How was your discussion? And how was it peering into the case together? Peering? Yeah, looking into, yeah. And thanks for making the space a little smaller. You know, ideally for me, you'd all be sitting right here, but, you know, this is, I'm not, we're not on a Tokyo subway. Tomorrow, oh my God, Annette is ready. Okay, so who has something to say? It's not allowed to be Gerhard. We would like to know what the ten episodes of the Buddha are.

[01:04]

It's in the text. You look it up in the book. Do you have the book? Oh, I forgot to bring my own... I wanted to bring my own... One who has come from thusness... or realizedness. The second is worthy of offerings. The third is perfectly enlightened. The fourth is complete in knowledge and action.

[02:05]

One and fifth is one who's gone the right way. And sixth is knower of the world. Seventh is the unexcelled. And eighth is the tiger tamer, no, the human tamer. And ninth is the human tamer. And ninth is the teacher of humans and divines. And the tenth is the world-honored one. And these lists are almost meaningless. I mean, they... You know, number one, he's a good guy. Number two, he's a good guy. Number three, he's a good guy. Number four, he's a good guy.

[03:21]

And number five, he's an especially good guy. And the idea that the lists are ten is just some kind of Abhidharmic nonsense. But actually, if you want to study these, they usually come out of some sutra. They usually come out of some aspect. There's a teaching behind each one. But you have to make an effort to figure that one out. And I haven't done it for all ten. I haven't done it. Could you do me a favor? Yeah. Let's go back up to my stairs. And there is a white piece of paper, I believe, folded in half and sticking out. That's at the top of the stairs next to the Buddha. And it's a copy, a xerox from the book of the case.

[04:24]

Not that I need it, probably, but I might. Okay, what else? Thank you. Should I translate all of that? No. No, I'd rather you... I'd rather you get mine, Frank. Yes. I would just like to start where we stopped in our discussion. And that was the first two sentences. And the two truths of Nagarjuna, the conventional truth and the fundamental truth. Dieser erste Satz hat etwas ja anziehendes und hineinziehendes.

[05:36]

And the first sentence is very attracting and draws us into it. And together we came up with the idea that closing the door might be something like closing the senses. and allowing yourself to... giving yourself into sleep and where this letting go may happen That's a metaphor for big mind. Okay. Oh, the glasses, maybe not a bad idea, but that's why I printed it in big print.

[06:44]

I don't know. This is the first two lines of the introduction. Attaining the great... Oh, no, that's a different one. Closing the door and sleeping is the way to receive those of highest potential. Looking, reflecting and stretching is a roundabout way for the middling and lesser. Is that your first sentence or first two sentences? That's the first two? Okay. That's the first sentence? Okay. And the second sentence is, how can it bear sitting on the carved wood seats sporting devil eyes? Okay. Because the first sentence is really two sentences.

[08:00]

Okay. So you mean the first sentence. Would you translate the roundabout way as a clumsy way? Because that's how it is translated in our German text. No. It doesn't make sense, no? No. I mean, I don't know what the Chinese, you know, maybe we have our... I don't know if you have a Chinese... I'll show you Roku. But roundabout is to just go the long way. It's the opposite of a shortcut. Yeah, instead of going straight, you go this way and look. What? I think it's okay, the translation. What? What's the translation say? It's kind of round and cheap. Okay. The second part of this sentence is the effort that we work with intention, that we practice, also with the consciousness, with the dogmatic path.

[09:10]

And so the second part of the sentence, does that mean that this is where we work with intentions and where we practice? The second part being looking, reflecting and stretching. Okay, and these two sentences, they counteract each other, they need each other. Contradict? No, not contradict, but they're complementary. Okay, okay. Yes, I was also at the school.

[10:18]

My feeling was that it was difficult. And it was very difficult to handle that it was difficult. So we try to understand what the ten epithets are, what this falls into three and four means. So we try to find something that we can understand. And we found something. What was that? The book was made of paper. Well, to start, you have to start somewhere. So what did you find that you understood? Someone explained to us what this falls into three and four means. And that was a relief.

[11:32]

But it was still difficult. And for me that was the tension in working with koans and in the group. And I've not found a way for myself to deal with that. Deal with the difficulties. Yeah, which is ten. I see. So you'd rather fall into three and four? They skipped it. What? They skipped it. Oh, you skipped that, three and four? That's part of the commentary you didn't understand?

[12:38]

Oh, that's okay. Yeah, Bernd, just a minute. So I still don't quite... It was a relief to you to fall into three and four because you thought you understood it. So it was an relief for you to fail in 3 and 4 because you thought you understood it? The feeling of understanding, of normal understanding was helpful. the sense of understanding, of just regularly understanding something was helpful. And what did you understand about it? I forgot an amenity. You didn't even say the unspoken.

