And then put it back together. You create different emergent properties. Yourself will be put together a little differently. Memory will come together differently. And memories will be changed because memories put together differently in the present mind and then restored are restored. So this wisdom consciousness is a very creative... way of being in the world. It may not change anything. It doesn't have to. It may change everything.

[01:02]

So this is I felt I guess looking at this koan is really to look at some basic Buddhism as part of looking at the koan. This is extremely basic Buddhism. But strangely, it's very difficult to understand or grasp until you've had a fair amount of experience. Because it's not just logic, it's a philosophy. It really has meaning if you're able to experience it. And practice it. And only when you can practice it can you see how important these small distinctions are.

[02:07]

Okay. So we should take a break, huh? Thanks. So 20 minutes anyway. Thank you, partner, for taking the time to talk with each other. And you talked with me a little bit at the break. Could you say something about, repeat what you said? Yes, I was talking to a group member about how you manage to get rid of the influences of our current world, and so on, and how to get rid of it, or whether there will be an equilibrium, and then to follow more of the precepts, and then to let yourself be guided more by the teachings of the Buddha.

[03:12]

If you get such a fall back, then you have to Well, you said it nearly the same as you said to me. Well, what he brought up exactly illustrates the idea in Buddhism of the three natures. You have your conventional world. in which people substantiate reality in a certain way.

[04:15]

And probably the difficulty is not so much in denying it in general or seeing through it in general. The problem is seeing through it with your friends. Because your friends love you, and you love them, or at least your identities are very mixed up. And when you have a different view, your friends don't like it too much. And particularly when you're more your age, your identities are much more in flux and formative, and it's really harder to pull your identity out and have it different from others.

[05:16]

But basically it's a good problem. Because you have the convention, as I've discussed at some points, the three natures of the conventional world. The world in which you see things are relative and empty. You see things in a perspective, this kind of perspective as we've been talking about. You see this, have this feeling in meditation. And then you go to work or school, you talk to your friends and you're drawn into the conventional reality and you lose the feeling. Then you come to a seminar and you remember and you go back the other direction. And then you leave the seminar and you go back the other way. Then you practice mindfulness a little bit and you go back across the line again. And so forth.

[06:52]

And this process actually creates energy. And actually the conflict between the two is very strong and creative. Because the Because it's really not either or. It's both and in between. So you have the conventional and you have the relative and you have a tension between them and there's a pulse between them and at some point you see in between them. Which requires some of that conflict.

[07:56]

And then you have a direct experience or you may have a direct experience of emptiness or a shift in the basis in the way you put yourself together. And the conventional world is also how we express our compassion. So you may choose to look just like everyone else and drive the same big car. That was the example you used. And it's a sign of manhood or something, I guess, which to drive a... I don't mean you, but I mean for some people it is. Or a womanhood. Oh, well, anyway. So we may take on a life which looks like we're deluded. In koans that's called entering the weeds.

[09:14]

But anyway, this is part of practice, this noticing this difference and working with it. Now one person just left because he thought there was just too much, it was too intellectual. He had particularly this discussion in his group. And the discussion we've been having today. And he may be right. But there's three, I can say there's three forms of Buddhism. There's mercy Buddhism where you keep it pretty simple and basically you get people out of faith to follow it. And then there's studying how we actually exist. And you see water and you see waves and you see the surface of the water and you see the patterns and so forth.

[10:40]

And this is the Buddhism I've been describing today. And I'm not making it up. And now there's another Zen approach, which is, well, water and waves and all that stuff, but already wet. Already wet. And we have to practice. Ultimately, that's the way in Zen we practice. But if you, my experience over now quite a lot of years, decades even, is if you teach only already wet Buddhism, nobody gets wet. Or not many. Because that Buddhism works when you're in a Buddhist culture.

