Did you hear me calling for Sophia? No, okay. When I came down, I was told by our Denschel bell ringer that Sophia had gone off on an adventure on her own. Actually with Jakob, Jakob, Jakob, Jakob. Johan? Jakob? I want to know. Yeah, his name is Jakob. Jakob. Yeah, I call him Jak down and Jak up. Anyway, they went off together and, you know, they were in love, sort of. And one has to go to New Zealand and the other has to go to Colorado. And they're kind of depressed. So they, I don't know.

[01:02]

But anyway. Makes me think of the line that In the city, the mountain stream is muddy and cloudy. Maybe family life, too. But then water is water. That's what we're talking about, I guess. Hmm. Duggan says... Duggan. Duggan. Yeah, it says that Buddhas and Buddha ancestors swim in this samadhi. I'm sticking to the same point here, you see. And they practice, teach, and realize...

[02:07]

in this samadhi. And this swimming is also walking on the bottom of the ocean. Again, we have this metaphorical or analogical thinking. Because to speak metaphorically or analogically, it's really closer to experience. But how does Dogen know what the Buddha ancestors did?

[03:27]

I mean, he's one of them, but how did he know? How did he know, how did Dogen know what the Buddha ancestors did? I mean, he is one, but how could he know that? And how can we believe that? Because the Buddha died long before Dogen even appeared. How did he know what the Buddha ancestors did? Because it's his own experience. But how does he know his own experience? How can he know his own experience is the experience of the Buddha ancestors? Because in entering this experience himself, All the teachings and movement, gestures of our ancestors becomes apparent.

[04:36]

Now, does that mean that Dogen thinks, well, I'm some kind of big Buddha? I'm the Dharmakaya, I'm the Maitreya. I mean, he simply isn't thinking that way. What he means is he enters... the Buddha stream. Again, for in this yogic culture, which I'm trying to give us a feel for, we're talking about everything as an activity, as a lived body. The body is an activity, not an entity. So he's not thinking of the Buddha as some kind of entity.

[06:02]

That we compare and think is important in our mind. He's thinking of it, feeling it as a certain kind of activity. And he can see that when he himself is in the midst of this activity, the teachings appear in him. Even if he hasn't read them, they appear in him. And that he sees, if he happens to, he sees that the teachings that appear in him, the understanding, the wisdom that appears in him, is the same as the teachings that appear that he never knew about, that he comes on at some point in his life. Now you could step back and say, well, is this really true and is it really that it's... If you want to think about things like that, you can.

[07:14]

Yeah, that's taking some position outside your life. What did you say? Just make it short. Nothing's becoming of it if you think that way. Oh, well, that's true. Yeah, you're taking a position outside your own life and kind of comparing it to what, I don't know, somebody else might think or something. The water is wet. We feel the wetness of it. Yes, it's like that how we know this practice. So if I'm, yeah, in duksan, started duksan this morning.

[08:41]

In duksan, listen to people. Listen or I'm present, you know. Yeah, I'm, yeah. I can feel the Buddha stream. Yeah, I am. Read Dogen. I feel the Buddha stream. I feel the entering of the Buddha stream. If Dogen, you did ask, well, are you some big Buddha, Dogen? Um... If you kind of forced him to think about it that way, which is so obvious for us to think about it that way, but I guarantee you, it is extremely unusual for him to think about it. If he didn't think about it that way, he wouldn't have any experience of the Buddha stream.

[09:55]

But if you did force him to think about it, He'd say, well, maybe I'm a little small Buddha in the Buddha stream. There's small Buddhas and big Buddhas in the Buddha stream. And sometimes a small Buddha is a big Buddha. And entering the Buddha stream manifests the Buddha stream for others. Now, I seem to be, as we say, belaboring. Do you have that word? Belabor is to... Belabor is to... Say too often the same thing, overwork something.

[11:01]

I'm be-practicing this theme. But, you know, again, I've been practicing for a Westerner anyway a pretty long time. And my understanding is not that different from a long time ago and now. But the way my practice penetrates... fills my life. There is a big difference. Even if I am only a dwarf Buddha in this stream. Hmm. So I'm really trying, I'm surprised at myself actually, because I'm in the Sashin, I'm really coming over and over again to the same point.

[12:18]

Yeah, and by trying to present this I'm tired of saying yogic world, et cetera, like that. But what do I say? This world in which our Buddha ancestors thrived. How do I know this? I don't know. I just am quite sure. Then if I'm not right, I don't care. Because it's right anyway. I'm not trying to tell you it's true. I'm just saying, yeah. Maybe get a feel for the world of our context of our Buddha ancestors.

[13:24]

And maybe it, but maybe it is true, at least it's partly true. So I'm again trying to Just create the feel. Like, I mean, just, we chant, you know, the ten directions every day. Already there's a different world view in the ten directions. We think of the North is out that way somewhere, point that way. But they thought of north as coming toward them. The ten directions point toward you.

[14:25]

The eight compass directions and up and down. Up comes down through you and down comes up through you. Yeah, you... You hear it and heaven and earth and I have the same root. Myriad things and I have the same body. A 14th century poet named Stonehouse says the Dharma has no fixed shape. It... adapts according to conditions. It stirs the wind of stillness and makes transformation effortless. He's saying the same thing as Dogen.

[15:28]

Can you see it's the same thing? That the elements come together. The coming together of the elements, interior and exterior, is the ocean seal samadhi. Dharma has no fixed shape. Moment after moment, no fixed shape. It means you can't be in a mind that tries to make the world predictable. Or you know that part of your mind that needs the world to be predictable. But that's kind of a practical riff. The fundamental point of the fundamental stream is nothing has a fixed shape. And it's always adapting according to conditions.

