Good morning. It is the most... a wonderful feeling for me to come home to Zen Center, to Green Gulch, and especially on this day, and to be with you. This is the 40th celebration of Arbor Day. The first expression of Arbor Day was very, very simple. Just a few friends down in the lower fields. planting some beautiful shore pine from Gordon Oslo Ford's home, thinking, will these pines stand and protect the lower valley from the wind?

[01:06]

And now with the restoration of the Park Service and Green Gulch together in the lower fields, those trees are beautiful protectors. I remember lifting them off the back of a truck with Ed Brown and Mayumi Oda and other friends and planting them in the ground 40 years ago, 1976. It's wonderful and a little terrifying to be old, to be 68 years old, to have been practicing for so many decades in the body and beauty of this land. So today is a very special day, and how lovely that you've come out to celebrate St. Valentine's Day, to choose to be here on the day of love and commitment, and to be here in this hall, this wooden hall, restoring and restating our commitment to practice together under all circumstances.

[02:19]

I want to begin by acknowledging that this is a very special season, the time from January 30th until April 4th. For peacemakers, we mark a season of nonviolence. And I'm looking at Tova and remembering how for so many years we've marked these times. in the peace community, working with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, to remember how important it is to wage peace, to be an active peacemaker in the life of the world. Why these dates? Why January 30th until the 4th of April? We remember two huge peacemakers who left this world. Mahatma Gandhi on January 30th was assassinated on his way to prayers. in India, and Dr. Martin Luther King, 64 days later, not the same year, of course, on April 4th, crossed over to the great mystery, leaving a legacy and call to us to practice active nonviolence in the life of the world.

[03:42]

And planting and caring for trees is a direct expression of that commitment. glasses always migrate when it's time for who's going to save me today with a pair of spectacles anyone yes I want your glasses oh no enjoy your breathing while we search I would thank you this is so embarrassing it happens to me Oh, those are much better. Thank you. Don't let me walk away with them. From Mahatma Gandhi, I am praying for the light that will despair the darkness of our times.

[04:48]

Let all those with living faith in nonviolence join me in this prayer. I'm praying for the light. that will spell the gloom and darkness of delusion, we say, in the Zen world. I'm praying for the light that will dispel the gloom and darkness of delusion. When asked, what do you think of Western civilization, Mahatma Gandhi said, it's an excellent idea. When will you begin? Because civilization is rooted in an active non-compliance with the ways of the world and turning toward non-violent behavior. Body, speech, and mind. I'm praying for the light that will dispel the gloom and darkness of delusion. And then Dr. King reminding us so beautifully, we must learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or we will perish together as fools.

[05:51]

We are tied together in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. Whatever affects one directly affects all beings indirectly. So I'm always so honored to be able to come to Zen Center on this day and offer this address to the trees. for the trees, from the trees, in the trees. And by the power and grace of those beautiful beings that give us so much hope. And today, Valentine's Day, very special. This has been a challenging year for those of us who've practiced a long time at Zen Center. A year when we lost a beloved member of this community last April. Daigon Luke, poet, priest, painter, crossing to the great majority in late April.

[07:05]

He and his wife, Arlene, were married on this day at Tassajara, Valentine's Day, a dedication of love and commitment, inescapable network of mutuality. between the two of them. So I'm thinking so much of them, especially because this is the day that my parents married, right at the close of the Second World War. Those of us born in 1947 are many because of soldiers coming home from the war. And love on the move, as it is today. So love on the move. And this day is an extraordinarily special day. just remembering and honoring our friends, looking at Michael Janvold's name, Paul Michael Janvold, on the altar, a person that I practiced with at Tassajara, with Linda Ruth and other practitioners in this hall, thinking of Michael. I remember when I first arrived at Tassajara, sitting by myself, because I was a complete stranger, wonderful way to begin practice.

[08:14]

I'd come from Jerusalem, where I began to practice, and I'd been I'd trained for two years in Jerusalem and then had been encouraged to go deep into the mountains of Tassajara and deepen my practice in those deep mountains. So I didn't know a single soul when I arrived at Tassajara. And I remember going into the meditation hall and sitting by myself, just trying to get my bearings. And Michael Jembold came in, tapped me on the shoulder, and he said, Here at Zen Center, we don't try to be better than others by sitting longer. Now I could say, you ought to know. This was a hard, deep, magnificent, beloved practitioner. And we became lifelong friends. He was the roommate with my, he roomed with my husband during that practice period. My husband and I weren't yet married. Michael Jembold would get up very early because he was ardent and he loved to kick Peter a little bit in the ribs and say, get up, lazy boy.

