Sitting alone by an open window. Leaves fall. Flowers bloom. Each in its own time. What could possibly compare to this? Was kann sich damit nur messen? This is from Koan 88 of the Blue Cliff Records. Das ist aus Koan 88 aus der Niederschrift. I mentioned it last night during the hot drink statement. Ich habe das gestern nach dem hot drink gesagt. And I heard that no one in the adjoining room could hear me, so I decided to spend the whole day show on it today.

[01:05]

Just for those guys, you guys. But maybe so that the translator doesn't have to holler or stand in the door. Yeah, maybe during the hot drink everyone could come in. Because I actually like to whisper the hot drink statement. Because it's kind of secret what I'm saying. Yeah. And then I added... What, you know, when I said what could possibly compare to this?

[02:10]

When I said a broken incense burner and an old Buddha. Now I'm bringing this up again just as a, you know, for all of us, not just for those in that room, to look at how Zen presents the teachings. One thing I could say maybe in this vein is, although everything isn't explicit, Nothing is hidden.

[03:16]

Although everything isn't explicit, nothing is hidden. We could say this is one of the kind of foundational views of the Zen school. Now, there are several Shui-Dos in Buddhist Zen history. And one Shui-Do, Jit-Chan, who we chant his name in the morning, is the teacher of Tian Dong Ru Jing, who is the teacher of Dogen. But this Shui Do that I'm speaking about is Shui Do...

[04:19]

It always reminds me when I say these words, which I can't really pronounce, as one of the leaders of the black community in San Francisco, which we used to participate with in the old days. She got up and said, ''Well, there's this wonderful Chinese woman I talked to, but I can't remember her name. It sounds like a fork falling on the floor.'' So anyway, this Shui Do is the co-compiler of the of Blue Cliff Records with his disciple, Yuan Wu.

[06:00]

Yeah. And Yuan Wu studied with teachers from the Yanmen School, the Dongshan Soto School, and both branches of the Linji School. and both branches at that time of the Linji school. So he's surely one of the main definers of the Linji school. And the Blue Cliff Records is certainly the major collection for the Linji School, as the Book of Serenity is the major collection for the Soto-Shu School.

[07:12]

But I find Yuan Wu an inexhaustible resource. And so far, everything I've studied of him, quite a bit, is completely part of our lineage, our way of looking at practicing Buddhism, too. Now, yesterday I quoted Heidegger of saying how language and thinking delivers us into the public realm of a predictable future. predictable way of knowing the world.

[08:31]

And we can say that only artists and geniuses are able to not be delivered into the predictable world of your culture. But still, the teaching of our lineage is, Zen in general, Chinese Zen in general, is that companionship, even for artists and geniuses, companionship is needed. In the sense, I'm saying artists and geniuses, meaning people who are able to... locate the world through themselves and their companions and not just through their culture.

[09:51]

So I'm saying this in the context of Yuan Wu saying... Setting yourself down on the... It's interesting, setting instead of sitting. It's sitting you do, setting is put. Setting yourself down on the meditation bench, on the tan... on the platform. It's not so easy in German. Well, so sitting, jumping. Is nothing more than silencing the mind clarifying your thoughts, and investigating thoroughly.

[11:19]

Now, you can only understand that statement if you really think of what else it could have been. Und du kannst diese Aussage nur wirklich verstehen, wenn du darüber nachdenkst, was sie sonst hätte sein können. He's not mentioning koans. Er erwähnt die koans nicht. He's not mentioning turning word, wado, phrases. Er erwähnt die wende-sätze, wado-sätze nicht. He's not mentioning stages. Er erwähnt keine Stufen der Praxis. He just says all zazen Zen practice is nothing but placing yourself on the meditation bench. Silencing the mind. Clarifying thoughts. And investigating thoroughly. He also goes on to speak about active meditation, meaning the same thing in your active situations as in the world.

