Well, I'm very happy to be here with you this evening. And it's been quite a few years since I've been here. I don't remember how many. But at one time I used to meet with some of you here once or twice a year. About ten years ago. When I used to do sashins at Roseburg at the house distiller. But now we've about to have our tenth anniversary for... the center Johanneshof near Freiburg. So most of the time I'm there. I began to think I'll never come to Hamburg again. So we have this sort of strange, dumb title.

[01:18]

What is it? Sitting around doing nothing. Something like that. How did we get such a title? But that is some people's view of Zen practice. It will just sit around and do nothing. And when I first started practicing in the beginning of the 60s, I used to get criticism like that. Not to be engaged with the world and so forth. Not just staring at your navel. Not that I've ever stared at my navel. In the United States, at least, that was a common definition of meditation. So, you know, but the title made me think of one of my favorite little poems, haikus, Now sitting quietly, doing nothing.

[02:36]

Spring comes. Grass grows by itself. Now this is such a simple point. Almost, you know, sometimes I feel foolish, you see. You feel weird, weird. And yet at the same time, it's been a kind of guideline in my practice.

[03:38]

A kind of measure of... Yeah, it's a measure of my practice. And I think we can all feel, I don't mean, I don't know how it comes across in German, but in English it's quite pleasant little poem. Sitting quietly, doing nothing. Spring comes. Grass grows by itself. Yeah, at least for me and I think many people, you can feel something in this little poem. And what one feels is not unimportant, of course. And really what one can feel is also what's possible for our life.

[04:55]

As I've been pointing out recently, you know, on the spectrum from nurture to nature, or nature to nurture, At least in America, this is a current, you know, political, societal political term. Our Western culture is more on the side of somehow we're acorns or instincts and we develop from that. But from the point of view of yoga culture, it's almost entirely nature. Everything is changeable. From the point of view of yoga culture, we have no sort of inner aggressive nature or something like that, like Freud might have said.

[06:14]

Now, of course, there's truth to both points of view. But the emphasis in Buddhism is way on the nature side. We're almost a blank slate when we're born. And if you can feel something like sitting quietly doing nothing, spring comes, grass grows by itself. The sense of Zen practice is if you can feel something like that, that feeling can be a wide part of your life or even the basis of your life.

[07:35]

What you can feel is what's possible. There's that kind of faith in... confidence in Zen practice. So I think you can try that feeling on. If you can feel something like this, you can say, yes, maybe my life can widen to... Yeah, based on this feeling or express this feeling.

[08:48]

So now I'm not even looking at to what degree is Zen practice similar to this statement or anything like that. I'm just speaking about the larger imagination of what a human being is. You can begin to feel the path of your life in what your life is, and what you most care about, and what Sukhya Rishi used to say, your innermost or inmost request.

[09:51]

Such a statement as your innermost or inmost request makes sense only, really makes sense only, if it's possible to change or transform our life. Yes, but we live in such a confused, I find anyway confused, contradictory, very disturbing world. And we can't just sit around and do nothing. But if we can have this feeling, can't this feeling be somehow part of our life? Can we imagine a world that might fit us?

[10:58]

The word fit means, you know, I don't know what it is in German, but... Actually, it's the same etymology as to march, to gather the troops, or to march together. Yeah. As we say, these shoes fit us, or this... or this suit fits us. But does this world we live in fit us? But this poem, the power in this little tiny poem is that it implies a world that fits us.

[12:02]

Fits us so well, we don't have to do anything. Fits us so well, spring comes. Fits us so well, spring comes. Yeah, and you know, in Asian poetry, it's almost always a description of nature. There's no sort of psychological poems. Not that I'm aware of. But of course, if there are poems about... about nature. And we're in a culture which feels that there's a continuity between us and nature, so-called nature.

[13:06]

There's not a sense that somehow we human beings are a special creation. separate from everything else, standing in dirt. We're not standing in the dirt, we're rooted in the mud, and we're like a lotus. But it's not a feeling of special creation, but a feeling of simultaneous creation. And at each moment, in fact, Dharma means something like at each moment is a simultaneous creation. So, So such a poem is, although it's about nature, nature is also us.

[14:24]

So the poem is just another way of speaking about our feelings, our mind, and so forth. Our experience of The grass. And it's really not caught, the feeling isn't caught by the idea in English of a West of symbolism. Yeah, when you think of symbolism, it's then again like that's different than this and there's a symbolic connection. This is a real connection of shared elements. So grass is many things. So grass represents often it represents the so-called 10,000 things.

[15:48]

Yeah, and the 10,000 things, that translated into English often is myriad or many. But myriad or many is already a generalization. 10,000 things isn't a generalization. You can't have much relationship to many. But 10,000 things, yeah. Some people have 10,000 books. Not too many. So we can say this is also sitting quietly doing nothing in the midst of the 10,000 things. And the 10,000 things, yeah, with you together take care of themselves. Spring comes, something new comes, something unique comes.

