I thought you might like to see something new since I... Since I don't have anything new to say. You know, Xi Xuan asked Da Wu What is the enlightenment that appears to the eyes? Dawu called to his attendant. Would you add some more water to the pitcher? And, you know, it's quite hard to see water in water.

[01:08]

And what I'm talking, I mean, I got myself stuck in this darn koan. And it makes me recognize how genuinely peculiar Zen is. But I set myself for some reason this task of presenting this koan in various ways to you. And it's as difficult as seeing water in water. But I'll keep trying. You know, I'm using the image I started out with of Europe discovering sail to the new world. I feel I'm fooling you in what I'm saying to some extent. Because I'm telling you to set sail and, you know, trim your sails.

[02:30]

And blow in them with your breasts. And yet the harbor is right under your feet. And the new land is right under your feet. And even when I call it a new land, it's something dishonest. Because, you know, when I first started practicing, what I thought of as satisfaction or realizing something What wasn't in those categories? So when I talk about something satisfying, I mean something different than the categories I would have meant years ago.

[03:34]

Now, if we're practicing together and you have aroused potentiality, I may be able to say to Gisela, say, Gisela, would you put some more water in the pitcher? And you will all understand immediately. But, and it's said that if a teacher is mature enough, they can convey a direct understanding to you. But since it's not so simple as asking Gisela to fill a pitcher, and I'm not able to convey direct understanding to you, I'm going to have to try something else.

[05:00]

And again, I think there's value in sort of getting the picture, even if you don't. Find out right now how to practice it. I had something I meant to bring. I forgot it. There's a postcard on my... Could you go get it for me? It's on my bed. And it's got something written on the back of it.

[06:02]

It's a postcard of the bridge of the gods. I think it's there. Can we open a window or something? Or is it hotter out than in? You have all your sweaters on over there, so you... Is that okay with everyone? Now, I don't think this needs translation. But you can try to translate it if you want. I used this in the first part before.

[07:06]

The experiencing of manifold dharmas... Okay, I'll just read it. The experiencing of manifold dharmas through using oneself is delusion. The experiencing of oneself through the coming of manifold dharmas is satori. That's one guy's translation. Another translation is to carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening. Here's another one. Acting on and witnessing myriad things What's going on out there, Frank? There's a very large Buddhist group down the street. You haven't told me about them, Frank.

[08:12]

Acting on and witnessing myriad things with the burden of oneself is delusion. Acting on and witnessing oneself in the advent of myriad things is enlightenment. These are three different translations of the same statement of Dogen's. None of them make much sense. And none of them make much sense partly because the translators don't really know what it's about. And it's quite difficult to give you the feeling of this. But this statement is pretty much what this koan's about. Now, another statement in the You see, I'm struggling. You know, it doesn't seem so hard until I try to explain it. Another statement in the... Now you want to start translating again? Sure. Another statement in the column is, in the subtle round mouth,

[09:27]

of the pivot turns the spiritual work. This is a genuinely peculiar statement. In the subtle round mouth, like something the pivot of the door hinge sits in, Which means your mouth. In the subtle round mouth, in your mouth through subtle breathing you can pivot the world. So, maybe it's not worth trying to do these things, but I'm going to keep trying.

[10:33]

Okay, now this is... is trying to find different angles to speak to you about this. Now, it's assumed in Buddhism that there's a... that in addition to you as an individual self, There's being which is co-extensive with the world. I don't know how that comes out in German, but there's being which is co-extensive with the world. And this being that's coextensive with the world is not graspable.

[11:53]

But it may be breathable. And it certainly can't be grasped conceptually. It's like water in water. And various images are used for this in Zen like snow in a silver bowl. And white flowers against the snow and so forth. Now you may have some experience of this.

[13:03]

For example, you may go to a movie. A film noir or some kind of gritty movie. Film noir is dark film, or it's a French term for film that's... What do you say in German? Ja, ein Film der schwarzen Serie, oder? Same. Schwarzen Film, okay. And by watching the film, you're not even paying much attention to what's going on, and these people have nothing to do with you. Your life is not like that. And yet somehow you start making a decision about your life. Do you know what I mean? Or perhaps just walking along this path is If you're doing kin-hin together with all of you together.

