Good morning. So I've been working with the topic of this lecture for some time and trying to prepare for a lecture. And I have had difficulties in working with this topic. And after a lot of difficulties in working with this topic, I decided to print up my notes anyway. And then that was about 10 o'clock and the printer jammed. So the universe cooperated in giving me an excuse for frustration. And, oh, no, a difficult topic. And the printer jammed. And, oh, no. And my robes aren't on and all that stuff. So I just put this out there. say that, you know, I've been practicing for 35 years and it's still like this.

[01:06]

And so in the spirit of like this, how do we practice with cheer and with intimacy in a situation that's just like this? is going to keep on being just like this, even though the particulars may change. Today I'd like to bring up a topic that is, we have to talk about it in this diverse and multicultural society in which we live, and that is unintended oppression. And lest it sound grim, I want to I just want to say that unintended oppression is a feature of our lives. That's probably going to come up as long as they're people who are in charge and people who are not in charge. As long as there's has and have nots. As long as there are privileged and unprivileged. And in a word, probably as long as there are human beings.

[02:16]

OK, so I don't. Although it's a serious topic, let's not be grim. OK, so for this topic, how many people are here for the first time? I should ask. OK, welcome to Zen Center and welcome to the practice. And this is a practice in which we acknowledge and understand human suffering and how it arises, how it goes away or is ended and the path. that goes from beginning to the end. And this tradition, this Zen tradition came to us, although this sounds like a commercial, it isn't. It has come to us through the efforts of many people in India, in China, in Japan, and in America for our direct lineage.

[03:19]

It's this is actually a topic that has been present in all of those cultures and is present here, too. So unintended oppression. I couldn't think about what to say about unintended oppression, except that I wanted to speak about it. So I decided to start with who, what, where, when, why and how. Remembering my high school composition class. I thought that might be good. place to start. So who does it and who receives it? Well, any dominant group, any majority culture, any mainstream culture are the givers. And it's unintended givers. And any subject group, any minority culture, anyone who's kind of immigrant, new or perceived as different are the receivers. And that includes many people.

[04:22]

What is it? It's a behavior or a pattern of behavior or even an established relationship that puts people in their place. So and it's reinforced by a social system. So that's what? Where? Here. Anywhere there's a here. When? Often. Whenever there's a risk of difference. Why? Ignorance. Since everything, every karma is conditioned by ignorance, I thought ignorance would be a good place to start. And how? Let's look at how. So I want to, I want to talk about, I want to just put, bring up some examples to talk about how it occurs. So this is an example. from a person of color who and this appeared in print about San Francisco Zen Center.

[05:26]

So I feel OK about saying it. And it appeared in print in 1993. So I don't think there's a risk to that person's privacy now. When I started practicing here, there was a sign. And I think the intention of the sign, which was the right intention, was to make people aware of the crime that goes on in the neighborhood. However, the sign began with big letters. This is a dangerous neighborhood. And then went on to say how these horrible things happen. I've lived in San Francisco for years. I've hung out here. I've lived right in front of public housing. I never thought of this place as a dangerous neighborhood. I thought about it as a neighborhood that I need to be aware of. About a year ago, I mentioned this to the Eno, the head of the meditation hall. I'm aware of the right intention, which is for us to be aware.

[06:28]

But it doesn't feel that it's fair or just to the rest of the people who live in this neighborhood. This neighborhood was at that time a very diverse neighborhood, and it has gotten less so as the rents went up. So it looks like, this is the person's comment, it looks like there's an other. It looks like we at the Zen Center need to protect ourselves from the other. And perhaps the people who live outside the Zen Center aren't concerned about it. So then she goes on to say, the next time I came back, the sign had been changed. I don't know if you've noticed the sign that's there, which still communicates the right intention, but doesn't have that problem. So that's an example of oppression. I'm sure that anyone who lived in the neighborhood who didn't live here who would read that sign would think that it was about them, particularly if there was a difference involved.

[07:30]

Here's another example. This is an example from Sheridan Adams. And Sheridan is a white Buddhist lay long-term practitioner. and teacher who works with unlearning racism. So she's been collecting vignettes for some times based on people's personal experience. So this is posed to a question as a question. You are attending a retreat at a Buddhist center. And this is this. This is a question that's posed to white people. You are attending a retreat at a Buddhist center. All of the practitioners are white, as far as you can tell, except for one Japanese-American man, Paul. During the morning, there is a discussion period in which Paul takes part. He speaks with an American accent. As the group is eating lunch together, the Dharma teacher asks Paul, So, when did you come to this country?

[08:39]

Paul's body freezes. And he says nothing for several seconds. OK, here's another example. During a radio interview with the author of a book on meditation practice, the talk show host asked whether the author had attempted to reach out to people of color. The audience responded by saying, yes. I'm offering meditation workshops in prisons and juvenile halls. OK. And here's an example that's not so clear cut. And I include it because it targets the other in two directions. So last year I was in a. month-long retreat in Japan called the Tokubetsu Kenshu Sho.

