Zen is very simple. Zen ist ganz einfach. But there's an awful lot hidden in that simplicity. Aber da steckt eine ganze Menge in dieser Einfachheit. Yeah, there's these two stories. One you know already, the other you probably don't. Es gibt diese zwei Geschichten und eine von den beiden kennt ihr wahrscheinlich schon und die andere wahrscheinlich nicht. Is Yuan Wu, the compiler of the blue cliff records and as good an authority as we can have about Zen. As part of these paramita, six paramita lectures, I've mentioned Yuan Wu several times.

[01:04]

And the story I'm talking to have mentioned, and I'm talking to and about, is he says, realize right where you stand. Und die Geschichte, über die ich spreche oder zu der ich spreche oder aus der heraus ich spreche, da heißt es, da sagt Yuan Wu, verwirkliche genau dort, wo du stehst. First you want to savor, savor these words. Und diese Worte, die solltest du dir erst mal im Munde zergehen lassen. Realize. Whoa, big deal. Sounds pretty good. Maybe it's okay.

[02:06]

Realize. Oh, yeah. Just that one, right? Right. Right. Wrong. Right. Exactly. Where you stand. Genau, also genau, wirklich präzise oder genau, da wo du stehst. There's a location. There's a where you stand. A location where you stand. Und es gibt, da ist ein Ort. Es gibt so einen Ort, der Ort an dem du stehst. And that location amounts to something. In fact, our location is a secret entry into the difference between subjectivity and self.

[03:12]

Unser Ort, dieser Ort, ist ein Zugang zu dem Unterschied zwischen Subjektivität und Selbst. There's not maybe a who who takes the precepts, but there's certainly a subjectivity which takes the precepts. Es gibt vielleicht kein wer. So realize, really, is it possible? Is transformation possible? This you have to believe. I mean, practice is not going to work. The chemistry of practice, the alchemy of practice is not going to work for you unless you actually feel transformation is possible and you are in the midst of the potential of transformation.

[04:31]

And that is something that you have to believe. The chemistry of practice or the alchemy of practice, it can't work at all if you don't recognize the possibility of change or if you don't have the feeling that you are in the middle of a possible change. So there's no reason to bleed. or hear about the rest of the story if you don't really know that transformation is possible for you and you are a person who's able and is in fact seeking the potentiality and possibility of transformation. If you don't believe that, if you don't accept that, then there's really no reason to read or hear the rest of the story. If you can't imagine that transformation or real change is possible for you, that there are possibilities that are accessible to you.

[05:36]

What would it mean? And is my life such and such that there's some kind of thoroughness or deep satisfaction that is possible? So you can So that you're nourishing, savoring that first word, realize. Also, du nährst und du schmeckst dieses allererste Wort, realize, oder verwirklichen. Das lässt du dir im Munde zergehen. Exactly where you are. And this is, I'm on this Zabutan, on this platform with you folks. Is this a place where transformation can happen?

[06:51]

I mean, really? Let's be serious about this. If realization is possible, it does have to happen in some place. Time or timelessness or in some place or placenessness or why isn't this place good enough? Any place should be good enough. dann muss das ja an irgendeinem Ort und in irgendeiner Zeit möglich sein. Und warum dann nicht jetzt hier? Warum sollte dieser Ort hier nicht gut genug dafür sein? So somehow you have to get to the point where you actually are functioning through, now it's possible.

[07:52]

Also irgendwie ist es wichtig, dass du an diesen Punkt kommst, Von dem aus du beginnst zu spüren, okay, jetzt weiß ich, dass es möglich ist. Jetzt spüre ich, dass es möglich ist. The third parameter is patience. And the third parameter is patience. Is that right? The fourth parameter is patience. No, you did that right. No, I did that right. Okay. The third parameter is patience, yeah. So if realization is going to happen, and it's going to happen in somewhere where you are, you also have to have patience. Also, and the third parameter is patience. And if realization is to happen, and it is to happen in a place where you are, well, what you then need is patience. The ego's impatient, the ego stream, the identity stream is impatient, but fundamentally, whenever.

[08:58]

It's possible now and whenever. You have to have this kind of conversation with yourself. Right where you stand. So you can stand somewhere kind of like mull this over. And then Yuan Wu says, bring your mind. How do you do that? Bring your mind in what kind of container? I mean, how do I get hold of it? Bring your mind to where there's no before or after.

