So our mind is tangled up because it identifies with things. You can free it by identifying it with the sky. Someone said the sky is space's local representative. And this local representative, this guy is the space around you that allows you to move. So as much as possible, shift your observations from things to the space that allows things. And the space that surrounds and is within everything.

[01:04]

The singing birds in the morning each have their own space. The listening birds. Practitioners in the morning each have their own space. In this way we bring sky, earth and mind together. Or movement, view and space. So with every movement you sense the space of that movement. With every movement you sense the space of that movement. And you sense your... usual view and your possible new view touching that movement in that space.

[02:07]

This is the way of practice that's taken for granted. But for us lay people, we have to remind ourselves of it because we usually are caught in the mind of things. And we're not so much like Changsha, just walking with the grasses and the flowers, letting the sky fully come down into him. And he's feeling himself fully enriching the sky. As you are doing just now. Not just in Kenyan, just now as we each are here. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

[03:24]

I would like to thank you for your efforts to prepare the children, and I would like to encourage you to take part in the day-to-day activities. The goal is to hopefully reach the children. Mŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭŭ�

[05:25]

Vahe v'eimah kemah lanjeev jojeev sabo ko etari Nehra v'a [...] Thank you. Here we are again.

[07:25]

Or the third time. Yeah. And we're doing something that we may not know what we're doing. We're doing something very fundamental. So fundamental we don't know what it is. I believe this. Yeah, so be patient. I received a fax yesterday from Rocio. It came through the office, so I think some of you saw it. And many of you know Rocio, my disciple who lives in Mexico City. And her first teacher, Takata Roshi, just died. And she asked me to do a service for him.

[08:33]

Asked if we would do a service for him. So what I'm saying here is the beginning of that service. So tomorrow, maybe you could, for tomorrow morning, you could put his name on the altar, Tathagata Roshi. He was a kind of Dharma brother of mine. Because his teacher was Yamada Mumon Roshi. And Yamada Roshi was more or less my teacher in Japan after Tsukiyoshi died. And... Takada Roshi's other Dharma brother, a real Dharma brother, was Shunan Roshi, who we met in Kyoto.

[09:50]

Had quite a fancy meal with him in Kyoto. And Tadaka Roshi's real Dharma brother is Shunan Roshi, whom we met in Japan, with whom we had a very... And after this really elegant, many-coursed meal, Eric and Christina had to waltz, isn't that right? Because he wanted to know. He found out they were from Vienna, so he wanted to have some waltzing. So we had to dance for our dinner. Or they had to dance for our dinner. So we had to do our best approximation of a Viennese waltz by humming. And Eric and Christine looked wonderfully elegant dancing on the tatami floor.

[10:59]

It was a great moment. Yeah. Takata Roshi was quite an unusual fellow. Quite fierce. And he lived in Mexico 28 years. Muman Roshi was one of these super traditional and simultaneously modern Zen teachers. There were very few of them. He was a kind of communist. In Japan that was quite radical. And he sent his disciples far and wide.

[12:18]

And he was the leading Zen teacher of the Rinzai school and a famous calligrapher. Quite unusual person. And we have at Creston some of his calligraphy. I used to see Takada Roshi now and then in Japan, and he came to visit my temple in San Francisco a number of times. And he more or less sent us Rocio and some other Mexican practitioners. It was a tough place to practice Mexico City because although Mexico is very Catholic, There seem to have been anti-clerical laws. And you could not dress as a priest, for instance, Catholic or Buddhist, on the street.

[13:20]

I guess they were trying to control the Catholic Church. So he had to pretend not to be a priest. Anyway, he was quite a wonderful man, and he died of some heart problem. I'm very grateful to him. I hope you will. You don't have much choice. Join me in the service tomorrow for him. Now, when I gave you some kinhin instruction yesterday, I don't know why I got mixed up with left and right.

[14:25]

But I noticed this morning none of you followed my instruction. I'm not very effective as a teacher. You just... But I'm glad you know how to pick and choose. But I've never really, even as a child, I couldn't figure out which was left and right. My garden is on your right and it's on your left. This is very strange. And left and right kept switching around, so I figured... Why memorize it?

