Every lecture, Daniela's turned a little more toward the altar. Pretty soon you'll be facing Elke. It's okay, yeah, you... It's nice, I mean, each lecture you'll... And maybe you expect the Buddha to give the lecture. In any case, I wish he would. I'm not giving this lecture because I have something to say. I mean, I hope I have something to say, but I'm giving the lecture because it's three or four, whatever time it is, I'm supposed to give a lecture. So, you know I'm giving a lecture because I accepted this job.

[01:01]

And my job is It's a big job, but because it's the job of the mystery of body, speech and mind. And I don't think about whether I can do it or not, or something like that. I accepted the job because Suki Roshi was so nice, you know. There's a story of Dongshan, whose first teacher, at least the teacher he first visited, was Nanchuan.

[02:15]

In the time of the Zen founders. And young Dongshan went to Nanchuan's temple. Looking back, it seems great. You can just wander along, find a temple. It just happens to be Nanchuan's. Hi, Nanchuan. How are you? Hello. And Nanchuan's teacher happened to be Matsu, who was, if anything, pretty close to the greatest of all Zen masters. So, You know, the next day they were going to do the memorial.

[03:18]

Food is a big part of Zen, as you may have noticed. The tenzo, the head cook, often tells the abbot what to do. Anyway, they were going to have a memorial feast the next day, a vegetarian feast for Matsu on the anniversary of his death. And Nachuan said, well, tomorrow we have our memorial vegetarian feast, the food we will offer to Matsu. And he said to the people who were practicing with him, do you think he will come? And Matsu, and no one said anything.

[04:32]

There was some silence. So young Dungsan came forward and said, he will wait for a companion. And Matsu, Nanchuan said, although this fellow is young, he's worthy of the training. And Dungsan said, venerable teacher, ah, do not describe a good person as worthless. Do not describe a good person as worthless. Meaning, Dongshan meant something like, you know, don't point me out in terms of good or bad qualities. This is not worthy of a teacher like you.

[05:55]

Anyway, I had this feeling like this of, I knew this story, and I had this feeling of Sukhriyasi was waiting for a companion, and so I, you know, someone has to do it, so I volunteered, volunteered, So volunteering for this job, my job is to bring together body and mind in the mystery of speech. And this is the sense of Buddhism in general that, you know, there's no Nothing outside the system. There's no creator deity. We've only got what's in front of us.

[06:59]

What, as I say, what the ingredients are. What the ingredients are. In this case, We're calling the ingredients body, speech, and mind. So speech is the bringing together of body and mind. That's what speech means. So speech is also mantra. And entering into the source of language, sound itself, And so the Sambhogakaya body, which I spoke of yesterday, is considered a form of speech. Because it's the bringing together of body and mind in this subtle body which manifests for others.

[08:17]

And manifests with and through others as does speech. So it's a kind of talking. Everything is understood as a kind of talking. Whatever your actions, whatever your gestures are, it's a kind of talking. So as I said, I don't have anything to say Or rather, I don't speak because I have something to say.

[09:21]

I speak because it's my job. And it's time to do it now. And so I put myself in the position where I have no alternative but to do it. And I have enough faith in this world as it exists and myself Hey, whatever happens will have to be what happens. Together, I hope, with your help, we'll bring the mysteries of body, speech and mind together here in this practice. I mean, tantrism is literally the mysteries of body, speech and mind. I'm not making this up. This is the traditional way of expressing.

[10:24]

Yeah. Now I used to be the founder of the Dharma Sangha. I was once the founder of the Dharma Sangha. And I used to be the head of the Dharma Sangha. But now I feel like I'm just a member of the Dharma Sangha. And I'm so grateful for that. Basically, you know, I'm just a member of this sashin. I'm doing my job, and Neil's doing his job, and the Hino's doing his, and the Tenzo's doing his, and so forth. What I mean is, for me, this practice now belongs to you. And you are founding this practice. And you are head of this practice. That's right. One of the reasons I think it's so important that if it becomes possible that we found our practice in Johanneshof.

[12:07]

Since that's now a possibility again. And I feel we are continuing, if we do it, four lineages. One lineage is the lineage of the place where sesshins have been done, where practice has occurred. The other lineage is the lineage of... Graf von Durkheim, who was always very nice to me and used to send me students and so forth. So I feel some connection, some deep connection with him. And his book, Horror, was one of the first books in the 60s, I guess, I read about Zen. And the third lineage would be the significant number of persons who are part of the Dharma Sangha who started their practice at Johanneshof.

