I know practice changes us, but Frank, you've changed entirely too much. But it looks like Simone. Okay. You know, sometimes just before a tesho I have a neurasthenic attack. Psychological sleep or something like that. Because I, you know, I don't know if I can, just the high feeling of what I'd like to say and how much attention I need from you to say it, I just think I'd better sleep. Also das Gefühl, was ich sagen werde, und dann, dass ich so viel Aufmerksamkeit von euch brauche, damit ich es sagen kann, das kommt mir dann viel zu viel vor, und am besten schlafe ich ein.

[01:04]

So if I leave now, it's just because I'm going to take a nap. Also wenn ich jetzt den Raum verlasse, dann muss ich unbedingt mich hinlegen. But sometimes actually just before the show or anything, a ceremony or something, I take a one or ten second or two minute sort of kind of nap. And it gathers me better than anything I could do, anything else I could do. Now, Dogen said, those who've rolled this up into wide open eyeballs, he's got a way with language. Those who rolled this up into wide open eyeballs are two or three bushels.

[02:20]

How many is a bushel? It's a basket full of apples or a basket full of... It's a measure of fruit or potatoes. What would you... You must have something equivalent. I now translate it like two or three basketfuls. Yeah, I like that. Okay. And those who've tampered with it tampered with karmic consciousness are several thousand million pieces. Notice he says bushels and pieces. Those who've rolled this up into wide open eyeballs.

[03:34]

He's speaking about Yao Shan's teaching. Those who've rolled this up into wide open eyeballs. Are you ready? are a few bushels. Those who've tampered with it using karmic consciousness are thousands of millions of pieces. Pieces in this case in English would mean like something that's broken to pieces, just pieces of it. It's not put together.

[04:34]

Yeah. And bushels, he means something like sangha. He means those who, as I said yesterday, have a kind of coded or shared understanding of the world. Okay, I'm using that as one of the guides of our practice this week and this day show. Ich benutze das als einen Führer für uns in dieser Woche und in diesem Taisho. And then there's this other phrase from Koan 21 from the last time. Und dann gibt es noch diesen anderen Satz aus dem Koan 21 von letztem Mal.

[05:37]

Borrowing temporarily. Vorübergehend borgend. Comprehending the gateway. Den Eingang erfassend. realizing on the spot. Okay, so we can use that as a guide too. Now, and then I want to use also the first lines of this koan. Eyes, Ears, nose, tongue. Each has one ability. The eyebrows are above. Now that's above, just because that's the way our face is, but also above in that he's giving it a higher, wider perceptual rank than eyes, ears, nose, tongue.

[06:47]

Okay, so if you take this phrase, these beginning words of this koan, And you really kind of explore it. Practice it. It's the seed of what this koan is trying to teach. And it's the seed of what the figure Yaoshan has learned. means in the overall configuration of our lineage. Configuration of our lineage. Okay. Now, Yeah.

[08:12]

How did we get here? Well, in a way, just by these statements of Dogen and Koan 21 and Koan 7. And we can understand that the mind is structured. and we can understand that the mind is structured. So to enter what this koan is trying to present to us, and I think it's quite extraordinary, not because it's Buddhism, but just because, jeez, these guys were with it. I don't know anything in any other teaching.

[09:19]

I mean, I know all teachings, but any other teaching that both presents something that's counterintuitive, but I think accurate, that's counterintuitive. And it's not the way consciousness presents the world to us, so presents a very subtle philosophical worldview, and presents it in a way that we can realize it in a fairly commonsensical way. Common sense in both senses of the word. Common to all of us and common to all the senses. But we need to have a few basics.

[10:32]

One is we need to recognize that the mind is structured. As I said in the last seminar and I've said many times. And if you recognize it's structured and you can see it happening when you wake up in the morning, the day starts structuring your consciousness. So if you recognize that it's structured, it doesn't take rocket science, as they say. Do you say that in German? No? No. In America there's an expression, it doesn't take rocket science to understand this means the guys who develop rockets from the moon are smart.

[11:38]

Yeah, so to recognize that if the mind is structured, then it can be restructured. And it can be unstructured. And can be experienced as unstructured. That's a given of Buddhist practice. And to continue in your practice at the level we're talking, you have to fully accept that. Now consciousness is structured, but it can't really be unstructured. Unstructured consciousness we'd have to call something like awareness. And unstructured consciousness or awareness is what is meant by your original nature, as Buddhist terminology.

[12:57]

Good, thanks. If I say things, I have to hold certain ideas in my mind or put certain ideas together, and then I have to stop at a certain point because she then has to put them in connection. I don't know what you're saying, but I can feel you putting the ideas together. And now I have to try to do it with this explanation. Oh, well, I thought I was helping. I'm sorry. Yeah, basically, yes, but now... Okay. But don't think about it. It's better not to think. Okay. That's what Yashan says. Okay. Consciousness, we ought to notice, is addicted to content. Content. What consciousness is, is structure and content.

