Good morning. Good morning. You translate very well. My goodness, a lot of stuff fell down back there, didn't it? I haven't seen it in daylight. Can we use the tree for anything? Lumber, firewood? I'm trying to sell some of it. It's good. Hardwood? Well, it's linden. Linden? Yeah. Okay. And driving here from the airport, there's, as you all know, trees everywhere. My goodness. Yeah. I'm still trying to... I'm still recovering from the flight.

[01:17]

And recovering from some weeks of having the flu. And Crestone, some people didn't want me to come because they thought being re-exposed in an airplane would not be good. And I don't think they were just in competition with Johanneshof. I think they were actually worried about my health. Because I'm almost never sick, but this has really been persistent. You know, I believe the flu used to pass by ducks. Yeah, I don't know how it got from ducks to humans but that's what they say.

[02:37]

But now it migrates from airports. And they could see the flu spread from Denver International Airport across the state. Usually I find it interesting to be sick. This wasn't so interesting. Yeah, I probably won't perish, so here I am. Yeah.

[03:38]

So how can we introduce this subject of causation and realization? Things have a cause, that's for sure. Including my getting the flu. And we're, as you can see, some of you, quite a few of you are new to me and maybe new to Johanneshof. And you can see that we're trying to create an enlightening I mean, I can use that word, enlightening place here. And we have a long ways to go, but we're trying to create this place here for each of us to support. And trying to use the traditional practices and ways of approaching our life.

[04:52]

In the Flower Garland Sutra, the Avatamsaka Sutra, question... One part of the sutra has this question being repeated over and over again. The question is something like, noble one or old noble one? And this is a question asked of persons who are known to be enlightened. And so they ask, Suthana asks, noble one, I have set my mind on realizing complete and perfect enlightenment.

[06:24]

Yeah, so we can ask ourselves, what would this mean to set your mind on complete perfect enlightenment. Then Sudhana says, but I don't know how to how to learn the way of enlightening beings. And I have heard that you know how to practice and teach, enlighten the... way of enlightening beings.

[07:27]

So please instruct me. So when a goldsmith said, oh well, I practice unobstructed mindfulness. I practice manifesting unobstructed mindfulness. But this is all I know. How can I possibly know the manifold ways of enlightening beings? And then Sudhana asks the same question of a lay woman.

[08:31]

He asked the same question of a laywoman. Yeah, oh, noble one, etc. Paeta. O noble one, etc. Paeta. How, and she answers, well, I only know the practice of the liberation called baseless sphere. And she answers, I only know the practice of the sphere without basis, without reason. Which frees one from any sense of, any foundation of phenomena. And he also, and then Sudhana, and asks, he asks many, many people.

[09:46]

I'm not going to give you the whole sutra because it would go on for about six months. No, and then I couldn't remember it all. I can barely remember this part. But he asks a boy and girl. Yeah. And they say, oh, well, we practice the... the illusion of causes and conditions. And... But how can we know the extensiveness of illusion for those who could fully practice it? Yeah, and the laywoman also says, although I practice this baseless sphere,

[10:53]

I have no idea of the manifold ways of enlightening beings. Now, although this is in kind of the highest Buddhist language, this sutra, and what I'm telling you, it's also, if you look at it carefully, quite practical. There are ways to practice seeing the illusoriness of causes and conditions. There are ways of seeing the im... the... the... withdrawing the sense of exteriority and materiality from phenomena.

[12:13]

And there are certainly ways to practice mindfulness, even unobstructed mindfulness. And I think this afternoon we can write it out and look at it carefully, the foundations for realizing these practices. And what the sutra is saying here too is that each of these, while the sutra presents, I mean literally thousands of practices, each realized person that Sudhana speaks to has taken one practice and thoroughly realized it. So in this week together, I hope you can firm up the one practice you've already taken.

[13:34]

Or you can decide on the one practice that... that catches you. And this is really up to you, I mean up to your own feeling, your own deep feeling of what practice you want to engage yourself with. And if we're going to practice seriously, The secret is finding a practice and making it a continuous practice. But we're lay, we're lay people.

[14:55]

Mostly lay people. Even Suzuki Roshi being a priest and a monk recognized mostly his lay, his life was a lay life. He had a temple that he took care of. He had a wife and children. Taking care of a temple is not so different than living in a house somewhere. The advantage is that it keeps reminding you to practice. So you yourself can decide. to create a life that reminds you to practice. Because the difference between The ordinary idea of lay practice and adept practice is not being a monk, but it's making your practice continuous in your life.