[13:25]

And the fourth lineage would be to bring the Dung Shan Suzuki Roshi lineage to Europe in a particular place. And I can only do this, we can only do this if I'm not the founder and head anymore, I'm a member of the Dharma Sangha, and we're all the founder and head of the practice here now. I noticed today that I'm the only person wearing robes here. So you have your raksus, which are robes, too. But anyway, noticing I'm the only person in this big apron, Buddhist apron, cooking the dharma.

[14:49]

So I say you either Cook the dharma or the dharma cooks you. Yeah. Anyway, so I actually sometimes, I must confess, hope that some of you wear robes sometimes because I feel a little lonely sometimes. Although some of you should and some of you should not because some of us should establish a truly lay lineage. Anyway, some of you at some point want to, I'd be happy to share these robes with you too. So now I spoke yesterday about the function of this yesterday, in the last few days, about the function of the Sashin.

[16:25]

To allow you to practice. To establish non-discriminating mind. to create the common conditions for the realization or taste of the Sambhogakaya body. To give us a chance to discover the energy of true dignity. These are the functions of Sesshin. Which means, the word, as you know, means to gather the mind. together the conditions which allow us to realize big mind.

[17:27]

And I also spoke about the Dharmakaya and the Sambhogakaya in terms of their functions which you can notice. In other words, when you are restoring your karma, reorienting your karma, This process of digesting your karma is a process, a function of the Sambhogakaya body. So when you see the function, you know the Dharmakaya body is present, or rather the Sambhogakaya body is present, it's just that you don't know how to recognize its own organizing identity yet.

[18:41]

Okay. Now, Linji, Rinzai Linji, talks about, sometimes I show illumination, sometimes I show function. And these great ancients, these great Zen founders, they were great, tried to make practice Directly accessible. Or at least a different approach, let's say, now again a direct approach. And young men, along with Matsu and Nanchon, young men was one of the main founders particularly of this using questions, using speech.

[20:01]

And young men in a lecture that, you know, Generally you, I don't know how often, but generally it was not customary to write down lectures or to keep track of lectures. They weren't blowing on the wind, as someone said. But one enterprising monk had a kimono made of paper It's actually quite insulating. It's probably warmer than cloth because you stick newspaper in if you're really cold. It makes me think of Sabina Schutz who made these paper mache.

[21:04]

Yeah. pot warmers for us at Creston. Anyway, this was a kind of Sabina-like monk, and he made this paper. I don't know, young men must have been pretty stupid not to notice, but here's this guy with his paper and kimono writing down with a brush dipping ink in his mouth. Can you imagine what a mess I would make? Anyway, that's the story. So a lot of his lectures are kept. In one lecture, Yan Min said that supposedly that the ancients had many problems to help us.

[22:16]

Like Xue Feng saying, you are the whole earth. Or Jia Shan saying, pick me out among the hundred grasses. Recognize the emperor in the marketplace, in the bustling marketplace. Recognize the emperor in the bustling marketplace. You see, since you've heard some of these phrases before, that I've been talking about this koan without pointing it out directly until now, this week. So, Yan Men said, you know, the ancients had these problems, like Shui-Fang, Xia-Shan's phrases, to help us. And Yan Men said, you have to take up a phrase like this for yourself consciously.

[23:30]

And you have to contemplate it. over and over again, through long days and many years, and you will naturally find an entry. But let me assure you, he says, no one can substitute for you in this. Only you individually, by yourself, through yourself, can do this. So here I'm presenting now this other way of practice, the direct practice.

[24:36]

In the last three days I've been speaking about adept practice. Now, direct practice can be quick or slow. It's not measured by time. You don't know. It might be many years. It might be this instant. You just confront yourself repetitiously with some phrase. And as I said earlier, speaking about verse, you learn how to turn the phrase and enter into the turn and pause of the phrase. How to contemplate such a, the mental space, the mind-body space of such a phrase. Now to do this, you have to have deep faith in yourself.

[25:56]

A really very deep confidence. And a faith that you and the world are one body. Faith somehow in the world itself and a faith in yourself. To do this practice, you can't just think of yourself as a passenger on earth. Or a traveler who's kind of going along, trying to get enough to eat. It's necessary to see yourself as part of the world,

[27:06]

Es ist notwendig, dass ihr euch selber als Teil der Welt seht. And have faith in the world, even if we're going to hell in a handbasket. Und auch Glauben an die Welt zu haben, auch wenn wir damit mit der Welt zur Hölle fahren. It ain't gonna work unless, if there's any possibility, unless we have faith in the world and in ourselves. Es wird nicht funktionieren, wenn wir nicht wirklich dieses Zutrauen, diesen Glauben haben an die Welt und an uns selbst. Now let me say, when you are concerned with, when you can feel, when you leave a light burning, say, unnecessarily, when you can feel the damned rivers and the burning coal necessary to keep that light burning, You have a very big picture of the world.

