So I don't know, you know. I don't know exactly either. Yes. What I always thought was that when you are in this immediate consciousness, I thought that once you are, which I hope I will realize, you are in immediate consciousness, why should there be any reason to get out of it again? You have to take care of your baby. You can't do that in immediate consciousness? Not really. I mean, you have to talk to somebody about diapers and getting baby food or school, and you have to work out all those details, education. Isn't that the immediate consciousness? No. No, as soon as you're in conceptual thought, Thinking about, you know, the school, is this school better than that school?

[01:12]

You're not immediately conscious. Let's say that there's several stages. One stage, as in our culture, educates us primarily to live in borrowed consciousness. And the second stage is you start to practice. And you sometimes taste or get familiar with immediate consciousness. And you realize it's been there all along. And the third stage would be that you live your home base is immediate consciousness, but you easily go to borrowed consciousness. Easy. Easy. And that works because immediately when borrowed consciousness is not necessary, it just melts into immediate consciousness.

[02:31]

And then a more developed stage is you can be in borrowed consciousness without disturbing immediate consciousness or leaving it. And that's just a matter of maturity. Maturity in practice. And that's what Sukhirashi means when he says you... You develop your character. Okay. Something else? Your character will be built up, yeah. I think that what we do here is all, it's moving in conceptual thought.

[03:33]

And I mean that the brain is newly conditioned by that. In the seminar or in life? Yes, what we are doing now here. What we are doing requires an energetical effort. And I have the feeling that it may be that it is more pleasant for you on a certain level, you also feel free. And yet it may still be the chemistry of the body, as if you come to a different frequency. On one level it's more pleasant to be, and still there is the chemistry of the body, which... So that chemically, so to speak, the body comes to a different frequency, which feels more free. Every effort you do doesn't take place in immediate consciousness.

[04:56]

Uncorrect state of mind. It's all the time correct. All the time what we are doing here or not. What we're doing here is correcting your state of mind all the time. Yes. What you said is true. And one side of what you said is the danger in teaching the way I'm teaching. Und das, was du gesagt hast, eine Seite davon ist die Gefahr, so zu lehren, wie ich lehre. So wie ich lehre, darin liegt eine bestimmte Gefahr. Also dass nur dein konzeptuelles Denken davon angesprochen wird, oder dass du es nur auf dieser Ebene hörst.

[06:01]

And in practice, what I told you yesterday, do you remember? This, when you sit for a while and suddenly you have pain, when you are sitting for maybe 30 minutes and then pain comes up or something else. And I have the experience at one point, there's a conceptual thinking, how I can manage with the situation. I'm sitting still, but the energy is doing that all the time. Yeah, I know. I want to say that in German. I want to respond to this for a moment and then we'll have a break. So please be comfortable but I'll try to be not too long. Obviously you can't practice uncorrected mind while you're driving a car.

[07:17]

So uncorrected mind is a basic attitude in your life and is a specific practice. It's something at least initially limited to zazen. So let me describe to you what I try to do or the craft of teaching as I have been taught. I'm bringing you a certain Buddhist teaching to you. And that is a kind of borrowed consciousness. to a great extent. And in this koan is partly saying, no borrowed consciousness.

[08:19]

I don't even practice the four noble truths. And Yao Shan, who was, I'll tell you a little later, but Yao Shan was sitting. And Shido came and said, what are you doing? I'm not doing anything. I'm doing nothing. Ah, said Shido, then you're sitting idly. He said, oh no, if I was sitting idly, I'd be doing something. So he said, well, so you say you're not doing anything, sitting idly, but what, you say you're not sitting idly, so what are you doing?

[09:30]

And he said, not even the saints, nor the ancient Buddhas know. So we're practicing a Buddhism here before Buddhism. All right. But the koan is borrowed consciousness, which is teaching you to practice before Buddha. So there's always this problem. A problem in your own zazen. Your legs start to hurt. And borrowed consciousness says, when is that Neil going to ring the bell? And if you recognize it as borrowed consciousness and Neil actually isn't even in the room, you will deal with the pain much better if you can go back into immediate consciousness.

