I want to start with a koan, a short one. A monk asked the master Yunnan, what was the Buddha's teaching of a lifetime? The teacher replied, an appropriate response. So some years ago, there was a teacher, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher who visited Green Gulch. His name was Tara Toku, an amazing, wonderful teacher. We had the great fortune to have him here for a while. And he had told us lots of stories about his time in Tibet where he had been practicing until the Chinese invasion of the late 1950s. So during the question and answer, one of the students raised his hand and he said, so what do you do when you're afraid? And the teacher said, run. So this is a wonderful example of an appropriate response, you know, an appropriate to the occasion. So when this happens, you do that.

[01:01]

And when that happens, you do this. And so on. And in some ways, an appropriate response seems like a really natural thing. It's obvious and instinctual. Here comes the tiger. So you run. And yet there's maybe a subtle danger that's hidden there. In the fault of what might be looked at as a negative version of situational ethics. Situational ethics. ethics that are being based in my own personal sense of right and wrong, my own self-interest, my own beliefs, my fears, my opinions, my biases, and so on. So an alternative basis for determining an appropriate response would be to see how my actions are connected to a set of core values and commitments that perhaps I've made, such as, in my case, the Bodhisattva vow, and the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. So these are pretty easily summarized as not causing harm to oneself or to others, to which I would add, not allowing harm to be caused to oneself or to others.

[02:13]

So last week, we looked at the example of the fierce protector deities that are guarding Buddhist temples throughout Asia from those who would cause harm. thereby transforming what appears to be rage or anger into protective energy on behalf of others, an appropriate response. So how do we learn to respond appropriately when called on by the challenging and changing circumstances in our life? When loved ones are ill, or when we're ill, when the world that we assumed we could count on seems changed in ways that we just don't understand, such as the changes that are... being brought about by these twin pandemics of the coronavirus and racial injustice. Shakespeare calls such a sudden and radical change in the world and in our lives a sea change, a change of such magnitude that a metamorphosis takes place, hopefully for the better, such as the sea change that transformed the young Prince Siddhartha into a Buddha for the betterment of the entire world.

[03:21]

So there are basically two kinds of responses that we humans can make when we are faced by radical change. The first is an enlightened response, a response connected intimately to what Suzuki Rishi called our big mind, such as the responses that were given by the Buddha, which came to be called the Dharma or the teachings of awakening. And yet in the very beginning of his teaching career, the Buddha didn't offer a lot of systematic guidance to his students. Instead, he responded to each of them with a very specific recommendation, case by case, an appropriate response. For example, to one of the young monks, he said, don't lie. To another, he said, don't speak ill of others, or don't steal, don't sexualize, don't hold grudges, or withhold support from one another, and so on. So it was in this way, this case by case, giving out of instruction, a body of literature was eventually recorded called the vinya or the rules of deportment for the monastics rules that we still hold dear in our efforts to live and work together here on this piece of land that we call gringolch farm zen center and what the buddha was basically recommending to his disciples and to those of us living and practicing hopefully in this way here today was a kind of opposite world

[04:50]

where each of us is devoting ourselves to the welfare of someone else, or maybe even everyone else. So in search for liberation from suffering, the young prince had undermined his own self-concern, his own self-love, self-conceit, and his ignorance. This was a radical act that diverted the flow of his own ambition from accumulating more possessions for himself or his family to preserving the precious resources of this life-giving planet for everyone. So this is the primary vow. First to awaken, and then to live for the benefit of others. In the Mahayana tradition, in which our school of Zen is located, we call the Buddha's ethical guidance, the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. And the people in the Zen tradition who are wearing robes, you know, full robes, okesa and raksu, raksu being this small colored rectangles that we hang from straps around our necks, have asked for and received these precepts in a formal ceremony to celebrate their commitment to the Buddha's enlightened understanding of our human life.

[05:59]

When we take this vow to live for others, much like in a marriage, it's done before witnesses, our family, our friends, and our entire community. And just then, for a brief moment or two, for those of you who've been to one of those ceremonies, bodhisattva precept ceremonies it seems as though as though we can actually see into the heart of creation herself you know prajnaparamita wisdom beyond wisdom into the heart of the wholeness of being this big mind that we share together our own true body and life and it's from that place that we respond appropriately you know all beings whole being buddha nature Now, the other kind of response, which may or may not be an appropriate one, is based in our good intentions, albeit from a limited understanding. Any response from that point of view, from the point of view of our small mind, often gets us into all kinds of trouble. There are the inevitable misunderstandings, miscommunications, omissions, exaggerations, opinions, biases, and so on.