[15:30]

And really, up until I was a teenager, if somebody asked me to do something with my left hand, I'd look at a little mole here and say, oh yeah, this is the left one. So it's no wonder I got mixed up yesterday. Even though I've been doing Kin Hin for two-thirds of my life. Anyway, let me come back to Kin Hin a little bit. I noticed some of you in Kin Hin this morning were... It feels like you're basically just walking, you're stepping forward. Let me describe more precisely than I have in the past what the dynamic of qin hin is. Okay. You step forward half a foot length. And you lift your...

[16:42]

your back heel, as soon as you start to inhale. So you're inhaling rather, and you inhale rather slowly, so it's quite a while your back heel is raised. At the same time, you lift, you stretch, upward with the front part of your leg. So saving said, So there's a feeling of energy coming up from your back heel, up the back of your leg. And there's a feeling of energy now coming up the front part of your leg, because you're stretching upward from the front part of your leg. Sometimes we feel that we're breathing through our heel

[17:54]

This is a kind of yoga and yogic imagination. And you're also inhaling, so your body is coming up through inhaling. So with each step, you have three... movements or energies coming upward. And it makes your body feel very alive. So your energy is coming up from your heel and up the front part of your leg and through inhaling. And your hands are, your arms are parallel to the floor. And you take that energy and you move it forward into your hara area.

[19:05]

And then into your exhale. and into your stepping forward. So these small things we do in Zen are actually quite complex. There's quite an inner topography to them. And this is partly because we are discovering the body as an inner map of the world. And you have to open up this inner map and explore it. Suzuki Roshi, you know, was born at the end of the Meiji period. And the Meiji period was still a samurai period. The Meiji period was 1852 to 1912.

[20:07]

And he used to sometimes use samurai metaphors. Occasionally in lecture he'd say, for example, as if someone had their head cut off with a sword. And this was pretty far from anything we imagined, but... But not so far from his imagination. So when you exhale, you're both at your weakest and strongest. You're at your weakest because as you exhale, you're deflating like a balloon. But you're at your strongest if you've brought the energy of the inhale into the exhale.

[21:26]

So swords, kendo, swordsmanship, In my primitive understanding of it, you tend to strike on the exhale. And you're often, if two people are Doing kendo, they're waiting to get a breath advantage over the other. So Tsukiyoshi used to tell us to step forward in kin-hin as if we were... So Tsukiyoshi has asked us to step forward in kin-hin as if we were... But it's politically incorrect to be so masculine these days.

[22:30]

So I am as much as possible emphasizing my feminine, grandmotherly side. And I hope successfully. And the hands, you know, the left hand was the thumb, that's the backbone. And the right hand on top. And then we turn it up slightly because there's more alertness in that posture. But in our way of practicing, we don't turn it all the way up. That can tend to be too rigid. And it's too obvious. You want your postures to be disguised so they look pretty much like ordinary postures. If you walked around your office like this, I mean, they wouldn't know what you were doing.

[23:47]

Huh? Huh? So if you walk around this way, it's not so bad. We tend to disguise these yogic postures so they look like ordinary postures. No, as some of you know, anyway, I had a grandson. Named T-O-M-A-S. But not pronounced Thomas, but pronounced Tomas. Because he's half Portuguese. Mm-hmm. And people often ask me if I'm proud to be a grandfather.

[25:06]

And I actually rather take it for granted. If you have two daughters and they grow to be adults, it's likely, unless both of them turn out to be gay, you're going to have at least one child. So if you... So I have this little grandchild. And people ask me if I'm also if I'm proud of him. And I barely know him, so I'm more proud of Julius, actually. Because I see Julius developing. So I won't translate that. Julius is his son, not yet grandson. Mm-hmm. the youngest resident of Yohannesov.

