I mean, you may feel sitting sometimes at some period of zazen completely ruined. Your legs have dissolved into hot butter with nails in butter. And you just, you know... I don't know if you've ever felt that way, but... But somehow, if you can find, even in that, some kind of dignity in the way you sit and feel, you'll feel better. Sukhya used to say, we... The beginning practice begins with the energy necessary to observe our way. And to observe it in the details of it.

[01:06]

How we do the incense. how we do the orioke, have the energy for the details of the orioke. I'm calling that, Dogen calls it bearing, you're bearing, I'm calling it the energy of basic dignity. Okay. These are, again, pointing out our teachings are slightly hidden, not obvious when you first look at the schedule, that the point of the schedule is to produce the energy of basic dignity, a non-discriminating state of mind. And that both of these are qualities of the Buddha.

[02:08]

So this, you see, is a teaching of what the Buddha is which we're presenting to you in this practice, so in fact you are acquiring the qualities of a Buddha. So you can have some confidence in that. Now, it is said that, you know, now that we see things as we know things are impermanent, To take, to see what is impermanent as permanent would be a mistake. And it would be common sense not to see something as

[03:08]

not to see something that's impermanent as permanent. But it's not only common sense, it's also a quality of the Buddha. Now the Buddha... is one who does not take what is impermanent as permanent. So I think if you see this not only as common sense or logical, but also as a quality of the Buddha, it can give you some inner confidence. Because if the Buddha has any meaning, it has to be rooted in you. And can you discover its roots in yourself? Now I have some beautiful flowers in my room.

[04:41]

And when I look at them I feel beautiful. Why not? Thank you flowers. And also when I look at them I feel very clear and precise. Because my mind begins to take on the characteristics of the flowers, which have a lot of precision and subtlety of color and form. And if I look at them from this concentrated vipassana, vipassanic state of mind, Without other thoughts coming in. I am practicing what we call a direct perception.

[05:57]

And even for a moment I may have that so-called exalted state of an unfluctuating state of bliss. Am I giving a particularly difficult lecture to translate? Okay, all right. Okay, sorry. So I'm using these technical terms from the teaching to show you that This is actually accessible to us in our experience. That an unfluxuating state of bliss is a characteristic of meditative stabilization and a quality of the Buddha.

[06:58]

So every time you have such an experience, you are enacting the Buddha. So every time you have such an experience, you are enacting the Buddha. We need Julio here. How do you enact something? Tibetan Buddhism is primarily, I would say, a practice based on enacting ideal forms of being. Now, Dogen's deepest understanding of zazen is zazen is actually, in its fullest sense, an enactment of the Buddha.

[08:04]

So you may be flubbing around and uncomfortable and so forth, but at the same time you're enacting the Buddha. Mm-hmm. So I'm looking at these flowers in my room. And I can see, I feel a certain clarity in looking at them. And I can feel the clarity of my mind.

[09:18]

Now, How is that feeling that clarity of my mind a practice of the Buddha? Or to realize the Buddha ideal as a practice to realize the Buddha ideal. Now, the way an ideal works in in Buddhism. Now, Yeah, let me complete this. The way an ideal works in Buddhism is you see it as an ideal.

[10:20]

You define its characteristics, which I've been doing somewhat. And then you hold that ideal in view as realizable and you hold it in view for yourself and for others. Okay. So I'm looking at these flowers. And I feel a certain clarity. Now, the way I hold this ideal in view is I see the Buddha, as Kant might have, as maximal greatness, maximum greatness. Yeah, the optimum greatness. The best of the best. And I see myself as a gross form of that.

[11:20]

Okay, so I feel this clarity that has arisen from my direct perception of these beautiful flowers. Which aren't so different, pretty much the same as the flowers in the altar. I feel that clarity and I know I could be more clear. So I feel the clarity I have as I feel both that it's not always present. And I know it's clearer than other times. And less clear than other times. And I know it's definitely clearer than the Buddha. Less clear than the Buddha. Okay, so what's the result of that?

[12:49]

When you develop the tendency to perceive gross and fine Buddha as a realizable ideal, you're always aware energetically that the clarity, for example, of your mind could be greater. Now again, we may know that anyway. Looking at some flowers, you say, hey, I feel clearer today than yesterday. That's, again, a kind of ordinary sense. But when you practice it, repeating to yourself, or keeping in view repetitiously, both pure and gross levels of mind. Now, without teaching, you probably wouldn't do this. It's teaching that points something like this out.

