I think this is the last day. Isn't mine right? I had occasional moments where I thought, maybe it's not. So I'm not only gratified, but actually somewhat surprised at how well we understand practice. And how well so many of you are able to accomplish in significant ways a realized practice in your daily life. I think this is great and it's fairly unusual.

[01:03]

Of course, at the same time I would like to be able to continue with you and have this conversation with you. But tomorrow you'll all go different directions. But somewhere, I mean, I hold... I seem to hold you present as if you were still, as if you were present. Yeah. So I would like to tell you another story from a koan.

[02:27]

This is, I don't know, in the Blue Cliff Records, maybe 33 or something like that. 35, maybe. You can find it if you want. And it occurs on Mount Wutai, which is one of the five, four sacred mountains in China. And I went there two or three years ago with Thich Nhat Hanh and a few other people. And even today it's a fairly, it's a bare, fairly desolate place. And it was also the only place I and the others were intentionally cheated by the locals in the hotels and so forth. I had to complain and get the manager, but they were all in cahoots.

[03:47]

But anyway, we got some of our money back. Anyway, it's supposed to be the area, the mountain dedicated to Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. And in those days he was strangely absent. Or he was testing us. Anyway, his... Manjushri is supposed to appear every now and then around there. I said earlier that my practice was like an ancient incense burner in front of a broken Buddha. And I don't know why, but I thought maybe I should say something about incense burners.

[05:07]

You know, they're quite... They have an importance in Chinese... Buddhist and Taoist culture that's quite remarkable. You know, we say the temple is a mountain. And the The Sammon means the mountain gate. And the altar itself is also mountains. You can see this one is rather mountainous. And traditionally its base is built up like a mountain. The Buddha's The Buddha's pedestal is a lotus, but the altar's pedestal is usually a mountain.

[06:27]

And this sense of the pedestal or the thing is usually... So important it's usually about one-third of the statue. Anyway, the center of all this is the incense burner, which also represents a mountain. And often it's the... center of a community. I don't know, Gerald, did we bring ash from Crestone for the incense burner? Yeah, that's the tradition. Sometimes I think ash must be the smallest thing in the world because you can burn incense or even charcoal for decades and you never increase the amount of ash or very little

[07:39]

But if we were going to... follow this feeling, the Dharma Sangha group in Berlin would, for example, get some ash from Crestone or Johanneshof. We would be very pleased. And grateful. And we'd keep spreading this ash around, dividing it. I think Chinese immigrants bring ash from a family altar to America or some place that they migrate to set up an altar with the same ash. So I suppose my theme today is coming back to what we spoke about alignment and attunement.

[08:53]

And the incense burner represents alignment. It stands on its three legs with one leg toward the front. And when you offer incense, you offer your spine. And it's in the center of the altar. Everything else is around the incense burner. And incense burners are very patient. They're willing to wait a long time until you offer incense. Excuse me. Yes. To bring the incense over to the altar and offer it to them Bodhisattvas.

[10:14]

That was a little private joke because when I chant the with you guys, some of it sounds like gangster talk. You know, like they say in these movies, we're going to get them guys and later we're going to get them bodhisattvas. And we'll bring the incense over and... isn't it? But every time I chant Devam Bodhisattva, it's like...

[11:15]

So anyway, this guy named Wu Zhou, probably I don't know anything about him, is finding himself in a particularly wild part of Mount Wutai. He doesn't know where to sleep. And Manjushri appears. And says, well, join me at my temple. And the temple appears in the wilderness. And so they sit down to have some tea. And Manjushri says, where are you from? And Wuzhou says, I'm coming from the south. And Manjushri says, so how's the practice in the south? And Ujo says, all the monks of this latter day don't follow the discipline.

[12:41]

And how about the congregations? How many are there? Well, there are many. They number 300 monks, 500 monks. And Wu Zhou says, well, how's practice here in the north? Wutai is in the northern part of China. And Manjushri says... Ordinary people and sages live together. Snakes and dragons intermingle. And how do the congregations number? And he says, in front, Manjushri says, in front, three by three, in back, three by three.

