So how many of you find attentive repetition easy? Failed again. Me. Oh dear. How many of you find attentive repetition difficult? This is a yes-no kind of thing. It's different. What do you mean? Well, but sometimes it does work. Okay. Then it seems easy.

[01:01]

Okay, then sometimes... How many of you find it easy sometimes? You understand that Buddhism could be as easily, maybe even more fundamentally called Dharmism and not Buddhism. And Dharma simply means to call forth the world in appearances. Dharma means An appearance. So there couldn't be anything more fundamental.

[02:04]

So these two advanced beginners koans are designed to get you to call forth the world in appearances. So there's lots of benefits, for example, to bringing attention to your breath, to the breath and your breath. Yeah, but that can be done by... anybody. It's now with the ubiquitousness of mindfulness practice rather removed from Buddhist practice.

[03:16]

Das kann aber überall von jedem jeder gemacht werden mit der Allgegenwärtigkeit der Achtsamkeitspraxis, die ziemlich unabhängig vom Buddhismus existiert. but it's bringing attention to the breath is a Buddhist practice very specifically when bringing practice bringing attention to each breath is to is part of getting to know the world as, experience the world as a succession of appearances. So we can say that from this weekend, this week, if you want to practice the Dharma,

[04:17]

You have no other job except to begin to find ways, to discover ways to know the world as a succession of appearances. So probably the easiest entry is to really get used to attentional breath. that as much as possible you feel your body as a succession of breaths. And you feel your location, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, as inseparable from from your breath locations.

[05:46]

Okay. So we do know how hard it is to bring our attention to our breath continuously. As I often, many, many, many times have said, it's easy to bring your attention to your breath a few times. But why is it then, if it's so easy to do a few times, ten times, three times, why is it so difficult to do it continuously? this question needs to be examined.

[07:00]

Because it's clear. I mean, I can tell you what I think sums up the whole problem. It's not just that we need to think things through and we're interested in our lovely thoughts, but it's because we establish our experience of continuity through thinking and consciousness. sondern auch, weil wir unsere Erfahrung von Kontinuität durch das Denken und durch das Bewusstsein etablieren herstellen. And we, and for, you know, it's almost like a fear of death to lose continuity.

[08:06]

Und es ist fast so wie eine Todesangst, das Gefühl von Kontinuität zu verlieren. Death is a big loss of continuity. So if you get used to losing continuity and finding yourself only in your breath, your last breath will probably be a little better than otherwise. So developing the simple yogic skill, simple conceptually difficult to realize, Of bringing, having your attention rest on breath continuously is the most fundamental preparation for death you could make.

[09:07]

And it also engages you in immediacy. If you're engaged with breath, then it's very easy to move that to an engagement in your situational immediacy. So we can assume that this... We can be assumed and be assured that these two beginning advanced koans... of being able to apply no to each appearance or no sound to each appearance. depends on having first developed the yogic skill of being continuously present in your breath.

[10:50]

So what I've said is just totally simple. Establish attentional continuity in your breath, in your succession of breaths. And then apply no to each appearance. And I can sign all your enlightenment certifications and I can retire. Will you help me do that? You don't really need to know much else because we do function this way. Weil wir auf diese Art funktionieren.

[12:00]

But this koan recognizes it's difficult. Aber dieser koan erkennt an, dass es schwierig ist. For example, it says, even a hand which can move the north star... Zum Beispiel steht da selbst eine Hand, die den Polarstern bewegen kann. The hand which can move the north star means someone who can make... a real paradigm shift to the succession of appearances as actual existence. Okay. Any questions? You always talk about a shift and when it is translated like that, it sounds like a jump or like going over a threshold.

[13:04]

You always speak about a shift and the way it's translated oftentimes sounds as if there's some sort of leap or as if you're going across some sort of bump or a trespass. It's not just the pattern of continuity. It's also this idea of oneself. but also the idea of a self and also the pattern of permanence. I always have this image as if it was dissolving from the edges or... Or losing up those patterns that go together with the thinking.

