I wanted to tell you that I feel a little ambivalent about this setup, you know, of most of you people facing that way, and me facing this way, and me doing, in a sense, more than my share of the talking so far. So I feel ambivalent saying these words because it's really not Zen for me to sit here and talk a lot, even though you can probably say a lot of examples where people did that in the past.

[01:02]

And it's not Zen for me to sit here and talk a lot and for you just to listen. It's also the same as it's not, in daily life it's not that way either, you know. for me to do all the talking and you just to sit there and listen. That's not the life of the Buddhas. The life of the Buddhas is for us to have a conversation. Kind of like, more or less, 50-50 in the long run. So, you know. kind of feel ambivalent about the setup, because already I've said more than most of you are going to say in this room today. But I would tell you, you're invited to speak at any time. And you can also use your body to express yourself. What I'm saying from now on is to encourage you to start talking and expressing yourself.

[02:21]

I think what Zen's about is dramatic conversation. for the sake of realizing the fullest potential of all beings, which is that all beings have the potential of becoming inexhaustibly kind and helpful and wise. We have that potential according to the ones who realized their potential in the past. The realization of Buddhahood is to realize that all beings have this ability, and to be very happy about it, and then to give one's whole life to this possibility of all beings' enlightenment. And Zen particularly emphasizes

[03:40]

that the mode of this realization is conversation, is interaction, is dramatic speaking and dancing together. So today I'm going to actually share a whole bunch of conversations that have already happened to give you a feeling for conversations that I've had recently, like in the last week. Wonderful conversations that inspired me and I don't know about my partners, but they seem to be having a good time, laughing quite a bit, loosening up, acting like Buddha. Some of you may hear your own story told. I won't mention your name. Unless I'm paid. What?

[04:52]

Yep. How about you? Huh? No? Oh, great. That helps, thanks. If you want to, you can come up here and sit next to me. I'd like to bring you a cushion because it's kind of hard on the floor here. He's a brave person. Please have a seat. Thank you. Yeah. Good morning. Would you like the microphone? No. Would you like your shoulders rubbed? No, thanks. Nice view. Beautiful group, huh? Yeah. But we're not attached to them, are we? Why don't we turn around there?

[05:57]

I'm enjoying this. Okay. The only part I don't like about it is I'm doing so much talking. What would you rather be doing? Actually, I'm not that sick. Did you hear what he said? He said, what would you rather be doing? And I said, I'm not that sick. It's not like I feel ambivalent. I wish I was doing something else. I don't add... I'm not ambivalent about being ambivalent. I'm totally ambivalent. And I'll be totally ambivalent until I'm not ambivalent anymore. And that's the way it is. So anyway, I have these great stories that happened in the last week. One of them is... Yeah, it's a conversation too. It's about this little man I know. He's a man who's little.

[07:01]

He's a, what do you call it? He's 16 months old. So he does stuff like he sits down, you know, he sits down like we're sitting now, like this kind of upright. He sits down and then he sometimes goes, actually not sometimes, he one time did, put his hands out like this and went, And then he went, and he turned to the person who was sitting next to him, he turned to the person and went, hmm. Hmm. Hmm. By all beings,

[08:04]

Realize that. Let's see. So somebody else comes to me and says, she says, I feel like I'm at a dangerous point in practice. And I said, yes. Yes. you're always at a dangerous point in practice. Every moment you have an opportunity to really meet what's happening and help all beings or get distracted. And there's a danger that you'll get distracted. Every moment there's that danger that you'll get distracted from what's most important to you in this brief life. It's always dangerous.

[09:09]

We have to open to that danger that we can slip and miss how we really want to be. So anyway, she said that, and I agreed. And then she told me about the dangerous situation she's in. Now, this person just happens to be a very generous person, or at least there's some areas she's generous in, and she really works them. She's very generous. I mean, she's like really generous. She's like, you know, anyway, almost too much. Like when she used to be head cook, I was afraid to go into the kitchen and ask for anything because she would like stop working and just devote herself totally to giving it to me, whatever it was. Like, you know, I don't know what, but she would like, I'm going to ask you a question for some help now, but don't do anything. Just give me the answer. Don't do it for me. Anyway, very generous person.

