For more information on Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, please visit our website at www.ancientdragon.org. Our teachings are offered to the community through the generosity of our supporters. To make a donation online, please visit our website. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Good morning. and welcome. So for new folks on Taigen Lightning, we had several new people or these people I haven't met in the Zendo Squad, which is auspicious for us and really lucky for you. This is a cool song. So you're in the right place. So this is my final talk as Guiding Barber Teacher of Ancient Dragons and Gate. So I want today to celebrate ancient dragon and a little bit about how I got here.

[01:03]

It's great to see everybody, lots of people online. Okay, so I spent 38 days in the San Francisco Bay Area, practiced at San Francisco Zen Center, including three years at Tassajara Monastery. And more than two years in the middle of that, living in Kyoto . From the middle or late 90s on, I did guest teaching at, I think, 30 different sun places in the lower 48. And especially in Richmond, Virginia, for several years. And then after an intro, Richmond said, it's scared, so climb it. So, yeah, I actually considered relocating to Richmond. Somehow I ended up in Chicago instead. So I was thinking about relocating somewhere outside the Bay Area.

[02:13]

There were Zen teachers, but in every street corner in the Bay Area. And, well, maybe not quite, but there were plenty of Zen teachers there. And my group teacher, Technician Rev Anderson, encouraged me to go to Chicago and said, Chicago's a big city. So very much more I am immeasurably grateful to Rev. I'd already been coming to Chicago regularly before I relocated here, leaving sittings, invited by Hoketsu and other people who were sitting here. And then they invited me to locate here. That was before I was called Ancient Dragon Zengei. My Dharma brother, Tayo, who I was ordained with in Reb's first ordination group, he drove me from San Francisco to Chicago in January 2007.

[03:21]

As I recall, there was a little snow on the ground, and I thought, So, Ancient Dragon Zen Gate is really a wonderful sangha. Our members have included, and do include, hospice and chaplain workers, many psychologists, social workers, cooks and gardeners, teachers, teachers from grade school to middle school, college up to graduate school, attorneys, academic scholars, musicians, athletes, poets, and IT workers. This past Sashin, last weekend for the first time, we had three medical doctors attending. So many, many people have created this sangha. They include my formal Dharma successors, Nils-Anne Erickson, who I see, I believe, is in Italy now.

[04:31]

Hi, Nils. And also the Shenanthi Easton here at Douglas Bloy. Very interesting to see her. And I'm also very grateful to Hoketsu, who will be my successor. starting next week, as Guiding Teacher of Ancient Dragon by Priest Tojeng Hyoketsu and Taiyo, the Pajama Translucion. So, many other very, very fine practitioners have helped create and develop Ancient Dragon. One of the great attributes of Ancient Dragon Zen Gate is that Sangha people here have many diverse experiences. So Nyoza and Douglas started with Thraparaprasad that the others have had some exposure to Tibetan Buddhism.

[05:32]

Several people have had Korean Sanghus. A few had Rinzai backgrounds. A few had martial arts expertise. Brian Taylor, who's, oh, there he is. Hi, Brian. Brian Taylor brought his experience as the Episcopal, as an Episcopal minister. And this was very helpful. He also had studied the Chocope people. A number of us have had previous experiences then teachers. Oh, and our board member, Ko Carol Orson, who's there, I see her online, who's gonna give the talk tomorrow evening, is also, she's an experienced Zen practitioner and also is active in the Friends meetings, Quakers.

[06:36]

And some people at Ancient Dragon, myself included, have had some practice experience with Native American spiritual teachers. which I think is very important for American sentiment. So I'll almost never do this, but I actually wrote down all of them, because I didn't want to miss it. We had people online from all kinds of places. Mark's from New Mexico. I can't see everybody, but of course Richard Virginia, and... Yeah, when you talk about... Yeah, it's fine. Anyway, so, okay, all these diverse Buddhists and other spiritual backgrounds have made this rich, deeply informed Sangha.

