Unsurpassed, penetrating, and perfect karma, it is rarely that with even a hundred thousand million kalpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the Takata's words. Well, it's great to be here at Berkley Zen Center. And congratulations to Linda on being the new abbot of Berkley Zen Center. So, tomorrow is the memorial or funeral or whatever of Hosan Allen Sinaki, old friend. So I want to start by talking about Hosan. We were... students together at Columbia University in 1968.

[01:04]

We were among 700 others who were arrested together after occupying the buildings. We were in different buildings, but we were arrested together. And yeah, there was a demonstration against the Vietnam War and against racism and Yeah, so a long time ago. But this was a couple of weeks after Dr. King was killed. And Alan became a very great scholar of Dr. Martin Luther King and his work and looking at it from a Buddhist perspective. In 2003, Alan and I were arrested together again.

[02:06]

We were Zen priests by then at the federal building in San Francisco protesting the invasion of Iraq, which happened even though there were hundreds of thousands of people protesting it beforehand around the world. So I got to know Alan. Better in the fall of 1968, he was in a band that rehearsed in the apartment I shared with four other Columbia students, including the leader of the band. And we hung out together. The apartment looked out over Harlem, so we would hang out and watch the fires. We tripped all together a lot. Alan and that band moved to Woodstock in 1969, and I visited them a few times.

[03:15]

And Alan continued making music, as you all know. He was a solo artist and was in various bluegrass groups. He did a couple of CDs, Everything is Broken, and Wooden Man later on. So Alan and I got to know each other better again in 1985. I had been headdo on. I was headdo on for the summer. I'd been at Tassajara for a couple of years. And amongst the... New guest students coming in was the name Alan Sinaki, and of course there couldn't be two of them. So we reconnected. And he'd been practicing here at the Berkeley Zen Center. I'd live in a Tassajara. Later we collaborated and consulted about Buddhist teaching and activism, Buddhist activism.

[04:26]

So, for example, in 2006, Alan joined in an anti-torture vigil and teaching at Berkeley Law School. John Yoo, who had written the torture memos, was teaching there and I think is still teaching there, alas. Anyway, so Alan spoke a few times at these vigils and was there in support a lot. And then at the end of that year, beginning of 2007, I relocated to Chicago to Ancient Dragon's Zen Gate, where I'd been traveling to for a few years. And Alan actually spoke at Ancient Dragon's Zen Gate 14 times from 2009 to 2023. He also performed musically occasionally.

[05:33]

So we consulted together about our sanghas, about his being assistant vice-habit at Berklee Zen Center, about issues I had at Ancient Dragon Zen Game. And, you know, we were friends. It was good. So, Husam was part of many different communities. Of course, here at Berkeley Zen Center, but also he was involved in music with various groups. He traveled widely. He was in Burma many times helping Buddhists who were protesting the military dictatorship there. And then later on he was helping, supporting the Rohingya Muslims who are being persecuted still by the Burmese government and Burmese Buddhists.

[06:43]

So Alan did a lot. He was really energetic. He was really out there. He went to India where he helped Dalit Buddhists. and he became a scholar of Ambedkar, who was the founder of the Dalit Untouchable Buddhists, and spreading of Buddhism again in India. Also, he traveled to Japan and Germany. He was just very energetic. in his Dharma work. He worked with engaged Buddhist groups around the world. He produced a few books.

[07:49]

Heirs to Ambedkar, Bodhisattva Embrace, and then Turning Words, which is a wonderful book that takes phrases, words, turning words, from different Americans and teachers, and actually internationals, international Buddhist teachers, and phrases that actually impacted Alan. So it's a very personal book, but it's really good. So, yeah, I want to say more about Alan, but I don't know. It's difficult. There's a funeral tomorrow at Freighton Salvage, and I'll be there. And I don't know if Laurie's here.