[16:12]

So this is your challenge. To find a practice and to make the practice continuous in your life. A place like this is only to remind you and support you in this. And I said the other morning when I first arrived during Zazen we have to keep reintroducing ourselves to sitting to Zazen. And you know I have the I have perhaps a ridiculous, even incomprehensible belief.

[17:33]

That our society needs this sitting practice. That our society needs another basis for mind. And without that we won't solve our fundamental problems. So if enough people, it doesn't have to be a really large number, but if enough people Find another basis for mind. It changes the mind of society as well. So we're not just practicing for ourselves and for each other, but for everyone. And that's what the, in the sutra, the Flower Garland Sutra, An enlightening being means not an enlightened being but an enlightening being is one who knows in his or her gut that you are impossibly but

[19:04]

actually practicing for all sentient beings. Maybe that's the act of faith in Buddhism, not belief in God, but belief, a gut feeling. That you are practicing for all sentient beings. This has to be true. I think you can analyze it so it sounds true. Such an analysis may help. But actually you have to feel it. And that feeling is what makes the idea of Buddhist enlightenment or realization different from the societal idea of enlightenment. So I think during this seminar this week, practice week, we have to talk about enlightenment.

[20:27]

What it means in Buddhism. What it means to be already enlightened. What it means to fulfill enlightenment. And so forth. Yeah, no, I was just at a, with a, I don't know, 18 or 20 people. I didn't count them for, I don't know, five, as long as I've been with, will be with you five or six days. And if you stay the seminar and the weekend, I think most of you are, it will be more days, seven or eight days.

[21:43]

Anyway, I was with these folks discussing, believe it or not, survival of bodily death. So if I think... If I come back to this topic, causation and realization, I have to I have to say that maybe the most important thing is to realize that we exist in a mystery. It's a mystery that anything exists at all. You know that. It's more fundamental than the ordinariness of things.

[23:04]

The mystery is more fundamental than the ordinariness. And practice, that practice means to keep in mind this sense of mystery. Okay, now I have to say a little more what I mean by mystery, I suppose. And I'll do that. But not necessarily this particular mysterious moment. I want to go back to Augenblick. I want to go back to... this sitting posture.

[24:17]

If you're interested in Zen, you think, oh, people sit Zazen. Everyone sits Zazen. I'm just a beginner. I'll never catch up with all those folks who sit endlessly in Samadhi. Yeah, well, if you've been sitting 30 or 40 years, you'll know it's easy to catch up. Sitting is just sitting. And you get some skill at the physical posture. And you get some yogic skills that make it easier to observe the mind.

[25:24]

But still, from the beginning, sitting is... already creating another basis for mind. And we think, oh yes, these people have been practicing a long time, and then there's the people in Asia who really sit. But this is simply not true. I don't know this. 25,000 or 35,000 Zen temples in Japan, for example. I would be optimistic if I said 100 persons or 200 maybe sit with the intention that we do here in Europe and the United States. I mean, not they may sit for some years as a training practice, but to sit as a daily part of your life

[26:34]

with an explorative frame of mind, assuming the evolution of consciousness, assuming the evolvement of your own consciousness, and its evolvement with the consciousness of society, is rare. And certainly there are more people in the United States and Europe practicing in this way. I think so anyway. And it's not easy to continue practice on a daily basis. I mean, I'm not good enough to do it.

[27:53]

I've created a life here that requires me to sit. And if I, as I'm arriving at the Zurich airport, if I might forget it, if I get my luggage, I look through the glass of the out into where normal people are. And there's abnormal talk. tall, shaved-headed Geralt waiting for me. Reminding me I have to practice zazen. And when I go back to America, there will be someone at the airport reminding me I have to practice zazen.

[29:01]

So, you know, this was a good strategy of mine. Because it's kept me sitting for many years now, 40 years or so. So it's wonderful that you want to sit and you yourself are trying to not bring practice into your life, but bring your life into practice. Finding a way to carry the world of practice into your daily life. Let me say a minute what I mean by zazen being a foundation for a new kind of mind.