[11:58]

But in our culture, it mostly doesn't work until we establish a Buddhist context. So let's look, I would like before we leave this evening to look at least quickly at the koan. So I'll comment on it a little bit as we go along. Scholars plow with the pen. And orators plow with the tongue. Now, what could this mean?

[13:09]

It means pretty much what I said earlier, that this is the way you create a culture, which means to cultivate, and a people. Mm-hmm. So through speaking and writing, we generate a culture. But we patch-robed mendicants lazily watch a white ox on open ground. Now we can ask, where is that? Where do they watch this ox? There was a person named Naga Bodhi who wasn't very good at keeping an object of meditation before him.

[14:12]

So he imagined that there was a buffalo horn coming out of his own head. So he concentrated always on this buffalo horn out of his own head. And it seemed to have worked, and he became known as Nagabodhi, snake enlightenment. And there's also practices of imagining your mind as a drop of white light in your heart. This is all related to this lazily watching white ox on open ground. Not even paying attention to the rootless, auspicious grass. And as some of you have asked in various ways, If there's nothing to gain and we're already there and there's no place to go, how do we pass the days?

[15:32]

So how do we pass the days? So then we have this case. Dijang asks Shushan. And this was pretty typical to ask this kind of question. Actually, he'd been... Anyway, I'll go into more detail. Where do you come from? From the South. How is Buddhism in the South these days? There's extensive discussions, just like in Frankfurt. How can that compare to me here planting the fields and making rice to eat? So this Di Zhang is a pretty subtle person. So... There's this extensive discussion, just as we're doing.

[16:46]

And just like that guy who was just here, he said he just wants to go back and work in his garden. He just left. So this guy said, if he didn't know, this guy was acting out the koan for us. Yeah. And he said, how can that compare to me planting the fields and making rice? So Shushan says, well, you're here. but China's in a political mess and everything's going on. What can you do about the world? Okay, but Di Cheng says, what do you call the world? Where are you living? So... Let's skip to the next paragraph.

[17:56]

The master of Shushan joined with Fayan, Wudong, and Jinshan. To travel beyond the lake region and along with many Japanese tourists and others. And they came to Zhang province. This sounds quite real, and they were blocked by rain, snow, and swollen valley streams. So they put up at Dijon Temple, which was west of the city. And there they sat around the... What do you call it in Japan? The hibachi? The brazier, the hibachi? And ignored Master Dijon.

[18:56]

And he could feel their thought of like just being there and ignoring this priest of the temple. So he thought he'd tease them a little. Yes, I came up and said, excuse me, venerable travelers, there's something I would ask, may I? And if there's some matter, if there's something you want to ask, please do. Said our mountains, rivers, and earth identical or separate from you elders. Now this is obviously a loaded question. It's not what you're asked usually when you drop in to see somebody. Das ist nicht das, was man normalerweise fragt, wenn man mal kurz bei jemandem vorbeischaut.

[20:08]

And it refers to the classic idea that the beginning of your practice, mountains are mountains, after a while mountains are no longer mountains, and then after you're realized, mountains are mountains. Ja, und es hat also etwas damit zu tun, mit dieser Vorstellung, dass am Anfang, wenn man praktiziert, einfach Berge Berge sind, dann die nächste Stufe ist Berge sind nicht mehr Berge, und irgendwann sind sie dann wieder Berge. So they gave a rather arrogant... realized answer saying, suggesting they're in the third stage, oh, they're separate, mountains are mountains. So they're involved in this discussion themselves. And they have certain positions, but they're not deeply held. So Dijon just held up two fingers.

[21:09]

So you can see this discussion is going on. So he obviously, I mean, here's two fingers, but they're connected, and they're connected here. But they're really connected by the act of raising the fingers. Because here we have a good example of mind over matter. I think a thought and my hand moves. That's certainly mind over matter. So he raises his hand with two fingers. emphasizing big mind. So Shushan changes his position, says, identical, identical. Then he did the same thing again. And the same thing again is always different.

