This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good evening. So nice to see you. Thank you so much, Leslie, for your heartfelt introduction. I will be talking about the principle of action for large-scale social transformation. I'd like to talk about the principle and try to avoid getting into the topic We speak about it all the time, one topic.

[01:04]

So maybe I suggest that we'll have just one couple of words and we try to go around it. It's our healing experience together. Most of you know about the Four Noble Truths. That is regarded as the first teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha, and maybe the most essential teachings. So that is different versions, different translations, but basically life is full of suffering, and there's a reason for suffering, that is self-cleaning.

[02:08]

And there is a way to become free from suffering, and that is the Eightfold Trax. So that's the basic teaching, I think, you know, the suffering, maybe more like individual suffering, not really suffering caused by war, or maybe large-scale social injustice or something. So, and then this four, no, eightfold pass, Originally it's called right view, right thoughts, right skills, right action. But I'd like to suggest a wholesome view, wholesome thoughts.

[03:15]

The reason is often right and wrong can change, you know, change first. For you it is right, but for me it might be right. And vice versa. But also, perhaps, you know, maybe it could be like a view that can be good for everybody, good for the future, good for the environment, and so forth. More inclusive. So wholesome view, thoughts, wholesome speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and a state of meditation. And this is quite complete, you can see, to be free from suffering.

[04:22]

We do things that are good for And then we don't have to suffer from hurting others and so forth, so certainly it can reduce our suffering. And then people have been discussing whether these vulnerable truths are sufficient as principles of social transformation. And some people may think, well, this is the complete guidelines for actions, so we could apply that. And then other people would say, well, this teaching was for individual teachers,

[05:31]

kind of free from suffering. Basically, Buddhist teaching was more like liberating individuals. So maybe we should think about something else, maybe some principles for action. So I thought, well, maybe we should just draft the principle and then put it on the table for discussions. And I come up with something called Four Commonplace Truths. So I was maybe, you might say, an additional supplement, so to speak.

[06:34]

So it is just a proposed so-called principle for action. The first principle is there is no situation that is impossible to change. So this may be familiar to you, this is like a sort of Another way of saying life is impromptu, everything changes. But usually impromptu is taken negatively or passively. You know, we are having a good time but we'll be sick, we'll be old and then we'll die. So that part is usually emphasized But maybe we can also see from the other side, no situation is impossible to change because all things change, nothing is owned.

[07:52]

That means there's nothing that doesn't change except for the truth itself or principle itself. I'd like to reflect on the worst experience human beings have had in history. That was, in my mind, nuclear arms sorts, you know, during the late 70s and 80s, you know, those two superpowers were building up weapons and then building up tensions and then expanding the arsenal and so on. And then capability to deliver missiles with nuclear warheads and so forth.

[08:59]

So we have this capacity with just one missile can destroy all Russian Soviet cities and more than that. Just one missile. So we had a thousand missiles like that. And the other side also is capable. And for the first time in history, humans had the capacity to flatten the surface of the entire Earth multiple times. And it was not just certain theory or knowledge. I was living in San Francisco, actually I was a scholar in regions of the San Francisco Center. So we knew that we were a target

[10:07]

of Soviet missile, probably from the submarine. And the tension was so much escalating. And I personally felt we didn't know I will get up in the morning. We didn't know there will be a world next morning. And that was a real complete reality. Every day we felt and we feared that some of you were not born yet, I guess. But I felt that was getting the worst time in the human district. we were very close to collective suicide, global suicide.

[11:15]

We had complete capacity and then we had very good sort of probability that would happen perhaps maybe not intentional kind of exchanges or missiles but maybe and then the other side, so we were strong and all that. Do you remember, you know, the book of atomic scientists had a clock, and it was like 15 minutes before midnight, so we were so close, and then it got closer, you know, how close we went, five minutes before, one minute, or something like that. So scientists were... I was working for Kureka Rokusi, and my assignment was translating Japanese documents on Dharma translation.

