I have only spoken with the trees in the garden. Yes, David? I did not have that directly in the discussion of today. This doesn't have directly to do with the discussion we had in the group. My feeling is that I would like to join this koan of Yaoshan ascending the seat with a term or an expression. For me, I also see the image that Yaoshan ascends the seat and writes or does something, that he also opens the possibility of noticing us.

[01:05]

So for me there is also the image when I watch Yaoshan ascending the seat and not saying anything, sitting still, that he opens the space for us to be able to notice things. And this week I did duat training with some of you And I am always or again and again amazed what field of practice we have here that we could enter noticing.

[02:09]

But that we put obstacles there by thinking about the situation. Nevertheless my feeling is that we are getting closer or approaching and that we maybe more and more dare to enter the possibility of noticing. and I mention this because I feel it is a very rich experience when we are able to be and function within a field together

[03:11]

so that we can accept so-called mistakes for ourselves. Or even that we are so concentrated on the noticing that we don't notice the mistakes. and when we can experience it, it happens from time to time, I feel a very big open space, Where I can recognize or use this incomprehensible mind. Thank you. Yeah, I think one thing we can notice in the

[04:35]

doing the Dohan practice is that it's really a kind of, it's at the level of tea ceremony or something like that. Yeah, it's not so much about like ringing the bell. But how you bring the mind into the details of the situation. And let the mind, but not consciousness, flow through the hands of the speaker. and let the mind and not the consciousness flow through the hands and so on. And then, of course, doing service, letting the whole service and everybody flow into the Doan field. Yeah, and of course tea ceremony has a way that if mistakes are made, then the mistake is part of the ceremony, so-called ceremony.

[06:19]

Peter? It seems to me that In the course of our discussion in the group, I started to notice which kind of experience could be joined or expressed by or experienced by this incomprehensible mind and for me the closest to incomprehensible mind is this childlike amazement and

[07:23]

stop being astonished about something that suddenly appears. Because there is no comprehension that something like this can exist or is possible. Okay, thank you. Yes. In our group we try to approach what it might be this incomprehensible mind and some said from their experience it's like intuition that something suddenly comes up.

[08:36]

So I asked myself that intuition just comes up. So how can I practice intuition? How can I make it come up? She didn't mean practice intuition, but practice this incomprehensible mind to make this mind possible. For me, maybe there are two ways. One might be to perceive the world more through the body and through the hara.

[09:43]

And the other might be to try to really be more in the moment, to experience the moment. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I could say some things, but I'd rather not. Someone else. Yeah. It's a space of selflessness. That's all. That's your feeling. Yeah. So this is in addition or kind of joining Dorothea, which methods could we use to experience, to make it experienceable? We don't do anything but this all the time.

[11:24]

We sit. We use turning words. We pay attention to the breath. So we apply all these methods so that the everyday mind could either be cut off or just drop it. So we actually are rich with these methods and we are using them as much as we can all the time. I think we really want to be clear that everyday mind is the mind we live within, by, through.

[12:44]

And when everyday mind is less encumbered by past associations and future anticipations, and future anticipations, And it doesn't carry the burden of proving you're a good guy all the time. An everyday mind is just everyday mind. So I would say that first what happens, one of the fruits of practice, As everyday mind really becomes each day mind and not the mind of past and anticipated future.

[14:08]

And when it doesn't carry the burden of proving whether you're good or bad, It carries a sense of continuity but not identity. Everyday mind is very precise, very clear. And when Zen... In Zen, there's phrases like, everyday mind is Zen mind. It means this cleared up mind. And then, that gives us more of an opportunity to allow this, what we're calling today, incomprehensible mind or big mind to function.

[15:22]

And then I would describe the thinking of an adept practitioner as a flow of intuitions. and then I would see the thinking of a advanced practitioner as a stream of intuitions. Okay, now that I have already said too much, but yes. I would like to have a tool after the seven weekends that we had last week and now after seven days, in the second week of winter, I would like to have another tool. So after we've had an intense weekend seminar, a week before the winter branches started, and now seven days of winter branches, intense studies, I would like to add one more tool.

