One of those 11,093 are here. They're hard to see, but they're here. And two of them are the sun-faced Buddha and the moon-faced Buddha. And the sun-faced Buddha lives for 1,800 years. And the moon-faced Buddha only lives for a day and a night. So basically what Matsu said, he says, how is your health? How is your venerable health? And he said, there are long-lived Buddhas and there are short-lived Buddhas. This was his compassionate answer. Even if I am a short lived Buddha, you should know the long lived Buddha.

[01:16]

So Matsu gave us, is giving us this treasure, this gate as well. Now yesterday I, in speaking about the Zazen mind, I was also pointing at what great activity or great function means. Great activity means a mind big enough to accept everything as it is. And I also pointed out in speaking about tea and scratching, But by the way, a number of you asked me about not moving.

[02:32]

You know, there's no rules in Buddhism that are not meant, that are kind of fixed. They're not meant to be broken. Rules are there as a suggestion. So in your sitting, of course, sometimes you straighten your posture and so forth. But the effort is not to move. The effort is to really come into deep mental and physical stillness. Stillness itself can be realization. So you're trying to come into a physical stillness which draws out a mental stillness which then deepens the physical stillness.

[03:48]

But still sometimes we straighten our posture, relax our shoulders, lift up our head. Suzuki Roshi's son was the best at a heiji, a monastery where I studied too. At going from right full lotus to left full lotus without other monks sitting in front of him being able to tell he changed. I couldn't even move my little toe without you knowing it. But he had some skill. He'd sit there, absolutely, you know, and then he'd lift his road lip, and his legs would be just the opposite. LAUGHTER

[04:49]

See, monks without TV, they have to amuse themselves. This is a very arcane skill that has not been transmitted to the United States or Europe yet. Arcane means... Hidden. Or a secret or something like that. But that's not the kind of movement I'm talking about. So sometimes, as I say, we do straighten our posture a little bit, but we shouldn't be busy about it.

[06:06]

And if you make a big shift, say, to rest posture with your knees up, your arms around your knees, or to Seiza with your legs back, You bow and then make the change. I had a very hard time learning how to sit myself because my legs just wouldn't go down. As they say Zazen for me was very silent because my knees were over my ears. I used to have to push them down every period.

[07:09]

And I called my posture the half lily because it nearly killed me. A lily is a flower usually in America at funerals. And I could last, on the first year or so, I could only last about five minutes or ten minutes before my legs would pop back up. So Sukhya Rishi would come by with a stick every period and sometimes hit us and sometimes just walk around. So I tried to last until he would walk around. So then I would bow and he would hit me. And then I could change my legs into rest posture.

[08:23]

He came over to me once and whispered, why don't you try a chair? I said, no. Yeah. But sometimes in the middle of a session or something, he would suddenly kind of holler at us, don't move. What a translation. And then for the rest of that period, we would all try to, no matter what position we were in, to sit absolutely still. This was a good experience. But anyway, yesterday I gave you by talking about tea and scratching.

[09:25]

The two main tools of meditation practice. One pointedness and a non-interfering observing mind. Both these are the essential tools of practice. And both are developed through zazen practice. And fully developed zazen mind accepting mind is called great activity. So I would like us to understand how easy, how basic practice is, in fact.

[11:18]

At least I see it that way. The practice itself is easy, the problem is me. Because I'm so troublesome, practice is difficult. The practice itself is quite easy. Although it says in this koan, when you come right down to it, when you are a person in your own right. That sounds all right to me. Joe will soon know more German than I do.

[12:26]

Maybe in three weeks or so. When you are a person in your own right, You must be ready to drive off the farmer's ox. And snatch food from the hungry man's mouth. I'm sorry. I just said it was easy. But this is a Zen way of talking. It's a radical way, a strong way of saying you have to be free from your culture. In other words, what basically is our culture? Farming and eating. To really enter into the blue dragon's cave and come up with the pearl.