[07:40]

There are some of our fine Sangha leaders who started here, started their practice here in ancient trade. So not everybody is, you know, relocated. So I appreciate all these helpful influences in our sangha and in my own practice. And I have to say, though, that I have remained deeply settled and rooted in set-to-set teaching and practice. And I'll come back to where that started. Before I came to Chicago, around 1994, while I was living at Green Gulch. I started Mountain Source Sangha in the Bay Area, starting in Bolinas, adding sites in San Rafael and California Street in San Francisco. All of them were housed in Episcopal churches, which was cool. Mountain Source Sangha still continues 17 years after I left.

[08:44]

Dale McKenzie is there somewhere to verify that. A number of teachers have led Mountain Source Sangha since I relocated. Now it's in San Anselmo and is led by Dan Gudgel, who started sitting with me at Mountain Source Sangha and is now a San Francisco Center priest. So since Mountain Source Sangha has continued like that, I think he trusted Ancient Dragon Zen Gate Mill as well. Along with Mountain Source Sangha, I must mention the New York Zen Center, where I started practicing before San Francisco Zen Center for three and a half years with Reverend Kondo Nakajima, a fine Japanese Sojo Zen priest, I don't know if David Brinsky is here.

[09:48]

So David, who started with me back in 1975, maybe he was there before me, I don't know. Anyway, worked for the New York Center. And Ancient Dragon actually more resembles the New York Center than the San Francisco Zen Center. New York Times Center was not residential, although they could live there for a while. It was in a ground floor apartment on the Upper West Side in New York where I was living. There were two rooms with Zapatons and Zafus on to the tommy mats around the room. There was Zazen every weekday evening. We had it online every weekday morning. Two annual seven-day sashins and monthly one-day suits. A weekly doksa at the Virginia Center was available. He lived with his family in an apartment upstairs. That's where I first had Zazen instruction, first heard about Dogen, and was first layered in in 1975.

[10:56]

So, Ancient Dragon continues. I relocated to San Francisco in 1978. I started immediately at San Francisco Zen Center. Ancient Dragon continues here, having weathered the pandemic. It had a major impact on our saga, and we're still sort of recovering, and COVID is still here and there, around. we lost our wonderful Irvingport Zendo, a storefront temple where we had practiced for 12 years. It was a lovely space. Anyway, we were totally online for a while, then in the attic of a Lutheran church, and now I'm very happy that we're settled here, at least for a while at our lovely Lincoln Square Zendo. I trust that at the right time, Ancient Dragon will locate a good, somewhat larger space for long-term Suzuki Roshi 20-inch temple in Chicago.

[12:12]

The other deserves that. So last weekend, we had a wonderful sashin. They ended our 2024 practice commitment period. we were focusing on my first book, Cultivating the Empty Field, with Li Jingstrong, the 12th century Chinese soto lineage master, Hongzhe, very eloquent, deep teachings. And during this practice period, and during the session, we were practicing with the jewel pennant between silence or calm, and response, a mutual response to benefit. So, let's talk about this as basic to our practice, core of our practice is just sitting, thus it, turning the light within, facing the wall, facing ourselves, facing our lives,

[13:21]

with all the complications involved in this world and our lives. So sometimes we are grimacing, sometimes we deeply commune, as I said, with the source. the ultimate universal reality, the basic wholeness of our lives, which I felt even on that first satsang instruction about the genus satsang. We taste that there is this universal ultimate reality that there is some way that it's all okay in spite of, even amid our apparent brokenness sometimes.

[14:38]

Brokenness we each are and that our world is working through these days. Everything, in all space, in all time, is connected. This is basic Buddhist teaching, but the Buddhist understanding of this has developed, and is still continuing to develop, with modern environmentalism. Everything's connected. All space is connected. We're connected with things that are happening in the East, things that are happening in California, New York, things that are happening in South America, and also stuff that's happening all around us at Lincoln Square, in Chicago, and in our lives.

