Oh, is that a truck? Who's that speaking? That also disappears. There's no secondary activity, mental activity. Is that a dragon? Is this a drache? No, you just go. Something's there. And it's interesting and surprising, you know, if you just really get in that habit, things begin to appear that are out of any category. You can't say really what's there. And I, after, you know, 30 years or so of practicing, 25 or 30, I began to try to notice because I had to teach, you know, so I began to notice again.

[01:10]

But without losing the habit of just Letting anything appear. Now, Suzuki Roshi said, but we don't want to just be a stone. That's not our practice. We have... Our everyday life has to be our practice. But he said our thinking, And we have to think in our everyday life. But sometimes our thinking should come from our true mind. The mind that includes everything. He said, because everything is thinking, grass and trees and birds, everything is thinking.

[02:21]

Yang Wanli included the sky reflected in the water. So what Sukhiroshi said and how I experience... If you get into this habit of... letting everything appear, without secondary activity or gaining ideas, then when you're thinking in ordinary circumstances, Your thinking appears quite freely from everything. The flavor, taste of the people around you. The flavor, the taste of the day.

[03:30]

You don't have maybe absolute thinking that's true in any context. You maybe don't have absolute thinking that's true in any context. You have the thinking of the day. And, you know, Dogen was once asked by his monks, you know, winter's coming and... And we have to think about how to repair the temple and, you know, have food enough for the winter. He said, let's think about it when the problem arises. Now, that sounds pretty stupid, doesn't it?

[04:45]

But he meant, when there's something we can do about it, let's think about it. I remember a very dramatic moment in In the early 60s, I guess. When the Vietnam War was going on and everybody was opposed to the Vietnam War, I mean everybody practiced Zen at least, that I knew. And one guy Of course, Suzuki Roshi had been through and objected to the terrible war, Second World War, in Japan.

[05:50]

But anyway, this fellow was saying something like, we have to think about how to, you know, we should be against the war. I don't know what he was saying, something like that. I didn't get it. He was... This fellow was saying something in opposition to the war. But just expressing ideas. And Suki Roshi... I mean, I don't remember exactly how it happened, but he hit him in the chair. People sat in a chair. And he knocked him onto the floor. It was no intention to hurt him or anything. He just made this gesture and the whole chair and everything. And he was a little guy. And he said,

[06:51]

Don't talk about these things unless you really intend to stop the war. So Sukhiroshi also said, you know, you want a teacher who discriminates very well. So what is this thinking that thinks through things? Thinks through things. Through everything. In a way that includes everything. I don't know how to say it like that. Thinks through the host mind. Something like this is what you discover. through letting things just appear.

[08:19]

Until you're really free of gaining ideas. When you can really take the other person's point of view as well as your own, even better, just as well as your own. When you can give the other person beyond the benefit of the doubt. Dogen told a story one night to his people he practiced with. He said, I don't know if this is really true, but this is the story I was told. And it seems to have been a story of a relative of his. Yeah, it's that... this relative sword disappeared.

[09:45]

Yeah, and clearly one of his retainers must have stolen the sword because there's nobody else in the compound. A retainer is a follower of other samurais. And a sword in those days was something like a Mercedes S-Class and a G5 computer. No one owned swords. It was a huge thing to own a sword, a good sword. So anyway, his sword disappeared. So they hunted for it. And it was found that one person had it. And it was brought back to this relative of Dogen.

[10:50]

And the man said, The relative said, oh, that's not my sword. Give it back to the one who owns it. I mean, everyone knew it was actually his sword. But because he gave it back and said, give it back to the one who owns it, nothing happened to this man. He wasn't punished. Sukhiroshi said, we need a soft mind like this. Yeah, thank you very much. Vielen Dank. Because of our intentions, we will do the same as Jesus did and [...] we will do the same

[12:18]

Om Amah Murya Se Ganaku, Butra Mujo Se Ganjo, Die Lebewesen sind zahllos, ich glaube, sie zu leiten. Die Begierden sind nur erschöpfig, ich glaube, sie aufzugeben. Die Darmadrohler sind nur ermächtig, ich glaube, sie zu beschreiten. Der Weg des Bruder ist unübertrefflich, ich glaube, ihn zu verwirklichen. Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji One can not see to see through God or a tabby.