[13:47]

And Shwedo says in the poem on this koan. You should know how I've suffered bitterly for 20 years. Going into the blue dragon's cave, this distress should be understood. It said, when Shwedo opens his mouth to speak, you see his guts. So this practice is both easy and difficult. We have to be ready to give up the most basic things we take for granted. If we're going to realize for everyone this true human body Matsu did it, Dogen did it, Tsukiroshi did it.

[15:09]

They did it, they survived, they, you know. When Sukiroshi first came to America, he even had little fat cheeks. Though he refused in the Second World War to participate with the Japanese government in the war movement. And they threatened him, well, you can have no food then unless you participate. And he said, okay. So he made that decision, the same kind of decision. And he said, okay. And the villagers hid rice.

[16:20]

They couldn't be found giving him rice, but hid rice in the bushes near the temple for him. You know, people are so patriotic, there's even an effort now from Japan to get me to change that in the introduction to Zen mind, beginner's mind. Because it seems that some of his present family do not want it said that he was not a loyal Japanese during the war. There's a madness to our culture.

[17:24]

I mean, just reading recently that Cyprus, Turkey and Greece are both getting missiles to aim at each other over Cyprus. I mean, Herman's house is in danger. He has a little house in Turkey. I think it's targeted, Herman. But I mean, you must admit this is nuts, these people. This little tiny island and they're getting missiles from Russia and the United States. I mean, they should just buy each other's villages. It's cheaper. It's really crazy. This small island with the rockets from Russia and America, they should buy each other their villages.

[18:28]

That would be much cheaper. No, I forgot my watch, so I don't have to stop. Until you start screaming at me. What time is it? We're helpless here. What? Twenty to five, okay. Well, I haven't started the lecture I was kind of pondering giving yet.

[19:33]

Maybe we have to save it now again till to be continued tomorrow. I think I should explain in the few minutes I have just one idea. Buddhism, especially Zen Buddhism, is a teaching based on that there's nothing outside the system.

[20:42]

Which means if there's nothing outside the system, as I say, Archimedean point. Everything has to be here. So Dogen says, when all things are Buddha Dharma, this is where I started on the first day. When all things are Buddha Dharma, There is delusion and enlightenment. There is practice and birth and death. And there are Buddhas and sentient beings.

[21:43]

Now this is one of those simple and profound statements. that sum up the central vision of all of Buddhism. And I began the exposition of this in Vienna last week or so. Okay. There's all these things. How do we understand it? How do we divide it up into this and that?

[22:47]

How is this life? Okay, I'll give you another statement of Dogen's. The coming and going of birth and death is the true human body. I've decided to speak about that. This is another very simple, but you can spend a good bit of time on it. The coming and going of birth and death is the true human body. That's already an extraordinary statement. At least to me it's an extraordinary statement. And then he says, The coming and going of birth and death is where ordinary people drift about.

[23:54]

It is also where great sages are illuminated. He calls this world the coming and going of birth and death. And here you call this world the coming and going of birth and death. And he says, it's where most people drift about. So he's asking, when will we stop drifting about? Because it's also where great sages are illuminated. How do we stop drifting about? When we know that this coming and going of birth and death is the true human body.

[25:02]

It's as if the world, all these things in front of us comprised two gates. A samsara gate and a nirvana gate. And it's right here like in the double meaning of trivial. To the ordinary mind trivial means something unimportant. To the mind on the path Trivial means the three roads. It means a choice. How do we come to know this true human body? How do we come to enter this Dharma gate.

[26:18]

This nirvana gate. Where we actually accept in this world there is enlightenment. Not in the past. If there's nothing outside the system, it's right here. It can't be anywhere else. Where else could it be? And Buddhists don't just live in the past. It's also possible they live now. If you don't accept that, Buddhism is a sham. A sham means it's not true. Shimera, yeah, we have that word in English too. It's an illusion. But you know in your hearts and in your practicing bodies it's not an illusion.