[14:14]

And you maybe begin to feel the presence of the other people walking. And perhaps this beautiful pond and the new bridges and the thick foliage somehow starts to speak to you. Sometimes you have to listen with your organs, with your insides. And you may come to a kind of clarity about something that you may lose ten minutes later or after the session. But that clarity is the phenomenal world speaking to you. And it speaks to you in Buddhist terms because of Tathagata Buddha or at a being which is coextensive with the world.

[15:39]

In other words, I can also say there's a continuity of being that we exist. There's a continuity of being that is our existence, but that we can't grasp. But that continuity is our home. And in Buddhist terms again sometimes it's called the host. And these are teaching terms host and guest. When you're a guest in the world, you don't know the host. When you're the host in the world, the world speaks to you.

[16:44]

So maybe you can put my postcard in here. Oh, okay. So many places you can hide things in robes. So maybe we can say, you can hear this again. Experiencing of manifold dharmas through using oneself is delusion. But through the manifestation, through the coming into presence of the world, to experience yourself through the coming into presence of the world is enlightenment. Is this getting a little clearer? Okay, so how do you bring the world into presence?

[18:01]

Okay. Now, I'd like to speak to you about the six... breathing practices counting following touching stopping turning around and spontaneity or purification and sometimes I have spoken to you about them and the four mirror wisdoms of reciprocal, what we could call, interior mutual wisdom.

[19:12]

But on a sashin, I don't really have the kind of time I do in a seminar to bring these teachings out. So one thing I'm going to try next year with Frank and Angelica's permission, it's September, isn't it, Frank? Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to do two weeks here. One week we'll have a kind of seminar with meditation, in which we will discuss various teachings, try to bring them out, and then we'll have it followed by a sesshin, in which we'll try to practice the teachings.

[20:21]

You don't live in monasteries. I'm trying to find ways in which to practice with you so that you can continue the practice in your daily life. Now, people will be able to come to this to one week or the other week. You don't have to come to both. And I know taking two weeks off from work or school or something is quite difficult. But I'll hope some people can come to both and we'll do the best we can with people who can't come to both. Aber ich hoffe, dass einige Leute zu beidem kommen können und dass wir das Beste versuchen, für die es nicht möglich ist. I think I should accept first of all people who can come to both and then if there's room left, we'll accept people to either week.

[21:31]

Ich denke, vielleicht sollte ich erst einmal die Leute akzeptieren, die zu beidem kommen können und dann, wenn noch Platz frei ist, also auch Leute akzeptieren, die nur zu einer Woche kommen können. Anyway, I'm always thinking about how to continue teaching and whether I should teach more or less next year in Europe and so forth. And I've now agreed to go to Russia at least once a year, so I may teach in a more concentrated way in Europe and a little less places. I don't know yet. Ulrich and I were just in the Soviet Union, just before the coup, actually. And several people spoke to us and said a coup was quite possible. In fact, they said except for one vote, they'd planned a little earlier to do a massacre like they did in China, Tiananmen Square.

[22:55]

They'd actually voted to do it, but one person voted against it. Our translator in, one of my translators in Russia was the daughter of the deputy prime minister, who I thought was in the coup, but luckily he wasn't. And then I went from Russia directly to Japan, and it's the two opposite poles of the world at the present time. Okay, you are sitting here. This is the third day of Sashin. We're halfway through.

[24:09]

If you don't know how to count. And you may have a taste of this continuity of being which is coextensive with the world. You know, someone asked me at a seminar that they, a while ago this spring, that they were rather frightened by, they thought somebody was climbing in the window of their house.

[25:10]

And they said that then they realized it was just the wind or something like that and they stopped being frightened. And they said to me, is this what you mean by a mental construct? Now, I've used this example before, but I think it's useful for what we're talking about here. And I said, yes, your being afraid someone was climbing in the window was a mental construct. And she said, and then I realized it was only a construct. But she missed the point.

