Well, I'm speaking about practice. I find I'm speaking about practice from the point of view of newcomers. Now, I'm assuming some of you are more fully newcomers than you may be, new to practice than you may be. But that creates a rather interesting reference point for all of us, maybe including experienced practitioners. How is this practice relevant to anybody? I mean, Buddhism is not a proselytizing religion.

[01:02]

Missionary. Yeah, or teaching. And you've seen from the sketchy history I gave you yesterday that actually the reaction to war and calamity has a lot to do with the history of Buddhism entering the West. And I don't want to present practice as something interesting or something you should do. And Buddhism does not I mean, on the whole, think of itself as the truth. It's one way of being in the world that for the practitioners feels extremely true.

[02:24]

But there may be other ways that feel true. Yeah, and then if you do practice a way, in some ways you have to be true to the way in order to explore it. I thought this was a wonderful stormy night we had. It makes us, now it's getting nice outside, but it makes us all kind of cozy. The roof doesn't leak.

[03:26]

Usually it doesn't leak, right? Not until now. That's our work leader. He knows. So I want to keep emphasizing this phrase, human space. So we have this feeling together this morning which is a particular human space. Okay. Now, although I want to take the position of a newcomer to practice, at the same time I don't want to avoid the complexity of practice, which may, I mean, complexity really that mostly arises because practice is a different world view.

[04:47]

Practice assumes a different view of the world. And I think from the very beginning introducing this different world view into our mental and physical activity, it's probably the most effective and maybe exciting way to begin. Okay. So I said, if we're going to talk about Zen practice, we ought to define it and define it in some useful way.

[05:52]

By useful I mean that you can hold in mind as a category of existence So the three categories I want to reduce, but not simplify, Zen Buddhism 2, are meditation, mindfulness, and wisdom. Okay, now by wisdom I mean compassion too. So compassion and wisdom are... I mean compassion is inseparable from wisdom.

[06:52]

And I'm using wisdom to mean how we... the teachings... but also how we insert the teachings into our mental and physical activity. Okay. Now, some of you may emphasize mindfulness more and some of you may emphasize meditation more. If you want the... Let me just put it this way. If you want the flow of non-dreaming deep sleep into your daily life, then you have to do meditation fairly regularly. At least 20 to... 30 or 40 minutes a day is best.

[08:02]

It doesn't have to be so long. But if you stop for a few weeks, usually you find out this flow of, I'm calling non-dreaming deep sleep, sinks out of sight in your daily life. Alan Watts, who was... Some of you know who Alan Watts is. He was a wonderful, wonderful... He was a great person. I knew him well and did his funeral. How well do you know somebody to do their funeral? Alan Watts said each person is an aperture, like where a camera opens the lens, the opening. Each person is an aperture through which the energy of the universe flows.

[09:22]

Through which the energy of the universe knows and becomes aware of itself. And through which the universe knows itself as well. person, or an animal, or a flower, or a stone. Yeah. Now, this phrase has It's power because it's in contrast to our usual world view. It's this statement. And one of the things that's interesting about language is that we can think outside the framework of language, with language. And one of the things that is interesting about the language is that we can speak outside the framework of the language.

[10:39]

That we can think with the language outside the framework of the language. That we can think with the language outside the framework of the language. No, I'm speaking about language because partly some of you mentioned yesterday you liked what I said about language, you liked hearing about language. But I'm also thinking about the debate you'll have with yourself in the future as you decide to practice and decide why it's crazy. So, we start with limits. I think Foucault says this, we start with limits, not with liberty. So if we start with limits, we can think about liberty, but it's still somehow in the framework of limits.

[11:56]

Now I'm trying to speak about can we be outside our culture. I mean, somehow we are creatures of our culture, but we also created the culture. So can we stand outside of culture because we're the creators of culture? It's too late now. Because we start with limits and even if we start with limits we end up outside of limits but limited by the limits from which we started. No, but I can be inside Johanneshof. And I can be outside Johanneshof. Outside of Johanneshof is still defined by Johanneshof.

[12:59]

Being outside of Johanneshof is not the same as being outside the forest. They're different outsides. Yeah. Now perhaps in our own experience and the idea in Indian philosophy prior to Buddhism was that non-dreaming deep sleep is an outside of sleeping, outside of dreaming and an outside of consciousness. Just because an outside is framed by an inside, it doesn't mean there isn't a difference between outside and inside. So what Buddhism means by original mind or primordial mind or something like that is something close to letting non-dreaming deep sleep flow through the aperture of yourself.

