Now I wanted to start a little early this afternoon for those people who are taking the precepts. And I don't know if all of you want to take the precepts, but at least you can participate in our thinking about them together and decide on Sunday. And I believe five of you have made a raksu. Which actually is quite a lot of work to sew all this, especially for boys. Most guys try to find a girl. Could you help me with this?

[01:01]

Girls don't do much better with this. Those are pretty good. And this is, for those of you who don't know, a raksu means a small okesa. It's a small version of the tradition in Buddhism of wearing a version of Buddha's robe. Now the custom in Japan is that if you're going to take the precepts, there's generally a period of a week where you do a kind of semi-monastic practice for a week and get general education about practice and so forth.

[02:07]

But this is, I mean, here what, especially for those of you who have made a raksu, and many of the rest of you, you already know a lot about Buddhism. But still I thought it would be, there should be this weekend two seminars going on, sort of. One seminar will be on the precepts. The other on this koan, which, if you've looked at it, looks rather difficult, I think. But it's... So I think this weekend we're going to need some explication to kind of make use of this koan. Anyway, it's a several layered teaching about the structure of meditation practice.

[03:38]

But I think we can get something useful out of it, but we'll start that this evening. And in a sense this koan is about we could say aligning yourself with yourself on various levels. And taking the precepts is about aligning yourself with others. And of course there's quite a relationship between the two. Now, Dogen Zenji has emphasized, and in my experience and observation, it's quite true and is a theme that runs throughout Buddhism, though Dogen emphasized it.

[05:17]

The decision to look at your life or to make a commitment really is an enlightenment experience. So if you've come to the point, as everyone has at various times in their life, that, yes, this is what I'll do, and it's very clear and you feel it, if only for a moment or two. Now, many decisions overlay that. Many distractions overlay that. But I think you will find as your practice, if you continue, deepens over the years, you find yourself going back with less obstructions to very early decisions about your life and whether to practice or not.

[06:41]

I think any decision partakes of this, any decision that affects the direction of your life, But especially a decision to practice and study yourself. Now Thich Nhat Hanh has been all over the United States and Europe, been encouraging people to take the five precepts. And he asked me a year or so ago if I could write something about precepts for a book he was doing called For a Future to be Possible. He asked several people and I did manage to give him something for the book.

[08:10]

And we reprinted it in I think all of it, didn't we? In the tree planters. So I believe you all have a copy of that or a xerox of it or something. Is that right? Yes. And I would like you to all, today if possible, but during this week, read this if you haven't read it already.

[09:50]

And it's in German and English. And I speak about one's inner precepts as well as the five precepts. Or your own personal precepts or rules that you live by. and what makes possible a truly intentional state of mind. The precepts are... Pretty childlike, the basic five principles.

[11:14]

Pretty childlike. It's what your parents told you. Don't kill things. Don't take the other kids' toys. Share your candy. That's about it. Oh yeah, don't sell intoxicants. Make weapons. Boy, America really needs some of this right now. Be sexually responsible. And this is pretty much common sense. So the koan is in a way a pretty elevated, adept practice.

[12:15]

And these bodhisattva precepts bring you to the most basic level that your parents told you was a good way to behave. With the sense that can you really commit yourself at this very ordinary level with others to be clear and straightforward in this way? Come to such a simple way of joining other people and supporting other people. and unequivocally, irrevocably commit yourself to it.

[13:42]

Anyway, this is the sense of the precepts to join other people's lives and join your life with other people's lives at the most basic, almost childlike level. There's a pretty famous story about Bojui. I think it's Bojui. He goes to visit a Zen master sitting in a tree. And he asks him what he's doing up in the tree. And he says, practicing Buddhism. And he says, what is the secret of the practice of Buddhism? He says, avoid evil and do good. And this famous Chinese poet says, well, even a child knows that.

