Are we on? I guess we are. Yes, perfect. We are. Okay. It's very nice to see you again, Nicole. Yes, you too. And, geez, I want to thank the sangha here, and particularly Ryan and Keith for for making this possible. And all of you in the European Sangha are making this possible. It's very amazing. I would like to thank the Sangha here, especially Brian and Keith, for making this event possible, and also the European Sangha and everyone else who is here, for making this event possible. Yeah, there's a koan, 93, in the Shoyoroku, the Book of Serenity.

[01:07]

Which is entitled, Luzu Doesn't Understand. And Lu Su asks Nan Chuan, what is the mine of realization? M-I-N-E, like gold mine or coal mine. And Nan Chuan answers, that in me which comes and goes with you, is it. Now, a phrase like this from this koan is really not to be answered or understood. It's to be explored.

[02:08]

introduced to yourself over and over again. It's over and over again that helps. That She's a little faint, but I can hear her. So that in me, which comes and goes with you, is the mind of realization. Das in mir... Das mit dir kommt und geht, das ist die... Now did you say mind or mine in this case? Mine, M-I-N-E. It sounds... Sorry. Das in mir, was kommt und geht mit dir, das ist die Miene, die Miene der Verwirklichung.

[03:25]

Yeah, you could... I think if we said mind instead of mine, it would be... that the mind of realization would be a statement about realization, but the mind of realization asks you to look at where realization is uncovered. I think if we would use the word mind at this point, the question is, can you, you could also say, the mind of realization. If we would say, this is the mind of realization, then this statement would be a statement about realization. But if we say the mine of realization, then there is the question of where realization can be excavated. So the mine of realization is a very powerful and subtle concept, actually, when you explore it.

[04:37]

Maybe Zen practice is a mining expedition. And maybe the zen practice is something like a mine excursion. A mine exploration. Yeah, so this goes back to two things I've been speaking about. I kind of lose track of whether it's on Sunday or Tuesday, next week on Wednesday. The insideness that, like you feel with your pet, but the insideness that you feel with fellow Dharma practitioners, And that leads back to two things that I talked about and I'm losing sight of when exactly, whether it was last Sunday or a few weeks ago or on Tuesday or so. But on the one hand it leads back to what we have now called interiority, the kind of inner connection, interiority that you have, for example, with a pet.

[05:52]

Yeah, so we can speak about, and I started with the path of interiority, and I shifted to emphasizing the experience of that as being experience, one of the experiences of the path of... What did I say? Insideness? You want insideness now? No, not insideness. Interiority. All these words starting with N. The path of interiority I described as a practice of noticing insideness. Yeah, so we can notice that and then we discover... that there's a phrase, like Nicole pointed out to me the other day, in a koan, that inside me which comes and goes with you is the mind of realization.

[07:24]

Ja, wir können diese Dinge erforschen und dann taucht vielleicht, wie Nicole das letzte Mal mich darauf hingewiesen hat, taucht vielleicht so ein Satz auf, wie der aus diesem Chor, nämlich die Aussage, das in mir, was kommt und geht mit dir, ist die Miene der Verwirklichung. But also the mind of realization, again, this is a concept of That's the other thing I mentioned last week or earlier this week, is that the emphasis on late Zen Buddhism and late Buddhism is how is the awareness, the awakeness of a Buddha present in our daily life? Yes, the emphasis on Buddha nature is a way of saying we're not... focused on the Buddha of the past, the historical past, or the Buddha in some kind of cosmic way, but the Buddha that can be present in daily life and in our own experience.

[09:00]

Yes, we are this emphasis on Buddha nature. It is also an emphasis in which it is not about that we focus on a cosmic Buddha or on a Buddha from the past, but exactly on this kind of question. A Buddha, the awakened one, that can be present in our daily life. So that's all built into, hidden into, to be discovered in the term, the mine of realization. And all that is hidden in an expression like the mine of realization. So the mind of realization is that in me which comes and goes with you, which is also a way to speak about the connectedness, the real connectedness of a compassionate, shared body of the world.