[10:14]

And she told me about some other people, actually, that she was having trouble being generous about. She said, they blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, [...] blah. And then she said, and I think that's really mean and stingy. And while she was talking, she was going like this with her hands, squeezing her hands open and shut. They were like... And then she said, and I think that's really stingy. With her hands gripped like that. And I pointed to her hand and I said, that's stingy. And gripping. I said, it's fine to make those observations. It's even fine to say, I think that's mean. Because maybe you do. It's fine to say, It's fine to say that. It's fine to say, and I think that's mean. I don't think that's generous. I don't think that's kind.

[11:14]

I think that's oppressive. It's fine to say that, but be careful. There's a danger when you express those kinds of feelings and all other ones, namely that you'll grip them. And that will be a slip. Somehow, can you say, open your hands Open your arms, open your mind, open your heart and say, that's stingy. Like... That's mean. [...] And also the same with, that's generous. But there's always a danger that we'll grip it. Grip it. And then if you're trying to be mean and you grip it, that'll enhance the meanness. If you're trying to be stingy and cruel and you tense up, that'll promote that.

[12:17]

But if you see some stinginess and you like to bring attention to generosity and promote generosity in the situation where people are being stingy and possessive and defensive, then The thing to do is to relax when you say that. You know what? This is totally stingy. Did you think this was stingy? Totally. But not like, I'm not and they are. Just, yeah, right. Anyway, I said, thank you very much for doing that hand thing while you were telling me that. So I could point to show you this gripping you're doing. So her eyes are helpful. They see, you know, people behaving and if she sees something that looks like stinginess, I think it's nice for her to notice that and then talk, enter into a dramatic conversation with what seems to be stinginess and see if it really is stinginess.

[13:24]

Maybe it's not. Who knows? But enter into it with a generous feeling. So it was very nice of her to come and show me this. It was gripping the hands because then I could see, oh, look at the gripping, look at the gripping, look at the clinging, look at the stinginess. I could just point and she could get it. But she expressed herself so I could respond. Because she expressed herself, I could interact and she could learn about who she was. It was great. And she had a good time and laughed and laughed I don't know, maybe she went off and talked to those people, those people who are acting that way she said they were acting. I wanted to say that I feel like you're having a conversation with us, just like we're not talking back to you. That's how I really feel.

[14:25]

And we're going to go and have a conversation with the rest of the world in what he said. Thank you. That helps me relax. What? Great. Well, a little bit later, maybe I'll ask for a formal commitment. Zachary? Do I? Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, no. Because a story with an unhappy ending, from the point of view of Buddha, is an unfinished story. Endings are actually, even happy endings, are kind of misleading. So if you and I have a nice little talk today, and somebody tells a story about it, and they said, what a happy story, that's not the end of our story. That's just, you know, a chapter.

[15:27]

And in the big picture... there are some horrible short stories that seem to end and have a conclusion and a narrative circle. So, well, you know, like, here's a story, right? This is a short one. I don't know if it's a story even. Actually, I don't know if it's a story. Yeah, I don't know if the story has an end. So it's a story that I've heard. This is a story I've heard. This is just a way of narrating this universe. But the story I heard is that there's a lot of people in this country who like to take cocaine, and they pay for it. And they give the money to people who give the money to people who will grow it. and they keep some for themselves, and they usually carry weapons.

[16:34]

These people would take the money. And then the money gets passed, so millions or billions of dollars of this rich country, of this very powerful country, billions of dollars, I guess, I heard, go into the hands of people, and then this money goes into these other countries, like in South America. Like I've heard, a lot of it goes, billions of dollars go to Colombia, right? And when the money gets to Colombia, then guerrillas take the money, some of the money, from the people who are growing it. So the money is not only promoting these people growing cocaine for the people in America, it's promoting a good-sized army, a guerrilla army, in the jungle who are fighting the official government. So we in America have a situation where some of us are sponsoring a group of people who are fighting the government, plus they also kill other people in villages and stuff.

