This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you, Sarah, for captioning everything for Keith. Thank you, Marcus, for captioning it for everybody that wants to listen and watch in. I would like to start with everybody taking a moment to just get connected to yourself. how your body is at this moment. Sense into it.

[01:00]

See if you need to adjust it to feel more comfortable. And feel free to do that during the talk. Keep connected to the sense you have in your body. And then for a moment, see what you're feeling about is at this point, how you're feeling. If there are any prominent feeling, these are very challenging times. So we may have feelings that are in the forefront and other kind of pervasive feelings that keep accompanying us through the day and just see if they make themselves known when you pay attention for that for a moment in yourself. And then take a little moment to see what's running in your mind.

[02:14]

Is it quiet up there? Is it busy up there? What's going on in your mind? What state is your mind in? Is it peaceful? Agitated? And just when we do that, we don't... There's no good or bad. It's just really being available to notice what is. And let it be. Not fix it, not struggle with it. There's no need to do anything about it. And then... Maybe you look around the room and say good morning to the people that are in your view, you know, without having to stand up. Just say hello, good morning to When I checked in with myself doing the same thing I was inviting you to do, I could feel that my body's doing okay, it's kind of here, but my heart is beating very fast and I am more nervous than I usually am today.

[03:45]

And I think it has something to do with the topic, but we'll see how it goes. I'm very happy to be here. The feeling is happy, and it's also so interesting. It's been quite a long time since I gave a talk here, and I felt like not 100% sure I would remember everything, what to do. It felt really new again, so there was also a newness to it, which is... on one level making me nervous and on the other level is making everything really fresh. So there's this double-sorted thing about getting used to and having it just in your body and doing it habitually. So I was on that edge. I wanted to talk about

[04:57]

what this practice or these teachings might possibly offer us in these times that might be very challenging for many of us. And I wanted to start out with the poem Maya Angelou wrote for the inauguration of Bill Clinton. So bear with me, it's a long poem, but I find it so right on. Maya Angelou was born in 1928. She was an African American born in Arkansas and she died in 2014. And she was an activist, a writer, a poet, a force of life.

[06:08]

And she wrote this for the inauguration on January 20th, 1993. A rock, a river, a tree. hosts to species long since departed, marked the mastodon, the dinosaur who left dry tokens of their sojourn here on our planet floor. Any broad alarm of their hastening doom is lost in the gloom of dust and ages. But today, the rock cries out to us clearly forcefully come you may stand upon my back and face your distant destiny but seek no haven in my shadow I will give you no more hiding place down here you created

[07:28]

only a little lower than the angels, have crouched too long in the bruising darkness, have lain too long face down in ignorance. Your mouth, spilling words armed for slaughter, the rock cries out today, you may stand on me, but do not hide your face. Across the wall of the world, a river sings a beautiful song. Come rest here by my side. Each of you a bordered country, delicate and strangely made proud, yet thrusting perpetually under siege. Your armed struggles for profit have left comfort. colors of waste upon my shore, currents of debris upon my breast.

[08:35]

Yet today I call you to my riverside. Yet today I call you to my riverside. If you will study war no more, come. Clad in peace. and I will sing the songs the creator gave to me when I and the tree and the stone were one. Before cynicism was a bloody seer across your brow, and when you yet knew you will know nothing. Before cynicism was a bloody seer across your brow, And when you yet knew, you still knew nothing. The river sings and sings on. There is a true yearning to respond to the singing river and the wise rock.

[09:39]

So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew, the African and Native American, the Sioux, the Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek, the Irish, the rabbi, the priest, the sheik, the gay, the straight, the preacher, the privileged, the homeless, the teacher, they hear. they all hear the speaking of the tree. Today, the first and last of every tree speaks to humankind. Come to me here beside the river. Plant yourself beside me here beside the river.

[10:41]

Each of you, descendant of some passed-on traveler, has been paid for. You, who gave me my first name, you Pawnee, Apache, and Seneca, you Cherokee nation who wrestled with me then, forced on bloody feet, left me to the employment of other seekers, desperate for gain, starving for gold. You, the Turk, the Swede, the German, the Scot, you, the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the crew, bought, sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare praying for a dream. Here, root yourself beside me.

[11:44]

I am the tree planted by the river which will not be moved. I, the rock. I, the river. I, the tree. I am yours. Your passages have been paid. Lift up your faces. You have a piercing need for this bright morning dawning for you. History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived. and if faced with courage, need not be lift again. Lift up your eyes upon the day breaking for you. Give birth again to the dream. Woman, children, man, take it into the palms of your hands. Mold it into the shape of your most private needs.