[09:43]

And this was a retreat that was designed for teachers from around the world who are not Japanese to go to Japan. They have been trained in other countries. And these teachers go to Japan and are invited by the Soto Zen Education Center to practice together for a month within the context of a Japanese monastery. And Daigaku sitting over here was one of the main administrators and organizers of the event. So at the end of the event, the administration, who's mostly Japanese monks trained in Japanese monasteries and working in the education center or in its parent organization, said, well, how was it? And one of the American teachers commented that they felt all kinds of difficulty. First of all, in that they weren't treated as a teacher by the administration.

[10:46]

The person felt offended at being treated as what they perceived as a beginner. And their sitting place was too small because their legs were longer and the tatami mats were narrow. And they had difficulty with many aspects of daily life, like food and sleep. and other details as well. And they did really have these difficulties and it wasn't just it wasn't just making something up or exaggerating or something. But because of those difficulties, they felt discouraged and questioned the value of the relationship and the experience as a whole. So in response, one of the administrators said that the purpose of the question was not to receive judgments, but to help the staff assess how to manage the event in the future. The administrator was offended because a teacher was asking for an American-style explanation, that we're very, in this culture, the mainstream culture is very explanation-oriented.

[11:53]

You have to understand why in order to be able to expect what, accept what happens and how it happens. And that's a feature of this mainstream culture that isn't so for many other cultures. So the administrator said this is a Japanese event and we're in Japan. And the people supervising the event have to care not just for Americans, but for people from many different countries. OK, so that was that was an event that in which there were cultural assumptions on both sides. So again, I ask, how does it arise? How does it arise that there's unconscious oppression? Oh, by the way, the American person went away feeling oppressed. And the Japanese person who made the comment when they practiced in America also felt oppressed. It's not that the American person was able to not oppress the Japanese person or the Japanese person was not able to.

[13:00]

It's not that they were able to do better in this. So how does it arise? And I think it arises through ignorance, which just means a lack of intimacy. And through there actually being structures that reinforce a lack of understanding or knowledge, a lack of awareness and an assumption that because something is or is the mainstream way that it's right and that other people should kind of toe the line with that. But the Buddha and the Japanese practitioner later, we had a conversation and he said that when he practiced in America, that was also very confusing to him, even though people were kind. And because of the cultural difference, sometimes he would say things from his heart that were received very, very differently than he intended.

[14:04]

And with practice, this became an important teaching for him. So I'm not meaning to point fingers or blame anyone. Can you hear me OK? OK. Can everybody hear me? Because sometimes this, you know, I hear the speakers and they're aimed at my ears. So my voice sounds really loud to me, but it may not sound loud enough to you. And if it doesn't, please let me know. So the Buddha has a teaching about how this arises, both for individuals and it can also apply to groups. And he says it arises from a vidya, ignorance. Vidya means knowledge. So that oppression arises from ignorance. Also, there's a social dimension to oppression. So what is ignorance? Ignorance is when you don't know about suffering, its origin, how it ends or what the path is.

[15:09]

And ignorance is another name for, you know, we can't deal with it. I don't remember what poet talked about the big, blooming, buzzing confusion. I don't remember what poet it was who talked about how experience is a great big blooming, buzzing confusion. And we can't deal with it. So we think that the function of our perceptions is to experience reality. But actually the function of our perceptions is to limit our contact with reality. what is actually manageable to us based on our past experience and our past conditioning. And this is lethal and deadly when ignorance combines with privilege. So when ignorance combines with privilege, which means not having to know at all to get to survive, the social system that reinforces this as real and desirable is called oppression.

[16:18]

And because the system and the whole perceptual structure is a result, we think of it as kind of a cause or a root, like we were trained to trust our perceptions. And that's actually a good thing, to trust our perceptions. But if we trust them without knowing that they're limited, then a lot of our experience is going to be largely unknown and unconscious. That is how it is. So in these examples, monoculturalism, which means that you only know one culture or people from one culture intimately within our multicultural society, that's an ignorance that conditions this kind of suffering, giving and receiving oppression. The suffering of that is conditioned by a system that perpetuates selective view. Wrong view. So we often hear the term white privilege or the privilege of wealth or the privilege of power.

[17:27]

So privilege, what that means is that you don't have to know about suffering. So a lot of, let's say, let's say you won the lottery tomorrow. OK, if you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do? Well, you might think that you would use it all for world peace. But you probably won't. When it comes right down to it, you might use it to take away some of the signs of aging that have come up in you. Right? Or take away some of the worry about financial security that has come up in you. Or even if you decide that you're going to be motivated nobly, the people in your life have taken no such vows. So that's what's called the system. Right? And there will be requests for your lottery winnings. Like, would you please make sure that such and such a candidate wins? Or would you please make sure that such and such a candidate loses?

