Now, I think in the previous, I feel in the previous three lectures, I think I feel the ingredients to come closer to what I would like to say, bring you into this practice, which I'm emphasizing, Which is, you know, somewhat subtle in how to understand it and how to apply it. Somewhat, at least. But it's possible and it's very useful.

[01:01]

And it's a way in which you can bring practice into daily life. It's solely a practice really for daily life. where it occurs. But it also is a practice which represents, from a Buddhist point of view and experience, how the world actually exists. Okay. Because, really, not just ideally, but necessarily, I think, in the long run, the structure of the mind should reflect the structure of the world, or how things actually exist.

[02:09]

And cultures, of course, are the structure that we receive through our culture, are approximations of how the world actually exists, When you look at a work of art, you're looking at the work of art according to the work of art. Yeah, because the work of art is telling us how to look at it. And different periods of art tell us to look differently. And then that art and that culture make us look at the world also according to our culture and art and so forth.

[03:35]

Now I understand Buddhism and Zen practice as an effort to continuously come closer to an approximation of how the world actually exists. To come closer to an approximation of how the world actually exists. To come closer in views and structure, our mental structure, to how things actually exist. And I don't think this is just a kind of aesthetic exercise. It's something nice to do because it makes you feel good.

[04:40]

It does, in fact. But I think the survival of our planet and culture depend on it. But our culture, the survival of our planet, but also of our culture, which allows human beings to evolve, depend on it. Why not make it big and important? Actually, you can't avoid the big and the important. Okay, so let's start with a simple practice. We have several basic practices in Zazen.

[05:54]

One is to let your thoughts come and go. So let's look at this fairly carefully. What are the ingredients of the practice of letting your thoughts come and go? One of the ingredients is your thoughts. The second ingredient is the activity of the thoughts. And the third ingredient is the observer. Okay, so that's the initial ingredients.

[06:55]

So you have thoughts. You have the activity of thoughts. And you have the observer. And if the observer is letting thoughts come and go, Releasing thoughts, let's call it releasing thoughts. This adds a fourth ingredient. Because the observer is now not just an observer. The observer is also an activity. Der Beobachter ist auch eine Aktivität. And the activity is the one who releases thoughts. Und die Aktivität ist der, der Gedanken entlässt.

[08:01]

So practicing these three ingredients creates a fourth ingredient. Also wenn man diese Praxis macht, dann schafft das eine vierte Zutat. The one releasing thoughts. Now, if you practice this, this is what you're doing, whether you notice that you're doing it or not. Notice all these distinctions, the ingredients. Okay, now, why am I noticing it? Because I'm the teacher. Well, or something, I have a job anyway. but also because I am trying to find a way to teach these things within the distinctions that English makes.

[09:01]

And since English is just a German dialect, with a French vocabulary, I'm assuming that the distinctions that English makes are similar to the distinctions that German makes. I couldn't assume that with Japanese. Jibun, the word for self in Japanese, similarly to the word for self in Chinese, at least one of the words, means a share of the whole. Doesn't emphasize self and other. Jibun assumes that self and other are part of a whole. that the self is a share of.

[10:17]

So Jibun makes distinctions that are different than English and German, I think. Like the word Shizun, Shizen, which I used yesterday, it means something like the activity of phenomena. You know, when we say sunset, we're referring to the sun setting. It looks like it's setting at least. And sunrise, we're talking about the sun rising. But what if the two words were sunwet and sundry?

[11:33]

I'm just making this up. So sunwet meant like the dawn is wet and dew and all that. So sunwet, the word for sunrise meant how you feel when the sun rises. You could have a word, you could have words which primarily meant how things make you feel. Also man könnte Wörter haben, die hauptsächlich bezeichnen But all of English words basically describe things as if they're separate from us. There's a word I like, and sun dry would be like, you know. Sun setting.

[12:45]

I haven't found good words for these, but these are my little experiment. There's a word I like, which you will not be able to translate. Epilimnion. You're right. I can't translate that. It's an unusual word. Epilimnion. Okay, epilimnion. And it means the surface of a lake. But it doesn't mean just the surface of a lake as an object. It means the surface, the shimmering surface of a lake and how it makes you feel. And all words could be like that. And more words in Japanese are like that, and Chinese, I think, too. But we have our Chinese expert here, which I'm not going to try to discuss it with.

[13:52]

Also alle Wörter könnten so sein und im Japanischen sind viele Wörter so und im Chinesischen glaube ich auch. They assume a different world than we assume in English. Sie nehmen eine andere Welt an oder sie gehen von einer anderen Welt aus als wir im Englischen. I can't think of the word epilimnion. without remembering that my mother said to me, because we lived on a lake, I grew up on a lake. And one of the first full sentences I ever said, my mother says, Look at how our moon swims across the lake to us Isn't that great? Look at how our moon swims across the lake to us Anyway

[15:08]

So here we have... I'm trying to get into how a practice like this is an activity which turns us into the activity of the practice. Because if we just have the first three ingredients... then observing your thoughts reifies the observer. But it doesn't just, in fact, if you practice it, it doesn't just reify the observer. Okay. It changes the observer.

