Good morning. 

I want to thank Roshi Robert for inviting me to share my experience in working with Indigenous peoples in Canada.  And to thank all you for having an interest in hearing what I have to say. 

When I first thought about this presentation, I questioned myself as to its relevance to a sangha in Chicago.   

However, it didn’t take me long to answer this.  Your country shares with mine a sad and tragic story of colonial mistreatment of the tribes that lived in the Americas for many thousands of years before the European explorers made landfall.  Maybe there is a shared national responsibility for atonement.  Perhaps some of what I will say this morning will trigger your interest and engagement in the situation of the tribes of the United States of America.

I recently watched this film NOVA film called “Secrets of the Forest” . It was so inspiring I watched it again, and then wrote this review. of the film.

There is a tradition among some Zen temples in Japan of reciprocity where monks, when drawing water from a well, are careful to leave some water that they pour back into the well. When June Roshi studied Lau Lapau with Papa Henry in Hawaii, he too taught this principle of reciprocity instructing his students, when gather medicine from plants and flowers in nature, to never take all the medicine from the plant, but to leave some.

Author and member of the Potawatomi tribe, Robin Kimmer says, “In Potawatomi ways of thinking, we’ve always said, ‘Well, how do I give back in return for what I’ve been given? We have a worldview that says that the forests are our relatives, they are our providers, they take care of us, and we have to take care of them.