Again, I'm so impressed by what we did last night in the Constellation. You know, there's the public body, the body we have, It's called public, it's seen by others. That's an object in the world among other objects. Then of course there's a lot in Buddhism about how to take care of this body that's in the world as an object among other objects. But then there's the body we experienced last night of the three tantins. Which is an interiority of the body, which is also exterior.

[01:14]

but it's not visible to it's experienceable by others but not visible to others and it's our own interiority and this interiority can have various definitions and expressions. So, because I accepted or initiated the co-installation, It's made me think, explore quite a bit about what's going on in the koan. And how it could be, in our context, effectively constellated and not constipated. Because that's also a possibility.

[03:10]

Yes, so I'm wondering how to approach this. So I will... This morning, if it's okay with you, I'll start the process. And we'll see, maybe we... Because, you know, here we're all supposed to be drunk tonight. I mean, we're something... Maybe we ought to do the constellation in the afternoon. Do you know I have a friend, Peter Nick, who's head of the botany department.

[04:19]

Yeah. Botanical Institute at the University of Karlsruhe. He's a really nice guy, a nice friend. And he says that when you study plants in their absolute earliest use, it's very often for inebriation. Inebriation, that means to get drunk. Or something like, you know, stoned or psychedelics. Plant flights. When you study plants in their early use. In the most early use. You find fragments in a cave. It looks like they were used for a new creation. flights of fantasy. It's psyche and soma, soma being, you know, et cetera. Soma? Body. Yeah, but soma is also the name of a mushroom which was used for...

[05:26]

That's where psyche and soma come from. Soma is the body realized through the mushroom. So that's not where we're going this afternoon. But maybe we should, if we want to, let's start by having any discussion you'd like about last night's Tanjian exploration. Also, heute Morgen können wir aber erstmal ein Gespräch haben, worüber ihr, was immer ihr ansprechen wollt, auch über die Aufstellung gestern zu den Tanjians. I mean, you don't have to say anything, but if you don't start, I'll have to think of something to say.

[06:50]

You don't have to say anything, but if you don't think of anything, I'll have to think of something to say. Okay. Yeah. I have a question. To you and to the three of you. I have a question for you and also for the three representatives of the Tantian . Is there a relationship between the three tantins and sensation, perception, conception? Of course, but it's not especially developed.

[07:52]

We could think about it. And you had a question for the other than that? For the three participants you said to? Oh, it's a question for me and for them too. Did they feel that it had related to... Like did Christina feel more located in sensation than others, you know? He became an earth mother, yes. Yeah, see? I'm learning German rapidly. Yeah, rapidly. 20, 30 years I've been doing this. Okay, so I guess the evening's installation was sufficient in itself.

[09:20]

Okay. Okay. I looked on the internet for some columns, and they're all only the case, but not the commentary. And the case without the commentary is virtually nothing. But it turned out Christian, Mikhail Podgorchek, had scanned the entire book and Christian had it on his computer. So I was able to get some copies and... Okay.

[10:41]

Now, I was going to put this on the flip chart. A man named Roland Pada has made a commentary on Derrida, which I present to you not as representative of Derrida particularly, but just as something that I think represents what we're doing in Zen practice and I think what we're doing in Constellation practice. First let me say that this at least in Zen practice, and I think we all have similar view, this body, which is an object in the world among other objects, is expected to be, in Zen, taken care of a certain way.

[12:19]

For example, you're supposed to have freshly washed underwear before you do a ceremony. And you're supposed to have hands and feet clean enough that a mother would not mind their baby touching them. And you're supposed to have your fingernails cut and your moons showing and so forth. The moons, yeah. And anyway, what?

[13:34]

You're not all Zen Buddhists, so you don't have to have the moon showing, but anyway, that's... Everybody's looking all my way. I'm a bad practitioner. Anyway, there's some tradition that you take care of your body as your bodily face in the world. So this object among other objects of the world is not ignored. But now, so Roland Pader's commentary, the totality of what appears to us as a person is concealed.

[14:35]

Through openness, and in that sense I would say praxis, we can unwrap the mysteries of beings coming to be. Through openness facilitated by practice, and by participating in its very activity of unveiling itself, we unwrap the mysteries of being. By participating in its activity of unveiling itself.

[15:45]

Towards us. That seems to me a description of a constellation. You're participating in the activity of being unveiling itself. And practice is essentially an invitation to to participate in being. So I think that when we do a consolation, we're inviting each other to participate in being. Even though the totality will be concealed. And from the Zen point of view, the totality will not only be concealed, it will also be always ambiguous.

[16:51]

Zwei-seitig, ja. Zwei-seitig, ja. Zwei-seitig, ja. So now, are we all rather okay here? I'm weak. I need glasses. I think I need glasses, let's see. I think I need glasses. My handbag, sorry.

