Thank you all for coming to Sechín. Danke, dass ihr alle zum Sechín gekommen seid. And don't go too fast. I'm lucky to have the other half of the Griesler translating team. Also ich bin glücklich, die andere Hälfte des Griesler Übersetzungsteams zu haben. It was imported from Vienna at great sacrifice. Weil unter großen Opfern aus Wien importiert wurde. The other half is taking care of Julius in Vienna right now. Christina translated for the practice week we did a few weeks ago. This morning at the first period of Zazen I was so grateful to sit down in sesshin. I mean, partly it was just I was grateful to be home.

[01:03]

But it was also to be again, to discover again this sesshin body and mind. And it's not that the Lindisfarne meeting I had to attend in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Kalamazoo is a little tiny town, but quite well known in America because there was a song. I met my gal in Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo is a small town, but it's well known in America because there was a song. I met my girl in Kalamazoo. I don't know if it ever made its way to Germany.

[02:05]

I don't know if this song ever came to Germany. Yeah. Anyway, we had a Lindisfarne meeting there and then I went to New York. And it wasn't that New York was polluted and noisy and so forth. Verschmutzt. Verschmutzt. But it was because I really spent time with some wonderful people there. So my liking sitting down in Sashin wasn't particularly because it was in a contrast to some busy life. Or more polluted life. But just because my... I like the person who appears in Sashin better than the other people I am.

[03:05]

My body likes my body better. This is the body my childhood yearned for. And my mind likes the mind of Sashin better. And my body, my mind, and my mind, my body. So you can imagine, I felt a great relief to sit down. So I think I should say something about what the practice of Sesshin is about.

[04:33]

Partly just to find our way into the Sesshin, Partly for those of you who are fairly new to, or new to, our Dharma Sangha way of practicing. Are Eric and I speaking loudly enough? Yeah, you can hear, okay. I certainly like our all-wood floor. Last sashin, the first sashin we did, we had this rather schmutzy rug. Yeah.

[05:40]

But this floor is a little slippery. We need some non-skid wax. So if Kiesler has us do run in Kenyan, please be careful. Kiesler took quite a serious fall once in... I think you tripped over a flat tile. The tile with the corners, some of them are slightly up above the others and you need to stumble. So, In an ordinary sense, sashin practice strengthens us. And these ordinary senses in which sashin strengthens us are very important. It will give us more patience.

[06:43]

I think we can all use more patience. And it will give us more endurance. I don't know what, of course, in English endure means to be like a tree in a storm. Or to be, or to be able to maintain trust. Endure means tree and trust and things like that. So we often say, you know, to sit, as in like a stump, like a tree stump. That's better than tree stump, I think. No. And it allows us to be more... to stay present in situations more.

[08:46]

And actually it gives us those kinds of strengths that create the context for, believe it or not, a healthy ego and self. And whether you believe it or not, it gives us this kind of strength that can bring us more to a healthy ego, to a healthy self. Our rather fragile ego, self and identity needs a lot of support. So the ability to stay in situations with endurance and trust is really helpful to the way we know ourselves. And of course to face the many things we will have to face in ourself and in our friends is... we will be grateful that we can have the strength to endure them.

[09:58]

The only problem with being translators, you never know what the lecture was about. Well, that might be good, of course. The second aspect that Sashin is about It helps us enter into our zazen and to discover our intimacy. With our mind and feelings and emotions.

[11:05]

And just to stay present in how we exist. Now, the Sushin, going back to the first, the more ordinary things that Sushin does, it also helps us discover or make time our own. And This is the transitional, transformational aspect of Sashin practice that relates to all the aspects of practice.

[12:17]

Now you might ask, how can you make time your own when all the time here is scheduled? Of course, that's the point. How do you make scheduled time your own time? Because usually what we mean when we have our own time is we mean we're, you know, it's after work or it's vacation. But that's a wonderful time, but it's in contrast to feeling we don't have our own time. When you discover your own time, you will feel like you're always on vacation.

[13:28]

I mean, in fact, as I've said many times, if there is any such thing as time, you're it. You can't be out of time or have no time because you are time. You can sort of hear that, but to actually feel it requires a different kind of body. Maybe your focal setting has to be different. Like in a camera, the focal setting. So I'd like us to find a way to change our focus, our focal setting in this session.

[14:28]

Because usually we're always leaning forward in time. Leaning forward toward things we want to do. Or leaning forward towards things we should do. Or leaning forward toward distractions. There's no word for distraction in Germany? There is, but I don't know. Yeah. I know Germans are never distracted, but... At least they have that reputation. But Austrians, I thought, were distracted a good part of the time. You don't have to translate this.

[15:44]

Or we lean forward toward the future. And you know, we cannot, it's almost impossible to break this habit of leaning forward toward some kind of doing or distraction. Unless we discover a stillness of mind. And so Sashin is trying to use the schedule to stop you so you discover your own time. So Sashin is to strengthen you, to make you discover zazen, the intimacy of abiding within yourself, and to discover your own time.

