Now, although these are, oh, would somebody like to say something? Yeah. It just occurred to me during lunch that concerning nature and nurture, that in Western countries, always philosophies of being are more popular than philosophies of becoming. Or another example would be that we are spending millions of dollars for researching the genes, but there's almost always too less money for educating people. So this is, it seems to me, it's on several levels we have the same phenomenon. Same emphasis, yeah. Yeah. So in this nature and nurture, whether someone is born, or whether society develops it, it is also the case that in the western countries the philosophies that have more to do with what is truth than philosophies that simply describe the process of becoming, of emerging,

[01:26]

Or the other is that millions of dollars are spent to carry out genetic research, i.e. to search for the perfect person from the report, and relatively little money is there to develop and train people. So that speaks for itself. The gate of suffering is a possibility, introducing it in one of these three days, the gate of suffering. What do you mean by that? In the sense of how do we deal with sitting through the suffering? Literally, in your case. Literally. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Don't you think that there's a very big difference between the West and the East in the concept of the individual person. I always have the feeling that in Asian society, the individual is just a member of society.

[02:31]

We have a much more possessive thing of an individual having our own responsibility and having our own actions. So even the story with the baby, you know, as a Western, one just would go there regardless what would happen. The big difference between Western and Eastern societies is the role of the individual and the responsibility of the individual. In the Asian world and also partly in the Muslim world, the individual disappears when the individual is part of the community. Well, a fairly common example of compassion in Buddhist countries is you're walking along a lake and you see a child drowning. Or an adult.

[03:42]

And without thinking, you jump in, if you can, and say, child. And As an example of compassion, you don't deserve any praise for it. It's just a normal thing to do. And here the difference is, it's a child with presumably a family and all of that stuff, as the infant in swaddling clothes, not. So I don't think the difference is because we emphasize the individual responsibility more. It's just that they define what person is differently. But certainly, there's a pretty big difference between our sense of the individual

[04:58]

undivided, undividable person, individual undividable person. And the in the sense of relatedness, connectedness for the Asian person. And I don't know if I can say anything really pertinent about it at this point. There was certainly confusion about it in the 60s in America, in California, in the western United States.

[06:27]

Because the communal movement, the communes of the 60s, were often implicitly identified with Buddhist Sangha and Buddhist thinking. And in Asia, which is more of a group culture, Buddhism is about freeing yourself from culture in general and freeing yourself, in this case, from group culture. So Buddhism is, in a way, more of a process of individuation in Asia than... then yeah, then yeah, is that.

[07:39]

So we thought of Sangha as a kind of communalism and it's not. Sangha is those who practice together. and those who support each other in practice who share a common vision but a common vision individually verified. Now, the history of individualism, you can't just say the West is... And in the history of individualism, one cannot say that the West, in general, emphasizes individualism exclusively.

[08:54]

Because it's something that's developed over the last few hundred years. It's not always been like this. When you live in Japan, you know, we're not in the parts of the culture developed to be open to Westerners. At first it can be quite... And how permeated people's, what they think are personal decisions are actually cultural decisions. I remember our teacher, this is just one example, our teacher was a professor of Indian philosophy.

[09:59]

He was our Japanese language teacher. He was our Japanese language teacher, and he happened to be a professor of Indian philosophy. So he was a rather unusual Japanese guy. But, you know, he was thinking of having a third child. And then I remember a couple of years later there was an article in the newspaper that the society decided that families shouldn't have more than two children. And almost the next day he announced to me

[11:00]

My wife and I decided not to have a third child. Because of many similar examples, I was sure it was a cultural decision, not really a personal decision. And my wife at that time and I went out on a car trip with him. With a Japanese Zen monk, who's now a pretty famous Roshi. And Virginia and I were sitting in the back seat. And the Roshi to be was driving the car. They were taking us somewhere.

[12:16]

And the driver put down his sun visor. And so Nagasaki sensei put down his. Oh, well, maybe just... It didn't look like there was sun on his side, but he put it down. Then he rolled down the window a little bit. Then the driver rolled down the window. Virginia and I looked at each other, and we watched this dance. Whatever one did, the other did. And Virginia and I looked at each other, and we watched this dance. And if you ask them, why did you do that? Oh, because Their reason would be their own reason.

[13:22]

They wouldn't just say, I did it because the other person did it. But I learned the language. So you go out, the Japanese person considers you a friend, and you feel like a friend. And maybe ten sentences are shared. in five or six hours. Does this guy really like me? He can't say anything. But as soon as you get the understanding that it's about shared space, it's about feeling connected. And then you start doing things to show your rapport, your connectedness.

