The title I suggested for tonight's talk, I don't know if you saw it, did you see a title for this talk? You did? I think what I suggested was Crisis in Spiritual Life, and then colon, Dropping Dogmatism to Realize Peace. So in some sense, yeah, I guess I'd like to make a really good name. I'd like to improve the reputation for the word crisis. I guess I would suggest for your consideration that a spiritual life actually lives in crisis.

[01:03]

A crisis means, I think the definition you find in the dictionary is a turning point. And in particular, it often means a turning point in an illness, like when things get rather rapidly or suddenly better or worse. I think etymologically the word crisis is related to the word sieve. So a crisis is kind of a situation where Some things fall through and get separated from some other things. And also I would offer at the beginning the Chinese character for crisis. The Chinese word for crisis is a compound of two characters.

[02:08]

One character is danger and the other one is opportunity. So in spiritual life, again I suggest to you that in the turning point, in the turning point, spiritual life functions. Spiritual life functions in the turning point. Or you could say a turning point In a way, either one's fine, but the turning point sounds to me more like the turning point that's here right now. There is a turning point. Maybe there's a turning point right now, and our spiritual life functions at this turning point. Or in turning, our spiritual life...

[03:13]

is functioning. Maybe you know the so-called Sufi master, Rumi? Anybody who doesn't know the name Rumi? Raise your hand. It's okay, raise it. Anyway, he was a great Muslim, and he was a Sufi, and a lot of people, I think, in Islam consider him to be a heretic. And he, I don't know exactly how it happened, but I heard that he just started turning one day. And out of him came this great love. Or he was in a state of great love and he started turning. I don't know which. Maybe he started turning and the love started coming out. And, huh? The love was first. The love was first. The love was first, then the turning. And then what? After the turning. More love. Yes. And then more... It happened because he lost his teacher.

[04:22]

Yeah, that's right. So, the word dogma means... I don't know what it means. But etymologically, it means an opinion or a belief. And it's associated with religion... But basically it means a doctrine, a teaching. Or it could even mean a teacher. So, there's a connection between finding the turning and dropping the dogma. Finding the turning or dropping the teaching or dropping the teacher. If you lose your beliefs, if you lose your opinions, If you lose your teacher in your teaching, that's an opportunity and also a danger. If you don't have a teacher or a teaching, you're kind of in danger, right? Maybe you think so.

[05:28]

If all the doctrines you ever learned, if you lost them, you'd be in danger, but also you have the opportunity to turn. When you hold on to a doctrine, or a nurse, or a teaching, or a teacher, when you hold on to a dogma, when you hold on to an opinion or a belief, it's called dogmatism. Or when you're overly positive that your teacher's a good teacher or a right teacher, or that the teaching which you find useful is the true one, it's called dogmatism. And the synonym for dogmatism is authoritarian, arrogant, and dictatorship. Dogma means doctrine, but holding to doctrines turns into dogmatism.

[06:29]

And dogmatism means, usually, no turning. Dogma doesn't necessarily mean turning, it's just that if you have a dogma, If you have a teaching, if you have a teacher, and you let go of it, or you lose it, you forget it, now you get ready to turn. Because you're not holding on to anything to stop you from turning. That's basically what I think spiritual activity is, is turning. Or another way to put it is spiritual... function is basically leaping. Spiritual life is basically leaping. Leaping is basically spiritual life. Peace and freedom. come from, basically come from leaping.

[07:42]

Oh, the reason why I move this is because life is basically leaping. Our life is basically, that's our actual life, I suggest to you, is the leaping we're doing. So, now how do we get into the leaping, which is our life, which is our spiritual life? I myself was attracted to the Zen tradition of so-called Buddhism. I would say from stories about compassion. Compassion you can see. You can see people being compassionate. Sometimes you can't, but sometimes you can. And when you can, it's quite clear, you can see it.

[08:43]

Somebody's being kind to somebody. And so now the question is, is there a way, and what is the way to learn compassion? To learn compassion? and grow in compassion. And I think that one possibility is that the way of learning compassion and growing compassion is not necessarily something you can see. That maybe the source of compassion is a spiritual thing. Compassion, you could say, is a spiritual thing too. But it's spirituality or spiritual life that you can see. My wife was on the airporter in San Francisco the other day, and this man was giving instruction to the driver of the bus. African-American man giving instruction to an African-American female bus driver.

