I thought today I would, if there's time, I would go through the case myself with you, line by line. But first I want to hear something from you. How was your discussion? Yes. First we talked about what makes the simple sitting to taking your seat. When does just ordinary sitting become taking your seat? So it's not simply taking a physical posture, but the connected intention makes the difference.

[01:05]

For example, the intention to stay in this posture for a while without moving. And then we talked for a long time about what characterizes this feeling of having found your seat. What does it feel like? And first of all, there's a strong feeling of awareness and presence. And then it takes a certain amount of energy and intention again and again to stay in this posture. And quite a few people reported that sometimes it happens that without you wanting to move consciously, a kind of uplifting through the spine happens.

[02:48]

That's the core of what we talked about. I was in the same group and would like to add something. One important topic was that finding your seat is not only to be referred to sitting in the zendu or to sitting in general, but that it is a kind of internal posture that I can take even in my everyday life. And that has to do with me being within myself, being connected to my breath with acceptance and not having too much expectations.

[04:18]

And then we also have a discussion about whether I come into this attitude without ever having sat down. And then we also discussed whether it's possible to take this posture without ever having a sad zazen. What was the conclusion you came to? Well, it was me bringing that question up and I personally think that I can come into that kind of internal posture without sitting zazen. But we agreed upon zazen being very helpful to find this internal posture that you can find it much faster and it leads you there more directly.

[05:34]

And that it reminds you during everyday life to find this kind of posture. And we also thought about whether there is a difference between climbing the throne and finding the seat. And then we thought about whether there's a difference between finding your seat and ascending the seat, like in the koan in German it's translated as the throne. I think there is a difference. To ascend the throne is something where I have an intention, an active attitude. And that we could not agree upon. We said that... When I ascend the seat, then I'm more active and I have an intention. And when I find my seat, it feels like arriving. But this arriving is not a passive state because internally I keep arriving in you and in you.

[06:49]

Okay, good. Someone else? Yeah. We started out by just describing what we associate with finding or taking your seat. And that went from throughout the entire day having access to zazen mind Or to allow for the situation to find the seat for you. Or even to lose the seat all day long and being dizzy. And then we talked about devices that help us to find that.

[08:16]

We talked about the breath or the uprightness, but also we talked about images like the hemlock. Hemlock? A hammock hung between two trees? Like the hammock of the moment that helped a person. The hammock of the moment. I never thought that's good. or as another device to dialogue between body and mind. And then we talked about responsibility. Angesichts der Verbundenheit, die Verbundenheit wird immer klarer und damit wächst auch dann das Gefühl von Verantwortung.

[09:25]

That connectedness becomes clearer and clearer and that along with that the responsibility increases and grows. Und damit wiederum verbunden, wenn dann das Thema Wandel noch dazu kommt, dann heißt das auch, dass den Sitz man immer wieder neu, also das ist praktisch permanent, der Sitz man immer wieder neu nennt. And then along with that, when the fact of everything changing is added, then you have to find your seat always anew, always freshly. Yeah, thank you. Yes. We had a nice conversation, which wasn't really a discussion at all. It was nice because everyone brought something in, and then one thing led to another. We had a very beautiful talk and it was not so much a discussion but it was beautiful particularly because we spoke in a way where one person would say something and then what we said would build upon another.

[10:34]

The first point we talked about was right intention from the Eightfold Path. And we talked about the intention to practice Zazen as a decision. And then the word posture in German, Haltung, it has a double meaning, posture in English too. Einmal Körperhaltung. The physical posture. Und zum anderen eben eine Haltung oder eine Stimmung, die man zum Leben einnimmt. Or it can be a stance you take upon life, for example. Yeah, we'd say an attitude. But certainly we could say Zen is mental postures as well as physical postures.

[11:36]

Yeah. And then we came to the decision about the intention, that an intention is also a decision. You have to decide for something and on the other hand against something. And then we talked about intention always going along with a decision because you have to decide for something and against something. And this decision is the antidote to hesitating, because making a decision also creates a physical and a mental kind of uprightness. The next concept or quality is to take over every responsibility.

[12:40]

And the next point is taking on responsibility and there's also the question how do I seat myself within my life and how do I position or seat myself in relation to other people. And then we thought of the bodhisattva vows as a fundamental vow not to create suffering. Then came the association that animals or trees, for example, also adopt a posture and they have something natural, something natural. For example, if you put the whole thing somewhere and then stand up harmoniously,

[13:42]

Then we came up with the association that also trees and animals, for example, take a very natural kind of posture. Like a cat, for example, will very harmoniously get up or lay down. Yes, and then we were discussing that if you are too intentional, that too much responsibility is taken over, then something slightly inactive can arise. But especially with these examples, like with the cat, that there is actually a lot of vitality in it. And then we talked about if there's too much intention, then something that's rather stiff or not alive anymore can result. But like in the example of the cat, the entire activity is very alive. The next point was the Bodhisattva, the highest Bodhisattva-tugend,

[14:44]

The next point was the highest bodhisattva virtue. The highest virtue of a bodhisattva. Sounds good. The highest bodhisattva virtue, I have read, is that the bodhisattva teaches every being according to his individual needs. What I read is that a bodhisattva teaches each being according to its individual needs. Katrin came up with the example of how difficult it is to even just have to teach a regular student, not even talking about an entire being.

