Since we now have, what, half an hour or 45 minutes? Thank you for your shakuhachi. One of my favorite sounds. So here she had two or three different times, shakuhachi players play for us. Anyway, in the time we have left, is there anything that you'd like to bring up specifically? Nicole always tells me I don't wait long enough for people to say something.

[01:11]

So I could come back in a few minutes. But still not waiting. Well, I say... There are hands all over. That must mean your hand. No, no, no. There and there. Okay. Okay. Ich habe vorhin an eine Geschichte denken müssen, die ich irgendwo gelesen habe, I had to think of a story that I read somewhere, and it was about someone coming to a master and wanting to be trained.

[02:28]

And the master said, but you are a master in something already. No, certainly not, the other person said. Yes, yes, you are, the Master said. Well, if I could be a Master in something, Then it is my having dealt with one and the same question for a very long time. Und irgendwann ist die Frage verschwunden. And at some point the question disappeared. Und ja, das war's eigentlich. Yeah, that's it. Ja, aber jetzt kommt noch meine Frage dazu. Ich habe noch nie mich mit koans auseinandergesetzt. And then my question is, I've never worked with koans. Also, wenn es wirklich wichtige Fragen gibt im Leben,

[03:32]

So if there really are important questions in life, when do we know that we've exhausted them? Or how do we deal with it? Well, I'd rather enjoy questions. There you are. make me feel things more clearly. Someone else, how are you? It's really nice to see you. Well, I was earlier speaking about the five skandhas as a way of noticing.

[04:48]

So I'm speaking about for each of us or any of us, during whatever time, at any time, I'm speaking for any of us at any time. What can we use for an entry into practice? That really makes us attentionally notice our experience. And the five skandhas arise from noticing consciousness and noticing it in some detail, and you can see how consciousness is constructed and how you can make use of deconstructing it.

[06:04]

And these are practices of appearance. And I also mentioned the 4, 5, 5, or 5, 4, 5, the four marks, which are to notice an appearance. What happened to Vanessa? Vanessa, she didn't appear. On the way to. Oh, already. Too late. Yeah, I know.

[07:09]

It's always the case on Sunday. Sunday, Sunday. Anyway, the four marks are to notice that things appear. They have a kind of birth or initial appearance. And then there's a kind of manifestation or duration. And then they don't stay the same. They slightly change, so we say there's dissolution. And then you yourself make that dissolution happen and the fourth mark is disappearance. And the four marks are called the four marks of the Dharma.

[08:34]

And the concept of the Dharma is that things exist in units, in their conceptual or perceptual units, And they're changing. But momentarily there's an experience there. So the concept practice of the four dharmas is to develop the attentional skills to notice appearances. And if you look closely, they last but only for a moment. And then they're different.

[09:35]

So we can say the appearance dissolves or something. And, you know, it's just one of those things, you know, you sort of hear and you hear it's the definition of a dharma and Buddhism is called dharmism. So it's useful, and as I say, sometimes in just homeopathic doses. You just notice things' appearance, their kind of birth, a newness to them. A newness that arises in your own attention. And they are present for a moment in your attention. And your attention shifts.

[11:06]

Or the object of attention itself changes. And then you let it go. Okay. Now, I remember I used to... Not really for, you know, my homeopathic dose of this practice was sitting down for breakfast. And whatever, I can see the table, whatever the table was, there was almost always a vase, a small vase with a few flowers in it. So there was the dishes and the table and the vase and the flowers. But I did, I was kind of practicing these four marks. Which was sensitizing me to small changes.

[12:26]

And then I surprisingly noticed one breakfast that the flowers in the vase are just stuck in the vase, but they're actually moving slightly. They're fading slightly. But anyway, if I looked really carefully, the flowers weren't the same microseconds later. And I'm just trying to make this a kind of practical example. But these little trainings in appearance, like the four marks, actually make you more sensitive to this world in which we're experiencing.

[13:32]

They're not philosophic. It's kind of like a philosophy of what a dharma is, but really it's a process of finding a fine-grained attention. Like many of these things, they're presented to you as a kind of philosophical statement about what a Dharma is. But it really is about without telling you.

