okay okay

[01:11]

oh oh ah I believe to experience the truth of the Tathagata.

[03:03]

No, I didn't hear about it. But that's correct. Oh dear. So maybe you should stand next to the Shakyamuni so you look exactly alike. Yeah, I think I may, I think I might. Make, I wish I may, I wish I might make the wish, have the wish I make tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might have the wish I make tonight. You don't have to translate it. It just popped into my head as I was coming over here, so I thought,

[04:30]

hmm, yeah, I do have a wish for you, for us and our ongo. But also, little phrases like that, which don't exactly mean anything, but I wish I may, I wish I might have the wish I make tonight. We have to find, you'll have to find in German, Deutsch, ways of, in bodily, because that's in my body, I didn't think of that, it's just in my body, ways to bring various basic teachings into your body so they just appear in your activity. But, I think we have to, with verses like this, like this, I wish I could, I wish I might, and then something with a wish tonight or something,

[05:32]

verses like this, which nest in us bodily, we have to look at English and then also at German, we have to look at how we nest basic teachings into us in this bodily way, and how they appear on their own. This is the first time I've given a sort of formal teisho in ten years, or one year, or six months, or something. This is the first time I've given a sort of formal teisho in ten years, or one year, or six months, or something. Anyway, do robes belong in the zendo, or in the teisho, does it make a difference? I don't know, it does, I am speaking from a tradition, so I wear a Buddhist robe.

[06:38]

I wear the robes of the Buddha. And the 90-day practice period is, of course, a tradition we inherited from China, and, in a certain way, also from the times of the Buddha. and, in a certain way, also from the times of the Buddha. But given that 90 days can, simply 90 days, can change, affect your whole lifetime, it's not very long. But given that 90 days can, simply 90 days, can change, affect your whole lifetime, it's not very long.

[08:01]

We've created, together, the sangha, we've created a kind of little island here, in the middle of the German countryside. We've created a kind of little island here, in the middle of the German countryside. But each of us, each of you, have to make it your own little island, in your feel for the world, if it's going to have its potential power. in your feel for the world, if it's going to have its potential power. As I've been saying recently, Zen practice is a path of discovery.

[09:17]

As I've been saying recently, Zen practice is a path of discovery. Zen gives the least instructions, and expects the most of you to make the practice work. and expects the least instructions, and expects the most of you to make the practice work. So, how it becomes a path of discovery, is really up to each of you. So, how it becomes a path of discovery, is really up to each of you. The leadership, the mentorship, the experience, in my case, that I have from Suzuki Roshi, quite a long time of doing practice spirits.

[10:27]

Quite a long time of doing practice spirits. I can bring into your field, as suggestions. I can bring into your field, as suggestions. But it's up to you to take the suggestions. But it's up to you to take the suggestions. And as well as a practice of discovery, it's a path of discovery. It's also a practice of actuality. Simply the concept of everyone has Buddha nature,

[11:37]

means that Buddhism is not really a religion, or not a belief system. In other words, everything Buddhism is, is embedded in your actuality, your life within the actuality of each moment. In other words, everything that is Buddhism, lies or is embedded in your actuality, in what is actually there in this moment of yours. So how to open yourself to the actuality of your living, your lived life. We use the instruments, teachings and practices of Buddhism.

[12:56]

Again, how you apply them, how you understand them, feel them, is what counts. So, this needs to become your little island. Maybe big island. One of the descriptions of Samadhi, one of the descriptions of Samadhi, from the third koan in the Shoyuroku, is, hang the sun and the moon in the shadowless forest.

[14:08]

On the budless branches. Now, this is not philosophy. It's a mode of mind, or a feel, an image that you internalize, like I think I may, I think I might have. So, to hang the sun and moon in the shadowless forest. Also die Sonne und den Mond in den schattenlosen Wald zu hängen. Ein Wald ohne Schatten ist nur dann möglich, wenn die Zeit angehalten ist.

[15:20]

So, time is stopped, and you're in charge, it's your sun and moon. I mean, one reason we get up in Zen practice centers, in Zen monastic practice, one reason we get up before the sun comes up, is because we get up, because we get up, the sun gets up, because the sun gets up, it's its own problem, we're our own problem.