[26:11]

So the youngest to be born is Yohannesov? Anyway, my daughter Elizabeth is right now staying. My younger daughter, who's 18, is staying with... than in Portugal. And he has a little mantra, which he says off and on throughout the day. Mama, mama, mama, papa, papa, papa, and too much. Mama, Mama, Mama, Papa, Papa, Papa and Tumash. So now Elizabeth is there who has a family nickname of Bic. So now he says Mama, Mama, Mama, Papa, Papa, Papa and Bic and Tumash. Yeah, so he's got a pretty good inventory of what's important to him.

[27:18]

And everyone says, I don't know, I can't believe it's true, and I hope for the sake of his face, he doesn't look like me. But they say he does. So in any case, when I see his picture, there is a here-ness there. I feel a certain, looking at his picture, he knits his brow like his father. But in other ways, he does look like my daughter and maybe like me. So I have the feeling sort of of being partly located where he is. Now my question in a basic practicing practice is can I feel located also where each of you are, is? There's an old story that goes way back into the very beginning of Chinese Zen.

[28:38]

Someone asks, What is the mind of an ancient Buddha? This is a question you could ask. And the more seriously you take Buddhism, you can ask this question really in a meaningful way to you. So this was asked earnestly. And he got what he presumed was an earnest answer. And the national teacher, he was called, answered, um... an old wall and broken tiles.

[29:53]

And the monk says, an old wall and broken tiles? Are these not inanimate objects? And the teacher says, yes. And the monk says, well, can they expound the Dharma? And the monk says, yes. And the teacher says, they continuously expound the Dharma without stopping. And the monk says, how can I hear it? Now, would you ask this question, how can I hear it? And the teacher says, although you do not hear it, do not hinder that which hears it.

[31:07]

Now, as many of you know, this phrase in this story is this phrase, although you do not hear it, do not hinder that which hears it. has been very important to me. And it's a central story to our lineage. Now, when I started practicing Buddhism in my twenties, I was pretty... I don't think the world deserved it, but I was pretty disgusted with the world.

[32:10]

I didn't like the... the government, the war, the contemporary taste in philosophy. And nothing I read or looked at really made sense enough for me to be interested in it. And I refused to participate in our society in terms of career, college, and so forth. To the extent that I wouldn't accept a college degree and so forth, even though I was just about to graduate. And I wouldn't participate in our society in terms of jobs because I felt I'm adding to the corruption of our society.

[33:26]

So I worked in warehouses and ships and things like that. But when I met Suzuki Roshi, I realized you have to participate in the society. The society is also us. Yeah. So, for instance, he was very opposed to the war of Japan against China. But he felt he had to go with his young people of his generation, so he became a chaplain in the war in Manchuria. So once I met Sukershi, I started voting and things like that. And one of the koans he gave me was Nanchuan, who I mentioned yesterday, holding up a cat. And he asked me this koan.

[35:01]

He and Yamada, a different Yamada Roshi, together asked me. And I said, give me, say something to save the cat. Say something to save the cat. And I said, I would leave, because then Nanshwan would have nobody to kill the cat for. And that's the way I solve problems usually. And Sukhiroshi said, uh-uh. He said, you have to stay in the situation and solve the problem. I'm still trying. So in any case, because of my general disillusionment, I decided to put all my eggs in the Buddhist basket.

[36:17]

It's hard to translate this phrase. Oh, nearly the same? You put everything on one card. It's for gambling. Oh, yeah. Okay. That's what I did. And it was a gamble. I had no idea. I mean, and basically... I didn't care whether Buddhism was right or wrong. Or good or bad. Or whether Sukriya is a good or bad teacher. I just decided it's the only card I got. I'll bet everything on it. What the heck. So that's what I did. So I took these kind of questions What is the mind of an ancient Buddha?

[37:27]

Like a drowning man grasping at straws. And when the answer is an old wall and broken tiles, I felt, well, they dealt me a pretty bad hand, but I'll try to play it. And as some of you know, the last two or three years I've been trying to, especially the last two or three years, to play this hand. So I definitely did not hear it. But I was determined to learn how to. not hinder that which hears it.

