Thank you for coming to this practice period, and Mark and Ann for coming to the lecture. I hope the practice period is good for each of you, and I know that each of your practice helps the other's practice. Anyway, I'm very grateful that you're here. Now, one of the jobs of the Anja is to supply me with topics for the lectures. It's part of the job of the Shuso, too, but we haven't had a Shuso in a long time. You know, we need For if she's so, it has to be someone who's committed their life to practice.

[01:02]

Usually is ordained and not necessarily. And has been here for a couple, two or three or more practice periods. So the job falls to the Anja to supply me with topics and to and thus to also then to Keep track of the practice period and the evolution of the... You didn't know this was your... The evolution of the teaching as it goes along. In fact, I may on the spur of the moment ask him to give the lectures. We'll see what happens. Now he's resigning. No, not yet. Okay. So he said, why don't you say something about... what Dogen's teacher, Chen Dong, said, the practitioners of the 90-day practice period form the structure of true practice and make a cave in emptiness.

[02:19]

Yeah, that's what Russell Anjasama asked me to speak about, suggested at least. And then Jen Dong said, please complete these two. Now, I would not speak about this, at least in the way I hope to be able to speak about it, in anything but a practice period, because there's no way, if you don't have three months, in this cave of emptiness to form the structure of true practice. So there's some things that, you know, I would speak about not at all or certainly differently in other contexts than I would in practice period. Practice period is not just a big seminar.

[03:24]

It's something that really depends on you forming the structure of true practice. If you can. Yeah. So let's start with making a cave in emptiness. And I think to start with making a cave an emptiness, we have to start with appearance. And nothing but appearance. And if we are speaking about nothing but appearance, then appearance is another word for emptiness. So what do I mean by nothing but appearance or appearance only?

[04:27]

In many ways we've, of course, spoken about this before. We've, I think, doesn't Brendan Watt has his email address or something, his appearance? What appears. What appears. That's great. What's what? What appears. But he doesn't spell it W-A-T-T appears, does he? Because sometimes when what appears, what does not appear. Anyway, so we've certainly spoken about appearance before, and it's what Brendan's come away with from the practice periods he's done too, I think. But I can't, but I, you know, if I'm going to speak about Chien Dung's statement, I have to speak about appearance. Again. And if we can understand what he means by forming the structure of true, forming?

[05:41]

Listen to that. The structure, what the heck is that? The structure of true practice. Making? Making? cave and emptiness I think if we can complete these two as he said, as he asks as he insists we can understand a lot about what his practice we can understand his practice and Dogen's practice and we can establish our own true practice this is a lot So appearance only. Okay, I mean, I don't know what, let me say, I hold up this stick, right? It appears in your senses, right? I mean, I presume it does unless you're asleep. Are any of you asleep? I hope Hans, my English isn't too, you're used to me being translated.

[06:45]

I hope it's, my English is okay. I'll have to improve, but you'll have to improve faster than me and your English. So this appears in your senses, right? And oh, in this hand, it can also appear in your senses, right? Now, if we're just talking about appearance only, or sensorial appearance, there's very little difference. I mean, it's got a stick in it. This is not. Oh, I could put something else in it. A deer bone. I guess. It's been on my desk for 30 years. About, I guess. Who knows? I forget.

[07:47]

Okay, they're different, yeah, but if you're only talking about the senses with no associations, the sensorial experience is virtually the same. I mean, it's a different configuration. But if you're not identifying with the objects, thinking about the, this was Sukyoshi's staff. This is, what, a deer or something like that. If you're not making any associations, the appearance, the experience of the appearance is the experience of the appearance. Sophia and her friend, Sarah, Yesterday, we're experimenting with putting their finger through a candle flame last night. Sophia had never done it before.

[08:50]

She thought it was absolutely extraordinary that Sarah, who's one year older, could do it. She was amazed at her bravery. But finally, since Marie Louise did it and I did it and the cat, no the cat didn't do it, she did it and she felt. But you feel a little bump as your finger goes through the flame. Well, you feel a little bump when you look at this and you feel a little bump when you look at this, but it's not much difference. It's a little different bump. As the mind passes over the flame we could say, of the object. So, sensorial appearance only is emptiness.

[09:55]

in the sense that every object has the same whether it's my hand or the stick whatever if you don't bring associative mind to play then it's just appearance and every object has the same and all of the appearances all of the The sameness of each appearance is not graspable. It's only momentary, sensorial phenomena. Okay. Now, are we concerned, really, whether this is true or not? Well, yeah, I think you can make a case for its truth. We have no standards for truth, you know, since there's no book of Revelation or anything.