[14:32]

What a wonderful day. I would have liked a little more conversation, actually. But I then discovered that once you establish that physical rapport, that becomes the basis for conversation. I think we do something the same, like you have a telephone conversation or something. First you just say some things until you feel some kind of over the phone with the other person. And then you can launch into the conversation.

[15:34]

Yes. Yeah, so I think that's enough for now about that. It's a big topic, the difference between the basis for relationships with others and with oneself in the yoga culture and in our culture.

[16:38]

Let me say something. if somewhat related, even after living in Japan a long time, was a startling example to me. Yeah, for some reason or other, I can't remember, I went home with Nagasaki Sensei. When we got to his house, which was a new house in the southern part of Kyoto, And we went to his new house in the southern part of Kyoto.

[17:56]

And we went to the door and it was locked. And he said, oh my gosh, the door is locked. And I said, did you forget your key? He said, no, I don't have a key. This is a man in his mid-forties at least. And I said, you don't have a key to your own house? He said, no, I've never come home in my life and not found somebody home. My mother, my wife, or a russopan, somebody who stays in the house and makes it a lot. Let's say in 45 years he's never come home and found his house locked. I think that's inconceivable for us.

[19:06]

Maybe not in Christian Ehrich's life. Let's just... You just don't lock the house. Anyway... So I said, can I climb up? Oh, no. It turned out his daughter had a medical emergency and rushed her to the hospital. Yeah, but there's just so many differences like that. That you have to live in a society to put together and see... How do they construct who they are in their relationship to each other?

[20:11]

Since I've just thought of it, I'll tell you one other anecdote. If you've eaten in Japanese restaurants, you know they have a kind of pickle they serve with their rice, things like that, yellow and red-painted. And the taste is, it tastes quite different than our pickles. And it's processed out. turning almost any vegetable into a pickle. So anyway, I was at this scholar, Robin from Berkeley, was in Kyoto visiting. working on his PhD.

[21:34]

He came and he brought a special package of pickles to Nakamura-sensei, the Japanese woman who lived with us. When he came from Tokyo, if he comes from Tokyo to Kyoto, he should bring a present that's characteristic of Tokyo. Or you can buy it in Kyoto with the wrapping from a Tokyo store. Or you buy something really characteristic of Kyoto.

[22:37]

And that's what he bought. He bought this package of pickles to Nakamura-sensei as a house present. And he said to her, this is from the best pickle store in Kyoto. She raised an eyebrow. So afterwards I said, Sensei, why did you raise your eyebrow? This is quite a... So Nakamura Sensei was a very cultured woman. And I asked her, why did you raise your eyebrows? She said, well, it is a nice pickle store, but it's for tourists.

[23:43]

And so... Then afterwards at some point there was a particular kind of eggplant pickle that I liked a lot. And she said, you know, I can introduce you to somebody who makes these pickles and maybe you could get them for yourself because I was always rating her supply. And so she, and this was also her process of educating me, she brought me across Kyoto to what looked like a private house. And they brought out more things.

[24:52]

They said, he really likes your pickles. And it turns out, you can only find out about the store if you're initiated. They brought me into this house and said that this person likes a vegetable garden. And it turned out that you could only find this business if you were introduced. There was no ship outside. So I was introduced to this pickle that has been being made for several generations in this family. So they brought it out I tried it, it was really good, and I bought some. And then I went back a few other times for the pickle, and then they slowly showed they had more pickles.

[25:56]

They had other ones that they would introduce to me. Over a year, I discovered they made quite a range of pickles. But they wouldn't sell them to me until I appreciated them. The idea of franchising and having pickle bucks or star pickles never occurred to them. They were quite happy having this relationship with their customers. So there's this kind of interweaving of of the society, because it's been so stable for so many generations, it's rather unfamiliar to us.

[27:06]

Maybe Vienna? No, not anymore. Okay, someone else? I was thinking about this, what you said. Because the other day, or the other day, years ago, you said something, there's no such idea of becoming the best, for instance, cook, but being in your neighborhood. That's right. That relates very much to that. And I was thinking, okay, what does this mean? Does it just mean small is beautiful? German, please. So, I have now asked a question, because it is something that I have been thinking about lately.

[28:12]

Years ago, Roshi told a similar story with the Sukkustan, that Small is beautiful. It doesn't mean small is beautiful as a concept. It means small often is beautiful. In the sense that you can't cook for people, such a cook would think.

[29:21]

You can't cook for people you don't know. And just look at tourist restaurants where they have a different clientele every day. Cooked food is not usually very good. The best restaurants are restaurants usually which develop a clientele who they know who they're cooking for. So such a cook would think. I can't cook for more than a base of a few hundred people who come once a week or something. Larger than that, I can't do. So I'd be very happy to. be considered a kind of best cook in the neighborhood.

