So let's go back to the koan I mentioned, case 12 of the Shoyuroku I mentioned, I guess, yesterday morning. It starts out, actually, scholars plow with the pen. Gelehrte pflügen mit dem Federhalter. Orators plow with the tongue. Redner pflügen mit der Zunge. But we patched robed mendicants. Und wir flickenrobige Bettler. Beggars. Beggars, yes. Here, the koan emphasizes not monks but mendicants, being that they don't support themselves.

[01:07]

You can't support yourself if everyone's practicing meditation all the time. Yes, so scholars plow with the pen. Orators plow with the tongue. But we patched robed mendicants. But we patched robed mendicants. lazily watch the white ox on open ground. And without paying attention to the auspicious, rootless grass. Yeah. how to pass the days.

[02:10]

Now, if you just arrived here today, or yesterday, or the other day, and you're unfamiliar with Zen, It might be a nice image lazily watching the white ox without paying attention to the auspicious rootless grass. Oh yeah, you might like the images but I don't think it means much to you. And this is what's, first of all, just the language is already making a difference between lay practice and monastic practice.

[03:14]

And what's being pointed out is the difference between lay and monastic practice. Yeah, and I think when Peter Dreyer points out the other day of waiting for the pause, or waiting, we could say, for silence, Or I might say in some ways in finding out what to do here with you, I wait for the silence. I mean, there's not complete silence here, but there's a kind of. Silence suddenly is felt, can be felt.

[04:28]

Or I wait for a feeling of soft space. You know what, again, what do I mean? It actually took me some time before I began to believe or recognize that in fact I was kind of instinctively waiting for soft space. This is not different from lazily watching the white ox. Or in a related tradition Lao Tzu the purported author of the Tao Te Ching, says, the world, we're asking ourselves, of course, what is the world?

[05:53]

What world do we live in? What world do we want to live in? And this is different than asking, what is my psychology or your psychology? Or what's my personal history? What do I really feel? Here the emphasis is on What is the world? Can we do anything about the world? Anyway, Lao Tzu calls the world a sacred vessel. And he says, again, Tao Te Ching asks, how do you know this sacred vessel?

[07:08]

And Lao Tzu says, return to the uncarved block. Now how the heck do you return to the uncarved block? Wie kann man das anstellen, zu diesem unbehauenen Block zurückzukehren? We say in English, you're a chip off the old block. Im Englischen sagen wir, du bist ein Schnipsel von dem alten Block. Do you have such an expression in German? No, you wouldn't say that. Do you say the... The apple doesn't fall far from the tree is somewhat similar. Ja, danke. So, I mean, a similar saying in Zen is know the face, know your original face before your parents were born.

[08:10]

This is an interesting kind of statement. The face before your parents were born, what kind of practice is this? Of course, it's in contrast, and particularly in a country like China, which is really involved with who your ancestors are. Yeah, I know who my ancestors are, grandparents, I mean, one might, grandparents, great-grandparents, and so forth. But here it's, yes, that's accepted as that's also who we are.

[09:20]

But such a phrase in Zen practice emphasizes something like return to the uncarved block. What happens through such a practice? How do you do such a practice? And does it have any fruits or purpose or anything? Now, it says here, plow. It plows with the... So here we have a relationship to Dijang saying

[10:22]

How does that compare to me here planting the fields, plowing the fields? And harvesting rice and cooking it. So there's clearly an implication that there's a result or fruit of this practice. And scholars plowing with the pen Now, I'm bringing us into a close reading of the text. And I think it helps us if we realize there were no cereal boxes in those days. Words were precious.

[11:36]

Paper was precious. To produce a text, I mean, this was something extraordinary in those days. And the text and the writing on it had to carry And in medieval European times, the text was considered to be what joined the monk and the layperson. Because the monk and the layperson both could share the text. Yeah. And my life is an experiment my life with you is an experiment in the relationship between monastic and lay practice.

[13:03]

And I don't know, I mean there's been thousands of years of, two and a half thousands of years of Buddhism, And not everything is recorded. But I know of no instance where there's as big an experiment as we're doing of the relationship between lay and monastic practice. And I think some of you thought I was a little strong overbearing last night. But we are engaged in this experiment of what is lay and what is monastic practice.

[14:11]

And what is the relationship between them? And what is the spectrum of the relationship in which The spectrum includes people who are only lay practitioners, and then sometimes monastic practitioners, and sometimes primarily, etc. We have a spectrum, and we're a part of that spectrum. And so far it seems to me that to be part of that spectrum you benefit from all parts of the spectrum when you're one part of the spectrum. I mean, this isn't something I thought up. This is something I've learned by watching what's happening here and in Europe.