[08:54]

Oh, hi. Yeah, Lori was a Tassajara, too, back then. She was Tenzo, I think, around the time that Alan came. And so, yeah, Lori and I go back a long ways, too. So, yeah, Alan was just Alan. He was really... He understood a lot. He was savvy about a lot. He told me once that I was like an Old Testament prophet, because I, even from the Dharma Seat, as I'm going to now, spoke about political things. Politics is just another way of being involved with bodhisattva work. So we're living in horrible times.

[10:05]

We know that. We all know that. There's a horrible genocide going on in Gaza and the West Bank. And it's an American genocide. We're supplying the arms. I mean, the Israeli government and the Israeli defense forces are involved. But it's really an American genocide. as well as an Israeli genocide, supported by our tax dollars. And it's kind of bipartisan, although it's starting to shift, just barely starting to shift, after mass slaughter of children and starvation now. It's just horrible. What to do? What to do? People, college students and many others of us who are advocating for opposing Israel's policies are stamped as anti-Semitic.

[11:18]

And it's just not true. Like Alan, I was raised Jewish. I was... was bar mitzvahed at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, a few blocks from where I grew up, which was the site of a massacre in 2018. So there's real anti-Semitism, but opposing the government of Israel is not. And so never again, the phrase from The Holocaust applies, you know, not just to Jewish people. It applies to anyone. So anyway, I'm going to give a litany of some of the horrible things that are happening. Immigrants are being deported without due process. I don't know if it's dangerous.

[12:26]

If ICE raids are up here in San Francisco now, they are certainly... in Los Angeles. People are being rounded up and deported because of their skin color, because they're Latino. Health care is under attack. Women are under attack, women's health care particularly, but women in general. There was a Republican state legislator who has advocated that women not be allowed to vote anymore. And so horrible things are happening under this billionaire regime. There's an end to the Department of Education. There's an end to climate science. So the Environmental Protection Agency is being decimated.

[13:31]

with the slogan, Drill Baby Drill. And Columbia University, where Alan and I were arrested, is now very much involved in supporting the Trump regime and attacking students who are protesting. Amongst other things, today is the 80th anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing. So nuclear danger remains and is expanding. The bombing at Nagasaki, three days after the Hiroshima bombing,

[14:33]

was really unnecessary. I mean, the Hiroshima bombing too. The Japanese were about to surrender, were trying to surrender. And I think President Truman went to, okayed the bombing of Hiroshima because of, well, to warn Russia. So it's complicated. but certainly Nagasaki bombing was extra. Even if the Hiroshima bombing was ostensibly to end the war quickly, I saw something that President Truman didn't even know there was going to be a bombing at Nagasaki. I don't know.

[15:35]

Anyway, there's various information about that. So, you know, what do we do? How do we respond to all of this? Despair... despondency is not helpful. We can all feel that given the state of things in our country now, but it's not helpful. What is helpful is paying attention, looking at alternative news sources. The news media is kind of going along with Trump. It's varied.

[16:37]

Anyway, we all know this. We know about this. Speaking about this in Berkeley is like bringing Colston to Newcastle. But even in Chicago, we know this. It's terrible. And what do we do? And what would Alan do? What would Hozan do? Hozan was really... I don't know how much he spoke about all this when he was at the abbot here. I think he was trying to be moderate, but he knew about this. What would Alan do? And networking and informing each other about this is important.

[17:41]

I watch Democracy Now! every morning. Just one good news source. But there's lots of others. But there are alternative news sources. Anyway. But I want to kind of close with talking about Wayan Buddhism. So, Huayan Buddhism is a Chinese school of Buddhism that was an offshoot of the Adha Tamsaka Sutra, of Lao Raman Sutra, which is called Huayan in Chinese, Keigon in Japanese. And this branch of Buddhism is, institutionally, it didn't last very long. five main abbots or patriarchs of the Huayin school. But Dongshan, who is considered the founder of Soto Zen, actually can be considered the sixth Huayin patriarch.

