I have a slightly sprained ankle. It makes it kind of hard to sit. And what is this big space here? Is there a dance going to happen? She's ready, I can see. Yeah, okay. Katrin's a contraption here. Kind of great. It makes me think of a funny story. While I was living in Japan, a friend of mine, Michael Murphy, decided he'd go to a sashin. And I know, maybe he thought he should go to a sashin when I wasn't there.

[01:08]

It might be easier, I don't know. So he and his wife were sitting in a Yeah, he and his wife were sitting next to some guy who every day increased the number of pillows he had. And pretty soon he had pillows everywhere. And finally he had pillows under each wrist. Just like Catherine. Yeah. And he was sitting like this, and Michael and Chelsea started laughing. And then they kept trying to control themselves. And every time they looked over at this guy with pillows under each wrist, they started laughing at each other.

[02:11]

And then someone came serving food, which was in San Francisco, in Sendoh. And, you know, presumably it was a new server. And he was trying to operate the paddle, you know, rice paddle, when a big chunk of rice fell on the floor. The guy didn't know what to do and he looked around and he grabbed it and shoved it in his sleeve. And then they really started laughing. And the guy who had the pillows, his wrist under pillows started laughing. And some guy sitting next to Delcy and Michael laughed. Get out of here!

[03:24]

He went like that. It was a serious practitioner. So they got up and they kind of snuck out of the zendo, but they didn't have their shoes. So they went out and they started going out the office and they saw Yvonne in the office. You know where the desk is. So they got on their hands and knees and were sneaking. And Yvonne looked over there and said, Michael, what are you doing? And all three ran for it. And they went to the 49er football game. So let's have some comments of what we talked about this morning and what you talked about during the seminar.

[04:26]

Okay, who's going to be second? So now it's over. Okay. We talked about what you had this morning, if it's universal or cultural. After our discussion this afternoon, what came to my mind now is when I asked myself who am I, culture is associated with it.

[05:45]

It has to do with culture. And when I ask myself what am I, then these terms don't have a value in themselves and it's not culturally so sad. And then this universal character which comes also out of my own experience and is not tied to terms. So when you ask what are you, That's more culture-free, more open to practice.

[07:10]

Thanks. Yes? I dare to admit that I didn't realize the relevance of this question, both culturally and after this discussion. I confess that even after our discussion this afternoon that the relevance of the question supracultural or transcultural, the relevance hasn't come clear to me. Why is it relevant? Because it doesn't have to be discussed that the Zazen practice is important for us. There's no need to discuss that. She functions. And it's not only functioning here in Hotzenwald, but in the whole world.

[08:16]

Zazen practice functions in the whole world. Functions the same way. The reason why people come to the Zazen practice may be different from culture to culture and may be different every year. And also for me it's changing and becoming new every time. I dare to say that this has proven to be effective for my individual development. It's not quite clear to me if this question goes beyond that, if there is a societal relevance in it.

[09:50]

So for you, the truth, of this practice is that it's true to you in some way or effective for you in some way. Correct? The proof of the pudding is to eat it. Yeah, to sit it at least. To sit in it. Okay. Do you have that expression in German? The proof of the pudding is in its eating? I see. Sophia thinks the proof of her German-ness is the Wurst. The Wurst is the best. Occasionally we have a versed salami, I don't know.

[11:17]

Sausage. Sausage. And she says, oh, it makes me so homesick. When we eat a sausage, she says, oh, it makes me so homesick. Particularly if we have German mustard with it. Especially if there is German mustard with it. But you're also saying that somehow you think the sitting posture, zazen posture, zazen practice, has a universal quality to it. So there's some, in other words, to take it another step, There's some, something comes out when we sit that is somehow basically human or basically from basic experience.

[12:18]

that's to some degree independent of the culture. So So an aspect of being human is discovered through sitting. Okay. So let's say that... I don't know, everyone feels this, but perhaps... I don't know if everyone feels this, but perhaps through sitting practice we discover something that's basic to being human. Okay.

[13:19]

And I think that's fairly easy to accept. But when we take it another step and say, what we discover is somehow our fundamental way of being human, our fundamental nature. If we go that far, do you understand you're making a radical, political, psychological and philosophical statement? Is that what we feel? Yes. Yes, we faced that in our discussion. And I said that the experience we have and make while sitting is beyond culture.