[12:51]

Gulp it into the image of your most public self. Lift up your hearts. Each new hour holds new chances for new beginnings. Do not be wedded forever to fear, yoked eternally to brutishness. The horizon leans forward, offering you space, to place new steps of change. Here, on the pulse of this fine day, you may have the courage to look up and out upon me the rock, the river, the tree, your country. No less to meet us than the mendicant. No less to you than the Mastodon then. Here, on the pulse of this new day, you may have the grace to look up and out and into your sister's eyes, into your brother's face, your country, and say simply, very simply, with hope,

[14:20]

Good morning. Today really is a bright day after many days of rain and gray, so So how do we, or what might help us in responding to the challenges we are facing at this time?

[15:24]

How do we respond first, in some ways, to how they affect us? If we been surprised or blindsided by what's happening or has happened already, that would mean we had blind spots. We didn't see something that has been there all along, but we may not have seen it. We have being knowingly or unknowingly part, we are knowingly and unknowingly part of what's happening in this world. So can we, so the practice here or the teachings here would encourage us to almost take a step back and become curious about

[16:43]

the things we haven't seen. And it's not an easy task to do because, so for example, I noticed that I had had absolutely no idea that there were so many people in this country that had not been touched by the recovery of the economy. that hadn't gotten to their place. They still don't know how they're going to survive, how they're going to feed their families, how they're going to have a future for their children, for themselves. I didn't, that wasn't part of what I saw. So, and to start looking at what we don't and don't know about requires to opening up a space and allowing a deep, profound space of not knowing.

[17:54]

So not go ahead and look at it with my assumptions or my fixed ideas. Which then leads even further back, we have to actually start looking at what we believe what assumptions we just carry and think they're commonplace. And so, can we start surfacing those? Because many of those are not necessarily very conscious. They're just operating in the background. So can we surface those? Can we start thinking about what do we really value? How do we hold it? Can we start to our surfacing those and talk to our friends about it? Can we maybe talk to our neighbors about it and be really interested in what do they hold and value in an open, nonjudgmental space?

[18:58]

So the challenge or the shock or whatever you have, or the happiness, whatever we experience when something becomes manifest or apparent is always also a potential or has the potential in it to make us more awake, to make us more aware of how we are moving through this world, what we notice and what we just don't see. And a blind spot means we just don't see it. It's not the same Shutting your eyes or living in an environment that cultivates blind spots, and we all are conditioned in many ways and have systems that cultivate and maintain blind spots. Once we see them and then we close our eyes, that's a different story.

[20:06]

But are we willing to start looking for and hearing, looking for what we don't see, and hearing what we tend to not hear, and not immediately interpret it in the way it fits into our old system. And that's a big challenge, and what Buddhism calls the self, that construct that we create about ourselves and the world we live in is a construct. And that doesn't like to be challenged. It's unpleasant. It's unsettling. It's unnerving. It's creating a lot of I don't know what to do. But if we can allow the newness of it,

[21:10]

to be there in a more response or what we can do in response might arise. So are we willing to investigate? To investigate for ourselves, to investigate with friends, to investigate maybe with neighbors. Can you ask the people that work for you how they are affected? Are they here legally? Are they safe? Are they in danger of being deported? And, you know, when I asked our people that help us in the house, I had a slight hesitation before asking them because what came through my head is, oh my God, if they are in danger to be deported, what am I going to do?

[22:16]

Then if I ask them and if I know, then I'm kind of called to do something and I don't know what to do. So do I then step back or do I still step forward? And then maybe Wow, and I don't, for the moment, I don't know what to do. But if I go that far, then I can start looking what is around me and where is there a place where maybe I can engage, that engages in a way that is in accord with my values, is possible for me to engage in. So am I willing to step into areas I haven't stepped in? into before and become visible in that way. So that's part of my nervousness of talking today is that I talk about an edge.

[23:23]

I'm finding myself that I don't quite know. I don't know a lot. I know less than I know. I know way less about than I know. So starting to pay attention how we look at the world, what kind of assumption we carry. How we reaffirm ideas. Occasionally now I challenge myself to watch Fox News and to really try not to just shake my head or not to just fall into disbelief.

