The word for bow in Japanese Buddhism means to throw your body away. So you put your mind together and you throw your body away. And it means non-attachment. So we practice... Remember I gave you three. Whenever possible, we practice non-harming. Whenever possible, we practice non-attachment. Whenever possible, we practice connectedness. Interdependence. So, if I meet you, say, if you stand up, all of you don't have to stand up to me. You can stand up too, it's okay. So if you stand up and I'm coming and I see you, I stop, actually, if I can, I stop for a moment.

[01:12]

This is not to take what is not given. And then I try to put my hands together and I bow to you. The way I throw my body away at that moment, and I just feel connectedness. And I have a feeling of non-harming. So I have a feeling at that moment of connectedness and non-harming. And not attachment. So then I go past you and I walk. So I'm practicing the precepts at that moment. In the way I do things. Do you understand? Does it make any sense? So if you have a feeling of your being, and I take refuge in the Buddha as the perfect teacher.

[02:36]

Perfect means complete. A perfect circle. is a complete circle. So it doesn't mean perfect versus imperfect. It just means complete. Now, you don't want to take... in an imperfect teaching. Doesn't make sense. But we know no teaching is perfect. So we say, I take refuge in the... Perfect teaching means I will perfect this teaching. I will make this teaching complete. And what the precepts are about is becoming boss in your life.

[03:38]

The boss of your own life. That's what Sukhirashi used to say. He gave an example once, I guess of some Japanese person who liked to gamble. He said, there's nothing wrong with gambling. Except that this person, gambling possesses this person. He's not in charge of, he's not in boss of his own life. Sukhriyashi said he wakes up in the morning and the first thing his legs want to go to Reno or Las Vegas. So he's not boss of his own life, so he's not following the precepts.

[04:50]

So when you feel your own being, here, at this moment, I don't think you can break the precepts. There's no need to break a precept. You feel quite comfortable, quite detached. You don't have any need to harm anything. You feel quite complete and nourished and connected at the same time. This is following the precepts.

[05:57]

So the precepts aren't about some rule or mental rule. But how to bring these into your body? Into your action. How to hold them in view as a presence in your breath and posture? So we have all the rules of the Zen monastery grow out of this feeling. So the eating is a chance to feel connected, so we emphasize serving. So we come here for the one week or?

[07:02]

Three months or one day or whatever. And there's some rules, but the rules are just so we feel connected. We practice this feeling of connection. but if you've had enough of feeling connected go out you know go have a beer I don't care but it's nice to have this practice and then you go to the oxen but you can When you open the door, you can step in with your foot nearest the hinge of the door at the oxen. And when the waitress or the waiter comes to your table, You probably can't bow to them.

[08:16]

But inside you can have this feeling. Oh, another jewel in the mountain of form. Mountain Jewel Brew Is that a Czech beer? Oh no, I have Becks, please. So you can have some feeling like that. So you can practice the precepts everywhere, anytime. Mm-hmm. Okay.

[09:28]

Thank you. I love sitting with you so much Thank you for giving me this opportunity

[14:51]

I have no idea whether you're actually going to be able to understand his voice. But anyway, it'll be nice to hear it a little bit. Can you use the other side as well? So. Turn it up with the big, with the big there.

[17:08]

Is there a basin, et cetera, thing I can operate? Yes, it is on the right-hand side. The little ones there. Oh, here. Oh, that's powerful. which is beyond all that. Okay, I'll start over. He said, the mind which we'll acquire or obtain through practice, could you understand that? Den Geist, den wir durch die Praxis erreichen. It's not so bad after all. He didn't say that.

[18:10]

Should I translate that? No, thanks. The mind which we'll acquire or obtain, from dying, our theory of plastic is, as I said, a function which is not practical. It's beyond our words. But at the same time, the mind will respond to... At the same time the mind will respond to everything.

[19:20]

Our mind is like a mirror which reflects various objects on it. But when there is no object in the mirror, something which you cannot even see, your mind will be obtained by fear. I like to make the universal thing, because it makes mind, I mean, every day.

[20:30]

What to make? the relationship between big mind and everyday activity. How does big mind reveal itself in our everyday life? I'm going to speak about it right now. The function of the big mind. The function of the big mind. Dogen Zenji. Explain this mind.

