I would like to continue to explore the verse from Jane Hirschfield, which I mentioned in the last lecture we had. Jane Deerfield. Deerfield. Jane Deerfield? Yeah. As I become quiet the objects of my life draw near shy the napkin, the spoon, the white teacup, and join with me in their circle of simple, passionate thusness.

[01:12]

As I become quiet This realm of quiet is shy. When there's the activity of the self, the needs and hopes and desires of the self present. This kind of quiet can't come forward. It's shy and intimate. Es ist schüchtern und vertraut.

[02:30]

Es unterliegt nicht unserem Heraufbeschwören oder unserem Befehl. Es geht darum, einen Raum mit einer Art wahllosen Gewahrsein einzutreten. Simply being where we are without a particular desired outcome. Einfach dort zu sein, wo wir sind, ohne irgendein bestimmtes erwünschtes oder erstrebtes Ziel oder Ergebnis. A willingness to settle into where we are regardless of the outcome. And entering where we are through an attention to our breath. To our posture. As best we're able to to not do this with an idea of breath and posture.

[03:52]

But continually discovering breath and posture. As I mentioned, mindfulness is not just attending to breath. It's discovering the mind that arises when we pay attention. So it's this kind of choiceless awareness that can invite the Stillness, what Suzuki Roshi calls bottomless calmness in our life.

[04:54]

And it said that Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, once proclaimed. And there are many things that we know from his teachings. But I think we have to hold them lightly. Because he didn't want his teachings to be written down. And supposedly they were handed on through transmission and oral transmission for several centuries. And it's believed that one red robed monk in Sri Lanka knew all of the Buddha's teachings. And his order wrote them down. And supposedly he was quite proud of the fact that he could remember all of the Buddha's teachings.

[06:35]

So it means the delivery of these teachings also includes someone's great pride in knowing them. So for hearing these teachings for me, It's most important that we can begin to confirm them in our own practice as opposed to believing, oh, Shakyamuni said this, so it's true. And so through our own practice, we can know, even if he didn't say it, that's the kind of thing he would have said. This is a feeling of lineage.

[07:38]

So Shakyamuni Buddha proclaimed to enter the realm of the Buddha is to make the mind clear as space. Clear as space. And to set aside false thinking and grasping. So to enter a realm of the most satisfying kind of aliveness.

[08:41]

To make a mind clear as empty space. The space in between. The space in between us and the objects of our life. Between us and one another. Between us and ourself. A space that quietly invites stillness and this bottomless calmness.

[09:52]

And clear, clear is empty space. It's the feeling of Suzuki Roshi's statement, entering the Zendo, being ready to forget everything. Starting a new life. Meeting each arising, each appearance of Alles was auftaucht, jede Erscheinung aus sich selbst heraus zu treffen.

[10:58]

Und das ist zutiefst verbunden, steht in tiefer Verbindung mit uns und unserer Begegnung mit diesen Gegenständen. This is to live within and through the 10,000 things. So as we discussed, it's not, as Dogen said, about carrying ideas of the self forward. It's allowing the myriad things to come forward and authenticate and cultivate themselves. It's allowing the myriad things to come forward and authenticate and cultivate themselves. verwirklichen und entwickeln.

[12:01]

Das auch im Strom unserer Aktivität uns entwickelt. Es bedeutet, die Serviette, den Löffel, die weiße Teetasse zuzulassen. come forward and to intimately fill our life. It's not about us conveying the activity of the self toward them. A clarity in which everything may be possible. So how do we begin to practice with such a thing?

[13:08]

What does such a thing mean for us? What may it mean for us? It means locating ourselves in a pause. In the space between the units of our experience. Knowing the world through the senses. means we can also know the world that's not graspable or approachable through the senses. This is feeling around, not thinking around. And pausing for the appearance.

[14:28]

Not summoning or commanding. But being open and receptive to what arises. And then making that into what we need. And it takes place in a kind of horizontal succession. Accepting, holding and releasing each of these moments of experience. And it may create a kind of connectedness, the connectedness we spoke of before. But it also functions in a verticality. Each of these units is the only unit we have.

[16:03]

Where our life is taking place. As Baker Oshie says, it's all the ingredients that we have. And all the ingredients we need. It's the determination to find ourselves in the midst of these ingredients. and discover the mind that arises in their midst. Suzuki Roshi once said at Tassajara, Because we're not so busy at the monastery,

[17:08]

We have time to experience things from the bottom of our heart. In a bottomless calmness. in the completeness of entering each unit of experience and entering in the pause in between them the clear and empty space the kind of clear and empty space we may feel when we step over the threshold and into the zendo. And even so, ever slightly, momentarily, Und selbst wenn nur ein ganz wenig und momenthaft, einfach innehalten.

[18:39]

Lasse zu, dass das Gefühl des Sendos hervortritt und in uns eintritt. Wenn wir Kin Hin machen, Not just placing the foot on the floor. But allowing the floor, the feeling of the floor coming up and meeting the foot. Feeling that space in between the foot and the floor. Finding ourselves in that space. Discovering the mind that arises in that space. Pausing for the appearance of things. is also pausing for the pause.

[20:02]

So much of what we do is about connections between things as much as the actual activity of the different parts of the specific parts of the schedule. Bei so vielem von dem, was wir tun, geht es um die Verbindungen zwischen den Dingen. Darum geht es und auch um die Inhalte der tatsächlichen Einheiten auf dem Stundenplan. So in the discussion yesterday, a number of people, and rightly so, mentioned the central importance of Zazen in practice for them this practice period. But when does this zazen begin? When we start to walk to the zendo in the morning? When we put on our robe in our room, clothes in our room.

[21:19]

When we wash our face. When we hear the wake-up bell. And when does it end? When the dough on... hits the bell after a certain prescribed period of so-called time. When Dogen talks about a practice period as being covered with beginning and ending all along. The units of time and the space in between those units covered from beginning and end. Standing at the end of the bowing mat.

[22:30]

And the space between the end of the bowing mat and the altar is time. It's how we enter the space in between that makes it time. It's a bodily sense of time because it's how we shape space. Shape between a here and there. Locating ourselves in a feeling that may be for us clear and empty. Allowing each appearance to come forward, not just in our senses, but in the in-between.

[24:04]

Using the structure to find our way into this territory or cave of emptiness. Finding ourselves which is not separate from each arising. Making it into what we need now. And from here zazen is not some special activity.

[25:23]

Some method for attaining some kind of understanding or calmness or stillness. Or, yeah. But it's a clear and emptying out so we can begin to live our life as it is with each other. Simply as when I become quiet. the objects of my life draw near. Thank you very much.

[26:24]

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