Well, as you know, most of you know, we do this so-called prologue day partly so that we don't have to focus only on the topic. And so that, yeah, we can approach the topic or go in a different direction, surround the topic, you know, things like that. Hey, you got here. Great. And I always feel I should start from my own experience at the present.

[01:31]

And you should also start from your experience at the present. And that's the maybe dynamic meaning of what we are practicing and doing and is called lineage teaching. Und das ist die dynamische Bedeutung dessen, was wir praktizieren und was wir tun und was wir Lehrlinienlehre nennen. So the concept of lineage teaching in its positive sense, not political sense and so forth, I'd say, and not in the political sense, because scholars emphasize how often how lineage was used to establish greater credibility for one school of Buddhism than Zen and the other.

[02:42]

But it has a more fundamental and deeper pedagogical meaning. Which is what's being passed. is each generation or each person's experience of the teaching and not just some kind of replica of what Buddha supposedly taught. So from that point of view, I'm not teaching you Buddhism. I mean, to the extent that I'm teaching you anything, but I'm not teaching you Buddhism. I'm doing whatever she tells me to do.

[04:03]

No, that's not quite right. That's not my experience. But for me, teaching my experience of Zen practice is teaching Buddhism. Because that's what, in effect, lineage teaching is, is the passing of each teaching generation's understanding and own experience of practicing. Denn das ist letztendlich, was Lehrlinienlehre ist, die Erfahrung der Lehre in jeder Generation.

[05:04]

And what was the last thing you said? Own experience of Buddhism. Ja, also unsere eigene Erfahrung vom Buddhismus. Of course, lineage practice is also, the reference point is how well do you understand the basic views and teachings. Natürlich bedeutet Lehrlinie auch die Frage, wie gut verstehst du die grundlegenden Sichtweisen und Lehren. But there's no way we can get away from being Europeans or Westerners right now. Aber es gibt keinen Ausweg daraus, dass wir jetzt Europäer und Westler sind. deflect, contradict, maybe to some extent transform our westernness. Wir können unsere Westlichkeit vielleicht beugen oder abändern oder sogar verwandeln.

[06:14]

Yeah. Julia Kristeva, who is a French-Bulgarian semiotic structuralist philosopher. Who I particularly like. She's real brilliant and races ahead in her own thinking. Yeah, and she says something like, we are each established within our civilizational moment. And the example she gives is an artist of any generation can't just do anything. he paints or sculpts within the visual context of his generation, even if he's changing it.

[07:24]

And she says that each of our this moment of civilization which each of us exemplifies, has the momentum of the past, the strength and momentum of the past in it. Yeah. So I don't want to westernize Buddhism, but there's no way Buddhism in the West is not going to find itself in some relationship to Western views.

[08:37]

that Buddhism finds itself through? In some relationship to Western views. Now that may sound rather complicated, what I just said. But what I'm actually saying very simply is, whatever this practice is, it first of all has to be yours and mine, that we do together. And, you know, I know it's just mostly symbolic, but the reason I don't start the prologue day, first day, with Zazen, I mean the session, I want to be here in the midst of your unvarnished selves.

[09:50]

Un-lacquered, is that what she's saying? Yes. Oh. Lacquer comes from Asia. Anyway, there we are. So, okay, I think anyway. So the rest of the, starting tomorrow, where we're supposed to be talking about the, primarily about the topic of We'll start the period in the morning with Zazen for half an hour. And I know that we sat Zazen earlier this morning, but still symbolically, here we are, unvarnished, unlacquered together.

[11:17]

So right now I don't want to speak to you just after you've done Zazen. I don't want to speak to everyone just after they've done Zazen. So it's just symbolic because we sat this morning, but at least most of us did. But it has some meaning to me, even if it's only symbolic. So what I'd like to emphasize in this seminar and maybe both seminars is what I would call starting points. And starting points at you because I'm really engaged in myself with your practice in your lay life.

[12:43]

Yeah, so I imagine how you and I both can keep finding starting points for practice in our daily life. I'm changing the topic slightly right now. And there are there's the teaching of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

[13:48]

And it's interesting that these three categories are so emphasized and so important. And I'm mentioning them because I myself, in whatever I'm saying, is reflecting on these three, I would call, tracks, teaching tracks. And these three teaching tracks, which I'm calling, are inseparable from each other, but also inseparable from really what we're doing here.

[14:56]

Buddha is obviously concept of realization or understanding of this basic practice and teaching? An understanding, I think. Yeah, okay. Okay. Yeah. So that's obviously teaching. Okay. So Dharma is the teaching from the world, how the world exists itself. That means you're not just learning from a teacher, if it happens to be me or someone else.

[16:14]

You're also learning just from the way things appear. And as we say, how things actually exist. Although that statement can mean anything, I think we have a feeling for what it means, how things actually exist. Okay, and Sangha, of course, is others who practice. But Sangha, as equal with Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Sangha means the Sangha is also your teacher. And that really becomes our responsibility too.

[17:20]

How do we together create a Sangha which teaches us? You know, I'm speaking about this partly because I'm in some sort of process of retiring. As I said, I feel I have to speak about my own situation, which is part of what I'm practicing and teaching. I'm in the process of retiring because some people tell me I'm getting old. And sometimes the mirror reinforces their view.

