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Everyday Koans: Zen in Action

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The talk primarily explores the concept of the "everyday koan," a practice derived from Zen Buddhism, which emphasizes engaging with life's challenges as koans to bring mindfulness and transformation to everyday experiences. It references Dogen's "Genjo Koan," highlighting the importance of perceiving "the presence of things as they are" and using Zen practices like breath power, hara power, and samadhi power to interact meaningfully with one's surroundings. The talk encourages utilizing these principles as a framework for personal growth and understanding, contrasting the differences between Eastern and Western philosophical interpretations.

Referenced Works:

  • Dogen's Genjo Koan: This text is crucial in Zen practice, translating roughly to "the presence of things as they are," and emphasizes direct experience and understanding of reality, framing the discussion on Zen engagement with daily life.
  • Peanuts Comic Strip (by Charles M. Schulz): Used as an illustration of the often overlooked simplicity and fundamental nature of existential questions, supporting the theme of engaging with Zen through ordinary life experiences.
  • Carlos Castaneda's Assemblage Point: Referenced in relation to koan practice, suggesting a transformative shift in perception or world view, akin to Castaneda's teachings on altering consciousness.
  • Ivan Illich: Mentioned in the context of questioning societal structures and solutions, encouraging the release from pre-existing worldviews to embrace transformation through Zen practice.

The discussion weaves these elements into an inquiry into how Zen philosophy can be applied to better understand oneself and navigate life.

AI Suggested Title: Everyday Koans: Zen in Action

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Well, I'm very pleased to be here. I like Zürich a lot. And I especially like being here with Ivan and Marianne. And it feels like home to be here. How many people here know very little about Buddhism or Zen? Okay, about half of you, maybe. Okay, so I'll try to speak about the topic that was chosen, which is the everyday koan, in such a way that hopefully it'll make sense to you, even if you know little about Buddhism.

[01:05]

In fact, much of what I... If you ask a Japanese person if they know anything about Zen... Most will say they don't know anything. They'll say it's very difficult and we know nothing about it. I've never studied it. But much of what I'll say this evening is actually common knowledge in Japan. And they just don't think of it as Zen. Okay, first I'll give you a phrase from a koan. or a phrase that is a koan, the whole body exposed in the golden wind, the whole, w-h-o-l-e, in the golden wind, when all has withered and

[02:25]

fallen away, withered like in the fall. And fallen away. The whole body exposed in the golden wind when all has withered and fallen away. And the term, the phrase we've used for the title, Everyday Koan, is actually a kind of version of Dogen's phrase, the Genjo Koan. It's actually a version of... Dogen.

[03:48]

Phrase, the genjō koan. And genjō koan translates roughly, the presence of things as they are. Is he doing okay in translating? Thank you. I don't know. It sounds good. Anyway, the presence of things as they are. If you're going to study something like this, You have to study what is presence, and what is things, and what is as they are.

[04:50]

This is not so simple, actually. I think in Peanuts, that cartoon, did you read it recently? Did you hear it? They have... He's supposed to write a paper. Lucy is supposed to write a paper answering, why are we here? In Tina's cartoon, comics, writes Lucy an excerpt about why we are here. And she is saying to Carly that it's... The teacher said her answer was too short. And she tells someone... that the teacher said the answer would be too short. So she wrote what she thought was a longer answer. Which was, how should I know? And who cares anyway? So this kind of question, you know, what is presence, and things as they are, it's such fundamental questions we generally ignore them.

[06:22]

Much of Buddhism occurs within the realm of the obvious. And one characteristic of the realm of the obvious is it's not. It's usually overlooked. For example, one thing that's in the realm of the obvious, which I now think I should mention to any group of people I speak with, is that we tend to think in the Western culture that space separates things. In Buddhist culture and most of Asian culture space connects things.

