So I think this difference between, let's call it context centrality and foreground causality Now, it seems like a small difference. But first of all, it's very characteristic of the kind of logic that's in koans and Buddhist thinking in general. But I think it also proposes and poses perhaps a difference in how to exist. Yeah, so let's look at some visible differences first and maybe we can then feel less visible differences.

[01:45]

Now let's go start with the simple phrase, the jewel hidden in the mountain of form. If we look at it from the point of view of foreground causality, The hidden is a causal push or hook. There's something not seen. The jewel, it's hidden and it's not seen. So from the point of view of foreground causality, you think, well, I should find this jewel.

[02:49]

And I'd say almost all Westerners' interpretations of koans fail on this point. They just, foreground causality as a way of thinking is just too strong. So, It's very hard to look at what I'm calling contextual centrality. If you think there's meaning, if you think all situations mean something.

[03:51]

From the point of view of Buddhism, fundamentally there's no meaning to anything. Sorry to be the messenger who brings you the bad news. Everything just is. That's what thusness means. It just is. So then you get people asking, what does thusness mean? The Buddha was supposedly asked by an outsider. That's kind of great, an outsider. Es wird erzählt, dass der Buddha von einem Außenstehenden, von einem Fremden gefragt wurde.

[05:23]

He said to the Buddha, isn't it great to go up, Hi Buddha, I got a question for you. Also er sagte, Hallo Buddha, ich habe da eine Frage für dich. Oh, what is it today? I don't ask about the spoken or the unspoken. And the Buddha said nothing. And the outsider said, then after a moment or two, thank you for your great compassion. I've had an insight. Yeah. And so Ananda afterwards said, what truth did he see? And Buddha said, like a good horse, he saw the shadow of the whip.

[06:26]

And the shadow of the whip doesn't mean like we think, like soon you're going to be whipped. It means that the context, he saw the context and he understood. Okay. The shadow of the whip is, I mean, you know, I don't know how many horses there were in India, but people in the old days really knew horses. I would guess in cities like Berlin and London and Paris, there were probably practically as many horses as there were people.

[07:30]

So this image of the horse knowing what to do, Sophia was taking riding lessons. Last year or a year before. And the teacher first told her to move her legs so that the horse would move and not use the rein. And when she got so she could do that, the teacher told her, now don't move your legs, just think. Go to the left or go to the right. And when she did, the horse was going left or right. So this is actually using the context, not using causes.

[08:55]

It's a significantly different emphasis from even using your legs. So, anyway. Okay, so the jewel hidden in the mountain of form. From the point of view of, excuse my phrase, these phrases, context centrality, Aus der Perspektive der Kontextzentralität. What are the ingredients? Was sind da die Zutaten? Mountain. Berg. Jewel.

[09:57]

Juwel. And the concept of hidden. Und das Konzept des Verstecktseins. Okay. Now, from the point of view of just the context. Von der Perspektive nur des Kontexts. What do we have? Three ingredients. And relationships. Okay. And the relationships make each of the points equal. In this way of thinking, relationships are what's important and real, not the points. And that's one of the meanings of emptiness. This doesn't exist. My relationship to it exists. And it was Suzuki Roshi's. And it was the carpenters or whoever made its relationship to it And that's partly why they put tassels on things.

[11:22]

The tassel is always pointing, it's more real than the stick, it always points the same direction. What? Well, look, this I can do all kinds of things with, and this stays the same. So this is playing with. This is a kind of playing with. It's not decoration. It's playing with. Okay. Okay, so if the three points are equal, and that's the way you look at it first... Now let me say, of course some things have meaning. But in the most fundamental sense, things don't have meaning. As soon as you bring in meaning, You bring in somewhere a first cause, and you're basically in a theological universe.

[12:37]

As soon as you bring in meaning, by implication you bring in cause, and you bring in a first cause, and then you're in a theological world. All right. Now, somebody says, you know, like I had cancer. When Tsukiroshi had cancer. Everybody was asking, what does it mean he has cancer? I don't know, he just has cancer. It may also be because he had a radiant watch. I don't know, all kinds of things. I saw a friend the other day. He's lost his business.