[15:48]

Well, of course this virtue is an ideal, which is probably practically not enough at all. But what you can do is just look at how others teach, how people get along, And then we talked about that being an ideal and that it's really hard to achieve. And we were wondering, how do we see that manifested? And for example, how are you teaching? Yeah, okay. That a lot of times there will be very surprising answers to questions. Where do the surprising answers come from? From you.

[16:49]

Oh, from me. And then we talked about that we keep thinking ourselves what kind of answer we give and that your answers are always different and surprising. And then we also had the association to feel at ease, which is a kind of awareness where foreground mind and background mind are in a kind of harmony with each other. Someone else brought up the term, to poise, and he doesn't know what it means, but it was very interesting.

[18:01]

To poise, P-O-I-S-E. It's a great word. Yeah. Well, yeah. It's a very nice word. Isn't there a word like poise? Yeah. To be in balance. To pray, to poise, to, you know, yeah. Also ganz so der, der, sagen wir mal, die letzte Sache war, dass es eine breite Haltung sein muss, die auch offen ist, eine Art der Dazugehörigkeit und auch And then we concluded in saying that this kind of posture has to include a kind of readiness, less ego-centeredness, openness and connectedness.

[19:11]

Sounds good. The bodhisattva's job or something like that is to teach according to each person's circumstances. That's true. To teach according to their needs. But the bodhisattva also changes people's needs and then teaches them. But the Bodhisattva also changes the needs of people and then teaches. In our group we also talked about I think you just said something about the observation of others, that you can learn a lot from them.

[20:19]

And now in the program and in Horiyoki, I have become so aware that Yes, that I can really see something in it, just as each individual performs these forms. And also, for example, when I was in Berlin as a porn star, it touched me so much that his understanding, and where he speaks about the same things as Roshi, is different, and that's why he somehow has such clarity. Is someone going to say this in English? That's what Sophia tells me sometimes.

[21:33]

Would you tell me what you just said to people in German? No. Sorry, Dad. Yeah. Should I translate it for you? Because it was pretty long, which... I actually didn't feel that long. I felt that... I felt great appreciation for the... especially the oriole kick practice, watching other people express their understanding that way.

[22:35]

And I also reported that when I left Crestone, I was... Among other things, a little bit tired. Doing karaoke. Yes. I can understand. Yeah, and I'm glad to have this situation. I'm glad it took five years before you get tired. Yeah, and having everybody keep... doing it while I was tired. Okay, thanks. We have talked about the aspect of tradition. And there are traditions that, for example, in the Adel, or the transfer of a farm to the next son,

[23:37]

to be carried on relatively unobjectively. And we agreed that the tradition in which we find ourselves here should always be questioned with every approach, with every taking a seat, with every reinterpreting, so that it remains a necessary tradition and always One aspect we talked about for quite a while was tradition and there are traditions in each society where like In Germany there was the tradition that the oldest son got the farm. These are sometimes traditions that are just done without asking a lot.

[24:41]

This oldest son just grows into it and inherits the farm. For us it was very clear that in this tradition It needs something like whenever we sit down, whenever we take our seat, this tradition has to be questioned and recapitulated in terms of is it still what we want, what we need, in terms of is it right in this moment and what are we actually doing together. So it's constantly revealed in terms of more like a bodily feeling. Yeah, thanks. Yeah?

[25:42]

Another aspect that came to us from what has already been said is that taking in the seat is also a change in rhythm. We bring a certain rhythm, a certain energy and there is the possibility of changing it or that it changes and the feeling of this change is a feeling to find a seat, or can be the feeling to have found a seat. And that the forms, for example in the sender, are very helpful to us, because they try to clarify the rhythm, or to change it. Also the repetitions of these forms, which then gives us a better access to this sitting feeling.

[26:48]

We have two aspects, one is the feeling of the calm spirit, but also the feeling that the energy, the energetic in the body is changed. We brought, or I bring another aspect among what was already said, is that somehow the rhythm, that we have a kind of a basic rhythm how we are active. And there is the possibility to change this rhythm or this energy, how we act. And that often, or it's possible that the change of this rhythm gives us that feeling of having found the seed. And that, for instance, the forms we use, the rituals we use, for instance, in a zendo, can make this shift or this change and brings us to that feeling of having found the seed, which is not only finding a seed in a sense of a silent or still mind, kind of

[28:05]

still mind, but also an energetically different quality of being. And including the repetition of these forms somehow makes it more fundamental to find and makes it more obvious with the repetitions. This kind of change. And then we had the question of finding the seat. How many seats are there actually? Are there any different seats at all, or is not everything the same? Then we had also the question about the seed, or finding the seed. How many seeds are there, actually? How many? Or is there at least just one seed that we are in already?

