Entschuldigt, dass ich so spät bin. Meine Gesundheit ist inzwischen ein bisschen besser, aber ich bin trotzdem zu spät. Das heißt, dass ich einen kurzen Vortrag geben sollte. You'll be relieved if I do. Anyway, yesterday my emphasis was on the fact that this practice belongs to us. In fact, although it's not always well realized, practice always belongs to us. And not only does it belong to us as practitioners, if we apply it. And maybe we should call ourselves appliers rather than practitioners.

[01:05]

And not only are we applying it, it is also being applied or the insights that are entrained in Buddhism. Does that make sense? Not yet. She's speaking the truth, said Marlon. Nowadays there's, in science and philosophy, lots of insights and observations. that are shared within Buddhism by Buddhism. Excuse me? Shared by Buddhism. But we could say they're entrained within Buddhism. They're related to each other, like entrainment.

[02:33]

And the entrainment of these insights as an overall teaching is what creates, makes Buddhism. And this alignment of the teachings is what makes Buddhism in its entirety. And then we can ask, how do you entrain them in your own life? Now I've been struck in this session how important it seems to have been for quite a few people that I emphasized the physicality of appearance.

[03:38]

That appearance is an experience, can be an experience, with physical boundaries. Now, it's not so much really, maybe it's a wrong emphasis to emphasize the physicality of appearance. You know, when I was young, the body was pretty much neglected. As ich jung war, wurde der Körper so ziemlich ausgeblendet.

[04:42]

Herman Kahn, was it Herman Kahn, who imagined and was the think tanker that imagined mutual destruction and nuclear war, etc. ? Here's a big fat guy. And he said, oh, I could be just a brain in a Petri dish. Huh? I mean, even as a kid I thought, huh, a plane and a petri dish. Well, if I had that body, I might prefer to be a plane and a petri dish. So I can tell who knows English and who doesn't. Okay, but I do think all the emphasis, particularly in the last New Age years, since the 60s and 50s, 60s really, this emphasis of embodiment and yoga and bodhisattva,

[06:12]

But all this emphasis since the 60s and the new age on body work and yoga and all that stuff. And the yoga that we practice is very much a western British empire creation. I think for many people it means body added to mind. So it's not really embodiment, maybe it's an in-mindment. But if we emphasize experience, And if you really look that you actually experience something, then the body is there.

[07:25]

And I think what we have to do as practitioners or as appliers is always look to what is actually experienced. and experienceable. I said to someone in Dokusan this morning, who brought up the wonderful statement in Koan 20 of the Shogaroku, it's just a throwaway line on the second page hold to the moment before thought arises now when you read that you should say well Everything else in my life that I thought was important is now gone.

[08:40]

I only am concerned with this. And this person was practicing with this, which I appreciate. So I... I said, for me, when I say hold to... Now, you understand... You know, it's interesting that German doesn't have an easy word for translation for enactment. Because everything we do in yogic practice is enactment. Would you please neologize and create a new word in German for enactment? Sure. Please, okay. That's your job. Because, you know, the koans are based on a tradition in China of

[09:43]

of case studies, like the Harvard Law School has emphasized, case studies nowadays, everyone does. Yeah, because The Chinese assume that everything needs to be experienced, so everything is presented as a little theater piece, as a case to enact. And it's assumed that you enact every word, like I said yesterday, the, you enact the. So this practice, these teachings, this case, Koan 20, Shoyaruku, assumes that the reader knows this is about enactment.

[11:06]

And you read it at the speed at which you can enact each rule. I have a close friend, wonderful friend, who's a microbiologist and botanist. He's even given a brief seminar here once. Anyway, he's a polymath and she's super smart. But the way in which he's known really throughout the world now as a creative botanist Because when he was a kid, he's German, there was a great grand tree in his yard and he kept wondering what it felt like.

[12:42]

And he explored in himself how it felt, how the branches felt, how the trunk felt, how he felt, and did it feel him? And when anyone asks him, why did you start studying botany, he tells the story of this tree. Well, it's clear to me, and I think clear to him too, that it really isn't about his intelligence, his creative botanical research, but because he enacts the plants he practices with. It's just nature to him. So I asked this person, Oksana, how do you experience the moment before thought arises?

[14:10]

And before I asked that person this question, I had to ask myself the question. And I clearly have an image of a thought before it arises. I know I have this image. Und ich habe eindeutig ein inneres Bild von einem Gedanken, bevor dieser Gedanke auftaucht. Und ich weiß, ich habe das Bild davon. Und ich hatte dieses Bild, aber es ist eine körperliche Erfahrung. So I can locate energy at that point and hold all the energy of my body at that point in this image, which is a physicalized image.

[15:32]

Yeah. And... It interests me that how did an image get to be... I know, and I'm clear in myself, I think an image is primarily not words. And the images have a physical presence for me. I feel them physically. I think almost only in pictures, not in words at all. And I'm interested... And these pictures, they have a physical presence for me. I'm speaking about this in order to share practice with you. Okay. So, the Heart Sutra starts, the first teaching in the Heart Sutra is the five skandhas.

[16:45]

Which are clearly meant to be enacted. And Buddhism is the teaching of the Dharma, is the Dharma teaching. And what is a Dharma? A dharma is defined by its four marks. Now, as I said in the beginning, the first issue, I wanted to speak about basics. We can't get more basic than what are the four marks of our dharma. And the four marks are birth, duration, dissolution, disappearance. And it's a teaching, basically, of momentariness.

