Nicole hasn't translated for a while, so I thought she might be getting rusty. So we asked her. We don't want a rusty translator. Just listening to how well you all chant together makes it clear how long we've all practiced together. Maybe we're only a little rusty. Or perhaps not rusty at all. But still, as you know, for me, all what we're doing here is an experiment.

[01:10]

In this century, in this time, in this generation, How is Buddhism going to take hold in the West? So now we're, our winter branch is four. So it looks good, I, B. Well, I don't know about spring, summer and fall, but winters, we've had four winters. Ich weiß nicht, wie das mit Sommer, Frühling und Herbst ist, aber Winter davon haben wir jedenfalls vier. We now will speak about koans. Und nun werden wir über koans sprechen.

[02:14]

Which is the most classic and definitive literature teaching within the Zen Buddhist lineages. Now you met, some of you met at this Weekend, I guess. Winter branches weekend, which I wasn't present and I'm not supposed to be present. Yeah. And it wouldn't help if I was present because you're all speaking in German, of course. And I don't know what you spoke about. But I hope that whatever you did speak about, those of you who are here now, can deepen the discussion we have during this week.

[03:29]

But even so, whether I was there or not, I still have to start from the beginning. Looking at koans in a very basic way. Now, I've... A while ago, not too long ago, someone asked me, could we pass out this piece I wrote about 25 years ago on koans? And I said, yes, why not? But I haven't read it for 20 years anyway. I better find out what it says, so sometime this week I'll read it. See if I still agree with myself. Whoever that person was who wrote it.

[04:45]

It was actually written as an introduction for the Shoyoroku, but I decided to... for various reasons not to make it the introduction. So I'll be interested in your comments about that too as well as the koan of course. Now, when we study, when you, when we study anything, we should, you know, wonder what we're studying, study what we're studying, look at what we're studying. Then we should ask questions about what we're studying.

[05:57]

I think in the case of koans, it's best if you know we're going to study a particular koan. It's best if you, ideal if you look at it once or twice or three times without any ideas, without any questions. Just look at what is this, this thing. And I know some of you, some people take the koans pretty easily or they begin to make use of them after a while.

[07:01]

But for many people they are kind of like being in a museum too long and the feeling starts after you go in the door of the museum. As soon as you go in the door, you have the museum feeling. Yeah. So we'll have to get past that feeling if any of you have that feeling. So, what are some of the basic questions you should ask? Yeah, well, what is the subject of this koan? And perhaps also, what is the fundamental subject of this koan?

[08:16]

And ask yourself, is this also a subject for me? I think when you really come to the fundamental subject, question behind a koan or any koan. It's usually also your question. So from one point of view you can try to make the question of the koan your question. But a deeper approach is to look at the koan until you feel a question that is already your question. You may not know it's your question.

[09:24]

But you may discover it. Ah, this actually is a question I have. So the process of looking at a koan is questioning the koan itself. is a process of questioning the koan itself. Now, most of the questions I'm bringing up, I won't try to answer or respond to this morning. Yeah, I'll hope that today in our discussion you can respond to these questions. And you can ask a question like, why don't they say, the Buddha ascended the seat?

[10:26]

Why do they say, The world-honored one ascended the seat. And in the koan it says the ten epithets, the ten other names, designations for the Buddha. So it's very clear that one of the subjects of this koan is, who is the Buddha?

[11:26]

Now, what is the name of, or what is the name of the Buddha? And I mean, you could have a kind of quicksand answer, of course, the Buddha is you. That may be, yeah, that may not be wrong. Maybe it's almost wrong. But it's simply too easy. It's too easy. And if it is, if you are the Buddha, then we can all get down from our seats and go home. Yeah, or at least let's... What does it mean to say we might be what is meant by the Buddha? This has to be our... Our experience, not just an understanding.

[12:45]

Understanding is one of the biggest dangers in practice. And it says in the koan, the manjushri is leaking. One of the main forms of leaking is understanding. You think you understand. You have a feeling, oh, I understand, it falls into place. And so you think, oh, yeah, it fell into place, it feels good, I understand this. So koans do their best to not make that easy for you. And that's why they give you this museum feeling. Because they're resisting your understanding. So you don't have the satisfaction of understanding, so you get bored. Also hast du nicht die Befriedigung des Verstehens und langweilst dich.

[13:57]

But some of you need to understand so much, you'll decide you understand quite quickly. Aber einige von euch, die müssen so viel verstehen, dass sie sich entschließen werden, recht schnell zu verstehen. And some of you are real smart and can figure things out, and so you think you understand. Und einige von euch sind recht klug, und ihr denkt, ihr könnt die Dinge herausfinden, und dann denkst du, du verstehst. The problem is that nothing's wrong with understanding, it's okay. Understanding makes us think we understand. And koans are really a kind of mantric literature. They have their power not through understanding, but through repetition.