[30:18]

Just to review. We're born with a mind of waking, dreaming and non-dreaming deep sleep. And we are not born with the mind of Zazen. That's generated. It's generated by this wisdom posture. And the wisdom teachings which allow this mind of zazen to develop. Now, before I said consciousness a number of times, I mean consciousness, awareness, fundamental mind itself.

[31:40]

But awareness in contrast to consciousness in a fundamental sense of mind, will not be realized directly unless you practice this sitting posture. I wish it wasn't so. But it is so and I think so almost, almost completely so. So I think each of us who want to address our life through this sitting posture, Have a big responsibility to ourselves and to others. So I, yeah, I'm sort of running out of time here, but because we have a week, I can just keep talking, can't I?

[33:10]

No, I don't want to do that. But I would like to tell you a little bit about this meeting. Hmm. since I don't talk about rebirth or reincarnation much. I'll start to touch on it. And if we want to talk about realization and causation, we might as well start with death. We can start backwards. You know, when I have to have been with somebody or know I'm going to be with somebody who's likely to die... You wonder when exactly the funeral ceremony starts.

[34:11]

Because the tradition and the practice is to be with the person. And there's ways of traditional ways that you put your hand on the person or on their arm or leg or side. After sitting with them for a while you begin to adjust your breathing to their breathing. And as you know, the practice of breathing To bring your attention to your breathing.

[35:27]

Your attention to your breathing. Weaves body and mind together. And as that begins to happen, again to remind you body and mind are Not one, not two, but they are a field you cultivate. The best way I think to cultivate it is through the breath. And as that cultivation proceeds, you begin to be able to take your identification out of your thoughts. and into the breath, body and phenomena. And when you sit with someone who's dying, this is exactly what you're doing.

[36:31]

You're bringing your breath in accord with their breath. And when a person is dying, they often have physical and emotional changes which make their breath get panicked or quick. And they're breathing okay, and then suddenly... And if your breathing is with him, you can go fast like that too. Just naturally it happens. But also you can slow or keep your breathing not so panicked. And you slow their breathing down.

[37:48]

So it's funny, you know, this weaving of mind and body together begins weaving the mind and body of both persons together. And there's a diminution of the identification with self. With the self we find carried in our thoughts. And it makes it easier for the person to die. For dying in Buddhist terms is a dissolution, a dissolving of the skandhas and the vijnanas and the elements. All these things, if you want to know something about, we can discuss in the afternoon or you can discuss with each other.

[39:07]

Because we're talking about a language of practice here, it's good to get familiar with. Mm-hmm. So when you think about it, when does the funeral service begin? Because at any time we can practice weaving mind, body, breath and others together. At any time we can bring our breath into accord with others, not to force anything on them, But just to express our affection. Our sense of intimacy.

[40:11]

A sense of intimacy that Sukhirishi is speaking about in that part of the Zen mind, beginner's mind we gave you this morning. And one of the things I would like to speak about is what is the intimacy of practice with our intimacy with ourselves and others. So we could say in Buddhism, this sounds a little morbid, the funeral ceremony starts at birth. You know how easy it is to love children, especially babies? And how... how it's possible most of the time to be open to a person who's dying, and how open and soft people become

[41:21]

have a calamity occur to them like a serious illness. Even Randy, who's been practicing many years, recently fell from a kind of second story into a pit in his house. It used to be Gerald and Gisela's house. He very easily could have killed himself. And he's still recovering from the concussion and other... But he's become, even after years of practice, this mortal experience has made him quite soft and open in a new way.

[42:35]

So we have to remember that each of us has this openness and softness possible. And you don't have to wait till they get some disease to feel that in them. So practice is to feel that openness we feel for the baby or the person who's facing the suffering. So in that sense our practice of rebirth begins at birth. And Dogen often just calls life birth.

[43:41]

He doesn't say life, he says birth. And maybe later I'll go into why Buddhism is not involved with reincarnation or transmigration. But the word that's used is rebirth. Because karma is not deterministic in Buddhism. Karma is conditional. So we always have the possibility of transforming our karma. At every moment. And it's most possible at the moment of death.

[44:47]

But if you understand that, it's possible every moment. So we're always practicing for our life and for our death. To prepare for our death. And to prepare and realize our true life. So that's enough for today, more than enough for today. And what a pleasure it is for me to be with you. Thank you very much for taking the trouble to come here for these days.

[45:26]

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