[07:28]

So I think that's a starting point in any discussion of Buddhism should be at least this shift in world view. That so-called space connects. I would like to ask about the acoustics, people in the back. Can you hear okay back? Okay. Sound connects. Der Ton verbindet. And so maybe just as part of hearing this lecture, you should simultaneously feel, see if you can feel space connects.

[08:33]

Versucht zu fühlen. Any Zen teaching should be a metalogue, Metalog. Metalog, it's a... Just say the word in English. Jeder Zen-Lehrer sollte ein Metalog sein. Like analog or something. Wie analog oder etwas. But metalog means it is what it is. Metalog heißt es ist wie es ist. In other words, if I'm speaking about space connecting... Wenn ich rede über... then you are simultaneously experiencing or practicing with space connecting. So, for instance, if I say, this is a nice day, I'm trying to say something about the day. But if I just say, good morning, or hello, hello isn't about hello, hello is hello.

[09:53]

Yeah, do you understand? So a lecture should be what it is, not about something. Yes. Anyway, that's the idea. Okay, so I think to get a sense of koan practice, which is what we're talking about, which is the most... which is the definitive practice of Zen, first we should look a bit at the history of Buddhism.

[11:01]

Buddhism is a teaching of the Buddha, which utilised ancient Indian teachings, practices of yoga? So yoga practices have been developed and incorporated within Buddhism and within Zen practice in a particular way. Now, for those of you for whom this is an introduction to the seminar starting tomorrow morning, I'll try to give you some experience of these practices and some understanding of these practices in how they've

[12:05]

been developed specifically within Buddhism, and how they differ from Western practices and the Western worldview. So I'll try to give you some access to these teachings. Access for you in whatever kind of life you have. So again, Buddhism is this yogic practice and a high definition analysis of our psychological, emotional and perceptual experience.

[13:25]

It was a test. That's how I took it. A high-definition analysis of our emotional, mental, and perceptual experience. And that analysis is actually extremely interesting. And it's based on a different dynamic of person and phenomena. Buddhism has the word karma, which is mostly misunderstood in the West.

[14:36]

They don't have an idea of psyche in the same way we do. But certainly you have experiences and you store experiences and you retrieve experiences. And there is interaction of person and phenomena. And the dynamic of that is quite different than in Western culture. So what we would call psychological processes are quite different. And how you open yourself or transform yourself is understood differently. There's a lot of overlap but there are subtle and significant differences.

[15:44]

And what kind of strengths and what kind of perception is necessary to open and clear yourself? or to participate in the being that you are. So there's this yogic practice and this practice of analysis. And I think for us Westerners, an awareness of a worldview that supports this practice. Okay.

[17:08]

Now, Buddhism up to that, as I've described it so far, is basically a gradual practice. In most Buddhism, including Tantric Buddhism, Most tantric Buddhism emphasizes practice as gradual. This is true and a good way to practice. And no matter how you practice, there are elements of practice which are always gradual. As someone said, enlightenment is an accident, but practice makes you accident prone. As someone said, enlightenment is an accident,

[18:10]

Zufall oder Unfall, Unfall, aber die Praxis macht euch... Unfallanfällig. Danke, unfallanfällig. Yes, we all have to translate this together. And probably each of you has your own translation. Wir können das alle zusammen übersetzen und alle von euch haben, alle von euch habt hier eine eigene Übersetzung. So then koan practice is developed within Zen as a sudden practice or a breakthrough practice or a practice which we can say shifts the mind or in Castaneda's words shifts the assemblage point as a sudden Or shifts the world view. Okay. koan practice is somewhat related to mantra practice, which in mantra practice you transform your

[19:44]

your consciousness into a particular phrase. And you repeat that, and you keep repeating that phrase. until it becomes a kind of deeper stream in your mind that flows underneath your usual discursive thinking. So koan practice does the same thing, which is that you take a particular phrase and repeat it the way you do a mantra. But mantra practice and koan practice are not the same. The contemporary, what would we, Ivan Illich, the contemporary societal philosopher, maybe.