[07:08]

The results that arise from our small mind's response to the world is referred to in the Buddhist teaching as a karmic response, karmic consciousness, made up of the illusions we're having concerning reality, just like the illusions the Buddha experienced when he faced Mara and his demon squadrons. So the primary illusion is that the world and the suffering of others is somehow outside of myself, is not me. and therefore perhaps not my responsibility. And this in itself is an inappropriate response. So the laws of karma are really quite simple, although they're hard to believe or to see. And yet if we look very deeply into our human world, the one that we are all creating together, the workings of karma are not so mysterious as they may seem. You know, the basic law is that good intentions and good deeds lead to good results. and that bad intentions and bad deeds lead to bad results. But of course, the devil is always in the details.

[08:12]

For example, as we have been learning here at the Zen Center, our intentions regarding one another are not as important as our impact on each other. And as much as I think we would all like to excuse ourselves for the many misunderstandings which occur in our lives, saying, well, that's not what I intended or not what I meant, saying that doesn't necessarily make for a good outcome as i think we all may know from having been on both sides of that experience many times the best response is simply to say i'm sorry so there was a student here last year who offered me a teaching that she had learned called some of you may know which i understand is the traditional hawaiian practice of forgiveness and reconciliation The word itself means something like to put it upright, to make it correct, to rectify. So this verse of practice, these verses are very simple. They're very simple to say.

[09:14]

They're very easy to understand. And they're so simple that I was fairly certain that it wasn't going to work. However, about a week after I was taught this practice, I met with a student who... had been having difficulties communicating with me and me with her for a number of years, although we had tried. And as she was leaving the room after another unsuccessful communication effort, I asked her if I could share a practice that I had recently learned, and she said yes. So I said to her, these four things. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. And I love you. To my amazement, Both of us started to cry. And then she asked me if she could say these things back to me, and I said yes, and she did, and then we cried some more. So I have now done this practice with a number of people who, over the years, I have what you might describe as come out of round. The word out of round in Sanskrit is dukkha, which is basically the translation in English of suffering.

[10:22]

Things are not right. Things are not put right. And as we know, these karmic outcomes can go on for not only for years, but they can go on for centuries, for generations after generations. So once again, you know, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. And I love you. Somehow saying these words, as the friend who was teaching me this said to me, it's not about what I'm going to be doing. It's not about the person, actually. You know, they can receive it or not, depending. But it's how it feels inside of you to say words like that. And I noticed each time I said those words just now, I could feel it inside. Something inside of me is moved by saying simple words. These simple words. So, a very sweet version of our own Buddhist practices of confession and repentance, which are also offered as a way of setting things right.

[11:24]

All my ancient twisted karma. From beginnings, greed, hate, and delusion. Born through body, speech, and mind. I am now fully avowed. Those of you who practice the Zen Center know that we do this chant at the end of Zazen every morning before service, just the beginning of service. We all chant together three times. And from having done this for many, many years, you know, the power of it, the third time around, the alignment of the mind and the body becomes pretty thoroughgoing. And the feeling of it becomes quite sincere. Standing there with your hands in gaso. Avowed, and by the way, to say I avow, I used to think, I'm not sure what I knew what it meant. It's sort of an old-fashioned word. Avow, I understand, means I admit it. I accept it. I proclaim that this is so. My ancient twisted karma from beginning this greed, hate, and delusion.

[12:27]

It's not that it's my fault or not my fault. It's just the way I have come into life, come into being. Born through this body, through the speech in this body, and through this mind, I now fully accept. I have that. So then you might be wondering if... An appropriate response is even possible without the full, complete, perfect enlightenment of a Buddha. And the answer is probably not. However, there is a pathway that has been carefully laid down for us by the Buddhas and ancestors, which can provide us with some appropriate guidance. As I already mentioned, there's the Bodhisattva vow and the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. There's confession and repentance. And there's also the Six Perfections and the Noble Eightfold Path. So much like the guidance systems that come with our modern automobiles, these teachings from the Buddhist tradition can help us to arrive safely at our destination, which for most of us, I would imagine, would be a peaceful and harmonious life together, you know, with all means.