[14:13]

Let this flow through the aperture of oneself. Into your activity. Okay. Oh dear, I'm afraid I'm going to get too dense here. So we practice meditation. And the basic, I think, the definitive experience of meditation is not just the calmness, or the mental and physical stillness one can discover, or even the ease one can find, but the transformative difference

[15:38]

is that we notice that a different mind arises in meditation than in our ordinary thinking. And what's a kind of confirming... difference that we can notice. That the mind of Zazen often makes different decisions than the mind of consciousness. And they're often decisions that we trust more than the mind of consciousness. But I don't think you can trust them absolutely, because intuition, that feeling of truth that comes with an intuition, can sometimes be wrong. So we have some interplay between this mind of zazen and the mind of consciousness.

[16:59]

Oh! Okay, so we're practicing meditation sometimes. And we try to bring attention to what we're doing. And we find that attention keeps going to our thinking. It's not just that we think the world, but that we establish the continuity of self in thoughts. We need to establish continuity in the world.

[18:01]

Now, I think this is one of the first thing the beginner needs to confront. Now, when a teacher asks you to bring attention to your breath, Buddhism in general recommend, And mindfulness practice, daily mindfulness practice in your activity, is first of all rooted in your breath. Now, that is a challenge to our world view. It's a confrontation with how you establish continuity. As I've repeatedly said, the difficulty in bringing attention to the breath is not that your thoughts are so interesting.

[19:27]

For most of us, any thought is better than none. And certainly more interesting than our boring breath. So, Where do we get this idea that continuity is carried in thinking? It's a long tradition, a humanistic tradition, that we're individuals. where the perdurant perdurant means it lasts it has duration a perdurant self rooted in consciousness which makes responsible decisions and so forth okay but the but if I emphasize human space

[20:50]

Now, here you can see... I'm trying to speak about something that I haven't spoken about before in this way. And I'm blaming you because you set me on this course. So I'm trying to sort out how to speak about it. But the sorting out, maybe the process of sorting out is helpful. Because each of us has to sort this stuff out in our own categories. Weil jeder von uns dieses ganze Zeug in seinen eigenen Kategorien herausfinden und aussortieren muss. Okay. Now, in the usual way we think of the person. Auf gewöhnliche Weise denken wir über die Person.

[22:02]

The person upstairs just now, I was upstairs until a little while ago. So zum Beispiel ist die Person, die oben ist. Ich war zum Beispiel vor kurzem oben. Is the same person that's sitting here. And that's, of course, partly true. But the way I think about myself in language, the content, the assumed, the content or the assumptions of language Is it the world is characterized by separation? And within that separation of objects and things, there's a continuous self. Our language assumes that.

[23:03]

Excuse me, you said continuous, no? Things are separate. The content of language implies that everything is separate. And simultaneously, the content... The content of the language implies that there's a perdurant self. Like in English you have to say, it rains. I mean, you don't say rain rains, you say it rains, as if there's someone doing the raining. So our language assumes a continuous self and that things are separated. And we identify that separation through language. Okay, but let's say that I keep referring to human space.

[24:13]

Okay, so upstairs what I felt, I was in some particular kind of human space. Informed by the room I was in. by what I was doing and so forth. Now, when I come down here, it's the same person. I mean, sort of the same person. But because I emphasize, through practice and so forth, the arising of a particular human space, I feel a continuity in the human space. I feel myself identified through this human space now.

[25:22]

So I feel a continuity which flows through the situations I'm in and not through some kind of identity I have separate from things. That is a real difference in emphasis. And if you discover the feel of that difference and release yourself into that difference, You'll find yourself in a somewhat different or significantly different world. For the... The mind generated by consciousness and language assumes separation and a continuous self.

[26:41]

And the mind generated by meditation and mindfulness rooted in the breath generates a mind which assumes connectedness and a discontinuous self. assumes a circumference, circumferential, there's no such word, I just made it up, circumferential self. Okay. Because, I mean, I like the pun with inferential, because inferential is to assume something, I infer it.

[27:49]

So in this sense, the emphasis is on a circumferential, circumferential self. In which you're sensitive to the human space that arises at each moment. You know, a beach stone is human space. And I go to... Often when I go to somebody's house, on their desk are beach stones. They usually have white lines through them or circles on them or something. I just got two or three from the path the other day. So for that person somehow the beach stone calls up various things for them and is part of their human space.

