One nice thing about this Zendo, this now Zendo, is that it's more of a square than the other Zendo was. And a square is more of a circle. And it gives us more of a feeling of practicing together as one interrelated body. I really like We spent a lot of time creating that Zendo next door. But I'm more and more feeling clear.

[01:08]

I try not to think about things. I just sort of let things happen in my feelings and see what happens. So I think actually one idea, which I think more and more is a good idea, is we can make that room what's called in a Japanese monastery the shuryo. I think I mentioned it before to you, a study room. And did I say I want to design a prototype desk with Paul and others? Over time, we can build several of them.

[02:16]

But anyway, this Zendo has... when we move to the next room it will even be more of a square and circle. The Zendo and Crestone, I don't know if you've ever noticed, but it's a rectangle But it's a people square. Because 12 people can sit on each of the four sides.

[03:18]

So you have 48 people can sit in the Zendo, 12 on each side, but the building is slightly rectangular, which is to allow for the doors. So it's clear to me this tradition of a more square zendo makes sense because I can feel it in our practicing together. And this configuration we have allows us to feel our practice together in a way that we've gotten used to. And in a couple of weeks or so, we'll have the drama and excitement of changing the sender around. for the Sashin.

[04:30]

But I think all of us can more or less keep our same places. Yeah, so now recently I was thinking about the practice of Mu which as you know means emptiness and no but it can mean yes to and you can say I mean one of the things the practice of Mu does is teach you show you teach you and show you Because every time you have the feeling something's appeared, you say, muh.

[05:36]

Yeah. And... And so you get used to noticing appearance, so you'll have a chance to say moo. Must be an appearance around here somewhere, moo. Yeah, okay. And... But if you take it as yes, yes, there's an appearance.

[06:37]

That's a good practice for acceptance. For just accepting things as they appear. But in the context of the practice of Mu, If you say yes to every appearance, it tends to lead you toward the appearance. Hi, appearance, how are you doing? But if you say no, moo, No. It denies the object. Or it takes away essence and predictability. and points in the direction of mind.

[07:55]

By taking everything away with no, no, no, you're left with the field of mind. So Mu, the practice of Mu, shows you appearance and then takes appearance away. And by taking appearance away, it leaves you with the field of mind. The empty but felt field of mind. The ready for anything empty field of mind. So here I'm trying to in the process of establishing in ourselves this practice period, by creating this temporary now Zendo, and then by exploring how to move in it, how to serve, how to do services and so forth.

[09:19]

It's led us into and me into speaking about things, exploring things I've never quite explored before, at least in the same way. Michelle Foucault said, writing writes writing. And who says that? Foucault. And Foucault said, writing writes writing. Yeah, it's pretty obvious. And if you write, you can see that writing writes writing. Okay, somehow what I'm trying to say here is that space, I'm trying to say maybe we should, well definitely we want to think of space, conceptualized space, as an activity.

[10:42]

It's a field of activity, a potential activity. There's no potential activity, potential possible without space. Yeah, and so I'm trying to explore how in English and in European paradigms, how to speak about something that doesn't quite fit into the assumptions of our language, as you hear me say all the time. I notice in little things for instance in these details you see a lot but in doing the service the instruction is to say hit the bell with the word Manjushri.

[12:06]

Almost everyone hits the word bell before the word Manjushri. That clearly means you're thinking of the words as entities. So you're adding another entity and it goes in between two entities. But Japanese is conceived of by its speakers, by its native speakers. that the whole continuity of the breath is the speech. The so-called space between the words is not space between the words.

[13:14]

It's a continuation of the speaking. And you see it expressed in obvious ways. For instance, an inhale on a word is different than an exhale on a word. And how long you take to draw a breath in before or after a word. So it's all part of the language. It's not just related, limited to the words. So the breath speech, the continuity of breath speech becomes a vehicle for communication or feeling. And you're expressing the feeling in the words but also in the spaces between it and in simultaneous levels.

[14:30]

Like how you're body is held or how your chest is full of air or a little bit soft and open and so forth. So you seldom hit the bell between a word, it's usually on a word or with a word. I'm not making an absolute rule here. Sometimes it's between and sometimes it's not. So I'm just trying to explore this concept of continuity. Because we are experiencing it in the practice period.

[15:47]

And because we are also talking about the Hokkyo Zammai. And Dongshan ends with, as we have spoken, when you achieve continuity. This is called host within host. And so here it's good if we know a little bit about Zen terminology, host and guest. Und hier ist es gut, wenn wir uns ein bisschen in der Zen Begrifflichkeit auskennen, nämlich was Gastgeber und Gast bedeutet. We could say that this continuity of Dungschan's... Wir könnten sagen, dass Dungschan's Kontinuität... If we want to sound kind of Zen-y... Wenn wir Zen-ig klingen wollen... We could quote Dungschan... Könnten wir Dungschan zitieren... And say, continuity is when wooden men sing... A stone maiden's dance.