[10:04]

And all that is in the sentence, where it is also about a kind of connection, and that is a real, a deep connection with this divided world that we share with each other. Yes, but also Zan emphasizes that... Ordinary life, ordinary daily life is also potentially the mine of realization. So every week I have to ask myself, what am I trying to do? And it's always pretty much the same thing, but this week I'm emphasizing how the ordinary activity of daily life can be the field of Buddhist wisdom and the practice of Zen.

[11:22]

Und es ist eigentlich jede Woche so ziemlich das Gleiche. Aber diese Woche möchte ich die Frage betonen, wie die Aktivität des gewöhnlichen Alltagslebens der Samen für buddhistische Weisheit and the seed for, excuse me, What are you asking? The seed for? The field for the exploration of Buddhism and the practice of Zen. Okay. The exploration of the wisdom of Buddhism and the practice of Zen. Okay. Now, if I phrase it that way, it opens up new ways or useful ways to explore our experience, to imagine our experience as the mind of realization.

[12:32]

Und wenn ich das so betone, dann öffnet es bestimmte Arten und Weisen, unsere Erfahrung als Mine der Verwirklichung betrachten zu können. Okay, so now ordinary life can look pretty shallow. Das gewöhnliche Leben, das kann ziemlich flach oder seicht aussehen. We hardly notice it sometimes. It's just, you know, it's not something we notice. So I'm asking, you know, if we're really within the immediacy and the potentiality of the present. how can we slow down the present or enter into the present in a way that it becomes the mine of realization?

[13:46]

In which the depth of the present is opened up or the Potential fullness of the present is opened up. In der die Tiefe der Gegenwart oder die potenzielle Fülle der Gegenwart geöffnet werden kann. So I've been saying for many years now the phrase to pause for the particular. Ich sage jetzt schon seit vielen Jahren diesen Satz für die Einzelheit innehalten. And that's, I think, surprisingly, has proven to me and to others, a surprisingly fruitful, simple phrase. But let's refine the phrase or redirect the phrase a bit.

[14:48]

And let's turn the phrase in to pause for the moment. Yeah, let's turn the moment into a reference point. Now, again, if you do this, you have to try it out. You just have to take a few minutes when you're walking somewhere, probably, when you don't have to do something, and you have a feeling of pausing for the moment. It's a kind of homeopathic approach to practice. A few moments can have immense power. So you practice pausing for each moment, to pause for the moment, to pause for each moment.

[16:21]

And you try it out. You're really kind of reprogramming your moment-by-moment attentionality. So what happens when you do this? Well, you begin to notice the activity of daily life. presenting itself as moments. Du beginnst die Aktivität des Alltagslebens zu bemerken und sie beginnt sich als Augenblicke oder als einzelne Momente zu zeigen.

[17:31]

And you begin to notice the experience of a pause. Und du beginnst die Erfahrung von einer Pause zu bemerken. You really, when you... You're making the experience of time, of temporalness, a medium which you can take hold of. The pause begins to make time your own medium. So you begin to feel the experience of a pause making space in your life. And in that pause, for each moment, in that pause, you begin to feel the uniqueness, not just the similarities, the uniqueness of each moment.

[18:43]

Und in dieser Pause beginnst du nicht nur zu bemerken wie der eine Moment dem anderen ähnelt, sondern du beginnst auch die Einzigartigkeit von jedem einzelnen Moment zu bemerken. And then the uniqueness of each moment and the pause for each moment. Now, you may think, I mean, sometimes when I say these things, I think, geez, it's a little crazy. But you're turning the activity of your daily life into sort of a weaving that's going on on the loom of time and space, something like that. Manchmal, wenn ich diese Dinge sage, fühle ich mich ein bisschen verrückt, aber mit diesen Aspekten der Einzigartigkeit eines jeden Augenblicks und der Pause verwandelst du deine tägliche Aktivität in etwas, was wie auf dem Webstuhl von Zeit und Raum gewoben wird.

[20:07]

So by noticing the pause of each moment, on each moment, and the uniqueness of each moment, you're turning each moment into a kind of opening. And an opening in which you can sort of water your life or plant a seed. And a hug or a smile of a child can open you to the uniqueness of each moment.