[13:40]

I can see we've got an uphill battle here. Bernd? Yes, I was also in the same group. Yes, you were in the same group. One important question, which also appeared in the last session, what Roshi said yesterday, the clear distinction between the Sassanid spirit, what is the Sassanid spirit, exactly the difference between the wisdom spirit and the enlightenment spirit. And somehow this also has to do with it. One important question that came up in that context was what you talked about yesterday in relation to what is zazen mind in contrast to usual mind and also in relation to enlightenment or wisdom mind. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

[14:40]

Well, let's just throw a number of things into the pot and stir it a bit. And what Christa said, you know, the first sentence is interesting and makes you come into the story. Yeah, that's important. And that's partly important. And remember what the sixth patriarch supposedly told his successor. Tell them the opposite. Well, this first sentence is the opposite of what you expect. So it engages you in the story. I mean, you're an actress.

[15:57]

This is a kind of theater. And it's not theater because it's theatrical. It's theater because it's meant to be enacted. It's meant to be felt out, acted out in yourself. This is not about the thinking mind, we could say it's about the embodied mind. Okay, someone else? Yes? I would not like to repeat that we also had a lot of questions or puzzles. I don't mind you repeating that. And we also had different perspectives within the discussion. For example, we were not sure what it means to close the door, whether it means to close the doors of the senses or to close the sender physically.

[17:02]

For example, we didn't know whether closing the door referred to closing the gates of the senses or whether it meant physically closing the zendel door, for example. Yes, and it was also interesting that when you have a point from Koran and then read a bit further, new aspects arise or things are reversed that seemed clear before. It's also interesting that when you have such a point in the Quran that then also new things appear or also can be turned around, which you thought have been clear before. So this sentence, when someone is not convinced, The sentence. Yes. So the sentence, if someone disagrees, he should step forward.

[18:36]

Yeah. If there's someone who doesn't agree. Yeah. That led us to the idea that maybe it's not always the teacher or the Buddha who has the right understanding, but it might also be the disciple who has the right understanding. I hope. Yeah. Yeah. But not in this group. You're cutting off my finger? I said my collar. I said I can't blame him either. Yeah, okay. And then this sentence or this sequence. The teacher takes off his eyebrows and becomes alive. He tries to save the student. And then there's this passage where it says the teacher lifts the eyebrows and becomes alive.

[19:42]

I don't know what it says. Raising the eyebrows, becoming animated. Becoming animated. And then the question is when does the student start to get animated? Well, you look pretty animated right now, all of you. And then we also talked about the unique breeze of reality. And then we said it must be present but maybe the lesser and the lower mystic. And then the last thing. This sequence, you people all have a share.

[20:49]

And then we talked about the fact that we also have a share somewhere. So when we work with this Koran, we also continue the Koran a bit. Or a bit to our own doing. And then we talked about, there's this sentence that says, you each have a part of it, that we also have a part in this koan and that it continues within us, that we are continuing it. Yeah, that's true, of course. Well, everything you're saying is what we should be doing when you look at a koan. You're just kind of like, what is this about? And if it's not understandable, because it's contradictory or obviously not understandable, It's meant to not be understandable.

[21:52]

Yeah, so if it's meant to not be understandable, don't bother with understanding it. Or you hold it as a kind of, what's this about, while you read. You know, many years ago I started teishos with chanting in English only and not Japanese. And it was a failure. Because people were in their usual kind of thinking mind and it was understandable and I couldn't speak to the non-understandable. So I went back to chanting in Japanese because then you're kind of like, what's that all about?

[23:02]

And then you're more open to hear me not make sense. Also bin ich zurückgegangen dazu, dass wir auch auf Japanisch rezitieren, weil ihr dann immer diese Frage habt, ja, worum geht's denn da eigentlich? Und dann seid ihr auch offener dafür, dass ich keinen Sinn ergebe. When I'm in Japan and giving a lecture, I have them chant in English. Wenn ich in Japan... Or Yubangi. Wenn ich in Japan einen Vortrag gebe, dann lasse ich die auf Englisch oder auf... Welche Sprache war das? Yubangi. It's African... Dialect. Okay. Yeah. There is a web of reflecting... They all know each other. They're just citing each other.

[24:22]

They're contradicting each other partly. They refer to ancient disagreements with the Taoists, for example. And just this bystander, this is a koan in itself. And if you don't know that, for example, you don't know what he's talking about. And so these things are a little... There's something lacking for us. Yes. As I said in my piece that you have, I don't think it's looking for a needle in a Chinese haystack. You have that same image in German, right? Okay.

[25:22]

You don't really need to know the koan about the outsider to know that this bystander might refer to the outsider. These stories are more complete in themselves than that. But it is true that there's a lot of referencing things that everyone's an insider. Sorry, I don't get what you mean. He said there's allusions to this and that. The allusions are because everyone's read the same things and studied so they can... They have a... What's the word? An insider language.