[14:04]

And then you realize the power of the mind as a result of this that transcends gross and fine. A truly fine state of mind. Now, this again requires teaching and practice. to discover because it's hidden. It's not obvious. So if you want to practice this in your zazen, or on your beautiful walks, you notice the bliss that arises on the sound and look of things.

[15:09]

And you feel that as both you feel the possibility of its purity and the possibility of its impurity. You feel within it its potentials for greater clarity and its potentials for lesser clarity. And now you've created a different state of mind than just hearing things, seeing things. And you begin to swim in this evolved state of mind. Okay, that's probably enough for today, huh? Never enough. So I'll leave and you can keep translating.

[16:15]

Because you know the slightly hidden teachings I was about to give. Translate that. So I'm always debating with myself. I'm always debating with you in myself. That I'm presenting Buddhism in a way that's not familiar to you. Or I'm presenting Zen in a way that's different than you expected. So I have this debate. But I should say then that I've come to the conclusion that Zen Buddhism has not been well taught for about 200 years.

[17:18]

And particularly if you look at the history of the Buddhism Zen that's come to Europe and America, it has a particular unduly simplified form. And it hasn't only been badly taught, but it's often been badly taught. Or if not badly, unduly simplified. Now I come from a lineage which is teaching Buddhism based on meditation practice. You can call it a Zen school, but I'm not really teaching a Zen school.

[18:19]

I'm teaching Buddhism. Now if the ingredients you have are body, mind, phenomena, the gate of mystery, other people, and the way you make sense of it all as teaching, the accumulated wisdom, Which is in your language and in all of your thoughts. Buddhism says it's very important to recognize that teaching is one of the ingredients inseparable from everything we do.

[19:20]

And not just sort of take teaching as an accumulated hodgepodge of unthought-through ideas. But to consciously and explicitly choose a wisdom tradition, Based on valid cognition. And based on your own valid cognition. Outside the scriptures. Although the scriptures may point for you where to look.

[20:23]

Okay, so I have made, just to short summary here, I've often made the distinction between direct practice and adept practice. And although my own practice in the early years was primarily direct practice, and the small realizations I've had which have allowed me to understand the teaching to the extent that I do have arisen through my relationship with Sukhiroshi and direct practice, And direct practice is to confront yourself repetitively with enlightening views and antidotal views. Enlightening views and actions and anecdotal views.

[21:45]

Antidotes to delusion, views and actions. As a doctor, you must be well aware. Antidotes to delusion. And doctrine, you know, is the same root as doctor. So all you doctors should be an expert of Buddhist doctrine. Yeah, but not in German language. Yeah. Okay. And these antidotal, not anecdotal, antidotal and enlightening views and actions. If held in view, confronting your habitual views, can actually end

[22:58]

almost surely will precipitate enlightenment and realization experiences. But to show you where I'm at, although this was my practice and experience, I found it was not enough to mature my experience. Nor was it enough to support and maintain the understanding. Nor was it sufficient to teach. So I, nor was it enough to evolve the teachings.

[24:25]

And to evolve the understanding. And the difference between maturing and evolving, maturing is something you do to whine. Yeah, but if you could mature as a cook, say, but you would perhaps only cook what you learned at home. To evolve your cooking, no Italian cooking or Japanese cooking or fully German cooking, requires learning. It still requires the direct experience of cooking, but it comes from learning as well as from... just maturing the way you are.

[25:29]

So I want to, as a basic, teach you direct practice. But I also want to teach you the adept practice that supports realization. and matures realization, and evolves realization, and also both matures and evolves your understanding independent of realization. It's characteristic of Buddhism because it's this emphasis on valid cognition. To regularly explain what you're doing.

[26:40]

So that's what I'm doing. Thank you very much. Let our intention equally penetrate every being and place. With the true merit of the Way, should your own hands say, Oh, my God. Oh, my God. St.