[13:53]

Anyway, this is a famous koan. And this phrase in front three by three and back three by three is a famous turning phrase. So when they drink tea, Manjushri brings out a beautiful crystal bowl to drink tea from. And Wu Zhou is quite surprised and Manjushri says, what do you drink tea with in the south? And a crystal bowl is often, there's another Zen story about in a crystal bowl floating a needle on water. So when Wu Zhou is about to leave, Manjushri sends a boy of the name of Di Zhao or something like that.

[15:00]

It's not important. But I don't know where this boy appeared from, but anyway, he appeared all... Live again. Bujo says to the boy, What did he mean? In front three by three and back three by three. How many is that? And the boy says, Oh, worthy one? And Ujo says, yes. And the boy says, how many is that? And so Ujo says, well, something about where... where is the temple or something like that.

[16:13]

And he points, and then when he looks back, the boy and the temple are gone. Anyway, that's the story in this koan. Later Wuzhou was a cook in one of the temples in Wutai. In temples they have this kind of big entry where they cook. An entryway? An entryway where they also have a kind of kitchen. It's high ceiling and blackened. Nowadays, these temples, because they don't have open fires, are having big termite problems.

[17:18]

It turns out the fires kept the termites away. And they have these huge cast iron pots, which I'm sure that... Herman would like for the gruel. He'd like a really big one and say, we will never run out again. It would be enough gruel for Buchen. Anyway, when Wu Zhou was the cook, Every now and then Manjushri would appear on the cooking pot. And Wu Zhou would try to hit him with a ladle. Go away. And Kohan says something like, that's closing the barn door after the horse is left or stolen.

[18:30]

He should have hit him right when he first met him. He should have hit him, it says. Okay. So I'm using this story to, I guess to talk about this Buddhist culture we're getting to know something about. It seems to me when I watch the news that every few months in some Christian country, Jesus begins to appear from a dusty spot on the wall.

[19:30]

And I recently saw one where the Virgin Mary keeps appearing in a church steeple. The whole community can see her there every now and then. She appears in the church steeple, sitting on the bell or something. Well, Mount Wutai, Manjushri would appear like that now and then. Although the koan makes fun of the idea that he appeared. But in Chinese culture, there's a different feeling about divinity than we have. What's called...

[20:48]

What's translated in Western texts as gods is really more like some kind of radiant energy that we can project. And it's sometimes represented in the Mokugyo. Can you hold the Mokugyo up? Yeah. There's two dragons with a... with a jewel in its mouth. And this radiant energy is often shown as two dragons facing a jewel. Is that the Mokage we use at Creston? Is that the one that was at Johansa? Is that the one that was at Ruth? It came here and... Anyway... Yeah, sorry, thanks.

[22:03]

These... These... Things like the mokugyo and the bell... ...are meant to be... What could I call it? Proprioceptive, oral, A-U-R-A-L... instruments. Die sind etwas... It's the same in... Sorry, it's the same in German. An original German word. Oh, English is entirely an original... It's entirely an original German language. No, it's half German. Also, es sind... Es handelt sich um propriozeptive aorale Projekts. Aura? Yes, A-U-R-A-L. The ear. Appropriate aural instrument. Ja, ein... Ja, also ein... Aura, also... How's he doing? So there's a... tradition in this kind of culture to not ask questions.

[23:28]

Or to rather only ask questions about something that you could not possibly learn by observation. For example, I mean, generally the orioke is never explained. You just learn it from watching. And since you're not supposed to look around in the zendo, you have to sort of feel what it's supposed to be like. And in general, you're supposed to ask second generation or third generation questions. If you do ask a question. And if you ask a question like Wu Zhou does, the whole temple disappears. So I mean, Manjushri, I mean, here's this poor guy lost in the woods.

[24:41]

And doesn't know where to sleep. And Manjushri, him herself, appears. I mean, this is not for most travelers. Then produces a whole temple. And then gives them a teaching like... In front three by three and back three by three. And if he wanted to explain more, he would have. Obviously, this is the Bodhisattva's wisdom. If it was explainable, he would have said more. But this guy says, what does that mean? So everything disappeared. The sense of it is also that only when you really know most things without asking can anything be told to you in a way that you would understand.