[29:13]

So what does it mean, finding the seed? OK, thank you. Yes. Do it here. For me, finding the seat means to not being identified with my thoughts or being in a kind of mindfulness posture or attitude where that's my feeling of finding my seat. And that can take on different forms, like through the body, like sensing into the body, or there can be different ways of finding that. Okay.

[30:16]

Okay, thanks. Yes? Thanks for the cake today. It was a little much, but it was good. I don't know what's so funny, but it was for Sofia and Kelly. Oh, really? You mean I ate their cake? Then why did you give me three pieces? Why did you give me three pieces? For me the shapes are very important or different to participate in a Sashin, to participate in a practice period, or to participate in a seminar, a weekly seminar.

[31:28]

So a practice period and a Sashin, for me personally, was decisive for my life. It had a completely different impact on my life. For me, the forms take on very different qualities. Like, for example, when you participate in a sashin as compared to participating in practice period or in a weekend seminar. And for me, participating in practice period and in a sashin had a very different, much deeper impact on my life. And I think the fineness... She was always there, but she just kept developing and refining herself. The way we deal with each other, how we talk to each other, how we sit together, the Uriyogi practice, your lectures.

[32:39]

Yes, just wonderful. And the way we communicate, the orioke meals, and the way we act with each other, your lectures, all of that has been refined throughout the years, and that's just wonderful. Refined here, and our, what we do, you mean. As a... Yeah. Is refined, it became finer and finer, or it became... I guess so. Yeah. Okay. Seems the same to me. Good. But I'm sure it's been refined, and we all deepened our way of doing it together. I'm very clear that we should keep the orioke practice. I'm not so clear how we should continue service. I don't have doubts about orioke, but I have doubts about how the service should continue. Ich habe also keine Zweifel bezüglich des Uriokis, aber ich habe Zweifel, wie der Service weitergeführt werden soll.

[33:55]

When we can hear into the inside of each other's voices and find a way to chant, it's really wonderful. Wenn wir einen Weg finden, in die Stimmen der anderen hineinzuspüren und dann auf diese Art und Weise zu rezitieren, dann ist es wirklich wunderbar. Someone else want to say something? Yes. I'd like to say something that's on my mind right now. It wasn't the topic of the small group. In German there is a term, it's called niederlassen. It's to settle, you know, nieder means down and lassen means net. Okay. Back last year I changed my job circumstances and I became self-employed.

[35:10]

That's a word to say, settled, niedergelassen. Yeah. but that's more of a superficial way of looking at it. Another meaning of not letting go is letting myself down on a chair or on a cushion. But that's more of a superficial way to use this word. Another way to use the word is to say I'm settling, I'm using this word upon a chair, for example. to let me down, to sink a little, just as if I sink down and get a certain pleasant weight. This is also what I associate with the word to let down, and this is something through my change of profession, what I experience in sitting, when I sit for a longer time.

[36:18]

And what I actually connect with this word is when I sink down into myself. That's the way I tend to use the word. And I experience that in sitting or through having changed my job circumstances. And the picture that comes to mind is my house setting. And the image that comes up is to furnish my house. And this is a very nice idea. This is my decision, how I want to have it. I have to decide what I want to record, what I don't want to record, how I want to design it. The concept of responsibility comes with it, I can't give it to someone else, but I really have to clarify it for myself, to ask myself again and again, yes, how do I want to design my inner house, how do I want to design it?

[37:26]

And I have to be very clear myself about how do I want to furnish my internal house. I have to make a decision what do I want to have in it and what do I want to exclude, for example. Yes, of course. And what I still experience, and this is a physical feeling, and what I still experience as if I were almost... root-sleeping. And that's more of a physical feeling. The other thing I experience is as if I'm spreading my roots. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I understand. That was on my mind. Thank you. One of Kalagiri Roshi's favorite phrases, maybe the most favorite, and also stock phrase, as Sukriya used to say, stock phrase in Zen, Stock phrase, I don't understand.

[38:30]

Stock, cliché, stock phrase, a usual term. Okay. Also, one of the most famous sentences by Katagiri Roshi and maybe even the most famous, so Suzuki Roshi has a, a, how do you translate it? A frequently used sentence, at least. A saying. A saying. Standing speech. Standing speech, thank you, that's good. was to settle yourself on yourself. He describes zazen as a process of settling yourself on yourself. Someone else? Yes? This sentence just came into my mind. And... Well, it's not a joke. Yes, please. Chairman, better to start with. The sat came into my head and I realized that if I take the seat, whether it has a passive quality, that I have an intention and that I also notice what it is, but that I try less to be present than to find or as to simply...

[39:53]

to stop at the comments and then to let the seat find itself. That this larger space that then opens, that I then feel more in the seat when I ... I did not actively decide how I would sit, whether I would pay attention to the breath or to the body, but rather, as Emma said, that the breath finds itself, or that something simply appears and I am the one who makes it happen. And that is more like how it feels to sit down. The sentence came to my mind and I noticed that when I feel like I'm settling or I'm settling on myself that I had an intention and I notice but that's the point where I stop and I try to

[41:09]

Just let the situation come. As soon as I become active in trying to be with my breath or my body, it doesn't feel that the space or the reality is completely here. It feels like I'm more settled if I just let breath or whatever come to that moment. Okay? Thank you. Yes, Marlene. I just remembered a small thing that I would like to add. When I was about 30 years old at the acting school, I had speech education. When I was trained to be an actress, I had a kind of education where you learn, it's a kind of speak pedagogy.