[21:42]

Explain this mind. Explain this mind. Explain this mind. Big mind. If you're going to work in the kitchen, you better have a big mind. If you're going to work in the kitchen, you better have a big mind. or meek mind.

[22:43]

The way of working in the kitchen should be based on pure practice or big mind. If there are more pure work in the kitchen, it is mind approach or true craft, meek mind. because there we have . Actually, it's very important to prepare for it. It's very important, maybe the most important We walk in the monastery.

[23:44]

In the monastery, we do not eat good food. In the monastery, usually we don't eat good food. Usually it doesn't please the monks. We don't have to do that. We have a very nice touch. Even when you prepare something good, the monks won't be satisfied with it. There is no limit in their expectations. Their expectations are infinite. A critic.

[24:59]

Kitchen will be always criticised. [...] So we're going to keep doing this. So first of all, I'm going to say, keep up the good work day and night. So let's just get it. We can do it. I'm going to pray. He said, you have to accept the criticisms, not with a smile, because if you smile, they'll be more angry.

[26:06]

He said, you have to accept the criticisms, because if you smile, they'll be more angry. So, first of all, where does the big mind come from? The mind is great as a mountain. The mind is great as a mountain. That's one aspect. One aspect is the mind. Next aspect is you need a kind of mind. The background of this is the monasteries tended to eat the vegetables the farmers threw away.

[27:31]

So it was quite hard to make the food edible. So it's as if we ate the things these people didn't want to eat. And the third aspect is non-referential joy. And the fourth aspect is to have an old lady's mind.

[28:46]

Fish store. There are many fish stores. There are many fish markets in Japan. In Japan, there are many fish markets. We have people who is carrying fish and selling it. Before refrigeration and they have sushi, we have to run with fish to get them to the... And they have to do it full of joy. Before there was sushi, the people had to run away when there was sushi fish, so that the fruit would remain, to do this with a friendly spirit.

[30:52]

But he says, the fish look at him. The fish look at him. The fish look at him. The fish look at him. He had a funny sense of humor. He had a funny sense of humor. So they tell the crushness by the eyes of the fish. He used to get laughing and he couldn't talk. At his own jokes, you know.

[32:03]

They're running. Well, so with that, I went to the kitchen lab. They're not happy. Four days, they're back, you know. If the cook is unhappy, even if the food is good, the food doesn't taste good. He's implying that the joy of carrying the fish makes the fish stay fresh. And this good price for the fish... I can tell who's laughing.

[33:16]

That's Peter Schneider laughing. He's a man, actually. He lives... This is 30 years ago. Something like that. Yeah. You know, I have more complaints when I hear it happen. 40 years. It's a good thing. More. So I have to go. I'm willing to go back now. To be always happy. Kind of make things, make the good things. To have old lady mind. Old lady's mind.

[34:18]

Grandmotherly mind. By nature, old lady is very kind. Usually an old lady is very kind. But an old lady is very friendly. Buddha's mind is like the mind of the parents, child. The Geist des Buddha ist nie der Geist der Head. Christina is learning Buddha's mind. Very patient. They don't miss any expression of their baby.

[35:23]

They don't miss any expression of their baby. They don't miss any expression of their baby. The mother will take, her father will take off his coat and cover the baby when the baby is cold. . Well, I knew that my city was lucky that the arms were already mine, full range, cheap.

[36:37]

You know, today is Saturday, and I have an instinct. When I get instinct, I want to do it. I want to do it. I want to do it. Is that enough? Do you want to hear more? I can give you a little bit of this other one. I happen to have these two. The quality was not so good in those days. In this session... As I said this morning, in our practice we will be concentrated on putting our team here on Thursday

[38:06]

Our practice this morning in the Sesshin will be concentrated in putting our power in our hara or tandem or belly. This is not just a technique of zazen. It's not just a technique. The underlying idea is very deep. Great practice, darling practice, should not be compared with any other practice of training. It doesn't mean, even I say so, Zen is something special.