[15:49]

Everything is connected. And we don't realize that a lot of the time. But all of this is present right here, right now on our seats. So sasen is a creative practice, an expressive practice, both while sitting on our seats, but also then as we go out into our everyday activity. We are informed by this sasen experience, these glimpses of something that goes beyond, something universal. of the ultimate source, which is . So we could also say that the heart of our practice is the bodhisattva vow and the precepts, the 16 satsang precepts that we follow here.

[17:05]

And then there's the appropriate responsiveness and responsibility that the bodhisattva vows and the precepts encourage. We have this ability to respond. We have this mutual response, as Satya says. Taking refuge in Buddha is communing with the ultimate reality, ever-present, in the background of our often complicated lives, but also our creative, sometimes playful expression in response to the suffering of the world around us is invoked by the Umri Sattva Bhava's precepts. who sits us and settling into our body-mind, expressing Buddha on our seats.

[18:26]

We have a Buddha in front of our Zendo, and we sit somehow like Buddha. And we find this awakened world in us sometimes. It's very exasperating. along with many other things that become more available. So we commune with this universal reality. It's always present, always present on our seats, along with all the Viengs who we've ever met, or will meet, people we've forgotten, but are part of what we is. So our bodhisattva precepts are about benefiting all being, supporting life, not killing.

[19:27]

So how do we benefit all beings? The precepts in the bodhisattva vow seeing somehow, they are sometimes referred to as inconceivable. We can't conceptualize what that is, how that is. And yet, here we are, sitting in the middle of it. The precepts are also about Sangha. Sangha in the widest sense. Supporting our particular community, in Chicago Zen Gate here, who are visiting online for the first time, you're welcome to check in at any time. But Sonka also refers to all the communities that we each explore and interact with.

[20:41]

So each of us has various communities that we're related to or part of. Our precepts are about how do we take care of all of them? And how do we let them take care of us? Mutual response. How do we support life and vitality? 10 great precepts. How do we support others not to kill? How do we see not killing as our reality? So Sangha is not about hiding from the world.

[21:47]

You know, there's a phase of practice where we do put aside our involvement in the world Come and sit and face the wall. And, you know, having practiced for a few years at Tassajara and at Green Gulch and Zen Center and a practice period in Japan, I much respect residential practice. And many people from Ancient Dragon Zengyue have gone to Green Gulch or Tassajara to get some taste of that. With my encouragement. But when I moved to Chicago, I didn't want to have a center like that. I appreciate our non-residential subject very much. So here we are in this big city, Chicago, and each of you goes out and expresses yourself.

[22:52]

And somehow Zazen experience is part of that in all the different kinds of good works that you all do. And the difficulties also. This is, this practice is not easy. It's, in a way, it's very simple to sit down and face the wall. Couldn't be simpler. Actually, there are, you know, we have this great lineage going back to Shakyamuni Buddha 2,500 years ago, Bodhidharma, and Dongshan in the 800s, and Hongzhuang in the 1100s, Daobian in the 1200s, and Suki Roshi came to California in the 1960s. What a wild, perfect time for him to show up. But, you know, I appreciate that Sangha has interacted with the world alongside what I said, as I mentioned before.

[23:58]

Many people are very involved in all kinds of good things. I'm trying. You know, this world is difficult. How can we take care of it? Oh, I see. I didn't mention librarians here. And books are... I like books. I don't think you should ban them. So... Healthy Sanghas must be willing to face and not ignore the conditions of our world. I think it's healthy for Sanghas to sometimes discuss the difficulties in our world, not become insular and insulated and hide on our dozens of Sangha communities. So this interactivity with the world is, basic to bodhisattva practice.