[17:40]

So we're sponsoring that. Now we also, I heard, the government is now also giving money to the government of Colombia. We're giving billions, or 1.3 billion, I heard last fall was given to the Colombian governments, so we're sponsoring both sides of this war. And the rhetoric of the government, Democrat and Republican, is that this money isn't for war, this money is to fight drugs. But actually, the money doesn't go into Colombia to sponsor drug rehabilitation and, you know, stuff like that, or trying to find other ways for these people to do farming, it's going almost all into military things and not even into military training, like teaching people how to fight without murdering people, but it's going into more weapons. So I heard this story. This is a story.

[18:41]

The story is not over yet, but this is a story to talk with. This is a story for us to have a conversation with. I want to have a conversation with this story. And I would like people to help me understand if there's other versions of this story I should know about, because I want to talk about this story. I want to declare that is there some way in America for us to encourage Americans, even those who like cocaine, to stop taking cocaine because of what it does to South America? You may like cocaine or I may like cocaine, but there's a consequence of that, namely We're ruining that country by sponsoring this situation. And also on the other side, can we talk to our government to get our government to stop sponsoring the other side of the war? Can we talk about this? Can we declare, make clear our feeling about this situation that this really doesn't make much sense for us to be sponsoring both sides of a war in another country?

[19:47]

We'll be all right. for a while, but they're not all right. They're the ones that are suffering most. Of course, we also have people killing each other in our streets over this too, but it's not nearly as bad as over there where they have hundreds of thousands of people are killed in this thing, right? So this is an example of a story which is not over, but it's not a happy story. It's a story, question is, am I talking about this? without grasping? Am I just saying, you know, this is something that I want to interact with. I want to like find some way for us to let go of this this addictive process. That's what I'd like. But I want to keep saying that over and over until all beings are free of this. I don't want to get tense and try to get this, you know, control of this. It's a very big problem. This is one unhappy story, or one happy... It's more like a mini-series that's not over yet, or a long series.

[20:58]

Does that speak to your question? No? It doesn't? I was thinking about the more personal student comes to you. Oh, you're thinking like a student conversation, unhappy student conversation? Yeah, but I don't want to take it too far. I mean, even though you're in videos, I'd much rather hear you do that. Let's see, an unhappy... Let's see. What would that be like? Well, that would be like... Can unhappy stories be used as teaching stories and why don't we hear more of them? Well, I would just say, first of all, if you want to hear more unhappy stories, please ask. and I'll try to find some for you. But my feeling is that people who, generally speaking, have heard... I guess my feeling is people who come to Zen Center have heard a whole bunch of unhappy stories, and they want to hear happy stories.

[22:11]

They want inspiration to go on in this mess. They want to... What seems to be neat is to bring up positive energy rather than... rather than make people feel more negative. So bringing up negative stories sometimes helps people get grounded. And then once grounded, we can raise up the positive energy. So if people are kind of ungrounded, then I think we should like, you know, say, this isn't all just like no problemville. We're really encountering whatever here. So if you feel the conversation's getting ungrounded and needs some tough examples, let's see, do I have any on here? That last one was pretty tough. I thought that was a happy ending, but that lady was upset. She was really angry at some other Buddhists. She thought these Buddhists were not being Buddhists. She thought these people who are supposed to be practicing generosity were, like, sick. So there was a problem, but it had a happy ending.

[23:15]

But sometimes... when somebody comes with a problem, the teacher tenses up and can't respond, and you have an unhappy conversation. But then that sometimes helps because both the student and the teacher learn from that mistake. They both go away saying, well, that wasn't really the way I wanted it to be. And the next time, maybe they apologize to each other. But it maybe takes a mistake sometimes for them to notice the clinging that might not have manifested if they hadn't seen that mistake or made that big mistake. So like that person who was talking to me, if she hadn't done the gripping thing with her hand, I might not have heard in her voice the signs of that internal gripping, that internal self-righteousness. But she was being so revealing that, you know, it was very easy to have a successful conversation. And also, I guess on my side, I wasn't particularly horrified by her speaking this way about these other people.