[12:35]

I said to Vigaroshi, you know, I think dermatology is important, and maybe Dharma may last forever, but we may not have people who will sit down, so we should really try to work hard to secure people. And Vigaroshi really agreed. I mean, he said all that. So we started nuclear study. So we invited explicitly watched films. But it became really a very quickly kind of action group. So we had maybe demonstration and meditation and ceremony.

[13:42]

We see Buckley campus, we joined the demonstrations, did a lot of phone calls, organized different speakers, presentations. We had video in downtown San Francisco. So we did everything. Just we were so desperate. And nothing seemed to be working. We were increasing the number of nuclear warheads. And all kind of our citizens' exchange program, nothing seemed to be working. Eventually, the war in Berlin.

[14:45]

And recently, maybe two years ago, I was watching a film about the war in Toros, the Berlin Wall, with a filmmaker who made this. And it was interesting, yeah. It just, it happened accidentally. It was just a mistake that the spokesperson of East German government, in a daily briefing, he was given a note and that he read it, but he read it one, and they said, okay, all non-citizens, if East Germany can travel freely, you don't need a document to go into West Berlin.

[15:50]

And then people just rushed. And then it was so chaotic and then nobody could stop. And then basically people could go in and out, and then the walls very quickly and taken down at least five weeks, by the way. So anyway, the war failed and then the Soviet Union collapsed. It was really too much for the Soviet Union spending so much money for developing such expensive weapons and not taking care of So that's maybe one of the main ways of that Soviet Union collapse.

[16:51]

But all of a sudden nuclear answer is stopped. It was just a miracle. Now we didn't have to worry about global suicide. we can draw a lesson about that. Even the horrible situations that seem to be impossible, and nothing works, but actually we can change it. And the breakthroughs may be happening already, but we may not know that climate change. You know, we are rushing toward global suicide, too.

[17:56]

And in a way, maybe in my mind, this larger crisis is population excluded. In 1987, population passed five billion. And then 1999, 12 years later, it was going to pass 6 billion. So I got a call from United Nations Population Fund. So I was asked to be on the strategy committee to kind of let people know the seriousness of this... And we worked hard 12 years later, 2011.

[18:59]

We passed secondary. And, you know, we don't have enough water. We don't have enough food to, you know, We don't see any population explosion here. We don't see that in maybe Western Europe too. In Italy, population is decreasing by half in every generation, 30 years or so. In France, it's also. But in other parts of the world, Africa, Pakistan, India, China. The population is exploding. It's hard to avoid war. People, if they don't have food, if they don't have any help from outside, the only thing they can think of is to go to another place and try to get some

[20:10]

maybe by violence. So unfortunately that's probably the only solution in many cases. So we have a number of other global crisis that maybe we should this change can happen. But we can't just kind of just wish this happened. So the second proposed commonplace truth is a common vision Outstanding strategy and continuous effort to reinforce positive changes.

[21:20]

So we can't do it by ourselves. We need to have a common vision, positive and life-performing, and a vision that is good for other people as well. And then outstanding strategy. just running around and yelling will not help we need to stop running sit quietly and then think deeply and then together with many experts and many people who are willing to work develop an outstanding strategy that is important. And then, of course, we need continuing effort.

[22:29]

So that can bring forth positive changes. I'd like to tell you another return for Miami, all that, many of us, you know, the wonderful artist, you know, painter, printmaker, goddesses, very sensuous, but also spiritual. She just called me one day in January 1992, and she said, my goddess stole me. that we should start Japan's plutonium-based electric generation project. Can you help? So I said, yeah, sure, I'll be happy to help you. Knowing that it's sort of impossible to achieve the goal, we have good knowledge about Japanese plutonium project.

[23:39]

If you burn plutonium to get energy, to boil water and get electricity, you get more plutonium. So it's called a breather reactor. It's a kind of a dream energy. There are no such things in the world. But the danger is it's so toxic. One billionth of an ounce can be... Lisa. So if there is some kind of explosion, meltdown happens, maybe millions of people have to be evacuated. But is it possible to evacuate one million people? No. And also it is very easy to make a very crude nuclear bomb with some plutonium and dynamite put together.