[18:50]

He's, Dongshan, well, there was the Sandokai before Dongshan, Shito, 700 to 790. And then Dongshan came up with the five degrees. So this is about seeing the phenomenal world, the world of particulars, the world of all of the things that are happening now, but also balanced by seeing the ultimate reality of wholeness, which we taste, at least, in our sasa. So, you know, there's this dance between the ultimate reality, universal ultimate reality, and the particular phenomenon that includes

[20:00]

billionaires and all the things that are happening now. But the fundamental truth is that we are all connected. We're all connected. We are all particular, but also part of one body and not just people, Republicans and Democrats and independents. but also the trees and the flowers and the birds and even the rocks and mountains. So Soto Zen is very much, follows Huayin. Huayin Buddhism is actually, there was a recent academic conference where there were scholars from East Asian Buddhism from all the different traditions of East Asian Buddhism. And they all agreed that Hawaiian Buddhism was fundamental to all of them, even Jodo Shinshu and Nichiren and all of the different branches of Japanese Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism and Korean Buddhism.

[21:18]

Korea was very much influenced by Hawaiian. So this balance, this You know, Suki Roshi talked about losing our balance against the background of perfect balance. This balance of the universal and the particular. So, we're all connected and we're also connected in time. So, you know, Dongshan lived in the 700s and 800s. And Dogen lived in the 1200s. Suzuki Roshi lived in the 1960s, up to 1971. And so in time, things change.

[22:19]

So how are we going to take care of the world after Trump? After. And there's tremendous damage being done now. And it's going to be a long haul. But we don't know how things will work out. We don't know. There's a great Zen koan about how not knowing is most intimate. Not knowing is nearest. We don't know the results of all of this. We don't know how it's going to be. But we know that there is help and hope for the world.

[23:23]

But we have to do it. It's up to us. It's up to us to pay attention. to all the things that are happening, to respond as best we can, to go to demonstrations or sign petitions online or whatever, to resist. So all the terrible things that are happening, I mean, the climate damage and the climate storms and wildfires and hurricanes and, you know, it's all exacerbated by climate. And now, you know, Trump's slogan is drill baby drill.

[24:25]

So how do we... How is this going to shift? We know it will shift in time. We know that the world will continue. The world will continue. Maybe with far less humans or fewer humans. Maybe we will, in the next election, change the House or the Senate so that there is an opposition to Trump. Anyway, we don't know. And not knowing is a great help for us. We can overcome our despair. You know, despair isn't necessary. There's damage being done. There are people being harmed.

[25:26]

It's really horrible. But... How do we keep a positive outlook? How do we respond? These are dark times and yet we are losing our balance against the background of perfect balance. So thinking of Alan, and how he would be responding to this towards the end of his life when we spoke. He didn't know. He just didn't know. And he knew that these things were coming. But Zen has a long time space.

[26:30]

We think about Shakyamuni Buddha, 1500, 500 BC more or less. We talk about Sixth Ancestor and Dongshan and Hongzhi and Dogen. Their world was so much different. Dogen did not have electric lights. And we don't have video recordings of his talks. Actually, he had Jishas and Anjas who recorded a lot of his talks. So he left Shobo Genzo and Eiko Roku and so we have a lot of

[27:32]

his perspective. So thinking about, Dogen was what, 800 years ago? Is that right? 800, 900, yeah. So what's the world gonna be like in 800 years? We don't know. Will Soto Zen still continue? Will people walking by the Berkeley Zen Center still have a place to go? Just in 100 years, 200 years, 300 years, we have to think in terms of a long, long time span. And it's up to us right now to do what we can do. our ancestors of the future are looking back at us, wishing us well.

[28:41]

So, I think there's still a lot of time for questions and answers and discussion, and I'm interested in hearing from people online and from people here in the room, any comments, questions, responses. So please feel free. Hello. Thank you very much for your talk. When I think about your activism, which has been ongoing, long as I've been aware of your existence. I think the thing that I've heard you speak about the most and posting on the ACTA and SCBA listeners the most is climate.