[26:25]

Yeah. Like a married couple can talk about things with reference to the time such and such happened and no one else knows what that's about. So wie ein verheiratetes Paar immer wieder über alles Mögliche sprechen kann und sich auf Dinge beziehen kann, wo Außenstehende nicht wissen, worum sich das da dreht. And there's a few very isolated towns in California that have really developed their own language, a lot of it a dialect, based on things that they all know happened in 1920 or 1944 or something like that. But mainly, if you have begun to think through your own experience, In relationship to meditation, you can get most of it.

[27:45]

And the more, of course, you read The more you've read other koans and you've read some sutras, yeah, it helps. And it's partly also the result of a small reading list. If a Japanese or Chinese monastery had 40 books, it would be remarkable. And books were written in those days to be lived, not just read for information. So most people, unless they had some exceptional access to books or wealth, they memorized the few books that were available

[28:56]

Like the smarts of a chess player is often their ability to memorize every game they've ever read about. It's not that they're so smart at thinking, they're smart at memory. But still, the thing that really helps in reading a koan, the main thing is not having read and memorized a small reading list of Buddhist books. It's not about having read a small and memorized a small reading list of Buddhist books. It's knowing and having confidence in your own meditation experience.

[29:59]

And then knowing this must be what they're talking about. So once you know what they have to be talking about, which isn't too many things, Then the koans become pretty clear. But you have to have confidence in your own practice. You have to be the owner of your own practice and not the employee of your own practice. It's like an employee says, God, this company is in a mess and it's not my problem. Chaos and mess. But the owner says, this company is in a mess and it's my problem. So you don't get very far if you look at Buddhism as an outsider.

[31:18]

This is really hard and not understandable and I'm outside it and I don't have enough information. That's about, you know, Yeah. You might as well go home with that attitude. You don't have any chance. I've been speaking English long enough, but the way I speak English is English. And you've all been doing, most of you have been doing Buddhism long enough to say, this is something that I belong to, that belongs to me.

[32:22]

And that's one, having that feeling is a big step in understanding koans. And then it's clear when you don't understand why you're not there yet. Okay. Someone else? Yes? Well, let's have Hans. I would like to talk about my experience from Sunday when I arrived up to now and also about those small things. On Sunday, I read the Koran for the first time and also parts of these 25 pages that you wrote 25 years ago.

[33:31]

Yeah, okay. One page a year. That's about my rate. And when I read the Quran for the first time, I got a little bit angry and I thought, oh gosh, why can't he just say what it means and then that's it. And then your text helped him a lot, in particular a few of the examples that you used? In particular, this image you used about seeing the koan as a whole, like seeing the whole building and not just one detail of the building.

[34:53]

Another interesting example was the camp of Genghis Khan 1000 years ago. Another thing I found really interesting was the camp of Genghis Khan 1000 years ago. I wrote that too. I haven't got there yet. That was about the putting together of the book in there. And that it has a different meaning now, where we are overshadowed, than a thousand years ago and letters took years or two until they arrived. And who then sat down and discussed it, that we have not appreciated what is written in this letter. And that was in the context of what kind of meaning has written speech, written language.

[36:14]

And the meaning of that is different now where we are being flooded by written texts. And then a thousand years ago when a letter might have taken one or two years to arrive. And then I had a vivid scene of how that can be. So I had a vivid experience of what that might have been like and then I felt like we could compare this to being the Genghis Khan camp. We have a paper, a letter, and we discuss it and try to develop an answer, an understanding for ourselves. And somehow it made it possible for me to draw a line over the centuries and I thought, what is so different?

[37:22]

And that somehow changed my inner understanding. Yeah, so we also have this written text, this koan, and we are discussing it and trying to make sense of it. And I didn't understand this with the line. Is there a line through the... Well, what's the difference? A thousand years ago they did this, and now too. And in between there were also stations, as if there really was a connection, simply over the centuries and millennia, although it has been done over and over again. And we are now sitting here at one point and doing this So where's the difference between what they've done a thousand years ago and what we are doing now? I mean, they have done it and we are doing the same thing. Yeah, except they were sitting on horses and we're not. And now with the small group earlier, also as part of this exchange and what I thought was so beautiful, we talked about it briefly, that there is a certain kind of interaction and exchange or was with us in the group.

[38:36]

And then in the small group we also talked about that within the small group there was a particular way of being in contact and communicating that we liked. and you are right, I am right, no, I am right after all, and so on, but the picture I have of it is more something like a marketplace and everyone puts What comes to his mind on the marketplace and you walk around and look at it and with what I can start something, I take it and the other not. But it is something common, which is somehow put in the middle and you talk about it without comparing. And there was not so much of a comparative thinking, like where we would compare, you know, this person is right or I am right or whatever. It was more I had the image of an open marketplace where we would put what we had to offer on the marketplace and everybody could just come and look at what they see.

[39:49]

Yes, and that is also part of what I rediscover in the choir. and also with this Zazen mind and not compare. And what you have now in particular in the text, where I can start with a lot, simply because I have a strong physical feeling about it, And that's also part of what I find in this koan with the Zen mind and this attitude of not comparing. And that's something I'm really interested in because I also have such a strong physical feeling for it. For the koan? For parts of the koan. Yes, or parts of it. And one part is this story with the eyes. What part is the sporting devil's eyes? What I experience is... During the reading and in the small group, I noticed that I started to have headaches.

