the Chousseau, as we were coming over here, I was going to read from the Bible, and she said it last. Those Austrians. Anyway, this is an Austrian, Robert Nussiel. And the other day, I came across this passage. For obvious reasons, every generation treats the life into which it was born as a firmly established way of life. Except for those few things it is interested in changing.

[01:07]

This is practical. But it's wrong. The world can be changed in all directions at any moment. Or at least in any direction it chooses. It's the world's nature. Wouldn't it be more original? More original? Can I have something else? to try to live not as a definite person not as a definite person in a definite world where only a few small things need adjusting in der nur ein paar wenige kleine Dinge der Anpassung bedürfen.

[02:22]

But wouldn't it be better to behave from the start as someone born to change, surrounded by a world created to change? More or less like a drop of water inside a cloud. And the word for monk in Japanese and Chinese is unsui, which means water cloud person. So the protagonist Ulrich says this. And then he says to his cousin, a woman, are you annoyed with me for being so obscure again? But he wrote this 1900, 1910, something like that. And finally, we have a chance to practice in a world that's not definite, that's changing, etc.,

[03:22]

Buddhism wasn't an alternative for him. But he, I think, if he'd had the opportunity, I think he would have taken it. So this kind of recognition has been going on in our culture for a long time. But to actually study it, as we're doing now, has been rare. Now, what we've been doing here the last several weeks One of the things is looking at the Hokkyo Sanmai.

[04:43]

The jewel mirror Samadhi. Cleary translates it as awareness, but actually it's Samadhi. Mm-hmm. And it begins with the practice of thusness. And it ends with to achieve continuity. Well, it says, you know, it's got these lines which when arrow points meet midair. When the wooden man begins to sing. When the stone woman gets up to dance. Notice in this world of of unpredictability that he's presenting, the unpredictability of aerials meeting mid-air, and the unpredictability of a wooden man starting to sing.

[06:13]

Again, as I said, probably Paul could make a Pinocchio You could start singing. If anyone could. But notice that in both these cases, this unpredictable wooden man is starting to sing. The stone woman is beginning to get up to dance. So there's, again, an emphasis on in this unpredictable world, what is completely unpredictable is stone maidens dancing. We're at the edge of the predictable and the unpredictable.

[07:24]

And so Tungshan is saying something like, locate yourself at the edge of unpredictability. Maybe at the edge of unpredictability. You can really get yourself to that edge. The possibility of continuity can appear. And he says, practice secretly. Working within yourself. To achieve, if you achieve continuity, this is called the host within the host.

[08:51]

Now, if you want to practice with this, okay. Ah. Of course you can practice just by paying attention, giving attention to your breath. But if you really want to explore the possibilities which lead to freedom, actual freedom from mental suffering, and possibly enlightenment, And the heights and depths of Buddhism. Then you need to find a way to study secretly. He says working within yourself. But I would maybe say allowing a working within yourself.

[09:55]

So in this kind of teaching, Okyo Zanma, you know you can take some key words thusness host continuity and take them as signs yeah the sutra in 8000 lines of the Prajnaparamita Sutra in 8,000 lines, says the Bodhisattva, the practitioner, takes a wholesome route Da heißt es, dass der Bodhisattva, der Praktizierende, eine ganzheitliche Wurzel aufnimmt und sie in ein Zeichen verwandelt, in eine Praxis.

[11:12]

Und nur indem er etwas nimmt, was er Can you turn yourself and the world over to enlightenment? Now this is a rather complex idea, a sign. And again, is the same word sign in German, Deutsch? It's a different word. It's a different, why is that? Why can't it be this? What do you mean by sign? A sign, I mean the etymology in English is a hand gesture. Or a mark or a token.

[12:12]

A token is something you ride on a subway with. A token is... A token... A token... I don't know how to translate it. Example? A token, the root of it actually means to teach. It's a mark used as a teaching. So a sign is a mark used as a teaching. Ein Signal. A signal. Well, it's like a signal, yeah. A token, but sign, you mean? Sign and signal. Sign is just sign-o. Yeah, yeah. Signal. Also, gibt es ein besseres Wort für sign als Zeichen? Hm? Well, it's rather interesting because what they define sign as is an object of perception.