[25:00]

Bodhisattva vow is to consider all the suffering in the world, including oppression, racism, militarism, wars, ethnic wars, genocides, and the threats of fascism around the world. We know people want that. our great ancestor, Baishang. I guess technically we said they were Alzheimer's, but we're on it again. But anyway, Baishang met a fox, and he taught us that not to ignore, not to decline the cause and effects, the causes and conditions of our life. So, saunders can support a healthy environment, and work to address climate breakdown. There's all kinds of ways to do that. We pay attention.

[26:15]

So Zazen is a practice of paying attention, gently, sitting, listening. We notice the wall, we notice the sounds around us. Hear a jet flying overhead. I need to hear airport. I need to follow here. All the sounds of the world, all the sounds of suffering in the world, we are open to and we respond when we see some way to respond, to be helpful. And this is tricky because, you know, we can make mistakes. We do make mistakes. But we also have this responsibility, we have an ability to respond. So we sit and we go through our life paying attention. And overhead of our soma there was just a thunder clap. So yes, attention. Sometimes we don't know what to do.

[27:23]

Maybe most of the time we don't know what to do when we see problems in our lives or our friends and family and in our world. But if we keep paying attention, at some point we might get some idea, some inspiration, something we might do. It might be helpful. So we respond. And we can join with others who are doing things that we think are helpful, help other groups, whatever, whatever. So we respond. So obviously, we do not practice just for ourselves. Zen is not some self-help practice.

[28:29]

Though, of course, we are each supported and benefited by doing this practice, by engaging in bodhisattva vows and precepts of Zazen. So the Bodhisattva vowed, I vow to free all beings. What does that mean? I mean, gee. If you try and figure it out through linear Western logic, it doesn't make sense. How can I free everyone? Well, I want to. And that's quite a good point. We direct ourselves and our energy and our activities and our work and play towards, oh, how to be helpful for people, for beings, all beings in the world.

[29:33]

How do we appreciate, you know, we have a great way to stand alone. And actually, I see Nathan in Michigan. He's on the other side of that, right? And yeah, so how do we take care of our world? So I want to conclude by talking about the future. And personally, I'm looking forward to my next chapter, things I want to do. that I haven't been able to do while being a guided teacher, or I felt I didn't have time to do while being a guided teacher in Ancient Dragons. Of course, Ancient Dragon is wonderful. I'm giving myself to it. But we practice for all people, all the people we know, and those we don't know, as I said, all around the world, throughout space.

[30:41]

Last weekend at our Sashimi, we did a meditation on space inspired by one of Bhangra's writings, seeing the space of our neighborhood and our city and country and the space between our shoulders and the space between our heads. It's all space. Emptiness is one, and form is empty, et cetera. But also, we practice for all beings in all time. And we practice for all beings, all the people in the future. So I very much care about ancient dragons and Zen gate thriving into the future. I believe it, but I just didn't know. I want to recommend a recent PBS television show.

[31:46]

I've mentioned it before. They're A Brief History of the Future. Really recommend it. It's six episodes. Very inspiring. Probably you can find it somewhere on PBS. Talk with people talking about wonderful people talking about all the things they're doing towards healing the world and towards a brighter, more cooperative, kinder future. where we overcome all of the difficulties. You know, not all the difficulties, but we overcome some of the difficulties that we face now as a species, as a world. And I was first inspired to focus on beings of the future by Joanna Macy, my friend and one of my mentors. She started doing workshops to meet beings of the future and consider how we take care of them. And also how they're watching us.

[32:47]

They're looking back at us from the future. How are we taking care of this world for us? How do we think of the As I've said before, there are people walking by this building where we are now for 50 years, 200 years, 500 years, and wherever you are. How will they be able to find what we set the practice as? So Arsene Buddha's practice is deeply involved with wide reaches of time, with the ancestors who I've mentioned.