[09:51]

And he was teaching her how to drive the bus, and he was saying stuff like, beware. Slow down. Take it easy. That's love. That's love. Oh, that's nice. Take it easy. Pay attention. Take your time. You can see compassion on the bus there. I think probably all of you have seen compassion. So I saw some stories of compassion, and the stories were about Zen monks being compassionate, And I thought, I'd like to learn that. And not only were they stories of compassion, but they were stories about compassion extending beyond the ordinary limits of it. Like a lot of you, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of you have a deep commitment to the happiness of your children, or your parents, or your brothers and sisters.

[11:04]

I wouldn't be surprised if almost all of you had a deep commitment to your spouse, to your spouse, etc. But I'm actually, those stories that have turned me on to Zen were not stories of somebody being nice to their children or to their parents. They were stories of people being nice to their enemies, to strangers. It's good that people are devoted to the happiness of their children, and that's compassion. It's good that people are committed to the happiness of their parents. What about, where do we find this compassion to be really committed to the happiness of somebody who we never met before? Somebody on the street. Or somebody who is doing something really unskillful.

[12:05]

How can you be committed to the happiness of someone who is doing things which look like they're harming people? harming you and your friends, and even harming people you don't know about. But somehow you care about the people they're harming, maybe. Like you might care about Iraqi children getting blown to bits. But are you committed to the happiness of the people who are in charge of programs which seem to be initiating violence? And do you even want to have compassion for those people? Well, the stories that turned me on to Zen were people who were devoted to the happiness of cruel people. Of stupid, cruel people. Devoted to the happiness of people who were attacking them on false grounds.

[13:08]

And then... devoted to the happiness of the same people when the same people woke up and realized that they were attacking the person on false grounds, and then they praised the person on good grounds. And they didn't change their commitment once the people started praising them. But basically, the way they treated them when they were attacking them falsely, and the way they treated them when they were expressing gratitude for their tolerance, was the same. Same compassion. Where does that come from? I wanted to learn. So I heard there was a training program where you could learn how to be compassionate like that. And the training program was a meditation course. And from this meditation course supposedly there arises compassion and ethical behavior.

[14:22]

But between the meditation and the arising of the compassion is the arising of this turning. And this sort of turning where you forget and you let go of everything you know. or you give up holding on to your dogma, in that space of that turning, this thing comes called spiritual experience or spiritual life. It's also called spiritual insight. It's also called wisdom. many people, almost everyone, except some people who have really been brutalized, almost everybody feels compassion for somebody. But once we let go, once there's a release of our beliefs and opinions, and the turning starts, the spiritual life, the wisdom starts to come alive, and then we can see that our enemies

[15:31]

are actually our friends, and our friends are actually our enemies. And our enemies that are our friends actually are our friends actually are enemies. Actually are enemies. In other words, things are spinning and you can't hold on to whether people are your friends or enemies. Yeah, people are your friends, of course, but... Get over that. Oh, no, I should hold on to my friends. Gosh, okay. When you feel like you've got to hold on to this person as your friend, and you've got to hold on to this person as your enemy, you deserve a big dose of compassion. And somebody who's not holding on can be compassionate to you while you're holding on to who's your friend and who's your enemy.

[16:36]

And in their compassion towards you, you could say, hmm, that's cool the way they're compassionate to me while I'm holding on to my friends and holding on to who's my enemy, namely pushing away my enemies and not wanting my enemies to be happy. But they're compassionate to me when I'm being mean to people and they're compassionate to me when I'm being nice to people. I want to be that way. How can I do that? And they say, okay, well let go of who your friends are. Don't let go of your friends. Let go of your attitude that they're your friends. And also, don't let go of your enemies. Let go of the idea or belief that they're your enemies. Let go of your that they're your enemy. Let go of that argument that they're your enemy. Then you'll be able to be compassionate like this person from the turning, from the crisis of your life, which is right now, from that crisis.

[17:39]

If you can enter that crisis, the turning point is where you are, it's how you are. If you can enter that and let the turning, let the leaping happen, wisdom will come. And from that wisdom, a compassion will come. that has no bounds, will come. And it will be an ethical compassion. And you will be able to see it, and other people will be able to see it. And if they can, they probably will say to you, teach me about how can you be so compassionate and so ethical? And you say, well, leap. And they say, how? And then you Start leaping with them. You start turning. Clockwise or clockwise. You can also jump up and down. At this spiritual source, at this spiritual source, this turning point, in a sense there's no religion there.