[13:25]

But a sign is also an entry into samadhi. A sign is also a teaching you can practice. So an object of perception and appearance becomes also an opportunity to enter into a teaching. also becomes an entrance into a teaching. So in a way, we're teaching ourselves to notice the world as appearance. And then when you get in the habit of noticing the world as appearance,

[14:29]

Each appearance can signal to you thusness. Or each appearance can signal to you impermanence or unpredictability. Or the possibility of imperturbable mind. So you develop the habit in your continuum of noticing certain things. And those things become signs then You assign to those noticing various teachings. I mean, we do that without thinking about it. But here's the teaching explicitly

[15:39]

makes it clear by calling an object of perception, not an object of perception, but a sign that can be used in practice. But here is this teaching that... And the central thesis, the main thesis of the Mahavairochana Sutra, is how you turn a situation into a practice. The adept can turn a situation into a teaching and then into a practice. So the ordinary person, ordinary practitioner, you have to give the practice to. The adept can turn a situation into an insight, a teaching, and then turn that insight into a practice.

[17:10]

And in effect, that's what we're trying to do. And in effect, that's what we're trying to do in practice. And here I'm trying to give you the structure of practice for an adept. And I realize even though I'm here with you for three months, what a treasure. So rare. Most of us will never have this opportunity again. Maybe we will, I hope. Still, I know we're not going to be here for five years together or something like that. So I find, without really intending it, I find I'm actually bringing things up in Tesho.

[18:13]

which give you a feeling for the structure of practice and the potentialities of practice and to give you material for the inner debate we all do with practice That doesn't make sense or that did make sense or oh, now it makes sense or whatever. And so I find myself speaking in effect to your future exploration of practice. So I try to speak in aphorisms and phrases which may stick with you.

[19:38]

Perhaps if I really thought all of you listened to the tapes, I could talk to the future in a different way. Maybe I'd fold things together. In a different way. Okay. So, here's good old Dongshan. Founder of our Soto school. And in the Hokyo Zammai, this main poem, teaching poem, which has been chanted for generations and hundreds of years in Soto temples and monasteries. The main point starts with thusness and ends with to achieve continuity.

[20:53]

So this is a Built-in challenge for all of us. What the heck does he mean by continuity? Yeah, I mean, that's just an ordinary old word. All this build-up, arrow points, me in the air, and stone maidens dancing, and then it's all about continuity? Mm-hmm. It seems anticlimactic. Big deal. Where's the punchline? Where's the real punchline? Yeah. Über welche Art von Kontinuität spricht er da?

[22:05]

Wir sind alle mit Kontinuität vertraut. Die Kontinuität des Selbstinteresses oder der Sorgen des Selbst oder sowas. Which is, I'm not putting down. Without a concept of self, you can't function. But we know that self is just a creation of consciousness and certain kind of attention. Aber wir wissen, dass das selbst nur eine Kreation des Bewusstseins und einer bestimmten Art der Aufmerksamkeit ist. So we know that can't be the kind of continuity, I mean, pretty sure, that can't be the kind of continuity Dongshan means.

[23:08]

So können wir uns zumindest ziemlich sicher sein, dass das nicht die Art von Kontinuität sein kann, von der Dongshan spricht. And how many kinds of continuity are there anyway? Wie viele Arten von Kontinuität gibt es überhaupt? Well, the self-continuity, as I said, but what other ones? This is to be investigated. Now, an old friend of mine, who I knew in Cambridge and I knew in Japan, Ein guter Freund von mir, den ich aus Cambridge kenne und auch in Japan bekannt habe. Who wrote the book The Practice of Chinese Buddhism. Der hat das Buch Die Praxis des chinesischen Buddhismus geschrieben. Who also, unfortunately, went crazy and committed suicide. Der leider auch verrückt geworden ist und Suizid begangen hat.

[24:13]

But his two books, The Practice of Chinese Buddhism and I forget the name of the other one. He writes in the book about Chinese monastic life. Every movement was prescribed. Speech was avoided. Die Rede wurde vermieden. And movements were regulated by signals. Signs, signals. Und Bewegungen wurden von Zeichen reguliert oder Signalen reguliert. On the bell, on the board, and the wooden fish. Auf der Glocke und dem Holzbrett, dem Hahn und dem hölzernen Fisch.

[25:17]

Now I talked with you about how we are establishing an interlocked, linked, overlapping continuity in the practice group. and overlapping, interconnected, etc. Now, we can't do it the way they do it in Chinese, or they did it when I was in a Heiji. We'd have to have somebody make a whole bunch of drums and stuff, or we'd have to have a large budget. But the signals were given in the meditation hall, which were part of a larger counterpoint that linked all the sections of the monastery. Oh, do you need glasses? No. Well, then you can read this one, I'll read this one.