[21:20]

Ivan Illich, the modern social philosopher. He says, if we release our solutions, when we release our solutions... then we have to free ourselves from the illusions that supported those solutions. That makes sense? So you've come to certain solutions and they are the ways you've gelled your personality. Gelled? Like jello? Like gelatin? Like glue, something that goes away. But those gels or that glue... is based on some illusions or a particular world view.

[22:41]

So, Koen, well, Koen practiced... Why are you laughing? Strong, strong picture. So koan practice is also related to what's called wado practice. And wado means turning word or critical phrase. Okay. The background of this use of a critical phrase is that understanding only arises out of necessity. Understanding can't be separated from necessity. Das Verständnis kann nicht von der Notwendigkeit separiert werden.

[23:57]

If there's no necessity, you won't really have understanding. Wenn es keine Notwendigkeit gibt, bekommt man auch kein Verständnis. So to do koan practice, you have to increase your sense of necessity. Um koan praxis zu machen, muss man die Wahrnehmung der And increasing your sense of necessity is related to developing three faculties or three powers. One is the power of your, let's just call breath power. Prana or chi.

[24:58]

So chi or ki in martial arts is understood to be really result from breath power. And it's understood or thought that correct thinking or clear thinking arise from correct breathing or clear breathing. And this sense of space connecting Or in-betweenness is the word ma, m-a in Japanese. And there are various ways to define ma. And there are various ways to define ma. But the definition I like, it's that feeling you get when you contemplate whether the universe has a boundary or not.

[26:11]

If you think about that, you say, hmm... And that sense of ma is also considered that you breathe this ma. And there are various uses of it in Japanese like breath spell. Or to have a good contact with somebody, you create breath length. So I'm speaking with you. But more than what my words are doing, I'm finding a breath length with you.

[27:26]

This is considered a kind of thinking or a kind of non-thinking. But Dogen actually says, thinking, non-thinking. So we could create a word, hara-logical. Because this is your hara. And you want a kind of logic that's not thinking logic, but a logic of the hara. So koans are not riddles, as Westerners sometimes translate them, nor are they meant to just defy your mental logic, but they're meant to be answered with your hara logic. another kind of thinking, which makes sense in your life.

[28:59]

And the recent studies on the brain pretty clearly show that the brain doesn't think logically. It rather chooses from a lot of things, in fact, from many, many things, and keeps intensifying the choice, narrowing the choice, until based on the strength and weight of the various things it's choosing from, it suddenly makes a shift and decides to do something. As you may know, sometimes when you had to make a big choice in your life, you fuss about it, you think about it, you go for a walk, you go to a movie, or you forget about it, and then suddenly you say, I had no choice.

[30:01]

You know what to do. That's more like hara logic. You understand, I think. So, common practice is to put you in this situation, to use this way of thinking in a very detailed and profound way, a powerful way. So, one of the main practices in Zen is to concentrate on your breath And I won't go into the details of that. The details are simple but important. Let's just say that you get into the habit of not having your consciousness stray from your breath. And you can feel yourself breathing this room.

[31:26]

Or when you turn to look at somebody, you can feel yourself breathing that person. or when you're standing at your work, you feel yourself standing in your breath. The more you can move in that kind of direction, you're creating breath power. And the second is hara power, which is that you are able to move your energy or sense of identity to your stomach. So that, like I say, if you want to practice with it, feel your stomach talking to your friend.

[32:34]

And again, there's a word for that in Japanese, harage, which means belly talk. Or center to center. Zentrum to zentrum. Um... And so when you walk through a room you can feel your tummy going through the room. I mean, mechanically you sort of try it out like that, you know. And when you go out and open the door, I'd like to see all of you reach your arm from your hara power to the door. So you feel yourself coming out like this. And my teacher, Suzuki Roshi, The first thing he noticed about Westerners when he came here is they don't use two hands when they do things.