[26:25]

But because the point is, which she did get, that the recognition that it was the breeze is also a mental construct. Well, let me go on and then see if you ask the question after I continue. Okay. A construct, something you make. Okay, so the classic example of this in Buddhism is you're walking, somebody's walking along and they see a snake.

[27:27]

A turtle-nosed snake. That also occurs in this coin. Anyway, and so you jump back and you say, oh, it's a snake. And then it doesn't move, so you approach it carefully and you see it's a rope. And you say, oh, it's just a mental construct. And you say, oh, it's just a mental construct. But then you look more closely at the rope and you see that the rope itself is a construct. Fibers wound together, molecules and so forth. So not only is the rope a construct, but your perception of the rope is a construct and your perception of the snake is a construct. So, is that clear?

[28:39]

All right. What? Yeah, I know. I didn't want to bore you with all the details. What you just said to me is also a construct. Okay. Well, you don't make a difference between things you can touch and just the conceptual constructs. Well, there's a difference between constructs. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's true. Do you want to say that in German or... Now, when I look at you, I'm sure if I walk across, crawl across the room here, I will

[29:48]

you will be at least as real as the rope. But even so, what I experience of you is a construct. Whether you're real or a dream, all I experience is a construct. And the difference between a dream and, or a figment, shall we say, let's say what, a hare's horns, a rabbit's horns, okay. Figment. Well, just use a rabbit's horns. Horns. A rabbit's horns. Horns, I can't remember. I forgot the first thing. Well, just a rabbit's horns.

[31:09]

Okay. The different... Well, would you prefer a tortoise's hair? No. All right. So... The difference between a rabbit, the hare's horns, and you is that they're both constructs, but the construct of you keeps being reinforced. I'd have to be quite delusionary to keep reinforcing the hare's horns. Okay. So if I'm looking at you in terms of conventional reality, I will look at you as if you exist out there. If I'm looking at you as a practicing Buddhist, I'll look at my constructive view in interior space.

[32:28]

Do you understand? Now the difference is, it's like the difference between hearing the bird and hearing yourself hear the bird. I'm seeing myself see you. So I can turn up the lamp of brightness. It's within my power to make you more vivid or less vivid or obscure and so forth. When I perceive, when I know you're a construct and I see my construct of you in the process of being constructed, I have much more active participation in my experience of you.

[33:50]

Okay, are we all clear at this? This is very simple Buddhism. Extremely basic. Who's the constructor? One thing at a time. Another construct. Yeah, this question of who's the construct begs the question. It's very basic to our culture. But it's as real as it reigns. Would you try to locate the it that rains? Rain doesn't need an it.

[34:52]

Rain rains. And constructs construct. Okay, well that's a simple response to that. Okay. So the more I practice being in the midst of my own process of I see my thoughts arise. I can change channels. I can focus with one pointedness on you and have no other thoughts. Ich kann mich darauf mit Einspitzigkeit konzentrieren und versuchen, keine anderen Gedanken zu haben.

[36:10]

I can look at you and exclude the skanda of thought or I can bring in the skanda of thought. Ich kann euch anschauen und versuchen, das Gedankenskanda auszuschließen oder es hereinnehmen. Or I can bring in the skanda of feeling and so forth. Oder ich kann das Gefühlskanda hereinbringen und so weiter. It's sort of, you know, you may think this is kind of weird to do these things. but it's no more weird than learning to play tennis except for this there's a court outside and a court inside and each breath is like a tennis ball and when the breath comes in things arise as it hits the court Now, if you live in interior space, now I don't mean interior as distinguished from the outside, because this is interior space which is inseparable from the outside.

[37:22]

It's not private space where you think you have your private thoughts. Now most of us, when we talk about our inner life or inner experience, we mean something private to us. And so when things in Buddhism are translated as inner and outer in your inner life, It's not the usual thing we surmise it means. Okay, so this koan says, not breathing in, not dwelling in the realm of mind and body. I suppose the English would be more accurate if it said breathing in, not dwelling in the realm of body-mind.

