Do you want to say something, Georgie? Please. I'd like to say a few words of greeting. We are happy that you are here with us and we are happy that you are here with us. And I think it's the 18th time that we're meeting here. And I think it's the 18th time that we are meeting. Actually, it was a little bit better. The best thing is other realities. Today we have everything. A man, a woman, a woman, a woman, a man, a woman, [...] a woman

[01:24]

to stretch his back and connect it to our mansion. I have a small anecdote to illustrate. My impressions of Betelgeuse. So this is an Indian monastery, a Buddhist monastery. There was a kind of self-meditation, something with Manjulana. The one was a Japanese tent-closets, tombs, and the feeling was... We are so powerful that no one can take us away from this place.

[02:30]

We see it as a cliff. And the second thing that had to do with the cliff was a seat on a small plateau, on a pond. And then the total consciousness, that is, wherever a thought is thrown at you, you will find an answer to a question. What do I tell you about an impression? So my impression with the red robes at this time in the U.S. was such a good reaction to me when you're sitting near the robes. And not so long as Lavanya was present, but you somehow were more active in one place. Whoa! This is the kind of thing you say standing over someone's grave.

[03:40]

And I'm not dead yet. It is probably also the case that the existence of this house also has to do with Bekeboshi. It is quite certain that the restaurant was built. It is clear that the garden house was demolished within two days A restaurant, I think it's there. At the restaurant, there comes a woman who speaks in the opposite direction. Well, we are a community. We have been together for many, many years now.

[04:41]

When I look at it alone, I see that we have a lot in common. And then I get very tired. I mean, it also happened that on the first day Richard talked about how you feel when the gaze goes back, when it becomes longer than the gaze forward. After about 20 years, when we are allowed to say, is it also allowed to look Where do we stand? What hopes, which we had in the early 80s, are now realized? What does that mean? That the world is the best possible?

[05:43]

The less you want to I like your optimism. since Giorgio spoke so kindly.

[07:53]

Yeah, I've been thinking about the years being in this room. But let me say that the Sanskrit word for Buddha nature is seems to be something like Buddha-dattu. Which, you know, literally means Buddha-realm. Buddha-realm. And there's some controversy about it because the idea of Buddha nature is a very powerful, strong, pervasive idea in pretty much all of Chinese Buddhism.

[09:00]

It's not nearly so... emphasized in Indian Buddhism. And in Indian Buddhism, it is not emphasized in such a strong way as in Chinese. Scholars have even had a difficulty in finding a word for Buddha nature in Sanskrit. And what they seem to think it probably was is Buddhadhatu. Now, I'm mentioning this to... point out that Chinese Buddhism in significant ways reconceptualized Indian Buddhism.

[10:10]

And such a reconceptualization, such a big difference in emphasis. As the idea of Buddha nature represents. is a reconceptualization. Although I myself feel a continuous stream from the historical Buddha to now, That doesn't mean that Buddhism isn't reconceptualized.

[11:20]

And the reconceptualization is influenced by the culture it enters. So Confucianism and Taoism influence this development emphasis on the idea of Buddha nature. Buddha nature was a problem for me when I first started to practice. I thought Isn't this something like soul or God in sheep's clothing? Isn't this something I have to believe in and I have some Buddha nature? Is it an entity that passes from life to life? Yeah, and so I asked Suzuki Roshi, kind of worried that maybe I was in the wrong practice.

[12:37]

And he basically said, be patient. And implied that with time, I may have the basis to understand it better or make a better choice. Yeah, and I know he wasn't just trying to get me to stay in the practice. He was speaking from his own experience, too. Okay. Now, Buddha realm, why would Buddha realm be a synonym for Buddha nature?

[13:39]

Now we have to go back to the idea of entitylessness. And for those of you who came last night and especially today, I don't think I will go into entity-lessness much. But still it will be part of what I'm speaking about. So if we say Buddha realm, it sounds like a place, a land, a place the king governs or something, a realm. But actually realm In a culture which assumes entitylessness, realm means cause.

[15:02]

Germany from this point of view is not a place. Of course it's a place. Austria is of course a place. But the emphasis in a culture which emphasizes no entities, then Austria is a place where you become Austrian. So my daughter, Sophia, is growing up at least half the time in Germany. And that's not a neutral place, it's a causal place, and it's making her German. And I think, I'm a boy and I have a girl daughter. I have a child who's a girl. And I'm an American boy and I have a girl who's a German.

[16:45]

How can this be? And she already makes fun of me. Papa says something and she mispronounces the word the way I mispronounce it. But Mama and I say, and then she pronounces it correctly. So it's a causal realm. So this has built into it already the idea of a field of mind. That the field of mind you're in causes the contents. So that the field of mind you're in causes the contents.

[17:46]

And vice versa, the contents also generate the field of mind. So from that point of view, this room is not an entity. From the point of view of the... yogic way of thinking. The room is a causal realm. No, of course, we know that too. But it's a matter of emphasis. Some people clearly, an architect, clearly designs a room thinking it's an object. And it takes the contents to change the room. Most hotel meeting rooms are good examples of this. bad examples.

[19:03]

Now I'm trying to develop our center in Colorado, Reston Mountain Zen Center, So that after I die, or even now, it can't be used for anything else but Zen practice or some kind of Buddhist practice. I don't want Marriott hotels to come along and say, hmm, this would make a good conference center. I'm trying to make it a place that in itself causes practice to happen. And I think that Giorgio as an architect and designer is way on the emphasis that the room is a causal realm. Even the feng shui or geomancy of this particular location here on this hill is a causal realm.