[15:03]

And this old Zen master says, but even an old man like me finds it difficult to do. So I hope that practicing the precepts doesn't require all of you to sit in a tree. But anyway, you understand the simplicity of this taking of the precepts. Now, These precepts are also understood in various ways. In a sense, they mean don't interfere with situations. But we can look at them in... in various ways, and we will off and on during this weekend.

[16:17]

Now what I would like to do is I'd like us to continue until about four o'clock. And then have a, you know, we'll see, but then have a break until the seminar starts. I suppose you, maybe you found where you're staying and all that stuff, but anyway, to do those things. So maybe we could have, in a few minutes, a little break. But before that, do you have any questions, anything you'd like to bring up? Yes. I have a question.

[17:51]

I would like to ask you a question. With Roshi, you see how it is when you take the precepts, when he violates them, what he violates and how he sees it and what he thinks of it personally. He has done that in his career. I would like to ask a question. For example, if one takes the precepts and then you do something that is against the precepts, then what to do? Or could you talk about yourself? Or how do you deal with that? You give me your hand and I slap it. Well, the precepts are guidelines that you're going to have to find out how to practice with.

[18:52]

And the precepts like the vow to save all sentient beings should be impossible to completely follow. We say don't kill, but we don't do what the giants do, which is have a broom and sweep all the visible insects out of the past. So even if you eat vegetarian food, the farmers are still killing insects, animals and things. So the following of the precepts is an effort you're making in a context where you're always aware that you're making the effort and failing and succeeding. If you cease trying and renewing the precepts in your mind on a regular basis, then in a way they've lost their power.

[20:08]

And we can come back to this too. Something else? Okay, so let's take a 15 or 20 minute break and then we'll start again. If you have some questions about this piece, I'd appreciate it in the next part. And if you have any questions about my text in the tree plan, I would be happy to answer them in the next half. Well, I've started today, I feel, in a pretty low-key way.

[21:46]

But I have a tendency to turn things over maybe too much. So the precepts I'm trying to keep... I'm emphasizing the real simplicity of these precepts. And the clarity that goes with making a decision to take the precepts. And then taking them. And I don't think until you really do it, you can understand how such simple, as I said, childlike rules, what kind of power they can have in your life.

[22:56]

They are considered in koan practice and zen practice in general both the beginning and the end of practice. Without taking the precepts, you can't have the kind of ease of conscience and consciousness that allows you to really practice. You can practice a lot of the skills, of meditation and mindfulness, but the kind of ease that underlies your life won't be there unless on some level you've taken the precept.

[24:05]

Aurika asked me to mention that it's not a moral code. But what does that mean? I mean, certainly it is a kind of morality. But it's not a moral code in the sense that there's any punishment because you don't follow it. I mean, you may accumulate more karma, or you may accumulate pretty bad karma, but you may accumulate that even if you follow the precepts.

[25:09]

I mean, in the sense that you may live in a... I mean, there's a very... There's a Chinese saying that's quoted a lot these days, which is sometimes presented as a blessing, but usually it's a curse. And it's may you live in interesting times. And if your times are too interesting, you have a pretty hard time with your life. So it's not a moral code in the sense that the power of them depends on your following them exactly. The power in your life depends on your commitment to following.

[26:27]

And if you make mistakes, you correct them and continue. And so it's very different than a... It's not a process of guilt. Because you are drawing strength from the commitment and renewing the commitment to have this clarity in your life. And one way to work with precepts is try to write your own. You don't have to accept these five or these ten. In the next few days, try to write the simplest rules you can that you would like to be able to follow.

[27:40]

And that you would like other people to also follow. See what rules you'd come to. And they have to apply to others as yourself. Something you can feel good about that your life, that you wouldn't hesitate to make these rules apparent to anyone. And it's quite difficult to do, actually. I've tried it at various times. And I keep ending up with these precepts. Buddha worked out. Buddhists worked out. I mean the most basic precept is don't hurt anything.