[22:11]

So Shushan kind of I always say I think of the Chattanooga Shushan boy. But anyway, Shushan didn't seem to really get what's going on here. But Fayan, who's one of the famous people in Buddhism, said he became Ji Jiang's disciple. And founded a school. He said, he asked, what was the meaning of this abbot, this priest holding up the two fingers? And Shushan said, he did that arbitrarily. And something had already happened to Fayan, and he said, don't consult him. And Shushan again is somewhat, more than somewhat arrogant.

[23:25]

Here he says, oh, this is just some country priest. He said, are there elephant tusks in a rat's mouth? So Fayan didn't want to interfere with his friend's plans. So they got up to leave. You know, it seems that Fayan also prepared to leave with them. And at the last minute, Fayan said, you brothers go ahead and I'll stay with Dijon. He may have some strong point. If not, I'll come find you. And Foyan stayed for a long time, and eventually the other three, including Shushan, came back. And now in the next, they just go through the next paragraph, they go through the case again.

[24:33]

Playing with the dialogue a little bit. For instance, when Di Zhang said, how can that compare to me here planting the fields and eating rice? Shushan could have said, oh, then it's the same as the South. Because Dijon saying, how can that compare to meat plant, it's just part of the discussion. Just like the discussion in the South. But instead he said, how about the world? So let's look at the verse, and then we'll stop.

[25:34]

So here it says, the source, already wet, and the explanation, the various explanations, they're all made up, they're all constructs. Now this process of analysis is to take things apart and find original mind or non-dual consciousness. And then to put them back together. So here it says, passing from ear to mouth, you hear something and then you say something, that very process, everything starts coming apart. So how do you pass the days? How do we live? Only those who have investigated to the full would know. Nur diejenigen, die vollständig untersucht haben, können es wissen.

[26:51]

Having investigated the full, you clearly know there's nothing to seek. Und wenn man vollständig untersucht hat, erkennt man deutlich, dass es nichts gibt, das man suchen könnte. Ji Fang, after all, didn't care to be in fiefed as a marquis. Und Ji Zhang legte eigentlich gar keinen Wert darauf, als marquis mit einem lehen bedacht. They offered him 30,000 households or something like that. And he said, oh, just Frankfurt, Sebastian. He was quite modest. Forgetting his state, he returned, same as fish and birds, washing his feet in San Long, the hazy waters of autumn. Here we have, I don't know if I can express it, but we live in a place that's not easy for anyone to know.

[27:59]

And it's in this koan, this place where we live, where we feel connected, but it's very difficult for anyone to know. It's here described as lazily watching a white ox on open ground. I think that's enough for today. So maybe we could sit for a couple minutes. Thank you for translating. Yeah.

[29:10]

If I take the word wave, again, wave. Wave, oh yeah. And I separate it to W-A-V-E. Nothing will happen with me. The wave helps me to feel identical. Sameness? Identical? What do you mean? Well, that's why I'm saying this. Just by looking at that land, also gives me the feeling of being Peter. Oh, good. All right. Makes me feel like Richard. All right. If I take that off, I'm used, but there's a land. If I take that off, what will happen is picture.

[30:13]

Take that away, you mean analyze it into parts? Yeah. Or what you made with the finger. What helps me only to become wet, And not to become crazy or psychotic. Yeah. What helps you to become wet and not crazy? It would be nice to be crazy but not psychotic. Yeah. And you feel when you... Why don't you say that in German? Also, I know that the lamp, that it is there as it is, also helps me, the Peter, so me, yes, that's often the question, so it helps me to feel.

[31:13]

And what happens when I take the lamp away, when I take it away from a view, from a distance? What happens then with me, with the identity that I feel? Maybe you should briefly say what you mean with psychotic. To be flooded in a way that I can't act on. Are you saying that this practice of analysis we talked about in the Sashin and now, when you do it or feel you're doing it,

[32:24]

it makes you feel a little crazy or shaky in some way? We use these words wisdom and emptiness and so forth in practice and they have, I guess I would have to say scientific definitions. They're not evocative poetic words. What is evocative? It brings up many things. It evokes many things. It evokes many things. Now, I don't know, but I think that perhaps in our culture, our Western culture, we don't have this inner science.

