This morning, I don't know if everybody can see, but there's many young people up in the front here, and we begin by a talk for the younger people, and today I'd like to offer a story that I liked when I was a little boy, and it's a story about a bull, a little bull who grew up, and his name was Ferdinand. In his home country, he was called Ferdinando. And this book was written in 1936, the story was written in 1936, so I got to hear it when I was a little boy. I also got to see, there's a cartoon about this also, which I hope to get for the kids to watch someday.

[01:08]

So, this is the story of Ferdinand. Do you kids know what a bull is? Do you do know what a bull is? Anybody not know what a bull is? You know what a cow is? A cow goes, moo, something like that. And cows produce lots of milk for their babies, and humans also get the milk from the cows and then drink it and make cheese and stuff and butter, those are the cows. And then those are the female, the cows are female. And then coming along with the cows are the males, the boys, the men of the cow species, and they're called bulls. And the bulls usually often have big horns, big horns, and sometimes the horns are very sharp and dangerous.

[02:12]

So this is a story about a bull who lived in Spain. And his name, he was a little bull, at the beginning of the story he was a little bull, not too much bigger than you kids, and his name was Ferdinand, or Ferdinando. All the other little bulls he lived with would run and jump and they would butt their heads, like that, they'd bump their heads. They didn't have horns when they were little, and they would butt their heads all the time. The cows don't do that so much, but for some reason the little boy bulls like to bump their heads to each other, like that. They like that, I don't know, they do that.

[03:18]

But not Ferdinand. Ferdinand didn't like to bump heads with the other little bulls. He liked to just sit. Quietly. And smell the flowers. He had a favorite spot out in the pasture, pastures where the cows and the bulls eat the grass. And he had a favorite place out in the pasture under a cork tree. A cork tree, in this picture, here's a cork tree, and there's Ferdinand sitting under the cork tree.

[04:26]

Can you see him? Can you see his head there, under the cork tree? Huh? Yeah, he looks like a dog, that's right. He doesn't have his horns yet, no horns yet, he's a little bull. And he liked to sit under that tree, and he sat there in the shade all day and smelled the flowers. Sometimes his mother, who was a, what was his mother? That's right, sometimes his mother, who was a cow, would worry about him. She was afraid he would be lonesome by himself, sitting under the tree, smelling the flowers, quietly. And she said to him, why don't you run and play with the other little bulls, and skip and butt heads with them? Meow! Yeah, that's what Ferdinand said.

[05:36]

He said, I like it better here, where I can just sit, quietly, and smell the flowers. His mother saw that he was not lonesome, sitting under the tree, and because she was an understanding mother, even though she was a cow, she let him just sit there and be happy. As the years went by, Ferdinand grew, like you kids, and he grew. And he grew to be very big and very strong. Here's a picture of Ferdinand, full grown. See how big he got? See the horns? Now he looks like a cow. Yeah, he looks like a very muscular cow,

[06:42]

because the male of the cow species, like the male of the human species, usually has more testosterone. It's a hormone that makes the secondary sex characteristics come out. Not the primary ones. They come at birth, but the secondary ones come out with the aid of hormones. They're chemicals in your blood. And they make, the ones who have lots of testosterone tend to get bigger muscles. Girls, girl cows and boy cows both have testosterone, and girl humans, and boy humans both have testosterone, but generally boys have more. So it makes their muscles get bigger. And so this is a big, strong bull he became.

[07:45]

Then, all the other bulls had grown up in the same pasture, would fight each other all day. And they had horns now, so they would stick each other with their horns and get cut. And so here's a picture of the other bulls. You can't see, but they have cuts all over them from fighting each other with their horns. And they would butt and stick each other with their horns. And they wanted, most of all, these bulls in Spain, according to this story, they wanted to go to the big city of Madrid, where they have bullfights. Where they bring the bulls and the bulls fight the people. According to the story, the bulls wanted to be the big bull that went to the big bullfight in the big city. But not Ferdinand. He still liked, even when he was grown up and big and muscular, he still liked to just sit quietly under the cork tree and smell the flowers.

[08:49]

One day, five men came in funny hats. Here's the five men in the funny hats. See their funny hats? These are Spanish hats that these guys wore. And they came to the field, to the meadow, to look for bulls for the bullfights in Madrid. All the other bulls ran around, snorting. Bulls go... They snort and they were butting each other and leaping and jumping so that the men would choose them to go to the bullfights. Ferdinand knew they wouldn't pick him. And he didn't care. He didn't want to go to the bullfights. So he just went to his favorite cork tree and... What did he do? Sit!

