If you want to stretch or something anyway, sit comfortably, please. Well it's nice to see all of you.

[01:06]

And in fact Ulrike and I for the last couple of weeks have been looking forward to spending these days with you. First I'd like to thank Birgit and Renate, is that right? For making such a lovely, good feeling, cozy, serious place. And for Beate and the Münster group to do the work to put it together. Except for Sinsheim, maybe, and Rosenberg, we don't usually have this chance to be together as much as this kind of place gives us.

[02:13]

See, I hardly have to say anything. I give a few words and she can... I don't even have to speak correct English because she puts it in correct German. Do you have to translate this? No. I just don't want to exclude Dhamma Sangha Austria again. Is somebody from Austria here? We can exclude them. They're not here. Now we worked out a tentative schedule for this evening and tomorrow and Sunday.

[03:34]

This evening we'll, I don't know, talk, be together for a while. And tomorrow morning, for those who want to, there will be one or two periods of sasen. That's one good thing about being here together. We can sit more together if we want. Again, in a seminar like this, I don't like to say it's required. I just leave it up to you if you want to come. And whether you want to come or feel ready to do one period or two periods. So I thought we would have, I think we decided one period starting at seven. I'm going until 7.40.

[04:59]

And then 10 minutes we'll do some walking meditation. And then there'll be a 30-minute period. Starting at 7.50. Is that right? And so that would end at 8.20. And then we'll have breakfast at 9. And also there's a problem, I'm told, that there are six showers and 60 people. I don't think the showers are big enough to take showers in groups of ten. So, one at a time, you're going to have to figure out some kind of schedule of maybe some before Zazen and some after and some during Zazen.

[06:15]

So, and anyway, you can come to the first period or second period or both. So we'll have breakfast at nine again and then start the seminar at ten. And then we'll, I guess, we'll work it out tomorrow, but we'll start of lunch at 1 and we'll start, depending partly on the weather, we'll start in the afternoon and have dinner at 7.30. And probably we'll start about, if we eat at 1, we'll probably start around 3, something like that. Go till 6 or 6.30 or something. Okay.

[07:36]

Now, if someone doesn't have any experience in meditation, you can come up and speak to me after we finish tonight and we'll talk about your doing Zazen tomorrow morning, if you want to join. Now, we might say there's three main paths of practice in Buddhism. More or less simply, we could call one the path of compassion, which emphasizes acceptance and accommodation and understanding. Acceptance and accommodation and understanding.

[08:52]

And another path which we could call the path of realization. Which emphasizes realization. but in particular the structures, attitudes and practices that lead to realization. And the third path would be what I would call the path of discovery. And that path The teaching in the path of discovery is mainly to create the conditions that allow you to discover how we exist. Now, some schools and Buddhism and some lineages emphasize one or the other almost exclusively.

[09:56]

And I would say that any... Developed school of Buddhism emphasizes to various degrees all three. I myself emphasize the path of discovery as beginning and ending practice. And the practice of realization and the teachings that lead to realization and the practice of compassion follow each other in the midst of this path of discovery.

[11:32]

Yes, and the practice of enlightenment and the practice of compassion now follow each other within this path of discovery. So with us coming together from various places here, I think, at least for me, the best way for us is to emphasize practice as a path of discovery. And this first evening is just getting used to being near each other. And getting used to being in this beautiful place that we're so lucky to be able to be here this weekend.

[12:42]

And I'd like you to enjoy yourself this weekend as much as possible. I'd like us also to do some work, but that can be a kind of joy too. I mean, if you're not going to enjoy your life, who is? And you can't put off enjoying your life till the future. Because the future is made from the present. So if you're not enjoying yourself now, you're not likely to be enjoying yourself in the future. No, I don't mean that we should all get soused.

[13:43]

I saw some of you bringing in bottles of wine. One thing I would like to talk about or look at this weekend is How we view our body. What we think our body is. Where we think it begins and ends. What's it like to be here next to each other. We take care of the edges very well. We usually trim our fingernails and clean them and things.

[15:01]

And we take care of our eyes and nose and ears and things. And actually there's a lot of cultural teaching about taking care of where self is seen in the body and the edges of our body. And that's changed in Western culture over the centuries and also is different in Asian countries. But I'd like us to have some See if we can have... The Eightfold Path, as I always say, or as your mind does, begins with right views. And I'm convinced we can't practice in the West seriously without examining our views. Now this case I want us to look at this weekend is kind of strange but Linji Rinzai

[16:15]

is one of the greatest of all or definitive Zen masters and as one of the definitive Zen teachers he's actually shaped the lives of millions of people in Asia Because Zen has been such a transformer of views in Asian culture. Now, I gave you three paths of practice. Let me give you what Ulrike called the other night when I described this to her.

[17:46]

She called it the three pillars of lay life. The three models that work in our lay life. One is a psychological model. A model of healing and growth. And we have to pay attention to how we heal ourselves, how we grow, how we develop. And then also, in addition to the psychological model that works in us as we try to see our life, there's a societal model which is involved in achievement and security. And this has to shape our life too.