[21:09]

And now, you know, the pause of each moment can become something like a funnel. in which you can pour intent or mental postures or mudras. Wait, in which you can pour intent? What else? Intent or mental posture or a wado. You know, just this is a wado which you pour into the funnel of each moment. So in doing this, I'm trying to suggest a way to slow down the experience of each moment or transform the conception of each moment.

[22:39]

So once we have the feeling that each moment is unique and even an opening into the depth and potential fullness of ordinary activity. The depth of each moment and the potential. And the fullness of the potential. Yeah. Oops. Sorry. Sorry. Sometimes saying more doesn't help. I'm trying to help. Yeah, I know. Sometimes you don't need help. I know, I know. I'm sorry. Okay. Now, where were we? That's the problem.

[23:50]

So now that we have this, we've come to this concept that each moment can even be a funnel in which Buddhist wisdom is poured into daily life. So then we can decide, you know, we have this concept of a funnel. This can be a dynamic of each moment. So then we can say, hey, what should the shape of the funnel be? Well, let's say one shape of the funnel that we've been practicing with is a wado, a turning word phrase.

[25:06]

Or the shape of the funnel could be a mudra, a bow when you pass a buddha. Awakening the gestural path, actualizing the gestural path, is in a way shaping the funnel as a mudra. den gestischen Pfad zu erwecken oder zu verwirklichen, ist in gewisser Weise das Passiert in der Form von Mudren. Or we can shape the funnel as a mantra, which is a huado, it's basically shaping the funnel as a mantra.

[26:11]

Oder wir können diesen Trichter als Mantra formen. Ein Wado, ein Wendesatz, ist im Prinzip ein Mantra. Or we can shape the funnel as a mandala, a field of all-at-onceness. Oder wir können den Trichter als Mandala formen, als ein Feld, wo alles auf einmal platziert ist, ein Feld von allem auf einmal. And the three mysteries of a Buddha are sometimes named as mudra, mantra and mandala. And I was, you know, three quarters thinking that's what I should speak about today.

[27:16]

But somehow I got shifted into the depth and potential fullness of the activity of daily life. And we could also change the tune, change the tune of this... Wado, this turning word, to pause for each moment. To the greeting of each moment. Yeah. And the greeting of each moment is a kind of sense of the loom or weaving of each moment.

[28:31]

The greeting can be the Brahma-Vihara, the practice of unlimited friendliness and empathetic joy. Yeah, this is weaving the ancient brocade. Having an experiential sense. Each moment, the uniqueness and potentiality of each moment in which we die or love or hug or see a child or whatever.

[29:38]

In this koan 93, it's also called the jewel of the mind of suchness. And I've been finding it useful to turn the phrase into the greeting each sense or greeting the field of senses. So my pause for each moment becomes greeting each moment and greeting each sense that shows me the moment or is the moment. What's after greeting each moment?

[30:58]

The field of the senses. Each sense that is each moment. The physical senses. Ja. Und diese Begrüßung des Augenblicks geschieht durch das Feld der Sinne. Ja. So I in the West you know the activity and the conceptual webbing that's within the daily activity in the West.

[32:02]

Or the weaving of our daily activity would be different from the weaving of the daily activity of somebody in Luzhu and Nanchuan's time. So we have to look at what needle and thread are the best way to enter the weaving of our daily life. Now, the four noble truths, the four ennobling truths, start with, you know, there is suffering. Die vier edlen Wahrheiten oder die vier veredelnden Wahrheiten beginnen mit der Aussage, dass da Leiden ist.

[33:31]

Mit der Wahrheit des Leidens. And we all know there is suffering. Und wir alle wissen, dass es Leid gibt. But until we can imagine there's a potential freedom from suffering. Really, imagine that. It's hard for us to know what it is to recognize suffering. Is the only response to alleviate it? Well, if we can alleviate it, giving somebody the shirt off your back or the food for, or, you know, whatever you can give. It's certainly wonderful to do it.

[34:48]

It's necessary to do it. But if your feeling is suffering can be transformed and you have some experience of transforming suffering in yourself, So then your way of relating to suffering may be somewhat different. For instance, say that as is common in cities in America these days, there are lots of homeless people and often people asking for some kind of financial gift sitting in the street or against a building.