[18:07]

This is the famous handbag in which you can't find anything. Oh, I took my glasses out. Anyway, I'll manage without them. Oh, no, they're upstairs. Should I get? Well, let's see what I can do here. This is koan 20. This is koan 20. Dijan's nearness. Now there's various characters in this. Di Jiang and Fa Yan. Yang Wu Wei. Master Furong and Nanchuan and Linji and so forth.

[19:19]

And I don't think we can constellate any of them. They're not present in the koan in a way they can be constellated. So I'll just read some aspects to put you into the context of what might be constantly. The profound talk entering into noumenon, or decides three and weeds out four. Now, don't try to understand this. Can you help me where we are? Oh, there.

[20:20]

It's the beginning. I'm going to go get my glasses. We won't have much profound talk. Well, I can do it. All right, you know. In a couple of years, I'll say yes. Thank you. Das tiefe Gespräch, das den Eintritt ins Numinose erlaubt, entscheidet drei.

[21:26]

Maybe you shouldn't either. What is going on? I'm translating. Translating that you're not trying to understand because they don't. No, it's not Japanese, it's Chinese. Primarily Chinese. The koans were created in the Sun dynasty based on Tang dynasty models. And they're completely literature. They're religious literature. They're not really descriptions, but that's... Okay, so... When you read something like this, when you practice something like this, the first words are profound talk.

[23:01]

So, this kind of This kind of literature is not meant to be discussed sequentially or horizontally. What I mean by this is that the words are not used to move the horizontality of the sentence. The words are meant to stick out vertically into your life. So, It's all in kind of little units.

[24:17]

Disguised as narrative. So there's the profound talk. What's profound talk? Is this common profound talk? Am I capable of profound talk? You have to go through all that before you get past those three words. entering into noumenon, phenomenon and noumenon, oh gosh, it's too philosophical. Decides three and weeds out four. Well, I have at least seven problems in my life.

[25:19]

I'd like to get rid of four and maybe I could decide on three. You have to immediately put it in your own context. And if you don't immediately put it in your own context, you'll never understand the koan. And then it says the great way to the capital. Which means enlightenment, you know, the path. It goes seven ways across and eight ways up and down. Geez, I need a Google map for that. But if suddenly you can open your mouth and explain fully, take steps and walk, then you can hang your bowl and bag lip high.

[26:32]

Then you can hang your bowl and bag means this high. Everything's measured by the body. And lip high implies that you can hang up your backpack and your pilgrimage stuff. and live high, you can still get it, but you can also then probably give lectures. And you can break your staff. But then the introduction asks, who is this? Who is such a person? And then the introduction asks, who is this?

[27:33]

Then you have to ask him, am I such a person? Do I want to be such a person? What is such a person here? So Dijan asked Fayan, where are you going? Fayan said, I'm going around on a pilgrimage. Yeah, and T. Chang says, what's the purpose of pilgrimage? T. Chang says, I don't know. I'm pilgriming for the sake of pilgriming. It doesn't say that. So Fayan said, I don't know. Dijang said, not knowing is nearest.

[28:53]

So this becomes the central phrase of the koan. And as Zheng Zhao said, Always understand the 10,000 things as yourself. Which I mentioned yesterday. Is a conception of the world where the circumstances the immediate circumstances of your situation are always the agency of being. And the concept in practice is virtually never understanding.

[29:53]

It's always something more like incubation. You incubate your experience. Sitting on the circumstantial egg of your world. You sit on the So you take a phrase, if you have a conception of the world like this, and you have trust, or even we could say faith, that if you incubate this phrase in the circumstances of your world, it will bear fruit in your life. Now, I'm trying to speak about this in a way that's useful to you as non, I'm assuming, primarily, non-Zen practitioners.

[31:45]

But if this just sounds nuts and boring, I'll go back upstairs with my glasses on. So just tell me and I will disappear. So you incubate the phrase, not knowing is nearest. And you don't think, well, not knowing means this and so... If you don't know that's near, you don't do that. It's not meant to be philosophically analyzed. It's meant simply to be repeated.

[32:58]

Trusting the womb-like complexity of the world will bring it into some kind of relationship with you. We could consider such a phrase a cell of being or a seed of realization. In the same way, I think we experience the Tantyans as components of being. So, What does Zen practice do?

[34:04]

And to what extent is what it's doing parallels constellation practice? So we don't know what the totality of being is. But as much as possible we want to find out what's there. Practice is an invitation to participate in being, in being coming to be. So first through zazen and mindfulness, you get to know what's already there. And then you, through clarifying the functions and structures of being, or something like that.

[35:18]

You reorganize what's already there. And then you add teachings, wisdom, or whatever. Now, we're asking here, what is an individual? Of course, individual in English means can't be divided. But we know it can be divided. We know being is a plurality. So what is this being unit What is the plurality of this being unit? Now, according to Michel Henry, Henri, it's spelled like an English word, Henry, though, says that Marx, when correctly understood, Marx,

[36:35]

Marx the... Karl Marx. Karl Marx. Karl. Karl Marx. Yeah. I know Karl. I know Karl. Old friend of mine. Yeah. When I went to college, every interesting professor was a, you know, like a former Karl Marxian. I was practicing the five marks, and they were Marxists. I'm just joking. It's getting very complex here. Yeah, sorry. I'm trying to lighten up the load here. Properly understood, according to Michel Henry, sees the unit person, the individual.