[16:29]

And we experienced this in the small group. Where we were kind of forced to try to talk about it and couldn't quite talk about it and express it. Then a field came into existence of let me just be without having to talk about it. So this is also like in the Quran when Yarshan was asked and asked and asked to say something and he eventually ascended the seat and sat there and didn't say anything.

[17:51]

So this afternoon we just sat there and said, we want to be like Yao Shan. Yao Mar. And we talked with the daisies only. Really? That's what you're going to say? Yao Mar. This Zen everyday mind that you just mentioned? I can notice it best when I come home after some time here at Johannesburg.

[19:00]

When she's spreading it for me. So when I first come home my everyday mind is very clear but then I can observe how it like disappears slowly and slowly and kind of dissolves. Really. I'm used to it. I'm used to it. How do I experience the eyebrows? How to experience the mind of the eyebrows. That for me is always a gift, a present. Totally throws me off.

[20:01]

It's totally unexpected and I'm totally woken up. I feel bodily and energetically that I'm here. so that can happen like in a small degree or it can also go through the mark very deeply and I wish it would happen more okay So when I'm here being the tenkan or during zazen?

[21:21]

So, The example of when I'm thinking and I stand there in front of the Han and everything is a little dark and I just stand there, I feel like I'm in an ocean of sensory impressions. In winter, when the heating starts and the whole house And I can hear and feel the aliveness of the house in the various sounds and movements. And it seems to me that I move in a different way when I feel in this ocean of

[22:53]

sensory impressions and as if I'm also a liquid or my movements are more liquid. What I do at home is, when the days are dark for a long time or get dark earlier, that I hardly turn on the light and after sitting in this diffuse, dark room, I try to keep this atmosphere up somehow. And what I often do at home, especially in winter when the days are shorter, that I do not turn on light so much and stay in the half dark. The way I move and I try to keep that feeling and atmosphere a little longer.

[24:24]

I develop more and more a feeling and a consciousness for a transition phase between night and sleep and dream and a day world. And I am developing more of a feeling for this transition phase between night and sleep and then day and work. So it's like really an in-between time and space. So I try to keep this space within me when I then drive the car to work and consciously deciding not to turn on the radio.

[25:42]

I have noticed that when I turn on the radio, then it is really astonishing, it is really the feeling as if a network over the radio and the information is laying a network over me. And I've had the experience that when I turned out the radio, as if the radio put out a net. like around me and above me and I start to orientate myself within that net. And it feels as if this net of the radio gives me coordinates and I use those to orientate myself instead of my own feeling and my own experience.

[27:12]

Yeah, exactly. Ganz genau so. For years I insisted that I never would have a car with a radio and I insisted Zen Center's cars didn't have radios for a while. Because I had just that experience. But if we imagine your very good description you made of standing at the pond and it's tanking. And feeling all of the house, the space of the house. And the way this house built, it's a little bit like being inside a cello case. And the way this house built, it's a little bit like being inside a cello case.

[28:14]

And somebody hits a pipe and... And you said it affects your... You feel... You move differently in this kind of... the fluidity of this space. And I think that's an accurate description of the experience. Or one experience that's interrelated experience. Now, If we also understand, explore Biao Shan's mind, and with the emphasis in this poem on silence and stillness, if you imagine that in this

[29:43]

this etheric mind this field of mind I spoke about this morning you had a where you feel you're in this fluid where you feel you're in this fluid now if into this kind of Sometimes, in my own notes, I use, believe it or not, something like elasticus mind. Because the word that I find closest to it is an early word elasticus, which means it's very responsive. Hmm. Yeah, it's not very good, you know, elastic, plastic, you know, etc. But in any case, you get the gist. Now, into this bodily... You also brought a kind of cellular stillness.

[31:21]

A kind of bodily stillness was in the midst of this receptive state. fluid feeling mind that stillness communicates pretty directly to other people's minds and it seems to seek out the stillness in the world and it seems to seek out So when you look at something, a cat or a dog or a person or a tree, in the midst of their movement you also bodily feel their stillness.