[25:52]

So asking is fine, but usually we not only ask, then we ask for explanations and explain why we didn't understand and so forth. But when your energy is right, even this kind of story implies, Manjushri will appear to help you. In a dream or in how space emerges is in a continual process of emergence. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So a second generation question would be like to ask, say, who am I, would be a first generation question.

[27:20]

And then to a second generation would be to ask, what is Buddha? Or if you wanted to ask, what is Buddha, the second generation would be, maybe, what are the three bodies of Buddha? So the monk who asks, Manjushri, the monk who asks Dung Shan, among the three bodies of Buddha, which does not fall into any category? We can call that a third generation question. Because he's wondering, what is he, what's his relationship to Buddha? How is Buddha's body his body, or what is the relationship?

[28:29]

And so then he's asking, well, how does that relate to the teaching of three bodies of Buddha? And then he's wondering how his body relates to these three, So finally he asks Yeah, go ahead. So finally he asks this distilled question Among the three bodies of Buddha which one does not fall into any category? And Dung Shan says, as most of you know, I'm always close to this. This is a third or fourth generation answer.

[29:30]

And it falls into also... young men's, what's called young men's three phrases, that any phrase or answer should contain the whole world, should cut off myriad streams, and should follow the ripples. In other words, it should go along with exactly what's happening. It's based on acceptance or wave following wave. It should cut off myriad streams, cut off any interpretive thinking.

[30:31]

Mm-hmm. And it should contain all possible answers. It should contain the whole world. So Dungsan's answer is like that. I'm always close to this. It covers everything. It cuts off interpretive thinking. And it follows... the question and the monk's question. So it's thought, what's behind again a con and this kind of story is that you put your body in alignment with things.

[31:40]

Yes, I'm saying this rather clumsily, but I'm trying to figure out how to say this. One of the basics of Buddhism is that there's a distinction between mind and thoughts. And related to that, as we could say, existence is bigger than our self. Your self, your ego, can't contain the whole of your existence. And this world we see through our three-dimensional senses cannot be contained, is not limited to our sense perceptions.

[32:54]

So if it's not limited by our sense perceptions, etc. How do we discover ourselves in relationship to this world? Well, we align ourselves with the world. And that's what these musical instruments are supposed to help us do. Each one is unique and I just bought a number, well, we ordered, we haven't purchased yet, a number of things for, mostly for Johanneshof and a few for Creston. A Densho bell and a bell like this and a mokugyo. And it's really like buying a good guitar or even a good violin.

[34:12]

And they're meant to... engage you physically as well as through your ears. And those of you who are learning to do it, they're meant to get you kind of mixed up, you know, so you're doing this with this hand and that with that hand, you're supposed to say this, and that's it. It's meant to be just like that. So that all your hands are involved but it's a little bit mixed up. And then the sounds themselves of the metal and the mokugyo and when we're chanting are supposed to align you so that you begin to understand without having explanation.

[35:17]

And Angelica noticed when she came in here that She said it's different from other meditation groups because there's a feeling in, I don't know if she's ever been to Sashin before, of one body being present. The part of Sashin is to create a one body feeling. And the chanting and the Oryoki and the Mokugyo and all are meant to contribute to this. And I think it's important that we understand this, the physical culture.

[36:27]

Or have an experience of it. So that's why I make an effort at Johannes Hof and Creston to at least have some of the basic things. Because we want to feel this in our gut. And there's a Taoist saying, one produces the two. Two produces three. And three produces ten thousand. And that's quite clear. If something divides, as soon as you have three, you begin to have very many. So in this kind of vision, the world is seen as dispersing at birth. And practice is to bring it back into one.

[37:30]

But that one then divides again. But when it divides after you brought it to one, the division is a new kind of division. And even this mudra we do of putting your thumb in your hands like that, It's meant to represent a baby's hand at birth because they often have their thumb in their hand. So it represents, particularly here, using breath to return to an embryonic state. So like a lot of American Indians, too, in their language, this yoga culture assumes that space and time are something we are continuously manifesting. That the future isn't a linear time thing.