[38:33]

Now the realm of body-mind is this tennis court of the five skandhas and the eight vijnanas and so forth. where you just get more, you just, because you've begun to perceive in this way, you become very familiar with perceiving this way. Now, this is not gradual practice or sudden practice. This is just becoming familiar with how you exist. At least how a valuable way to notice how we exist, at least from the point of Buddhist practice.

[39:33]

This is not what I'm talking about. It's not Buddhism. It's just how we exist. but we exist in many ways and different cultures point out different ways to notice that we exist Buddhist culture and Buddhist practice emphasize this is useful to notice that we exist this way And just become familiar with yourself, intimate with yourself in this way of existing. And it starts with the breath. Okay. Okay.

[40:45]

Now, is it okay if I want to continue with this? Because we'll lose it if I wait till tomorrow. So, if I become, as I become more familiar with perceiving in this way, I'm not only becoming familiar with perceiving you as a construct, and all I can know of you is the construct I construct. The more I become familiar with you in this way, I'm not Simultaneously I'm creating interior space. As things happen on this inner courtyard, inner court, every time something happens, the court gets bigger.

[41:48]

Just as all of you are making many rooms in this room, the more I recognize my inner constructs, it makes more room in me. And now maybe you can understand better when Hakuin Zenji says, invert the eight vijnanas or break through the eight vijnanas. Because one of the meanings of this is the more you create this interior space, it breaks free and begins to connect you to everything. Now, you may feel this in zazen sometimes from another angle in which you lose the sense of where the boundaries of your body are and so forth.

[43:10]

Or sometimes when you're going to sleep, people feel that they're floating above the bed or something. When this happens, you're walking around in the larger court. Okay. Now, if I get to know you, the more I know my inner construct of you, and this construct is being insofar as it's constantly alive and being changed all the time. Each moment is changing. Now, if I really get a take on you, I really get a feel for you. And your inner construct keeps happening in me. Even when I'm separated from you, it'll keep going.

[44:55]

Your inner construct begins to have a life of its own in me. Somewhat independent of reinforcement from you. Now to create a kind of... crude example but one that again I've used before if I really if you really touched me if I meet you ten years from now you'll look the way I expect you to look after ten years because you will have aged in me. If that hasn't happened, I'll look at you and say, boy, have you changed, Jesus. Now, it also says in this sutra, in this koan, the

[46:03]

The whole world is the dharma eye of the student. Does that make sense? The whole world is the dharma eye of the student. That means if you exist as a construct vividly in me, I'm not just looking at you, you're looking at me. Not by your action, but by my seeing you, you looking at me. The more the whole world is a construct, the more the whole world is vividly a construct within me, the world a living being within me, the more the world is looking at me, I'm not just looking at the world.

[47:11]

The more the world is looking at me, I'm not just looking at the world. Then the whole world is speaking to me. So it says, the whole world becomes the Dharma eye of the student. The whole earth is the body of the teachings for this adept. So this koan says, why don't you study the, why don't you read the scriptures? Because the whole earth is constantly reading the scriptures being revealed to me. So this is not just a poetic idea, it's an actual dynamic way of being in the world.

[48:15]

Being in a reciprocal, non-interfering identity with the world. That's one way of one example.

[49:29]

It's not the main point of the koan, though. I thought that was easier to make clear. Now, does everyone sort of have a feeling for what I've said? If you don't understand it, you have a feeling for what I'm talking about. Okay. Now what this koan is saying with the, the, subtle round mouth in the subtle round mouth of the pivot the whole the spirit the whole world turns or the spiritual work is done now this corn is represent is emphasizing breath

[50:34]

as the way of realizing this reciprocal mutuality. To realize the non-graspable continuity of being. The harbor and land that's under our feet. How do you grasp this which is under our feet but we can't see it? We can say it's just as it is. That's not quite correct. It isn't just as it is. It's not just as it is as we conventionally see it, at least.

[51:47]

But a phrase like just as it is taken out of the context of grammar and logic Do you understand? Just as it is taken as a mantra or outside of grammar, becomes not so much a description as a gate. So you can say, just this, just this, or this, or as it is. And it's not so much a description again as a gate which suddenly can stop your usual way of thinking and looking. And we realize we're the host in this whole world. It's not the only way we exist.