[13:43]

They have a good one. You're right. You know, she's just, you know, she must run. I'm not going to fall for that. I'm going to take me out on the front. I'm not a man. I'm not a man. I'm not a man. Thank you for being here again today.

[14:53]

Now let me speak about a couple of practical matters first. You know, the sense of a... and the period of zazen is that there's no movement in the zendo. It's not so much about being silent, but that there being no movement. And you're trying to... We're trying to learn to sit still. Still sitting. Ja, silent, but stillness meaning no movement.

[16:06]

Still, also in the sense of calm, but also still in the sense of motionlessness. So when the movement toward that no movement is occurring during the... Densho or the Han. The Han is the wooden sounding board. And the densho is that big bell. So it's not just a signal, it's a process of three rounds. Yeah, okay.

[17:08]

So I'm bringing this up because during the interval in the after-breakfast And sometimes at other intervals, people are leaving to go to the toilet and things. If it's necessary that there be because it's so close to after breakfast, that it be also a toilet call. And then we made a biological mistake in the schedule. And we should turn that into a keen hymn. Because during kin-in, there's time to leave and come back.

[18:13]

Mm-hmm. And we can do that. Take five minutes off the... pause after breakfast or something like that. But maybe at this point, so close to the end of the Sashin, we can leave the schedule as it is, but I can speak about this. Normally, during interval of the five minutes no one leaves the zendo it's just a chance to stretch stand up or to if you want to do more active stretching you know you can go out in the hall.

[19:26]

When I sat at Taitoku-ji, two and a half years or so, in Kyoto Rinzai Monastery, they have interval much more commonly than Kingen. And sometimes people would go outside and put their leg up the side of the column or something like that, but usually you just stand at your place. And a certain kind of movement is accepted. Outside that range, you go outside if you want to be more active stretching. Just an anecdote here.

[20:36]

There was a woman, a Nakamura sensei, Japanese woman who lived with my family, lived with us for 20 some years. 20 years, I guess I'd have to stop and count to really know. From 68 to 70 to Yeah, into the 80s, into the 90s. Anyway, almost 20 years. It's not important. You don't have to translate it. Anyway, she came with us. We inherited her from Gary Snyder, and she appears in his poems as Hosaka-san.

[21:40]

Hosaka. She lives in his house, which he gave to us. I could tell you great stories about her, but I won't. But she was one of my teachers. And she was also a kind of grandmother to my family. And when we moved to the United States, she decided to move with us. But she had an ability. There'd be people often in our little house talking or doing something, and she would go through the room. And then I would say to the visitors, Did you see that Japanese woman? They'd say, I didn't see her.

[22:42]

You know, blind people on buses and all, you can always tell they're blind because They stand straight. They stand in a different way than everybody else. They stand outside of social space somehow. And this blind woman I knew who could sort of see, she discovered she had to bend slightly and then people thought she could see. Anyway, Nakamura Sensei had this ability to move outside of social space. She leaned forward slightly from the hips.

[23:52]

With a straight back. And she'd walk with absolute purpose and sureness. And then she walked with absolute purpose and sureness. like a stream of air passing through the room. And somehow people wouldn't notice it. Well, I'm doing this to give instruction to the tenzo, because the tenzo is allowed to come into the zendo. at any time, the head cook. There's a way to come into the Zendo which your movement doesn't disturb the Zendo.

[24:53]

But as Otmar pointed out the other day, it's much worse if you try to be quiet. There's nothing noisier than a person trying to blow their nose quietly. There is nothing louder than someone who tries to clean his nose quietly. If you have to clean your nose, then clean it. Okay, if we're going to have a strict rule, though, that you cannot enter the zendo after the end of the second round, or even you should be already starting to sit when the interval ends with the bell, Then we need a gaitan.

[26:10]

A gaitan is the outer tan. Tan means the platform or the area where you sit. So a traditional zendo has a gaitan, which is, gai means outside, which is outside the zendo. Usually in the hall that surrounds the zendo. Because sometimes you're just going to be late. You have a sudden attack of diarrhea. Or three people are ahead of you in line for the toilet. There's various reasons.