[32:33]

And I think that the deer, the crowd of deer, I found myself in. Part of the calmness of the situation was I could feel their bodily stillness. Now it's interesting when Matsu says to Yashan, beat it. Beat it. See how cute we are? He said to Yashan, now that your understanding is bodily, and flows through your four limbs.

[33:47]

And then he says, bind your things to your stomach and travel to other mountains. And other mountains often means to become a teacher. And he said, but I'm not ready to be a teacher, which is a good sign of you might be close to being ready. When you choose a teacher you really want to choose someone who doesn't have a psychological teaching process. You want to choose somebody who doesn't psychologically need to teach, to have that role with others.

[35:04]

But they do it just to help others, not to help themselves. So he said, now that your understanding is bodily and it flows through the four limbs, Bind your things to your stomach. You'd never hear that in the West. People would say, put on a backpack. We wouldn't say, tie your rucksack to your stomach. We'd say, what the heck are you talking about? But you know that the oryoki, one of the things that forms, shapes the oryoki, When you travel with it, you tie it up like that, wrap it, and you tie it around your stomach.

[36:16]

So the Orioki bowls are here on your stomach, on your hara. So if you're not carrying much, it's tied around your stomach. And if you're carrying a lot, you have a kind of pack around your stomach and another pack on your back. But this is a view of the hara and the body as located not in the kind of shoulders, head, this kind of triangle here. What the hell here? A Zen teacher I knew quite well in Japan was Kobori Henshu Roshi. Kobori Enshu Roshi.

[37:33]

He was quite great. He was at the other end of the political spectrum from my teacher in Japan, which was Yamada Muman Roshi. But Kori Roshi was quite exceptional. So while we're here, I might as well tell you an anecdote about it. So in the summer in Japan, it's very hot and muddy. And he is, his temple, he's got a famous and beautiful temple in Daitoku-ji. And he has all of the walls are out because it's so hot and muggy. And he has hanging sudari, which are bamboo curtains which let the wind go through. And you know these kind of Samoes like David has on.

[38:55]

He has a white Samui pants and top of a kind of linen that is used in something else, and he's had it made into a Samui work outfit in which the wind will blow through. And we're sitting there, Virginia and I, my first wife, having iced green tea. Anyway, so I'm enjoying myself sitting talking to you about Buddhism and so forth.

[40:01]

And he also happens to have really extraordinary scrolls. He has the Six Persimmons, a very famous scroll. And he has Sesshu's most famous of all scrolls, a kind of mountain, a little tiny boat, that was a key work of art that changed the direction of Japanese art. And he also has the most famous role of Sashu, where there's a mountain on it and a river and a small boat, and that's with Jane Schwab. The direction of Japanese art is a certain point. Zen art. Which is basically an amateur art. Zen art is an amateur's art.

[41:03]

Because it's the unskilled hand. So I... You know, I know a story. I'd heard it earlier about some university of Indiana or someplace like that. A professor of Asian art came to visit him. That was a story you had heard before. An earlier story I'd heard before. Yeah, and this... I didn't say Bloomington, but that's fine. You happen to know there's a university at Bloomington. There's your knowledge popping in. Sorry. I tell her, no knowledge, you're just a faucet.

[42:09]

That's right. Okay. Anyway, so this guy, this kind of American professor, shows up at the door and says, I've always wanted to visit your temple, Ori Roshi. And I hear you own the six persimmons and I'd love to see it. I'm writing a book about it. And Kobori Roshi says, I'm sorry, I don't own anything. And he closes the door. Because he really doesn't feel he owns it. He just takes care of it through generations. And it's not owned, it's not saleable, it's not in the art market, and you don't think of it as having any public value.

[43:20]

So I know something about Japanese sensibility so I'm sitting there with Kawai Roshi wishing I had a cool outfit like he had. And the basic feeling is this art belongs to those who can really bring attention to it. And you kind of have to earn the right to see it. Yeah, I mean, so I'm sitting there with Virginia. And two rooms off, I can see in the distance.