[27:52]

John B. E. Sire of Brothers, I beg thee, Father, to save them. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Whatever it might be that's so countless, I will be able to master them. Whatever it would ask for the greatest answer possible, I will be able to attain it. I'm the Trojan Gen. Maybe you'll know why. I could stand on one of your wires. Thank you. Ka-wah-poo-wah-no-rah-ee-wo-shin-jit-su-oo-ee-oh-ah-gah-shoo-tah-tay-ay-mah-soo-rah.

[29:24]

An unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect dharma, is well-being, creating an a hundred thousand million kalpas. Happy to see and listen to you, to remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of that antithesis verse. How are you?

[30:40]

Okay. Some of you anyway. Okay. This practice is in your hands. I mean for yourself and... For others. And I'm trying to share this practice with you. Not just I'm sharing with you, but you're also sharing with me. I am so used to... I just obviously came into this room and I stood in front of the altar. And I'm so used to standing in front of altars. I'm so used to it that the whole world is beginning to look like an altar to me. I think I drive the duans and everybody crazy because I'm always straightening everything.

[31:43]

He's gonna see if it's 1 16th of a something off. Or he's moved it. It was off, but it's more off after he moved it than before. I'm sorry. I apologize to all past, present, and future duans. But you know, I kind of, I actually line myself up with the altar. And I feel it so acutely that when I look at the rest of the world, when I'm not standing in front of an altar, it lines up like, yeah, there's the Buddha and there's the flowers. The Buddha is said to be like space.

[33:18]

And the real body of the Buddha is said to be like space, the Dharmakaya. But there are various images you can bring into that. which are more tangible than space. One that's always for some reason been important to me is the idea of Buddha's rain, Buddha's gentle rain. As if the teaching of the Buddha, the Dharma, the compassion, the mercy of the Buddha is like a gentle moisture on everything. And there are various images like this which are all inclusive images.

[34:24]

which can be the content of your consciousness. These are qualities or ways of imaging the Buddha. Another is sunlight. To see everything glowing with a kind of sunlight. Inner and outer sunlight. You know, you've got this consciousness, you might as well fill it with something nice. Now the other day I spoke about, I think the first talk By the way, you all seem to be doing quite well.

[35:32]

It's so pleasant in here in the Zendo. I think we're establishing a Buddha field. At least a practice field. Now, the other day I said, it's not the body that disappears, but the object-bearing continuum that disappears. Now, I think I should say something more about that, because that could be understood as a little obscure. But, you know, say you're a train engineer. And you hear a terrible noise. Or the train won't go. You better know whether it's the train or the track. Or perhaps the engine.

[36:48]

If your intuition is something's wrong and you think it's the train and actually the track is out in front of you, that's a big mistake. Hmm. So sometimes the problem is the distraction. Or the way we... Yeah, the distraction, the way we perceive something. Sometimes the distraction is annoying or compulsive or something. But more fundamentally, it's the track on which these objects keep appearing. We say, I have a very distracted state of mind. It's not any particular distraction.

[38:02]

It's our mind finds distractions. And, of course, it might not be either the track, the continuum, or it might not be the distraction itself, the content, might be the engine. By this I mean the intention, the inaccurately or accurately assuming consciousness. The initial mind from which all thoughts arise. So the source of the thoughts may be the problem, the track may be the problem, or the thought itself may be the problem. What's usually for us in practice, ordinary practice, not, you know, the...

[39:04]

where you transform your initial state of consciousness. In ordinary practice, you're really dealing with this object-bearing continuum. Now, Dogen said in a lecture, this truth abides in the state of the objective world. This truth abides in the objective world. The features of the world are permanent. The features of the world are permanent.

[40:27]

In spring, the hundred flowers are red. Doves cry in the willows. Ha! Yeah, why not? When Gikai heard this, he was enlightened. And if you have any luck? What is it about these four sentences which enlightened Gikai? Now, this is fact.

[41:27]

This is not mythology. This is fact. This happened. I'm quite sure. He'd heard many lectures of Dogen's, for sure. Dogen was succeeded by Eijo, and Eijo was succeeded by Gikai, and Gikai was... succeeded by Khezan. You're welcome. They're your ancestors. I know. Grandpa. We chanted their names this morning. This pramana, this moment of recognized truth occurred for Gikai when he heard this statement.