[10:41]

But, you know, if all your consciences disappear, then you just move your legs or sit forever. Okay. So now I'm not just responding to you, I'm talking about things in general that I want to talk about. So I'm trying to bring this borrowed consciousness of Buddhism into a secondary consciousness of you, so you're beginning to feel it and think about it in your own terms. And I'm trying to speak to you from both secondary consciousness and immediate consciousness simultaneously. And sometimes I emphasize one more, and sometimes I emphasize the other. You may only hear it, though any one of you may only hear it in borrowed consciousness.

[12:09]

And to make that difficult for you, I make breaks or discontinuities in what I'm saying, where the gap can only be filled by immediate consciousness. So I try to speak in a way that it actually doesn't compute in borrowed consciousness. Now, we are doing a little Dharma exercise. And it's just such beautiful weather. And you guys are so beautiful. And we have the joy of the Dharma. I mean, there couldn't be a better day than today. So, you know, I'm here, various people are here who practiced to

[13:19]

More or less. And various people here who've had various life experiences. This creates an immediate atmosphere. And then you're sitting some. And we're bringing in this koan too. And even if you don't have any idea what the corn's doing, it's still present in this sandwich. And from these elements, a certain kind of twining is occurring. A certain, for this weekend, kind of present is occurring. And from the atmosphere we create together, practicing, And from your sitting.

[14:27]

And from the koan. And from your own personal history and memories which come up. Something is there. Skillful practice means you're able to start touching how all these come together. Maybe you touch it with a toothache in your heart. a certain space in your breathing, or a certain relaxation in your mind. In any case, this is your present. And for each of you, it's somewhat different. But we're all participating in it. Now let me just use for a moment the birds.

[15:41]

I think we all or most of you noticed that when you're sitting zazen and you feel at ease, the birds seem to be singing to you. And I secretly believe the birds are singing to you. They are singing away. And they begin to feel something and think, ah, someone, there's a Buddha field present. Somebody is sitting and I'm singing for them. And they start singing with more joy. And they call the other birds over, hey. And they call the other birds over, hey. Let's sing for those Buddhas. That's really supportive. Yeah.

[16:46]

Now, this... The birds are, you know... But there are times, you know, when you... I mean, there could be an armada of birds singing, and you wouldn't notice it. What's the difference? It's there all the time, like this bell. And it's not just now we can point out this kind of noticeable distinction between when you hear the birds and when you don't. And when you hear the birds, and you hear them with a deep joy, as if your insides were turning out, What's the difference?

[17:51]

Okay, but that kind of difference... between hearing the birds and not, and between hearing the birds as if they were singing to your deepest satisfaction. Can also be present in the way your skin feels sometimes, in the way you sometimes don't even know you have skin. Sometimes you can just put your hands together and it's the same experience as hearing the birds sing to your deepest satisfaction. Sometimes your whole body can feel that way. Sometimes each breath is like that. Sometimes anything your eyes rest on looks like you're in a jeweled paradise. What's the difference? It's there all the time. It's not there all the time.

[19:12]

This is practice. Now, if this was just a nice experience, and nice experiences are great, let's not knock them. And nice experiences make your life a lot nicer. But most of us are too serious to choose nice experiences. Except on our vacation. And then we're usually, well, anyway. Okay. Okay. But it's not just that these are nice experiences, because these are the path. These experiences are signs that you're in the path, have entered the path. And entering the path means you enter it with everyone. And means you end up in your life in a different place.

[20:25]

So what I'd like to do is take a break. Maybe we can say 20 minutes and mean 25 and receive 30. And when you come back... I would like you to meet in small groups, maybe six or so people. Just for half an hour or so. Then we'll go to lunch. And I'd like in the small groups you just to share anything of what's going on in your present with this koan and this teaching.