[27:19]

Yeah. So there should be some place for you to sit if you are late for some reason. So though we don't enforce this rule very often, but Usually, but we should, and so we have a gaitan in the dojo. So, if you can't, you just go to the gaitan and sit. If you're late too often, we'll think you prefer the gaitan to the zendo. It might be calmer or cooler. Presumably everyone's in the Gaitan and no one's in the Zen.

[28:22]

Then we have to make the rule apply to the Gaitan. Dann müssen wir diese Regel umändern und dann wird sie auf den Geitern angewendet. Anyway, so that's what I'm saying. Also, das wollte ich sagen. And for those of you who are new, I want to say, you know, the chanting is really just a physical activity. Und für diejenigen, die neu sind, denen möchte ich sagen, dass dieses Rezitieren wirklich nur eine körperliche Aktivität ist. Yeah, it's not about really the meaning of what you're chanting. It's something like why you clink glasses when you toast. There's various theories about why you do it, but I think probably they're all contributed to the practice.

[29:29]

I think there's various theories about it, but I think probably all the theories contributed to the practice, which is worldwide now. But the reason I'm emphasizing... Der Grund, den ich hier allerdings betone, is that all the senses are involved, smell the color of the wine, if it's wine. Feel of the glass, et cetera. Everything's there but sound. So when you bring sound in by clinking the glasses, you have complete... all the senses are there, so it feels complete.

[30:45]

And there's a feeling in this Asian yogic culture That words aren't words unless they're chanted or can be chanted. dass Worte keine Worte sind, außer sie können rezitiert werden. Yeah, and of course this practice is rooted not in the beginning there was the word, but in the beginning there was the sound. Und diese Praxis, die wurzelt natürlich nicht im Anfang war das Wort, sondern im Anfang war der Klang. And the way we chant, much of it goes back to Vedic times in India. My middle daughter now, Elizabeth, the 24-year-old, is studying music mostly.

[32:01]

And she writes quite a lot of poems. And she's learning the difference between the poems she can set to music and the poems she can only chant. And some poems can be songs and some can be chanted, but the idea that there can be a poem that you can't chant is not in Chinese culture, in Chinese yogic culture, for example. Because the poem is a bodily event, not a mental event. So that kind of feeling is in our chanting.

[33:11]

We just chant these things. That's one of the reasons I have not pushed us to change things into German or English because it's so difficult to chant and find a good way to chant these things. And I like this stick. You know I like this stick. And as I've pointed out many times, here is the lotus embryo. Which you find in Japanese soups sometimes. That's where the hand goes. This is the bud. This is the seed pod. But there's no bloom there. And that's typical, too, of the...

[34:28]

imagery of the statue of Avalokiteshvara Kuan Yin in Crestone and very commonly in all Kuan Yin statues. Everything's there except the bloom itself in the imagery. And of course the idea is you're looking at it is the bloom. Your experience of it is the bloom. So this is a teaching staff in that ideally what I say or what you experience is the bloom. And this always also, the curve represents the backbone. You notice in these staffs, there's almost always this backbone curve, spinal curve.

[35:49]

So this can also represent our chanting. Das kann auch unser Rezitieren repräsentieren. As I've said, you bring the Tsukishis to say you chant with your hara and your ears. You feel the chanting in your hara, below your navel. And through your ears, you bring it up into the bloom of the sangha's sound. And with services longer in the morning because it's meant to be a kind of example of a beginning of how you do your day.

[36:58]

So later if you're working in the kitchen or in an office or whatever, you feel your vitality coming up through your body and into the situation. In this practice, there's always the emphasis on the integration of the body and the engagement of the body. The complete integration and the complete engagement. Without shyness or hesitation. Almost all these times you get hit with a stick in these Zen stories are when you have hesitation.

[38:17]

Always a moment of vanity or thinking or unsureness. What should I say? It's always a moment of vanity or uncertainty. What should I say? And then... Am I good enough? Excuse me. I get carried away here sometimes. Longing for the old days. And when we're doing this meal drum, which is great, I like it. What a great thing to do. It's the big toast, Klink. Yeah. We're worrying too much about doing the drum right. Just do it 100%. Who cares how it sounds? I'd rather hear 100% than, this is right. So in the Heiji, we're... The beginning monks, everyone wants to hit the drum.

