I hope you'll excuse me for again not joining you for Zazen this morning. I intended to, but as is typical for me, I think many of us, I'm sicker during the night than during the day. So at 4 o'clock I decided it's better to sleep. For me, I get best when I can sleep and do Zazen, not at the same time. But that's okay, too. But I'm glad to be sitting right now with you. And you're feeling better, you told me?

[01:01]

Yeah. This is good. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah, this koan, I think, probably for most of us, it's not, at first, it's not particular. It isn't one of the more interesting koans. Or one of the ones more easily accessible. Yeah, but I think that since it's here in the book, It's a good discipline to just take one after another as they come.

[02:03]

And not look for the most interesting ones. Okay. It's okay sometimes to look for the interesting ones. But right now, that's not what we're doing. Okay, and this, again, like all of these early koans, it's an early koan in the book. And each one is establishing, each of these earlier koans especially, is establishing a relationship to the tradition of Buddhism. And this one is establishing a relationship to the four noble truths. And to dukkha, suffering. Unsatisfactoriness. So we have to ask, why does Ching Yuan say, I don't even practice the Four Noble Truths?

[03:34]

Now, there is a political dimension to this. Yeah, establishing Mahayana and Zen within Mahayana is different from early Buddhism. Then there's a kind of nationalistic or Chinese establishment of Buddhism. Chinese Buddhism is different from Indian Buddhism. Now, the point of this koan was primarily some kind of Buddhist politics. It would be rather uninteresting and not much reason for us to study it.

[04:36]

But it's also a koan which establishes a different attitude toward practice. And since we are also practitioners in a new land for Buddhism, it's important for us to be aware that the Chinese practitioners tried to establish, to recognize Buddhism that they were establishing a new way of Buddhism. Sorry, what were they establishing? A new form of Buddhism appropriate for them. And the more we do it with awareness

[05:37]

the more successfully we'll establish a form of Buddhism. Not just to be different, but because we are different. Now yesterday I emphasized that waking up in the morning with the tenkin and coming in here, we were... putting on the dress and views of another culture. Both Indian and Chinese. And the basic idea in Chinese, everything turns in Chinese culture and medicine around the concept of vital energy. And there's no reason that we Westerners can't also see the body and mind as expressed in vital energy.

[07:07]

And there's no reason that we Westerners can't also see the body and mind Yeah, and feel the vital energy of the Tenkan when he or she is waking us up, etc. And then to feel and be identified moment by moment with our vital energy. And I find when I practice as intentionally as possible, as Sukhiroshi said, attention to the moment after moment, attention to the breath in the spine. the more I do that as if that's the basis of my mind and body and always a present a present

[08:20]

aspect of my experience, I find I eat better. I eat more moderately, for example. I'm quicker to notice when something will affect me negatively if I eat more of it. And I'm more responsive to things that would affect my state of mind. So that attentive presence to the spine, posture and breath makes me more... I discover I'm more attentive to my physical and mental states. Okay, so that's something that even though it's much more emphasized in Chinese yoga culture than in our culture, there's no reason we can't emphasize it too.

[10:04]

And there's no reason you can't experiment with it. And see how you feel. See if it makes a difference. See what doing this moment after moment leads to. At the same time, Let me say, when I see a cat, my feeling is, there goes the cat form of me. I always felt that. I see a dog, I think, there's the dog form of me. This is an experience, an attitude I find I have, carry with me. which has various sources and primarily in practice but also in my attitudes I've had forever but to say there goes the cat form of me

[11:41]

Hey, cat, is an expression of connectedness. If we say we're already connected, how do we actualize this? Oh, yes, we're already connected, but yeah, moment by moment, how do we actualize it? I found this kind of phrase helps me actualize connectedness. When I see Frank, I think, there goes the Frank form of me. He thinks, oh dear, this is a terrible idea he just heard. Yeah, okay. However, there's also an idea specifically in Japanese Buddhism of Kyogai. Kyōgai means something like the bodily expression of mind.

[13:26]

And a teacher judges whether a practitioner understands practice or koan by feeling his kyōgai or her kyōgai. But it's a rather complex idea, the way it's used. Because we would say, if I used this term as a Japanese practitioner, You would say, you never can understand the Kyogai of a cat. I mean, if I think I can, it would be like somehow the soul of the cat is similar to my soul and soul is not the same as body or something.

[14:31]

So although I feel that there goes the cat form of me, simultaneously I know that I can never know the kill guy of the cat. Or the kill guy of Frank. Sorry, Frank. That's the way it is. I can't get him to smile or anything. Too zen for me. Um... Okay, so my practice is to respect the Kyogai of Frank and the cat. And the Kyogai of the Chinese and the Kyogai of us Occidents or Westerners.