[09:21]

So this is a beautiful world that I'm feeling so strongly today of friends and patch-robed monks willing to live and die together. And we're really experiencing that in this year. So... Valentine's Day. I couldn't help but wanting to study a bit about Valentine's Day, especially in honor of my parents and Dagon and Arlene and lovers all over the world. So I read a bit and learned that this day is the feast day of St. Valentino from Rome in the fourth century. Beautiful, dedicated man of the cloth. He was jailed, imprisoned, and eventually executed for not complying with an edict that disallowed marriage for military people.

[10:22]

Soldiers were thought to be distracted if they got married, but they were so wanting to get married before going to the fields of war that St. Valentino took up the practice of marrying soldiers and cutting out small parchment hearts so that the soldiers in the battlefield would remember their vows and their true love. Of course, many of the stories are apocryphal, many of the saint stories, and all the more interesting. What would life be without apocryphal? So how beautiful that Saint Valentino also is said to have healed Julia, the blind daughter of his jailer. His jailer's name, I thought this was great, His jailer's name, Austerius. I thought, austere, jailer, your blind daughter can now see. And apparently he slipped a parchment heart to Julia as she came into seeing with a little message from your Valentine.

[11:26]

And that was his name. So this is such a day of beauty and commitment. And... I always think of this statement from Che Guevara today. Permit me to tell you at the risk of appearing ridiculous that the true revolutionary is always guided by great feelings of love. So meditation practice, the work of planting trees, protecting the earth, the work of not turning away in burning times, when the challenges are as severe and of such magnitude as they are now, that capacity not to turn away is revolutionary. And when that capacity is guided by love, the echo or the imprint or the resonance carries throughout world systems, lifetime after lifetime.

[12:28]

So yesterday, I had the great pleasure of walking with about 20 people, some may be in this room this morning, if so, good morning. We began at Muir Woods National Monument. We have a practice of walking the boundaries of the watershed, overlooking the landscape, the terrain, the geography of the imagination, as one of my favorite writers calls. the geography of imagination, the place where we're entrusted to be cared for and to care for. So we overlooked, we walked for about eight or nine miles with a full and open heart into the magnificence of this watershed, guarded and guided by the sacred mountains of the Bay Area. I begin by calling them out. You know, the acronym NEWS stands for North, East, West, South.

[13:36]

Did you know that? That's where the word NEWS comes from. You receive NEWS, information, from the great directions. Finding your bearings, finding your place, orienting yourself to where you stand. When you find your place where you live, practice occurs, said Dogen Zenji in the 13th century. Find your place where you are. Practice occurs. So that means orienting, taking your place. And as we stood at the very top of Coyote, of the Diaz Trail, a junction of the Diaz Trail and the Miwok Trail, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, I was aware of the influence of the mountains that mark the edges of this bay. To the north, St. John. Helena. To the east, magnificent and menacing Mount Diablo. To the west, standing always, we were in her presence and on her flanks yesterday.

[14:43]

To the west, West Hill, the original people's name for Mount Tamalpais, the sleeping goddess. And to the south, Mount Hamilton in the South Bay. And these mountains mark the rim or the circle of our practice. And it's wonderful to remember, study the mountains, again from Dogen Zenji. Use numerous world systems as your standard. Study the mountains. Use numerous world systems as your standard. A mountain always practices in every place. So really, to walk with a quiet mind and an open heart for a full day and take in the influence of the mountains is a huge gift. Not just us benefiting, but also the mountains benefiting from our practice. That may be an anthropocentric vanity, but I do believe that we so influence each other when we walk mindfully and respectfully and in a loving way.

[15:49]

One mountain biker, I was at the very end of the walk at one point yesterday, he got off from his bike and said, who are you? You are the nicest people. You all greeted me. Usually people mutter and murmur as I run by, who are you? And I said, we're mountain walkers today, and it's lovely to meet you on the trail. It was beautiful to practice greeting and being greeted by the landscape. Walk, walk on walking underfoot. The earth is turning. Streams and mountains never stay the same. Gary Snyder, who every year at the summer solstice walked this circle with poet Philip Whelan and other practitioners, some of our greatest teachers, made it the practice of circumambulating the sacred mountains, sacred West Hill, every year. So we take a part of that walk in the turning of the years. We come into the world waking up, walking the mountains, walking on walking.