[39:14]

Zen is superior to every other teaching. Zen is superior to every other teaching. But there is a reason why we should not compare our practice to other many kinds of practice. I had Dorian Denley, a friend, in his Kamsa-Denli recommending Zen practice to everyone of us, to Kamsa-Denli. He recommended Zen practice

[40:28]

So he stayed in the hospital for a period of a year and a half. And then he died. And then he had something, some special. Zen you can't compare to anything else, but Zen is not some special way of training or practice. Whatever you're doing, that is Zen. You are understanding of your everyday activities.

[41:29]

It's not the right. But you're understanding of... Misunderstanding of your practice or misunderstanding or discrimination of Because you discriminate practice, you also don't understand your everyday life. Your activity is not Zen anymore to you. For you, your activity is not Zen, but to me it is Zen. Whatever you do, that is Zen. but I understand it that way, but you don't, he means.

[42:32]

Only for you who do something for others and for yourself is not bad because of you, because you stay in your practice. You spoil your practice with your modems and your attachment. This is the precepts. By comparing your practice to some other practice which you do, or which someone else But when you practice, when you do something, at least at that time, that is very practice.

[43:45]

So actually, as he says, there is no particular enlightenment There's no particular enlightenment you will attain by means of some practice. Through attaining enlightenment is the other self. True practice. So the means to attain enlightenment is true practice, which is not to discriminate your everyday life. For we should know, Christ is our practice. Only you should know how we

[44:52]

He means don't have a materialistic idea of enlightenment. How do we practice our way without spoiling it? So on he said, in the interpretation of Zabin, for any kind of teaching, little teaching, By means of those literature or talk or instruction, probably by means of instruction, you cannot Can't attain enlightenment by means of sutras or scriptures or some lecture.

[46:08]

The only way is to practice your way without spoiling it. You may think if I talk in this way, There's no connection between the instruction I gave you this morning and what I'm saying now. But you should put your power in your tummy. You should put your power in your tummy. When you have enough strength in your tandem, when [...] you have enough strength in your tandem,

[47:46]

And your mind is so broad and so big, great, that nothing can increase it or nothing can displace it. It can be so small. He says your mind will be so big that it will accept everything, and so big that nothing can increase it and nothing can decrease it. So, you know, this is quite familiar to me, but I'm not sure it... So when I hear it, I'm not sure you're hearing it the same way I'm hearing it. Maybe you hear it as something sort of rather distant and boring, I don't know.

[48:59]

Basically, practice should not be photographed or taped or it's just here and it disappears if we're not here. the teaching should not be recorded or photographed. And it is here, and when it is over, it is over. Although I'm glad we took photographs yesterday of the ceremony, it's rather unusual to take pictures of the ordination ceremony. And I'm glad that we took photos yesterday, but it is very unusual to take photos during the ordination ceremony. So I'm secure she's literary executor. I am Suzuki Roshi's personal secretary. And I know Suzuki Roshi wanted perhaps some tapes to be available or some lectures to be, but in general he thought it was just for the people he immediately practiced with.

[50:14]

But in contemporary society everybody thinks once something's on tape it belongs to everyone. So there's quite a dispute going on right now which I'm staying out of. Should the tapes be generally made available or should they not? I suppose legally I could make the decision, but then I might have to go to court. It doesn't feel very good. Well, I don't know what will happen, but anyway, I'm happy for us to listen to the tapes.

[51:34]

Ideally, if we had time, The way to do it is not to prevent them from being out, but to take probably 50 tapes and make them quite clear and good, and that would satisfy most people who would only listen to 10 of the 50. But that's a huge job we'd have to have. four or five people here who did nothing every day but work on tapes, and I'd have to go over it. Just the job right now, which Alan Watts' son is doing, which Alan Watts' son, you know who Alan Watts is?

[52:41]

learned how to do it through doing his father's tapes. He learned how to do all this tape remastering from doing his father's tapes. And he's got a whole setup with all the most modern equipment. I think of him as a When I think of him, I think of a little boy. I knew him from that time, but he was probably in his forties. But just doing what we're doing now, the tapes is costing probably about $50,000.

[53:58]

So that's coming from a friend and publisher and stuff like that. And so I gave some of it, but they gave it back to me. Um, But it's interesting, you know, I learned a lot because I started the Wind Bell, which was the Zen Center magazine. So I could work with his lectures and tapes. And I helped him with his English. Though he could read English quite well, he couldn't In the first year speak it very well.