[42:24]

I had to speak this saying for about a year. Oh, shimmering moon, I went and went and didn't get any closer to you. And for about a year I had to say the saying, Oh, glooming moon, I went and went and yet did not come closer. And somehow this saying... And for some reason that saying came up in the context of this topic or I came closer to that saying again. Because I think there are two things that are important.

[43:38]

One is that you walk and walk and yet you need to know that the seed is always within yourself. Okay. Something like that. Yeah. It's always something like that. Okay. Before we do something else. Let me speak first of all to what Annetta brought up. It's something I've thought about a lot over the years. Because I've really wanted practice to be available to everyone. And I really don't like speaking, because each of you has your own precious and beautiful or potentially beautiful life.

[45:00]

And I don't like implying that everyone should do Zazen and stuff like that. When I was with these Swedish guys, I really couldn't make them do Zazen. I didn't want to ring the bell because they weren't used to Zazen. Why should I make them do Zazen? Until people give me permission to ask them, I don't want to ask. So I didn't feel they'd given me permission. So I told Ravi, and I just, you know, we don't have to sit.

[46:14]

He said, I think everyone should sit. So I said, then you have to ring the bell. So Ravi was the one who did it. I just snuck in. And when half the people are sitting on chairs, I don't want to. Anyway, so that's been my feeling. But I also want to face... I have to face the facts. Um... One problem I have with the feeling that everyone, what one realizes through zazen, can also be realized just through mindfulness.

[47:22]

Well, of course you can't say it's not true. It certainly can be true. But is it true enough to take a position like that? I don't think it's true enough. And then that way of thinking can be extended, well, can it also be realized through yoga or qigong, tai chi or Christianity or... you know, etc. Well, then really behind that kind of thinking is the idea that there's one truth, that there's truth in the world. And Buddhism Overall, it's very clear there is no truth.

[48:39]

This koan says it. There are situations which you can say are true to me or true to this situation, but there's no such thing as the truth. Everything is circumstantial. Everything is relative. Circumstantial. Okay. I mean from a Buddhist point of view, Einstein's unified field theory is doomed to failure. And... Buddhism might be wrong. Maybe someone's going to find the unified field theory, but if they do, then I'll try to figure out what to do. But of course there are some aspects of what one realizes in Zazen you could realize as a fisherman or an artist or something.

[49:51]

But even then, different is different. And there is also the idea that Buddha attained the highest truth and we're all trying to attain what Buddha attained. From the Zen point of view, that's wrong. Buddha is the starting point. And we can have experiences the Buddha never had. So, as I always say in a center, well, absolutely, Does that mean that on different paths there is realization in different ways?

[51:07]

Absolutely. And as I've said since 40 years or more, the different teachings are different paths that lead into the same mystery but they don't end up at the same place. But, you know, you could take the position, but you can't prove this. So somebody can be enlightened or realized or something, and you can say, well, that's the same as the enlightenment you'd realize through Buddhism.

[52:12]

Certainly Hinduism assumes enlightenment experiences. And as has been pointed out, phenomenologically, Christian, Protestant conversion experiences are phenomenologically pretty much identical to Zen and Latin experiences. But Buddhism would say these are in fact different. If you think a person who obtains enlightenment It's going to be the same for each person because enlightenment is something that transcends particularities.

[53:13]

From a Buddhist point of view, when Buddhists say this, they're wrong. But again, you could say, well, we can't prove this. And a person who doesn't do Zazen, they can't know because they don't know what it's like to do Zazen. And a person who does some Zazen and has some other, they may find it very similar. But it's hard to know. It's like the discussion, is Zen the same as an LSD experience? Pretty hard.

[54:23]

You can't say, really. But if you have, let's say a fisherman has a, let's take it, I don't take something, because I like fishing. A fisherman has an enlightenment experience. That is if it's matured and developed it might just be the source of personal freedom. But let's say that it's matured and developed in the fisherman's experience. Okay. Let's take an adept Buddhist practitioner. He or she has an enlightenment experience, which let's say is virtually the same as the fisherman's enlightenment experience. can almost clearly say that this is the same lighting experience.

[55:43]

The fisherman's enlightenment experience is matured in his activity as a fisherman, living with his family or whatever he does. But the Buddhist adepts' enlightenment experience is matured in repeated zazen and mindfulness practice over decades. That's got to be different. That's got to be different. So, I mean, there's no way, let's take, I've lived 25 years without doing Zazen, And I started out with a commitment to naturalness and equality and so forth. But I can just say from my own experience, More than 45 years of regular zazen.

