The title it was chosen for this evening is Dharma Friend. And this has many meanings in Buddhist practice. And of course it means the Buddha, him or herself. The large sense of Buddha. And it also means the friendship of us as practitioners. and the friendship I feel for Genro Sensei, and the friendship I feel for my friend here, Florian, Allen Ginsberg, who is an American poet, who is also a Buddhist.

[01:20]

He was crowned King of the May in Czechoslovakia, I believe, once. King of May Day. May Day they had a big celebration and he was crowned King of May Day. The communist authorities didn't like it but the people elected him anyway. And he wrote somewhere, what can poetry do? And how do flowers survive? Who can hear the... Who can... hear the right multitude mind or the mind of many people?

[02:33]

And who can hear the heart's music? And it is, I think, quite strange. Can I come in? Come in. It's quite strange, I think, that we live here and it's so difficult to hear the heart's music. Suzuki Roshi, my teacher, said that sometimes you hear the wind in a tree and it makes a poem, or you make a poem. And that feeling that, so if sometimes the wind in a tree can make a poem,

[03:46]

then any moment can make a poem. And that feeling to me is friendship. Some moment that can make a poem or make a friend. It can make a poem or make a friend. And I think that in most people's lives they don't value friendship enough. I think when what we know of the historical Buddha that When he was a young man, he went out with his friend and companion and charioteer.

[05:09]

And somehow with this friend he saw a sick person and a dying dead person and an old person. And I think it's not incidental that he was with this friend. Because sometimes it's with a friend that allows you to feel something or hear something. So a Dharma friend is sometimes the person who for some reason allows you to start practicing. I know I was once saying goodbye to a friend of mine in San Francisco who was returning to the east coast of America

[06:12]

and suddenly we were just having a meal in a restaurant. And suddenly he said to me, You know, Dick, if we were really serious, we'd do nothing but practice Zen the rest of our life. And I couldn't have said that to myself, in quite the same way at least. In any case, when he said it, Sitting in this funny booth in a Mexican restaurant. And a booth is like where you have a table. We have to get the site exactly correct in German.

[07:29]

Anyway, sitting there in that booth, as he said it, I felt That's completely true. And I decided, it precipitated in me at that moment that I would practice Zen the rest of my life. And the next day as he was leaving I called him and thanked him for what he said. And of course he didn't remember. But he was my Dharma friend. He allowed me to hear that. And I think the probably mythological story of the Buddha holding up a flower.

[08:49]

And Mahakashipa smiling. which supposedly started the Zen lineage, this is just friendship. A kind of profound friendship that continues to today in Sasaki Roshi and Genro. And with you. Ivan Ilyich has... a statement, Ivan Illich, which goes something like, when we can release our solutions, we need to free ourselves from the illusions that supported our solutions.

[10:10]

Does that translate? And I think particularly in our culture here in the West, And from what I hear from your teacher, maybe especially in Vienna, there are many solutions or illusions that European culture has come to. that don't support practice very well. So it's even more important to have a friend or friends who support your practice. I think it's almost impossible actually to do it alone.

[11:16]

And you know that practice, well, that language of course is for communicating between, among people. But you also need language when you're doing zazen and meditating. You also use language to communicate to yourself or with yourself. And you find to... you find that language only, to a limited extent, allows you to communicate with yourself.

[12:18]

As I said in the seminar I did this weekend, there's a topography of your experience which is much more subtle and varied than language can describe. There's a topography of your experience. You begin to recognize feelings and a subtlety of being that escapes language. So you begin to develop, in a sense, a private language to speak with... to practice with yourself.

[13:40]

And then you find the sutras and the koans are speaking this private language. And There's a philosopher named Whitehead who says something like, only don't obscure the vast darkness. Nur versuchen Sie nicht die weite Dunkelheit zu blockieren.

[14:45]

And there's another saying of Dung Shan's, although you do not hear it, Do not hinder that which hears it. Although you do not hear it, do not obscure that which hears it. And this is also what a friend can do who practices. They begin to have a sense of this language of practice which isn't verbal. And you can feel the support of that in the way they are with you. But this kind of friendship requires quite a lot of courage from you. Aber diese Form der Freundschaft erfordert einigen Mut von Ihnen.

