The Rumi line is actually, go through the ear to the center. Go through the ear to the center. So I'll do it again. I am the wished for song. You are the wished for song. Me too. Go through the ear to the center. Where the sky is. Where the wind is. Where silent knowing is. Yeah, I forgot that. Where silent knowing is. Cover your seeds. When you do your work, they will sprout.

[01:04]

Yeah. Yeah, they're trying to maintain their continuity out there too. It must be 12 o'clock. On a Saturday in the year of our Lord. But what is continuity in the year of our Lord Bodhisattva? Anyway, in that other statement I gave you, Be plain, simple, open, undefiled.

[02:23]

Master of yourself. Master of yourself. Borrow a light to set up facilities. Yeah, that's the work of the world. Borrow a light to set up facilities. Borrow a road to go through on which to go through. Yeah. Merge space with mind. Or merge mind with space. Actions with myriad things.

[03:25]

Merge actions with myriad things. So we could say that's a description of the Bodhisattva. Yeah. He or she knows that she borrows the light to set up facilities. That he or she borrows the road, the teaching. The mind to go out, on which to go through. And the practice is to merge mind with space. Merge actions with myriad things. Now when I say to you or suggest that you bring attention from the particular to the field of mind,

[04:46]

And for you to notice what happens when you bring attention or mind to the particular. That's also an act to observe. And it's said that through practice observational concentration becomes as natural as previously concentration on discursive thoughts was. Observational mind just rests in things, ready for things. And it just becomes the natural way mind functions.

[05:57]

Now, I think we all want to, would like to practice compassion. And I think we'd all like to, yeah, be more compassionate. feel more present, more complete in the moment. So I'm suggesting you bring those two what I would call quest intents together. I never made up that word before. So, I mean, questions, you know, questions are like you want to know something, you ask a question. But questions can also be what, you know, I don't know, can be quests.

[07:43]

Quest means to seek. It's like the quest for the Holy Grail or something like that. Do you have the Holy Grail? Yeah, we do have all of that, but we just don't have so many words for quest and seek. I mean, I can think of that probably are somewhere. Well, English has something like six or eight hundred thousand words and German has about four hundred thousand. So I'm sorry you can't repeat. He thinks we can. But German has more verbs than English. Das Deutsche hat trotzdem mehr Verben als das Englische. So Germans are more active, you know. They're more stuck in nouns. Das heißt, die Deutschen sind eigentlich aktiver.

[08:45]

Im Englischen steckt man mehr in den Nomen fest. Yeah. Bought down in nouns. Bought down? Bogged down? A bog is like a swamp. Oh, okay. So to be bogged down is to be stuck in mud or something. Bogs can be bouncy. Have you ever been in a bog? Yeah, you can bounce on it. It's like a... So, but questions, you know, again, can also be question tense. An intent expressed as a question.

[09:57]

Yeah, for example, if I, like yesterday, go to the hotel. Andres put me in a hotel, and I think quite a few of us are there, that I was in, I don't know, 18 years ago for the Hanover conference or something. But I didn't know where this place was that many years ago. So I had to go to the clerk at the desk and say does anybody know how to get here? Two of the clerks, two women, were looking up maps. It's not on the map, et cetera, you know. And one woman really had it very clear in her head.

[11:00]

You go out the turn right, go left, left, and then you're there. I could even remember it, you know, with my short-term memory failing rapidly. She could see it in her mind, it was clear. Yeah, but I could go to see this clerk with a quest intent. Is this the teacher I've been looking for? Yeah. It's actually quite a nice feeling. I stand in front of her and I think, is this the teacher I've been looking for?

[12:08]

And I decide, well, I don't even think about it, probably not, but she really did help me find you. That's a taking of the guest position, we call it. And looking for the host. It's very parallel. to Rumi looking for Shams, or looking for the lover. Shams, the S-H-A-M-S, or the lover. And... And at a certain time in our lives, or most of our lives, we're looking for who could be that soulmate lover.