[19:00]

How do we achieve something in relationship to our society and for our family and so forth? And how do we achieve security, a place to live and a way to support ourselves and so forth? And of course in any culture this is going to be somewhat different, but really not so different. And in each person it's going to be somewhat different, but still we have to have some, we're going to be involved in some kind of achievement, schooling and so forth, and security.

[20:01]

But I think we're here because we feel these models aren't enough or they can imprison us a bit sometimes. So the best name for this third model I could come up with was a model of no models. And here we're talking about realization and freedom and transformation. So, you know, while we're practicing here, I mean, what we're working on this weekend, I hope, is the model of no models.

[21:23]

But I don't mean at all that we should forget about and you have to think about how does the model of societal model and psychological model work with in your life. Now, I'm pointing this out because I think it's helpful to be able to look at... to have some helpful... a way to look at ourselves by seeing that falls into these three categories. Now the model of no model is expressed most simply by sitting zazen with an uncorrected mind. But as you know, an uncorrected mind is rather difficult to uncorrect.

[22:36]

So, Linji was one of the people who shaped Zen Buddhism. And his name is still carried in one of the two main surviving schools of Zen. By contemporary standards, he didn't live very long. No one knows. His birth date isn't clear, but he died either somewhere age 51 or 56 or something like that. And he lived the last five or six years in retirement with only a few disciples. And if I remember correctly, he only taught actively for about ten years. So this case, which we haven't passed out yet, have we?

[24:33]

Christian again lovingly translated the English into German. And do we have it in English and German for people? Okay. So I would like to read you just the case part for now, just to, you know, let you hear it. It's just so short, though. When... Well... When Linji was about to die, he admonished Sanchang. Now, he didn't have many disciples with him, and this isn't the one who continued his lineage primarily, but this was one of his senior people that was in retirement with him.

[25:52]

When Linji was about to die, He admonished San Sheng, after I pass on, don't destroy my treasury of the eye of truth. San Sheng said, how dare I destroy the teacher's treasury of the eye of truth. Linzhi said, if suddenly someone questions you about it, how will you reply? Sanchen immediately shouted. Linzhi said, Who would have known, thought that my treasury of the eye of truth would perish in this blind ass?

[27:08]

Who would have known that my treasury of the eye of truth would perish in this blind donkey? Wer hätte gedacht, dass meine Schatzkammer des Auges der Wahrheit in diesem blinden Esel zugrunde gehen würde? Now, then he sat up and died. Ja, und dann hat er sich aufgerichtet und ist gestorben. I mean, you could imagine that this doesn't sound like somebody who has changed the world. His disciple shouts at him just before he's about to die, when most of us will need a little calmness. We don't want people shouting at us. And then his last words are, Who would have thought my treasury of the eye of truth would die with this blind donkey?

[28:31]

There's no rainbow body here. There's no... It's not very glamorous at all. I think he could have thought of something more interesting to say before he died. But we have to assume that something's going on here. I want to assure you that these guys enjoyed their lives. But they didn't fool around. So, So this koan brings up really the question of what dies.

[29:51]

What's continued. And what's worth continuing. And of course, what dies means what is alive. And when you die, I can ask you, you know, what dies. Obviously, we know our body dies. So if our body dies, we know that, fingernails, we don't cut them anymore.

[30:54]

What is the body that's alive? I don't think this is a simple question. What is the domain of being? Now, the four dignities of a human being are standing, walking, sitting, lying. It's not, you know, it's always... struck me as rather funny that we all stand, walk, sit and lie. Why would Buddhism make such a thing about these four postures?

[31:55]

But they are the four postures in which We can add a few others, driving, jogging. And maybe we have to consider driving, at least it's a special category. Is it walking, is it sitting? But still, these four domains of being, Where each of us spends our entire life. So for this evening I'd like us to start with a certain consideration of what we can say what is the body that dies.

[33:25]

But rather, let's look at it more as what is the body that is alive. Each moment is a precise physical act. Each moment is a precise physical act. What I'd like us to do again, try to discover this weekend, is what Linji thought it was to be alive. If we can come to that, we can have an understanding of this case.

[34:29]

And why he said... to think that my eye of the treasury of truth would end in this blind donkey. Maybe we can each achieve a blind donkey status this weekend. I've discovered you don't play pin the tail on the donkey in Germany. But it's almost the most common party game in America for children.

[35:30]

I don't know. I have no idea where it came from. But they buy a poster in a, you know, five and ten cent store or something of a donkey. And then you buy 50 tails or something. And then you put the, you know, like... poster of the donkey with minus tail over in the wall over there. And then you put a blindfold on the kid and give him a tail and a pin. And stand him over here somewhere and spin him around several times and say, okay.

[36:44]

And he tries to find the donkey. So I imagine maybe putting blindfolds on all of us and spinning us around and see if you can find your way around for the next three days. Because I'd like you to be a little bit blind. Maybe you could feel like really you're turning your eyes inward in there. seeing things outside, but rather not too strongly.

[37:48]

And I think if we can discover how Linji was alive, we can discover something directly about what it is for us to be alive. And then really what our relationship with each other is. So I think that's pretty much enough for this evening, except I'd like us to sit for a little bit. If you need to stretch your legs, please do. And don't worry, we're not going to sit too long.

[39:11]

Ahem. Ahem.

[39:51]

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