[16:23]

We get up, and then the birds start to get up, and the sun comes up, and we're inseparable from the process and independent at the same time. So, it's like this, we get up, and then the birds slowly wake up, and the sun slowly comes up, and we're inseparable from the whole process. Und trotz des zeitlosen Samadhis erkennen wir, und können wir Herbst und Frühling an den Zweigen unterscheiden, die noch keine Knospen tragen. Das ist eine angehaltene Zeit, die alles enthält.

[17:44]

Sie enthält die Sonne und den Mond, die die Zeit repräsentieren, und sie enthält Frühling und Herbst, und auch das steht für die Zeit. Und es enthält die Zweige, die noch keine Knospen tragen. Kannst du in diesem Bild, in dieser Metapher die noch nicht knospenden Zweige in dir selbst spüren? Courageously, stupidly, courageously, to take 90 days out of your usual life.

[18:50]

Just let yourself feel the budless branches of whatever your life is. Auch nicht blühenden Zweige zu spüren von was auch immer dein Leben ist. Und das bedeutet, und entschuldigt, aber da habt ihr euch selbst hinein manövriert, es bedeutet, ihr habt entschieden aus eurer Kultur herauszutreten. If what you know as yourself is all arisen from your culture. How can you get close to discovering actuality, if actuality is just told to you by our culture,

[20:11]

which we know is just a version and not an ideal version. So the effort to realize, to come to the realization of a Buddha and the historical Buddha. Die Bemühung, zu der Verwirklichung eines Buddhas und auch der Verwirklichung des historischen Buddhas zu gelangen. Das sind Jahrhunderte unserer Vorfahren und das sind unsere Vorfahren, genauso wie deine biologische Familie und deine Vorfahren deiner biologischen Familie.

[21:25]

Zumindest können sie deine Vorfahren sein. Have been sincerely struggled and struggled for decades and generations. How do we make this possible for ourselves and for others? I mean they really have made an immense effort. Haben mit größtem Bemühen und größter Ernsthaftigkeit darum gerungen und sich die Frage gestellt, gekämpft mit sich selbst. Wie können wir das für uns und für andere ermöglichen? Und es stimmt wirklich, sie haben sich ungeheure Mühe gegeben. This posture, this sometimes difficult posture and satisfying posture, which is so alive and yet gives us the chance to discover stillness. die so lebendig ist und uns doch gleichzeitig die Gelegenheit gibt, Stille zu entdecken.

[22:33]

Und die Stille ist das transformative Juwel der Verwirklichung. Und sie haben sich diese Haltung ausgedacht, sie haben sich Sashins ausgedacht und sie haben diese 90-tägige Praxisperiode entwickelt. And Dogen emphasizes not the 270 or whatever it is, precepts that earlier monastics took, but the 90-day practice period with others. Und Dogen betont nicht die 270 Gelöbnisse oder wie viele auch immer die Klosterschüler vor ihm halten, empfangen und halten mussten, sondern er sagt, das Wichtige ist die 90-tägige Praxisperiode mit anderen.

[23:40]

When you see if you can step out of your culture. Wenn du schaust, ob du aus deiner Kultur heraustreten kannst. And step out of your learned experience so far. Und aus deiner bisher erlernten Erfahrung heraustreten kannst. And establish some new kind of lifing in the world. Und eine neue Art der Verlebendigung in der Welt zu erschaffen oder mitzugestalten. And some of you know that I'm really, one of my life studies has been, how does the societal world and the cultural world we live in form itself. Und einige von euch wissen, dass eins meiner Lebensthemen oder eins der Themen, die ich mein Leben lang untersucht und studiert habe, die Frage ist,

[24:45]

how does the societal world and the cultural world we live in form itself. Also wie formiert sich die gesellschaftliche und die kulturelle Welt, in der wir leben? Wie entsteht die? And I particularly have studied the invention of science as a dynamic and description of our world. Und ganz besonders habe ich dabei die Erfindung der Wissenschaft studiert als eine Beschreibung oder eine Sicht auf unsere Welt. And it's interesting how you can see the shifts and turns on simple shift in the use of words. Und es ist interessant, wie deutlich man die wichtigen Wendungen in der Neuverwendung oder in der neuen Prägung von ganz einfachen Worten sehen kann.

