Let me tell you the story of the tobacco plant that I remember from Peter Nick. Have I told you the story of the tobacco plant? Okay, tobacco plants need to be pollinated. And caterpillars, no, excuse me, night moths do a very good job of pollinating the tobacco. But the night moths also lay eggs on the tobacco plant, which turn into caterpillars. And then the caterpillars can process nicotine, and they like to eat the

[01:02]

And they feel they deserve it because their parents pollinated the tobacco plant. But the tobacco plant doesn't like it too much because it's getting eaten up. So when it has too many caterpillars, it doesn't open its flowers at night anymore. It opens them during the day. So it attracts less flowers. And then hummingbirds come and pollinate the tobacco plant. I like to act like I know things.

[02:23]

Anyway, so, but still, if there's too many caterpillars, The tobacco plant exudes an odor that attracts, what is it that attracts? Attracts... Some other creature which comes and eats the caterpillars. But that wasp, it attracts wasps which come and eat the caterpillars.

[03:26]

Which, no. The wasps come and they lay eggs in the caterpillars. So that helps to kill the caterpillars. And the caterpillars also like the sugar hairs which are on tobacco plants. And so when they eat the sugar hairs though, they can digest them, but it creates a terrible smell. And then there's a lizard which really likes this terrible smell. And the lizard comes and then eats the caterpillar. Now, you'd have to say this is intelligent design. We don't know how this intelligent design occurs, but it occurs.

[04:37]

And Peter says, for instance, what is the plant then? The plant is a sphere of aromas. And the activity of hummingbirds and night moths and lizards. And the tobacco plant only exists because of all these factors. So he says, for instance, when you see a tobacco plant, you're only seeing the track of the plant. Because the plant is also the hummingbirds and the night moths and the lizards and so forth. And maybe this is especially true of plants because they... as I said earlier, can't move.

[05:59]

Most can't move. So they have to keep adjusting to circumstances. But we animals, that I call us animals, we animals can carry our organizing with us. But for the practitioner, we also exist in the fullest sense through precise acts. Now, I said before lunch that I used to only practice with people who mostly had done several practice periods. And I changed in a lot of ways when I started practicing with people in Europe.

[07:16]

And it's certainly true that I vividly noticed the difference for the Sangha practicing with Suzuki Roshi when we had Tassajara. And it is certainly a very vivid clarity that I noticed this difference And I vividly noticed the difference when we started the Johanneshof. So my experience convinces me that if practice as I know it and want it to continue, is going to continue in Europe.

[08:18]

We need to be able to do practice periods in Europe too. This alteration of our experience of time diese Veränderung unserer Erfahrung der Zeit, sodass wir fast gezwungen werden durch die Umstände, the fundamental time which is inseparable from others and from phenomena, diese grundlegende Zeit, die untrennbar ist von den anderen und von den Phänomenen, Yeah, so I'm making this effort now in this latter stage of my life, I guess, the latter stage, who knows, you know. To create a way in the honest self that we can have 90-day practices.

[09:22]

So I do know that this is important and I certainly feel it. But I also feel and know that we all For sure we all can't do practice periods. And I feel with my heart and mind and body that we each can fully do practice if we want. We can make this choice. And what is the choice? And also in any case we don't want to make comparisons.

[10:48]

And to stop making comparisons is a big step in the right direction. I can't do practice periods, so I can't practice. No. I'm going to practice, you practice. So what I see is that you want to, as I've said earlier, establish a continuum. All Sashin and practice period do is help you establish a continuum. They interrupt your routines and by interrupting your routines you can enter into another phase of being.

[11:51]

As Dogen's saying, sometimes, meaning in the midst of this now, There are other nows. And I'm trying to bring forth another now. Okay. Now, when I first came back from Japan, And I knew I had to inherit Suzuki Roshi's job. And I didn't know anything.

[12:52]

But I didn't make any comparisons either. I would have run away. He just asked me. In 1968 he told me he would give me his job. So when I came back from Japan in 70, I knew that he was dying. And, you know, I just, I loved him, so he asked me to do it, so I did it. And for a moment I didn't think this is difficult, not up to it or something, I just did. But I remember, because I was just practicing within Suzuki Rishi's presence and listening to his lectures and so forth. In Japan, I practiced in two different monasteries.

[14:04]

Three, really. But I just did it. And though I spoke Japanese well enough to shop and things, I didn't speak Japanese well enough to understand the lectures. So I really was kind of a dummkopf. Is that a German word? Yeah. See, I was a dummkopf. And I remember I asked Kobunshino Sensei, I said, you know, Suzuki Roshi always talked about the first principle. So I said, he's always talking about this, and I don't even know what the first principle is.

