Thank you all and each of you for being here. And I'm happy that each of you is here. And although I was here in February, And I've just come from doing two one-day seminars in Budapest and two longer seminars in Rastenberg. Still, for me, this is like the first seminar of the year in Europe, in Germany at least, excuse me. Only a few of you participate in the seminars in Rastenberg. So it's for me a meeting and greeting to see you again.

[01:04]

Yeah, and I want to look into this koan with you as usual, rather slowly, step by step. It's not a very welcoming koan, I think. And the case itself seems, you know, unnecessarily simple. But I think with this koan we have to see the forest first. And then let's look at the trees. And then let's see if we can find a path within the forest, between the trees, among the trees. Now, I think we all have to agree, and implicitly we do agree.

[02:30]

Can you guys way back there hear us okay? Hear her? She's the real voice. We all have to agree that one of the things we're doing is kind of participating in playing with Another worldview than our usual worldview. Does this help us answer questions? Does our questions we can't answer In our own culture, in our own language.

[03:52]

Somehow able to be answered or perhaps more approximate an answer in another world view. That's implicitly what we're doing assumes. And that's what outsiders would think. Even our neighbors. They probably think, these seem to be really nice people, but they're looking for answers in the funniest place. And I think they may implicitly feel, why don't they look for answers within our culture, within our European culture, within what's familiar to us? Yeah, and looking at that is, I think, part of the forest.

[05:14]

I said we have to look at the forest first. That's part of the forest. Yeah. Are you looking for something? Do you think it's possible to find something? Do you think we have to recognize that we are looking for something? I don't think we need to know what we're looking for. And I think it makes a difference if we think it's possible to find, somehow resolve what we're looking for.

[06:20]

All koans implicitly ask or explicitly how do we live on this earth? So again, to prepare for looking at this forest, we need to ask ourselves, how do we live on this earth? The historical Buddha left home, supposedly, because he couldn't find... the meaning of what he felt he should look for. Man sagt, dass der historische Buddha seine Heimat verlassen hat, weil er dort nicht finden konnte, die Bedeutung dessen nicht finden konnte, was er glaubte, wonach er gesucht hat.

[07:22]

The meaning of life when he had seemingly everything any person would imagine as a good life. Also den Sinn des Lebens, obwohl er doch so wie jeder, der darüber nachdenkt, würde denken, er hatte ein wirklich gutes Leben. So supposedly in the middle of the night he stole out, somehow magically opened the gate of the compound. Man sagt, dass er mitten in der Nacht irgendwie auf magische Weise das Tor seines Geländes dort verlassen hat. Rode off on a horse. And then gave the horse away and sent the jewels, it was India, jewels and his clothes back to his family. And then he cut off his hair. And he spent the next six years only trying to find some, how do we live on this earth in a really satisfying and meaningful way.

[08:43]

Yeah, are you, to various degrees, doing something like this? At least we're getting up in the morning. And most of us are putting on sitting robes. Or some sort of dark clothes. And then you get up with a wake-up bell. And the wake-up bell is something different than if you're staying in an apartment nearby or a pension or something. Where you get up under your own auspices. Auspices means authority or something like that. Within your own territory. Which is nice, too. I know I get more writing done when I do that. Oh, by the way, I suppose some of you or most of you have heard that I was rather, I've been rather sick the last couple of days.

[10:23]

I'm just a zombie sitting here. No, I'm actually quite, I'm not very sick. I'm not perfect either. Well, I've never been that. But anyway, I guess as long as you're alive, you can say you're getting better. So I guess I do seem to be getting better. Yeah, so... Yeah, it's different to wake up... I mean, we could have a school bell here, you know, that rings, set to ring at 4.30, and it goes bing, [...] and we all get up. There's quite a difference to...

[11:25]

feel another person ringing the bell, the tenken, in the morning. Yeah, we not only hear the bell, but we feel, more important, more accurately, we feel the presence of the tenken, Ring the bell. Yeah, I like the way you said that, the rrrr and the tankin'. I did that? Yeah, you said it with power. Yeah. So, and we know the tankin' has been up before us. So we ought to get up too, I guess. So you're getting up within the energy of another person. And I think we feel that. And then we put on these clothes, robes, etc.,

[12:39]

And, you know, for me, whenever I quickly, when I first come back to Crestone or first start here, I feel now, And always when I come back from Creston, or especially when I come here and start here, I always ask myself, what are we doing here? What am I doing here? And you've heard me say it before, and it's always a question for me. What am I doing here in these robes and with this stick and everything? Yeah, I don't really know. Partly I'm doing it because I inherited the tradition. And partly I'm doing it because you seem to like it. Or perhaps you even tolerate it. Or perhaps you'll find that the talking I'm doing now will be different than the talking I do in the afternoon when we're not in this kind of context.