[20:21]

Feng Shui and also the geometric arrangement of this lighting is a causal room. This physical location here on the cradle. So he even pointed out yesterday how the light, the way it comes in, is a sundial. Is that right, what you said? So the room not only links us in a common sense of practice of some sort, but links us to the surrounding phenomena. Now I would like to continue this process of reconceptualization.

[21:43]

And I think we can build on or work with the idea of the unconscious of Freud. Now a completely accepted idea. and say that I don't think the alaya-vijnana, which is translated as storehouse or warehouse, is actually a storehouse in the sense that unconsciousness is a storehouse. Ist nicht ein Lagerhaus in dem Sinn, dass das Unbewusste ein Lagerhaus ist? Now maybe I'm already going too much toward the meeting, when do we start, Wednesday or something, with more psychotherapy, emphasis more on psychotherapy.

[22:49]

But the sense of gates, of the gate of each moment is... Yeah, bringing me in a certain direction. Not just me, but I feel that we're something in any way, some kind of mutual feeling I have here. Now I like the... Greek idea of friendship, as I understand it. Friendship is that affection which matures through a shared vision. And I think we've been together quite a lot of years, and Giorgio and I too. And I think we could say this is an affection that is rooted in and maturing a shared vision.

[24:11]

And the Sangha is a friendship or affection rooted in maturing a shared vision. And I think in a simple, not so simple, important sense, a marriage when it shifts from, it's most healthy when it shifts from being in love, to the maturing of a shared vision. And if that was more clearly understood by many married couples, I think this transformation would

[25:26]

probably work better. And because it does take practice or work to mature a shared vision. It's not just automatic. And with one's friends, too. For example, I have a friend who, yeah, we certainly have a shared vision. We mature together even though we don't practice this, both practice Zen. His practice is rooted for historical and personal reasons. in Hinduism.

[26:47]

So there will be some differences in our worldview. And we find it important necessary to now and then really discuss how those differences are evolving in ourselves. And that necessary work is what then also allows the similarities to evolve and inform each other. And we clearly learn from each other. We've been doing this about the same number of years, and so forth. Sophia, excuse me, I don't talk about her because I miss her.

[27:54]

I don't talk about her because I love her. I'm only talking about her because she's a big part of my informational situation. But she the other day said to Marie-Louise. That her doll was going to live longer than she does. So she said this doll will belong to some other little girl. Sort of like I have to take care of this doll so that it lives longer than me, that someone else can have it. But that's really that simple kind of philosophical insight that three-year-olds are often quite philosophical. It's also at the root of what Sangha is about.

[29:26]

Sangha also means those who continue. To recognize that the fullness of being includes not only all beings, but the sense of those who continue being. The sense of Sangha is not just those who, not all beings of the present, but those who will continue being. What do I mean by being? Well, What struck me as a good example is a while ago Marie-Louise and I got lost in a forest like this.

[30:39]

And it was summer outside and we had short sleeves. And the deeper we got into the forest... colder it got and it actually started to hail. And we were freezing. And there were none of those little signs which say eight kilometers to such and such a village which you don't know the name of. There were the words. There weren't. A nameless, what village? We weren't hoping for such a sign. for a sign of being.

[31:46]

I passed a... You know, in America, they have all these little churches which look alike. And when Marie Louise first went to America with me, After seeing almost identical churches in several villages, she said, do you Americans buy your churches from catalogs too? Yes. Anyway, in front of one of these churches, they put these signs out and they say usually stupid things, you know, for some kind of witticism. They're like movie marquees, which you can change the letters.

[32:52]

You're a good team here. And anyway, this one said, if you are waiting for a sign from God, this is it. Doesn't sound like you have to translate anymore. So I was waiting for a sign. Goreville, eight kilometers. But then someone appeared on the path. And I didn't think... I don't like that kind of person. That's not the kind of person I take seriously. I thought, a being. Rescued, saved. Now why don't I feel that way when I see anyone?

[34:21]

I think that's not a simple question. What prevents me from seeing each person I meet in that way? If you can answer that question or experience the answer to that question, you're at the center of bodhisattva practice. And that sense of being is also the sense of the fullness of being is those who continue. So, because that person who walks out of the forest is one of those who continue. We can feel it if we imagine some horrible bomb that, these things do happen, that blows up most of a culture, you think,

[35:30]

All those things aren't continued. People don't continue, etc. No. And we may think, oh, those are kind of big philosophical questions that are kind of interesting, but don't have much to do with us. But actually when there's any crisis or stress or calamity, a big storm, those are the things we feel most deeply. So they're actually more deeply present than us, but also hidden. Why are they hidden? Why is the fullness of being that we live concealed from us?

[36:35]

Or is not always apparent? Well, this is also... What gate opens us to the fullness of being? Yeah, I think that's... That was a good time to take a break maybe. The break is half an hour.

[38:01]

If we are already at the ads, I would also like to mention this Buddha who is standing there. I have three more with me. And he was made in Galdür by a schnitzer, that is Bergort. He is the only one lying on the ground, the Buddha who is standing on the edge of a rock. And there are about 30 steps from there. And the two of us still have to go straight to Johannesburg. So it's a bit of a challenge to get out of the city. That's a challenge. Yes, of course. No, no, that's not it.

[39:34]

You can sit down. You can sit down. Thank you. Thank you.

[41:04]

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