[13:27]

But that same quest can be the quest for the host or the teacher. I was really struck by the... as I started to say yesterday and during the day... by the fundamental... archetypal role of mentorship in Asian culture. I lived with this extraordinary woman, Hosaka-san. She appears in Gary Snyder's poem. Yeah, and then she took her family name, Nakamura-san, when she lived with us.

[14:52]

But she was a tea teacher and was a no chanting practitioner and teacher. And she was simply a wonderful person. And lived with us for about 20 years. One of my women teachers. Let me say that talking about this connectedness let me say but Connectedness which is also the mystery of gender occupying the same space.

[15:56]

Yeah, we may all be equal, but we're not the same. And gender, the difference between men and women, is a mystery. And yet we occupy the same space. Yeah. There'd be no space to occupy without this mystery. Anyway, Nakamura Sensei was so good at no chanting that sometimes during no plays, which all the parts are taken by men, including the women. The mystery, if you've ever been to a Noh play, the mystery of gender behind an immovable mask.

[17:03]

Which expressionless mask. In which all expressions play. Anyway, she would fairly often be invited to chant between the Noh plays on the stage in Kyoto. And it was wonderful to sit in the audience and hear her. Because living with her, she lived upstairs in this little house that we had. It's quite a story how we all got together, but I don't want to spend the day doing that. But many hours a day, she'd all by herself be chanting no plays.

[18:20]

And I could hear it upstairs. Anyway, at this time, I don't know, she was 70 or so. And she seemed very old at that time to me. And, yeah, and... Her teacher died. And her teacher was, you know, 85 or something. The mentorship, the relationship she had with this famous no actor and teacher. And she immediately started the quest for another teacher.

[19:24]

And she, after a month or so, a man who was 46 had agreed to be her teacher. Who clearly knew less than she did. But who knows more is not the point. The point is the mentorship relationship. The archetype of a certain kind of friendship of another person separate from you, the mystery of that separateness Who's committed to and able to establish a certain kind of connectedness. And to survive that connectedness. Because real, true connectedness often has an edge to it.

[20:46]

There's a danger and responsibility to it. So the hotel clerk can also be... Excuse me. So the hotel clerk can also be the fruit of my... Quest intent. I mean, any person you meet can be all kinds of things. And every person you meet, you have a certain idea when you get there. This is a hotel employee and her job is to help the hotel guests.

[22:04]

Yeah, she's paid to do it and so on. Yeah, that's a whole bunch of baggage, true baggage or sort of accurate baggage you're bringing to it. But why not bring a baggage as light as a cloud? When Nicole came from Yonzov and to meet me in Freiburg so we could take the same train here, Als Nicole vom Johanneshof gekommen ist und mich in Freiburg getroffen hat, sodass wir denselben Zug nehmen konnten, um hierher zu fahren. Nicole and the taxi driver were loading the luggage in the taxi. Da haben Nicole und der Taxifahrer das Gepäck in das Taxi eingeladen.

[23:05]

Ja, and he looked at my luggage and looked at me and said, a poor king off to war. I guess there's a German expression like that? Yeah, but a very unknown. Not so well known. Like a poor king going to war. Yeah. He has no entourage, it's just him and his light issue. But I like to move, you know, so my hotel room looks exactly like my office did by the time I set it up. So the baggage I bring are the baggage as light as a cloud I bring to the hotel clerk. Can be, this might be the host, this might be. my teacher.

[24:25]

And I feel it's a wonderful open feeling being in front of this actually extraordinary person who works there. I know this is on the edge of schmaltz But there may be a lot of wisdom at the edge of kitsch. Listen to the difference between these kitschy love songs when you're not in love and when you are in love. Neil, you're too old to know about that. I don't care. You know, there's a story of my favorite Daowu and Yunyan.

[25:27]

My friends who only appear as if they're from the past. Anyway, they were leaving somebody's house And Da Wu put on his hat. And Yun Yan said, what's that for? These guys are always playing around. And Yun Yan said, I mean Da Wu said, so gross meat hoot. He didn't say that. I have to show off the little German I know. So anyway, Yun Yan said to Da Wu, what's that?