[28:54]

So I'm not saying that stones are intelligent or conscious, as some people like to talk about everything as conscious, but it is part of human space. Okay. How do you change the reference point then from... Well, let me say it another way. Usually what our language consciousness assumes is... Subject, subject... I don't know how to untangle the words right now.

[30:24]

Okay, so let's go back to what happens if you bring attention to the breath. First, you generally practice this in sadhana. And this is, I'm repeating something, I don't like to repeat myself, but this is so basic, I think it's one of the starting points. It's an absolute beginning starting point and a major shift. It's not just a small, it's a beginning point, but it's not just a small point. In other words, if you are sitting and you try to count your breaths, and you get to about three, and then you start thinking about things.

[31:26]

And your mind goes to thoughts. Yeah, because primarily you... you establish the continuity of self, which you have to do. To function in the world, we have to have an experience of continuity. And if you interrupt that continuity by, I don't know what, trauma or something, people feel they're crazy. So the tremendous energy, fear of craziness, all kinds of energy goes into establishing the continuity of self. Self, which we experience, but self is a creature of consciousness. Now, some of you may think self is more basic than consciousness and the body, blah, blah, blah.

[32:51]

But just let's for now accept that self is a creature of consciousness. Okay. So if you bring attention to the breath, it goes back to thinking. It's easy to do occasionally, it's easy to do for a few minutes. Virtually impossible to do continuously. Okay. But it's possible. It's very possible. You already have continuity. You already maintain continuity of posture. Most of you know right now what your posture is.

[34:07]

Even if you're not paying attention, you know what your posture is. And some of us, most of us even, know what our posture is while we're sleeping. So we already have developed the ability to maintain attention on our posture. So it's possible. Now let's see if we can maintain attention on our breath as well as our posture. But when you get the ability to do it, and it arises through the intention to do it, if you have the intention to do it and try it when the intention appears, Eventually it will happen.

[35:22]

You can't force it, but if you hold the intention over some period of months or years, it will happen. But since it's such a big yogic shift, and the main yogic shift, it's almost the definition of a yogi, it's worth being patient for. It doesn't mean you're going to be less yourself, but in addition you'll be a yogi or something like that. Okay, okay. So eventually, like a rubber band released, suddenly your sense of continuity snaps away from thinking and resides in the breath.

[36:24]

If we start a Dharma Sangha rock group, I want to call it the Gummi Band. Okay. And once it snaps away from establishing continuity in thinking, continuity is immediately established in the breath and the body, reinforced by your already sense of posture, and with a circumferential continuity. Now, by my using this phrase over and over again of human space, I'm emphasizing a circumferential continuity rather than a continuity residing within thinking within consciousness.

[37:58]

It changes your psychology and opens you to the world in a different way. Virtually all of our psychological problems work through the dynamic, the point of the conscious, the continuity of self. So ziemlich all unsere psychologischen Probleme funktionieren durch die Dynamik und den Punkt des bewussten Selbst. But if our continuity from moment to moment is established through breath, body and phenomena, our psychological habits and all kinds of stuff, doesn't have the usual hold it has on us. They don't have the usual way to take hold of us.

[39:21]

It doesn't mean we're suddenly a Buddha. With no problems. I'm not going to say that. But you're on the path. Now, one more. I think we should take a break. But one more point. Another reason it's hard to count to ten during Zazen To count your breaths to ten. It's because Zazen mind doesn't know how to count.

[40:24]

Consciousness has been taught to count. You can all count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. That's one of the basic things you teach kids to create consciousness. Spatial relationships, counting, the alphabet, and so forth. But Zazen mind is a different kind of mind. Let's call it awareness. Or maybe surface to non-dreaming deep sleep. He doesn't even know how to dream. How can you expect it to count? But you can teach it to count. And you are beginning to give structure to another kind of mind. At the same time as you're transforming the continuity of self.

[41:38]

Okay. Please help me clarify all this after the break. The main problem was what I said earlier. Part of it is I haven't spent enough time with it to make it clear, as clear as I'd like. But the main problem is that it's at different levels of practice. So then the question is, can we find a way to bring the levels together in one practice action? That anyone can do, monk or layman. But first, please help me. by saying something.

[42:56]

Or help yourself, I don't care. If you don't want to help me, help her. Since we're a buffet, just help yourself. Gertz, why don't you say what you just said? I felt reminded of the term human space in a statement by Ludwig Wittgenstein. He said, if a lion could speak our language, we would still not understand it, because it lives a completely different life, because it lives in a different space. And I think the same principle applies here too. I think we can only understand Roshi if we practice it.