[29:00]

Don't harm anything. But how do you express that in your life? And still participate in your culture and in your own personal development. So that's one thing I'd like you to think about is writing your own precepts, one or two or five or whatever. And I'd also like you to think about during this weekend points of decision in your own life. When, since you were, I don't care, eight years old or 14 or 23, you've made decisions that have given direction to your life.

[30:07]

And what was the mind that accompanied those decisions? And part of that, ask yourself not just about taking these precepts, But are you at the point where you can make a decision in your life now? If you were going to make a decision, what kind of decision would you make? When you get married in Buddhist wedding ceremony, you vow to... Well, actually, in the Christian Protestant wedding ceremony, you vow to plight your troth.

[31:30]

Which is a very interesting idea in relationship to taking the precepts to trying to be true to yourself. Because to plight your troth means plight is to endanger. And troth is truth. So it means, can you endanger your truth with another person? And an idea, I want to continue some of the things I spoke about in the Heart Sutra Seminar in Kimse.

[32:33]

Though I think only three of you are here who are at Kimse. Or will be here. Hilda's coming later. Which is that Heidegger feels that at the basis of Western culture, there is a single thought. And not, you know, he's certainly an equivocal person, but extraordinarily brilliant person. And he thinks all of Western culture is a unpacking of one's thought. Which in Greek, translated into English, is to take into care the beings as a whole.

[33:45]

And I think he would say all of our institutions and social and cultural developments open up or an expression of this attempt to take into care beings as a whole. And this is not really different, though manifested differently, but it's not really different from the vow to realize enlightenment or realize are common being with each person you meet. Well, let's make it more practical. One person in the morning, one person in the afternoon, and anyone you meet in the evening. Some kind of effort which also is expressed in these precepts.

[35:16]

And the ability to make these precepts and the richness that opens from your commitment to them. Present in, as I say, in his peace. In your attentional and intentional stream of mind. Now, why bother with Why not just say, well, these are good ideas, but why make them a rule that you commit yourself to? Because the whole chemistry is different when you make a commitment. Your interior chemistry is different.

[36:17]

It's almost like maybe it's a kind of putting a keel, a keel like in a sailboat, putting a keel down into the water of your life. Like the difference between living with someone without commitment and getting married or living with someone with commitment. Taking the precepts is the way of making all the unconscious precepts you have become visible. Anyway, in short, it's a recognition of ourselves at our deepest level And the most compassionate expression of our realization of other people.

[37:45]

So I've maybe already said a little too much. Because the really thing is the kind of chemistry of your feeling, okay, I can do this. It's a kind of chemical act. Yes, I can do this. And you're not entirely sure, but it can almost be these simple things. It can almost be like jumping over a cliff or into a life you're not sure you have the ability to do. Anyway, that's the first act, and then the second is actually doing it. And third is trying it out, renewing them, staying with them.

[38:47]

Now, is there anybody wants to talk about something, bring something up? Yeah. I would like to know in which sense the four big bodhisattva vows are connected with this. Which vows? To save all beings, to end all delusive ideas or thoughts. The four vows, yeah.

[40:09]

Well, the four vows are based on the four noble truths. And that there's suffering, that there's a cause of suffering, freedom from suffering or an end of suffering and the past. These vows are something that a Buddhist takes, and mostly people who aren't Buddhist won't take. The four vows are what a Buddhist takes, and mostly people who are not Buddhist wouldn't take such vows. But the five precepts, one reason they're called the Bodhisattva precepts, the next five of the ten precepts are more practice and are more for priests.

[41:11]

These five precepts join you with every person, Buddhist or non-Buddhist. Und diese fünf jedoch, um die es uns hier geht, die verbinden dich mit allen anderen Menschen, ob die Buddhisten sind oder nicht. Die sind noch nicht einmal buddhistisch. Hier geht es einfach um so ein allgemeines Verständnis. So we could say these are the common sense bodhisattva precepts. Und so könnten wir sagen, das sind die allgemein verständlichen fünf bodhisattva-Richtlinien. Yes. I grew up Catholic, and I was very strongly connected to guilt when I was going to church.