[14:35]

In other words, somebody hands you something, and I hand you this part, but I've also handed you this part. And this part may be, you don't see that at first, you see this, and after a while, oh yes, that's there too, and then the bell is there, and so forth. And somehow, I always felt that the other end of a pencil is an eraser. So the pencil became like a little example of the four marks for me. You could make a mark and then you can erase it. This is kind of kooky, but it changed my relationship to pencils.

[15:38]

So then I always felt, I began to feel, well, a question is written with a pencil, but somewhere in the question is how you answer it and erase it. So somehow metaphorically that got transferred to me and every question is built in in a hidden way its answer. So pencils became a reminder for me that questions, if I look carefully at the question, in the question is the response. Now, somehow, the four marks as philosophy wouldn't have led me to pencils as a symbol of et cetera, et cetera.

[17:01]

A representative of, not a symbol. Okay. And the five dharmas are a similar exercise in refining appearance. While the four marks start with the word birth, which is a little different feeling than just simply appearance, And the five dharmas start with appearance. No, wait, now we're getting mixed up.

[18:04]

The five dharmas start with appearance? Yeah, and the four marks start with birth. Oh, okay, sorry, then, okay. Yeah, and there's a, I could go into why there's a difference, but this is Sunday afternoon. Okay, so, first of the five dharmas, this exercise and appearance. is immediately following appearance is usually, for most people, naming. If I hold something up, it appeared, but you immediately decide it's not a teacup, it's a bell.

[19:10]

And if I served you tea in it, you probably wouldn't like it too much. It has a metallic taste. I tried it. So the naming is there, almost intimately for most of us. So the exercise here is, can you feel that mind-bodily contour where there's a shift from just appearance to naming? And then naming almost immediately falls into discrimination. It's somebody's bell or it's a particularly nice bell or whatever.

[20:29]

So the discrimination is the third dharma. And the fourth dharma is is Or taking away the discrimination. And the fifth dharma is suchness. So this is a shift from appearance to noticing the little bump into appearance. bodily mind bump into naming.

[21:30]

Then the little bump into thinking about. Now you're getting to know these things like turning a radio dial to a station that comes in and then there's static in between and a station that goes out. And then back in? Years ago, it doesn't seem to be the case anymore, but the FM stations, when you're driving a car, would come in and out of, as you drove, would come in and out of focus. Then I had a car aerial, which I could adjust the height of the aerial from inside the car. So I would know that on the way to Berkeley, say, in this area, I can't pick up the station anymore unless I lower the aerial three inches.

[22:48]

So then I could listen to it, and then I'd have to raise it again, and I was... Just sort of like that. That's appearance. And I knew that at some point, when I was driving in this particular area of Berkeley, then I had to drive the antenna three inches, six centimeters or so down, otherwise the transmitter would not come in cleanly anymore. And that's about it. I got to know everything. And that's how it is with the appearance. You have to adjust your antenna higher and then lower again. Yeah, so the five dharmas are sort of the tuning in and tuning out of appearance. As the five skandhas bring you from form which has no substantiality to consciousness.

[23:53]

And if you can reverse telescope the form, the insubstantial form into consciousness, And when you reverse... The telescope is to stretch something out, right? The reverse telescope would be to push the telescope back together. Okay, she sounds as if it was completely normal. And when you, like with a binocular, when you press it back together, when you look from consciousness to form, and now you press the telescope, the binocular back together, from form to consciousness, you get so used to seeing form as insubstantial and changing and mudyokan, that instead of becoming just one of the first element

[25:06]

the first ingredient of the construction of consciousness, as if it were prior to consciousness, it becomes part of consciousness, and consciousness itself now spreads its wings in the experience of insubstantiality. In a similar kind of way, you start out in the five dharmas with appearance. And then there's naming and discrimination. And then the wisdom of taking away the discrimination.

[26:26]

And then suchness, just the the-ness, the the-ness, which is the same as suchness of things, the thusness of things. and the thusness on each appearance of the five dharmas. The first of the five dharmas is appearance. Okay. And what also appears as well as the object of perception is mind. So now the five dharmas are showing you that the bell is appearing as an object in your name, but also mind is appearing, otherwise you couldn't notice the bell.