[10:07]

Well, how do we notice mind? Let's not think about mind as an entity or an object. Just obviously we notice things and we call that mind. So let's think, well, attention is some kind of aspect of mind. Yeah, so let's bring attention... To attention. Why not? This is really gymnastics for you. It's not meaningful in a book unless you do these things yourself. It's not meaningful in a book.

[11:46]

It's not meaningful if you just get it from a book or something. You have to actually do these things yourself. Try them out, like doing yoga. You can read about yoga, but it doesn't mean anything unless you do a little yoga. I read about that posture. It's really a nice posture. So I know tension is... Something to do with my experience of mine. So I bring attention. Can I feel attentionality without letting before and next and after happen? You're standing. I mean, Yuan Wu gave us an image, stand.

[12:48]

Right where you are. So it's a little bit like practicing Qigong. You stand. Explore the energy of standing. So stand right where you are. And then you Well, I'm filled with attention, with attentionality. But how long do I have to stand here? Well, you've just brought in after. Was this really any good?

[14:13]

You've just brought in the past. These are all just thought forms. How the hell do I distinguish between that thought form and this thought form? Thought forms that don't have before and after in them. It's a kind of Cosmically important games. And bring your mind to where there's bring your attentionality to where there's no here nor there. Bring deine Aufmerksamkeit dahin, wo es kein hier und kein dort gibt.

[15:23]

Now that may be a little easier to explore because it's a visual, inactable image. So you may have to try here only. And you might have to say here, I'm willing to die here. This is a place I'm willing to die. That's a kind of here only. And no there-ness. You can say, I'm never going to move from this space. I'm never going to move from this place. And it's very funny.

[16:47]

We live through attentionality. It's, as I've been saying for the last months, Zen is about attentionality, not conceptuality. And it's really strange. We live through our field of attention. And as I have said over and over again in the last few months, in Zen it's about attention, not about the conceptual. Now, here's Yuan Wu, born in 1063. In Europe in 1066, a famous date, the Normans, who were kind of descendants of the Vikings and Norwegians, invaded England and brought Europe to England. And in 1066, the Normans came to Northern France and brought Europe to England.

[17:53]

So at the same time, here was... Yuan Wu being born just a few years or three years earlier, saying soon in his midlife, bring your mind to where there's no before and after. Nobody in England or nobody in Normandy at that time said, bring your mind to where there's no before and after. We don't do that in Normandy. Das hat in der Normandie oder in England damals keiner gesagt.

[19:00]

Wenn man das damals dort gesagt hätte, bring dein Geist dahin, wo es kein Vorher und Nachher gibt, da hätten sie gesagt, nein, das machen wir in der Normandie nicht. So you're, us Westerners, we're born into this culture, we're using the language which completely is constructed from this culture. And now you're saying this weird thing. Bring the mind to where there's no before and after. We Westerners, we grew up in the Western culture. We grew up with a language that is shaped through and through from this culture. And now we're sitting here and saying this strange sentence all of a sudden. Bring your spirit. No here and there. No Normandy or no England. Of course, I'm not talking about that.

[20:03]

How can you feel yourself without there-ness and here-ness? A kind of subjectivity which absorbs objectivity until everything just feels complete and inseparable. Aber natürlich sprechen sie darüber nicht, sondern sie sprechen über das Gefühl, das geistige Gefühl eines Ortes, der keinen anderen Ort sucht. Ein Gefühl von Subjektivität, das das Objektive so weit absorbiert, in sich aufnimmt, dass es ein Gefühl von Vollständigkeit gibt. This is a kind of prescription, a kind of medicine you can't get at the apothecary, apotheca. Das ist eine Art von Medizin, eine Art von Rezept, das du in der Apotheke nicht bekommst.

[21:09]

And you don't have to pay the pharmacist, the dharmasist, the dharmasist. You don't have to do anything. He's given us a formula, a prescription, a description of how subjectivity can absorb objectivity and you're in a world of completeness. Not oneness, but completeness. Er hat uns hier ein Rezept gegeben, eine Beschreibung gegeben, wie wir eine Subjektivität entstehen lassen können, die das Objektive so vollständig in sich aufnimmt, dass darin ein Gefühl von Vollständigkeit entsteht.

