Now today at lunchtime I gave you some more instruction about the orioke. And I'd like to try to give you... more also of a feeling of why this level of micro-detail, micro-detail in Buddhist culture is important. And I think at least for many of us it's not something that comes naturally Because it seems unnatural.

[01:06]

There are many reasons it doesn't come so naturally to many of us, but anyway, I think just that it doesn't is enough. Now, I've noticed, of course, that, well, I think most of you have done, most of you and I have done sashins together. At least seminars together. But there are some of you who I've seen for the first time here today or yesterday.

[02:11]

And some of you, this is the first time we've done sushis together anyway. And I can see the presence of other teachers and other practices in the way you do things. Which is quite natural and I respect the other ways you've learned. Sometimes for the sake of this session or this practice for now, you know, some things you'll do the way we do them and then later you'll go back to your regular way of doing them. Or if it's a habit you've learned and you feel comfortable with it, that's fine.

[03:31]

In Japanese monasteries you have to strictly do things the way the place you're in does. I think too much so. I mean, if you have soto-shu robes, you can't wear them in a Rinzai-shu temple. In a Rinzai-shu temple, you can't wear Rinzai-shu robes. So I confuse them by solving the problem by wearing Rinzai shoe, Kiromos and Soto shoe, or cases. Since I've studied some years in both. But anyway, I'd like to say something a little bit about the different, the way these details are thought about.

[04:59]

Okay, I think it's easier if I stand up, as long as you can translate from Sikh. Characteristic and simple things we do when we're doing K'in Hint is we hold our hands in some posture. Generally, it's thought that your arms should be parallel to the floor. Now there's three possibilities in an outer posture. One is what maybe we can call relaxed. Any old way. Next we could call maybe attentive. And the next may be the posture requiring effort.

[06:18]

There's several. Now, the relaxed physical posture, outer posture, is almost never used in Zen practice. Now, let me show you the way I do it. You take your left hand and you put your thumb in the palm of your left hand. And then you close your hand gently around your thumb. Then you put it in the middle of your stomach, sort of, and your arm parallel to the floor. Then you put your other hand on top. Now, if you just kept it like that, that would be relaxed. But since this is a yogic practice, you always turn, you do something, the posture requires attention from you.

[07:37]

Now, that would be, you know, so if you turn your hands up slightly, you'll see that it requires some kind of attention to do that. If you turn them all the way up, it requires effort. Now some teachers, in some ways of practice, want you to do postures that require constant effort. And some people actually walk that way. And the decision that I've made is postures that are comfortable but require attention. But not postures that require attention or effort beyond attention. When you put your hands up, it moves your elbows way up, and they're away from your body quite a bit.

[08:58]

So what I would actually advise you to do is to feel free to experiment which works best for you. Whether you want, if you turn, the more you turn it up, the more effort is required to maintain the posture. Now the same is true of the hand mudra for Zazen. Now, Of course putting your thumbs together gently requires some effort and some attention. And it's a good barometer of your mind. If your mudra collapses, your mind is pretty lax. And if your thumbs go up, then your mind... And then your mind is usually... you're usually thinking too much

[10:15]

And if your head is back, you... Some people sleep like this. Okay. And then another posture, which is... concentrated but not relaxed concentrated but let's just call it concentrated is just put your right thumb in your left palm and then close your hands around each other You're actually putting your right thumb in the center of your left palm, which connects one of the energy channels. And then, connect. Then you close your hand around.

[11:49]

Now that's the main posture used when it's cold. Or in Rinzai Zen, particularly when you're working on a koan, that's the posture used. So I think if your posture, if your mudra collapses, maybe you better go to that posture. So it's more concentrated. It's a different kind of concentration than this. Now, the mudra where your hands are up at your navel or just below your navel requires more effort. And it's the same kind of difference that like this or like this. This requires effort and this requires attention. Now, most Japanese people have to hold their hands up.

[13:16]

So I think they teach this posture more naturally than we would. Because Japanese people are quite long-torsoed and short-armed. And if they put their hands in their lap, hold their shoulders forward, which is not good for them. So lots of Japanese teachers teach your hands up that way because of their bodies. But that's not the only reason. This is also a good posture to hold your hands up. As you hold your hands at your navel, that's a little different than when they're down here. And my feeling is if you are going to really want to concentrate in zazen and you're doing say half hour periods once a day or so, holding your hands up is fine.

[14:26]

But for Sashin practice or when you're sitting on lots, lots and lots, I would say it's better to have your hands down. But that's a get-up to you. Now, there are, in some ways, the oryoki is taught, has Shinto and Japanese elements in it that aren't Buddhist, I think. Friends, one practice, I haven't seen any of you doing it this time, but I've seen people do it other times, which is when you dump the waste water, you look away. Any gestures where you either look away because it's wastewater or that hide things are more Japanese than Buddhist.

