So we have this ritual of meeting and speaking. And I'm continuously surprised by the fact that I've accepted that it's my responsibility to practice, perform this ritual of meeting and speaking. Yeah, and a responsibility to perform this ritual of meeting and speaking and to continue this. I feel I put myself on the cutting block of meeting and speaking. Okay. But, you know, and I ask almost every practice week or winter branches if anyone has any feeling for this, and should we continue this difference between the formality in the morning, more monastic formality, and the more informality of the afternoon.

[01:41]

Yeah. Of course, because we do the more formal monastic performance in the morning, It affects, helps conditions what we do in the afternoon. And while the afternoon is less... it's also part of this ritual of meeting and speaking. And you're part of this ritual.

[02:41]

And perhaps we could say that this ritual of meeting and speaking is a fundamental example of the parameter of generosity. St. Augustine, who wasn't a Buddhist, I mean he didn't know he might have been a Buddhist, I met my first girlfriend at St. Augie's. In high school, the Catholic churches had dances to control the high school students.

[03:46]

Yeah, but I was... brought up in an atheist household, but I like the Thursday night dances at St. Augie's the best. So we all have some experience of St. Augustine. Anyway, St. Augustine said, we hear... the sounds, but we don't hear the phenomena of hearing. And he applied that to all the senses. So if we can hear the sounds, but we don't hear the hearing itself, he said. Er sagte, wir hören die Klänge, aber wir hören nicht das Hören selbst.

[04:58]

We hear the sounds, but not the phenomena of hearing. But he said, we can develop an inner sense that knows the phenomena of sound or hearing or perception. Yes, it's pretty much the same as I said yesterday. We develop, we would say, an inner knowledge and then through holding that inner knowledge in the continuum, In the perceptual stream, we become attuned to the experience of hearing the phenomena of hearing.

[06:06]

I'm so glad you can translate this. I'm not sure. I can barely say it, you know, and you can translate it. Okay. So maybe the form we have in the morning, in the afternoon, and so forth, is a little bit like the phenomena of sound. We hear the sound, but we don't directly know the phenomena of sound. And so maybe the basic aspect of the ritual of meeting and speaking is not what is said, but is the ritual itself.

[07:32]

As we put ourselves in an attitude of generosity, opening ourselves to the Dharma, and together opening ourselves to the Dharma. Okay. Now a number of you have asked me what I consider very practical, realistic questions. What the heck do we mean by emptiness? This is a very practical question because you hear it all the time and you think, well, do I just ignore it? What is it?

[08:34]

I mean, nothing has meaning. It's a load of, I mean, that's, you know, et cetera. You're sometimes like a little boy and I want to tousle your hair. Can you just imagine what you looked like at the time I was going to St. Augie's? Can you? You must have been cute. Well, might have been. All right, anyway. So, almost rushing. Okay, so... Okay. Kendong Rujing, Dogen's teacher.

[09:39]

said you, we chant his name in the morning, too. Yeah, that's great. We chant his name in the morning. It's part of our life, actually, whether you notice it or not. He said, you practitioners of the 90-day Ango, 90-day practice for you, Are forming the true structure of practice. And carving a cave in emptiness. Thanks, Rujing. That's very helpful. Danke, Rujing. Okay. What does it mean? We're forming the true structure of practice. Wir bilden... This is not esoteric, really.

[10:47]

What are we doing when we have an Orioki meal? This stuff we call space. We actually are shaping into the meal. We're creating a structure. I mean, space has the structure of... Gravitation. Space, you know, if I drop this, it will fall, that's structure. We take it, it's invisible, and we take it for granted. But Newton, classically, asked, why the hell does it fall? Why doesn't it go up?

[11:51]

So these obvious questions have a big effect. Why does it go up? Okay, so there's a structure to space. We call it gravity. But the tree, the dragonfly, they create, they structure space. We structure space sitting in this ritual of meeting and speaking. And this mental space we structure through the Zendo, etc., etc. And through a couple thousand years of a tradition of how to do this, we then inheriting and continuing and developing this structure, sitting here, our minds are structured so that we hear the Dharma.

[13:08]

But I have to create, along with the tradition, a specialized vocabulary so that we can notice In other words, if we are noticing the mind itself, we don't notice, if you take for granted, that this will fall if I drop it. If we take that for granted, we don't need the word gravity. But when it's in the context of why doesn't it go up, then we need a word like gravity. Oh, we're noticing something we're calling gravity. So, I mean, this is simple what I'm saying, but

[14:12]

How do we notice our mind, which we usually just take for granted? How do we develop a continued or continuous sustained awareness? Now Vasubandhu says, among others, that the pulse of moments is between one and two milliseconds. And I believe that however he measured that, it actually turns out to be pretty close to what contemporary psychologists had measured. So basically he's saying, if what we experience as continuity is just this very short momentary pulse.

[15:43]

What kind of world are we living in? I'm teaching for years now, emphasizing we really have to develop the practice of discovering the world as appearance. Not in the pulse of some kind of atomic or molecular But within the pulse of our own metabolism. And within the pulse of our own sensorium. But it's still some kind of momentary unit. And we don't If the world isn't permanent and if it's just a pulse, what reality does it have?