[09:54]

On the bumblebee. Not yet. That's great. He didn't look where he was sitting. And instead of sitting on nice cool grass, he sat on a bumblebee. See the big bumblebee? This is the bumblebee. See it? That's a bumblebee. And this black stuff up here, this is Ferdinand's booty. So Ferdinand's going to sit on this bumblebee. And it's going to sting him and he's going to jump in and bite me and I'm going to... Well, if you were a bumblebee and a bull sat on you, what would you do? Sting! And bite!

[10:57]

Yeah, well, bulls grow horns and bumblebees sting. So that's what the bumblebee did. He stung Ferdinand. And then, wow! Then Ferdinand jumped in the air and started leaping around the meadow, jumping and flying like a crazy... bull. And when the men who were looking for the bulls saw Ferdinand, they thought, there is the most ferocious, the meanest, the scariest, the most powerful, the most virile bull. And they said, let's take him to Madrid for the bullfights. So they got Ferdinand when he calmed down. And of course, he went along with them. They put flowers in the cart.

[11:58]

He got in the cart and they took him to Madrid. And when he went to Madrid, everyone was very excited because it was a big festive time to have the bullfight and flowers were flying in the sky. And they brought him into the bullfighting ring and all the ladies had flowers in their hairs. And then they had a big parade into the bullfighting ring. So first they bring the banderilleros. And these are guys, these are humans who have long, kind of like... Not torches, but like long, sharp pins, real long pins. And they stick it into the bull to make the bull mad, even get the bull really upset. That's the first group.

[12:59]

The next group come in on horses and they have even longer poles to stick the bull, to make the bull even madder. They want to make the bull really mad. And then comes the matador. Matador means the one who kills the bull. He has a sword. And when the bull is really angry, then the bull charges the matador and the matador tries to get out of the way of the bull's horns and stick the bull and kill the bull. And that's the fight that the people came to see. Then last of all comes the bull. In this case, you know who it is. Who is it? Ferdinand. It's Ferdinand. And so Ferdinand comes out and walks and charges into the middle of the ring because it smells so good. He charges in because he smells all the flowers. And everyone, all the men who are going to fight him

[14:00]

get very afraid because the big, powerful bull's coming. They're very scared. And then, what do you think Ferdinand does? Right. Then Ferdinand gets in the middle of the ring, sits down and smells the flowers which are being thrown into the ring. And then they come and they try to stick him with the pins and try to make him angry and get him upset. But he doesn't get upset. He just sits quietly and won't fight even though they're bothering him. And they get very upset because he won't fight. They can't fight him. But the matador gets super-duper angry. He'll cry. Yeah, the matador gets super-duper angry. He starts crying because he can't show off his beautiful red cape. I don't think it's fair because Ferdinand doesn't have a sword to pull back. That's what he's got. It's not really fair. You're right.

[15:04]

And somehow Ferdinand... They don't stick him with the sword because you're not supposed to stick the sword in the bull until he attacks you. And Ferdinand won't attack so they can't just go over and stick the sword in him. So they're very upset because he won't fight. So it's a failed fight. No fight because the big strong bull won't fight. The big powerful bull with the big sharp horns won't fight. He doesn't want to fight. He wants to sit... Huh? He won't die from... At least he won't die because of a sword. He'll die from smelling flowers for many years. So he just sat there and smelled the flowers and they bothered him but it didn't work so they took him back to the meadow where he came from. And the person who wrote the book says, for all I know, he's still sitting there under his favorite cork tree

[16:05]

smelling flowers just quietly, very happily. So for some reason I liked this story when I was a little boy. Because I had testosterone too when I was a little boy but I kind of thought it was really nice that a big strong bull with horns and everything wouldn't fight. I thought that was very interesting. So is there anything you kids want to say? Was that enough of a story? Did you like that story, by the way? Was it okay? It was kind of funny. It was kind of funny? Yeah. Did you like it? Good. I like this story. My favorite part was when the matador came and he thought he was so handsome. Yeah. That's right. I forgot to read that part.

[17:10]

Then came the matador, the proudest of all. He thought he was very handsome. And he bowed to the ladies. He had a red cape and he was supposed to stick the bull last of all. But he didn't get to. That's the part you like best, the handsomest part, huh? Yeah. What about the part where he's sitting down at the tree when he's really young? It looks like he has ears and not horns. Yeah, he has big ears. When they're little, their ears look big. But after a while, their head gets bigger and bigger and the ears stay about the same size. And the horns get bigger. And they get really sharp. Those Spanish bulls have really sharp horns. So if they stick anything with it, it can make a big hole. Is that enough for the kids, do you think? Yeah. Do any of you kids want to do what Ferdinand did?

[18:26]

Want to sit quietly and smell the flowers for a little while? No? Some do, some don't. When I read this story to my grandson, he said, I don't like to sit under the tree, but granddaddy does. I like the butt heads. Don't pull on that thing. Is it okay? Still working? I want to do what Ferdinand did. You do? Wow. Put her there. I don't want to do what Ferdinand did. You don't want to? I want to. You want to sit under the tree and smell the flowers? No. You do? Great. No, I said I wanted to sit in the middle of the ring. Oh, you want to sit in the middle of the ring? That's why. Okay. Put your head up like that.