[24:45]

Anyone can actually destroy the whole city very easy. And it's very easy to tear. You can put it in a shopping bag. But it's very heavy. It's a heavy metal. maybe orange-sized plutonium can make a nuclear bomb, but it's quite light. Anyway, but it's in a way not radioactive as it is, so you can carry it in people. Actually, in the past, people stole it and threw it in a total car and so forth. So the U.S. decided not to do that. The U.K.

[25:45]

decided not to do that. France was still doing it, but in Japan was still persuaded. And it seemed that maybe Japanese scientists were close to have some breakthroughs to make it sort of more industrial. production. But all people, all scientists, political leaders, we tried to stop. Political leaders were not elected. So, not that these people could stop it. So we knew it. And then, so the way is God, this is... idea of which it will work. So, seven Japanese people living in San Francisco, Bay Area, decided to stop it. Our top priority, national policy for Japan.

[26:52]

It was just so crazy. But we had already good people, foundation people, gave us money, Japanese scientists gave us all the information, and many people helped us. And we have a very wonderful international warrior in the US who used to be an advisor to Japanese cabinet. These people really helped me, you know, created a wonderful strategy. I went to Rio and organized the international campaign, and we have non-governmental organizations from over 60 countries sort of filed a complaint to the Japanese government, and so we looked so big.

[27:57]

But our headquarters was... in my garage only one fax machine doing all the media work and then sending essays to the Japanese government and so forth and eventually the government collapsed not because of us but because of corruption and then a friend of ours began minister in charge of science and law. And then he organized the first public hearing about this long-term nuclear energy development project. And then according to New York Times, he canceled a series of multi-billion dollar projects.

[28:59]

And Japanese people don't say we canceled it. we say we postponed it indefinitely to save the cases of people who have not been doing it. So it's been sort of still postponed. Nothing has happened since 1992. So I feel that's maybe... I'm confident to say that, you know, outstanding strategy really makes a difference. So we have to sort of, instead of doing action right away, we should really contemplate until we get to So the third proposed commonplace tools is people can help bring forth positive checkpoints.

[30:17]

So some people might say, well, I don't have enough resources, maybe I'm ill, I cannot move. But in a way, one way was Another, I think everyone can help. Maybe a little bit. Everyone can. So the final commonplace truth is no one is free of resource building. So we have the power to change. or to help change. We cannot say, I'm free of this computer.

[31:18]

I have a handout, so this is on this sheet, so when you leave, please take a sheet. I hope we have enough. Any thoughts? Any questions or any objections? Raise your hand. Do you have any opinions on North Korea's nuclear program? Is it a similar threat? I think it's a very big... The threat, yeah. I think it's... The threat is real, not just kind of ideas, but it's... There is a large likelihood that there will be actual war happening.

[32:30]

you know, this is a classical thing, someone has a kind of popularity problem or a domestic problem and then, you know, this will be devoted to international conflict and then, you know, maybe provoke to be provoked or whatever things happen and then sort of one side who knows maybe shoots one bullet or one miss or something and it may miss the target but then the other side contact types and so forth people don't think logically you know I mean there's no way that North Korea can start a war start out a war and then win the war, you know.

[33:35]

But when Japan was contemplating on attacking Taohau, they were not thinking clearly. It's more like emotional, also maybe being sort of suffocated by sanctions and so forth. So, you know, some countries become desperate and then try to have some kind of release. So, you know, it's a real threat and then I think, you know, people should be really kind of working, you know, starting to work because it's not like a small chance. I think it's a large chance.

[34:39]

What, in your opinion, was the most successful social movement project that you worked on? Can you say that? In your opinion, what was the most successful social project that you worked on and why do you feel it was successful? Well, I talked about this Reversing nuclear arms race around the early 80s. I was part of it. Millions of people worked in the world. So that was very successful, I think. The work against plutonium project was created an amazing town. So it was successful. But I think you may have heard of Gene Shah.