[15:11]

I said to him, Suzuki Roshi always speaks about the first principle and I don't even know what that is. So I said to Kobin, what does Sukershi mean by the first principle? Sukershi was already dead. Too late to ask him. I asked Kobun Shino, what is this first principle? And Kobin said, probably emptiness. He meant emptiness. Well, I thought, well, yeah, I don't know if that helps me. But emptiness, okay. Emptiness, totally ahead. But then I later came to understand that Sukershi would probably have said more extraordinarily. He would say? He would probably have said more extraordinarily... and would have said in a way that's more practicable, everything reveals everything.

[16:24]

So that's something we could speak about at some point too. What does it mean that everything reveals everything? So I immersed myself in that. But what I'd like to do right now is just speak about a simple phrase like just this. So I'm speaking about just this as a precise act. And I'm speaking also about, as I've said earlier, the feeling of completing each act. So here I'm also speaking about simultaneously the development of a continuum. Like a continuum of non-conceptual mind. And I'm speaking, of course, about fundamental time.

[17:55]

So I'm trying to see if I can speak in a way that fundamental time, a non-conceptual continuum, a non-conceptual mind, and expressed in everything you do. Yeah, and in some ways it's what may more likely happen and in residential monastic practice. But you can start that right now. You can be your own portable monastery. each of you is your own little monastery so I would suggest again that when you step you step with precision now we talked a minute ago about the tobacco plant

[19:18]

I mean, it closes its night flowers and opens flowers during the day. And these are very precise acts and exudes an aroma that attracts wasps. And not something else, wasps. I read about a plant the other day that eats ants. But it also becomes a home for another kind of ant. So there's one kind of ant that lets live in it, which helps it actually eat the other ants.

[20:26]

And these are very precise acts. And I think you're born and when you were born it was a very precise act. If your mother and the doctor or midwife or whatever didn't cooperate very carefully you might not be here. And the whole process has to occur in a certain time frame, etc., And most of us, except maybe practitioners, forget about this preciseness. Now I'm speaking about it this way, but right now I think it's a good way to speak about it.

[21:35]

So what I'm suggesting is that you all have Mature lives. And you have considerable experience. So what I'm saying, what I believe, is you can shift that experience into, probably you already do, that's why you're here. You can shift that experience. And probably you already do. Because that's why you're here. But in any case, you can shift your experience of life into something so precise as precise acts. So when you step, you know you're stepping.

[22:37]

And when you lift your foot, you know you're lifting your foot. And that's, of course, what we do in Kin Hin. You step forward on the out-breath. And as you inhale, you lift the back foot's heel. and you bring the breath all the way up through your spine to the top of your head and then you step forward on the exhale and you exhale into the foot And then you inhale from the back foot.

[23:45]

And you're walking with your, which is one of the hardest things for Westerners to do. You can walk any way you want, really. But it has a different power if you walk from your heart. You're kind of sliding forward in space. Not striding forward, sliding. And to emphasize the sliding forward, your hands are sort of like this. And a certain Through that precision, there's a certain power that comes. And you can feel that power. And it's a different kind of power than when you were sitting.

[24:47]

And And when you begin to feel this power, you feel the power of each person in front of you and behind you. And that increases your sense of a kind of stability. There's a stability you receive from everyone and receive from the floor and how you're walking. Now, kin hin, and if your spine isn't in pretty good shape, you don't feel that power. And the power also comes from a feeling of stillness within the movement.

[25:52]

Now it probably helps to do this with others to get a feel for the precision of kin hin located in the body and breath. This isn't just done between periods of zazen. so that you can stretch your legs or something. That's also true, but you could do lots of different ways to stretch your legs. So this is a way to discover a source of power and nourishment from the simple act of walking And a power and nourishment that flows from others.

[27:09]

And I suspect that's part of the excitement that basketball players and others have who can really play well with each other. Or any sport. There must be an exhilaration in it. I don't know, I just... You're just guessing your way along. Yes. What does exhilaration mean? Does anybody know? Steve Jobs to the rescue. Steve Jobs to the rescue.

[28:09]

As you probably know, he practiced at Tassajara. Exhilaration is a kind of bodily excitement. Yeah, it would be different than ecstasy. It would be because it'd be kind of exhilaration is a bodily excitement because the world is coming through you. Okay. Isn't it the same when soldiers are marching?