[29:52]

It's the climate crisis. Because I think that it's just fundamental to everything. And I feel like... I want to play Old Testament prophet myself right now. They say nature baths last. Right now, the fires in Canada, so much of Canada is on fire right now that they can smell the smoke in Europe. And this is not getting better. It is getting worse. And I feel that all the human antics, all this... nonsense is going on that's causing so much pain and suffering is going to be eclipsed by the climate crisis, which is just getting worse, to the point where we humans are just going to be struggling to stay alive, struggling to merely exist. And that's going to level everything.

[30:54]

That's what I think. I am very extremely sad about war and political nonsense and needless suffering, genocide, all of it. And I just feel like real quick, quicker than we know, it's going to become like, oh yeah, remember that? Remember when that mattered? Yeah. Yes, I think that's right. And the climate situation is bad. It's not something... I don't know about tipping points. I read various things. But I think there is, as bad as it may be, and it may be that... I mean, the planet will survive.

[31:56]

Human beings may not. but also human beings are resilient and adaptable and whatever is coming. I think at some point people are going to wake up. I mean, well, lots of people have walked up already about this, but yeah, I don't have any answers, but I know it's critical and we need to keep paying attention to it and alternative technologies, I don't know. But, you know, in many places in Europe, for example, there is solar power and geothermal and wind power that is sustaining much, if not most of

[32:59]

the energy needs. So there are countries where that's happening. We have the technology, actually. You know, and there may be various fixes that are needed. We have the technology. We just don't have the political will, at least in this country. And so, yeah, it's going to be bad. But there's so many things that can go wrong, and the nuclear danger is really serious, too. So that's, you know, this is a terrible time. However, there's an old story that bodhisattvas from many, many different realms, different solar systems, different, I don't know what, different dimensions, are all lined up waiting to be born here because they know that this is the place where they're most needed.

[34:06]

So, you know, the Lotus Sutra has that wonderful chapter about the bodhisattvas emerging from the earth. And yes, so there will be help. So we have to keep paying attention. Keep looking at climate. Keep looking at the nuclear danger. Keep looking at the ICE agents. Horrible, horrible stuff. So I don't know, but I share your concerns. Thank you, Britt. Can a lady have a comment online? Yes. I can't really see who's online, but please. Yes, who is this? I'm sorry, not me. I don't know why it went to me. Okay.

[35:12]

I'll start. Thank you so much for your talk. There we go. And who are you? I've been practicing at BCC since... 2009, something like that. And, um, I'm part of a small group of folks from BCC who are in our group, we're focusing on activism and organizing and the action side of things, uh, but grounded in Dharma and practice call ourselves and action practice. Cause it, cause it abbreviates to zap, but, um, um, I really appreciated how in your talk you didn't separate Dharma from activism and organizing. And I'm thinking, for example, of what you were saying about don't know mind as an antidote to despair.

[36:19]

Right. And I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts further words or resources to point to those of us who are kind of more on the organizing activist side of things. Yes. What else? Well, oh, you know, I was going to mention, Alan and I started working on a book back before pandemic we were collaborating on a book about social engagement in the old Buddhist teaching so I have his notes I'm hopeful maybe I can start to put together that book from notes that we both have so that's just you know that

[37:21]

That Buddhism has... Engaged Buddhism is not something new. Buddhism has always been engaged. Shakyamuni sat by the riverside when an army was coming and stopped an invasion. Of course, later they came again. Oh, well, but... So we're going to, and I hope maybe I can put together all of the notes that Alan spoke about different engaged Buddhist texts. So this is just looking at parts of primary texts and little introductions. Anyway, so that's just a kind of besides from your question, but... How do we take care of our planet?

[38:25]

So I don't know that I have, well, okay, Gary Schneider talked about Zazen being, about Zazen and cleaning the temple. And the boundaries of the temple can be as wide as the world, if you want. So we have to see. that we can be cleaning the temple. And what to do right now, demonstrations actually make a difference. So I got to know Dan Ellsberg when I was doing the anti-torture vigil, and he told me a story that, and he verified this, he said this was true, that President Nixon was sitting in the Oval Office one day, with Henry Kissinger, and he decided to bomb, to drop nuclear bombs on Hanoi. He decided that's what we're going to do. But then he looked out the window.