[17:11]

Okay, so I emphasize we really need to develop the skill, and it's what the word Dharma means, develop the skill of discovering the world as appearance. But when I teach that, I always hope no one looks closely at the Heart Sutra in the morning. Because the Heart Sutra says there's no appearance. So I'm teaching that everything is appearance and then you chant in the morning, there's no appearance. I hope you're not noticing that. But maybe we could rephrase what the Heart Sutra says. Appearance is only the appearance of appearance.

[18:13]

There's appearance, but does it really exist? As I've been saying, it's a multiple, it's an assemblage, it's a middle. And you can't grasp it. It's already past. As soon as you notice it, it's past. So what reality do we live in? Let's keep it simple. This location. That's all we got. The aliveness of this location. There's no reality out there. We can go out in the garden and walk around in the snow.

[19:14]

But it itself is constantly disappearing into the past, which doesn't exist. And constantly reappearing. And we can participate in the arrangements, Fundamentally it can't be grasped. So what's the point of saying there's only the appearance of appearance? Or to say it more bluntly, there's no appearance. So not only has the rug been pulled out from under us, but the earth has been pulled out from under us. Oh, so if all we have is this location, what is the fundamental act of generosity?

[20:32]

Returning the world to the world. Giving the world back to the world. So, this middle we find ourselves in the midst of, is in a way given to us, but it has no reality until we give it back to the world. So we're always giving the world to the world. And as we develop an efficacious beneficial a effectuated effectuated you know I don't like using big words like this it's not so big but unfamiliar because it kind of stops us but I can't find anything effectuated means it's put into effect and beneficially put into effect so effected

[22:13]

effectuated efficacious mutuality and one of the things we're doing here you know there's no being independent of other beings There's no being independent of other beings. So our instinctive generosity, our wisdom generosity, is to effectuate, to... to recognize and develop this mutuality. And simple fundamental mutuality. Not based on likes and dislikes and this person has no character and whatever.

[23:35]

But first of all we're falling through space together. More or less the same speed. Holding hands like those parachuters who jump out all together. And it's called this generation. The Zendo is falling along with us. And recognizing this with each other, within a shared mutuality, I'm calling the fundamental act of generosity. And the second parameter, sila, discipline, I'm Today emphasizing is holding the precepts in mind.

[24:48]

So, Ru Jing said, in the 90-day practice period, you practitioners are forming the true structure of practice. If we are born into this world, I don't know how it works in German, but Heidegger says there's thrownness. Everything's thrown into this world. We're not falling together, we're thrown together. I guess that's why we bump into each other so much. Okay. So, were born into this world and if

[26:03]

If nothing matters, if it's all non-graspable, why do we bother? Well, we love our mother. Sometimes. And not often enough. It's unfortunate for mothers. Yeah, and we appreciate... the beauty of the world. Then we get hungry. So for various reasons we establish a world. But when you realize you're only establishing a world, which your parents might not have realized, And we're just establishing a world.

[27:11]

How you were brought up and what your parents did and all is relatively unimportant. And it certainly becomes experientially unimportant when you find yourself simply establishing the world. As an act of generosity. Why not? Okay. So the second parameter I'm emphasizing is holding the precepts in mind. The five and the... second five, the ten precepts, we're giving structure to our experience, to our noticing, to our observing.

[28:12]

We're giving structure that we can begin to sustain as a continuum within the pulse of experience. And so now what we're really talking about here is a particular way of viewing body and mind within a The yogic worldview of everything is changing. Transient. Inter-independent. Yeah, and as I've said, the structure of space allows me to move my fingers between each other.

[29:26]

Oh, the way my hands structure space. And more subtly, as we discussed, The heat, the chakra in the center of the palm. Yeah, more subtly awakens our mutual space. Yeah. So, Ru Jing says, we're forming the structure through practice. One way to do that is to hold the precepts in mind. Now, in this concept of the transience of the world, the golden wind of change, you're developing a sustained, vivid, attentional,

[30:34]

a sustained, vivid, attentional awareness. And you're open to the incubatory phases that result from this. In other words, it's not just some sort of passivity. You're with the parameter of generosity. You're holding yourself in this golden wind. And the stillness of the mind which can hold you in this golden wind also is a dynamic of development. Things are, you're open to what you investigate, which means to see the footprints. And you're open to what

[31:54]

collects the appearances that appear and in a way there's a collating process of bringing together what belongs together which causes which develops wisdom, develops knowledge Technically this mental posture understood this way is called a Mantric Dharani. Because it held through the stillness of mind, it transforms the structure of mind and space. And as, again, Rujing says, this is can be described as forming the true structure of practice.

[33:37]

And in the larger sense we know this is nothing more than carving a cave in emptiness. And Rujing ends his little statement saying, please, you practitioners, realize these two things. Form the true structure of practice and carve a cave in emptiness. Well, I didn't get to the third parameter the way I wanted to. You're patient though. Thank you very much. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

[34:46]

Amen.

[34:46]

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