I'm always grateful for each of you who appears. But I also kind of take it for granted that you appear. And when I think that I'm a little bit surprised at myself, why do I think that? And I guess it's because I feel that we're in this together somehow. We're doing this together. And we're We're doing this together. What are we doing together? We're exploring and establishing a Buddhist view of the world.

[01:03]

And we reinforce this process when we see each other. Now, I found out that the first title of this seminar was supposed to be, and it was put in the website, is that right? In the flyer that went out and in the program. Oh, it was sort of the intimacy of togetherness or something like that. And I heard that the first title for this seminar, which was also in the brochure and in the program and so on, in German it was, I think, the intimacy or intimate trust of being together. Rainer, you're sitting nearer this time. You're confusing me. Then the title got changed to something like, Always Close. Yeah.

[02:41]

I think it was because I made the remark that it got changed. In any case, we have these concepts to work with in this seminar. Intimacy and otherness. The intimacy we can feel with ourselves And the difference we feel, the otherness we feel in another person, which is different from the intimacy we feel with ourself.

[03:54]

And the way in which the world seems to be other than us and is some kind of even dangerous field sometimes. And that topic has been the exploration of many philosophers, particularly in recent decades. Most probably, famously, Heidegger. So what we who practice, we who know what practice is or are discovering what practice is, What is the territory of intimacy and otherness for us?

[05:09]

I would say that many of us start practicing actually because we experience ourselves as not really being intimate with ourselves, but dealing with a lot of otherness that we've internalized. Does that make sense? And I would say that many of us even start practicing because we have the feeling that we are not really familiar with ourselves, but that we experience a lot of otherness And we think of ourselves and even experience ourselves in terms of the other, so-called otherness of our culture and what others may or might think of us. So that becomes, how does one even notice these things or explore them? And then we have this other, implicitly, two koans, Sheve Roku 20 and 98.

[06:40]

And then we implicitly have these even two koans from the book of Heiteren Gelassenheit, koan 20 and 89, was that right? 98, yes. And in koan 20 we have the phrase, not knowing is nearest. And in koan 20 we have this sentence, not knowing is nearest. And such a phrase, not knowing his nearest, is something like a gift from the gods, at least from the Bodhisattvas. Or it's instruction that you have to use to instruct yourself. And in this koan 20, which I think would be the next Winter Branches koan, which we would look at, but I've decided, I think most of you know, I've decided to not teach much next year and just write.

[08:16]

Which I've been wanting to do since I was 25. But I liked you all too much to do it. Because you are extremely interesting. Attractive. But you can also get used to my being gone. Already, I'm such a weakie, you know. Oh, how petty, Andreas said to me, shall we reserve dates for next year here?

[09:29]

And I said, yes, but maybe I won't teach you, but maybe... I'm such a weakling, it's already starting now, that Andreas says to me, shall we reserve dates again for next year? And then I said, yes, reserve them, but maybe I won't teach them, maybe Lathos would be different. And he said, what if we can't find anybody else? I said, well, then, oh, we won't find anyone else. So Andreas said, you're showing me how to trick you. He didn't say that. Andreas said, you're showing me how to trick you. And there's also in this koan 20 this extraordinary statement, just hold to the moment before thought. And this is from the, you know, it's from 1,500 years ago.

[10:46]

And, um... I mean, and it was only in the 70s that Benjamin Libet in San Francisco noticed that the, I've told you this many times, but anyway, noticed that our body has decided to do things and is processing the doing it before consciousness knows that's going on. This was taken as a revolutionary idea and doubted at first and re-experimented with. And to continue to put this in context.

[12:04]

I discovered at this conference on consciousness I went to in Tucson, Arizona in... When did I go? I guess June, was it? I mean... April? April. End of April. End of April. Also habe ich entdeckt, als ich auf dieser Konferenz zum Thema Bewusstsein in Tucson, Arizona war, das war Ende April, that most of the neurological world, scientists, had assumed this meant something like there was no free will, that our bodies was just deciding things and consciousness was a kind of slave. And one of the announcements at the conference was

[13:04]

we finally recognized that's not what it means. But it hadn't occurred. I guess people couldn't imagine or think the idea. I would say bodily knew the idea, but they couldn't think the idea that there was a knowing knowing experience before consciousness. Because the simple statement in this poem just holds Hold to the moment before thought arises.

[14:25]

Wow! I mean, there's worlds in that little statement. First of all, for us practitioners, how do we hold to the moment before a thought arises? And in a koan, which the determinative phrase is, not knowing is nearest. in dem der Kernsatz, der bestimmende Satz, lautet, Nichtwissen liegt am Nächsten. What is this?

[15:29]

I mean, if you really take this practice seriously, at least this koan seriously as an instruction or a presentation of the world of enlightenment in a Peter Falk Columbo way here on the way to... Yeah. And... So... we have to look at the evidence that's been given to us. The not knowing is nearest. And to hold to a thought. If you can hold to a thought, that's an intention, to hold to a thought.

[16:35]

If you can hold to a thought before... hold to the moment before thought arises. That means there's a kind of knowing that allows you to intentionally hold to The moment, the moment before thought arises. How the heck do you do that? What kind of knowing allows you to hold to the moment before thought, that kind of knowing arises.

[17:46]

And then there's the phrase, just look into that moment and see, not seem. This is very specific instruction. And this has been the... the... And that is the fundamental approach. der zur Erleuchtung führt und der in unserer Lehrlinie seit Jahrtausenden gelehrt wird.