[15:33]

then what does it mean that I might feel about a practitioner how they express their kyogai? Even though each thing, each person, each plant is different than I am, At the same time I can feel in their most themselves. And most in accord with how body and mind and phenomena exist. So in this sense, we in the West have a certain Kyogai. And even though we can enter this situation formed by the tradition of Chinese Buddhism, this situation formed by the tradition of Chinese Buddhism.

[17:05]

Sukhira she used to say, when you sit, when each of you sits the same way, I can see your differences. When you're all different, your differences are hidden in the differences. But when you're all sitting the same way, I can see that in Sashin too. I walk around and each person is sitting the same way and each person is different. Their Kyogai is different. Okay. So maybe if we all practice some form of Chinese Zen, Japanese Chinese Zen, We can probably, most effectively, discover the differences that will become Western Buddhism.

[18:09]

At least I've staked the stake. Staked. When you bet on a particular card. I've staked the decades of my life on this view. So here we are. Can I speak to you somewhat differently in this more formal context again than in our afternoon discussions? And I think it felt to me like, from what I could feel of your discussion and from our discussion together, that we're well into the field of this koan.

[19:13]

So I think we can ask, what did Ching Yuan mean? What, when he said, when he asked the Hui Neng, again, this is all is considered to be the main founder of our lineage. So we're right at the source of what is our practice. And Wei Neng is considered to be the founder of all, I mean this is all somewhat apocryphal, but the founder of all Zen lineages in China. And it doesn't matter so much if it's apocryphal.

[20:26]

Because it still is the foundation of our practice. It's what's been the way later generations decided to describe the foundation. So why did Jingyuan say what should be done not to fall into steps and stages? Now, that question is here at the beginning of this book of Serenity. And it's way at the end in the very last koans. when Dongshan is asked among the various bodies of the Buddha which one does not fall into any stages into any categories and Dongshan says I'm always close I'm always close to this

[21:52]

What did Ching Yuan mean? What work should I do or what work is there to be done? To have the ability, the skill, not to fall into steps and stages. Okay, this is a practice question. Very fundamental practice question. And at the center of Mahayana and Zen Buddhism. But it's also a description, somewhat erroneous I think, of early Buddhism as being involved in steps and stages. Aber es ist auch eine Beschreibung und etwas ironischerweise, wie ich finde, eine Beschreibung des frühen Buddhismus, der in Schritte und Stufen verfallen ist. Und auf gewisse Weise sagt jetzt also dieser Koan, ich bin ein Mahayana Zen chinesischer Buddhist.

[23:18]

And I don't fall into steps and stages or practice the Four Noble Truths. Okay. This koan starts out with the introductions all about suffering. Not societal suffering. But the suffering of individuals. Devadatta, the Buddha, etc. Even the Buddha is suffering. They tried to kill the guy. What can you do? To free yourself from suffering. That's the basic question of this koan. Could there be a more basic question? Yeah. Here we have an emphasis not the same as very early Hindu or Indian religions. as on the experience of the person and that we have some control or participation in what our experience is and suffering is an experience

[24:50]

So you want to ask yourself this question. I suppose whether you're a Buddhist or not. Is there some way to free myself and others from suffering? Of course we have to mostly just accept suffering. Or accept grief, which is not exactly the same as suffering. I think we're connected and we're deeply, profoundly connected with other people. And we all feel grief through what happens to those close to us and so forth.

[26:20]

Okay. So what are the Four Noble Truths? It's dukkha, dukkha, dukkha and views. The first noble truth is dukkha. The second noble truth is there's a cause of dukkha. The third noble truth is there's an end of dukkha. So we have to dukkha it up. And then there's a view. So the four noble truths are dukkha, dukkha, view. So we ought to define what dukkha is. All right. Ah, okay.

[27:27]

Dukkha is defined. The formula is birth, decay, illness and death. Our dukkha. Hey, too late. We are already in the midst of it. The funeral ceremony starts at birth. It's true. Birth, decay, illness and death. What a cheerful view. And all kinds of unhappiness are dukkha. Depression. To be separated from ones you love.

[28:30]

To not have what you want. That's the formula for the definition of dukkha. And all this becomes in the end defined usually, most simply, as unsatisfactoriness. Moment after moment things are sort of unsatisfactory. Okay. Okay. Now the Buddha in his enlightenment experience What he supposedly, at least the tradition is, what he supposedly experienced is the freedom from continuity. The freedom, or rather I should say the freedom from the illusion of continuity.

[29:36]

So we could say what he realized is impermanency. Why do you have to say impermanency? What would you like me to say? Impermanence. Well, you can say impermanence if you like. It's not so important. But why do I say it? That's a good question. Because impermanency is the overall condition of impermanence, the overall situation. But that's a little difficult for us to understand. Because we all know things are impermanent.

