When my legs worked better, I was able to negotiate sitting down in robes more easily. My legs sort of knew what to do, but now they sort of don't know what to do and I get all tangled up. Like I said in Nico and Peter's ceremony, wearing robes is like making a bed while you're in it. Well, I kind of like it, actually. It's all right. You know, sometimes when I'm working at my desk or computer or something with a brush, I put a long string of beads on my wrist so they get in my way.

[01:01]

It forces a restructuring of the mind because otherwise everything really gets messed up. the beads start doing their own typing on the keyboard. I noticed that just now because when I sat down, instead of taking this stick, teaching staff, putting it down, I sat down with it and then I really got tangled up. Ich habe das gerade bemerkt, weil als ich mich niedergesetzt habe, da habe ich statt den Leerstab erst abzulegen und mich dann hinzusetzen, habe ich mich hingesetzt mit dem Leerstab in der Hand und bin dann wirklich dabei verknotet.

[02:05]

I like these. They gave me this stick in Japan. They tie this long string. I used to cut them off, but now I... But I like the stick. The wood part is always changing, but the string always remains the same. See? It always hangs straight down. I do. See, it remains the same. Okay, that's my lecture. You know, when you buy, when you get real monk's robes for beginning monks, they make the sleeves so long that you can't not walk this way.

[03:06]

Because otherwise the sleeves catch all the dust and they just drag along the floor. It's not a very satisfactory way to clean the floors. It makes you do formal bows. You're really supposed to do bows with your arms up like this because if you do them like this, it drags on the floor. Okay. Now what I'd like to say Ah, I've been trying to say since last spring in Creston.

[04:07]

And sometimes I said it in the background of Tayshos. But it's not much, you know. I mean, I almost have nothing to say. But at the same time, what I would like to say is, you know, I wouldn't have understood when I was beginning the first few years of practice. So we might say it's maybe some sort of advanced practice. And if I find a way to say what I might say today, I'd like to find out later if you found it difficult to understand. Because I lose track of what's easy to understand and hard to understand. But I like to try because it's wonderful to do this practice with you.

[05:20]

And what I'm saying is also What Dogen also was trying, similar things anyway, trying to say in 1244 when he gave the Taisho Zamaio Zamaio. And what were you doing in 1244? What was our culture doing in 1244? I know what Ejo was doing. He stayed up that night and transcribed the talk so we could have it. February 15th, I think, 1244. And isn't it amazing that Buddhism stays modern somehow, that what somebody was doing in 1244 can be relevant right now?

[06:28]

Okay, so if I try to metaphorically sum up what I would like to say, I would say mirror, window, circle. Okay, so I'm using metaphors. And maybe the metaphors will be useful to you if I can say something. Because what is obvious but also current psychology has shown that metaphors and images stay in the mind longer than other mental formations. So a strong image, a clear image that stays with you can be an overflowing fountain or a seed pod that keeps scattering its seeds.

[07:40]

Or I could say, try to sum what I'm saying, S-U-M, by saying, the concept don't move is the performance of not moving. In other words, the instruction don't move can be a performative instruction which performs not moving.

[09:09]

So it's not a description of not moving, it's a performance of not moving. Okay. Now, ideally in Yogacara Buddhism and Zen, instructions ought to be prescriptive and performative. Prescriptive and performative. The description itself is the prescription, is the medicine. Yeah. Or each part of the description performs the whole.

[10:12]

No, I'm saying these things partly just to give you a sense of how Buddhism tries to organize its Zen, particularly tries to organize itself as a teaching. But also to try to give you an idea of how you can look into a prescriptive description of practice. but also to give you an idea of how you can get into a recipe-like description of the practice. So prescription and description don't fit together the same way in German. Performative and prescriptive are both for me hard to translate. Oh, really? Like in an act? Vorschreiben hat auch wieder so eine Doppelbedeutung.

[11:29]

Das ist wie ein Rezept eher. Also, glaube ich zumindest. Vorschreiben und beschreiben, das ist so ähnlich. Maybe I should just start learning German. Then I'd be unemployed. Oh, really? Unemployed? I'm not paying you much. Yeah, but I can barely do this in English. I could never do it in German or Greek or Italian or Spanish. All right. So... We're here in Sesshin. And we have the instruction, don't move. But the instruction, don't move, is a mental concept. It's not just a description that you follow physically, it is itself a mental concept.