[14:46]

Beyond naming. But the consequence of this experience is very culturally shaped. the consequence out of this experience is very much culturally formed. Because it makes a fundamental difference whether the experience of emptiness for me, as I said earlier, is a God experience, it has consequences, or whether I call it emptiness in Buddhism. for me, and that is what I said this afternoon too, is that it's a fundamental difference if my experience of emptiness is an experience of God or if it were a Buddhist experience of emptiness.

[15:49]

Not the experience, but how I... But how... how I bring this experience into the world and I name it, so to say, in my culture. Just the fact that we study ourselves comes out of a certain culture. Why is it important that we study ourselves? We could as well sing or do something else. But the experience of self-studying comes from the culture of Buddhism, that we put ourselves in the center and study it ourselves.

[16:50]

The experience of self-studying, do you mean? The self-study that we study ourselves comes out of... is born out of a Buddhist culture. And by that, not... free from culture. Okay, wow. You said several cheekfuls. So first of all, would you say that somehow the experience of emptiness is equivalent to, in Western culture, the experience of God?

[17:54]

Yes. In short, yes. There would be Christians who would say yes. It's not what I say. It's difficult to answer. Well, there are Christians and Buddhists and etc., etc., who would say all kinds of things. But is it Buddha? I would venture to say that there may be a physiological, psychological, spiritual experience, which if you're in a Christian culture, you interpret as an experience of the divine or something like that.

[19:00]

Okay, now, if that's the case, that assumes that there's some generic experience all human beings experience. that goes beyond culture. And they probably are. After a nice warm bath and you feel in a good mood, maybe everybody in every culture, some people don't bathe, but if they did, maybe they'd feel good the same way. But just because Meister Eckhart and some others had experiences which seem to be phenomenologically similar to experiences that are assumed in Zen practice, Just because Meister Eckhart and some others had experiences which if you study them

[20:24]

phenomenologically seem to be similar or virtually the same as Buddhist enlightenment experiences. But I don't think because of these outstanding and anomalous phenomena You can make any equivalency between Christianity and Buddhism. Yeah. Because rather you could say there's something we might call generic enlightenment. I would say generic enlightenment is not Buddhist enlightenment.

[21:37]

But generic enlightenment is closely related to Buddhist enlightenment. Now, we're not talking necessarily right now about our practice. We're talking about the larger... shape, development, etc. of Buddhist practice. So I don't think you can make a significant equivalency between an experience of enlightenment or Buddha or God in a Christian culture and in a Buddhist culture. It may be an equivalent experience. The same. But it's in such a different context. The sameness is irrelevant. Now you get to the point of, you know, a famous Catholic Zen teacher in Germany.

[23:02]

Formally Catholic, at least. Formerly. Formerly, previously. Yeah, yeah. And he said to me that he considers Zen the essence of all religion. I don't think he's right. Yeah. And this is, by the way, a position strongly attacked now by so-called critical Buddhism. I think that the attack is somewhat justified.

[24:04]

But I don't think the degree, the strength of the attack is justified. Which is basically that D.T. Suzuki and others put, in order to promote Japanese culture, said Japanese culture is Zen, and so in response in the way to the defeat of the Second World War, they said we Japanese have the true essence of religion or something. And if you read D.T. Suzuki, you can see that he kind of finesses Japanese culture as the essential culture.

[25:16]

But Is there a generic enlightenment experience or universal enlightenment experience? It's somewhat just what human beings do sometimes in any culture. I would say myself the answer to that is yes. So the extreme critical Buddhism position would be no. No. Why should we, the 30 or so of us, be talking about this? Well, in the largest sense, it's are you practicing for yourself? and actually practicing for civilization, for the world.

[26:32]

Because if it's true that there's some basic human fundamental Nature that comes out through Zazen practice. Then it should be the basis of our political forms, our governments, our nations, etc. Or at least it should be part of. Okay. Do you understand that? No. You don't. What should be part of the practice? No. Deutsch. Okay, so let's speak simplistically. We can make it more subtle further on in the discussion.

