That's what we're trying to do. Yeah. But the point is, you can't remove the container till you have a container. You understand that? OK. Is it like the glass wall? Yeah, that's related, yeah. Only remove the glass wall once you realize you have one. I know, but let me finish with this tonight. Um... I just want to go through this thing of merging which I mentioned yesterday to you and others.

[01:06]

We may start out with some kind of unity. And perhaps the baby is born with this. undifferentiated awareness. Now, when you are, the parents are educating the baby and the culture is educating the baby, you begin to differentiate this. Just like the original fertilized egg begins to divide. Consciousness, or this bubble of awareness, begins to be divided. And so pretty soon we have something like this. And we develop certain parts of our lives. And it's very difficult to division within it. Now, to make it simple, let's say it's divided into G, B, and C. Now, every culture divides this differently.

[02:32]

This is the job of culture. Language, culture, everything divides this original consciousness. From the point of view of Buddhism, there is no truth to this. It's just a way of dividing. Or the measure of truth is the degree to which you can let it go back together. Now, some cultures, I would say, divide it so it never will go back together. So all cultures are a kind of guides.

[04:00]

So if they're divided this way, you experience something differently when they're divided this way. This is obvious, but it's really very true. Now, a healthy culture tries to make this or the intuitive movement of the people in the culture make this more and more complex, not to make it complicated, but to create more possibilities. Now, when the complexity reaches a very high order, we call it a civilization. But often civilization is bought at a high price because you lose the subtlety of cultures more in touch with a particular way of being.

[05:26]

Okay, what we're engaged in in this room is trying to look at the two major ways this human animal over a couple thousand years, the two main civilizations have developed. Asian civilization and Western civilization. And they're fundamentally different. Okay, so that's what we're talking about. Now, Buddhism has developed as a virus within culture.

[06:26]

It's meant to be a sort of karma-biting unit within culture that moves around in culture, eating it up. Eating up these divisions. Yeah. So that you go from here to another time, and also around this thing. There's a kind of field like that we don't know much about. So what Lewis is trying to get you to do is to go from here back to a unitary experience. It's going from here to here to here.

[07:29]

And you're removing the division to some extent. But the point I'm making is that if you divide this in a different way, 1, 2, 3, this over here is going to be a 1, 2, 3 equals 0. And this will be an ADC equal to 2. And that's a different kind of empty. Because going from here to there is different from going from here to there. Does that make sense to you? You can't ever go back to here. So you have to go from your biases to your interior. So the teaching of Buddhism is you can never perfectly remove the containers. As long as you're alive, we say emptiness with a remnant.

[08:41]

As long as you're alive, there's a remnant. There's something. We don't have nirvana, death. So the teaching of Buddhism is that you can never completely remove the contains. And the teaching of Buddhism is also, let's remove the containers as completely as possible. So let's create containers that are easy to remove. And if you're born into a culture in which the containers are not easy to remove, let's change the containers so they're easier to remove.

[09:42]

Let's talk about changing the containers so they're easier to remove. Okay. That's the best I can do. That's the best I can say it. Now, Elke. Please. Then Deutsch is better, yeah. Deutsch is better, yeah. I had a nap. You had a nap? Have you had any since? Why did everybody laugh? It's not so funny. I had a nap. I had a nap.

[10:43]

something strange happened. Suddenly, I had the only way to express it. Two people met. that I couldn't see. But I knew exactly who they were. But I couldn't see them. And that scared me so much that I didn't even wake up. But I tried to hold that moment. And that was a very strange experience, because I had the bad luck that I only knew something if I could see it. And I dreamed that it had a lot to do with bears. When I woke up from this nap, these two states happened to me. The two states we've been talking about? Some kind of states happened to me, but I've learned only to... But you just said you could only experience things you see.

[12:14]

So she knew these states were happening to her, but she had learned to only experience things she could visualize or have an image of. So because of this experience that these two different states happened to her and she could feel them but not see them was very scary. It's up to now a kind of scary experience, but she could only describe them as a kind of toothy experience. Now do you feel better about it? Yeah. Yeah. Good. Yeah. No, no, it's the same. Yeah. It's the same thing. And I think... It's the same territory, not exactly the same thing. Yeah.