[12:46]

And if you look into the steadiness of that mental concept, anyway, it's a mental formation, right? Okay, so the concept is mind. Okay, so if you look at the concept itself, knowing the concept is mind, you feel the mind of the concept don't move. And that concept mind of the concept, don't move, is not moving. So the concept, don't move, performs not moving. Is that clear?

[13:47]

Yes, A equals A equals A equals B. Yeah, like that. A rose is a rose is a rose. Yeah. That's somebody's poem. Okay. Gertrude Stein. Okay. So instead of looking at it as an instruction, you look at it as an example of not moving. Now we're trying to get at why Dogen would say to sit in meditation. is the deepest and most intimate teachings of the Buddhas. Okay. Now, one of the things Dogen is establishing is that it's not comparable. Your actual experience in Zazen goes beyond, because it's your intimate experience, any other kind of experience.

[15:24]

Buddha's or whatever. This means that Buddha was born. And we're born. So his intimacy can be our intimacy. And this intimacy is passed from generation to generation. And it's what we're trying to do here. And so one of the things I'm saying and showing and feeling is the instruction don't move is the mental example of not moving. Okay, so if you take the concept, don't move, and you add it to the body, the body transforms the mind.

[16:29]

it's not a simple addition, it's a transformative or alchemical addition. See, I told you, I'm saying almost nothing, I'm just going to keep repeating myself in various ways. Okay, so while you're sitting, And you have this concept, don't move. Instead of not moving, you concentrate on the concept, don't move. And because it's a concept, it's the mind. And so the concept of not moving is the mind not moving, in a way instructing you not to move, the body not to move. But if you just concentrate on mind itself not moving,

[17:55]

Yeah, just concentrate. We can start with seeing the mind and the concept don't move. But maybe to make it simpler, we can just say concentrate on the mind not moving. Mm-hmm. If you can concentrate on the mind not moving, it's much easier for the body not to move. And it's much easier for the pain of Zazen to subside. As soon as you shift away from the non-moving mind, the pain reappears.

[19:08]

Yeah. Okay, so what happens when you concentrate on non-moving mind? One second, please. You're... Concentrating on the concept non-moving mind generates a mind that doesn't move.

[20:14]

It's like the concept plus the body generates a mind that doesn't move. It doesn't just generate a body that doesn't move, it generates a mind that doesn't move. And you look into this non-moving mind. Now we could actually, and I think it's natural to call it the essence of mind. But we kind of have to avoid in Buddhism the word essence because it starts the essence of self. There are no essences in Buddhism. Because an essence is something that is like a...

[21:15]

permanent self or permanent nature or something like that. Yeah, but essence means the part that doesn't change. But when you look into this non-moving mind, and it doesn't move, then it feels like the essence of mind because it doesn't move. Maybe we could call it suchness mind, though. Maybe that voids the problem with the word essence. Okay, but I want to stay with using essence right now. When you look into non-moving mind what does it mean that it doesn't move?

[22:33]

It means that everything can appear in it and disappear from it. Without leaving a trace. If it can appear, if things can appear in it, in this suchness mind or essence of mind, without leaving a trace, hence not changing, it doesn't create memory and karma in the same way. So what would you experience in this suchness mind or essence of mind? You'd experience that it doesn't exclude anything. Anything can appear in it and be free of it.

[23:47]

It's non-comparative. It doesn't compare to other things. Everything is particular and not compared. And it's non-reductive. Which means it doesn't make generalizations universals. A generalization, the generalization tree is always less than a tree, the particular tree. It's much more complex than the generalization tree. So it doesn't do reductive generalizing. This is a description of the mind of enlightenment.

[24:52]

Hiding in the instruction, don't move. Now this non-reductive, non-comparative, non-conceptual mind is present within our mind, but it's not visible to our attention. So we're talking about Zazen develops the kind of stillness, imperturbability, etc., which brings this mind into a focus within our mind.

[26:21]

Also sprechen wir darüber, dass Zazen die Art von Stille und Unerschütterlichkeit entwickelt, die diesen Geist in den Fokus unseres Geistes hinein holt. Yeah, and all of the teachings of Buddhism are about this evolution. Okay, but it is not way in the future. Otherwise sudden enlightenment would have no meaning. It's also in the turning around the basis of mind. Which can be quite scary to pull a rug out of yourself. But if the mind usually is to think about things, to cognize, distraction, thinking, etc., All the territory of mind in which we build our life, our personal history and all that stuff.