[44:28]

Here's a scroll of plum blossoms. And I can't remember. I know it was hot, so I can't remember why this was the context right now, but I saw it in the other room, and I said, well, spring is early this year. That's all I said. Because the plum blossom in Japan comes out while there's still snow, so it represents an early spring. So I didn't say I'd seen the scroll, I didn't say anything, I just said, oh, you seem to think it's going to be in early spring.

[45:49]

And the next time I went to visit him, which was six or eight weeks later, He had right beside us with six percent. Yeah. And I could tell you stories about tea bowls and other things like that. But we really would have to do what Paul says, have another week. Maybe I'll find an excuse to tell this story, which I'm not telling right now, someday. But I will tell you a short story. You know, this last day we can pull the ground.

[46:51]

Everybody's changing their lives, you know. It's my brother-in-law, Lenny Rackett, who built Hotuan and Crestone for me and did the interior of the Zendo. are the two best trained Japanese wood joinery carpenters in the United States. Are the two best trained Japanese wood joinery carpenters in the United States. Paul Disko and Lenny. And Paul Disko built Larry Ellison, the owner of Oracle's $70 million Japanese house in Woodstock. No, Woodside. Woodside. But I got Yamada Muman Roshi to arrange Paul's training as a carpenter.

[48:23]

And I got Kobori Roshi to arrange Lenny's training as a gardener. And the reason you have to get somebody like these Roshis is because if you really want to train with good gardeners, you have to train with national treasure gardeners, gardeners who've been chosen been chosen as national treasures. So when Mumon Roshi and Gabor Roshi had their temple repaired, they had these national treasure cartons. We have our own version, Jürgen Pitas.

[49:46]

Who? Who built our Zendo door and other things. So I sent Lenny to see Kobori Roshi. So Lenny goes to the temple door and there's no place to knock. So you have to say what do you say when you enter a house? Go men kudasai. I know it. I'd say it every day in Kresta. Go men kudasai And a monk comes out. Yes. I'm Richard Baker's brother-in-law and I want to say hello to Kobori Roshi.

[50:51]

And Kobori Roshi comes out. What do you want? Well, I'm interested in Zen and I'm interested in studying carpentry. And you're Richard Baker's brother-in-law. But it didn't mean much, but it meant a little. So he says, okay, come in. And Lenny kicked off his shoes and came in. And Kobori Roshi walks back, picks up his shoes and turns them carefully backwards and says, I thought you were interested in Zen.

[51:56]

Because in Zen you always step in backwards, so when you step out, your shoes are ready. Now that's all a prelude to a very simple story. I always carry a monk's bag. Even nowadays I do. And I carry it on this shoulder, which is a little higher than this shoulder, so it's a good hook. I used to be like that, but now it's a little bit better. So I carry it like this. And walking through Daitokuchi, I meet Kibori Roshi. And he looks at me kind of suspiciously.

[53:03]

He takes this off my shoulder. He says, that's how you wear it. And so after that, every time I saw him, I quickly... Because I actually can't do it. And when I walk as a westerner, it bounces. I can only comfortably walk with it on my shoulder. And Japanese monks walk and it doesn't bounce. My body is like having an American accent or something. I have a bodily accent and I can't do it.

[54:11]

So he says, bind your things to your stomach and go traveling to other mountains because He says, you cannot be an adept practitioner or a teacher for sure until you've matured your practice by traveling to other teachers. And until you have enough stillness in your stomach that your bag doesn't bounce. Sorry for all of those anecdotes.

[55:15]

We're going to do without supper tonight, Peter. We're going to do without supper tonight. Oh no, I'm just kidding. Okay, anyone else? Someone else? Yes. I have a pretty banal example of an inexplicable mind. After we worked on, will you address it? After we worked on the fourth koan, there was only one person on the ground. Yes, and the verse there I found incredible.