[13:23]

Now, to understand these things, you have to do what Elke's doing and David did and Peter and others. You have to take your own experience or dreams or something and kind of like mix it up with what we're talking about. Or if you don't get what I say exactly or it doesn't compute, then say it yourself. Say it in your own words until you can feel it. And not only will you understand it better if you say it in your own words, we'll all find better ways to say these things. That's the line from a movie called The Scent of a Woman. Der Duft der Frau. Okay.

[14:37]

So... I saw your hand, but we have lunch now, right? So I'd like us to sit for about a minute, if you'd just... On such a beautiful day, how would you like to proceed? Yeah. Actually, Ulrike mentioned that earlier. You like the idea too, Ruth? But what's the village going to think?

[15:39]

Is it? If we all go wandering around outside. What do you think, Monica? I think it's better not to do it. She says it's better not to do it. Kurt, you? Her opinions. Yeah. They have to work with the neighborhood and the priest to allow us to be here. Yes. I'd like to hear more about the Quran. I feel this morning we talked more in general about the Quran, and I would like to go more specific into the Quran. Well, first let me say, maybe when we take a break we can... also take a walk, but not formal, we can just take a walk.

[16:51]

So is there some particular part of the koan you'd like, something that strikes you? Well, it's not really a specific part I want to talk about, but I need to get a little help in finding connection between what you've discussed in the koan. Yeah, me too. So the buck ends here. Yeah. It would be nice if you could talk about the Ipankara Buddha, and I think the so-called Buddha of the past, and the Kindle of the Light.

[18:00]

Why don't you talk about it? And maybe also what it means, what Peter was talking about this morning, that beginning leads to the, not the start, leads to the end. Yeah, okay. Yes, please. So why don't you tell us something about Dipankara Buddha? It's almost all I know. According to some stories, and that was why it happened so much.

[19:10]

He grew 100,000 years, he was very old, 8 feet tall. Anything else? These guys are imaginary. But that's good. And I would like to add one more thing. I came to what you said this morning about differentiation and merging. And what he brought up was that in the 70s, when I studied, there was this magical word of reconstructing, like especially in psychology, to reconstruct language or reconstruct identity. What does it mean if you go through a second process of education?

[20:13]

and your atomhood. And this could be a second process of changing myself in a way I like. And how much is that reconstructing and how much is that constructing in you? Deutsch? I could not tell you in Latin. based on the and it's about what the and it's structured with a reconstruction, a complete and a reconstruction of identity and individuality. processing by our site. Well, you couldn't construct entirely new.

[21:41]

It has to be a reconstruction with maybe ideally some parts new. But the idea of reconstructing yourself is a little weird. I mean, based on what? Die Vorstellung jedoch, uns zu rekonstruieren, ist etwas merkwürdig. Worauf soll das passieren? Now we come back to... What is your name? What is your name? No. Wieland. Wieland. Come back to Wieland's question. Who's doing the reconstruction? Denn wir sind jetzt wieder bei Wieland's Frage. Wer rekonstruiert? On what basis? Und auf welcher Grundlage? Well, in Buddhism, the basis is emptiness. So there is a kind of re-education going on, but it's always based on emptiness. So in that sense, emptiness is a kind of identity.

[22:45]

Hmm. Hmm. Now what you brought up, to go back into the koan, of course I'd like to. And when you brought up that you'd like to see the relationship between what I spoke about this morning and the koan, that's a little more complex. And as you pointed out, I'm the teacher, so that raises some questions here. I would And I have, you know, I'm trying, this is the first year I've tried to talk about koans in a situation like this.

[23:57]

I don't know anyone who's tried to do this. So I'm, you know, and I need your help, actually, your guidance. until we go out and do informal kinyin. And when people ask me questions and tell me their experiences or reformulate what I said, I really, to go ahead, I need this kind of interaction. Ulrike gives me her immediate experience in the process of translating. Because I need to have a realistic feeling of how you're getting it. Now, in relationship to the koan, and I'm telling you what I'm doing, and by telling you what I'm doing, I'm also in a way asking a question.

[25:27]

I don't see these seminars as explications of the koan. As those of you who live in Creston have spent any time in Creston, we sometimes spend six months on a koan. And a lot of that time is spent with the people there bringing the koan to me instead of I'm bringing the koan to them. I think this may be more fun for people, exciting, but I'm not sure you learn more. And also, I get bored when I talk too much. You may not believe that, but... But I do.

