As usual, we have a topic. Can you hear way back there in the back? Oh, really? You have good ears. But tomorrow I hope we can all move forward some. I don't like you to be so far away Anyway, we have a topic and Sangha body but I would like us to assume that we don't know what that is. In fact, we probably don't know what it is.

[01:02]

But it's good to start with not knowing. Mm-hmm. I was listening to a tape of somebody talking about Wittgenstein, Ludwig Wittgenstein recently. And he said that every perception is an interpretation. Yeah, I mean, if you think for a little bit, that's obvious. But if we can keep reminding ourselves of it, we can start feeling ourselves in a field or sea of interpretations.

[02:15]

This evening Norbert picked me up at the train and put me in a little rather nice hotel, actually quite nice, in the middle of town. It used to be a YMCA. It still says in the front it's a YMCA, but the rooms must be only a meter wide because it looks like most of the building is a hotel. The Christians are getting narrower. But I always, when I was young, like 16, things like that, I would stay in YMCA's, so it feels familiar. In fact, I left home when I was 16 for a while and lived by myself in a YMCA when I was 16, I think.

[03:31]

So I walked around the town a little bit. And you know it's a new town to me. At least the downtown is new to me. But for people there, it's quite a different town for the teenagers than for older people. And there's all these different, as I'm pointing out, interpretations. You see these walking interpretations of town. They're quite different.

[04:46]

I mean, the buildings are more or less the same, but they're quite different towns for everybody. Now there's a formula, a traditional formula in Buddhism. Here there is nothing to be added. Here there is nothing to be subtracted. The truth is seeing things as they are. And those who see the truth are liberated. Now I've been reading and practicing such formulas or teachings. Similar teachings for sure.

[05:51]

But when I read something like that or think about it, practice with it, it's like the first time for me. I don't ever, I don't have much thought, well, I've done this before. I mean, the teaching is similar. I'm trying to see why I really don't ever think I've done it before. And I guess it's that I've never done this evening before. I've never sat here with just you, this particular group of people before.

[07:14]

And I've never walked in September 1999 in downtown Kassel before either. So here's all these different walking interpretations walking around and I'm looking at being there So I can practice with nothing to be added. Or I can just practice with the word here. I can find myself here. You know, I know this is Simple, but it's not simplistic.

[08:26]

At least for me, I need to bring myself back to these, looking at things this way, reminding myself to look at things this way. And I hadn't eaten all day on the train this morning. So I had a little something to eat. And then there were a whole bunch of different interpretations. Everything seemed much better than before. There's a seat up here too. That's okay. Now, what I've decided to speak about this weekend is Sangha, of course, but also Buddha nature as it relates to Sangha.

[10:07]

And the history of the development of this idea of Buddha nature is quite interesting in itself. So I'd like to speak about how Buddha nature and Sangha are intrinsically related. Particularly in Zen practice and practice of any depth. Because Sangha is related to this idea, of course, of we're already enlightened. Now, if you've had much acquaintance with Buddhism, you're familiar with the idea we're already enlightened.

[11:21]

You're not sure who that applies to, though. I think you might think that maybe that doesn't apply to anybody you know, that they're already enlightened. And except at particularly blissful moments, you don't think it applies to you either. I mean, maybe. I would guess some of you feel that way. So how do we make such a phrase have more reality for us? Or that at least we all have the capacity for complete enlightenment. Or that everyday life is practiced. I think we hear these things and they make Zen sound attractive.

[12:51]

But the more you practice, the more you wonder how the heck you practice in everyday life. And you begin to wonder when this enlightenment is going to arrive. Yeah, for the first few years you think the train is late, you know, maybe. And you think it's never going to come, that there's not even any tracks. Okay, so we need to, If we're going to look at these phrases, and you can just practice with them with faith, and if I give you or you have certain practices and you have faith that

[13:59]

this works, it can work. But still, I think it's better for us to understand these teachings more thoroughly. Because really, if you understand them more thoroughly, you can find more creative ways to practice them in your life. And they were developed. These teachings aren't in early Buddhism.

