Sometimes I'm a little embarrassed by all the funny things we do in practice. Bowling before the lecture, chanting. Wearing robes, carrying this funny stick. Wearing robes, carrying this funny stick. Because sometimes, you know, you guys seem to like it well enough or do it anyway. But then I think there's probably wonderful people who ought to practice who just can't handle the funny things we do. Yeah, so I feel maybe I'm not being responsible to the Dharma in relationship to people. Yeah, but then how do we engage body and mind with the practice?

[01:18]

Yeah. I mean, this is the only way I know how to engage body and mind with the practice. Yeah, I could try to streamline it. Streamline it? I'll just translate that. Make it simpler and more acceptable. Streamline Zen. Choo-choo! Wind-schnittig? Okay. Wind-schnittig. Yeah, choo-choo instead of moo-moo. Anyway, I think I can. But Really, this has been done for now a couple thousand years as a way to engage our body and mind with the practice.

[02:42]

I'm sure it can be done differently, but anyway, this is what I know how to do. I'm just not smart enough to figure out how to change it. Yeah. So we engage mind and body in the practice. At least those are the words I use to describe it. When I say, sit solely in the satisfaction of sitting itself, That sounds like an intention.

[03:52]

No, it is kind of an intention. But the intention is just a kind of trick. Really, it's the same word in German. Okay. Some things are universal. Okay. It's really a location. Say that while you're starting to sit, you say, sitting solely in the satisfaction of sitting itself. That makes a kind of space or room. Like a cat sort of, you know, trying to find its place and fiddles around and finally sits down. So saying that creates a location.

[05:04]

It's a mental formation that creates a location. And it is very funny to me that we can take words and put them together a certain way. And with those words we can kind of shape the mind like a potter might or something like that. And then we can, we, I don't know who, someone, can fill in the shape made by the words. But once we settled into the shape, the bodily, mental shape made by the words.

[06:20]

We can forget about the meaning or the intent. But sort of stay related to the shape. And then see what happens. Or you can change it slightly, as I said, sitting in the experience of sitting itself, whatever it is. Now, we are... I mean, naturally enough, we are looking for understanding. Yeah, I think maybe we come here and we think, yeah, if I come to Sashin and Yohanesof enough, I'll have an understanding I can bring home.

[07:31]

Here I come home with an understanding. It's sort of true, but it's also deceptive. What you come home with, if you come home with anything, and this is home also, you know, As you go from home to home. What you bring as a practice. Now I'm speaking about this of course in relationship to this koan. But more important I'm speaking about it in relationship to our practice. Aber vielleicht ist es noch wichtiger, dass ich darüber auch in Bezug auf unsere Praxis spreche. This koan gives me the chance to speak about it.

[08:35]

Thank you, koan. Dieser koan gibt mir die Gelegenheit, darüber zu sprechen. Vielen Dank, koan. Vielen Dank, koan. I'm feeling good, you're feeling dank. Ich fühle mich gut, du fühlst dank. I mean, do I understand Zen? Well... Well... I'm not really. Yeah. But I mean, we could say I understand it in certain contexts. Perhaps the context of a new person who wants to practice, I can be useful. But do I, or perhaps in the context of someone who's frightened of practice, I can say something, well, don't be worried about it.

[09:38]

Fear not. Okay. But do I understand Zazen? I do Zazen. I engage... I engage my day, every day, with Zazen. I engage... Yeah, but engage is so difficult to translate. Germans are the most engaged people I know. It's no wonder you don't have a word for it. It's taken for granted. The Germans are the most engaged people I know. No wonder you don't have a word for it. So I... What do you do before you get married? Do you get engaged? Yeah, but that doesn't... That doesn't apply. Will you marry me?

[10:50]

Intersubjective, formless... Interaction. No, I'm just kidding. Eine intersubjektive, formlose Interaktion. So did you find a word for engage? Not a good one. I have to think about it longer. But I found something. Okay, we can also use engage. But anyway. So I engage my life with Zazen every day. Sorry. I relate my life to Zazen. Okay. Yeah. But is it I relate my life? Uh... Or does Zazen relate to I?

[12:01]

The function and experience of the agent I has certainly changed since I've been through practicing. So the I which relates to Zazen Is an I created by Zazen to a big extent? So is it the I that understands Zazen? Well, the I is shaped by Zazen. Does Zazen understand the I? I don't know. You know, one can ponder these questions. I mean, you know, if you, some of us want to, you know, naturally enough to understand the five skandhas or the five ranks or the 17 forms of non-truth,

[13:14]

I made that up. Seventeen forms of non-truth. Work on that one. You understand? We could work on that. Yeah. But if you want to, whatever understanding the five skandhas or the five ranks or the da-da-da means... Or this koan. You have to find yourself engaged, related to the five ranks or five skandhas in everything you do. So the question here is not, do we understand this koan? But how do we locate ourselves, locate our life in this koan?