[26:42]

So I feel that what I said this morning stands on its own whether we look to the koan or not. But my excuse for talking about some of the things are because they're in the koan. But how much we can get into the koan, I just don't know. I think by the end of Sunday, both in the Kimsey and the Munster seminar, we actually got pretty far into the koan, don't you think? But I don't have any plan. I don't start out this seminar thinking, well, if we discuss these things, then we can do this, and we'll end up at the end of the koan. Through what happens together, We might get only to the introduction, I don't know.

[27:59]

Yeah. But my plan is to relate this to the coma. Yeah. But I feel that if I don't do what I've done this morning and a little more, Anything I tell you about the koan will just be intellectual. But I plan to get to the koan pretty soon. Now, one thing we do sometimes is we read the koan all the way through, and this is fairly short. We could. Would you like to read it all the way through, or...? I don't know. I know, but doing it this way now. OK. The world honored one points to the ground. introduction, as soon as a single mote of dust arises, the whole earth is contained therein.

[29:31]

With a single horse and a single lance, the land is extended. Who is this person who can be mastered in any place and meet the source in everything? Okay, Christian case. As the World Honored One was walking with the congregation, he pointed to the ground with his finger and said, this spot is good to build a sanctuary. Indra, emperor of the gods, took a blade of grass, stuck it in the ground and said, the sanctuary is built. The world-honored one smiled. Peter?

[30:36]

Commentary, when the world-honored one spread his hair to cover mud and offered flowers to Dipankara Buddha, the lamp, that Buddha pointed to where the hair was spread out and said, A sanctuary should be built in this place. At that time, an elder known as the foremost of the wise planted a marker in that spot and said, The building of the sanctuary is finished. The gods scattered flowers and praised him for having wisdom while an ordinary man. The story Tiandang quotes here is much the same.

[31:47]

I say, the World Honored One's ancestral work was given over to Dipankara. And then there was the elder, getting the beginning, he took in the end. Now it is given over to Tien Dan, who must produce a matching literary talisman. First, the boundless spring on the hundred plants. Picking up what comes to hand, he uses it knowingly. The 16-foot-tall golden body, a collection of virtuous qualities.

[33:00]

Casually leads him by the hand into the red dust. Mm. Able to be master in the dust from outside creation, a guest shows up. Everywhere, life is sufficient in its way, no matter if one is not as clever as others. Okay. The woman in the back, you asked me about culture. Do you have it? Okay. Commentary. Chendan first versifies the case with four lines, then sets up the main beam and expresses the enlightening way. Chaozhou picked up a blade of grass and used it as a 16-foot body of gold.

[34:02]

The world-honored one pointed the way the wind was blowing. Indra brought forth what was at hand. Okay, maybe... Can you read? Yeah. Tien Dung's verse emerges from the merging of subject and object. You went farther than I did. It is not just the ancient sages, but you too can be host within the dust right now and also come as guest from outside creation. That's where you went to?

[35:13]

Okay. So the next one. But tell me, in the current trend, Liu Fu Ma had this temple built to requite a debt of gratitude. Is this the same as Indra thrusting the blade of grass in the ground? Raising the whisk, a community for a day, abiding forever. Okay. Okay. Now, how do we do this? Niko? Niko? Maybe you could read what's in the dark type. And, Girtz, you could read in the response. And I'll read both. As the added sayings case, as the Buddha was walking with the congregation, going along following the heels of another,

[36:24]

David, maybe you can do the response. He pointed to the ground and said, this spot is good to build a sanctuary. Indra stuck a blade of grass in the ground and said, the sanctuary is built. Repairs won't be easy. The Buddha smiled. I wonder if the Buddha smiled at the idea that the repairs won't be easy. Okay, Gural, maybe you could read the first part, and somebody else in German, I don't know, Neil, you can read it in German.

[37:35]

And Ruk, you can read the response in English, okay? And you can read it in German, okay? So, you have to start, Gural. In English? In English. Jishan, turn around. Jishan is not there. Picking up what comes today, use it at noon. Neil. Going into a wild feeling of not choosing. The 16-foot golden body. A collection of virtue. Providing. Casually glancing by the hand into the red dust. He gives a show of where he may be.

