It's the truth of the Tathāgata's words. Good morning. What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday. And our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow. Our life is a creation of our mind. One year ago, I was the scheduled speaker on the Sunday that followed the events of September 11th. And quite unintentionally, I am again the scheduled speaker at a time when these images and memories are quite vivid in us all.

[01:03]

So I look back over my talk of one year ago today and I wanted to share some of those thoughts with you again this morning. Along with you, we here at Green Gulch Farm have been watching and listening to all of the terrible news since this most recent outbreak of that unnameable tragedy at the core of our human life. And we are joined here with you and with the entire world to grieve and to bear witness to the destructive power within these miraculous human hands. And of course, we are all injured immeasurably and for life, and we have been injured before. Depending on when you were born, you carry in your own body

[02:11]

all of the assassinations, the playground slaughters, the subway poisonings, the melting scars of battery acid on the faces of young Indian women. Vietnam, Uganda, Baghdad, Korea, World War, Holocaust, witch hunts, inquisitions on and on and on throughout the entire span of human life on the planet Earth. We are not well, we humans. We suffer from a terrible illness that the Buddha called ignorance. We are ignoring our inseparability, our interdependence. It's not America that has been attacked. Humankind, and we even use the word kind, has been attacked.

[03:12]

These actions were not kind. And yet, those are our own blind human children who carried knives onto airplanes in isolation from those around them, who mercilessly beat and tied another to a barbed wire fence in Laramie, Wyoming, and then left their sweet gay brother to die. And what is it that we have failed to see as parents, as teachers, and as just plain folks doing the best we can? I don't know, but I am looking, and I am committed to understanding. No matter what, it has always been too late, but we have no choice. So I and all of us have come here today because we want to be with you,

[04:15]

to share our community's commitment to the one worthy cause on this Earth, the cause of great peace. Jesus taught this, Rumi taught this, Shakyamuni Buddha taught this, so did Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King, Chief Seattle of the Northwest Indian Nations, and all the gentle people of the Earth through all time. But first they had to learn it for themselves, to become the human beings who did not renounce the world, but who sat upright in the very center of its pain with open arms and sacred teachings. So I don't have anything to add following all that's happened since September 11th.

[05:19]

Our friend, our old friend Huey Johnson was here in the weeks following the events of that day, and he was on his way to the United Nations to receive an award for environmental leadership. And he said to us, the soldiers will have their way, and that is so, and it seems to still be so. The dogs of war are not yet back in their kennels, despite all of the appeals from the world for wise restraint. But what I would like to do today is to share with you my study of this question that I promised to look into last year, one year ago, that I would try to the best of my ability

[06:22]

to understand the causes of hatred and violence in this human world, and possibly to find the small hope that it may come to an end. In his message to the world in September of last year, the Dalai Lama said to us all, at this hour, in this moment, let us not seek to pinpoint blame, but to pinpoint cause. So here are some of the pinpoints that I have found so far in my studies. First, I want to offer you a sample of the big picture through the intellectual lens of Jared Diamond in his Pulitzer Prize winning book, Guns, Germs and Steel. It all sounds a little bit like a fairy tale.

[07:28]

Long, long ago, some seven million years or so, the first human being stepped out of the evolutionary soup that was brewing on the great plains of Africa. Over the next three million years, the human being achieved an upright posture. Three and a half million years after that, they had sufficiently similar skulls to our own to be labeled Homo sapiens, which means wise men. These wise men were particularly wise about one very basic thing. The daily need for water, food and shelter. And much of what we call human history

[08:48]

is simply the outcome of their successes in securing for themselves, their family and friends, a reliable source of these basic necessities. Little by little, over thousands of years, small bands of these humans, between five and eighty, began to spread out over the earth. And as they did, they collected and ate everything that they found. Being omnivores, they had quite a lot to select from with the ever-present danger of eating something that is poison. These bands were the political, social and economic organization for the human species for its entire evolutionary history up until about 13,000 years ago. And I was thinking that this is the year 2000,

[09:52]

you know, it went by in a snap, right? 13,000 years is not very long. These bands were egalitarian by nature, just like our nearest relatives, the gorillas, the chimps and the bonobos. I went to the zoo. I played hooky with my daughter on Monday and we went to the zoo. And I, as always, had a hard time leaving that roofless house where the gorillas live. There's a family down there and it really does seem that they look at us with a bit of, kind of a glare. But they carry on their daily lives and they touch one another, they hug and they throw the ball around. Leadership in the bands was based on personality,