[56:22]

It memorized itself right away. The boundless spring on other plants, picking up what comes to hand, he uses it knowingly, the 16-foot tall wooden body, and casually leads him by the hand into the red dust. It'll be a master in the dust. And it was shortly after that seminar I was opening a can And when I picked up the counter opener that came to mind, picking up what comes to hand, he uses it knowingly. And I was thrilled by that, the fact that that phrase came to mind.

[57:32]

And then I thought, this can opener is incredible. Somebody or generations of people worked to make this. And I was very excited that it came to mind. And I thought, this can opener is actually fantastic. Generations of people worked to develop it. And I knew just what to do. I didn't have to think about it. You know, nowadays you'd go like this. When I was little, you went like this. You kind of ripped it open, you know. Yeah. Anyone else? Okay, Hans. I want to tell something, but it's also a question.

[58:34]

This incomprehensible has addressed a different side of me. this incomprehensible triggered a different side in me. I'm hesitant and cautious about telling these kinds of things, but I want to do it anyway. Because I've had this experience often, maybe, and also others. So when I was in the group memories came up and so what I'm going to say was long ago that in the middle of the night I woke up and there was a

[59:59]

And there was a palpable presence in the room of some being. Do you have a remark or an opinion about this kind of experience? I don't want to say what. Well, it's fairly common. People have such experiences. And it's pretty documented in the Zen literature that people have these experiences.

[61:26]

But generally it's taken as kind of everyday, nothing special. You don't deny the reality of the experience but you don't try to make it into some kind of theory or something like that. So it was about four years ago when we had the work practice here. And during that work practice, an uncle of mine died. And Rita, a woman from Switzerland, was here at the work practice.

[62:29]

and she didn't know anything about my uncle but after zazen she came to me and said, your uncle wants to say goodbye to you. So she really felt this presence as soon as she entered the zando and was so clear who it was. and that one was very surprised about that. I should thank her. Thank you. Yes? I have a more theoretical question. Okay. In our group, and now also here, most of us, when we talk about this non-self, especially the spirit, So in our group and also here, most people talked about somehow good or nice experiences when they talked about this ungraspable mind.

[63:53]

So my question is, Is there just these good things in ungraspable mind? Really, there must be also the opposite, I would think. Well, what I'm referring to is incomprehensible mind. functions when you feel most physically and mentally and phenomenally integrated.

[64:55]

Integrated phenomena with circumstances. Like physically and... Mentally integrated. And if there's conflict or anxiety or contradiction, it doesn't appear. When there's conflict, anxiety, etc., all kinds of disturbing states of mind can occur. But that's not what happens with this mind that arises through a bodily and mental integration. Yes? Did you want to say something, Alexander? I wanted to add that it disappears when anxiety comes up. I had an experience that Actually, I had to become a skydiver to find out that the sky is not above.

[66:21]

And when I felt this... You had to become a skydiver to find out what? The sky is not above. Oh, yeah, it starts right here. Yeah, that was right. Yeah. And that sort of triggered anxiety, and then the feeling went away. Do you speak German? German. I had an experience that the sky is not above. This triggered fear and then the feeling disappeared again. As Roshi said, If there is fear, then this spirit does not appear, I had in my mind, or it came in my mind. And when fear appears and it is already there, it disappears. You said that when you jump out of a plane, right?

[67:25]

Oh, yes, I said that I had to become a parachute jumper first to hold on to something like that. So that the sky is not above you. Yes, exactly. I think we should stop soon, and there's a couple of things I'd like to say, but Dagmar? I think my story is a bit long, and it fits very well here, but maybe I should tell you. Go ahead. Two days ago a word appeared here, the word threshold, that triggered a lot of things for me. I've had a lot to do with it.

[68:32]

Two weeks ago for the first time in my life I had an out-of-body experience. It was early in the morning between sleeping and waking up. Before that I had a certain bodily sensation. It was a feeling between body and hearing, bodily feeling and hearing. a prickling like, what's the sound?

