I find I've been speaking about nearly the same thing for a long time. Which in a way is Shushan saying to Dijang, what do we do about the world? What can we do about the world? And this is like Shushan, is that right? Yes, Shushan. When he says to Dijan, what can we do about the world? Really? News and the newspapers and everything really presents the same problem all the time. Die Neuigkeiten und die Zeitungen und so, da geht es eigentlich immer wieder um dieselbe Schwierigkeit.

[01:08]

And Dijon says, what do you call the world? Und Dijon sagt, was nennst du die Welt? So that's, you know, the question I've been fomenting and incubating. Incubating, you know. Yes, I do. Fomenting is to incubate in order to make trouble. To foment a revolution or something like that. Oh, okay. Das ist die Frage, die ich ausgebrütet habe oder die in mir gegärt hat. And then the second thing is Dogen's answer to the question. That the world is the true human body. Now, am I speaking about this because it's really... I think within our Western canon, canon, way of thinking, etc., it's an impossible question, an impossible concept as it exists in Buddhism.

[02:35]

It just doesn't fit into the Western canon. Okay. But also, I'm... So in order to speak about it, I have to talk about... find a basis that we share that allows us to understand it. Yeah, and... But I'm also looking at it in a variety of ways, the question.

[03:53]

Because I find that I need to look at it look at these teachings extremely thoroughly in order to have some hope about speaking about it coherently. because I find that I notice that I have to look at these teachings extremely thoroughly in order to have hope at all that I can speak about them in a meaningful, coherent way. And Dogen says, the true human body What can that mean? And we have to assume he knows what he's talking about.

[05:04]

I mean, Dogen doesn't know what he's talking about. What are we doing here? So maybe then I try to change it. I say, what the true human body comes forth from the samadhi of the way. Then I can use that way of stating it to shift into speaking about the two truths. Because my emphasis is not just to tell you whatever I happen to know about Buddhism. But to find ways that you and I, we together, can actually practice these things.

[06:06]

Seems to have become the shape of my life to try to do this. But since I'm trying to practice them and I love practicing with you, it makes it interesting. Now to change the topic to what seem like more mundane matters. And questions that were passed on to me today was when we're passing the gamachio, should the handles point toward which direction?

[07:08]

When we divide the gamaze, in which direction should we point the spoon? Which way? I mean, because we shouldn't point because that's bad karma. I mean, there's no magic here. And Di Zhang would say, what the hell are you talking about? What do you call the Gamassio? Anyways, just a custom. We can do whatever we want. I mean, if you're putting your gamacho back on the tray, It's kind of good to put it back the same way the others have already been put back.

[08:34]

Looks prettier. They don't bump into each other. And in general, I mean, probably the more common custom is to not have them point toward the server in case the server's got a scratchy sweater on or something. Now, it is the custom to put When you put the gomasio back on the tray, you put them on the right far corner of the tray to start. That right? Oh, for the server.

[09:41]

For the server. You take it with your right hand and you reach across to the far corner. But that's just common sense. Because most people are right-handed. And you start and you create a balanced tray that doesn't tip with a weak server. And the weight is better if it's toward the back. But really it's just a custom. In Japan you do not get instructions. This is just a need.

[10:42]

In Japan, you don't get instructions. I lived in Japan and was at a heiji. Nobody taught me anything. But it's kind of good if you learn quickly. So you just have to learn to observe. You know, I won't complain. Yeah. So I always just like to see what we do. There are some things like there's a custom that that when the servers first come in, they establish the space.

[11:52]

The space exists through our creating it. So the pace of the space, the posture of the servers, the physical way they hold the space, and then how they establish the space of the zendo is important. A no actor knows As soon as he or she appear, even if it was a she, it's a he, appear on stage, they establish the play, their character.

[12:55]

And in Buddhist ceremonies, the most important moment for the person leading the ceremony is when he or she steps into the Buddha hall or Dharma hall. And the conception of a Buddhist ceremony is that it's more complicated than anyone can do. We've simplified them a lot, but it's supposed to be like that. Like, as if you composed music which no instrument could play. And then everyone's trying to play it and you see what happens.