[17:08]

So this poem has in it, in its little description, by Japanese and Chinese people would have an assumed would assume it's simultaneously a description of our own experience. But it assumes a world that fits us. Or assumes we can somehow fit or... march together, move together in this world. Es nimmt auch an, dass wir auf eine Weise auch zusammenmarschieren oder uns in der Welt bewegen können. Even the Deutschmark and the Swedish mark, I think the Swedes had a mark too, means the same as marks.

[18:15]

The boundaries of value, of shared value. Und auf der Mark... like the Deutschmark. That mark is the same root as fit and march. But in this case it means the boundaries or margins of value. Yeah, but we know that, you know, the Well, the Deutsche Marks, I mean the Euro anyway, is in a lot of trouble with all these different economies it's based on. And it doesn't march very well along with the dollar. And I can't march along very well with this current president in the United States.

[19:22]

But I've never been able to march along very well with the United States. But that's not the reason I'm here. I'm willing to. have the problems of marching out of step in my own country. But I'm bringing up a question that is intrinsic to Buddhist practice. Is this little poem a fake? It gives us a nice feeling, but, you know, it's... Let's get down to the real things in life. Nice feelings are nice feelings, but that's not what realistic life is. Maybe it's not like that. Maybe the feeling in this little poem

[20:23]

can be the center of our life, even in realistic life. I read a piece in the newspaper today about... about Sartre. And I guess it's his 100th anniversary. And so they're having some kind of commemoration of him in France. And in his life, I guess he was... The question that was at the center of his life was, are we deterministically, are we determined by our society, our culture, our psyche, etc. ? Or do we have any freedom? Is freedom possible? Yeah, and Buddhism is really asking the very same question.

[21:49]

If we don't, fit so well with our society. And I think it's pretty difficult to do these days. I mean, for most of the centuries of human life, it's been very slow change. And Buddhism has certainly grown up in a world that assumed very slow change. But now we have changed not only in centuries or generations, but in decades. Even every ten years or so, we're in a rather different world.

[23:03]

So how can we keep fitting in? And even if you feel quite comfortable with this world and feel like you could fit in, often what we could do, can do is... Hardly possible or not recognized. So even when we think we can fit, could fit in, it's often disappointing. So how, if we can't fit in this, if we live in a world so hard to fit in, How can we take the feeling that comes from this little poem seriously?

[24:16]

Many of you know I have a four-year-old daughter. And many of you know she's my main teacher these days. And I'm not speaking about her because I miss her. It's only because she gives me good examples. So the other day she asked... Marie Louise, her mother, my wife, about Easter. And she asked him what Easter was about. And Marie Louise, having gone to Catholic boarding schools, did her best to give her an answer. And she told her about Christmas and Good Friday and Easter.

[25:30]

And on Easter she said Jesus rose from the dead. And Sophia has been quite concerned with death and thinks that Really? He must be the only man to have ever done that. And Marie-Louise said, well, that's the story. Sophie said, but Mama, is this story true? And Marie-Louise said, well, it's the story. I think adults sometimes forget to ask these questions.

[26:37]

So anyway, Marie Louise said, well, it's the story. And Sophia said, well, when they come to nail me to the wall, I'm going to Egypt. And she said, in which way is Egypt? She really wanted to know the escape route. And a friend of ours was just at the seminar in Johannesburg. Surprisingly, in about five minutes, she and somebody in the seminar fell in love. I had nothing to do with it. So after the seminar, Sophia was going to go ride on this woman's horses.

[27:40]

And Marie Louise told her that this woman had just fallen in love. And Sophia said, well, but didn't she fall in love with us first? So she's trying to, in this story about Easter, in this story, didn't she fall in love with us? She's trying to see how... we can fit in this world. Now the one simple zazen instruction is what I just call uncorrected mind, practice uncorrected mind.

[28:55]

In your sitting, don't correct your mind. We also say, just let your thoughts come and go. Of course, if you just let your thoughts come and go, you're already... have a wider mind than if you identified with the thoughts. So instructions like just let your thoughts come and go or don't correct your mind assumes something like grass grows by itself. Assumes that in some way you can

[29:57]

Leave yourself alone. As I say sometimes, profoundly leave yourself alone. Yeah, now... Yeah, I, last night... After Gallagher dropped me off, I ate something at the restaurant. And, um... Yeah, the first person in the restaurant, there's no other customers. And there weren't any other waiters for a while. And, uh... Then there weren't any waiters either.

[31:05]

So I was just sitting there. What do I do with my mind? I had nothing to read. the menu was in German so I can easily guess what I'd like to eat what do I do? I can look out the window but I don't well I could start meditating but that's a little bit strange looking I remember once I Days when I didn't sleep very much and I was quite busy in the early days of my practice. I was in a barber shop. It wasn't ordained yet because they were cutting my hair. But I needed some sleep, so I sat upright and fell asleep.

[32:12]

Which you learn how to do if you practice Zazen. So the barber cut my hair. But I was sound asleep. And he put a mirror in front of me and these dead eyes just stared into the mirror. And he went, whoop! And he thought I'd perished or something. So I heard him utter this little scream and I opened my eyes and said, oh, it looks just fine. But I'd learned in airplanes, too, if I... sit for a long flight, and I just sit there, you know.