[42:32]

This truth abides in objective reality. The features of the world are permanent. In spring, the hundred flowers are red. The hundred blooms are red. Doves cry in the willows. Tauben rufen in den Weiden. Now, there's only one part of that that's true. Davon ist also nur ein Teil wahr. Doves cry in the willows, that's probably true. We hear them around here. You hear them in Japan all the time. It makes me monastery sick, I mean homesick. Kloster sick sounds pretty strange, doesn't it? Homesick sounds better. Makes me miss being in Japan.

[43:59]

But the first statement is sort of true. I mean, this truth abides in objective reality. Where else would it abide? However, yes, I don't know what's objective. But he doesn't say, this truth, this truth abides. So where does your truth abide? And the features of the world are permanent. Everybody teaches Buddhism is based on everything changing. So in what reality are the features of the world permanent? And all the flowers of spring are not red.

[45:00]

In what sense are they red? Yes, and doves cry in the willows. So this is one of those statements that your teacher is saying it feels true, sounds true, but it makes sense. in the two truths of our lives. The absolute and the relative. And sometimes a statement like this pulls you into it. Now I also said there's two bodies doing zazen here. Now I'm going to suggest or say there's a third.

[46:04]

One body is you sitting here. Seeing yourself from, as if in a mirror. The mirror of memory of your family, of your society. Seeing yourself from outside. Now, when you dream, you're seeing yourself from inside. It's not always clear to us because it's involved in a constant tension with, rubbing against. When you dream, you're seeing yourself from inside. It's not always clear to us because it's involved in a constant

[47:07]

tension with rubbing against this our usual way of seeing from outside. So what about seeing from inside? Now for some reason You know, jet lag seems to be working in reverse with me. Getting worse every day. There's no jet lag at all the first day or two, and then... Yesterday and today it's getting worse. I'm about ready to drop off. You'll wake me at the end of the lecture. Tell me if I dreamed this.

[48:13]

But maybe it's good because I enter more into that body which doesn't observe. Too many of you are kind of observing things in Zendo. Looking around, wondering what's going on, paying attention. Hey, you're not supposed to be doing that, bad boy, bad girl. You're supposed to at least pretend you're in another state of mind. Yeah. I mean, nothing, I mean, a bomb could blow up beside you. Did I hear something? If it's your job to pay attention, fine, but if it's not, hey.

[49:17]

And pretending, you know, sometimes... helps us realize. Okay, so there's you who sit here, seeing yourself from outside as an object. And as objects appear with less materialness, And one object doesn't lead to the other so much.

[50:17]

It's like the objects drove off the road. And they don't have four-wheel drive. So they're kind of stuck in the grass and the mud. You hardly notice how many cars go by on the street, but you notice a car if it's driving across the field. Maybe it gets stuck and then you forget about it. So, you know, if I put this up in this stream of consciousness, object-bearing continuum, And then I put this up. And then this, you know, really doesn't make much difference. They're just stuff you see. But if you're in that state of mind of,

[51:47]

that I showed you when you take this away, and it's just mind concentrated on itself. The object arrives with some hindrance, because there's a tendency, especially in the beginning, for the object to take over and produce object-bearing continuum. And then you lose that field of concentration. Like you lose a dream when you wake up. Or like when you're quite concentrated, you say to yourself, I'm quite concentrated and you lose it immediately. Because what happened is the object, your sentence, you're noticing the thought,

[52:49]

I'm quite concentrated. Has produced an object bearing consciousness. And you've lost the objectless continuum. Now one of the things you're trying to do when you're working with a koan and repeating a phrase One of the things you do when you work with a choir and repeat a sentence... But we can't say unconsciousness occurs. Or non-consciousness, but maybe we can say something like an other consciousness occurs. In which you're present with the phrase or the koan, but it's no longer an object. You feel yourself kind of glued into a bright field which everything is permanent.

[54:04]

Everything is exactly in its place. The features of the world are permanent. Then if some sense object occurs, you're apprehending it from inside, not from outside. And then sometimes your glass world shatters. And you no longer see things from outside. I mean, you can do it as an effort or as a practice of compassion or joining with others, but it's not where you abide.