[35:40]

He's a sociologist. And he kind of developed this many ways to non-violent social transformation. And many people in many countries use that. successfully changed the regime, or from getting rid of dictators and the new service, democratic government. So that's Gene Sharp. He has called Einstein Institute in Washington, D.C. And maybe if you could study the kind of successful examples of non-violent regime change and then violent uprising. And there's more success in non-violent regime change.

[36:45]

And of course, non-violence doesn't make news. The war makes a kind of headline. We, maybe most of us, are not aware of the power of nonviolent social transformation. But we should all know about Jim Sharpe's work. Thanks for the good work that you're doing. And for the Jim Sharpe Foundation. I'm wondering, as an activist, how does one avoid burnout? how you have bounds amongst all the network energy. Yeah. So, you know, we do piecework, environmental work, so we work like crazy. Because we are small and then the problem is so huge. And I was telling my colleagues that, you know, if you're not enjoying this work, you should find another work.

[37:54]

So maybe... you enjoy it, you feel that maybe you are good at it or you can learn and then be good at it, be effective. And otherwise maybe there are many other things to do. So the important thing is to really enjoy working and also maybe being accustomed and not worried about being defeated. You know, the other side is so big, and then we're so small, we get defeated all the time. And then we learn it, and then we become smarter, and then maybe once or twice, by accident, we win. So, you know, just kind of be relaxed, keep trying. I see three sort of main things, and it feels like in how they manifest, just painting, just translation, just taking the world.

[39:15]

They're very kind of clear and distinct activities. Are they in your mind, body, world? Integrating that is related to this question about energy and being able to sustain your practice and your life in such an energetic way. I really kind of... I fell in love with the Master Dolin, 13th century monk, in his writings, because he is so positive, he is so confident, in the power of Zen participation. It's teaching me that you live your life fully so that you can make life full and all inclusive.

[40:26]

including all the environment and other members' society. So I think, yeah, that's maybe Dogen's confidence is sort of my, maybe, encouragement for work. And then also I do this artwork, and then I do kind of fundraising for a world without a myth, a project to... help governments to abolish their military forces. So, there is a saying in English, the pen is mightier than the salt. And I'm saying, the brush is mightier than the missile. So, I think maybe, you know, 21st century now, nation has voiced its military forces because of the maybe terrorist activities and fear.

[41:41]

But Costa Rica voiced its military forces in 1948, in Panama in 1994, and so forth. And actually about 11% of the member states of the United Nations have no military forces. Most of them are small countries. But I feel that maybe this kind of demonetization can happen slowly, but maybe it will be faster after we get a few nations and then We have the Council for Nations without military forces in the United Nations. Because it's so obvious that if we could spend the money, convert the money for military to health care or environmental protection or education,

[42:55]

or tourism or industry, you know, more like a sustainable industry. It'll be good for the world, you know, so we don't have to glorify being like our children having weapons and training with weapons. Yes. One more question, I think. Yes. Could you say something about the role of artists and writers in general in working for a piece? I have a full kind of confidence in the power of writings. that can change people's consciousness, change culture, change the world.

[44:00]

So writing is a very, maybe most powerful way of changing the work, I think. And then artwork, video artwork, it could be, And also, like maybe film. Film is a very powerful medium, and you can see its total sense experience. So that can be very convincing. Music. It could be our alarm clock. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Oh, so... So, you have this...

[45:13]

Do you want to say something about your book that's coming out? So this topic is one of the many essays of my forthcoming book, Painting Peace, Art in a Time of Global Crisis. coming out from Shambhala Publications next March. So it's a combination of essays, piece poems, all mixed, and posters and then paintings and so forth. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge and this is made possible by the donations we receive.

[46:32]

Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit SSCC.org and click Giving.

[46:42]

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