[14:29]

Or vice versa, locate the koan in our life. And that's what we did the first day with our sort of biographical feel for the koan. And how do we locate ourselves in the Shakyamuni Buddha spreading his hair for Deepankara to walk on it? This is a talisman. A talisman in the sense that it's an act that's predictive. Yesterday I had a stick Sukhirashi gave me. Would I receive transmission?

[15:47]

We don't know how old it was. And today I have a stick Suzuki Hoitsu Roshi gave to me. Suzuki Roshi's son. And I think he made it himself. So what's that mean? Hmm. So the talisman of the hare, if we take it that way, represents in this story the Buddha's birth, old age and death. How do we locate ourselves in this story of, you know, of founding a sanctuary?

[16:52]

Buddha and Indra. Or, I think this guy, Yelu Chuzai, is unbelievable, interesting. He's very famous, in fact. There's a tomb in Beijing for him. And just say a little about him. He was called to see Genghis Khan. I guess that Yehlu was a very tall guy with a beard reached down to his waist. And Genghis Khan, can you imagine Genghis Khan saying hi to you? Hi, Genghis. Genghis Khan said to him, you know, I destroyed Liao... and was always the enemy of Jin or I destroyed Jin and Liao or something like that.

[18:17]

The dynasties. He destroyed those dynasties. You must be grateful. And he said, how my father and grandfather faithfully served the Jin dynasty, the Liao dynasty, no, the Jin dynasty. It doesn't make any difference. How can I be happy that you destroyed what they faithfully served? So Genghis Khan was impressed by this guy. And he's famous for telling Genghis Khan, you can conquer a people by horse, but you can't rule them by horse. And he also said, you know, Genghis Khan was going to wipe out some old people who resisted him.

[19:31]

He said, no, it's better to tax them and use their abilities. And Genghis Khan was supposedly Genghis Khan's chief advisor. What a terrible job, but he probably saved lots of people. So here's this guy who, you know, has a more far-out job than any of us have. And for 20 years or so, he made this effort to get the Book of Serenity published.

[20:34]

And he wrote letters back and forth to Wansong. And there was no e-mail in those days. It was a big job to get a letter to somebody across China. So here, how is this book important to us? How do we locate ourselves in this now, this particular koan? Which asks us to locate ourselves in the activity of the teaching itself. Now, Dogen talks about this. He presents two stories about Schwansha and Japanese Gensha. Schwansha lived I think he died in 908, so that's exactly 1,100 years ago he lived.

[22:04]

And I think in what we're doing, if he were here, he'd feel at home in what we're doing. I mean, that's extraordinary. It's interesting if you look at scrolls, Chinese scrolls, Japanese scrolls. You see one from the 1500s, you see another from the 1700s. And often there's a layman talking to a monk. And the scroll from 1700 and the scroll from 1500, the laymen look really different. but the monks look the same that's quite interesting you think you look different than everybody else sitting here in these black sitting robes

[23:13]

Ihr denkt, ihr seht anders aus als alle anderen, wo ihr hier in euren schwarzen Sitzroben sitzt. Wenn wir hier in der Nachbarschaft Kinhin gehen, dann gucken die uns immer so komisch an, wundern sich, wer das ist. Wir können ihnen ja diese Wandrollen nicht zeigen oder so. What we're doing, we're engaged in an activity that actually is very ancient and very contemporary. And how does this flame keep burning? What is the fuel if it's not contemporary life?

[24:27]

Or is it just exactly contemporary life which is the fuel? Oh, so, anyway, Xuansha is giving Teisho or something like that? And to have another little aside here before I go on. Dogen's teacher, Ru Jing, seemed to see students in groups one after another. It's like instead of all of us being here like this, I might be up in the doksan room or the dojo, and 15 or 20 of you, as many as could fit in the doksan room, And then 15 or 20 of you would come in for 45 minutes or so.

[25:38]

And if I was rouging, I'd give some sort of talk or we'd do something. And then they would leave and another group was waiting outside and they'd come in. And then he wouldn't say the same things. He'd say something else about something or other. And then a third group would come in. And no one's making an MP3. Of the whole thing. And you'd say, what happened in the first group? I missed that one. Well, that's the mind of seeking for an understanding. And that's a mistake. You know, and I'm, you know, I resisted for some years.