[22:13]

You know, I'm supposed to talk about, I want to talk about the fifth parameter now. No, the fourth parameter. No, the fifth. Fifth, okay, so fifth, yeah. That's right, the fifth. They're all joined in my experience, so the fifth parameter. Which is generally... in the Mahayana list called meditation. So I'm speaking about meditation as the practice of intention. The skill The tool, the skill of intention.

[23:14]

I mean, all of Buddhism is based on the vow, the possibility of vowing. That's what the precepts are about. So I thought I might talk about this story of Huan Wu and a story of Tore, a Rinzai teacher. practitioner, Rinzai master, who was born in 1721, when America was just getting started. And what I wanted to do is talk about Yuan Wu and a second story by Torei, a Rinzai Zen master from 1700-1700.

[24:17]

1721. Aus dem Jahr 1721. And he was, yeah. You mean when the colonialization of America just started. Was just getting into the 1600s and 1700s. It was just getting started. Ja, also als die Kolonialisierung von Amerika gerade begann. My ancestors were already in America trying to get started too. Thinking, what the hell? I miss Europe, but here I am. Meine Vorfahren waren damals auch schon in Amerika und haben auch gerade neue Anfänge geschaffen und sich gedacht, oh je, ich vermisse Europa, aber alles klar, jetzt sind wir hier. Yeah, but I get so excited about, I get excited talking to you, you know, so excited about talking about the story of Yuan Wu, that now I don't know if it's time to tell you the story about Torei. But what, you know, when this is not, these stories are in books.

[25:22]

But they have no meaning unless you practice them. Like yoga posture has no meaning unless you do it. Aber die haben keine Bedeutung, wenn du sie nicht praktizierst. Genauso wie eine Yoga-Haltung keine Bedeutung hat, wenn du sie nicht praktizierst. Yeah, I mean... Yeah. So Zen is a kind of Zenist. You have to play it to... for it to exist. I mean, tennis doesn't exist, but somebody plays it.

[26:23]

Oh, tennis is very interesting to read about, but you have to play it. And some games stop. Einige Spiele sterben auch aus. Die gibt es dann einfach nicht mehr. There was an early form of tennis called Jus de Paume, where you hit the ball with your palm and not with a tennis racket. That sounds awful. Es gibt eine frühe Form von Tennis. Das hieß Jus de Paume, ein Spiel mit der Handinnenfläche, wo man den Ball mit der Hand spielt und nicht mit dem Schläger. And I don't think anybody does jousting anymore. You know, jousting, riding a horse with a knight. That's an extinct sport. I mean, mostly anyway. And there's a computer game called All Zombies Must Die.

[27:32]

It's extinct, too, I think, along with the zombies. So Zen is a game. Zenists may die unless we practice it. And Zen is such a game. Zen is a game that can die if we don't practice it. I mean, a goat may become extinct. We may be the last sort of like skeleton left. That can also die out. And we may be the last skeletons that are still sitting around here. So I get excited when I tell you a story like Yuan Wu because... It's an image. It's not really a story. It's an inactable image. You know, and now our, in our calendar used nowadays worldwide in the 1700s, Tore said, examine right where you are.

[29:01]

And also in unserem Kalender nach in den 1700er Jahren, da hat Tore gesagt, untersuche This story is structurally parallel to the Yuan Wu story, except he says examine instead of realize. Now, most people are recommended don't do two things at once or don't pretend you're a 10-track guy and you never get anything done. But Tore, as he's called, the genius disciple of Hakuin, the outstanding Rinzai teacher, Later, but parallel to Dogen in some ways.

[30:13]

Yeah. He said, examine right where you are. That means, like right now, to have attentionality part of what I'm doing, inseparable from what I'm doing. Yeah. So I always, one of the things I always enjoyed in the tea ceremony is when you do the tea ceremony, you know, you're washing the bowls and placing the bowls and all.

[31:16]

That's part of it. It's not just drinking the tea. And one thing I always like in the tea ceremony is to wash the bowls and the entire ritual, which is so much more, where so much more is still part of it, than just drinking the tea. And if we were doing the tea ceremony and you were participating, and I was doing, I'd have to get the bowls out and get everything settled. And once I get everything settled, I get myself settled. I don't start until if I'm wearing a kimono or whatever I'm wearing is straight. And my spine is straight. And you use the spine to straighten everything. And then you're dignified enough to present yourself to the tea, not just to the people, to the tea ceremony, this ceremony.