[39:29]

And there were hundreds of thousands of people protesting. And he thought, maybe I shouldn't do that right now. And he didn't. Those people went home and they may have thought that it didn't make any difference. I think the news report said that Nixon was watching a football game that day. Didn't know about the demonstrations. But actually, the demonstrators stopped a nuclear attack. We don't know. We don't know what to do. But all of the different things, sanctuaries, sanctuary cities for Latino people, Hispanic people, trying to identify the ICE operatives.

[40:49]

Anyway, there are things to be done. speaking for the climate. So there are things to be done. Yeah. Thank you. And thank you for bringing so much of Hozon forward today. I encourage you to do that book. I would look forward to doing that. Quickly, what would Dogen do? Because he basically was run out of town. And also, Hozan told a story often about where they were going to do the sit-in, but the students of color, specifically the African-American students, were like, that's cool for you, but it's a little dangerous for us.

[41:54]

Perhaps you want to give your interpretation of that. And again, thank you. Yeah, well, okay, two questions. What would Dogev do, which I'll come back to, but what happened at Columbia was that we took over the main college teaching building and stayed there overnight. And then the black students asked us to leave in the morning because we were White students were undisciplined, were unruly, were making a mess. And the black students said, go take over other buildings. So we did. I was one of the people who broke into Lowe Library where Allen was arrest that morning. And anyway. Did you have a feeling about that? We had a feeling that the war in Vietnam was terrible. And we had to do something. and Dr. King had just been killed, and Columbia had built a gym, which was in Morningside Heights, taking away a place for black people and expanding.

[43:10]

But yeah, it was actually the blacks in Hamilton Hall who really made that event happen. We didn't really know it. Well, 40 years later, there was a kind of memorial or just, yeah, we got together at Columbia and found out about this. So, yeah. That's the story that Alan tells, I'm sure. Yeah. And what would Dogen do? Well, Dogen lives in a totally different time. There was not even the pretense of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or equal justice under the law or anything like that.

[44:14]

It was a feudal society. So it's a total, it's not, the question is wrong. It's, I mean, what would Dogen do? Well, Dogen was committed to Zazen. Dogen was committed to seeing that all being, the rocks and the birds and the trees and, you know, all being was alive. All objects were alive. All of, the world was alive. So how do we see that now? How do we see that? And this goes to the climate question too. How do we see that mountains and rocks are alive? That trees are alive? We know now that there are these fungal mycorrhizal whatever networks underneath forests where trees can

[45:18]

respond to other trees and warn them of dangers and share nutrition. And so, yeah. What would Dogen do? Thank you for that question. Yes. Thank you for being here. It's a pleasure. What would Dogen do? I think it goes back to watering beneficial seeds. That's what we can do. We water the beneficial seeds. And pay attention to what works. Yeah. And work for that. What's effective? What reaches you? There's endless, myriad places to start. What calls to you? I think that's... I want to encourage people to do that. Yes, thank you.

[46:19]

Yes, and each of us can take on some issue, some context, and work at it, and work with organizations that are doing good things. Work with the ACLU, or work with Greenpeace, or work with, you know, find an organization that's doing things that you agree with and support them in whatever way you can. Yes, back there. Is that Alex? Yeah. Hi. Hi, nice to see you. Thank you so much for calling in. My whole family really appreciates it. I don't have a question, but I wanted to say that you've been on my mind because last A couple months ago, we had a practice period in which we studied the Lotus Sutra. And I took a class with you at Institute for Buddhist Studies about the Lotus Sutra.