[55:09]

The doves still cry in the willows. And a hundred grasses bloom red. So now it's understood in koan practice that, I mean, these things are not just kind of random nice phrases that you say with the hopes that something good will happen. They're understood intuitively and analytically very clearly in the way the mind functions. So Dogen's statement is just, I'm sure he just said it in the middle of a lecture, but he didn't think it through analytically at that moment, but it was based on his realization.

[56:37]

So it came from his realization. Today I'd like to describe that place where it came from as the Sambhogakaya body. Okay, so you are sitting, Zaza. When the you that's sitting, the you that is seen in a mirror, the you that is seen in your projected externalized sense fields disappears because you begin to know yourself from inside disappears because you begin to know yourself from inside.

[57:49]

The mind now withdraws of itself from objects quite naturally. And objects themselves, as I said, don't have much materiality. And one object does not lead to the next object to the next object. Each object gets stuck in the mud of a deeper consciousness. Disappears into dreams. The shape of your body even, one of the first things we notice, the shape of the body, the location of our hands, that image of our body that we carry, by which we locate ourselves, disappears. And we can say now we are in an objectless continuum.

[59:03]

And this is called meditative stabilization. And opens us up to what I would call received bliss. As dreams are seeing ourselves from inside, this meditative stabilization is seeing ourselves from inside non-dreaming states. What is non-dreaming sleep but objectless consciousness of which we cannot remember in our ordinary consciousness?

[60:03]

Because our ordinary consciousness as a matter of survival is based on perceiving objects. But that's the outer world where we're separated. There's an inner world where we're connected. But this objectless, non-dreaming consciousness, awareness, can't be an object of consciousness. So how do you know it? Well, you can feel it. You feel differently.

[61:16]

Everything feels differently. And deeply realize this is deeply realized meditative stabilization. And as I said, one of the signs of this is that sense perceptions sounds have a blissful quality. And we call this non-referential bliss or non-referential joy. Because it arises for no reason. This is the bliss of the objectless unity of non-dreaming consciousness.

[62:29]

The objectless consciousness of non-dreaming consciousness. Okay, so that's another body, and that body I hope you discover in Zazen, and I know you have. Now there's a third body. which is the body of generated bliss, not received bliss, but you generate it through the channels, through the chakras and so forth. Now, the first is you, you seen in a mirror. And then the mirror disappears.

[63:36]

There's no mirror to wipe. And you have this again, meditative stabilization. In that meditative stabilization, when boundaries disappear, when object-bearing continuum disappears, You also get your first taste of the Dharmakaya, the body of space where you can't, everything seems to be coming to you and coming from you. And that's a real taste, a fruit of your practice, of the Dharmakaya. And if I tell you that and point it out to you, that's a teaching. So you know it's not just a nice experience that you've also had sunbathing. It's a consciousness that can be evolved and nourished.

[64:57]

Okay. Now, this third body is what is called the Sambhogakaya body. The boga part of it means enjoyment. But it also means to consume. Or to transform or to burn. And the psalm part is translated in the Tibetan version as complete enjoyment. So it's called the complete enjoyment body. Or precise enjoyment body. Yeah. with or reciprocity or connection.

[66:05]

And it can also mean communal. So I take it to mean with the Dharmakaya and with the Nirmanakaya. Because this experience arises from this sense of the object-bearing continuum disappearing. And it consumes or transforms because it transforms the eight vijnanas. You, knowing yourself deeply from inside, all the vijnanas, your five senses, material senses and mental, function differently.

[67:13]

They are no longer functioning in an object-bearing continuum. So the way you understand and hear and feel things is different. And Although you will notice in Sashin, and if you can continue the feeling of Sashin, or this state of mind of practice in your ordinary life, there is a different flavor. And that flavor becomes more and more pronounced and begins to nourish you differently. And we say that this is a turning around of the sense fields.

[68:14]

And the Seventh Vijnana, which is the structure which allows ego and self-identity, self-observing identities to form, can now be transformed into Buddha's gentle reign. into hearing the cries of the doves in willows. And this also, this body of transformation also begins to consume or burn your karma. Which is your eighth Vijnana, which is your storehouse consciousness and non-conscious memory stuff.

[69:28]

So when you are sitting in zazen and you begin to have stuff come up, association, streets from the past, and you need to take little walks to in this lovely place, just to absorb the infusion of stuff. This, even in beginning Sashin, beginning Zazen, is the working of the embryonic, at least, Sambhogakaya body, transforming your karma.