[14:08]

Yeah. Okay, so I think the way we start out is important. Also, ich glaube, die Art, wie wir beginnen, ist wichtig. Whether we take shortcuts later, you know, I've heard about that question. I don't care. It's interesting. Ob wir später Abkürzungen nehmen oder nicht, das ist mir egal. Es ist interessant. Now watch. Who has the confidence to take the shortcut? Ich gucke mir dann an, wer hat das Selbstvertrauen, die Abkürzung zu nehmen. Who has the concern to try to do it right? Wer hat die Sorge zu versuchen, das richtig zu machen? So I kind of just watch what happens. Also ich schaue mir einfach an, was passiert. But in general I think once we've established the space, it's okay to go this way if it makes more sense. Aber im Allgemeinen finde ich, dass wenn wir den Raum etabliert haben, dann ist es in Ordnung, wenn es mehr Sinn macht, auch so lange zu gehen.

[15:15]

Oh, by the way, we've made the period before the period of Zazen after lecture ten minutes shorter. Wir haben übrigens die Periode... Before lecture? After lecture. So it's thirty minutes instead of forty minutes. Nach dem Vortrag, die Periode vor dem Abendessen, die haben wir zehn Minuten kürzer gemacht. Das sind jetzt dreißig Minuten. So you have a 10-minute longer break in case I talk too long. Or I have 10 minutes longer to talk. We'll see what happens. And at the hot drink serving, the hot drink is by contrast informal Weil der Hotbring im Vergleich, im Kontrast informell ist.

[16:17]

And done quickly and, yeah. Und das schnell gemacht wird. Then I would suggest that the four servers just come in and each start, two start at those two aisles and two start at these two aisles. So you don't start by bowing to each other, you know that. And then just go down the two aisles and see what happens. Okay. And I like it that so many of us can't sit. I'm exaggerating. We have this group of cripples in the back.

[17:19]

Soon we'll have a special... Soon we'll have a special elevator for you. I'll be there soon myself, you know. But, you know, Sukiroshi really partly left Japan because he didn't like the atmosphere of young male practice. It becomes militaristic. Tsukiroshi left Japan partly because he did not like the atmosphere of the young male practice. It became too military. He hoped, and we discussed this, that the practice should be open to people of all ages and genders. Okay.

[18:28]

So it's good because then we'll find out how to make the pioneering cripples. It's good because then we'll find out how to make the pioneering cripples. You're not really crippled, you know. But you have a special parking permit, you know. Out in front of the Zendo. I need one. Yeah. Okay. So I apologize for quoting Heidegger, but I like to read him.

[19:29]

And I like to read him because he's so thorough in his thinking. And he says something like, language delivers us into the public realm Und er sagt so etwas wie, Sprache liefert uns dem öffentlichen Raum aus. Where our goals and opportunities are already predicated. Schon vorbestimmt sind. Predicated, predicted, predictated. Predictated. Vorbestimmt. Vorbestimmt. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, and I think he's right. But, you know, he didn't know Buddhism and so forth, so he didn't know how, though he was interested to some extent, how Buddhism tries to solve this problem.

[20:35]

He didn't know Buddhism, right? No, he didn't, though he is famous for saying, oh, Zen, that's what I've always been, that's what I've been wanting to talk about or something like that. What I've been trying to say. But I doubt if he knew much about Zen. And the power of practice is absent from his mind. Yeah, and that's something that Asian yogic teachings are giving us. Okay, okay. So if we are delivered, and I like the word delivered because it means both like delivered into the other, like birth, or deliverance, like from religious deliverance.

[21:44]

Also wir sind ausgeliefert, deliver, weil das beides bedeutet einmal, dass man, wie bei der Geburt, sagen wir da, So how do we interrupt this deliverance into a predicated world, a predictable world? Wie unterbrechen wir diese Beförderung in eine vorbestimmte Welt? I mean to even imagine that it's possible to interrupt this deliverance.

[22:50]

It's exciting. Okay. Now the word, which I gave you yesterday, Which Dogen supposedly said is the most important single word in Buddhism, in Zen. Which means unmeasured or immeasurable thought. And it's most famously present in the koan about Yaoshan. How do you think not thinking? And Yaoshan says, non-thinking.