[26:01]

The word for example, I want to see if I can feel our way into this with two words. Und zum Beispiel das Wort, und ich möchte mal schauen, ob wir da ein Gefühl dafür entwickeln können mit zwei Worten. The word evidence, evidence in English, has been known for many centuries. Das Wort Evidenz oder vielleicht Beweis, Evidenz, das gibt es seit vielen Jahrhunderten. And various versions of that word. But it wasn't used really in the sense that we mean to evidential truth, things like that. It wasn't used in that way until, or barely used at all until around the 17th century. Obwohl es das schon seit vielen Jahrhunderten gibt, wurde es in der Art und Weise, wie wir das Wort verwenden, erst ab dem 17. Jahrhundert verwendet.

[27:02]

Zum Beispiel, wenn wir sagen, sowas wie eine bewiesene Wahrheit oder so. And before that, I mean you may not get the point exactly, but I think if I continue, you'll get the point I want to make at least, I hope. Und ich weiß nicht, vielleicht könnt ihr den Punkt nicht so ganz genau erfassen, aber wenn ich weiterspreche, dann hoffe ich, dass ihr den Punkt, den ich, das Wichtige, was ich dabei sagen möchte, vielleicht versteht. Because before that, what they used to mean, what we mean by evidence, was something became clear. Was sie vorher gemeint haben, wenn sie dieses Wort evidence, oder ja, das passt dann nicht mehr mit Beweis, also wenn dieses Wort evidence, nehmen wir das Englische, wenn sie das verwendet haben, dann wurde damit gemeint, dass etwas klar wurde. And this signals the difference between a sensorial world and a cognitive world.

[28:04]

Und diese Neuverwendung des Wortes signalisiert den Unterschied zwischen einer sinnlichen Welt und einer kognitiven Welt. And we're going, in this 90-day practice period, ideally we're going back, back, forward, something like that, to a sensorial world. Und in dieser 90-tägigen Praxisperiode, da gehen wir idealerweise zurück, oder vielleicht eher vorwärts, in eine sinnliche Welt. Say I'm walking along the path between the buildings at night, and the pass lights haven't come on, or it's just quite dark. And someone's coming toward me, and I don't know who it is. And someone's coming toward me, and I don't know who it is. And then it becomes clear that it's Uli. And then I say, hello Uli.

[29:13]

And then someone asks me later, who was that on the path? And then I say, it was Uli, it was clear to me that it was Uli. And then we imagine the person says, do you have any evidence? Was Uli wearing that usual jacket? Now what's the difference there? Evidence requires me to think about it, and put it together, it's a constructionist view of the world. I have to think about it, it's necessary that I think about it, I have to construct it, or it's a world that can be constructed. And the way concepts of technology and construction and so forth have taken over our thinking,

[30:18]

it's closed us off from a sensorial world. It's closed us off from a sensorial world. It's separated us from the sensorial world, and closed the sensorial world. It's like closing down a store or something. And we shifted into a cognitive constructivist worldview. The Big Bang is a construction.

[31:34]

But the yogic world is an experiential world, a sensorial world. At the base of the ground of the base of the experiential world is mystery. At the base of the ground of the sensorial world is mystery. The Big Bang is a brilliant, measurable fact. And so in the cognitive constructionist, construction of the constructivist world, confirmed by consciousness,

[32:40]

and in this cognitive constructed world that is confirmed by consciousness, the Big Bang lies in some kind of god-space or creator-space. The Big Bang is a measurable construction. We still don't know why anything exists. It's still a mystery. So in the yogic world you try to make sense of things, but you allow fundamentally it to be ineffable, to be a mystery.

[33:44]

So it takes a little while for something to be clear. It's a sensorial experience. So it takes a little while for something to be clear. It's a sensorial experience. And instead of talking about people, let's talk about animals, cows. A coal burner usually has four, five, six cows in the field next door here. And you can sort of get to know the cows. They have numbers. I don't know if they have names, but they have numbers. Numbers are a cognitive world. But I find all the cows are each different. They have kind of personalities. And it takes me a little while to get to know each cow, and you keep changing them because they go off to be hamburgers.