[19:11]

And so when I see you and I take for granted that you're here because we share the field a moment before thought arises. And then just to keep the ball rolling, we had the koan 98. The question is, among the three bodies of the Buddha, which one, what is the question, which one doesn't fall into categories?

[20:13]

Thank you. I need it, you know, I need it. And Dingshan said, I'm always close to this. What is it? What is I'm always close to this the moment before thought arises? Okay, so using these two titles we have for this seminar. I'm exploring with you, I'm trying to explore with you, the teachings that are built into these stories, and the teachings which are built into this statement, close to this as the title of this honoree seminar.

[21:27]

Now, I'm presenting this, speaking about this in the context which I've been mentioning yeah, for the last, I don't know, not too long, weeks, a few months. And it's something we should explore. Which is In Zen, and me as a Zen practitioner and teacher, we're not really teaching you Buddhism.

[22:45]

We're teaching you how to teach yourself Buddhism. Now, this could be, I hope, it will be a topic of some discussion among us. What does it mean to teach? And it means a lot of different things. The implications are... extensive, what it means that I'm trying to teach you to teach yourself Buddhism. It was maybe certainly one of the themes of my talk I gave recently, partly because of Nicole, because she's on the council of the DBU.

[24:03]

Yeah, so she said the DBU would like me to give a talk, and so, you know, okay. I'm an easy mark. And then in this quite good, actually, Dharma Wheel meeting we had recently, senior practitioners, we talked also about this. One of the things this means that we teach ourselves It is felt in the Zen tradition that you make the path your own this way.

[25:13]

It's interesting, you know, I'm noticing in my own practice how long it takes me to notice things. I practiced that way from the beginning of the 60s. I took on teaching myself Buddhism. And actually, if I'm any good at all at teaching you to teach yourself, it's because I learned how to teach myself. But I never thought of saying it this way, that keeps yourself.

[26:24]

It came out of my being tired of hearing the people say, why are there no stages in practice? The others, Theravada and Tibetan Buddhism both have stages. And when Zen is feeling a little defensive and political, they say, oh, that's step letter. Because at some point I realized that people really think there's no stages in Zen practice. Well, I mean, because they're not told stages, they think there's no stages.

[27:46]

Of course. How could there not be stages to that? But, you know, people often need things pointed out. And the In a way, the whole effort and the whole spirit, elan of Zen practice is to not point out so that you discover it for yourself. I mean, if I point out stages, you'll try to make the shoe fit.

[28:58]

But what I'd like to be able to do is to point out practices which make you notice the stages. And when you have developed the sensitivity, the attentional stream that allows you to notice Your practice. The state you notice you're at, maybe this is a kind of stage of practice. What if I really locate myself in this stage and see what happens next? So there are no stages in Zen practice only because we want you to notice the stages and I don't want to have to point them out.

[30:10]

Nur, dass wir wollen, dass ihr diese Stufen bemerkt und dass ich sie nicht explizit machen möchte. So, the moment before thought arises is a stage of practice. Der Moment bevor Gedanken auftauchen ist eine Stufe in der Praxis. But when you notice it, it may take a while. Aber wenn du das bemerkst, dann kann es noch eine ganze Weile dauern. Okay, it's a kind of Peter Falk... And that's a kind of Peter Falk Columbo approach. You already know the result, but you don't know how disheveled Peter Falk is going to get there. You already know the result, but you don't know how disheveled Peter Falk is going to get there. Yeah, you know, somebody mentioned to me, I can't remember who, just the other day, it was a Columbo-type approach, and I thought, how do you know Columbo in Germany?

[31:35]

Then I found that it was translated into 57 languages. And I, you know, I'm not somebody who's most of my life had a television. And it didn't even exist when I was young. Believe that or not. And I never had the time to watch a serial, so I But in actual fact, I've seen several Peter Columbo. No, Columbo episodes are some of the episodes.

[32:36]

Because it was fascinating to watch this guy. Straightening his coat and saying, you know, I'm pretty stupid, but why was that teacup stepped on? And I've never had the time to watch series, but I've actually seen several Columbo episodes in the course of my life. And just because it's always fascinating to see this guy who puts on his clothes, his coat, and then says, I'm pretty stupid, but how did someone step on this tea cup? It's called the reversed plot, I believe. Um. Um. Because you know who committed the crime or the murder or something from the very beginning, but you don't know how Columbo's going to figure it out.

[33:46]

So Columbo is sort of like a practitioner. He knows that the result is enlightenment, but he doesn't know. He says, why should I be drinking tea, you know? Anyway, this is our reverse plot. I can't when I say plot. Of course, a plot also means in English.

[34:46]

I don't know why I'm telling you this. It just pops into my head. A plot also means where you're buried in a cemetery. So that makes me think in East Germany they had Erdmobile. A coffin was called earth furniture. Erdmöbel. Erdmöbel. Ich kann mir nicht helfen, dabei zu assoziieren, dass wenn ich sage Plott, dann bedeutet das englische Wort Plott, bedeutet auch Grabstätte. Und dann denke ich wiederum daran, dass in Ostdeutschland das Wort für Sarg ist Erdmöbel, ein Erdmöbel. And we do know that's the end of our story. I wouldn't ask anybody to join me in my earth furniture. Would you have a cup of tea with me on my earth furniture?

[35:45]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_75.85