[16:01]

For in our society we violate the boundaries of separateness with apparel. Und weil wir in unserer Gesellschaft die Grenzen We violate the boundaries of separateness with peril. With peril. It's dangerous to violate the boundaries of separateness. I'm sorry. The individuality we have we protect and if someone violates or challenges that individuality usually we won't see them anymore or we'll punish them. So friendship requires some courage of letting your boundaries go.

[17:13]

I think if you looked at the the development of life on our planet, sort of biologically, that the development of life itself on the planet is a big... biological jump or quantum jump. And the... And then the development of intelligence and consciousness is another big jump.

[18:14]

And the development of a spiritual life and of a spiritual life is another jump. And I think your ability to make a jump in a sense into another person and your ability or a jump into the kind of trust that's required for a teaching lineage to occur. is something that most people are not capable of. It's possible, but it takes some courage. And also, I assume most of you are practicing Buddhism, and the idea of self is replaced in Buddhism by the five skandhas.

[19:41]

And the five skandhas are form, feelings, form, feelings, perceptions, impulses or something that gathers things together, and consciousness. So you can analyze everything into one of these five. Anything you feel, see, experience can be analyzed into these five and there's no idea of self there. And so it also becomes a kind of substitute for self because instead of energizing the sense of self and its separateness

[21:07]

You energize each perception. And this is part of a practice called one-act samadhi. Yes. But when you begin to experience these things in this way, the boundaries of self, of inside and outside, begin to be not... there's no clear boundary between inside and outside. So the idea of person can be larger than just one person. So the three of us could make one person maybe. Or Genro and Sasaki Roshi make one person.

[22:34]

This is also a sense that Genro is not real. And Sasaki Roshi is not real. But the relationship between them is real. a kind of in-betweenness. So, as I often say, I think I should remind people in the West often, that in Buddhism space is not seen as separating things. Space is seen as connecting things. There's a word ma in Japanese and it means something like space or in-betweenness.

[24:04]

But it's sometimes defined as that feeling you have when you think about that the universe has no boundaries. So when you think the universe has boundaries or no boundaries or what's on the other side you have a certain feeling. You couldn't put it in a dictionary but you have a certain feeling. And that feeling is ma And that feeling is also this openness to friendship and lineage.

[25:10]

And openness to our larger shared identity. in which we don't know the boundaries. So I'm just trying to give you a feeling for something that I think if you can get the feeling for you'll have more sense of what is meant by a Dharma friend. Someone who shares a larger sense of person with you who may not be somebody you can oh, he or she understands me but rather someone who is a catalyst in some way in your life

[26:16]

or with someone that you share a sense of the vast darkness or a mystery. And a Maha Bodhisattva can be understood as a larger sense of several people or a feeling of a nation or a feeling here in this Zen center that allows a Buddha to be recognized or that allows the possibility of enlightenment. And I say a person because in some ways this larger sense of identity functions as a person or functions as a friend that supports you.

[27:52]

In other words, I might feel something from you that's not very different from feeling something from ten of you or all of you. So a dharma friend may also be something that several people share and support in practice. So one definition of Sangha or Buddhist community can be anyone that shares this Dharma language, it's said that if you lack the power of samadhi, you will cower at death's door.

[29:11]

If you lack samadhi power, anything that overwhelms you, anything that... Well, if you lack samadhi power, you will be fearful at death's door. So this Dharma language is also the language of samadhi. Or self-joyous samadhi is another expression. Or the dharma gate of ease and joy. So I think when Allen Ginsberg speaks about the heart's music, he means something like, why can't we all know this Dharma gate of ease and joy?

[30:40]

Why do we make it so difficult for ourselves? Also, you know, a Dharma friend can be a painter or a writer, somebody you read about or look at their paintings. I think Cezanne, the way he painted movement, or Matisse painted movement, space in a way that is very similar to Buddhist space, I think. Anyway, you can get some support from some poet or writer or painter. And I think the practice of Dharma Friend is to recognize and acknowledge this gift.

