We're already a minute late. Is that correct? Yes, that's correct. One minute and ten seconds. Let's keep track of that. One minute and ten seconds. Oh. Should I start, or what do you want me to do? We are ready. I turn the mic on right now. Hello, you who are here. Now, excuse me. I'm at the far end, I hope, of COVID Omicron. About half of us here caught it, and we're all surviving, but it's an unpleasant disease.

[01:25]

And as many of you will know, I look on these lectures as experiments in how to say something. For me, these lectures are an experiment in the question of how we can look at things. And this one is particularly so. So it was suggested that we speak these Sunday lectures and Paul Rosenblum, Roshi's lectures too on Thursday on the six paramitas. And I've been looking at the six parameters for 60 years.

[02:47]

And somehow I didn't want to look at them again. I know the etymology of paramita is perfection or excellence. That was only near perfection. I did wonder why it was sitting over there. Because we were going to ask you to give the talk, actually.

[03:49]

In the etymology... Probably not as firm an etymology, but a later etymology used particularly by Tibetan Buddhists. Emphasizes the syllables differently, and it's a going beyond, a going beyond. So if I'm going to look at the parameters, it's unavoidably, I know that this word is perfection or excellence, and I know it also has the useful meaning of a going beyond. Yeah, but I also know that in the West we're going to have to sort of

[05:07]

rethink Buddhism for ourselves. And not only for our collective selves, our society, which we are doing and will have to do. But we also ought to sort of maybe even more importantly feel it through for ourselves. So at least we have, without looking at the tradition of the teaching, we have perfection. Yeah, I enjoy reading Heidegger, and even when he says the same things over and over again or very similar things, there's a kind of depth to the way he puts things that I like.

[06:54]

And he says, you know, about language, on the way to language, on the way to language, that's also already good. That's the English translation of one of his book's titles. But what he says is language... is a speaking. It comes to a speaking.

[07:57]

It's saying something. It's not just that we use the language to speak. It's the language asks us to recognize what it is speaking. So, perfection, perfection. What can be my relationship to perfection? Also, Vervollkommnung. Was kann meine Beziehung zu diesem Wort sein? Vervollkommnung. No, I don't want to just jump into the traditional teaching and commentary and stuff like that. I want to just start with this word. Can I even relate to the speaking of perfection?

[09:03]

Well, there is... Yeah, there is... The simple etymology of perfect, to complete something. Es gibt die ganz einfache Etymologie in dem Wort Perfektion oder auch Vervollkommnung, nämlich etwas zu vervollständigen. And I have taken on long ago the practice of completing things. Yeah, simple things, sort of impractical things like closing up the dishwater soap and stuff like that.

[10:10]

So ganz praktische Dinge, wie zum Beispiel, wenn ich das Geschirrspülmittel verwende, dann hinterher den Deckel wieder drauf zu machen und solche Sachen. I don't always do that. Sometimes it's easier to leave it open for a while. Noch nicht immer. Manchmal ist es einfacher, die Dinge auch einfach offen zu lassen. But the feeling of... When it's possible to enact completion, I do. And the feeling of completion, I... I'm present with all the time. Yeah, so if I lift my arm, I lift my arm with a feeling of of completing the movement.

[11:20]

Yeah, I bring the concept of completion to the gestural act of moving my arm. And this is a kind of way of interweaving, interlacing conceptual frames with experience. Yeah, long, long ago I suggested two practices. One, to notice when you feel nourished. and sort of stay in the field of nourishment when you're walking in the forest or walking on the street or whatever you're doing, doing dishes.

[12:40]

Do it with a feeling of somehow the activity is nourishing. So these were kind of two teaching practices which were friends with each other, nourishing and completing. Okay. You worried that I'm going to talk too long?

[13:42]

No, you can't hear that, I don't think, but your alarm is set for 4.15. Oh. And so it just beeped. And I don't have my hearing aids and everything, you know, I'm walking in the dark. Um... Yeah, so... But I did notice when I started, you know, like if I pick up the watch, I pick it up with a feeling of bringing it into the field of the body and pausing for the watch, to respect the watch. The watch is also my companion, a companion. So when I do that, I began to notice after... some years of doing that, in actual fact, fairly quickly, in a few months, I began to feel more complete. At the end of the year I felt more complete than I did when I didn't complete things. At a gestural level.