[24:21]

You know, I didn't feel like, what a rat you are for talking this way about these dear people. You know, these are like supposedly Zen Center leaders. Right? I didn't get horrified by that. I just felt like, oh, you know, I felt good. I felt like, oh, here's a chance to, like, let go of that clinginess going on. How nice. I have a job here. I can point this out, you know. I can point out to you this. This is great, you know. So I wasn't kind of like, oh, you do bad student duty, you know, clinging, self-righteous, blah, blah, blah. You know, I didn't have that reaction. So I, pardon? What? There's a place for, you know, maybe making some laws that people should have no attachments. You know? And then we could have, like, you know, hire non-attachment police to go around, you know, and just come up to people, you know, and say, you know, you're kind of driving in a tense way there.

[25:27]

Why don't you pull over? You know, pull over and relax for a while. But I have to go to work. I'll call your boss and explain. you know, that you were cited for tension. You know, and, you know, we don't just give you a citation and let you keep driving. Like now, when people are drunk drivers, we don't give them a ticket and then they get back in their car and drive home, right? They get a ride, don't they? Their car gets impounded, I suppose. or their spouse comes and picks the car up or whatever. But we don't, so with tense people, people know that if they go to work and they're tense, they may have to be pulled over and not be able to get to work on time. So you got to get, when you get in your car, you got to kind of go, go, okay, now relax. Otherwise I won't go to work. Well, actually, maybe we should ride in buses because, yeah, because like, you know, it's hard to drive and be relaxed. We have to have had these really developed meditators driving the buses. Because they should get pulled over too, you know, if they're driving tensely.

[26:29]

And everybody in the car is in the... sitting in the bus, they're having these dramatic conversations. They're talking about the United States drug policy and stuff in a relaxed way. And we have the right-wing people on one side and the left-wing people on the other side. One side's saying, you know, it's not really a problem. And the other people say, oh, I think it is. And so we have this nice conversation going on on the bus in a relaxed way and various committee meetings and stuff on the bus. And we maybe need some laws to encourage this. Otherwise, people might think, well, you know, I'm just too busy to... I'm too busy to be relaxed. So somebody said to me just last weekend, she said, at the end of this retreat we're doing, she said, well, you know, when I leave this retreat, I got to go back home now and find some time to relax. So I took her hand.

[27:30]

Actually, you know, I'm sorry. I didn't say, may I take your hand? May I take your hand? Yes, please. So I took her hand. This one. Yeah, thanks. I took her hand, and I wrote on her hand. I said, do you have a pen? She gave me a pen. I wrote on her hand, time to relax. Now, it turns out that it was, from her perspective, it was upside down, but... Anyway, so I, yeah, that's a good way. I'll tell her that. So anyway, I wrote, time to relax. And then I wrote, well, time to relax. It's time to relax. And if that's not clear, then I wrote, now it's time to relax. Now it's time to relax. But we think, no, I've got to find time to relax. No, please, now. You may never get another moment. This may be the last one. It's not going to hurt anybody if you're relaxed.

[28:32]

It doesn't hurt people if you relax. You may be afraid. You may think something will fall off, you know, if you relax. And it's possible, you know, like it's possible that your glasses are being held in your nose by tension. But, you know, I think it's worth it. And, you know, I think that even if your glasses do fall off your nose when you relax now, guess what? When you're relaxed, you can catch them. You can make these really good catches when you're relaxed. Like these basketball players, you know, they're relaxed mostly out there. Sometimes they tense up, but when they tense up, they're less skillful. The really good ones, I don't know, excuse me for saying so, but like, and not really good ones, but the supreme... enlightened beings, like Michael Jordan, he's relaxed. He's relaxed. I mean, he was relaxed.