[44:02]

And that's what I'm doing here, I think. Did he tell me a little bit about it? He told me a little bit about it. Okay, so he felt reminded of the phrase by Ludwig Wittgenstein when he talked about human space. The lion could speak our language, etc. And the same is true for you, that we have to live your practice in order to understand these things. That's partly true. I'm afraid that's partly true. I'm sorry. Maybe we should change Johanneshof into the Pension Löwe. And Otmar would have to wear a lion's head. And Otmar would have to wear a lion's head. And Otmar would have to wear a lion's head. Okay, someone else. When we speak about breath practice, I always feel reminded of a story that I've experienced with a good friend.

[45:24]

And his wife is a theologian. Theologist. And he's very interested in Buddhist practice. And also in my life, which has changed throughout the years that we've known each other. One time when I sat in a cafe in Berlin and mentioned that the main thing in our practice is breath practice, then he was quite confused or irritated even and said, well, this is esoteric. Really?

[46:34]

He's breathing all the time and he thinks it's this way? Oh, am I esoteric? So breath practice is not self-evident and that's why I think we first of all have to find a posture for that. Or a relationship also with it. It's true. The obvious is so often hidden. Hidden in the obvious. Yes, Fritz? This means that this is in the true sense esoteric, which means from the inside view, in the true sense esoteric.

[47:37]

Not exoteric. Not exoteric. In this case it's right to look at it this way. It is esoteric in the truest sense of the word. The view that we take here on the breath is esoteric in the most original sense. And I would like to add that we have absolute trust in the universe by taking it. The next breath is there. No one has breathed on stock yet. And he added that, that we have to rely upon that we are relying upon the next breath being there and that nobody ever was breathing with supplies. In storage. In storage. Which was an endless supply of breath saved up for the future. I'm about to die, honey.

[48:38]

Go to the bank and get my breath supply. Ich bin kurz davor zu sterben, Schatz. Gehst du bitte zur Bank und holst meinen Atemvorrat? Ich habe eine Frage. Ich habe nämlich ganz verstanden, ich habe es mal auf Englisch aufgeschrieben, discontinuity of self. I have not understood so far the discontinuity of self. I'm not sure what that means. It sounded to me more like a psychotherapeutic approach of wanting to interrupt your problems. I didn't think that was meant. I had to interrupt my problems. Well, first of all, we have the general view of a permanent self.

[49:52]

And a permanent real world somehow. Now, nobody really practically fully believes that, but it's the kind of general picture we have. But that general picture holds the process of self into a kind of implicit permanence. Although we notice that we're a different person at work than we are at home or something like that, we still think it's really the same person, sort of a little different or something like that.

[51:03]

Now practice asks us to emphasize and notice the differences rather than the implicit permanence. So how do we say that? We have to modify the word self somehow because the self without modification implies a kind of permanence. So maybe I should say the pulse of self. Or something like that. But in meditation sometimes you find that the continuity of self is virtually gone. Then we could maybe use two adjectives, the refreshing discontinuity of self.

[52:04]

So basically I'm just trying to take words and put them close to our experience, but they can't actually contain our experience. But these basic questions are really hard to answer and important for us to keep looking at. Yes. For me it is very nice and joyful to meet the breath practice here again in this place. This morning I had the invitation to sing the Sutra.

[53:25]

It is a German text, I don't understand the others, and it is full of words of belief, so to speak, or full of words of confession. And that is strange and irritating for me, or I just say strange, and my question is, does it need to be At the same time, there's something else. When we chanted this morning the sutras, then next to all these Japanese things that we chanted, we had this one German thing, which is filled with beliefs. Faith? Beliefs. No, faith. There's this tenets actually, things that you have to believe, little phrases that you have to believe.

[54:27]

And that is very strange for me. Can you give me an example of one of the things that you have to believe? Help me please. You can explain that. There are some sentences about teachers and about... These sentences about emptiness and... Form is emptiness. It sounds for me like belief for the Roman. Like requesting belief or something. And your question, do you want to answer it? Whether in the practice it needs belief. That's good. If you make your questions any more basic, I quit. Okay.