[14:13]

If we wanted one of the truths of Buddhism, it's context, context, context. Yeah, I mean, we're in this interdependent continuum where everything exists in and through a context. So we've got up this morning feeling within the energy of the tenken. The poor tenken, tomorrow morning he's going to be, oh gosh. And then the tenken starts hitting the wooden board. And again, within the hitting of the board, we feel energy and preciseness.

[15:29]

And I hope the sound kind of disperses distractedness. And that only happens if the tenkan is not distracted. And so there's reasons why the tankin stands facing the board. Which has written on it something like life and death, serious problems. And lines up the stick with his or her spine. And hits the board. And we can feel the board gathers all of us together toward the Zinda.

[16:30]

No, what am I talking? I'm describing something you all know and are doing. But I want you to be clear that you're moving and establishing a field of energy. In a way, we're not so concerned with who you are. Who each of you are is important. But clearly, the priority here is we gather ourselves into a field of energy. That's the main statement of what we've done this morning. And knowing that, you can wake up with that feeling. And the tenkan can ring the bell, hit the han with that feeling.

[17:43]

And then we come together in the sender. So now we don't have just the energy of the tenkin, we have the energy of everybody, and especially those sitting beside us. And then whoever you are, new person, old person, European, not European, I don't care. You locate yourself in your posture. And then the doshi arrives. The doshi is the word for the person who leads the service. So now doshi comes and there's three bells and the doshi does jundo around greeting each person. And then we sit. And we sit in the posture we've established. And as I pointed out recently, we sit within the concept of don't move.

[19:23]

The most basic instruction of satsang. There's no zazen without the concept of don't move. The posture is not zazen. The posture plus the concept of not moving is zazen. Yeah. And then what happens... Win for specific lengths of time, as close to every day as you can. You sit with not moving. That's the entry fee. Entry fee? The ticket? The entry fee for a depth run.

[20:26]

Buddhism is simply not about understanding. I don't care how smart you are. It's not about understanding. Now, the word I introduced, which I want to reintroduce, last February, is that we incubate this practice. Understanding is almost inconsequential. And all the teachings are presented ideally so they can't be really understood. The famous Linji Zen Master Dawi said, fasten your mind, fasten your attention.

[21:41]

Where cognition doesn't reach. Fasten your attention where thought, where thinking mind cannot reach. How the heck do we do this? Well, at least we're moving within this field of energy, this being that appears in birds and trees and each of us. Locating attention in this, I don't want to say your, but I don't have much choice, your aliveness. And the more consistently you do that all the time, the more the teachings of Buddhism

[22:57]

appear like leaves and wings growing through our living. Now, again, these last months of teaching, I want to locate each of us again in what Sukhiroshi said to moment after moment stay with what he said.

[24:28]

Which is reality meant actuality, things as they are. Can't be caught by thinking or feeling mind. Can't be reached within the mind that arises through thinking. Can't be reached through the mind that arises through thinking, feeling and emotions. And then, as most of you know, I've repeated this before. Moment after moment, just to watch the breath. Just to watch your breathing. Just to watch your posture.

[25:54]

Which means primarily your spine. The energy and aliveness of the spine. The activity of the breath and the firmness and energy of the spine. And then he said, it's true nature. Really? Is there anything in your past, your history, your education said your true nature is just to watch your spine and breath? And to do that moment after moment? If you really take that seriously, you're in a different culture. You're in a different world view. Are you capable of taking it seriously?

[27:08]

And if you're capable, and then taking it seriously, are you capable of enacting it? And he said, there's no secret beyond this point. No secret, there's all of Buddhism. What does he mean, there's no secret beyond this point? If you don't incubate this moment after moment, there's no way you can understand why he says there's no secret beyond this point. Now, I'm bringing this up, this statement from the epilogue of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Over and over again. Because over and over again, moment after moment, I would like this to be the basis of your mind and activity.

[28:29]

And you find through it, you monitor your health and well-being. Your mind and your activity. and your relationship within every context. I think it's Jean-Luc Nancy, a French contemporary philosopher, said to say God is dead means that God does not have a body. Or God's body is dead.

