subtle, lucent, penetrating, mind materiality penetrating it penetrates throughout the hands so now if you take this as a practice with your mudra For one or two periods of Zazen, you get a feeling of what's meant by the four elements. And if you can feel this practice plugged into this socket of your hands, you can then begin to spread it throughout your body. And you discover something about the posture of your whole body then.

[01:22]

Because if your posture is one way, it spreads quite easily through your body. Another way, it doesn't. And here were the basic crafts of practice. Entering into the stream of transforming karma. And your mouth can be another such place to notice this practice. Your mouth? Your mouth, yes. You have the shape of the mouth, the teeth, the roof, etc., jaws. Here. And here you have obviously the liquidity of the mouth.

[02:29]

And you can notice it depending on your state of mind. Sometimes your mouth is dry, sometimes wet. So the mouth is a wonderful object of Vijnana and Mahabhuta mindfulness. And that's why we chew gum and smoke cigarettes and things. Yeah. I always joke with people when they're smoking, say this is a special breathing practice. By the way, those of you who smoke, let me say, I don't think anyone can seriously practice who smokes. Your practice is always working to overcome the emotional needs of smoking and the effects of smoking. Sorry to be a little tough, but... Usually I'm too soft, I think.

[03:50]

But it's also a special mouth practice. And there's obviously a warmth to your mouth. And part of the vijnana practice of taste is to notice how mind appears in the mouth. And feel that again, like your hands throughout the body. Or see how the whole body affects the mouth. So, Let me just sum up, since we're running out of time, and say that this kind of four elements practice gives us, well, let's say, two recognitions.

[04:53]

One is that it makes you have a direct experience how body and mind are interfused. You have no doubt about it when you know this in practice. And you feel the surface of the two. It's your experience. So when I say one of the givens of yogic culture All mental experience has a physical dimension. And all sentient physical experience has a mental aspect.

[06:16]

So this practice of the four elements gives you a direct experience of that, because the presence of mind arises in these four elements. And it also gives us the experience of no separate ego or soul or self that's not also connected with the body and the world. And thirdly, in addition to these two recognitions, It gives us a base of all mind states. It's the kind of first taste of what we call original mind in Zen.

[07:23]

And it gives us also practically a way to monitor our general health and state of mind and being. And the more you practice this, sometimes specifically, and then occasionally, so it's in the background of your awareness, now part of how you view the world, it begins to function more and more. you begin to feel it in your hands. Feel it in your body.

[08:54]

And when we say, like when you do Zazen, there should be the space of an egg under each arm. Or your arms should be parallel to the torso. you can feel the difference whether your arms are parallel or not. And you can begin to feel the space under your arms as not just separation but something alive. as the space under your chin and around your neck, the space of your torso, and how the shape of this space is actually also part of your sasana. It's almost like a column you're here and you're constantly defining that column.

[10:06]

So this kind of embodied space is assumed as a root given of Buddhist practice. And it's something that one senses and then shifts into. It appears more and more. And the four elements are a way, an opportunity to try to identify this, notice this in yourself. And how it opens you to a more subtle stream of karma. And is possible in ordinary activity and ordinary consciousness.

[11:12]

That's enough for today. Thank you so much for sitting. with each other and with me during this session so far. And I hope each of you can find your little sitting cushion. A whole world. And the more the topography, tomography of this living planet each of you is, the more you can sit with

[12:32]

complete satisfaction on your cushion. As worlds and lotuses really open up within you. As you. Thank you very much. Because of our intention to go through every being and every place in the same way, with all the merits of the Pure Way, Shukron Muren Seyagando, Aum Aum Jai Sai Aum [...]

[13:50]

Die führenden Wesen sind zahllos. Ich glaube, sie zu retten. Die Gehören sind unersetzlich. Ich glaube, ihnen ein Ende zu bereiten. Die Damals sind grenzenlos. Ich glaube, sie zu beherrschen. Der Weg des Buddha ist unübertrefflich. Ich glaube, ihn zu erreichen. Thank you.

[15:27]

I am overcome by your inner and complete dharma. I have received almost 100,000 prayers almost rarely, only because I can see and hear and receive them. Well, the good news about the Buddha It's like each of us, it's repairable. Probably the best news is it's not dry lacquer, but gilded wood. Und die allerbeste Neuigkeit ist vielleicht die, dass er nicht aus getrocknetem Lack besteht, sondern aus vergoldetem Holz.

