Christian, did you get the most recent information about the fire danger? What? It will be of interest to some of you at least. In Arizona, there's the biggest fire I think the state has ever had, and it spread into New Mexico. And there's a fire ban in our valley, and there's a fire east of Villa Grove. And I just wanted to let you know, right to me and to Christian, this is yesterday. Just wanted to let you know that we're as prepared as we can currently be She called Ben, who's head of the fire department.

[01:25]

He's a friend of ours. Yeah, yeah. Okay, Nicole, because you said she, but who is she? She, Nicole. Yeah, okay. And she worked out an emergency plan with him, how to get gas out first and so forth. The fire gear is ready. We assign cars for the evacuation and so forth. Also der ganze Plan ist in Kraft und die ganzen Feuerbekämpfungseinrichtungen sind in Stand gesetzt und die Evakuierungsfahrzeuge sind bereit.

[02:31]

And we created maps of alternative routes and so forth. Und wir haben auch Pläne gezeichnet für alternative Fluchtrouten. but it ends with, but right now it's not an immediate threat. And today, this morning, once the email appeared, first it was none, yesterday, hi Roshi, yesterday was intense. There were three wildfires. One at the North Crestone Lake Trailhead. Another one at the South Crestone Lake Trailhead. And one on the road to the stupa at the Cottonwood Creek access.

[03:36]

Fortunately, the fire crews were able to contain the fires fairly quickly. That's our volunteer fire department, which Marie-Louise is also part of, but she's in Austria right now. So there is a voluntary fire brigade in Cresto and Marie-Louise is also a member of this voluntary fire brigade, but is currently in Austria. Although the first one was already half an acre big and growing rapidly. It was extremely hot and high winds. Matt and I listened to the radio the entire afternoon. For an hour or so there was a new fire report one after another popping up. All around the borders of the town. There were even two more

[04:44]

In addition to the ones I mentioned. On the T-Road. Right beside us. And so they think that the ones on the T-Road might have been an arson. You don't need to know why. But anyway, we decided to prepare. Without Christian and Dan here, we thought it better to be very careful. I don't know how much we could have helped. So we ended up doing a school of life type fire drill. We had the ATV, what's ATV stand for? all terrain vehicle and the phone truck ready.

[06:04]

I wrote back and said, I'm glad you're both there and I'm glad, relieved you're being careful, smart and wise on the cautious side. He assumes I'm actually reading what I'm reading. If it were Tassajara, we might have warning enough to fly there. But if there's a fire at Cresto and there's no warning, within minutes it'll be there. So, um...

[07:15]

Anyway, that just happened this morning, so I thought I'd share it with you. That's the closest fires have ever been to us. And we've done over the last few years quite a lot of so-called mitigation where you cut brush in all the lower branches of trees and things. But it's high desert and very dry and There's not too much we can do. Now I'd like to continue our discussion of yesterday of lay and monastic practice. of lay and monastic practice.

[08:52]

Because that's the existential situation of our Sangha. And it'd be nice if somehow we could cover some of what we talked about yesterday. But maybe Some of you who were here yesterday can bring up aspects of it if you think it's important. So the... So... The question of lay and monastic practice is inseparable from the question of succession.

[10:01]

And there's vertical succession and horizontal succession. And this seminar is an example of horizontal succession. How do we develop among our Sangha, within our Sangha a shared understanding and shared worldviews, both Buddhist worldviews, and Zen practices. And I try to keep you abreast of the teachings that are developing in each of the centers.

[11:10]

And it always interests me what what I can take from America or here or practice period or seminar and find ways to make it accessible to everyone in the Sangha. And this deep winter practice, is that what you call it, right? If you did last winter. It's a good example of horizontal succession.

[12:14]

And experiment, and it seemed to work quite well, I hear. I'm not sure I like the name Deep Winter. In English at least. I don't know what it sounds like in German. So in English it sounds a little bit like Siberia. It's deep winter and we can't travel and nothing grows and so forth. Oh, really? No. I might call it, if you want to give a seasonal identity, extended winter practice seminar or something like that.

[13:17]

But anyway, I think that we have to experiment more with things like this. To see to what extent we can share the views and practices of Zen. Because the shared embodiment also develops them for each of us and develops them in our culture and in our language. And Sashin and the existence of Yohannesov and the existence of Creston are also part of what we can call horizontal succession.

[14:49]

And it's ways we've developed and put in place to articulate our Now, there's also vertical succession, which means how do you transmit the teachings generationally. And there has to be some mechanism or process in place to do that. For example, I could appoint a successor here in Europe and another in the United States.

[16:01]

And you could, as we say, vote with your feet. Which means, if you don't like who I appoint, you just walk away. And if you like the person, you stay. Or we could have some process of confirmation from the Sangha. But that would require us to have some kind of decision-making process in place. Some of you may think this is rather irrelevant to your practice. But it's relevant because I'm now 75. But it's also relevant because All of these considerations have informed and inspired me over the last 30 or 40 or 50 years.