[16:54]

It's beautiful. We always learn from each other, too. One practitioner, as we started out, reminded us, as we said, we're going to receive the tidings of the mountains and the rivers of this place and time. And she reminded us of a statement from Jacob Bronowski, who's a professor at San Francisco State, reminding us that more than 70% of our body is coursing with bright red blood, salty blood. I'm thinking of that very much this year because one of my closest friends, the mother of one of my closest friends, died this year on Christmas morning from lack of red corpuscles in her blood, a rare kind of cancer. Beautiful person who set up a child care network for local area in San Francisco and widening out to the Bay Area, widening out to California and the entire nation. We celebrated her memorial service. not long ago, maybe a week ago.

[17:57]

And Speaker of the House, I will say that, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stood up to speak to Patty and said, this is a woman who with her lifeblood changed the course of childcare in this country, making it possible for women to work and children to be cared for. So when I think of bright red blood, I think of Patty and her work, the beauty of her work. The body, 76% at least, bright red, salty blood. But did you know I didn't? That the fluid in the column of the spine is clear water, crystal clear water. And Jacob Bronowski reminds us, I think very potently, that the percentage of of water, fresh water in the human body to salt water exactly matches the percentage of fresh water in the world to salt water in the world. Contemplate that.

[18:58]

I could hardly walk hearing that. I thought, I'm gonna just stay here in your woods all morning and faint by the side of a clear water stream. And that was so powerful for me. So that we carry the identical balance and memory and percentage of the waters of the world as we walk. And we say in meditation practice, have a strong spine, spine strong and upright. Loose, limber, flexible, upright, held up by the waters of the world in front of the body, open and soft. So that's such a beautiful guideline for meditation. And also to help us face the reality of what is in front of us right now. Now this has been, as you know, four years of extraordinary drought. Yes, the waters are filling. This year's snowpack is replenishing, but still the ground is thirsty beyond measure.

[19:59]

We know that. We could feel it walking on the ground. You could feel the old cry, the longing for water, for replenishment, for recharge, even though we've been blessed with rain. And so we know this has been the hottest and driest year on record. 600 years have not seen this kind of heat. The growing season in California, and I've just come home from our annual environmental ecological farming conference. More than 1,500 of us committed to organic agriculture. What we're now calling not sustainable agriculture, but regenerative. And I'll say why during the body of this talk. So looking at regeneration through agriculture and through practice means not turning away from the truth of the world and really thinking in different ways. How will we meet the challenges? How will we meet these challenges? To grow food, to share food,

[21:01]

to protect the earth we love and know. So fossil water now is being drawn up in the San Joaquin Valley, which feeds about a third of the people in this nation. Water that hasn't seen the light of day, coming from 20,000 years ago, is being pulled up out of the earth to irrigate and bring forth food. Water that weighs a depletion of 63 trillion gallons of groundwater. during this drought, weighing 340 billion tons. And as the weight of the water is lifted, so is the land lifted. So measurable uplift in the Sierra and destabilization all along the plates of California because the weight of the water is not holding down the earth. Is that clear? It's important we understand that in our spines. We have to understand that. So this is a result of how we live and how we practice each bite of food that we take, even from beautiful, well-protected, and deeply nourished land like this, where we're celebrating the 67th season of practice right now during this time, season of nonviolence, and also gathering of practitioners to study the way.

[22:23]

67 practice periods. This is the 67th. Is that correct? 67. Just a year less than I am. It hasn't been 67 years, but 67 cycles of practice. And the commitment, 67 times not to turn away from what we're facing. So we're looking at this challenge. And then, of course, yesterday, from the top of the mountains, as we looked down, it wasn't until we got to the very bottom that Mia Munro whispered to me, The results, because I asked her, how is the health of the ocean right now? We know we've experienced ocean water that has warmed from anywhere two to five degrees this year. A massive current has menaced the coast of California. That's a little unfair to say. Has been present in the outer coast of California, 1,000 miles long, 300 feet deep.