[21:28]

Please sit relatively comfortably. When the door is open in the back, there's a draft. Is that right?

[22:34]

Yeah, you don't have to leave it open. But I don't know, does it make a draft? It's good? Okay. Okay. We don't have much time. And I have something on my mind that I'd like to discuss with you. But I'd also like to know what you'd like to do, though. last hour and a half or so we have.

[23:40]

Before you tell me, let me say some of the things, one of the things I'm thinking about is trying to In teaching in Europe so far, I've done basically two things, which is sesshins and seminars. And in a seminar, what I hope is that we can... together we can teach, touch and... feel something. But we don't get much chance to mix it up together in seminars. And not in the sashins either. Yeah. So here she says here you have to Like making bread, you have to mix it little by little.

[25:00]

I think the way we mix it is... also is like in these small groups. And of course, I don't know what your experience of being in small groups is, but being an outsider, it feels nice. So if we did a retreat, something I've been considering doing, and Rika and I have been talking about, is doing a retreat sometime in Europe, which is not a sashin and not a seminar. And that, when I say retreat, I would mean it would be something more like four or five days, so we could continue some of the things we started today, tomorrow. I mean, I don't mind in the seminar planting seeds.

[26:04]

But I think in retreat we might have some seedlings. You have the same idea? All of those things. Next year, the Munster seminar is scheduled in the countryside. In a small little fixed-up farmhouse in some buildings, it's quite nice.

[27:05]

I've been toying with the idea of maybe extending it a couple of days. I could also do less seminars and a couple of big retreats instead of so many small seminars. But there's an advantage to come to different cities. Like here I meet with people. Mostly I don't meet with any other seminar. So anyway, I bring this up because I'm trying to, as Sukershi says, mix it up a little step by step. And develop a way of teaching here that's responsive to you. So I'm not inviting you into a lot of borrowed consciousness about what we might do in the future.

[28:08]

So if you have some ideas about it now or in the future, I'm happy to hear them. Now, is there anything in particular anybody would like to follow up on or do in the next hour or so? Yes. I would like to ask something that was in the first webinar where I was present. It's been a few years now, and unfortunately I didn't understand it. It was about this distinction. I just wanted to ask something. There's something in the seminars a few years ago I heard, and I would like to hear something more on that.

[29:30]

It's about sealing oneself. I would love to hear something more about it. Yes, it's important, isn't it? Yes, it's important, Franz. Well, maybe I can, in whatever I say between now and the end, I can refer to that a bit. But simply if you, in situations, can bring your attention to your... breath and your present state of mind, with a feeling of not leaking. You won't leak. And the more you practice this, the more you find ways to not armor yourself, as I put it, but to seal yourself. And the more you have that sense in your sort of inner body you can actually open yourself

[30:54]

100% to things. And part of the craft of it, of course, is noticing when we're nourished and noticing when we're depleted by our actions. And that's really what the precepts are about. Precepts are a way of finding that line between when you say something or do something and you feel depleted by doing it. And when you feel, by contrast, nourished by saying something. And that's really what right speech, right conduct, et cetera, means.

[32:17]

Speech that nourishes you versus, et cetera. Something else? What? She has two questions. Occasionally. Why don't you let him translate a little?

[33:32]

About borrowed and extra consciousness. You once told the story about your friend being a mountaineer or being in the mountains and having got stuck, couldn't go forward or backwards, suddenly in that what you called awareness then, was being shown, so to say, where exactly to put his foot in hand and got out of this embarrassing situation. And I always thought that this awareness was the present consciousness. I thought that was identical. That's what I thought. Okay, I understand. That's what you thought, and he says, I thought, because he's speaking for you. Yeah. Yeah. I seem to have stopped you at a good point, because that was a complete statement. Is there something else you wanted to say? I think that was more of a statement that you made. Is there anything else?