[17:34]

Of course I had to be involved with the successional process at San Francisco when Sukhiroshi died. And And as I mentioned yesterday, I was just part of, in New York, a so-called pioneer Zen teachers' meeting. Buddhist teachers' meeting, not Zen teachers' meeting. I didn't say next generation. Pioneer, sorry. I can recognize a few words, next generation, pioneer. I will mumble. There was a next generation group, as he anticipated.

[18:39]

I can just... There were about 20 of us so-called pioneers. I was a little surprised to discover I was the oldest. And the first, probably the first who started teaching in the West. Then there were about 50 next generation came. And then by the end of the week 200 more teachers of all ages came. And since I haven't participated in anything in the American Buddhist scene for

[19:48]

I was treated a little bit like Zen Van Winkle. But you don't know who Rip Van Winkle is. Rip Van Winkle is the story of Washington Irving about this guy who goes up and gets drunk with these mythological hints. Henry Hudson Dutchman. Okay, Rip van Winkle, what's the author's name? Irving. Washington Irving. Washington Irving is a story by Washington Irving, where this Rip van Winkle, who goes drinking with Dutch mythological figures. Anyway, it's... He gets drunk and he falls asleep for 20 years. And he comes back in town. And the dogs bark at him. He doesn't understand anything. And he says, hello, Nancy, to someone.

[21:09]

She says, no, no, I'm Nancy's granddaughter. So I was treated a little bit like Zen Van Winkle. Are you still alive? Yeah. Anyway, the question with the so-called pioneers was, you can imagine, transmission and succession and so forth, and lay and monastic. Because although, again, the so-called pioneers virtually I think all had Asian teachers.

[22:10]

And studied in Asian monasteries and Asian languages. But it's clear in America that seen is primarily laypersons. So the process of succession that the pioneers went through is going to be completely different in the next generation. And you know, Tassajara, when we started it, set the pattern of men and women practicing together. And lay practitioners practicing. remaining laypersons in the monastery.

[23:24]

So what we decide to do at Crestown and here will actually influence the Buddhist scene. Unavoidably. What we here at Crestown decide to do will inevitably influence the Buddhist scene. Now, so if we had a different process, like I didn't appoint a successor, but the Sangha elected a successor, which is one of the traditions in Asia, another tradition is local groups not necessarily the same school elect a teacher, the abbot or head of a temple when someone dies.

[24:30]

But if we do something like that, we have to have some form of governance in place. There has to be some way, something in place already which can make decisions and so forth. So I am hoping we can use the process of either getting or not getting, either purchasing or not purchasing, Hotzenholz, has a way to develop a decision-making process. And hopefully a further step of some kind of

[25:30]

Sangha governance. Some way we can all participate. And if we're a monastic community, it's pretty easy. But if we're a dispersed lay Sangha, how do you create governance? In any case, Hotzenholz will be a dry run for my retirement or perishing. If we don't succeed at it, then maybe you'll have to succeed when I perish.

[27:03]

If we don't succeed, then if we do succeed, we'll also develop some decision-making process. Okay. So enough on that for now. Yesterday we talked more about the nature of lay and monastic practice. And ways in which they can develop and influence each other. and about how they can develop and influence each other. And this morning I thought maybe I should talk more about the aspect of organization.

[28:07]

Now, as I said, horizontal succession involves, of course, how we share a teaching. And when I was at this Buddhist teachers' meeting, one of the Somebody I knew, I didn't know, but he translated for me years ago when I was talking to, meeting a Tibetan teacher. Anyway, he's extremely well trained. several traditions and so forth but he said to me there were three of us speaking somebody the third person said something like

[29:26]

Well, we have to present the Dharma or something like that. What's the bottom line? And this other fellow, this very well trained person I met when he was a young kid translating for a Rinpoche, He said two years ago I was teaching and suddenly in the middle of it it all fell away and I didn't even know what the word Dharma meant. So he said, I stopped teaching. I haven't taught for two years. And then he looked at me. What do you do? I said, something like, you know, least we have to locate ourselves in the Dharma.

[30:56]

Because if we're going to in any way know how things actually exist. Or exist in the way things actually exist. Without adding anything. Then the only word for that is Dharma. Okay. So the other day, quite a few other days ago actually I don't know when, February or March or something I was walking down from the log house where I live at Creston by chance with a bag full of crockery of dishes

[31:59]

And as I came out the door, the bag broke. So I'm trying to carry this thing with a broken bag full of breakables with a flashlight held under the bag And it was completely dark. And although I know the path well, at the pace I usually walk, it's quite a rocky path. So a rock would appear in the flashlight.

[33:25]

Since we're talking about dharmas here, We'll try to analyze it from a dharmic point of view. So I had an eye sensation of the rock. But because I'm walking, the eye sensation immediately stopped and the rock, where the rock was, is, was... was a perception held in my mind. We can say inferred. Because I inferred the rock would still be there when I get to it.

[34:37]

So in darkness I would step over the rocks. So we had the sensation of seeing the rock. And I'm telling this in this narrative way, anecdotal way. Because it gives us a chance to look at it experientially. So there's the sensation and then there's the perception. And the perception remains after the sensation ends. And both the sensation and the perception are occurring within a larger...