[27:32]

So again, if I see Reinhold and Ulrich, I also feel mind appearing when I see you. And I feel mind appearing when I see you. Blue eyes and slightly blue-green eyes. And we brown-eyed people, we like blue eyes. There you are. But the suchness of mind is very similar to the suchness of mind which appears with you and which appears with you.

[28:36]

So the five dharmas are to show you that mind appears when you stop discriminating about and naming and so forth. So the five dharmas is an exercise in appearance. Which in the developing your noticing as a little training the succession of the five dharmas. Mm-hmm. the object of perception drops away and the mind appears.

[29:39]

So after you get quite used to that, then when something appears, it appears from suchness, so the five dharmas is a kind of boop. And if you really get used to it, then you realize that when something appears, it appears out of the blue. With that, the five dharmas are a kind of loop. Now that sounds a little complicated to say that. And I've actually never said that before. This was the first time. I don't know if you feel honored by that. There has to be a first time, sometime. Okay, but... It arises from the fact that I've used this little exercise to notice when discrimination starts after naming. And the exercise got me doing it occasionally when I had nothing better to do, waiting for the dentist or something like that.

[30:50]

Suchness began to replace appearance. So these little exercises are not only exercises in refining appearance. There are also entries into Dharma City. Once you do such a little exercise, it's like a poet trying to get himself or herself in the mood to write a poem. Or painters and contractors almost always turn a radio on in the background so the radio takes care of something and then they can concentrate. So once you, if you get, so you can establish a certain mind, I know painters, they establish a certain mind in which they can paint.

[32:16]

And if they can't get there, they do something else instead of paint. So these five dharmas and five skandhas and four marks are exercises which refine and evolve, develop and evolve attention. But they're also processes or processes which enter you into Dharma city, Dharma land. Okay, so that's another example of a Dharma door or Dharma gate.

[33:40]

And since we've been talking about the four successional times... I would say that, I mean, my language for successional times has been evolving the last few months, or a couple months, and I think got settled during this seminar. Another for all of you. Also, my language, the way I speak about these four times, I have tried to develop over the last few months, and I think in this seminar

[34:49]

So I guess by calling the practice of Dharma time, let's call it that, is to recognize that all time, experienceable time, experiential time, is successional. is to erkennen, dass alle erfahrbare oder erfahrene Zeit eine Abfolge hat. And then, of course, you can Emphasize the succession, ignore the succession, interrupt the succession. The word gives you the chance to do something with the experience of time. Okay. This sharp, uh, sharp, uh, leafed word.

[36:05]

Dieses, uh, scharf, um, die scharfe Spitze des Blattes, wie das Wort. Which is the word for a, the word for a word in Japanese, kotoba. Also das Wort für Wort auf Japanisch, kotoba. Yeah. Is it also a surgical instrument? So we can use the sharp point of the leaf word to kind of, like a tailor does, to detail, tailor, detail, Schneider, your experience. So we can use this sharp tip, which is the word, the sharp tip of the blade, which is a word, to make your experience more detailed, like a cutter, a tailor, something that cuts right.

[37:09]

So, in other words, by choosing the word successional to point to time, the word time, I mean the word succession, shows me things the word time doesn't. It shows me that it's successional, and the successional can be stretched or conflated or interrupted and so forth. Yeah, so I got up this morning in this kind of worn-out hotel which has been there for a long time and has little competition in this area. It said three different owners, or no, managers, because it's the same building. Somebody leases it to different hotel chains. But I've been staying there a long time.

[38:33]

Or often, anyway, not a long time. So I got up this morning. They gave me, because they said they like me, and because... Andreas is so persuasive. They said, Mr. Baker, we're going to give you a junior suite. I said, I'm too old for a junior suite. Don't you have a senior suite? You can't afford that. So I have this junior suite. There's a little sweet junior over there. So anyway, so I decided, well, if I'm going to talk, I should walk my talk.

[39:35]

You know that expression, to walk your talk? So I said, I'm going to start out with sequential time. So I walked down the hall in sequential time. And to reinforce the sequence, I... sequence time with my steps and I sequenced time with my breath. So I would have rather nice time going down the hall in sequential time. So then a whole lot of people were checking out and the elevator was piled with people so I walked down the stairs.

