Sounds a little like the martyrs over my bed. But the family seems to be gone. The kids are gone. But they haven't started putting up pictures yet. The kids seem to be out of the house. The parents are still there. It's quite an elaborate family that live upstairs. I mean, upstairs, yeah, upstairs from me, where I sleep at least. Okay. And because of the tolerance and maybe even the compassion of the Ino, We've not emphasized too strongly that you're supposed to be in the Zendo before the beginning of the third round starts.

[01:11]

But... Yeah. But I think we should probably, don't be so compassionate. We should probably, if you're late, or here during, coming in during the end of the, beginning of the third round, please sit in the serving area. But during the second period, you can come in. And during Sashin, I guess you'll have to sit in that room. Outside. Or in the cloak, or outside, in the cloak room, yes. And I believe yesterday you had a discussion in various ways about lay and monastic practice.

[02:24]

And I guess it's naturally people bringing it up to me, so it's naturally on your minds as practice period seems to be getting, moving toward its close. You know, I can say you're alive as long as you're alive, right? You might as well be alive until you are no longer alive. And you won't know what it's like after that. So it's good to just be in the practice period until the end. And after practice period you will know what that's like. And if practice period has made any impression on you it will be present.

[03:42]

after practice. Of course now in our experiment there isn't so much difference between a lay practitioner and a monastic practitioner. I mean, the big temples and monasteries in Japan, the lei sangha really doesn't practice. They're kind of supporters and friends and they come for ceremonies. And why they prefer ceremonies to zazen, I don't know. But they come in large numbers to ceremonies. Stay away as soon as you're Zazen.

[04:56]

Maybe it's because Zazen asks you to change. And most people aren't willing to hear that question. In any case, fundamental practice in Asia or here is the same, whether you're a lay person or a monk. It's just how do you understand your life, develop your life, so you can practice. And sometimes monastic practice helps. But some monastic practice is worse than lay life.

[05:59]

But there is also a monastery practice that is worse than lay life. Musso Soseki, the 14th century garden designer and famous Zen master, He practiced many and many years in Shingon, Tendai and Zen monasteries. And some monasteries he found not very helpful. Better to take a walk in the mountains. And he practiced with many of the great teachers of the time, but he also practiced with some at least he was disappointed with.

[07:11]

But his motivation was simply, it wasn't that I'm a monk, I'm a Buddhist or something, it was, how do I make my practice work? And his, it was always like, in what situation with whom and with what other practitioners is best for my practice. And it's helpful for others' practice. But he had a, you know, he's the most famous of the Zen garden designers. And he came, there was, in the 13th, he died in the middle of the 14th century.

[08:22]

But in the early 1300s, there was already a 700-year-old tradition of garden making in Japan. Sorry, I didn't get that context. Okay. He designed gardens primarily and practiced Zen primarily in the first half of the 1300s. And while he was probably the most famous of the Zen garden designers, He was heir to an already 700-year-old tradition. And there was already a tradition of what are called Ishitate-so. And that means rock-moving monks.

[09:33]

Maybe we have one here. Maybe we have one here. Rock-moving monks. Yeah. Let's get it straight if we're going to describe our leader here. What he looked for, I mean, he tried... He said, okay, I love the mountains, I love particular trees and particular configurations of landscape that help me practice. His sense wasn't just, oh, nature is great. But he sought out, sort of like Castaneda or something, particular trees he felt good sitting under.

[10:54]

And particular landscapes of sort of feng shui or mandala-like approach. Oder bestimmte Landschaften im Sinne von Feng Shui oder einem Mandala-artigen Ansatz. Wo er das Gefühl hatte, dass die ihn näher an die Erleuchtung gebracht hat. Und er hatte auch so ein Gefühl, dass er auf eine Landschaft schaute, als würde er durch ein Traumfenster schauen. So the sense of it is you find a particular place you like and then you wonder, what is it about, why does this place configure in me? And the feeling is that you look at it and ask yourself, what is it?

[11:56]

And why and how does this space show in me? And he tried to look at the landscape as if he was dreaming the landscape. And you know in your own dreams how certain landscapes, certain situations appear sometimes the same over and over again. Und du weißt, wie in deinen eigenen Träumen bestimmte Landschaften auftauchen und sich zeigen und einige davon immer wieder. But when you can dream the landscape, it's functioning within you. Aber wenn du die Landschaft träumen kannst, dann wirkt sie in dir. So then he tried to design gardens around the temples that gave him that feeling. From certain verandas, certain porches, a certain kind of view he wanted to create. Our idea of natural isn't quite what this is about.