[17:12]

If it was dry lacquer, I think much more difficult to repair. Und ich glaube, dass wenn es aus getrocknetem Lack bestünde, dann wäre es sehr viel schwieriger zu reparieren. I don't remember exactly the dry lacquer process. I studied it so many years ago. But it produces a surface much like this. But this turns out to be wood. And so I'll tell you what these two persons said yesterday. But since most of the conversation, of course, was in German, I'll let Gerald and Marie-Louise correct me or add if they want to. But since most of the conversation took place in German, I let Gerald and Marie-Louise correct me and add something if they want.

[18:21]

Marie-Louise has done the research to find people and talking to museums and so forth about who could do this work. Anyway, it's older than we thought instead of they think it is. They'll have the wood. If we choose them to do the work. Yeah, and they'll have the wood tested to make sure. But we were told they thought it was Ado, Jedi Ado period, early Ado period. Which would make it three to four hundred years old.

[19:28]

They think it's five to six hundred years old. So we'll find out if we have the wood tested fairly accurately, I think. And it's been repaired and modified many times. And what happens, of course, there's thousands of figures over centuries. And they get... One gets burned and something else, and they start mismatching parts. So my guess is, and their guess is too, that the base is also very old, but originally for a different statue.

[20:31]

And they estimate that it's worth, what he said, $100,000, $250,000. That was my guess that it would be worth in that range or higher if it was purchased in Japan. Anyway, they thought that's what they could imagine its value here in Europe. So now the question is, do we repair it and restore it It's as a Buddha we practice with.

[21:50]

Or as a museum piece. Or a mixture. In other words, do we restore it to its... its use or do we restore it to its identity as an object? Yeah. So it's been in the past and what it would have been done is regilded a number of times. And in the past, it has obviously been gilded several times. The style now, though, of course, is to keep pieces in ways that show its age.

[22:54]

To keep a piece like this in ways that shows its age. So if you re-gild it, it just looks brand new and But we want it to look like an ancient Buddha. Like I hope I'll look in 30 years. Or maybe 50. We have to kill you. And feed me arsenic. They used to do that, you know, and lacquer. They would feed lacquer to old venerable Zen masters and pretty soon they'd get quite stiff. That's true. And then they die.

[24:00]

You don't know when that happened exactly. They just get stiffer and stiffer. I think he's not there anymore. Put him on the altar. And then they were put on altars, really. Yeah. I'm not sure I like that you suggested this. I'm going to check my food. Yeah, anyway. So it'll cost a lot less. It will still be expensive to repair, but a lot less than if it were dry lacquer.

[25:02]

Some parts are weakened actually by bugs, too. You know, termite-type bugs. Some parts are weakened... by insects. So if we repair it and clean it, it's 2,000 or 3,000 Deutschmarks? Only repair is 2,000. Cleaning is... Okay, so 5,000 Deutsche Marks to repair and clean. Okay. It's been, particularly the base, it's been nailed together and people have, you know, the gildings come off and they paint, you know, it's got lots of layers in there.

[26:16]

And what is probably a likely history of a statue like this is after the Second World War people were so poor they would sell anything and repair it quickly and came to America probably around that time. Various people did things to make it look the way they thought it should look to sell it. Okay. So it could be taken down to its original, pretty close to its original gilding, gild layer, gold layer. And then we could, the parts where there's some parts were red, for instance, on it, you can see that was probably an undercoating underneath the gilding.

[27:29]

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so we could, for example, after cleaning it, we could then bring it down to pretty close to its original surface and then re-gild the portions which there's no gilding left. And the guess estimate is, but it's just a ballpark figure as we say, is that to do all of that would be about 12,000. I know that sounds like a lot of money, but in my experience in restoring things, it's not very much money. But we're also trying to build new bathrooms and showers here, so... So we'll have to decide what we do, but somehow we'll probably manage to do some of each.

[29:06]

One shower, one clean bitter. We do have new showers and things designed for this right out here outside the sender. Anyway, all in all I think it's quite good news. Maybe Charlie helped us. Because from the beginning I thought the Buddha needed restoration, but Charlie has speeded up the process. It's very common in in Japan to have to the right of the Buddha a fox shrine. In Creston maybe we should have a coyote shrine.