[55:31]

Wait a minute. I have to respond to you. Don't find it too hard. Yeah, I haven't quit yet. Okay. Yeah, I've never in all the years I've been practicing had anybody have a take on the sutra that it's commandments or belief or imperatives. So I like seeing it that way. Thanks. But perhaps we can say they're imperatives or suggestions and form is emptiness basically takes away the sutra as you're saying it.

[56:39]

Yeah, so you're chanting and yet it's really... Yeah, but if I say that... Okay, go ahead. I rely on my translator. Okay. I don't have to say anything. What can I say? The sutra is, they are statements, that's true, which are the fruit of Buddhism. And there's definitely the sutra suggests that you explore these things. But language is something in a yogic culture that you use to direct attention.

[57:56]

Language is not statements of fact. It can be used to state that Zurich is so far away. It can be used as a statement of fact. Die Sprache kann zwar benutzt werden, um zu sagen, dass Zürich so und so weit weg ist, also es kann benutzt werden, um Tatsachen auszusagen. But the function of language is to direct attention. Aber die Funktion der Sprache besteht darin, die Aufmerksamkeit auszurichten. Not to establish reality or truth. Nicht darin, Wirklichkeit oder Wahrheit herzustellen. When you use language that way, it's a very different thing. Now, if I, for instance, while I'm inhaling and exhaling, I use the word appearance and disappearance. It's not that I appear or disappear.

[59:02]

But if I have the feeling of appearance as I breathe in it will direct attention to the body reappearing in its vitality. And then as I breathe out if I have the feeling of disappearance on breathing out and I can really disappear let go of all mental formations then I have emptiness so I can also breathe form disappearance or emptiness Now that would be a way to join two teachings, two inhaling and exhaling.

[60:14]

Which can be interesting. And then you can take the words away and just breathe. So it's that kind of activity which is suggested by a teaching like form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Or when we say no eyes, no ears, no nose, you're taking it away. Of course we have eyes, ears and nose, but we're taking it away at the same time. What happens when we have the feeling of taking it away? It's not that you have no eyes, as a statement of fact. But rather what happens when you take away the way the senses form the world. sondern eher, was geschieht, wenn du die Art und Weise, wie die Sinne die Weltbilden wegnimmst.

[61:35]

For instance, I sometimes in this kind of... I practice with the word non-existent and unspeakable. Ich praktiziere manchmal mit den Worten nicht existent und unaussprechlich. Okay. The mind, when attention goes to an object... the object immediately calls forth all your experience of that object. And there's an implied sense that the object is somehow real. But in fact, I know that it's not only... not real in any fundamental sense, because it's impermanent, which also means it's changing, and it has no identity separate from other things.

[62:37]

It's interdependent. But language and the habits of mind carry the implication of permanence. So if I contradict that step outside of Johanneshof, by saying non-existence, I cut off a lot of the stream of experience that flows into the object. And then the object appears in a particular vividness just because I carry attention to it through the words non-existent and unspeakable.

[63:46]

No, I'm not suggesting any, but all of you go around saying non-existent, unspeakable, non-existent, unspeakable. It just occurred to me one day a few weeks ago to do that. So for 45 years of practice, I haven't done it. There's no reason you should do it. I just had fun doing it. So it's not a general recommendation. It's just an example of practice. Okay. We had the term of the discontinuous self and the continuous self, which is sustained by thoughts.

[64:52]

And what I'm interested in and what I haven't really understood is through what kind of perception and experience these two selves are made possible or made impossible. Well, if you're a practitioner, you make the perdurant self possible because it's the way you function with the world as it exists and with other people. So it's a way of functioning, not a form of identity. You're not identified with it. But it still is a form of identity in the sense that people know me as Dick Baker or Baker Roshi or something, and so that's a form of identity.

[66:37]

So I... within your identity, my identity is related to you, if you know me, and so that is some kind of existence, some kind of, you know, transient truth. But it's a role, actually, I accept, not an identity. And the discontinuous self, or zero mind, is that right now, At each moment, I feel I'm starting from zero.

[67:41]

I can't completely do that, but that's the kind of position or posture I take in each situation. And even if it's quite incomplete, it's in a dialogue with the other. And that's the basic teaching, what I just presented, of the two truths. Which is mainly the posture or practice of Nagarjuna who taught emptiness. Okay, thank you. Yes. I have an addition to what Manfred said. I have an addition to what Manfred said.

