done in Europe, I've ever done with you in Europe. And this is the first sashin we've done as part of a practice period. And I feel that the participants in the practice period in a way feel honored that you decided to join the Sashin. Because we assume that partly it's that you're curious what it's like to be in a Sashin in the practice period. And I guess we'll find out, won't we? And we've been preparing for your coming now for two and a half months. If I knew you were coming, I'd have baked a cake.

[01:26]

We did, in fact. That's a song. You don't have... There's something she's wise enough not to translate. I mean, we didn't even have an altar like this until you arrived. And while we were doing Tangario in... the dojo in Johanneshof. Just sitting, unstructured sitting for several days. We didn't really know, I wasn't even sure where we were going to sit. And we got this room ready, mostly, more or less ready, so that we could start after Tangario. But we, at the beginning of Tangario or about then, we didn't have toilets here.

[02:31]

We had a toilet in the Zendo, which wasn't such a good idea. That was that corner, was it? And we had sort of industrial fluorescent lighting. And... Luckily, Mahakavi and Christian and Neil were able to put in these lights during the first weeks, like right away. So we've been more or less creating the facilities for the practice period as we go along.

[03:49]

And so haben wir mehr oder weniger die Einrichtungen, die Gebäude der Praxisperiode geschaffen, während wir inmitten der Praxisperiode waren. But after Eric Hino took a look around here, he said, geez, you can have simultaneous sashins going on here in several different rooms. I saw myself as a chess master going from room to room, you know, a few statements and go to the next room and make a few statements. Anyway, I'm glad we're in one room. But we also had to think about, because how we use a room, this was a Shriner Eye, how we use a room becomes the room. So I've had to think about not only how we sit and do service and serve food, etc.,

[05:01]

But what is the pedagogy of a practice period? And I can ask you, what is the pedagogy of a sashin? In other words, I have to think about, we have to think about together, what's the basis for the forms and practices of a sashin and a practice bridge? In other words, I have to think about it and we can think about it together. What is the basis for the forms and the practice of a session? I would say that the pedagogy of a, excuse me, in English that's a very funny word, but you use it in Germany, right?

[06:29]

It's also a funny word. It's also a funny word? Oh, yeah. Okay. Sorry. of a sashin is to repeatedly ground you in samadhi. And, yeah, the... The learning at the stage we're at in practice, Zen is a form of learning. A form of learning from things as they are. Eine Art des Lernens von den Dingen so wie sie sind.

[07:34]

Because the main medium of Zen practice is things as they are. Weil das Hauptmedium der Zen-Praxis die Dinge so wie sie sind. Yeah, everyday life. Also das Alltagsleben. So practice period is kind of like everyday life within an unusual schedule. Und die Praxisperiode ist so etwas wie das Alltagsleben in einem ungewöhnlichen Stundenplan, Zeitplan. Okay. So the medium of learning is the same for Sashin participants and practice period participants. Das Medium des Lernens ist für Sashin Teilnehmer und Praxisperioden Teilnehmer dasselbe. So we can think... of Sashin and practice period both as tools for learning from things as they are. So the emphasis in Sashin is to repeatedly ground you in Samadhi.

[08:37]

Und die Betonung im Sashin liegt darauf, dich immer wieder im Samadhi zu erden. Or at least that's the pedagogy. In other words, it's both whether you're in Samadhi or not. It's implied in what we're doing. Zumindest ist das die Pädagogik dabei. In anderen Worten, ob du... But the pedagogy is to give you a chance to discover grounding yourself in samadhi. And then the idea is, if you get a feel for that, you can bring that into your daily life. Okay, so the pedagogy, excuse me for the word again, of a practice period is to ground you in a mutual body with phenomena and others.

[10:14]

And in emptiness. Okay. What's the difference between samadhi and emptiness? Well, there's some difference. Okay. Okay. These are all such, I mean, if you just do this, we don't have to talk about it. But I've found, particularly since we're, as I always say, primarily a lay sangha, we have to talk about these things enough that you can embed them in your The memory that functions in the present immediacy.

[11:35]

The memory that's embedded in the present. Not memory from the past, but how you remember the teachings in the present. Chanting, for instance, together is a skill, part of it is to develop a skill of bringing the teachings into the present mind. Yeah. So I'll try to... So there's a difference between being grounded in samadhi and being grounded in emptiness. Now I have to know the difference because I'm responsible for developing the way we practice together.

