This podcast is offered by San Francisco's Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. Hello. Hi. Welcome to San Francisco's Zen Center. And let me introduce myself. My name is Jordan Thorne. I am a... priest here at the Zen Center. I work for Zen Center as the treasurer. I've done other jobs as well. Let me also welcome those people who listen later on, podcasting or live streaming or wherever you might be. So hello to the whole world. it's always kind of a challenge to offer a Dharma talk, at least for me.

[01:10]

And it's often an opportunity to feel sort of humble or various things. But today, this is compounded by the fact that this is Martin Luther King Memorial Holiday, and I want to talk today about about Buddhism, about Zen, but also about Dr. Martin Luther King, about Reverend King, and how his life and his teachings are relevant and valid and encouraging to us today. So this place today, this room where we are right now, This is a Buddhist temple, a Zen temple. And as complicated as Buddhism can sometimes get, it's also simply described.

[02:15]

And here's one simple truth about Buddhism, which is that a student of the way lives his life in a fashion to not harm other people. I've seen, it's almost a popular bumper sticker in my circles. This little thing that says, do no harm. And also, even as I suggest that as a teaching, as a truth, I feel the limitation of do no harm. It's kind of a simple nostrum. And in fact, actually, on the way towards doing no harm, we actually need to actively extend ourselves. We need to actively manifest our compassion in a way that helps other people.

[03:18]

And doing this, we need to not stand aside from others. We wouldn't want to think, okay, I'm standing still, doing no harm, so I'm taking care of the people down the street. We need to be aware of their dilemma. And this is because we're not islands. We're not, each of us, a separate island. We're connected land masses. And Martin Luther King said something to this in 1963, which seems maybe so long ago. But 1963, he was in the Birmingham jail and he wrote a letter. And in that letter, he said, we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.

[04:28]

Whatever affects one person directly affects all indirectly. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, a single garment of destiny. These words of Martin Luther King about mutuality, they're... at least to my mind, nearly identical to what in Buddhism is called the mutual interdependence of all beings. A pratichat samutpada, to give it a foreign title. Interdependent co-arousing. Another time, Reverend King said, everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. Actually, I didn't know this until I was researching and preparing for this talk, but in the 50s, when Martin Luther King prepared his doctoral thesis, he wrote a paper on Mahayana Buddhism.

[05:46]

I didn't read that paper. I read that he wrote the paper. And But this teaching of the interwoven nature of all being is exactly the teaching of Mahayana, of the great vehicle. Everything we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. And in other words, in my words, if we want to wake up our own lives, we need to take up responsibility for helping wake up everyone else around us. And that might seem like a big task, but maybe another way to understand it is that we need to...

[06:53]

look at the way we live our life and ask if we are a hindrance to others, if we're complicit in kind of like obstructing them through our attitudes about them, through our support of laws that might restrict them. This is a foundation of Buddhist teaching, which is... living for the benefit of others. And this is something that connects our Dharma practice with the life intention and teaching of Martin Luther King. So this, here we are in a Buddhist temple, kind of cocooned a little bit in this sweet space. This place dedicated to not killing.

[07:54]

This is a place where we want to think the best of those around us. Yet, we are also in this room, in this city, within this country, part of a large weave. You're connected to what's happening in our society, in this culture, at this time. And in the large world we're part of, in this United States country, which in many ways I love and appreciate, battleships are being made in our name to support our, quote, peace. And well, we are now, what seems to be kind of winding down something that's A kind of persistent war in the Middle East, moving out of Iraq and Afghanistan, maybe.

[08:58]

Just even as that's happening, war sabers are being rattled about Iran. And I'm sure when those sabers are sheathed, that there'll be some other place arising up. You know, right now, I think it's a time of challenge. I feel it, personally, that this time in our country is a time of challenge and maybe even fracturing. Our political process is fractured. And the idea of accommodation and mutual respect between people who have different opinions on the political front seems to have kind of gone away. And I wonder, how do we act in this situation?