[42:31]

And at some point in my puberty I put that off, and now the whole thing is coming back up inside me. And at that moment, as I was dealing with it, I was already consciously acting like that. I was raised Catholic, and so anything that has to do with vows or precepts or so raises a lot of feelings of guilt. And I mean, everything that was connected with that. And I find myself, I mean, just thinking about the precepts that, I mean, I start disobeying them. Have you killed anyone in the last few years? I have no problem with vows, but not a problem with fear.

[43:38]

It had something to do, and I also tried, I heard this sentence from Caesar, that surround me with fat men. What? Surround me with nasty men and ugly men. For example, Caesar, he was most frightened about very skinny men. For me, the skinny men, when we had very strong laws, very strong ideas about special things, they had a very strong key in their life. And when I see people with a strong key in their life, you know, I have patience. When I see them running, the key is to run in the wrong direction, and sometimes just the opposite is coming out, what they really want to do, like the erotic part of communism, or Christianity, they stress love and put it coming on the set.

[44:47]

So that's the... I don't know how to... Yes, in German. Now we know why he practises with you. and that you somehow come to terms with the fact that you are actually enough. So, for example, in Christianity, the winter is paralyzed and everything comes out. Or the communist idea, which I have also mentioned many times, I can't undo your Catholic and Protestant upbringings or the bad parts of them.

[45:49]

But I don't think you, it's not clear, I don't know if I can make it clear, but it's not clear how, I think, different the practice of precepts are in Buddhism. I mean, you know, I was brought up, I mean, I was certainly brought up in a Protestant culture, but I was brought up as an atheist. Nun, ich bin sicherlich in einer protestantischen Kultur aufgewachsen, aber ich bin als atheist erzogen worden. And I never gave any thought at all to the church, God, Christianity or anything. Und ich habe mir auch nie einen einzigen Gedanken über die Kirche, Gott, Christentum oder etwas dergleichen gemacht.

[47:20]

never occurred to me that the church had anything to say. And so this is a big failing on my part. She's constantly trying to correct me. Because she felt Catholicism brought important things into her life. So I have to say, to me these precepts are just totally practical. They don't ask me to love my neighbor. They say, don't kill things. Please be aware of the preciousness and interdependence of existence.

[48:25]

Don't you all agree with that already? I mean, I'm sure you have leather shoes. Most of you. Maybe you sometimes have a hamburger. But you can't... You also can't kill your society. So we go along to some extent with our society. So if you... Anyway, you... And then the next one is do not take what is not given. None of you really are thieves, are you? Is that so hard, you know? So I don't know, that seems pretty obvious. The next one, don't misuse the senses. This may be a little harder.

[49:40]

And because it really is a teaching of the middle way and means don't don't push yourself in ways with drugs or excess that you don't see the world as it is. And don't use your senses to interfere or irresponsibly affect other people sexually and so forth. And do not lie.

[50:41]

None of you want to be liars, do you? And not lying is really just accepting things as they are and accepting the consequences of things as they are. Do not sell intoxicants is a little harder, maybe. If your family owns a brewery. A friend of mine's family owns Budweiser. American Bud, not Czechoslovakian Bud. Which is a much better beer. It's not? It's vegetarian, too. But even if the law in America now, if you sell in a bar, if you sell beer to somebody who then has a car accident, they can sue the bar.

[52:06]

But this also means don't present Buddhism in an intoxicating way. I mean, I could teach in a much more interesting way, but I don't want to be intoxicating. And during the Vietnam War, this was a big issue that you don't sell or make weapons. And a whole organization of scientists developed who actually quit doing science for large institutions, universities and the government because so much of it fed into weapons building.