[13:34]

But without the ethical guidance system of our human ancestors world round, were left to flounder in the primary poisons of this beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, also known as the poisonous sea. The Buddha called the results of precept violations, of floundering, suffering, articulated in the familiar teaching of the Four Noble Truths, which I read to you last week from the Buddha's pure sermon. The word precepts is taken from the Latin, meaning to warn or to instruct. And in the Buddha's teachings, they're intended to help illuminate the imaginary boundary which we truly believe exists between ourselves as individuals and the world around us. There are lots of names that we've given to the two sides of that imagined boundary. There's me and you. There's mine and yours. Self and others. Inside and outside. Subject and object.

[14:36]

Residents and non-residents. here and there, and so on, all of which are taken for granted, as though they had actual meaning, as though you could find the boundary that separates these things. When the Buddha saw, when he looked up at the morning star, was that the star was not outside of himself, was not outside of his awareness, and nor was anything else. And from this realization came the primary vow to treat the other, as the self, thereby switching our focus from this tiny imaginary cutout called myself as isolated and separate from the world onto everything else that surrounds it, turning the light of our awareness around once again and then again and again from focusing on our small self to focusing on our true self, our big self. So basically the precepts are a kind of trellis to hold ourselves up,

[15:36]

we undertake this same journey that led to the awakening of the young prince to that moment when he actually saw that nothing was separate from himself and that doing unto others as we would have them do unto us is the appropriate response that heals the world i think we're all well aware that the most pressing and current example of causing harms to harm to others it's being called out in every major city of this country and of this world, is the perpetuation of violence, in particular against black people, based in a world culture that's been created through reified and racist ideology and conditioning. And each of us is now being called upon to find an appropriate response to both our own and to our collective racialized conditioning. In particular, for those of us in this meeting right now, who are racialized as white. So I would propose that before we can be sure that we are making the appropriate response in the face of our conditioning, not only as racialized individuals, but furthermore, by virtue of our gender, our age, our abilities, our sexual preferences, and I think all of us know the list by now, how we do this is by first of all, assuming that we don't really know how we are or aren't causing harm to others.

[17:02]

and that we need to learn a whole lot more about it. We need to study and listen and learn from others, particularly those who are telling us that they are hurting. So I would highly recommend for those of you willing to come to terms with the current conversation about racism in America, that you listen to some YouTube presentations, which for me, I find so much more accessible and essential. than the effort I've made to read books, which sometimes I just get bogged down. So recently I've watched YouTube by Ibram X. Kendi, who's the author of Stamp from the Beginning, which I'm also reading, but I found it so much more available when I first watched him give a talk about his major points that he makes in his book. He's also recently published a book called How to Be an Anti-Racist, which I got on order. And there's also Robin DiAngelo's book that's been around for a while called White Fragility.

[18:06]

And again, watching her on YouTube is very, very helpful. I'd read her book in the past, but I got a lot more out of having her teach it from the podium to a room full of college students. And of course, if you haven't already, reading and listening to James Baldwin, his book, The Fire Next Time, the recent film, I Am Not Your Negro, and then almost any of the interviews that he did while he lived are amazing. The one I saw that kind of blew me away was a debate. It was in 1964 that was at Oxford University between James Baldwin and William Buckley. For those of you my age, you remember who William Buckley is. I won't describe him, but anyway, he was sort of a conservative pundit, one of the first people who supported conservative candidates like Barry Goldwater and so on. So he was kind of one of the leaders, intellectual leaders of the conservative movement that became very powerful in this country and continues.

[19:12]

So to watch Mr. Buckley and Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Buckley debating at Oxford University with a packed house of these Oxford students was really stunning. And I leave it to you to have the experience for yourselves. I was quite amazed and it was very edifying to hear them both speak. So as the Zen koan asks of us now, and as it has for centuries, who is it that can take the bell off the tiger? And the answer is the one who put it there. So now I would like to open the floor, so to speak, or the room, to your questions, your comments. We really appreciate whatever you would like to offer. And I will look in the chat room, or you can raise your hands. Let's see.