[29:34]

I don't know what he's doing now, but when he was on the basketball court, he was relaxed. He's getting ready to make a comeback. He was relaxed. And being relaxed, he... Being relaxed, I wouldn't even say he, but being relaxed... That relaxation is at the center of the creation of the game. So he was there at where the game is being created, so there it was. The game was created according to the one who is relaxed. So even when he was sick with a high fever, flu, he was in the center of creation of the basketball game, so that's that. How do you get at the center of creation? of these stories, where it isn't that you make the stories, but you're just there with it, and your relaxation guides the story to the conclusion to promote relaxation.

[30:35]

It isn't that when you're relaxed and you get to take control of the story, of the game. If you try to take control, you're not relaxed. It's rather that the relaxation becomes successful, that the creation accords with the relaxation and promotes the relaxation, and people see that's the way to be. That's the way to be. That's beautiful. And it encourages beings to also find out how they can relax into creation, which is totally generous, you know, totally mutual, totally happy, and encounters all the bad stories to bring blessing to them. And it thrives on all the bad stories.

[31:39]

I wanted to recommend a film about what you're talking about. It's called World... Going away? I was going to go get a drink. Okay. I'd like something to drink, yeah. That'd be interesting what it would be. Water? Actually, surprise me. You know, water might be a surprise, but... A film recommend... What? A movie about the cocaine world called Blow. She recommends it. Okay, great. Thank you. So what I'm talking about now, I'm talking about the price of admission to creation.

[32:39]

And the price of admission to creation is to meet whatever comes, to meet whoever comes, to meet whatever comes. It means whatever experience comes up inwardly, supposedly, or outwardly in the sense of humans, other animals and plants and things, cars, trucks, whatever. Whatever comes, to meet whatever comes, to meet whatever comes with no mind. And no mind means no regular mind, which is a mind, the normal human mind, to meet whatever comes with not your normal human mind. Normal human mind is, she's beautiful. Did I see you at the health club? She's beautiful. I saw her at the health club, and they're different. That's the normal human mind. I saw her at the health club, and she said to me as I was leaving, she said, are you from Green Gulch?

[33:46]

And I said, no, no. I said, yes, she said. That's really interesting. I guess I thought when I saw you, I thought, no, no, he's a Buddhist priest. He wouldn't be in this health club. But she said, well, but maybe it's really true that Buddha nature is everywhere and a priest could go to a health club. And here she is. You didn't get too discouraged seeing me in the health club? I didn't get discouraged seeing you either. I don't mind being interrogated in the health club. Why are you lifting those weights? So anyway, the ordinary human mind makes these discriminations. You know, mother, daughter, wife, husband, makes these. So okay, that's fine. But let go of those discriminations.

[34:49]

Normal human mind makes preferences. Meet whatever happens, letting go of your preferences. In other words, meet whatever happens with complete relaxation. That's the entry to creation. And then when you enter into creation, you understand the reality. But you've got to be careful because when you enter a creation, you might have like a, what do you call it, a reaction. You know, like now that I'm here, I'm going to like capitalize. Now I got, you know, and try to like get all the goodies there in creation. So you've got to keep doing the practice after you get in too. Resist grasping the jewels that have now been given to you as a reward for your non-attachment, non-preference. That's the practice.

[35:54]

Just meet whatever comes. Now is the time. to relax. Now is the time to not grasp. Now is the time to give up trying to control. Now is the time. That's the practice. And somebody came to see me and she said, when we were discussing this practice, I don't even know if we were discussing, maybe she heard me talk about it some other time, she said, well it's simple. And I said, yes it is. It's simple. It can be expanded indefinitely, but basically it's very simple. Meet whatever happens with no grasping and no seeking. That's simple. But what you meet is infinitely complex. So meet complexity with simplicity. Meet the great variety. Thank you. Meet the great variety of experiences

[36:56]

with basically one practice. In other words, have a practice which, although it may have infinite variety, it's really all one practice. Now, what it was brought to me, by the way, looks like, smells like, and looks like apple juice. Looks like apple juice and I have a preference not to drink apple juice. It was okay. I wrote down okay here someplace. Where is it? Someplace I said okay. Where was it?