[15:11]

And I've resisted for years Dogen's view that only monks can really practice. And now, you know, because I trust Dogen's experience. I trust Dogen's experience. I'm not a person who only takes the parts of Dogen I like and I hell with the rest. I think that's not responsible. But, you know, my academic training is in history. And I feel that in the time in which Dogen lived, that was probably true.

[16:26]

But we have a different culture. Overall more sophisticated, educated. And we have the time to be here like we're doing right now. In 13th century Japan, you didn't have a lot of farmers who could take time off and come and hang out in Johanneshof. And nor was the transportation available. In those days if you walked to Dogen's temple from Hamburg, when you got there you stayed for a while. You didn't say, I'm going back to Hamburg on Sunday.

[17:39]

Okay, so we're in a very different situation. But still, my experience is, well, maybe it helps to see that We know that in significant ways Buddhism is not a religion in western terms. Maybe we could call it a wisdom practice. But it's also more of a, it's a profession. Like being a physicist is a profession.

[18:40]

Excuse me, in German, das Wort Beruf für mich ist etwas platt. Sometimes we look for the proper words in German. Well, I hope so. I'm looking for the proper words, too. And of course, sometimes they ask you. You haven't failed. Good, thanks. He's a medical doctor. And it's a profession. Yeah. And he went to medical school. And there had to be laboratories and equipment and so forth. I'm not a doctor, a medical doctor. I'm very glad he is. I'm glad that you are glad. And a translator.

[19:57]

So we all benefit by the fact that there's the medical profession and doctors and we don't want a doctor who didn't go to medical school. And probably you don't want a Zen teacher who didn't have monastic experience. Now, that makes us who can only belay people feel we're not as good or something. Well, I support him as a doctor, you can support me as a monastic. And perhaps we can design, develop the teachings so that many aspects of monastic practice can be incorporated in lay practice. This is my life work.

[21:08]

So I think, as you heard me say last night, in effect, we have an adept lay sangha. But the big question is, can the Adept Lay Sangha transmit to the next generation? That's the big question. And my particular feeling right now is, that unless we have practice periods in Europe, we probably won't be able to do it. And as I said last night, I don't care. The Sangha is going to decide and we'll, you know, But it's clear.

[22:18]

You now know how I feel. And if we don't do it, and we survive, I'll be very happy. If you prove me wrong, I'm going to be happy. Because I'll take a small amount of credit for developing a lay sangha which can transmit. But right now I think, hey, let's play it safe. And have a way to do practice periods in Europe. So let's go back to the uncarved block. Lazily watching the white ox. Now... As I started to say, texts were very important in those days, as they were in medieval Europe.

[23:38]

As of ancient times. I mean, precious in a way we can hardly understand how precious they were. And because you didn't have lots of texts in cereal boxes. You internalized what you read. I used the English word yesterday, a perception, instead of just perception. And that, in English, I don't know what a similar word probably means the same, is that you incorporate what you perceive into everything you already know. Yeah. Okay.

[24:50]

So scholars plow, plow with the pen. Now scholars plowing with the pen refers to the people who put this book, Shoyuroku, together. And it means that when they wrote down these texts, they were creating furrows Furrows is when the plows... It's also, excuse me for saying so, the source of the four-letter word we're not supposed to say. Aha. In other words, the text itself is conceived of, as conceived of, as furrows, which you put your seeds in and

[25:57]

And I, as in this case the orator, are putting my seeds in and you're putting your seeds in. And it's got to be treated as this fertile, furrowed text. And so this koan happens to focus on the meeting and speaking, which we're doing right now, which is part of our Zen tradition. Und das Koran hier fokussiert auf dieses begegnen und sprechen, und das ist ja das, was wir hier im Augenblick die ganze Zeit auch tun.

[27:13]

The text itself is an example of meeting and speaking. And the Koran later says, communion with the source. Well, we're on Quell and Wake, aren't we? This is good. Communion with Quellenweg, communion with the source, and communion through speech are like the sun in an open sky. Die sind wie die Sonne in einem offenen Himmel. Okay, so we're doing communion with speech. Was wir tun ist also eine Kommunion, eine Begegnung mit der Sprache.

[28:22]

And we're also doing as monastics or as adept laypersons. Und als klösterbewohner und adept. we're doing practicing communion with the source and this communion with the source is something we as lay persons can do but in the koan it's it's contrasted with the patched-robed, made of different pieces of cloth, patched-robed mendicants. who lazily watch the white ox on open ground.

[29:26]

And I almost, I always imagine a layperson in an office in a desk. What are you doing? I'm lazily watching a white ox on Facebook. Okay, let's have a break. We can see if the lazy white ox returns. Okay. Thanks for your patience.

[30:26]

Thank you very much.

[30:27]

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