[13:42]

It failed. His wife left him. And he's 500,000 euro in debt. Now, if he comes to Doksan, by chance, say he did. And he tells me all these things. Basically, I should just say, oh. And he himself should say to himself, Look at the situation I'm in. Oh. This is more fundamental than that. Does it mean that I have... Yes, he's got to pay the bank and do all kinds of things. But first of all, it's just the situation. When your first reaction is, it's just the situation.

[14:44]

And there's no outside to the situation. You look inside the situation for solutions. And that's probably the biggest difference. So we have these three points. Jewel, hidden, and mountain. And they're all equal. Okay. So maybe, if they're all equal, maybe the mountain is the jewel.

[15:45]

And that's just exactly what the story means. The phrase. The mountain is the jewel. Der Berg ist das Juwel. So you practice with the mountain is the jewel. You don't practice looking for the jewel. I mean, sorry, but that's the way it is. Also, du praktizierst damit, der Berg ist das Juwel. Und du praktizierst nicht, dass du das Juwel suchen gehst. Okay, now, as you can see, the jewel is hidden because it is the mountain. And the concept of hidden hides the mountain. Because we're paying attention to the jewel. So the situation, you know, okay, enough on that, right? Okay, genug davon. Then we have koan seven. And the shoyu roku. Yao Shan ascends the seat.

[17:05]

The superintendent monk gets in and says, everybody wants to turn out, etc. Okay, and he comes in, sits down, and then he gets up and leaves. You don't have to translate all that. Okay. And everyone thinks he was supposed to say something. So they think that you have to try to explain the meaning of why he didn't say anything. That's foreground causality. You think the foreground is that he didn't say anything. No, the foreground, if there is any, is that he ascended the seat. And the koan even points it out because the name of the koan is Yaoshan ascends the seat.

[18:14]

But everyone tries to figure out why he didn't say anything. It's just fooling you and you're all fooled. Not you, of course. But when you look at the koan all the ingredients, then you have a different koan than when you think you're supposed to figure out why he didn't say something. Okay, now let's look at the Kanadeva and the Nagarjuna and the bowl full of water again. From a simple looking at the story?

[19:19]

It's quite unusual that Nagarjuna sends a bowl of water to somebody unless he knows he's thirsty. So everyone tries to interpret what the bowl of water means. But they don't look at all the ingredients. All of the ingredients include that the bowl is filled to the brim that it's thus held by surface tension. And that's pointed out by the floating needle. I've never seen a needle swim. I've seen one float. In German, the needles swim, I know.

[20:43]

Today, at least. Today, at least. Yeah. Okay, it does the breaststroke. No, in a minute. Okay. And he also carries the bull back to Nagarjuna. So one of the ingredients is that he carries the bowl back. If you're fooled by foreground causality, you think it's the bowl which is the topic, and really it's the carrying the bowl which is the topic. Okay, now these are just my several examples at this point, at this moment. of the difference between what I'm calling contextual centrality

[21:52]

and foreground causality. I just stop and think, because in the last four days I've created about 20 new terms, which you've only heard about 10 of them. I have to sort them. Which one am I using now? Now, let me give you another little example. I've been watching for many years now people, the Jisha, for example, straightening the sticks of incense for the powdered incense with another little stick of incense. I've never seen a Japanese monk do that. Except in some maybe big ceremony where a hundred people are coming and the Pope is arriving or something, then they're really trying to make everything.

[23:33]

Okay, so because what are the ingredients? You have the sticks of incense. And you have the fire. And you have your fingers. And you don't add any more ingredients. And doing it right is not one of the ingredients. Because we want to do it right, we take a little stick of incense, straighten it out, and et cetera. And I'm not criticizing you. I've been watching this for 40 years, and today he decided to mention it. Now I forgot what I have to say.

[24:41]

I don't think it needs translation. Okay. No, if you're doing it, and sometimes I try to suggest to the jisha, I go up and it's perfectly fine what they've done, but I take my fingers and I straighten it to say, you know, you could do it that way, but nobody gets the point. But because like with calligraphy and why you use a brush which is dangerous is because you make mistakes. And the mistakes are interesting. Splashes, you know, and all kinds of things. Okay. Now, just a few minutes ago, Earhart hit the bell when he shouldn't have.

[25:42]

Now, it's very zen to make mistakes. But it's not very zen to correct them. Traditionally, I would hit the bell wrong. I'd listen to the bell. To hell with correcting it. And we could have heard a nice bell sound. And instead we heard your nervousness. So situational or contextual centrality, you just accept what happens. If you're about to drop your daughter into the bathtub, maybe not. You have to be realistic.