[15:44]

Shinto is very involved with purity. And the word beautiful and clean is the same word in Japanese. Things are only beautiful when they're clean. And part of the same way of thinking is traditionally women, during their period, had to live in a separate house or a little house up behind the house. So Suzuki Rishida tried to take out of the ceremonies the elements that were more Shinto involved with, this is pure, this is impure, and so forth. That's why Suzuki, Roshi and I tried to take out the elements from the practice that are more Shinto or Japanese.

[17:04]

I think you can see the sense of just relaxed doesn't help you much, but attentive, either attentive with some effort or attentive with a lot of effort is really the range in which you can find your own postures. Now strangely enough, while I wouldn't use the word relaxed to describe an outer posture, it is the most fundamental inner posture. So actually Zen practice is a pulse between concentration and effort and relaxation. And the relaxed is more fundamental. And as I say, basic mental posture for zazen is an uncorrected state of mind. But strangely enough, to enter truly relaxed states of mind, you need to develop concentration.

[18:30]

So it's actually good to concentrate on your breath and so forth and then sometimes forget. And you will anyway. You can only make an effort so long and then you relax. You don't say, oh, bad, I've relaxed. It's good. Now, I've spent the last 30 years or so trying to understand the... dharma details of practice. And quite a few of you are also learning some of these details.

[19:47]

I'd like to keep, and my hope is, and what I really worked on very hard, is to have these details be details of Buddhist culture and not Asian and Japanese culture. So when you learn these things, you're not learning how to be Japanese or Chinese or Korean, but you're learning something that's essential to Buddhism. So at this stage, you know, we're still pretty new at it, and I'm glad that Gerald and Gisela were willing to come from America to help us with the sashin. They're also in the middle.

[21:12]

At Crestone, we're in the middle of building the first separate building or staff housing that we've done. And they were hoping, they also happened to be going to live in it, they were hoping to get in it before the first snow flew. Do you say that in German, snow flew? But there's no chance of that because the snow was flying when I left. In fact, I couldn't fly. I had to drive all the way to Denver to get the airplane. It's so snowy around Creston. And a number of people have come.

[22:22]

Beat has come, and the Vienna gang has come, and Eric, you know, has come here from Munich. Anyway, people were learning how to do this and helping out and taking care of the sashim. Now, I'd like to try chanting the German Heart Sutra today, or reading it with you at least. Let's try that first. So could two people who would like to give their legs a break pass out the Heart Sutra and the cards, and two other people pass out this? There's no problem.

[23:23]

But when you try to do that with English, That's a terrible injustice to English. And since German is more like English than Japanese is like English. Now, most groups in America chanted in English with the vote for Jill. I think we're the, my group is, I think, the only group that doesn't love the Mokekio, that I know about. One of my disciples is the poet Philip Whelan. And he, he, I was sort of willing to go along with it, even though I didn't like it, you know. But it hurt him so much to hear it under English.

[24:27]

He begged me to change it, so finally I did. Now, I don't, by the way, think this is such a good English translation. but I just haven't... I want to change it, but I haven't yet. But there are certain things which, for instance, aren't in this one. For instance, this says all five skandhas are empty, and the English and the Japanese says all five skandhas in their own being are empty. And that's actually a distinction between Theravada and Mahayana, understand? And the original, I believe, because there's several Chinese versions, and several Tibetan versions, but I believe the original has the Bodhisattva coursing in the midst of Prajnaparamita.

[25:50]

Now, and here there's transcendentality. which I don't know if that means the same as transcendental in English. But in English transcendental means up above, on the other side up, something like that, and that's not the correct meaning. I think the word Kansai uses is coursing. The avalokiteshvara was coursing in, which means like a sailboat courses through the waters. Coursing in deep prajnaparamita. There's also a common misreading in China of paramita, which means perfection, paramita.

[27:10]

And it's read sometimes as paramita, which means beyond. So then it's translated as wisdom gone beyond wisdom, which is actually an incorrect translation. And that idea is picked up from below where it's gone, gone in the mantra, gone, gone, gone beyond, completely gone beyond. Now, the Heart Sutra, there's many ways to understand it. One way that's essential to it is it's a script. It's a theater piece in which you visualize Avalokiteshvara sitting down. And then you enter, of course, in deep prajnaparamita. In perfected wisdom.

[28:30]

So you try to do that and you try to perfect wisdom. And then you try to keep the five skandhas in view. Then you try to see the five skandhas are empty. So on the one hand it's a complete script for your own practice. It also takes all the major categories of earlier Buddhism and says they're empty. So to really translate it, because there's an internal logic and a script, like a script quality and an internal logic to it, that is very, very detailed word by word.

[29:30]

And when you chant something thousands of times day after day, The script gets into your body. So if it's going to be in your body, we ought to get the script right. But to do it in a foreign, a non-Asian language may take some generations, just as it did in China and Japan. I mean, I'm only one short lifetime. And I'm still understanding it and it's still being revealed to me. And I spent much of my energy for 30 years on it. Directly and indirectly.