[10:58]

intelligence, strength, fighting skills and good looks. And all of the work of gathering food and making the beds was done by everyone. For quite a long time there was enough food and territory to go around. And at least this was true for the Homo sapiens. I think by now we've realized that many other species of animals have gone to their extinction once the Homo sapiens arrived in their territory. So for thousands of generations these bands traveled the earth, only rarely running into others of their kind, maybe once or twice in the lifetimes of the band. But when they did, the twin passions of mating and killing were inevitably aroused

[11:59]

and most often any stranger was killed and as frequently eaten. I was interested to read in the New Yorker a story by a man who'd gone to visit various places on the earth where cannibalism still occurs. And what he discovered is that these are places where there are very few other sources of protein. The people in these locations are basically starving. And as one of them said to the reporter, we'd actually prefer to eat chicken but we don't have any. So tribal organizations were the next big step in the formation of our modern world. And they were characterized by settlements and by much larger numbers of people. The earliest known tribes began to appear

[13:02]

in the fertile crescent of southwestern Asia with the first successes of agriculture that were taking place. With the domestication of wild grains and wild animals that were abundant in this region, our human ancestors secured for the first time their daily rations of milk, vegetables, meat, and bread. Whole foods was well on its way. Unfortunately, with the success in food and in settlements, we got an increase in population. A migrating mother can only carry one child until that child is old enough to run along with its elders. A mother with a house can have as many children as she can feed and protect. So as food production and food storage

[14:11]

and technology continued to advance, populations grew and grew in size until they were all beyond the limits of what we call knowing your neighbors, which is about knowing your neighbors to adopt 200 people at best. Some people say that true democracy is only possible with a few hundred, at best, neighbors. So not knowing your neighbors meant that disputes could not be settled by the restraints of kinship, friendship, and mutual obligation. And for the first time in human history, a mere 7,500 years ago, people had to learn how to encounter strangers without trying to kill them. So they came up with a well-known

[15:16]

political solution to this problem. It's called El Jefe, the chief. The difference between a chiefdom and a tribe is that the tribe has several kinship groups that live close together, with no one in charge. In a chiefdom, one of those kinship groups is given all of the authority to exercise force. And in exchange for that authority, they get special privileges. Slaves, multiple wives, jewelry, and laborers to build, in their better moments, public works, and at other times, monuments to their own immortality. So here's a quote from Jared Diamond to kind of finish off this study.

[16:20]

By now it should be obvious that chiefdoms introduced the dilemma fundamental to all centrally governed, non-egalitarian societies. At best, they do good by providing expensive services impossible to contract for on an individual basis. At worst, they function unabashedly as kleptocracies, transferring net wealth from commoners to upper classes. These noble and selfish functions are inextricably linked, although some governments emphasize much more of one function than of the other. The difference between a kleptocrat and a wise statesman, between a robber baron and a public benefactor, is merely one of degree. It's a matter of just how large a percentage of the tribute extracted from the producers is retained by the elite, and how much the commoners approve the public uses

[17:21]

to which the redistributed tribute is put. So it seems at this point we're on pretty familiar ground in the story of our human history. All the major elements of our modern life are more or less in place. And these elements have been repeated for multiple generations. Even though chiefs come and go, the methods by which they relate to the people haven't changed much in thousands of years. And there are basically four ways that leadership relates to the people. The first is to take away the people's arms and to arm the elite. That's pretty well known. The second is to make the masses happy by redistributing the tribute in ways that are generous

[18:22]

for the common good. A third is to use their monopoly of force to promote happiness by maintaining public order and by curbing violence. But the third, excuse me, the fourth, and the one most important to me here today, is to construct an ideology or a religion justifying, or at best, mitigating the abuses of their authority. All of these features of the chiefdom have been carried to the extreme over time into what we now call our modern nation-states. So my interest as a priest, as a Buddhist, as a human being is really in this fourth method, the role that's played by ideology or by religion with regard to the current global abuses of such empowerment and authority. None of us has to look

[19:23]

past the morning papers to see examples of the patriotic rhetoric from both the churches and from the statesmen. And it comes in all stripes, Israeli, American, British, Palestinian, Iraqi, Japanese, Chinese, you know, we the people. And I think it's important for us to know that among tribal people it apparently is very rare for an individual to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their village. They do everything to minimize harm. They run away. They hide. They sneak up. But with the advent of the state, there has appeared on the earth a new and more lethal form of human being called the patriotic or religious fanatic. Mr. Diamond again.