[55:01]

Pretty, I mean quite well, but not so, you know, he made some mistakes. So after every lecture I'd go back and tell him what mistakes he'd made. And it was just my way of having some contact. And mostly appreciated it, but sometimes you... He'd see me coming. Another double negative. Do you know what a double negative is in English? I can't think of an example.

[56:03]

When you say a negative twice, which reverses the meaning of the sentence, but it's a quite common error to me. So I, you know, like for a long time I didn't... tape my lectures either. Sometimes I used to say, OK, now you should turn off the tape and I will tell you something. But now I've learned to speak so I... I... feel okay about what happens to the tapes.

[57:08]

So there's two things I had to learn. One is not to speak about, as an example, someone who might listen to the tape you know, two years from now, some student or some other teacher. So I can't make an example of someone's practice if that person in America, say, could then listen. Oh, so that's what... It might not be critical, but it still might not be better to hear it directly. And then there are some things that can only be taught individually. but shouldn't be on a tape.

[58:26]

So actually when I speak to you, I limit... I don't say some things to you I'd say as a group if the tape wasn't on. And often there are things that can only be conveyed individually and as a result I only say things that concern you as a group. But I do say a great deal that's not traditional to put on tapes. I think it's okay. I don't think you're missing anything, don't worry. Is there something you'd like to discuss or do this morning? Can you say it in German? Well, the... As you know, a couple of years ago I had to change publishers.

[59:46]

And my new editor is much better than the previous one, because she's a Buddhist. But she is... pretty busy on some other books. But the main problem is I get maybe at best a few real days a year to work. So I'm going to see what I can... She has most of the manuscripts. I have to do some things, but in the next few weeks, if I could. But to get much done, I have to pretty much focus the whole day on working six or eight hours.

[61:05]

And if I do that, I can't do this. And this actual practice with you is more a higher priority for me than publishing a book. And this current practice with you has a higher priority on my list than writing a book. Though I like writing, it's fun to do. Yes. Can you explain why reposition during siddhi is so important? I wanted to know why the attitude during meditation is so important and why it is so important not to change this attitude.

[62:11]

The short answer is it feels good. I don't know. Why don't you sit in any way that makes you happy? I don't want to convince you to sit any special way. But if I say that, maybe I'm not doing my job. Unless you learn to sit well, you can't relax in sitting.

[63:52]

You can't... I mean, what we usually call relaxing is not relaxing in sitting. What we normally call relaxation is not that we relax in sitting. We're having a domestic dispute here. That's the wish. The basic reason is that Zen is the attempt of the Chinese to bring all the teachings of Buddhism into a...

[65:09]

to absorb the teachings as thoroughly as possible into the posture. Like Tibetan Buddhists, they have to do many preparatory practices, visualizations and chantings, etc. And so Chinese Zen folks tried to incorporate all that preparatory practice into the posture. And they also had the problem, like we do, of trying to find a way to bring practice into a highly literate, sophisticated culture.

[66:37]

And in Tibet, they can educate these mostly boys from the time they're six or eight years old. And their whole culture is Buddhist culture. China had its own culture, and so Buddhism snuck in through the posture. Bernd asked me to make the Kanji Mu for his sitting group with Oldenburg sitting group.

[67:50]

And I considered Maybe to do it, I more or less remembered the kanji. And Sabina found me some good examples of it. But it's simply wrong of me to write the Kanji. There's maybe two or three Kanji I can do pretty well. But I actually don't think you should write a Kanji until you've been practicing it ten years or so. And I don't like the sort of modern idea that we can do anything, you learn it, you do it, and it's, there's something different about it.

[68:58]

What is Kanjimu? What is the Kanjimu? Emptiness. Kanjimu. So there's some posture in it that you just have to do over and over again to have the feeling for it. Otherwise it looks, to anybody I know Kanji well enough to know, it looks weird. So if you get so that you can... I don't know what examples to give you to make it make sense to you.

[69:59]

But as your practice gets more subtle, it gets very highly tuned. At a physical and mental level. I'm not quite convinced that acupuncture points were discovered from inside by meditators. And we could say that unless your posture is good enough that you can feel the acupuncture points inside from your own body, your posture is not very good. So that's a rather high standard.