[39:38]

They don't let the beginning monks do it, but sometimes they'll let him give them the second round or the third round. So they change drumsticks in the middle. One person does the first round, another does the second, etc. like that. Now I'm talking also here about not doing anything. Someone said to me yesterday, I'm enjoying this, I like this sashim. But I don't like it that you said you didn't do anything for ten years.

[40:42]

And they said, in fact, I don't believe you. And I said, well, you're probably right. Yeah, it was probably 15 years. I just said ten years because it was a good number. Okay, but what did I... I tried to say last night, not doing anything, many practices appear. And when I try to, you know, speak about this so it makes sense to you, Yeah, I remember what I used to call the practice of the four stages of having a milkshake.

[41:43]

I've always liked milkshakes. since I was little. And my old friend Michael Murphy, when I returned from Japan, met me at the ship with a milkshake. That's the smoke alarm. That's the fire, let us know. I was once in, if it's a fire, let us know. I was once giving a lecture, answering questions, and the whole Zendo burned down while I was in it. Really? We didn't have a smoke alarm, but boy, was there a fire. We didn't have a smoke alarm, but boy, was there a fire.

[42:46]

Also, I was giving a lecture once, a bobcat jumped through the window and landed on the town. Well, that's another story. Okay. So I would notice the four stages of a milkshake are when you don't, you decide not to have one and you don't have one. And when you decide to have one, and you have one. And when you decide not to have one and you don't.

[44:22]

And when you decide not to have one and you do. And I used to study my behavior among these four things. I'm just trying to put this on a very practical level. And what interested me the most was when I decided not to have one and I still did. I'd be walking home or back to the temple, to the meditation center. I decided not to have a milkshake. I didn't have enough money or some reason. But I would... find myself inside buying a milkshake.

[45:29]

Like an alcoholic. Yeah, but I enjoyed the milkshake. And I'd even noticed, even though I decided not to have one, I took a path home that passed the place where you could buy them. So sometimes that was, you know, in the 60s. And in the 70s, a man in San Francisco named... What was his name? Francisco Libet, or Libet anyway. And this is something I spoke about, I don't know, a couple, two or three weeks ago somewhere. And mentioned it here maybe, like when you move your arm or move your finger. I think I said it during the Sashin even. The brain activity shows you've already decided to move your finger, but consciously you notice it later.

[46:53]

Consciousness is slow. Consciousness seems to integrate our actions with others. inhibit actions and store karmic memories. But the process of awareness underneath and surrounding consciousness is much faster. Okay. So I, this was my milkshake thing, was a way of noticing that the decision was, you know, what was ever, maybe it's just being young, but there seemed to be a lot of parties one had to, were supposed to go to.

[48:05]

And as I said, I was usually bored at parties. Somebody criticized me once and said I was always the poet at the picnic. Jemand hat mich einmal kritisiert, als ich wäre wie der Dichter beim Picknick. That means everyone's having a good time, but somebody's standing on the edge of the forest saying, oh life, you know. Das ist, wenn alle irgendwie eine tolle Zeit haben und einer, der steht am Waldesrand und denkt über das Leben. Come over here and have a good time. Oh, okay. Komm hier rüber und... But I didn't smoke grass or drink, so I didn't know what to do in the 60s in San Francisco. Somebody asked my daughter at the time, Sally, what are your parents like?

[49:09]

She said, well, they're not square and they're not hip. Anyway, so I noticed at these parties that it would occur to me I should think about, yeah, maybe I should leave soon. Actually, I think because of practice, I realized pretty quickly that that meant I should leave immediately. But the decision to leave took the form of, I should think about leaving. I also worked with this in the process of asking questions. I met once a week with various groups and we read poems together and things like that. Or in the Zen practice situation.

[50:27]

And I would decide I was going to ask a question. But I wouldn't know what the question was. And I wouldn't know when I would ask the question. But I'd decide that I'd let it happen. So I would just decide to ask a question that was conscious. But then something would build up and suddenly, involuntarily, I would ask a question. Without thinking, what's the right question, good question, it would just kind of come out.

[51:29]

Yeah, so this was all my way of trying to practice with acting before consciousness. And then, I guess it was Rostenberg, Regina told us, may I mention it? that she'd go to a grocery store and forget her list. So she kind of half-closed her eyes and walked through the aisles of the grocery store and then takes something off the shelves. Is that right? That's a perfect, typical Zen student's practice. You end up with all the stuff in your basket, especially if it's me, and you wonder if you're going to pay for it.