[24:30]

And that's not so easy. I think that is what this teaching is, and this practice is supporting us to do. I start reading books, I become more interested in American culture. So on my list is watching the documentary 13th, I read Ta-Nehisi Codes Between the World and Me. I read Bryan Stevenson Just Mercy. I start looking for things that in some ways make me uncomfortable because there is so much pain there that when you let it, when you...

[25:36]

When you want to know, you can't know without also feeling the pain that's in the systemic things that is in the current situation, that is in past situations. And one of the big things we try to protect ourselves is from pain. So, how do we... how do we do that? And that's something everyone has to find out for themselves. You know, there's kind of general guidelines, but how you do it, if you're interested in it, is a very individual and very profound journey. And you don't go it alone. You go it with other people. And you become more able to hear their pain, but I think when Maya Angelou says, you know, how does she say it?

[26:41]

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage, need not be lived again. So it doesn't need to be perpetuated. So do we have that courage? And that's a personal courage and you can't make anybody courageous. But we all have the capacity to be courageous in ours. We carry that as human beings. And it's also important to take care of yourself. So some people say I am almost compulsively listening to all the news because I feel like I have to be on top of everything that's happening. completely overwhelms them and paralyzes them. So that's not helpful. So putting my head into the sand and waiting till it's gone or thinking, oh, I just returned to Switzerland, it's better there, is not really, you know, the... It's not really the moment to make such a decision.

[28:01]

After I have... engaged fully, I may move to Switzerland, but then I move from a totally different place than if I leave right now to just get out of here or not have to deal with it. It's completely different. And what are the friends that Friendships that nurture you, that you can't talk about values, that you can't talk about not knowing what to do, or without getting just a lot of instructions what you should do. The German word for advice is advice hit. Ein Ratschlag. And it's very interesting because very often we slap something down by giving an advice so we don't have to actually hang in there in that innerving, unnerving, painful feeling

[29:21]

Anxiety producing not knowing what to do. And it's about life. It's about real lives of real people. If a mother gets deported after 21 years, suddenly and nobody knows where she is and what's happening, that is incredibly, incredibly important. impacting people's life, those people's lives and the people around them and all of us because we're all interconnected. So how do we move with this? How do we, and I would like to maybe before we stop here Here, if some people want to share something, what they find helps them or what... In this situation.

[30:28]

How we create connection. How we cultivate the connections we have. How we make sure we don't become morose because the world is in a really quite... precarious state at this point. Because there's also a lot of positive. So I don't know if you saw this several weeks ago, that somewhere in Texas, I'm sorry, I cannot the exact place, but there's a Muslim capital or day. So all the Muslim children come and talk about the Constitution. And so a year ago that was interrupted by an evangelical who invoked Jesus Christ and said, Mohammed is dead and we don't want you here.

[31:30]

So this year it was happening and all the school children came. And the people of the town, of the city, made a human ring around that group of children so that that couldn't happen. And it was spontaneous. Or around Lake Merritt was a chain of people. One day, I can't remember what the day was. They just, a few people said, come and behold hands. And they all held hands and it went all around Lake Merritt. And it was everybody, anybody. It wasn't, oh, no, I'm not holding your hands and you're white. I'm holding your hands and you're not white. Or you're... Not this religion. Everybody held hands. And there's so much activation and uprising. I mean, you saw the placard on the Women's March of the Men who held the placard, which says, I'm with her. And it had arrows in all directions. It was just wherever that placard pointed, he was with her.

[32:34]

And that's also happening. I feel there's so much incredible, what this poem says, not hiding your face any longer. Not crouching in ignorance. Expressing your values at the airport. And it's not everybody's business to go on the street. But there are other ways how you can stand up and how you can be friendly, how you can manifest inclusiveness. And we also need a place where we can talk about our fears. You know, if we get afraid because we're surrounded by a culture that is unfamiliar to us, we feel like overwhelmed by it, if we can't express our fear without immediately being called racist, it will go into shutting down and shutting out.

[33:45]

So can we talk about fears and investigate fears in an open, safe way? Not immediately judging it. Because what is foreign to us is very likely to create a level of insecurity, which is not the same as saying non-safety, but insecurity of how to read, how to respond, how to be with. So can we talk about that? Can that be surfaced without immediately being politically incorrect. I think we have whitewashed the politically incorrect thing so far that it actually was part of what could grow underneath and we couldn't see it. We also have to understand, and that's another Buddhist tenant, that whatever we identify with is actually a trap, turns into a trap.