[26:54]

But in general, you let the situation evolve. So, I mean, we all make mistakes. And in general, you just go... You know, I used to practice with it. I wouldn't look up phone numbers. I just dialed them. And sometimes... In the old days. And sometimes when I'd be in the middle of it and I'd know it was wrong and it was a call to Europe and in those days they were expensive but I'd just continue.

[28:01]

And because I always followed through on my mistakes, I got to know a lot of phone numbers very right, correctly. I'd say, hand, dial so-and-so's home number. Oh, okay. It would do it. But that's from not depending on my mind, just depending on my body doing it. So, it has lots of ramifications. What are ramifications? Like, kind of results? Extensions. Okay. Extrapolations? No, extrapolate is different.

[29:21]

Okay. Anyway, I mean, somebody gave me a Hamada cup for my ordination. Hamada is a potter and his cups are worth something like automobiles. And I was very surprised. My daughter, instead of being dumped in the bathtub, she dumped my cup onto the floor. It broke. I had no reaction except that, oh, now I have to clean it up. And I was surprised at myself. And I realized I'd really developed context centrality. I didn't have the term for it then.

[30:40]

Because these bowls are made to be broken. Amada would go out of business if they didn't break now and then. Now Hamada had to make another one, that's all. And I had to get this one repaired. But first I had to sweep it up. So your relationship to things, the more you feel this... the wholeness of a context, without comparisons outside the context, your whole relationship to what happens is different.

[31:44]

Okay. Now, when you come to Doksan, you're meeting me. But I hope you're also meeting yourself. When we're practicing Doksan and Taisho, we're in the context of meeting and speaking. And what happens is its meaning. Even if you have random thoughts or you're falling asleep, that is what it is.

[32:44]

And in meeting me, I hope you're meeting yourself. During Teisho. And if you're in meeting me, you're meeting yourself. your own practice, etc. I hope it's because in meeting you, I'm meeting myself. That means that in this context, there's all these relationships going on which are almost magical. Those relationships are what's really happening here, not what I'm saying.

[33:50]

That's because here we're in the midst of context centrality. So you'll find yourself noticing things, thinking things, things that happened yesterday or today, all coming together somehow in a way that's not foreground causality. And the last part, I missed the last part. Don't worry about it. So, whatever you translate is what you translate. So, there's the words, face-to-face meeting.

[34:54]

And of course it means the lineage passed from teacher to teacher, etc., Und natürlich bedeutet es auch die Lehrlinie, die von Lehrer zu Lehrer weitergegeben wird. Und Dogen hat immer betont, dass Zen nur durch dieses von angesicht zu angesicht existiert. Those are the words, face to face. But when you, as you know, say, hear, hearing, as I've often spoke about, hearing, hearing, you're hearing your own hearing of the bird. And you know it's different. You know it's not what other birds are hearing.

[35:57]

It's what you're hearing. You're hearing your own hearing of the bird. So what are you actually doing? You're face to face with yourself. So the melting of distinction, the non-duality means in itself face-to-face teaching. So Dogen considered the face-to-face meeting with nature, she, then, or other people or situations When the intimacy of immediacy and you're facing yourself And Dogen would think, you're healing yourself.

[37:17]

Because if you don't, I mean, there are lots of reasons, but I have to end because it's getting late and you know, etc. But unless you have this way of thinking about things, You probably won't discover your chakras, for instance. If you go outside for solutions, you won't find the inside solutions. And the inside solutions are a kind of healing. Und die inneren Lösungen sind so eine Art heilen. Und du entdeckst deine Energiemuster. Und die Wege. Und deine eigene Teilhabe in deiner Lebendigkeit. Und? your own healing and health, aliveness and health.

[38:34]

And that's also the whole situation is, I mean, this whole situation of us together is profoundly healing. And to see this as a healing situation, comes from seeing the situation as what's central, not the causal chain. To find everything here, So just now is enough becomes appearance, becomes space. Now, before I get carried away, which I almost have, I will stop.

[39:44]

And I'll try not to make sense of the last things I've said. Otherwise I'll be here till a while. But I'm glad we'll have a chance to meet again tomorrow and an evening meal and so forth. Thank you. That was a hard one to translate. Thank you.

[40:30]

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