[15:01]

They weren't taken for granted at all. And it took centuries and much discussion and disagreement before these simple statements were... evolved and supported by practices and logic. Which reminds me of something else Wittgenstein wrote in his notebooks. He said there was a radical change in his own thinking. When he saw that his thoughts about logic and by thoughts about logic he meant to make things clear. He saw logic and philosophy as a way of making your thoughts clear.

[16:27]

So he wrote that there was a radical change in his thinking when he saw that his thoughts about logic were inseparable from his desire to live rightly. And he didn't say inseparable from living rightly. He said inseparable from the desire to live rightly. Er sagte, untrennbar von dem Wunsch, rechtschaffen zu leben. And if you practice Zazen, you can see that clearly. Und wenn ihr Zazen praktiziert, seht ihr das klar, klar.

[17:29]

As we talked about in this recent Sashin that Maya translated some of. Und wie wir das in dem letzten Sashin gesehen haben, das Maya übersetzt hat. At the house distiller. which is getting more and more freeways and airplanes and cars around it, so it's not so stiller anymore, but it's still nice. But the boats and the canals still sound nice when they come by. That when you're doing zazen, And you have some feeling of clarity sometimes. And often it would be hard to distinguish between a kind of physicality to the clarity and mental clarity.

[18:30]

Maybe you can almost bask. Do you know bask? Bask in this clarity. And then you start thinking hateful thoughts about your neighbor. Or somebody or something. and the clarity is out the window or under the floor or something it's very clear that if you have hateful thoughts or angry thoughts or possessive thoughts you can't be clear Not in this clarity that permeates mind and body. So, all practice in Buddhism is assumed to start with taking the precepts. With the desire to live rightly.

[19:45]

You may not achieve right living, but you desire to achieve right living. It's the absolute necessary basis for any study of yourself. And study of any basis for the study of others. You can't really study others when you're selfish, possessive, angry, etc. And there's no real study, there's no real sangha unless there's study of others. Or the study and knowing of others. Well, I got into this topic rather quickly, didn't I?

[21:03]

Thought I'd start out slowly. Maybe this is slow. So implicit in the idea of Mahayana Sangha is the sense that each of us has the capacity of enlightenment. Or in some fundamental way, we're already enlightened. And to take the precepts is also to commit yourself to free yourself from obstructions.

[22:11]

And some of those obstructions are things like hateful thoughts and so forth. But some of those obstructions are just not seeing things as they are. So let's define Sangha. And in reference to taking refuge in the Sangha. Because let's say that this group of people is the Sangha. This group of people is not the Sangha just because there's, I don't know, 40 or so people here. You are my Sangha if I can take refuge in you. Can I take refuge in you?

[23:18]

Do I dare? Yeah. It's a scary thing to take refuge in a group of people. Most people let you down, at least it seems like that often. I once called somebody and said, what is the Buddha? I was in a smart-alecky mood, I guess. Smart-aleck, smart. Smart-aleck means like a kid who's acting big. So I said, oh, the Buddha, it's the pin-up that won't let you down.

[24:20]

A pin-up is like when you put a pretty girl up in the office of the garage or something like that. so people always put the Buddha up so I say it's the pin-up that won't let you down I don't know why anyway but how do we relate to people with the feeling of even if they let us down it's okay Because we really couldn't create the condition, you're only my sangha if you don't let me down. That's not a very big spirit. That's playing it safe. So safe you'd never have anybody to depend on.

[25:34]

There's now always this danger because we're all so separate as well as connected. So you become my Sangha if I can so understand you or feel about you that I can take refuge in you. And Ulrike and I up here are your sangha if you can take refuge in us. And we can all be each other's sangha. That itself is a fantastic or creative idea. How could we this weekend discover that this group of people is our Sangha.

[26:48]

Now, I would define Sangha as those who practice and have faith in practice. And I'd also define Sangha as those who have a unique mode of knowing reality. A unique way of knowing reality. And I would third define Sangha as the medium of the Bodhisattva.