[27:33]

I said I want to avoid terms like Buddha nature, original mind, etc. But to keep it simple, let's say... that there is such a thing as a fundamental nature. And Buddhism has discovered what this fundamental nature is. Then, if that's our fundamental nature, Wenn dann also diese Grundlegnatur erkennbar ist, shouldn't the purpose of all psychology, all philosophy, and all government policy be to allow our fundamental nature to be expressed?

[28:55]

Sollte dann nicht also das Ziel und Zweck jeder Philosophie, Psychologie, aber auch Politik, also der sein, äh, Wouldn't the ultimate political freedom or democracy or whatever be... To allow everyone to realize their fundamental nature? What does it say in the Koran? You're free to arise in the... East and set in the West. If that isn't a political statement, I ain't never seen one. The sun represents the truth. There's no plants, there's no agriculture, there's no... Anything without the sun.

[30:10]

There's no life on earth. And the sun? And you are free, like the sun, to rise in the east and set in the west. You still don't agree? No. In what way don't you agree? We need then some people who declare or say or prove that this fundamental nature is the fundamental nature. Who should be able to do this? Me. Well, we're all going to get together and ask you to do it. What does it say in the Quran? The advisor... to the emperor is asked, can we get Bodhidharma to come back here?

[31:25]

And the advisor says, no, Bodhidharma is long gone. You can't get him back, et cetera. And the commentary says something, you nincompoop. Do you have that expression in German? No. What would be the equivalent of nincompoop? Nincompoop? Blödmann, oder? Depp, yeah. Okay, you Depp. Can't you see the light shining under your own feet? So you Depp director, can't you? Can't you see the light shining under your own feet? I mean, we're talking about the koan now. Are we in a lineage? Are we in a... way of expressing ourselves that tells the world what is right and wrong? No. And can I add another question?

[32:33]

Traditionally, Buddhism does not proselytize. There's no missionary program. But the individual is motivated to live in such a way that is exemplary for all and each human being. And that's the same thing. You're not telling people, but you're showing people. And that's the vow to say, or enlighten all sentient beings.

[33:34]

So you're director of this little tiny group here. But you're involved in a very big project. I mean, it's just the teaching we're stuck with. No, is it true or not? Yes, Atma? Ikkyo Dainé Sensei? I decide for myself and can decide for myself that this is now the way to a, let's say, to the true nature, to this fundamental nature. But I go too far when I stand somewhere and say that this is the only way that leads there, because that sounds to me like Buddhism has something like a copyright on this path that leads exactly where we all want to go.

[34:44]

I think that's true when I can decide that for myself and say that's the way and that's the practice I choose and because I can feel and I experience that's the way that goes where I want to go but I'm not able and I cannot do and say well now Buddhism has the copyright on the way that leads Well, there's two questions there. Do we practice with a sense that we've copyrighted and patented the truth?

[35:57]

No. And... The reason we don't practice that way is not because of modesty or some ecumenical spirit, though that might be. fairly good reasons. We practice that way because without a sense of patenting and copywriting or the absolute truth, because we live in a mystery of continual possibilities that you can't possibly say that one thing is the truth. But we might say, the Buddhist might say, knowing that there's not any one thing that's the truth is the truth.

[37:05]

And to not know that... is then to not know the truth. Now, I'm saying these things partly to provoke discussion. The Heart Sutra says, this is true, not false. You chant it every morning. When you chant it, do you believe it? And when we do chant, you should work with the chant to say it with your body and mind as if each statement were true. Say it with, you know, form is emptiness. You say it like, yes, and if you don't feel it's true, you don't feel quite right in saying it.

[38:21]

We should chant in that way. But that doesn't mean that personally you don't practice with the feeling that this way of being should be... an opportunity for anyone. But at the same time, without contradiction, you feel that each person is as they are, and that's just fine and even perfect. Okay.

[39:29]

Someone else. By the way, just let me say that Buddhism is deeply involved with trying to discover what's true. Is the Eightfold Path true? Is the Four Noble Truths true? Are the four noble truths true? This is the subject of the entirety of Buddhism. You can't get away from it. And to come to a a settled feeling and a resolution about this, is also to be able to come to a settled feeling within yourself.