[30:09]

And here we could have a Charlie shrine. So anyway, it looks like the It's possible, just to finish on the Buddha, that the insurance for the Johanneshof building may pay part of the cost of the restoration. Gerald will explore that. And in any case, it will take, what did they estimate, some weeks, a month or so, to do it once we give it to them if we chose them to do it.

[31:21]

There were two people. One of them, his specialty is restoring sculptures. Okay, I said the first day again, to settle yourself in yourself, on yourself. This is a basic construction of Dogen and others. And to settle yourself in your backbone, in your hara, in your breath. And what I'm trying to speak about here is also just what happens if you sit.

[32:27]

And if you're able to relax deeply inside and out. And you're able to free yourself, settle yourself outside your thinking. And this actually happens through realization experiences and zazen experience. Until you can think about things, but mostly you're resting in an undifferentiated mind or undifferentiated knowing.

[33:35]

Your mind is active to the extent that it's necessary, but it's not just active, being propelled by karma. And the spirit is as active as it is necessary, but it is not active in the sense that it has moved forward from its karma, so to speak. So I'm trying to share with you some teachings and experience that are rooted in the understanding and practice of zazen. And the understandings that led to the kind of practice we do. So I said karma is form.

[34:39]

But karma is more specifically the... a name for the activity of the mind giving form. There's a constant activity of the mind and that activity is propelled That energy that propels the mind, you can also call karma. And we're always building up, kind of piling up, heaping up energy. And nothing's possible without energy.

[35:51]

And so when you're sitting, you're aware of your energy. Sometimes you don't have energy enough to stay awake. Or to keep your upright feeling posture. And sometimes you relax outside of your effort and find some new kind of energy. Now, if you're going to settle yourself on yourself, instead of using the image as I did yesterday of an electric socket or something like that, Let me use the image of a landing field, like an airport.

[37:06]

Maybe your attention is the airplane. And your body is the airport. And it's good to know something about the runway and the landing lights and things like that. So we could say that the four great elements are a way to begin to know or absorb attention. to know the landing field or to absorb your attention. And you'll find that the more your body can absorb attention, the easier it is to sit.

[38:15]

So part of long sitting, the practice of long sitting, is to permeate your body with attention. Now, in the early development of the Zen schools, the so-called northern school, southern school, the ox head school, Matsu and Shito schools, these often went back and forth over questions related to how one is awake.

[39:17]

And the earlier schools emphasized maintaining a state of awareness. And later schools, like the Oxhead School, or the transitional school, emphasized an awareness deeper than awareness, than being awake. Because we're alive in a way that's deeper than just being aware or awake. Being awake, it actually interferes with a kind of deeper kind of activity.

[40:24]

So, if you practice mindfulness, You're mindful of each thing you do. This is a good practice. And Zen shifted into more of a mindfulness of your breath rather than of objects. And then more into a world and body permeated by mindfulness. And this permeation of the body by mindfulness began to be described as the Buddha is the one who is thus

[41:45]

So there's a kind of shift, we could say in a simple sense, from the Buddha who is awake to the Tathagata Buddha, the Buddha who is thus. No. Did I talk about that at the Haus der Stille Saschin? Anyway, recently I spoke about that, I don't remember. So let's take a simple landing field. Your ear. Okay. So you can bring attention to your ear.

[42:55]

As I said yesterday, it's quite interesting that we can have our right hand touch our left hand or vice versa. I mean, our attention and consciousness is complex. We take for granted that we can shift our right hand so it feels like it's doing the touching, or the left hand. So the left hand can become subject and the right hand object, etc. So that means we can know a great deal about ourselves. We can study ourselves. So you bring attention to your ear. And I think if you do bring attention to your ear, let's say your left ear, your ear may heat up.

[44:14]

Or start to itch. Yeah. That's quite interesting. Make that whole ear glow. A gloon, yeah. And you can feel the shape of the ear. The physical shell-like shape. And you can feel the interior space of the ear. So attention itself can begin to take the shape of the ear, both its interior and physical shape.

[45:16]

And you can shift to the right ear then if you want. Which was actually getting rather jealous. It wasn't a bit warmed up. It was cool saying, where are you? You can warm up your right ear and it's quite happy. We can go back again to the left ear, say. Then you can go maybe to your left elbow. And if you bring your attention to your left elbow, you can feel the inside of your elbow kind of warming up. Or there's some presence there to the elbow. And what's interesting is the feeling of attention to the elbow is different than the feeling of attention to the ear.

