Congratulations on your baby. This is the third generation in your line being exposed to the Dharma. It would be wonderful and something of a miracle if I see her child, his, her child, exposed to the Dharma. It would be something of a miracle, but I'm happy to last that long. Marie-Louise, you've gotten so much younger. Marie-Louise, you've gotten so much younger. Okay. Dogen, let's start with Dogen.

[01:10]

Yeah, why not? Dog gone. Dogen said, yes, he said lots of things. One of the things he said was, in the whole... Throughout the whole earth there are hundreds of grasses. And yet each blade of grass is the entire earth. Yeah, sounds kind of zenny. When he said Dogen said, your practice begins with this study, studying this.

[02:13]

What? Yeah. Okay, it's a simple statement. He's not trying to fool us. Yeah, you can go slowly. What can he mean? What? I mean, we're not talking philosophy here. It's somehow each object is interdependent with all others and so etc. Yeah, but of course we also mean that. But the emphasis here is not on such philosophical, ecological views. But our human experience, our human activity.

[03:21]

He also said, Your continuous practice which is actualized is your continuous practice right now. Continuous practice which can be actualized is your continuous practice right now. And the now of this continuous practice does not originally belong to the self.

[04:21]

Mm-hmm. continuous practice which can be actualized is your continuous practice just now. So that's, yeah, that's, yeah, maybe a statement of fact. But it also is a statement of faith.

[05:22]

We're really looking at some simple statements. But we have to look at them carefully. So it's also a statement of faith. Do you have faith? Are you sure that your continuous practice just now can be actualized? Is continuous practice, which can be actualized, Dogen says it so simply in a repetitious way and I'm repeating it too so the full implications of these simple statements can get to us. The first is, can you have faith that your continuous practice can be actualized?

[06:46]

Yeah, you need this. You need to have this faith. Without this faith, the chemistry of practice won't work. And I think right here, many of us fail. We can't feel ourselves in the world, personally or psychologically, in a way that we can feel in our activity the potential or the possibility, the likelihood of actualization or realization. So let's say our study can begin right there. For some of us it would be a psychological revolution to just

[08:09]

accept our own life, our activity of our own life that thoroughly. And some of us, maybe we don't have the psychological you know, kind of blocks or negativity. Yeah, but still we need a shift in view. Enlightenment, realization, actualization. Yeah, that's good enough. It can't be anywhere else but here.

[09:24]

And it can't be anywhere else but in our activity. And continuous practice ripens this potential. And continuous practice in some ways itself is enlightenment. But continuous practice is also not enlightenment, but ripens us for enlightenment. And these two statements are not contradictory. They're just aspects, reflections off the facets of the world. Facets like of a jewel. And then, okay, so let's say we get that far.

[10:32]

And then we have the now of this continuous practice. does not originally belong to the self. Okay, what kind of now of continuous practice does not belong to the self? Or in our experience, it may actually belong to the self. But Dogen says it didn't originally belong to the self. So can we carry this insider recognition in our activity?

[11:45]

That what appears to our senses and appears to our mind did not originally belong to the self. Even if almost all the time, for you, everything is inflected by self. But you added self. It didn't originally belong to the self. Mm-hmm. If you want to know human doings, human endeavors, Purify this noble form.

[13:03]

Hold a jar. Carry a monk's bowl. This isn't different than saying each of the hundred grasses is the entire earth. Purify this noble form. What's that? What's this? What's that? What's this? You don't have to translate. Your body, your mind, your activity.

[14:08]

If this is your noble form, what else could be your noble form? How does this form of body, mind and activity? And we're not talking, of course, about entities. So we have to speak about body, mind and activity because how else do we exist except through activity? Now I've spoken recently a number of times about the four postures. And the sense of the four postures is something all of us should be aware of. And the four postures are walking, standing, sitting, reclining.

[15:15]

But they're also called postures, and I'm using the distinction between posture and position, It's okay with me. You know, as I say, this is a position. Not very noble. How do we make it a little more noble? Bring some energy into it, some life and some aliveness into it. If you do, you can feel. Yeah, it's more alive.

[16:18]

So these postures we live our life in, walking, standing, sitting and reclining, each one has the as a posture to be purified. To be brought into aliveness, into energy. And to hold a Which requires a certain balance and paying attention. And carrying a monk's ball.

[17:28]

Yeah, and we have this Oyoki practice, which is really about this, what Yao Shan is talking about. The monk's bowl without handles. Of eating the way we eat with our hands, with our body, with our two hands. And with each other. Oryoki is just a way to create a territory of eating, which includes the body, ennobled body, in heightened connectedness with each other. in an exaggerated connection with each other.