[23:24]

A mass of warm water, which has caused... tremendous repercussion or resonance in the land and the water. In particular, a failure of crabs to be available this year or to be nurtured and to breed. So no crabs, really, to speak of this year. Also, sea lion population massively affected by the lack of cold water, nutrient-rich water upwelling. The almost complete... decimation of the common muir, which is a coastal bird. Thousands and thousands of birds dying off because there is not the food that comes from cold water upwelling along the coast because of the way we live. Pope Francis, in his encyclical for climate change, La data, la data, la data si.

[24:25]

on care for our common home, says to us, a certain way of understanding human life and activity has gone awry, and it has become more and more difficult to pause and recover depth in our life. When a good part of our genetic code is shared by so many living beings, we must ask, What is the ultimate meaning of our sojourn, our brief and consequential sojourn on earth? What is the ultimate meaning of our brief sojourn on earth? And in the Buddhist community, there's been a beautiful dialogue and call for climate response, for response to the

[25:26]

what's happening in our world and one of our strongest teachers Dr. David Loy reminds us that these are times when it's important to be radical in order to be conservative and that's a beautiful play be radical meaning go down to the root of the matter in order to conserve and preserve the life life on earth and Joanna Macy also speaking from the heart, reminding us that what we most need now are deeply trained practitioners who are loosely affiliated. This is a very radical statement, and I enjoy saying it in this hall, because there is deep training in this hall and the capacity to also be loosely affiliated, to not always claim what our affiliation is, to go out and serve lifetime after lifetime and meet the challenges of these times.

[26:28]

And so, so, so deeply, our teachings and reminders are spoken and offered from the heart of the natural world. And in particular, this year, I'm thinking in celebration of 40 years of planting trees and loving trees. I'm thinking about the importance of the oak tree in our lives. And because also this afternoon in our Arbor Day planting, beautifully organized with such spirit and dance by Suki Parmalee. Just such vivacious, naughty, pleasurable, consistent courage. Go, Suki. Really, we need to really Thank her for her invisible and steady work here for so many years on behalf of the watershed. And we will join together in the top of the garden, right at the confluence of a brand new freed stream, a garden stream that runs down through the upper part of the garden to meet at the confluence with the Zendo Pond.

[27:39]

And right at that corner confluence, we will plant a young oak tree that Suki's dug up from this watershed. A beautiful coast live oak. And the oak is such an extraordinary, important, and vital teacher in the watersheds of the Bay Area and beyond. An important tree for California. The oak tree has its origin 40 to 56 million years ago in the Eocene epic. It's one of our most ancient and beloved and primary species of plants. I love that Gary Snyder reminds us that the Shakya tribe, the structure and the structure of original Buddhist order, was inspired by the tribal governance of the Shakya tribe. And what was their name? Oak Tree Nation. Oak Tree Nation.

[28:42]

So the Shakya tribe has its roots in oak tree awareness. It's wonderful to think of that today. And especially because the oak is such a sacred and beloved plant for so many different cultures. I think of the 22 species of native oaks in California, and a fossil record shows us that oaks are as dense today in California as they were in times of old. They are a keystone species. In other words, they are They're central to the health and vitality of system after system of animal and plant life. The oak is the mother, the guardian, and the threshold. And in particular, it's beautiful to think because the word Quercus connects back to the old Druid word for door. So oak was seen as the doorway between worlds, the threshold between worlds.

[29:43]

and the place of fire and awareness. So the druid, knower of oaks, that's how druid, dewu, same word as dharma, connected in the same way to dharma, knower of truth, tree, steadfast, deep-rooted commitment. So the druids were the knowers of the oaks, the keepers of the fire. because it was believed that fire slept inside of every oak. And the Maidu people of California believed that living fire from the depths of the earth coursed through the body of every oak tree coming up into the earth. So not only European ancestral knowledge, but also very powerfully the ancient and first knowledge of this place from residents who've been of this and on this and in this landscape for 10,000 years. And the nourishing knowledge plant for these people, peaceful, isolated, diverse, Pannushan-speaking people, ancient ones who are still alive and well and teaching in the body of the lands of California.

[30:53]

Their primary food, their staple food, was the acorn of the oak. One person gave me this little embroidered, it's meant to be an earring, you'll have to come and see it. It's just beautiful. I keep it. It was a little tiny just reminding of how powerful a single acorn is. What extraordinary food, too. 18% fat, 6% protein, and 68% carbohydrates. At the turn of the 20th century, three-quarters of the Native American people in California received primary nourishment from the acorn, from the oak trees. So the oak tree, not only is it a powerful teacher, a guardian of truth, a plant that has inspired beautiful writing and thinking and activism, it is also primary food. California is complex enough so that we're looking at three different food streams that have nourished native people.

