Well, although I was here in February, I feel this is really the beginning of my being here this year. Yeah. And particularly since I'm coming here, I feel like I'm coming home. And to see all of you is like homecoming too. So thank you for being here. And the folks that have been living here, Gerald and Gisela and Sabina and Eric and Christina and Manfred, and then some others at various times, and people have come to help.

[01:05]

It really... It's like when Eric goes away for a week, Julius looks quite different after a week. I go away, I come back here, and this place looks quite different. It makes me happy. So of course we're in the process of finding out also how to use this as a practice place. And there's no way these first seminars and sesshins won't be a way of discovering Johanneshof and developing Johanneshof. And the garden looks so nice, you know, too.

[02:19]

It's great. So, as well as discovering and developing this place, we're also particularly in this kind of format, this practice, what I'm calling a practice week. Discovering how to have a lay adept practice. As you know, it's what I believe in and it's an experiment of this contemporary period to discover if it's possible. I think it's possible, but you'll have to prove me right. Yeah. So the precepts are also trying to, for us individually, to discover how we can live, how we want to live.

[03:52]

And we could call this practice week the topic, the world of the precepts. Or the way of the precepts. What is the word in German for precept? Gelöbnis. And what does it mean? I mean, its roots. One root is to vow. And that's the basic root. A vow. To praise. To vow and to praise. That's good. To praise. In English the word precept means pre is before and also to teach.

[05:17]

And the sept part is like concept and so forth and it means to grasp. And sept means concept or ergreifen. So what we can understand precept in English at least and in Buddhism to mean what comes before we take hold of something. Also im Englischen und auch im Buddhismus bedeutet Gelöbnis dann, was kommt bevor wir es ergreifen können. What comes before his leaving is a baby's cry. A noise at least. So I find it a little strange and amusing in a positive way. That we come here in Europe and have a place even to come to to study another culture.

[06:45]

Because if we study the The world of the precepts, we have to study another. If we study these kind of precepts, how they're understood, we have to study the world in which they are understood to function. If we want to study the world of the precepts, we have to study the world from which they come and function. But I think of the most Catholic person I know, I don't know too many, so, you know, I mean, who are really deeply Catholic, but the most deeply Catholic person I know is Ivan Ilyich. And he's quite a renegade Catholic, but even perhaps more of a Catholic by being a renegade.

[07:48]

What's a renegade? Someone who goes against the stream. And he knows quite a lot of languages, but at one point he wanted to study Chinese and Japanese. so that he could better understand European culture. He thought if he got as far away from European culture as possible, another language, then he could better understand our culture. But he discovered, he thought at his age, when he thought of beginning, Japanese and Chinese were going to be too hard to actually learn in that, to that degree. And one of my teachers in absentia is Ezra Pound.

[08:57]

In absentia, I mean I've never met him, but he certainly has been a teacher of mine. That means I have never met him, but he is still a teacher to me. What he tried to do is to learn a lot of other languages, or more particularly to translate from other languages, even languages which he didn't know very well, in order to purify his language from its possession by others. Now, what am I saying here? Maybe if I give an example, I would say that the two most influential poets

[10:01]

English in this century are T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. And what Eliot tried to do was to find a way in language to discuss psychological states, we could say, that aren't expressible in language. So he had to use poetry rather than philosophy or psychology. Now what Pound tried to do, and why he's influenced so many Buddhists, to somehow try to get language out of culture so it expressed timelessness. And as a poet, he discovered he was always writing like everyone else.

[11:28]

Whatever he wrote, he could feel Swinburne in it or Browning in it or earlier poets in it. So he thought if he translated poets from other languages, especially, finally, not only the Middle Ages of European languages, but also Chinese and Japanese. He thought he could discover a language, perhaps, which belonged more truly to him and not just to his culture. So how that relates to our practice, our Buddhist practice, is... What do you translate that for? Is... Can we find a true intimacy with our words?

[12:57]

In other words, can our language, how we describe the world to ourself, actually reflect what we see and feel? Or is our language, our feelings always being poured into containers that our culture gives us, which don't entirely belong to us. Now, the so-called mystery of body, speech, and mind, one of the main teachings or overall way of one of the large ideas in Buddhist practice, is what is called the mystery of body, speech, and mind.