[10:02]

At another time, but maybe still true today, a Reverend King said, the measure of man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The Zen Center, I feel strongly, is a place that should be open to everybody, no matter what their viewpoints. Yet I do have my viewpoint. And I have a political perspective and a religious perspective. And excuse me, I want to express something from my seat. Which is, you know, if there is a god, Why in the world would he care more about the United States than some other place in the world?

[11:09]

It's not uncommon for politicians to end their speech, God bless America. It almost is like if you don't say something like that, some blog notes it and your moral convictions are challenged. God bless America. I'm waiting. What I would like to hear at the end of some speeches, God bless Brazil. I mean, what have they done to offend us? Why not Brazil? Or God bless Holland or Malaysia or China. The whole world. What sort of spiritual perspective is it that would think that God is particularly impressed with the United States? Anyway, what I like about the Zen Center is that it's a sanctuary, I think. I hope it's a sanctuary where Brazil can be honored.

[12:14]

And Japan. And Mexico. And Daly City. It's a place where people can feel safe at. And even though I say that, I hope everybody can feel safe here, people sometimes speak to me that they're intimidated or kind of like they don't feel at ease. Zen Center sometimes makes them nervous. Well, I understand. But it raises the question, well, how do we create an environment, a space, that is... that is where everyone can feel they're included. Well, actually, maybe it's not possible. I mean, we could try, but maybe it's not possible to make an entirely safe space. As a matter of fact, maybe an entirely safe space would be so bland that it would be ineffective.

[13:21]

But still, we should try. I think we need to try in a spirited way. So living one's life in a way that causes no harm, that living one's life in a way that actually tries to enable others to express themselves fully, compassionately, kindly, this is not some certain state of mind that we can get and then keep. Once we get it, it'll work. It actually is a flexible kind of always changing place that we need to be from because circumstances and times and moments change. And what worked yesterday doesn't work tomorrow. You know, forget about things happening in the Middle East or in Daly City.

[14:43]

Right here in our hearts, I think we're busy creating karma and we're co-creating responses to circumstances that don't always answer our deepest intention. And we need to keep looking at ourselves and asking ourselves, and of course we don't want to be tedious about it and wear this like a badge of honor that we're always asking this, but it's something, a question we need to have in our heart. How are we doing? And it's something also I would suggest this question we carry in our heart about how we're doing is something that we need to have some sense of urgency about. Appropriately. Middle way urgency. Because one of the mistakes that we, I think one of the common mistakes of life is that we think that we don't realize how eminently possible it is to reach the end of it.

[15:59]

when we least expect it. We think we've got a lot of time to figure it out. I remember, I'm in my 50s now, I remember when I was 39 years old. I thought I had, and in fact I did have, decades left. But it was at age 39 that Martin Luther King was shot and killed. in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968, at the porch on the patio of a hotel room. You know, when I was 39, I wasn't thinking so much about my demise and how I wanted to be remembered, but Reverend King actually about two months before he passed away, delivered a sermon that was in some ways a eulogy for himself.

[17:10]

And I'm going to read from some of that. He said, every now and then I guess we all think realistically about that day when we will be victimized with what is life's final common denominator. that something we call death. We all think about it and every now and then I think about my own death. And I think about my own funeral. And I don't think of it in a morbid sense. Every now and then I ask myself, what is it that I would want said? And I leave the word to you this morning. If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don't want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Tell them not to mention I have a Nobel Peace Prize. That's not important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards.

[18:19]

That's not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.

[19:23]

I started practicing because of my own pain. Maybe I continue because of that as well. But actually also I continue practicing because I really hope that it's helpful to others the way it's helpful to me. I think it's... I'm not wanting to aggrandize myself or anyone else here at this ensign with what we do, but I think we actually make a vow. We'll say this at the end of the Dharma talk when we repeat the Bodhisattva vow. We make a vow to be a benefit to the world. May it be so. Martin Luther King went on to say, if any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don't want a long funeral. and I'm not going to make this longer by reading that all over again, but I'm going to say, I'm going to pick it up at the place where I stopped.