[26:30]

And Da Wu says, it has a use. It has a use. Oh, and Yunyan said, what would you do if there was a violent storm? Yeah, he said, it would cover me. Yeah. I don't know. It would cover me. And then he says, is there, I don't know how he puts it exactly, but he says something like, is there anything that covers the hat?

[27:38]

Something like that. That's what he means. And Yunyan and Dawu says, yeah, but that doesn't leak. Okay. So this sense of host and guest, you know, the hat has a use, but is there anything that covers the hat? Well, that doesn't leak. That's the mind of Proust looking at the flowers. So in a seminar on the Bodhisattva path and Avalokiteshvara and compassion, I should give you the most famous koan about Avalokiteshvara and Dao Wu and Yunyant.

[28:52]

But you mentioned the first day. Yeah. Again, these guys are always kind of like... I don't know, having fun, Dharma fun. And Dao says, let's see, is it Dao who says, Yunyan says, why does the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara have so many hands and arms. Now we spoke yesterday about the statues of Avalokiteshvara with basically an aura or nimbus.

[30:11]

A nimbus is like the circle around the Christ's head or Buddha's head. We talked about Avalokiteshvara, or about who has the nimbus and the aura. The nimbus? No, I know that, but who has that? Avalokiteshvara. And you too. But that's not what you said. And in a certain mind, you can see that around people. This is not just a matter of visual emphasis and the representation of the bodhisattva of compassion is surely based on experience. An attempt to sculpture non-graspable experience.

[31:24]

So he has this, he, she has this embodied space, nimbus of hands and arms, a thousand. And one of the kind of myths, mythical stories that goes along with Avalokiteshvara. She was totally committed to meeting, saving, engaging, ending the suffering of all sentient beings, that she, trying so hard, she split into many pieces. And the Buddha, being a nice guy, Reassembled her with a thousand arms and eleven heads.

[32:47]

One is the one that looks normal head. And then there's a head for each of eight directions. And there's a head that looks up and a head that looks down. Do you have Adam's apple too in Germany? Do you suppose Steven Jobs intended the computer with an apple with a bite out of it to say the computer was the end of civilization? Glaubt ihr, dass Steven Jobs die Absicht hatte, als er dem Computer das Symbol von einem Apfel mit einem Biss drin verliehen hat, dass er da die Absicht hatte zu sagen, der Computer ist das Ende der Zivilisation?

[33:54]

I'm sorry it takes so long to translate this nonsense. So the Bodhisattva is often depicted with 11 heads and a thousand arms. So Tao Yunyan says, why does the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara have so many hands and arms? And Da Wu says, it's like looking for your pillow at night. Yeah, I mean, we all know that, you know, if you use a pillow. Das kennen wir alle, wenn wir ein Kissen benutzen. Okay. And Yunian says, I understand.

[34:56]

Und dann sagt Yunian, das verstehe ich. And Da Wu says, what do you understand? Und dann fragt Da Wu, was verstehst du? It's like, Yunian says, it's like the whole, all over the body is hands and arms. Yeah. Da Wu being a pain in the ass, I mean, says, yeah, yeah, it's okay, but you only got 80%. And Yun Yan says, well, elder brother, what would you say? And Da Wu says, throughout the body are hands and eyes. Yeah, and if I heard this story, or if I was Yun Yan, I would comment. Add 10%, subtract 10%, I almost don't lose myself.

[36:13]

Da würde ich hinzufügen, füge 10% hinzu, nimm 10% weg, ich verliere mich fast nicht. Yeah. Now these, again, these two guys are fooling around. Nochmal, also diese beiden spielen miteinander, oder? But they're also very interested in... how you express yourself because it's said that you don't really understand until you can express your understanding so these guys are practicing together and you know they got nothing to do they don't have girlfriends you know they chat about how do we practice together what is this continuity of mind, mind merged with space. Maybe they did have girlfriends. I don't really know, so let's leave that aside.