[11:03]

We have no standards. But objectivity, and objectivity is questionable. But in any case, we can say it's true, but that's not really the point. Point is, what happens when you practice appearance only? What happens for these next three months? What happens through you, within you, to you, if you practice appearance only? Are you in a cave of emptiness? What happens if you practice appearance only? Well, one of the things that happens is that you begin to structure the mind. Map, in a sense, the mind, because you begin to feel the somatic difference between a mind of appearance only and an associative mind.

[12:16]

And you're not so much blocking associations, although that's okay to practice that sometimes, but you're not really, it does not really vary developed practice to block associations. More realized practice is associations don't arise. Now, why don't associations arise? They don't arise because the mind of appearance only has no room for associations. So you begin to feel the somatic mind path. I think that I have to make that a term. I've tried out bod-mind, but bod-mind sounds a little new age. Bodily mind. Right now I'm thinking of somatic mind path or somatic path mind, something like that. So you're beginning to feel the somatic location of appearance-only mind.

[13:36]

And you're beginning to feel the somatic location, placement of associative mind. And you can feel the somatic bridge between the minds, something like that. So if you have a GPS, a global positioning system, and you can sort of feel the different minds or something like that. Yeah, this is wisdom to begin to structure the mind. And here we have structuring, feeling the structure of the mind when you can experience an associative mind separate from an appearance-only mind. And you can feel when you bring them together.

[14:40]

You can feel when they're separate. And you can feel when one is recessive and one is dominant. You can bring in the associative mind as you wish. Now this is only really possible if you have the somatic pathways of each mind. The somatic feel, haptic feel of each mind. Haptic I could use too. Okay, so what Chen Dung is saying is, please, use these three months to discover the structure of true mind, and in this particular case, related to a cave of emptiness, making a cave in emptiness. I mean, what isn't empty? But how do we use the knowledge or basic feel for emptiness, use it to structure the mind?

[15:53]

This is what he's talking about. Knowing the true structure of mind, we can make a cave in emptiness or feeling how to make a cave in the emptiness structures our mind structures our mind in a way we can call true mind a way we can participate in our mind participate in our modes participate in our emotions in ways so we're not pushed around no we're not at the mercy of our mind we're not the mercy of our distractions our thinkings our associations It's a clear territory. We can decide we're in this territory, or we can decide we're in this territory. Sometimes associative mind or mood may push, take over, but we know if our practice is somewhat mature, we know, oh yeah, I just come back and change my body a little, change my posture, bring attention to my breathing, bring attention to

[17:02]

Appearance only mind and the associations associated mind Painful mental suffering is kind of released I Mean we don't should you know if you we were going to be real tough practices we try to create some mental suffering, you know so as you can do I'd start insulting you on obscure moments and So you say, well, the teacher doesn't like me and feels shitty and then you have to kind of like cope with feeling lousy. But maybe you feel lousy easy without my or anybody else trying to make you feel lousy. But without feeling lousy, you don't feel the edge where associative mind and appearance only mind make a difference. Associative mind isn't a problem because it carries pain, you know, etc.

[18:13]

Associative mind is a problem because it's wonderful. It's a problem in that it takes over our mind. But in itself, it's not a problem. But when associative mind is everything, then we have a problem. Okay. Now, sensorial emptiness or sensorial appearance is not the only kind of emptiness. There's also object emptiness. Okay, so let's go back to this Deer bone. Deer sweet bone.

[19:15]

I don't even really know if it's a deer. I just think it is. I think I got it in the Sierra. I talked to my... Here's an association. I talked to my brother-in-law, former brother-in-law. my brother and outlaw. This morning, Lenny Brackett built the interior of the Sendoh. And he's befriended a goshawk. And he did it just right. The goshawk is completely free. And while I'm talking to him on the phone, the goshawk, which has got a four-foot wingspan and comes at, you know, 100 miles an hour through the forest, you know, And they hunt together. They go out and they... He says, I'm not a hunter, but you know, what can I do?

[20:17]

This is a goshawk. So they find a duck or something and then he helps with the hunt. He said the other day, goshawks are about 10 months old now and fully adult. And the other day the goshawk wanted to play and so he cocks his head, which means I want to play. And... So he throws Lenny a stone, like a dog. And Lenny throws stones, and the goshawk goes and gets them. Lenny throws a little food, and the goshawk gets it. But they take sticks, and he throws them back and forth in play. And then Lenny, supposedly, according to the most renowned expert on falconry in the United States says that there's only two people in the United States, Lenny and one other, who were actually working with completely free falcons, in this case a goshawk.