[20:25]

Fanaticism in war of the type that drove recorded Christian and Islamic conquests was probably unknown on the earth until chiefdoms and especially states emerged within the last 6,000 years. A willingness to fight and to die for the state, for one's country, has been programmed into every human child by its church, its school, and its government world round throughout recent human history. And of course, every nation state has its own flag and its own marching tunes. This inscription is from a 16th century address to the young Aztec warriors who were preparing for battle. There is nothing like death in war. Nothing like the flowery death so precious to him, capital H, who gives life. Far off I see it.

[21:27]

And my heart yearns for it. The hymn in this case was the Aztec national god, and I can't pronounce his name. Having formulated here for myself a kind of small version of the big picture of the causes of violence and hatred in the human world, not only within each person, as the Buddha has taught, but within the assemblage of persons that we now call the state, I was drawn to turn my own curiosity toward the state to which I have been a member since my birth. And like all of you, I imagine most of you, I would say, I am a citizen of the United States of America. So I was very grateful to find yet another book by another Pulitzer Prize-winning author

[22:27]

called Joseph Ellis. The name of the book is Founding Brothers, and it's a wonderfully compassionate and intelligent review of American history that I wasn't taught as a kid. He looks at the ideas, at the people, and the events that shaped what we experience today as our nation and our government. The one thing that got my attention so far is the early and deadly debate between those who favored a strong local autonomy, the know-your-neighbors form of government, as opposed to those who aspired to a strong, centralized, powerful, and anonymous authority. Regrettably, those who promoted the know-your-neighbors approach to democracy in the early days of this republic were the very same people who within their neighborhoods

[23:28]

harbored the immoral and unconscionable fact of human slavery. And so thereby, the Federalists, on the high moral ground and through the fanaticism of a bitter and protracted warfare, seized the day. One nation under God. Had the founding brothers taken it upon themselves to address and redeem the infant nation from its inextricable dependence on wealth gained by human slavery, the outcome for those of us living today, black and white, north and south, would have been unimaginably altered. But they didn't. They chose instead to maintain an ignoble silence for the sake of the Union, for the sake of the state, for the sake of the nation, and for the uncountable lives that were lost as a result. I don't know

[24:33]

when or if my own studies of human society and politics will ever end. I was, you may have guessed, a political science major in college. But I do despair of membership in a process that we call democracy but that leaves me with no access to another human face. And maybe some of you have fared better in this regard, and I would be deeply grateful to hear how that's so. When I first studied the Buddha's teaching and heard about his renunciation of his own birthright to the privileges and responsibilities of chiefdom, it turned my own aspirations as a human being towards a less material purpose. I had always wanted to know everything, but I also wanted to own everything, the kinds of stuff that a young girl might gain through marriage. So I thought when I was a kid.

[25:33]

The Buddha, on the other hand, walked from place to place and wore no special insignia to mark his rank or the qualities of his character. He shared what he knew with everyone who came to the clearing where he sat down to speak. He received his food as a gift, not as tribute, and at a risk that no one would offer to feed him. And like the nomads, his only possessions were what he carried from place to place on his back, one robe and one bowl. And he lived in this way and in safety for over 60 years among the warring tribes of humans in what is now called India. The ideas and the ideology, method number four, that this teacher of humans taught over 2,500 years ago, included a very high standard of personal integrity called the Buddhist precepts.

[26:38]

And I was imagining if we all decided that the future of human history would be based on a game that we would play and that that game, the rules of that game, would be the Buddhist precepts, just try thinking what it might be like for all of us when the referee says, OK, guys, here's the rules. No killing, no stealing, no sexualizing, no lying, no intoxicating or slandering, no praising yourself at anyone else's expense, no hoarding, no raging, and no reviling the teachers, the teaching, or the students of the game. It might be a great joy for us all. These precepts are part of the mission statement of this community and in my own utopian dreams of the mission statement of the entire world. The Buddha also taught,

[27:38]

along with personal integrity, a standard of conduct for the well-being of the state, which I think is much less well-known. And I thought, it's not a very long passage, I thought I would share it with you this morning. This is from the discourses of the Buddha, the Dighamikaya. These are the old suttas from the Pali Canon. And this particular sutta is called the Mahaparinirvana Sutta, The Great Passing. And these teachings were given as the Buddha was preparing to die. He was an old man. Thus have I heard, Once the Lord was staying at Rajagraha, on the mountain called Vulture's Peak. Now just then, King Ajatasattu Veddhiputta of Magadha wanted to attack the Vijans. He said, I will strike the Vajans who are so powerful and strong. I will cut them off and destroy them. I will bring them to ruin and destruction.