[34:10]

We have science and then we have poetry and religion, etc., but they're not together. If I talk about adept Buddhism, I have much easier time talking to a physicist than to a Catholic priest. Although I can talk to some Catholic monastics, or I can talk quite easily with Ivan Illich, who's probably the most profound Catholic I know. So I'm going away and explaining my distress. Our tendency is to use words like love and so forth in rather, as I said, poetic or general ways.

[35:48]

We don't say love is this, and we can't define love in that way. But compassion, wisdom... emptiness, so forth, in Buddhism have virtually scientific definitions that are achieved through a craft. and philosophical and teaching systems developed in Buddhism are not static systems. They're meant to move. And Zen moves them primarily through the practice of pivoting words, turning words.

[37:00]

Hmm. So it seems easier to everyone if I leave these definitions rather vague and emptiness. And people practice Buddhism for years and have no idea what wisdom means or emptiness means. It sounds good to get wise, but more than that, people don't know much. We could say Buddhism is based on For mental and physical health you have to know how the world exists. In the fullest sense to be healthy mentally and physically.

[38:01]

So all of this stuff is to find out in yourself how things actually exist. But it's well known that finding out how things actually exist causes anxiety. Because the way things actually exist is not the way parents and culture try to develop us to do our duty. All right. So the practice of analysis, which is also the basis of Vipassana Buddhism, but for the most part, at least American Vipassana has put this analysis in the context.

[39:33]

The boundaries of this analysis are within a psychological framework. At least it seems that way to me for the most part. Now, through this process of analysis of a wisdom consciousness, Physical objects, mental objects, and consciousness itself are demonstrated to be empty. And this is not a philosophical exercise. It empties you. Now, this is so thoroughly done that enlightenment, Buddha, and practice all disappear.

[40:49]

And that's implied in the koan where it says, how do we get through the day? What do we do if everything is gone? So the basic, the probably most fundamental Mahayana sutra is the Prajnaparamita in 8,000 lines. And it starts out with what's called, and I've quoted this quite often, the basic teachings. It just says right in the beginning, basic teachings. If the bodhisattva, coursing in wisdom, now coursing is like a sailboat coursing through the water. And that's what it says in the Heart Sutra of the Avalokiteshvara, deep in the practice of... But actually it means coursing, like through a stream, coursing in samadhi.

[42:19]

Coursing in emptiness or coursing in meditation sees that there is no meditation No wisdom, no enlightenment, no path. And if in seeing that there is no distress or anxiety, Then there is the path, there is enlightenment, there is the bodhisattva and so forth. So this teaching starts out with the very fact that presenting the teaching causes anxiety.

[43:27]

So it's something you have to sort of be in the midst of and it's not so bad, you know. I like where Hillman says, all this effort to get rid of depression, many people just live in depression and function through it and then it works in you differently than always trying to get rid of it. Sometimes the long, flat slope of the learning curve could be called depression. Anyway, so that's why Zazen practice is important. And that's why stabilizing this mind is important. And ideally they work together. And one last thing.

[45:02]

I'm talking too much about your question, but one last thing. There are several things that are considered essential in practice. One is faith. And the word for that in Japanese is daishinkan. Great faith root or mind root. And that means faith, one of its meanings is faith in existence itself, that you exist. And not that you're successful, or this has happened, or that's happened. Just existence itself you have faith in. okay sorry to talk so much about it I get quite tired of talking sometimes you might not believe it but I do nothing else

[46:10]

Yeah. There was one phrase in the Torah which is a little bit up here to me. It means in the last paragraph before the verse that he doesn't even know how to come forth on his own. And this seems to be kind of something important to call forth. Forth, yeah. And you have mentioned this. Does the need to present his own mind, or what does it mean? I'm not clear about that. In Deutsch, yeah. Let's see Paragraph 4 and 1. I am inside, and it says, Here shall rise, and we are all trying to know what is important to call forth.

