Now a couple of times every five day period I sit in front of you and try to give some order or expression to our practice. But I feel it's an uninterrupted mutual presence that is also our practice. And in a way, what I suggested the other day, look at the ceremonies we're doing, etc., I'm asking you to give attention to the uninterrupted mutual presence of our practice together. Now, Yuan Wu, who was the compiler of the, we can call him, the compiler of the Blue Cliff Records, the Hickigan Rook, is a trustworthy intelligence and

[01:35]

advisor on the wisdom of our practice. And he says the wondrous and subtle path of the Buddhas of the path of the Buddhas and the enlightened adepts, is none other than, is not apart from, the fundamental basis of each and every one of us. der grundlegenden Basis von jedem, jeder Einzelnen von uns. No, I think it's worthwhile, it is worthwhile to study such a kind of introductory statement, general statement.

[02:55]

Und es ist es wert, so eine Art Einführungsaussage zu studieren. But I think it's not just a general, we could look at it, oh, it's just like an introductory statement to a lecture or something. But I'm sure it's an expression of his lifetime commitment to practice. Aber ich bin mir sicher, dass das ein Ausdruck von seiner lebenslangen Verpflichtung der Praxis gegenüber ist. And a description of his practice. Und eine Beschreibung seiner Praxis. Okay, he says the wonders. What wonders? Yeah, okay. Wonders. Er sagt der wunderbare.

[03:56]

This means something like... to be in awe of, to be made to wonder about. And subtle path, So subtle means, you know, it's not immediately noticeable. Of the Buddhas and also of the enlightened adepts. And this is again characteristic of Zen in general, which is It isn't about worshipping the Buddha, it's about worshipping the practice.

[05:00]

Worship the practice, worship the path as practice. I don't have a good word for it. I'm sorry. Okay. Now, maybe you will notice that he doesn't say original mind. And he doesn't say Buddha nature. He says the fundamental basis of each and every one of us Er sagt die fundamentale Grundlage von jedem und jeder Einzelnen von uns.

[06:11]

And again, when we see that, and we see that the more common way for Zen teachers to express it is original mind or Buddha nature, We can recognize that all three ways, Buddha, nature, original mind and fundamental basis, are all ways to aim at something you don't know how to say. Now he goes on in this little one-page riff. to instruct us that to know the fundamental basis is to have an uninterrupted experience of our non-conceptual

[07:18]

I asked last night for the e-note to give me a copy of the at least English version of our guidelines. And I hope that all the English speakers get an English copy. Now, in one aspect of the guidelines, there are just ways we can... to establish ways we can do things together.

[08:43]

And one aspect of the guidelines is simply to establish ways in which we can do things together. To put on our raksu for evening meals and things like that. So there's the doing together. Yeah, and getting up at the same time and, you know, so forth. And this has a... both bonding in the sense of bonding us together... but also unbounding ourselves from conceptual consciousness. And then hidden in the don't do this and don't do that stuff Are statements about not just doing things together, but how about being together?

[10:09]

Or maybe being, non-being together. Yeah, or... Hmm... Being in other being together. Other being instead of non-being. Okay. Okay. So I spoke the other day about the five, the six sensorial vision jhanas and the and the taking mind as a sense.

[11:14]

And the eight Yogacara Zen Vijñanas. Okay. And I'm trying to look at these teachings in ways that make them experienceable and accessible to us. Okay. So now, In that light I can say the five physical sense consciousnesses. Yeah, and you can look at that as a way to practice.

[12:17]

But I can also change the English word at least and say five physical awarenesses. Okay, so now we have to have some way to notice in this context a difference between awareness and consciousness. So I could give you a suggestion, as I have in fact during this practice period. We've been here together one month and we have two more months to go. Don't worry that two months will only be a week long. Or forever. It depends. We'll see what it's like. I hope it's forever. Okay. So, I could give you as a... I have given you as a suggestion. Bring attention to when you first sit down, as you establish your posture.

[13:55]

Bring attention to your spine. And let the spine appear. Then let the awareness that appears with the spine appear. And then move that awareness that appears with the spine. Which is not consciousness. You're not thinking about it. It's a feeling of awareness that appears through the spine. And you can move it up through the upper part of the spine into the neck. And you can move that awareness up into the crown of the head. No, we could put that in the guidelines. But there's so many things like that we could put in the guidelines, it would probably get kind of complicated.