[34:05]

And he found this the most surprising. For instance, if I pass you this glass of water, you know. The Westerner tends to do it this way. But the Japanese, particularly those who practice that, would tend, even if I have to reach with one hand, my other hand would be sort of like that. And we drink wine like this, you know. But the Japanese actually design their dishes and bowls and cups so you can't do that so easily. That's why they don't have handles. And the handle is the edge, the two edges at the bottom and the top.

[35:13]

So, particularly if it's got hot tea in it. You're even required sort of to use two hands because you have to pick it up on the side and then put your hands on the edge and you tend to drink with two hands. But the feeling behind that, the reason for that is, is that when I pass her the glass, I'm not passing her the glass. That's only an excuse to pass myself to her. So when you pass yourself, you direct your energy with the two.

[36:22]

If you use one hand, you'd pass almost nothing of yourself. So that when you pass yourself, you direct your energy with the two. But if I use both hands, there's much more of a feeling of myself being passed to the person and receiving from the person. This is an articulation of space connects. So if I look at him, I tend to turn my body toward him, not just my head, like my headlights, you know. When I look at him, I tend to turn the whole body and not just the head like a reflector. So if you get into the habit of that, you can find your energy is more nourished and more available, accessible.

[37:22]

Okay, that's hara power. And we'll go into that more during the seminar. And the third is samadhi power. And there's an ancient saying that the human being without samadhi power cowers at death's door. that without samadhi power you'll always be afraid of death. And to be really relaxed, one of the qualities of zen mind is a mind that's absorbent, inclusive,

[38:32]

Absorbent, inclusive, calm, and relaxed. And to be really relaxed, this may sound strange, but you have to be ready at each moment for your death. That may sound a little radical or hard to do but it's part of what I said that understanding and necessity are one. You can really be ready for your death at any moment or ninety percent ready You suddenly feel very relaxed.

[39:43]

And like Lucy, you can say... Like Lucy in the cartoon. How am I supposed to know and who cares anyway? Okay. Samadhi power means something different in Mahayana Buddhism than it does in earlier forms of Buddhism and in yoga. Samadhi power means something different in Mahayana Buddhism than in earlier forms of Buddhism or yoga. Basically it means that kind of... field of mind, which is concentrated without an object of concentration.

[40:49]

And the simplest way to say that is there's something that you can concentrate on. And you can eliminate all discursive thought. until you're just concentrated on this, and then you can remove that, and you stay concentrated. And so your concentration is shifted to the field in which this arises, but not on this. Okay. And these are three faculties or powers of meditation practice or Zen. And it's thought that wisdom which is not something you can learn, wisdom will arise with... come out from your activity only or most likely

[42:01]

when you have these three powers, these three faculties? Okay. So, you bring this kind of hara breath and samadhi concentration or power, to the koan practice or to the critical phrase. All right. Now, the sense for you as laypeople, by the way, let me say, I don't know why I wore my robes tonight. Sometimes I feel it separates me from you. But sometimes I think you feel more connected, like if he's official or something.

[43:20]

Like asking a policeman for help on the street. At least he's supposed to give you directions if you're lost. And I like to wear them, so tonight I put them on. So, as lay people, um, You're not going to be studying koans much because they really require a teacher to do it. They're based on initiated states of mind. and a special language that arises out of the mind that is concentrated.

[44:27]

But your everyday life can also be considered a koan. That in the beginning And as I said at the beginning? when your understanding is related to or inseparable from necessity, there are necessities in your life, but how do you identify them? And how do you identify them without the fear, oh, if I really identify my necessities, I'll quit my job,

[45:31]

So you need a realm in which to practice these things or know these things. Okay. Which you can know these things, your necessities, without being pushed around by them. Okay. And so it's thought that in your activity, in your daily life, you can locate a critical phrase, which if you turn it or concentrate on it, it will release the illusions that support it.

