It's nice to be with you, practicing with you. Not so many people, but such, excuse me for being schmaltzy, but such a wonderful group of people. And I, you know, To find an entry into what we mean by Dharma and the practice of Dharma. I've given you the phrase or the sentence, just this. Yeah, you can just say sentence if you want. It sounds better as a... And I think you've understood by yourself and with others the power of this phrase, this sentence.

[01:18]

Yuan Wu, the compiler. of the Blue Cliff Records, says, if where you stand is reality, then your actions have power. Of course, you know, if we explore such a phrase, taking it as probably true, What does he mean by reality? And what does he mean, your action, what is power? Your actions have power.

[02:21]

I think where you stand is clear enough. He doesn't mean just metaphorically where you stand. He means actually on each moment you're standing or sitting or lying. So I emphasize this entering into this Dharma door. as factic, using this Heideggerian word. Now somehow, as close as we can come to what seems like facts. If the word fact has any meaning, it must mean something like, you know... Thank you.

[03:27]

Oh, good. Yeah. But then, you know, how does the eye see the eye? Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that question permeates all of Buddhism. But practically speaking, you know, you can't see your eye. But, you know, I can cover my eyes and then I... Well, I don't see much, actually. So I know that there's seeing. In effect, by inference. By inference. To reason from facts to something.

[04:47]

So I don't, in a similar way, I don't you know, I, this, this sound of the staff and the, is one kind of fact. But you remember, I did it a moment ago. Now that memory is not graspable. It's not a fact like the... Sound. And yet by memory, Yet we remember the sound. So in effect, by inference, we know there's such a thing as memory.

[05:57]

And maybe we know there's an unconscious or there's an alaya vijnana, if you will. know that aspect of Buddhism. So this sense of grounded and factic experience includes things we know by inference. Yeah, no, I can feel my ear, or someone's ear. I guess it belongs to this head. But I can't grasp the activity of hearing. So if we're really seriously taking the existential question, what does real, what is ultimately real.

[07:14]

We don't just hear the sound. We extend it to the memory of the sound. Wir dehnen es aus an die Erinnerung an das Geräusch. And we extend it to the fact of hearing itself. Und wir dehnen es aus zu dem Fakt des Hörens selber. So what are we living in the midst of? Wie liegen wir nun in der Mitte von all dem? What we're living in the midst of, what are senses? And we're also living in the midst of the senses that do the perceiving. So we can say, as I said yesterday, there's non-graspable dharmas and Sensorial dharmas.

[08:31]

And these are all dharmas, in fact, we're generating. We're putting things together at this moment. Memory associations. Yeah. hearing, seeing, the objects through which hearing and seeing arise. Now, if you kind of practice with this feeling, really examining what's real at this moment, you begin to be able to see into your experience. And you can see when, for example, associations arise.

[09:32]

The difference between the first time you heard the sound in the second and third time when memory is part of the sound. Of course, memory and associations are part of every percept, but we don't notice it usually. So at first we can start noticing when it's recent memory. So through this practice of just this and the whole existential attitude of exploring what is real, you, each of us, can begin to notice when associations are present.

[11:06]

Sometimes just basic ones so we function, sometimes lots of associations. Yeah, and win memory. memory is associations, let's say, but memory specifically is present. And then you can begin to see also when self-referential thinking begins to appear. When it's implicitly there because you think you're a subject experiencing. And when you... When it's... there more specifically, explicitly, as comparative thinking, am I doing this okay?

[12:39]

That's self-referential thinking. Is my practice right? That's self-referential thinking. Is my practice the same as others? That's self-referential thinking. Yeah, so you can begin to kind of see the difference between Self as a location. There's some location here from which I'm operating. That's probably the most basic existential sense of self. Yeah, and then there's the... Yeah, a sense of being an experiencing subject.

[13:54]

And then there's the comparative self. And you begin to be able to see these territories, different levels of degrees of self-referencing. Then you can start wondering, what does Buddhism mean by being free of the self? Which of these three levels that I just mentioned... does Buddhism suggest we should be free from? Now a practice of trying to see what is most fundamentally real using this acupunctural technique of just this allows us to begin to see memory associations and the functioning of self.

[15:15]

And then we can start imagining how the teachings can be applied to our moment-by-moment experience. Because also Dharma means the capacity to be free of self. By experiencing the world as dharmas, we can see that self itself is a dharma. Now, Dogen says, a passage of Dogen I will give you now, which I think it's very useful to work with repeatedly.

[16:28]

The continuous practice which actualizes itself. You can ponder what that means. Now you can speculate about what that means. But the words contain the meaning very well. The continuous practice which actualizes itself is no other than your practice just now. gerade jetzt, is no other than your continuous practice just now. Es ist nichts anderes als deine fortdauernde Praxis gerade jetzt.