[28:08]

This is a kind of speech. Probably something only we humans, as far as we know, are capable of. When you have such an idea, and you can have some feeling that's automatic, that when you leave the light on, you're polluting through burning of coal or damming rivers, particularly in America, we dam all these rivers. And I'm not speaking here, again, so much about morality, because often in the States, at least, there's an excess of electricity.

[29:13]

It doesn't matter whether you keep the light on or not. Or alternatives to it are even more polluting. So it's not so much about whether you're really doing harm or not, but a big feeling for our planet and what's going on. Now, And Daniela is sitting in front of me. And I have, if you don't mind my saying so, Daniela, I have some feeling for Daniela. I've known her quite a long time now. And I, you know, whoever... What was that? What did he say?

[30:14]

There's no translation there. Hidden teaching. Good, it's more mysterious that way. That's where we edited out what I said about Daniela. Anyway, you might imagine that you were, yes. But really, when I look at Daniela, I don't think about her. I just feel something here. A flower, a person, a room. It's not thinking, it's just feeling this particular present. In that sense, you can also have as an object of contemplation all human beings at once.

[31:23]

Not as we sometimes tend to do. Which human beings are suffering the most or starving or something? Excuse me for saying so, but I was brought up on the image of the starving children of Europe. First, when I was real little, we had to keep buying stamps at school to... Help the army. And then after the war was over, we had to help the starving children in Europe. What? Immobility. Yeah, now I'm here, yeah.

[32:53]

You all look very well fed. But perhaps your parents, maybe I helped some of your parents. Yes? Yeah. Yeah, I had to buy things at school and put my savings in this little booklet. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, that idea which was told to me almost every day, you know, eat all your food because people are starving in Europe. Which this phrase, which I believe made me overweight for a while... My doctor here.

[34:13]

I had to eat everything on my plate always. But this did create, and I was capable of holding in my mind, An image when I did things, ate things, harvested from our vegetable garden. The condition of other people in the world. And I think the whole Marshall Plan, not what it was called after the Second World War, actually was rooted in this phrase which everyone knew about the starving children of Europe. And the political support for it came from the repetition of this phrase.

[35:36]

And it, of course, I know, was true. I mean, as a Dutch woman, René, de Tomo lived with us for 20 years or so in It was quite difficult after the war in Europe by now. Beyond difficult. More than difficult. Okay, but what I'm saying now is, by using these examples, is that we can have and hold as an object of contemplation all beings at once. And all beings at once is also a synonym of So when you deeply have this feeling of all beings present as an object of contemplation,

[36:55]

You are practicing one of the qualities of Buddha or aspects of Avalokiteshvara. So when I look at Daniela in front of me, I see Daniela as the presence of all people. And not in this case as a practice in terms of some people are starving or not starving, just the presence of, like I just accept Daniela's presence, I accept the presence of all people. One image of the Buddha is as if the Buddha were a lake slowly filling with lotus blossoms. Or is the earth which without exception nourishes the roots of all plants?

[38:15]

All I'm pointing out is These aspects of Buddha, which sound a little religious or esoteric perhaps, are actually quite commonplace. We do it when we have a sense of whether we're wasting the environment, when we waste electricity. Okay. Now, this colon is number 40 in the Blue Cliff Records. And 91 in the Shoyoroku.

[39:19]

The Book of Serenity. And it's Nanchuan. There's a guy named Officer Lu Xuan. There was a governor and various high positions in the Confucian bureaucracy in China. And he studied with Nan Xuan for quite a long time. In fact, he may be the source of the story about the goose in the bottle. Do you know that story? Yeah. It was the first Zen story I think I heard. That was... with Charlotte Silver and Alan Watts, and Alan Watts told this story.

[40:25]

1961, about. And Alan told this story about the goose that's brought up. There's a goose in a bottle, and it gets bigger and bigger, and finally you can't get it out. Anyway, supposedly, Officer Lu Xuan said to Nan Xuan that he brought this goose up in a bottle and now he couldn't get it out. It was too big, what should he do? And Nanchuan supposedly said, Venerable Lu? And Lu said, yes. And Han Chuan said, it's out.

[41:45]

And I wish it were that easy. He was enlightened at that point. Yeah. Or at least some enlightened. When Alan Watts told that story, I said to him, Why did you put the goose in the bottle? That's a terrible story to tell. Anyway. So Lu Xuan had some understanding and had practiced a long time with Nan Xuan. And he particularly liked to study Zheng Zhao, who was a 4th, 5th century, one of the early founders of Buddhism in China. One of the four sages of early Chinese Buddhism. And Zheng Zhao is worth reading if any of you want to.