[68:47]

Can we not say that the sutras we are reciting is something like old Buddhism because they have been transmitted for a long time? Yeah. Or ancient Buddhism. Ancient Buddhism. And that ultimately what we do from it, how we question ourselves and how we can also use the breath from moment to moment, that this is something like new and from breath to breath new Buddhism? But in the end, what we make of it and how we can, at each moment... How we can question ourselves, how I experience the world, that this requires a sort of new Buddhism and how we use the posture and how we use breath. as new from moment to moment, that this is the sort of encounter that Buddhism asks us to do?

[70:08]

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Oui. Jawohl. Yes. I'd also say something to you, Manfred. When I recite the sutras in the morning, I feel like I'm taking a kind of medicine. Because I am practicing because I feel like I'm imprisoned by cultural... Swimming in belief systems I don't even feel or... Swimming or drowning? And my sense is that these texts contain a kind of wisdom, but even though I might not understand it, it's a kind of remedy.

[71:15]

Antidote to this unconscious belief system I'm sort of entangled in. And like any kind of medicine, I feel it only works if you take it regularly. Then it's a tonic, not a medicine. It's particularly nice to do with others and then it feels like a kind of wellness day where you're taking your antidotes together. And it's also just sounds.

[72:26]

I like it that we chant in Japanese because I hope for you it's just nonsense syllables. So many people want to know what it means. I don't give a damn what it means. I sort of know, but I don't care. Maybe why I'm happy not to know German. It's such an effort to look for meaning. I just like the sounds. So even when I chant form is emptiness, emptiness is form, it's going in without any kind of intervening meaning. But then it works in you from underneath somehow. Okay, someone else? Yes. I find it very interesting how the chanting changes throughout the course of a session and how something mutual starts to arise.

[73:50]

In the beginning there's an individual And later it becomes like a community and it expresses the atmosphere very well, especially in the group, where the disjointed is somehow there. There are moments when it is very harmonious and powerful and in others it is somehow exhausted or tired. And later on, there's more like a group in the session and in a very precise way, in a way it expresses the atmosphere in the group. Like, for example, there's a kind of tension or a tiredness or something and disharmonious and that is expressed in the chanting. And it's very good to observe that when you're outside and serving and without being in the Zendo you have this feel for and you somehow understand what's going on in the Zendo.

[74:55]

Yeah, sometimes we chant just for the people who are outside. Yeah, it sounds beautiful when you're outside, but inside you're all gone. It's one of the reasons we chant in monotones, because the monotone then becomes much more sensitive to the minds that are chanting. Because there's no rules. You just do it. If you have rules, it begins to... shut out the mind because you follow the rules oh oh i forgot the last part of what you said Good. Yes. You talked about human space and then there was this example of beach stones on the desks of people and somehow I didn't understand what that was about.

[76:41]

Okay. When I'm speaking about human space, I don't mean what... I don't mean the self. I mean everything that constitutes human space, which right now includes this room and includes the pillars. A lion, I don't think, collects beach stones. But, you know, an elephant might. I don't know. So that's what I meant. Okay. Frank, you were going to say something. I also want to mention again what Manfred said because I think that language and the role of language is very important in new Buddhism.

[78:05]

And I can understand that there's some kind of resistance because you feel that. Weil man das spürt, hast du es so gesagt? Ja. Unsere westliche Kultur legt großen Wert auf einen bestimmten Gebrauch von Sprache. And our western culture places a lot of value on using language in a certain way. Und das, was da mit dem Buddhismus kommt, ist wirklich ein radikaler Schnitt in diese Vorstellung, diesen Gebrauch von Sprache. And what comes along with Buddhism is really a radical cut into this kind of using language. And I think it's important to also feel these resistances within oneself in order to also, with the possibilities that Buddhism has, particularly the possibilities of Zen Buddhism with language, to experience that encounter within yourself.

[79:32]

Because it's a very sophisticated text that is presented there. And you can't understand the text in the sense that we are used to understanding through language. That's a scandal for us. And I think one should experience that also in chanting. I still have this image with Suzuki Roshi in my mind. who came to the States in vote. And there embraces the women and the couples that come to practice Buddhism with him. and finds within that the ideal of Mahayana Buddhism.

[80:48]

Somebody said that to me when he steps into the Zendo in the evening and in the mornings and sees all these dark, dark figures in their robes. In darkness. There's something occult about it. And really there's also something odd happening there. Also the handling clothes is different, like handling language is different. Yeah, do you know why bugs can't get into heaven? Because they're insects.