[34:35]

What do you want to say? Okay, that one first. And I had thought this awareness was the ideal state from which to do everything. So I will respond to it at that time. Anything else? Yes. In the noon break the question again appeared about Zen and Vipassana. Perhaps you could say something more about that. Well, do you mean Vipassana or do you mean Theravadan teaching? Zazen and vipassana, the different way to meditate.

[36:01]

Yes. In respect to the different ways of realization and different forms of emptiness, the different ways which lead to different realizations. You'll have to start traveling with me. That will take a long time to respond to all those things. But I did promise Klaus, was that... His name? I promised Klaus I'd give a little example that I've used of the difference between vipassana and shamatha. Now, when people talk about vipassana these days, I'm a little confused about what they mean.

[37:04]

Because Vipassana has become sort of the name of the Theravadan teachings in Europe and America. And maybe they do that because they don't like to be called the lesser vehicle. I mean, it really should be called the earlier vehicle, but then Mahayana named it, and so they called themselves the big vehicle and the other guys the lesser vehicle. Yeah, so it's sort of like, you're on a bicycle and I'm on a Honda 750. It could sound like you're riding a bike and I'm riding a 750 Honda.

[38:13]

750, yeah. 750, yeah. And also in America at least, I don't know about in Europe, but what they mean by Vipassana is something that's like half Theravadan teachings and half psychology. But historically, as I've said, that Zen is the Mahayana school which is most based in Theravadan teachings. So there's a lot of similarity in the practice, in the sense of the craft of practice, between Theravadan and Zen. But, okay, let me just give my little example.

[39:14]

If you concentrate on this book, called pork you pine, I mean hue pine, if you concentrate on this book, and you become very concentrated, one-pointed, there's nothing else in your mind except this book. Yeah. And then I take the book away. And your concentration remains. Then in that state of concentration, if I can bring the book back up into it without disturbing the concentration, and now you're using the the state of concentration to examine the book.

[40:17]

That's shamatha and vipassana. Shamatha is to develop the one-pointedness that can concentrate on the book. Vipassana is the ability to turn, to go from the book as the object of concentration To the field of concentration as the object of concentration. So the book can be taken down. And then you can study the world from this concentrated state. That's an inner seeing or insight meditation. Zen has tried to combine those two in one practice. Zazen is specifically, in its simplicity, the Chinese Buddhist attempt to bring all the Indian teachings into one way of practicing physically.

[41:32]

So although the sitting practice is important, Zen is what makes a sitting practice... Zen sitting practice is the attitudes you bring to the sitting practice. It's partly the way you do it, but it's mostly the attitudes you bring to the practice. Like most people will say to sit still. But the emphasis on uncorrected mind is an attitude that's not the same as sitting still.

[42:35]

Yes. What does that mean, sitting without anything, without any object? Is that different again? Yeah, Shikantaza is a signless meditation. It's approached through uncorrected mind. And the degree to... Now, my own feeling is that if you just give beginners the practice of Shikantaza, it's not enough.

[43:45]

It's enough if Zen practice is a therapy. And probably sitting on your own, Shikantaza might be the best practice. Shikantaza is also an attitude you're bringing to your practice. How subtle is that attitude? Yeah. OK. Now this morning, we spent most of the morning actually being responsive to questions. And the time went by very quickly. And most of the things I would have said if I'd just given more of a lecture were said.

[44:48]

And as you know, I feel to me it's important when we interact about this stuff. And for me it's very important when we interact about this stuff. But I think, Ken, we have to be a little, maybe a bit precise about what you'd like to do this afternoon. Should we just have some more questions or shall I say something? Something specific. Would you like to meet in a group again? Maybe we should be more precise about what we're going to do this afternoon. Do you have any questions? Should I say something? Would you like to meet in a group again? And this weekend there was much talk about desires, tensions, and what I missed was the theme of love. Desires, tensions, and what I missed was the theme of love.