[20:14]

Let's see what the chat room is. So if you all know how to do that, you just go down to where it says chat at the bottom of your screen. There's a row of icons. And you can type something in there. There's instructions. Thank you, Jenny. And or you can just wave, and I think I'd see you, and I can call on you that way as well. So please feel free. I'd really like to hear from you. Is that you, Heather, waving? Okay, great. I think you can unmute yourself, I do believe. Is that right, Jenny? No? You can unmute her and then she has to unmute too. So I unmute her or everybody? You can unmute her and then it'll prompt her to unmute herself. Did you see that? Did that work? Yes.

[21:14]

Great. Thank you. Hi, Heather. Hi. I received that as a perfect answer. Thank you. Oh, good. So I remember last week I was talking about a friend of mine, a Dharma friend, who didn't want to use the word ally because he thought that it put division between himself and the people he was intending to support. And I was concerned that that was maybe not helpful to the people he was trying to support. So that was why I asked her about appropriateness, and I really appreciate your answer. But I ended up talking to him a little bit about it a week, and I wanted to run what I said by you. So I said that I have no quarrel with the absolute, but that's true.

[22:23]

It's true that everyone... is equal and deserves equal honor and that we're all connected. That is true. But that because we only have one body, we have to do things one at a time. And so there's a step one, which is to protect people who are being harmed in the present moment. And then maybe there's a step two, where you go beyond the need to do that, but that I think we're still in step one. That was my best effort at an answer. I think Roy's in step one, you know, taking the relative seriously. The ultimate doesn't need us. It's already what's happening. Reality is not, you know, complaining. Reality is just abides. It's just here. It's just what's happening. And no one can really say what's happening without resorting to relative truth, meaning talking, using language, fingers pointing at the moon.

[23:34]

So we have to talk. We have no choice about that. We have to talk, we have to discuss, we have to have conversations and we have to learn. And I am feeling so grateful that there's language so that I can learn a lot more than I have before about how this all came to be. I think I said to you before that the Dalai Lama said after 9-11, don't look for blame, look for causes. So what are the causes of the current situation? Is it just an accident? It just all turned out this way? Because it's kind of, you know, what's genetics? There have been a lot of cases made for what's going on here, different theories. And as Ibram X. Kendi said, people will believe just about anything without any evidence whatsoever. So belief is really easy. Oh, yeah, I know. I know that. I get that. But actually researching and looking and studying, as he's done in his book, Stamp from the Beginning, is intense. He spent a lot of time looking in the old files and getting the quotations and translating languages and all kinds of things to show where the roots of racism, when it started, who said what, who published what, what century.

[24:47]

It goes way back, and it was for profit. People are valuable. You can sell them for money. You can sell their children for money. Anyway, it's a hideous history. And it's based on the idea that these are commodities. People are commodities. So they justified it. Because these are good Christian people doing this thing. So they had to save the souls of their commodities without disturbing the use of their bodies. So there's so much that, you know, I wasn't taught in school. None of us was taught in school, I'm pretty sure. And so now it's, you know, it's not too late. We still can learn and, you know, repent. It's time. We need to repent. We need to be sorry. One of the points they're making often is, the writers, the black writers, is it's very hard for people to be wrong. They're painful. You feel ashamed. We're shame prone.

[25:48]

We don't want to feel bad. I'm not that. He said, you'll never find a racist because no one will tell you they are. So how we could actually accept that it's a system and it's very well designed and we all grew up in it and it's invisible. It's supposed to be invisible. And we're all innocent. And as James Baldwin said, it's innocence that constitutes the crime. So... You know, I feel like all of us are called on to I don't know about allies. I'm not ready to be an ally. You know, one of my friends, black woman teacher, Zenju said, I'm not your project, fool. I can take care of myself. Thank you. You know, we're friends. They're like, OK, OK, yeah, I'm going to come and save you now. The one who put the bell on the tiger is going to take it off. Yeah, I got to get the bell on my neck. This is the one that's really got to go.