[37:59]

Anyway, and this person who I was talking to about seeing this practice is simple. But in order to develop this practice and help this practice spread throughout the universe, we have to practice it on everything so it can spread. So the practice of this non-grasping, life intimacy with creation, that it spreads and all beings are encouraged and invited and welcomed into the actual reality of creation and can enjoy and promote it. So we have to meet complexity. Yes? Okay, what, I do too.

[39:02]

I do too. Yeah, and so part of the way I will deepen my relaxation, I think, is to talk with it more. So I want to, I feel like it requires, in other words, I feel like, I feel more willing to relax by being closer to the story. So I want to know more about this So intimacy with the story makes my relaxation more and more real or more and more grounded. And I want help with that, so I appreciate that. So let's work on that, okay? Well, one reason I'm interested personally is not only because I used to do substances and I did try cocaine a long time ago, but just over the holiday, my aunt's nephew got killed in this so-called drug war and they broke it. Yeah. Well, yeah. It's touching us all personally.

[40:03]

So let's open to that touch and start talking with it. So again, this person has talked about how simple the practice is, the simple practice of meeting everything with no mind. no ordinary mind of preference and control. She also said something about Buddha's smile. We have a Buddha up there, and we have behind the Buddha one of the Buddha's children, the big one, Manjushri Bodhisattva. And here we have Tara Buddha, and we have Jizo Bosatsu, Earth Store Bodhisattva. Is that bodhisattva smiling? Do you see a smile there? Does that bodhisattva look joyful? It's subtle though, isn't it? It's not a heavy duty smile. It's a relaxed smile.

[41:04]

This bodhisattva is bubbling with joy at the opportunity of going to hell to play with hell residents. This bodhisattva's joyfully wish to be born in all states of misery, not to go there and make things worse, but to go there and play with those beings. This bodhisattva goes into states of woe to play. All bodhisattvas come into the world joyfully to play with us. The Buddha also is smiling, this person observes smiling, A joyful response to all life, a joyful response, an appreciation of all life, appreciation of all life, appreciation of drug wars. A joyful response to drug wars, but not tense.

[42:09]

A smile, a joyful response, but not tense. Joyful to be near to this misery. because these miserable beings are the life of Buddha. Buddha has no life away from the greatest misery on the planet, and no life away from the lesser miseries, and no life away from the greatest happiness. Buddha is connected to all beings in all states. That's what we mean by Buddha. And we have that potential according to the Buddhist tradition. We have the potential to be near to all beings and to have a joyful response to go to the hospital and visit a friend and have a joyful response, be happy, joyfully happy that we can visit them and that we care about them. We're happy about that, and we have the potential to go there to care, to be happy, and to be not tense, to relax with them so that if they get healthy, that's okay with us.

[43:12]

If we can't visit them in the hospital anymore because they've left, we can adjust. If they stay in the hospital, we can adjust. We're not going there to try to control them. We're going there to meet them with this mind of blessing, to enter into the creation of our life together and show them the way to enter through talking, through this conversation. So these bodhisattvas, these Buddhas, they're smiling, they're joyful, meeting each one of us in whatever suffering we bring. Some days we come and we're happily bowing to the Buddha. Some days we're very sad bowing to the Buddha. Today we're having a funeral this afternoon, so we will come with sorrow and some grief about a dear friend who has passed, and we'll come to meet the Buddhas, and we'll try to relax to promote entry into creation of birth and death, the creation of birth and death.

[44:14]

and promote all beings being at peace and at ease in birth and death. A joyful response the Buddha has to us, but not tense. Well, it's getting late and I have some other conversations, but I don't know if I should bring them up. maybe one more or maybe six more. One more is this person came to see me and he was talking to me and he was saying various intelligent things. Actually, he's an intelligent person, this person, saying various intelligent things. And then he said something, even to top off all the intelligent things, he said something really intelligent.