[46:13]

Why? Why? It was about being able to watch the sunset with someone or to want to watch the sunset. It was about practicing Zen as a friend. In the end, it's about a resolution. From my point of view, the resolution is love. I miss that in Zen. There was talk about wanting to spend the sunset with somebody. I thought that as a will, so to say. And there is a dissolution then where I miss, well, as again, love. Do you mean active love, like for the world or for an individual?

[47:37]

Yeah. I'm not talking about the love when your heart is beating. That was the love we've been talking yesterday about. Well, maybe. I meant way. Yeah. For instance, when I look at a flower, I can feel love, or when I look at my partner, I can feel that kind of love, which is not the beating heart. Okay, I understand. I think I understand. You know, I'm a sort of half Asian, half Westerner. And I'm not really sure what is meant by love.

[48:40]

And love is not anything that comes up much in Buddhist practice. This koan, for instance, is emphasizing neutrality. When you're on the side, as I said yesterday, if you're on the side of desiring something, the river is very shallow in that bank. And if you don't want something, you dislike something, the water's shallow there too. It's either or, et cetera. But in the middle of the river, it's very smooth and deep water, and it's neutral. So the kind of love that is emphasized in Buddhism is, and there's a word for that love in Chinese I know, which really means the kind of love where you watch someone.

[50:05]

Like you watch your child grow up, totally interested, but you also watch your child go away. So for me, everything I know about love, Being in love and loving is contained for me in this feeling of watching. Where your first... Where your first... Your first experience of everything is a kind of desireless acceptance.

[51:11]

And there may be some desire there or wishes one way or the other. But you accept that, but you emphasize more a larger acceptance of whatever this situation or person offers. To the point that you accept people in their mistakes as well as accept them in their virtues. And only with some reluctance do you stop and say, well, as your friend, I should say, maybe you're making a mistake. Or shall we go over the cliff together? So a willingness to go over the cliff together for me is love.

[52:13]

So I feel that that's what I'm always talking about. But I don't express it as maybe, I don't know. Yeah. I like this little book that somebody just gave me. I'm making this little book that someone gave me. It's called Hugh Pine, which is a little joke. It's by Jan Willem van der Wettering. who was in Japan studying Buddhism just before I was there. And I've never read his children's books. But they sound a bit Zen. It says here, Dr. Hugh Pine... Dr. Upine, that prickly porcupine, is sick and tired of taking care of all the patients and animals in the forest.

[53:36]

These are not brothers, he says. These are botherers. So he decides to move to a beautiful island across the water. Far enough from his woodland home that he's not disturbed by all these people he has to take care of. So there's charming little drawings here as he gets in his boat and is blissed out going to his good place. Is it charming? Charming little guy. It makes me think of Suzuki Roshi's saying here. Zen is not something to get excited about. And when young people, he says, do not be too interested in Zen. When young people get excited about Zen, They often give up schooling and go to some mountain or forest in order to sit.

[55:05]

Or to Crestone Mountain Zen Center. And that kind of interest is not true interest. Yeah. So we have to create a good place right here in Berlin. In Dharma City. Okay, since we're running out of time, let me say something about this koan. I said I'd say something about the history. And this is just to give you a sense of the picture that this koan, the scene, this koan is presenting.

[56:13]

First we have Siddhartha here. And Siddhartha is the name of the Buddha before he became the Buddha. So, as soon as you see the name Siddhartha, you know they're speaking about the state of mind before you become a Buddha. Yeah, so it's also then, but it's not just any old guy, it's Siddhartha himself, who was about to and ready for the mind of no rebirth. So could you have a mind of no rebirth?

[57:19]

Now, of course, in response to what you said about we should be in the... We should understand the historical circumstances of this koan. This koan was actually composed some centuries after this story of, of course, Siddhartha, but also of Ching Yuan. So you could say this koan represents 10th to 12th century practice. But it's referring to the practice of the 6th century and of 2,500 years ago. And it's referring to the immediate and intends to refer to the immediate practice of your immediate present.