[27:55]

Now, what do I mean by that? I don't know how else to say it. Let's say that you're a fish. And you're happy to see other fish like you. But also you see water as other fish. Because you only see other fish when there's water. So you think that water is also other fish. You don't have categories, that's a fish. No, the water is also the fish. So in that sense, a bodhisattva feels people are the medium of becoming a bodhisattva or being a bodhisattva.

[28:56]

So it's almost like people are the medium we swim in. I don't know how else to put it. I've never talked about this before exactly. I kind of... It's so warm these days, maybe I'm thinking about swimming. And usually when I stayed in the YMCA, I went swimming. Is there a swimming pool in this place? We can all go swimming later. I've got the key. I brought my swimming trunks.

[30:16]

Buddha knows why. Oh yeah. I did too. Okay. So I don't think I should get us too intensely involved with this. We want to feel our way into this. But a unique view of reality. A unique way of knowing things. I think that's important to get across. We could call what we're doing here the modern craft of ancient wisdom. We're certainly talking about

[31:16]

I wouldn't say a perennial wisdom, but an ancient wisdom. And we're now trying to discover a modern craft of realizing this wisdom. Hmm. So I mean I don't know what you can try. Maybe you can try looking at each person as energy or something. Somehow as I said at the beginning we've got to not know anything about this. So maybe it's good to not know anything about other people. Or see if you can take away or change how you know people. Just for this weekend. Yeah, it's what workshops are about.

[32:48]

We do it for a weekend. And then you forget about it. But if you can't forget about it, then there's hope. So maybe the feeling is to try to see each person from their insides. Okay, so when I'm walking in the downtown of Kassel, I've got various associations. Certainly all my perceptions are interpretations. And I have a certain physical feeling of the end of the afternoon. But everyone else has something similar. And it's not so difficult to know those similar feelings in others. The more you feel them in yourself, It becomes easier to open yourself to others walking along in a kind of space of interpretation and feelings.

[34:25]

Because if you're really going to see this sense of Sangha, We need to explore how does a person become our Sangha. Okay, so we can go back to this formula I gave you in the beginning. Here there is nothing to be added. And nothing, absolutely nothing to be subtracted. Okay, so we could just practice with that. No, it's not so different than the phrase I've often presented. Just now is enough.

[35:36]

It's the same insight. It's the same kind of wisdom. But if you put it in slightly somewhat different words, it's different. And you can come freshly from a slightly different way of entering each situation. And for you, you are lucky. You can hear it from me in English in two or three different ways, but then you can also hear it for yourself in German. So I expect you to be by Sunday twice as productive as I am. You can practice this in German and English. You can add nothing in German and you can add nothing in English. So a formula like this is meant to be not in mental space, but in embodied space.

[37:03]

Und solch eine Formel, die hat nichts in einem mentalen Raum zu suchen, sondern in einem verkörperten. Und in einem mentalen Raum hat es nahezu überhaupt keine Bedeutung, es sei denn irgendetwas, was mit Logik zu tun hat. Und in einem verkörperten Raum hat dies eine gewisse Aktualität. So we start out with here. Mental space races along. Physical space is slower. There has to be a pace of the body of apprehending in it. So here, nothing to be added.

[38:06]

So you can just look around at everything. Here, nothing to be added. Mm-hmm. This already begins to lessen the interpretation. It's like using the word just, just this. Just this book. Just this bell. Just this, not even a bell. It's not a bell till I hit it. Right now it's a teacup that makes the tea taste not so good. So this practice of just this or this is to strip away or lessen interpretation.

[39:07]

Okay, so here, nothing to be added. This is a somewhat different flavor of doing the same thing. No, that's not right. It's a different flavor but it does something different too. Here, nothing to be added. Nothing to be subtracted. The truth is to see things as they are. Okay, so that's already a big step.

[40:20]

That's just not in the pace of the body, that's in the pace of some months. Now if you weren't so addicted to mental space, And the speed of mental space. And the sense of continuity and reality we have in mental space and consecutive thoughts. You, all of you, each of you, almost all of you could turn this in in one or two months into a real practice. But most of us are too addicted to mental space. And too... We have too much belief in mental space. But if you could really take this and... Quite a few months on every perception, and that's really what Zen practice is about.