[52:39]

But you let something else decide. You play with letting something else decide. I practiced ordering in restaurants that way. Okay, eat that, whatever it is. I dial phone numbers that way. I wouldn't look it up or anything. I just, okay, dial. And usually it was the right person. Okay. So I kept trying to experiment in this way with what I was also doing in zazen, which is not to do, but let happen. Okay, so I didn't... Late dinner.

[53:49]

So I didn't do this practice because I thought it was a good practice, really. The hinge was to avoid any gaining idea in my practice. I tried to cut off any idea of a good experience, good practice, enlightenment. I always tried to practice that whatever it is, it's just enough. So nice to go nowhere. Okay. But then practices do arise and you find yourself practicing it.

[55:03]

This is actually called way-seeking mind. You let the mind seek the way, not you. You trust the big mind. Okay, now, when Suzuki Roshi would talk about this, he would speak about it in as clear a way as he could. with not always the confidence it would be understood. But he would say things like, you should practice like the great turtles. Pulling in the six. Or you should practice as if you were in a great area.

[56:18]

Or you should practice without straying from Buddha nature. Or you should practice... with appreciating what's happening around you. Now, actually, I'm also speaking in this session, if anybody wants to go more deeply into this at another time. These two koans of Bluecliffe Records, number 38 and 69. And this is, both are about the workings of the great iron ox seal. And this is where the two comments come, penetrating on level ground and bowing to the host.

[57:37]

And there these two comments stand, to penetrate on a flat ground and to prevent the host. Okay. Okay. Now, what did Tsukiroshi mean by the turtle? And the turtle, which has four legs and a head and a tail. He meant the turtle brings those under the shell, those six. And that's a way of speaking in Zazen terms of bringing the six senses into the body and sealing yourself. Now, there's a great deal of attention in this practice of non-doing of creating a field of practice.

[58:51]

And that's what we're trying to do. When Akash's bowl flipped magically out of his hands, a demon grabbed it. And being a good Zen student, he wanted to pick it up and clean up the mess. And I had to prevent him from being a good Zen student. I'm sorry. You spoke so sharply. Because we should respect the Soku. The soku's job is to clean those things up. Now, Creston, you know that because you're on a platform about ten feet off, I mean, no, two and a half feet or three, two and a half feet off the ground.

[60:18]

You couldn't possibly get your bowl unless you had pincers or something. So the soku comes and cleans it up. So if there's some water that's spilled, you let the process, the field of practice take care of it. Then dropping your bowl is not a mistake. It's just part of the process. As a part of the oryoki practice is what to do about bowls that are dropped and water that's spilled and flies in your yogurt and so forth. So in this practice of not doing, there's a big emphasis on form.

[61:21]

And establishing an inner structure and an outer structure of your sitting posture. And the outer structure is, of course, trying to sit with this vitality lifting through the spine. And to sit with ease and forget about your body. Yeah, or, yeah. Yeah, not exactly forget, but anyway. Okay, so what the kirtle image means also is to seal yourself.

[62:22]

But you also create... Yeah, I'm speaking about this because I think... might make what I mean by non-doing clearer. And also I feel you're ready to hear this stuff. And how you establish a sealed field of the body. Which is not consciousness. And the trouble with ordinary concentration. Yeah, it can be in a starter. It can be a starter. But it's a function of consciousness.

[63:48]

So it draws you into consciousness. It's like drinking caffeine before Zazen. It keeps you in consciousness. Now, if you simply have to get through the day somehow, caffeine might be good, or you have to drive a car. But it doesn't help. So you want to find a way to concentrate or bring attention that's not in the realm of consciousness. You want to bring tension or concentration, we can say. to your practice that's not in the territory of consciousness. So you want to establish a sealed field without boundaries that's anchored.

[64:54]

And within that, the practice of non-doing functions. But maybe tomorrow. So great to sit here with you. Thank you very much. I will, therefore, in the same way as all the giants here in the north, make an effort to serve you. I will, therefore, in the same way O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave, and the home of the brave. Most of all, I know that's a good job.