[15:02]

So, you know, the person who doesn't understand, and because they don't understand, they keep repeating it, may actually in the end embody, realize the koan more fully than the one who understands. Also die Person, die nicht versteht und das immer wieder wiederholt. Es mag sein, dass diese Person letztendlich den Koan sehr viel tiefer verkörpert oder verwirklicht als die Person, die versteht. You could say, who am I? Und du kannst zum Beispiel sagen, wer bin ich? But understanding can't answer that question. Living with yourself the whole of your life doesn't answer that question. Really, if you really want to practice with koans you have to make them part of your life. dann musst du sie zu einem Teil deines Lebens machen.

[16:09]

You have to find some way to do this. Du musst einen Weg finden, das zu tun. And you find some way to do it with one or two at first. That's all you need, just one or two. Und zunächst findest du für ein oder zwei davon einen Weg, das zu tun. Das ist alles, was du brauchst, ein oder zwei. So we'll work on one or two this week. Okay, so another question you can ask. Why is this the first koan in the Shoyuruku? By the way, you know, because in English, World Honored One, I call him Mr. Who, W-H-O. It's the 11th epithet of the Buddha, Mr. Who. And that's kind of flip, flip, like a joke. But actually, it's kind of fortunate. Mr. Who, we don't know who this guy is. Who was I getting up on this seat?

[17:30]

Am I also Mr. Who? Or Mr. What? Yeah. And as part of the experiment of this week, of this practice together, Yes. What's the difference? Why do I bow three times and get up here and then bow three times at the end? And then I get down. Just before, supposedly before a koan from the Dogen's collection of 300 koans, The myth is that just before the Buddha entered nirvana, Manjushri appears.

[18:46]

Please, Buddha, give us one more talk. The Buddha says, I haven't said a word in 49 years. Why are you bothering me? Yeah. Leave me alone. And the Buddha died. Yes, something like that. It's supposedly the last mythological koan. So, am I saying something right now? And when we meet in the afternoon and we have... Bye.

[19:49]

By design, we have an afternoon meeting where I don't climb up here on this platform. I climb up on a different platform. I'm in the same platform in a different room. Yeah. Is the lecture any different? Does the overall posture of the lecture, the formality or lack of formality, make a difference? Maybe we should continue, you know, after I pop off. You can just do informal Zen from after that. He's gone. Let's drop all that formality stuff. And you know, I was a very informal guy.

[21:10]

As I've told you, there's no picture of me in my high school yearbook because I refused to wear a tie. And in college they wouldn't let me eat in the dining room because I refused to wear a tie. And now I have the biggest tie of anyone in my college. Yeah. So how did I get talked into this? Can you talk me out of it? This is also the subject of this koan. I mean, our very situation is also the subject of this koan. What is it to ascend the seat?

[22:18]

To go up into the hall. These are the questions the koan asks. And we have a situation in which these questions are very, very real. We also probably after a while should know that this is a translation into English of a Song Dynasty 13th century text. 12th century text. It's a late Song or southern Song dynasty text.

[23:19]

Based on Tang Dynasty protagonists. But created as literary figures in the Tang Dynasty. But does it pertain to us? Yeah. I mean, I don't think most of us find 12th century German or English literature pertains much to us. But certainly some philosophy, Plato, Aristotle, going much farther back, does pertain to us. Does this pertain to us?

[24:43]

That's a basic question. Because we're practicing, does it pertain to us? Does it pertain to non-practitioners? Probably not. You know, I just met in Sweden with five, seven people, five of them, I guess, four of them business consultants. I started out with saying to them, I didn't want to make them feel bad.

[25:47]

I said, well, this is probably a waste of my time. If I've got time for seven people, I should be back at Johanneshof with seven people. But we have to say eight people, or nine, I was there too, because Ravi Welch was there. I love his name, an Indian-Irish, no, Welsh, Ravi Welsh. Yeah. Anyway, he's a therapist, psychotherapist. Most many of you know him. And he's meeting with these guys in some sort of program for these seven people for a three-year program.

[26:51]

So he asked me three years ago if I would join them. Yeah, now. Three years seemed quite far off, so I said yes. But suddenly three years had passed, so I couldn't get out of it. So I decided, you know, what kind of experiment can this be? These are intelligent, well-informed people who have some interest in yogic culture, though they don't know much about even the idea of yogic culture. So I have the same experiment I have with you.