[26:50]

So we take care of our own ignorance. We have to wake up from our own delusions. And then we can perhaps be allies without calling it. You just are. You just know how to be with people and not treat them... I think the main definition of racism, it's about groups of people being thought to be higher or lower than other groups of people. And within each of those groups, so that's racism. Like this race is better than this one. That's what that's about. Within each group, there's all kinds of individuals. There's intersectionality. There's like good people and bad people and happy people and depressed people. And, you know, there's women and men and there's all these differences within each group. But it's comparing groups. That's what makes racism. So those people are like that, and those people are like that, and these people are better. So that's just like crazy. There's just no basis other than belief and tradition has made it so.

[27:53]

Thinking that makes it so. So we got to think deeper. We got to come through this and not forget. That's really the greatest danger I noticed already. It's like, are we going to forget and get on with it? So I hope not. So let's hold each other to the task. Thanks, Heather. How about another blue hand? I don't know how to pronounce your name. I'm sorry. It's G-U-I Spina? Spina? Can you tell me? I'll unmute you. Can you hear me now? Yes. Yes, it's Guy. Guy. Yeah, Guy Spina. I just wanted to thank you so much for the talk. I felt like, Heather, the question was really important, and I felt like the answer was really important as well, especially stressing the importance of learning and of learning.

[29:06]

of everything you said. So I just wanted to express a sincere thank you. It was really great that the question was posed and the answer itself. So thank you. Thank you, Keith. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too, yes. Bill, I'll unmute you, Bill. Hey, this is Finn. Finn! Hi, I got a nice note from your dad. That's them sitting behind you. Why? Something, well, I've recently been hearing the word accomplice going around like as sort of a replacement for ally to sort of as much like I'm helping you, but just kind of like a more like a solidarity thing. But I'm thinking sort of about like, and I was reading something from, it was in my beginner's mind the other day talking about how to change people's minds, how it was like you really just ask them like to ask the right questions.

[30:07]

Like it's kind of just about like really being curious about other people's beliefs and how they got to be there and to the point where they, and kind of like you have to almost like change, like get into their shoes and then change your mind with them. But I guess I'm like wondering about like in that process, it seems like it's pretty easy to kind of like lose yourself in, in, cause I mean a lot of the, it seems like a lot of the, the things that are holding up all of this delusion is, I mean, it's delusion. So it's just, there's all these spirals of all these, just so much there. And it feels like, I don't know, it just seems like hard to keep one's head in even like having these conversations. So I guess I was just wondering if you had any sort of, yeah, thoughts about that and just sort of how to ground down in my own roots in order to be able to go into somebody else's shoes and figure out what's going on there.

[31:08]

Yeah, well, start small. Don't start with big shoes. You know, I think if it's really a heated situation, it's pretty hard to not find yourself either protecting or aggressing, you know, if you're yelling. Someone's yelling at you. So I think work with your parents. That's a good place to start. I do a lot of good work with my family. It's like, how do we work out small disagreements? What are the practices for having discussions where you're not othering? You really are interested in their point of view. And they're interested in yours. There's some reciprocal exchange going on there. I mean, what's interesting about these debates that I watch, the Oxford, they're the real thing, right, the one they're trained to do that. They're saying outrageous things, oppositional things, with a lot of respect, you know. There's respect that's happening. It's fair play in a sense because it's not a fight.

[32:12]

It's not trying to beat them. It's trying to present your case and allow the people who are listening to basically make the choice between that point of view or that point of view. And what was wonderful about the Buckley-Baldwin debate is that James Baldwin just... wiped the floor with him. I mean, it was stunning how much his, just in his moral position, his high moral ground was just, couldn't be refuted. And, you know, the things that were said from the other side just seemed so, like, no, that doesn't give me any, as I was changing my perspective. So it's tricky. I think also what you've learned as a meditator is really important. You know, to calm yourself before responding rather than reactive. You know, reaction is what causes so much harm. And the Buddha said, I think I mentioned too, that holding views, holding views causes, leads to quarrels and quarrels leads to harm.

[33:17]

So don't hold your views, but share them. Well, study them enough that you know what they are. There's not a real danger that you're going to fly off into another perspective because you actually have thought through it. And you've looked at good arguments about, you know, this is not a complex case. You know, as soon as you start to learn something about it, it's pretty easy to figure out there's not even two sides. There's just one side. And it has to be clear. And we have to help educate others and get those textbooks written. I mean, it's shameful that none of us were taught any of this about the Navajo, the long walk. There's so many things I've learned in my 60s. that I should have learned when I was 10. And so I think part of it is to make sure that we're asking that of our society, that we really educate our young and we do it well and balanced. And so there's work. There's work for all of us, wherever we are, whoever we work with and whatever our talents for writers or whatever we do.