[70:32]

Burning or aligning your karma. Realigning your karma. Realigning it so it's more like an altar. where everything is in a certain order and you can bow to your own karma. Now this body developed is received from the lineage. It's not born by your parents. Sorry, Dad. But you created the conditions which allowed her to To discover the Sambhogakaya.

[71:43]

So the Sambhogakaya is not born from your parents, but born from the Buddha ancestors. I told my daughter that I was the father of both. I told my daughter that I was the father of both. No, no, I didn't. I just told a lie. One of the qualities of a Buddha is an abandonment of any inappropriate acts that might need to be hidden. An abandonment of any inappropriate acts that might need to be hidden. And that practice opens us to an unguardedness in our body, speech, and mind.

[73:03]

And to a spontaneousness of body, speech and mind. So this Sambhogakaya body is born from the vertical lineage of Buddha ancestors. And for me it was born through being with Suzuki Roshi. And if I am even a pretty good teacher, it's not only born through Suzuki Roshi, but through many successive previous teachers. And each person carries it non-consciously. Now, it's also born from the horizontal lineage.

[74:07]

Us practicing here together. And when we create a practice field or a Buddha field, it means... this Sambhogakaya body can be spontaneously born in us. And if I am, if I modestly say so, am in some sense, because I've been doing this a long time, carrying the Sambhogakaya body of the lineage. And you, through your practice, are already carrying this too. Then it's a very particular, I mean, The Dharmakaya is called the real body of the Buddha because it's a single body, shared by all.

[75:33]

It's everything all at once. We call that the space body. But the Sambhogakaya is differentiated within lineages and within persons. For example, the Samantabhadra Bodhisattva Thangka we have at Krestong, which hangs to the right of the Kanon statue. And this feminine form of Abalokiteshvara, the Kanon, has a very black bronze body, feminine body, female body and face.

[76:38]

And very intense eyes. And just to the right of it we have this Samantabhadra tanka hanging. Which is a depiction of the Sambhogakaya body. And it's also... almost black, but in this case blue-black. And there are little thin white eyes coming out of this blue-black face. From this, again, feminine body. And eyes very similar to Kannon's eyes. And the blue-black represents the blissful experience of emptiness in the Sambhogakaya body.

[77:55]

And it can be represented sometimes the Sambhogakaya body is represented as white or red, other colors, golden. And you may actually, if you're with an adept practitioner who's been doing this a long time, you may sometimes see in your inner eye a kind of color or brightness on that person or emanating from that person. Or you may see it on a statue or on an altar. So this is not some figment of the imagination.

[79:06]

It's the imaging or imagination of the inner eye. We say to see the Buddha is to be able to see the reflection as if on the surface of a gem. We say to see the emperor in the marketplace. It means in the marketplace, Everyone looks the same, but one person is the Buddha, one person is the Yama Buddha. That means to see the Buddha in yourself. as a reflection on the gem of your inner mind.

[80:15]

And that subtlety of perception is only possible when you freed yourself from the object-bearing continuum. So there's a communal Sam together, communal aspect of this Sambhogakaya body. Is that we generate it together. And to some extent we all feel it. And that's another reason we do Sashin together, is to create that wiring diagram called ritual. I described ritual in the last session as a kind of wiring diagram where

[81:15]

We all, by doing things together, create an entrainment where energy passes through the communal body. So again, another purpose of sashin is together to create the Buddha field or the Sambhogakaya field that allows this capacity to to present itself to us. To various degrees in each of us. And probably easier to discover and sustain here in Sashin than it will be after Sashin. Though if you're real loose and abandon yourself and aren't too formalistic, relax inside, you may have various kinds of tastes of this blue bliss, in this case perhaps Sambhogakaya body.

[82:48]

that you can evolve and generate and transform the sense fields and your ego structures and your storehouse consciousness. At least I feel very thankful that it seems to me that you are doing this and I'm enjoying practicing with you and sitting with you. Now I have a whole lot of other things I thought I might say, but hey, isn't this enough? Could we possibly need anything else? So happy consuming of your karma. And your sense feelings. Okay, thanks. May our intention equally penetrate every being and place.

[84:43]

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