[53:13]

This precept was the root of it. But I don't see anything that's so hard to follow here. And if you've broken them all, you're breaking them now? Yeah, that's all. Do you want me to give this... You're doing it for your own benefit.

[54:26]

I mean, if he's suffering, then you suffer. If it were easy, Buddhism would have disappeared a long time ago. Yes? I was a bartender once. They fired me, but I did everything. I try to do it in a way that I can, in a responsible way. I see someone who's an alcoholic, I say, you know, drink a coffee, please, don't give me any more. Or I see someone who gets too drunk, I say, well, maybe stop here. But sometimes people get drunk and I really can't mind because I do sometimes get drunk myself.

[55:37]

I think it's some responsibility that people have and very often for me the problem is where is my responsibility ending and where is the responsibility to end? How far am I ruling into the life of other people when they want to do something? I always feel guilty about it and I try to do it in a way that I can take responsibility for, by drawing boundaries. But it's not really like that, that I still have to drink alcohol and that I can't prevent it, especially if I want to prevent it, because I do it myself. in a way which is much harder for me, which is even worse.

[56:39]

I sometimes have problems with people wanting to commit suicide. And I didn't want them to commit suicide, but in the end it was their decision to do it or not. And I always had this problem of seeing how far is it in my vision what part it gets. Well, I started a restaurant, a vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco 15 years ago or so. And it was a complex decision on my part. And I really wanted to introduce vegetarian food to people as a real way of eating.

[57:48]

And I think it was the first restaurant in the United States that presented vegetarian food as a cuisine and not just as a health food. And the restaurant did it. It was very successful. It was, believe it or not, eight months in advance for dinner reservations and two or three weeks for lunch. But I decided to sell wine with the meals. And I spoke with His Holiness the Dalai Lama about it beforehand, and I think he agreed with me.

[58:59]

I'm not sure, but I think he agreed. I wouldn't want to hold him to it, but as far as I could tell, he said, Maybe it's a good idea. But we didn't sell beer and we wouldn't sell wine before the meal started. And some people got quite irritated. You're treating us like children. Why can't we have a glass of wine before dinner? And I just said, this is our rule. So it was okay. But as soon as I left actually the center, they began selling beer and wine quite freely. So I don't know, you're always in the midst of making these decisions. I remember one of the hard problems for me was a simple one where my insurance man wanted me to lie about how much I drove my car.

[60:15]

And it really wasn't about lying to the insurance company because I didn't cost the insurance company any money. I never had an accident. But it was about participating in a lie with the agent. Because if I go along with it, then I support his lying. If I don't go along with it, then I criticize him for the way he's trying to help me by getting me lower rates by saying I drive the car less.

[61:28]

So I decided to compromise. Instead of saying I drove, I don't know what it was, 500 miles a month, I said I drove 200 miles a month. But he wanted me to say I drove 50 miles a month. So I don't know, I sort of told him, I don't really like lying, but I understand. And so I sort of, you know. But I think that kind of, these precepts allow that kind of negotiation because you're trying to, really the precepts are about establishing a connection with other people.

[62:32]

And I would have some, you know, if I were you, I'd have to really examine what I was doing, working in a bar. On the other hand, if I did do it, I would see it as a tantric practice. In the sense that I'm consciously breaking a precept. for my own experience or for establishing a certain kind of beneficial relationship with someone else. I think it's in a way, I look at it, that what would be the benefit of working cautiously, as you say, for your own experience.

[63:47]

Well, the larger precept is you're not harming others or yourself. We're doing a practice period at Crestone now. And there's a ceremony we do called Nenju. which requires we clean every three and eight days. We, 13th, 18th, and so forth. We clean the zendo. and clean our rooms. And then we all stand outside on the deck. And we say, you know, Buddhist sun shines and everything and like a fish in the water in a puddle, what joy is there here, etc.,

[65:02]

And then I go in by myself first, or the Ino does. Sort of to look around, see if it looks clean. I bow and offer incense, and then we all go in one by one. Then it's just a good spring cleaning type German ceremony. At the same time, it emphasizes impermanence. That you've almost renewing, you're entering the building again for the first time. And you say, in Japanese you say, but it doesn't work so well in German, Hosan.