[35:17]

So we have to give up identity issues because they all fall under freedom issues. If you look at them, they all belong under the heading of freedom. And what is freedom? What is freedom? the freedom to have everybody have the right to live, have the right to live, be respected and be honored. And it's like John, F. Kennedy, when he said, ask not what can your country do for you, but what can you do for your country.

[36:18]

So can we ask not what can somebody else do for us, but what can we do for the people around us, our neighbors, our friends, people we encounter, we work with, what can we do for them? So maybe I can open this up and just see if anybody would like to share something that you feel is encouraging for you in these times, is helping you, is inspiring you. Yes, please.

[37:31]

I've got a whiteboard. I didn't stop writing something. I did. A colleague at work. Put down ideas. Share them. Thank you. Yes. Having breakfast periodically with a friend every couple weeks, Having a breakfast every so often with a friend who has a different political viewpoint. Have breakfast with the person and just listen. Yes. of what happens and learning more about what happens, I find I have to cultivate a practice of gratitude.

[38:41]

Yes. In the midst of what happens and continues to happen, to cultivate a sense of gratitude, yes. Very important. Thank you. Yes. That's wonderful and I I want to repeat how you started it. I don't know if it's the best way. And I think if that already, if we keep that in mind, whatever we do, we don't know if it's the best way.

[39:42]

That keeps us open to find out. And then to limit, you know, that is a very important thing too, to limit what we take in. Because what we take in has an effect on us. So it's like food. What we mentally take in, visually take in, has an effect. So how much is helpful to be present for what's happening and how much is too much? And so you limit it to one dose of pain, your words, and you might say what is the appropriate amount for you that doesn't debilitate you and doesn't make you also kind of disconnected. And that's a very important thing to do, so thank you. Yes.

[40:45]

I find it inspiring to be touched by the many spiritual groups, traditions, communities on the planet and to connect to the light and the compassion It's being held in so many different ways in the midst of everything that's happening. Did everybody hear? So to be feeling it inspiring that there are so many different ways of holding the spiritual understanding and being inspired by knowing those different approaches and pathways of spirituality. Yes, thank you. Yes. I'm realizing how much I still love my neighbor, who's a Trump supporter, and she's still very loving. What do you do?

[41:47]

Yes. I love my neighbor, who is a Trump supporter, and she's still loving, even though she has a different worldview. What do I do? I just keep loving her back. Wonderful, thank you. Yes? I find humor tricky but helpful. Yes. Humor, a wonderful tool and trick tool, exactly. Yes. But knowing that is exactly the same as I don't know if this is the best way. You know, when we know it's tricky, then we have a chance to notice when it becomes sharp or cutting or harming rather than lightening up and giving us some... Great, thank you.

[42:50]

Yes. Yes. I try not to think too far ahead of what one step, one action might be. I'm trying not to think too far ahead, but just one step and not what follows too many more steps because that's a resting and doing the simple thing or maybe the one step I can do right now. Thank you. These are wonderful. I don't know how it's for you, but I feel each one is kind of lifting up spirit. So if we can kind of keep talking with each other about these things. And I also thought, you know, one thing I'm planning to do is during the day to really greet and acknowledge every person I meet with either good morning or a nod or, you know, looking at them or saying something, but trying to not walk through my days, kind of only seeing what I'm doing.

[44:21]

what I'm occupied with, or what I'm going to do, but to kind of slow down and do that. So I'm still nervous. You can all find that poem. I'm not going to read it again. I think it's a very appropriate poem, and it has wonderful instructions for us how to be in this time we find ourselves. And... I also think it's really important to be cognizant in your environment who might be really affected.

[45:35]

I mean, affected in terms of being in danger of being kicked out of the country. And to let them know by asking that you care and by maybe letting them know that you do not agree just so that they don't feel we tend to step back from disaster or potential disaster and to not do that but to stand by. Can we stand by? Can we ask them maybe can we do something for you? So just knowing that there is care changes something even if we may not be able to stop something happening to them. And we can practice that internally, we can practice that with our family.

[46:36]

There are great, great opportunities to learn about different views, different ways of dealing with things, and we usually have them nicely in fixed places, so to unfix them from those places, so there's a lot of things we can find our way with. Thank you all for coming, for caring, for breathing, for enjoying the gorgeous day, for feeling grateful for the things and not forget all the things that are good because if we can't enjoy them because other people don't have them, that doesn't help them.

[47:36]

And to move slowly and deliberately. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[48:20]

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