[41:36]

Each perception. Nothing to be added. Nothing to be subtracted. Sometimes maybe for days or weeks it's nothing to be added. And then sometimes, or another few weeks, it's nothing to be subtracted. And this This isn't just that when you don't add and don't subtract, something happens. How could I say that better? It's not just that you don't add and don't subtract. It's that not adding and not subtracting change the dynamic of perception. And changing the dynamic of perception goes way beyond not adding or not subtracting.

[42:54]

If you do use this practice and in effect change the dynamic of perception, You may have a taste, big taste even, of things as they are. So let's stay with this little formula. Three sentences. Three sentences. The truth is knowing things as they are. And what's the next statement say?

[44:02]

Those who know the truth will be liberated. It's all you need to know. Except it would be good to know things as they are. So this is a unique mode of perception. Basically, this is saying that knowing things as they are is the condition of liberation. Knowing things as they are is a unique mode of perception. One of its gates, one of its entrances, is the practice of adding nothing and subtracting nothing. If you saw, say, when I was in downtown Kassel today, many of the people had been practicing with nothing to be added, nothing to be subtracted.

[45:39]

I think you would have immediately... Because probably a tiger, if he really was there, he would be, hmm, nothing could be added, nothing could be subtracted. There's a kind of animal presence or wild presence when you really don't add or subtract. So we're discovering now the feeling of the Sangha body. So my three definitions of Sangha Those who have faith and those who practice and have faith and practice.

[46:52]

And more particularly those who enter a unique path of reality. When you can describe this path in various ways, everyday life, knowing things as they are. The third is this medium of the Bodhisattva. And that's a good place to start tomorrow. So why don't we sit for a few minutes and then we'll stop. Is that okay with you? Thank you for translating. Is there anybody, anyone here who wasn't here last night?

[48:42]

Yeah, a few of you. Hmm. I feel very lucky that we're and I'm able to have Ulrike translate for us this weekend. She just came back from the United States and Creston and started teaching and then immediately came here. Okay, so we have this question, what is Sangha?

[49:54]

And what is a Sangha body? We're going to have to be satisfied with questions more than answers. In fact, it's important to be satisfied with the right question. And all of these satisfied with the questions, with the understanding that the resources to answer the questions are present.

[51:05]

In other words, you're not missing anything. in order to solve the question. Everything you need is here to solve the question. So that's easier if you really feel that. To be satisfied with the question. without needing or feeling uneasy that you don't have an answer. Because you know that the question is like a chemical agent working in the ingredients that are the answer. Does that make sense? Does this kind of distinction, small distinction, come across in English and German?

[52:22]

Because it's just this kind of distinction that's the reality of practice. So the question what is Sangha is also the question what are your relationships with other persons. And when you try to answer the question what is Sangha you're also working with all concepts and practice of relationships with others. Practice. So it's easy for me to say Sangha is those people who practice together.

[53:25]

Or Sangha is those people who've taken the precepts. Or Sangha is those people who are monks or live in a monastery. It has, of course, those outer forms. but that really tells you nothing from the point of view of your own practice so to make this real for your own practice we're going to have to find a way to observe our relationships with others To feel our relationships with others.

[54:45]

And to care about what kind of relationships we have with others. My own opinion is that we have a very primitive society. As I've mentioned, to put it into perspective a number of times recently, I, before I came to Europe this year, met with my mother. And before I came to Europe this year, I met my mother. I don't see her too often because she lives quite far away, but I do speak to her on the phone. And she's 93. And so I asked her questions about, you know, when she was a little girl and stuff like that. And it was clear that her memory of her family, our family, stretches back to around 1850.

[55:56]

So more than a hundred years. And My friends or children are going to live to 2050, we assume. So the point I'm making is there's only a 200-year span that my own family is quite aware of. And anecdotes about people who visited, who was so-and-so's aunt, and so forth. In this 200-year span, things are pretty much the same. Yeah.