[26:42]

I'm well prepared for once. Where are we? Section of the monastery. Linked all the sections of the monastery. Ah, okay. The signals in the meditation hall were part of a larger... There were the bell and drum in the great shrine hall. The gong, our cloud gong, outside the refectory where you eat. And a portable board carried by the night patrol. I love it that we have that bell in the middle of the night. I always hope whoever is ringing it is getting enough sleep. Signals were sent back and forth like impulses in a nervous system.

[27:56]

Every day there were three periods when for an hour or two One signal led continuously into another. For example, the striking of the bell in the meditation hall led into the striking of the bell in the shrine hall. And this led into the striking of the large drum. With the first notes of each instrument falling between the last notes of the one before. Actually, the counterpoint, the coordination, was far more complicated than this.

[29:07]

war noch viel komplizierter als das. And he has an Appendix 3 in the book. Und es gibt in diesem Buch ein Appendix 3. About six or seven pages of lines and connections and this bell and that drum that you... Wo es sechs oder sieben Seiten gibt. In the Appendix. Im Appendix wo es sechs, sieben Seiten gibt, wo es nur darum geht, dass diese Glocke zu dieser führt und die so und so überlappen. So clearly, the overriding, determinative conception of monastic life is to establish an experience of continuity.

[30:32]

So the continuity is there in the use of the buildings, going outside, the rain, the snow soon, etc., And the materiality, the material-like, a quality of a board being hit, a metal being hit, a drum hide being hit, Ideally all linked together. So you feel a kind of tactile, sensorial connectedness. So this is one kind of continuity.

[31:56]

And a materiality of continuity that you can feel yourself in. And here we have the weather. Well, we don't have enough bells and drums. We've got, you know, snow and rather cold today. And you have your actual feet? You have un-actual feet? And you have your feet actually on the road? And you have the experience of passing through the kind of field of another person. And the wind and going up the stairs and so forth. So all of those are a kind of tactile continuity to bring attention to. And you can establish it yourself. And again, in these sutras and so forth, it says inattentiveness leads nowhere.

[33:25]

It's finding yourself in an attentional realm. Like the practice is essentialized, as I've said, in the attentional sphere of the orioke practice. And it's essentialized in the bow to each other. And the bow through the invisible door across the eating board, the ma edge, Into the samadhi cushion. Isn't that what he calls his company? Samadhi support. Get you halfway there. and then when you step across the eating board again arrow points meeting in the air you get the habit now of re-entering another kind of space

[35:03]

bowing through the invisible door, and then turning and entering kin hin, or the service, or whatever. So these essentialized actions, again like the last server bowing to the room, are actions that you make signs that open various teachings, remind you of various teachings. Now I think the most basic practice of continuity and where adept practice begins is to, as I've said many times, to develop the absolute intention to bring attention to the breath.

[36:29]

Adept practice begins when you've achieved this. And this is the most basic continuity for knowing continuity. It creates an attentional structure for all other kinds of continuity of mind, etc. So you develop strength in the intentions. Until there's nothing else that is possible almost. But to bring attention to the breath. And then attention to the breath is attention to the body.

[37:34]

And attention to the body becomes attention to phenomena. Now, sociologists have a word they use often, the lived body. But Lusthauser adds the phrase, the lived field. And that's really good, the lived field. Because what we're doing is moving from... Well, we all live a lived body. Your body is your lived experience. Your feet, I see every meal, show what kind of shoes you've been wearing for much of your life.

[38:40]

So your lived body shows your experience, is your experience. And your lived body is also in a cultural framework. And now we're changing the cultural framework. And we're extending the lived body through another worldview, another cultural viewpoint. Into a lived field. A field of textural immediacy. I said it before, so what did you use before?

[39:46]

We didn't use it as an adjective. The immediacy of texture. Thank you. So this experience of trying to establish a routine which is a route or a passageway which you can absorb yourself in. Rest in. Yeah, and sometimes get bored in. What the heck am I doing here? Yeah. But again, if you can just allow this routine to be a kind of continuity, And you can find this continuity within the lived body and the lived field.

[40:54]

The lived field of bell, drum, weather, etc. Then you can begin to notice this edge between the lived body and the lived field. And at that edge, consciousness appears. Or consciousness can be folded in and under and awareness appears. And then you're closer to thusness and the jewel mirror samadhi. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. Danke. We will get to our decision.

[42:14]

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