[12:59]

But since I want all of you to continue this indefinitely through thousands of generations, I better share anything I think I might know with you. That's a lot of generations. There's only supposedly 90 between me and Buddha. You know, 90 isn't so many. There's 50 people here. That's only 40 more people. So we could play telephones, is that what you call it? The Dharma is... We'll see what you say when we... Marie will say, the Dharma, what?

[14:08]

That's not what you said. But you see, it's not just a game because I've had, what, 20 years or more to whisper in your ear. And now three months or two and a half months or... And she seems to be getting it straight while she cleans toilets. The head monk is the toilet cleaner. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Now where I wanted, I mean I want to start with these lectures, these seven lectures.

[15:10]

Sort of from where we've gotten to during the practice period. Yeah, but I also want to start from where we've gotten to in practice period in a way that includes you who've come here just for Sashin. Okay, so one of the things we've been... discussing, and it's come up as a question recently again, what does it mean, is that Nagarjuna's idea, that statement, and Sukhiroshi used to say it too, things don't exist from their own side. Yeah.

[16:23]

Okay. Now, Suzuki Roshi used to say this now and then. And even after he died, I puzzled over it for now and then. Because does it only mean nothing has an essence? Because the question is, does it only mean that nothing has an essence? There were two great professors at Harvard called Louis Agassiz and Asa Gray. Asa Gray. Yeah, and Louis Agassiz was this totally brilliant person born in Canton, Freiburg, Switzerland.

[17:30]

And the Swiss gang is getting bigger all the time here. We'd better move farther from the border. Anyway, he was the first person to be clear or show that the earth had an ice age. had gone through an ice age. Like Picasso, he could draw with two hands simultaneously and end up with a horse. And he, I mean, Ezra Pound, a poet, uses it as an example because when a student went to practice with him, when a student wanted to be his graduate student in botany and zoology.

[18:36]

This is about Ezra Pound or this is Ezra Pound saying about Louis Agassiz? Ezra Pound uses an example from Louis Agassiz. Okay. And Ezra Pound benutzt dieses Beispiel von Louis Agassiz, dass wenn ein Schüler aufgetaucht ist, der mit ihm, oder ein Student, der mit ihm Botanik studieren wollte... When... A student came and said, I'd like to study zoology with you. Agassi would give him something like a fish and say, find something in this fish that no one has ever noticed before. And Ezra Pound thought that's the kind of intelligence also makes a poet. But Agassi thought everything in the world had a separate creation. Agassiz assumed that everything in the world has its own creation.

[19:50]

So here's a person who emphasized observation and was in many ways did first in zoology and botany. but he was completely opposed to Darwin he thought evolution was an insult to God God wouldn't do things that way But Asa Gray, who was his colleague at Harvard, gathered much of the information from the United States and Japan too, I think, that supported Darwin's theory and helped Darwin. My point in this anecdote, as even extraordinarily observant, brilliant people like Louis Agassiz,

[20:55]

can believe in essences. But in any case, we can understand things don't exist from their own side. simply that this stick sort of exists here but it exists because someone gave it to me and because it was made and so forth so no essence of stick created this Dogen says somebody who thinks that water has an essence separate from its flowing is deluded. And the tree somehow is an essence separate from autumn, is diluted.

[22:26]

So still, okay, so We are all created from all sides. We don't have one side we're created from, some kind of essence. Okay, so that, I think we all understand that. But the question then is, how fully do we understand it? I mean, that it's so obvious that Lewis Agassi didn't see it as obvious, or so obvious that Dogen still keeps mentioning it over and over again.

[23:31]

What's going on here? Is there some procedure that I puzzled over for so many years? I wondered, is there some procedure which follows from this teaching that I'm missing? And that was the case. There's a procedure that I was missing. I don't know what word you use for procedure.

[24:38]

Procedure in English means to go forward fruitfully. It's to go forward so things yield to your understanding. Okay. Now, what is the procedure that I wasn't aware of? What was the... fruit? Okay. I don't know how to go forward without talking about some other things.