[18:33]

Or would you please fund our university or our school? And the ones that you will actually give to or do depend on your conditioning. They depend on who you know and how intimately you know of their need. So people who are privileged, whether it's color, whether it's class, gender or ability, don't have to know about differences in these areas to live their lives. But people who are on the, who are not privileged, for these people, that's survival information. I remember growing up, my family is a Holocaust survival family. And I remember when I was growing up, My parents trained me, don't trust anybody except the family. Because when it comes right down to it, who is willing, when they come for you, and they will, who is willing to die for you?

[19:43]

Okay, so my parents trained me this way. So that's survival information. Don't trust anybody. That's how they survived. Don't trust anybody. Survival information. And if you're a person of color, or if you have mobility or sense impairments, or if you're not wealthy, or if you recently arrived in this country, this is survival information. So I hope it's clear that I'm not saying that people of color and people of varied means of living and so on, and that, you know, Jewish people as opposed to Christians and so on are enlightened, and that the people in the main screen group are unenlightened. That's not what I'm saying at all. I mean, if I lived my entire life,

[20:49]

Not trusting anybody, I would have a very poor life that would be non-nourishing. I would die really soon. What I mean is that all people are perceptually limited by ignorance. However, only certain people are socially expected to admit it and to accept somebody else's social system as wise, good and true. So because of its foundation in ignorance, because of the depth of our ignorance, which is as vast and wide as the ocean, you know, as deep as a volcano, unintended oppression can occur even if you're aware of it, which I've found out to my chagrin many a time. For example, here's another scenario. This is something that happened to me as a practice leader. So as a practice leader, I was leading the practice at Tassajara.

[21:51]

And there was an event in which there was only one person of color sitting in the room. And during the course of the practice discussion, I said, how does it feel to be the only person of color in the event? Okay. And the experience of the targeted person and my experience was really, really different in that situation. I thought I was being motivated by my warmth and curiosity. And I didn't realize that I was also being motivated by my ignorance. So the targeted person felt targeted and did not feel intimacy with me. So here's another example from here. So there was a person of color who was a longtime member and volunteer, and they opened the front door with a key. And someone in a position of authority said, why does this person have a key?

[22:56]

Why do you have a key? And said to other people, this isn't a resident. Only residents have keys. OK. And so the person. who was opening the door with the key, the person of color, was offended. And this was yet another example of being invisible. Their whole contribution to the community, their whole history with the community, their position as a volunteer was going unrecognized and was invisible. But the white person who was the staff person thought, They were upholding the rules. Residents have keys, you know, and non-residents don't have keys. If one person who's a non-resident has a key, that's a precedent and a lot of people will want keys. OK, so anyway, out of ignorance arise mental formations.

[23:58]

So I'm hope I'm hoping this is clear now that the bodily, verbal and mental structure of perception. arise from ignorance. And it's based on past action. So you can be born with that structure. You can get it from your parents. You can form it in the course of reacting to something. Or you can consciously create that perceptual structure with an intention. So like if tomorrow you said, I intend to be intimate with such and such a group. and you found out about them, your perception would volitionally change. So in the situation with a key, the person of colors was conditioned to perceive racism and the white person was conditioned to perceive the institutional needs. And think that the person of color had to go over to their point of view because they represented the structure.

[25:05]

So consciousness is eye consciousness, ear consciousness and so on. And it arises from those mental formations. So what you see is actually determined by that perceptual structure. So each person in that situation saw the other in a limited and distorted way, like we all do. And then there's a certain kind of, it's called Nama Rupa, the name and form. arise in response to consciousness. So the white staff person saw an unreasonable demand for a key and the person of color saw a racist. And then there's a base of consciousness. There's contact of the sense organs and so on. And positive, negative or neutral feelings arise based on the name and form we give to things. And from those arise a kind of craving or aversion, which is the foundation of karma.

[26:13]

So each person in this situation wanted respect for their point of view. And the staff person's point of view was already upheld by the structure of the institution. And then from that craving comes clinging. That situation could never have resolved if each person clung to their point of view. And here's where nonviolent communication comes in. Right. So the situation could only be resolved if each person was willing to know what the other person saw and felt. So it could be resolved only with discussion and acknowledgement of each other's needs and an apology for not meeting them. And even then it may or may not be resolved if there's a pattern. Then there's a process of something arising. So the situation, the conflict came into birth and it lasted for a certain amount of time.