[27:26]

You wouldn't be here unless something bigger than you is practicing you. So how are we going to enter this nirvana gate? To be continued. Okay, thank you very much. May our intentions be the same as those of the people of Germany, with the true merit of the brotherhood. I am the leader of the people. I am the leader of the people. Om Om Om Uryo Seikan Gaku Mutsuyo Om Uryo Seikan Jyo The leading beings are countless, I praise them for saving them.

[28:47]

The helpers are indestructible, I praise them for preparing an end. die damals sind grenzenlos. Ich gelobt, sie zu herrschen. Der Weg des Polaris kommt in der Taktik. Ich gelobt, ihn zu erheben. wārei mātenwōn shi jujitsu koto etari negawa kuwa nōrai o shen jutsu ni o keshi tate matsuran

[31:33]

I know a lot of people who think that I'm talking about them. I think there are a lot of people who think that I'm talking about them. I think there are a lot of people who think that I'm talking about them. Are you ready? Yes. As I said to our Ino-sama, Otmar Ikkyo, a few minutes ago, this is, I think, the rainiest sashimi we've ever had here.

[32:42]

Those of you who were here last year in the Sashin, do you remember we raked leaves? And the leaves were coming down. Each Sashin is different. Yeah, not just because the leaves come down. I almost canceled this Sashin, you know, because I thought there were too few people to make it work. But I'm glad I didn't because I wouldn't have had this week with you. And I think it's been a pretty good Sashin, at least for me and I think for some of you. And as a few of you have noticed, I've sat with you in the Zendo more than usual.

[34:06]

And I mean, one I've enjoyed Doing it. It's a relief to me to have a chance just to sit. And also it's Atmar's first sashin, so I thought I should support him. And his first sashin is Eno. We found him out here in the street somewhere, put him in robes and said... This is your first Sashin and your Eno. And like a good Bodhisattva he said, yeah. And also there's not so many people, it's obvious, so I thought I should add one body.

[35:09]

Why is that funny? I got one too. But mostly it's that, you know, my job in Sashin is to, various little jobs, but my main job is to give lectures. And if we have a pretty big session, 40 or 50 people, the sitting mind of everyone becomes mine and I have nothing to say. I just get absorbed in sitting and somebody says, you have to give a lecture, and I think, Then I break into a sweat and I think, oh my God, what will I say?

[36:27]

But with a smaller sashin, you know, in other words, I have to keep a little distance and space. from the Sashin in order to have the perspective which allows me to give a lecture. At the same time I can't be too separate obviously because I have to feel what you're bringing me to. So obviously it's a balance. And in this session I found I could participate more and still have the perspective that allowed me to give some lectures. Yeah, so now I have to give one.

[37:42]

And we're back where we started. With this homologous world field. Now be proud of yourself. Oh, okay. You should say, yes, I am proud of myself. I'm proud of myself. Anyway, if you'd like. This homologous world field of shared root, of one root, and a shared parallel development.

[38:45]

Now what I want to try to do is before this session, but today and thus before the Sashin ends. To give you a feeling of this path, of path mind. And what we, one of the main things we mean when we say Dharma gates are innumerable, I vow to enter them. If I said to you, only the tiniest insect can carry the world in the fragrant breeze, What I would mean with such an image is that it's very easy to

[40:04]

bring our attention to our breath. But to bring the world into our breath is very difficult. But it's such a gentle act as this simple thing of bringing your attention to your breath. This kind of various kinds of strength, there's one koan which has, I think it's the two strong men of China, kind of mythological strong men of China. Paul Bunyan types. I don't know what you have in Germany. Paul Bunyan is some mythological lumberjack, I think. But it said the strongest of these two men could snap the waist of a dragonfly.

[41:15]

The dragonfly is? He could snap the waist of a dragonfly. Break the waist of the dragonfly. Anyway, this idea that some of the easiest things to do are really the most difficult. Someone, I had to go up to the main house earlier. And I went into the kitchen, said it was the last call for lecture topics. And Jochen suggested the topic for today be the short path to enlightenment.