[26:00]

And to get us all on the same page, I have to speak about, I think, So we get, particularly the Sashin people, get reminded that we're in a yogic world here. Nagarjuna says space has a characteristic. Nagarjuna sagt, Raum hat eine Eigenschaft. So if space doesn't have a characteristic, there's no space. Wenn Raum keine Eigenschaft hat, dann gibt es keinen Raum. So space is not an entity, but it has some kind of characteristics.

[27:05]

Things can happen in it. Raum ist keine Entität, aber Raum hat irgendwelche Eigenschaften, so dass die Dinge darin geschehen können. So wie all diejenigen von euch, die schon lange mit mir praktizieren, wissen, dass ich immer wieder sage, Raum verbindet und so weiter. So now I want to say something, I don't know what words to use, so what I've used in the practice period was the physicality of space. Or space as a material. Okay. So now, one of the things we discussed, I've discussed over the years and in the practice period, is the idea of, the Japanese idea of Ma, M-A.

[28:06]

Okay. Now, Ma means, the kanji, the character, shows a moon... in space through a gate. So there's the gate and there's the moon in it. So the ingredients, now these are not entities, so they're activities. If it's an activity, somebody wrote the kanji. Wenn es eine Aktivität ist, dann hat jemand dieses Kanji geschrieben. It was an activity. Someone's reading the Kanji. Und wenn es eine Aktivität ist, dann liest jemand das Kanji.

[29:07]

So you're there with the gate and the moon and the space. Und insofern bist du da mit dem Mond und dem Raum und dem Tor. So the ingredients of ma are you, a space, a gate or shutters, and the moon. Now, I think you can live your life without ever hearing one more word about Ma and be quite happy. Ich glaube, du kannst dein Leben verbringen, ohne auch je nur ein weiteres Wort über Ma zu hören und trotzdem ganz glücklich sein. But if I'm going to try to say something real about Buddhism, you're going to have to listen to some ideas about Ma for a little while.

[30:08]

Aber wenn ich etwas über den Buddhismus sagen soll, dann werdet ihr euch schon noch einige... Gedanken über Ma nach einer Weile lang anhören müssen. Because it's one of the entries to a yogic experience. Weil es eines der Zugänge zur yogischen Erfahrung ist. Yeah, okay. So Ma also means, it's used to mean in-betweenness. Und Ma bedeutet auch dazwischen, dazwischenheit. Okay. Dazwischenheit. Now what can you say about in-betweenness? It's always changing. So in-betweenness as a concept is to give you a sense of the materiality or the characteristics of space. So, when I came into this room, I was happy to see we all seemed to fit.

[31:10]

But I was all instantly establishing an in-betweenness. Does this make any sense to you? And as I walked here, I realized I was changing the in-betweenness. And if in some way we have a mutual resonant body, let's just accept that somehow we do have a mutual, for the sake of what I'm saying, let's accept that we do have a mutually resonant body. And one of the most direct ways I'm participating in that is changing in-betweenness. If I lean forward, I've changed the in-betweenness with Katrin and myself. She started to smile and I got close enough.

[32:50]

She didn't look terrified. So there's something one can explore just in your experience. And a shrine in the Shinto shrine is called a Ma point because it's where God can appear. A God, a deity, something outside our usual world. And a Shinto shrine is also called a ma-point because it is a place where a deity appears outside of our usual world. It's like in this space there's also gaps where something else can happen.

[33:54]

And... Many years ago, Christine and I were in Japan together. Mm-hmm. We've for a while fantasized we'd go every year. Yeah, it's been a while. 20 years? 91? 91, I think. Yeah, okay. Anyway, one of the places we were, where I had a little house on the beach, was Amanohashidate. One of the places we were, where I had a little house on the beach, was Amanohashidate. Ace of Grey, no. Amanohashidate. Amanohashidati.

[34:58]

Pretty good. Much better than my German pronunciation. So Amanohashidati means the bridge of the gods. Amanohashidati means the bridge of the gods. And it's just this long kind of peninsula of It's just a few trees wide of pine trees reaching out into the ocean. And the kind of joke is that you, and the postcards show people standing looking at this thing, looking at it backwards between their legs. And most people, at least once or twice, when you're there, you say, what is this all about? No one's looking and you're looking. And it does look like the string of pine trees are in the sky instead of in the ocean.