[42:57]

Some of his work is in English, at least. Now, I've mentioned some of this to you already, but Zheng Zhao, Lu Xuan said, teaching master Zheng Zhao, said that heaven and earth and I share the same root. Myriad things and I share the same body. Isn't this wonderful? And the word wonderful, I believe, as its original is in Chinese, has the feeling of isn't it wonderful and hard to understand by ordinary people.

[44:06]

And Nanchuan went over to a flowering bush in the garden. And Nanchuan went over to a flowering bush in the garden. Probably was a peony. When they just say flower in China, they usually mean peony. But it could have been like this flowering hundred red blooming azalea I have in my room. Anyway, Nanchuan pointed to this azalea or this peony and said, people nowadays see this flower as in a dream. Now it's translated variously as as a dream, as in a dream, as if they were a dream, as if they were dreaming.

[45:32]

It's not too important. It's just enough this flower and see it as in a dream or as a dream. Now some of you being psychotherapists and trained in dreams or artists or dreamers may think, well, I'm very familiar with dreams, I know what this means. If you think this, you better choose a different story to work with. Because you just, to practice with a story like this, which I'm giving you, you just have to contemplate it without trying to understand it. You have to trust the penetrating vital force of attention.

[46:42]

Without Thinking, attention penetrates more and more deeply into the world. Now this is where this poem comes from too, that I gave you the other night. Das ist auch das, woher dieses Gedicht kommt, über das ich letzte Nacht gesprochen habe. Seeing, hearing, awareness, knowledge. These are not one and the same thing. Mountains and rivers are not seen in a mirror.

[47:47]

The still frosty skies moon has set. It's midnight. The night's half gone. With whom will it cast a shadow? In the cold, clear pond. Hmm. Now in the first line, the attention of these ancients to it brought this commentary to that first line of seeing, hearing, awareness, knowledge are not one and the same thing. Commentary says among numerous forms

[48:48]

and myriad appearances there is not a single thing. Among numerous forms and myriad appearances there is not a single thing. Seven flowers, eight blooms. Seven flowers, eight blooms. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, mind. All together, these are a hammerhead without a hole. You can't use a hammerhead without a hole.

[50:16]

So it's saying something about how we use our senses. Or how to non-use our senses. And than to say among numerous forms and myriad appearances, there is not a single thing. This phrase itself might be a good way for you to start. It's not understandable. And if you think about it, it doesn't help. You have to believe it. And you say to yourself in some form, or you hold the mental space of this phrase, numerous forms, myriad appearances, not a single thing. Until this turns around the eight vijnanas.

[51:28]

May take, as Yan Men says, long days and many years. But you have the faith to just put it in front of you because this is your job as a Zen Buddhist. And then seven blooms, eight flowers. means everything's in confusion. But it also means the clarity of seven flowers and eight blooms blooming in you is the eighth bloom. Among the myriad appearances and numerous forms, let the world bloom in you.

[52:34]

So like Shakyamuni Buddha, who held up a flower and Mahakashyapa smiled, And we chanted their names this morning. Shakyamuni and Mahakashyapa. It's only 90 persons from us, from you to them. May I remind you that three times, less than three times as many people as are in this room connect us with the historical Buddha. That's not bad for playing telephone. Do you have that game telephone where you whisper something and you whisper something and you see what it's like at the end?

[53:36]

This is another game called the whispered transmission. And since we spend our whole life doing this whispering, it's not too bad a game. So, Shakyamuni held up this azalea or this peony or this flower. And Mahakashyapa smiled. And this is the mythological founding, starting of our lineage. The flower holding lineage. The flower holding lineage. And now Lu Xuan, Officer Lu Xuan, said, Teaching Master Zheng Zhao said, Myriad Heaven and Earth and I share the same root.

[55:06]

Myriad... appearances and I share the same body. And Nanchuan went into the garden and pointed, held up a flower and said, people these days see this flower as in a dream. Nanchuan in seinem Garten hob die Blume hoch und sagte, How do you see it? Practicing with a koan is also called lifting up a koan. I invite you to lift up this koan. There are many phrases in this koan.

[56:13]

And everything I've been talking about in Sashin so far is contained in the illumination of this koan. And this is the traditional direct practice of Zen. to lift up this koan and in measureless time contemplate it. With faith that you and the world are one. Thank you very much. May our intentions equally penetrate every...

[57:08]

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