[57:17]

The experience I... How I experience zazen never could have been realized through just doing mindfulness practice. Never. And so let's just go back to the simplicity of what I've been saying the last couple of days. If you realize still sitting through, if you realize if you realize the potentialities of the experience of not moving over some years and that generates an intentional mind that is physically embodied.

[58:31]

And that becomes the basis for your reference point in all you do. That simply cannot be realized by mindfulness practice. It doesn't mean that you can't lead a wonderful, realized life just practicing mindfulness. But as soon as you don't believe in one truth, which is one of the things this koan tries to establish, then you accept that different is different. And then each of you is different in your own way and beautiful in your own way.

[59:36]

So we create, the song is to create a situation where our differences can become a... Yeah. a subtle dialogue among each other that generates something that's different than all of us separately. Sorry, the last part. Can generate a kind of dialogue that... that is beautiful in its own right and different from each individual. Yeah, so you can see that I have a philosophical objection to thinking that somehow everything is the same if we're, you know, something like that. Because it leads to the idea that there's somehow one truth we all share.

[60:48]

As Stuart Kaufman says, a medical doctor who became a scientist who was one of the founders of chaos theory. The potential combinations that this galactic totality offers us. This galactic what? Totality. Sounds like the name of a movie, Galactic Totality.

[61:51]

Anyway, it's in some hundreds of millions of years, several billion years, only been, you know, like two or three percent explored. I read the other day, the entire, the electrons that make up the entire worldwide internet, might weigh a total of six grams. Okay. Yeah, of course.

[62:54]

But the emphasis in the Quran is also on patterns and conditions. They have an influence on all of us. For example, the Quran brings in the yin and yang and how to cooperate the form of spring. These are patterns. They have an influence. And the same patterns, they have an influence on each of us. Yes. But that doesn't contradict what I said. I will, let me go through the text. I mean, it might contradict what I've said, but I know what the text says, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't. Yes. Oh, Deutsch, bitte. Ja, aber im Chor wird auch erwähnt, die Formen des Frühlings sind einarbeitend, und die jungen Jahren, und auch die Jahreszeiten. Das sind aber doch dann auch Muster, and which we are all exposed to, which all have the same effect on us.

[64:01]

So somehow Yin and Yang affects every one of us and spring, summer, autumn and winter, we all go through that and it is the same rainy summer here at the moment and that affects all of us. Yes, but what do you mean? But they are the same, there are also different patterns. Everyone has their own experience, which is not comparable. They're saying that everybody makes different their own experiences with these laws. Yeah, that's okay. I have always heard you emphasize throughout the years that there are different hills in the forest.

[65:19]

Different hills? Whatever. It's not one truth. Yes, that's what I said. Over the years... That's real. I like that. Okay. I understand that almost like a preaching. Oh, good. And I don't understand why. You don't understand why you accept it. You don't understand why I say it. I don't understand how much you stress it. If it's just a philosophical perspective, okay. But I feel it's something more for you, and I don't get this more. Okay. I only understand it philosophically, but it seems to be more than that, which I don't get at all.

[66:23]

Okay. That's good. Over the years, Roshi has repeatedly emphasized that his philosophical point of view is that there is no truth, but at most similar truths. And I understand that philosophically, but I don't understand why Roshi always emphasized it, almost like a sermon. There is more behind it, but I don't understand the more. What? There was a pun? Puns don't translate. We have the door open because it's too hot? Stinks in here. Well, I'm glad I'm up here then.

[67:41]

The air is not so bad. Yeah, maybe it's all those women jumping around here last night. This is a gymnasium, a local gymnasium, one night a week. Yeah. Well, why do I emphasize it? Well, one reason is because we're trying to establish Buddhism, I'm trying to establish Buddhism in the West. And in every way, Buddhist thinking, I mean, Western thinking, Western language assumes some kind of unity of truth or one truth.

[68:50]

And that quickly shifts. Hi, Sophia. She told me again, I'm not going to go to one of your seminars, it's just too boring. I said, well, you don't have to, Sophia. So then I told her that maybe like these stories, you may not be old enough yet for some stories. Oh, okay. So you... So, because you read her some story like Alice in Wonderland, at a certain point it gets too adult and she loses interest. Yeah, and there's a book I like, particularly The Secret Garden.

[70:05]

I probably don't read it in German, but yes, you might. Anyway, it's about a little girl. It's the Heidi idea, a little girl who's mistreated and then she discovers herself, you know. And she finds herself in a secret garden. Yeah, so she wants me to read the part about the secret garden. I said, no, no, the secret garden is hidden in the whole story, so you have to read the whole story to find the secret garden. And then she surprised me. She said, is that like your lectures you have to... Is that what you're talking about, a secret garden? And I said... This morning she said something in that sense.

[71:44]

She asked me where I would go and I said I would go to your father's lecture. And she said, you listen to so many lectures, you should know what he's talking about. And the thought was, please play with me. I'm not sure. She says, you already know, so play with me. Maybe she should be a lawyer. Yeah. Should I translate that? I don't know, why not? Are you? Okay. And then, very easily, the idea that there's one truth gets translated to a transcendental realm where things are outside this situation.