[19:34]

Do you kids have any questions about the story or anything? No. Well, you've been very attentive, and I appreciate your attention. Thank you. And I hope you like the story. Thank you. Bye. Bye. I wish George Bush would sit down and smell the flowers. She just wanted to tell you some thoughts that she had.

[20:45]

Go. You talk. No, you say. I wish George Bush would sit down and smell the flowers. Thank you, sweetheart. There are some empty seats up front. Would you like to go up? I think so. Go up. Once again, I wanted to say that I am kind of, if you excuse me for saying so,

[22:24]

kind of impressed how much I liked that story when I was a kid, and I still do. And when one of the young girls was walking out just now, she came over to me and she said, I wish George Bush would sit down under a tree and smell the flowers. Doesn't sound so bad. Sounds like a very sweet wish to me. Maybe he does sit down under the trees and smell the flowers on his ranch. What's the relationship?

[23:26]

Is there a relationship between sitting, between just sitting quietly and the realization of peace and harmony? Is there some relationship? Well, there is. What is it? It's close. It's close. The Buddha, the founding teacher of the tradition called the Buddha Way, actually was born and raised as a warrior, as a bull. But he also, even though he was raised in a warrior class, in a warrior family, and trained in warrior arts,

[24:30]

he had a deep, unspeakably deep, wish to realize among humans and all beings peace and harmony. Like Ferdinand. To sit, to just sit. To sit, not to sit and do something else while you're sitting besides sitting, but actually to sit down and just sit. I didn't add the word just in the book. It says in the book, just sat, or just sitting. And of course that's the name of our meditation practice.

[25:35]

We don't just say sitting, we do sometimes say sitting, but part of the point of our sitting is that we just sit. We don't sit to get something. We don't sit to avoid something. The sitting is just sitting. Just sitting. And when we're sitting, we can smell flowers. And we can hear children cry. And we can feel the breeze caress our body. And we can see the floor and the wall. And we can feel our body. And we can feel our mind.

[26:36]

So we just sit and feel our whole body-mind and nothing but our body-mind. We just sit without adding anything to what's happening. Now there's a fly buzzing in my ear. We just sit in silence and smell the flowers. And listen to the wind. And listen to the music. And look at the wall and feel our body.

[27:41]

And see if we can feel our body. Be that way that we are. And the point of this is to realize peace and harmony in this world. But of course we don't just sit quietly. We also stand quietly. And walk quietly. And run quietly. And dance quietly. And even sometimes seem to fight.

[28:46]

Quietly. But all these activities we're just standing. Just walking. Just dancing. And just fighting. Without adding anything. Like for example, I'm right. You're wrong. I maybe seem to fight with you, but it's not that I'm right and you're wrong. Can there still be a fight? Can there still be a fight?

[30:17]

During the last four and a half years I've had the joy of spending time with a little boy who calls me granddaddy. And he taught me something I really didn't know very deeply and that is that the male of the human species can be overwhelmingly almost sweet. When I was a little boy I didn't notice that the other little boys were sweet. Even though they were my friends and I liked to spend time with them, I never thought, geez, these other guys are sweet and maybe I am too. I never noticed. Maybe they were. But he taught me that. And I really appreciate that.

[31:37]

Before he taught me that, I had a big dog, a big black, a 95 pound male Doberman Pinscher. And he taught me that a big black male dog also can be very sweet. He was very sweet. That also was very helpful for me to see that a big, muscular, powerful male dog can be very sweet. I see sometimes men walking around on the street. Young men, old men, but particularly young men. I see them walking and they walk with a certain carriage which seems to, you know, it seems to say, I am a man and I've got a certain amount of strength and energy and I like to work it.

[32:49]

And they actually walk a lot like my grandson does now. He kind of like, he walks with a kind of a strut and a kind of energy that's, it almost makes me forget how sweet he is. Is it possible for us of various ages to find peace and harmony through the practice of sitting, standing, walking, running and dancing.

[34:07]

And do all those activities just as themselves, with no seeking. Is it possible to realize peace and harmony in that way? And then, if it is, is it possible to go and meet other people who have not yet found this, who are strutting and exercising their energy, not quietly, and seeking a great deal as they exercise their body energy. And to somehow encourage them to find interest in the way of peace,

[35:14]

which can sometimes look like not as energetic as butting heads and sticking people with your horn, or sticking other bulls with your horn. Can there be as much life in peace and harmony as in war? We know that in war situations there's often lots of energy, lots of screaming and hollering and butting. But can there be in peace and harmony, can there be in just sitting quietly and running quietly and dancing quietly, dancing quietly without seeking anything, listening to the music and realizing peace in the midst of the music of this world.

