Well, we're still speaking about the Paramitas and probably could spend much of our life still speaking about the Paramitas. I would say the Paramitas are such a tradition, well, first of all, such a traditional dynamic and teaching of Buddhism. There, we could say particularly the first three, generosity, I would say conduct and patience are especially to bring us into the center of our lived life?

[01:08]

I would say especially the first three. Generosity. I would translate the second as behavior, conduct, behavior. And the third, patience. They are especially suitable for bringing us into the center of our lived life. And they're all three located in the basic observation that everything, everywhere is somehow working together to make this moment possible. And then, if that's the case, as it is the case... How do we... How do we... participate with, locate ourselves in this everything all at once, making this moment possible.

[02:22]

The first is simply gratefulness. Or as I said the other day, releasing, relinquishing separation. Or generosity. Gratefulness, generosity. Thank you. Thank you. I can never thank you enough. That kind of actual feeling, not just an idea.

[03:26]

I like the German Dankeschön. Beautiful, thank you. Yeah, and... The second one, conduct or behavior, is knowing we have to act in this situation. Yeah. And knowing we have to act through body, speech and mind. So it becomes a kind of assimilation of body, speech and mind.

[04:35]

Assimilation? Assimilation means what in German? Aufnehmen. He's much better at this than I am. And than I am, obviously. Körper, Rede und Geist aufzunehmen. Es wird eine Art Körper, Rede und Geist aufzunehmen. You feel the power in body, speech and mind. Right now I'm speaking and I have to feel that this speaking has something to say. Okay, so we could call that the second paramita.

[05:49]

And the third is patience and You know, I'm not supposed to produce titles, so the title I produced, I thought, it seems a good one. It's The Gate of Patience. And although it's only an equivalency in... English spelling, gate always for me is also gate, gate, paragate. And although it is only the equality of the letter order, it always works for me when I see the word gate in English, so gate in German, but gate in English, I always think of the last line in Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, gate, gate.

[07:04]

Now I've always, most always, took me some years to get there, feel the depth of potentiality in how Heidegger speaks about things. And it turns out, I mean, It turns out, as far as I know, that he actually studied with a Chinese Taoist master, teacher. He studied Taoism early in his, I think fairly early in his career. And it seems that he got the image, the metaphor of the usefulness of a jug is the space the jug creates.

[08:05]

And certainly one of the most familiar and important metaphors for Laozi, literally we can say the founder of Daoism. In the Tao Te Ching, the image of the pot, a jug, a pot, a plot, and its usefulness is its emptiness. And that's where I'm going with this gate of patience.

[09:32]

The usefulness of patience at this very fundamental it is at the center of our lived and living life. The usefulness of here is the patience of potentials that aren't present yet.

[10:33]

Yeah. Now, the little verse presentation in the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tse is that the pot is molded from clay. Now this is again not like we tend to in the West think of things as somehow essentialized Yeah, fundamental units, entities that somehow have existence. But Lance is just saying, yeah, this emptiness is molded, Emptiness is molded from clay.

[12:01]

So he's saying you too can mold this emptiness of potentials. So it's not really a pot or a jug. It's something you conceptually can mold in your own experience. So it's something you mold in your own experience, and then it's part of your own experience, fundamental experience, can be part of your, at the center of your fundamental experience.

[13:14]

And an image that's used is, it's an open center. Now this is conceptually easy to understand. But, you know, you really have to accept that you don't have an inherent identity. You know, God didn't determine who you are. You don't have a fate. You're just here molding yourself. I mean, and like you're my age, you're molding. You just have to accept that it's not like you have an inherent identity, that God has equipped you with a certain soul that is now fixed or something.

[14:28]

You don't have a destiny, but you're just here and form yourself. And if you're in my age, then you're shivering. Yeah, I just came back from visiting with Brother David Steindl-Rast, who's a very old friend of mine and an old friend of Paul Rosenblum-Roschi too. I gave him your greetings, of course. And he's... ten years older than I am, so I'm 86, he's 96, and I said to him, because I try to see him once a year for a day or two, and I said to him, well, till next year, he said, well, It's hard to plan at my age.

[15:47]

But we really had a good time together. I was glad that Nicole could get to know him. She's met him before, but get to know him better. And one reason I like to see him is, gee, I just like him. That's one of the main reasons. But he has a feeling, I don't know how else to say it, but for the texture of space, the texture of connectivity. And we talked about how in Catholicism the sense of gestural space is present in a way that's in many ways similar to Buddhism.