[40:35]

I would like to refer to the tea show this morning. What I relate to the tissue this morning was it's somewhat like this development in former time was only possible in a monastery. And for me it's like I'm sort of longing for living in a monastery, but it's personally not possible. but I notice that when I bring this practice into my everyday life, that delusions or illusions dissolve,

[42:05]

When I practice this body-mind unity, I notice that restlessness, bodily restlessness dissolves also. My experience is that children who locate themselves in a difficult way That it's helpful for them that if there's at least one person who locates herself in the right way.

[43:26]

That things do regulate themselves without words then. And that is for me then also like in the monastery. Then I have a group around me that accepts it. And I have the feeling, then we also create our own culture, but I would never call it that. And my feeling is that then we are creating our own Kershaw, but I just wouldn't call it that. Okay.

[44:27]

Good. But let me take the first thing you said, Rizv. You'd like to live in a monastery, or you imagine it might be good to live in a monastery, but it's not possible for you. That's simply not true. You could quit your job today. It might cause a little problem, but it would be no different than if you dropped dead today. People drop dead all the time. And the world goes on. And you could simply leave this evening and move to Crestone and never come back. It is possible. Fact. Possible. Okay. But the important thing is you're deciding not to do that.

[45:41]

You're deciding not to die to your previous life, to your present life. I think this is for all of us. Why are we choosing our present life and not entering a monastery. Most of us are making this decision. Well, then we should really make this decision. To recognize we're making a decision, we're choosing our present life. Okay, then the question is, which you're also answering, can we somehow choose both? But I think if you really recognize that you do have a choice, then your choice to do both has more power.

[46:53]

You understand? OK. Now. That means that you recognize, which I think we only partly do, recognize that there's a power to living in a monastery. If we can psychologically manage it, it's... If we can psychologically manage it. Okay. Now, if that is true, okay, what is equivalent to saying what it is equivalent to saying, if I want to be a farmer, I have to study agriculture.

[48:02]

Study and practice agriculture. If I want to be a physicist, I have to study physics. If I want to be a person who knows how things actually exist, And what Buddhism means by that, freedom from mental suffering and so forth, then I have to find a way to study, practice this. And then you try as earnestly, thoroughly as you can to do your daily life so that you can. Now, I think Katrin tried this in her work in Frankfurt.

[49:08]

And perhaps you found you couldn't as fully as you want. But now that you've moved here, you probably find you can't as fully as you'd like do it here either. So she's moving back to Frankfurt. If we're free to arise in the East and... settle in the West or whatever. We should know that. And know that in this freedom we're making a choice. This koan is asking you to know that you're already free. That there's no hindrance anyway, anywhere.

[50:26]

The pure wind is circling the earth. Within the freedom, that freedom, you're making the choice to live the life you do. Don't blame it on circumstances. Choose the life you're leading. This is at the center of this koan. Take responsibility for it. The fact that you are actually choosing, don't blame it on this or that, you're choosing the life you're leading. Yeah, and Katrin is choosing to live here at Johanneshof.

[51:40]

It may not be much better than Frankfurt. But if she knows she's choosing it, she'll try to make it a practice place for herself and others. Okay, and it sounds like you're doing a fairly good job of making your job a place where you can practice. Okay. Yeah, someone else. Yes, Regina. I have a question. I got a question. In the last of your seminars you spoke about how it could function about relating to former lives, former lived lives.

[52:57]

I said that? Okay, whatever. And I know a few people who have remembrances who can remember former lives. In the sense that there is a frame in which certain patterns become clearer. For me, this has become important because it had an effect on how I emphasize myself or not emphasize myself.

[54:32]

And I tried to delve into a study about quantum physics and non-linear time, how that works. This is for me a delicate point and I just have to acknowledge that it's important for me to clear this as much as possible. To clarify.

[55:39]

Clarify. Clarify. Thank you. Yes. when I understand that in a linear way I emphasize myself in a different way than if my understanding was, for example, in a non-linear way. So what's the difference, what's the non-linear, by a linear way of understanding yourself you mean you're a continuity of lives? It's not exactly my experience, but what just comes into my mind. It impresses itself on my mind. Okay.