[47:24]

So I just wanted to thank you for opening that text for me and for many people around the world with your work. Thank you. And to say, Gan Bhate, please continue to do that work. Thank you. Yeah. And thank you, Alex, for all your... There's a question online. Okay. And then Andrea has a question, but go ahead. Who is this? My name is Lynn McMichael. Hi. Hi. And thank you so much for your talk and for Don't Know Mine. And when you mentioned Dan Ellsberg, I thought back to the last week of the Vietnam War. when we were in a house in Palo Alto and somebody, and he was describing him and Tony Russo walking up the court stairs to what they thought was going to be the rest of their lives in prison.

[48:30]

Yes. And he said, you know, and somebody asked him as he was walking up the stairs, not asking him, but saying, I guess none of it worked. And he said, we sit in this room this last week of the war, and we know that it all worked. It all worked. But we can't see that. Yeah. And so I think you're encouraging words of keeping at it and looking in the distance. And all we are is accountable for our actions. So I thank you very much. Thank you for the support and encouragement and all the good work you do. Thank you.

[49:38]

Thank you so much for being here. In these last many months, the times I've missed Hozon the most is why I've been grappling with these questions. He was so deep. He had such a deep understanding of politics and history. Thank you for opening this discussion. I want to share a conversation that I had with him and get your thoughts about it. We were talking not so long before he died about Palestine and Gaza. And I asked him, how is healing possible? And he said to me, it may not be. I didn't see that as nihilistic. I actually saw that as a way forward. And I wonder what comes up for you and if you could share your thoughts on that comment. Ah, yes.

[50:46]

Well, there is healing. There is wholeness. We each have some experience of death through Zazen. But in the world at large, you know, there are people who, whatever it is, 30% of the population who are adamantly for Trump, you know, and his shenanigans. And we haven't healed from a civil war. There's still the racism. So yeah, healing, what healing is, is not there. And how we can take hold of the parts where we can heal and respect the people who voted for Trump.

[51:55]

They have their own fears. They have their own, you know, it's not a matter of us and them. It's just not. We're all in it together. And some people, you know, maybe don't know it or whatever, but So it's not about healing, exactly. It's about how we move forward. That's all I understood. Thank you very much. And this fellow over here has a... And then there's somebody back there. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for your talk and for coming. This may be obvious to everyone, but I'll just say it. In addition to Helping with despair, I think not knowing is also where we can get the inspiration for how to act. Oh, good.

[52:56]

Yes, yes, yes. Yes, well, no, say more, please. Don't know. Okay, that's it. Yes, we don't know. I mean, in my experience, phenomenal loss for what to do. The only way to know what to do is to let go of everything I think I know. Everything I think I should do or worrying about and just not know. And then somehow you can say miraculously or magically or whatever, but somehow something always comes that says, do this. And it may be very different than anything I might have. conceptually come up with, but it's also brilliant in its own way, and I think in applying that to protesting and resisting oppression on a mass scale, that can be the greatest source of success, is to not know and see what arises.

[54:04]

Yes, and to have a kind of balance of, okay, it's pretty terrible, but also You know, there is wholeness. So thank you. Yes. And there's somebody back there who has their hand up. Last question. Last question. There's somebody way in the back who had their hand up. I can't really see back there. Thank you for your talk. One thing Alan talked a lot about, one thing I felt like I learned from him, he talked about always having a long view. Yes. He said it that way, take the long view about people, about institutions, about movements, about actions. When I talk to some people, a lot of people seem to think that the little things they do don't seem to matter.

[55:12]

I always feel that it's the little things that make up the long view. Yes. And that step by step is really important. And that's as true here in our temple as it is outside the gate, I think. You know, all the little things that the positions that people take, sometimes they feel they're not important, but all of the little positions are important because it makes the temple what it is. Indeed. Yes, thank you. Long view. Yes, it's a long, you know, we, again, thinking about time and the time since Stogen and Buddha and, you know, the time forward, you know, 800 years from now. So, yes, we take the long view and act as we see right now. Yes. This is what the bodhisattvas emerging from the earth in the Lotus Sutra are telling us.

[56:18]

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