[47:20]

Forth, yeah. And we have often mentioned it. Does that mean to preserve his own mind, or what does it mean? I'm not clear on that. In German. Well, to come forth on your own, in this case, it's referring very simply to that he talks about what's going on in the South instead of saying what he feels.

[48:31]

There's a dialogue, if I remember, between Linji and Lu Po, Let's see if I can remember it. I can't remember it well enough to repeat it. But basically, Linji says something like, there are these two kinds of... practice. One is this and one is that. And he says, what do you think about that? And Li Po says, well, it's this one and then it's that one. And then Linjian erupts and says, which one are you? So it's the same thing.

[49:47]

He's talking about the South and he says, what about you? So he doesn't come forth on his own. So he doesn't come forth on his own. Yeah, that's right. He speaks from borrowed consciousness when he talks about the extensive discussions in the South. Yes, Ruth? why you don't understand why it's okay

[50:59]

Both are equally important and both should occur together. I was surprised that there is such a meaning as connecting the source and the language. Okay. Ah. Let me put that aside for a moment.

[52:26]

Someone else had their hand up. Yeah, you? Yeah, Julia, but I have a question too, so ... Oh yeah? Okay. When I try to find out how the world is, you know, for inferring mind or consciousness, I very fast get into very big trouble with the whole world, like the social world where I live. And it causes a lot of, well, expectations that are not fulfilled or the act, but the kind of verbal that you have to say, I cannot promise you, for example, children, whether my whole world, I'm starting to smile, it doesn't exist, so I can't promise that. And it's very difficult. I don't know how that fits the concept of compassion. This is pretty much like your question of last night.

[53:27]

You want to say that in Deutsch? Well, I think it would be a good idea to say to everyone you meet, as an introductory thing instead of hello, just say, I cannot promise you permanence. And then get on with whatever you have to do. And you've got that whole problem out of the way. I don't know. Something like that. It's like my phrase that I used to use, as I've told you often, don't bug me, man.

[54:51]

For one year I said that to everybody I met. They'd say, hello. I'd say, don't bug me, man. So I was known as don't bug me, man baker. So you could become, I can't promise you permanence, Julio. I like it. Maybe I'll start trying it. Very nice. I can't promise you permanence, but hard. So what did you want to say? What I feel in the Qur'an is this old discussion going on, like in most Qur'ans, between the granting and the grasping way. Like in the granting way you just plant your fields and you cook and you live your life, and in the grasping way you have all these discussions about Buddhism in the South. And I feel this is also sort of happening in our discussions.

[55:52]

And I feel it's important to have a pulse in practice where on some level we kind of just relax into this grunting way and at some point concentrate and move to the more grasping approach to practice. And could you say a little bit about it and maybe explain it? I think it would be useful. Do you want to say that in practice? I think here in the choir there is again the well-known discussion between these two paths, the possibilities in practice. One is this path that is described as defensive, where you simply live your everyday life, a bit like what Roshi said yesterday, this Mercy Buddhism. where you do your exercises and do your zazen and don't think much and live your everyday life and have your family life. The other way is simply that you really try very hard and study and go to the monastery and try to understand reality as it really is through the practice of analysis, for example.

[56:56]

And I think it's just important that you don't lose sight of both aspects and that you relax once more in this guided path and then make this effort to understand reality as it is. And I think, I have the feeling, it's also here in the seminar, to feel this tension and also this pulse and that Proshi couldn't say anything. I think that would be very helpful. I think you said it very well and I don't have to say anything else. Well, I'm having an internal debate with myself here, which is how much to use this koan to go into this koan and whether it would be useful to you or not. It's not that I'm withholding anything, but it's just how to... I really want to talk with you about Buddhism, where you are at in your own practice.