[27:20]

So. And then the situation resolved because there was a discussion. But within this situation, there was. there was a feeling of suffering and a feeling of despair arose on both sides. And when those get repeated over and over again, there's a lasting sense of a pattern in a culture or in an institution. So anyway, that's the 12-fold chain of origination as applies to this situation. That's one of the Buddha's basic teachings on dependent co-arising. And he also teaches how to untangle that condition co-arising. And one of the main ways is through acknowledging suffering and developing right view on how to end it.

[28:23]

I do want to say a footnote about my giving this lecture about this topic is that much of the teaching population is... came from in this organization are white and middle class people who inherited the Dharma from Suzuki Roshi and from his immediate descendants. That's not this whole lineage. This lineage is Soto Zen Buddhist lineage. Is it for me? OK, so that's not this whole lineage, but it can be seen very easily as this lineage. And so there's a note to take this whole lecture with a grain of salt, because when the teaching population is white like this, that the view and the teaching necessarily gets mediated through kind of more mainstream values.

[29:33]

And. ideas and concepts. So I so it gets mediated in that way. So you have to know that and understand whether or how well I'm meeting the need for a more multicultural conversation because I'm limited in my ability to do that. So because there can be the experience of appropriation, even of issues, when You know, when teachers teach from a place of so-called wisdom, but actually are demonstrating ignorance. So I think that you have to put what I say in a cultural context and a context of who is saying what. And take what I say with a grain of salt. Don't believe it. Look at your own experience. Look at the way that these feelings of oppression or objectification, these incidents actually arise in you and in your life and check it out.

[30:47]

Do they, are they conditioned by ignorance? Now the Buddha taught that there are three ways that we can actually break, three places where the chain of origination is actually the most simple to break. I'm not saying that it's easy to break. the chain in those places, but I'm saying those are the places where if you're looking for a way to break suffering or end suffering, these are the places to go. So this is a commercial. To look at these places, these three places out of the 12. And these places are ignorance, craving for aversion, And being. So first of all, ignorance, meaning not not seeing, especially when it's combined with privilege, not having to see. Craving means I want this and I don't want that.

[31:49]

And we're generally more comfortable with people or situations that we're familiar with and not so comfortable with people or situations that are unfamiliar. And the third one is being. So when something continues in a certain way for a while, that's called being. So those are the three places where the chain is most easily broken. But don't believe me. Check that out for yourself. See if that's so. Maybe it's not so. The Buddha said, don't believe me. I'm following the Buddha's path. He said, be a lamp unto yourself. And the real question in this situation, when you check it out, the real question is, if you can feel the suffering, how do we heal the pain of separation? How do we take people who, just like everybody, think they know the other and that what they see is not good?

[32:50]

And how do we bring ourselves together as a sangha in a way that's unconditioned by that? ancient, um, kind of monotone-like conditioning. Um, how do we bring people together in a different way? It's not easy. I mean, in the past month or two, the People of Color Sitting Group, uh, has moved its, um, its Thursday night meetings to a different location. Um, We had a diversity training, which was difficult for people to be at or to stay at. And there were incidents of suffering. I'm sure of it. Even just in the color issues, not to mention the class, age, ability or gender areas. I'm sure there were issues. This is human life. So please.

[33:52]

Take care of yourself. Oh, I also wanted to say that, gee, I forgot to read this whole section by Gandhi. So I won't read it, but it's really great. Gandhi begins by saying, I do not have, he was writing a forward to a book about Varna, which is the caste system that is actually outlawed. in India since 1947, but he was writing about it at that time. He said, I do not have the time to read this book again. I do not even wish to. I have many other things to do. OK, so in my opinion, a man daily moves either forward or backwards, but never stand still. The whole world is moving. There is no exception to it. I am making a wrong statement if I say that I am today what I was yesterday and will remain the same in future.

[34:56]

And he talks about ahimsa, not harming, and satya, truth. And in this foreword, he says that, let's see, that basically when there's a system, when there's a system in which some people have rank, higher rank, and some people have lower rank, there will always be a lowest rank or a group of people that aren't even in the society at all, in one dimension or another. And so he says, a subject is compulsorily an Atishudra. which means an untouchable or a, um, it is immaterial whether this person is given titles or whether the person is made a judge or the peon of a judge or whether a king or whether a pauper.

[35:59]

The more titles one has, the more abject is one's condition under alien rule. Okay? So the Buddha, when the Buddha says, be a lamp unto yourself. And, uh, I think he also means have the Sangha be a lamp unto itself. He's he's talking about this, that how do we have people in different positions or different places or with different histories or different lives according to their according to their needs and according to their abilities without having some be up and others be down. So I did want to mention that. and end with a poem by Tozan Ryokai. 11 o'clock. There's the bell. Don't see the world or yourself as an object, or far from it you stray.

[37:05]

Today, as I walk alone, whichever way I turn, I meet He or she is just me. I am not she or he. If you understand that you as an object is not you yourself, then you have your own true way. Thank you very much for your attention.

[37:47]

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