[17:13]

And I said to him, so we talked about this, and the example he gave was, well, when I was at Tansahara in 67, 68, 68, okay. He said, I was so impressed that the boughs are just boughs. They're not about anything. They're just boughs. That's all. They're boughs about boughs. And the example that Brother David gave was, he said, it impressed him so much when he was in Tassajara in 1968, he was impressed that the boughs And I said, Brother David, I didn't want you to give me a Buddhist example. I wanted a Catholic example. So I got a Buddhist-Catholic example. And what did he say to you about gratefulness?

[18:42]

That he got that from Zen? Oh, yeah, no, but I, yeah, we didn't exactly talk about that. It was implicit, but yeah, but he got gratefulness. Yeah, and he's head of this organization called Gratefulness Something or Other, and he says he got the concept of gratefulness, which is a kind of generosity, which is the center of his life from his practice of Buddhism. Yeah, that's... Anyway, wait, this is part of our conversation. Now if you go into a forest, it's wonderful to be in a forest.

[20:02]

It's lovely. All of your senses can open up and respond, unfold into the forest. But if you walk to work or someplace every day through the forest, it takes 10, 15 minutes, 45 minutes, you aren't just through your senses with the forest. You're engaged with your familiarity with the forest. As David White in a poem says, adapted from Native American teaching, the forest knows where you are

[21:09]

Let it find you. So that's the gate of patience. To let the forest find you. You can think about the forest, notice about the forest, but there are so many things that you can't notice in the usual categories of conceptuality. Much of it you have to let go. the potentials fill up your, the pot you've molded.

[22:41]

And you can think about the forest, you can notice the forest, but there are so many things that have to do with the forest that do not fit into the usual categories of your concepts and your thinking, so that you have to allow the forest so that you have to So this open center never fills up. This is the Taoist sense of it. It's an open center you've molded You have decided to do it with the circumstances that are available. It's not your inherent identity you were born with, but it can be your fundamental identity

[23:51]

that through wisdom and the possibilities of our lived life, you create. And this, in Daoist terms, becomes a way of livingness, of aliveness, of beingness. A hidden, it's a kind of hidden stream. Now this all is also rooted in Again, I keep trying to find words for all this.

[25:10]

What I'm calling now depth attentionality. I mean, if you become familiar with the forest... and it fills your senses in a different way than when you just first walk through the forest. This, we could call depth, attentionality. If, for example, you become familiar with the forest and the forest begins to fill your senses in a different way than it did when you first walked through it, we can call that a deep attention. Now I've been thinking about the last few weeks exploring with you something that we could sometimes in Buddhism is called Rupa Kalapa.

[26:15]

I'm a little hesitant to speak about it because When you speak, if I speak about it, it may sound unbelievable. And the problem with that is if I give you a teaching which sounds unbelievable, you start thinking, hey, this is Baker's fake news, you know. He's a foxy guy. Foxy guy? Well, Fox is the champion. I know, you really want to. Okay, good. And the problem with that is, when I present to you a teaching that is unbelievable, then you think, ah, that's Baker's fake news.

[27:18]

He's a newscaster from Fox. Woof! Foxes don't make that noise, do they? No. Also fake news. That's fake news. Foxes don't say that. They make interesting sounds. Because a teacher ought to know what he can teach, which people feel they... They understand it enough to think it might be believable. If you teach something that's completely unbelievable, then you start doubting the teaching as a whole. But this rupa, rupa's form, kalapas, are bodily sensations at a cellular level or at the level of which your particles is the idea.

[28:30]

But this experience of these tiny sensations require Patience and an emptiness of potentialities. An emptiness located in potentialities. But to feel this Rupa Kalapas, what this requires, is patience and an emptiness that is located in potentialities. But my own experience is, and I don't know how much, I'll just mention this a little bit.

[30:03]

My own experience is, for example, my hand is not moving at all. And if I take away conceptuality from the hand, And if I take away categorizing consciousness, and there's a depth of attentionality which we can relate to as a form of samadhi, I can begin, my hand is completely still or still as it gets. It's still alive anyway. But it feels like under the skin little fish are jumping or little strings of light are snapping but with no sound.

[31:17]

Well, there's a kind of invisible pulse, like something's pulsing in the hand, as the blood is, but something... It's not the blood is pulsing in the hand, but there's no movement. But at another level, it feels like movement at least. And it feels like something is pulsating in the hand, just like the blood is pulsating, but it feels like something is pulsating that is not the blood. And a pulse that goes through the hand Now, I've been exploring this for several years, but I've never spoken about it till today.

[32:19]

But it's related to my mentioning to everyone, I know where each of you live. And where each of you lives, whether you like it or know it or not, is between your hands. Wherever you go, you're in the feel and field of your own arms. Wherever you go, you are in the middle of the field and the feeling between your two arms. And what Lao Tzu tries to teach is that you form this empty bowl.