[42:35]

Yeah, I mean, not something that interests most of us, but, you know, a new guy, new guy on the block. And I said, well, arrived yesterday. But This short path, which is the practice of Zen, means to have this feeling, as I've been expressing all week, that the gateless gate is nowhere else but here. And that this... And that enlightenment is very closely associated with decision, with vows.

[43:55]

With an action. We could say that, Dogen emphasizes, that the decision to practice is enlightenment. And the continuing to practice is unpacking that decision. So I would say there's this initial decision to practice. And then there's two adjustments. You see the point of practice. Your body shows you, tells you the point of practice. Then you have the first big adjustment.

[44:57]

If you really feel this, you then have this adjustment, how to adjust your life to allow practice. And that requires, you know, pragmatic courage. Then you have a second big adjustment which sometimes comes much later, which is how to adjust your mind, your vision of how the world is to practice. Because we always hold something back.

[46:01]

And that holding back means We practice as if it were possible, but not fully knowing it's possible. And this ability to make these adjustments and make these decisions is sort of a combination of the manifestation of enlightenment and nudging by enlightenment. And these adaptations are a manifestation of enlightenment and nudging? Nudging is nudging. Yes, maybe a small pinch of enlightenment. I mean, enlightenment isn't, again, just some kind of big, nice experience.

[47:11]

From a Buddhist point of view, that doesn't mean much. It's enlightenment when it's a transformative experience. Unless you are open to the consequences of enlightenment. So what again is this path mind? I think it's best to work with this. What we've been doing all week is hearing ourselves hear the birds. And feeling the arising of this interior location. As I said, has its own independence.

[48:20]

So if you could imagine this feeling arising of hearing the singing of the birds, as an interior location. And then looking at the birds, While you're holding this interior location. The birds are generating the interior location in you, but the birds are not the interior location. This is the moon does not get wet.

[49:21]

Nor does the water, is the water broken. Mm-hmm. This is the way the world exists. But it's so contrary to... What's the word? Yeah. the common sense, that it's hard to hold. It's like, although we know Isaac Newton's understanding of space and time is not correct, That space is this container in which things happen.

[50:36]

And the things that happen in this container The things that happen in the container do not affect the container. We know this is not true. So it can be measured. And that time is somehow fixed and the same everywhere. I don't know how the Buddhists knew, and the creators of the koans knew, but they knew this wasn't true. We have to imagine the world, maybe you could say, if we had one rubber glove. And you put both hands in it.

[51:41]

And then you spread your hands apart. That's what space is like. And it's quite flexible. And the hands have created the space. The big bang, the... It's not that the big bang occurred in space, it created space as it expanded. So we commonly because it's reinforced by our culture and by usually our senses. Think of space and time as separate from objects and separate from each other. Now, I'm sorry to be a little philosophical here even though it's sort of obvious philosophy.

[52:45]

But this whole point of this practice turns on a kind of philosophy like this. And although, like I said, it's a magical show. Uli is appearing before me. The room appears. And these are Choices, these appearances are choices. Ancient choices and present choices. They say that, in Buddhism we say, What we call water, a dragon calls a jeweled palace.

[53:56]

Hungry ghosts think it's black blood. Fish think it's a magnificent city which they can never reach the end of. And But the idea is, depending on your karma and your mental capacities, you see the world differently. This is a single choice world that It rises from one root. In other words, Buddhist view is there could be many worlds.

[54:58]

We're in this one world. And it's a magical show. And we are the magicians. And this flexibility of space and time, the inner penetration of space and time, we can't control by ourself. Because we are all controlling it together. So our very connectedness is this flexibility of space and time. So how do we enter into this world, this path mind? It's said that Shweddo and Matsu are like two mirrors facing each other with no image or reflection in between.

[56:12]

Now if I hear the birds and I allow an interior location of the birds to arise and I look at the birds and the birds have also an interior location of me this is two mirrors facing with no image. So if you want to practice this path mind, Okay, now I tried to create some technical language for this. And I played with the idea of calling one appearance and the other appearance. There's no such word as appearance.