[40:52]

I noticed that while we were in the small group and when we started reading, I started to have these tensions and a headache. For me, eyes have a lot to do with thinking and analyzing and also losing myself, conceptualize and losing myself. And that makes me feel narrow and I could analyze that but I don't have the feeling that that would help me at all. And the other thing would be for me to also open up this kind of market space within myself. Yeah?

[42:09]

Okay. By the way, there were how many groups? Five? Six. Six. Where were two I couldn't find? One was in here. In the office. Oh, in the office was one. What? A dean's room. A dean's room. I didn't go around knocking on doors, so... Okay, two groups I didn't find, yeah. I thought you all went somewhere. Okay. I said to someone in some situation recently, the best way to read, a good way to read a koan is to kind of create an aural, A-U-R-A-L, space. And read ears, A-U-R-A-L. An auditory space. You know, like when you're in Zazen and you hear things and they're all near, right?

[43:12]

You create a feeling like that and then read without the kind of eye-related thinking. And of course you can also look at a koan, and you should look at a koan, as a source of phrases. If some phrase sticks with you, don't worry about the koan. Just stick with that phrase. Yeah, so you were going to say something else? Yeah, that's enough. All right. Okay, someone else. Christa? I would like to ask a practical question.

[44:31]

Because the circumstances here are luxurious, so to speak. We can work in groups and I find that totally free of cost. Because the circumstances here are luxurious. This youth costume? Yes. Because we can work in groups, and that's very helpful for me. For me, this is a really new experience. It's the first time I dare to approach a koan. Really? Yes. Okay. Yes, it's so. I believe you. Yes. Yes, and for me, I was inspired by a few sentences, so to speak. And then there was this one sentence that stuck with me, that was the sentence with ...

[45:33]

the world-honored one ascends the seat? I was inspired by a few sentences and the one that particularly stuck out to me was the world-honored one ascends the seat. Which one? The world-honored one ascends the seat. Oh, okay. There came the feeling of presence and I just started working with presence. And along with that came the feeling of presence and also of vastness, but then I started to work with presence and I asked myself the question, what is presence? And then I thought about distinguishing the absolute and the relative, but that was more an idea coming from the head and I couldn't really work with it.

[46:58]

And then there were a few sentences that worked well with the sentence I chose, like, to raise the eyebrows that worked well together with the world or not want to sense the seeds in terms of its energies. So there were a few sentences that resonated with my sentence, that evolved something similar within me. So my question now is, if I'm all by myself, I think I would not have come up with the idea that this is about sasen mind and usual mind. That's why I'm here. but Michael I, also what I now

[48:20]

What interests me is, for example, if I am alone and I would work with the sentence, with the presence, and explore the presence, although the everyday spirit is also part of it, so to speak, because we also examine what the difference is. So if I was alone now and I would work with the sentence and with presence and while doing that the usual mind would also be present because I would try to investigate this. Would I be able to examine all the different rooms of this house on my own? That's my question when I'm alone with it. So, but... It's fun just to watch you.

[49:35]

Go ahead. If I keep reading the koan while practicing with this one sentence, then would I over time start to discover the different rooms of this building all by myself? Why don't you find out? Do you need a more positive support? You need a guarantee? No. Just try it out. My question is only because now we have the group and that is wonderful and we had I find we had We found out something. What, three and four was, right? Quite simple. Yeah, for example. Quite simple. Yeah, I mean, a group is a way to look at something mantrically.

[50:40]

In other words, instead of you repeating it, each person has their version and repeats it. So it's a fruitful way to work, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yes? For me, this koan does not speak to my practice. I can't find anything within the koan that I can practice with. Maybe. Let's see how you feel at the end of the week. Okay. Thanks for saying that. That's great. You've got, there's about, I don't know, in the main body of the koans, there's 1,999 other ones.

[51:44]

Maybe one of those would relate to your practice. So you have 2,000 chances. But really, I would say for us, there's 20 or 30 koans that would be helpful to know about. But please know that my lectures are basically the same approach to a subject as the koans are. I mean, when you listen to my lectures, they're actually the same kind of attitude toward a subject that these are. So you're already rather familiar with koans? Or when in the middle of Zazen this morning I say something about the outsider asked the Buddha the unspoken.

[53:04]

That's basically the approach of a koan. To just introduce something without a context. Or to introduce it in the context of sitting. and unexpectedly. Okay. Someone else? Yeah. Okay now, Gerhard. What you said this morning during zazen, Spontaneously reminded me of... Spontaneously reminded me of also what's said in the case where the World Honored One ascends the seat and then does not speak.