[46:48]

So in a way, you're confronting illusions with illusions. Because understanding arises from illusions. So Dogen Zenji again says, don't think imitation dragons are different than real dragons. Both stir the clouds and winds and cause rain to fall. He says, although it's better to nourish real dragons than imitation dragons, both stir the winds and clouds and cause rain to fall.

[48:07]

So he means you can use the truths of your life as well as the illusions of your life. He means you can use the truths of your life as well as the illusions of your life. So the practice of life as everyday koan is to begin to identify the questions in your life the questions that arise in your life or the perplexities or the convictions, and to make them an object of concentration.

[49:15]

Now again, the word genjo koan means the presence of things as they are. Okay. And presence in this case, as I think I can try to define presence, presence would be like what? When you're concentrating on this and you take this away, the state of mind that's left is presence. And... Good. Or is Suzuki Roshi my teacher? Sometimes the wind in the trees makes a poem. Sometimes you hardly notice the wind in the trees. manchmal bemerken wir fast nicht den Wind in den Bäumen.

[50:34]

But those times when the wind in the trees makes a poem or makes you feel like making a poem, aber dann, wenn uns der Wind in den Bäumen dazu bewegt, ein Gedicht zu schreiben oder wenn er ein Gedicht schreibt, this is the presence of things as they are. So you begin to know this kind of denser, intense state of mind. And you can bring the perplexities or convictions or illusions of your life to that state of mind and keep some pressure on that in the deep stream of your activity. And you increase dramatically the likelihood you have a shift in your view or shift in your mind.

[51:39]

To understand your life or accept your life more deeply. Now, there are several metaphors of learning. One is to learn something and add to what you already know. Another is to transform yourself. Another is to uncover what's something that's already there. Another is to recover what you lost, like you knew it as a baby, but now you recover it. Another could be to become inclusive of of everything or to include more.

[52:58]

So the metaphor that most accurately expressed this way of working on your everyday life is a koan. is to become inclusive. To say uncover means there's something there already. There is... This practice is based on a trust that the truth of existence is existence itself. This practice is grounded in the third round, thus the Varhaider existence is the existence itself. Is within existence itself. Is in the existence itself. Is within your own inner request, your own inner request that sometimes you acknowledge and sometimes you ignore. Es ist eine eigene Forderung, die wir manchmal wissen und manchmal nicht.

[54:17]

So when you become more in touch with your own inner requests, so dass man besser in Berührung kommt mit der inneren Frage oder Forderung, and you can find yourself more in the presence of things as they are. This is what young men means by the whole body exposed in the golden wind. When everything has withered and fallen away. Withered and fallen away through the power of samadhi and breath and hara. So this is a practice that you can actually bring if you're interested in. To the details of your everyday life.

[55:24]

If you have the courage of the consequences of understanding. So I must wish you good luck. And take a break. so maybe we could take five or ten minutes and if anybody's left then we could have some questions or discussion okay I could feel your being on the lecture it was a good feeling for me I don't know what word to use.

[56:26]

I don't think of it as a lecture. I think of it as raising some issues. It is something like And definitely with your help. The more help I get, the more we can raise the issues. I thought we did pretty well for just meeting. I think we did pretty well. And I think we have to, for those of you who are coming to the seminar, we have to choose a beginning time tomorrow.

[57:29]

I think probably around 9.30. Until perhaps quarter to five, 5.30, we'll play it by ear. And I'll have to discuss with you tomorrow, you know, how much experience some of you have had sitting. And then I'll try to design the schedule and pace of the day in relationship to what I think we can do productively. If we are all able to sleep here, we could start tomorrow at 7 or 4.

[58:50]

But since you have a good excuse, we'll start at 9.30. And probably by late afternoon it'll be enough so we won't meet in the evening. And I imagine that Sunday we'll have about the same schedule unless there's some feeling tomorrow to start earlier or later or something. Okay. Does anybody have any questions or anything you'd like to talk about? But you're the boss, we have to wait.