[21:19]

There's no leather on them or anything. So after they played for a while, Lenny leaned back on the tree and the goshawk came and stood on his knee. And for 45 minutes, they watched the sun go down. Makes me think of how I was supposed to go on a whaling expedition. That was a long time ago in a little boat. And a friend of mine was there. I didn't go. But at some point, a whale right beside the boat breached straight up, a huge whale, into the air. And then just went straight down beside the boat with no splash, no flap. If they'd splashed or leaned, they would have been completely swamped. They were out off the coast of Alaska. And then it just disappeared.

[22:21]

And she said to me, I felt I had seen God. And Lenny feels something like this. This bird just sits 45 minutes on his knee. Then Lenny says, he calls it Iris. He thought it was a girl first. So he calls it Iris. And he's not going to rename it to Ike or something like that. So he calls it Iris. He said to Iris, Iris, I've got to go home now, make dinner. So he put his hand up and the hawk lands on his wrist and he lifts his arm up and goes off. Anyway, here's this bone that made me think of the hawk, associate of mine. But it was a worthwhile story to tell you. I mean, I don't know. I think it's a deer bone, but maybe it's been scavenged clean by a hawk, vulture, or some animal, or the weather.

[23:29]

And it's been sitting on my desk a long time. So as an object, it's nothing but its appearance. There's no other bone in my hand except this one. So this bone is completely unique and not comparative to anything. I mean, there's no bone that's been on my desk for 30 years. And it's particularly like this, or particularly had whatever's happened to this bone to make it so clean. So my point is, like everything, it's absolutely unique. Not only is there no other bone like it, there's no other bone in my hand. It's unique in being in my hand. That's not a small matter. That your location is always absolutely unique. We say, the heron's legs are long, the duck's legs are short.

[24:39]

That sounds like a comparison, but it means there's no comparison. And then we say, let them be long, let them be short. Now here we have the uniqueness of each object is its appearance, the sum of its appearance, or its emptiness. There's no way you can grasp its uniqueness. Now, is it unique because It doesn't bring forth associative mind, as it did when I talked about Lennie's goshawk named Iris. No, it's unique because non-comparative mind is present, and the practice of discovering its uniqueness is a practice of

[25:53]

understanding uniqueness and understanding it well enough that each object from its own side not from just sensorial side each object from its own side is absolutely unique so you have to think that through and thinking it through you can begin then to have the arising of a non-comparative mind. Let it be long. Let it be short. You don't make any comparison. Whatever it is. Now, non-comparative mind is not the same as non-associative mind. There are some similarities. But non-comparative mind is, I'm not comparing this to this. That's different than associations. This is this, this is this.

[27:01]

So now we have the emptiness and uniqueness of the object from its own side, the emptiness of the object from its own side, Developing that as a structure of practice. And the emptiness, the sensorial emptiness of it. And now we can begin to discover the somatic pathway and presence of non-comparative mind and the somatic presence, pathway to presence of non-associative mind. Now this becomes actually a form of renunciation.

[28:15]

If you decide to come to the practice period, practice period is a kind of renunciation, not a kind, it is a renunciation of conventional, conventional world. If it's not a renunciation of the conventional world and you're too much involved in the world before, after, and what's going on outside, then it's not a renunciation. So you have to get up at 3.30 every morning and just kind of float into the darkness of the morning. Float into your sitting posture. Let the day unfold. As much as possible in the sensorial immediacy of each moment. and as much as possible with the uniqueness of each moment.

[29:20]

Unpredictable, uncompaired. So, entering a practice period for three months, in this case getting up at 3.30, being in this wilderness, not leaving the location, the campus, is we could call it external renunciation. and you support and find out how to live within this external renunciation. And the practice of non-comparative mind and non-associative mind is an internal renunciation, parallel to and simultaneous with, part of, The practice period, which you can't even, as Dogen says, count as 90 days unless you want to start counting. And should not be limited to 90 days.

[30:24]

Thus, practice period can be an internal renunciation. This is what cendang means. A cave. Not just emptiness. The 90-day cave, which can't be called just 90 days of emptiness, in which you can, yeah, discover, transform the structure through practice. and share equally and trade every place

[31:23]

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