[14:15]

Yeah, it's true. But the sense of self and... And what was the other thing you mentioned? Then the sense of permanence, both depend on your experiential identification with continuity. So existentially and if you can philosophically understand this problem of continuity... then you may have the power to move the North Star or to break the paradigm. But since, as I said earlier today, since it's been reinforced by every moment of your life since birth,

[15:16]

It doesn't, it's real difficult to stop. So I think what most people do is they use practice sufficiently enough to find themselves in a good mood most of the time, and they like their good mood, and to hell with wisdom. No, what's wrong with that? Why not? The question is, does it really enter you into, as the koan says, your fundamental way or fundamental endowment?

[16:49]

So do you know the allness of the... your actual world, in a thoroughly profound way, and which is also identified with compassion, experienced as compassion. So now there's some questions in here. Okay. We have this koan.

[17:54]

Does a dog have a Buddha nature? And the most classic response, as it's been brought to us in the tradition, is mu, understood as no. Okay. So, now, why... But the tradition has... taken that to mean the repetition of Mu within every appearance. Okay, so now we have the question, why has the tradition done this? Now, we also, by emphasizing mu as a mantra-like, not like, a mantric repetition.

[19:16]

Are we ignoring the question, does a dog have a Buddha-nation? Do you have a Buddha nature? What the heck is Buddha nature? Is Buddha nature really consistent with Buddhism in its most rigorous sense? So it's almost like they say, don't worry about the question of Buddha nature. Yes, of course there's Buddha nature, but let's go Mu. And what is that shift about? Could it be that if you develop the dharma practice of the mantric mu, you'll discover whether you have Buddha nature or not?

[20:30]

Maybe it's a secret chemical catalyst. Maybe the implication is your receiving, your repeating Mu opens you to the potential enlightenment and realization of the same eyes and ears of an enlightened person. Now, if the question of what is Buddha nature is kind of actually concealed in the koan or hidden behind the no of mu?

[21:38]

What hints are they giving you in the koan that might be a description of Buddha nature? Welche Hinweise geben Sie uns in dem Koan, die vielleicht eine Beschreibung von Buddha-Natur sein könnten? Well, in the paragraph at the bottom of page 76, it says, he didn't speak from his own fundamental endowment. Ganz unten auf der Seite, in den Paragraphen auf Seite 76, da steht, er sprach nicht aus seiner eigenen, grundlegenden, So is the koan asking us to look at this phrase? Because it's clearly saying this monk didn't understand the question or the answer because he didn't speak from his own fundamental endowment.

[22:53]

Okay, so then we can surmise that the koan is saying, if he had spoken from his own fundamental endowment, he wouldn't have misunderstood the situation and hence would have been speaking from whatever we mean by Buddha nature. You know, I say these overlapping phrases, and I just say them. And then you have to translate them, and I think... Are you really able to do that?

[24:02]

Is she doing it okay? Really okay? I wouldn't know how to say it. Well, of course I don't, but anyway. And then on page 77 it says in the middle of the upper paragraph, And then on page 77, in the middle of the upper paragraph. That this questioner of Zhao Jiu did not know the fundamental way So this is another hint in the koan which says Buddha nature is to know the fundamental way. And then down below, in the poem by Tien Dong, it says, fish which seek a straight hook.

[25:14]

Something like that. Something like that. are fish who are basically, it says, fish who turn away from life. So this is another identification or hint in the koan of an enlightened person or a person who knows Buddha nature is one who turns away from life. And the implication is, the official wants to be caught. Und die Implikation dabei ist, ein Fisch, der gefangen werden möchte. A fish would not bite on a straight hook unless it wanted to be caught.

[26:37]

This is a pretty dumb fish. Ein Fisch würde einen geraden Haken nie anbeißen, außer er möchte gefangen werden, sonst wäre es ein ziemlich dummer Fisch. So what is a straight hook? Also was ist ein gerader Haken? It means things as they are without any... Attractions, desires or temptations or things that push you around emotionally and mentally. So just to see things as they are is what is meant by a straight hook. Die Dinge einfach so zu sehen, wie sie sind, ist das, was mit einem geraden Haken gemeint ist. There's nothing special, it's just what's here. Es ist nichts Besonderes, es ist einfach das, was hier ist.

[27:38]

So, then this is another hint in the koan of what is meant by Buddha nature. Und dann ist das ein weiterer Hinweis in dem koan dafür, was mit Buddha Natur gemeint ist. So you can start trying to notice or noticing, reading the koan, are there some other hints? Yeah. Now, one reason koans are presented... And not only are they the typical Zen literature, and I think great world literature, but they're presented in an elusive way. Why are they so elusive? Elusive means you can't quite get hold of it. Are you the dinner cook? Oh dear. Don't you have any helpers?

