When Suzuki Roshi died, I inherited all of the, everything of his that was in San Francisco. And Hoitsu, now Suzuki Hoitsu Roshi, inherited everything that was Suzuki Roshi's in Japan in his temple and his temple. And then years later, at some occasion, I can't remember quite, Hoitsu gave me this teaching staff. And of course, I remembered, but it reminded me that when Sukershi died, Hoitsu wanted a particular teaching staff.

[01:01]

for himself or to bring to his one other Japanese disciple. And it was a staff I, of course, liked, but, you know, of course, I gave it to Hoitsu. And then years later, as I say, he gave me this one. And I think he made it. He might have even said he made it. But it's not the kind of thing, you know, It's not something I would say to him.

[02:27]

Did you make this? Because I should be able to tell that it was made by him. And to ask would be a little... Or I'd have to have a certain kind of situation that made it possible to ask. And because in Japan in general, particularly in Zen, you don't want things to be too specific. Because in Japan in general, but also in particular in Zen, you don't want things to be so specific.

[03:32]

And even if, and the context I'm in, that probably he made this, but I'm not 100% sure, and so forth, this is very good because it's vague. To separate things too much is not good practice. When things are vague, they kind of overlap more. So if I have one that came from the robe supplier store, that was more commercially, it's hardly commercial, but commercially made,

[04:37]

This is not so different. They overlap, sort of. And then somehow with that overlapping, I feel an overlapping with him. And I gave him one of Sukershi's staffs that he, that I inherited. And I never expected to get this staff, but then years later this appears. So you never know what's going to happen exactly. And that's a little bit like we don't announce, it's the custom in the Zen practice center not to announce the future too much.

[05:50]

As I said yesterday. Except the necessary particulars, but you try to keep that to a minimum. Because you don't want to take away the unpredictability of the future. You want the future to arrive in its unpredictability. Sondern man möchte, dass die Zukunft in ihrer Unvorhersehbarkeit ankommt. And then you have to decide what to do with it. Oh, here it is. Oh my gosh, again, here it is. What shall I do? Und dann musst du dich entschließen, was du jetzt damit anstellst.

[06:52]

Oh my God, hier ist sie schon wieder. Oh my God, I did it. Gosh, I'm sorry. Oh yeah, gosh. I embellished it, yes. She's just, you know, the language she uses. Not just teasing me. You didn't finish. Yeah, gosh, it's just a euphemism, of course. So I have this chance to speak about what's difficult to speak about with you. And I consider it a rare, rare, wonderful opportunity. And it's wonderful, too, that you have practiced enough that we can speak about these things.

[08:14]

Yes. You know, there's this chant, not in a hundred million kalpas do you have a chance. Well, we've got one chance here. Here we are. I mean, even in a hundred thousand million kalpas, we have this kalpas way bigger than an eon. And no one knows how long an eon is. And here we are in the midst of such a singular, unique thing. Okay. Now there's four traditional categories of practice.

[09:33]

From the point of view of realization or awakening or enlightenment. And that's somehow where we got to yesterday and the preceding days. So since we got there, we're sort of arriving there. I thought maybe to see them, if I can make it clear or accessible by arriving from another direction. I'll try that today. The four traditional descriptions of practice from the point of view of realization Die vier traditionellen Beschreibungen der Praxis aus der Sichtweise der Verwirklichung are step-by-step practice.

[10:39]

Das ist die Schritt-für-Schritt-Praxis. And step-by-step awakening. Und das Schritt-für-Schritt-Erwachen. And there's all at once awakening. Und es gibt das plötzliche Erwachen. And all at once practice. One sec. Um... Shall I start over again? No, please don't. Okay. Okay. Yes, better, yes. Even Keith agrees. He doesn't know a damn thing, but he agrees. He's the only one, though, that you notice. No, I saw Akash. I mean, Osha agree. Oh, great. Akash, we haven't seen him in a long time, have we?

[11:43]

Yes. You did? No, somebody did in Gattingen. Oh, good. Yeah, he was there recently. Okay, thank you. Okay, now I can't possibly today, in the time we have left, Speak about all four of these categories. But at least we can get, you know, started. I don't know if we'll ever finish, but we can get started. Why not? The ending is vague. Okay. I think probably all of you practice all four of these. Yeah. And Zen practice primarily emphasizes all-at-once practice. Auf einmal Praxis.

[12:53]

I would say Zen emphasizes all at once awakening and step-by-step practice and all at once awakening. Ich würde sagen, die Zen-Praxis betont das auf einmal Erwachen und die Schritt-für-Schritt-Praxis. Zen practice emphasizes all at once practice. And all at once awakening. And step by step awakening. Okay, that's enough. Now, when you first decided to practice, it probably just happened.

