And we are each as qualified as anyone else to do this. No one can do it for ourself but you. And actually no one can do it for others but you. This is actually the extraordinary affair. Thank you very much. Onyo ayogoto gatashi.

[01:03]

Wari-ma-ke-no-ji ju-ji-su-ko-to-e-tari Negawa-ku-wa-nyo-rai-yo Shin-jutsu-myo-ke-shi-ta-te-ma-tsu-ran An unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect Dharma is rarely met with even in a hundred thousand million kalpas. Having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept, I vow to taste the truths of the Tathagata's words. Of course, I've done many sesshins.

[02:52]

And this is what, you know, this experience allows me to do, the sesshin with you. But really, This is, I mean, I really mean this, this is the only Sashin. This is my first and last Sashin. No, we've come to practice, I'm sure, for a number of reasons. Some people, I think, just because they have a taste of meditation and it feels good. And if we look at, if we take this Dharma Sangha, Sashin is the most developed and structured and difficult of the practices we do.

[04:10]

It also brings out the most structure among the people here, if you stop, if you know everyone. How many of us? Either in the present sesshin or in previous sesshin or seminars have family members involved. Or good friends or people we're connected with in various ways. And that is clear that this structure of friendship of various kinds helps us to practice. But at the root of why we practice, I think, is some recognized, some form of the question, who are we, what are we?

[05:56]

But at the root of why we practice, I think, is the question, who are we, what are we? And I think sometimes we're rather critical of ourselves because we don't really know how to proceed or what to do or something. We should be able to do it all by ourselves. Why not? We were born more or less by ourselves. Our mother helped, but you know. But still, we're an individual unit. Why can't we find out what this individual unit is? And the whole stress of our contemporary time is individuation and individuality and so forth.

[06:58]

But I want to emphasize today that I think it's very difficult to do. We actually can't do it ourselves. We need a lot of help. And our culture does not give us much help. And it gives me sympathy for the Muslims who I think at root are fighting for their sense of what a person is. And I think the Chinese are also, mainland Chinese, are actually committed to this fight. If Western civilization, democracy and so forth produce human beings like you see in much of American Europe, Muslims and Chinese don't want to be, don't want whatever causes it.

[08:31]

Less freedom may be better, they think. Yeah, but the problem with that is, that I don't think you can deny a historical period, a historical period that actually covers the planet. And the problem is that I don't think you can deny a historical period and how it covered the planet. It's too late for enclaves of other centuries going on independently somewhere on the planet.

[09:41]

So in fact, I don't think we have much choice but to be in this, I hope, end of an era And I think one of the things that characterizes our effort in the last century or two is to define us human beings through science. And although it's obvious, I don't think it's always obvious to us that science actually can tell us a lot about us, but not really who or even what we are. So I think intuitively we don't want to have science define us.

[10:48]

So we don't also want to be defined by, I think most of us don't want to be defined by what seem like narrow and archaic religious definitions. So, you know, what to do? Now, I think we're looking at Buddhism because Buddhism seems to give us a means of studying ourselves. And we turn to Buddhism because Buddhism gives us means to study ourselves. Now we're also, you know, I said yesterday, this mental space that our phonetic language, this mental thought space our phonetic language creates.

[12:23]

Recognizing not just how we use tools, but how tools use us. And self, when self is defined and looked for through our thoughts, is chasing its own tail in this mental space. And most of our thoughts are just circling around banging against each other, you know. And the Heart Sutra says, without any thought coverings, which is really what hindrance means here, without any hindrances, no fears exist.

[13:44]

Without any thought coverings, no fears exist. And this is interesting. I mean, Ralph Zwiebel brought it up to me that Maybe in this Kassel group we might talk about, because anxiety is such an important part of the process of psychotherapy. Fearlessness is an important part of the process in Zen. And Ralph Zwiebel has mentioned this and brought me to it, and I think we will talk about it in the Kassel seminar. So the dealing with fear is such an important part in psychotherapy, while in Buddhism it is actually the opposite of dealing with fearlessness. Without thought coverings, no fears exist, and we attain to nirvana, realization. So this whole emphasis without thoughts or without thought coverings or without our self and ego chasing its tail, yet still I don't, there is a tremendous power to thinking, and I'm making distinction between thinking and thoughts.

[15:05]

Just let me tell you a little anecdote. just for the heck of it. I spent quite a bit of time talking with some of the Vietnamese monks at Thich Nhat Hanh's place in France. And Vietnamese is spelled in French alphabet, in our alphabet, our Arabic alphabet. And that first Vietnamese had no language system as many countries, Japan at one point too. And like the Japanese, they adopted a version of Chinese.

[16:28]

But the Chinese were looked at quite a bit closer and dominating Vietnam, probably somewhat the way they dominate Tibet. And the Vietnamese didn't want to lose their culture, and so they changed the meaning and sounds of all the ideograms so the Chinese couldn't understand them. So until the French came, they spoke a Chinese the Chinese couldn't understand. And when the French came, they actually welcomed the switching out of Chinese into the Arabic alphabet.

[17:37]

Now the Chinese have a four-tone system based on these ideograms. But the Vietnamese found that the phonetic Arabic alphabet allowed them more freedom and they immediately or soon created an eight-tone system. And my point of this anecdote is, it's kind of interesting, so I'm telling you. But if you change for political or whatever reasons, a language, the medium actually allows you to do different things.

[18:41]

And it may be that much of the creativity of perhaps too much creativity or proliferation of Western society is actually the freedom of thought that's possible through a phonetic language. And I'm talking about this not just to knock our language system, but also to defend it. Now, there's a problem if you search for your identity in language. Because you'll end up looking for yourself in thoughts.