[15:23]

But the point is, I'm saying, is that you're giving form, by my suggesting this, I'm giving form to something rather subtle. Now, why should I give form to something like that? One reason is obviously that I think it's valuable to notice it. And you probably wouldn't notice it unless I pointed it out. Or even if you did notice it, by my emphasizing it, we're giving it a shared importance. So it's a giving of form to something. And much of what our practice is, is a giving of form to things.

[16:39]

And some Buddhist Zen traditions rant. Rant means to strongly... Yeah, good, yeah, clear. It's a negative riff. Okay. To rant against all the Zen precept followers they give form to the precepts they give form to every action, etc. And it can look like that and it can feel like that even. Und das kann so aussehen und das kann sich sogar so anfühlen. Trapped in a whole bunch of forms that came with practice period. It was more than I bartered for. Bartered for? Barter is to exchange goods, to buy or something.

[17:45]

More than I intended. Also, gefangen in all diesen vielen Formen, die mit der Praxisperiode einhergehen, das ist eigentlich mehr, als ich mir gewünscht hatte. Okay. But also, if we look more carefully at the giving of form, by giving form, you're opening yourself to taking a wedding form. Indem du Form gibst, öffnest du dich dafür, die Form wegzunehmen. Indem du Form gibst, gibst du auch Formlosigkeit. Zum Beispiel, wenn wir uns zum Kissen verbeugen. we give form at that moment to our cushion. And we also give form to ourselves at that moment.

[18:45]

And when you turn and bow to the Zendo interior, you're giving form to a new a new you at that moment. And you can only do that if you release the form of the cushion. And then turning around into the room, you give form to you which appears when you bow into the zendo. And then you release that form. So you're constantly, in giving form, you're constantly releasing form.

[19:58]

Now I want you to try to experience it in this way. That all this giving of form, which is part of our Dharma practice, is a releasing of yourself into formlessness. Because when the form of the cushion appears, when you bow to the cushion, the form of you appearing, bowing to the cushion, the form of the form of bowing to the cushion appears. And then you release. And this practice of release, it's a practice of giving form and releasing. And the constant practice of, for three months now at least, of releasing, releasing, releasing, begins to release our accumulations.

[21:10]

And begins to release our karma. And we find ourselves in a big empty space. Constantly in a big empty space that we give form to. And then release us back into that empty space. That would be incubating ourselves in the empty space, the non-conceptual space that Yuan Wu is recommending. Das würde bedeuten, uns in diesem leeren Raum hinein auszubrüten, diesem nicht-konzeptuellen Raum, den Yuan Wu empfiehlt.

[22:16]

So our basis is no longer coming from form and giving form. Dann ist unsere Grundlage nicht mehr, aus der Form zu kommen und Form zu geben. But coming from formlessness and giving form. And that sense of being in a non-conceptual or formless space is more and more uninterrupted. Und dieses Gefühl, in einem nicht konzeptuellen oder formlosen Raum zu sein, das wird immer mehr nicht unterbrochen. Now I'm saying here what usually can't be said. Ich sage hier, was normalerweise nicht gesagt werden kann. And you have to, maybe to hear it, you have to release yourself into hearing it without thinking. Und um das zu hören, müsst ihr euch vielleicht loslassen in das Hören ohne zu denken. Okay. So in the guidelines it says, yeah, let's not have any talking or anything possible between the evening zazen and the end of breakfast.

[23:33]

And let's not use the kitchen as a place to socialize. Which is really partly up to the tenso. And Fuku Ten, because having some chance to kind of see each other, meet each other, is also a form of Sangha building. But you want to take your cue from the Yeah, and as much as possible, we're trying to find a non-conceptual space together.

[24:35]

Maybe we all need to practice more like Osho. And just feel our connection with each other without having to speak our connection with each other. We don't need to get attention. Or establish consciousness or person space. We can have confidence simply in the space of non-conceptual non-graspable feeling.

[25:50]

Now, if we release ourselves, continually release ourselves into non-conceptual space, we're releasing ourselves into non-conceptual space. space that's not consciously defined. That's also non-conceptual space. So there's non-conceptualized space And there's non-conceptualizable space. There's a space of being, what else can I say, which is not even conceptualizable. Es gibt einen Raum des Seins, der noch nicht mal konzeptualisierbar ist.