[32:06]

Gary Schneider, who's a poet and friend of Allen Ginsberg, maybe as a little aside, I can say that Gary Schneider, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac and Philip Whelan who is a disciple of mine were the first four sort of beatniks. And In American Buddhism they are definitely our Dharma friends. They prepared the way for many people to practice and they gave a kind of permission to practice. And this permission is very important. It's again what the dharma friend does for you is to give you permission.

[33:35]

It may not be somebody you spend a lot of time with, but somehow they give you permission. And you may give them permission or you may give someone else permission who gives them permission. And the sense of this kind of shared consciousness is very important. Again, Gary Snyder, this poet, Who, in Jack Kerouac's book, The Dharma Bums, is called Jaffe Ryder. Jack Kerouac wrote a book called The Dharma Bums. The Dharma Popos. Landstreicher.

[34:58]

Dharma Landstreicher. Okay, Dharma Landstreichers. Hi, here come two Dharma Landstreichers. So anyway, in that book he's called Jaffee Rider. And he studied Zen in Japan with one of the famous Rinzai Roshis. Rinzai or Roshi. And just before this Roshi died his last words to Gary were there's only two things to Zen practice Zazen and sweeping the temple. And it doesn't matter how big the temple is.

[36:10]

So Gary's been sweeping everywhere. You start at the door and you go out into the street and so forth. And people see your practice that way. And this sense of knowing your temple is everywhere and you are sweeping it is also the activity of the Dharma friend. Now, in emphasizing this kind of friendship so much, I don't want... Hi! I don't want to forget... There's a chair, you can sit right there.

[37:21]

I don't want to forget aloneness. Suzuki Roshi, my teacher, says you should experience things through your body by yourself. And if you're going to practice zazen, as your practice becomes more settled and deeper, you find you have to go alone. you begin to have, again, experiences or topography which you can't compare to others' experience. So if your practice becomes deeper, you become quite used to being alone.

[38:37]

To not comparing your experience to others and to developing a deep... They've just made friends. Sorry to interrupt. I interrupted the translation. Well, you're always interrupting me. So this... So this faculty... You know, one of the... One of the main... chants or teachings that my lineage uses.

[39:38]

Also diese Fähigkeit, wissen Sie, eine der Fähigkeiten in meiner Übertragungslinie, die verwendet wird, heißt Sandokai. And it has a line in it which is something like The secret teaching like baby talk. And then it says, Baba, wawa, uku, nuku. [...] It's untranslatable.

[40:40]

So, this is Baba Wawa Ukumuku here. So, one of the powers or faculties of practice Is this power or faculty of being alone without being lonely? So as I say, being your own author, you have your own authority by authoring yourself. But still, it's an aloneness. And sometimes you may feel a deep sadness at the moment illusions you were going away.

[41:53]

But this alone being knowing this aloneness becomes again something that speaks to your Dharma friend. Your aloneness speaks to their aloneness. Mm-hmm. Rumi has a poem or a statement.

[42:54]

When the ocean is seeking you, don't run to the language river. Please. And I think that when that ocean is seeking us and we don't run to the language river, we can feel that ocean in our friend who also doesn't always seek the language river. Rumi also has a little statement which is something like, What is that?

[44:07]

Would you tell me that secret again? If you won't tell me, I'll cry. And you'll say, Now I'll tell you. Now I'll tell you. So that's enough for now. Is it okay for us to stop and take a break? Sure. And then maybe take a break for a few minutes. Do you have something we should talk about, we might talk about?

[45:10]

You didn't all come back waiting for someone else to think of something, did you? Each of you responsibility as a Dharma friend is to have something. Only shy friends here. Everybody can be a Dharma friend. Can everybody have a Dharma friend? Not if you're passive. Yes. Can you outwork karma on different levels? Can you outwork? Maybe you should say it in German.

[46:26]

First is to stop producing so much karma. It means stop taking pencils from work. Stop doing small things that you don't feel so good about. And notice when your body is speaking to you. Because you stumble a little or you bite your tongue. And then there are skills, yogic skills, involved in how we perceive things that can change the way we accumulate karma.