[19:57]

And if you look for yourself also through memory based on thoughts, again, you're in this same space chasing your tail. But thinking and a little logic allows you to use thinking and language to take a position outside of thoughts and outside of language. So there's a power to thinking which can get you out of thoughts. And that's the point of the koans, too, is to create a language among us that we share that gets us out of the rat tale, the cat tale of thoughts. No, I don't think I can go into this as thoroughly as I would like.

[21:29]

I'm partly thinking this through with you, but there's no point in doing it too much in the middle of Sashin. But I want to give you a sense of the territory that you need to be able to work on this question of who you are and what you are, who and what we are, outside of thought and memory-based thoughts. Now generally, A culture gives a basic frame in which you discover your identity and you, depending on your character and so forth, achieve a realized identity or not.

[23:17]

And in our culture it's, again, pretty difficult because actually no one knows. Our society doesn't know. So you really have to do this work not only for yourself but for others because no one's doing it for others or a lot of people are but there's no resolution yet. I would say that right now Buddhism is the most developed effort probably along with psychotherapy in the West to discover, to work on these questions.

[24:25]

We can expect because of that there is going to be a backlash, as there already is, There's a number of scholars now, very smart fellows, who are making a point to saying scholars have respected the idea that there's such a thing as enlightenment and it's all hoke. And the transmission documents are faked and so forth. Actually, I think this... This scholarship annoys me a little, but actually it's probably pretty good because it's going to make very clear, I think in the end, make Buddhism much clearer.

[25:46]

Now, I don't know what I'm doing here. I guess I'm just giving you some information. The basic paradigm of Zen Buddhism is that there's an original mind or background mind or undivided consciousness. That is independent of culture. And that can, unless you're mentally or emotionally extremely crippled, can be realized by anyone. And that this, let's put it very simply, this still mind that allows us to see the leaves moving can be the basis of our identity. And we can use logic and thinking to realize this.

[27:31]

And we can use meditation and an actual shift in the basis of our being to experientially come to this. And then given that, and if you accept that, and if you've discovered that, then the things that are obstacles or hindrances are seen as a kind of structure in relationship to this original mind. And those obstacles are seen as practical and moral and cognitive. Diese Hindernisse kann man einteilen, jetzt in moralisch, kognitiv und praktisch.

[28:48]

Praktisch meine ich, ob man genug zu essen hat oder ob man jetzt schlimme Erfahrungen in seinem Leben hat usw. Moral is your character, whether you have the conviction to be a truth teller and so forth. And the cognitive is whether you see the problems with substantiating everything as inherent or permanent and so forth. Now it's understood that your psychological predisposition and so forth are part of these hindrances or obstacles and also means of freeing yourself from these obstacles. Now it would be considered in Buddhism if we could by imagination extend a Buddhist point of view into our modern day period.

[30:14]

And let me say, since I used the term modern day, we do see ourselves as modern people in some way. Which means that we define ourselves partly through our historical time. But this isn't a very satisfying definition, because then what do you do? Just find yourself through prevailing trends, through fashions? So just defining ourselves as contemporary... Somehow we also have to define ourselves in some more timeless way. And again, we need to do this with others.

[31:32]

Even if you do it all by yourself, you do it with others. Okay. Now, if we were going to extend, as I said, a Buddhist view into our age and imagine what it would be, it's that this original mind or... undivided mind can be realized if you both have faith in it and if you somehow see through the obstacles.

[32:35]

And you both need to work with the obstacles and see through the obstacles. Because whatever the cataracts are, whatever the problems are, they still produce flowers in the sky which are empty. So, okay, now it would also be understood, I think, if we extended this Buddhist point of view into the present, That freeing yourself of obstacles and hindrances and working on your character helps you work on your story and your psychology. Particularly realizing the fearlessness of original mind, then you can really work on developing yourself most clearly.

[33:58]

Okay, now that's the basic paradigm of Zen Buddhism. And it definitely, I think, affects the way you decide to work on yourself if you accept that paradigm. The fact, of course, is that if you're practicing, you're in the midst of this all the time, and the paradigm itself is... can be, I suppose, a kind of help or encouragement, a source of faith. And I want to make a distinction that Buddha nature is not the same as original mind. Because this sense of using logic, say, to recognize the unfindability of mind, body and person,

[35:10]

the unfindability of mind, which is a succession of moments, is that this process of realization of original mind, of the unfindability of who you are, is a way of getting free of the thought coverings that prevent us from manifesting fully in each moment. And it's that process which is identical to practice which is Buddha nature. It's the process which is Buddha nature, not original mind. Buddha nature is understood in Zen and in Buddhism as a whole, I think, as that which happens when you realize original mind.

[36:44]

Now this, again I'm saying, this Buddha nature is not an entity. It's discovered through the world and through others. But this cooperation with the world and with others is your responsibility. It's initiated by you. The study in the sense of commitment and intention on deceit or in mindfulness is initiated by you. This study, this commitment, this intention to study yourself, through mindfulness and through analysis and through sitting on this seat, it's a cooperative activity, but it's initiated by you.

[38:02]

And you may look up and find there's other people around you cooperating, but still, this is something done, this cooperation is done by you. You can't depend on others. It has to be done entirely by you. And if it's done entirely by you, perhaps others will also do it entirely by themselves. And that process is the deepest definition of the Sangha. A group of people, individuals committing themselves wholly to this practice, this path of discovery. So this next koan talks about solitary wild geese flying together. It uses an image of mandarin ducks alone together on the bank of a stream.

[39:29]

And so here we are in the Sesshin alone together. And it may be the deepest way we can be together, actually. And I hope you all make my lotus staff bloom. May our intention equally penetrate every being and place.

[40:40]

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