[35:56]

Zum Beispiel, sagen wir mal, wie das heutzutage üblich ist in den Vereinigten Staaten, dass du obdachlose Menschen siehst, die auf der Straße sitzen und um eine Gabe bitten. And if you have some change or not too large a bill, I've sometimes pulled out too large a bill, a $20 bill, and I think, jeez, I think I need that for the bus, but if I have it out, I give it to them. And when you have change money or money bills, I sometimes pull out what I have in my pocket. And when I have a $20 note in my hand, I think, oh, maybe I still need it for the bus or something. But if that's what I have in my hand, I give it to them. And occasionally I've done that and then had to walk a long distance because I couldn't take the bus. But it's okay. It was okay. But you can also just stop in front of the person and feel that which comes and goes in me comes and goes within you.

[37:04]

And you can just stop in addition to giving them some coins or whatever. You can just have a feeling. There but for a few circumstances and genes go I. So that is what has made me emphasize in recent years what I call the four tenets or four beliefs. And the four tenets, as I think of them, or four beliefs, is first of all the belief, the conviction, that transformation is possible.

[38:47]

And to believe that transformation is possible means that you actually believe that enlightenment or realization is possible. Or that the awareness or awakeness of what we call Buddha is actually potentially possible, or is in fact in our life. Yeah, and the second tenet is that, what is the second tenet? Freedom from suffering is possible. Freedom from mental and emotional suffering is possible.

[40:04]

And freedom and to know and to be able to be close to how things actually exist is the third. And to live, the fourth is to live in a way, sometimes it's fourth or third, to live in a way that's potentially or hopefully beneficial to all existence. And the fourth, and sometimes I turn it around, the third and the fourth, but the fourth is to live in a way that hopefully comes to good with others. That it is possible to live like that.

[41:07]

So this was, speaking about this emphasis on transformation was, One of the ways I almost started today, but now I'm at the end. So now I'm just adding something which I'm not going to develop. Well, how do we act If transformation is possible, how do we act in the world moment after moment with the feeling that transformation is possible? So, while I was imagining how to Speak toward that.

[42:17]

Instead of using the idea of a loom, I would use the idea of puddles. Puddles? Like rain? Puddles of rainwater? Okay. Also, in der Vorstellung darüber, wie ich über diese Dinge sprechen kann, würde ich jetzt statt der Metapher von einem Webstuhl über Pfützen sprechen. I laugh at myself at these kooky ideas I have. But it was like, I felt like I was stepping in puddle after puddle. Sort of splashing my way through life. Not always beneficially. And it's interesting, the etymology of pond or puddle is the same as the etymology of furrow, where you plant something. And it's interesting, the etymology of the English word pond, or pond, is furrow, is that like a gardening house?

[43:50]

Plowing the earth with a plow makes a furrow. Ah, okay, furche vielleicht, dann bin ich nicht sicher. Also die Etymologie von pond oder puddle im Englischen ist das gleiche wie die Etymologie eines wortes, das damit zu tun hat, den Boden zu pflügen. Ich glaube, das ist wahrscheinlich furche. So if you can feel change is a medium, a change is a medium in which you're stepping and splashing and etc. is where you can plant transformation. Change is unique at each moment, and it becomes something you can plant transformation in. Because you assume that change is a medium and change is unique, is unique in every moment. And then change is exactly where you can plant the seeds of transformation.

[44:51]

So for now, I always want to say more than I can. For now, let's just leave it. Please practice with, try out practicing with pause for each moment. Or greeting each moment. I'm so sorry. We talked about that. Yes, we did. She's reprimanding me for interrupting her. So pausing for each moment and try out also greeting each moment. And see if that opens up the depth of daily activity.

[46:01]

Okay, thank you very much. And thank you so much for your patience with me, dear Nicole. Not much patience needed. Thank you. Thank you for teaching. Okay, it's quarter to or 13 minutes to five now. You need a few extra minutes, I was told. Should we say five after five? That gives you about a little less than 20 minutes. Keith says it's okay. Keith says it's okay, so let's make it okay. The mine of suchness. Yeah, the mine of suchness.

[47:14]

That's what we're talking about. Thank you.

[47:16]

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