[34:23]

Keep talking without fighting. That doesn't do anything. Everyone gets more solid. I think you can probably do that pretty well. Yeah, yeah. I can figure it out. Yeah, I think so. Thanks, Boob. Sure. Nice to see you all. Daniel Finesmith. Hi, Daniel. Can you hear me? I can. Good. I recently moved to San Francisco, and one thing I found rather interesting about being in this area, in contradistinction to any other place I've been, and especially I hear it in this meeting here, is there appears to be...

[35:29]

And I'm not saying that I know the answer to this, because I have to say that I really don't. But there does seem to be an unquestioning notion that there should be an activated white sense of guilt within each person who, I guess, identifies or is a white person. And the black people that I know all think that that's kind of crazy. And they think they actually... More than one black friend told me that it looks like a white power play. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because there's such a large number of white people, and all of a sudden, they are effectively taking over these demonstrations with CMF. And all of a sudden, you don't hear these stories of actual racism and actual suffering that's occurring. Instead, you hear all these white people kind of supposedly blaming themselves. Yeah. you know, at another level, you wonder what it is.

[36:31]

So, and then the gentleman with, I guess, his family there, asked the, there spoke very interestingly about, you know, in a sense, how this, how one could keep one's cool in a certain sense. And you gave a good response about that. And a part of me has wondered, you know, this whole, you know, samsara has been samsara since the beginning of samsara. And here we are in it, and we could go back to the 60s. We could go back into the gulags in the USSR. We could go back hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of years, and we'll find samsara acting how it does. The question I have is two questions. One, how much value is there? And I understand that white people that weren't any of us even our parents have had substantially awful deeds associated with their being, whether they were personal or they were just allowing.

[37:40]

Like in Nazi Germany, just general purpose citizens that were alive then, allowed. But the Germans that are alive now, what do they have to do with anything? Nothing. So are they to blame for anything? No. We can't ask them for anything. I can't. call up a general purpose German person my age and say, listen, you really need to look into yourself. You need to do something about what happened that you had nothing to do with. So the first question I have is, are white people, people that are white, because you called out whiteness many times and asked for us to contemplate our position in this and to see what we could do about it. Should we be spending so much time navel-gazing on this thing and riling up our minds and our communal mind i should even say on something that if we investigate ourselves we have to say that we've done no harm and i would investigate myself regarding to race and i've lived in i've lived in the south i've lived in many places around the world and i can't i've never been able to come up with any overt harm i've caused or even

[38:53]

Even mental functioning, even when I was very young, I looked to eradicate those ideas. And I hate them. I hate racial, even mental thoughts. So if we don't have them, if we don't cause harm, and nobody in our generation, or even our parents' generation, or even the prior ones before it, we're not even American. My parents didn't come from America. Then why do we have to load ourselves up with mental agitation? that becomes societal mental agitation. That's thing number one. And thing number two has something to do with something you said very earlier, which was great, about the way we converse with each other. And just one brief thing is that at the time of the Buddha, when they came up with the precepts, and other cultures as well, when they came up with moral notions, moral ideas, it was a time when people talked one to another. or one to a relatively small group. So there was no microphone speaker. So in the case of that, there was no radio.

[39:55]

There was certainly no internet, and there was no comments on that thing. One thing I think about now is we could say the absolutely morally correct thing, and it could turn into mass suffering of other people unwittingly due to somebody else picking that up, commenting on it, memeing it, retransmitting it in a way that we didn't think of it in the first place. Communication has altered the kind of nature of morality of speech and moral speech in general in ways that it becomes almost impossible for us to take note. I mean, the Buddha, I imagine when he was talking to somebody, he could see the circumstances. He could see the people around him. He could know, like you said, he was talking to individual people. He could know the right thing to say to that person at that time. But now, like even in the case of this, conversation now. This is being recorded. Anything that any one of us says, you might find a clip of it later on on Twitter and then turn it into anything else and it could turn into things that ruin people's lives.