[31:56]

Not only the oak, the acorn, but also salmon. from the waters of the ocean, and abalone. So this state is blessed with three coursings together. In particular, thinking today of the importance of the oak and how vital the oak is. In spiritual practice and in medicinal practice that's related to spiritual practice, it is meant... to be true that if you sit near an oak tree, your nervous system is soothed. And often the oak splits open, the bark splits open and water gathers in the crevices and pools, little bowls in the oak tree. And if that water is ingested, then the body is meant to be purified and revivified. So the oak has that capacity to be

[32:58]

fiery within our own system as it is in the in the world and they're they're extraordinary trees very definitely in danger right now so this year in march in point race national point race yeah point race in the national park we will have a special right around the spring equinox a special day-long teaching called The Call of the Forest. And we have a woman coming from the Celtic community, a woman trained deeply in the Celtic system. She is a Druidic teacher. And she'll be working in concert with Native people, talking about what we can listen to and know now from The Call of the Forest. And this is a very important time when we're looking at knowledge as it's transmitted and transferred, and I think beautifully, by elder women. I'm looking forward to being part of that dialogue and listening to Diana Burford Kroger speak with Joanne Campbell, and if we're lucky enough, and she's well enough, magnificent teacher Julia Parker, who's been practicing with California Native Oaks for decades and decades, teaching in...

[34:11]

Yosemite Valley. She has agreed, although she's 86 years old, to come with her daughter and speak on behalf of the ancient forest. And even if she doesn't show up, she will be present. She's a basket maker and an incredible teacher. So we're looking at restoration that depends on not only seeing the natural world for its beauty and strength, for its threshold capacity, and its important work in reminding us where we are, but also nourishing, a deep nourishment on every level. Many of the teachings that we've been involved in most recently, in particular in protection of the ancient forest and the forest and landscapes that we love, are encouraging us to develop certain practices that will help in the protection of the world.

[35:14]

And when I think of the oak forest, I right away think of these practices. The policy, policies that help to mitigate or holding actions that protect some of these trees that are ancient wisdom holders and carriers of wisdom, wisdom beyond wisdom. So practices that mitigate the danger that we're facing are extremely important. And I'm very interested to think and study These are ecological practices or methods of meeting the challenge of our times. They're also echoed by some of the climate change language that's coming out of Paris and out of the pulpits, out of the Center for... Program for Interfaith Power and Light, looking at these strategies for meeting the challenge of our time. So first of all, how will we mitigate or protect or hold back some of the damage? How will we protect as teachers the oak trees that we love and know? Many years ago, here we had a pair of oaks right outside, right by the main compound that you passed through to come into the meditation hall, a pair of oaks planted by Andrew Singletary.

[36:27]

who was a man who worked for George Wheelwright, and he loved oaks. So he took two acorns and planted them, and these beautiful coast live oaks grew up. And they were guardian trees for us for many years, and one of the main oaks, one that we particularly were in connection with, about 15 years ago began to split. More than that, it's probably a little longer than that. I don't remember how long ago, but long enough, more. It must have been 20 years ago. That oak tree began to split, and we cabled it together and worried and thought, well, how can we mitigate the damage that's coming to this tree? And largely because we were irrigating a lawn, innocently, not really understanding that we weakened the roots of the trees, and weakened and made the tree more heavy, and so the branches split apart. We cabled the tree together, offered incense and prayers. We even did an ordination with Tenshin Roshi. We ordained the tree, wrapped a beautiful cloth around it, thanked it for its teaching. This is a beautiful, strong practice.

[37:27]

It's whimsical, but also powerful. And it's echoed by the forest monks in Thailand now who are protecting. One of their mitigation, one of their strategies for protecting is to ordain the great trees in the Thai forest so that they won't be cut for firewood or for other uses. They won't be harvested, not if they're wearing the Buddha's robes. It's powerful. And it connects to another practice that we have to be more in tuned with, which was how do we adapt, both personally and systemically, how do we adapt to the challenges? So adapting Buddhist ordination and offering it to a tree is a very beautiful strategy for protection. So we did this here at Green Gulch. We chanted and offered incense and celebrated this beautiful oak. And many people said, we should just let it die. It's an old tree.