[69:45]

Crackling. Crackling. And the next moment I felt that I was floating up. And then you immediately, I'm going out of my body. I knew that. It was not a dream. And when I was about one and a half meters above, I expected to turn around to see my body from above, but that did not happen. Instead, I suddenly noticed that I couldn't breathe, that I didn't have any air.

[70:47]

Normally, I'm totally joined with my breath and not very intimate with my breath through my years of work. It was very clear that only one of these bodies could breathe. I was afraid that if I let go of that, I would be extinguished and I wouldn't be able to die. thinking if I let go, then I can't solve, and I didn't want to die at that point.

[71:57]

And immediately I was back in my body, and then I was angry with myself that I hadn't used the chance. A few years ago I had a lucid dream where I saw a very bright shining light and I felt invited to approach this light so I got closer and at a certain point the power of the light overtook me overwhelmed me And I was afraid of being extinguished, and I woke up.

[73:07]

With these two things I said a lot during the last days And I know that it has to do with letting go and that maybe death and enlightenment are the same to go over this threshold. And when it is said that after enlightenment, one is without fear, So the question arises, if I'm so afraid to go over this threshold, how can I ever become without fear?

[74:26]

At this morning during the first period of Zazen I suddenly understood that this fear of dissolving or being extinguished is exactly as this threshold. That's good. So that clicked for me and now I'm sitting with that. Well, it definitely, if you can develop, cultivate the feeling that you really don't care what happens to you. then both enlightenment and death are more accessible. And it's not an accident that the word nirvana means both enlightenment and death. You know, I think it's good that we have this kind of conversation now and then.

[76:12]

But because, you know, many of us have these not understandable experiences that you don't dare, often don't dare tell anybody else. And it's good to know that people have these experiences. Yeah, and you don't have to feel you're going crazy or something. Okay, but... Also in Zen we don't try to cultivate such experiences. They happen, they happen. And in Zen they are called the intermediate world. Experiences you can't explain but you don't try to develop theories about.

[77:13]

Let me say something. I mentioned it in Doksan. One, see if I can do this. It's fairly simple. There's that dragon in the air. the recommendations of Buddhaghosa and Dharmakirti and so forth for advanced practice. As I said the other day, you need to bring into your attention Aspects of practice that you can't understand yet or can't achieve yet.

[78:30]

And it could be something simple like not even a needle can enter. Or it could be something a little more complex like the actuating presence. Which in our normal consciousness we cannot perceive the saccadic scanning, for instance, that we do. It's happening at a microsecond level and the consciousness can't perceive microseconds. So there's aspects of knowing that we can't know.

[79:32]

But that we can't know consciously. And there's aspects of practice that we can't that we can understand occur, but you can't experience... Let's take one example, the durative present. I don't know what you said before that. Are there aspects of practice? Let's just start over. Okay. Let's do one example of the durative present. But the present doesn't exist externally. The present is a lot of ingredients.

[80:35]

What you experience as the present, you create the duration of the present. But we don't experience ourselves creating this duration. What we experience is the present is a kind of container that exists. And I presume a dragonfly doesn't experience his, his, her presence as durative. I've never tried to figure out the gender of the dragonfly. In German it's sie. It's he? She. She, okay. That's because it's pretty. Maybe. Okay, anyway. So, but if you create the intellectual formulation and the mental concept

[81:42]

This is a durative present. It's two words, a durative present, that you cannot perceive. You can know it's the case. You can even know it's the case by studying slowed down movies with biological equipment. So you can know it's factually the case but you can't perceive it. But if you create this mental concept And you hold that mental concept in your mind.

[82:55]

Now how this is presented by Dharma Kirti or someone is that that information is necessary for your practice to begin to sense it. But what happens is that concept becomes... It's not just intellectual information that you're holding. It becomes a kind of bodily knowing, that after a while it's not just a concept that you know about, but you'll begin to notice that you begin to act in the present as if it was durative.