[14:11]

And the mystery of body, speech, and mind means when body, speech, and mind are truly intimate with each other. And we could say that the precepts are a practice to discover the intimacy of body, speech and mind. Now let me stop for a moment and just say I'm just trying to give you a feeling this evening for what I'd like us to... introduce us to what I'd like us to... practice with this week. Now, I particularly like these practice weeks.

[15:17]

We've done one a year for several years, but not too many. Because I have more contact with you. And you have more contact with each other, certainly at the level of speech. In a sashin, we have a lot of contact with each other, non-verbal and with yourself. Probably rather verbal, but you know, you're silent at least. But here we have more contact with each other through discussion and speaking together.

[16:18]

And this kind of discussion with each other among the Sangha is essential if we're going to discover our own language, a language that belongs to us. a language that belongs to us. In other words, Can we speak with each other in a way that reflects our experience in practice and in meditation? I don't think we can do this alone.

[17:33]

I can't do it alone. Why I'm doing this practicing with you here and in the United States is because I can't do it alone. So if I want to discover an intimacy with my own experience, I have to partially discover this intimacy in my own language. Because there's no way for me to get entirely free from the structure of my mind, which is primarily based on language. And that language was given to me by my parents, by my culture. So how many English speakers are in the world? It's at least one against many. So I need some German and a couple of French-speaking allies.

[18:50]

Yeah. Isn't it funny? I look for allies to help me in my freeing myself of English in Germany and Austria and Belgium. It just shows you how desperate I am. I'm willing to try anything. Or maybe I think two or three languages will do better than just with one. So this chance to practice more than in a seminar, more sitting, but have that sitting more connected with also speaking our own feelings and speaking with others and listening to others I think helps us

[20:20]

bring body and mind together in speech and speech together with each other to discover this intimacy or mystery of body, speech and mind. Sounded right. I hope. Yeah. So we'll have some schedule starting with you. Have everybody gotten the schedule and you've explained it? Okay. So we have three main agendas. The first is to see if we can study something together, in this case primarily precepts.

[21:44]

And to study them enough so that we know how we're practicing them and what it means if we decide to take the precepts. And part of that is also just, the second priority is just to get to the Sangha to have more contact with each other. And also for us to, again, get to know this place and how we can practice in this place. So I don't think we've ever used this room this way, have we? Eventually I hope we have a library and put some books on the shelves.

[22:50]

One of the few institutions that has more people in the library than books. It shows you where it's just starting. In fact, the books are very outnumbered Now, let's just stay with the word precept, meaning what comes before acting or taking hold. Now, my experience as a Westerner is that precept meant for me, as it was taught to me, meant what comes before I take action, before I do something.

[24:08]

And so, now, the basic precepts in Buddhism, and in Zen especially, but even the lengthy Theravadan precepts, still you can say are just kind of a kind of, common sense. A simplified way of presenting common sense or a highly refined way of presenting. Now there's an emphasis in Theravadan Buddhism and in and strict monk practice in mentioning everything. And particularly for the life of monks and nuns. In Mahayana Buddhism in general, there's a tendency

[25:21]

to simplify them to give you the basics from which you can discover the precepts for yourself. What was the last part? So you can discover the precepts for yourself. In other words, traditional early monk practice and nun practice can be completely ordered in all its details, or almost all its details. But lay life isn't like that. You can't order. all the details of a lay person's life. And we nowadays in the contemporary world, even monks, unless you stay pretty in a monastery or a cave, you can't predict what your life is going to be like from moment to moment.

[26:51]

And what goes with... lay, the so-called lay bodhisattva precepts, is also not to reject lay life. So in other words, not to have precepts which basically make you a monk in the midst of lay life. But precepts which allow you to enter into lay life but do lay life differently than the ordinary lay person.