[36:15]

Can that be as lively as disharmony and pain and fear and violence? No one's complaining about violence not being energetic enough. It's plenty energetic. But can that energy that is involved in the excitement that's involved in violence, can that energy be as fully expressed, peacefully? If not, the way of peace will be a sideshow, and people will go sometimes for where there's more life. When I was a boy, I've told this story many times,

[37:21]

I could see that getting good grades, you know, like doing your homework and getting good grades, it was alright, I didn't have anything against it, but what people were really excited about when I was 12, was Elvis Presley. And Elvis wasn't a violent person, but he did make quite a bit of, he did sing with a lot of energy, and he moved his body with a lot of energy, and he shook his knees with a lot of energy, and he strummed his guitar with a lot of energy. And what got people excited was boys and girls riding around on motorcycles, and being rebellious, and doing daring things. People got excited about that.

[38:28]

The ladies didn't seem to get so excited about the boys who got good grades. They seemed to like the boys more that wore their pants low and wore ducktails, and had sideburns, and who had a lot of energy. So I decided to do what was more popular, and I did exciting, daring things. And then a big man, who lived in my apartment building, and cared about me a great deal, I think. He had two daughters, but I think he wanted a son, but didn't have a son, so he kind of adopted me, and he sat me down one time. I was a big boy for 12, but he was a full-grown man.

[39:33]

He was 6'4", and weighed 240 pounds. And he was the 1946 National Heavyweight Golden Glove Champion of the United States. He was a big guy, big strong guy. No question that this was a big strong guy. And he said to me, You know, it's easy to be bad, in parenthesis, and exciting, and get a lot of attention, especially in an upper-middle-class neighborhood. What's hard is to be good. Or to put it another way, it's easy to be unskillful and exciting, but what's hard is to be skillful. And I kind of, coming from him, I thought, Yeah, he probably knows. He tried both ways. And he told me stories about himself when he was a kid,

[40:34]

the exciting things he did, the wild and exciting things he did. And even the police that I had contact with during that phase of my life, even they sort of were nice to me. And one of them said, The wilder the colt, the better the horse. But anyway, we need to train the colt. We need to train the colt so that he can be, or she can be, skillful. And peaceful. But if the training isn't meaningful and engaging of our life, it's not going to work. So we have to think of how to train ourselves

[41:39]

in such a way that we can enjoy being peaceful. Not that we like being peaceful, but giving up something we really like and we're losing something by being peaceful. I think we have to give up being unskillful and disharmonious and unpeaceful, not because it's more lively, but because being peaceful is actually more what we actually like. If peace and harmony are not more beautiful,

[42:44]

if we can't find, realize peace and harmony which are more beautiful than war and violence, then war and violence will continue to thrive. And you may not think that people think war and violence is beautiful, but many people do. They pay money to see violent things, like bullfights and professional football. Violent, injurious activities. People watch avidly because of the energy and beauty that's there.

[43:48]

Military display is very impressive. And it could be done in such a way that it is harmonious and peaceful, or it can be done in a way that it's just simply a display of the military. Destructive to everybody concerned. I feel responsible to make an effort in this life, in this world, to find some way to make peace and harmony as beautiful, as lively, as energetic, as engaging, as fulfilling, as greed, hate and delusion,

[45:05]

as violence and fighting and disharmony. Those harmful activities are energy, too. And there's too much of that type of energy, it seems, for most of us. Almost no one thinks that we don't have enough terrorism in this world. But when terrorism erupts, it is beautiful. It's very, very energetic. When bombs go off and people do these things to each other, it's very, very energetic. It gets people's attention. It makes people afraid. How can we get people's attention? For meditation. For sitting down.

[46:07]

For a big, strong man or a big, strong woman to sit down and smell the flowers. Or to stand up, quietly, for peace and harmony. And to walk with your full strength in this world, step by step, completely there, feeling with your whole body, step by step, feeling with your whole body, step by step, totally who you are, step by step, just to be who you are, step by step, to realize peace and harmony among us all. It's easy to be unskillful at that. It's hard to be skillful. It's hard to train ourselves to need encouragement from others and we need to encourage others to train themselves

[47:11]

to just sit, stand, walk and dance quietly in this world. And to do it and do it until it gets so skillful that we really love it and we really don't get distracted from it. That we're so present that we're more interested in experiencing what it's like to sit here than we are to look at some display, some exciting display of violence and conflict. That we're actually interested in what's happening here with this body and mind. We're really interested to take care of it. And we also are testing to see

[48:25]

if this will bring peace and harmony in our meetings with each person we meet. I guess I don't have to say this. Please excuse me for saying what's not necessary. But there are vast expanses of wonderfully inspiring landscapes in this magnificent continent we call North America. There are... I can't say how beautiful our forests and mountains and rivers and lakes on this continent are from Mexico to Alaska. We have a beautiful, beautiful world here.