[12:56]

Yeah, it was more that nature is a presence which takes various configurations. And some of those configurations deeply move us. And how can we discover those in our practice place? So we again tried to create like when you look from the walkway or the porch or something. Also nochmal, er hat zum Beispiel, wenn du vom Weg aus oder von der Terrasse aus oder so schaust. Or what it looks like coming around a corner. Oder wie es aussieht, wenn du um eine Ecke biegst. Or from a window you plant things.

[14:19]

So from the window you can't tell whether you're way up high above trees or in the middle of the tree. He tries to change your sense of location when you look out a window. Or for example, when you look out of a window, he plants the trees so that you can't know if you're high up or where you are in relation to the trees. So he tries to change the own feeling of the place when you look out of the window. So we're expecting a lot of Muso Engo, I mean, Atmar Soseki. Yeah, we've got all these new corners, etc. Okay, so this spirit anyway, not only just bringing nature to the monastery, but how to bring the monastery to, if the way in which monastic practice may benefit you, how to bring that into your daily life.

[15:26]

What of monastic practice benefits you? the aspects of monastic practice that benefit you, how can you bring that into your daily life? And I would like to, today, to some extent, and next station too, sort of review what we've discussed. How can you bring the idea of a durative present, a non-existent present that's only your own creation? Even if you're passively present in the world, that passive present is also your creation. So how can you enter into the

[16:29]

passive and now active texture of the present. Now we've talked here about a kind of deeply engaged routine. Engaged? Which just altered our perception of time. How can we bring any of that into our daily practice in the usual daily life? You might, for instance, every time there's a shift, practice three attentional breaths.

[17:54]

Or every time there's a change of the hour from nine to ten or something. You stop inside for three attentional breaths. Or maybe for a moment you view the world from inside the attentional breath. Or you practice direct perception. We haven't talked about that, but that means to take some object, a flower, a door hinge, I don't care. And just imagine have no other perception but that.

[19:18]

But the full energy of your perception rests in the door hinge. Yeah. Or simply practice bodily time. Locate yourself more and more in bodily time. And feel the shift into contextual time. And that may also then bring a flow of gestational time from the practice period into your daily life. All these things just depend on your intelligence. And your creativity. And how deeply rooted your intention to practice is. Because it fits in the daily life just fine.

[20:39]

At least I find that is the case. And I really find no difference from myself in practicing in daily life and in the monastery. Except one very big difference. I don't get to practice with you. And this really does make a difference. Hey, no, no, I'm not thinking about that you're leaving soon. Mm-hmm. Go away, thought. Just done taking three attentional breaths. You know, of course, as I've said, there was no... real monastic lay practicing Sangha, except rarely, usually small groups, in Asia, as far as I know.

[22:03]

And what we're doing here, I mean, we're one of the main experiments and seeing what is this about. And, yeah, so let's find out. I mean, we have a difference between, it seems, the resident Sangha and the non-resident Sangha. But again, fundamentally, practice is the same. Okay, now, we are a lineage temple or monastery. Now, a lineage temple is developed around, organized around a particular lineage. And usually around a particular teacher.

[23:17]

And it's self-selecting. It's just whoever shows up. And you know Sukhiroshi's book brings lots of people into practice. And sometimes, I guess I'm told it's the best-selling book on Buddhism in the world. Yeah. But my observation is that The practitioners who stay and continue, which is different, are usually come through word of mouth, through friends, through something, some actual face-to-face contact.

[24:27]

So a linear Sangha is just those who show up and then stay. It's sort of like a dysfunctional family with no genetics. Well, no, it's not that bad. Or if it's maybe a dysfunctional family that we're trying to make functional through the absorbent power of Zazen. Because you can't bring Ulrich and I have talked about this.

[25:38]

You can't bring ordinary business or experience in ordinary organizations into a practicing sangha in the usual way because no business organization meditates together. So what happens when a group of self-selected people, persons, practitioners decide for some reason to practice together and what happens through the dynamic of zazen and mindfulness practice with this group for 50 years now I've been watching this and participating in this And it's always interesting and sometimes kind of challenging.

[26:52]

But usually the people who decide to stay I mean, I could say always the people who decide to stay. Well, not always. Some are just trying to get out of the rain. stay because they want to create and maintain a place for others to practice So that's one reason. Another reason is they want to occupy a place where they can practice with others. So that's the second reason.