[16:47]

And you're one of the conditions. It stirs the wind of stillness. Can you feel that as mind and activity and the kind of mind we... have through practice. So he said that. Then he says in his lecture, at this moment, what is it like? You can't feel that or answer that question, then what he said is no meaning. You can't feel that You can't feel and answer that? If you can't feel that at this moment, then what he's been saying doesn't have any meaning.

[17:49]

So while he's speaking, you yourself are at this moment, at this moment, at this moment. which has no fixed shape. Then he says this great thing. There's a Chinese concept of a bird called a pang, I think. Pang. Pang. Okay, let's call it a pang. Okay, which it has to be 90,000 miles above the sea. before it can unfold its wings. What a concept! How the hell does it get up to 90,000 miles?

[18:49]

It takes a great leap and then there's room enough to open its wings. This is an extraordinary metaphor for everything all at once, functioning. It can never be filmed. You get filmed, man. So the ten directions. Heaven and earth and I share the same root. Myriad things and I are the same body. Is that what you feel? Yeah, and you can tell the way in which they would feel that the directions come toward us.

[19:56]

They'd be well aware that our Buddha's in the West. This Buddha. We've got an almost 100-year-old building, and we've got a 500-year-old Buddha here. And it's also sitting toward the west. For people at that time, there would be a certain kind of power in it being on the west side of the Zenda. Yeah, and they would feel the garden in the east. And they would feel entering the zendo from the north means you come into a room with warmth. Yeah, so, I mean, each direction has a certain kind of power.

[21:11]

Yeah, but, you know, it's not just imaginary. We do, the sun is warmer from the south. For that reason, there are many temples in China called South Mountain Temple. And if you feel... the bird song that arises with morning light, first light. Yeah, the bird song you can hear, if you live in a place, you can hear the roosters over there and then the roosters there, or just the birds in a garden from first light moving from

[22:15]

East to west. So the West has a feeling of finality. The East has a feeling of appearing. And that's only the beginning of this feeling they had. The presence of the directions, so-called directions, at this location. So when you read in a story, so-and-so got up. and shook out his sleeves and walked to the west of the Zendo. That's different than walking to the east of the Zendo.

[23:16]

But we read it and we say, we don't imagine Wittgenstein got up and shook out his raincoat But you know, Wittgenstein didn't have sleeves like this. I don't like them. Now, the other day I was, two days ago or so, we had... Soup for lunch. We have soup every day for lunch. But the fragrance of the soup came in the door.

[24:17]

And as you know, I'm served last. You know, and I don't look around. Because looking around is a habit of seeking names. And if you look around and you see what the guy next to you is being served, then you think, oh, do I like that or not? Mm-hmm. This is conveying the self to myriad things. It's that simple. That act is conveying the self to myriad things. Yeah, so just simple rules like don't look around are to show us the habit we have of trying to name and then somehow take personal possession of the world.

[25:30]

Or to notice what other people eat and think, that person eats a lot, or this person likes this. We're implicitly comparing ourselves to them. That's conveying the self. to myriad things. So meal time is a good time to practice with not conveying the self to myriad things. So on that particular day, the fragrance of this soup came in the room. And I really like to not know what's coming.

[26:36]

Even though I approved of the menu, I usually forget what it's supposed to be. And then you guys cook something slightly different than I thought anyway. So I'm... Just I was really enjoying the soup. And then a word appeared in my mind. Barley. Barley soup. Then I forgot about it. And then when it came, it was broccoli soup. Broccoli soup. Yeah. And then Can you believe what I'm talking about? But when it went from barley to no barley, it had a wonderful mystery.

[27:37]

What is this soup? And when it came, Broccoli that seemed to be floating in my barley soup, somehow wasn't the end of the mystery. The mystery of the soup went beyond the broccoli or the barley. The Dharma has no fixed shape. You can really see and maybe you can see that the difference between the naming and just the soup

[28:47]

Vielleicht könnt ihr wirklich sehen den Unterschied zwischen dem Benennen und einfach der Suppe. And every soup is nameless. And even the tasting of it, the drinking, eating of it, does not reach to the end of the soup. Und auch das Schmecken, das Trinken oder Essen der Suppe reicht nicht ans Ende der Suppe. The same fellow, Stonehouse. The same fellow, Stonehouse. He was studied with his... He was one of the great poets and Zen masters of that time in China. Yeah, there's a book out, and it's quite a good book. It's worth getting if you wanted to.

[29:49]

Anyway... His teacher gave him, what was the phrase his teacher gave him? If you come to a place where Buddhas dwell, don't stop. If you come to a place where no Buddhas dwell, Hurry by. What do I mean, he said. What does this phrase mean? And Stonehouse just couldn't get it. And he tried various things. His teacher said, dead words, dead words. And finally he was going to go away. Yeah, typically, right?

[30:57]

Gave up. Down the hill, down the mountain he went. And suddenly he felt something and he went back. And he said, after the spring rains finally end, the oriole appears on a branch. His teacher said, ah, at last, at last. Now, how is that any different than anything else? How is that any different than any of these other phrases? Well, it's a reference partly to a statement of Confucius. Confucius said, when the Oriole rests, it knows where to rest. Is it possible that the aureole surpasses the human?

[32:12]

If the aureole rests, it knows where to rest. Do you know where to rest? Thank you very much.

[32:39]

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