[38:29]

Let it go. But of course, some of us couldn't bear that. So we tightened the cables and increased the chanting and bowing that now and then, going over, even some known to be kissing the tree at dawn on the way to Zazen, begging it to stand and continue teaching in all of its decrepitude and glory. And it was right after a chuseau ceremony for Jordan Thorne many years ago. In the night, we went out and the zendo was shaking with wind and weather and rain. And lo and behold, the tree was smoked open and broken apart by the storm and lay in grand brokenness on the ground. I lived very close to that tree in many ways. For me, it was a North Star plant. I shot my bearings from the presence of that tree. So it's falling and breaking and lying on the ground was, and especially right after the ceremony, was so powerful to me and to so many others.

[39:35]

And we agreed, I'm proud to be part of a community that can endure death. So we agreed to let the tree lay in state a good month and we climbed and it fell very gracefully allowing access to the office and to the passage it did so that business as usual could somewhat go on or we might not have been as grand and capacious as we were frankly but we were that and those limbs just split open and lay in grandeur and there was another level of ceremony and commitment that i learned from that experience of being able to be present with the broken heart of the world, in the broken heart of the world. That's how I felt when that tree fell down and took a piece of it and kept it very close. I still have that tree. Our neighbor, who's in her 90s, keeps a sundial on this little stump of oak, measuring the light and the changing of the light.

[40:38]

So that was just as powerful a teaching. If you can sit by a dead tree unmoving and restored, that is also a very powerful and valuable teaching. So I often think of the ordination, the full spin of that Coastal Live Oaks history and meaning here at Zen Center. It was a primary teacher for me and a primary opportunity to really learn a lot about joy and grief and commitment to the natural world. Eventually the tree was taken and carved up. I think, I hope, I know we intended to make a Han from it. It's beautiful to have an oak sounding board. And, you know, the call to meditation, we strike the wooden Han with a wooden mallet, calling all beings in the ten directions to wake up, come to meditation.

[41:39]

Life is short, swiftly passing. Wake up, wake up, each one. Don't waste your time. Written on the face of the Han. So if there's an oak Han hit with an oak mallet, then that resonance comes up and comes back. So now, the third strategy that we're looking at, along with mitigation and finding ways to adapt to climate challenge, is to develop resilience. to do whatever we can to recover from damage, from brokenness, from disappointment, from disease, from harm. Resilience. The root of the word is sal, which means to sally forth like a salmon pushing against the stream. So resilience means developing the capacity to resist, to be present, and also to be transformed by what we're seeing, to push against the current,

[42:41]

that carries us away, like a salmon does. To jump and to push against that current. And to be willing to meet the challenges. And to do that with forethought and strength. So practices that help us develop resilience begin and depend on a double And I think it's so important to be sitting right where I'm sitting today with Jizo Bodhisattva at my back and the Manjushri figure, which is so beautiful, wooden and metal figures, reminding us of the current, the confluence of practices that will develop resilience. To be wise. Manjushri sitting there silently still, holding the lotus, sitting on a lotus pad, holding up the lotus, and usually often a book. develop wisdom, a deep seeing and looking.

[43:47]

When I think of the world of the oak trees, I remember in this place right here, Gregory Bateson, who was buried on part of his ashes, are on the mountains right here at Green Gulch. And he told us a story of Oxford College, the new college at Oxford, established in 1359, I think it is. 1359, the halls and the beams of that college were made of great, massive oaks. And Gregory Bateson told us that a number of years ago, probably 50 years ago, foresters came in and tested the oaks and found that beetles, as they always do, had riddled through the oak beams and that the ceiling of the new college hall was about to collapse. This is a grand palatial hall of real importance. So they went to the local foresters who maintain trees at Oxford and told them, we don't know what to do.

[44:53]

The beams are riddled with beetles. This is an example of wisdom beyond wisdom. The foresters said, well, we wondered when the heck you were going to come. Because 500, when the beams... had been cut, the original beams had been cut, they had planted oak trees to replace those beams. 500 years old. And those oaks were harvested, the beams were renewed and replaced, and hopefully more oaks were started. The great English oak, Quercus rubra, powerful oak. I love that story. It was very important for me as a young practitioner. to hear it in Stuart Brand. He heard it in this hall and wrote about it in the Whole Earth Catalog. So that's an example of wisdom beyond wisdom. So there's the energy of wisdom coming and then the confluence of compassion meeting, meeting that call. And in these times, there is such an upwelling, uprising of compassion and commitment for the earth.