[46:37]

The fact that there's a difference means you're perceiving or knowing the elbow in a way that's not the same as knowing the ear. So you actually can refine your intention so that it can be elbow shaped. You can refine your attention so it can be elbow shaped. Yeah. Then you can move up your arm you want. You can begin to feel the shape of your muscle and the rest of your upper arm.

[47:49]

And if you proceed in this way from the tips of your fingers through your wrist and up your arm to your neck, you can awaken that whole side of your body. You can in effect permeate your body, your arm in this case, with attention. And you actually make your arm somewhat more alive. It's easier to start out with a joint like the shoulder or the elbow than the whole of the arm. And you can also bring this same kind of attention to your chest. I think you can notice, for instance, you probably use one lung more than the other.

[48:51]

And it makes some difference which nostril you breathe through. So if one lung is less used or darker, You can start to breathe more in the other, the less used lung. And you can begin to open up the tips of your lungs, upper tips of your lungs. It's especially useful to do in regular, slow kin hin.

[50:10]

As you're walking, you can feel the air coming in through your heel all the way up into the tips of your lungs and to the top of your head. And then you exhale and step forward. So, Keenan, slow, Rick... The main kinin, the slow kinin, is a real yogic breathing posture. It's a practice not just to get a break from zazen, Or just to walk. But rather to permeate the body with breath and awareness. And then bring that almost like a bellows for making a fire. Yes. and then bring that feeling back to zazen.

[51:28]

Now it's interesting that if you try this out, you can bring your attention to one knee, for instance. Or simultaneously you can bring your attention to both knees. But I think it's quite a bit more difficult to bring your attention, for instance, to a knee and an elbow. Which suggests this is not just arbitrary. There are certain pathways this attention follows. So if you're doing long sitting, as we do in Sushin, Your body is demanding attention.

[52:41]

To try to sit straight or to sit without so much pain and so forth. And you can organize that attention in a more developed way. And practice sometimes opening up various parts of your body with attention. And you can get so that you can really pay pretty close attention to your organs and parts of the body. And you can begin to feel when they're out of balance or might be getting sick or whatever. And you can begin to move your attention or energy around within your body. So we're talking now about having your attention land like an airplane on various landing fields in your body.

[54:17]

Now we can extend that like in Oryoki practice. You let this attention, without thinking, just rest on whatever you're doing. large bowl or the middle bowl or whatever. So now there's a tension which can permeate your body, can be brought in a more developed way to the objects of the world. So these are some of the skills of long sitting. and really coming to rest and settle in the body.

[55:31]

Now, one other thing I'd like to say, I'll see if I can make this work in the few minutes we have left. The river, the Donau, disappears for a while somewhere in Germany. And I... I was told that in the 19th century they wanted to make sure it was the same river and they put in color and it appears sometime later in the same stream. Yeah, so I'm familiar with mountain streams in the coastal range in California and the Sierra and the Rockies.

[56:38]

And they say that in those streams, a very large percentage of the water is underneath the stream bed. And you can really see that where if a stream is in dry time, it can be completely gone. But if you go to a place where the stream passes over bedrock, where the water can't go any deeper, that same stream can be 15 or 20 feet deep. during that distance, and then it disappears again.

[57:40]

And what's interesting about water is when it's in the dirt, it purifies itself. So we trust water that comes out of the earth like a spring. This is wonderful. Where do we live? We live on quail and wig. So this is Dharma spring, Dharma center. Well, karma or our mind stream is understood something like that in Buddhism. If we thought of consciousness as the stream bed, that in the stream bed, the stream carries quite a lot of

[58:41]

It's broken up and splashes and it carries quite a lot of debris. But underneath, the debris is not carried. This is Zen saying, washing dirt in mud. So, strangely enough, this water that's underneath the stream bed is purer than the water in the stream bed. And this water pulls the stream along. And the stream pulls the water underneath along. And underneath the stream bed, it's reaching out into the nearby trees.

[60:06]

And also running under the stream bed. But where it goes is probably determined by the stream bed. So it's like our conscious mind has a lot to do with how our deeper awareness flows. We can understand zazen and long sitting as an effort to let the river of consciousness disappear out of the stream bed. And when we practice with the with the four elements, that's like the bedrock.