[12:38]

He says investigate thoroughly the heights and depths without omitting anything. Und er sagt, untersuche die Höhen und Tiefen gründlich, ohne irgendetwas auszusparen. In English, I don't know what word, of course, in German, but in English, investigate means to follow the footsteps of. Im Englischen bedeutet das Wort investigate, den Spuren folgen. Like a detective investigates, you know, Sherlock Holmes or something. So wie ein Detektiv den Spuren von etwas folgt. Ja. And then he says, when he's speaking about active meditation, all things merge harmoniously and smoothly. This is the alchemy of the Dharma door of meditation. and awakening the world in you.

[13:54]

Okay. So if practice, if Zen study leading to realization is nothing more, he says, than silencing the mind, clarifying the thoughts, and investigating thoroughly. What do we need the teaching for? Just sit down and bliss out. Or bliss in, I don't know. Bliss over. Okay. Why do we need this building, this zendo and these beautiful lamps that we put in and stuff like that?

[15:11]

And why do we need a 500-year-old Buddha in a furnace? I mean, he's in where there used to be a wood-burning stove. The chimney is right there, you know. And I always think when we do the Nenju ceremony, you should practice as if your head was on fire. I look up and... I kind of take a quick look to make sure he's not burning. But you know, these two Shui-Dos that I've just mentioned, both lived about a thousand years ago.

[16:14]

Only twice as long as this guy is old. He's 500 years old. Forget about modern, modernity, contemporary, etc., These two schwedos and this guy are our companions. We're engaged right now in this companionship of making sense of a teaching that is so simple and not explicit, but nothing is hidden. Sorry, I think you have to say that again. The teaching in which nothing is explicit. Did you say nothing is explicit? Nothing is... Not all is explicit, but nothing is hidden. Yes, okay.

[17:14]

in dem diese Leere, in der nicht alles explizit ist, aber nichts verborgen ist. And after this poem, Schreder's poem, in the case 88, Schreder's poem, sitting alone by an open window, leaves fall, Flowers bloom, each in its own time. What possibly could compare to this? After this poem, Yuan Wu says, when you reach this realm, as impressed by the poem, you see, but it's not like seeing.

[18:32]

dann siehst du, aber es ist nicht wie sehen. You hear, but it's not like hearing. Du hörst, aber es ist nicht wie hören. You speak, but it's not like speaking. Du sprichst, aber es ist nicht wie sprechen. So, okay, I can say that, and I can quote what it says in case 88, but how do we talk about it if it's seeing, but it's not like seeing? You know, yeah... You have to let yourself into the practice in a way that you begin to feel these explicitnesses which reveal a little bit of what's hidden. We have this statement to clarify your thoughts. Oh dear, we're supposed to be non-thinking and now you're supposed to clarify your thoughts.

[20:04]

What the hell the heck is going on? So what does he mean? Well, first of all, he means mental, really mental formations, not thoughts, but we don't have words for this. Also erstmal meint er mentale Gebilde und nicht Gedanken, aber wir haben für sowas nicht wirklich Worte. And maybe it's a little bit like the new retina screen on the current Macintoshes. Wie heißt es auf Deutsch? Retno? Okay, also vielleicht ist das ein bisschen so wie der neue English teacher. You thought your screen was clear before. It seemed clear. But then you get a retina display and... It's actually clearer.

[21:05]

I mean, this is a lot like practice. I mean, everything looks clear, but after a while, things are extra clear. I didn't say super clear. I know a few words, you know. It's, you know, more precise and it just seems there. So, but how do you know when he says, clarify your thoughts, that's what he's talking about a retina display? Or a display outside your retina. I don't know how you know. I mean, we need the companionship of this room and practicing together. And in case 46 of the Blue Cliff Records And in the case of 46, the description of the Maracanã Falls.

[22:30]

It's about the sound of falling rain drops. Sukiroshi's teacher used to say to him in the rain, don't rush, the rain is everywhere. Sukiroshi always said in the rain, don't hurry, the rain is everywhere. Anyway, in this koan of the sound of raindrops, Yuan Wu says, sit in the heaps of form and sound. Yuan Wu says, Sitze in den Haufen von Form und Klang. Walk. And then he says, walk on top of form and sound. Dann sagt er, gehe über, gehe auf dem Kamm von Form und Klang.