[37:44]

is conceived through his or her social circumstances and through practice. And Michel Henry makes the point that it's not the Soviet socialist view of the unit individual as a unit of the state? I'll say that again. It's not the more common political use of Marx's philosophy. Where the person unit is not a function of social circumstances. but in Soviet socialism is a unit of the state.

[39:11]

Now, Michelle Henry also says, always says, saying, says that Hegel's view of the the person unit, is based on the monarch. You're part of the state through the monarch being the kind of absolute form of being a human. The monarch is the absolute unit of individuality. Now, I haven't read Hegel in this context or in any context for years, so I can't say whether this Michel Henry's interpretation is correct.

[40:30]

But I'm just using this to bring up certain ways of looking at what is the individual. Yeah. So... And there is, you know, in European history, there's the idea of the king's two bodies. And I guess we have the same idea with the Pope, a divine body and an ordinary body. Okay. Okay, so then the question comes up for us practitioners, is the Buddha or enlightenment some kind of unit that's like the monarch or the king or the soul?

[41:46]

Der Monarch oder der König, die Seele vielleicht. And there's actually a philosophical word which is quite unusual, at least unusual to me. Ipsaity, I guess it's called. Ipsaity. Yes, and then there is this philosophical term, which is unusual and also unusual for me, the Ipsy. I-P-S-E-I-T-Y. Ipsy. In German, Ipsy. Selbstheit. [...] And it seems to be used to mean that the individual is only really known through joining to an absolute like soul or something. And the word you brought up, nirvikalpa, which I don't use because it has a number of reasons.

[43:23]

One is it has so many meanings in different traditions. And it means something like an absolute samadhi, a non-dual samadhi, so absolute that it is the essence of being. Which in Hinduism can't be retreated from, and in Buddhism is, you know, et cetera. I don't like these ideas. So I'm bringing sattva... bring up the question of where does enlightenment and the image of the Buddha or something like that function in the concept of individuality in Buddhism. Yeah, so maybe if it's necessary we can come back to that, but for now I'm just saying this image of the individual includes circumstances.

[44:33]

And you have some faith and trust in the circumstances. But if you engage with circumstances, knowing they are also, as Seng Chau says, yourself. You are creating the seeds of enlightenment. Okay, so when we did the Tantian installation last night, These are not visible to the ordinary person, that these three locations exist like separate parts of being.

[45:50]

and we can call them components of being or cells of being, or seeds of realization, that when you, in other words, basically you're just reorganizing what's already here, your experience of yourself. You're reorganizing them in terms of these three areas. And from the point of view of Zen, you're not reorganizing them in the sense that they're already there. You're creating them by organizing them. They're a potential, but they're not there till you do it. So it's again in Zen, there's no entities, there's only activities. So how do you organize the activity of being? And if you reorganize the activity of being, you create another kind of being.

[47:24]

Okay, so not knowing is nearest, is we can think of as a cell of being. Okay. Like a tantian, lower, middle, upper. Now we could constellate the cell of being. For example, we could constellate not knowing is nearest. I don't think we can constellate Dijang or Fayan, but we can constellate not knowing is nearest. I think, as I understand it. And there's another key line in here.

[48:25]

One second. Okay. In walking, in sitting, right here, just hold to the moment before a thought arises. Look into it. And you'll see not seeing. Then put it to one side. Okay. Now, here we have this introduction. I'm going to stop for a break at the moment. They want to hear it again. I know, but I will... I'm going to stop for a break in a moment, but first you'll hear it again. So we have this introduction, profound talk, blah, blah, blah. Seven ways across and eight ways up and down. Then it says, tell me, who is this person?

[50:07]

Well, this is a person who can hold to the moment of thought. hold to the moment before thought arises. So this koan assumes that you are now going to practice for ten years or one year or six months until you can hold to the moment before a thought arises. Yeah, so then you can ask, who is this person? And the person who can hold to the moment before a thought arises, is also a person who can stay in sensation before percept arises.

[51:20]

So we could also constellate, perhaps, holding to the moment before thought arises. Because this is not the body seen in the world as an object within the world. This is a kind of cell of being or a seed of realization that can be constituted. Okay, that's enough for now. So you can't approach a koan with, oh, I'm gonna read this and understand it. You might as well go start reading cereal boxes.

[52:33]

Cereal box. So you have to read a koan as if you're just going to turn your whole life over to it and see what happens without any concept of length of time. Because it's an invitation to participate in beings coming to be. All right. Thank you very much.

[53:29]

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