[38:40]

No matter where he is, he gives an introduction. He gives an introduction. Able to be in vast time with us. One day the authority is in one's own hands. From outside creation, a guest shows up. Observe where the carotid goes after it comes. Everywhere light is sufficient in its light. It's not going for an hour's light. No matter if one is my cloud, that's clear my thoughts. No kind of shade or darkness. Oh, my God.

[39:53]

well well well That'll be the best part of the tape. Driving along the Autobahn, ah. It'll be a kind of meditation.

[41:37]

Now, my idea is to try to make clear one or two main points in the koan. With your help, of course. If I can make one or two points clear that are central to the case, then I think you can get the rest of it. And if you can't, it's okay. But if I try to say something, I'm just going to get so tired of talking. Because this is so dense that, you know, And I can't say much, you know, unless you have a feeling for something. As I say, it's a time-release capsule, and it takes quite a while for it to work in you. But I thought that was fun to read it together. Aber ich habe gedacht, es hat Spaß gemacht, das zusammenzulesen.

[43:00]

You certainly didn't need the English. Ihr habt sicherlich nicht das Englisch nötig gehabt. But I needed it. Aber ich wohl. And also, I hope by my participating in the reading of it, you get a little bit of the feeling of how to read a Koran. Und ich hoffe auch von meiner Beteiligung hier beim Lesen des Korans bekommt ihr etwas ein Gefühl dafür, wie man ein Koran liest. And if the practice works, if I read it, you may understand something just from my reading it of what it means, or at least my understanding. Now, what I would like to do when we take a break which is I would like us to come back together after the break in groups as we've done now and then.

[44:03]

And maybe six groups based on where you're sitting. So if you're always with the same people, you might want to move around a little. And then just, you know, you can discuss how you, among each other, how you understand this. Because there's no point in doing this unless we bring it home somehow. Mm-hmm. But I think by the questions this morning and the examples people gave, we are in the territory. And I think we have, as I said, the general permission to be in the territory, but we're actually in there getting a feeling for it.

[45:09]

Yes, Mark. This is a question which is really ancient. When I was reading, the first was the sentence of meddling with the source of everything. And then I had the impression of the link to the sense that the Buddha was walking with the congregation. When imagining the Buddha walking with the congregation, You want to say that in Deutsch? The first thing that came to my mind was the fact that the Buddha was in the gathering.

[46:25]

Okay, now we can use his question, his statement to illustrate something in the koan. Under added sayings for the verse, near the end. The second line. Picking up what comes to hand, he uses it knowingly. Added sayings, verse. Near the end. Going into a wild field, not choosing.

[47:45]

Now, if the beginning, if you're going to have a state of mind where the beginning is the end, you first of all have to have tremendous trust in yourself and the world. Even to imagine or try to fabricate a state of mind where the end was the beginning, Even to fabricate such a mind is still going to depend on trust. So one of the first things this koan is asking you is, can you have this kind of trust? So it means, for instance, when Martin picked up this phrase, meet the source in everything. Now, a koan like this works when you take phrases from it and repeat them for weeks or indefinitely or days.

[49:08]

In other words, if you can get a kind of feeling like meeting the source in everything might be valuable, How do you approach that? You have to eat kumquats. In other words, you have to, since you don't understand it, you don't have a means usually, you just repeat it to yourself. Until you, by repetition, create a mind that's willing to meet the source in everything. And it's a little like riding the bicycle through the village. If you ride often enough, suddenly there's a little alley there you hadn't seen, and you go down it. Now, the first thing, when he was having a feeling for that, the meat, the source and everything, he immediately picked up with the next line, walking with the congregation.

[50:24]

And the next thing he said, this represented to him a certain kind of intimacy. Is this right? Does this line have any connection with the next line? And do either have any connection with intimacy? If you ask those questions, you're not trusting. You're in borrowed consciousness. You have to trust that they do and if they don't, that's where you're at anyway. And what's surprisingly, I mean it doesn't, not always true, but it's surprisingly often true, that if you take a phrase from a koan, And it completely has to do with your own life, nothing to do with the koan.