[84:00]

In other words, while you can't know it consciously, it begins to also be a concept held in, let's say, incomprehensible mind. And you can't notice how you're participating in the present as durative rather than container. You can't know that you're experiencing the present as durative. Because what you notice is you're experiencing the world as an externalized container.

[85:15]

But after a while, the fruits of your actions reveal that the fruits are based on or result from you notice that the fruits of your action the results of your action arise from an assumption, an experience of the present as durative, and don't arise from an experience of the present as an externalized container.

[86:27]

It doesn't arise from the experience of an externalized container. It arises from activity based on it being a durative present, not a container present. Your trouble with translating is good for all of us because there's some difficulty in grasping something that's rather slippery. My point is to give you confidence. that if you really internalize certain concepts, they begin to function in this big mind.

[87:45]

When there's no experience of them functioning in conscious mind. So many practices are aimed at getting you to embody these teachings, even though you can't consciously understand them. Many of our practices are based on getting a bodily or embodied understanding which functions as understanding Even though consciousness can't understand.

[88:48]

Or consciousness can't notice that that's what you're doing. Okay, that was harder to say than I thought. That gives confidence. I hope that gives you confidence. I'm a cheerleader. Hip, hip, hooray. Okay. Yeah, and, you know, in this, some of us have problems with, you know, we know people, we like one person, we like another person, or don't like this person, etc., Also manche von uns haben Probleme damit, dass wir einige Leute mögen und andere Leute nicht so sehr mögen. The more you feel you're part of the Sangha, and everyone you meet you feel we share the same vision,

[89:53]

And even when you meet a somebody working in Kaufhof and secretly and you relate to them with the feeling they share the same vision as I share in the Sangha Sometimes they feel this awakening in them and they respond to you almost as if they were somebody practicing in the Sangha. So the paramitas practice of the Bodhisattva we could say is to meet each person as if we share the vision of Buddhism or enlightenment. And another way to state that is you have no, just as I said, you have no real, no sense of needing, of attainment.

[91:21]

you have no sense of a lifespan. And if everyone you meet, you feel you have no sense of a lifespan, it's just this moment. And everyone you meet, you meet them without any sense of a mutual lifespan. Every meeting with another person is at least as good as flowers. Now, Alan brought up a single blade of grass. and we'll establish it this temple is established and I can't help looking at this koan of ascending the seat which is a phrase which means a lot of things

[92:46]

One of the meanings is to see the world as appearance. To ascend the seat, be like a Buddha and see the world as appearance. And it also means, of course, doing what I'm doing, what we're doing right now. And in that sense, it becomes all of the enactment rituals of Buddhism. And it also then means, too, ascending the seat is the ceremony of becoming an abbot. It's called the mountain seat ceremony. And this ascending the seat also is what's called, as I said earlier, opening the mountain.

[94:11]

So opening the mountain is not just to become the abbot, but to establish a practice center. And here in these mountains of the Black Forest, of the Hudson Ball, we haven't opened the mountain. That's what this is called. And because that's the theme, the kind of inner theme of this koan, I can't help but think about should we be getting Hudson Holtz or not?

[95:22]

Johannes Holtz. Johannes Halsch. Yeah, or Hotzenhof. I guess that doesn't sound good. Hotzenhof sounds good. Yeah, Johannes Halsch. Johannes Halsch. All right, anyway... Is this opening the mountain, establishing the ground for our lay practice, should we do this or not? I think it's a very interesting question for our assignment. I don't know if we even can do it.

[96:25]

But before we... We ought to at least know whether we want to do it and then find out if we can do it. So I'm very curious whether the Sangha wants to do it. But we have a little time to find out. A few weeks at least. Or maybe more. But it's interesting. It's kind of exciting. What should we do? I'll be asking for your opinion soon. Okay. And I work This funny Raxo today for some reason. It was made by Rocio Hernandez Pozo Roche, my disciple.

[97:25]

Dan Welch's wife. Who lives in Mexico, in Cuernavaca. This is a Mexican version of a Buddhist raksa. Ole! Thank you very much for the seminar. You're great.

[97:55]

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