[32:22]

that people grow this tea and choose which tea to grow and what type of time of year and under the shade of what kind of tree and so forth, they pick it. And then you have gained the dignity to present yourself to tea, not only to other people, but also to tea. To tea, where so much has flowed in, where people choose where exactly they let them grow, from which tree they pick them, how many shadows they let grow over it and so on. I mean, cultivating tea and discovering the plant in the first place, it's a huge human institution. So you present yourself. I'm doing the best I can. Okay. So Tore said, Examine right where you are.

[33:42]

Examine is like exam, to test, to check out, to notice. And untersuchen, da geht es im englischen Wort examen auch darum, etwas zu erproben, etwas zu testen und zu bemerken. So notice right where this subjectivity has experienced. You're getting down or into basics, not who you are, just the whatness of where you are, where this subjectivity is subject to.

[34:47]

Yeah, so you're subject to to this situation and you are noticing it carefully noticing and then Tore says when you're sitting while you're sitting examine your sitting When you're in some activity, examine while you're in that activity, examine the activity. Wenn du etwas tust, wenn du aktiv bist, dann während du aktiv bist, untersuche diese Aktivität.

[36:05]

When you're lying down, reclining, even sleeping, examine your reclining, examine your sleeping. Wenn du dich hinlegst oder sogar auch wenn du schläfst, dann während du dich hinlegst oder während du schläfst, untersuche das sich hinlegen und das Schlafen. When you're speaking, examine your speaking. Wenn du sprichst, untersuche das Sprechen. So, how do I examine my speaking while I'm speaking? Well, I bring attentionality. I feel the intentionality in the speaking. Wie untersuche ich das Sprechen während ich spreche? Naja, ich bringe Aufmerksamkeit da hinein und ich spüre die Aufmerksamkeit im Sprechen. Now I've got these ruinously expensive hearing aids. I could buy a small car or at least a wheelbarrow.

[37:06]

Two or three wheelbarrows, in fact. Yeah. Yeah. And in the last lecture I gave last Sunday, I suddenly just, I tried them out and then I just took them out. Because I could hear all kinds of interesting noises like this and like this. But I couldn't hear my own voice because your body is part of your voice. I couldn't hear my own voice. So I didn't know what to say. So I get rid of those damn things. Now I'm getting so excited talking about these stories and able to hear... feel the speaking and examine the speaking as I'm speaking.

[38:28]

So Tore says, when you're doing your various tasks, examine why you're doing your various tasks. Now, to give this talk some shape at the end, which is very soon, Both of these stories are really images, inactable images. And it's a kind of hidden tantrism. In the midst of Zen practice. Because instead of imaging yourself as a deity, you're imaging yourself as a person who in all activities brings attentionality to that activity.

[39:58]

Because instead of, for example, visualizing you as a deity, you visualize or visualize yourself as a person who, no matter what she does, examines what she does. And Yuan Wu and Tore, in presenting these two inactable images, are assuming you have the ability to enact such an image and sustain the enactment in your activity. Die gehen davon aus, dass du die Fähigkeit hast, so ein Bild tatsächlich zu verinnerlichen und umzusetzen und diese Verinnerlichung und Umsetzung, dieses Bild in deiner Aktivität aufrechtzuerhalten.

[41:03]

How do you learn that? Wie lernst du das? Basically, zazen. Im Grunde genommen im Sassen. And establishing, now I'll try to be fairly quick here. Establishing a term is extremely important. A term you can function within. So we have the term. In our life practice, zazen. Wir haben diesen Begriff in unserer Lebenspraxis, zazen. And za, zafu, zabutan, is sitting. The Japanese word for sitting. Und za, das ist das japanische Wort für sitzen. And zen is a version of the word jana, to absorb. Und Zen ist eine Version des Wortes Jana, das Wort für Absorption.

[42:04]

Okay, so Zazen is sitting absorption. Also Zazen ist sitzendes Absorbieren. Now you can ask, why isn't it standing absorption like Qigong practice? Und du kannst die Frage stellen, warum ist es nicht stehendes Absorbieren, zum Beispiel wie die Qigong-Praxis? Really, it's because you can examine the powers of intention more fully sitting than standing. Im Grunde ist es, weil du die Kraft der Intention im Sitzen besser erforschen kannst, als wenn du stehst. So the point of Zazen is to establish... the experience, the inseparable experience of stillness as simply a resource, access, location that's part of your body.