[16:31]

Okay. At least it changes the observer if you can stay with this practice and not keep getting caught by thoughts. If you release thoughts and release thoughts, oh, caught, [...] release, release, release, caught, caught, the practice doesn't change you. You don't have to translate that. Okay. Okay. But if you can stay with it, which is already a yogic skill, and requires the bodily engagement with the practice, then the one who releases starts releasing him or herself as well. thoughts appear and are released.

[17:42]

And you begin to release. You begin to rest in this releasing. And me-ness or you-ness begin to subside. And the subject-object distinction melts. And the one who releases melts into the releasing thoughts. And the mind which releases thoughts and the one who releases thoughts melt together. And that's very similar to the word, again, for soak, which has been distorted by using it to translate the English word for nature.

[19:03]

The word shizen, which has been distorted in Japanese by translating the word nature. You might think to yourself, how does that happen? Well, from the 1700s or 1800s, Japan began to be interested in the West. And they translated Kant and Goethe and Thoreau and so forth. And Dante. And what did they do? They wanted to translate the word nature, so they translated it with Shizen. And the educated people, who are often the people who run the government and so forth, they're reading European philosophy and literature.

[20:09]

And pretty soon they're using the word Shizen in a Western way as well as a Japanese way. But the Japanese, more traditionally, the word shizen meant to melt together. You saw nature when you became nature. When your nature, whatever it is, aspects of your nature touched what we call nature. You know, I'm sure we all experience that, being, as we say, out in nature.

[21:24]

I remember there was a bumper sticker, you know what bumper stickers are in California? It said, I love nature, but I don't want to get any of it on me. I don't know. It's funny in English. I don't want to get anything on me. Okay. Okay. But that's a very different sense that you see nature when you melt with nature.

[22:26]

That may be reflected in our experience. But it's not reflected in our language. And our language begins to shape us. shapes the memory of our experience. So now what I just described was more the beginner's practice of observing one's thoughts and letting them come and go. Okay, so now let's look at this practice for a bit more developed practitioner. Okay, so now what are the ingredients? The ingredients are thoughts, the activity of thoughts, the observer of the thoughts, and the space in which the thoughts occur.

[23:56]

Because the thoughts not only are an activity, one of the ingredients is the space in which they occur. But now the observer is not concentrating on releasing the thoughts, The observer has shifted his or her attention to the field of mind in which the thoughts occur. Let's call it the room of mind because it's like the German word Raum of mind. I'm so multilingual.

[25:17]

Okay, the realm of mind. Okay, so the room of mind, the mind room, the mind field, remember Dogen said, Steadily intimate with the mind field. So in Zen practice, this is, you know, we have thoughts, in English we have thoughts, consciousness, percepts and so forth. Okay. Now, in Zen you have thoughts, consciousness, percepts, and the mind field. As an ingredient.

[26:23]

Now, this wouldn't be entirely foreign to a Western thinker. But to make the mind field not only have the idea of it, but to make it an object of concentration is very particularly Buddhist and yogic Asian. Okay, now what's the difference here? Okay. The difference is, in the first way, the observer is identifying with the activity of the thoughts. In the first way, the observer identifies with the activity of the thoughts, with the movement of the thoughts.

[27:40]

He or she is not identifying with the content of the thoughts. You keep releasing them. And you're identifying with the movement and the releasing. And this you can just try yourself. You can notice it yourself in your own practice. And I hope some of you come to Doksan and say, ah, I'm now the one who is fully released. If you do say that to me, you're going to get a C. Because you're just imitating me. But still, it's better than a D. Look, I don't give crates and ducks. Don't worry. I just sit there and enjoy myself. Also macht euch keines Sorgen.

[28:49]

Ich vergebe keine Noten. Ich sitze da einfach nur und lasse es mir gut gehen. Wäre das nicht schrecklich, wenn ihr euch über Noten Gedanken machen würdet? Okay, so. Now, in the second way of looking at this practice, the practitioner is not identifying with the movement and the releasing. The practitioner is identifying with what doesn't change. Der Beobachter identifiziert sich damit, was sich nicht verändert. And the field of mind doesn't change. Und das Feld des Geistes verändert sich nicht. I like the screen of the television doesn't change, but the stuff on the television changes.

[29:50]

So wie dieser Bildschirm des Fernsehers, der sich selbst nicht verändert, nur die Bilder, die da zu sehen sind. So you feel the field of mind as an unchanging field. bodily presence. So the field of mind or the room of mind becomes the object of concentration. Okay, it's like holding an invisible mudra. And now we're back to mudras. And by the way, I kind of goofed up yesterday when I said that Shashu is this forked position.

[30:53]

Shashu is like that. Yeah. And I don't know why I said that. I have no idea. I got caught with the idea of forked. But Atmar pointed it out after the lecture and said, I'm turning in all my practice, if that's what you said. And I said, oh, no, it's me. Okay. Now, You know the story of Kanadeva and Nagarjuna? Anyway, I'll tell you again. Kanadeva went to see Nagarjuna. And both of these are very smart scholarly fellows. But Kanadeva, as we chant in the morning, became the disciple of Nagarjuna.