[24:08]

Okay. This puzzles scholars all the time. But it means, and it's a yogic skill, to notice without thinking. That's the best way I can describe it in an experienceable way, a doable way. So you just need to simply develop, as I said earlier in the practice period in Sashin may be the habit of noticing without thinking. And that's one meaning of cutting off myriad streams. And it's the four marks and the five dharmas and so forth. Yeah, okay.

[25:25]

Okay. Now, you may think this noticing without thinking, well, geez, then, you know, yeah, but I, you know, okay, but... I need to think about things and have knowledge and do things better and so forth. But normal, not normal, usual thinking Aber das gewöhnliche Denken, das unterscheidende Denken, is stored in linked concepts.

[26:27]

Das ist in verbundenen Konzepten gespeichert. But the noticing without discriminating is stored in feeling. Okay, and it's called forth from feeling and not called forth from thinking, well, this connection to that connection. Now let me give you a seemingly insignificant example from my own experience. And I'm sure it's similar experiences, that you have similar experiences. Okay. I have four copies of, four translations of the Shuram Gama Sutra. And I have three in Europe.

[27:42]

And I have four major locations for books. And I have quite a few books. And I don't organize them. I just put them here and put them there and put them here. And sometimes I make a little bit of effort to organize them. But mostly they're just disorganized. But very often I can find a book. Because I'm always walking around past the books. I don't notice I'm walking around past the books, but I'm walking around past the books because they're stuck on the walls. So the other day I wanted to compare a passage, a translation passage in the Shurangama Sutras

[28:46]

And I'd found two of the sutras. And I think they were sort of with the bookcases where there's a lot of sutras. And I was quite sure the fourth one was in Crestone. Where was the third one? Well, I had a kind of feeling, visual feeling that it was up there in the middle shelf on the right. Should I think about this and look, or should I just trust that obscure feeling? And I went over there and I looked and there it was. Okay, so how did I know that?

[29:59]

This is a rather insignificant example, I say, but I think it's actually sign-significant. This is, as I said, a rather insignificant example, but the word signal, sign, is significant. Because for me it indicates that all the time I'm walking around my room to do something, open the window or something, I'm actually non-consciously noticing the titles of the books everywhere. Weil das für mich signalisiert, dass ich während ich in meinem Zimmer umher wandere und Fenster öffne oder das und das mache, dass ich unbewusst die ganze Zeit über die Titel, die Namen der Bücher bemerke. If I just trust that feeling, often it's right.

[31:01]

Und wenn ich diesem Gefühl einfach vertraue, dann stimmt das oft. Okay. So, my point is, and I have so many experiences like this, that non-conscious observing and noticing is also creating knowledge or creating stored knowing that's accessible through feeling. And it's a lot like, somewhat like anyway, Jonas is speaking about skateboarding. You're going to leap off your skateboard and have it stay under your feet and turn around and then slide down a railing in a park.

[32:14]

Hmm. He's blushing. This occurs through a kind of stored knowing which isn't exactly conscious. So in fact, we function through this stored knowing, which doesn't arise through thinking about. All the time. Okay. Now the to go back over our surgical instruments.

[33:32]

She doesn't know what I'm going to say. It's hard for me to get there with you. Because the four marks are a kind of surgery. No, I've gone through these four marks with you for 50 years. So it's birth, duration, dissolution, and disappearance. And of course, disappearance means we are doing it. Because it will dissolve on its own, at least most things. Disappearance is added to a kind of science of appearance.

[34:50]

The science is things You're cooking, things appear. Yes. They last for a while and then they dissolve. It stops steaming or, you know. That's a science, yeah, okay. It's a kind of science. Yeah, okay. Fact. Okay. Facticity. Yes. Mountains appear and then they're worn down. Like that. Mountains or whatever. Okay. Now I've suggested we practice the four marks with generating, inhabiting and releasing.

[35:58]

Ich habe vorgeschlagen, dass wir die vier Kennzeichen, dass wir die praktizieren als hervorbringen, bewohnen und loslassen. Okay. Now all this is to get yourself mindfully present at the moment of appearance. Und bei all dem geht es darum, dich achtsam gegenwärtig zu machen in dem Moment des Erscheinens. Now religion or Zen is a belief you don't have to worry about this. If you want to practice this as a realisational teaching and not just depend on luck of the Buddhist gods and police you have to enter into the actuality of appearance. So it means to experientially, not temporally, but experientially slow down appearance.