[66:22]

Sounds like taking your pants, pulling your pants on or something. But anyway, it means... Throw everything away. Throw practice away. Throw your relationship with the teacher away. Throw everything away. And that evening we have no schedule. It's a lazy eve. So even every five days the monastery schedule is thrown away. So we're breaking all the rules. And yet it's not done to hurt anyone. It's just done to have the freedom, that freedom. For example, in the monastery or in a zendo, you don't ever walk in front of the Buddha.

[67:35]

If you want to get from the left side of the Buddha to the right side, you have to go all the way around the back of the room and come around again. But the abbot can walk back and forth. And that's not because... It's only just because someone should be able to break the rule. So if your larger sense is the benefit of others or don't harm others, then how you follow these things is up to your own heart and your own sense of establishing a connection with other people.

[68:39]

But the dynamic of this will be different in Germany because in America we never wait at traffic lights and things like that. We never follow rules much. Germans are far more socially responsible than Americans are. So you must have quite a different internal feeling for rules than I have, for instance. But all that is just part of your dialogue with these precepts. Something else. Yeah, I find rules we unconsciously live by much more powerful and much more imprisoning in the sense, Hermann, for example, mentioned it.

[70:10]

So I feel by actually taking the vows to make some conscious vows, I release a lot of these unconscious rules I live by. Maybe you can say something to that. But I can't say it in German. My feeling is that the unconscious rules according to which I live are much more powerful and more confined than the conscious rules. For example, when I lay down the guidelines and that this act is very liberating in that many of these unconscious rules are made conscious by sitting down with them. You said it so well, so I don't have to say anything. Can you translate that? No, it's true. The precepts are a way of prying all the unconscious rules you follow to the surface. Anyway, you'll be surprised, those of you who take the precepts.

[71:16]

The dynamic of these simple rules that you commit yourself to, Affect your whole life. Dig down into your life. Excavate your life. Yeah. My decision to organize myself was not to say less about the rules that you should or can observe, or not, but more about the whole thing that I have been going forward with since a few years, with the protest, so to speak, and with the difficulty that I also had.

[72:26]

Am I too fast? No. With the difficulty that I also had, to get used to certain things or to the rules. But in the meantime, I have a deep connection to Roshli and to the practice and also to her, that it is more of a point of confession and that the other can come from her own point of view. And therefore the rules I don't think that's so important now. I also have things in my old home that I can borrow. I don't think that's so important now. I don't think that's so important now. Well, my decision to take the precepts does not so much come out of just wanting to follow these guidelines, but it's an expression of following this path with you, Roshi, and everyone, and my partner.

[73:40]

And so it's really an expression of my deep connection with you all. And it's something that kind of the precepts sort of come with it, or one leads the other. It's true. It's interesting it works that way. I just said the last thing, sometimes I take something out of the work to use it at home, but for this reason I'm not a bad person, or I have not a bad feeling, because I know this institution has enough money to buy... Be careful. Maybe after Sunday. Yeah, after Sunday. I find even taking pencils from work leaves you with your state of mind a little funny.

[74:46]

But this is something we have to anyway experiment with. But it is funny that often we come to the point of taking the precepts to develop our relationship and our relationship with, as you said, your partner and the other people in the Dharma Sangha. But taking the precepts opens you up very deeply to everyone. But these are universal precepts, not just Buddhist precepts. There's one of the famous commentaries in Buddhism starts out with, as I've mentioned to you before, this whole world's in a tangle.