[33:58]

Going back for millennia, Shakyamuni Buddha, 2500 years ago, Dongshan in the 800s, then Hongshan in the 1800s, Dogen, Tsubiroshi. Hongzhi says that one consideration over 10,000 years allows us to go beyond all these present appearances and moments. How do we be mindful of beings in the future? Of course, beings in the past, too. So maybe we are the ancestors of the future. But also, I would say that we have We have ancestors in the future. So after working with Joanna Macy on our new guardianship project for a while, working to protect future beings from all of our nuclear waste and warn them, I substituted for Joanna at a conference in Kyoto in 1994 on future generations.

[35:02]

And there I wrote an article for my talk there, based on my talk there called Meeting Our Ancestors of the Future. So it's not how we usually think. We usually think time works as Richard. But as Douglass says in his wonderful being-time essay, and elsewhere, all time is actually right here. So that article, Meeting Our Ancestors in the Future, is still available on the Ancient Dragon's Endgame website. And it's in my book, Second Questions, one of the chapters. So we are practicing for beings in all space. We're practicing for beings in all time. And Chicago Zen Gate will continue into the future and continue practicing for beings around Chicago and beyond, thanks to our hybrid zone. So maybe I've said all I need to say, and I'll find all of my thought as a teacher.

[36:14]

I dedicate this talk and my work to add ancient Iraqi to our ancestors in the future. So we've got a little bit of time if there's a couple of people who want to ask questions and respond or express. It's a thunder overhead. So online, if you have something to say, you can raise your hand or use the raise hand function at the bottom of the Zoom. And if Bill will call on you or if anybody wants to raise your hand. Now, do you want to say anything?

[37:16]

Kathy, you're on the ozone? Kathy was one of the very early members of the Ancient Brainy Society. It's difficult to talk because it's an emotional moment. I would be there today, except I've got a sore throat. But I just want to say, you know, remembering back when you came to Chicago, Taigen, It's like the group already had so many people were strong minded and had so many opinions about which direction and how things should go. I don't think it was simple walking into that and trying to. Be developed, be a sensitive leader. So my hat's off to you that you provided leadership and kind of corralled gradually a lot of disparate opinions about things. into a gradual way of moving forward.

[38:21]

And I have found this practice over time, even though I haven't been regular at all times, I have found it extremely useful in my life. And so I am appreciative of you coming here and leadership. I think when I first got here, I stayed with Kathy. Actually, I notated between the two people before I, before I, when I was coming, before I relocated. When I first relocated that day, I saw that I was captured. The ozone and then the jam? We can't hear you, Niyo-san. I think you're muted, Niyo-san.

[39:34]

I can't hear you. Bow back to you over there in Italy. Maybe later you can only say something. Let's just take a few, a couple more people. Jim? I am so encouraged by being part of this Sangha. And the changes are extremely difficult for me. But... So far, I've managed most of them except the ceremony that was taken out of Sunday and put to Monday night. And in fact, that was one of the reasons I picked coming to this Sangha. And now that I'm here, I'm staying. But what really strikes me about ADZG that is not practiced in every Sangha, is the four vows.

[40:42]

And I've always thought they were excruciatingly funny and very, very serious. And so, you know, you can turn them around and say, I don't vow to free all beings. I mean, how could you? You can't. Or... The others, I'm not going to be able to pick them up right now. But what I really wanted to say about the four vows is I'm an anti-nuclear activist. And so my fifth vow is we now have an enormous amount of money and energy. And we've already sullied the entire atmosphere and much of the ocean and the earth with contamination that will last for the 10,000 years is paltry because it will last for 200,000.

[42:01]

And many people say a million, and some people say two million. And so my vow is, I vow to put that genie back in the bottle. And, of course, my life isn't going to be that much longer, but it keeps me occupied, and it reminds me of the ADCG. So thank you, Jen. Jen is one of our ancient dragon activists. So just a little more time. Does anybody in the room have anything? Questions? Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Thank you. Oh, hi. I just wanted to say thank you. I've been trying to be for nine years now, but very sporadically.