[46:01]

This is an example today of that commitment. So I feel the currency and the confluence of wisdom and compassion every time I come into this hall. And whenever we gather to receive the tidings of this watershed, to learn, to grow, and to become more resilient together. Sometimes resilience and regeneration depend on radical activity. Like David Loy says, be radical in order to be conservative. Sometimes it's not enough to just push against the river and develop strength. Sometimes we have to turn away and find a new way to be. And I suggest that in these times, we've made a conscious decision in the organic ecological farming community to stop talking about sustainable agriculture or sustainable practices because the way we're living can't be sustained and must not be sustained. We're looking at regenerative practices that come from the heart of compassion, that come from protecting people, animals, plants, and holding out the wish-fulfilling jewel and answering the cry of the earth from the earth's door, from the womb of the earth, responding compassionately and wisely to the challenges.

[47:21]

And this is going to take a huge amount of courage and capacity. It will take the capacity to hold resiliently and also anti-fragily, with robust commitment, dichotomy, to hold sameness and difference, to hear the harmony of sameness and difference, to realize that these are the times when the wounded healer will be the best physician. The one who's been wounded will know about healing. And the blind seer will be the one to show the way. And the peaceful warrior will be the true revolutionary guided by feelings of love and commitment lifetime after lifetime. And we're in these kinds of times, and we know it.

[48:21]

We're in threshold times. We're at the doorway. The guardians can help us. They give us strength and courage, food, nourishment, beauty, conviction. reminders that there's a more than human world that must be responded to and practiced with and in and on. The Dalai Lama says, in spite of everything that's happening, I am hopeful. And why? Because of the commitment to nonviolence that's stronger than ever, he says, and because of individual strength that is gathered for the well-being of the world because of religious commitment and the uprising of spirit. And last of all, because of an awakening to the voice of the watershed or to the environmental challenges of our times.

[49:23]

Be joyful, although you know the facts. You know, it's funny, but it's also, you know, this is the year of the red fire monkey, for heaven's sakes. We have to play. We've just turned to the year of the red fire monkey where a lot of intensity is loosened and on the move if we can respond deeply and fully. And this is a day of love. And there's a lot of procreation going on all over the place. At Cathy and Norman Fisher's house, there's been a regeneration of, massive regeneration of the monarch butterfly. They haven't been seen for years in Muir Beach because the passageways where they used to overwinter and protect each other have become too shady and windy and dark and cold, but not where Cathy and Norman live on the hill overlooking the ocean. So thousands of monarchs have been clustering. above Muir Beach. And there have been practitioners coming from all over the Bay Area to see this huge upwelling.

[50:30]

And what are they doing? They are breeding like crazy right now. So let's not forget that there is a massive frenzy of love going on around us that calls us to step up, step into the revolution. So thank you so much for your attention. Let me close with this climate blessing. And the Buddha reminding us, go forth on your journey for the benefit of the many, for the joy of the many, out of compassion for the welfare and benefit and joy of all beings. Go forth with wisdom and compassion. So the climate blessing, which comes from a convocation of different faith traditions, offering this blessing on this year, here on this 40th anniversary, day of love and commitment, a climate blessing. We hold the earth. We hold brothers and sisters suffering from storms and droughts intensified by climate change.

[51:35]

And we hold all species that suffer. We hold world leaders delegated and entrusted to make decisions for the shared life of the world. We pray that the web of life may be mended again and again through courageous action to limit carbon emission. And we pray for the rights, and listen here, we pray for the right actions for adaptation and mitigation to help our already suffering Earth community. I'm going to add, we pray with a resilient heart for right actions of adaptation and mitigation to help our already suffering Earth community. And we pray that wisdom and compassion may inspire our actions and our actions as communities so that we may each and all together with integrity look into the eyes of brothers and sisters and all beings human and more than human.

[52:41]

Truthfully say, we will do our part to care for you and for the future of the children. May love transform us and our world. with new steps into the heart of life. Isn't that beautiful? Thank you, dear friends, for today. And oh boy, are we going to have fun this afternoon. So deep gratitude, gratitude to the Zen Center community for maintaining a place of practice. And we dedicate the merit of our time together to the ongoing, full, open-hearted work for the world. Thank you so much. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving.

[53:44]

May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[53:47]

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