[51:34]

It comes up out of some particular situation that's happened to you. If you go deeply enough into it, you find it almost always starts opening up the koan. Now, what's interesting here is, the other day I was in a situation where, let's see how I can put this. Someone in the situation picked up the process of the other person. Now, it may have been coincidental that this person picked up the process of the other person. Or you could interpret it that somehow, through some kind of process, psychologically there was an interaction which caused the process to be picked up.

[52:40]

I have to think of a better example, I think, but I'll finish this one. But you could also say that something that was just a coincidence that it came together. It didn't arise from mutual psychological interaction. It arose because somehow the world was in a mutual interaction. That you're doing your process out here and And the koan doing its process out here, sometimes they're together actually, but you don't know why. And it's very mysterious. But the deeper your process is, the more often this happens.

[53:53]

I don't know if that example was very clear, but let's leave it stand for now. In any case, that is an example that Martin brought up of working with a phrase and trusting where it leads you. You know, Arika, you had mentioned something to me before lunch. Could you tell me? Yes, I briefly spoke about it in the break with Roshi, an experience that I had not told him yet, that happened during the G-Meditation, and that for me once again illustrates what he explained this morning, and on the other hand also shows that it was something different, and I was interested in how one can create a connection there.

[55:12]

And we talked about it this morning, how perception, how every kind of experience is based on the body, and how the experience of the body requires an image of the body. And the experience in the G-Meditation in the Seishin was that I, through the long Seishin, and then through this very intimate contact with the others during the G-Meditation, Suddenly I was totally convinced of the fact that I always perceive myself only as I see myself from outside. and what kind of constriction and pressure it creates, and how it suddenly, through this special interaction with other people during the G-meditation, suddenly disappeared. So this perception of my body and of myself, which is based on an image, from my body was gone.

[56:16]

And an incredible joy came up in me and a complete acceptance of myself, which I had never experienced before. And yes, my question is now, how do we bring this into connection? That on the one hand the perception of our body is based on a picture, but now you can also make experiences when this picture falls away, something completely new arises. Is there anything I don't know? I don't think so. Try to put it together how on one hand the experience of our body is based on images and how my experience is supported by Ki and Hin, this dropping away of the image of seeing myself or my body from the outside created this tremendous acceptance of myself and joy, an unconditioned acceptance of myself.

[57:17]

I want the same experience. Was a very short experience Yeah All I can when you're talking all I can hear is you're talking about gay meditation and Is that walking meditation? Sounds like a lot of gay people were meditating. He's gone with a machine I didn't know about. I think I have to, for some of you in the session and so forth, it's a little boring, but I think I talk about borrowed consciousness and immediate and so forth.

[58:38]

Yes, I think even if it's a little boring for some of you, I have to talk about borrowed and immediate consciousness. The example I gave is of immediate consciousness is I can see Peter, I can feel a lot about Peter, but I don't have to know anything about, I don't have knowledge about him, I just experience Peter.

[59:43]

And that's immediate consciousness. Now, let me say, the reason I'm giving you this distinction again, and even quite a few of you have heard it several times, is when I'm working with something like this. I think you all have to know it because it relates to what the koan, it's hard to find examples of these things. Okay, now if I stop and start thinking about Peter and say to myself, Peter, think he's got a little more hair, That Peter, he's younger than I am. So when I stop and think that way and come to an analysis that's dependent on the situation, there's no outside information.

[60:50]

That's called secondary consciousness. But when I say not only is he younger than me, but I say his birthday is such and such, I cannot arrive at that conclusion by any analysis, nor does he know his birthday. I have to be told. Now if I have to be told that's borrowed consciousness. And now what's the importance of making such a distinction? Because these distinct... First of all, because their consciousness is rooted differently.

[62:06]

They have a different kind of energy. Well, it says here, meet the source in everything. That would be a... consciousness we'll get to based on immediate consciousness, which includes others. Now, most of us, in fact, live in borrowed consciousness most of the time. Except when we sleep, our dreams are usually not borrowed consciousness. But when Ulrike is seeing her body from outside, she's in borrowed consciousness.

[63:09]

And there's a kind of disease that people have nowadays, at least in America, where they look in the mirror, they're moderately attractive people, they look in the mirror and they see an ugly person. And they go to psychiatrists and things, but they're, no matter what anybody, look and, no, no, that's just really, and they won't go outside because they're so ugly. So in any way, we actually tend to see ourselves a good part of the time as if we were outside ourselves. And you can't nourish yourself with such a consciousness. Because you have an image of yourself In here, but it's like if I drew a balloon, the roots are out here somewhere in your culture and what people have told you.