[36:13]

And the point is that in this world view The extraordinary is right beside the ordinary. Enlightenment is right here, not somewhere else. Where else could it be? In Switzerland, probably. So, this concept that there's that in this immediacy there are other worlds that can be possible. The Buddha and us are one of those things. Now one of the things that we've done in this temporary Zendo I hope we can someday build a

[37:16]

in this next room with raised platforms with the same kind of eating board or ma-board at a higher level. So that it makes serving food easier and so forth. But anyway, this room was big enough to... It's more of a square, so we have a feeling of being in a circle. A square is sort of like a circle. So we have more of an experience of being mutually... together than we do in the other Zendo, I think. It was stretched out.

[38:38]

But anyway, we tried to fit in and have it big enough to put boards for eating at least. And at Crestone, we actually put the server, pushes the cleaning board all the way down before the meal and after the meal. But here we thought doing it just at the beginning of the meal was sufficient. It's done, just sort of clean it, of course. Und natürlich wird es gemacht, um das zu säubern.

[39:49]

But it's also done to indicate that it's a Ma edge. Aber es wird auch gemacht, um darauf hinzuweisen, dass das eine Ma-Kante ist. So we're in this room. Wir sind in diesem Raum. But on the Zafu side of the Ma board is Samadhi. Or that's the idea if you're in zazen. And on the floor side of the ma board is the relative world. So very simply this board represents a physicalized border between the two truths. Okay, so we've got a physicalized space here.

[40:50]

And the teaching is not just in what I'm saying, or what we do even, But the room itself and how we articulate it should also have these two truths in it. So in China and Korea and Japan You never step on this ma board. It's a pretty universal Zen Buddhist custom. As much as possible, you lift yourself up. So weit es möglich ist, hebst du dich darüber hinweg.

[41:58]

Ich werde jetzt so alt, ich krabbel darüber, aber ich tue mein Bestes. Und Ottmar muss immer aus dem Weg weichen, wenn ich darüber krabble. Und auch, wie ihr schon bemerkt habt, gibt es einen Schädel in eurem Orioki. Well, the sign of it is that it's a skull, the main, the first bowl. Yeah, so you learn to, the idea is, every time you, before you pick up the skull bowl, you gassho. And every time you put it back and leave it, you gassho. But between the second and third bowls, there's no custom of gasshoing. Hmm? I did what you did.

[43:19]

You did? Okay. Now you may think this is crazy. It's not a skull and I'm not going to bow before and after this damn bowl. But the sense of it is to create instances like the mob board and the skull in the middle of our orioke. And that we bow when we pass this line of the altar. This is to create the habit in you by repeatedly, a repeated habit in you that you feel there are two spaces here.

[44:27]

Just on the other side of this board is the samadhi space. Gleich auf der anderen Seite dieses Brettes liegt der Samadhi-Raum. And just on this floor side of the board is the relative conditioned space. Und auf der Bodenseite des Brettes ist der relative bedingte Raum. And somehow there's some invisible line here where enlightenment is, too. Und irgendwo hier gibt es auch eine unsichtbare Linie, Everything is the same after enlightenment and everything is different. And that the turning words are understood as wisdom embedded in your activity.

[45:33]

That can shift your worldview. Or that can enter you directly into the content of enlightenment. Now this is the pedagogy that's behind what we're doing. And that is the pedagogy that lies behind what we do. So I give you a pause for the particular. The pause is also on my point. And the pause is the pause. Or the pause is the particular.

[46:36]

So when you pause for the particular, you're entering into this gap in our worlds. Which is also a heads or tails moment. You can decide, whoops, heads it's wisdom, tails it's delusion. So at every pause, the particularity appears, the Dharma appears. And the mind itself is not created from its own side. Und der Geist selbst ist auch nicht aus sich heraus geschaffen.

[47:45]

Dogen says, learn to study the world with the mountain, rivers and earth mind. Dogen sagt, lerne die Welt mit dem Berge-, Flüsse- und Erdgeist zu studieren. Okay, so part of this topic will be during these seven days to see if I can really get across what is the mountain's Rivers and earth mind. Why would Dogen say this? And one of the entries is the pause for appearance. The pause for connection. Or the pause for separation. Because you know very well some spaces make you feel connected, some spaces make you feel separate. And this is all happening from you.

[48:48]

What choice are you going to make? Okay, thanks. Okay.

[49:11]

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