[43:04]

I just wanted to thank you for operating this community. For me, prior to coming to Chicago, I went in from a more going-it-your-own, you know, being alone in a room, meditating, and not necessarily participating in a sangha. And this really, to me, was very important. We had to model what a sangha could be. in the way that you talk about the cloud moving away from the moon and suddenly, oh, there it is. I think this represented, oh, that's why a song is important and why it's a crucial pillar in the market. So thank you very much. I was really speaking. Mike was? Thank you, Mike. And yeah, so... Maybe I didn't say enough about Sangha. Sangha is the third jewel along with Buddha. The reality of awakening in the world and Dharma.

[44:09]

Teaching of that in all things. And the Sangha community, you know, I think Some of this, well, you know, back in the 60s, people wanted to have some techniques, and they found Zazen and came to the issue. But song is what's, I think, most important in our culture, because we don't have, in our society, communities where we can talk with each other, where we can practice with each other, where we can play with each other. You know, I forgot to mention when we were talking about romping and playing and samadhi. So, you know, this seems like a very somber, serious practice sometimes. But it's also, as it really is, can be very playful. I have a somewhat longer story from Kassahara about Brother J. I don't know if I can tell you about it.

[45:16]

Probably people here, but you've heard that one, right? Oh, okay. He hasn't heard it. One of the years I was staying, I was living in Paso Faro on Halloween. Brother David, so to speak, drove in. Brother David's final rest is a Benedictine monk He's from Vienna, originally. He worked for a long time. He modeled his monastery, the Big Sur, kind of around the corner, due west from Passafari. But anyway, Brother David was also a Democrat practitioner. He had... at least one practice period at Kasahara.

[46:18]

He was a Benedictine monk, too. He called himself a Benedictine. Anyway, he happened to show up midday. It was Halloween, and in Rosendo, I don't think anybody else was in costume, but the head priest was Robert Lytle. It was the father of Sarah, who has been a member of our board and is now a Patterson champion in Cambridge, England, but heading back towards the States is someone. Anyway, so his daughter became a practitioner here. Anyway, Robert came into the center as though she dressed as made up as the Frankenstein monster. I can't describe it, but it was obvious. And his G.P.O., carrying incense, his brilliant works, had put some kind of thing... He was an eagle, a hunchback.

[47:24]

Anyway, they walked into the Zendo, and there was Robert David, the most... I think Robert must have been somewhat... But we carried on, and... Did this Monday service and later at work meeting other David was there and he said I Know you people really care about the rituals because you can play with them So anyway Yeah We have to play with this in our lives. We have to try things we have to feel the play in our world and Anyway, I see a couple people with hands up. Who is that? Michael and Katie. Michael Soder. Oh, Michael Soder. Oh, hi. Oh, wow. From North Carolina. Katie, hi.

[48:25]

Hey, Tiger. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Hi, Michael. Great. You're thanking for joining us here. I just wanted to say it's a joy to see you and to see everyone. In the same way that you were talking about time and the past and the future, I really just feel that same way about the time that I had to practice with you. And with the Sangha, your teaching is always close and always current, even though I'm not practicing there with you anymore. I feel like I am. Thank you, Michael. Michael and Katie are wonderful people who practiced here for a long time. Now, are you in Greensboro, North Carolina? We're in Snow Camp. We're outside of Chapel Hill. Oh, good.

[49:27]

Okay. Well, if you see Joe's show... I do. Please send him my love. I will. Katie, I didn't recognize you because you're here. It's much longer. Yeah, I moved south and just let go of everything. It's great to see you. Thank you for coming. And then I think Eden Hefferman and Dale also... Oh, okay. Well, we're not doing too bad on time. Ed is actually, Kevin, as I remember him, is the head priest at Richmond Zen and connected with Chapelville Zen Center and Joe Show. So, Ed, hi. Hi. Good morning, Taigen. Good morning, everybody. It's great to see you, Taigen, amidst all the wonderful ancient dragon people, some of whom I know.