[71:00]

But if you do it for ten years, it happens. So eventually you get so that there's a bright light in your backbone. And that bright light holds you, your posture. But, you know, it makes a difference whether you put the needle in here or here. And in the end, it makes a difference just where your hands are and where your tongue is and where your ears are and

[72:00]

Actually, you know, it's funny things like old people's ear lobes are not so big anymore. And it's considered... a mark of practice if your earlobes get bigger. So there's funny, and old people used to have big earlobes, but they don't anymore because I don't think they incorporate their experience the way old people used to. If you notice Peter in the next days walking around like this... He starts wearing heavy earrings.

[73:08]

It's spiritual vanity. So there's some... So there's some mystery to this, so we can't say. But I could speak a little bit about what he meant by horror and the mirror mind, if you'd like. Last February, did I give you Dongshan's statement either in Kinzai or here? Clearly she sees her face. Anyway, Dung Sheng has a statement.

[74:16]

Clearly, she sees her face. This is this old lady, old lady mind. So it means your mind should be like an old lady's. But still, even an old lady... Clearly she sees her face. There is no other reality. Yet unavoidably she mistakes the reflection for her head. And the idea here is that When you look in a mirror, most of us don't see the glass even, we just see our reflection.

[75:20]

But you can begin to notice the glass, and you can see the glass reflects whatever happens to be there, towels or your face, your shoulders. And the glass just reflects whatever happens to be in front of it. And we can have some experience of this glass. And this glass is like knowing that Ulrich is appearing in my mind. So I don't just see Ulrich, I also see the glass of my mind, my mind itself, in which Ulrich appears. Now, we could call that an awareness of inward consciousness.

[76:27]

But that is not yet interior consciousness. Now, if we look at the mirror and we see the reflection and the glass, what you don't see is the silver on the back, which nowadays is vaporized aluminum oxide, I believe. And that we do not see because it's exactly the same as the reflections in the glass. But the silver... if we call it the silver, the silver is what in Buddhism is interior mind or interior consciousness, the big mind.

[77:28]

And it's not graspable. Now, the glass, to some extent, you can have some understanding of it. I can know that my mind has a certain energy, I can... And it's based on my sense perceptions. I can have some experience of that. I can train myself to notice that. But the silvering, the vaporized aluminum... It's not in the realm of experience. Do you understand? The idea at least? Yes.

[78:30]

Well, you understand it in the mirror, right? You can't see the silver, right? I don't understand why I cannot feel the silver if I can feel the glass. It's the same. But you can look in a mirror and you can see the glass, can't you? Yes. But do you see the silver? Yes. No, you don't. You see the reflection. You don't see the silver unless you turn the mirror around and look at the back and then you don't see anything. But isn't the reflection the same like silver? Yeah, so form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. But you cannot see the silver. You can only see the reflection.

[79:33]

So there's no way the mind, as it's created, can see the silver, because the mind is created to only see the reflections. Mm-hmm. You can see the silver and the moment when the silver separates from the glass, but then it's no longer a moment. Yeah. Then there's no reflection. Yeah, there's no reflection. So that's the moment you die, maybe, if you have a quick moment. Oh! Okay, now... Let's look at it. That's one way. That's a way to look at it metaphorically. If you look at it more experientially, this person is looking in the mirror. And what do they see? They see their head. They see their shoulders. They see their cheekbones. They see their eyeballs.

[80:49]

But they don't really see what's seeing. You can't see what's seeing, but you can see the objects there, but you can't see what's seeing. However, if I pulled a corpse up and held it up to the mirror... You could tell it wasn't seeing. It would be like one of those fish that need a lot of joy in being carried. So in this example, clearly she sees her face.

[81:53]

But unavoidably, she mistakes the reflection for her head. It means you need some practice to be able to know seeing itself and to know mind itself. Now the glass and the reflections I call inward consciousness. What we normally experience as interior consciousness, I call inward consciousness. I think, for instance, I'm having my private thoughts Peter has this sweater.

[83:07]

I wish I had a sweater like it. Such a nice shirt. And Jacqueline has this wonderful red scarf. I don't know if I could get away with wearing it. And Jacqueline has this beautiful red scarf, but I don't think I could wear it. So I think you don't know I'm thinking this. But maybe you do. They asked little kids, what is the mind for? And they tell you various things. But one thing they all say is to keep secrets. So we think that we have this mind that's private.