[76:07]

This whole generation's in a tangle. Who's going to untangle this tangle? And it says the person who starts out with taking these precepts. If you don't start untangling yourself, there's no hope. So who's going to untangle this tangle? This whole generation is in a tangle. This whole world's in a tank. So maybe we should sit for a few minutes and then we'll stop. Amen.

[78:36]

Although, of course, we have to talk about the precepts to some extent. Really, they're not something to talk about. It's something you do. It's an act. And this action has its own power which can't be discovered through talking. I remember the clarity and relief I felt when I first took the precepts, probably in 1962. The deep relief I felt then and have felt ever since.

[81:03]

And I hope you can have this same deep relief. Through this act of taking the precepts. It's really nice to see so many of you after so many months of being in the United States. And most of you are familiar faces, but a few of you are new. And... Hmm... We have quite a full day and an evening, two days and an evening.

[82:31]

We have this seminar on this koan. Although we don't have to stick to the koan, we can really discuss whatever we want to. And we have a Sunday afternoon. Sometimes we'll have a ceremony taking the precepts. And sometimes Sunday, I don't know, we'll also have a wedding of Herman and Jutta? At midnight, maybe? Anyway, late afternoon, sometimes. And this afternoon for, I don't know, a third or half of you, I don't know, we met about taking the precepts.

[83:53]

And Herman mentioned, if I may repeat, that he had with a Catholic background, precepts and rules and vows are pretty difficult. So that must be why you're getting married as well as taking the precepts, because they're almost the same ceremony. So you can take them twice. Maybe I'll put a little variation in. Mm-hmm. And for those of you who were lost in Sinsheim without a map during this afternoon, asking people in the marketplace where the Zens were meeting, where is Sinsheim?

[85:17]

Of course no one knew. So for those of you who were going to come this afternoon and want to take the precepts, that's fine. And I've been asked a couple of times if those of you who've already taken the precepts can renew them and go do the ceremony. And the rest of you who are undecided, you're also welcome to take the precepts. It's a kind of blessing which we can all give each other. In fact, practice is a kind of blessing that you give yourself. And practicing with others you share this and develop together this blessing.

[86:42]

And to practice with others also means to share this blessing. As I said in Kimse, it's a kind of, I don't know if I'm using the word correctly, it's a kind of grace. And Ulrike was very pleased I used the word. She's been waiting for five years for me to use the word grace. But it was my grandmother's name. Anyway, in a way, this koan is about the grace or blessing and joy, non-referential joy of practice.

[87:49]

Usually when we talk about practice, there's a certain implication that we're not as conscious as we could be. Actually, not an implication, there's a kind of what we're almost harassed with the idea that we're not conscious and aware enough. You should be practicing mindfulness, you should be more aware, etc. It's true. But in a way it gives the wrong picture. It makes us look benighted. Do you have that word, benighted? and darkened, but really we are very close to enlightenment.

[89:16]

If we look at it from the other end, compared to most animals, we have much more discretionary consciousness. We have extraordinary possibilities to understand things as they are. In fact, just functioning in our society, we're quite close to that all the time. But the degree to which we miss is quite difficult too. But still, we have the capacity for understanding reality, whatever that is. And we have the capacity to understand and realize our life And really be able to live in tremendous freedom and joy most of the time.

[90:38]

And I feel that, you know, at Crestone we are operating at least for the West, fairly traditional Zen monastery. And it looks like a monastery. And it can be described as that. And I think over the centuries, a form that we call monastic developed as places like Crestone.

[91:42]

But I think really they're at root research institutions. There are places where we do research on ourselves and research on our relationships with others. And that research is social and psychological and philosophical. And through yogic practice, it's a study of the constituents and layers of consciousness. And it's also a religious institution, but I would say that's not the most definitive sort of seed within these practice institutions.

[92:46]

And I feel that our gatherings here as the Dharma Sangha Europe are little research projects of a weekend or so. in which we're trying to understand ourselves well enough in order to...

[93:31]

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