[33:17]

Afterwards, the stewardess is often going to come up to me and say, how do you do that? So I don't trust 40 years of practice, thank you. I don't say that. 40 Jahre Arztpraxen Yeah, so on the train what I do is like I came up from Munich for six hours. So, you know, I have a long back and the seats are quite uncomfortable. So for most of the time I just basically just sat. meditation. But I put one of those airport pillows around my neck and a mask on so it looked like I was sleeping.

[34:24]

I wasn't leaning back, but if you look quickly, you saw this thing and thought, oh, he's just sleeping. But if you really, because if you're in ordinary public space, I found, if you really do sit straight up without moving for any length of time, people find it a little nervous-bending. So why am I telling you these little anecdotes? Because what if I, sitting in the restaurant, if I, you know, have nothing to read, what do I do with my mind? Well, if I don't sit and stare at the tablecloth, I would like to have the deeper relaxation of sitting. And I can hold the mind with the posture.

[35:26]

But if I hold the mind with a posture, then it don't look too sociable. Okay. So how do we find in this world of activity in which we don't fit? Can we find some way that we feel the world taking care of itself? And yet we can still take responsibility in this world. And that was another big point of Sartre. We have to, he felt, have to take responsibility in this world.

[36:54]

Yeah, and I agree with him. How do we take political responsibility? social responsibility, and so forth. Environmental responsibility. And I think we do have to, and I want to, engage myself. And yet how can we, if we do so engage ourselves, how can we not feel We are almost destroyed by how poorly the fit is. And how can we respond to all the individual people in the world? in some responsible way.

[38:17]

Anyway, practice, my practice, traditional practice, is trying to respond to this kind of question. Yeah, so, well, if you want to be at ease within yourself, Yeah. And there's a school of Zen Buddhism back in the 9th and 10th centuries. What's it called? Something like doing nothing and leaving the mind alone is the motto. And another school was the motto was something like stopping karma and nourishing the spirit.

[39:29]

What is such a school of Buddhism pointing at? Now, I had some intuition about this territory of being and of practice when I was, you know, you know, in the early 60s and the beginning. And, you know, some of you have heard me mention this practice before since it fits so closely to the title of the seminar. Yeah, I somehow hit upon two phrases that really changed my life. You know, I had a young daughter at the time who's now 44. 444.

[40:52]

I have a daughter at 27 who's getting married in a couple of weeks. Going to her wedding, of course. And although you're not concerned with it, but she's married. Very nice guy. But three is enough. I think we'll stop now. Anyway, just going back to the early 60s, Sally was... You know, just born. And I was spending as much time as I could with my teacher, Suzuki Roshi. And I was a full-time graduate student at the University of California. And I was a full-time employee.

[42:01]

I was, believe it or not, assistant head of engineering and sciences extension. Organizing, you know, conferences and things for scientists, classes for scientists. I was trying to practice and support myself, in short. But, you know, I always had things to do. That was driving me sort of crazy. So somehow I came up with this phrase, there's... No place to go and nothing to do. So when my consciousness produced, now you've got to go such and such a place, I responded always with, inside there's no place to go. And every time I thought, you know, I have this to do and that to do, you know, Pavlovian sense, I trained myself to say, there's nothing to do.

[43:28]

And there's a famous poem about Pavlov. To find the one who is not busy. You know, Yunyan is sweeping. Daowu, his brother, comes by. He was his older brother and a little bit smarter than in the Dharma. And our lineage goes through Yun-Yan, the dumber one, but we don't mind. So, I mean, I don't mind. I don't know about you. Sorry. So Yun Yan is sweeping.

[44:31]

And Da Wu comes by and says, too busy. And Yun Yan said, you should know there is one who is not busy. So there's two parts to this koan, but this part is the most famous part. And one of practices is to discover the one who is not busy. Yeah. You know, and I suppose I had the image partly of at the time when I hit upon these two phrases. Of an ocean wave. Because an ocean wave, the shape of it is its desire to return to stillness.

[45:32]

No matter how wild it is in a hurricane or whatever, and I've been in hurricanes on ships, still, every part of the wave is trying to return to stillness. And I had a feeling that somehow all the waves in consciousness there was a stiller mind present, simultaneous. So I said this phrase, there's no place to go and nothing to do. And it became a real habit. It was just present in my feeling all the time.

[46:41]

Except after about seven months I forgot it. I really did forget it and about two months later I remembered. Oh, wasn't I saying that phrase? And I... But then I didn't think, oh, well, what's wrong with you? You forgot for two months now. I just, oh, I started again. And after, I remember, about a year and a quarter later, Somehow, suddenly, it was true. In the midst of whatever I was doing, I always felt, yeah, no place to go, there's nothing to do. Now, I... I'm worried about your legs.

[48:02]

And since I was told you guys usually go till 9 o'clock on this evening, maybe we could take a break? I have another hour or two of lecture. No. And if anybody's here after maybe 15 or 20 minutes, I'll ring a bell. Then I'll maybe finish what I'm talking about for 5 or 10 minutes. And then we can have some discussion if you'd like. Okay? Okay. Really, how nice to see you. Thanks. Thanks for the chance to... Keep all the way from Frankfurt just to translate for us.

[49:00]

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