[58:07]

If I do that too much, that's not good. Because I should say some things you're not ready for. And then, because they kind of work, create a fertile situation. But I shouldn't say so much that your mind closes down. Yes. As you know, I have this problem all the time. I often mention it. And it's partly this situation.

[59:31]

We have time together, which rarely do teachers have this much, as people who live at Crestone, the teachers have this much time just to sit for several days with somebody because there's a monastery to take care of, you know. So the pace at which things are presented is different. And, you know, strangely enough, I can also present some things in a situation like this because they just fly away, which I couldn't face-to-face with somebody because then it's too challenging. Challenging is one word. It's also just doesn't make sense or is threatening or something. But at the same time, there's a kind of, there's a feeling I have that I don't know how to get to.

[61:07]

I mean, that comes from the koan and comes from practicing with you, but I'm trying to figure out how to get to it. On the whole, you seem to be fairly patient with this process, so I can maybe go on a little further with the koan. Because Ruth's question, if I answer it, I have to go into the koan in another way than I have so far. But still, I would love to do it in a way that is useful to you. And I would love to do it in a way that is useful to you. Some of these things become useful only when you've made other things useful.

[62:14]

They're not difficult, it's just a matter of a kind of stages. And so much of it is just getting familiar. Okay. So before I launch into this going a little bit more, anybody else want to bring up something? Okay. Is this inferring? Inferring, yes. Inferring sometimes, but inferring. Is it like engaged awareness? Or what's the difference? It felt or it feels for me like in this engaged awareness is more like a stopped time.

[63:20]

And in this inferring consciousness is a kind of of movement, of motion, and I had difficulties with this consciousness because I don't understand from where it's going to what. Okay, Deutsch. For me the question is, Roshi has recently used the term engaged awareness, and to what extent this is identical to this leading consciousness of which he speaks in this seminar. And this engaged awareness sounds to me more like something really stops in us and we are really there, present.

[64:26]

He also described it as being interlocked with the present. I don't know how to translate that. It's really melancholy to be there. And this other universe sounds to me as if you're going from somewhere to somewhere. And I don't even know where this movement comes from. And for me it is more the question, to come back to you, not so much the question of whether I am crazy or how the world is dissolving, it is much more the question for me, why is today not the happiest day of my life? So that's it. Well, the phrase engaged in awareness is a phrase I would come to in a particular context, speaking about mindfulness and awareness.

[65:44]

To emphasize that you're not outside the system or just a watcher. It also relates to what Ruth brought up. So when a phrase like that sticks with you, this is quite good. And then when some other phrase, like inferring consciousness, begins to work against or with it, that's also quite good. Now, one way to look at that is to not try to make a map of the city from above.

[66:49]

But just to let those two work in their separate ways until you find out by letting them work in you how they come together. But I can also say, I mean, there's several things needed for any practice, and I think for lay practice. One is this practice of analysis, as I've mentioned. Another is doubt. But both doubt and the practice of analysis both arise from this inferring consciousness. And you can say that an inferring consciousness is a consciousness which every moment of perception is preceded by the feeling, what is it?

[68:01]

Something comes into the perceptual field. You don't say, that's a hand. Your first reaction is, what is it? Then, oh, that looks like a hand. Yes, something comes into your perception field, and before you say, that's your hand, and before you say, that's a hand, you ask yourself, what is it? So this what-is-it, what-ness consciousness, we could call it, is also the condition for engaged awareness. So Beate also illustrates one of the things I'm trying to do is, and I have no idea without Ulrike's help what happens in German, but I attempt to take a teaching context, a way of, a craft of teaching, a craft of practice.