[84:07]

But from the point of view of Buddhism, this is only kind of an illusion of privateness. It's actually an inward consciousness that's outwardly based. It's based on your sense perceptions on the world, on language, on what other people think, etc. And if this inward consciousness gets too out of whack. It doesn't correspond to outward consciousness. We think we're crazy. We might be. So an inward consciousness that's confirmed through outward consciousness. And rooted in outward consciousness. Rooted in the experience of outward consciousness.

[85:10]

From a Buddhist point of view, this is not interior consciousness. And this is the realm of most psychology. And you've got to take care of that, and it's got to work, or you're in deep doo-doo. Yeah. Is that nice? You're in deep schlamazel. I say that in America a few times. Somebody will say, don't, don't.

[86:16]

So, when we talk about big mind, we mean mind rooted in mind itself, not in outward consciousness. And that can only be understood through developing the meditative skill of signless states of mind. And signless states of mind can only be practiced through the body. And so, when Sukhiyoshi is trying to talk about the cook and the kitchen work and all, he's trying to find some way to speak about the fact that signless states of mind are present in ordinary activity.

[87:33]

And when he talks about putting your mind in your tandem, This is a way to develop the basis for knowing signless states of mind. Now, we're always in the midst of signless states of mind.

[88:38]

It's just that we don't discriminate them. Or we don't notice them. It's like sifting... the sand from the rice. We don't have a sifter. So it's all mixed up. Doesn't mean we're not already practicing it. And that's what one of the meanings of that we already live in enlightened states of mind. But we don't have the skills to notice them. So we take the reflection for our head. When the reflection is actually Big mind.

[89:54]

Yeah. For example, if you don't follow the precepts, there's no way to experience signless states of mind. Because when you don't follow the precepts, your inward consciousness kind of bent out of shape. Your inward consciousness has to be still enough or clear enough to see past it. So the precepts then take care of inward consciousness so we can have enough refinement to experience interior consciousness.

[91:30]

For instance, if I'm involved in the reflection so much that I think, oh, this reflection is better than that reflection, When I'm attached to such and such a reflection. Or I'm going to steal that reflection. Or I'm going to lie to someone else or myself about this other reflection. It energetically involves you in the reflections. In other words, you're taking the reflections as real. So we're not talking here about good or bad, we're talking about the energetic effect of taking the reflections as real, good or bad.

[92:33]

And as long as we do that, the mirror remains a mirror and never turns into a window. And as long as you do that, the mirror remains a mirror and does not become a window. Am I making any sense at all? Does that make any sense? But it sounds rather far out maybe and difficult to achieve, but actually it's not so difficult to achieve. But you do have to have commitment to practice and faith in practice. And you have to get in the habit of practice. So that it becomes as much a part of your life as any of your other habits.

[93:50]

If it's the lowest priority habit, it's then just a practice that gives you a feeling of well-being, hopefully. It won't enter you into the alchemy of your own creativity. But if it's a priority equal to your others, or maybe slightly higher than the other priorities, Over time it changes you. When you go to sleep, you go to sleep through a timeless state of mind, as I said the other day. You have to let go of identifying with your thinking.

[94:53]

And when you get skillful at signless states of mind, you can go to sleep almost instantly. When you go into zazen, you go into a signless state of mind. Once you're in zazen, it fills up with images and things, but it doesn't fill up with thinking. If it fills up with thinking and then you identify with the thinking, you're not doing zazen. You're just sitting there having a good think. Or a bad thing. about dreaming?

[96:08]

I would say that How I would technically describe dreaming is you have generated or come into a mind which has a different viscosity than consciousness and so images will float in it but thinking sinks in it. Now, if you can generate a mind which allows images to float, and you are not generating the images, but the mind in which they float,

[97:11]

then you're generating a particular kind of signless state of mind. So a signless state of mind, the way I'm using it, doesn't mean that there aren't objects in it or signs in it. But rather that you've shifted your emphasis from the objects in it to the mind itself. So there's actual experiences of shifting from the reflections to the glass. And that can be experienced as a kind of enlightenment experience.

[98:27]

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