzuki Roshi.

[31:31]

his voice, his presence, and apparently the technology actually, as it scans through past Dormatalks, finds kind of the rhythm and the cadence and kind of how the mind of the speaker works and mimics it in ways that gives you kind of, you know, basically similar responses to what the live version would be. So it's a strange thing. I'm not sure how many of us are there yet. But to think about those people who can't access a Zendo, who can't come to a community, who don't have access to teachers, what would it mean for them to be able to have a virtual practice discussion or DokaSan with a teacher? That's not just looking at a screen, but having something that feels more presencing here. So brave new world. So besides panels on these six themes, There were also a number of smaller workshops that were throughout the conference.

[32:34]

And I just want to mention some of their titles because I thought them very interesting. They were on topics such as transformative justice and repair in Dharma communities, the inner and outer work of divesting our organizations of white body supremacy, female leadership and empowerment in Buddhist communities, and opening pathways for a deeper practice for young people. And so many of these workshops had case studies of what people are currently doing in these areas. And now there might be other areas that you feel are just as pressing for American Buddhism and Zen to address. But I think these six are a good start. And some of them, you know, obviously are perennial concerns, such as the tension between tradition and innovation, as well as leadership and the manifestation of power. And others are more particular to our contemporary circumstances, concerns about the environment, race, and digital dharma.

[33:36]

And my overall take on the conference wasn't that so much that it outlined a particular vision of what the future of American Buddhism will look like in the coming decades, but more kind of offered a useful overview of many of the key tensions and concerns that are alive for our Buddhist communities and practitioners now. And to reiterate, you and I are creating the future today through our practice and engagement with the triple treasure, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. And within the various contexts, we find ourselves inhabiting and the circumstances that we're navigating. So the question, hence, is one of how we now engage in Dharma practices in such a way as to lay the foundation for a desired future. in which the essential teachings and practices of Buddhism thrive and continue to bring great benefit to many. And throughout the conference, I had the last paragraph of Zen Mind Beginner's Mind coming to mind.

[34:41]

And in it, Suzuki Roshi offers us some wise counsel regarding how we might approach the evolution of Zen Buddhism in America. And while he said this in the 1960s, I think it's still apropos for today. He says, I feel Americans, especially young Americans, have a great opportunity to find out the true way of life for human beings. You are quite free from material things, and you begin Zen practice with a pure mind, a beginner's mind. Now, this might be true in the 1960s when Zen was still novel, novel spiritual tradition to the States and had not been, I could say, appropriated by American marketing, business, and pop culture. However, he continues, you can understand Buddha's teaching exactly as he meant it, but we must not be attached to America or Buddhism or even to our practice. We must have a beginner's mind, free from possessing anything. A mind that knows everything is in flowing change.

[35:44]

Nothing exists, but momentarily in its present form and color, one thing flows into another and cannot be grasped. So if we follow Suzuki Roshi's counsel, our primary orientation toward the future of Zen should be that of a beginner's mind, a mind of sincere and open curiosity, of genuine exploration, of no fixed ideas, no attachments to particular forms and structures for practice. Suzuki Roshi says, we mustn't be attached to America or Buddhism or even to our practice. So in other words, we mustn't be attached to our ideas of Zen, to the forms and the rituals or the garb, to the traditional structures through which practice has been communicated and transmitted to us over the last six decades. And this is because any form of spiritual attachment, whether to the teachings, the forms, the ceremonies, and even enlightenment, obscures our original.

[36:55]

pure mind. And at the same time, it's foolish to get rid of the traditional forms and ceremonies simply for the sake of change and innovation. Many of the traditional forms, they have a wisdom and a purpose and an efficacy that has been tested and found sound and transformative. There needs to be a wise and thorough discernment about our deepest intentions in changing the forms. Thank you, kitchen. Take good care. I won't go on too much longer, I promise. So the question is, is our intentions to change and make innovation, is it about ego? Is it about innovation for the sake of innovation? Or is the innovation and the change that we allow expressing something that's true and authentic? It's about us right here and right now.

[37:56]

This right here and right now is continually changing. So we need to be flexible and adaptable as a means to keep the spirit of Zen practice, that feeling of aliveness available to us. So I think one of the things that we might consider as we consider the changes, and how we respond to the present moralities of this time, is Chan Master Yung Men's reply to the question that a monk asked him, what are the teachings of a whole lifetime? And Yung Men replied, an appropriate response. So the wish to express what Suzuki Roshi called the true way of life through our practice is at the heart of what it means to have an appropriate response, a response that comes from an open heart and mind that seeks to connect rather than divide, that aims to see things as it is, that aims to see the Buddha nature of each being and to acknowledge and mirror and bring forth the Buddha in each of us.