[14:43]

So with this topic of the six paramitas, And I'm also asking myself, why aren't there seven, or why isn't there only one, and so forth. I don't take it for granted that there should be seven or six, or for some reason they've made these decisions. My guess is, though I haven't thought of it, explored it in these terms, it's really not six, it's three and three.

[16:06]

So if you play with a kid, an infant, fooling around, and you do something, you know, peekaboo or something, when you do it once, they sort of react. At least if you're in the field with the kid. And if you do it twice, then they think, huh, is this going to happen again? So anticipation has started, and then you do it a third time, and most kids will smile or laugh or something like that.

[17:07]

Yeah, so... I think it's not just true of infants. We function with a feeling of this and the alternative and both and. So fundamental to the teaching is a pattern of this, the alternative and both and. This is the hospital ward here. Okay, so what would the first, if it is three and three or six or whatever, what would the first be? And if this is actually a speaking language asking us to recognize what language itself knows is possible,

[18:29]

There's a kind of calling from language, and how do I listen? What am I going to hear? Yeah. So it's going to be a doing. I mean, everything's an activity. And so whatever it is, it's going to be a doing. What would that doing be? And when I got there, I immediately thought of Suzuki Roshi saying at one point, he took his glasses off and looked at everybody and he said, these glasses, thank you, these glasses are your glasses.

[19:57]

And he said, but you know about my tired old eyes, so you let me use your glasses. And I thought, where does that come from? Certainly it's a huge idea of generosity. Glasses were invented, wearable glasses, were invented in Italy in the 13th century. And originally they were used mostly by monks, which is interesting.

[21:03]

I suppose the monks had to read all these texts and things like that, so it helped. And it extended the work life of people all over the world. But in any case, they were invented and they somehow belong to our inventive society, and Suzuki Roshi was borrowing the glasses. So then I thought, if that is an example, an expression of a kind of you know, like lifting your arm can be completion, is feeling these glasses belong to everyone. Is that a feeling of completion and generosity?

[22:21]

And then I thought, well, maybe I should just stand up. This is an act of, if you sit down, you sit down into your own inner space and your society's inner space. I may be here for a while. No. If you stand up in a streamed lecture, you stand up outside the stream.

[23:43]

Okay, so just standing here with the feeling that You're being here, and this society making glasses, which I can use too, is, yeah, maybe that is a real basic definition of generosity. And then I thought, I remembered Yamada Mumon Roshi, who was my Rinzai teacher in Japan. He said, the most important single thing to always recognize is is everywhere, everything is all at once supporting your existence.

[25:13]

And I knew Mumen Roshi quite well and spent a lot of time with him. And when he was walking around passing Dieter, Dieter would have had the feeling that Munna, this guy feels like I'm supporting him. And when Munna and Rashi walked over here, Sasha might feel, geez, he knows I'm supporting him. Just the presence in Tim. And Muman Roshi was someone who, when he walked through the room, when he passed someone, Dieter or Sascha, or Tyler, then the person would probably have the feeling, hey, he's supporting me.

[26:19]

There's a feeling of support. David White, who I know only slightly, but quite a wonderful poet, he has a poem I've often quoted. And the last line is a riff from the Native American kind of advisement. Die letzte Zeile ist eine Umspielung auf einen indianischen Rat. Die letzte Zeile lautet, stehe still. Der Wald weiß, wo du bist. You must let the forest find you.

[27:31]

Wherever you are is called here. And you must treat here as a powerful stranger. Und du musst dieses hier wie einen kraftvollen Fremden behandeln. You must ask permission to know it and be known. Du musst um Erlaubnis bitten, um es zu kennen und um bekannt zu werden. The forest breathes. Listen, it answers you. der Wald atmet, hör nur zu, er antwortet. Ich habe diesen Raum oder diesen Ort um dich herum geschaffen.

[28:33]

Wenn du zurück, wenn du, wenn du weggehst, dann kommst du vielleicht irgendwann wieder zurück und sagst hier. I think it's quite good and it's a tradition actually we don't it's a little hard tradition to emphasize and make someone understand but it's a tradition of just standing I think it's quite good there is a tradition that you just stand And if Muman Roshi says, each thing, everywhere, is supporting you. He means, and I know he meant, you should somehow bring that concept into your experience so you feel it in your experience.