[30:48]

So I've just one short lifetime and I've not made too much progress, so it may take a few lifetimes. It won't just occur in simultaneous lifetimes, it has to occur in successive lifetimes. Mostly most people in my generation are about in the same place I'm in. It's going to take you who are younger to carry it in your body for a while. Now, I can't... I can't... even read this so maybe since you brought it here you could start and I suggest all of you let's just read it first just slowly like that speed together and I'll try to learn how to pronounce German while you're doing it and let's read it through slowly first would you start?

[32:07]

Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, in the practice of seven transcendental wisdom, recognized that all five skandhas are empty and can overcome all suffering. Thank you. The same field of perception, perception, roles, and sub-spirits is hidden. Pariputra, the form of all things, is empty. They do not arise and do not go away. They do not enter and do not enter. They do not accept and do not reject. Therefore, the teaching is not a form, neither an invention, a perception, a role, or a separate line, neither an eye, ear, nose, tongue, or body, neither color, sound, air, or taste.

[33:28]

neither touch nor expression, neither an area of the sensory organs nor an area of thinking, neither ignorance nor any kind of ignorance. Und so gibt es weder Alter noch Tod, Nur eine Ehre von Alter und Tod. Wie verleiden, so versteht von Leiden Kein Erläufen ist verliehen, kein Weg. We can't achieve anything because there is nothing to achieve. My Bodhisattva says that this wisdom, without hindrance, is the best. Without hindrance, there is nothing. Jenseits aller Illusionen ist endlich Nirvana. Alle Erwachsenen der Vergangenheit leben aus dieser transzendenten Weisheit, erreichen die höchste Erleuchtung, vollkommen und unenttropfen.

[34:36]

Wissen daher, dass die transzendente Weisheit das große heilige Mantra ist, das große schlagende Mantra, das unübertroffene Mantra, das unvergleichliche Mantra, das alle Seiten nimmt. Das ist wahr und ohne Fehl. Das ist das Mantra in der transzendenten Weisheit. Es lautet, gegangen, gegangen, darüber hinaus, gegangen, ganz darüber hinaus, gegangen, vollkommenes Erwachen. Alles gut? Gut. Good. So we can say practice is a form of intimacy. And an intimacy that's bigger than self. Self doesn't cover all of your existence, but intimacy can cover all of your existence. So in sesshin, it's maybe almost the best opportunity to really become intimate with yourself.

[36:09]

Now the practice of one-pointedness is really necessary in order to become intimate with yourself. Now, one pointedness means to be able to stay with something, to bring your mind to a point. Now, although this is sometimes taught as a way clearing your mind of thoughts by bringing your mind to one-pointedness. And that's a useful cleansing process. But it's not essential. What's more important is the ability to stay with something. So again, it's not about clearing the field and staying with something in the field.

[37:34]

Or staying with the field itself. And staying with the field itself requires a kind of subtle relaxation. Now, our karma, I'd like to make a distinction between, shall I say, a mind of residue karma and a mind of immediate karma. And a mind of residue karma means, by that I mean a mind which is mostly formed from associations from your karma. So a mind which we could call a generic mind.

[38:48]

A comparative, conceptual, generic mind. And we could contrast that to a mind of direct sense impressions. And we could put it in contrast to a mind with a direct sense impression. So we could also make a distinction between the mind of the fourth skanda of associations and impulses and the mind of the third skanda which is perceptions but here I'm emphasizing is direct perceptions. The more you can rest your mind in direct perceptions and less in associations, the more you have a mind in which your karma is worked out.

[40:12]

your karma is absorbed. So part of the practice of oryokis or how you hold your hands and so forth is to be able to keep stabilizing or grounding your mind in direct immediate perceptions. Now, the Buddhist master Asanga makes a distinction between primary mind and secondary mind. Asanga. Asanga. Asanga. primary mind and secondary mind.

[41:41]

And one would be a mind in which you're in the immediate details, perception, and the other is when you're in the mind of associations and generalizations. And these are understood as actually two different minds. Now we can call them two different minds because they have a different way of grounding and organizing themselves. And your karma, your associations, your anxiety, your worries all work differently in these two minds. And one meaning of the word prajna, wisdom, is the ability to float between these two or move your sense of location or identity between these two.

[42:58]

So I think that's enough as an introduction. Don't you think? How did I lose all of you? So, even if you don't quite get what I'm talking about, the point is that If, as you sit, you can begin to find in the details of your mind and body the fact that you actually exist slightly differently according to your state of mind and the location of yourself in the details of perception. You already are that way.

[44:11]

And yet we don't notice it. That's the little bit of that poem I gave you in the hot drink last night. Through the rain and trees we only see a crescent moon. This sense of a crescent moon in Buddhism The sense that in the crescent moon we still see the roundness, but we don't see the full moon yet. The full moon is there, but we only see part of the moon. So in sitting you can begin to see more and more of the full moon.

[45:28]

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