[47:55]

And then next is to get access to your karma not just through your thoughts. So the four applications of mindfulness are sometimes translated as mindfulness of the body. Or mindfulness of the feelings. But it really means to be mindful of feelings in feelings through feelings. And that's not the same as being mindful of feelings through thoughts. That's to be mindful of feelings through feelings.

[49:09]

And when you can do that, you have a sense you know your karma that's accumulated as feelings. And when you develop those kinds of yogic skills, in your zazen, your zazen and your breath will be a burning of your karma. So you'll always be making karma. But if you're participating in it, it's quite different. We could say karma is a sense of form that leads to suffering.

[50:14]

And Dharma, we could define Dharma as a sense or relationship to form, which leads to realization and enlightenment. So I say that just to give you a sense that you have, that Buddhism gives you ways to participate in your karma. There's an expression of umman or young man which is exposed in the golden wind Exposed in the golden wind. When everything has withered and dried up. When everything has withered and dried up. So practice is to allow your... is to let your usual kind of desires and personality...

[51:32]

and ego to wither and dry up. And then you find yourself exposed in the golden wind. And by that, unmon or young man means things happen to you differently. Okay, okay. You speak of karma as if it were something that exists outside of us. You talk about karma as if it was something outside of us. I feel that our karma is something we're connected to from the inside.

[53:07]

I didn't think I spoke about karma as something from the outside. Karma means how you accumulate experience and how you have accumulated experience. And you can change how that accumulation is released And you can change how you accumulate. Very good. Why are Zen people so shy?

[54:11]

Yes? I'm interested in your... I'm interested in how you experienced your enlightenment. I can't remember. but I'll share it with you sometimes if you will tell me a secret. Something else? Yes. I'd like to know how you raise faith in practice.

[55:11]

Can you say it in German, please? Sorry, can you say it to me again? It's easier. The reason for this is that I have a big question. I have a big problem and I don't know what to do about it. My teacher used to say, in order to live, you must trust just how you exist. We have to trust just how we are.

[56:12]

That's pretty difficult. But the word dharmata... means everything, just as everything just as it exists. And the word dharma really means that which holds. Dharma can mean to trust each moment just as it exists. Dharma can mean And that kind of faith or trust is necessary to practice.

[57:22]

And I think that the word immo, which means suchness, also means what is it. And that's where great faith and great doubt meet. So it's not confidence in the sense I have confidence I can do it but rather even in the midst of what is it you have some confidence And you can practice that in small things. Another friend of these poets, Gary Schneider and Ellen Ginsberg, was a man named Lou Welch. And in one of his poems, he's

[58:25]

looking in the mirror in the morning, and he looks in the mirror and he says, I don't know who you are, but I'll shave you. So even in small things you can practice this faith. I don't know who you are but I'll do Zazen. Okay. Anything else? Anything else? Can you also say it in English?

[59:39]

Because he speaks English very well. This isn't the person you happen to see in the mirror, is it? It's not the person you see in the mirror, and he says, yes, that's right. Good luck, Schaefer. You know, a woman artist, Swiss woman artist I know, a Swiss woman artist

[60:50]

says, when I draw it, I can see it. And actually her drawings are studied by scientists because she draws insects and things, plants. Because there's more information in her drawings than there is in a photograph. And she's noticed things, for example, that around nuclear power plants that there are a high percentage of deformed insects. and she saw things photographs didn't notice because when she drew it she had to look very carefully so she said when I draw it I can see it and I bring it out

[61:59]

And I think our friendship and our Buddhist practice is like that. When you do it you bring something out. When you have this kind of friendship this Dharma friendship When you do this, when you draw this kind of Dharma friendship, you see something, something comes out. There's a kind of subtleness or detail that comes out. It's a kind of subtleness or detail that comes out. that comes out in a relationship to your friend or to your teacher, your Osho.

[63:23]

So I hope all of you are exposed in the golden wind. Thank you very much.

[63:49]

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