[40:52]

From the fifth floor using the stairs as helping me with my sequential time. And then when I got into the dining room, lobby dining room, there was Richie, who's sort of named after me in some sort of way. Yeah, and he's born pretty much the same time as my grandson, Tumash, half Portuguese. So I was very happy to see Tumash. I mean, Richie. Thank you very much. Yeah, and then I found myself immediately in a cumulative time. And it felt different.

[42:14]

Sequential time I felt kind of relaxed, nothing much was happening. But now, oh, Richie and all kinds of things, knowing him for all these years. And I remember things like, I mean, Richie is a really sweet kid. I mean, now he's 22 or something, not a kid. And Richie is a really... But he's always had physical kind of balance problems. And I remember years ago, there's that little pond where the kind of mossy Buddha is beside Johanneshof. And who... a kid who didn't have balance problems, kind of pushed Richie into the pond and his glasses broke.

[43:33]

Richie got himself up out of the pond and looked at his broken glasses and he looked at the other boy and he said, boys will be like that. It endeared me to him forever. Yeah, so I was... Still doing my little successional time exercise. And I had breakfast. And then sat looking out the window a little bit. And I kind of entered paratactic time.

[44:40]

There were just there, the reflection on the glass, the stuff outside the window and stuff. There were a lot of things there, the reflection on the window and things on the other side of the window and so on. I could feel a little bump. I went into paratactic time. Which almost slid me into immediacy. And I thought I might write a poem. But I didn't. And so then I thought, I'll get up and use the Dharma door of spatiality and indeterminacy. Okay, so there's enough Dharma doors to keep you busy.

[45:49]

And keep me busy. And thank you very much. May I say something she said? Yes, please. I would like to name something in order to end her suchness. This is a goodbye. Yesterday I said goodbye. And yesterday I said that 70 years ago, I had such a good experience at Johanneshof. You meant 17, though. And she says that I meant 17. Yeah. And that has changed a lot, and that's what I thank for.

[47:23]

And I have a feeling like today I got something like an Abhidharma to go. To go. Like a... It's an Armidharma light. No, no, not that. Abhidharma light. It was too complicated when we had to study that. Yeah. And now I thank you for this present. Okay. So we brought the Abhidharma back into focus. I would also like to say something, but I don't know exactly what. I feel filled and enriched.

[48:43]

And in some sense, I have a feeling sitting here as if all the seminars we've done are here now. I have no words to say thank you. Well, you said thank you by organizing them every year. Thank you. For how many years now? Fourteen. I wasn't that much younger. And there's one thing left from the last Dharma Wheel meeting that we had recently at Johanneshof. And Roshi also spoke about the power of places.

[50:01]

And what occurred to me in sitting is that for me and maybe for others, I think this became such a place as well. Also a place that enables the Dharma. And then we started having the idea that we would like to plant, continue planting and nourishing the Dharma teaching here, continue to do that. When we asked Nicole whether she will do a Dharma Sangha seminar here next year.

[51:09]

Can I wear my cloak of invisibility? Maybe we have some secret rooms here. Or you could just set a platform up here with a dummy and I'd actually be in it. And Roshi agreed to the idea. And I think Nicole can already say the date. I think Nicole can name a date. Well, I would like it because It would be nice. First year without being teased to death. Okay.

[52:14]

And Heinrich, thank you for letting us use your family farm all these years. It's gone from a farming family to a shakuhachi player. This is a big move. And to farming the Dharma. From a farm to a shakuhachi player and now to a dharma farm. I've been thinking about buddhas for the last few weeks. I've been thinking about you, about the buddhas, about all of you. I don't want to be a buddhist, right? But I have something for you, Mr. Roshi, and for you. A very short poem. It's a very good poem. The one I didn't write. Okay? Weeping in.

[53:22]

Weeping out. Feel this only one Buddha mind and you will find the now. This moment here with all you are and all you need. Thank you. Yes? When I look back at this beautiful seminar and I see the calligraphy above your heads, which we haven't looked at, And one can imagine many things when we look at this, about what this is.

[54:29]

And the question is, is there any explanation for why half the pedestal had to break? It broke in the paratactic time. But we will have to see what happens when we take this girl down. That might happen in sequential time. Anyway, thanks a lot. On the doorstep, maybe some of you.

[55:10]

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