[56:56]

So, what is the difference? Because clearly you are a continuity of your parents, your grandparents, your friends, your school teachers, etc. How's that any different than being a continuity that's somehow reborn in you or reincarnated in you? How is it different? Difficult to answer. My feeling is that the image of continuity there's only myself. Myself means what? It's hard. I mean, the responsibility is perhaps a different one, how to look at it with the biological... Abstinence?

[58:59]

Abstinence, yes. The responsibility is different than if I looked at it in a sort of biological descendants. So in other words, you'd say you can be free of your mother's nature. But you can't be free of your reincarnated nature. but you have a responsibility to continue your reincarnated nature in a way you don't have a responsibility to continue your mother's nature. I can't agree fully, but I'll think about it. Okay. Since this is not your experience in the sense that you've experienced previous lives, though you've heard of someone or talked to someone who does, it means that somehow this resonates with your own experience of having some inherent nature

[60:11]

that you feel responsible to. Okay. Now, then the question is that she's bringing up, to what extent do all of us have some feeling of an inherent nature that doesn't just disappear into emptiness and I don't know and zazen. Now, this is nearly the same as, first of all, do we have an inherent nature? Or do we have a nature that we like so much, let's call it inherent?

[61:34]

Because in either case you're choosing to emphasize this inherent nature or you're choosing to emphasize some nature you feel is so basic you're not going to give it up. Now what Annetta brought up is that we study ourselves. And there could be an implication in what she said that all cultures to various degrees study themselves. Well, I don't think this is true. Because most cultures root themselves in some mythological understanding of themselves as a people, and they study themselves within that framework.

[62:42]

Most cultures establish themselves in some mythological framework and study themselves within that framework. A magician The first thing a magician tries to do is to establish the framework, to get you to accept the framework. Once the magician establishes that he's going to saw this woman in two or not, Once you accept the framework, you're in the magician's spell. And you see the big spinning saw, and you see this pretty girl with almost nothing on, and

[63:49]

And when she saved, you're relieved. Well, this koan, one of the basic things in this koan is what praying said. Is the magic going on here? Is the framework holiness? Building temples? It says the emperor even experiences, studies the scriptures and experiences Petals floating, flowers floating in the air. Beyond most of us. So this koan says that, yes, we study ourself. In English we say Socrates said know thyself.

[65:26]

But I mean that's quite different than saying know thy non-self. Or know non-self without a thy or your. About, without a what? Thy. Thy, no, thy selves, yeah. So Buddhism basically says, study how the, study existence, from the stillness of mind and body and study from the stillness of mind and body the world from the point of view of emptiness. And your own experience through non-duality.

[66:47]

If you're not doing that, you're really not studying how we actually exist. So that's a very particular way to study yourself. Study how we exist. Okay. And that's the subject of this koan. Now, also in this koan is presented the idea that there's no ground of being. Do you really get that? There's no ground of being. There's no unifying principle. What does that mean? It means all you've got is the parts. All you've got is the parts.

[67:59]

What does it mean that all we've got is the parts? Does the Four Noble Truths basically say all you've got is the parts? And so what you have is interdependent causation. I mean, the formidable truth is presented psychologically as there's suffering and there's a freedom from suffering. But that doesn't make sense unless there's unless the Four Noble Truths is also a philosophical statement. And as a philosophical statement, it's that there's impermanence.

[69:15]

And the Second Noble Truth is that there's interdependence. And causation is the relationship of interdependence. And the only way to practice and realize interdependent causation is through non-duality and emptiness. Now, we're talking about Buddhism in the deepest sense here. Which is what this koan also tries to present you.

[70:31]

Very first koan it says, this is the deepest sense. That the two truths are one truth. So this koan is throwing us right into Buddhism at the deepest level as if you took, you know, You went for high school science and they started talking about physics at, you know, molecular biology or something like that. Now it's an inveterate practice of not knowing. Inveterate? Inveterate means unable to do any different.

[71:31]

I have a watch which I can't tell what time it is. Yeah, I mean, it's a 24-hour watch, and I never know. But it looks like it's quarter to six. Is that right? I mean, by most people's watches, it says quarter to nine. I like it. Christian was amazed. I use a German keyboard because I can't... Oh, that's a Y, not a Z. I can't have fun with my keyboard because... What the hell key am I supposed to push next? It's an umlaut. Oh. I enjoy not knowing. So I also, do I know what time we're supposed to stop?