[27:05]

And that is what Yuan Wu means by our fundamental basis. Und das ist es, was Yuan Wu meint, wenn er von unserer fundamentalen Grundlage spricht. Now here, if I continue, I will be starting another Teisho. Wenn ich hier jetzt fortfahre, dann beginne ich ein neues Teisho. But like in the old movies, serial movies, Yeah, when I was a kid, there used to be series in the afternoons. They'd have double and triple features. Can you imagine going to three movies in an afternoon? Oh, gosh, not anymore. And with the two or three... features, main features, they'd have these shorts of, you know, 20 minutes long or so. Shorts, short little, short little films.

[28:07]

But with them? Yeah. Or they are them? In addition to, in between the two or three main features. You were there all day. Your parents came looking for you. It was before TV and your parents would say, aren't you going to the triple feature? And one of the ones was the Zorro. And one of them was Zoro. And the mark of Zoro was an X. No, a Z. And the sign of Zoro was a Z. And so when I first started liking Zs and, you know, Z, Zoro, Zen. Anyway, and always at the end, they would give you a taste of the next one with a horse leaping over a cliff or something.

[29:16]

Okay, so here I'm going to leap over a cliff. You know, we have about 350 olfactory nerves scattered all over the body. Mice have more than a thousand. And they're only called olfactory nerves because they were first discovered in the nose. Olfactory means, you know. It's interesting, we don't have much useful words for the realm of smelling. I remember, you know, in the I remember an anecdote from when I was a child.

[30:31]

Mr. Webster of the famous Webster's Dictionary in English. It's like Duden in German. So Mr. Duden, I mean Mr. Webster, was at a dinner party, and of course I didn't have running water much in those days and didn't bathe so often. And the anecdote is, I have no idea, who knows if it's true. I guess he maybe hadn't bathed in a long time. And it was too much for the woman sitting next to him. And she said, excuse me, Mr. Webster, but you really smell. And she said, no, excuse me, I stink, you smell. And then he said, no, excuse me, I stink, you smell.

[31:52]

So what do I, what I'm talking about, the stinking world, no, the smelling world. No, I don't know what to say. Redolent world is a technical word for a world where you notice odors. So what am I talking about here? The stinking world or the smelling world or the, now help me, someone is talking. The world of smells. The world of smells, yes. Olfactory, redolent, I don't know, not much words for it. But the point I'm making is that all over our body, inside and outside, there are these olfactory-like receptors. And we don't have any conceptual language for it. Except incubate yourself in a non-conceptual space or something like that. So instead of saying even the five or six sense consciousnesses, we could say the five or six sense, as I just told you, awarenesses.

[33:09]

But maybe more accessible for us, more transformative for us, and accessible is to say the five or six senses. Sensorial spaces. Feel yourself in spaces created by each sense. So just, you know, I'm ready to go over the cliff now. So which means I have to stop soon. So when you come into the Zendo, sometimes try to lessen your sense of visual space. which we try to do by having fairly dim lights during Zazen.

[34:36]

And you almost have to, well, it's not so dark, you have to feel your way. But try to come in feeling the auditory space. The slide of the touching of the feet on this soft velvet wooden floor. The silence even or sound even of bowing to the cushion. So you feel yourself in an audible space. Even when there's no sound, there's a sound of aliveness, of silence. And in Zen ceremonies, including our service, much of the cues of what happens is when there's certain kind of silences.

[35:51]

And when you're in complete darkness, you have to move in a kind of receptive space. dann musst du dich in einer Art empfänglichen Raum bewegen. A proprioceptive space would be a space that you keep feeling your own balance within, movement and gesture. Oder ein propriozeptiver Raum, das wäre ein Raum, in dem du immer wieder deine eigene Balance erspüren musst. And there's another word, interioceptive. Und dann gibt es ein weiteres Wort, das ist... Which is reception, stimulus you get from inside.

[37:00]

And there's exterioceptive, stimulus you get from outside. And this is something that we don't even fall into the five physical senses. But yet is realized in the space of non-graspable feelings. which is discovered by giving form to things and releasing form and at least part of each day establishing yourself in this non-graspable feeling A space you can feel but you can't conceive.

[38:17]

Except I can say it this way, but it's not conceivable in consciousness. And coming to know this is what Yuan Wu means, not pointing to original mind or Buddha nature. But a fundamental basis each and every one of us has. When we locate ourselves in non-conceptualizable being. I hope that wasn't too much anyway it's a taste gustatory space I'm just fooling around thanks

[39:30]

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