[54:17]

It seems to be the same situation. No, very similar. Very similar, indeed. In the case itself, Machiavelli in the Inverse is actually pointed out once again, in which he is asked once again, do you see the unique presence of reality? So that one has not missed it. And in the verse, it seems that the verse again hints at that point where it says, the unique breeze of reality, do you see, as if to point out that you are not to miss that point. Okay. And in the case itself, there are two points for me, where it is actually pointed out how the way to... how the way to this... and in the case itself there are two points where the path to the unique breeze of reality is also shown.

[55:23]

This is the blow with the hammer That's the hit with the gavel. That directly points to vastness because usually we can't really conceptualize the hitting of the gavel because usually it comes unexpectedly. Those Eno's, oh my God. You can't control them. And then Manjushri also again hints at this point when he says clearly observe the Dharma of the King of Dharma.

[56:41]

The Dharma of the King of Dharma is thus. And then the fact that the world-loved one does not say anything, shows us that it always turns around in the whole choir collection, which is not negotiable. And then the fact that the World Honored One does not speak probably shows us again that it's always again about something that cannot be said. Particularly if we are to understand that as an introduction. Yeah, okay. What still moves me is that Manjushri is lying there.

[57:47]

What moves me or touches me is that Manjushri is lying. The remark that he still has to pull the nails out of his eyes and tear the thorns out of his brain. Particularly the part where it says that you still have to draw the nails out of his eyes and retch the something. The wedges on the back of the brain. Yes. It seems to me that the Vishnayana and the Mano-Vishnayana And it seems to me to allude to that you have to keep the alaya vijjnana pure, no?

[58:48]

To keep the vijjnanas and the mana vijjnana pure from the klesha vijjnana. Okay. In order to realize lessons. I'm OK. Yeah, so Gerhard's working with his understanding, and he's having a dialogue with himself that parallels the dialogue in the koan. And this is good. This is what we have to do. It's like this, and it's like that. I think I can do this. No, but if I did that, this wouldn't be so good. But then if I did that, this would be, yeah, then this would happen. It's like that kind of. I would guess, I don't know, I've never seen any research on it, but I would guess that there was a troubadour-like storyteller tradition in from village to village, because people went from village to village in China, I'm sure, as they did in Europe, telling stories.

[60:13]

So the oral storyteller tradition probably has a lot to do with the form of the koans. Because it becomes part of how you tell a story in a culture. I understood that they did travel a lot in these days and visited each other in the monastery, didn't they? Yeah. And, of course, toured also practice in the south. Yeah. Yes. Ivo. I'm concerned about the question.

[61:15]

I was here 14 days ago and had the exchange in the group I'm interested in the question that well first I have been here two weeks ago and I found the exchange in the group very interesting just like Christa also said exchange in this group now or last week? About the time I wrote the... yeah. And now... But was Christa, you were here for that 14 days ago? That's right, they were there, okay. In today's small group, something similar happened at the end. And we are too... And in today's small groups something similar happened where we came up with almost opposing perspectives on the same koan.

[62:26]

not all, but many roads lead to Rome, but not all. And if that had been a regular text, I would say that looked at hermeneutically. I'd say that several ways lead to Rome, but not each way. Okay. And when I listen here, I notice when you say something, I think, if I don't understand it, I think I will understand it and I don't think you're wrong. But here I notice that when you say something and I don't understand it, then I feel like I will understand it someday and I don't feel like you're wrong. Usually. That was pretty good up until usually. For me the question is...

[63:46]

This tension that the Quran is not random, there are many ways, and how do I feel if I don't understand something, if something is not to be understood, And there's a tension between the koan is not arbitrary and how can I distinguish, how can I recognize whether I understand something or whether something is not understandable or whether something is just nonsense. I mean, I'm just nonsense, how I see it. Well, if it's useful to you, and you feel good or it's productive, well, who cares whether it's nonsense or not? If you can... Oh, you don't need to worry about whether it's not... If it works for you, it works. You don't need any outside comparison.

[65:00]

But if you meet with others or we talked and we said, well, it could be more useful if you looked at it this way too. That's okay too. Then you can say, oh, maybe I can look at it that way. Aber wenn du dann mit anderen sprichst oder wenn wir zum Beispiel sprechen würden und dabei herauskommen würde, dass es vielleicht noch nützlicher wäre, wenn du das auf eine andere Weise betrachtest, dann kannst du das ja auch wieder neu betrachten. It's not so important whether you follow the recipe or not. What's important is if the soup tastes good. If you make a good soup and ignore the recipe, that's fine. If you cook a good soup and ignore the recipe, then it's all right. Trust your own experience. Yes. I notice that I am always a little confused. I said yesterday that it makes me bored. I notice that I tend to get impatient or restless.

[66:24]

Or as I said yesterday, it's boring to me when the question is what is the right understanding and what's not the right understanding. Because my idea is that such a koan resolves itself throughout the years and so I don't need to have questions and I don't need to have answers. So what should I do with this restlessness or impatience when we are talking about whether something is right or what's the way to look at it? That's a problem for me, unfortunately. In general? Perhaps also.