[33:28]

And you feel this empty bowl in whatever you do. Now, this requires patience. You can think, oh, this is interesting. I don't know, it's kooky, I don't believe it. But it takes, as it may take years to know the forest, it takes, I've been doing this 60 years. It takes years to begin to feel these small sensations which are actually outside of consciousness. And you can think about what you want. Oh, that's interesting. Or no, that's crazy. I can't start anything with that. But it takes years. And I've been doing it for 60 years. The way it takes time to get familiar with the forest, the same way it takes time to start playing these small cellular signals. Now Lao Tzu, like the Buddha, historical Buddha, is in a community of seekers.

[34:47]

And such a person as Lao Tzu or the historical Buddha His or her whole life is seeking. Every moment is a kind of seeking. That's what makes his or her aliveness, aliveness. And for such a person as Lao Tzu or the historical Buddha, everything that such a person does is in search of being, his whole life was in search of being. So they're not sometimes at the apothecary, they're not sometimes at a nice restaurant, which I like nice restaurants, etc.

[35:52]

But even at the nice restaurant, you're involved with what is this actually about? How did these three layers of tastes come together as one taste that didn't exist before? And so someone is not just once in a pharmacy or once in a good restaurant. I like to go to good restaurants. But such a person always asks himself the question, what is going on here right now? What is really going on here? How, for example, have these three levels of taste come together to create this one new taste that there was not before? How do three separate notes... make a chord which has not much in common with the three separate notes. And I suppose a real talented musician can feel the three separate notes and can feel the invisible chord that's possible.

[37:09]

That's depth attention. So I've suggested to you and said to you, you actually live between your hands and arms. And your hands begin to feel after a while that they're in a gestural space that's being shaped. It's not just, you know, it's not an imaginary part, it's an imaginal part which you can live. Good luck. And so when you develop this feeling, you live in a gestural space.

[38:20]

And the space that you form is not a pot of fantasy, but an imagination pot that you actually, or an imagination, a bowl that you actually can form. So Lotzer clearly says, you move forward as if... This hidden pot is the way, and it's always empty and always revealing potentials, but never fills up. And Lao Tzu says, quite clearly, move as if you were always this empty shell. An empty shell that knows the potential, but at the same time never feels. So this requires you as a practitioner to be able to hold... mold and hold an image like this and have it part of your flowing movements and activities in the world.

[39:25]

And we can say this arrives, I would say, for the sake of this talk, this arises through the gate of patience. But a kind of waking weightfulness, that is the open center of your lived experience and not distracted thoughts.

[40:28]

And this again takes this kind of unbelievable patience to have at least a few years of almost no distracted thoughts. At least a few years of few distracted thoughts. I mean, you know you're molding yourself and you know the thoughts that come.

[41:28]

You can let them in or not let them in, depending on whether they're useful or not. And if you don't have much to do, you can just sit there and be... Black and stupid. And you can begin to sculpt this freedom from thoughts from your psychological elsewheres You can sculpt this with your breath.

[42:29]

Now, the This is a kind of funny thing to tell you, but I want to tell you. I'm driving to Switzerland. And you know, I'm falling apart and people are trying to put me back together. So having my teeth, I've had three teeth removed. Down here I could pull this out and show you a huge gap. I sound better when I have this little bridge in, so I... And the dentist says...

[43:37]

You sure you want to do this? We have cheaper ways to do it. This is going to cost you thousands of dollars. And I said, I'm old, but I don't want to give up on my mouth. If I give up on my mouth, I'm giving up on everything. And the dentist asked me the question, do you really want to do that? You can do that much cheaper. If you do it like that, it costs a few thousand euros. And then I said, I don't want to give up my mouth. If I give up my mouth, then I give up everything. Yeah. And since I decided many years ago to be a monk, which meant that I decided not to own anything. I mean, I own a few tea bowls and things like that, but, you know. I said, well, I'll find some way to pay for it. So I had to sign some agreements and then they literally ripped out these teeth.

[45:01]

Didn't hurt, you know, they shoot you up with all kinds of stuff. You just have to sit still and practice the open center. But when I'm driving, I often find it useful to have a cough drop. A bonbon? Yes. A rickle of bonbon? Yes. They're called bonbon? Yes. Good, good. Okay. Well, I didn't know it was a bonbon. I thought it was a cough drop. But I like bonbon. So here I've got this bonbon... And it is... But I have no teeth in, right?

[46:08]

So my tongue feels the bonbon. But it also feels the bonbon where the teeth are gone. Okay, so my teeth, my tongue, my brain decides there's some unit of space in there that's real, real enough. And I have two bonbons. I mean, that's bonbon, bonbon. So you were driving, right? I guess so, yeah.