[18:30]

We won't go any further in that. But at Crestone, I'm not teaching the practice period. And what I've found is that by withdrawing from the daily practice to a large extent, I guess because basically everyone accepts the change. It's surprising me that it's not like a going away. It's like a new way of being there. I think all of you know that although Catherine is much younger than I am, Und ich glaube, ihr alle wisst, dass obwohl Katrin viel jünger ist als ich, viel zu jung, um sich zur Ruhe zu setzen, ist sie bald nicht mehr Direktorin und Nicole wird Direktorin.

[19:52]

Do you use passing the torch in German? We could, yes. Die Fackel weiterreichen, ja. Right now, passing a torch back and forth. Flaming. Die beiden reichen jetzt die Fackel aneinander weiter. But I think she is finding a way to leave her, change her responsibilities here, but still be fully part of the Sangha. Okay. So, And the retiring is, of course, voluntary.

[21:09]

It makes sense. But it's also involuntary. It's just happening. And I'm sort of going along with it. You mean involuntary in the sense of not your free choice right now? Well, yeah, it's just... I mean, I will die one of these days and it won't be entirely voluntary. You know, so far, I guess because I practice, doesn't it? I don't have much problem with my consciousness is going to end. I don't like consciousness much anyway. And once or twice a day I, you know, sort of die. But my legs, I'm used to them.

[22:25]

Are they going to end too? I guess this stuff will end too. That's more of a problem. I leave a problem behind. So if I'm retiring on various levels, I'm hoping, of course, the teaching continues. And who's going to continue the teaching? My successors. And they are, I have, luckily have very good successors and they will continue the teaching, I presume. I never think anything is sure. But I'm sure.

[23:34]

But also the Sangha has to continue the teaching. So I'm speaking to you one track. I'm speaking with you now is how will our Sangha continue? You've heard me say this over and over again. Yeah, but I think the process of the Sangha coming to a mutually shared resonant identity, will take all the years and more that I may still be alive. And that's at the level of a kind of feeling as well as shared views and practices.

[24:54]

Okay, so what are some starting points? Okay. The main starting point, at least conceptually, is that everything is an appearance. And we need to really remind ourselves and that takes some reminding over some years until you really experience everything as an appearance.

[26:16]

I don't feel embarrassed to keep going over this because I go over it myself, for myself, for my own practice. And just understanding it doesn't amount to much. They say that to be accomplished in anything, you know, it's kind of like a myth, but I think it's kind of true, too. To be accomplished in anything, to be the Beatles or to be a master cabinetmaker, takes 10,000 hours. Yeah, or certain athletics, etc. So, something like 10,000 hours need to be put into knowing things are appearances. And what appears are activities, not entities.

[27:51]

Now, here again, I'm not trying to speak about religion as some sort of nice thing where we all love each other compassionately. I like that, but I don't think it works as long as I'm feeling good. I mean, in the deepest sense, compassion in Buddhism means you actually know you're connected. inseparably. And that knowing is so fundamental, you can't be angry in the usual sense, because underneath is that fundamental knowing we're not really separate.

[29:01]

It doesn't mean you don't have your psychological problems and anger and so forth, but it's in a context of really knowing how we exist together. We can fall in love with almost anyone sometimes. People with different race, culture, language.

[30:13]

Maybe we have to fall in compassion with others. Okay. Oh, dear, what can the matter be? Johnny's so long, it's a fear. It's a song from the Second World War. So appearance is a starting point. Attention is a starting point. And we need to really understand the relationship between attention, awareness, appearance, and so forth.

[31:17]

If we're going to act within ourselves as we actually exist, Yeah. So what do you bring attention to? First you have to notice attention. And once you've noticed attention and experience it as different from consciousness, And by bringing attention to things, you begin to discover attention. And the discovery of attention begins to develop attention. So one place where I spoke fairly often before I left the United States a couple of months ago,

[32:31]

Also ein Ort, an dem ich sehr häufig gesprochen habe, bevor ich vor ein paar Monaten in die Vereinigten Staaten gegangen bin. Also wir sagen normalerweise, lenke deine Aufmerksamkeit auf den Atem. And I say, form an intention to bring attention to your breath. Und ich sage aber, bilde eine Absicht, deine Aufmerksamkeit zum Atem zu bringen. That is one of the starting points. The relationship between breath and attention. And that can be a starting point whether you're living here or living anywhere. As long as you're alive have lungs and so forth, you should bring attention to your breath. And the other, and I think equally important or differently important, is to bring attention to your spine.

[33:45]

And you learn different things about attention when you bring attention to the spine than you learn by bringing attention to the breath. So I think right now we should bring attention to the break. Yeah, and so I see you in a while. And some of you are new, two or three or four of you have never been here before. And I don't know if I should feel sorry for you or not. But I think I'm speaking in completely clear, simple sentences.

[35:06]

But there may be a moment of civilization in there that's hard to notice. And that is that many of us have been practicing together for five and ten and Twenty years. Even more, right? Thank you for translating. And she's been practicing here in this place since she was five years old. No, that's not true. Mentally, maybe. Eighteen. Yeah. My rule has been don't let people start too young, but you broke the rule.

[36:09]

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