[30:29]

Russell wouldn't say in Kyoto or in Tokyo. You know, the word famous in Japanese means more or less the same as infamous. Because to be known by people who don't know you is considered something weird. If you're known by people who don't know you, You must have done something wrong. You must have gossiped about it. One of the moral dilemmas for Google... Yeah, they actually discuss it. The founders of Google discuss it. People go to look up somebody on Google... Restrict or nipple?

[31:41]

they will more often hit on the bad news than the good news. If there's a bad story about somebody and a good story about somebody, they'll get a few hundred hits on the good story and thousands on the bad story. So they'd like to kind of balance the bias, but they don't know how to do it. Okay. Somebody else? May I tell a little anecdote? Sure. There was a street in the United States with three hairdressers. And the first hairdresser said, the best hairdresser in the world. And the second one said, the best hairdresser in the United States. And the third one said, the best hairdresser in the street.

[32:46]

The one who said the latter wins, right? That's a good story. Okay. So what kind of societal vision can we, or common vision or shared vision can we have? Now I'm just speaking about this partly to get you thinking about it. So obviously we can have a familial view of the world, a family view, family-based view. We can have a societal view of the world. And we can have a cultural view of the world.

[34:01]

And a religious view of the world. Yeah, and often people, you know, scientists often keep their religious views even though they don't fit into the science they practice. And some scientists try to adapt it, and some scientists just... Einige Wissenschaftler versuchen sie anzupassen und andere wiederum versuchen sie einfach zu trennen und getrennt zu halten. then we can look at ourselves and see to what extent we have a kind of views that developed in our family and society and so forth. Okay. Now we can also have, and as I said, I think something widely shared

[35:02]

what I'm calling a sensorial, phenomenal view. We may think of trees somewhat differently, they were different cultures, a different shamanic feeling, Still, it's pretty nice to see. Now, what is the religious view of Zen Buddhism? Zen emphasizes lineage more than any face-to-face lineage, more than other Buddhist schools. And Practically speaking, the lineage is quite real.

[36:29]

And goes back quite accurately hundreds of years and maybe even 1,500 years. What you get back 1500 years, they get kind of like historically not very clear. Aber wenn man 1500 Jahre zurückgeht, dann wird es irgendwie historisch sehr trübe, nicht sehr klar. But that's amazing, something, lineage could be clear for so many generations anyway. Aber es ist schon sehr erstaunlich, dass eine Lehre so lange Zeit klar ist und besteht. But it's also a mythical or stamp mythical or... Yeah, mythical view too. Or is it so clear to begin and so in a...

[37:31]

And it developed around the 11th century. That Zen goes back to the historical Buddha and to his disciple Mahakashapa. And there's a continuous lineage up until And for, let's say, 1,500 years or so, that's more or less true. But I don't know if it's true. Earlier you can't demonstrate it. But the sense of it is that view, the shared view is, that there's a common ancestor. a multi-branched lineage, linked by mind-to-mind transmission, and verified within the mind and body.

[38:45]

Experience of each person. Now, since so many of you are familiar with Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism also has a strong sense of lineage, like Zen does. But it's a little more complex. Because it's It's a lineage through rebirth. Which no other Buddhist school has this idea. Most Buddhist schools more or less believe in rebirth. At least at an outward level. But Zen doesn't even give much... belief for time to revert.

[40:15]

It doesn't say it's not true, it just says it's not part of the teaching. So since the Karmapa, first Karmapa, there's been this system in Tibetan Buddhism. And so there's considered to be a rebirth lineage in which the links are sustained through the teaching of regions. And from the Zen point of view, the regent would be the successor, not the infant. Now, this sense, this idea that there's this common ancestor, a multi-branched lineage,

[41:16]

linked by mind-to-mind transmission, is still not a belief. I mean, the structure is kind of a belief. But the truth of the teaching has to be realized in you yourself. for you to be a link in the lineage. Okay. And that shared vision of mind has to have a basis not only in your predecessors, but also in your contemporaries, and not only in your contemporaries who also practice, but in each living being.

[42:44]

Okay. So the... This... This way of understanding the relationship to the historical Buddha demanded that each generation also have a vision of their relationship with their contemporaries. So again, there's this emphasis on what kind of shared world do we have with each other and with the so-called physical world? So again, if we're going to stop at four, we better have a break soon.

[43:48]

Why is that funny? It's And I don't have anything more to say, so let's stop.

[44:14]

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