[29:39]

And it's known in how you act. So you can just, I suggest, although you try it, you know, take five or ten minutes and just stand somewhere. Ich schlage vor, dass ihr das alle ausprobiert, dass ihr euch fünf oder zehn Minuten Zeit nehmt, einfach um irgendwo zu stehen. Know where your feet are when you're standing. And find the perceptive center of gravity. and while you're standing the earth is of course revolving and rotating and the earth is even wobbling a bit it seems to be affected by how water moves across the surface of the planet

[31:07]

And the earth even wobbles a little bit. And that has to do with how the water spreads over the earth ball. So the earth rotates and draws its circles. Und sie wabert. Und darin findest du so etwas wie einen stillen Stand. And I suggest you stay and say there's a... Around here we're lucky to have these wonderful trees. Some are funky and some are healthy and so. Und hier in der Gegend, da haben wir diese wunderbaren Bäume. Und einige von denen sind ein bisschen schräg, aber andere sind gesund und so. Some of our upper garden trees have fallen down and are going to more fall down.

[32:12]

But now they're standing, most of them are standing. And it's good to feel them as a, at least my experience is, I suggest you feel them as a kind of comrade. Standing in the world with you. Beside you, with you. And you don't want to make comparisons like, well, that's a kind of scrawny tree. That's not very friendly and generous. You have a little stone. That's just a stone, you know. And it's not sentient.

[33:29]

It doesn't, you know, feel anything. But it's likely been around for a million years and maybe even two or three billion years. And it's been within a scale of the world which is unknowable by you except that you are an example of it. And this is part of a dimension, a temporal, spatial dimension of the world that you cannot know unless you are also part of this dimension. So you're just standing here.

[34:30]

And there's a book by a guy named Jeff Hawkins. It's called The Thousand Brains. And it's a reference to 150,000 cortical columns which are separately replicating, modeling the world all the time. So though you don't directly, conceptually experience it, you are in an inter-informational field, an interconnectivity that is unbelievable. And I guarantee you, if you can stand still enough or long enough, that you can let that interconnectivity happen.

[35:38]

Ich garantiere dir, dass wenn du lange genug so stehst, dass du diese wechselseitige Verbundenheit, diese Interkonnektivität zulassen kannst, dass du plötzlich anfängst, diesen Baum so zu spüren, wie du auch in der Welt bist, etwas, was Seite an Seite steht. And that interconnectivity, the more you get a taste for it, it begins to be present all the time. Thank you, Max.

[37:39]

Now back in the couple hundred years ago, even Einstein played with the idea that there was some kind of ether It connected everything. You couldn't see it, but it was the way in which electricity passed or magnetism or gravity waves and things like that. And even although today scientifically that's thought not to be. There is no such medium. Und obwohl heutzutage wissenschaftlich wir wissen, dass es so ein Medium nicht gibt. But when people think about these things, architects and scientists who think about vacuums, they tend to think about it almost as if there was a medium.

[39:00]

Aber wenn Wissenschaftler über diese Dinge nachdenken, dann auch übers Vakuum zum Beispiel, dann denken sie da so drüber nach, als ob es ein Medium gäbe. So what I'm saying here is that it's actually good to feel an imaginal, not imaginary, but an imagined or imaginal medium in which we're functioning. And an architect has to think this way to imagine space and where to put the wall and so forth. And in Taoism and Buddhist practice too, particularly in Taoism, a tendency to think of the world as filled with a kind of pulse, a kind of connecting rhythm.

[40:15]

And I'm suggesting that this is a useful, imaginal exercise for you, for each of us. If I imagine a connective field with Dieter, who's sitting here in front of me, And I've been sitting in front of Dieter for like less than 100 years. But a very long time. And I definitely feel some kind of medium between us.

[41:31]

Yeah, I don't charge him for it. But if I do have that kind of feeling, it actually enhances the sense of connectivity. If you imagine separation, your experience will confirm that there's separation. And it won't notice connectivity. If you imagine separation, connectivity, your senses say, hey, this is interesting, and they begin to notice connectivity.

[42:42]

So you begin to function more and more with this kind of imaginal connectivity, real or not, it's experientially real. You begin to act more and more in a field of connectivity, which is the essence of generosity. I think that's enough. Thank you. Sure. Do you see, Sasha, why I said I had nothing to say?

[43:56]

I didn't know what I was going to do. Just stand up.

[43:58]

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