[16:48]

And arrow points meet mid-air. So that's what he says. So what kind of continuity is this? So I'm trying to explore various ways. There's the fact, I think, for most of us, that in practice period with this kind of dumb routine we do all the time, that it actually changes our feeling for time. We can understand Dogen saying that the time of practice period is eons.

[17:50]

Only when you examine it is it 90 days. It's another... Yeah, at least somewhat different kind of time. As I say, there's a Nenju ceremony every two days. And they're about a month apart. Okay, so what is this continuity? That we're finding together. I think Dogen says somewhere this can only be understood by a Buddha and a Buddha. Some things can only be understood with and through and along with others. So we're all helping each other explore continuity Okay, so the world extends from us.

[19:07]

Surrounds us, extends from us, extends through us. and is a kind of continuity conceptually it's a kind of continuity I mean if you examine your thinking carefully you'd see that I think that the world is always present. And I think if you looked at your dreams carefully, your dreams are always world dreams.

[20:13]

You're in a world. And this world dream or implicit world is also in our ordinary thinking. It's there in its denial or it's there in its actions. So one thing we've seen doing this, Xander, was the space is an activity. So we could say that conceptually the world is a space. In that sense, a house is a space. And in German, in Deutsch, a room is a room.

[21:14]

A room is a space, right? Yes. Well, we also have a different word, though. Yeah, well, don't confuse me. Okay, sorry. What you say is good. I mean, I'm pretty primitive, so, you know. I mean, a chair is a space for sitting. Would some of you wish we had one right now? No. Okay, and again, so space is a, the world is conceptually a space.

[22:27]

And as an experienceable conception or experiential conception, I would say the world is a three-fold experienceable space. Experiential space. So let's say there's the self-world. Yeah, the personal world. a world. Yeah, and then there's the shared world. Uh-huh. Yeah. And then, let's say, there's the non-subjective world. These three. For now, three. Yeah. And I think as we can feel the bump between the two truths between the conventional relative world and the fundamental world we can feel the bump between them how they rub together

[23:47]

I think we can feel the bump or rub between the self world, the shared world, and the non-subjective world. Well, I mean, for example, I have to, well, I will, I guess I have to, I will anyway, go to Freiburg tomorrow. Because I have a dental appointment to see if I should have three teeth replaced by two, what do you call them, implants.

[25:07]

I'm trying to put it off. So every year I go, can we put it off another year? And so it's getting, I mean, I might lose them in an apple any day, but I mean, right now it's okay. Anyway, this is the only time Professor Dr. Strub could give me at the uni clinic. So at least before I go back to the States in January. So I'll also have an electrocardiogram maybe in the morning. I guess I'm all right.

[26:11]

Time to get out, I guess. Oh dear. I hope that's a good old man. But good Dr. Neal recommended because of my arrhythmia, I should do it. So I can do them both at nearly the same time, so I thought I'll try to do both tomorrow. I feel like an old Model D Richard and Model T Ford. What? So one of the first autos that was mass produced was called the Model T Ford.

[27:19]

They still existed when I was little. Oh dear. Anyway, I called myself a Model D Richard that we're trying to keep on the road. At least on the path. So these doctor's appointments, we could say, are my self-world. Some guy walking around, maybe the plumber or something, he's been at the house and now he's walked here. Okay. Okay. I thought he might be looking for you. The continuity of the world is catching you. Sorry. Yeah, it's all right.

[28:22]

Yeah, there he is, right there. Hey, now he's completely, what am I? I'm interrupting something serious. Yeah. So the doctor's appointments, we could say, are my self-world. And if I had a job in Freiburg, that would be my self-world. But even though this kind of appointment is sort of permitted in practice period, If there's not an alternative. Still, I'm a little worried you won't like it that I'm leaving. So we could say that's my shared world. And this shared world and the self world are different, but they're both, we could call, subjective worlds.

[29:45]

And then there's the non-subjective world. And I would say that, we could say that people walking around Freiburg are part of my non-subjective world. I may share a worldview with them, but I may not. And in a big, really big city like New York, all the people walking around are just like part of the energy of the place. So generally, these three worlds that I'm presenting are realities for us.

[30:55]

Reference points. And generally, if you listen to someone's conversation, the first category they're talking about usually is self-world. And then sometimes they're talking about the shared world, the view they have with the people they work with and live with and practice with and so forth. and often those get entangled, mixed up and you can't distinguish between what you really feel and what you feel because others feel it And Zazen practice helps you sort that out. And we ought to sort that out. And be aware when we're speaking from our self-world or our shared world, what other people think too, And if possible, you want to begin to find yourself located in the non-subjective world.