[31:55]

But the iconic story of their meeting It's one of the more famous Buddhist stories. So the monk comes to Nagarjuna and says, the attendant monk says, Kanadeva is here to see you. And Nagarjuna has already heard of Kanadeva, and he's famous, a very knowledgeable scholar, as well as a practitioner. So Nagarjuna says to his attendant, take this bowl of water which is filled to the brim

[33:24]

Out to Kanadeva. So the monk brings it out to Kanadeva. And Kanadeva looks in his robes for his monk's sewing kit. You have to repair your own robes. And he takes out a needle and he puts it on the bowl and lets surface tension support it. And, you know, sort of western commentaries say that Nagarjuna was saying your mind is so full of knowledge like this bowl. And I think that's just dumb. If that was the point, Nagarjuna should have just, I mean, Kanadeva should have just dumped the bowl.

[34:41]

Wenn es darum gegangen wäre, dann hätte Kanadeva einfach die Schale umgedreht und ausgeschüttet. Like the well-known Zen story. Wie die wohlbekannte Zen-Geschichte. Where have you been? The teacher says to the monk. Wo warst du? Fragte der Lehrer den Mönch. Well, I just had my breakfast. Ich hatte gerade mein Frühstück. And the teacher says, have you washed your bowl? Und dann fragt der Lehrer, hast du deine Schale gewaschen? Yeah. Anyway, so he didn't dump the bowl. He put a needle on top of it. And this is more, I would say, an experience of epiliminion. See, this word comes in useful occasionally. So then Kanadeva carries the bowl back to Nagarjuna.

[36:06]

And you know what it's like to carry a bowl of water, a soup, put it down, it's actually full. And some of you, I noticed, put your hand under the bowl to make sure it gets down safely. Which is okay, but it's better to take a chance and... And I'm sorry I'm stretching your legs, if not your patience. But I'll try to end in a moment or two. So we can say that carrying the bowl in this way, with the water at the brim, the needle on the surface, is a mudra.

[37:13]

Okay, now I'd also like to say, you know, the Buddha was asked supposedly to, to, to, these stories are great. Buddha was asked, what is the size of a, of an atom? And the Buddha starts with the width of the forefinger. And then he says, part of that, seven, he goes on until finally he's at seven, seven motes of dust stirred up by a rabbit. And one of those is equivalent to seven motes of dust lifted by the wind. And he goes into, then seven of those who are tiny Mozart, and then minute Mozart, etc.

[38:49]

Supposedly somebody calculated it, and the Buddha was fairly close to the actual size of an atom. Starting with a finger. My point is that Buddhism has forever been interested in these tiny, minute, sensitive things like the surface of water which doesn't move. That's like holding the room of mind Like it was a surface of water that while you're walking, your movement can't disturb the water.

[39:57]

If you're walking, you can walk, but you have to walk in a way that the water stays still. Now why do I say this is like a mudra? Because a mudra is a moment of a movement. The word mudra means seal. And it seals the essential moment of a movement. In kabuki plays, there's a long runway that goes out through the audience to the side. And the play, the theatrical piece, the play goes on, you know, And when one of the main actors leaves sometimes by this runway, which runs right through the audience to the side, he'll try to catch the emotional feel of the audience.

[41:25]

of the play up to that point, in a posture, in a movement, in a mudra. And at different plays and different things, it's a different mudra. And in different places, But it's meant to catch the moment, the essential moment of the whole play. And it really works when it works. I mean, people cry out, people burst into tears, you know, like that. Because it hits you. Okay, so this is also a mudra. I have a hat too, but I forgot it has rabbits in it. That's a rabbit hat.

[42:46]

Now, I bet you've never seen a rabbit do that before. But once you've seen a rabbit do this, Alice in Wonderland herself would become a devotee. Okay, and the heel is pointing right to this chakra And the chakras are all illuminated with jewelry. Now, if you really feel, you can feel that in, I think you might be able to feel that in your body. Absolutely. So if you get a feel of it, it can stay with you.

[44:10]

Because it's the moment of a movement. Now, if I bring out this other reference, Now this rabbit doesn't do it. This is not the moment of a movement. It's very cute. But your whole body... There's no authority here. This guy's got some authority. Okay. So my point here is that when you feel whatever authority and power this has, even from a rabbit,

[45:19]

Authority. Stirring up motes of dust larger than atoms. You may be able to feel this in your body. And you can feel it all the time, even when you're doing other things. It's like if I walked around like this all the time and held it while I did other things. It would be like holding the water so it doesn't spill while I'm moving. But even if I take it away, it may still be there. And those are invisible mudras.

[46:38]

Like what you carry when you always hold the stillness of the room of the mind. And which activity happens. Okay. So that's closer to what I wanted to say the last few days. Thank you very much.

[47:02]

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