[59:56]

Yes? I believe you mentioned in your talk the word karma, which you believe was most misunderstood here in the West. Do you understand the word karma? Yeah. talk in some detail about it tomorrow and Sunday. But I think it's most usefully understood as a way we accumulate and access experience and and transform experience. And not to understand it as a fixed kind of law or system. I think that often in the West it's understood as a kind of crypto-god.

[61:07]

As a fixed system behind things that is... As a kind of cosmic Freudian slip. Whatever happens is what you wanted and what you produced and so forth. And there's no room for accidents or play or transformation. At least in Zen, the system is understood much more softly. And in a much more human way, I think. in a more humane way. It's not a system removed from us and inexorable. It's not a system removed from us and inexorable.

[62:24]

Inexorable? You can't take it out? You can't change it. It's not a system that is outside of us and that cannot be changed. Yes. I'll say this for the benefit of tomorrow. One aspect of practice, again, is this metalogue, is that if you're participating in the practice, in the lecture, you should always have something. and it should be something rising up, that at least because you feel it could be useful to other people to bring up this point.

[63:27]

So all the historical Buddha's lectures, or usually the style is not the Buddha says, geez, I've got a lot to say to you guys, He's usually just sitting there in the midst of self-joyous samadhi. With Lucy at his side. Yeah. And... And then some monk or some person bears their shoulders and asks a question.

[64:31]

And so in Japanese monasteries, when monks don't have a question, the roshi will sometimes say, you or you. And if someone doesn't have something to say all the monks grab him and hold him right in the middle of the room in front of 50 or 100 other monks until he says something. Until he says something. And he has to say it with full kind of hara and samadhi power. He has to come out with a kind of guts and strength. That's more important than whether it's a good question or not. But I will not institute that practice tonight.

[65:35]

You might gang up on me. So, but it is good to have something, you know, ready. Okay. You talked a lot about practicing of Zen in the everyday, and you also said studying or living Zen is a gradual process. How necessary is sitting in the practice, instead of practicing by breathing and opening the refrigerator, the power? Translate, please. You talked a lot about the importance of Zen, to live or to study, by doing it through the breath or the way you move. This is a yogic practice. And it's not essential that you do zazen. But particularly for us in the West, I think practicing without doing zazen is pretty nearly impossible.

[67:24]

Zen doesn't depend on any particular posture. Zen doesn't depend on any particular posture. And there's samadhi of walking and sitting and lying and running and so forth. But all the representations of the Buddha as a metalogue of teaching itself All the statues. Of the teaching itself. Representing the teaching itself. Not representing some stage in his life. All such metallogic representations are sitting in

[68:25]

One of the simplest reasons for sitting zazen is to learn not to scratch. And what this means is you learn that you can sit through anything. If you don't learn to sit through anything, you'll always be scared of yourself. And if you're scared of yourself, you can't approach understanding. Do you understand? Yes. So there's various ways to reach that point but the shortcut is sitting zazen.

[69:39]

So you can allow yourself to feel anything. And you know you have a choice of whether to act on it or not. As long as the... You need to break the adhesive connection between thought and action and feelings and thought. That's why the four applications of mindfulness are not sometimes translated as awareness of feelings.

[70:43]

Awareness of thoughts. Awareness of the body. And awareness of dharmas. But that's not a good translation. Because it tends to mean like thinking about feelings or observing feelings with thought. but it really should be translated more like awareness of feelings in feelings. Awareness of feelings as feelings. Or through feelings. Not through thoughts. And when you can know feelings through feelings, without it going through the socialized identity of thought,

[71:52]

you'll find many dimensions of person that can only be explored through this confident sitting. So there are a number of reasons why this posture is useful. But I think for this evening I think it's sufficient to say that it's the best way I know to stop being scared of yourself. And while long sitting is very helpful in that Sitting 15, 20 minutes, half an hour a day is fine. And sitting in a chair is okay. But the main posture of sitting is the back bar. Of the main posture?