[29:32]

Or in Christianity we have this sense of a glorious body that's somehow present, invisible and present. And in Christianity, we have this feeling for a magnificent or glorious body that is always present in every activity. So the koan asks in the introduction, What is the Buddha's body of reality? It says actually, where is the Buddha's body of reality? Can you seriously ask yourself this question? Can you imagine that the answer means anything? Can you so explore your existence and come to your wit's end?

[30:39]

Do you have the expression, at the end of your wits? I don't think we have it as an expression, but it means to be at the end of one's mind's intelligence. The end of everything you can possibly do. And you come to the end of the suffering you can bear. Where a question like, what is the Buddha's body? What the heck? Excuse me for almost swearing. Heck is that? Okay, so now we have the Buddha leaving home. I don't know the story of his cutting off flesh for his parents. But at least he gave his stuff back to them. And then Devadatta, I mean, this is terrible, this guy.

[32:07]

You probably all know it was the Buddha's cousin and brother-in-law. And he supposedly tried to kill the Buddha. He talked some poor prince into killing his father so he could get the throne. And this is the story. Although this is only a story probably. The koan is only a story. Your life is only a story. So this koan is presenting this terrible guy who after talking this prince into killing his father he said I'm going to go in and kill him.

[33:08]

I'm going to kill the Buddha. This all happened supposedly after he'd gone the Buddha was with an assembly and Devadatta came in and said I'm your loving cousin and your brother-in-law and you're getting old and feeble I'm not that old yet. And you're getting old and feeble, and why don't you step down and let me be head of the Sangha? And the Buddha said, buzz off. I mean, I don't know what he said. Get yourself out of here. He demurred. Demure means to politely say no. And so then Devadatta tried to roll a boulder down on the Buddha.

[34:36]

And a one splinter of stone hit the Buddha's foot and drew blood. I had a friend, Dick Price, in Big Sur. Crushed by a boulder that fell through the trees after a rainstorm. He died, is that what you said? He definitely died. I had a friend in Bexul who was once hit by a stone that after a storm, I don't know, rolled down somewhere and just crushed him. Supposedly David Dada got an elephant drunk. How the hell do you get an elephant drunk? I don't know. That's expensive.

[35:39]

Yeah, and got the elephant to charge the Buddha. And the Buddha looked at the elephant with such loving eyes that the elephant bent down and bowed. So here we have a guy who can make a drunken elephant bow and he can't somebody so close to him as a cousin and a brother-in-law Still wants to kill him. And for quite a time causes a schism within Buddhism. Within the Sangha. So here this koan starts out.

[36:40]

With the historical Buddha supposedly gave, even was willing to cut off flesh to express the duty of one generation to the next. And yet he has no recognition for that. He's not listed in the blah, blah, blah. Yeah, and then, in fact, it was pretty bad of him to leave his wife and son, Rahulah, And it's a pretty selfish guy. And then Devadatta tries to betray the Buddha. Here's this, what for us is imagined as a nearly perfect person. And yet even a cousin of a nearly perfect person is trying to kill him.

[38:15]

What kind of world do we live in? And just think about it, what kind of world we live in, what people do. How many millions of people right now don't have enough to eat? So this koan is presenting all of that symbolically as even the Buddha is betrayed. There's no place of refuge. Even if you've gone through this forest of thorns. And you've cut down a sandalwood tree. And a sandalwood tree is supposed to be all good things, you know, it's roots and it's bark and all the oils and it makes the best furniture and blah, blah, blah.

[39:32]

And one of the most common beads and the beads I give to ordained people are sandalwood beads. Somehow we all feel somehow like we're strangers. Like we're aliens. Aliens? Outsiders? And we're waiting to be confirmed, recognized, acknowledged. Waiting to be welcomed. So one of the themes of this poem is the poems and this koan.

[40:49]

Is greeting. And greeting has the meaning in European language to salute, to say hello, to greet. And it also has the meaning of to weep and to cry. And you hear it in the second part of the word in English of regret. The second part is greet, but this means weeping and crying. So how, this koan asks, how do we live in this world when there's people like Devadatta in it as well, even close to the Buddha? Yeah. How do we live in this world without rewards that really mean something to us?

[42:20]

Or without the intimacy that we all, the nearness we all, and intimacy we all long for? And then, is there such a thing as the Buddha's body of reality? What is the great meaning of Buddhism? Yeah, what is it? Is it Can we answer that? And if we can't answer it, then what? What does it mean if we can't answer it?

[43:22]

Okay, thanks.

[43:23]

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