[14:00]

If you take the content and structure out of consciousness, you have mind, pure mind. And then when you know through, function through that so-called pure mind, we call it awareness. So this koan is asking us Yashan is asking us to function through this pure mind. Okay. Now, in addition to this recognizing the mind is structured, etc., etc., Zusätzlich zu dem, dass wir den Mind als Struktur und so weiter erkennen.

[15:17]

We have to recognize also that the present doesn't exist. Wir erkennen auch, dass die Gegenwart nicht existiert. Or we could say the present has simultaneity but does not have duration. Oder anders gesagt, dass die Gegenwart Gleichzeitigkeit hat, aber keine Dauer. I mean, again, it's very simple, but you have to really remind yourself of it, because consciousness presents the present, presents the presence, as a content-filled container. And that content-filled container is the way where we live and act and so forth. But it's also where we suffer and delude ourselves. And if we want to change our relationship to suffering and delusion, we change our experience of the attentional presence.

[16:46]

And there are many other satisfactions that flow from knowing the present as it actually doesn't exist. But those of you in this bushel will find that out. Okay. So let me say a little more about just to make sure we've got it, that the present doesn't exist.

[17:58]

Or we could say, again, it has simultaneity but not duration. It's... already past, already past, already past, not yet future, and there's no duration to the present. But again, to remind you, we create, by the way our senses work, we create scanning, we create the sensation of duration. Okay, so if the present doesn't exist, how do we act in it? What do we do? And the present, the duration, the durative present that we generate is a human present.

[19:19]

A dragonfly has a different durative present. In fact, what's interesting to note from these obvious things is all these insects and birds and Mice, local cats, cows, all have their own durative presence. There's a shared simultaneity, but not a shared duration. So practice is also, because each of you has a somewhat different durative present, each of us.

[20:20]

And knowing that, how do we enact together this in our bushel? Wie können wir das zusammen ausführen in unserem Korb? How do we roll up into our wide open eyeballs? Wie rollst du das auf in unsere weit geöffneten Augäpfel? This somewhat shared, durative presence. Diese ein bisschen geteilte, dauerhafte Gegenwart. How do we acknowledge it? How can we recognize that? I think what I should do now is talk about what I would call basic enactment rituals.

[21:24]

Yeah, I mean, I happened to pick up this staff this morning. As all of you know, it has a lotus embryo where my hand goes. Or your hand, if you want. Good. It feels better now. And it has a bud and it has a seed pod. But no bloom. And the bloom is this non, this durative momentary presence. that some of us roll up into wide open eyeballs and discover how not to tamper with the presence of the present Yeah, with karmic consciousness.

[22:46]

Now, we're talking, our Buddhist teaching is called the Dharma. Dharma consciousness means you see the world as a flow of appearance. You see the world as a flow of appearance. Okay. And you receive the appearance and you release the appearance. And you release it because only by releasing the past do you allow the uniqueness of the present. The address of the past and future is the present.

[23:51]

But the present isn't there. There's just the past and the future there. So you have to release the past. Release associations. And the way to do that is to practice form is emptiness. Now, at each dharma or at each appearance, if each appearance is a Dharma, it means you give it form.

[24:52]

You're not just passively receiving it. If you're just passively receiving it, what you receive are associations. So you're receiving the past and the anticipation of the future. Yeah, the future hides in the present. Just around the other corner. But if each appearance is a dharma, It means you're bringing to it a certain kind of attention. And so we can call it the attentional present. Now, again, all of what I'm saying is quite simple. If you accept that the mind is structured if you accept that the present doesn't exist except through us and you accept that the way to know the present most accurately is through successive appearance

[26:27]

Now, you have to use wisdom intellect to know this. Because consciousness does not present the world to you like this. But Zazen sometimes does present the world to us like this. And yesterday a number of you spoke of appearance, of... of experiences when the world did appear like this. Kind of pushing the formulations of appearance aside. Pushing the formulations of consciousness aside. Okay.

[27:52]

I mean, I think Lona's experience was a good example. There were, I would say, two aspects of it. One is a personal aspect. And often for us there's a personal aspect. And there's also an aspect which seems like the truth was revealed, or something like that. Something was revealed or shown to us that probably is true, maybe has universal truth, or probably is true for others as well. And so in the right circumstances, the right bushel, you want to share this because it feels like it's probably true for others. And these intuitions or insights or realization experiences do reveal the world to us that's not encumbered by consciousness.

[29:13]

So, borrowing temporarily, there's these ingredients. None of them really exist. They're only there momentarily. And we know that we can't hold them. But we borrow them temporarily. We comprehend that this is an opening, a gateway. And we realize on the spot We actualize the present on the spot. Now, again, we need to use wisdom intellect to hold this, because it's so clear that it's true.

[30:42]

Hold this in mind until our practice catches up with our enlightenment. Until our practice catches up with our intuition and insights. And the practice, the word in English, fleshes out, embodies out the insights. The teachings held in the intellect. Okay, now you know that one of the main ways we bring wisdom intellect into the present is through turning words.