[57:11]

They don't seem any dumber or smarter than we. I mean, we know about, I don't know, radios and things, but that's all right. Mm-hmm. And ten of those 200-year spans take us back to the time of Christ. And 12 or 13 bring us back to the time of Buddha. Again, I'm just making a point, that's not a very long period of time. Not a very long period of time for the way we view the world to change. So if you think in your own lifespan, it's a long time ago. When I was born, the First World War seemed like a million years before.

[58:20]

And in fact, I confess, it wasn't very long before I was born that it ended. Yeah. So I think it's not very many 200 year spans ago that we learned how to live together. And I think we're still learning how to learn perhaps how to live together. Although in this century has been the bloodiest century in world history. We've killed more people in wars or for political reasons than all centuries before together.

[59:30]

So we're not living in a very advanced time. I think the idea of Sangha is an advanced idea of how to live together. So I don't think it's just a kind of Buddhist matter that we're talking about Sangha. I mean, Sangha is introduced by Buddhism. Yeah, introduced by Buddhism. But as a fundamental part of the teaching of how we exist.

[60:51]

So the main formula for becoming a Buddhist is to take refuge in the Buddha. take refuge in the Dharma, and to take refuge in the Sangha as three equal actualities. And three interrelated actualities. So we could say that if you could discover what it means to take these three refuges, you would understand virtually everything of Buddhism. So this again is meant to be a question.

[61:54]

In other words, it's not just, oh, well, I've taken the three refuges. You're discovering if you take the three refuges, you're discovering the rest of your life what it means to take the three refuges. Mm-hmm. And I've been doing it for 40 years and it's not entirely clear to me what it means to take the three refuges. I've taken them unequivocally and I've given them to many people. But still, it's not easy for me to articulate what it means to take the three refuges.

[63:12]

And this is good. It means I never get on the other side of taking the three refuges. I never have to ask, what's next? Now I've taken the three refuges, what do I do now? Yeah, I don't have that problem. So this is a process of questioning. And we're the sangha. I said, let's try to be each other's sangha this weekend. So the sangha is essentially transactional. In fact, I think you can understand everything in Buddhism as transactional. Everything is a feedback process, a two-way process.

[64:31]

Or a multi-way process. So that if all the ingredients we need are here, though we may have to identify the ingredients, Yeah, if I don't know this is a microphone, then, you know, I think the tape recorder works without it. So I stir my tea with it. I think it's a very advanced modern tea stirrer. Ich denke, es ist ein sehr fortschrittlicher, moderner Tee-Umrührer. Yeah, a Tee-Umrührer.

[65:32]

This is good. So I have to identify its use in order to make it an ingredient. Ja, ich muss seine Verwendung identifizieren, um es zu einer Zutat machen zu können. So the ingredients are here, but we need to identify them to start to use them. But if this is the sangha for this weekend, maybe forever and the ingredients are here you possess the ingredients as much as me or anyone else. Die Zutaten sind in eurem Besitz genauso wie in meinem und irgendjemandem sonst. Some of us may have identified them more. Vielleicht haben einige von uns sie ein bisschen besser zugeordnet. But the whole of the ingredients are functioning in each of us.

[66:34]

So it means that we really, this has to be a process we do together. Even if you don't say anything, though I would like you to, still you will be saying things to yourself, I hope, which are stirring this, using this question to stir things. Sometimes Buddhism is described as stirring the ocean with a broken stick. It's good, isn't it? Stirring the ocean with a broken stick. So you see an old broken stick here. Stirring the ocean with you.

[67:43]

So let's start again with this formula. I gave you last night. Here, there is nothing to be added, nothing to be subtracted. The truth is knowing how things actually exist. Those who know the truth will become liberated. Thank you.

[69:14]

I know I have trouble reading European handwriting. Do you have trouble reading mine? Yes. I'm sorry. But then again, it's not German. Maybe you have trouble reading English. This is simple. And it would be good if it could be in your mind like... engraved on granite or something. Five statements. Really four parts to the equation. We can understand this as a promise.

[71:30]

If you know how things exist, you will be liberated. And the way to know how things exist is to add nothing and subtract nothing. Now again, this is not just about not adding or not subtracting. It's about the dynamic of perception and knowing and how the if you add the ingredients of not subtracting and not adding because those are ingredients. I cannot take that glass.