[69:20]

As I try to find one phrase, in English, that kind of characterizes it, that you can actually work with and turn the whole ball of wax. So that's enough on that, I think. And I think that's enough. Someone else have something you'd like to bring up? Yes, Mike. You just said something here in reaction to what Peter said about Hilden spoke enough to them.

[70:26]

People are depressed. Why are those trying to get rid of them instead of just being depressed? Do you want to say that in Dutch or German? In response to Peter's question. I would like to say that it would be better for her to have depression. I hope that in the last 20 years I will be able to find myself in a stable somehow, so that I can work with people.

[71:52]

Okay. Yeah, every time, what Hillman said was quite complex and subtle, and I simplified it, and then it gets simplified, and then you simplified it more. I'm not sure Hillman would agree with you any longer, but... But what you said is works for you and, you know, good. One of the important differences, and a basic difference, which I will speak about now, and then we'll maybe take a break, and then we can look at the koan again.

[73:07]

But, Ralph, you had your hand up a minute. No? Because I can... Okay. We can view our karma and our situation as a wound. And contemporary psychotherapy has, well, no, not contemporary, but Freud and others made us think of this or emphasize this, our psychic situation, as an illness. And this is not the whole of psychotherapy and psychology and so forth, but this is one strong image that's out there in the popular culture. But a wound and a wound, if you have that view, which is an operative view, needs to be healed.

[74:08]

And of course, that is in Buddhist culture also an image, the wound that needs to be healed. But the more definitive image in Buddhism is of a garden. And you don't heal a garden. You cultivate a garden. It's a very different working image to look at yourself with. But it also means if we carry this image further and look at its ramifications or its bases. Consciousness, as I said yesterday, is not an is. And it's a condition.

[75:25]

And in like manner, in yoga culture, the body is not an is. It's a condition to be realized, to be cultivated. So the body is something to be cultivated, and the mind and consciousness is something to be cultivated. And the mind-body relationship is something to be cultivated. And the way you cultivate a garden, again, as you look at it, it's a whole different attitude toward cultivation than toward healing. And behind this idea of everything changing, and the way things come together as a form of cultivation, And is that also everything changes means everything is choice.

[77:02]

So if you want to cultivate yourself, you have to choose to cultivate yourself. It is something you have to choose as an adult. So this idea of cultivation, that your body is a condition and your mind and your consciousness are conditions to be realized by a decision, is fundamental to this koan. So I would like to leave you with this philosophical idea, which is also a practice idea in which Buddhism assumes the body is not an is, that just is, it's a condition to be chosen and developed. And so is consciousness, the mind, and any unity of these.

[78:14]

And in this kind of practice, we're asking you mainly, can you make this choice? Okay, let's take a break for 20 minutes or so. I'm trying to introduce some of the basic teachings of Buddhism, and particularly as it comes up in the context of this koan. And whatever we talk about Buddhism in Asia or here, it's not that different.

[79:48]

We are going against the stream of substantiation. The more truly we get to the nitty-gritty of the teaching, the more we're going to have a resistant feeling or a can't-hear feeling because we don't substantiate things that way. And let me, just as a footnote, say that... Headnote... I'd say that once you see that the process of substantiation by which you give reality to things is always going on, it's what glues your world together.

[81:00]

And you then can begin to see what that act of substantiation consists of. And it's all kinds of views, habit thinking and so forth. But when you take those things away and you're left with an experience of cohesion and not substantiation, What does this cohesion now consist or what is its glue? It's very simple and clear. The Bodhisattva vow. Compassion. It's where compassion really enters your practice, and the vow, it substitutes for substantiation in being the glue of cohesion.

[82:23]

Someone just told me that they think that there in Germany some scholars and others still use these memory techniques in their way they study and practice. In Asia, Taoism particularly used them. And one of them is in your head you see a range of mountains surrounding a lake. And in the middle of the lake there's a nine-story pavilion.