[29:38]

Probably so. I don't know. I've never been that kind of guy. It's probably, I know that you, and Marie Louise tells me that when people do talk about the war, Her older generation and father's generation and so forth. They often both don't want to speak about it, and when they do speak about it, it's often the most intense part of experiencing their life. So it's probably a capacity for us to join with others in sports and war and in practice and in this seminar. And of course in war it is a matter of life and death for some of the people at least.

[30:41]

And that probably brings a certain precision into how you do things. Yeah. Deutsch bitte. Well, it's interesting. There's quite a lot of musicians in the Sangha. And I've noticed that orchestral musicians particularly get certain aspects of practice faster than other people.

[31:50]

Not just musicians, but orchestral musicians. Who are used to playing with others. So this precision I'm speaking about might require a break. You make me sing, you remind me of music, you start singing. No one has ever invited me to sing with them now. When you were talking earlier, I thought, no one ever invited me to sing with them, or play with them. Okay, so I want to continue this, if you'll let me, but let's take a break.

[32:53]

Okay. Thanks for translating in such an exhilarating way. Thank you. See, we begin with bows and, you know. There's a certain co-ordinating. Co-ordination. We're ordained and we're being ordained together.

[33:55]

I haven't told you that's what's happening. But this evening I'll shave your heads. There's a few more promises you have to make. So I'm always a little hesitant to say what sounds like instructions, but here I go. Okay. What I'm trying to speak about is, as I said, precision of mind and body. And Castaneda says, he's often wonderfully good, Castaneda says, let death be your guide.

[35:16]

And that's good advice. Because not only are we practicing interdependence, Because if you're going to practice interdependence, you need to have this field of mind that knows all at once. But if you're going to practice also indeterminacy, that you don't know when this will all end, or when you will end, or when something will suddenly happen that changes everything in your life.

[36:18]

And it's good then to do each thing with a precision as if it were your last act. I mean, I don't want to say that, actually. Because I just don't want to be that serious. I don't want to fool around. But actually, I am serious in this way. And so, As I've been emphasizing here and there these days, when you step, you step with the completeness of stepping. And that's the practice of compassion.

[37:18]

And strangely when something is precise and nothing more than its precision there's a kind of standing still That's a kind of station. A station in both the senses that something can arrive in the station. Like a train station. But also it's like a radio station. You can tune something in. Nowadays, radio stations tune themselves, but you used to have to very precisely tune them. For some reason, Precise acts tune in.

[38:55]

Do I exaggerate if I say the power of the world or something like that? So for some reason, precise acts create a field in which things can happen. And now in what I'm speaking, I'm saying, it's like standing. You feel the foot on the ground. where you feel both feet on the ground and you know where your feet are and you know where your ankles are so it's not just you're doing it you also there's a knowing in the doing of it

[39:59]

a knowing that starts out conscious knowing and then it shifts into just the body knows and the more the body knows you open yourself to the quickness of the intelligence of the body. Which usually knows what's next before you as consciousness does. So it's not just like the preciseness of consciousness. foot on the ground, but that's quite a good practice to notice with each step where, how you're stepping.

[41:01]

But there's a preciseness too in the right hand being here on this, in this case, this right knee. And there's as I'm speaking there's a precision that occurs through the speaking in my gestures. But even if I don't speak there's a there's there's a precision in everything about the body. And if you didn't function bodily very precisely, biologically very precisely, blood, heartbeat, you know, a

[42:06]

all of the hormonal activity of the body, you'd be sick. So the body itself has to function very precisely. And the practice for a yogi There's a mental and physical preciseness that corresponds to, echoes the bodily biological preciseness. And you may think this is a lot of nuisance, you'd rather go watch television. I don't think any of you want to go watch television, but you know what I mean. But sometimes this kind of talk is too much.

[43:30]

And we protect ourselves by noticing it's too much. But for me, it's a kind of secret I'm telling myself always. And one way to bring this physical preciseness into a mental preciseness into wisdom phrases And what I'm emphasizing today is one of the most basic. Maybe as basic as anything. Which is the phrase, just this. and although you're well aware I presume of this practice of just this it's useful I find it useful to remind myself of it and you can see you can hear in my speaking

[44:48]

Every syllable is also precise. Because for me, every syllable is honored by having attention flow into it. And if I speak in this way, my whole body, the biological activity of my body and the mental and physical activity of my body seem to correspond, come together, even in the syllables. So if we're going to speak as we've been, trying to come into a realization of fundamental time, And I realized one of the problems I've been having with how to make this fundamental time click for us...