[38:36]

And the story goes on because Dungsan, young Dungsan, presented this story to Guishan. And Guishan said, Yes, I have something to teach you on this matter. But it is seldom to find somebody who can hear. And Dongshan asked, please teach me. And Dongshan raised his whisk. And Guishan said, do you understand? And Dungsan, who is quite honest, said no.

[39:38]

But Dungsan asked, how can I pursue this matter? And Guishan said, you should go to such and such a place and meet this teacher, Yunyan. And again, as many as you know, Yunyan's the fellow with the broom in the story of the sweeping. Who became Dungsan's lineage teacher. And we chant their names in the morning when we do the lineage. Yunyan is Ungan Dojo Dahyosha. and the way he tells him to go he says

[40:47]

Guishan said, if you can see the bending of the grasses, you may be able to understand his teaching. Okay. All of this, which I've just said, is an attempt to talk about bending of the grasses. Which we have lots of examples of outside these windows. Inside the outside of these windows. Mm-hmm. And in yesterday's story of Changsha following, pursuing the bending grasses and following the falling petals.

[42:18]

And now this is what I'm talking about here is rather difficult perhaps to understand, but it's really Buddhism 1A. I mean, Buddhism 1A, does that make sense in German? It's very simple. Yeah, it means it's the beginning course, yeah. But it's not usually taught in Asia because it's already understood. So to explicate it may seem rather difficult. But if you're going to seriously practice Zen, you have to understand what it means when someone answers, the mind of the ancient Buddha is an old wall and broken tiles. Perhaps I won't be able to get to much further in this until tomorrow.

[43:46]

But let me give you a poem, if I can remember it. This is a poem by Wang Anxue. Das ist ein Gedicht von Wang Anxu, who was a famous Song Dynasty statesman and poet. Der ein berühmter Staatsmann und Poet in der Song Dynasty war. And the Song Dynasty, which was from, oh, I don't know, 960 to about 1079 AD. Die Song Dynasty, die ungefähr von 960 bis 1000... 1079. Following the Tang Dynasty. And from our perspective, it was a very modern period.

[44:47]

It was far more modern than Europe was at comparable time. And the poem goes from... from Tsinghua to Quazhou, a single stretch of water. Mount Chung is right here, right there. Mount Chung is right here. among the folded hills. The wind all by itself turns the south shore green. But what But what moon will light my way home?

[46:08]

I picked this poem because it's quite classic poem. We live in the West in a profoundly theological society. In fact and by default. And what I mean by default is that even if it isn't a fact for you, it's the condition of our society. And we take for granted that there's been an enormous amount of time and energy over generations spent in theological speculation. Endlessly and fruitfully, I hope, discussing what is God and what is our relationship to God. This question is not asked in non-theological societies.

[47:18]

But they want to ask some questions. They don't want to be left out. So they have to think up some questions. So they're asking, what is our relationship to the phenomenal world. What is the phenomenal world and how can we relate to it? And it starts from the assumption that it is us. Far beyond what the contemporary of the last 30 years or so ecological speculations are. would still think in terms of causal sequentiality.

[48:21]

But we're talking about simultaneous causality. How is this right now what I am? Wie ist das, was hier jetzt gerade ist, was ich bin? Again, if you want to pursue practice, you have to ask yourself this question. How is this right now what I am? Also wenn ihr die Praxis verfolgen wollt, dann müsst ihr euch diese Frage stellen. Wie ist das, was hier ist im Augenblick ich? And as I've said in the past, it's not a simple relationship of equality. Und es ist nicht eine einfache Gleichung. of those plants equal me? But rather, what I call a logarithmic relationship, to what power do I need to raise myself

[49:28]

to discover those plants of the phenomenal world are me. Now you've heard me in the past, some of you speak about the four elements, earth, fire, solidity, etc. And how discovering them in ourselves and discovering them in others in the phenomenal world establishes a connectedness. But now I'd like to speak about it in another way. The world is, in this way of looking at things, divided up into earth, things and sky. And these correspond to aspects of mind.