[13:56]

You just decided, yeah, I think I'll do this. Or somehow this makes sense. Or you felt a kind of yes. Okay. That's called initial enlightenment or initial awakening. Das wird ursprüngliche oder anfängliche Erleuchtung oder Erwachen genannt. Now, one of the things Dogen emphasizes is that this initial awakening, the decision to practice. Und eines der Dinge, die Dogen betont, ist, dass dieses anfängliche Erwachen, das ist die Entscheidung zu praktizieren. If you can... If you do continue to practice, you're opening up your initial awakening.

[15:04]

Sometimes this initial awakening is pretty big awakening. You're absolutely certain you're going to do this and there's no equivocation. Manchmal ist dieses anfängliche Erwachen ein ganz großes Erwachen. Dann bist du dir ganz sicher, dass du das hier tun wirst. Und da gibt es keine Zweideutigkeit. Oder du gehst in ein Zendo hinein, vielleicht zufällig. I'm speaking about somebody we practice with. and you immediately feel at home the first time you've ever felt so at home so you decide I'm going to make this my home that would be a strong example of initial awakening But if it's just, you know, this seems right and then you do something else and you come back to it, it's still that initial awakening is functioning in you.

[16:26]

But even if it feels right, but then you go on and do something else, it can still be that this initial awakening continues to affect you. felt that, yes, this is what I'm going to do. And you had faith in that, yes. And you decided, I don't really understand this yes, but yes. I'm just going to have faith in this yes and see where it takes me. Ich werde einfach zutrauen in dieses Ja haben und schauen, wohin mich das führt. Das wäre die Alles-auf-einmal-Praxis. You're not trying to figure out what the next step is and checking it out or something.

[17:28]

You just say, yes, I have faith in this. I'm going to do it. Okay. Now, Buddhism has developed over its decades and centuries. teachings and practices for each of these four. And a person who becomes a good teacher probably practices all four. To find one's way into all the nooks and crannies and shadows and so forth of Buddhism. Winkle. I like these little words that pop out, which I have no idea what they mean. Winkle, winkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.

[18:29]

You see, I have no idea what I'm talking about. That makes me feel good. I'm winkling all over, whatever the heck it means. Okay. Okay. Now I also spoke about, let me say one thing first. One example of a traditional example of initial awakening. Ein traditionelles Beispiel für das anfängliche Erwachen. The example is there's a nine-story pavilion.

[19:45]

And you see it all at once. We could call that initial awakening. And then, or all at once, you know, all at once awakening. Oh, sorry. Initial awakening is usually an all at once awakening. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. then what would be a non-all-at-once initial awakening? Somebody you fall in love with brings you to the Zendo. And because they're practicing, you practice. And there's no initial awakening. And after a while the love ends, as they often do.

[20:48]

But little by little you get to like practice, so you continue. And that kind of thing happens too, of course. But entering the nine-story pavilion and beginning to explore each of its floors would be step-by-step practice. And we do that. But to view the world as only here-ness, there's only here. There's no other place. Now you might even take these as wisdom phrases. And on each appearance, which you're now learning how to notice each appearance,

[22:01]

You join that appearance to a wisdom phrase. No other place. No other place. Or maybe only here. Now, you can try, I mean, both these practices are conceptually sort of the same. Diese Praktiken sind konzeptuell betrachtet ungefähr gleich. And with just this. Or just now is enough. And these are all conceptually virtually the same. But experientially somewhat different. And the differences show you nuances that the conception can't show you.

[23:10]

The differences in the practicing show you nuances that are not visible in the conception. So just this attached to each appearance is somewhat different experience than only here accompanying each experience. Das ist etwas anders als nur hier, wenn das jede Erscheinung begleitet. Yeah. No or no other place joining each appearance. Oder wenn kein anderer Ort mit jeder Erscheinung verbunden ist. Yeah, and of course in whatever versions of these you discover in Deutsch, they're going to be different too. So we're going to have a little different topography of realization and actualization in Deutsch than in English and certainly than in an Asian language.

[24:31]

So, all at once practice diese Auf-Einmal-Praxis, would be really place yourself in only here. Das wäre, wenn du dich wirklich in dem Nur-Hier verortest. No other here. Kein anderes hier. This is also called One-Sphere Dharma. Das wird auch... Dogen says things like, nothing is hidden, there's no place to hide. He means there's only one sphere, there's no outside place for anything to hide.

[25:35]

And one of the phrases often in the Huayen Sutra, Lotus Sutra and others is realization is to know The Tathagata as one's own body. Now, the word Tathagata is a word for Buddha. But it's a word for Buddha which expresses the realization of Buddha. Which is that there's only a here and there. I mean there's only a coming and going, appearing and disappearing. And when you reside with ease and without fear in appearing and disappearing, We can call that the Tathagata.