[17:53]

It's saying everything is momentary. Not just impermanent, it adds momentum. momentariness to impermanence. Now, I'm trying to figure out how we practice with such a list. I think many people say, oh, hey, it's a list, of course, it has to start somewhere, so it starts with birth or appearance. And then it teaches that what exists is impermanent. And that's rational, even commonsensical. But it isn't really a teaching rationally that things are impermanent.

[19:10]

It's teaching not that things that already exist are impermanent, but appearance itself is impermanent. It's not teaching what comes after the word appearance. It's teaching appearance. So if you gloss this as, well, yes, everything's impermanent, I understand that. you haven't got the point which is enactment. And it's not about the world. It's about you. You appear and are impermanent. A momentary.

[20:25]

Okay, now, if it was just a kind of scientific kind of molecular theory or something, it would say, yes, there's appearance and then there's duration, very, very momentary, and then there's dissolution. But then it emphasizes disappearance after dissolution. So you can ask yourself the question, why does this say appearance, duration, disappearance, disappearance? It says disappearance twice because you do it the second time. If things are fundamentally momentary, they're going to dissolve, dissolution, dissolve on their own. So this is not a description, but a practice.

[22:00]

And you're going to notice appearance, and you're going to notice duration, and you're going to notice a natural change or change that occurs. And then you're going to erase it, tabula rasa, you're going to erase it, disappear it. So it's clearly meant to be enacted, the last two, dissolution, disappearance, make it clear it's meant to be enacted. And the five dharmas from the Lankavatara Sutra make it even more obvious that this is inactivity. And there's appearance, naming, discrimination, right wisdom, and suchness.

[23:06]

Discrimination, wisdom, such and such. And suchness is a word for enlightenment. So here's a little formula for you. Okay, I notice things appear. I discriminate. I add a little wisdom and see that you don't have to discriminate. And wow, enlightenment. It's this simple. But you've got to put yourself in it and enact it. Okay, so the emphasis here is appearance. These are formulas.

[24:34]

You're half the formula. Everything you see is the other half of the formula. And it doesn't work unless you're the other half of the formula. The initiating half of the formula. So you're sitting here in our new Zender. And In Crestone, the Los Angeles-New York planes pass overhead, nothing else. Other than that, it's pretty silent. But here we have tractors. This is just as good. So you're sitting Zazen. And you find yourself bodily and mentally fairly still.

[25:38]

And then a tractor comes by. And in comes the tractor. And it comes right into your interiority. And you can say, hmm, shall I name it? You're practicing the five dharmas. Maybe I won't name it. When I don't name it, what do I find? This stillness is also a space. So the tractor passing through my interiority, or this interiority, added the experience of space to stillness.

[26:43]

Now you have stillness plus space. And you could name the tractor or you don't have to name the tractor. You can let the sound oscillate, vibrate in you. And feel its momentariness. And now you can go back, not to stillness, but to space. Now you've added space. And you can rest in this space. What is this? This is the initial, the source experience of the Dharmakaya.

[27:57]

The Dharmakaya is Buddha as space. I love Sukhir. She said the historical Buddha is not the historical Buddha. And what he meant was, the historical Buddha is the Buddha who realized he wasn't historical, but he was also the Dharmakaya, Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya. He knew that the experience of what a Buddha is, is ahistorical. And it belongs to us too. And you enter into it as simple as looking at appearance and not momentariness as what you start enacting. So the first of the four marks of the dharma, this is your first application.

[29:11]

in zazen you experience thought appearing maybe you don't invite them to tea you feel body appearing maybe you don't invite that to tea you feel the world appearing in your Feel, sensorial feel. And you feel you yourself appearing as a self, a non-self, as a bunch of memories. You feel all that appearing. So you really get to know the experience of appearance. It's hundreds of forms. You have lots of Zazen, you know. Come to another sashin, we can try some more.

[30:35]

So first you make clear the experience of appearance. And then you notice duration. And there's some duration. And then you notice how the duration durates. And how you participate in wanting it to have duration or releasing it. And then you watch it dissolve or change. And then more and more you get the skill, the yogic skill of just wiping it clear. Then you're practicing, then you're enacting the four dharmas.

[31:44]

It's not a description, it's an enactment. And this simple four dharmas can be the whole of Buddhism. Let's take to finish in my now short lecture, at least from when I started, the statement of Linji. Sometimes I take away the person and leave the surroundings. Okay, sometimes I'm sitting in stillness and I take away the tractor and the person and I just feel space.

[32:50]

manchmal in der Stille sitzend, nehme ich den Trecker weg und die Person und sitze einfach im Raum. So the first, I take away the surroundings, I take away the person and leave the surroundings, this is maybe the seed of the Dharmakaya. Dieses erste, ich nehme die Person weg und lasse das Umfeld, das ist vielleicht die Quelle des Dharmakaya. Mm-hmm. And then I take away the surroundings and leave the person. So the tractor, I don't name the tractor. I'm in the midst of this space, but this space is also somehow now a field of experience. Also ich benenne den Trecker nicht, aber ich bin inmitten dieses Feldes. a field of experience. Maybe Linji is pointing to the Sambhogakaya.

[33:51]

And then Linji says, sometimes I take away both and sometimes I take away neither. This is the dynamic of the Nirmanakaya Buddha. The ahistorical Buddha. When you're with people, the dynamic of engaged enlightenment is you take away both person and surroundings, and then suddenly you reinstate person and surroundings. And this is the dynamic, the rooted dynamic of nirmanakaya practice. Yeah, okay. I'll start with appearance. Locating yourself in appearance.

[35:13]

Fully locating yourself in appearance and discovering what that is. What a relief it's doable. Or at least realizable. And it's such fun to be here with you that I may make the lecture last a little longer. No, I think I'll stop.

[35:46]

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