[28:39]

And King Ajatasattu said to his chief minister, the Brahman Vasakara, Brahman, go to the Blessed Lord. Worship Him with your head to His feet in my name. Ask if He is free from sickness or disease, if He is living at ease vigorously, comfortably. And then say, Lord, King Ajatasattu Veddhiputta of Magadha wishes to attack the Vajans and says, I will strike the Vajans. I will bring them to ruin and destruction. And whatever the Lord declares to you, report that faithfully back to me for Tathagatas never lie. Very good, sire, said Vasakara. And having had the stake carriages harnessed, he mounted one of them and drove in state from Rajagaha to Vulture's Peak, riding as far as the ground would allow, then continuing on foot to where the Lord was. He exchanged courtesies with the Lord and then sat down to one side and delivered the King's message. Now the venerable Ananda

[29:43]

was standing behind the Lord fanning him and the Lord said, Ananda, have you heard that the Vajans hold regular and frequent assemblies? I have heard, Lord, that they do. Ananda, as long as the Vajans hold regular and frequent assemblies, they may be expected to prosper and not decline. Have you heard that the Vajans meet in harmony, break up in harmony, and carry on their business in harmony? I have heard, Lord, that they do. Ananda, as long as the Vajans meet in harmony, break up in harmony, and carry on their business in harmony, they may be expected to prosper and not decline. Have you heard that the Vajans do not authorize what has not been authorized already and do not abolish what has been authorized but proceed according to what has been authorized by their ancient traditions? I have, Lord. Have you heard that they honor, respect, revere, and salute the elders among them and consider them

[30:44]

worthy of listening to? That they do not forcibly abduct others' wives and daughters and compel them to live with them? That they honor, respect, revere, and salute the Vajan shrines at home and abroad, not withdrawing the proper support made and given before? That proper provision is made for the safety of the arhats so that such arhats may come in the future to live there and those already there may dwell in comfort? I have, Lord. Ananda, so long as such proper provision is made, the Vajans may be expected to prosper and not decline. Then the Lord said to the Brahmin Vasakara, Once, Brahmin, when I was at the Shanadada shrine at Vaisali, I taught the Vajans these seven principles for preventing decline. And as long as they keep to these seven principles and as long as these principles remain in force, the Vajans may be expected to prosper and not decline. At this,

[31:45]

Vasakara replied, Reverend Gautama, if the Vajans keep to even one of these principles, they may be expected to prosper and not decline, far less all seven. Certainly, the Vajans will never be conquered by King Ajatasattu by force of arms, but only by means of propaganda. Here he means diplomacy. And by setting them, against one another. So now, Reverend Gautama, may I depart? I am busy and I have much to do. Brahman, do as you think fit. Then Vasakara, rejoicing and delighted at the Lord's words, rose from his seat and departed. So I don't know if any nation of individuals can achieve such ideals or if our nation

[32:47]

can achieve the ideals of our professed democracy. And I fear that as with the slavery among our forefathers, the unrestrained capitalism among ourselves and the other developed nations of the world is the blinding dependency that forbids us true liberty and dignity for all living beings. And it's certainly been suggested before and by many, and yet attempts at fair systems of distribution and writing of imbalances have so far been dismal failures. But remembering again the Dalai Lama's teaching of not to look how to pinpoint the blame but how to pinpoint the causes. And one such cause that is fueling the world's system of trade is our very own incessant demands for more than we need and it's the wasting

[33:50]

and the polluting of the world's soils, air, and water and the blatant disregard of civil rights both home, here at home and abroad. And it's by the insatiable requirements for cheaper and cheaper sources of materials, food, and manual labor. So by the time I had finished my project of pinpointing the various causes of human hatred and violence, some of those pins were embedded in my very own flesh more deeply than I would like to admit. And maybe such privileges as you and I enjoy leave us with no alternatives but to take our hits over and over again by those like King Ajatasattu Vedhiputta of long ago who would strike the Vijans, the Amerikans, who are so powerful

[34:52]

and strong, who would cut them off and destroy them, who would bring them to ruin and destruction. If you have ever wanted something that belongs to someone else or to have returned to you that which has been taken from you, then you know already where these folks may be coming from and they are many. So even though it may undoubtedly be too late, let's talk, let's think and let's find some way to devote and to share the tribute of our industry for the welfare of all living beings. From the Zen poetry of the hermit monk Master Ryokan. Walking along a narrow path at the foot of a mountain, I came to an ancient cemetery filled with countless tombstones and thousand-year-old

[35:53]

oaks and pines. The day is ending with a lonely plaintive wind. The names on the tombs are completely faded and even the relatives have forgotten who they were. Choked with tears, unable to speak, I take my staff and return home. Thank you very much.

[36:17]

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