Out of the dust and out of the frame. The frame of society and culture. So your own life is bigger than the culture you live in. Also dein eigenes Leben ist größer als die Kultur, in der du lebst. And your own life experience is wider than will fit into self. Ja, und deine Erfahrungen der Welt sind größer als hineinpassen in ein Selbst. So practice is also a form of accommodation. So you accommodate yourself to your culture and to the kind of person you have been born?

[01:04]

At the same time, you realize the pure mind of Zazen. Pure mind? I mean, maybe it's not completely pure. But it's freer of constructions and freer of obstructions. And in that way, zazen mind tends to purify itself. And zazen mind purifies your usual mind. So another decision one makes as part of the Buddhist package is to trust or make a decision to bring

[02:20]

to bring into, to feel in your ordinary life the pure mind of zazen. Or purifying mind of zazen. So it means not only just that you do zazen and you see the contrast, But you sit enough that Zazen mind begins to flow up from underneath almost into your daily life. Now, if you don't sit regularly, you still will have the insights and understandings of Zen practice. And you can still practice mindfulness and so forth.

[03:34]

But these insights tend to lose some of their transformative power. And the clarity and brightness of mind gets somewhat dulled. If you miss sitting zazen for a few weeks even, it's like a stream settles down outside your life. Still running underneath your life. But it's not surfacing in your activity so much. But if you're experienced at sitting and so forth, When you don't sit for a few weeks for some reason, you sit again and very quickly it surfaces into your life.

[04:57]

So another decision that's part of the Buddhist package It's letting, deciding to acknowledge this mind And to let that keep surfacing in your life. Make a decision to let it keep surfacing in your life. For yourself and for others. And many of the koans are really about this. For example, Yunyang sweeping, Dao says, too busy.

[06:01]

And Yunyang says, you should know there is one who is not busy. In the middle of your activity, you know that there's also, in a way, someone who's not busy in this activity. Or in the middle of your activity, you know there's a place which is neither hot nor cold. And you make a decision that an ideal human being is a real possibility.

[07:03]

An ideal means the best way you would like a human being to be. And a recognition that even though it's not an attainable goal, To choose that direction for yourself is a kind of achievement of that goal. And that dynamic not only works in you, it works in other people. You know, I really find myself inspired by people who have made a decision to have exemplary lives.

[08:08]

Even if their lives are sometimes in something of a mess, their decision inspires me. And the decision to, as much as possible, alleviate the misery of this life. Yeah, in any way that we can. So that is, once we've made those kinds of decisions, that becomes a kind of basis for all of our decisions.

[09:25]

it makes decisions much clearer and easier. They might be outwardly difficult, but they're inwardly easier. And they fit with the other decisions. So you really do feel a sense of being on a path. And if the outward things don't cooperate, you don't despair. You just have the patience for the ripening of the path. Of course, every action is nothing but decisions.

[10:40]

When we end, none of you are going to walk straight through that wall. If any of you plan to do so, let the rest of us would like to watch. But most of us will all go through one of those two doors. That's a decision. But you don't notice it as a decision. And the majority of the decisions we make are not even noticed. And to be on the path is to feel that way that even big decisions are almost not noticed. Because your whole life has this direction of bodhisattva practice. And the whole concept of bodhisattva practice is Whether it's realizable or not is not important.

[11:53]

Let's express sometimes that the Bodhisattva is one who refrains from being a Buddha. But we can also understand it like Dogen says, life is one continuous mistake. Or he says, if you shoot a hundred arrows and the hundredth hits the target, The first 99 also hit the target. So this intent, this direction is what's important, not the accomplishment of the goal. And another aspect of bodhisattva practice is that it's in your particular life.

[13:01]

Not in Buddhist terms or some book. In the particularities of your life, just as it is now. Have that much respect for your life as it is now. And not only your particular life. But our particular era, our particular time, this particular time right now, after September 11, whatever our time is, the bodhisattva is a bodhisattva for this time. It's not Buddha for all ages.

[14:16]

Bodhisattva is for your particular life at this particular time. This particular time needs each of your Bodhisattva practice. There's no question about that. This is true, not false. Okay, why don't we sit for a few minutes and a while and we can end. Yes, let us sit for a few minutes and then end. Oh.

[22:06]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[24:57]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[26:58]

I'm sorry. I want to thank each of you for your presence during this seminar.

[31:01]

It made a big difference for me and for the seminar. So thank you. And by the way, it's a custom that you've noticed to fluff your cushion whenever you're leaving it for more than a few minutes. Just a habit you get into at the end of zazen or before a break. It's sort of not making distinction between inner acts of completion and outer acts of completion. And the more in your outer acts you have a sense of completing things or leaving things as they were,

[32:12]

It helps you in your perception and conceptual process to keep returning everything to zero. Sorry for that last little lesson. It's been on my mind to mention it. Okay, thank you very much. I hope I see you again one of these days.

[33:01]

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