[58:31]

Okay. Now, the next guy's name here is Devadatta. Who is the classic bad guy in Buddhism? And I remember when I first studied Buddhism, I was innocent enough to think, geez, if you practice, you don't have any enemies, you have only friends. And I was that innocent for a long time. And I would read about the Buddha and Devadatta, and I'd think, how did the Buddha goof up?

[59:33]

I mean, what did he do? How did his cousin get so pissed off at him? So Devadatta was his cousin. And after hearing a talk of the Buddha, he became... He was ordained and became a monk himself. But later on, he... he began to develop a different feeling about practice than the Buddha. And he thought the Buddha was leading too pampered a life. This weekend, last weekend with Thich Nhat Hanh... This weekend with Thich Nhat Hanh, Sister Phong really, while I was driving around with Thich Nhat Hanh, we went down to a lake and took a long walk around the lake.

[60:44]

And Sister Phong was really pumping Ulrika in the back. That means asking her a lot of questions. It doesn't mean he had her arm and was saying she would give milk or anything. Finding out bomba... bomba... bomba-deared? Bomba-deared. I understand. I just like participating in the translation thing. I hope I succeed. So... Anyway, Sister Fong kept on going, what time do you get up and what's your schedule and what do you do this? Well, we get up at 4 o'clock and sometimes we get up at 4.30. What? 4 o'clock? And what do you do on, you know, well, we have four and nine days.

[61:46]

We get up at 6 o'clock. You get up at 6 o'clock? So, She said, you should follow the example of the lazy monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. Plum Village, we have a lazy day. Why don't you guys have a lazy day? Thich Nhat Hanh sitting in the front seat with me, sort of nodding, you know. This guy is so powerful that I don't know why I agreed, but I said, yeah, okay, we'll have a lazy day at Christo. And he's so powerful that I don't know why, but somehow I agreed and said, yeah, yeah, we'll have a lazy day.

[62:49]

So I shook hands with Sister Huang on it and said, yes, okay, whatever. I didn't say how many times we'd have a lazy day. So they don't know it, Crestone, yet, but we're going to have occasionally a day where we don't have to get up at all. So anyway, Devadatta began to think that... The Buddha was too interested in the soft life to become a lazy monk. He rejected asceticism too much and was making a little too much of the milk he got from the cow maiden. So first he tried to take over the order. And that didn't work.

[63:58]

So this guy seemed to have lacked character. Because the next thing he did, he hired some assassins. And when they went to kill the Buddha, The Buddha was so sweet and charming that they all became his disciples. So the next thing he did is he tried to push a boulder down a hill and crush the Buddha. Here it says he pushed over a mountain, but the usual story, it was a boulder. But when the boulder rolled down the hill, it rolled up close to the Buddha and then stopped. Buddha rested his cup on it. Okay, and then that didn't work.

[65:16]

So then David Dutta found a wild elephant somewhere and sent it charging into the camp. But the elephant was equally charmed by the Buddha's might. And immediately kneeled down with it. And you should see an elephant doing gassho, you know. Okay. So anyway, so that didn't work. Then down here we have, in the commentary, when Chan master of of Now this is Ching Yuwan, usually called Ching Yuwan, who is the teacher of Shido, who wrote the Sandokai, because Sandokai is something we chant.

[66:21]

And Ching Yuan was the disciple of the Sixth Patriarch. All right. So you don't have to know all this stuff. But what we have here is Siddhartha. Well, okay, what's the next? The next guy down here is Bodhidharma. Where he talks about the second patriarch had his marrow. So we have Siddhartha and his disciple Devadatta. We have the sixth patriarch and his disciple. And we have Bodhidharma and his disciple. So the pattern here is of the initial teacher and the first disciple. So it means this is where this is pointing out that you should be practicing at about that point.