[17:39]

It's not Buddha's It's not someone else's. It can only be your continuous practice just now. Okay, but what is this just now? Oh, good. Oh, what a team. So what is the now of this practice? continuous practice. So Dogen answers it. The now of this continuous practice is not originally possessed by the self. The now this now is not originally possessed by the self.

[18:48]

You may continuously appropriate it for the self. But it's not necessary. And this now, initially, originally, doesn't have to be possessed by the self. So if you bring yourself into this Factic experience. Sensorial experience. Each of us at this moment, in this moment, Sensorial field.

[19:57]

Yes, we are experiencing subjects. Yes, but it's not what Buddhism means by the self. Just because you're experiencing subject, this is not the self Buddhism thinks is a problem. And maybe through this practice you can begin to notice when self takes possession of this now. And when you can release this now from the self. And perhaps this now released from the self is just this. So let's go on with Dogen's statement.

[21:21]

That now this continuous practice is not originally possessed by the self. The word now does not exist. until there is continuous practice. Now, so Buddhism would say Most of us are not really living in the present as now. The flow of our life is flowing right along with us and past us, creating karma, and we hardly know what's going on. So how are we going to experience our experience? If we have this narrow sense of the spotlight of self, So much of our life just flows by us and is creating karma as it goes.

[22:47]

The word now only exists through continuous practice. And this actualized moment now is the actualized moment This actualized moment is the seed of all the Buddhas. This actualized moment is the seed of all the Buddhas. And the practice of all the Buddhas. And all Buddhas become Buddhas through your practice.

[24:04]

Not much more needs to be said. So just this, dowsing, you know dowsing? Just this is a kind of dowsing wand, dowsing for the seed of desire. All the Buddhas. Dousing for the actualized moment. Yeah. I didn't bring my watch.

[25:21]

Can someone tell me what time it is? No one but the Eno is supposed to be wearing a watch. What? Oh, already after 11. 7-11, that's a shock. It's a grocery store that stays open all night long, seven days a week. So, 7-Eleven is a 24-hour supermarket that is always open. And I have just started. Yeah, so I'll say a little bit, you know. We're not going to meet this afternoon, so I'll say a little bit more. This phrase, just this, can also take away meaning, take away associations, take away self, etc.,

[26:26]

And it can be kind of scary. Everything is just this. It has no meaning other than it's just this. And you find yourself standing up in the air which has no meaning. The air which has no meaning and we have no meaning standing up in the air. Yeah, the air is just here. And we're just here. And somehow we have to find whatever existential reality or meaning there is in being just here.

[27:46]

Mostly to function in our life we need meaning. But sometimes it's good to take the meaning away. And we're just here as a fact for no reason. But you find yourself as a fact without meaning, still in the midst of this brilliant, simple practice, Of just this.

[28:59]

Somehow located in just this. Yeah, now, I mean, I think that, you know, with three days of practicing just this, this is just enough. But I'm speaking about, if you continue it, things that will come up for you, that I'm giving you a feeling for. Not in anticipation, but so that if it does come up, you'll... find yourself located. Now let me say two more things which I will develop later.

[30:04]

Yeah, what I call again, factic unitary consciousness. It's a term I've made up which is implied in Things I've been saying. With a phrase like just this. It's like you had a microscope. And somebody puts a slide underneath it. And it's very clear. And then another slide is put under it.

[31:07]

It's very clear. And then another slide is put under it. Very clear. You find a... Factic unitary pulse. You begin to see how your present and your experience is constructed. And you begin to feel the pace of it. The rhythm is the movement of it. Pace is a hard word, I know. And the movement or pace of it is extremely important. And it's different on different days. Different situations. Different moods.

[32:08]

And... Sometimes time moves very slowly. The pulse of unitary experience in 10 minutes can be like an hour. I'm not kidding, you know that. I think you know it. You're inside your own generating of time in some way, so... A lot happens in each particle of time. Sukhir, she said, in each inhale and exhale, there are endless, infinite, many, many units of time.

[33:14]

Suzuki Roshi always said, in every inhale and every exhale, there are many, infinitely many units of time. So the practice of just this allows us to find this. pulse of unitary experience in our life. And Dogen talks about it again from a different angle. a phrase I use over and over again, to complete that which appears. So just this in a more subtle way is completing that which appears. Now the next thing I wanted to mention was percept-only consciousness.

[34:31]

And how through the practice of just this we discover, enter into a percept-only consciousness? which becomes a substrate of our active consciousness and a continuous source of nourishment within consciousness. Now, I bet you never thought all of this could arise from just this. I didn't. Well, not entirely I didn't, but it always surprises me. How a simple practice, simple practice, thoroughly practiced, opens up a world, a world that can transform our own world.

[35:54]

I've given you too much this morning, I think. But don't worry about it. Forget it. It's just this. Thanks.

[36:19]

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