[43:05]

to establish the inseparable location as inseparable part of your body of stillness. It's always available at any moment. Stillness. Der Punkt dabei ist, Stille als einen untrennbaren Teil deines Körpers zu etablieren. Etwas, was immer zugänglich ist. How do you get there? Wie gelangst du dahin? Through the intention not to move. Now, you can't practice not moving in the middle of your tasks, and you can't practice not moving for very long when you are doing various things. So what's the most basic thing we human beings do? As we move. We start waving our arms around in the crib and trying to talk.

[44:15]

And learning how to eat and things like that. So here is what Zazen is saying. Stop moving. Develop the intention to stop moving. This is a big deal. And it's not so easy to stop moving. Your legs hurt. Don't move. You're hungry. Okay, later. Don't move. You're bored and have better things to do. Don't move. Yeah, I got to take a pee.

[45:19]

Don't move. Yeah. I'm sleepy. I'm about ready to fall off the town. As best you can. Don't move. Ich bin müde. Ich falle gleich von der Tarn, von der erhöhten Sitzplattform. So gut du kannst, bewege dich nicht. So, it's about stopping, finding, discovering, stopping as an intention to be able to stop. Es geht darum, das Anhalten zu lernen, die Intention auszubilden, das Anhalten zu lernen. And how could we describe Yuan Wu's statement? Realize right where you stand. Discover a mind where there's no before and after. No here or there to go to. It's a full stop. Stop. No past, no future, no here and there. Stop. Whoa.

[46:38]

I'm trying to get the translator not to stop. Okay. So Buddhism is basically saying, and Zen practice emphasizes it as the primary practice. Learn the power of intention by learning how to stop. The power of intention and vowing, and Torei says, His examine while you're sitting, examine while you're working, etc.

[47:46]

He says, this is to discover the power of vowing. Now, Meditation is the fifth parameter. Because all the parameters require intention or vowing. You can do none of the parameters unless you're rooted in an intention that is steadfast, is Unstoppable. In the middle of whatever you're doing, the vow of intentionality can be there.

[48:53]

The assumption that you can hold a vow, hold an intention, is in both Tore and Yuan Wu. That's the background of these two guys. And what's the background You'll get practice here. You have no inherent identity. You are establishing your identity. You can vow to be a Buddha and hold that vow That makes practice possible. Du kannst das Gelöbnis fassen, ein Buddha zu sein.

[50:14]

Und du kannst dieses Gelöbnis halten. Und das macht die Praxis möglich. You cannot practice patience or generosity or equanimity without being able to hold an intention within everything you do. Du kannst weder Großzügigkeit noch Geduld noch sonst irgendwas praktizieren, wenn du nicht eine Intention inmitten dessen, was du tust, halten kannst. And basically the Buddha decided the best way to hold an intention in the midst of shaping your life and the world is to learn to sit still no matter what happens. Und was der Buddha beschlossen hat, ist das im Grunde genommen die beste Art und Weise zu lernen, eine Intention zu halten, zu erhalten, inmitten des eigenen Lebens, inmitten, egal was man tut, inmitten dieser Welt, es zu lernen, still zu sitzen.

[51:19]

So no matter what you want to do or how you feel, you can sit still. Egal was du tun willst, egal wie es dir gerade geht, du kannst still sitzen. Now I have some wados, ways to practice this, etc. Next week. It's the Zoro moment. I mean, Zoro goes over the cliff. Next week. Okay, thank you very much. Thanks for translating. Thank you. It was fun. Whoa. What did I do? I went too long. Yeah, you did. It's okay.

[52:19]

You can hit my wrist if you want. Oh, yeah. Sure. Oh, okay. Okay. So, but for everyone else, let's take a break. Also, let's take a short break. So, you're not going to go away, right? So, we can do 10 minutes. Okay. Yeah, I think we should still do 10 minutes of a break. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah? Yeah. And I'm a little unpredictable, but I will be predictable today. Okay, let's try. In 10 minutes we'll meet again, so let's meet five minutes after the full hour. And thank you and bye-bye. You can still keep house and be a little unpredictable. That you'd have to explain in another talk. Oh, okay. Not convinced.

[53:08]

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