[67:39]

So it's really talking about practice at the very beginning. Establishing a practice, establishing your own practice. And it's really not concerned particularly with Devadatta as a bad guy. Because it not only says he pushed over a mountain, but he says, did he fear the sound of the thunder? Yeah. So you have... You have... devadatta as part of you. And how do you feel when something happens? And it's not presenting any particular good pattern, it's siddhartha and devadatta, six pages, etc.

[69:02]

a situation in which you find yourself trying to establish practice in yourself. Yeah, and it talks about the true blue newcomer. Somebody who has the kind of desire to practice with Manjushri, etc., And to go in the high mountains, the iron mountains. But it also describes these mountains as enclosing. So this very desire to be out there with Manjushri can confine you. Mm-hmm. And it also talks about here, I do not even practice the holy truths.

[70:20]

So the holy truths are, as we talked about earlier, the first teaching of the Buddha. And let me just add up some more stuff here. Talks about the accomplishing work of great peace has no sign. It says peaceful government has no special form. But it says he's still creating a model, drawing a likeness. Er sagt aber auch, immer noch wird hier ein Modell geschaffen und ein Vergleich gezogen.

[71:37]

And if your majesty seeks a peace beyond this, it is beyond my ability. Und wenn eure Majestät einen großen Frieden darüber hinaus sucht, dann ist das außerhalb meiner Fähigkeit. Now, what is this suggesting? Was schlägt das vor hier? In a sense, this is the ultimate Shikantaza. And this is the most advanced practice. And it's the true practice of mind-to-mind or body-mind transmission. But it's also an advanced practice which is quite simple and that you can practice. And you can practice it first as an attitude. Now, Suzuki Roshi talks about just to continue your calm ordinary practice and your character will be built up.

[72:53]

And down below he says building character is like building a dam. And he says make the bank carefully and you will end up with a fine dam for the reservoir. And over here he's talking about the calm, joyful life. Now, Sukhash's book is, they say, I'm told, is the best-selling book on Buddhism in the world. And it's a very simple book. You can read it quite easily. But it's actually written the same way as the koans. For example, when it says in the midst of noise and change, that's making a complex teaching look simple.

[74:00]

The noise means the future. When you hear people going about doing various things. And change means the past. When you feel things are changing and you feel kind of lost. And when you go back, like he says over in the beginning, if we revisit old familiar places after time. We are astonished by the changes. But it's almost like it draws us back into the past where it was quieter, things were simpler. But he's saying you can't let yourself be drawn back into the past or attracted to the future if you really want a calm, serene state of mind.

[75:07]

And this calm, serene, joyful state of mind begins to build energy like a reservoir. So, anyway, and yet this would be another way of talking about sealing. If you're really sealed in your activity, you begin to build up a kind of power in everything you do. It's not dissipated in distracted mind and so forth. And even small things you do begin to touch people, to reach situations, to change situations. Mm-hmm. I'm just trying to give you a picture here of this koan so that you can have a sense of basic ways Zen practice is looked at.

[76:37]

How can you practice unity? How can you practice oneness? And now I'm speaking to your question, too. He says, Shido says, uh... Our teaching has been handed down by the ancient Buddhas. Fundamentally, we do not speak of meditation or spiritual progress. Only at the vision of Buddhahood and the arrival at knowledge. Mind itself is the Buddha. Mind, Buddha, etc., etc., enlightenment, suffering, all are different names for the same thing.

[77:40]

It's true. It's not so... Whoa. Whoa. It's not so easy to realize. But it's very important to know it even if you don't realize it. He says you should know that the essence of mind that awareness is neither finite nor eternal. Now, can you think of anything that's not eternal and not finite? That's out of every category. I mean, anything you think of has to be finite, or you could say it's eternal.

[78:41]

There are no other possibilities, except this essence of mind. And it's neither defiled nor pure. It's not pure. It's not afflicted. It is still and it's complete. It is the same in ordinary people and the same in Buddhas. It responds effectively without patterns. Is that hard to translate? Effectively. It responds... Yeah, I understand it, but effectively. You're never effective in German? Yeah, I'm effective. I don't find a word for that. But Germans are known for their effectiveness. Effective or affective?