[50:38]

The mind in Buddhism is often divided up into memory, reasoning, Argumentation. And observation or recognition. Erkennen und beobachten. And these, as typical in Buddhist thinking, are understood each as separate and as related. Und diese, wie es typisch im Buddhismus, werden voneinander unterschieden, aber gleichzeitig in Verbindung gesehen. And if you develop a mental discipline, you can distinguish among them. So you know when you are living in, when the content of your mind is primarily memory.

[51:39]

And you can also see when you're able to reason about things and think about the connections. And you're also then aware of when you can simply observe something free of memory and free of thinking about it. And these go, in Tibetan Buddhism for instance, go right back to Padmasambhava. basic way to look at the mind. Okay. Now the earth is identified with memory and absorbing. Now, if I look at Tumash and I see Tumash is also me,

[52:41]

How is this floor, this room, this garden also me? Now at a physical level, we're separated. This body, that body, the trees. Yeah. So let's try, are we connected at a mind level? Well, this attempt to discover a relationship, discover a medium of relationship, begins to identify the earth with memory and absorption and the things trees, objects, houses and so forth with reasoning and thinking And the sky with openness and just to see without thinking.

[54:07]

To see the space of things, in things and around things. So, if you divide the world up into earth, things and sky, Dinge und den Himmel. It begins to teach you how to think. Dann beginnt das euch zu lernen zu denken. And you begin to find there is a co-constructive, co-creative relationship. Und ihr beginnt zu entdecken es ist ein co-konstruiertes Verhältnis. So I think I should leave you at this point. Or you'll get too mentally tired if you aren't already. So wouldn't you do kin-hin if we... We've been doing kin-hin outside, is that right?

[55:12]

Yes. With our e-mail? Have a feeling, feel the difference when your mind rests on the earth or has a feeling of earth. And feel the difference when your mind rests more in the sky. And when the mind rests more in the precision of things. When you do this, what kind of a mind appears to yourself? If you When you become familiar with this way of thinking, you can understand why Japanese houses are designed the way they are.

[56:15]

The Japanese house is meant to invigorate the mind. So the whole walls are windows. Because it's important for your mind to be able to see the earth, not just see a patch of green or the sky. And so the gardens are designed and the houses are designed so you can see these three things whenever you look out. And then they do sort of tricky things like they'll plant a bush which looks like a tree top. So from the edge you see this tree top sticking up which makes it look like you're very high up and the sky appears.

[57:15]

And particularly then you can see why they have just a sand garden. Or just moss, because the moss and sand absorb the mind. So it's not that the garden is a symbol of or some poetic analogy of the mind. So dass der Garten nicht ein Symbol oder eine poetische Analogie des Geistes ist. It's considered as much the mind as Tumash is my grandson. Es ist genauso der Mind wie Tumash mein Enkel ist. Because if there isn't an outside creator, then somehow this is all us. And discovering how the wall and broken tiles is also the mind is... what this question is about.

[58:27]

So now you can hear in this poem perhaps this mind present. From Tsinghua to Guazhou, one extent of water. Mount Chun, right here in the folded hills. And folded as if done by a person. Mount Chung, right here among the folded hills. And the wind. The wind, and I'll speak about the wind tomorrow. The wind by itself turns the south shore green.

[59:54]

And what moon among the many moons, what moon will light my way home? Excuse me for talking so much. Thank you very much. Thank you. They ask for the presence of Sallos. I urge them to speak. I believe in you.

[61:04]

I believe in you. Mujo no shimute niwyou wa, yakusei manpo niwari o koto katashi.

[62:31]

Thank you. Thank you. How was our translator today, this afternoon?

[64:17]

So-so, so-so. The lecture can't be any better than the translator. So the translator feels much better. Oh. Yeah. You know, I only want practice to work for each one of you. And I want to encourage you so that you find some joy in the Sesshin. Yesterday I said too much and today I have too much to say. So I, I don't know, maybe I'll try to find some way to take a break here together. Ulrike tells me there's a joke in her gymnasium.