[27:56]

This kind of point we can discuss more later, as you wish. So we can say the precepts, the Buddhist precepts, are what I usually say is the precepts of basic humanity. Okay. But If you understand these precepts as simply in a humanitarian sense, I don't think we'll understand them deeply enough to really follow them. Because if your motivation is just to be a good person,

[29:00]

This is great. I mean, it would be nice for all of us to be good people. But I think that we need to understand them in a more philosophical and religious sense. How they have to do with how we exist and relate to the world as a whole. How they reflect the world as it exists. In us and in of itself. Now, I think pretty much we've talked enough for this evening, but I'd like to ask you to close your eyes for a few minutes.

[30:36]

Now when you open your eyes, please open your eyes. Everything appears. If you close them again, well, at least something disappears. Now, probably there's quite a lot. Even though your eyes are closed, I'm sure you have some images or thoughts or feelings. But probably all those, please, as you wish, open or close your eyes. But whatever your... appears when your eyes are closed, is almost certainly related to having your senses in the past. If you were born insensate, blind, deaf, unable to have physical feeling.

[32:22]

You would probably have very few memories, thoughts or images. So when you close your eyes and there's images and thoughts, basically it's a kind of residue of your senses. Memories of experience. We could say your karma. And I think... contemporary research suggests that the brain is... and our sensory... our way of perceiving is... our brain is wired through the senses.

[33:27]

You're born with a basic genetic capacity, but the wiring occurs through how your senses are used. So for us as Buddhists, this is really quite basic, you know, to have your eyes closed, to open them, and everything appears. So how does it appear? So how does it appear? And how do we act within those appearances? And how do we not attach to those appearances?

[34:30]

I think that's enough for now. So let's sit for a few minutes and then we can go to bed or whatever you want to do. This sound just appeared. Slowly going away. We could say that presets are the door into appearances.

[37:33]

A door that opens into what comes before. and after the world arises. The world that's constantly arising in us. As thoughts, sounds, Sights and images. Feelings, emotions. And physiologically it's parallel to our breathing.

[38:47]

The world appears on our inhale. Inspires on our inhale. And expires or disappears on our exhale. We can think of the breath as our bridge between life and death.

[41:14]

And each breath as... The medium of the precepts. Or barometer of the precepts. Barometer? Barometer? Okay. The medium of the precepts. Okay.

[42:21]

Good evening. Good night. Is this from the Zendo? Yes. Because I can bring a bell down. Okay. So we call... Crestone Mountain Zen Center has a Japanese name. Well, the small building that we built, the Japanese-style building, we recently finished for Doksan and other kinds of meetings. I, of course, have some photos maybe later. I think you might like to see them because it's kind of quite interesting, the building. Anyway, we call it Ho-To-An, which means Dharma Lamp Hut.

[47:04]

House, thermal lamp and house. You're not hut, that would be hat, right? I said, I know, I'm just teasing. Thermal lamp, hat. And that was the name I asked, tried to figure out with Kaz, and Kaz and I figured out that name, Hotowa. And that is a name that I, together with Kaz Tanahashi-sensei, In Japanese, it would commonly be called the hojo, but in America, that means Howard Johnson's So it's kind of funny to say we're going to Howard Johnson's for Doksani. Do you have Howard Johnson's in Germany? Do you know what it is? Yes. There's a hotel?

[48:27]

No, I don't know. It's a restaurant and sometimes motel. It's a bit like move and pick or something like that. What do you call it? Move and pick. Help! Help! Help! See what I mean? So we call the whole place Shobo Genji. The whole place has the name Shobo Genji, which means true Dharma eye temple. So while Kaz Tanahashi Sensei was here, he called me up twice or three times. To... Suggest that this place be called Genrinji.

[49:45]

Gisela, could you get the board? You need help? No, it's not that heavy. Are you kidding? I'm sure she can bring it. She's a protective husband. so so anyway this is Gen this is Rin and this is Gene he said we found a nice board can I what do you think about the name Genrinji. So I said, how could I argue because I knew it meant black forest temple. But it also, you know, it has another meaning, which is gen really means mysterious source.

[51:12]

Like in yugen, which means some mystery. And in the common word genkan, for the entry, like the Hotawan or Hojo, the entryway was called, from Vimalakirti's time, Genkan. And I think I mentioned that to you last February. But anyway, Genkan means, literally means mystery gate. But most Japanese people don't know it anymore.