[79:42]

Effective. Effective, yeah. I understand affectively. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Without patterns. Apart from mind, apart from intellect, and apart from any discriminating consciousness. It sounds impossible. But it's... But it's an attitude you can bring to your practice. And it's what this koan is trying to present to you. Actually, great peace has no sign. It's no special form. But he was already creating a model, drawing a likeness. The Bodhisattva leaves a feeling in people of this possibility. The bodhisattva leaves in people a feeling of this possibility.

[80:49]

And this is exactly what Suzuki Roshi is trying to talk about too. He says our unexciting way of a practice may appear very negative even. It is just very plain. And I find this point very difficult. It's very difficult for people. Especially young people. Maybe if you're on your deathbed, it makes sense. You're ready for the no-birth state of mind. No rebirth state of mind. Okay, so... Some of you asked why the peasants are in here, you know, the songs and etc.

[81:59]

And it says the family way of the peasants is most pristine. Which means in its original pure form. But even going back to the original pure cultural forms, they still are forms. Okay. Now, again, coming back to what you said. This distinction I've made here, which I think is useful, between immediate consciousness, secondary and borrowed, we can say that immediate consciousness is the surface, experienceable surface of awareness. So if you go from borrowed consciousness to secondary and from secondary to immediate consciousness immediate consciousness there's still a presence

[83:16]

and there's still consciousness there. But if you, in a sense, in a sense I'm talking about a kind of progress, if you went into awareness, then there's no consciousness. It's no longer something that's in the realm of experience. But you're still alive and acting. So at that level, we're actually acting all the time. The same in Buddhas and non-Buddhas. And with your children you are acting in that all the time. When you are present with somebody this is not the same as awareness. Or it's awareness but it's taken now the form of a present consciousness.

[84:32]

And present consciousness is somewhere in between. It's a staging, a bridge. And your present consciousness can be coming from awareness and returning to awareness, or your present consciousness can be going towards secondary or borrowed and returning to present consciousness. So anyway, that's the basic idea of picture. And this can't be practiced in any way but with a signless attitude.

[85:35]

It doesn't fall into steps and stages. But you can approach it. As one teacher said, what is the... I don't know, what is the... Bodies of Buddha, I forget how it's put. And he says, I'm always close to this. So one way to practice it is with a phrase like that, I'm always close to this. If you say you're there, you're wrong. It's like this guy says, some people say, the price of rice cannot be assessed.

[86:46]

But this is, when you say it that way, it's already, you've created a category, you've created a pattern. That's how a stockbroker would know it. Or a commodity broker. What's that? What? Commodity brokers, somebody who deals in pigs and grain and things like that, not in stocks. But they're definitely using patterns, even though the price of pigs cannot be ascertained exactly. So it's not a matter of saying, you know, this can't be... So the most you can say is something like, this can be approached. And you can have this attitude or feeling in your practice.

[87:49]

It's a little bit like living with a sense of mystery. Living on the sort of halfway into don't know. You also know and you do things, but there's a deeper feeling which you don't know. You can't know. But you let don't know work in you as part of you. It's not something you fear. So more and more you're able through practice to allow a kind of don't know functioning. What is the truth of Buddhism? Don't know. I don't know. Who are you? I don't know. You know, but you also don't know. It also means, are you practicing Buddhism?

[89:10]

Don't know. And if you're going to establish Buddhism in Germany and in Europe, as Siddhartha established Buddhism, And Devadatta supposedly at his death actually took refuge in the Buddha again. And as Ching Yuan established Zen in China. and Bodhidharma brought Indian Buddhism to China, if we're going to establish Buddhism or Zen or the ultimate dimension in ourselves, the ultimate dimension of friendship and love and and realization you have to go back before Buddhism back before Siddhartha is a Buddha so let's sit for a little bit before we end you can stretch your legs

[90:30]

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