[66:09]

In the beginning, they're timeless. I can only see to the light. In the beginning, they're wonderful. I can only see how to get them. In the beginning, they're wonderful. I can only see how to get them. In the beginning, they're wonderful. I can only see how to get them. Thank you. Thank you.

[67:14]

I had known that I was welcome out of the extreme well of the world at one time and at one moment. Killing a cigar with a black towel is killing all of the private parts of society. Now that I've seen the radiant mirrors of the hanging of my brother in crime, it will be too hard to let this time tell you what happens to them as well. I should give an especially short talk today because the non-doing part of the talk has already been at least ten minutes.

[68:36]

And this is the first time I've ever had rotating tape recorder operators. Were you chosen because of the length of your hair? Or do each of you have a different tape you bring? Yeah. You know, I guess you noticed the second or third teisho, I was kind of at an impasse. What to say? You know, I never... At best I have the vaguest idea of what I might talk about.

[69:55]

Usually I have no idea. And luckily you guys are patient and have nothing to do, so I can just hope something happens. But sometimes something happens and then I'm really stuck. So Tuesday, or I don't know when it was, the second day show and the third day show, I fell through the impasse. And somehow I ended up in non-doing. And then I want to speak about this. But I realized, to make it clear, I've got to say an awful lot.

[71:17]

When I want to? To say something about it, I have to say more than I would like, perhaps. Yeah, because some things are just, you know, better not to talk about. It sounds too weird. And some of you are the newer people, even some of the older people say, oh, it's so bloody complicated, I'm getting out of this place. I thought Zen was simple. One incense burner in a bare room. Einfach ein Räuchergefäß und ein schlichter Raum.

[72:22]

But it's a whole world, whole life practice, so it's... It's like anything else. It's probably less complicated than dentistry. Yeah, think how much a dentist has to know. So anyway, let me try to say something. Yeah. So what I want to try to speak about is the body of non-doing. Because this is a central idea, especially in Taoism and also in Buddhism. In Zen Buddhism.

[73:36]

And I suppose, in a way, all this talk is a form of non-doing. Because I didn't plan to do anything except sit with you. Follow the schedule. Which means I'm supposed to give a lecture seven times. What is the body of non-doing? Okay. What is the body in the West? The root of the word body is something like a brewing vat, like for beer or something. Vat is a container.

[74:38]

And in yogic culture, in Chinese language, one of the names for body is a share of the whole. Und in der yogischen Kultur oder im Chinesischen, da ist ein Wort für den Körper ein Anteil am Ganzen. Now, there's no, in Chinese language until recently, there's no real word, I'm told and read many times, for... The word religion. It's just one of the social activities. And even today I've read to try to get a Chinese farmer peasant To say whether he's a Confucian, a Buddhist, or a Taoist is almost impossible.

[75:54]

In some contexts they're one, in some contexts another. Or it's more like They enjoy the garden, but they're not a gardener. If you said in China in the old days you were a Buddhist or a Taoist, It would mean you were someone who'd been initiated into the practices of the teachings. Yeah, so you were a kind of gardener, maybe. But everyone can enjoy the garden, but not everyone's a gardener.

[77:09]

So you don't go up to somebody and say, oh, you were just in our garden. Are you a gardener? I'm not a gardener. I just enjoyed the garden. Sometimes you enjoy the Buddhist garden, sometimes the Confucian garden. I like that. Now, what I'm trying to get you into is the... of a different kind of world. So, again, Buddhism is just an activity. Okay. What is the body? The body is just an activity. It's a body. activity that's a share of the whole.

[78:17]

So the body is an activity, and it's also stillness, a still mind. So, okay. Yogic culture doesn't make a distinction between natural and unnatural. I mean, New York City is just an anthill. Ants make anthills, people make New Yorks. Yeah. And so it's just, you know, it's just our housing. All right. Now, I'm not saying we should abandon the difference between natural and unnatural in our ordinary use.

[79:30]

I mean, who wants a... What? Plastic something or other. You might think that plastic is unnatural, but of course it's mostly petroleum, which is mostly trees. Anyway, it may be a useful distinction, but please understand it's a cultural distinction. And yogic culture doesn't make a distinction the way we do between the world and you. You're a share of the whole. And you participate in the whole. whole of it and the wholeness of it.