[73:18]

Of sitting as the backbone. Yeah. It's not your legs. That posture. So, what I mean is, you don't have to sit on the floor, you can sit on a chair. But if you sit on a chair, it's the posture of your backbone, which is zazen, not this. Thank you. It's interesting. what listening to Ivan translate, is that you can't translate the words, you have to translate the concept that glues the words together. That he heard the words but he couldn't translate them until he understood the concept. And it's a good example of how worldview actually is behind everything. And why the koans, the way the words are glued together, looks different.

[74:36]

Because the world view is different. But it makes complete sense once you make the world view shift. It's all so simple and so hard. Quite simple. Quite difficult. Okay, something else? Last one. I practiced satsang for years in the Soto. For four years? No. What, for one year? Several years? In the Soto way. And now I am interested in practicing in the Kohan way.

[75:39]

Is it possible to do that if you improve here in Zurich? Once you say it in German. Yes. You want to translate it, if I get it twice? Shall I translate it for you? Yes. The question is, I will say it as I translate. The last part about in a group. Would it be possible to practice Kuan Wei in a group in Zurich with you? Well, I'm only here three days. But people are looking for a beaten down Schloss for me.

[76:41]

We could repair, you know. Most likely in Austria. So I might be able to come here more. But let me say that I don't feel I'm practicing Soto exactly. My teacher and my lineage is Soto. But neither his style nor my style is particularly what in Japan would now be called Soto. Or it may be more important to realize that lineages within Sōtō and within Rinzai are more important in the schools often.

[77:47]

In other words, you can have a Rinzai lineage which is very similar to a Sōtō lineage or Sōtō lineage similar to a Rinzai lineage. But in any case, my teacher was interested in Zen before it split into Soto and Rinzai. And used koans in that way rather than as they were later developed in Rinzai or or how they're used in Soto. And Dogen, who is considered the founder of Soto, himself did not want to be a school or a Soto.

[78:56]

And he received both Rinzai and Soto lineages himself. But in any case, my teacher asked me to study Rinzai, Soto and Tantric Buddhism. In any case, Soto has a strong tantric side to it. Anyway, I say all this just to sort of give you a picture of what I'm trying to bring into the development and practice of the Western Buddhism. which includes the practice of koans as central to Zen. So I discussed it in a general way this evening. But of course, anyone who's persistent enough, probably we can practice together.

[80:21]

Why don't you ask in German? Why don't you ask in German? In German. Sometimes when I practice Zen I feel alone in the experience and I ask myself whether Rinzai Zen would be giving a stronger support with somebody who has more experience.

[81:30]

You live in Zurich? I live in Basel. Basel. And you practice with a teacher or with a group of people? No, normally I practice Tai Chi movement, and I just sit at home, or sometimes I go to eat food where Park Nha Son was, and I sit there in the monastery for a week or two. What kind of monastery is it? It is a Catholic monastery. Maybe you have to translate all that now. In German? Yeah, well, they don't know in German. Or you have to say it in German. That's why it's simple if you speak in German. But... I live in Basel and... I live in Basel and... do Tai Chi and practice... Father LaSalle?

[82:33]

Yes. Well, first of all, being alone is great. Without being lonely. and this sense of maybe the courage of aloneness, where you begin to enter experience which you don't compare to others' experience. So you have the courage of authoring yourself in the sense of authority as authoring yourself. This willingness to be alone is necessary for Zen practice.

[83:48]

And then when you meet your Dharma friend or your teacher your aloneness will call to his or her aloneness. And of course it helps to practice with a teacher or with a Dharma friend. So I wouldn't worry so much about Rinzai or Soto and things like that. Which I don't think should make so much difference, particularly in the West. But just who's available to practice with? And who you want to practice with? Keep it simple. I think that's about enough, don't you? Father, this is good luck.

[85:07]

Thank you very much.

[85:08]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_76.34