[83:26]

And there are many bridges and there's the field of Sinabar, Yerhara. And there's waterways and bridges and so forth. In Buddhism this isn't all that important. Less static methods are used to create an interior space that is equal to exterior space. Now maybe we should imagine ourselves as a group of medieval monks and monkettes here. Involved in the exegesis of a text. Now, I have said to you that when we've studied the five skandhas, that in order to see the five skandhas in operation, and you can see that in the teaching of the Heart Sutra, which is chanted so often by us too,

[84:52]

This process of analysis is what the sutra is based on. Avalokiteshvara is deep in meditation. And he sees that all things are empty. And he sees that all things are empty by dividing them into the five skandhas and the eight visjanas and the twelvefold origination and so forth. And then you see that those divisions, by seeing it in parts, those divisions themselves are empty. And through that realizes wisdom, prajnaparamita. So this sutra that we chant all the time is very specifically analysis practice. Now you have to look into this territory with a path mind. Now how does this become a path?

[86:25]

For instance, the twelvefold dependent origination. conditioned co-arising, it's sometimes translated as. But it's also translated as causal nexus. Now again, I want you to emphasize and to remember all this in your practice is this is not philosophy, it's practice. So if they talk about a causal nexus, shall we say, this is not just an idea, it's something you can feel and see. And this is what I mean, one of the things I mean by the practice of in-betweenness. I don't just see... What is your name again?

[87:48]

Anita. I don't just see Anita. And it's not just Richard perceiving Anita. There's immediately an Anita-Richard field that's created. And that field is also more created when Anita disappears and Richard disappears and the field takes precedence. And that's an actual experience of connectedness, not just this side perceiving that side. Now in the Sesshin we talked quite a bit about perceiving things from, not from your own side, but that's too much to get into right now.

[88:50]

Now Buddhism says use everything you've got. So Buddhism certainly doesn't discard the intellect. The intellect is used to get me to the point that I can say there's Anita and Richard, but there's also the relationship. That intellect gets me to that point. Analysis brings me to that point. But practice brings that to life. And part of analysis is to use mindfulness to remind yourself of interdependence till you feel it. Now, if you look at the early Zen teachers before, there's so much fractionalism or division into schools and arguments.

[90:11]

There was a universal emphasis that scriptural teachings, the sutras and Zen practice are identical. What you can see that in somebody like Zong Mi, And you can see that someone like Song Mi, who lived in the 8th century, that already that he had to emphasize it means the problem was already there. Between sutra teaching versus enlightenment teaching versus gradual and sudden and so forth. But mostly these divisions develop through the schools which try to define themselves separately in a certain competitiveness of lesser teachers.

[91:19]

That's generally how it's understood. Then, certainly as far as I'm concerned, is a practice and a way of teaching and practicing the basic teachings of Buddhism. Now someone else of the same period of... Song Mi, by the way, was not only considered to be a Zen master, he was also the fifth patriarch of the Hua-Yen school in China. The Huayen school is based on the Avatamsaka Sutra. The Huayen Sutra is one of the main teachings that's part of Zen practice. Now there was another person around the same time in those early days.

[92:22]

named Jin Jue. Yeah, that's good enough. Well, I didn't do it very well, and you did it about as well as I did. who wrote, had to write a preface to a, some Zen, collection of Zen works, no, the teachings of the students, the teachings of the, the sayings of the teachers and students of the Lanka. And the Lanka is the Lankavatara Sutra, which is the main Yogacara Sutra that Bodhidharma supposedly brought to China.

[93:37]

Probably not exactly true, but that's how the story is told. Anyway, he says in his preface, Writing this preface, I try to embed my enlightenment in it so that to a depth of the way it will be discovered. Even in writing your preface to a collection of sayings, he tries to embed his enlightenment in the preface. So that's what the compilers of these koans also tried to do. Now, if we have a situation like, again, going back to the Heart Sutra and the teachings of the five skandhas,

[94:35]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_75.82