[32:13]

Find your viewing point in the non-subjective world. Your viewing point. Yeah, that's a good word for it. Blickwinkel? Yeah, that's good. Blickwinkel? I like that. Sounds like somebody in a fairy tale. So sometimes it's good to reverse your usual hierarchy or order of noticing. Manchmal ist es gut, deine gewöhnliche Hierarchie oder Reihenfolge des Bemerkens umzudrehen.

[33:32]

Notice from the non-subjective world and then notice, oh, from the self world or the shared world, I feel this or that. The first two subjective worlds are karmic worlds, and the non-subjective world is a dharmic world. You know, I'm quite interested in that. history of science for some reason or other. And I was recently reminded how everyone thought that the planets had to go around the sun in circles because circles are the way God did things. And when Kepler did measurements which showed that they were ellipses, he couldn't believe his own measurements because it's just not, it couldn't be that way.

[34:39]

And of course he went out in the night with a candle, but the candle was blown out by the wind. And he went out at night with a candle, and the candle was blown out of the wind again and again. And then he lit a hot coal to be able to read his measurements. And he just couldn't believe it. He thought that he probably just couldn't read it correctly. And it took a long time before... People accepted that the measurements were what was true, not the idea. Yeah. Okay. So writing writes writing. Typing types typing. You start typing and the typing itself makes you do things.

[36:17]

And Paulina wrote me about hammering. And hammering requires nails. It's an activity of hammering and nails go together. You can't separate the usefulness of an object from its uses. And in its uses, there's intelligence. In writing, there's an intelligence that comes out that you can't think your way to, but writing leads you to. Or my speaking now leads me somewhere where I didn't have any idea I'd talk about. So what I'm trying to jump to here is to say maybe we can try on thinking about space as if it were a kind of material.

[37:18]

A usefulness, a utility that teaches us things. Did you say material? Yes, material. Like mother. No, like mater. I mean like material. Yeah, like material. Also materiel. Okay, and now the next sentence, please. Yes, ma'am? Let's see, where is it? You know, good ways to make people lose their next sentence, don't you? I said, I'm here somewhere. um to see space as an activity or a material and when you utilize space it begins to teach you something there's a handiness to space Es gibt eine Anfassbarkeit Handlichkeit Handhabbarkeit die im Raum liegt.

[38:56]

And also to the sense of the world as space. Und das gibt es auch in dem Gefühl der Welt als Raum. Continuity that arises in our relationship to the world. Eine Kontinuität die in unserer Beziehung zur Welt aufsteigt. We call forth appearance through Mu and we call forth the empty field of mind through Mu And this is an activity like writing writes writing. The calling forth, the actual doing of it, calling forth the field of mind, isn't really about a realization or some kind of understanding or something.

[40:05]

It's about the intelligence built in, in a sense, to the calling forth. The world is infinite. It infinitely unfolds. And at each moment you don't know what those unfoldings can be. And yet the unfolding has its own intelligence which opens the world up to you. And that unfolding is a kind of, we can call, continuity. And we're involved in it right now.

[41:11]

We do one thing, we put in the lights, and we do this and that, and it keeps unfolding into what we're doing here in the practice. So let me just end with, in English we can say objects of attention. Or in English we can say attentional objects. Okay, now in English the difference would be an object of attention is an object with attention added. Im Englischen wäre der Unterschied, dass ein Objekt der Aufmerksamkeit ist ein Objekt, auf das die Aufmerksamkeit hinzugefügt wird.

[42:24]

An attentional object is an object made from attention. Okay, that's the same, actually. Okay, good. Arrow points are meeting mid-air. Ein Aufmerksamkeitsobjekt ist ein Aufmerksamkeitsobjekt. Also, ein Objekt... One of the common sayings in Zen, Secure, she used to say it, Nagarjuna, things don't exist from their own side. this blooming stick kind of winter branches with the psychedelic mushroom soma at the top is a Yeah.

[43:33]

Doesn't exist from its own side. Existiert nicht. Doesn't exist from this side. It exists from this side. Yeah. Hilfe. It doesn't exist from its side. I understand, but the thing is we don't have its own side in German. I can't make it that special. Aus sich selbst heraus ist okay? Okay. In German, the equivalent is, it doesn't exist out of itself. It doesn't exist out of itself. No, it exists out of this self. And so out of this self, if the world exists from this side, then the world is a spatial activity that's like a material or a tool that you take care with.

[44:38]

and you take care with this continuity and through this continuity by knowing the world from within the breath yeah and then there's continuity The kind of continuity Dongshan wanted to show us. A thousand years ago. Now we're getting the point. Thank you very much.

[45:28]

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