[41:01]

How do you deal with that? Those were the two things I wanted to mention. Don't dig. Let's see if I can remember number one. Number one, I think without having... And I use the word study because I am a student. I see myself as a learner my whole life. I've liked learning things. So the more I learn about the, you know, as the Dalai Lama said, don't look for blame, look for causes. So what are the causes of my feeling comfortable wherever I go? What's the cause of my feeling? I can go here, I can go there, and I'm going to be welcome wherever I go. And I've felt that most of my life. I can go into a restaurant, I can go into a store, nobody follows me around. I've got all kinds of... of privileges, really, that I don't pay attention to because they're normal. I actually said the most embarrassing thing to my dear friend of mine who's Chinese. I was telling her that I have a student who was telling me he went to a POC meeting and the people in the room said to him, because he's very light-skinned, what are you doing here?

[42:13]

And I said to my friend, You know, he looked normal, like white. So, I mean, I don't even realize inside my own head how much conditioning I have and how much of my speech comes out of like, what am I thinking? I don't even realize what I'm thinking. I have been so, you know, taught in a certain way. my grandma and how she'd pull my hand away when there were, you know, Mexican people in the bank. And I mean, there was all kinds of signals I got about who was safe, who wasn't safe, what's a safe neighborhood, yada, yada, yada. So I don't deny my conditioning and I don't think it's long ago. I think it's what's going on right now. You know, our police department, we're paying their bills and they seem to be free to shoot people. You know, and they seem to be shooting a lot more people with dark skin than they're shooting college kids who are smoking dope. You know, if they did the war on drugs at the universities of America, they would have had the prisons full of white kids.

[43:18]

Because they're all out there talking up. So, I mean, the whole setup, the whole system is rigged. And I think that's what's being pointed out. And we have to really look at that. Like right now, how rigged is the system? And how much can any of us say that, well, I'm not rigging it. Well, somebody is, and I feel like I want to know. So mainly I want to just say and give the message, Daniel, that it's try to know as much as you can about what the folks are saying that we have been ignoring. Ignorance is innocence is the crime, as James Baldwin said, and that was in 1967. So you don't have to look very far. for evidence of it's still happening. So that would be one point I would make to you. But that's up to you. Up to you to look and see if you can notice that yourself. And the other point about, you know, people saying things out of context, there's no doubt about it. And I think we're used to it.

[44:20]

You know, I kind of look at things people say and I go like, well, that's out of context. I know it is. So we're also becoming a doubt. adapted to this new world of, you know, little squares of people and having tweets and all kinds of stuff. You know, I don't buy it. I want to actually look for myself. I want to look deeper. I want to look at the person in the context of which they've lived. And when they said that thing, do I believe it? If so and so would have said something like that? Probably not. Probably out of context. So it's up to each of us. to confirm or to say, I don't buy it. Even the Buddha said, don't listen to me. Don't just take what I say for granted. You have to study and look and see if it matches your own feelings. You have to decide for yourself. So, Daniel, you have to decide for yourself. I have to decide for myself. And I'm just coming from what I've decided. I think there's a problem. So that's where I'm coming from.

[45:22]

And... And it's okay if you see it differently. I don't mind. That was what Finn was asking. What do I do? If Daniel has a different view, what do I say to him? I said, well, that's fine. We can each hold our views and still be Dharma students together and wishing for the well-being of the world. I trust that. Two minutes. Anyone else want to join in? I'd like a suggestion for next time. Somebody asked about the five skandhas, which, of course, would be basically starting to look at the Heart Sutra. And if that would be something you'd be interested in, the emptiness teachings and the Heart Sutra, I think that's an easy resource for anyone to get, easy to get online, as well as commentaries.

[46:29]

So if that seems appealing, Why don't you nod? Okay? Okay. Okay. Good. All right, great. Heart Sutra it is. All five skandas are empty and thus relieves all suffering. Wouldn't that be nice? Thank you all so much for your kind attention and your questions, and I look forward to continuing. If you want to unmute and say goodbye, you're welcome to do that. Seems to be one of the joys of this particular thing. Goodbye. Bye. Thanks, everybody. Bye-bye. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Bye. Thank you, Fu. Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you.

[47:31]

Thank you. Thank you.

[47:36]

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