[52:15]

All they know is it's Genkan, the Genkan, the entryway. But we don't think in English anymore that the word entrance means entrance. So those words, the real sense of what a threshold is, soon becomes just a word. So this means... mystery or source or both. And Rin, which means forest, actually also means the Sangha.

[53:15]

So this means the source, mysterious source, Sangha, temple. And everyone who receives the precepts has to wear this for a week. Go shopping in it. This is a rakshu that... As you might, those of you who know Rocio might guess, Rocio made for me. And occasionally you can see Hale-Bob go across it. Okay, so we talked, I guess, in the discussion, you talked about what is the truth.

[54:32]

So I'd like you to share some of your discussion with me. Peter first. What is the truth of Hale-Bob? What is really the truth of that? We saw it just now. Where was it? In the room. But if there's nothing, is that the truth? Is that what you discussed in your group? Something of that kind. Could you see it well here in Germany? Oh, yes. Quite well. Because it's Crestone, because it's so black, high sky. It was everywhere. It's great. Sometimes you even could see it during daytime.

[55:36]

It's the end of the daytime, but not yet dark. You could see it with a blue sky. Mm-hmm. I should tell you something about our truth? Yes, please. Oh. In some way it's difficult. I think we started with the question, how do we feel, how can we, what is our feeling towards truth, or how do we feel if we, how can we feel that something is true? or how can you feel that, that it's true? And Sarabha said, it's a thing of the body, either in the heart or the belly. It was one topic. And out of that came the question or the meaning that there's inner truth, a truth inside of us.

[56:45]

But on the other side, there is an outer truth, the truth with which the science handles. They have something outside which they have measurement for it. I think in the discussion we went on with these two possibilities of truth. or to the inner. What is the effect of truth? You know, if we have an experience of being close to truth, sometimes it changes our life. What changes life? One aspect of our discussion was, what can we do?

[57:52]

What can we do with ourselves to experience truth, to have that feeling of truth? For example, some of us know, after meditation, we see things more clear, clearer. And there was something which just made me quite astonished, because one of us said, there's an outer system, there's an outer truth, and in true Christian tradition, that outer truth is God. I hadn't realized that combination. And if you take that, through his Christian God, that outer truth, what is that what the science people find when they look outside?

[58:54]

And you know, some of them are so astonished to find the truth and have the feeling they met God. Yeah. Thank you. I don't think we need to translate it because you're all part of your own group, but if we want to translate it, you can. What? Peter said it very slowly so that he understood. Oh, okay. So someone else? I'd like to hear at least one person from each group so I have a general feeling for the discussion. I won't call on anyone. Just Peter, I thought. Sitting there. Yes. Yes. We also found it difficult to talk about it, because it has such a big meaning, and we tried to come close.

[60:03]

We also divided it into a big truth and a small one, a subjective one. And we said, the big one could be this... Metamorphosis. Yes. Metamorphosis, like day and night, and the ad ansio. And it's almost that the precepts are giving structure, are also a kind of truth for him, and orientation to truth. I noticed some sentences which we wanted to say what is truth about truth. To be here now is a type of truth, or if you can't do it, it's not true if you only say it.

[61:06]

You have to create something. We said truth is faith in myself, And someone said meditation is my path to truth. And this also shows the movement which is in truth. It's impermanent. It's here and then gone, moving all that. Someone said that the truth has, for him it has to do with to say yes to everything. When I cross the street and I don't watch the car, they will hit me. He was very practical.

[62:14]

He also was asked, why do we save all sentient beings, someone asked him. He said, we save them for later. Anyway, go on. Yes, I mean... This subject has a lot to do with perception, what I feel and I see, and a kind of awareness. We don't have a conclusion. Our discussion was lebende. Alive. Alive. Oh, good. That's true. Okay? Yeah. It was difficult for us to concentrate on this theme.

[63:21]

We got away from truth and reality. In Germany you say, perceive. That means to take something that's true. To perceive. To perceive means that. To take something as true. Yeah. The question came up, is there one objective truth or are there billions of subjective truths from every sentient being? And in the Heart Sutra it says, and it's true, not false.

[64:31]

And what does that exactly mean? So we tend it more towards reality, away from truth. So many questions have arisen and we have definitely arrived somewhere. We have also come to the rituals and habits of the spirit and realities. We also talked about rituals and realities of the mind and that this could lead to reality.