[46:26]

I first found it necessary to speak about it in a conceptual way. And not in as precise a way as my eight fingers folded together. So let's imagine using the phrase just this. And corresponding with a physical preciseness. Opening up a parallel mental, perceptual preciseness. And a preciseness which then opens us into fundamental time. in which we have the preciseness which allows a resonance with others and a resonance with the phenomenal world because this phenomenal world tobacco plants and so forth

[47:51]

exist through a kind of preciseness not a kind of preciseness exist through a preciseness and as I say an engagement the untranslatable engagement which makes us engage which opens us to engagement with everything So just this or just ordinary English words. Just meaning only or exactly. Only a bell. Of course, there's nothing that's really only. And this is a near object. But when we put them together as a term, it becomes a command.

[49:20]

And it stops us. Just this. It turns an object, a near object, into a percept. And it stops the world for a moment. It stops the you-ness for a moment. It stops. the you-ness, the you-quality, the I-quality. Yeah, and in turn, the person that turns the percept into an appearance.

[50:39]

And it's a way of stopping in the midst of appearance. It's kind of a magic of, a magic, a magical, like a magic wand, a magical use of two words. And in Buddhism, there's quite a lot of emphasis on using syllables and words. as a way of functioning in the usual mental continuum and bringing the mental continuum into a focus of how the world actually exists. So Just this stops the world for a moment.

[51:48]

And yeah, we can all do this. We all have perceptions. And when you have a chance, you notice The perception with enough preciseness to say just this. And stops the world, as I said. Stills the world. And you can also use the breath as an aid. So you can think of each percept or each object as a breath object. So you can mechanically use the breath as a breath object. I can feel myself turning the bell in relationship to my breathing.

[53:10]

And speaking and being here in relationship to breathing, And so again, just this stops the world for a moment. And hopefully you can stop it and you have enough experience to not let too much else in. So you're standing for a moment in a sphere of just this. And as the world is stopped for a moment you can decide to get off or get on. And when the world stops for a moment with just this And you decide to get off.

[54:24]

The world disappears. It folds into you. And you feel the energy of it folding into you. And the world breathes into you. These are metaphors or concepts or ideas. But they're ancient concepts through which we can shape our experience so that we really do feel for a moment we've gotten off the world. And you can rest in freedom of being off the world. You don't need anything. You feel as complete as necessary.

[55:25]

And it's a kind of a little vacation. I mean, where nothing is needed. Or you can decide to get on the world. And by this I mean you open yourself into the world. And there's an out-folding. And now you disappear. It's not that the world disappears, you disappear into the world. And you feel empowered by everything and it's all at once-ness. I mean, the world is here and it's all at once, in fact. But practice is to discover how to... enter into the... mind of the world itself in a way that frees you.

[57:09]

Where you really feel intimate with the with the entirety of the outfolded world. And again, these are just concepts. And we can discover them in our practice. And we can discover them in the teaching. And the teaching often is how to, once you've discovered these two images of infolding and outfolding.

[58:11]

And they're actually given the thing of the Bodhisattva of wisdom, Manjushri, is the infolding. And the outfolding is the bodhisattva of compassion, avalokiteshvara. And it's given those images Because somehow the experience of infolding and outfolding, when you actualize it, Feel it in detail, in its outfolded or unfolded detail.

[59:18]

And the movement, inward movement and outward movement, it actually changes you, your body somewhat. It changes the mental formation somewhat. It changes enough, you can say, one's like being compassionate and the other's like being... Realizing the first principle of emptiness. Or how everything informs and reveals everything. Each percept is an instantiation of everything all at once. Every moment is a representation of everything at the same time.

[60:29]

Now, normally this kind of way of presenting the practice is for individual practitioners. Or occasionally for a group of practitioners. who have been practicing enough to have a shared mind. So for me it's an experiment. Can I speak this way with you in a way that allows me to, allows you to... Bring your life experience into the precision of mental and physical acts. And you don't need a 90-day practice period to seal yourself this way.

[61:57]

You can feel yourself through your own precise mental and physical presence. Knowing each act may be your last, But knowing also that each act allows the world in. And allows your, your, your. your singular experience to flow into the world. So the assumption of, I don't know about Heidegger, but the assumption of Dogen,

[63:20]

is that this kind of precision that I'm speaking about, mental and physical precision, It's the way we can act within fundamental time. In a way you can feel yourself enlivened by and nourished by Each momentariness. Now, you may have noticed that I'm speaking within a certain column here, a column of... beingness, or something like that. Column, like a column, like that's a column. And I'm not looking at you. And why am I not looking at you?