[72:36]

5.30? 6 o'clock? I'm supposed to stop at 6 o'clock? Hey, okay. Now I know. Okay. I also have this not-knowing watch because my knowing watch is in the repair shop. Okay. So let me... I think this has been a fantastic discussion. Yeah. I mean, I think a discussion like this makes us all aware of what we're situated in. We're not only delving, as I said, into some kind of ancient culture and past and wisdom. That's inseparable from delving into our own immediate situation.

[73:38]

How we exist in this life we've chosen. And even in this civilization that we have also actually chosen. Because if Buddhism is actually culture-free, to some significant degree, and you're going to live in your own culture, then you're also choosing to live in your own culture. It's the essence of the two truths. That's why they're called two truths. And it's the meaning of Bodhidharma leaving a shoe behind in India, I mean in China.

[75:00]

He's got a foot in both cultures. And when you know the two truths, you shift your weight. on one foot and sometimes you shift your weight on the other. Now I just want to say one sort of riff about one last thing before we stop. Maybe we could even stop early. I'll try to be a person who stops early sometimes. Does it be new for me? Um Let's just put this in perspective. Again, Buddha was born something like 25, 2565 or 70 years ago. Buddhism came into China in the early part of the Christian era.

[76:14]

Kumarajiva, who was the most prominent of the many translators, but immense translation projects, as I've said several times before to you, went on for a thousand years. But I have already told you a few times that an incredible, huge translation process lasted for about 1000 years. From around 200 to 1200 A.D. there were these immense translation projects going on. They were like Max Planck Institutes or something like that. And I mean So let's just look at, again, when did modern science start, with Galileo or something like that?

[77:24]

So you want to imagine something like the Max Planck Institute going way back, to the beginning of the Christian era. Trying to understand how we exist from a kind of scientific point of view. To view how we exist through the stillness of mind and body. And through a mind not separated from the world by a hair breath. If you look at things and you say your first mind is, is that right or wrong? That's a chasm as big as all culture.

[78:26]

So you have to check. Check in your own inventory, your own moment-by-moment experience. It's your first sense of the world. It's perfect as it is. It's exactly as it is. I accept it as it is. Or it's not quite right. I don't kind of like it. I wish it were some other way. That little moment is a chasm. Cultural chasm.

[79:27]

So your first... training as a Buddhist physicist. Full, complete acceptance. And then you may say, oh, well, I've got to do this or that. But that full acceptance is what's meant by suchness or thusness. And it's the gate of non-duality. And it's the gate of interdependent causation. If you have the chasm of this hair-breath difference, You're not in the world of interdependent causation.

[80:37]

The teaching of these two koans is interdependent causation. Okay. Now, Kumarajiva lived from 344 to 413, they think. And guess where he's from? Afghanistan. Afghanistan. Gandharan is Kandahar, where... But anyway, he was an Afghani. Actually, he was an Indian, a South Indian man who married an Afghani princess. And he studied in what's now Afghanistan.

[81:41]

He studied in what's now Afghanistan. Oh, he studied, yes. And where Gandharan Buddhas come from. And he was abducted by the emperor of northern China and made to teach Buddhism in north China. So we also have the semi-real, semi-mythological Bodhidharma in North China at the same time. Both around the 3rd century China. Okay. And... The Koan collections, Blue Cliff Records and Heikigan Roku, I mean Blue Cliff Records and the Book of Serenity, are 11th and really 12th century compilations.

[82:56]

Shuedo lived in the 11th century and Yuan Wu, the final compiler of the book of records, lived in the 12th century. And Wang Zong, who lived also in the 12th century, is the compiler of the... Book of Serenity. And Dogen lived in the 13th century. So Dogen lived at a time when just shortly after these Blue Cliff Records and Book of Serenity were created. It was very early on in the development of koan practice.

[83:57]

Yeah, and some people say Dogen didn't really... But the whole Shobu Genzo is a commentary... You can understand it that way on koans. But the use of koans in the Rinzai style came with Hakuin in the 15th century. Yeah, so for Dogen to read versions of the Blue Cliff record. And supposedly he copied the whole thing in one night just before he returned to Japan. And probably if this is more true than myth, He probably copied just the cases.