[37:10]

Now that's more explicitly the teaching of the five dharmas in the Lankabhatara Sutra. Which is appearance. Naming. Discrimination. And then right knowledge. And thusness or suchness. So the first... One is just a fact. Well, the first one is appearance. Which, if you live in a world of entities, appearance isn't a fact. If you live in a world where there's no entities, just activities... Wenn du in einer Welt lebst, in der es keine Entitäten gibt, sondern nur Aktivitäten.

[38:18]

And wisdom teachings are to teach yourself, train yourself to notice everything as an activity. I've said this so often. But I know how long it took me to actually change my habits so I never see entities. When I see this beautiful Buddha, It's 500 years old. Or at least the wood ceased to be a tree 500 years ago. And then it was cut up into pieces and fit together in ways that it doesn't check and crack and so forth. And then I used to see it in a store across from a restaurant in San Francisco in the 60s.

[39:25]

And then it appeared at a conference where I was giving a lecture in the 80s. It was also giving a lecture. Actually, it was a shop in the lobby of the hotel where the lecture was. Yeah, so through a series of things, we purchased it at a huge discount. So it's an activity. And 500 years, I mean, Buddha's only, Dogen's only 800 years ago. This is 500 years old, sitting there. I'm almost 100. I mean, no, I'm 78. I'm a good part of a century. Also, der ist 500 Jahre alt, und Dogen ist ja selbst nur 800 Jahre her, und das ist 500 Jahre alt, und ich bin fast 100.

[40:51]

So, it's Muramachi Jidai, Muramachi period, so it's, you know, just for me, yesterday. Und das ist die Muramachi aus der Muramachi-Periode, and for you it's just yesterday. Das ist für mich so wie gestern. Yeah, I mean, I can feel the activity. Okay, weil ich die Aktivität spüren kann. When I walk on a sidewalk of concrete, I know it's lime, clay, sand, water, gravel. Yeah, it's concrete, but people did it, thought it up, figured it out. Concrete, cement. Yeah. There's a Zen saying, don't forget the sweating horses of the past. Yeah, but concrete, cement, Buddhas, you know, it's the sweating horses of the past.

[41:53]

Okay. So as a yogi, you've learned to Feel appearance without thinking about it. You know as soon as you name it. Unless you start practicing only naming without thinking. The naming leads to discrimination. And that delivers you into the public realm of predictable possibilities. And the Buddhist path should be a path of multiple opportunities.

[43:05]

And it's a narrow form of practice when one of the multiple opportunities is enlightenment. If one of the opportunities is enlightenment. That is a narrow way of practice. If that's the emphasis, that's a narrow. Because enlightenment ought to be something like the realization of all the possibilities. Okay, okay. So the first of the five dharmas is appearance. And then usually there's naming and discrimination and deliverance into the public realm of predictability. And then the world is not the true human body.

[44:08]

So, Buddhisms ask, how do we turn the vastness and underlying inconceivability of this gathering we call the world This gathering we call the world. Inconceivable what? in underlying inconceivability. How do we make it our partner? Yeah, okay. When appearance appears, and you feel how the world and your senses cooperate to generate an appearance, You don't language or name this appearance.

[45:21]

But you inhabit it. You inhabit it with right knowledge. And it becomes, in the terms of the five dharmas, suchness or thusness. So we could call this the cusp. Do you know cusp? No. cusp, the point at which something turns. The cusp of the two truths is when you notice without thinking about, as your default mode of appearance. So I use the word surgical because before naming occurs, you bring in the wisdom of, the right knowledge of, and noticing without thinking about.

[46:41]

And if you stay there, it's a kind of samadhi. And what you almost feel turned inside out. As if your inside was now inseparable from the outside. And this is to live the fundamental truth. And then we can begin to feel that the practice, what comes forth from the practice of the way is the true human body. Which is the entire universe in ten directions, as Dogen says.

[47:43]

Yeah, okay. Thanks. Thank you.

[48:06]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_75.35