[72:59]

And so we have, you know, as I often point out, it rains instead of rain, rains. It's just assumed in all of our thinking that there's some outside agent that makes things happen. And to study Buddhism seriously at any real level It all has to be here. There's no outside level. There's no transcendent realm. In very early Buddhism, the contrast is made between Hindu, Indian meditator, who finds a, not four elements, but a fifth element of some mysterious quality that you can only sense but can't grasp.

[74:42]

But the Buddha is contrasted with that. All the Buddha sees when he studies himself is four elements, the material elements of the body, nothing else. And that's a fundamental difference. So then, if all there is, is this, why is it so extraordinary? You have a different problem. So it both makes a difference in how we define what we're doing in relationship to the overall thinking of Western, overall Western thinking. Not to say one is better, but just different is different.

[76:13]

If you choose to say the world is created or the universe is created or had a beginning, you can say that. Or if you say, there's always been something, there was no beginning. There's no third choice. Or any third choice is beyond our ability to imagine. So Buddhism says, well, you can't prove that there was a beginning and there wasn't a beginning.

[77:16]

But Buddhism says it's more fruitful to view there was always something. So it's, again, not something you can answer, But one view changes the way you look at everything. Now, I agree with Lusthaus, who's written about the Yogacara and phenomenology. 80% of Chinese Buddhism is corrupted by the idea of Buddha nature, including much of Zen. Because to present Buddhism to the Chinese mentality, they had to create the idea of Buddha nature because they wanted to believe in some kind of universal nature.

[78:23]

Now, so... The idea of Tao, is it this? The idea of a Tao, too, and if you take that as a kind of Buddha nature or underlying truth... Or you take Jung's idea of a collective unconscious. The same problem. Now I mostly took the view over the years to not press this point. But as I finally confessed this morning, I'm already dead. So I don't have to be political anymore. Okay. Now, very, more purely Buddhist practitioners, let's say, in China, took the, many took the view,

[80:04]

This is a small compromise. If we can get the whole of Chinese society to practice Buddhism, to accept the basic Buddhist views... And all we have to give them is reincarnation and Buddha nature. Hey, it's a small price. But the problem with that is most Buddhism is transmitted by very average people. whose practice is not really rigorous and at some point everyone starts believing in Buddha nature and reincarnation. Because we want to. It feels better. You know, I had this conversation with Thubtenjimpe. Yeah, that guy.

[81:17]

Good old Thubtenjimpe. I think that's how you... And he's the main translator for the Bodhidharma. For the Bodhidharma. For the... That's your next one. Yeah, see how my mind works? Dalai Lama. Same syllables. He's the main translator for his holiness, the Dalai Lama. And he's the person in charge of the entire Tibetan translation project into European languages.

[82:21]

And somebody asked him, because the Dalai Lama himself... No, no, can you turn... The Dalai Lama himself has taken a position of, well, maybe reincarnation is true. He doesn't have much choice. But anyway, he also wants to kind of, you know, anyway. So Thubten was asked at this A gathering of scientists with Thubten in Bologna last year. What do you think? He said, strictly speaking in Buddhism, no reincarnation. I don't believe in it. He said, but I like what it does to people, so on another level I kind of want to believe it.

[83:33]

I believe it for people. Well, Yeah, but this is a relative truth classified as a fundamental truth and that's a problem. Okay. I heard you. You heard me. That's good. That's what the word high means in Japanese. It's translated as yes, but actually it means I've heard you. Yeah. So if you run out of teachers who still stick to that no reincarnation, for example, you're really in trouble.

[84:52]

If I run out of teachers? No. If the humanity runs out of teachers who stick to that, let's say, for example, no reincarnation, no Buddha nature, we're in shallow waters. We're in shallow waters, yes. But we've been in shallow waters for tens of thousands of years. Splash, splash. Go ahead, Deutsch, bitte. Well, one of Ustasa's points is that Indian Buddhism actually progressed beyond Chinese Buddhism, and the Indian logicians like Dignaga and others really made the point I'm making

[86:05]

But Chinese Buddhism just ignored it until very recently. So, from what I've been speaking to you in lectures the last two or three days, I could speak about, I could show how what I spoke about can be understood as Buddha nature. but not in the popular Chinese sense. There's some inherent nature that we enter into or uncover.

[87:07]

It's also different. Do we view things as ontological or epistemological? Are we uncovering the truth or are we generating the truth? And it's also the question of whether we view things ontologically or epistemologically. Namely the question of whether we produce things or whether we discover them. So the other way around, ontologically whether we uncover them or whether we generate them epistemologically. And this is part of the rigor of my own trying to teach is how do I use language and stay always in the context of generation and not uncovering. Not uncovering. Now, it's not so important for most practitioners. I think it's because most people don't think these three things through very rigorously.

[88:25]

But it's important that the teachers think it through rigorously. Because the implications are there. But again, perhaps it matters for transmission Buddhism, but probably it doesn't matter in general for practice. Well, you know, we can stop because we're going to eat in 20 minutes, or shall we look at the text a little bit, or how your leg's doing? Okay. completely embodying the ten epithets of Buddha.