[85:22]

The commentary may not even have been part of it, because Yuan Wu's disciple, Da Wei, burned all the plates and all existing copies he could find. Because he thought it made Zen too easy or led one astray into using words too much. And so it wasn't reassembled, put back together from copies that were found and republished till 1300. Yeah, and it wasn't... Although Buddhism has always been viewed as a foreign religion in China... And in Japan, too.

[86:37]

And in Japan, I mean, in the recent Second World War, the Meiji Restoration and so forth tried to push Buddhism out and emphasize the emperor and Shintoism. I would say that in fact you can't separate Buddhist culture from Japanese and Chinese culture. Okay. Now, the literati, poets, painters, intelligentsia, etc., throughout the Tang and Sung dynasties really brought Buddhism into the center of Chinese culture.

[87:38]

Und die Künstler, die Dichter, die Belesenen und Studierten haben eigentlich den Buddhismus in China damals ins Zentrum der chinesischen Kultur überhaupt gebracht. So the manifest enculturation of Buddhism within China. Happened through the literati. But in fact, Chinese culture was Buddhist way before that. And, you know, I think it's somehow important to say this. Because it gives us... Oops, I'm late already.

[88:42]

Two minutes. It gives us some perspective. This... Not only did this go on for a thousand years, but there were sometimes a thousand people involved in these translation projects. In one century, they translated 15,000 volumes of Buddhist scriptures. That's not a small library. And there was a whole elaborate process of translating the sutras. There were chanters. Then there were scribes who wrote it down.

[89:47]

And then there were correctors. And then there were translators. And then there were verifiers of the translation. Then there were people who... Then there were a whole group called polishers. And then there were people who chanted it again to make sure it was elegant. And then there were copy editors, proofers of the text after it had been chanted and translated as well as possible. And then the chief came in And then came the chairman.

[90:55]

And he gave the final approval. But they had, you know, it makes me think of what Ivan Illich told me about... says about bringing Christianity into German. Yeah. It wasn't thought that German was a sacred enough language for Latin Christianity. So they had to create a Latinized German in which to pour Christianity into the German language. So this was done very consciously by, according to Illich, by 9th century German In other words, how do you pour the wisdom of one culture into another culture?

[92:12]

Well, that's what the what Kumarajiva and the previous translators were involved with. How do you pour Buddhist culture Into Chinese culture. Well, you have to change Chinese culture so it can receive Buddhist culture. Okay, now, is there really some kind of universal Buddha nature that's already in Chinese culture and you just pour it in? Or do we have to create a culture-free zone within Chinese culture to pour culture-free Buddhism into culture-free China?

[93:14]

Well, they did do something like this. They had to develop ideas in Chinese culture that weren't there that allowed Buddhism to come into Chinese culture. And they transformed Chinese language. The syntax was influenced by these translators. The word order. The four tone system is influenced by Buddhist translators. Rhyming is influenced by Buddhist translators. And they created about 35,000 new words. I mean, supposedly, Shakespeare's vocabulary was about 40,000 words.

[94:27]

But few of us have a vocabulary anywhere near that. So 35,000 words in a culture is a huge addition to the culture. And it allowed those 35,000 words in a new syntax and word order and so forth And the intonation allowed them to pour Indian Buddhism into Chinese culture. And one of the late stages of it are these koans of Bodhidharma. At the very end,

[95:31]

of this pouring. So what are we going to have to do to pour Buddhism into our culture? Do we need a thousand years? How are we going to First of all, pour it into ourselves. And what views, word order, language do we need to allow Buddhism to be poured into us. That's the subject of these two koans. Of the Indian Buddhist who's called Avalokiteshvara, the Mahasattva. Meeting the emperor of China.

[96:45]

Well, fellow emperors. Thanks. Probably it's not obvious that these koans are about something so large in civilization. But if you see the koans in their historical and conceptual context, then I think we may realize that we're in a similar situation.

[97:46]

Whether you like it or not. Whether you choose it or not. But we should choose it. Okay, thanks.

[98:16]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_74.34