[35:19]

It's a human history applied to unwilling cows. That's a reference to Nagarjuna saying, and Dogen saying, ashes are ashes and firewood is firewood. That's a reference to Nagarjuna and Dogen saying, ashes are ashes and firewood is firewood. Firewood is not the past of ashes. Firewood belongs to the history of forests and things like that, but we've applied our human history, our human interest in firewood, so we burn it. So as I say sometimes, pig is not the past of pork.

[36:36]

But you say pig and pig, don't you? Cows are not the past of hamburgers. So Dogen says, no cows is cows, no hamburger is hamburger, and don't think there's some kind of simple causation between them. It's agriculture and cows destroying the planet, which is the history of hamburgers. So I'd like to get to know the cows. So I have to spend a little time to feel each cow.

[37:42]

Until that cow becomes clear. And then there's another cow, there's five or six, and it takes a little while, and that cow is always this one, and that one often separates itself, and so forth. And then I develop a feeling for the next cow, and so on, until at some point I know, ah yes, this cow is always like this and that, and the cow back there is always a little bit away. In a cognitive world, I just walk past the cows, and they just do what they do, they feed and so on. And basically they kind of like each other, and they bump each other. But in a sensorial world, they're kind of a space scape, landscape.

[38:59]

But in a sensorial world, they're kind of a space scape, landscape. A sensorial space scape. And then it takes me, you know, some days, or a week or so, before I really have a feel, the feel, the clarity, the clear feel of each cow in its field. And so as I walk over the two wooden bridges, Atmar conceived, they're great.

[40:11]

I feel the sensorial space scape of the cows, you know, they're together, separated, I just feel them as bumps as I walk across the bridges. I feel this sensorial space scape of these cows, and they're all like little bumps or little balls or something. And if we're here in this 90 days together on this little island, which we do not leave unless there's an emergency. And if we're here in this 90 days together on this little island, which we do not leave unless there's an emergency. You're trying to find ways to step out of your culture and your personal identities and habits. You're trying to find ways to step out of your culture and your personal identities and habits.

[41:22]

Well, no cognition as well. You have to kind of find your own way to do this. One way is to really come into a breath-paced world. One way is to really come into a breath-paced world. You let continuity go.

[42:46]

Can't be measured. But if you do measure them, they're only 90 days. How can you not measure them? Well, if you stop thinking in terms of continuity or 90 days or time, you're in this shadowless forest. If you stop thinking in terms of continuity or 90 days or time, you're in this shadowless forest. And if you just step into this sensual moment, you're in the middle of this shadowless forest. You're in this sensual world. So you could design the chair almost, as if you were a chair designer and you looked at a chair.

[44:03]

It took you a while to feel what the chair is all about. And not just a world that's populated by humans and cows, but also, for example, by chairs. You look at a chair until you feel as if you could almost design it yourself. You develop the feeling of what it's like to think of exactly this chair, to invent it. I guarantee you, if you can for these, as much as possible, as often as you can for these 93 months, just feel, just sense the world. I often say, pause for the particular. Maybe I should say now, pause for the feel of everything that appears.

[45:04]

This is the practice of actuality. It's available to all of us, but it's hidden under cognitive habits. It's available to all of us, but it's hidden under cognitive habits. So the world of each inhale, each exhale, each inhale, each exhale, breaks up this continuity and much of what we know as self and identity. So your dharmic secret weapon or secret medicine

[46:21]

is to literally step into a breath-based world. In homeopathic doses, it's okay. Small doses work. So you start living in a successive world, not a continuous world. So you start living in a successive world, not a continuous world. So you start living in a successive world, not a continuous world.

[47:23]

And all of this is accessible right here. You breathe, locate or simply find your world with every inhale and every exhale. An experienceable world that you perceive through feeling, that you feel, and whose mystery you allow or accept. And I can almost promise you that if you do this, then these 90 days will continue to live in all the remaining days of your life. Thank you very much.

[48:26]

OM NURIYO SEGANGAKU MUTSUDO MUCHO SEGANGYO The living beings are countless, I praise to guide them. The enlightened ones are inexhaustible, I praise to give them up. The dharmators are immeasurable, I praise to transcend them. The king of the buddha is unsurpassable, I praise to give him up.

[49:31]

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