[67:27]

Maybe. Well, what you said has been useful to all of us. And your feeling that it will work over years and resolve itself in various ways. So if you're willing to wait for years for it to resolve itself, that's patience. So why not have patience with all the different versions here, which are several years all compressed into a short time? Okay.

[68:35]

I mean, if you put a few painters in Kansas City, they develop very slowly. Yeah, a few painters in Kansas City, artists. But if you put a few painters in the middle of New York with 150,000 other painters, they evolve quite fast. Aber wenn du ein paar Maler in New York City aussetzt... So that's why a lot of painters live in cities with other painters because then they evolve more rapidly. But it can become superficial too, so you have to find the balance. Okay, anyone else before I riff a bit?

[69:36]

I was here two weeks ago too and one thing that I said about a devil's eye was that it seemed to me that that was perhaps some kind of warning also that even though you may be on the seat and be participating in some way in Buddha nature that your eyes it's probably good not to forget that your eyes could perhaps be looking after their own best interests. And somebody said immediately, well, that's too Christian. And then I thought afterwards, Well, actually the koan is good because it's sort of like putting a mirror in my head and it shows me what's there. I think that it gives me a possibility of seeing where I am, seeing what's there.

[70:54]

It's just an idea that popped up. I'm not saying that's the right interpretation of Devil's Eyes or not, but that's what's in me. And so I thought that the cone had been very useful in the last two weeks since then. I thought these ideas and pictures have come up quite a bit in my daily life. It's something to chew on for a long time. Yeah. Deutsch bitte. Yes, well, I was also here in Port Sarawak, and then it was about what these devil's eyes could mean, and I came up with it, yes. Maybe it's the case that even if you think you would participate in good nature, that it may be a warning that with these devil's eyes you are still looking for your own interests. And then someone said to me, oh, yes, that's a very Christian interpretation of the thing. And then I had to get rid of myself first.

[71:59]

And then I thought, yes, that's true, yes, that's very Christian. And then afterwards I thought, well, for me, this corn is more like a mirror, with which I then have insight into what is in my head. And that's just good. I don't want to say that you have to understand it like that, but that's at least the state of my understanding. So what I bring to this case. And in the last two weeks, phrases or pictures appeared a lot during the day. I was able to bite a lot of it in the last two weeks. So it was a good thing for me. Okay. Okay. Yes, Bernd? One last remark. I have a problem that I would like to express. I have a problem that I would like to express.

[73:08]

If I read a koan as I'm listening, like I'm listening to your teisho, then when I think of the teisho in the morning, I get a lot of substance that I can use. Then if I think about this morning's teshu, for example, I'm getting a lot of substance that I can enact and work with. Yes, if I look at a koan like this one, and I take it out like a balloon, which I can look at from different sides and see different balloons in different arrangements, combinations, And when I take a koan, like this one, and I compare it, for example, to a flower, bouquet of flowers, and there are different flowers, and I can look at it from different sides.

[74:18]

It's probably a flower bouquet, but it's not attractive enough for me to look at this bouquet for a long time. And now if I just look at this image of the bouquet of flowers, I'm noticing that maybe the koan is like such a bouquet for me, but it's not attractive enough so that I would really stay with looking at it from different perspectives in contrast to when I listen to your tashos. And then I also have the question with Christa, when I'm alone, And then I have the same difficulty that Christa also mentioned. When I'm alone in my daily life, I usually don't have the patience to look at the koan and take it apart the way we do here. Yeah, of course, I know. Yeah, and that's one of the problems with lay practice and so forth and the context of a situation like this where you can work with something in a different way than you would on your own.

[75:45]

what we're doing in these winter branches now as the subjects being koans is that it is we'll see if we can find a way to make koan practice part of our more explicitly part of our adept lay practice. Okay, we'll see. But when I, you know, Dogen is nothing, we could say that Dogen's, all his writing is really a commentary on koans. As I quoted this morning, when we cultivate and authenticate myriad things by conveying the self to them, statements like that are basically a Koan way of thinking.

[77:16]

And you can use this phrase. And so you can take a phrase from a koan and use it. So here the image and the sense of the koan is, if he does nothing, how do we clearly observe the world in such a way that it's thus? So we could say the implicit questions in the case are, you know, what is clearly observed?

[78:22]

What is thusness? Now, as it says here, we could take up the practice of even up until now, at the conclusion of the, you know, blah, blah, blah, we strike the gavel on the sounding board. So we could take the practice of, and you probably don't even have to translate this, is when we hit the Han, we could say, that's the sounding board and that's the gavel. We now use a drum usually at Crestone. But if we used, we could do the same thing. We could say, just before we hit the drum, we could say, clearly observe the Dharma of the Dharma King. The Dharma of the Dharma King is thus. And then we start hitting the drum. If we did that, the question is always there.