[89:49]

Now, as I said, this is that there's no one Buddha. Each one is a Buddha. That means You too can be the Buddha. But not the historical Buddha of the past. Buddha in your own way. Sukhiroshi said something very telling and very simple. Most people don't notice. Each one of you will have your own enlightenment. appearing in the world as the soul honored one. This also means you can appear in the world as the soul honored one. And I... I did already speak to what that can mean in that context in the Taishos.

[91:13]

But I'll come to it again when I look at the last paragraph. Raising the eyebrows. As you know, in Koan 20 it says, in the eyes it's called seeing, in the ears it's called hearing. What is it called in the eyebrows? And it means, like, as I often say again, there's television programs and cell phone calls in this room. And we simply don't have a sense for it. What we know is five slices of a sensorial pie, and there's an infinite number of slices. And as you know, the... Are we having a battle here?

[92:24]

All the way the other way. Yeah. Um... The sixth sense used to mean the combination of all the senses acting as one. Becoming animated. This means to function without thinking, to let the circumstances create your functioning. Das bedeutet, ohne zu denken zu funktionieren, also die Umstände dein Funktionieren bestimmen zu lassen.

[93:29]

It's a little bit like being taken, like speaking from a trance or channeling or something like that. Das ist ein bisschen so, als ob man aus einer Trance sprechen würde oder so wie channeling. So, in the teaching shops they call this ascending the seat. So here the koan is saying many things. Ascending the seat means many things. And one thing it means is the German translation is throne. And a throne means the authority of a seat. And again, it's no, you know, there's the whole European tradition of the king has two bodies. And it's parallel to the pope has two bodies. One is the infallible Pope.

[94:38]

So the kings supposedly were those who inherited the ability to have a divine right to rule and while simultaneously being ordinary people. Und die Könige haben so eben die Fähigkeit geerbt oder die göttliche Art und Weise zu regieren geerbt und waren aber gleichzeitig auch gewöhnliche Menschen. So in what trance state or what state do you have to be to speak the truth? That's what this animated means. In Korean Buddhism, I believe, there's quite an overlap between shamanism and Zen. And the good Zen teacher is supposed to be able to be... be able to, in effect, channel shamanically the truth.

[96:01]

And probably you know, Kaz Tanahashi's father, after the Second World War, started a new religion. Which involved his channeling. And that responsibility was supposed to be passed to Kaz. He didn't want to do it, so his eldest sister does it. And it's a kind of Shinto school. Anyway. Okay. So, this is part of the culture of China and Korea and so forth. And it's assumed that a good Zen teacher has some powers like this. Only when you have those kind of powers do you have the legitimate right to ascend the seat.

[97:13]

And the meditation force, they call this going up into the hall. Und in den Meditationswäldern nennen sie das in die Halle hinaufgehen. Okay. So this is easy for you to translate. It's kind of nice. And then he tries to take this all away. He says, before you people come to this teaching hall, in dem er sagt, bevor ihr Leute in diese Lehrhalle kommt, And before I even leave my room to go to the teaching hall, when will you ascend the seat? When will you attain realization? Oh, I tried to... I noticed. Okay. So, of course...

[98:13]

descending the seat, now the koan says, every moment is ascending the seat. It can be. So every moment is finding your seat. Also ist jeder Moment ein Finden deines Sitzes. Aber das zu sagen fällt bereits in 3 und 4. Also es gibt die, wie wird das übersetzt? Da gibt es noch bestimmten. Or the first principle and falling into the secondary. Falling into the idea that there's many and the relative is true. And this is even worse. It's falling into three and four.

[99:37]

Haven't you read Shredo's saying? You're awfully fast at translating this. If there had been someone who could understand the multiplicity of meanings according to situations, as in the Sanskrit word Saindhava, what would have been the need for Manjushri to strike a beat? Now Saindhava clearly, as it explains, can mean salt and horse. But it's taken to mean that every word is only true in its context.

[100:44]

That's also a way of saying there's no outside truth. There's no one truth. Everything is Saindava. Okay. This also seems to be a pun on Svabhava. Und das scheint auch ein Wortspiel auf das Wort Svabhava. Svabhava. Which means own being. Was eigenes Sein bedeutet. So Saindhava would then be non-own being. Also Saindhava wäre dann sowas wie nicht-eigenes Sein. So it's a pun suggesting that there's no own being. Also ist es ein Wortspiel, das suggeriert, dass es kein eigenes Sein gibt. Yeah, Shredo shouldn't ask for salt, and how could I present a horse? He shouldn't even ask for salt, and even if he asked for salt, why should I give him a horse?

[101:52]

He wants a horse, but I gave him a cold, and now he's hoarse. That was a pun. Horse means you can't speak. Yeah, that's true. Okay. Even Manjushri, the ancestral teaching of the seven Buddhas of antiquity. No, I don't know why. I suppose I don't know any stories about Manjushri being the teacher of the seven Buddhas. I can't remember any if I know any. But of course all the Buddhas are Buddhas through wisdom. So in that sense Manjushri had to be the teacher of the seven Buddhas. In this sense, Manjushri had to be the teacher of the seven Buddhas.