[32:06]

like the one I'm emphasizing these days, is just now originating. To emphasize the present, not simply as interdependent, but inter-emergent. To emphasize the present, Inter-emergent. It's not only inter-dependent, it's inter-emergent. I've made an English word, inter-emergent. You don't have to say that, it's fine. Okay, are we all together here in the same bushel? Oh, good. I like fruit.

[33:18]

Potatoes, too. I like fruit and potatoes, too. Yeah, potatoes. Yeah, commodities. Okay. Naturalien. All right. So what I'm emphasizing now, because this would be part of the life Yao Shan is leading, Also, was ich hier betone, denn das ist die Art des Lebens, das Yao Shan lebte. You notice the title of this koan is not Yao Shan's Silence. Ihr habt bemerkt, der Titel des koans ist nicht Yao Shan's Stille. It's Ascending the Seat. Es ist den Sitz besteigen. Now, Ascending the Seat is a basic enactment ritual. Und den Sitz besteigen ist ein grundlegendes... It's parallel to turning words.

[34:22]

So we could have maybe turning rituals as well as turning words. Now this is the rupa dhatu. The realm of form. The practice of form is emptiness. If you give form to each thing, Attention is to give form, for example. If you give attention to each appearance, that eliminates associations. And it kind of pushes past and future to the side. Und das schiebt Vergangenheit und Zukunft zur Seite. And you just have the appearance of the durative present. Und ihr habt nur die Erscheinung der dauernd dauerhaften Gegenwart.

[35:29]

And that's emptiness. Und das ist Leerheit. So to generate form which is issues, issues, cuts out, puts aside, generate form which issues past, present and associations. is to in a way clear the way for emptiness. So the present, the durative present appears in its emptiness. When I was under that cloud And the building was under the cloud. Suddenly the cloud was nowhere. And I was nowhere. And the emptiness of all aspects being no aspect was actually experienced.

[36:34]

All aspects are no aspects. It was actually experienced. Okay. Now, a very simple enactment ritual. In monastic practice. And that would be like Yaoshan's bushel, Yaoshan's sangha. Und das ist wie Jaoshan's Korb, Jaoshan's Sangha. It's the bow to each person you see. Das ist, dich zu jedem zu verbeugen, den du siehst. Yeah, just, you know, something that is done as part of the enactment rituals of the durative present. Das ist einfach das, was getan wird als... In other words, we give form to the meeting to release the meeting, the seeing.

[37:47]

So you see somebody, you bow, and the two of you bow, and you actualize the space that that you're both generating. Yeah. And when you meet someone, they're closer and you're actually meeting them, then you bow to each other and actualize the meeting, that sort of mutual body. The shared present, the simultaneity we share. Yeah. Another is we fluff our cushion when we leave our cushion for any length of time.

[39:05]

And we put it back in the middle of the saboteur. It's like returning everything to its source. Or when the doshi is stepping back to bow, stepping back to go to the altar. Ideally, that's not always possible. There's no indication of where you're going and how you're stepping. At that moment, there's really a feeling of no place to go and nothing to do. So you're not stepping back in a way that leads to the left and up to the altar.

[40:10]

You just step back, and then you go. And as some of you mentioned the other day, these little enactment rituals of pauses really begin to make a difference. And as someone recently said, these performance rituals of the breaks really make a difference. And it's also, you know, for drivers. You get in the car, you sit down. Oh, I'm in a car. I guess I'm supposed to go somewhere. Yeah, I mean, when Marie-Louise is a volunteer fire department and fire and there's a fire, you know, maybe she doesn't sit and pause too long. But another obvious, basic, huayen, tantric enactment ritual is what we do with the wastewater at the end of the meal.

[41:19]

And it has several phases. First you save some of the waste water, some of the dish water, the bowl water. And then you pick it up so that the water is hidden. Because what you're doing is you're practicing here interpenetration. It's like a turning word, but instead it's a turning action or ritual. Es ist wie ein Wendewort, aber es ist vielmehr eine Wendeaktion, ein Wenderitual. Eine Rupadhatu-Praxis. Okay, so you cover the water because interdependence and interpenetration is invisible.

[42:38]

We are interdependent, but we can't see it exactly. And interpenetration is even harder to see. You pick it up and then you dump it in the receptacle. And then you touch the lip of the bowl, not necessarily where you drank, but where you could have drank. You don't touch the side of the bowl, you touch the lip of the bowl. So there's a feeling of interpenetration. Interpenetration. I'm just teasing you. And then you dump about a third of the water, two thirds of the water.

[43:55]

And then you take it back. And then you drink it. about a third of what's left. And that completes the cycle of the meal. So it's basically a little tantric enactment based on the Hawaiian teaching of interpenetration. So you're enacting this tantric moment of inner penetration, drinking the remaining dish water, completing the meal and the cycle of the meal. So for the adept practitioner, all these little details are important because you feel you're enacting this interpenetration.

[45:11]

And these enactment rituals penetrate our lived life even more fully than turning words. That's what Yao Shan meant when he said, I'm not a teacher of scriptures, I'm a teacher of Zen. That's what Yao Shan meant when he said, I'm not a teacher of scriptures, I'm a teacher of Zen. Okay?

[45:57]

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