[29:04]

What I have to do, I think I can do alone at the moment. They're coming later. Will you finish? Because what I've decided to point out recently is Traditionally it's not pointed out, and I've just followed the tradition in this. But I've mentioned it recently a number of times. Okay. If you look at Tibetan Buddhism and Theravadan Buddhism and most forms of Buddhism, they have much more clearly laid out stages of practice or steps within practice. Zen is different from the other schools of Buddhism in certain significant ways.

[30:06]

One is that Buddha is not the end point of our practice. It's the beginning point of our practice, but not the end point. There's no assumption in Buddhism that we all will experience the same enlightenment. Es gibt keine Annahme im Zen-Buddhismus, dass wir alle die gleiche Erleuchtung erfahren. Alles verändert sich und ist anders. And this is one of the shifts, to know the field of mind, because as soon as you shift from entities to activities, you're shifting from an experience of fields, interconnected fields,

[31:40]

You're shifting from that or shifting into that? When you're shifting into that. And fields by definition are incomplete. They could include more, they could include less, they're wide, they're narrow. They're energized by you, they're arriving through you, so they're energized by you. So here is a way in which the language of the folks I was just with in this conference That fields are indeterminate.

[32:54]

And the very nature, the experiential territory of a field is indeterminate. It's not complete. It's... So, yeah, so I'll just go back to fishing with a straight hook. and a straight hook being things as they are with a feeling they're not going anywhere, they just are present.

[33:57]

But they're present like the gourd, which you push it down, which is floating in water and it immediately turns, etc., This means as soon as you do something with it, it changes. You observe something, your observation affects it. As soon as we're here together, each of us is influencing each other. I think if we were an animal or an insect, Kafka would like that. We would feel more directly how we're influenced by everyone.

[35:01]

One of the jobs of consciousness is to separate us from each other. So part of practice is to loosen up those boundaries of consciousness and then suddenly we feel how we are already in an indeterminate field. Mm-hmm. So, in fact, we've generated already a field here. And what a practice period is about is developing that over 90 days. And there's some kind of miracle in the tradition. You may think of me or I may express myself as one who's trying to carry this tradition.

[36:09]

But I've been skeptical of the tradition every step of the way for 55 years. I've never accepted any aspect of Buddhism because it's stated as Buddhism or it's belief. That's why my practice has been so slow. It's taken 55 years to get almost nowhere. But I've questioned every step. And one of the things that just amazes me It's five-day sashings, yeah, it's okay, but it's not a seven-day sashing.

[37:26]

And there's no such thing as a three-day Sashin. There's three days of sitting. It's not a Sashin. If Sashin means to gather the mind with and through others, that my experience happens in seven days, but barely in five. And my experience that the 90-day practice period really means 90 days. And I find people who come for six weeks of the practice period, they can only, I mean, I've let some people over the years because of their job and things like that, come several times to a Crestone practice period for half of it.

[38:40]

And every time it's inoculated them, inoculated? when you have a smallpox inoculation, it keeps you from getting the disease. Our doctors here, they know these things. It's inoculated against practice period. And... And... you think you've understood or enjoyed or experienced practice period, but somehow something happens in those extra month and a half.

[39:42]

And I've only seen people really almost 100% seeing people really get the actual experience of this mutually resonant body in 90-day practice periods. You can catch a feeling of it in Sushin? You can understand it well enough to basically practice in this way in your daily life.

[40:49]

But to get it to really take hold of your body and shake it and say, this is the way it is, I find only has happened to people in practice. And most people, even in the first practice period, only taste it, but some people actually realize it. Even in the first practice period. Realize it in the first place. Now, as you know that we're in the process of building a new Zendo. And some of you got the brochure the other day. I started working on it last September, but my best, most definitive friend before Suzuki Hiroshi died and other things happened, I just couldn't do it.

[42:04]

And I really don't like it that he died. My own death will be easier because I'll forget about it immediately. But I had to work on FaceTime and Skype, FaceTime with her and Skype. For some reason I couldn't FaceTime with Michal Podgoczek in Vienna. Day after day, we fiddled with that brochure. And Michael was so patient. I would say, okay, now move that down four centimeters, not five or six. And he never complained.