[52:56]

And you're not going to draw a salary for this way of existing. I try and it doesn't work. But it is the fundamental way you exist. Okay. Now, this koan is emphasizing using or accessing this continuity, non-graspable continuity of being through breath. It sounds like you're doing a great job with this translation.

[53:58]

Is she doing all right? I can't tell, but it sounds good. So maybe we could say that when you start breathing, you're breathing, you pay attention to your breath and so forth. At some point your breath comes alive. And your breath begins to breathe you. You can feel that you exist more as a breath body than a physical body. And of course the word spirit also means breath. So perhaps we could say you feel your spiritual body or your breath body. And this breath body begins to have a quality of presence that fills you.

[55:04]

When you feel filled, you don't feel lonely. You only feel lonely when you feel something is absent. And you feel its absence is outside you. But its absence is inside you. And you can only find it really inside you. You only have a kind of limited satisfaction which requires actual seeing the person or seeing whatever you're missing.

[56:07]

You only have a limited temporary satisfaction. If my satisfaction in seeing you only is there when I see you, then that's quite fragile. But when I feel filled where I feel nothing's absence you are present with me. Okay. Now one access to this is through the breath. Through the round pivot of the mouth. And when you can shift your sense of identity or location or something like that from your thoughts to your breath body

[57:18]

There's often at this point a kind of blissful feeling that's almost orgasmic. It's almost painful, like a toothache or something. you feel a kind of blissful, painful feeling in your body. And you may feel that sometimes in Zazen, your breath suddenly, anyway. And So when this breath body begins to be how you, where you feel your location, the next step is you bring, if you're doing zazen at least, you bring your backbone into this feeling.

[58:35]

And the coded language of this koan again makes reference seemingly obscure, I mean seemingly offhandedly, to the backbone. But when you bring your backbone in, and then your physicality into your breath bone, into your breath body, there's a kind of, breath bone is right, there's a kind of subtle body that's present. And this subtle body or presence is thus awakened through breath. And this is actually what the simple phrase beginner's mind means in Sukershi's book.

[59:52]

Beginner's mind, original mind are all words for this presencing that arises, that manifests as things. And when you bring your own body into presence through breath, the rest of the world begins to come into presence. And if this is quite developed, you begin to see a light around everything. Everything you look at seems to come into presence with a kind of light, luminosity. And we can say, you look at the world and the world looks at you. And then the whole world begins to speak to you or teach you.

[61:10]

So this is the central thrust of this koan. This is how to realize the non-graspable continuity of being through breath. Now, there's various dimensions to this interior space. One is the sense of construct. And one thing that, I mean, in Tibetan Buddhism they do a great deal of visualization practices to increase interior space. In Zen practice, you practice with seeing all of your sense activity as a kind of visualization or construct. So this is one kind of interior space, this sense of the interior space that generated through... You understand.

[62:25]

A second one is this sense of presence. Now, there are other understandings and other ways to realize this wide sense of being. These are the territories, the realms I'm pointing out today. Das sind die Ebenen oder die Gebiete, auf die ich heute hinweise. So this koan says, not even, it says, realizing these realms, breathing in, not even dwelling in these realms, Breathing out, not being caught by myriad circumstances. I recite this scripture thousands of times a day.

[63:49]

So without a big to-do about all this, just sitting on your cushion, Being aware with a kind of face of the non-graspable continuity of being and feeling your non-dwelling in your breath Just that faith in the continuity of being and in the practice of the non-dwelling in your breath.

[64:55]

With complete awareness not dwelling in your breath. This practice alone can be all you need. If you investigate this thoroughly, I'll be very happy. Have you ever looked at someone or you're doing something and you look at somebody and you suddenly see them with a tremendous clarity? You see them without thought coverings. You see them almost without any emotion.

[65:56]

Hmm. or emotions so deep it has no way to manifest. You feel you're seeing this person from the inside just as they exist. And it's maybe the way you'd like to be able to see yourself sometimes. You feel it for a moment, but then it goes away. For a moment you feel you had a direct experience of yourself. You touched the essence of your existence in some way. Anyway, this is possible through this practice, this subtle breath practice.