[27:01]

And when that experience is your own body, we can call this realization. then können wir das Verwirklichung nennen. And so you could practice this again, this all at once practice. Nochmal, du könntest diese auf einmal Praxis üben. Yeah, is to maybe say on every appearance. Zum Beispiel, wenn du bei jeder Erscheinung sagst. Exactly my body. Genau mein Körper. Exactly my body. So you see a tree and you feel exactly my body. You could say also my body or something like that. But it's like one Dharma sphere.

[28:02]

This is a one Dharma sphere practice. When I say this to you I see in my mind as if I'm standing at the one end of a train car and there's passengers but if I try to draw it if I could draw If I started drawing Katrin right now, for instance, I'd start drawing, I'd have to draw down, go down the platform, across the floor, up Katrin's okesa. And through the comb, the part in your hair. My hair is all part.

[29:06]

Through the part in your hair, and it would go down and across Gisela. The line would make no distinction between you and Gisela. And the feeling of one sphere Dharma, then it would go and go on, yeah? And perhaps simultaneously to Rosa and Vicky, Marie-Louise. So one line, it could be an infinite number of one lines that would never find a separation. So I can conceptually separate it out if I'm imagining myself in the front of this or at the one end of this train car.

[30:08]

And I can say, oh, there's this passenger and there's that passenger and there's that couple and there's a child or something. But I can also feel it, bodily feel it, as one person. One singular presence. One interrelated presence. And when I go down the aisle with my suitcase or whatever, I'm going in the midst of one presence. singular presence.

[31:17]

And my own activity is just like one wave in a little pond. There's various waves. But there's the water of all the passengers in the train, etc., that aren't waves. And you can feel that presence simultaneously and fundamentally. And you can feel this presence simultaneously and fundamentally. So the differences between past years and genders and age are just like little waves.

[32:22]

But you feel the water that is all the waves at once. That kind of feeling of beingness, which is a mutual beingness, Which is not a mutual being? Which is a mutual. A mutual actually separates it, but it makes it clearer, maybe. Okay. Okay. is all at once practice.

[33:33]

And you don't, this is so vivid for you and you have so much faith in it. That you don't stray from it. You don't stray from it into a self-focused continuity. Du weichst davon nicht ab in eine Art selbstfokussierte Kontinuität hinein. Now I think... Oh, I'm so sorry that these short lectures are so long. Es tut mir so leid, dass diese kurzen Vorträge so lang sind. A few notes. I'm giving you little footnotes and hand notes or note notes.

[34:35]

they take so long though so let me just say as briefly as I can you awaken you come to zazen and your spine appears And the process of your spine appearing occurs step by step in Zaza, or vertebrae by area of spine by area of spine. And as this appearance of the spine becomes an awakening of the spine, And the awakening reaches your neck.

[35:38]

And where the spine is connected to the skull. You may feel a little crack or like when somebody snaps your head, you know, body workers do that. It's called something, I forget. Adjusting, adjust the spine. Well, there used to be people who'd come up and say, would you like your head snapped? Well, I'm not so sure. Are you good at it? They'd take your head and go... Can I have my head back, please? Anyway, that little crack can occur just from beginning to sit straighter.

[36:46]

And then in the second period, the spine is already partly awake. And it may awaken more. And then in breakfast it may awaken even further. And you may find this awakened and awakening spine is an experience of a non-self-focused continuum. Now it's a big difference to feel there's a continuous self.

[37:50]

And there may be experiences when you're less involved with yourself and more involved with yourself. Und es gibt vielleicht Erfahrungen, in denen man sich weniger aufs Selbst bezieht, weniger damit involviert ist, oder in denen man mehr mit dem Selbst involviert ist. Aber wenn du innehältst und dich fragst, wer hat diese Erfahrung oder so etwas, und die Antwort ist immer das Selbst oder ich, So when you ask that question, you awaken the self. And then you have an experience the self is always there. That's the trouble with it, you know, like people ask in Zen all the time, you know, Well, who did this? Who is practicing? Well, if you ask that question, there's only one answer. Self. Because

[39:01]

Yeah. As soon as you ask the question, the answer is, there's a continuous self. It's always there. You ask and it's there. Hey, there you are. What are you doing here? Just hanging out to delude you? But the big shift is from a continuous self to a self-continue. Because then it's clear that you're producing it, it's created, it's a continuum. Then there can also be a non-self continuum. A non-self-focused continuum. That can become the spine. And joined to the awakening breath. But that really has to be for another tea show.

[40:28]

Thank you very much for your patience.

[40:32]

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