[30:50]

So why is the Buddha enlightened through freeing himself from the illusion of continuity? Well, I would say, for instance, if I look at you and I say, well, geez, I don't, you know, you've never seemed to have had a big enlightenment experience, but you're free from the illusion of continuity, I'm going to treat you as enlightened. So, when I see a cat, there goes the cat form of me, which is an experience of connectedness, but not continuity. There's moment-by-moment connectedness, but there's not the same kind of continuity from moment to moment.

[31:52]

For at each moment things are slightly different. And sometimes greatly different. And can you live in that as your fundamental experience in permanency? Okay. So the Four Noble Truths, as a sort of dynamic, turn on the suffering or unsatisfactoriness that arises through the expectation of permanence.

[33:01]

Through the expectation of permanence. Okay. Now I think all of us, if we've been practicing Buddhism, have to various degrees been involved with the Four Noble Truths. And if you've been practicing Zen, You've been involved simultaneously in seeing that your personal self-continuity is carried in thinking. It's carried in thinking, and most painfully carried in thinking, in comparative thinking. So you're already practicing what is the dynamic of the Four Noble Truths to establish a freedom from

[34:11]

Permanency. And all that extends from that. Establishing. Freedom from expecting continuity. Or expecting things to be satisfactory. So in a way we can say Ching Yuan did not expect things to be satisfactory. He expects Devadatta to try to kill the Buddha. It's just the way it is. Just what happens. He would try to he would try to prevent Devadatta from doing it, or tell Devadatta, hey, look, there's a big boulder coming down the hill, baby. But if it happened, he'd say, well, I also expected it.

[35:36]

It's a kind of detachment without being separated from what happens. You expect the worst, you live the best. Yeah. Yeah, sad but true. And one of the early Buddhist ideas of nirvana was unending peacefulness. And you can see that dealt in the next page of the koan. How can the nation be at peace? How can the farmers be at peace? So what is the price of rice? What does that have to do with suffering?

[36:58]

Freeing yourself from unsatisfactoriness. The price of rice is always going to be different. So what do I do not to fall into steps and stages? What do you do? I don't even practice the four noble truths. I'm already freeing myself from the illusion of continuity. So they say this is like a way of bowing to Bodhidharma when Bodhidharma asks, express your understanding.

[38:14]

So as Bodhidharma was given the robe of transmission, Ching Yuan is made head of Hui Neng Sangha. Yeah. Before your legs suffer too much, I should stop. But since a little suffering is a good thing, I'll continue. Okay. I think I should talk. Because someone asked... seminar, second seminar in Rastenberg.

[39:34]

I spoke about ritual. Invisible ritual. Maybe sometime during the seminar, winter branches, I should speak about that. Okay. But I said yesterday that the zazen is the concept of don't move added to this posture. Or some posture. So what does don't move mean? Basically, in the most simplest sense, It's to establish the precedence of the body over the mind. In a way, if you can have an intention strong enough to keep the body from moving, that intention

[40:49]

transforms the body and transforms the mind, then no matter what happens in zazen, or whatever the period is, you know, we try to make it a reasonable length, 30 minutes or 50 minutes, no one's saying, don't move for 12 hours. Yeah. No, no one's saying that. We're saying don't move for part of an hour. That's enough. And if you can discover really not moving, that transforms body and mind and frees you in significant ways from unsatisfactoriness. You create the basis for the mind not moving into thinking, into comparative thinking and so forth.

[42:11]

In other words, in a way the body becomes the anchor that keeps pulling the mind back to the anchorage. And related to that more deeply is the motionlessness of the senses. Now, in all of these early Zen teachings which are ritualized in certain ways ritualized and meant to be incubated, is the not moving of the body and mind, then expressed as the motionless of the senses. Und die dann auch ausgedrückt wird als die Bewegungslosigkeit der Sinne.

[43:22]

Which means you've come to the point where the senses don't call up associations. Und das bedeutet, du bist an einen Punkt gelangt, wo die Sinne keine Assoziationen mehr hervorrufen. The motionlessness of the senses means each sense only experiences itself. Und die Bewegungslosigkeit der Sinne, das bedeutet, dass die Sinne, jeder Sinn, nur sich selbst erfährt. So you can bring this pause of what is it to each sense and pause within each sense before associations arise. This is the same dynamic as the Four Noble Truths. And this is what Ching Yuan is trying to present to us. Another dynamic of the Four Noble Truths which frees you from unsatisfactoriness. I think that I better stop.

[44:23]

And I think I should stop now. Although this is very satisfying. Thank you.

[44:43]

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