[65:40]

And it's pretty dumb, but I'll tell you. You know, and No, in America we don't have bratwurst and things like that, except in German communities. We only have hot dogs, which aren't much. So we can have them with ketchup and pickles. And with onions and mustard and sometimes sauerkraut. So... So when you get a hot dog, the man, the person, always asks you, how do you want it?

[66:59]

And so how does a Zen Buddhist ask for such a hot dog? This is the joke. Make me one with everything. And that's actually how you do it. If you're a hot dog stand, you say, I'll have one with everything, or maybe one with everything. So in her gymnasium, this is the joke about how a Zen Buddhist asks for a hot dog. Now this shows a certain level of understanding in her gymnasium about Zen. At least among the scientists, science students.

[68:06]

So they realize that there's a possibility of a relationship with everything. This is progress, and it's a non-theological understanding. Or perception. Intuition. But... It's deluded to say one with everything. As we've often discussed. It's a non-theological intuition within a theological framework. And it's ultimately delusionary. Although the hot dog might taste better. So we're actually not much different in this Sesshin.

[69:20]

We're trying to understand the difference between relating to everything and one with everything. And I'm glad that the German gymnasium system is coming along in its understanding, as exhibited by this joke. But to get beyond this point is rather difficult. So again, what do I want? You know, I want, mostly just because I have a feeling for you, like practicing with you and knowing you, but also underneath that I know that my own practice can't develop independently of you.

[70:40]

So, again, I hope you can feel more intimate with yourself. with body and mind, and also a more intimacy with this phenomenal world in which we live. Not in, but perhaps as which we live. No, I suggested you pay attention to the space of things as well as the thingness, the matter of things.

[71:49]

Because this relationship is not this basic yogic relationship. understanding. It's not just the relationship between body and mind, I mean mind and body. It's really the relationship between mind and matter. And this matter, materium, is also everywhere around us. I was with This last week or so I was with, as I partly mentioned, some of the very top scientists in the world.

[73:07]

And I was lucky enough to be able to have conversations with a number of them. And they, like us, I hope like us, are in awe at the unexplainability, complexity and mystery of things. As Stuart Kaufman said, the most complex things don't exist. In other words, what he means is that if you look at the possible complexity, by looking at the number of neurons, molecules, and so forth, and what happens when things relate to each other, only a very small percentage of the possible complexity has been touched upon.

[74:23]

And there's an immense plasticity even to our bodies, our bones, which are supposed to be, you know, doctors will tell you your knee can't get fixed because that's the way it is, but actually there's an immense plasticity to our body even. And there is a great plasticity in things, even in our body, for example in our bones. A doctor would say that the knee cannot be repaired because things are the way they are, but they are not. It is much more plastic than we think. So, on one side I am quite interested in the potentialities of our human existence.

[76:00]

On the other side, at the same time, I just want to make this practice work for you. And yet at the same time, I think those of you, particularly those of you committed to practice, we have a job together to find some balance and discover practice for ourselves and for others. The paramount goal of a bodhisattva is the welfare of the society in which he or she lives. This society that we are in right now So, rather than try to be coherent, I will just mention some things.

[77:14]

Notice I said, try to be coherent. I don't think I'm ever very coherent, but I do try sometimes. This sense of noticing things, noticing the space of things. This shift in view takes time to take hold. And you just have to remind yourself to do it. And over a period of time, it begins to shift the whole conceptual basis of our thinking and feeling and activity.

[78:19]

So I suggest you just take this as a developing habit. Now I also said I would speak about wind in this poem. And so this is some kind of transitional poem for this, for Wang Anshi. I mean, it expresses that he's in some transition. And he's thinking with the environment. Not in some magical sense, but in some complementarity, in tandem with. Tandem means like the two wheels of a cart are in tandem, the things that go along together.

[79:32]

Now sometimes Sometimes, as I said last night, when I said, by the way, last night, our 1,000-year garden, what I meant by that and how I think about it is that it's possible people will practice here for many centuries. And I think we should look at it that way Why not? So what we do to this garden and how we take care of it may be here for many, many years.