[18:50]

There's just turning all over the place. And from this turning comes wisdom and comes love and devotion to all beings. And it's all love and devotion to help beings, to give them teachings, and then when you give them the teachings, to teach them to let go of the teachings so they can enter the turning. But first of all, you want to give them some teachings. So you can say, okay, now give me back the teachings. And then they say, no. And then they say, come on, please. I'm the one who gave it to you. I think you're ready to give it back. Or if not give it back, give it to somebody else and stand there without holding on to any teachings now. I'm not ready. Okay. Compassion will wait. Wisdom will empower a compassion which will wait for people who have been given a teaching

[19:55]

to help them enter the turning where they will find the wisdom from which unlimited compassion will arise. So in the history of so-called so-called Buddhism or the Buddha way in the history, there was a time when somebody was turning. Under the Bodhi tree, we say, under the tree of enlightenment, somebody started spinning. And that person realized wisdom from which came infinite compassion. And out of that infinite compassion, when beings met this person, this person started giving teachings. Those teachings are still available, and some people heard the teachings and practiced the teachings.

[20:58]

And by practicing the teachings, they gave up the teachings and had spiritual experience. And from the spiritual experience, they practiced compassion and taught other people to receive the teachings practice them, and give them up and have a spiritual experience. It happens over and over again in spiritual life that the spiritual teacher sees the student and says, it's really beautiful to see what you're doing here. You know, the way you're taking care of the temple, the way you're caring for our parishioners, the way you're praising the Lord, the way you're meditating, the way you're making offerings to the divine spirits. It's all so heart-moving. It would be nice if you did something spiritual. And finally the person says, well, what do you mean something spiritual?

[22:02]

Turn, leap. I almost want to say unfortunately, but I don't want to say unfortunately. I feel driven to say unfortunately, but really it's more like just, of course, what most people do is when they hear spiritual teachings, especially really good ones, that they think is good, they hold on to them. The spirit comes out, they see it, they love it, they hold it. So then the spiritual life, the spiritual wisdom becomes trapped. The dogma becomes trapped in dogmatism. Right now, most of the great teachings on the planet, or almost all the great teachings on the planet, are to a great extent in dogma prison. The teachings are great, But when people hold them, they get trapped.

[23:08]

They get trapped inside of religions. Now, the religions originally were just expressions of compassion so people could get some instruction. And so people went where they could see there were some instructions to be given, but then most people stopped there. So you have the people over here who are in this dogma camp, and they're stuck there with perfectly good teaching. People over here have got this teaching, and they're stuck in this teaching. And some people in their different teachings, so a lot of times they think the other one's wrong, and they start fighting with each other. So of course we have that situation right now in extreme, vivid, horrible, violent demonstration. So how can we possibly address the situation?

[24:17]

The founder of San Francisco Zen Center, a person who ordained me as a priest, I think he said something like, what did you say at the beginning there? He started practicing with... He started practicing with Suzuki Roshi in 1967. I started practicing with Suzuki Roshi in 1967, because that's when I met him. That's not when I started practicing. I started practicing with him when I met with him. Really, I was practicing with him before I met him, too. Just like, in a sense, I started practicing with you when I met you, but really I was practicing with you before I met you. I went to Zen Center to learn about a meditation practice which I thought would help me be a leaping compassionate being. I did not go to become a Zen priest.

[25:24]

But then I did become a Zen priest, and they gave me robes. Someone said to me, what did you say to me, Amy? I have my civvies on, what did you say? Amy said, you have your civilian clothes. I didn't put my priest robe on top of my civilian clothes. Now I have it on. Now I have my robe on. I have my haircut, though. I cut the haircut and the robe of a Zen priest. But Zen Buddhism, and Buddhism in general, as my teacher said, Buddhism is not one of the isms. It's not one of the isms like Catholicism, Judaism, Mohammedism, and Buddhism. The point of the Buddha's teaching is for all religions and all living beings to leap to get over themselves, to go beyond themselves.