[103:02]

And I'm not sure about this, but I think some schools have said there's 50 Buddhas before Buddha, or 100, you know. But the basic idea means you can be a Buddha. And there's a fascicle of Dogen which is Kobutsu Shin, I think. Which is translated as Old Buddha or something, which is a riff on the seven Buddhas. So here's Manjushri who's leaking. Who's like the Buddha's Jisha. But he's not only the Buddha's Jisha, he's the teacher of the seven Buddhas before the Buddha.

[104:25]

Frank should be here because he's the Jisha. He would like this. Frank? Yeah, you can tell him. Keep him up to date. So the teacher of the seven Buddhas before Buddha says, clearly observe the Dharma of the King of Dharmas. The Dharma of the King of Dharma is thus. Well, what did he do? Well, there you are. But even this Manjushri, who was the teacher of the seven Buddhas before Buddhas, still needs to pull the nails out of his eyes and wrench the wedges out of the back of his brain before he's going to understand anything.

[105:30]

This is just apophatic drama. To say something and take it away. And what does it mean? Really, who's the subject of this? You need to still pull the nails out of your eyes and wrench the back. The reference here is not Manjushri. The reference is you and me. But that's standard. You have to figure it out. And each phrase is independent of the context of the sentence and can be taken out of and put in another context.

[106:31]

So grammatically it refers to Manjushri. But as a Saindhava it refers to you. Because it's contextual meaning you can shift all the time. Weil die Zusammenhangsbedeutung man jederzeit verändern kann. And now suddenly we've gone from the seven Buddhas before Buddha to a Song Dynasty Zendo where they're hitting the board, the Han. Und jetzt plötzlich sind wir von den sieben Buddhas vor dem Buddha zu einem Zendo aus der Song Dynasty gegangen, wo sie das Klang breitschlagen. So they just conflated the historical chronology. Also haben sie die historische Chronologie einfach... He says, even until now, at the conclusion of the opening of the teaching hall, we strike the Han and say, clearly observe the Dharma, the King of Dharma, and then blah, blah, blah.

[107:41]

So we bring up this precedent. Here in this hall. And then the World Honored One immediately got down from his seat. With the striking of the gavels. With the striking of the gavels. He has saved half and imparted half to Qian Deng. Er hat eine Hälfte bewahrt und eine Hälfte Chengdang zukommen lassen. So what does it mean to save half and impart half? Also was bedeutet das, eine Hälfte zu bewahren und eine Hälfte weiterzugeben? Impart half means, as Marlena said, it's something like this.

[108:43]

It's kind of like this, something like that. Eine Hälfte bin ich mit weitergeben richtig, impart. So whatever you say, it's only part of it. You can never say it exactly. It's also in the sense that Dung Chang said, I revere my teacher because he never revealed the teaching to me. You don't try too hard to reveal the teaching. You just close the door and sleep and let the student do the best he can. Sink or swim in the Dharma sea. But first you have to give a person a few dharmic life preservers.

[109:54]

Then you throw them out in the water and make the waves big. So he imparted half to Chendong means this koan is giving you as much as possible, which is called half. There's no one truth, there's half. I'm always close to this. Be thankful there's half. And what did he do with the other half? Well, he saved it. Yeah, like this song. Why do we save sentient beings? We save them for later. Yeah. One of the famous remarks within our lineage.

[111:01]

Later is now. The sun would say. And yeah, okay. The unique breeze of reality do you see? The word breeze is in English quite interesting. It means something light and gentle and surprising. You know, like you're sitting and suddenly there's a breeze. And in English, breeze is an ancient word for spring. No, in English, breeze is an ancient and old word. An archaic word for spring. So, the unique breeze of reality just means to experience uniqueness.

[112:02]

At each moment, absolutely non-repeatable, unique. Do you see? No. Clearly the implication is here, is when you see this, you know where you stand, you found your seat. Continuously creation runs her loom and shuttle. Things have always been going on, continuously. Things, you know, the pattern's always changing, the loom, the shuttle goes through. And as Otmar says, it weaves the ancient brocade. But it also incorporates the form of spring. So the new, the unique is being woven into the patterns.

[113:22]

And this is basically a kind of riff on the Vajrachana Buddha or Dharmakaya. Yeah, but nothing... Oh, we're getting late here. But nothing can be done about Manjushri's leaking. means also of course nothing can be done about your leaking but it also means something can be done about your leaking find your seat study these texts now we get to the really interesting part And we have to stop. We have to have dinner.

[114:45]

Thanks. Thanks for, what do we call it here? Thanks for the teaching shops, the meditation forests, the genrinji, the mysterious black teaching forest. Gen means black and means mysterious too. So Black Forest is mysterious teaching forest temple. And she has been known to translate for Bodhidharma. That's something Neil hasn't done yet, but, you know, he translated for the seven Buddhas before me.

[115:56]

Whoa. Modest, aren't you? Thanks a lot.

[116:08]

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