[39:16]

And of course, in this process, we're going to make mistakes along the way. And as we continue to integrate and evolve Zen in America, we're going to make lots of mistakes. And we're going to make changes and try on new approaches and forms, and some of them will work, and some of them are going to fail, and maybe fail spectacularly. As Dogen said, there is the principle of the way that we must make one mistake after another. So this is how we learn and grow. and develop wisdom that's based on real life experiences. So let's not be timid or fearful as we try to make changes. It's okay to make mistakes. And I think as we continue to lay the seeds for the future of American Zen, we need to keep forefront in our minds the core endeavor of Zen. So I see it as the principal purpose of the Zen project, if you will.

[40:19]

is awakening, is liberation within our dualistic karmic conditioning. And this is the gift of the Buddha Dharma and the path of Zen, this path of awakening, and then the emphasis on the importance of integrating any insight that we have into our everyday life. Everything else, if you will, you might say, is upaya, skillful means. And throughout the 2500 history of Buddhism, there have been endless conversations, experiments, and arguments about what might be the most skillful means and efficacious practices to support awakening and alleviate suffering. So I'll conclude in just a couple minutes, but I want to mention a few specific areas. I think that Zen Center, San Francisco Zen Center, as an institution in Sangha, might give particular attention to at this time as a means to lay beneficial seeds for the future of Zen in America.

[41:26]

And these are in addition to and maybe further unpacking the six themes that the Conference on American Buddhism had brought forth. The first I would propose is that our Sanghas and Dharma leaders be mindful of the ways in which people are included or excluded in our communities. So I think for Zen to be able to thrive and be vital in this country, we need to create a spiritual community and an institutional model that is inclusive and welcoming of a diversity of people and expressions of being and which make its best effort to support everyone who truly wants to participate and sincerely take up Zen practice to allow them to be engaged in appropriate ways. Of course, the word appropriate, you know, we have to work with that, figure out what does that actually mean. And we're already doing a lot here at San Francisco, but I think there's a lot more that we can do.

[42:30]

The next is the relationship between priest and lay practice. While there's been a positive orientation towards recognizing and embracing the priest path and the lay path as equally valid and full paths of practice, I think more needs to be done in this area. First, we need to better clarify the role and function of priests vis-à-vis lay leaders. We can also do more to fully acknowledge and honor and empower lay transmitted dharma leaders and teachers in our sanghas. We need to see them as equals in terms of their commitment to the dharma, to awakening, and to supporting the sangha rather than... In some cases, there's always a sense, not always, but at times a sense of somehow a little less than. So how might we do this in a way that's more meaningful? And thirdly, I think we could do more in terms of inviting the Sangha into a process of holding spiritual leaders accountable.

[43:32]

While the process for becoming a priest or a Dharma-transmitted teacher is often a somewhat private conversation, with only one's teacher or a small group of abbots, I think we might consider inviting the Sangha to give feedback on the priest or Dharma transmission candidates themselves about their conduct, about their decorum in the Sangha prior to the ceremonies of empowerment, especially so that they can address any issues or concerns that members might have about the candidates' particular capacity to lead Sangha. We might even add a preliminary stage, an entrustment stage, prior to someone being given full Dharma and transmission as a teacher as a means to better support them to take up the responsibility that such an empowerment entails. And then finally, I would propose that we consider what we might do to offer more of a temple experience and something that's true to communal rather than somewhat monastic.

[44:40]

So what I'm envisioning is something more in the lines of a local church, for those of you who are familiar with church culture. So this is this idea that it's a place for people to come, to engage in Dharma events and services and educational opportunities for both adults and children on a regular basis, and be in relationship in ways that is not necessarily prescribed by monastic forms. So in tandem with this, and I think this is more easily done perhaps at city center, but I think Greengolf could do more of it, and Tassahara happens by default in the summer there. In Tamden, I think we can also question the narrative that awakening can only happen in a monastic setting. And while I think monastic conditions provide a better container for stillness and silence and inward inquiry, for the transformation of consciousness, than much of our contemporary life might.

[45:43]

I think if we just kind of think that awakening can only happen in a monastic setting, then we kind of lose the possibility that awakening can happen actually anywhere. And there are many people in monasteries who have practiced for decades and are not awake. And I know people who have never practiced in a monastery, and they're very awake. So how can we... Make sure that awakening is recognized and acknowledged everywhere and supported anywhere that someone is at. So while I could say more about the future of American Buddhism and Zen, I'm going to end there today. My fundamental wish for the future of American Zen in particular is that it be able to offer a positive vision of the world and the very real possibility of liberation. that it be engaged constructively with the world rather than turning its back on it, that it enables us to use our understanding of the Buddhadharma and Zen to inform how we perceive and engage the world, to allow it to provide us a way to live in this world with integrity, with insight, with compassion, harmony, and care, that it supports us to live and present,

[47:07]

as whole people, endowed with whole lives, and while also seeing ourselves in our sanghas as an ongoing endeavor, kind of, you will, of works in progress. And finally, let us not forget in everything that we do today that we are the Dharma ancestors for those who will come after us. Can we live in such a way that we constantly have their happiness and welfare, and liberation in mind. Can we live in such a way as to do the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the future proud? Thank you very much for your patience and kind attention. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive.

[48:09]

Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[48:30]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_95.85