[61:09]

And the more we get settled in ourselves, in just the sheer materiality of ourselves, the subtle materiality in which mind appears, This deep, clear, still mind appears. And it's constantly being purified. So a more subtle, it's understood a more subtle kind of karma appears here. And more the karma of realization in Buddhahood that's broken up in consciousness in the surface stream bed. Mm-hmm. And the more we can, in other words, bring a regular practice of mindfulness and meditation into our life,

[62:39]

You can find it out for yourself. It begins to purify and transform your karma. And transform our karma. Which is the basic teaching of the Four Noble Truths. That there is suffering, that there is a cause of suffering. And there's a freedom from suffering. And there's a path to that freedom. And Zen emphasizes immersing ourselves in the body itself to purify mind. ourselves and the body itself to purify mind.

[63:40]

And this, through still sitting, our clear mind arises, can arise. And the more we permeate our body with attention, the more mind can rise up in this permeated body. So here I'm talking about the craft of practice and the craft of zazen. Trying to give you some images that allow you to feel and let happen what does happen through long sitting. and to relax yourself into it as a very deep, wise, ancient process of the evolution of consciousness and awareness

[64:53]

And conscious evolution of consciousness. Or wise evolution of awareness and consciousness. This is the practice of realization and the practice after realization. Thank you very much. Möhln unsra absichten gleichermaßen jedes Wesen und jeden Auge durchdringen, mit dem auren Verdienst des Bruderweges. Shulchon ulem sey galt man no, onon ulem sey galt man.

[66:25]

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. They lead the way, they are countless. I praise them for saving them. They are indisputable. I praise them for making a change. They are innumerable. I praise them for ruling. The life of the Buddha is so incomprehensible. I praise them to rule. YEN-NYI-YO-NO-HO-WA YAKU-SEN-MA-NO-NYO-HA-YO-KOT-TO-KA-TA-SHI

[68:21]

Varema kemanshi jujitsu koto etai, nega wakuan dorai, nyo shen jesu iyo geshi tatema tsuran. One hundred-thousand-thousand-thousand-thousand-thousand-thousand-thousand-thousand-thousand-thousand-thousand Thank you for translating for me, or planning to translate for me.

[69:32]

So what shall we talk about today? That doesn't interfere with your practice. that hopefully might be of some help, but at least doesn't interfere. Because your own practice, your own experience is primary. In practice, you are the center of everything. And this whole complex world turns on the particular. Turns on the eachness of each person, each moment. On each particularity. No, I kind of miss the empty Buddha.

[70:54]

I mean, I like this guy. He's a good friend. But there was something special about the empty Buddha. made me think of a koan of, oh, I don't know, Bluthoff Records, 83 or something like that. Jan Men, famous, Oman or Jan Men, asked when said, ancient Buddhas and the pillar What kind of mental activity is this? Yeah. Gave away the show when he said that. And then he added a few moments later on South Mountain Clouds Gather On North Mountain it rains.

[72:16]

This is Zen talk. But it's true. Quite accurate in what it's saying. But you like Zen talking, don't you? It's alright. I'm trying to give you the provisions of Zen. provisions, the supplies. But I'm not trying to make you Buddhists or Buddhists.

[73:23]

I'm quite happy with the way each of you are. In fact, I'll discourage you from taking practice too seriously. Because I don't have any right to particularly thrust this ancient way upon you. And if you're happy, please be happy. And whatever way you are, hey, this is good. And I'm not sure I want the responsibility even of getting you mixed up in practice, which then doesn't pay off. You might send me a bill later for undelivered goods.

[74:28]

But I'd like practice to be here for you if you want it. And practice is nothing but your intention. And your intention, this is your responsibility. If your intention is there, I'll try to help. And share my intention. But your intention is your responsibility. Practice is nothing but a way to help you realize your intention. I mean, practice... What should I say?

[75:55]

Practice is... the Buddhist way of acknowledging that everything, everything, everything changes. It's the concept of practice. And the late 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns. Ah, the sort of national poet of Scotland. Said something like, look at nature's, look abroad at nature's range. Nature's mighty law is change.

[76:58]

Das gewaltige Gesetz der Natur ist der Wechsel. I don't think it's the poetry of our generation. Das ist vielleicht nicht ganz die Poesie von unserer Generation. But still, here he is and what? He lived from 17... He didn't live long, 1750... 9 to 1796 or something. So he didn't live very long. He lived from 1759 to 1796 and that's how it was. But he saw everything is changing. But Buddhism didn't come from his observation. So you should recognize that the way Buddhism, the thoroughness with which Buddhism sees that everything is changing, And you should really recognize that the basicness, the basicness with which Buddhism expresses that everything changes.