[20:45]

Serve humanity. I won't have any money to leave behind, he said. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind, but I want to leave a committed life behind. And that's all I want to say. if I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a Christian ought, if I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as the master taught, then my living will not be in vain. Yes, Jesus, I want to be on your side not for any selfish reason. I want to be on your side, not in terms of some political kingdom or ambition. I just want to be there in love and justice and truth and commitment to others so that we can make of this world, of this old world, a new world.

[21:56]

So Buddhist practice, Zen practice, is made especially real by the accident and process of being challenged by other people, by bumping up against them, by contact with others. And to do this thing called Zen practice, it's really helpful not to try to make it on your own, but to feel connected to a sangha, to others, companions of the way, to elder teachers and to newer students. Because this journey we're taking is like a long, it's a long story. And it goes back to, well, it goes way back, and somewhere it's, visits Shakyamuni Buddha and somewhere it visits us today and in the future it will continue.

[23:25]

This continuous line of friendship and intimacy and intention is our responsibility to sustain. Martin Luther King again. This is from a talk he gave the night before he was shot. You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book I'd written. And while I was sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, are you Martin Luther King? I was looking down writing, and I said, yes. And the next minute, I felt something beating on my chest.

[24:27]

Before I knew it, I'd been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the x-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. Once that's punctured, you drown in your own blood. That's the end. It came out in the New York Times the next morning. that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after the chest had been opened and the blade had been taken out, they allowed me to move around in a wheelchair in the hospital. And they allowed me to read some of the mail that came in. From all over the states and all over the world, kind letters had come in. I read a few, but one of them I'll never forget. I'd received... a letter from the president, a letter from the vice president. I've forgotten what those letters said.

[25:30]

I received a visit in a letter from the governor of New York, but I've forgotten what he said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it. It said simply, Dear Dr. King, I'm a ninth grade student. at the White Plains High School. While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I'm a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune and of your suffering, and I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing to say that I'm so happy you didn't sneeze. And I want to say to all of you, that I am happy I didn't sneeze as well. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around in 1960 when students all over the South started sitting in at lunch counters.

[26:33]

And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers. in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around in 1962 when Negroes in Albany, Georgia decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they're going somewhere because a man can't ride your back unless it's bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been here in 1963 when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama aroused the conscience of this nation and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I'd sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to tell America about a dream that I'd had.

[27:37]

If I'd sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama to see the community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'm so happy I didn't sneeze. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us. The pilot said over the public address system, we're sorry for the delay. We have Martin Luther King on the plane, and we had to be sure that the plane was safe and check all the bags to make sure that there was nothing wrong with the plane. We had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected. And then I got to Memphis. And some began to tell me about the threats. Talk about the threats that were out there. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

[28:40]

Well, I don't know what will happen. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. I've looked over. I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we... as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. And then the next morning, he was assassinated. 39 years old, he was killed.

[29:48]

Well, our lives might be long or short, we don't know. What we should know is that there are limited, there is a limit to them. And also we should know, as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it tends to but it bends towards justice. The direction of our lives, the instinct of our life, the arc of our journey is long. It's greater than we maybe can understand. What causes and conditions are bringing us here to this Buddhist temple? Martin Luther King.

[30:56]

I don't know what will happen now. We've got difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. I've looked over. I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. This is my talk today about Zen Center and my sense of Buddhist practice and Martin Luther King.

[32:11]

It was a long time ago, 68, when he died. Most of you weren't around maybe then, but I was. And it was an exceptional year. It was when Robert Kennedy was fascinated. It was when the Chicago Democratic Convention happened and there were riots in the street after Martin Luther King was killed. The cities of America burst into flames. It was a time of change. But I don't know, of course change happens and I'm not sure things also stay the same. So, anyway, thank you very much. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[33:20]

May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[33:23]

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