[26:35]

That's the point of the Buddha Dharma, including the Buddhist tradition, Buddhist tradition to get over itself. So then maybe I feel like, well, I should take this role and just hide myself among the masses. But if I put the robe back on, then I can take it off. And if I put the robe back on, I can give you a robe. And you won't think it's strange that I would give you a robe because I'm a robe transmitter. And you can find text which explains that I'm a robe transmitter and that I do it according to an ancient tradition. And it's not just some made-up thing. It's a transmission of a teaching about giving up the teaching, by getting over the teaching. If I'm willing to give up the Buddha Dharma and my robes, then maybe I would be able to meet with somebody of another tradition and that person might be willing to give up her robes and her dogma

[27:52]

I went to an exhibit at the Mattress Factory just before I came over here. Catherine Gammon told me about it back in San Francisco. And then when I came here, I met a friend named Margo Sawyer, who happens to be living at the Mattress Factory, and she invited me to come over and see this piece that Catherine told me about. So I went in there and looked at it, and nothing much was happening. It's a dark room, right? You can't see much. And I just sat there and I said, oh, I can't see it. But there's a turning point here, I think. There's a turning point from where I don't see it to where I will see it. And then from where I will see it to where I won't see it. And so I didn't see anything. And then I realized that my not seeing anything was the same whether I had my eyes open or shut. So I didn't see anything, and then I closed my eyes and I saw the same thing with my eyes shut that I had my eyes open.

[29:14]

Try it. This artist helped me see that. There was a turning point. And then I could also have the turning point between when I realize that looking at you is the same as looking at me. And then I can go from looking at me to looking at you. So I could go from my eyes shut to turn to my eyes open. And basically it was the same situation. Because, you know, it was basically in the dark. But you could see something. It wasn't total black. And when I closed my eyes, it wasn't total black either. But it was the same not total black with my eyes shut and open. And Margo told me before I went in, she said, I think she said, the last time I was here, I didn't see it. Did you say that? Huh? So I thought, well, if I don't see it, Maybe, you know, it's not so bad.

[30:20]

So I started to leave. I thought, wait a minute, I'm going back there. I'm going to see it. So I went back and it was, I realized, you know, I'm not saying Margaret was trying to trick me, but it wasn't really there was an it to see or not. It wasn't really it. It was me. The world isn't it. It's you, and yet it's not you. Because it's different when you have your eyes open and your eyes shut, and yet you're looking at the same thing. So that was a turn-in. This artist is trying to teach people, compassionately trying to teach people about spiritual life, which could be called religious life. In some ways, religion is Again, religion is also a crisis. We are in a religious crisis. We are in danger.

[31:22]

Religion is in danger of becoming dogmatic, right? And the danger of dogmatism is violence and religious war. But religion is also an opportunity to offer people things to let go of. To have a tradition to say, I give this to you, and now please give it back. Not because you're bad or good, but just to see if you can give it back. To see if you can turn. To see if you can return it to me who gave it to you. But more important than giving it to me who gave it to you, to return to the turning. To return to the spiritual source. where you will find the wisdom which will teach you the compassion which is for everybody, and also will teach you how to help everybody enter the turning, find the wisdom, feel the compassion, and start the process with other people.

[32:38]

There's an article in the New Yorker magazine recently about soap operas, soap box operas. And there's some soap box operas which are sponsored by welfare organizations to teach poor people around the world how to deal with poverty in such a way as to become wealthy. Was wealthy too much for you? Wealthy means having lots of compassion so that you're happy and having the ability to help other people enter into the turning, find the wisdom, and find the joy of compassion for other people who have not found it yet. So what they do is they don't, they didn't, at first, you know, he set the example.

[33:51]

If you have a story of Maria who is not married and got pregnant and then she goes to Planned Parenthood and finds a way to take care of that, the poor people will turn the station off because they want to watch something entertaining. And they do not want the wealthy people or semi-wealthy people who are on this show and sponsoring this show giving them lectures about how to deal with their pregnancies. They don't want lectures. They got enough of that in their life. Maria do this, Maria do that. What they want is they want some drama. They want some entertainment. They want something artistic. They want some turning. They want some rhythm. So what they do is they have a story where they have some person who is really trying to help people who are pregnant and don't know what to do with their babies.

[34:59]

And then they have somebody who's wanting to make people who don't. And you abuse them afterwards. And then they have somebody who's like wondering what to do with their life. And they make this really exciting drama. And the people watch it. And they learn about turning on the show. And somebody's got the, not only compassion to want to help poor people, but the turning, the wisdom, to find out what will get their attention and get them to open to a teaching which they won't hold on to Now some people don't even want the teaching in the first place. They won't even listen to you. But if they listen to it and hold on to it, it's not really going to help them. If you give rich people the teaching and they hold on to it, it's not going to help them much. Because they're going to get dogmatic and violent. And if you give poor people the teaching and they hold on to it, they do.

[36:01]

You have to find some way to do this in the spirit of turning. That's basically it.

[36:19]

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