[27:40]

If we change the basis of mind until it doesn't grasp anything. It's non-appropriational. It doesn't appropriate things for your own benefit. Sometimes we just say non-grasping, but it's more accurate to say it doesn't appropriate things. All this is like a refreshing wind, a golden breeze, as we say in Buddhist terminology. It can be scary because it seems to be a golden breeze which blows away our history.

[28:42]

Yeah, we're used to finding ourselves in this history. Yeah, but it doesn't really blow it away. It only feels like it might. It clarifies and refreshes your history. Changes the way you enter your history, make use of your history. Okay. Okay. So in the midst of zazen itself don't move is the mind of not moving.

[30:03]

And you can look into this mind of not moving in zazen and it can suddenly just surround you. Now I run out of ways to describe or talk about it. But it's something like being in a tent of mind. And you can go camping anywhere and your tent is with you. Yeah, and you can sleep in this tent of mind. And everything is lucid and clear. While you're sleeping, it still is a clarity. Yeah, and... Time passes... but doesn't pass away.

[31:19]

Sorry, I have to use contradictions. The time passes, a few hours pass, But you don't feel time ever left. It's not like you disappear from time to sleep. Time just stops in the tent of the mind. Das ist nicht so, dass du aus der Zeit heraus verschwindest in den Schlaf hinein, sondern die Zeit hält einfach inne im Zelt des Geistes. Und dennoch vergeht die Zeit. Nehmen wir die zweite Anweisung. A time limit.

[32:24]

The second condition of zazen. And I've been trying to figure out how to give you a prescriptive, performative feel for that. And I won't, because I don't have time and because, you know, one of these riffs is enough a day. The time limit gathers phenomena. assembles phenomena. Phenomena feels like it's in its place. So in this sense we could call this suchness of mind or essence of mind

[33:31]

A window, that's where the metaphor of a window comes in. We look through this window, through this window of not moving mind, in which nothing is excluded and nothing is appropriated. And that's called seeing things as they are. So it's a kind of Dharma window. A window to the world as Dharma. And the window to the world as suchness. And as suchness it reflects. It's also not only a window but a mirror. Because it reflects yourself as wisdom.

[34:49]

Excuse me. It reflects yourself as suchness. And this dynamic is called in Buddhism great mirror wisdom. Because you see yourself moment, you see, you feel yourself moment by moment as the situation you're in and not your narrative self. Let's call that the suchness self. And let's just be clear and simple. The suchness self is how you're born. You're born at that situation. David David Chadwick, who is here, has a head a little bit like somebody from Star Wars.

[36:01]

That's because he was born with forceps. Yeah, I knew. You know, Indians, American Indians, are supposed to be named after the first thing they see. And there was this one guy named Silver Forceps. I just made this up. So David... Yeah, it's not true. Anyway, so David has this head, which he's a little proud of. It's kind of great. But it's because he was born into a situation where forceps were used. So the suchness of that moment formed him for the rest of his life. But in actual fact you're going to die in such a suchness moment.

[37:23]

And wisdom is to know each moment is such a suchness moment. Where you're defined by the immediate situation more definitively by the immediate situation than your narrative self. And the more you can be present to the immediate situation and all its complexity, the more this becomes how you feel and nourish and define yourself. you're nourished more by the immediate situation than who you were or who you might be. But that doesn't mean who you were and who you might be doesn't play in the midst of this. But it's only part of the way you define yourself.

[38:41]

And you fundamentally define yourself as you were at the moment you were born and will be at the moment you die. And all the circles that are drawn in Zen are meant to give you a metaphor, realm, territory of this circle of suchness. This situated immediacy. This circle which also turns. And you can begin to, and part of the transmission of Buddhism is to come into the experience of each moment as a circle or sphere.

[39:55]

Through which you discover your big self. And turn yourself in the world. This circle which is also a mirror reflecting the suchness self. This circle which turns. It's also a mirror which reflects the suchness self. and a window to the Dharma of things as they are. Okay. You see why I had nothing to say. It's just the same thing turned over and over in different ways. that flows from the simple instruction to look into the mind that doesn't move in not moving.

[41:11]

Now the teaching, this is probably not realizable all at once, Although it is realizable all at once. And how fully you can abandon yourself to abandonment. But at the same time it's a seed which can inform your zazen and help in the fruition of your activity. Okay, I think that's enough.

[42:23]

Thank you very much.

[42:25]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_76.31