[35:49]

framework we can call a conception. Because I'm walking in the first round of the Han, which is the wooden board, being hit seven hits, and then five hits, and then three hits. So I know I've got to, I know where the zendo is and where my tower room is, and when I have to get down there in order to get my robes on and get into the Zendo. So the sensation and the perception are occurring within the larger frame of a conception.

[37:06]

Now I'm using English words to describe this. It might be articulated a little differently in German, I don't know. Definitely not. Definitely not different or definitely the same? Definitely not the same. Not the same. It's not the same because you have different categories or more categories? No, because the words are different and the meanings of the words are different. It's not such a big difference between mind and geist, but still there are differences. I will continue anyway.

[38:19]

I mean, he's been named Richard and that's quite similar. Except it's Ricard, right? Okay. Yeah, but similar. Even we're similar. Yes. So, Let's take these three words, perception or sensation, perception and conception. And the process I'm going through is a process of dharmic analysis. Okay. Merleau-Ponty, who I like reading, says the painter throws away the fish once he's got the net.

[39:23]

Okay, so in other words, I use this net to get myself safely down the path with a bag full of breakables. But the fish of that particular experience we can throw away. And we have the net. The net of sensation. Much as it works in Deutsch, sensation, perception and conception. Okay, now in practice, you can hold back from conception from perception and conception.

[40:25]

Or you can locate your experience primarily in sensation. Now, take some experienced to do that. As I said yesterday, you have to develop the attention to attention itself. And through developing attention to attention you develop the attention which attends to the world. And you've got to be able to reside in the process.

[41:34]

If your sense of identity keeps flowing into self-referential thinking. So you're involved with who is walking down the path to get to the Zendo in time or not. But if the who is gone, it's just what is walking down the path. And the attention can reside in the sensation. And attention can reside in the perception.

[42:36]

and attention can reside in the conception. And you can shift attention back and forth among the three. Then you're involved in dharmic practice. Which is Usually only taught in monasteries. So I'm trying to configure the net. The net which can catch the Dharma. To catch how we actually exist. at birth and death. Before self takes hold. So I'm trying to give it an experienceable So anybody of you who are lay practitioners can try it out.

[44:09]

For example, if you're having trouble going to sleep. If you can bring your attention to sensation only. As an experiment. So you only feel the covers, the breath, the cloth, etc. And there's no perception of of you're trying to go to sleep or the bed or anything.

[45:13]

There's just the sensation. You can fall asleep very quickly. Because neither perception nor conception is keeping you awake. And if your attention starts to be in perception or conception, then things come up, suffering comes up, well, I'm not going to get enough sleep, you know, etc. So the mature Dharma practitioner can rest in sensation all the time. I mean, it doesn't mean conception and perception is completely gone, but there's almost no emphasis on it. And you revel, revel.

[46:29]

Revel means to fully enjoy yourself. And you revel in the sensations of the world. Everything is touching you, caressing you. And you can move into perception if you want or you can just stay in sensations. And what's interesting about this kind of practice aside from what I just said just now that if you can rest in sensation primarily or only you know the world is not static stillness is always stillness within movement so everything is moving everything is an activity so if

[47:53]

your sense of identity even, let's say, is located in sensation only. The movement of the world is revealed to you the activity of the world is revealed to you differently through sensation only than through perception only. Paratactic depth, as we talked about yesterday, where the interaction, the inter-emergence of the world through sensation only, flows in a new kind of creativity.

[49:24]

So this dharmic analysis, when you can locate yourself within it, transforms the world. And as you can practice it when you just got nothing better to do or when you are going to sleep you can also practice it when you are starting to do Zazen. You start sitting in sensation only. And it's interesting, you can use the methodology of a word like sensation only Und es ist interessant, weil ihr könnt die Methodologie eines Wortes wie Sinneseintrüberlein dazu verwenden, das könnt ihr dazu verwenden, um die Wahrnehmung und die Konzepte gleichsam von der Szene wegzuschieben.

[50:38]

So if you begin sitting, so wenn ihr damit beginnt zu sitzen, ruhig zu sitzen, within sensation only you very quickly go into zazen into appearance I mean, what we're really talking about here is appearance. Sensation, perception, conception are all aspects of appearance. If in any way we talk about how things actually exist they exist for us as appearance. So at what point, how early in that process of appearance can we be? And Dharma practice is to be as early as possible in the appearance.

[51:51]

Sensation only is pretty early in the process. But then, let's say if I can make words work, appearance before appearance appears. Appearance before appearance appears would be what we could call pure appearance. And it might be the original religious impulse which is at the basis of all religions. In which the world itself appears, or aliveness appears. The certitude, which we can call faith, the certitude that we're alive. Okay.

[53:04]

So by sensation only? You can slide into a zazen where before appearance appears. And this is a particular development of sasa. Now the question is how important is this to a lay person? How important is it to a monk? How many of the Western practitioners even understand anything about this? But I think it makes life an adventure. It's all right here. So let's sit for a moment and have a break.

[54:16]

And then we have a break, because breaks are always nice.

[54:20]

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