[27:55]

What can they understand? What can I speak about? How do I discover, find an entry into Yeah, some shared, some mutual interiority. Yeah. Only two people, two women really sat. And three men sat on chairs and one man went back and forth. but actually it was quite good so I learned it was useful for me to do it and I think it was useful for them too they're advisors to companies in Sweden and Europe and Asia etc

[29:19]

I don't know what they're going to tell them. Pass me the pencil with two hands. Maybe it'll be a big acupuncture introduction into Buddhist practice. Anyway, I didn't talk about koans though. That's what I'm doing here. Okay. How does it pertain, how does this pertain to our life and of course our practice? Now, without knowing anything about

[30:20]

types of Chinese or Buddhist literature? Just what is this story? Well, it's an image. It's an image. and a story. And it says, it instructs us within the story to clearly observe. So we have this little story. It's a short story, but a little story. The shortest story I know is it was a dark and stormy night.

[31:39]

That's it? No, that's the beginning. And three men were sitting around a campfire. And one said, who will tell a ghost story? And one of them said, I will. And he began. It was a dark and stormy night. Three men were sitting around a campfire. Okay. So it was a beautiful sunny day and the Buddha climbed up on his seat. And then Manjushri strikes a gavel. A mallet.

[32:43]

A hammer, is that what you say? Yeah. Gavel, as far as I can tell, nobody knows the origin of the word gavel, but its root means to give and to receive. so it's a wooden mallet and he says observe the dharma of the king of dharma and he says The Dharma of the King of Dharma is thus. So we have at least three subjects in the koan. What are we supposed to observe? Well, we can observe that he got up on the seat.

[33:43]

Yeah, clearly observe the Dharma of the King of Dharma. And what it says is he got up on a seat. What does getting up on a seat or taking a position mean for us? Even if this is not about you as the Buddha, It's about, you have to understand it from your own experience. So when do you find your seat? Your ease, perhaps. Yeah, or when do you have a feeling you've taken some position where you really are? And then he, but the other subject could be that he doesn't say anything, he just sits there and gets down.

[34:58]

Come on, Buddha. I mean, Mr. Who. Don't act so zenny. Yeah. But when does it begin and end? I mean, when did his not doing anything... Does it end when he got up to the start and he got up in the seat and end when he got down from the seat? When is the beginning and end of this... dharma that we're supposed to observe. Well, I mean, it's again too easy to say we're observing his silence. Perhaps we're observing his presence.

[36:12]

Yeah, and when do you feel you've established a presence? Yeah. Do you have a feeling of being from top to bottom full of energy or vitality. And it eases within that vitality. We'd at least want the Buddha to be something like that. That's a second subject. What kind of nothing are we supposed to be observing? And the third is thus. The Dharma is thus. What's that? Yeah, but let's not think of all the meanings for thusness and suchness, but just

[37:17]

What happened in this koan that could be called, so far in this little story, that can be called thus? So. Well, you said? That's how it's translated. So. What's the word for elephant? Elephant. Elephant. Oh, in Japanese, an elephant's zo. Samantha Badra's elephant is zo. Okay, I'll get back to work here. Yeah. Okay, so the story is an image. The koan is an image. It's clearly a visual image. Or a conceptual image.

[38:40]

Getting up on a seat and getting down. It's not just visual. And it's a story. Okay. What is the main role of story in our own life? Self. If anyone asks you, who are you, where are you from, you tell them a story. Yeah, I mean, in English that means you tell them a lie. I told him a story where he thought I was, you know. You'd have to say, I told him my story.

[39:43]

If you just said, in English, you just said, I told him a story, it really means you made up some credible thing, like I was the Buddha. So the way we notice the self, our own the self, And the way we express the self to ourselves and to others is as a story. And an image, as I said, is a concept. And what is consciousness?

[40:47]

I've been defining consciousness over and over again for three centuries. But now I'm emphasizing today the ingredients of consciousness. The ingredients of consciousness are concepts. Und die Zutaten des Bewusstseins sind Konzepte. Consciousness, as I say, always is a construct. Das Bewusstsein, wie ich immer sage, ist ein Konstrukt. What's it constructed from? Woraus ist es konstruiert? Concepts. It's a web, a tapestry of concepts. Es ist ein Netzwerk, ein Gewebe von Konstrukten. When we wake up in the morning and we are half asleep and half waking up, There's a kind of loose, sleepy space. And a few dreams are saying, hey, hey, come back, come back. You haven't finished the dream. And your day is saying, oh, come on, come forward.

[42:13]

You have to do these things. And you, at some point, the concepts click into place and then you can't go back to sleep. Okay, so you have a kind of tapestry, let's say like a puzzle, a picture puzzle where you put in the pieces. And within consciousness swims the fish of self. Now the fish of self is not always selfish. That's an extreme form of the fish of self. What is the water that the fish of self swims in? Concepts.

[43:24]

So with koans, we're adding images and story to the tapestry of consciousness. If you really use the koans as they're meant to be used, these stories get added to your consciousness. dann werden diese Geschichten zu deinem Bewusstsein hinzugefügt. Ihre Ideen, das mag sein, dass sie Teil deiner Geschichte werden. Und das reicht vermutlich für heute. Vielen Dank. Thank you.

[44:30]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_72.23