[79:55]

Is just hitting the drum the Dharma? Do we not need the teacher to come and give a talk? The Dharma is just thus. So that's a kind of introduction to the talk if you can be in the talk the way you heard the Dharma drum. We have written on the back of this board, I don't know exactly, but usually the tradition is, it says, life and death, serious problems. So the idea is that's in your mind... Every time you do the three rounds, life and death, serious problem.

[81:14]

But it sounds like in the Sung Dynasty, they had the habit, the practice of saying this when they hit the heart. Every time you hit the Han. Okay. And also then there's the question of what is ascending the seat? And remember, This is the first koan in this book. So if we're thinking semiotically, what is ascending the seat? Opening the book. Opening the book is ascending the seat.

[82:33]

What else could it be? What is leaking? Yeah, opening the book is leaking. I mean, Manjushri, you wouldn't say you can't stop the leaking. If it didn't have that, then you might as well close the book. After the first koan, the Buddha gets up there and he doesn't say anything. So, heck, I'm not going to read the second koan. Do you understand the idea that the book is leaking? When you try to explain the teaching, you're leaking. But to practice compassion is to leave.

[83:40]

What does it say the Bodhisattva does? Enters the weeds. The Bodhisattva is the one who enters the weeds. enters into ordinary activities with people, doesn't keep some kind of somatic mind at all times. So this koan is first of all saying, in the context of the book, it's saying, this entire book is leaking. Beware. Isn't that obvious? Or now is it obvious? It's like you're looking for Afghanistan on the map.

[84:42]

You can't find it. You find Kabul and you find a few other little names but then you look A, F, G and you don't see what's obvious. Neither of us can spell Afghan. Anyway, do you see the picture? This is showing you ideally what practice is. You don't say anything. But in this case, wisdom is to leak. Manjushri leaks. And they're a team. So, you know, you get up there and I'll hit the gavel and you don't say anything. It's like that.

[85:57]

I work these things out with my jisha. Manju Frank. Okay. Okay. So, you read the case and you say, well, what the heck is teaching? How is this teaching? What are the usual ways to teach? Well, it's looking, reflecting and stretching. What are looking, reflecting and stretching? I told you in the Tay Show the other day. These three categories. Looking, what's looking? I know none of you were at that lecture. Mindfulness.

[86:57]

Reflecting is analysis, the Abhidharma, etc. Stretching is yoga. Okay. But for the Buddha, he doesn't have to do any of these things. He just goes to sleep. Or he just does his ordinary life. And really, when you meet a good alert student, You just can live with them and cook in the kitchen and so forth. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to ever give a lecture. That's enough. Okay. So you read the case and you have in your mind what the heck is teaching.

[87:59]

And how do I relate to teaching? So then you read this and it says, you know, if I'm one of the highest potential, they're just going to close the door and sleep. So it's, you know, like you have this question, what is the teaching? How am I going to learn? What should a teacher do? Well, should he really or she really close the door and sleep? It sounds good to me. You know, I may have a practice period where I just sleep. Let's see what happens.

[89:17]

No, I had to do that when I had to stay here and was in the hospital. I had the operation in Crestone. They just closed the door and slept, I guess, or I don't know what happened. Were you there, Dieter? Yeah. So Dieter was a shiso. I wasn't there. It was great. I was sleeping in the hospital. But I missed being Chousseau with you, so you want to do it again? Yeah, I mean, be Chousseau again? Did you notice that hesitation? Yeah, that was your, his usually... Okay. So when you see that you have to start this koan with the question in your mind, what is the teaching?

[90:24]

So the first sentence is responding to that. The teaching may just be as simple as living with someone, even closing the door and sleeping. But what is the teaching more obviously? Well, more obviously, it's looking, reflecting and stretching. But then what does it say? It says this isn't the deepest way. That's for the middling and lesser. That's just to get your, you know, to get your, what do you mean the middling and the lesser? That's all I know.

[91:25]

It's to see if you have a little ego. I'm not the middling or the lesser. So then you say, I guess I've got a little ego here. I don't want to be in the category of the middling and the lesser. And already you've had a lesson. So if you react with, I don't want to be in the middle and lesser, the koan has already got you. And then, what about when it goes so far as sitting on the carved wood Seat sporting devil eyes. So first let's look at this positively. In this koan, young man's jewel.

[92:28]

The introduction says, attaining the great trance of freely exercising miraculous powers. Mastering the spell of the languages of sentient beings. That's what I try to do with German. Mastering the spell of the language of you sentient beings. I'm so impressed that you can speak the language. I had the same feeling in Sweden. I had the same feeling in Sweden. All these noises, they were making at each other and they seemed to understand. Yeah, Swiss-German is like that, yeah.

[93:49]

No, I won't say that. Okay. So it's assumed that a teacher has power, charisma, charisms, when they're able to have some kind of trance-like effect on you. or have some kind of presence, you know, sporting kind of compelling eyes or something like that, charisma. Or when they seem to know what you're thinking. Or they seem to know what you were about to think about. Okay.