[49:28]

And other parts of the world are also beautiful. But particularly we're so fortunate to live in North America and be able to travel all around and see this wonderful place. But if we don't do the work of peace and harmony we may not have time to realize how beautiful it is and take good care of it. And even appreciating America is dicey these days because sometimes appreciating America may seem like appreciating what certain unskillful actions are. Somehow I want to say thank you to this country

[50:29]

and be grateful that I would live here and was born here and want to take care of it. I do want to say that. So I want to end with a song about this country that I learned when I was a little boy I wish some of you probably know this song. I don't know it very well. I kind of forgot how to do it. But maybe you can help me. Oh beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain for purple mountains majesty

[51:35]

above the fruited plain America, America God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea Of course we say his grace and brotherhood and we can change that to her grace and sisterhood. So I don't know how much longer we're going to live, you and I. I don't have much time more. But this country has great potential

[52:36]

and we're very fortunate that we're allowed to practice the Buddha Dharma here and Christianity and Judaism and Islam and Hinduism. It's very wonderful that we can practice these spiritual traditions here. But it seems to me anyway the Buddhist tradition is to like give our whole heart to peace and harmony. But in order to do that we have to train ourselves to be present. To watch your body and mind moment by moment. Nobody else is going to do it for you. To be present and aware and just stand and just walk on this earth for the welfare of the earth

[53:38]

and all beings. Please accept this responsibility. Share this responsibility. Enjoy this responsibility. Share this responsibility. Be patient with those who are not yet accepting this responsibility. That's part of it too. Remember the sweetness of aggressive young men. Be patient with them and look for the opportunity to show them that it's easy to be violent. What's hard is to be gentle and kind and skillful and non-injurious with all this energy that this country has. How can America become a leader in peace?

[54:39]

We're big and strong enough. How can we use this strength to promote peace and gentleness and appreciation of all peoples? Please accept this responsibility for the sake of the planet and all the things you love and train yourself. Discipline yourself so that you don't get distracted from what you care about most and if you do get distracted, be patient with yourself and go back to work. Happy summer day to you. Peace.

[55:51]

I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. Beings are numberless. I vow to take them. Illusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Narva gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. Thank you.

[57:50]

You're welcome. Any comments? Thank you. How about I love you. Yes. You see him, you see his personality

[58:56]

perhaps changing past toddlerhood and perhaps mirroring other kinds of personalities in his environment and at the point where you said I almost forgot I forget how sweet he was I think is what I heard you say and that combined with a journey that I've had to even get to the idea that men could be sweet ever and to hear you say that self-identified man sounds like it just, I weeped basically and I just want, I don't know, I just need to tell you that that suddenly this I guess it's probably called grief

[60:00]

but I also think desire of so much wanting to change and then I'll close with the acknowledgement that the woman who wrote this song I can't remember her name but she might not have understood that she was a lesbian but she was in a lesbian relationship and she was also a teacher, an educator and she went to she went to one of the biggest homophobic places in the United States it is now maybe not back then and it was there that inspired her to write that song I would like to hear that song more in our nation's capital if if I really want to think a whole lot about that we're in a nation state thank you I

[61:03]

don't have, I don't have the lyrics but I maybe want to tell you a little bit more of the lyrics make every success into nobleness and every gain divine that's another part of the song so we're in some sense we're a very successful nation but it would be nice for our success to be turned into or accompanied with nobleness rather than I don't know what anyway it's a really good song and it's got four verses not just one so maybe I'll work on it next time do a couple more maybe we could turn it into a tango yeah right the guy who was climbing on me was my grandson

[62:09]

during the talk and and I thought he was you know expressing himself but I thought he was pretty well behaved and I really thought appreciated he reminded me of his favorite part I invited him to come to the talk he lives in San Francisco because I I said you might want to come to the talk because I'm going to talk about Ferdinand and he told his mom he said I want him to just read it to me I don't want him to read it to all the kids so last night I read it to him just him so I could share with the rest of the kids today he thought I was going to have all the kids come up to my house he said oh it's going to be in the Zendo anything else you'd like to bring up this morning actually it's high noon

[63:11]

yes and you can't be used somebody unskilled yes yes can you hear him I used the example yesterday let's say somebody steps on your foot you know you're at the theater or something and somebody steps on your foot

[64:14]

and then you take offense and respond unskillfully by maybe hitting the person or something because you think they're you know stepping on your blue suede shoes or whatever so that was an example of unskillful action that he's referring to yes right do more