[45:22]

He said, and all this I've been saying is just a distraction. That was really good. He was just like, very smart stuff, but it was basically all distraction from him just sitting there being with me. Two guys. One smart and one zen. Just kidding. He's zen too. Anyway, he said, and all this is just a diversion or a distraction. And I said, can you guess what I said? What did I say? I said yes. I said yes. And then what did I say? I sort of did say relax, but guess again what I said.

[46:26]

That's sort of what I said, yeah. And then what did I say? That's an awakened moment. Huh? That was an awakened moment, yeah. Anyway, I did, yes? That's even closer. Huh? Okay. Okay, fine, yes, great, okay. Then I said, are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready?" And when I said, are you ready, his eyes looked upward and to the right. He was checking to see if he was ready. Not me, but quick-eyed love noticed those eyes, little peepers looking up to see if he was ready. And I said, checking to see if you're ready is not being ready.

[47:33]

So I said, are you ready? And again, he looked someplace and then tried to look inward. This time he didn't move his eyes, but he looked inward to check to see if he could find a place where he was ready. I said, that's a distraction. You're distracting yourself. I said, are you ready? And he diverted again. And I said, are you ready? And he said, I don't know. I said, that's a diversion. I said, are you ready? And he said, yes. Are you ready? Are you ready? Yes. Are you ready to not be distracted from this life? Yes. Are you ready to enter the truth? Yes. Are you ready? Yes. Not checking to see if you know if you're ready. Just answer the question. And no is fine too.

[48:38]

nothing's a distraction unless you reach for it or grab it or seek it. Then whatever comes is appropriate to being ready to relax and be admitted to Buddha's heart and mind and life. Very simple, but in the great complexity of our life, hard to, hard to sometimes not get distracted. So, we confess, I got distracted. Okay. Are you ready? Are you ready? Do you wish to continue to learn how to be ready? Are you ready? No. Would you like to learn how to be ready? Yes. Are you ready? Yes. Did you learn how to be ready? Yes. Is this a happy ending? Yes. Is this an unhappy ending? No. Is this an ending?

[49:47]

No. Is this a beginning? Yes. Is this a beginning? Yes. You know that word commencement they do at the end of high school or whatever. It means it's sort of like the end of high school and it's the beginning of the end of high school. Are you ready for what's coming to you to be respected, even if it seems to be trouble? Are you ready to see, are you ready to respect the troubles? Are you ready to respect and see this huge drug problem of our society, of our world? Are you ready to see this as a field to be cared for in a field where we can realize and test our practice.

[50:51]

Are you ready? Are you ready? Yes, I'm ready. The next part of this event is not really a talk by me. This is not a talk exactly which, well, this talk didn't happen, this conversation didn't happen recently. But this is an example of a dramatic conversation that happened in this country. And the dramatic conversation that happened in this country In a sense, you know, I'm telling a story now, and this is a story which doesn't have a happy ending, but it has a happy, it's going along in some ways pretty happily.

[51:54]

And it's a conversation between women, and it's a conversation between women and men. In 1776, I heard, there was a Declaration of Independence written by a guy named Thomas Jefferson. And I think it starts out something like this. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people of a family of man to assume among the people of this earth a position different from that which they have hitherto acquired. but one which the laws of nature and the laws of God entitle them. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare, they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.

[53:03]

I'm not sure, but I think maybe the Declaration of Independence started out like that. Does anybody know? Something like that. Did you understand that part? Sometimes you've got to say something. This is how the Declaration of Independence, which was written about that time, starts out. Seventy-two years later, In Seneca Falls, New York, Western New York, I believe. Is it Western New York? Anyway, Seneca Falls, New York, a woman named Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote something, made a declaration, a declaration of rights and sentiments of women, which starts out just as I just read to you, but it goes on. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.

[54:14]

And I heard that this was the first time in history when a woman got up and publicly said that to a bunch of women and men, and they wrote it down. This begins a conversation between women and between women and men, which is still going on, a conversation to realize equality between the genders. this country has the great pride, the possibility of having the great pride that this conversation, that this declaration could be made and the women who made it could live a long and happy life and keep making this over and over for 50 years afterwards. And that 72 years after this statement was made, women got to vote.