[38:47]

I think it's Hebrew and Greek culture which first gave us a sense of linear time, of unique permanent events. Not like unique momentary events, but unique permanent events which God speaks to us by Jesus coming and time starts and so forth. In Buddhism, the future is felt as something latent in our body. In other words, the future is potentialities we can feel in our body. And each path manifests different stories, different resonances.

[40:06]

Each what? Path. Path, yeah. So the sense of way-seeking mind is to feel the latency of the future as present. The latency of the future as present. These are my words because they wouldn't say it this way. So the way is felt like a thirsty man wants water. It's not just an intellectual idea. Or trying to improve yourself. This won't get you very far. Yeah. But rather it's felt as, again, as a thirsty man feels about water.

[41:31]

So you feel in yourself this latency of possibilities and obstacles. So I've given you again, and I keep coming back to it for guides in our practice, a feeling of nourishment. and completeness in what you do. So there's a kind of edge again, like there's feeling overfed or... undernourished, and then there's that point at which you feel nourished.

[42:32]

The way then is to find a certain, what could I call it, uncontrived state. A natural state where you feel relaxed. You learn to relax into this feeling of acceptance. You find, working with the phrase, like just now is enough. You begin to have a physical experience of relaxing into just now is enough. And you learn to maintain this relaxed state. And a guide is again whether you feel nourished or not nourished.

[43:34]

And complete or incomplete. That relates you to mind and body. Now your relationship to the phenomenal world is more through alignment and attunement. So again, I'm trying to give you a sense of this very basic idea of the Tao or of way-seeking mind. As yin and yang even are not the shady and sunny side of the mountain. That's shifting. And so... You begin to feel when you're aligned and not aligned or attuned and not attuned.

[44:48]

And this isn't harmony. Harmony is a little too rigid. But I suppose we could say assonance. Dissonance and assonance. Assonance is more or less the opposite of dissonance. How do you say it? Not association, no, no. We don't have that. You have dissonance. Dissonance is the opposite. Yeah, I guess that. So dissonance, everyone knows the opposite of dissonance, so to speak, assonance, as Roshi calls it. Yes, maybe a sound. So the things fit together, but loosely, not like harmony. So the things fit together, but loosely, not like harmony. It's a new word.

[45:53]

We discovered a new word in German. Thanks to you. We're creating things as we go along here. So I think maybe this is enough. It's getting late. And we've accomplished a new German word, so... So, um... For some reason, Manjushri manifested a temple and an incense burner for this, and a crystal bowl for this wujo. And gave him an image of practice. Not an image where All the monks of the latter day are not following the discipline.

[46:54]

But an image in which right now, here in this group, ordinary people and sages practice together. And within you ordinary person and a sage are practicing. And in this yogic Chinese culture there's no idea of one soul. We have many souls or spirit areas. They can be manifested as Manjushri or as demonic presence. And often it's understood if we open ourselves to our energy, we go through a demonic phase. We go through an unruly phase where we may be disliked until we become soft and gentle and grandmotherly.

[47:55]

And so if you go through this phase, it's good to have good Zen posture, so you can sit still in the midst of your demonic phase. Didn't somebody at Johannesoft say they were a chimney or something like that? So we're all a chimney smoking incense burners. In this koan it says, in a cauldron over hot cold or immersed in ice-filled water. When cold? In a cauldron. cauldron over hot coals burning coals or in ice water but neither hot nor cold it says so anyway this is this image of opening yourself to your powers, to your... Okay.

[49:15]

Outside the confines of a self trying to control yourself. But opening yourself to your energies and latent possibilities. And deepening these through knowing the way. And discovering your... your points of contact with the world through alignment and attunement, as the mokugyo and the bell are supposed to help us do. And the chanting.

[50:27]

And we can feel sometimes when the chanting really comes together. And if we get better at it, not only comes together, then it starts producing overtones. And then those overtones become something in practice that you tune yourself to. So snakes and dragons intermingle means to have the dragon represents realized energy and the snake represents more demonic energy. So he says, what's practice like here in the north? Ordinary people and sages meditate together. Dragons and snakes intermingle. And how large are the congregations? In front, three by three.

[51:36]

In back, three by three. Thank you very much.

[51:38]

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