[81:48]

Excuse me. Okay. Yeah, it does look strange, I know, but it's just a bunch of people sitting in black robes. But I think it's not the black robes so much, though there's no rule about it. People do it. I have no rule that you should have a black robe. But just to see a bunch of people sitting doing nothing for a long period, it seems awfully strange to us. Okay. Okay, so let me see if I can say a couple of things before lunch. So we have Frank knowing these two people beside him particularly with a certain intimacy.

[83:04]

Now I'm using what Frank said yesterday as an example. I'm not saying how I use the example was his experience. But it is a fairly common experience for everyone who does Sashin. Yeah, sometimes you can get the feeling on a bus even, sitting next to somebody. But in any case, he had a feeling of knowing these people fairly, rather intimately, without any language. So, generally we attempt to know our world through language. We want to name things and find the meaning. Yeah. Somebody saw some photographs the other day which included this picture of the calligraphy out here.

[84:25]

And he's a very nice, very intelligent guy. And he knows a little Japanese. And he immediately asked, what is the meaning of the kanji? And it's funny, you know, I feel stupid because I have no interest in what it means. It's just black shapes on white cloth for me. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I... I just am lazy. I don't want the mental effort of adding meaning to things. And, you know, I studied Japanese and could read Japanese at one time, and this is one of the most common kanji, but I'm so used to not knowing, I looked at him and I said, geez, I don't know what it means.

[85:36]

Now, I'm not saying I'm a good example. This is not necessarily what Buddhism does to you. But in my case, I have to crank up the meaning machine. Oh, okay. Tao is the way. Tao is the way. Because mostly I don't have any sense of meaning or comparison. It's just appearance. I can add meaning if I have to, but really I'd rather be on vacation. So in a way, Frank didn't know who these people were. He couldn't describe any meaning or language to them particularly.

[87:00]

Probably except when they farted. Then you find some reaction. Okay. So he He knew these people, let's say, in a non-languaged space. And we are developing a sangha that exists primarily in non-languaged space. We feel an intimacy with each other that's not based on knowing much about each other. Except a certain kind of repetition in non-language space. And, I mean, the way sutras, as Frank and Manfred and Ulrike had been speaking, and Otmar.

[88:14]

Is these phrases in the sutra, for instance, really don't have any graspable language meaning unless you want to make a huge effort? ist, dass diese Wendungen oder diese Sätze in den Sutren tatsächlich keine sprachliche Bedeutung haben, es sei denn, du willst wirklich eine große Anstrengung unternehmen, um das zu begreifen. But they've been designed and put there for their mantric meaning. Sondern sie wurden darauf angelegt und wurden dort hineingestellt aufgrund ihrer mantrischen Bedeutung. A mantric meaning is a meaning which is discovered through repetition in a variety of circumstances. And the variety of circumstances interact with the repetition. And some things start to stick. And a meaning builds up.

[89:28]

That's a typical yogic way of entering into the world. Okay. Now, a phrase I used to give very often and don't emphasize much in recent years Although it comes up occasionally. Which is, just now is enough. Okay. Now, in a certain sense, we know that that's a fact. Because we don't have anything but now. So it may not be enough, but really it has to be enough because you have no alternative. So just now is enough is a statement of fact. But it's not really a fact for most of us. Because now is usually not enough. Maybe you're hungry for lunch right now. Yeah. Okay, but you're not going to get lunch for a little while.

[90:51]

So you better be satisfied and nourished by this situation and not by the anticipation of lunch. Or perhaps by the anticipation, but not by the absence of it. Also seid ihr besser einfach genährt von und befriedigt oder zufrieden mit der Situation so wie sie jetzt ist und nicht von der Antizipation des Mittagessens oder vielleicht schon noch durch die Antizipation, aber nicht durch die Abwesenheit vom Mittagessen. And the attitude, just now is enough, makes a difference. Und diese Einstellung von genau jetzt ist genug, das macht einen Unterschied. You're in a bus, you're going for an appointment to get a job, a job interview. And you're stuck in a stow. And you're going to be half an hour late. And you're going to not get the job. This is a perfect time to practice.

[91:55]

Just now is enough. You know that you enjoy the bus. I'm serious. I'm not just joking. It's there, so that's what it is. And if you actually get there 45 minutes later, And you say, I was stuck in a... And you're so relaxed and joyful, you'll get the job. In my story, you get the job. Just in the sense of right now or only now? Okay. Okay. So in English, just means able to be seen by God. Sorry.