[65:15]

to to bring down the teachings of Luther the farm to create a population in local communities as well as the rest of the country could you hear what he said you know when you said that what came to my mind was that we do have we do have programs and trainings and diversity diversity training programs here so one approach is to try to make Zen Center a place where more diverse types of people feel comfortable to come that's one area to work with where we are working but what came to my mind when you were saying that was that someone asked me to go to San Francisco and do a sitting group have a little sitting group

[66:17]

with people not at Zen Center but someplace outside of Zen Center in the city and the first place we tried I think was Fort Mason and that was fine but then we tried a place I think it was on Prince Street or something over in the the Mission like 16th and Prince Prince York 16th and York Street yeah that's York and as time went on the the diversity in the group seemed to be almost a perfect mirror of the diversity of San Francisco there were a lot there were Hispanics both American born and from South America and Mexico there were African Americans there were Asian Americans there were Europeans from lots of different parts of Europe it was actually like it looked like San Francisco actually and it was really nice

[67:19]

it was great and but I think we moved primarily because it got the space wasn't big enough we couldn't get the shoes in the room we had to put the shoes outside because there wasn't room for the people and the shoes when they took the shoes off and we couldn't we had to we had to do walking meditation on the street which was fine in the summer but in the so we moved from there back to Zen Center and also Zen Center sort of invited us to come back to Zen Center so we went back to Zen Center but maybe what we need to do is like go out into the neighborhoods where people can like walk from their houses rather than go over I think some people feel a little shy to go into the big Zen Center right even if it's supposedly welcoming it's still a big white institution in a way but if we just go into some neighborhood again maybe that's will be a good idea

[68:20]

so I'm hearing you say that I'm kind of thinking maybe we should do that again I'll do something in some neighborhood that's like really representative of the whole city and see and then gradually people will start people who live walking distance will be able to come and I think once people come and then they tell their friends it starts to catch on so that's one thing I'd like to look into my daughter read me this newsletter from this school where she takes her son my grandson and my daughter is part Asian American and when she was in high school in Marin County at a very good private school which had quite a few children who could afford to pay the tuition I mean whose parents could afford to pay the tuition and then other children who couldn't whose families couldn't afford

[69:20]

to pay the tuition and she's from one of those families and there were some also children who were given scholarships from Richmond so there was some diversity in the school but one of her friends told her that she had never met a homosexual person my daughter who sort of like well grew up in San Francisco plus also it's like her step parents are lesbian couple not step parents but her god parents are sort of a lesbian couple so she's used to that from childhood and also she herself identifies as being half herself as half Chinese which she is and she looks Chinese too so anyway she always was sensitive to diversity so when she was in high school she organized a homophobic homophobia awareness day at her school and she had 60 people come in from outside gay and lesbian and bisexual people come from

[70:20]

all over the Bay Area to her Marin County school and the school people really supported they even gave kids free lunch on Friday to get them to stay on Friday so they would not leave at noon so anyway she got a lot of support for it and it was a great day and she's just always been really sensitive to diversity issues and so she likes San Francisco and she likes New York places like that because they're diverse and so she goes to this school called San Francisco school and she read me the newsletter welcoming the new kids and I can't I'm sorry I don't have the newsletter to read to you because it's like first of all they say the names of the kids right and the names of the kids are very diverse like Lee Kwong and and

[71:21]

anyway Asian names African names European names South American names you know all kinds of names and then they say their parents so so-and-so and her parents Lisa and Martha so-and-so and her parents Brad and Jim so-and-so and her parents Brad Peter and Mary you know she just she was so happy that there was so much diversity in her school and she said this is San Francisco so San Francisco is kind of like you know far out but in some sense San Francisco I think is the future of the world too you can't keep the well it's the future of the peaceful world where you have diversity there is diversity on the planet it's not something we have to make up it's just something that you need to take the walls down in the fear way and

[72:21]

you've got it diversity is what's happening it's just people being unaware of it and trying to like make some place where it isn't so anyway she just was so happy to to see that and so she's somebody who is younger than me and and she'll she'll be spending her life working on this in the school system around the country I think it's looking at or other places anyway it's what's happening question of whether we become aware of it or not the world isn't just white people with some other people sort of hang

[73:21]

around the sides okay anything else yes if it makes me feel better a little bit yeah I think they send them to the struts I remember it took Clinton quite a while to learn how to walk through the bench but

[74:21]

Bush had a particularly aggressive strut and I thought you've got a decent heart and your leader walks around with that look you know the look I mean like we're going to bury you right and I think you know they probably walk a little more gentle even though they have their suits on and whatnot well if it was understood that some training and posture would be conducive to realizing peace in the world and people wanted that then they could learn it but in some sense you know like I said my grandson just does that naturally nobody taught him to do that it's just part of a little boy's thing and then some guys just grow up and they never out grow it nobody teaches them a more present and you know once you