[43:16]

He said, okay, next time I get a copy sent to me, it was... And he never complained. But anyway, now Len Brackett is working on it. Auf jeden Fall arbeitet Len Brackett jetzt daran. The tanzu, that's the cupboards where you put your bedding and your clothes, are all built, I believe. Und die tanzu, also die Schränke, wo man das Bettzeug und die Kleidung verstauen kann, das ist jetzt alles schon fertig gebaut. And he's found four, I think, long pieces of very stable wood, which will be the ma board, the eating board. But there's two columns we need to support the roof of the building. So one we removed and put a temporary post column.

[44:19]

And the other one we've left. It's kind of just several boards bolted together to make a column. Len wants to replace it. But I said, no, we want to make it clear this is not a perfect Japanese zendo. It's a zendo built in a room we inherited. So I think this funky post column is going to be great. Myself... You all may object when you see it, but, you know.

[45:31]

And if there's enough objection after I'm dead, you can saw it out and put a nice formed bark stripped off cedar column. I'm not much. I have no interest in rebirth and all that stuff. But, you know, in the... I haven't been reborn yet, so how can I know anything about it? Or if I have, I don't know about it. The Dalai Lama told me once, he has no experience of previous lives.

[46:32]

Yeah, okay, so, but in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, it says the person has died, right? And then this person looks back and they see they're doing his funeral. And the first thing he says, they're messing up my funeral. That's not the way I wanted it done. So if one of you is sawing that column. Okay. Anyway, Lenny, recent Len, he's my former brother-in-law as well as one of the two best trained Japanese wood joinery carpenters in the West, I think.

[47:43]

So this whole process of what we're doing goes back to the 60s in Japan when I knew that Paul Disko and Len Brackett both wanted to train with Japanese wood joinery carpenters and I found actually national treasure carpenters to train both of them. So there's lifetimes of history in trying to do something like develop this practice center.

[48:56]

So Len called me a couple days ago. And it's so fine-tuned to fit this modular building process, technique, into a room that has already got its shape. Even though we moved the east wall out about three meters, Katrin Birkel's suggestion. And I thought, oh no, we can't do that. We'll never be able to do that. But somehow we've done it.

[49:57]

And we had to extend the roof farther than that. In any case, still, even with moving the East Room, they're measuring the thickness of the plaster to see if they can fit the tans in the room. Also, obwohl wir die Ostwand schon versetzt haben, sind die so präzise, dass sie sogar die Dicke des Verputzens oder der Isolierung ausmessen wollen, um zu schauen, ob die Tarns trotzdem noch da, wie die Tarns da reinpassen. Yeah, and Nicole and Otmar and Jürgen Pittasch have been making these measurements and sending them to them. And Otmar just sent them the estimated thickness of the tiles and the layering under the tiles. So this is all to say, Len called me up two days ago and said, we can have a lot more room if you don't have the space in the center ton echoing the space where the two columns are.

[51:29]

And I only say all that to say that Len called me a few days ago and said, hey, we would have so much more space if you were in the Middle Tarn, so there will be a Tarn island, if you could have this space in between. We could have, but it just was beyond our means to move the two columns in so they don't occur in the middle of the tan. So the tans come up to the column and stop for space for the column. The wall tans. So that space is echoed in the center tarn, which there's no column there, though.

[52:46]

And Len said to me, well, let's just close up that space. We don't need it. That'll give us more space at the north and south ends of the room. I said, well, that's a reasonable and practical non-Dharmic suggestion. It is absolutely essential for a Zendo that you can sit directly beside people to your left and right, and directly across from people who are opposite you. Len said, Well, I'll always do what you say, Dick.

[53:59]

And I said, yeah, well, not without a fight. But anyway, so I'm mentioning this. That was a long introduction to just say that the way in which you organize the gestural and local, the gestural and spatial details of a practice period are essential to coming into the feel of this mutually resonant body. That was a very long introduction, simply to say that it is essential how we organize the gestures and spatial details And these two introductory advanced koans are meant to give you the possibility to come into a mutually resonant field

[55:08]

with phenomena itself. Okay. Thank you very much.

[55:36]

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