[72:52]

That's an ingredient of that glass. Because that glass now sits there without being moved by me. So we can define that glass as the glass that was not moved by me. So not adding or not subtracting adds and subtracts. Denn nichts hinzuzufügen und nichts wegzunehmen, das fügt hinzu und nimmt weg. You do something when you don't add and don't subtract. Ihr tut etwas, wenn ihr nichts hinzufügt und nichts wegnehmt. So that not adding and not subtracting changes the dynamics of knowing in a way that you're more likely to see how things exist.

[74:08]

And we can call this a formula. It's called a formula. Formulas in English is the diminutive of the word form. It means a little form. Like Ulrike and Uli. The formula is the nickname for form. And formula has come to mean that which orders form or transforms form. And I think you can think of this as a kind of human science. That you have these ingredients of not adding and not subtracting. And when you put them in the soup, the soup of knowing, the whole soup changes.

[75:33]

Now, for you, I don't know, you might need some other ingredient. So a lot of the complexity of Buddhism is saying lots of ingredients make a good soup. Somebody might not have a feeling for not adding and not subtracting. Although these formulas which have lasted for centuries, and as I said, here we have the modern practice of an ancient wisdom, These ancient formulas that have lasted through the centuries usually work for most people if you apply yourself. And in the course of this weekend, there will be undoubtedly other ways you might change the dynamics of knowing and perception.

[77:16]

The important thing is that you know you can change the dynamics of knowing and perception. And the path or the way or the Tao means to change the dynamics of knowing. So the Sangha then we can define, as I did last evening, Und Sangha können wir dann beschreiben, so wie ich das gestern Abend getan habe. Das sind diejenigen, die eine einzigartige Art des Wissens gemeinsam haben. Und die auch diese einzigartige Art des Wissens umsetzen. Vielleicht sollten wir nicht einzigartig sagen, sondern eine ganz besondere Art des Wissens. Now I'm going to try to discuss this this weekend without using Buddhist terms or at least without depending on Buddhist terms.

[78:34]

And I'm going to have to mention something like Tathagatagarbha. But I'll try to speak about it in a way that it doesn't depend on this term. So again, for this process to work, of us to explore Sangha together, the first instruction I'm giving you. And the first instruction the tradition in this case is giving you is here.

[79:35]

This morning, whatever this day is, almost raining when I walked over, And there's of course on a wet-haired day, the sounds are a little different. One of the conditions of practice, as again I've mentioned recently, is to be in a world of sensuous relatedness. And here is a world of sensuous relatedness. The wet-eared sounds.

[80:49]

And whatever your mourning has given you so far. I always hear, in English at least, when I say mourning, also the sadness or mourning for someone who's dead. So for me when I wake up, the mourning is something new, but there's also a feeling of mourning for what's gone. So each of you are defined by what you mourn and what begins. And this is also part of being inseparable from a world of sensuous relatedness. So that's also here where everything stops And the word in English, instant, do you have instant?

[82:15]

What do you say, a moment, instant? Instant means the shortest period of time. But instant also is to stand in, in stand. So instant is short, but it's the moment we stand in. I always like it how in Germany everybody in the morning stands up in bed. Yeah. We just get up and put our legs over the side, but all the Germans stand up in bed. So in my mind, I see all over Germany, 7 a.m., thousands of people standing in their beds. I'm a rather simple person. But this, here of this in-standing instant, Nothing to be added.

[83:37]

Nothing to be subtracted. Opening ourselves to how things might exist or actually exist. We don't know how things actually exist. We can ask ourselves. No scientist can tell you how things actually exist. But they ask themselves this question. We can ask ourselves this question. And we can ask ourselves by adding nothing and subtracting nothing. It's a way of asking the question, what's there? eine Art, die Frage zu stellen, was ist da? Ich füge nichts hinzu, ich lasse nichts weg.

[84:41]

Und das ist bereits ein psychologischer Prozess. Es passiert etwas mit dir, wenn du nichts hinzufügst und nichts weglässt. So why don't we sit for a few moments or minutes or instants. Then we'll have a break.

[85:17]

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