[26:45]

Sukhriya tapes me, made of Sukhriya's lectures, as you know. What did you resist to? Tapes being made of Suzuki Roshi's lectures. But in the end, they led to Zen Mind Beginner's Mind and so forth. And... So maybe in this mixture of lay and monk practice, this tapes, etc., are useful. Yeah, in any case, it's something I'm always debating. Because of this context, which for me is practice and teaching. Weil es dieser Zusammenhang ist, der für mich Praxis und Lehre ist.

[27:45]

And it's for me where the activity of the koan, not my understanding of it, where the activity of the koan becomes our relationship. Und das ist auch der Ort für mich, wo die Aktivität des koans unsere Beziehung wird. So, Schwanscha, here's the chirp, the song of a sparrow. He says, profoundly formed, the Dharma is proclaimed. profoundly formed, the Dharma is proclaimed. And then he gets down from his seat.

[28:53]

And as he's getting down, a monk says, I don't understand. And Gensha sort of explodes and says, how can you say that? Get out of here. And Gensha explodiert dabei und sagt, wie kannst du sowas sagen? Verschwinde. Dogen says, Dogen tells the story. Also Dogen erzählt diese Geschichte. Dogen says, even if the monk said, I understand. Und Dogen sagt es selbst, wenn der Mönch gesagt hätte, ich verstehe. Schwanscha still would have said, get out of here. Dann hätte Schwanscha dennoch gesagt, verschwinde. What is understanding here? Some people might analyze it and say, Schwanza meant that he was hearing, hearing itself, etc., as I say. And he was in the bliss of the Sambhogakaya body. But Dogen would say, this misses the point.

[30:04]

If there's a point, the point is the bird song. Xuansha sang profoundly formed, the Dharma is proclaimed. And Xuansha arranging his robes and getting down from the seat. All of that is profoundly formed. All of that is proclaiming the Dharma. It's not in the category of I understand or I don't understand. As Zazen engages, as Zazen relates to our life, so the activity of Schwansha, whatever he says and does, relates to our life.

[31:09]

So steht auch die Aktivität von Schwanscha, was auch immer er sagt oder tut, steht in Beziehung zu unserem Leben. And what this monk does relates to our life. Schwanscha is famous for saying, if you understand, the three worlds are the same. Schwanscha ist auch berühmt dafür, dass er sagt, wenn du verstehst, dann sind die drei Welten die gleichen. If you don't understand, the three worlds are the same. So the emphasis is on the relationship to the three worlds, not understanding. Not to understanding. I'm taking three worlds here to mean past, present and future, but it's often and more usually means the world of desire, form and formlessness. Usually desire, form and formlessness.

[32:20]

But in relationship to this koan Dipankara Buddha and so forth, I'm speaking about past, present and future. The three worlds are only mine. And there's the other story that Dogen brings up. Again about this extraordinary swansha. was known as also Ascetic Bey. His name is Shi Bey, B-E-I, and he was called often Ascetic Bey.

[33:23]

Ascetic? Yeah, Ascetic I know, but is Bey not a word? Bey is just the last syllable of his name. Okay. Okay. Shuangsha and Dijang were both disciples of Xue Feng. In Japanese, Seppo. So Shuangsha asked Dijang, how do you understand The three worlds are only mind. Dijang says, what do you call this? And he points to a chair. And Xuansha says, a chair. And Dijang says, then you don't understand a damn thing about the three worlds are only mind.

[34:33]

So Huanca says, I call this a bamboo. What do you call it? And then Zhuangzi says, I also call it a bamboo. And Zhuangzi says, in this great world, in this great earth, there's hardly anyone who's realized the Buddha Dharma. So what's going on here? Well, Of course we have to look at this as the activity of these two guys. The question, as Dogen points out, what is your understanding of the three minds or three worlds or only mind?

[35:44]

It's the same question as pointing to the chair. What do you call this? Dogen says, in regard to the three worlds are only mind, In the morning we call it a chair. Or only mind. And in the evening we call it a bamboo. Mm-hmm. What does it mean to the activity of the three worlds are only mind? Is it the chair that asks the question? Or does Dijang ask the question?

[36:45]

Is it I that does Zazen or does Zazen do I? If you take away all these things, often I practice with everything I see, non-existent, unspeakable. It's like living in a flame or living in the continual reappearance of non-existence. So what is the activity of this practice? What is the activity of your understanding? Thanks.

[38:13]

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