[80:36]

So it's a kind of rare feeling because most of us can't imagine something nowadays existing for very long. But I think this feeling of something continuing, being here, For generations, our sense of an identity that stretches over generations. While rare in our society, it should be cultivated. And Crestone, Atmar put in this beautiful walkway. Various people helped, but mostly Otmar did it.

[81:38]

And I'm pretty sure it will be there. Even the parts we might not like will be there for a very long time. I haven't seen any parts I don't like, but if there are some, I'm sure I'll come to like them. And we talked together about how to pause in front of a building, for instance. The walk pathway shouldn't just carry you past the building. It should let you stop in front of the building, pause. We understand the precepts in that kind of way.

[82:38]

Like if you just do not steal, if you want the precept do not steal, do not take what is not given. Maybe if you just walk into this room, you're stealing this room. You have to wait till the room is given to you. So that's one of the reasons we stop at the door for a moment. And so, as you know, we have some practice of stepping in the door with the leg nearest the hinge. This is kind of following a precept of what's in your mind before you act or as you act. When you practice with, do not take what is not given.

[84:01]

If you really practice with this precept, it will change how you talk with people. You'll tend less to force them into your way of thinking or into moods they're not ready for. So this precept, do not take what is not given, actually causes you to live at a certain pace. And I would say proportion. You do things that with the feeling or the pace at which they're given. And there's that kind of feeling in this poem, Wang An Xu.

[85:04]

The... The water is extensive. I mean, in those days in China, if you traveled, it was often by waterway, by boat from one city to another, by canal. So the water reaches everywhere. Between these two cities. And the water is also like the sky. And I think one reason we like the ocean and lakes and things is it has that It does that same thing to our mind that the sky does.

[86:12]

And yet this mountain is very particular. Mount Chung, it's here in these particular folded hills. So while this water reaches everywhere, We are still in a very particular place. And this particular place, the dynamic of it is the wind. Which by itself makes the South Shore green. But what moon will guide my... Lead me home.

[87:27]

And in this sense, moon means right mind. And we see the moon from wherever you live, you can see the moon. And the moon is also reflected in the water. And what moon, what state of mind, what illumination will allow me to make this transition from one stage of life to the next? And he sees this process in the world around him as well as in himself. Now, this means you have a less human-centered world. a world in which you are feeling how everything exists, not just how our human society exists.

[88:55]

And there's an intimacy in this. You know, again, going back to the story of Guishan and young Dungsan, this story that was, as I said, important to me when I first started practicing. Dungsan relates the story about the mind of the ancient Buddhas and do not hinder that which hears it. And so he relates this story to Guishan. And again, Guishan says, I have something to say about this, but someone who can hear is hard to find.

[90:08]

Now, he is making an offer at that moment to Dungsan. He's saying, will you become someone who can hear? And if Dungsang had said, if Dungsang had simply said at that point, how can I become one who hears? Koishan would have probably then felt this is a person who has an affinity for our practice together. But Dung Shan didn't respond to this offer. Dung Shan stuck to wanting the teaching. So he said, I'm not clear about this point.

[91:08]

Can you explain it to me? And so he raised the whisk and said, do you understand? And again, Dung Shan said, I don't understand. Could you explain? And he said, Dung Shan said, the mouth given to me by my parents Now, I'd like to stop at that point for a minute, because very much of our practice turns on this point. Ich möchte hier einen Moment innehalten, weil das ist ein Drehpunkt für unsere Praxis.

[92:37]

Die Bereitschaft von jedem, deine Bereitschaft, in einer Welt zu leben, die nicht vollständig erklärt werden kann. that cannot be fully understood. And also then to develop a relationship to that which can't be understood. So, So what place did Guishan place Dungsan? So here's this young man who comes to obviously a person of some capacity and willing to commit himself to the truth. So Guishan

[93:37]

stops him. Guishan , and he says,

[93:52]

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