[23:37]

Maybe I should talk about this. Come on, raindrops. And I won't sing. Tomorrow. I don't know. We'll see what happens. But again, all of this is a comment in effect on our looking at this word Hishirio. To notice You see, but it's not like seeing. You hear, but it's not like hearing. You speak, but it's not like speaking. Now, am I confusing you and myself or helping us? Verwirre ich euch und mich selbst oder helfe ich uns?

[24:46]

I don't think you can practice exactly with seeing and it's not like seeing. Ich glaube nicht, ihr könnt das hier so ganz mit sehen, aber es ist nicht wie sehen praktizieren können. But you might get the picture, the realization, a feeling that on the other side of the Dharma door of Hishiryo, It begins to feel like, for example, you're speaking without the leaking of speaking. You hear, but you don't get caught in the wind of objects and hearing. Du hörst, aber du lässt dich nicht vereinnahmen von dem wind of objects appearing.

[25:50]

That's a phrase. How you're distracted by objects, as if objects were a wind and carried you off. Lässt dich nicht vereinnahmen von dem wind der Hörobjekte. And you see without getting distracted. distracted, taken away by seeing. So, I've been asked, can't you make your lectures a little shorter, so I'm looking at my clock watch a little. I've been asked to make the lectures a little shorter, so I'm looking at my clock watch a little. I don't know if it has to do with your legs or just you're tired of hearing me. So we could take this poem from our own experience sitting Beside an open window.

[27:09]

In front of an open window. Leaves fall, flowers bloom. Each in its own time. I mean, from your own experience, you know this feeling. Aus deiner eigenen Erfahrung kennst du dieses Gefühl. And if we try to turn it into a teaching, we could say, if this really is something that's incomparable. Und wenn wir das in eine Lehre verwandeln wollen, dann könnten wir sagen, wenn das wirklich etwas ist, womit sich nichts messen kann, womit nichts verglichen werden kann. Then it expresses, it can express the teaching of just now is enough. Which when realized, you're never anxious. Whatever is okay, just now is what it is. It's enough. Now, just now is whatever it is, and it might as well be enough.

[28:13]

So you can practice with noticing when it's not enough and you can say, hmm, why not? Until finally you actually feel. Thank God. I mean, thank Buddha. But this poem is not used by Shui Do's teacher, of Yuan Wu's teacher. This poem by Shui Do, Yuan Wu's teacher, is not used by Yuan Wu to impress on us just now is enough but rather the alchemy of here it's the alchemy of awakening the world in yourself So instead of just now is enough, we could say just now awaken the world in yourself.

[29:46]

So this poem can be like your own experience up to now. It can be like a fundamental experience like just now is enough. Or it can be a dynamic expression of the alchemy of the Alaya Vijnana. Awakening the world in oneself. Yeah, okay. So then we have to, if I should stop, I suppose, but let me go on.

[30:53]

Just a sentence or two. When you look at a poem like this and you look thoroughly and investigate it thoroughly, you're sitting it just to sit, clarify, silence, and investigate. Sitting is simply sitting, clarifying, And, of course, you can use the tools of investigation, like koans and turning words and blah, blah, blah. But in Zen, the fundamental practice is whatever tools you use is investigation. Noticing without thinking about it. So now he's using this poem where he says sitting alone by an open window.

[31:59]

And I didn't mention or emphasize the word alone last night. But here there's a parallel. The person's alone, the leaf is alone, the flower is alone. Each is in its own time. Now, Chinese happen to be a very poetic cult. China of that time, in Sung Dynasty time, They thought in poetic images. Very, very, much more than we do. And our poems are illustrative and not allegorical or metaphorical. Yeah. And they had this tradition of thinking in cases.

[33:31]

So if you think in images, then there's the image of the person alone, the open window, and you inhabit each image Then alone, the open window, the leaf falling in its own time. The flower blooming in its own time. Die Blume blüht in ihrer eigenen Zeit. And of course nothing could compare to this because you're noticing without thinking. You're not comparing. Und natürlich kann sich nichts damit messen, kann nichts damit verglichen werden, weil du bemerkst, ohne zu denken, du vergleichst nicht. So Yuan Wu uses the poem this way.

[34:36]

To compare. To bring us forth into this dynamic of noticing without thinking. Okay? Thanks. Okay. Thank you very much.

[35:13]

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