[80:43]

And in a way, what is the wholeness of it? If we have a job that's different than particular humans, it's to find the wholeness of it. To find and complete the wholeness of it in ourselves. Maybe this is some kind of example. Though I actually don't know if the same Chinese character is for the word tan.

[81:44]

But as I said yesterday, the meditation platform is called the tan. And tan means the slip of paper also that the name of the person is written on. Peter's spot, Simon's spot. And tan also means, again, the platform. It also means the sacred space or square or circle where you put an incense burner. And it also means the hara, the tan, the tandem. And the tandem also means the transmission of Buddhism.

[83:06]

The correct transmission of Buddhism. We get it in the gut, so to speak, person to person, face to face. Okay. So whether the kanji is the same, I'll have to find that out, but what I'm saying is basically is a... an example of how people feel about the relationship between the world and themselves. So the Your activity is your body.

[84:15]

The body is the medium of activity. But the body is also the medium of stillness. So the body is the medium of of the mind and the medium of activity. And practice is the relationship between the medium of the mind and the medium of activity. So this is the stuff of activity. It's not an object, an entity. You said two things, entity and... It's not an entity.

[85:16]

Yeah. I mean, just think about it a little bit. Everything you do, is an activity. You eat, you make love, you talk to people, and so forth. And the activity of making love often makes new human beings. So there's So if there's not activity, you'd starve to death. The emphasis here is on the body as activity. And simultaneously, the body has the medium of mind or of stillness. And non-doing is the fusing of the activity of the body and the stillness of mind.

[86:37]

Now, does that seem too complicated to you? Shucks, I don't need to know all that. But if you sit, you'll find out it's... Yeah, you'll come to these definitions yourself. And you'll find the... activity folding into stillness. So we have the turtle of Sukhiroshi's speaking about non-doing. The turtle who pulls in head and tail and feet. And what Sukershi meant was in zazen we pull in the six senses, the five physical senses and mind.

[87:57]

Now, it's typically in Zen taught in some way like that. It's called teaching, as I'm using this phrase, teaching on level ground or penetrating on level ground. Yeah, we're here together. We're trying to have some kind of full engaged relationship with each other. Yeah. And the body is also discovered through engagement. So say Tsukiyoshi mentions in a lecture the turtle and pulling the six in.

[89:12]

He normally wouldn't say more than that. Or he might say enough to give you a feel for it. And I discovered if I went to him and I said, Please, Roshi, give me the teaching of the turtle. He clammed up. Clammed? You know what a clam is? I'd knock on the shell, anybody in there? But if I came with some kind of feeling, like I said, I would say, might say something like, now the world enters through the shell.

[90:15]

In other words, if I ventured some... encapsulated way of saying of my understanding. Wenn ich so einen Weg beschritten habe, mein Verständnis zu verklausulieren... Then he might say something to me of what he meant. Dann sagte er vielleicht etwas, was er damit gemeint hat.

[91:37]

He might say something about appreciating what surrounds you. if that's all he said, for example, that means my job is in the next weeks to see if each thing that appears I can appreciate. And appreciating non-appearance too. Yeah, then I might... Go back to him. Anyway, Zen practice in our lineage is something like this. So, what is the body of non-doing? Well, first of all, it's pulling in the six.

[92:43]

That means going out of consciousness into awareness or zazen mind. And you know, after you've practiced a couple years or more of counting the breaths and following the breaths and so forth, it's just a resource like breathing itself. You may sit down and you've... And in fact, you produce the effect of counting your breaths, whether you count or not. So what you've learned intentionally has now become a kind of physical habit. It's a provision. Provision means your supplies. And in the koans it also talks often about your provisions, your supplies, meaning your practice resources.

[94:16]

And a kind of space may open up, a feeling of space opens up in you. Couldn't really say whether it's bodily space. You look at it, it's bodily space and maybe mental space too or something like that. No way it's where we can put the single incense burner too. Now what I'm saying here is that the little things that happen in zazen, it's good to slow down and notice, oh, a feeling of space in my body and mind.

[95:19]

Perhaps if you're looking for something or you have a gaining idea you won't notice just maybe this space is something Yeah, and, you know, this gaining idea, no gaining idea, I discovered bothers a few of you. And... It sounds kind of moral or something.

[96:24]

But I found myself strangely giving the example, here's a stick.

[96:28]

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