[65:53]

Rituals and things you do daily can become the truth? Yeah. True awareness. Also that you can realize truth with the mind. You only can realize it with your heart. You were in the same group? Yes. Okay, that's one more group, I think. We started out with the word truth, but there must be something that is true.

[66:55]

So we talked about reality, that there is an outer reality, or scientists think there is an outer reality, or Western tradition, And then we came to the skandhas and to our way to perceive truth or reality and the way it works together and the way my truth is the same as someone other's truth and the possibility to talk about and to understand each other. And we came to other kinds of truth There's one part the truth in me or in the person if I myself are true in speaking or in acting And another thing was the truth that we hope to find in Buddhism That was a discussion what it means

[68:09]

the truth that's very difficult to explain in words. And it came up to find a truth that is more than the truth what is meant with the car that comes. And then we took a long time to talk about ways to come nearer to this kind of truth, the ways how each of us tries to practice. Now, if there's anything specific that someone feels was left out, you can say, Maybe in the discussion it will come up too. Also the question came up Doesn't the subjective truth not come up in contact with each other?

[69:45]

And it makes a certain intimacy necessary? so that two people can meet. And out of this meeting, truth can be realized. Yeah, that's very characteristic of the Buddhist view. Now, what we call our organization in Europe and in the United States is Dharma Sangha. And dharmasanga could be most accurately and simply translated as those who study the truth.

[70:55]

So there's nothing more important that we can do but to discover what's true for ourselves and to also discover among ourselves if we have a shared idea, feeling of what is true. Do both of you speak German? No? Do you speak German? No. So you can't join the discussion when we... Yes, yes. Me, you can hear me. But when you were in the groups, you couldn't... Yes, the group was speaking... Oh, they spoke English. Oh, that's nice. I wouldn't want that you left out just because you speak French. So this sense of what is true has been a discussion for many centuries in Buddhism.

[72:23]

And Buddhism did not come to knowing having a shared understanding of what is the truth in a one-week practice seminar. It took many, many, many centuries. And it took many centuries of not just passive discussion, but very active discussions by even, as we've discussed before, a kind of think tanks. Und es hat mehrere Jahrhunderte gedauert, nicht nur in passiven Diskussionen, sondern in aktiven Diskussionen, und wie ich schon vorher angedeutet habe, in Art von

[73:37]

They had sort of Max Planck Institute types, really, that were sometimes numbered 15,000 people over centuries studying. Now my sense of of why we think of Western culture starting as well as with Christianity, but also with Greek culture. My feeling about Western culture comes from the fact that Western culture began with Greek culture and Christian culture. It is influenced by that. And I don't think we talked about this in February.

[74:44]

Some of you were here in February, right? But it's something I've been thinking about recently. Which is what the Greeks basically did is to create a phonetic alphabet. One, and they demythologize society. Which means they secularize society. Okay. So now, the big difference, I would say the fundamental difference between China and Japan The fundamental difference between China and Japan is Japan has a phonetic syllabary and China does not. So China has an immense lower class.

[75:54]

It's illiterate, and Japan does not. Because Japan, when they borrow Chinese characters, Chinese kanji, They didn't know how to read them, so they created what's called a syllabary, which is a phonetic kind of... phonetic syllabary, not an alphabet. means that the way you speak and the way you read can be identical. In China, the way you speak may not... you may not be able to read because it's pronounced differently. So the Greeks created a phonetic alphabet which allowed literacy and they

[76:55]

That's a kind of phonetic alphabet. This is a more phonetic alphabet. And... And by secularizing society, they... They... using this phonetic alphabet, they... Sorry, there's several ideas here. A phonetic alphabet and a writing system, then, allows you to create externalized memory. Okay, thank you. This externalized memory system did not just lay down the myths, the truths.