[57:38]

I made it up. You can say it in English. So we could have apparent-ness, but we don't have to translate it. So what I came up with finally was emergent appearance ist diese herauskommende Erscheinung and apparent appearance. Okay. Now apparent appearance is you see the birds. They're apparently there. And apparent in English is one of those ambivalent words which can mean it's apparent this is a stick but if you say apparently he's rich or apparently she lost her money It means it's not clear whether she did or not.

[59:01]

We have something like that, which is often changed. Which can mean both. So in English, to say the apparent appearance is quite good. The birds are there, but they, you know... they're going to die and they're only there for a moment, etc. And then there's the emergent appearance of the sound-feeling presence of the birds in me. This is also the moon in the water Mind is the water. The moon is enlightenment. Or the Sambhogakaya body. And Sukhiyoshi says, I told you this before, I believe, but don't think that if you liked Sake before you were enlightened, after enlightenment you will not like Sake anymore.

[60:20]

He says, no, after enlightenment you'll still have a hard time passing the sake shop. As it doesn't change, the moon doesn't break the water. You're still the same. But the water becomes pellucid. I told him about testing. Pellucid means it allows light, transparent, yeah. To pass through it, yeah. So the pellucidity of the water is the capacity for enlightenment. So Dogen's image is, will you let enlightenment shine in you? will you let the Sambhogakaya body shine in you?

[61:52]

So you could take as a turning word, will I let enlightenment shine in me? And you could play with it, find different ways to say it. In English I would try letting enlightenment play in me. At any time enlightenment can play, shine in me. And sometimes you can find your body filled with a milky white light. As if the moon has really decided to shine in you. And what is the moon? It's this whole world realm. But how do you let it shine in you?

[63:14]

It's the stuff in front of us. How do we divide it up? How do we think about it? One of the ways to to make the myriad things a path, is to make every external location an internal location. So if I look at Joe, I also feel Joe appearing in my mind. So I know Joe's out there. I say this over and over again. But you've got to get the habit of it. I know Joe's out there. But Joe also appears in my mind. In my sense fields. And all the things, all the years I've known Joe flow into that image in me.

[64:25]

So Joe is, in this sense, quite independent. And this image of which All my knowing of Joe over many years flows together, is quite independent. And yet they influence each other. And Joe has similar associations with me. And if I concentrate on, feel that interior location and he feels his interior location, this is two mirrors with no image. You can understand this. But to practice it, to make it a habit, is to enter a Dharma gate.

[65:28]

And it becomes really a Dharma path when your sense of continuity and identification is with this interior location. This is in a more craftsman-like way. What is meant by turn your attention inward? What are you turning your attention inward to? You are turning your attention to this constantly emerging world field. Congratulations.

[66:43]

Yeah. Yes, thank you. I think the rain helped us, Sashin. We couldn't traipse through the gardens as often, but it kept us concentrated in the zendo. Now some other small things that have to do with this path mind within myriad things. One of the important things is the five skandhas. Five skandhas are a catalyst. And when you get used to the five skandhas, you see the structure of the mind.

[67:57]

And then you simultaneously see the world arising through the structure of the mind. Again, if you develop, I mean, I would say the skandhas are the main pivot of adept practice. That if you get a feel of the five skandhas, get a feel, and can slow the process down, you suddenly realize that the world you see is the structure of the mind. The only world you can see is the world the structure of the mind allows you to see. Then you really know the world heaven and earth and I share the same root.

[69:05]

Myriad things and I are one world field. Another is this simple example I gave you of all and each. As soon as you say many and some, you're discriminating. But all is your mind feels the thunder. Sees Uli. Or the fly. And at the same time has a feeling for all at once. This simple decision in how you see things is a Dharma gig.