[93:06]

It's one of those wonderful words with etymological depth. So the just man, person, The righteous person, the just person, etc. Like justice? The just man is the man who can be held by God, can be in the eye of God. And just also seems to have originally been in... Latin, a mantric phrase meaning... I can't think of exactly the word.

[94:19]

Meaning, well, something like purified. So it was used as a phrase to make yourself sacred. And the word sacred means in etymology is dedicated to a single purpose. The word just seems to be rooted in a mantra to produce a feeling of sacredness. But just has come to mean barely or only. But it's rooted in the idea that you don't need anything else.

[95:26]

This is exactly enough. So the whole phrase is in the word just. You're willing to have your life looked at by God. You're willing to have your life looked at by Buddha. Du bist bereit, dass dein Leben von Gott betrachtet wird. Oder du bist bereit dafür, dass dein Leben von Buddha betrachtet wird. Also es ist wirklich eine Art von Mantra, dass dies genug ist und man braucht die Dinge nicht. Also dieses einfach jetzt oder genau jetzt ist genug. And now, the etymology of now just means what's common. But what's common in the sense of immediacy. And the etymology of enough is to be beside, near or to carry. Now, we don't need to know the etymology.

[96:38]

But actually, for an English speaker, it resonates in the phrase. Because there's some other words, adjust, injustice, etc., that have filaments that draw meaning into the word. All right. So... Most of the time we're involved in past anticipated futures. And we're kind of like thinking about that. We have a kind of career mind, trying to keep redefining ourself in terms of our culture.

[97:40]

And that's the conventional truth. Buddhism says you also ought to know the fundamental truth. And that ought to be parallel to the conventional truth. So just now is enough takes you out of the conventional truth into the more fundamental truth. So as a mantric wisdom phrase that you insert into your activity. You insert it by intending it. And to intend it you have to keep examining it until you, yeah, this is true somehow.

[98:56]

I have confidence in inserting this into my activity. But then you let it do its work by repetition, but not by thinking about it. But you can use it as a moment of stopping. Okay. Now, since we know, at least intellectually, that there's no duration to the present, past, future not, past, future not, then the perdurant present is a duration that we hold.

[100:03]

We're holding it in our senses, and you can study it biologically by how we scan and put things together, etc. So in fact, Our existence is a moment-by-moment existence to the extent that we can find words for it. In which each moment is unique and non-repeatable. But the way consciousness works, we have no access to this. Except in moments of crisis, death, accidents, car accidents and things. So in fact, the present is your experience. Okay. So let's use language to direct our attention out of consciousness. So you can use receive, hold, release.

[101:17]

Now the usual pattern is hold, release. receive, accumulate, don't release. So what you're trying to practice is keep releasing, keep disappearing. It's appearing from emptiness. So appearance, holding, releasing. Now, the word hold, again, the etymology is both the hold in a ship where the storage is put, you know, the The hold of a ship is where you put what you're transporting.

[102:33]

And it also means the hull of the ship, the shape of the ship, outside of the ship. But it also means to carry So in this sense, and I think again, certain words work in the mantric practice because the etymology gives them a depth. So you're Receiving appearance. And we're not thinking of it as real. We're just thinking of it as appearance. There's appearance and you're holding it. And you're releasing it. Or it's appearance, holding, disappearance.

[103:35]

Or in English, receiving, holding, releasing. And you begin to discover that as a basic pulse, not necessarily coincident with breathing, But it can be related to breathing. But it's actually a basic pulse of being alive that's outside of consciousness. Now we can use words formed in consciousness To move our experience out of the container of consciousness. Until we're holding immediacy or holding the present. Through the phrase, just now is enough. And this just now is enough allows you to stop for a minute.

[105:00]

And here we could say instead we could say receive stop release. We could even be transfixed in the present. Transfixed means to be fixed in the present or pierced by the present. And you're then in a stopped world or a timeless world in which you can feel the world with a depth that consciousness doesn't allow. Now, so then, if practice is meditation, mindfulness and wisdom, we can use a wisdom phrase like just now is enough to insert numerous teachings into the present into your activity into the apertures through which the energy of the universe flows

[106:11]

It's really simple. And at the same time, extraordinarily profound, I think. Okay, guys and gals. Oh, dear. Thanks. I would hit the bell, I love the sound of the bell, but it's one o'clock and then you just think it was a lunch bell. Thanks for translating. Oh, okay. I won't say ten minutes, but you did it. You'll be sick for a month.

[107:03]

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