[78:28]

In Greek society, they externalized speculation. In der griechischen Gesellschaft wurde Spekulation auch nach außen getragen. So you had a multi-generational exploration of ideas. Es gab eine multikulturelle Erklärung von Ideen. And our culture is absolutely dependent on a multi-generational exploration of ideas. Und unsere Gesellschaft beruht genau darauf, auf dieser multikulturellen, funktionalen Herausbringung von Ideen. So the point I'm making is that it takes actually some generations to study the truth. Okay. Now, what is Buddhism? What is lineage in Buddhism? Mm-hmm. Buddhism is essentially the realization of signless states of mind.

[79:46]

Whether we talk about that or not, we'll see. But how can you... You cannot have a phonetic alphabet for signless states of mind. So we could say lineage... is essentially a multi-generational apprenticeship in signless states of mind. Buddhism is a multicultural teaching in the practice of the mindless state of mind. signless, without marks. Like samadhi would be a classic example of a signless state of mind.

[80:53]

But actually when you go to sleep you practice a signless state of mind. In order to go to sleep unless you're totally exhausted or drunk. You need to let go of your thinking and sort of go through a clear tube into another way of thinking. So signless states of mind are many and quite common. It's just that we don't notice them. Because we notice signs and marks. We don't notice what doesn't have signs. Okay. Now, truth in Buddhism is... If it's identified with anything, it's identified with signless states of mind.

[82:19]

Now, it took Buddhism a long time to get to this point. Now maybe one thing I could do to participate in this week of our studying the truth, Let's try to share with you my understanding that the Buddhist tradition brings to this study of the truth. But please don't think this is something on a bookshelf. This study of the truth is actual history. And we are at this moment that actual history.

[83:26]

So it's because of people doing what we're doing that we have this tradition. Now, jukai is the Japanese word for the taking of the precepts. And it usually means spending a week together and then taking the precept. So in that sense we're doing something quite traditional, at least within Japanese Buddhism. So there's many, just as we are speaking about, have been speaking about in the discussion now, there are many ways to talk about the truth.

[84:49]

So from the Buddhist point of view, what are the most important things to notice? Now, when we take the precepts, the first three precepts, are taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And today refuge in Dharma. Let's just really concentrate on that today. And what does Dharma mean? Dharma basically means that which stays. So one of the truths that is obvious to everyone, who's practiced even for a little while, is the emphasis on that everything changes.

[86:00]

So we have this, first of all, this division, changing and what stays. So this is really our study. What changes? What stays? And the word dharma, a deru, is the root of it. Also in Sanskrit means tree or timber or wood. And it has the same roots in Greek. In dendrum, like in rhododendron and philodendron, it means a tree. So a tree is what stays.

[87:01]

You know, you open your door and the tree's still there, usually. Although our good doctor... with his internship in surgery, cut the branch off the tree yesterday? Yeah. What changes? How can we understand change? And what stays? And how can we understand what stays? Now, again, as I said yesterday, or this morning, In the beginning was order. Yeah. We open our eyes and, yes, things are changing, but there's some pattern.

[88:05]

What is that pattern? Now, as soon as you say, that pattern is also us, you, if you really follow that, you have excluded transcendence. So you're in a world that emphasizes immanence, not transcendence. Now, immanence means everything's inside. And as Peter said, there can't be some truth outside the system. So this means that in English, for instance, it's probably better to use the word actuality than reality.

[89:18]

And I think you can make a similar distinction in German. Hans-Peter Durer, who's the physicist, you know, who's head of the Max Planck Institute, Vienna prefers the word actuality to reality. We've had this discussion that actuality has less... baggage with it. So like Ezra Pound if we're going to have the discussion we have to look at our own language and the implications of the words we use.

[90:18]

If we just automatically say reality, it suggests there's something permanent out there. Now, in all these koans that deal with basically the truth or the precepts, they almost always have the phrase in it, There's giving life and taking away life. And the sense in this is there is no in-between. You either give life, and if you don't give life, you take away life. So there's no passive reality that you live in some container that's just there.

[91:21]

If you treat the world like a container, you will kill it. And we now know there's enough people on the planet and enough mutual information exchanged. for us to know that we are in fact, by treating the world as a container, killing it. And this in our culture has only been recognized in the last 30 years. And it starts really from one person's book, Rachel Carson's book called The Silent Spring.

[92:36]

When she recognized that wherever DDT was sprayed, the birds weren't singing.

[92:41]

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