[27:54]

They find it important, as Christina has mentioned, to practice with others. And I think all of us, to some extent, feel that. And third, the reason is that a practitioner is looking for a place that supports his or her individual practice. And these three are mixed up. Some people really only only want to, as much as possible, find a good place for their own practice. Some people find the context of practicing with others so important.

[28:56]

And those are persons who engage, practitioners who engage with wherever they live, trying to start little zendos here and there. I was with Steve Chrisman, who unfortunately is seriously ill. He was named sort of doctor of the year last year in Denver, and he's a cardiologist. But he has prostate cancer, which is probably going to kill him pretty sooner than any of us would like. But I'll be ordaining him on the 18th of January in Cresta.

[29:58]

And he has a long braid of silver hair that goes down to his waist and back. And he... He's known as the doctor. Where's that doctor with the braid? He's known that. I think, Nico, you've met him, right? Yeah. And he's helped me a lot. He helps all of our Sondra members a lot. In any case, one of his hesitations in getting ordained was he didn't want to cut off his braid. I told him he didn't have to cut it off. My impression is he's decided to do it. Anyway, in the hospital where he was, he created a little meditation place.

[31:22]

It was very funny. He walked down the hall and then he went to a little lobby. And then at the end of the lobby there's some curtains like this. And you go behind the curtains and there's about eight Zafus and, you know, it's got a little Zendo and a Buddha. So for him, practicing with others is important. And for then there's those who the world seems to be because you get older a terrible place for many people. And so one of the small hopes might be to have a place where people can practice. And those persons will, whatever the obstacles, try to create and maintain a place for others to practice.

[32:38]

But still, all of us, all of us, residents and non-residents have a mixture of those intentions. All of us here, at least. Yeah. But even so, there are dynamics that we're going to have to study together for ourselves.

[33:51]

For example, ski season is probably starting soon. and I believe this is quite a good place to ski it's not Innsbruck or Aspen Yeah, but it's not bad, I hear. I'm not a skier, so I don't know. The only leisure sport I know is sitting. And it's definitely a kind of leisure sport. Anyway, so... We could send out an email to the Sangha saying, if you want a ski vacation, come and stay at Kuala Lumpur Dharma Zentrum and ski and you can sit with us too if you want.

[34:57]

That would be sort of trying to develop the practice place so that it works for lay people to come. But that might not work for the place. As families taking their family vacation here worked for a while but also didn't work. It didn't work for your family, for instance, after a while. It didn't work here. The Sangha here decided the family could only come for one week or something or other. So one dynamic, if we have these facilities, how do we invite the world into it? We invite their lay life in here so they get some nice place to stay, I hope, and some exposure to Buddhism.

[36:27]

So they may like being here, and they may also get some exposure to Buddhism. Or can we invite the lay sangha into the practice in a way they help take responsibility for the development of the zendo, the practice, the cooking, and so forth? How can we use the place either in the terms of the people's lay life or in the terms of our monastic life? Anyway, these are the things we'll have to practice a little bit this way, a little bit that way.

[37:32]

We have a responsibility. We're practitioners of a two and a half millennium tradition. Somehow the forces in the society of now in 2013 And somehow the forces of society now in 2013 have given us this property. A hundred years ago this couldn't be happening here. So it's a kind of event that the society now permits. And that's a responsibility for us too. And by the way, tomorrow our estimable Shuso will give her last talk.

[38:34]

I mean, not last talk ever, but I hope not. And next week sometime there will be the Shuso ceremony. And we don't know how to configure the Zendo yet, but we will figure it out. But it's a kind of wonderful, touching ceremony. You do the same way all the time. And we'll all ask the Shuso questions. I won't, but someone else will. I ask her questions all the time, so I... So each of you will stand up and ask her a question. Yeah, you could say it's a kind of test. But you don't ask her a question like, how does fascicle 16 relate to fascicle 20 of Dogen?

[39:56]

If someone asks that, just tell them they can leave. So it's really a kind of exploration. It's also a kind of ordination. I, in the tradition, ordained her recently with you all. But now as part of the monastic tradition, this sangha will kind of ordain her. It's a kind of second ordination ceremony, but by the Sangha of the practice period. And what you, you know, your questions, whatever they are, start with what she said in her talks.

[40:58]

or draw from the Teshos, Atmas and Minds, or the discussions in the seminars, or what we've been practicing. So you can ask something like, we talked about such and such a phrase of Dungsan, how do you understand this? Or practice with... Nor can be just how Her presence and practice here has made you feel. There are no rules except you're trying to help her and develop our practice together. Dankeschön. Dankeschön. Mögen und Absichten gleichermaßen jedes Wesen und jeden Ort.

[42:24]

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