[70:08]

You see everything very precisely. You feel the whole field. And you're not discriminating unless the tool of discrimination is needed. Then the thunder really penetrates you. And the tools of discrimination are in the toolbox. Until you need. They say, the world, we have phrases like the world hidden within the world. And I'm talking now about the world hidden within the world.

[71:09]

But one of its one ways described is there's a mountain hidden in a marsh. Yes. What a lecture. I called the weatherman and asked him what time I should give the lecture. It wasn't magic. But sometimes I look out my window here in this little corner room where I spent quite a few months of my life. And sometimes the rain is coming straight down with no wind. And then I see the leaves start to move and then the rain starts to bend. And the trees are so thick with leaves.

[72:16]

And the water is such an emerald mirror that I can imagine just beyond the trees there's a mountain hidden. And on the mountain are jeweled palaces, bodhisattvas. Now another gate of this path mind is to know the true human body is the coming and going of birth and death. And it's also this practice which someone reminded me of that each moment is a precise physical act.

[73:29]

And this is a practice I gave you some I don't know, a couple of years ago or something like that. So you can work with this. Each moment is a precise physical act. And bring yourself into each moment with this phrase. And then if you want to deepen the practice, you say, And each moment is an interior location. So each moment is a precise physical act and an interior location. So this is transforming this moment. world of myriad appearances into a path.

[74:37]

Now to understand this true human body, We have to understand the definition of body in Buddhism. Again, as I said many times the corpse is not a body. The body is what makes the corpse alive. That's how the word is used in Buddhism. So if you imagine there was a corpse here poor thing if it became alive What is that which becomes alive?

[75:44]

If I say, as Wittgenstein says, you know, my hand hurts. Is it my hand hurting? Or is it me in my hand that hurts? Because if I said, You're a doctor. And if I said my hand hurts, you might first of all look in my face and see how I felt. Because it's me in my hand that hurts, not the hand. So when we really realize that it's what makes the body alive, which is the body... We can't say where the boundaries of that are.

[76:45]

Because what makes me alive includes all of you. Includes my parents. Includes the wonderful food we've been having. And includes this rainfall. So the coming and going of birth and death of all this is our true human body. And partly this is a conception that you can understand. But Eric has this wonderful little son that some of you know named Julius. It's also Christina's son.

[77:49]

Sometimes one would wonder. He's a very attached father. Of course, Julius, as my daughter pointed out to me once, also belongs to Julius. But today, sometimes when I'm sitting in meal, in the meal, I'm not looking around and suddenly feet appear in front of me. And I know when feet are there, I'm supposed to do something. But this time I looked and I said, what are Julius' feet doing in front of me? And they've become so big. And I realized it must be Eric.

[78:50]

And I looked up and there he was. So... Eric has no difficulty, nor does Julius or Christina, feeling that each is included in their true human body. So the way to work with a practice like this And a vision like this. For me to know that you are my true human body. You can hold the vision. Like also the moon in the water. But you can also find some instance where you feel it.

[80:04]

Like with a child or a lover. Or a good friend. Or sometimes when there's a certain stillness and the world appears familiar and within. And you come to know that feeling. Again, I think it's a kind of softness. And then you begin to extend that softness to everything, to each moment. And you lose it and then you just have the vision. But if you stay with the vision, it begins to come back.

[81:04]

And when you really feel this coming and going of birth and death, The ten directions which point toward us up and down in the compass directions are the true human body again This is past mind. When myriad things become the true human body, not just as an idea, but in your feeling, you are truly on the path and you can understand Dogen's statement The coming and going of birth and death is the true human body.

[82:13]

And even though it is where ordinary people drift about, it is also where sages are illuminated. Because they know, I'm adding, because they know myriad things is the Dharma gate. There's so much more I'd like to say. And I don't feel I've been clear enough to really make this home for you. But it's the best I can do in this session.

[83:15]

And I hope we've all together stepped a little closer into this Dharma gate. Which is always present. And the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas And each human being is waiting for us to enter this Dharma gate. There's no question about this. This is a fact. Thank you very much. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

[84:20]

Amen.

[84:21]

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