[67:15]

Pivoting, being on your breath. Thank you, brother. Hello. How are you? Yes. Why not? I would like to know the meaning of the analysis that we are starting to learn inside the hospital. We were talking about space the other day, and you said that there are so many places in this field that we understand that we can have non-white perspective, but we will talk about different spaces inside the bridge.

[68:32]

Hmm. Okay. There is . What do you imagine as the possibility of there being what there might be in the way of other spaces in this room? Yeah, that's what I meant.

[69:36]

But it's not just that you make one is One is looking one is giving the experiential The experience the definitive reality In other words if I'm standing here Sitting here. My definitive reality is that's one space and that's another space and So that's my experience. It's only as an idea that this is one space. Or a generalization. Or a thought, ah, this is one space, I can think that. But my experience is, there's a space there and a space there. Now that's a very simple distinction.

[71:09]

But when you shift, when you give primacy to one way of defining rather than other. You change everything. I mean, right now, you are the only person on the planet sitting where you are. This is a remarkable fact. In other words, each place you are is irretrievably unique.

[72:14]

It's not a generalization. And out of that seed, a world appears. Now the translations of the sutras, the only thing we chant in the morning, this morning it was an error we chanted. Wrong Dharani. And the Buddhist gods are thrashing around and throwing thunderbolts. Anyway, that's often chanted in the morning too. But those are Dharanis.

[73:18]

And Dharanis are kind of like mantras. Except like the one we chanted this morning says, blue, blue, sapphire, fly, you know. So it's translating it. There are books which have the sort of translation. They're meant to reflect and create states of mind. They're not explanatory. Now, you might help the sokus, the soku is the person who is in charge of the serving, by as much as you can evening out the rows yourself.

[74:20]

Like at lunch there were five people in that row and seven in that row and three in another. And you yourself can usually count. Not anymore. We'll take care of you then. And so you can decide, oh, there's three there, I'll move over there. And even if there's a row, like today there were two there and six there. No, two there and four there, something like that. One person can move over to make a continuous row. Because on the second servings, when we serve food for seconds, the combinations of two are different, because not everybody will get seconds.

[75:51]

When you have like two people and four people, when you put them together as six people, then when the second serving comes, because these two may get second and these two may, is better than a row of two and a row of four. Now, the only reason to do this is it actually makes a five or ten minute difference in the serving time at the end of the meal. And if you've had the nerves removed in your legs, it's not important. But perhaps you'd like the meal to go a little faster sometimes. Now, in Buddhism, the assembly of Men and women studying the Dharma are called dragons and elephants. And I'm sure when the Soku looks in the room and sees all of you sitting there, he feels a room full of dragons and elephants.

[77:02]

And you feel quite shy asking this dragon to sit beside that elephant. Don't ask that question. So, it's easier... So it's easier if you, you know, if you see you can change your seat, you do it yourself without getting the soku, having to ask you. And I'm sorry to trouble you, or I guess Gural mentions to try not to bump the eating bowls. Because that's really my fault, because I should have made sure we had wooden serving spoons. Usually with lacquerware, you use wooden serving spoons. Because lacquer really lasts virtually forever, but if it's just bumped slightly, tiny cracks appear and then hot water gets in and then a few months later you have the lacquer peeling off.

[78:48]

And it's almost impossible to fix. It's as expensive to fix as to buy them new. So really it's your geyser being extremely careful and it's just that these metal spoons are a little big and clumsy to serve with. But I'm really impressed with how well you all have got the serving down and are sort of comfortable with using the Oryoki bowls.

[79:50]

And I haven't lectured about the Oryoki bowls this session because I've done it so often before. But suffice it to say that the Oryoki has been developed in its details. Suffice it to say, let it be enough to say. that the Oroki bulls in their detail and the way they relate to the body are meant to awaken that experience and teaching I gave the last two days How the world looks at you as well as you look at the world.