[37:15]

But in any case, they were, you know... Playing with how do you express this. The way they played with how do you express your understanding. And they're practicing with each other. Even with putting on a hat. What's that hat for? It has a use. Wenn man nur einen Hut aufsetzt, wofür ist der Hut? Wofür ist das und das?

[38:16]

Das hat einen Nutzen. Die Art und Weise, wie man sich ausdrückt, und wir sprechen jetzt tausend Jahre später immer noch über das, was Sie gesagt haben. Als seien Sie Zeitgenossen, und Sie klingen ja auch wie Zeitgenossen. Now there's an identification here of night and eyes. Okay. Why does the Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva, have so many hands and arms? It's like looking for your pillow at night. It's sort of night eyes. Or eyes that see in the dark. The mystery that's at the edge of and beyond our senses.

[39:22]

And how do we act within that? Act within the knowing of the mystery beyond our senses. Und wie handeln wir darin? Wie handeln wir im Wissen dieses Mysteriums jenseits unserer Sinne? Only acting within and beyond the mystery, only by acting within the mystery beyond our senses. Nur indem man in dem Mysterium jenseits unserer Sinne handelt, Can we really express or discover real connectedness with the world and each other? This is the teaching of the Bodhisattva, the path of the Bodhisattva. Now Bodhisattva is sometimes called the one whose essence is perfected knowledge.

[40:28]

The one whose essence is perfecting knowledge. This sense of acting through the continuity of intent. Again, a continuity of alterity. The continuity of moment by moment there's alternatives that you're choosing. Most of the alternatives are occurring in the dark, outside of consciousness. And we function in the dark, outside of consciousness. Like reaching for our pillow in the dark. Eyes... The night eyes of the dark.

[41:45]

Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm overloading you with Rumi today. I guess there's room. No. He says, a poem I've brought up two or three times in the last weeks. Er nennt ein Gedicht, das ich jetzt in den letzten Wochen zwei oder dreimal angesprochen habe. Wir sind der nächtliche Ozean, schimmernd im Licht. Wir sind der Raum zwischen dem Fisch und dem Mond. when we sit here together. And such a poem clearly in Zen and I'm sure in Rumi's world is meant to be practiced with.

[42:55]

And when you open up the continuity of intent, the intent that The continuity of intent that brings me to look at the clerk at the hotel desk as perhaps my mentor. It's almost this groove of alterity. Things can just come into it. You know, really, I started up this circular staircase at the hotel this morning.

[43:58]

I'm serious here, but I'm sort of making fun of myself, too. But I was like, yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I'm walking up the stairs, and I find myself saying, we are the night ocean glinting with light. And that was a lot more interesting than thinking I'm Dick Baker going up to have breakfast. So I was going up here in the night ocean, glinting with light. It felt good. And then I got to the top of the stairs and I felt the other space between the fish and the moon. And as I walked into the dining room, I thought, why don't we sit here together?

[45:09]

And there they were, sitting together, having breakfast. Yeah, really. This is exactly what happened this morning. And you... kind of interrupted me and I, you know, etc. And I didn't sit with you. So after saying, while we sit here together, I said... The Shamanic Journey or something, whatever the title of that book was, I read on your table. So the continuum can be we are the night ocean glinting with light. We borrow a light to set up facilities. We borrow a road to go out on. We merge the mind with space. We are the night ocean glinting with light.

[46:12]

We are the space between the fish and the moon. We merge the mind with space. This is the 20%. We don't want to lose the 20%. 80% is a lot. That's the continuity of intent. The 20% is the sprouts hidden in the dark, which through our work, through our practice, sprout. So that's why I said I would respond to this koan of Daowu and yin-yang and bodhisattva with a thousand arms.

[47:36]

Throughout the body, all over the body, I don't care. Add 10%, subtract 10%. I almost don't lose myself. Yeah. It must be time for lunch. Otherwise we'll be lost. Well, We'll sit for a moment. Go through the ear to the center.

[49:33]

Where the sky is. Where the winds are. Where there is silent knowing. Cover the seats. They'll sprout when you do your work. You are the night ocean glinting with light. The space between the fish and the moon. Sitting. Sitting here together.

[50:36]

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