[78:15]

For... Burns, it may be that the word nature was a euphemism for God. But in Buddhism, strictly speaking, we've got no God. All we've got is change. I'm sorry to so bluntly tell you the bad news. Good news. I think it's good news. We've got nothing but change, so practice means to study change itself. And to see what changes. And practice gives us the means to see change.

[79:29]

So dharma means to see what holds. I mean, if each moment is... We still have the sense of duration. What is that sense of duration? How does this sense of duration appear to us? And what is our responsibility and capacity to to generate and to hold this sense of duration. And karma is the word for the effects of change.

[80:32]

As in a piece of driftwood on the beach, you see the effects of change. You can see the karma of this wood on the beach. being in the water and so forth, tumbled about. Okay. So practice is the concept of change for us human beings. And practice is how then to enter this change To study this change.

[82:07]

To make use of our changing, this evanescence. Where each moment makes space for the next moment to appear. where every moment makes room for the next moment that it can appear. So again, practice then is rooted for us in intention. Practice is the concept of practice. Practice is the... The means to see change.

[83:23]

And the means to... Yeah, that's good enough. And practice is to give us the opportunity to actualize intention. So practice is nothing but a way to let you ask yourself the deepest questions of your life. So practice kind of gives you the setting and the tools, but practice doesn't do itself.

[84:32]

Practice only works through your intention. And the stronger and clearer your intention, the courage of your intention, this is what makes practice function, work. No. Most of us have some kind of intention or we wouldn't be practicing. We wouldn't be here in this session. But usually our intention is not so clear. I'll practice as long as it works. I'll practice when my schedule allows me I'll practice as long as it helps me to accomplish all kinds of others wonderful things I'll practice as long as it works with my job

[86:03]

That's all okay. I'm trying not to interfere with that. But I also want you to really understand that practice is only about your intention. Buddhism is only to help you actualize your intention. Not to give you an intention. But to help you discover your intention. And to actualize your intention. And what's the fuel of intention?

[87:14]

In the end, the fuel of intention is compassion. Unless your intention is bigger than yourself, it doesn't have any power. Wenn eure Intention, eure Absicht nicht größer ist als ihr selber, hat sie keine Kraft. You're in fact nourished by everything around you. Every tree, every breath of air, every vegetable, every conversation, etc. And all of this nourishment really understood is necessary to actualize your intention. So the sense of caring, of compassion, of connectedness is the fuel of intention. And the functioning of intention

[88:15]

The questions you ask yourself. It comes down to the questions you ask yourself. How deep the questions are that you ask yourself. Or how fundamental. Or how much they come to the root of our existence. So you need the courage of true questions. Not convenient or utilitarian questions. And our society tries to confuse us with endless things to do and choices, etc., that mean almost nothing. A new hat. Another vacation.

[89:44]

Somehow we've got to find our... And society tries to control us with all these very interesting choices. So somehow you've got to get under all those controlling choices. To what really counts for us and others? So these questions, I mean, Buddhism can give you some. And part of the provisions of Buddhism, of Zen, is to show you how to ask questions. But still a question like, how do, what is it ancient Buddhas and pillars merging? But once again to this question, what is it like when old Buddhas and Pfeilers melt?

[91:10]

Sukriya used to say, you can't really, he used to say, Koan study and Shikantaza, it's not for beginners like us. Until you're one with your breath, night and day, Cohen's study and Shikantaza is not so fruitful. But Cohen's study and Shikantaza can be part of coming into our true abode. But Cohen's study and Shikantaza can be part of our true abode. But a question like ancient Buddhas and pillars merge, a teaching like this is most fruitful when it follows from hundreds of questions you've asked yourself.

[92:17]

Basic questions. How you're living, how you're feeling, how you relate to people. And a commitment to answer the questions. Or to come to something very close to an answer. So Zazen is also this process of sitting down. What is it? But the depth of your question is up to you. The creativity and energy of Questioning is up to you.

[93:41]

And to discover your own rooted connectedness in this world. Okay. So now let me come back to the driftwood. So again, if you see... Driftwood you know that it's been floating around. Or the debris in a river you can see has been, you know, come from somewhere and etc. So you can't look at the driftwood or debris as an item of karma. Karma is a process of accumulation, reification and dissolution.

[94:48]

So how can I take this, the next step for you, for us?

[95:36]

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