[64:22]

So nothing, that's rooted out here and there's no way to nourish it. There's no food for it. There's no water for it. There's only fear. And whenever you're involved with thinking about how other people see you, what they think about you, basically you're in a very delicate, fragile state of mind called borrowed consciousness. And it's very difficult to be healthy in borrowed consciousness. Now, of course, some of the times we're not in borrowed consciousness. But for the most part, through our educational system and everything, we are taught to maintain our sense of continuum, our sense of abiding in borrowed consciousness.

[65:35]

We're usually checking out who we are and feeling good about ourselves in terms of how we're seen by others or might be seen by others. Yeah, and you know, our culture teaches us an extremely effective shell. If you've ever known an alcoholic person or had an alcoholic person in your family, their life may be disintegrated. They can barely get through the day. Their physical health is deteriorating. They can sit in a living room with you and talk about the world as if everything was okay. And completely hide it from you and from themselves that they're in total turmoil inside.

[66:57]

But our language and the rules by which we talk to each other almost don't allow you to say much about it. So this kind of, what we're trying to do in practice here is not get stuck in that kind of shell or in borrowed consciousness. So how can you be really at ease inside yourself, not presenting an image of everything's okay? Okay, now I think... I want to present one more thing to you, but it'll take 15 minutes, so I think we should have a break.

[68:09]

We started at 3 and it's 4.30, the laughter. Let's sit for a few moments, just silently. You don't have to sit, join your posture, just sit. The last koan we did last week was about practices that we could do, primarily breath. And all that koan on the surface is quite complex. it's really easier to deal with because it's about practices you can do.

[69:18]

And this koan is about the mind that practices. This one? This koan is about the mind that practices. And that I think is always more difficult. It's always quite exhausting to study your own mind. We have a certain basic energy involved with how we think and feel, and when you fiddle with that, there's a kind of disruption that occurs. So I wouldn't be surprised if some of you had kind of restless nights or you had kind of a little bit shaken up state of mind yesterday. Now, what I'm trying to do is bring you koans in a way that I think, I don't know for sure, were the way they were used in the earliest days in China.

[70:45]

The first reference to a koan being given to anyone is in Huang Bo. I think he died in 850, so the early 9th century. And in his record, it says something like, one place it says, I'll give you a, I spare you, he says, I'll give you a ready-made koan. I spare you 30 blows. But Linji, in the 9th century, whose name is most closely associated with koan study, never mentions the word koan once in his entire work.

[72:09]

Rinzai, this is Linji. And he never referred to any of his teaching methods as koans. Then a century or so later, Yan Min, I think, was the first person, in Japanese, to give koans to students. And the Blue Cliff Records, the main collection of koans, was published in 1128, I think. I'm not trying to give you a history here, but rather show you that the development of koans to the point at which the Japanese picked it up was about 300 years in China.

[73:10]

And then in the 12th century, Dahui began, in China, began emphasizing going to the kernel of a koan to take a particular phrase which elucidates the whole koan. And then, and it's his approach to koans using one key phrase in a koan, which was transmitted to Japan. And then in 15th century, I guess, Wang Hakuin created a kind of stepladder approach to koans.

[74:23]

Where there was one answer for every koan and they were in levels, they were graded in levels that you went through during your training. Now this is a very powerful approach to koan study. And for some people it's the best way to or a very good way to practice with koans. But my feeling and my teacher's feeling is to go back to the way the koans were first used in China. Really to transmit Indian Buddhism into Chinese culture. So you could say that koans are a vehicle, they carry, they're a vehicle of the teaching. And simultaneously they are a technique to realize the teaching.

[76:10]

And I'd like you to be able to use them, practice with them in both ways. And the key to realisational practice of the koans is to turn a phrase in the koan. Then I don't, my way is not to force you or put pressure on you particularly. But when you're ready, Or even before you're ready, I would like you to, what would be good if you took certain phrases and you just stayed with them. Now, but I don't think that this approach to a realisational practice should be limited to koans.