[50:27]

And it's great to see Nyozan, Ruben, and Douglas, who I've encountered in other places outside of Chicago. And I just wanted to say again, and I will say again in the future... Thank you so much. I appreciate so much all your work, your practice. And you should know, it radiates into Richmond all the time. Just this morning, I was reading from Hongzhi to people as they were sitting zazen, and that happens frequently, and it frequently happens. Someone will come and go, what is that? Where did that come from? And another book sold. Absolutely. But, yeah, we've appreciated your being with us in the past, and you really still are with us, and me particularly, all the time. Really not a week goes by that I'm not dipping into something. A Dharma talk at Ancient Dragon, one of your translations, or your books and essays.

[51:27]

So I just appreciate so much all that you're doing and have done. It's been a tremendous support for me here in Richmond. And yes, I'm connected to Chapel Hill, but I also feel connected to y'all. And lately I've been saying actually connection is an understatement for our condition in this world. So thank you so much and look forward to talking to you with you more in your current, previous, next life. Thank you, and yes, I really did consider relocating to Richmond. It's a wonderful town and a wonderful family, so congratulations. And I think Dale? Hi, Tiger. Hey, Dale. It's so good to see you. You know, it's been about 55 years since I lived in Chicago, and... Now I live in California, and what I'm really enjoying is that wonderful thunder going on.

[52:33]

I think that's very auspicious because it's sending you into your new stage with energy and a big bang. and resonates in my belly, having been a Midwestern kid and enjoying those wonderful thunderstorms. And this has been a true joy for me. And for you folks who don't know me, and I think probably none of you do, except Taigen, we've known each other for over 25 years. And we traveled on a pilgrimage to Northern China and visited many Chanzhen sites, Zhaozhao's temple. And, oh, that was a great trip, wasn't it, Taigen? Absolutely.

[53:35]

So it's just wonderful to be here. and to hear your farewell speech and all the best to you on your new journey. Thank you, Dale. Say hi to Professor Sonderquats and to Dan and Paul. Anyway, thank you. Is there anyone else? Is that enough? Or anybody else online? Anybody else in the room? You could say something. Oh, Aisha wants to say something. She was here from the very beginning. And I was just going to talk about that. So, yes, I was here when we used to fly you in, you know, quarterly for a seminar and a potluck dinner and a half day or all day sitting.

[54:41]

And... I remember, though, when we were talking about incorporating, talking about asking you to move to Chicago, and talking about finding a space for Ancient Dragon that wasn't the Catholic retreat center that we were in, and how much risk felt like it was associated with that. And I appreciate you taking the risk of accepting our invitation to come out here. and practice with us and meet us and teach us for all these years. But I remember, you know, back then we, we kind of talked about like, well, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a two year lease or a three year lease or something. And we have enough cash to make it through one year. So we're just going to, you know, hope that we can hope that we can make it. But, and, and the song that has gone through is, as I mentioned, many reiterations.

[55:46]

And yeah, And yet we are still here and we'll continue to be here. But as far as I know, nothing is certain. And so I really appreciate everyone taking a risk and being here and continuing this journey. you know, ancient, ancient practice. But thank you for taking the risk. It's been one of the great pleasures of the law. Well, maybe on that note, We can, you need to put yourself out. So there's a, there probably are a lot of things. The cardinal. Yeah. Yeah, there's a cardinal. It's the last word. Yes.

[56:47]

Thank you all. Thank you. We celebrate our life. We love our freedom. The religion of our race is global. We bow to God for the better. Our money can't stop us. We love our nationality. But our desire is unsurpassable. We must revise it. These are our requirements. We must prevent. The conditions are indescribable. We must counter them. While I run away, so I'll have none to sleep about. I hope she went to bed, but I'll have to sway in the sunset castle.

[57:51]

Wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee-wee. Illusions are insoluble. We have been through them. We are not the same. We have met them. Space is unsurpassable. We need now to realize it.

[58:27]

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