[64:36]

Because I don't want to know what you think. I don't want to know your particularities right now. No, it's sort of like the bow of practicing unlimited friendliness. As I pointed out, it's actually in the can be a vow of sambhogakaya bodhi, meaning sambhogakaya bodhi. Or the chakra body or something like that, meeting the chakra body. Or we can just say even very simply, pure sentience meeting pure sentience.

[65:38]

Some practices have to occur in that space. Is that space possible for us? I must think so because I'm doing it. Okay. Now I'm looking at you. Another day, another Dharma. Anybody have anything that you'd like to say?

[66:54]

I know that's a kind of hard thing to say something after I wasn't even looking at you. But some practices have to occur in a kind of darkness. Like the tobacco plant opens its flowers at night and then later opens them during the day. Black rain on the roof. I am very touched or it's very touching that I have the choice at this moment where the world stands still. And it reminds me of samadhi states or non-dual experiences.

[68:09]

It's where the next step into the world is some kind of impulse. And I never know where it comes from. But it happens. One of Dogen's, Dogen wrote poems too, sort of funny little poems. And one of his poems is simply black rain on the roof. And it often comes back to me. Yeah. While you were speaking, there came to my mind quite rare experiences during dancing.

[69:26]

For example, dancing tango. When one movement comes to an end and it's not yet clear, what will follow from that? This is like a field that is created from the music. And from the meeting, from the encounter. And I don't know which, in which step I will lead.

[70:36]

And also my partner doesn't know. Well, maybe that's why some people are so almost addicted to tango. It certainly is beautiful. It's a kind of enactment of those tantric statues with embracing and arms and hands and everything. In a space so complex, you can't figure out how the hell they made the damn thing. And the room is so complex that you can't even find out how they did it at all. Yes. I have a form of instruction that makes this presentation quite clear. I have a form of constellation which exemplifies this precision of the body.

[71:47]

It lasts 20 seconds. I'm ready. Yeah. Somebody of the group expresses a wish. For example, I would like to have peace. I ask to the group, who will represent peace for this person? And the person who is representing is standing opposite of the other person and asks the other person to stand up. And then I only say, here it is, here he is or she is.

[72:50]

And after 20 seconds, I stop it. I say thank you. The person representing didn't do anything. The other one stood up. And I asked what has happened. And we all, the witnesses and the person, him or herself, is looking what the body showed. We make it conscious for us. And it's incredible how every glance, how every feeling, every thought is precise for this encounter.

[74:16]

And even if this person describes him or herself as the sacrifice, as passive, as the victim, If you ask him what is the activity, he discovers the activity in it. Okay. I like that. Thanks. Yes? I would like to take up this image. Are you asking him to dance? Yes. It seems like you have taken us with your words somewhere where I can get a taste.

[75:51]

I like this image of the dance and I cannot say really more. Good, thanks. I liked it too. Yes. I would like to come back to my experience while you were talking. When you described yourself within this column of energy, And I said, you are fully contained within yourself. My feeling was that you were fully with us.

[77:04]

Much more than now. Maybe so. But this is okay too. Yeah. I have there's something unclear with the term precision. How I understand it in my thinking, it has something to do with exactness without mistake. Perfect. But my feeling while you were talking... Bewusstsein, Achtsamkeit, ohne die Anstrengung Fehler vornehmen zu müssen.

[78:27]

was more in the direction of consciousness, mindfulness, effort without trying to avoid mistakes. When you said one step with precision, this is incredibly demanding for my mind to somehow try to find what I have to take in to be able to perform this precise step. But your hands are right now in a very precise, shared with each other posture. That didn't take any special effort, you're just doing it. And to the particularity of your hands right now is what I mean by precision.

[79:43]

And there's no mistake possible in that. Okay. Yeah. Okay. When Sylvia just now was talking about mistakes, I remember that as a child when my mother scolded me, I remember that as a child when my mother scolded me, I somehow fled into something which I think is exactly what you describe as precision. And from that I got the feeling I'm blameless. So I can refer to this precision as a location of security and protection.

[81:23]

When you feel each movement, posture, presence, in what I mean at least by precision, you feel very safe. Because there is nowhere else you could be. You're looking good. Okay, shall we sit for a little bit and go to eat? You'll make it, Andy. Andy is such an American sounding name.

[82:41]

But it sounds German too? No, we say Andy. Andy. Oh, Andy. I shouldn't say Andy. Andy. That sounds more German. Thank you.

[83:33]

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