[75:24]

become more present and aware of your posture your posture starts changing naturally but without training some men will just walk certain ways it's kind of it's a natural unrefined phenomena and well you may be right maybe they train them to walk that way but I see people on the street who aren't trained who walk that way and like I said they look like my grandson I see these guys on the street they look like little boys now you can say maybe they train little boys to do that but they learn very quickly at the age of four or five they are already doing it and then the big boys walk like the little boys it's rather than it's more like rather than the little boys walk like the big boys it seems like the big boys just continue to be little boys and so that's part of why there's some sweetness in these

[76:25]

big boys that could be appealed to and be a point of evolution I think it's a matter of is it appealing to walk in a more peaceful present way and if it's not they'll just go with what's the lowest common denominator they've already got it and the training takes an effort you have to be interested and aware otherwise we just do our habit our habitual way it's a lot of work to become aware of your posture and the way you walk but if it's if it's encouraged by other men who they respect and women who care for them people can learn new ways of conduct but it's not easy anything else yes thank you

[77:26]

for your words I feel like I'm one of those people who sometimes have to stop trying to do this right and for someone who is striving to make change and find paths to make change and find improvement I'm often struggling with which path to choose the skillful or the unskillful one and not so much that it's unappealing to walk the peaceful path but there's fear inside me that the peaceful path is unappealing and should I choose the peaceful path or should we all choose the peaceful path if we

[78:26]

choose the peaceful path what? engulfed by those who are unskillful engulfed by those who are unskillful yeah well I think sometimes when you choose a peaceful path you do maybe feel like you're in the minority in some cases so that's part of why in some sense like I said when that guy said to me you know it's easy to be bad that's lots of people that are unskillful and part of the reason why it's hard to be good is sometimes you're in the minority you know and people tease you sometimes when you suggest something good like I saw these kids one time they were going to go fishing and these people were taking these worms and putting them on hooks and one of

[79:26]

them said it's going to hurt the worms don't you know and the other people were teasing her like what are you talking about hurting the worms are you crazy it's going to hurt them so she took the worms and put them back into the grass one of the ancestors of the Zen tradition when he was a little boy used to go out in the woods in China and where the hunting people would make animal sacrifices to the gods to help promote their hunting and he would go release the animals and he just kept doing that and finally they just said well they just had to accept that he was going to do that and they respected him but it wasn't easy for him to do that but there was a strength in that in protecting but some people might not find it appealing and that's part of why you really need to train yourself to do this in a way where you don't like protect

[80:29]

beings in a disharmonious way so we have to like learn to respect those who may not walk who may not be walking the path that we're walking so if people seem to be unskillful we need to respect the people who seem to be unskillful or even ourself if we see this is a skillful action and this is an unskillful action we need to respect our unskillful self as much as our skillful self even though we choose maybe skillful we don't look down on unskillful looking down on unskillful is unskillful looking up at unskillful is unskillful but being you know on the same level as beings is I think skillful but it's not easy what's easy is your ways better than ways that are different from you

[81:29]

that's the way of hate it's easy what's hard is like to see that you disagree with somebody and not just go with the crowd but also not disrespect the crowd to appreciate those who you disagree with so that's a great struggle now you know how to appreciate someone you disagree with or ways the government's behaving which you disagree with how to appreciate them even though you disagree with them and think they're doing something very harmful unbelievably harmful catastrophically harmful at the same time not put yourself above them and certainly not below them it's hard to find that that's what we need to find I think and that takes a lot of energy and guts to do that

[82:30]

the Buddha had guts Jesus had guts huh? Gandhi had guts right yeah peaceful is non-violent but non-violence can be very energetic very energetic and it works best when it is so basically you know when I walk around sometimes people say are you a martial artist? and I say I should say they say are you into martial arts? and I usually say yes they say what's this outfit you're wearing? is it a martial arts outfit? and I say yes they say what type? I say Zen Buddhist the Buddha was a martial artist he interacted

[83:37]

with aggressive energies with violent energies and he either got out of the way or converted it you know snapped people out of it on a number of occasions he snapped people out of violent trajectories that they were on and just did something to just turn them around and wake them up so martial arts is just not to fight back it's not to meet violence with violence it's to interact with violence in such a way that beings are protected so nobody gets hurt and everybody wakes up so that's not the totality of Buddhism martial arts you also have mental arts but it's a big part of it is to be able to interact with aggressive energies in a way that wakes people up to a more harmonious way of being and the Buddha supposedly the Buddha even converted in action a mass murderer as that murderer was

[84:37]

about to kill the Buddha the Buddha just snapped him out of it by you know not by fighting him but by just by walking slowly in such a way that the guy couldn't catch him and the guy calls out and says hey Yogi how come I can't catch you and Buddha said because I stopped and the guy snapped out of it and became a wonderful monk anything else? this morning? I mean this afternoon I should be unskillful