[80:59]

Or how, through the phenomenal world, the presence of the world in yourself arises. And this has been developed in Buddhist cultures as a certain way of using physical objects in relationship to the body. And so, and since the teaching of meeting in objects and realizing through objects is so essential to Zen practice, I keep the Oryoki as part of the Sashin practice. To give us a taste of that dimension of Buddhist culture. Also, it makes me very happy to walk around during work period. Or peer out my window and see three people doing something in the bushes outside my window.

[82:29]

Pulling obscure weeds up for some reason. And in the kitchen working. It feels to me like you find this place home for this week. And you're taking care of it as home. And that feels very nice to me. And I'm sure it makes this place, the little we can contribute, feel more like home all year to other people. And I live in so many places, this is really nice to be at home here. This is certainly one of the most beautiful places in which I live part of the year.

[83:45]

Now, the trouble with the kind of lecture, talk, discussion we had yesterday, or one of the troubles anyway, is to point out signs of practice. Like bliss or seeing things with luminosity, et cetera. This is actually a quite complicated question in Zen Buddhism. And is, you know, for instance, a koan will say, blah, blah, blah, raising the eyebrows. And this is a direct reference to developing cities, to developing powers.

[84:49]

But they don't say it directly. And that's particularly characteristic of Zen. And in one way, it's compassionate. It doesn't want to present the teaching, so it excludes people. In another way, it's patronizing. Because it treats the adepts who know the code differently than the lay people who don't. So it treats lay practices for lesser beings. And since I'm sometimes a lay person disguised as a monk, and sometimes a monk disguised as a lay person, I'm a great believer in adept lay practice.

[86:09]

And by the way, since we're doing these tapes, by the way, I don't know how I feel about these private tapes going on, but I guess it's okay. Well, you feel good about it. Well, of course you feel good about it. But I don't know how I'd feel about 50 microphones, you know, sitting here. But since the nature of lay practice is that we all don't live in the same place, perhaps the tapes make some sense. And if any of you happen to listen to them, Yeah, at not unreasonable speeds on the Autobahn.

[87:33]

I would appreciate if you come to a seminar, say, telling me what worked for you or what you didn't understand or what wasn't clear. I would appreciate it if you come to a seminar and tell me what has helped you and so on. Now, one of the things, again, I'm talking about a number of seemingly separate things, but to me they're related to what we're talking about. So going back to this idea of signs in practice, Another problem with it is that it's somewhat coercive in that you then try to make your experience fit a certain description.

[88:58]

Or you get involved in status or lack of status because you have or don't have such experiences. I hope you're all more secure in your egos than that. Anyway, then in general, and Buddhism is general, is against creating levels and systems of consciousness and attainment. For a number of reasons. It doesn't mean the levels and systems aren't true. But Buddhism thinks it's misleading and on the whole inaccurate.

[90:19]

Because all levels are simultaneously interacting. And all entered at once. But it does help in your practice to have a certain feeling of guideposts. For example, an architect might in designing a building No, he's on the right track or she's on the right track when all the spaces begin to work together naturally, easily. Because his or her visualization of the space has... gone is ahead of her cognition of the space.

[91:42]

So a mathematician might realize that he or she is on the right track when there's a sort of fluidity of mind in looking at the problem. So that the signs in Buddhism are sort of, in Zen, are sort of similar to that. There's a certain fluidity or pliancy you feel in your body or mind. Or things begin to work together in a way that's surprising. So I don't think it's harmful to know these things if you don't get involved in trying to attain something. And I'm sorry to belabor this point, but I know it bothers some people.

[92:46]

But anyway, the koans and teachers give some sense of a feeling you can use as to know you're in the right direction. While letting you discover the practice and so forth yourself. Now, when you do walking meditation outside, as we've been doing this morning and this afternoon, we do this partly just, you know, because it's nice here and it's nice to take a break from the Zendo.

[93:50]

And it gives you a direct feeling of this place and the environment with the kind of attentive mind you have realized in the Zender. It's not so different than the importance of working together in the kitchen and on the grounds. As part of the Sashin practice. Because it helps you get a sense of how to bring this practice into your ordinary situations. And to have a feeling for it in other people.

[95:06]

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