[77:33]

If you only do this with phrases from koans, again, it's okay for some people, but in general feel kind of stilted or artificial to us. So I think you should practice with phrases from koans in a larger context of practicing with phrases from your own life. And Dogen called this the genjo koan. The ability to see, understanding koans, the ability to see that every day there are aspects of your life which are koans. Which can be touched by finding certain phrases or certain attitudes or feelings that you can stay with.

[78:39]

Much like I spoke about last week of facing a wall. Now, we're in somewhat similar situation to China in the 8th, 9th centuries. We have a developed society in which Buddhism is being introduced. And this is coming in as a culture that's different from our culture. So, as koans emphasize realization in the context of cultivation, In these seminars, not in monasteries or not in a more intimate practice between us, I'm emphasizing in these seminars cultivation and a kind of education process.

[80:08]

I feel that if we understand better the context in which realization is cultivated, and the understanding of the world and the mind which is most likely to be fertile for realization we're more likely to be able to help each other and although realization occurs in isolated circumstances And it's a human capacity independent of Buddhism.

[81:13]

It most often occurs in the context of a teacher-student relationship. And in the larger context of a sangha where people practice together. There's some kind of unseen support and shared understanding that happens when people practice together. And practicing together can be one of the most difficult things to do. And also maybe when you look back on your deathbed, I think you might say it's one of the most satisfying and extraordinary things to do. So, this koan is presented as a kind of approach to the world or a description of the world.

[82:18]

And what was... What was your reaction to it that you mentioned to me yesterday afternoon? Yeah. The fact that the car is still there, the wheel, the shaft, the new opening, you can't do anything about it.

[83:20]

It's such a moment when you say, no, that can't be. For me, I was stuck with the sense when Indra put the blade of grass down and said the sanctuary is erected. And this is where my resistance starts because of my experience and my feeling is this is not how it is. We have to constantly put effort into things and so forth. Yeah. Well, I mean, I hope all of you feel that way. I hope none of you are so sophisticated you say, oh yeah, I kind of understand this. I mean, you should feel. Things don't happen this way. And really, if you... if you try to look into the koan as some kind of mysterious, magical way of behaving so things appear instantly, you're not going to move to what the koan's about.

[84:24]

This koan is not a description of the world. It's a description of the mind that perceives the world. It's a description of a view or a mind and its views. Okay. So what I'm trying to do in this case is give you the equipment you need to understand this mind that is presented in this koan. And I know it's difficult and we're losing people in fact during the day. In fact, I'm about to go myself.

[85:32]

But we're fresh, we're a little bit fresh this morning, I hope. So I'd like to present one last thing. Again, I welcome David or anyone else who's helping me how to say these things. But I'm talking about ways of viewing subject and object. Now, the usual way, I had never tried to describe this before. I haven't worked out a unique way to do it yet, but anyway, the first way is seeing the object in relationship to yourself.

[86:39]

Can you read my hand already? Often I can't. Sometimes I go back through my notes about something and I find I can't read it all, but my misreading is much more interesting than what I wrote. So this is in terms of likes and dislikes. Ego. And I think most of you will probably can see that most of the time you think of things in terms of whether you like it or you don't like it or it's useful to you or you want...

[87:42]

And that's just a habit. The second way of seeing things in terms of is generic. Generalization. we see something as a, that's a flower, that's a tree, generally in terms of language. Which classifies things according to certain categories, trees, plants, buildings, etc. Now, most of the time, we go back and forth between these two. We either lie here just like it, or we're kind of neutral about it, and we just go, well, that's a tree, that's something else.

[88:48]

And this is mostly borrowed consciousness. Generalizations, generic, always really doesn't look at the details. And this is often borrowed consciousness, particularly when, like Ulrike described, her sense of seeing yourself from outside. Now when you see, when she's doing kinhen walking, and she sees herself, suddenly stops seeing herself from outside, Then she has dropped the image of herself that she can imagine others have her. Then she starts having other images of herself from inside, which include the feeling of walking in this case, and so forth.

[89:56]

And she will begin to develop an inventory of images that are built up from interior experiences. Now, these interior images that arise from your activity of mind and body can't be what people see from outside. However, it is still an image, a vehicle for feeling. Now, what I was talking about earlier in the image of the body, like when you discover your arm, Not outside the rudder, not borrowed consciousness images, but secondary consciousness and immediate consciousness images.

[91:17]

It was not borrowed?

[91:19]

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