[47:22]

And I told you this, didn't I? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, my brain is clearly established. I have two bonbons in my mouth. And there's a very definite fixed space that's in between the bonbons. And so he told me that and then he said, so my brain has clearly decided that there are now two bonbons and that there is a fixed room between these two bonbons. And this open space is clearly created by, molded by my mind. It doesn't exist. It's, you know, there's only one bonbon. I mean, I counted them, actually. So I have one bonbon and one imaginary bonbon. And one imaginal space.

[48:25]

And the imaginal space, well, Maybe it's like the open center I live all the time, or much of the time. An empty space molded from nothing, which you feel the actual experience of. So this is about the time I'm supposed to stop, right? So, bye-bye. All right, thank you very much. And I guess we regather at some point?

[49:37]

Do you make the official announcement? Yeah, we could do two ways. You usually, you end up, 15 minutes is good for you, right? Yeah, but I like to pretend 10. So let's say 10, knowing that it'll be 15. So we'll meet at 5? 5 to 5? If you want, yes. 5 to 5? Okay. 5 to 5. Okay. 5 minutes before the full hour. Thank you very much, all of you, for putting up with this dharmic nonsense. And thanks for translating. Sure. You don't have to wait for me. I think that clock may be a little bit fast.

[50:42]

Yeah, this one? I don't think so. Really? Is it exactly right, do you think? Is this clock right here? It's radio control. Oh, it's radio control. Oh, excuse me. They're not always good. I have three or four radio control clocks, and they seem to listen to different things. Yeah. So it does record with Alan's cell phone. OK. Okay.

[51:50]

Okay. Great! It was so beautiful. It's your tango. It's your California accent. Very good. That's what I said. It's the best I can do. And you? You look great, Peter.

[53:09]

Oh, no. Yes. That's great. Yeah. That's great. And say it. And say it.

[54:33]

And she's an artist, too. This is why you can always sing. Yes, it is. It's a very modern issue. Yes, it's very modern. That's what we're interested in. That's what we're interested in. Yes. Yes. Oh, yeah, also, yes, I guess. It helps moving. Oh, I see. Oh, yeah. Oh, great. That's very good. If you would have known it, I don't get COVID.

[56:24]

If you would have known it, you would have found it. Maybe during COVID, I wouldn't have gone. Yeah. During COVID-19. Yeah. Yeah. We'll just ask you if you don't mind. You're going to take her tomorrow? Yes. Yes. Maybe sometimes is there, for your choir, I didn't know this was great,

[57:33]

Is there any place I can listen to that music? The choir Frida is singing in? Do you mean away people? Or I can hear on the internet, or CDs? Yes, Frida Kahlo. For the CD? Yes. Is it possible, please? And you want to... It doesn't touch. I know. I want his one. Yes. I want this. Yes. Yes. I want to make a CD for the CD store. Yes. Do you know what I say? Yes. He looks like a rock star. Yes. Dixie, do you want to hear this? Yes. He has CDs, yes.

[59:01]

So I'll make a contribution for the CD. You don't have to. Can we send it to America? Maybe I can. Can you hear for me? Oh. He has one, yeah. And I'll give it to him. If it's possible, or can you send it from the internet? If you make a copy, maybe you could send me your file. Then it would save coming to give you her. Does it make sense what I'm saying? Yes. I don't mean you're sharing. In Knoxville.

[60:08]

This would be great. Oh, Friedrich, I would love this. So you leave on Tuesday? I leave Tuesday. Okay, so it has to be the latest. If it's possible, we try. Or maybe Marx could send me an oleophile so you don't have to push. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I hear what you mean. Take time. Yes. Because if Marx makes a copy, he could also make an oleophile. Yeah, we will ask him. That's a good feeling. Frieda was a very good singer. I know. Rock story. Rock story. Yes. And everybody wanted to sit next to him in the choir.

[61:10]

Frieda, come, sit here, sit here, sit here, sit here. Yeah. I know why. Yeah. It's sugared. He's sugared. That's right. He's sugared. He's still sugared. He's still sugared. He's still sugared. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So you told him in German he's sugar. Yes, but he doesn't believe it. He doesn't. He doesn't believe it. He's my English servant. But Frieder, this is why I like to kill him with you. Oh, yes. Because you're sugar. I won't say anything. That's why I'm meeting with him. That's right. Because he's sugar. Really. That's why I often say he's a chick magnet. He's a chick magnet. He's a magnet for the nice women.

[62:14]

Yeah. Because he's sugar. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Actually, it doesn't matter. It's a problem. No. No, yeah. Well, whether he believes it or not, I don't know. It's true. Yeah, me too. Me too. We know that it's true for you. You ask about it.

[62:44]

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