[85:48]

because otherwise the unskillful will take over I should be unskillful because otherwise the unskillful will take over yes yes so you're afraid if you meet violence with non-violence the violence might grow? is that what you mean? what? the violence might win? violence might win? that never happens the violence wins violence just keeps going it just keeps happening that happens but it doesn't I never saw violence win anything it just violence it either

[86:49]

doesn't take it either doesn't take effect or it takes effect and when it takes effect it doesn't win it just destroys that's what violence does it doesn't win but if you're I guess if you're trying to win a game and you use violence to win it isn't it that the violence won it's that according to the rules of the game you won and you used violence but I think if you're wondering about whether violence will be stopped by non-violence or whether violence will be stopped by violence I have not seen violence stopped by violence stopped temporarily, right? like if somebody's going to be violent to somebody and you kill them they're stopped but then that usually leads to more violence usually right? it seems to whereas non-violence sometimes doesn't really stop the violence it just causes something else to arise sometimes

[87:50]

but I think the main thing is what do you want to do because how do you want to live because there is going to be violence probably for the foreseeable future you are going to be attacked I am going to be attacked people are going to be mean to you and me that's going to happen people are going to be insulting to you and me that's going to happen we are going to get insulted by also certain physical things we're going to if we keep living we're going to have problems that are going to happen to us so it's not so much whether we can actually stop the violence but rather do we wish to live a certain way in response to whatever is happening what's the way you want to live and if you're afraid that violence will go on if you're non-violent then I would say that fear

[88:51]

in some sense is justified to some extent because I think violence is going to keep happening pretty much maybe bulls butt naturally they're not going to stop butting each other I don't think so it's not that non-violence is going to stop violence I don't think that's going to happen and it's not that non-violence is going to cause violence to occur more or less I have no idea the question is how do you want to live and what are you going to be working for would you want to live non-violently would you want to live non-violently even if you're living non-violently will not stop other people's violence and have you ever seen

[89:56]

your violence actually yeah I'll just finish the question have you ever seen your violence really stop violence and I think the answer is well sometimes it does look like that like if if something is being violent if you kill it it seems like you stop it or if you put it in a box it seems like you stop it it might look like that that you would be violent to something and then it would be of course killed seems to stop it but also maybe like disabled severely disabled or maimed that would seem to stop it too but that's just a temporary stop seems to me and then the violence that you use to do that with I think then comes up in you again and now you have instead of stopping the violence you have become the violence so there's a very interesting article

[90:57]

in the New Yorker recently about it's called the price of valor I believe and it's about the psychological effects of our soldiers killing people in Iraq and they come back from Iraq and they say well that was fine and then they you know when they're out with their wife or something at dinner they talk about blowing people's heads off while people are having dinner you know they are not fine people who kill people in the sake for the sake of stopping those violence of the people they're killing those people tend to become severely harmed and disoriented they become overwhelmed by the violence which they use to stop the other violence that seems to be what happens in a lot of cases except maybe in the cases of people who were already just like violent before they even went there

[91:57]

so I guess I would say you know if you're afraid of being non-violent I would suggest that you learn and if I'm afraid of being non-violent I would suggest that we learn how to get over our fear of being non-violent if we want to be non-violent and it seems like we don't have to learn how to be violent most of us but to learn how to be non-violent when you're being attacked that seems like something that requires a tremendous amount of education so when someone's coming at you violently to like look at them and not become afraid and come back with a non-violent response you have that takes a lot of training to like say oh here comes somebody they're about to they're about to attack me so I'll just move over here and I'll take their weapon and put it over on the side there and you know

[92:59]

do you ever see the movie The Seven Samurai? you know they're testing they're trying to choose the samurai for the band and they have the guy waiting behind the door to club the guy when he comes through and one guy walks up to the door and he goes the guy's hiding behind the door and one guy comes up to the door and says forget it you know he can tell somebody's behind the door before he even gets there okay he's not walking up the door he's not walking he's not afraid he's like aware and he can see he can sense that there's somebody hiding behind the door ready to hit him the other guy walks in the door comes in the door and just goes like this and takes the club because he's not afraid of clubs because he knows when people swing clubs he can see the club coming and then he reaches up and grabs the club and takes it away from the persons but it takes quite a while to get that skillful that when people are swinging clubs at you you just watch oh here comes the club now it's getting close

[94:05]

now I'll just take it right but when you have that training you're not afraid of people with clubs anymore so they come running after you with clubs you go here comes the person with the club they're getting closer now pretty soon I'll be able to reach and take it out of their hand okay there we go so that's what my grandson does with me he comes and attacks me so I watch him he's just a little guy but he's got to concentrate to sort of like okay now I don't want you to hit me and he's coming okay I'm going to get out of the way now so I get out of the way or say no no stop that we need to train so we're not afraid of being overwhelmed by that aggressive energy please learn how to do this

[94:55]

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