[16:57]

Or we can say to transform your views. No, I know some people come to Saschin and in fact prefer Saschins to seminars and so forth because there's less talking. Yeah, me too. I prefer Sesshin sometimes because I don't have to talk so much. But if you want to enter into this third, the transformational aspect of Sesshin, we need some talking. We speak about the mystery of body, speech, and mind. The mystery of body, speech, and mind is the way speech is...

[18:10]

Speech means all the ways body and mind come together. So concepts, views, thinking, talking are all included under speech. So the mystery of body, speech and mind is when these come together, intimately and co-extensively with each other. Enlightenment, I mean, if you want to practice not just for strengthening yourself or becoming intimate with yourself.

[19:31]

If you want to also practice to increase the likelihood of realizing enlightenment, We have to deal with concepts. Enlightenment is essentially The cat heard us speak about enlightenment and has come to see what's going on. It almost jumped on your shoulder. That must be the neighbor's cat. It's a tiger cat. I think she's the mother of Charlie. Oh. No. No? Charlie has nothing left. Oh, you know.

[20:33]

I see. Charlie has another mother. We all have another mother. Because enlightenment is basically a shift in our views. Practice may make this more likely. I mean, as has been often said, enlightenment is an accident. And practice... And practice might make us accident-prone. Doctors know what accident-prone is. Most of your patients are illness-prone.

[21:37]

But practice definitely makes us more able to sustain enlightening as a way of being. Or as a way of becoming, though I don't know, can you make that distinction between being and becoming? Yes, yes. or enlightenment is a way of, practice is a way of making enlightening a way of becoming. I was staying in New York in a friend's apartment, Tom and Kamala Buckner, which some of you know them.

[23:03]

And they'd helped us build the Zendo and the dormitory and the Hotuan at Cresta. He's a singer and she's a South Indian. She's not South Indian, but she's a South Indian dancer. Anyway, they have this quite wonderful apartment and they have a second story in it. looks out where they give me the second story room, looks right out toward the Empire State Building. And it's the only place I like to stay in New York because it reminds me of Crestone where I can look out and see Crestone Mountain. And this second floor room has this funny little shower.

[24:18]

Which happens to have a little square window, so while you're showering you can see the Empire State Building. But what's funny about the shower is that the faucets turn red. in to go on. And this is very counter-intuitive. My body has learned that when you turn and it comes away from the wall, the water is coming on. So every time I stay in that shower, I usually burn myself or freeze myself. Because my hands have a mind of their own.

[25:18]

And it's bloody hard in the middle of the shower to figure out which way these darn faucets are supposed to turn. So this time I formed a concept. Um... The right one goes right, and the left one goes left. To turn off. But it comes, but it goes, you know, anyway, you understand. So, in the middle of the shower, and we're getting ready to, I say, right, right, left, left, off, off. Yes. Yeah, I'm a pretty primitive fellow. And then I can counteract my body's habit and... turn the right one to the right, and so forth, and the left one to the left.

[26:31]

And get safely out without being frozen or scalded. So in other words, in order to What's happening if we just look at such a simple example? My body embodies a view that faucets in most of the world work a certain way. To counteract that view, I have to form a more conscious view. And I have to remind myself of it to counteract my habitual view. The next day I was walking with Susanna, Randy's friend, who wants to move to Crestone.

[27:43]

And the night before, I talked with some New York folks who come to Crestone and some other people. And since I'd just taken a shower there, I'd mentioned this off, off, etc., So she said to me, doesn't this concept interfere with adding something to have a concept like that in our thinking? So I proceeded, when she said that, to walk into a tree that was planted in the sidewalk. And I said the reason I don't usually walk into trees like that is because I have an invisible concept that gets me to walk through open spaces, doors and so forth.

[29:00]

Now, the Eightfold Path starts with right views. The very first teaching of Buddhism starts with right views. And the reason for that is because Views are at the root of everything we do. They're at the root of... And they're there before we practice. So if we do sashing to strengthen ourselves, This is very good. But it strengthens ourselves within the views we already have. To practice in a transformational or enlightening way,

[30:20]

We also have to practice with the concepts we have. And that's what koan practice is, is a way of finding antidotes to our invisible concepts. And much of the stress we have and need for distraction we have is because we have concepts that are in conflict off-scene. Does that make sense? Do you understand what I mean? like I couldn't see the concept of the fact that I turned the shower in a way that didn't conform with reality.

[31:28]

My body just did it every time I've stayed there. So I had to think it through and notice study both handles and make a concept that counteracted, contradicted my habit. So one thing I would like to do in this session is to look at the difference between sequential time and fundamental time. And I would like us to discover a way to sit in fundamental time. And the entry into fundamental time is discovering the stillness of mind. In the schedule and the zazen practice,

[32:49]

is to bring us to this point where the world spirals down into us. When we spiral, we could say, up into the world. where we are no longer leaning forward into the future or what we should or want to do. So the schedule is meant to stop us. And then zazen is meant to give us a chance to realize this. And the best way is to enter your mind and attention into your breath.

[34:22]

To bring that into your activity. And to use that in your zazen as a funnel that allows you to open up into this deeper fundamental time. And we can all help each other in this by creating together a schedule that really holds us in place. And finding our own stillness in zazen in a way that also opens others up.

[35:09]

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