[55:27]

And 72 years after they vote, we reach 1992, where not only could they vote, but they could serve in the legislative bodies of the nation. They could be lawyers. They could be in the government, and they could even be president of this nation, a nation that has the great virtue of allowing this conversation between women and men to happen. And for this conversation to spread throughout the world, we have so many atrocities that that we are involved with in this country, like the drug situation. But we also have some things which are really wonderful. For example, the women's movement, which is bringing great blessing to men and women, to masters and slaves.

[56:31]

And this declaration grew up in concert with the emancipation of the slaves. But anyway, this is a great thing, you know. She says, the history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man towards woman. She could say that. This is a great country that would allow her to say that and allow me now to say it again. because she was allowed to. We got problems, but we can speak out. That's our great thing. So we should speak out. What do you have to declare? She loved her children. She loved being a mother. She loved being at home. She also wanted some time to express herself, and she got it.

[57:33]

And she says, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. Not just in America, but throughout history. Before history, before history, it wasn't that way. Before history, it was also herstory. But when history started, herstory ended. Women lost their voice. Now they're starting to speak in this country. They're starting to speak. They've been speaking for 72 years. They've been speaking for 72 more years, and now 72 plus 9. Please, women, keep speaking. You're saving the world by expressing yourselves and talking to the men. This is the One of the greatest things that's ever been realized by this democracy is this movement where women can say this stuff.

[58:40]

I'm not saying it's true or false, but they get to say it and touch people by these words, which are their feelings, are their sentiments. They get to say what they feel. What they feel is not ultimate reality, but they must be able to speak, and they can. You can speak. He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to elective franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws in the formation of which she had no voice. He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men. Having deprived her of her first right of a citizen, the elective franchise,

[59:50]

thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation. He has oppressed her on all sides. He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead. He has taken from her all right in property." even to the wages she earns. He has made her morally an irresponsible being. As she cannot commit many crimes with impunity, provided they be done in the presence of her husband. In the covenant of marriage, she is compelled to promise obedience to her husband, he becoming, to all intents and purposes, her master, the law giving him power to deprive her of her liberty and to administer chastisement.

[61:16]

At this time in America that she wrote this, men could legally beat their wives. When she got married, she married someone, she married a man. She was heterosexual, in a sense. And she loved this man. But when she got married, she changed the marriage contract and deleted the part about obeying. She didn't make him say it, but she deleted it. And she got married, and she had boys and boys and boys. And she loved those boys. She loved them. She loved men. But she stood up and said what they did have done to women. And she said it eloquently, and she is a great bodhisattva. And she had a friend named Susan B. Anthony who didn't have a family, but I think she loved men too.

[62:20]

And they loved each other. And those two women, you know, it's not just what they did, but that it's possible to do what they did in this country is such a great inspiration to us. I hope. I think I'd like you to wait and speak in question and answer. Is that okay? Thank you. So anyway, this is called the Declaration of Sentiments. Which is, you know, it's equally great. Maybe even, I don't know, it's not really comparable in a sense because the Declaration of Independence makes possible this, but this in some ways is a more pervasive declaration of equality and freedom than even the Declaration of Independence because the Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal. So this is like the flowering of the Declaration of Independence.

[63:23]

a further evolution of the principles of this country. And so we should all learn this. We should learn the Declaration of Independence and we should learn this statement too. And I just wanted to share that with you. I'm feeling so grateful to this woman and all women for the great work of waking up this world and having the courage to have this conversation. You notice it was a conversation. It wasn't a war. They walked peacefully through the streets. The police took away their banners. They kept it up in a very courageous way. And some people said it wasn't very ladylike, the way they acted. Ladies were not supposed to be out in the street, walking like that in public, getting up and talking to a large group of people. That was not ladylike. It was bodhisattva-like. It was Buddha-like.

[64:24]

So please, if you have time, relax. And then save the world. Now, please, Will you please? Are you ready?

[64:43]

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