[95:08]

So that's considered to be a sign of being a teacher. Now, sporting devil eyes is a way to say... Let's not... It's to take away the saying of that. Does that make sense? In other words, this is stating that this charismatic way of giving talks, in other words, to speak to the, literally we could say, to the field of mind rather than the contents of mind,

[96:09]

is actually a way we practice. Okay, so the first sentence, closing the door and sleeping, It takes away our usual ideas of how we practice. The second, mindfulness and zazen and so forth, it takes that away by saying it's only for the middling and the lesser. Okay, but so to follow that pattern, the next one, which is to teach with some kind of power and presence and charisma, How do you take that away?

[97:26]

Well, we call it sporting devil eyes. Okay, so each one is a sentence that takes away. It's apophatic. It's like saying the willow is not green, the flower is not red. But when you say that, what do you see? Red and green. That's also the transparency of the spell of language. Now, in the Middle Ages, as I spoke about in some other context a while ago, maybe here, I don't remember, they thought that, in Europe, they thought that the eye sent out beams.

[98:29]

Now we don't think so. We think light goes into the eyes. And they thought when you looked at a mirror, the mirror actually bounced the beam off at another angle. When you stick a stick into a lake and then it turns where it hits the water, they thought that was the eye beam was turning when it hit the water. And in Europe, they had an idea that there was a power in that, and if your intentions were not good, you could make other people sick with the evil eye. And Alan and I might know that as Mammy Yoakum's double whammy.

[99:45]

No? Did you read Little Abner? And Mammy Yolkin had the double whammy, and when she had the double whammy, her eyes were spirals, and she could really shrivel someone up with them. Yeah, I did. You stay away from Mammy Yolkin, particularly on Groundhog's Day. You don't have to know what we're talking about. You know, the first joke I was told when I came to Germany... What's the difference between yogurt and America? One has a living culture. American culture is all over the damn world.

[101:01]

That's why you don't know about Manmi Yoakum. Little Abner. What? Okay. Mickey Mouse. Yeah. Big ears and neotenous eyes. Neoteness means you have youthful characteristics in the adult stage. So Walt Disney designed all these things with the big eyes of babies and big ears so you relate to them like you relate to a baby. Just to show there's a little culture behind. Turkey, you still get everywhere you come, you get a little glass thing against the evil eye.

[102:03]

Really everywhere. Where? Turkey. In Turkey? Yeah. Everyone has this glass arm against the evil eye. To protect you from the evil eye. Yeah. Especially to protect you from envy. Envy, yeah. Envy was one of the main... The evil eye was the way envy was most powerfully expressed. But I watched Suzuki Roshi once. There was some guy, he was like here, and I was like sitting where you are. And some guy in the back was, I mean, this is, I'm just telling you what happened. Some guy in the back, I knew him pretty well. He was a kind of pain in the neck. And he had this completely... He was a far-out guy, but he also had this completely fabricated, exaggerated CV, is that what you call it?

[103:16]

Curriculum vitae? Far out does that mean he was different? Yeah, he was kind of interesting. He was strange. Knew a lot. And he was a bit crazy. And he was doing something in the back of the room. And suddenly, I felt Suzuki Roshi's eye beams pass over my head. Literally, I felt... I looked back, and this guy kind of went... And he got up and left and never came back. Yeah, it was like aversion. Have you looked at the picture of Sukhiroshi on the back of Zen Mind Beginners Mind? You noticed one eyebrow is up and one is not.

[104:19]

That's raising the eyebrows. Really? Because you're supposed to be able to look with one eye into conventional reality and another eye into fundamental reality, and there's a difference between the two eyes, and that's called raising the eyebrows. So, the carved wooden seat, they make these beautiful chairs, you know, and then you sit on it and then you have this kind of charismatic power and it says, is this what teaching is? But if there's a bystander who doesn't agree So here's a lot of possibilities. What is the teaching? And then they say it's closing the door or it's reflecting or yoga or charisma.

[105:54]

But what if there's someone who doesn't agree with any of this? Come forward. That's asking you to come forward. It's you. You're the bystander. And it specifically says, come forward and express yourself. So this whole thing right here, the first two paragraphs, the case and the introduction, are meant to be enacted. You could do it as a theater piece. Okay, and then what's the next? We're going to stop. But what's the next sentence? Completely embodying the ten epithets of the Buddha. What's the eleventh epithet? Your name. If the Buddha can have ten names, he can have eleven.

[107:10]

So it just means the Buddha takes many forms and you can be one of the forms. What else could it mean? Don't think ten epithets is some special meaning. Ten or twenty or a million, a million Manjushris appear. You're one of them. This is talking to you, not you as a scholar and who knows things and is right or wrong. This is just you. If the Buddha can be, you know, the one who does this, the one who does that, he can also be the one who's Manuel. Who's what? Your lady. Thank you. Okay? Okay. Crystal clear. Yes. Okay, thanks a lot.

[108:19]

Thanks for translating.

[108:25]

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