[18:38]

Yeah, but, you know, when you reduce it to what... These guys are using kind of magical words. But they're still saying something very simple. What is this now which can be actualized? Which, Dogen goes on to say, is the seed of all the Buddhas and Buddha ancestors. And is the practice of the Buddhas. And Your continuous practice sustains the Buddhas. And, you know, don't just accept this or think this.

[19:44]

These kinds of statements you need to study or incubate What is bebruten? Is that the word for incubate? Is that a good word for incubate? There's various... Okay, that's the one we used before. Good. I feel like I'm sitting in my black cushion incubating it. Ich fühle mich, als ob ich auf meinem schwarzen Kissen sitze und es bebrüte.

[20:47]

Ja, Sean, I said I'd say who he is. You know, we chant him in the morning as, in Japanese, Yaku-san Igen-dai-osho. And he was ordained by the sixth patriarch. But he's the disciple of the sixth patriarch's disciple. No, excuse me. Yaoshan is a disciple of Qing Yuan. I have to get it straight here. Yaoshan, no, no. Yaoshan is a disciple of Shido. Shido is a disciple of Qing Yuan. And Qing Yuan is a disciple of the sixth patriarch. So this goes back to the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries.

[21:58]

So Yaoshan asked Matsu. And Matsu was the other great disciple at that time of the Sixth Patriarch. Well, now the Sixth Patriarch, I'm sorry, I'm not thinking very clearly, of the same time as Sekito Kisen. I didn't plan to say all these things. I have to sort it out in my mind. I'm sorry. Anyways, there was the sixth patriarch, and he had two disciples, and his main two disciples were Matsu and... What is Sekito's name in Chinese?

[23:38]

Shido. Oh, yeah, that's right, Shido. And Yao Shan studied with both Shido and Matsu. So this is the very beginning of Zen Buddhism in China. And Shido wrote the Sandokai, which we chant sometimes in the morning. Yeah, and is, yes, studied also for teaching transmission. Okay. So, Yaoshan said to Matsu, I've studied the twelve divisions of the scriptures.

[24:52]

And the three vehicles, the three ways of teaching people of various different capabilities. And the three vehicles are? Vehicles like the car. Yeah. You said two words, vehicles. Vehicle. Just vehicles, okay. Yeah. And the three vehicles. Jana, like Mahayana means the great vehicle. Yeah. So he says, I'm familiar with these, I've studied these. But what is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West? And this was, you know, Bodhidharma time was about 300 years earlier. And eight generations earlier. Mm-hmm. Maybe she wants to give the lecture.

[26:20]

At this age they learn early, they learn fast. So I studied these things, but what is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West? Again, we've got this unusual answer. Mm-hmm. In the being of time, Mm-hmm. Raise the eyebrows and wink the eyes. In the being of time, don't have him raise the eyebrows and wink the eyes. And to have him raise the eyebrows and wink the eyes, is right.

[27:38]

And to have him raise the eyebrows and wink is not right. Okay. So these kind of statements are all to put you or Yao Shan In the context of your experience. Of your experience. Your own experience. Because it's Yaushan asking the question. He asks about Bodhidharma. Er fragt nach Bodhidharma. So Bodhidharma is the subject. Also ist Bodhidharma das Thema.

[28:41]

But it's Yaoshan asking, so Yaoshan asks also the subject. Aber es ist Yaoshan der fragt, also ist Yaoshan's Frage auch das Thema. So it's your raising the eyebrows, your winking. Bodhidharmas and yaushans and yours, each of yours. And this is linking us with the most basic human endeavors, human activity. We raise the eyebrow. We open the eyes wide. But we also blink. And sometimes we don't raise the eyebrows and we don't blink. This is an activity that doesn't originally belong to self.

[29:58]

It belongs to Dogen. It belongs to Yaoshan. It belongs to Matsu. It belongs to you. It belongs to each of you. It belongs to me. What is this activity which doesn't originally belong to self? In which we actualize our life through continuous practice. Now, what I've been talking about the last few talks, which many of you haven't been here for.

[31:01]

So I have to say this, speak in a way that you can pick up on what I'm saying. I was speaking about the difference between the mind of knowing and the mind of noticing. It's just the activity of we notice things and we know things. Es ist einfach diese Aktivität von wir bemerken Dinge und wir wissen Dinge. It's the most ordinary thing we do. Das ist die gewöhnlichste Sache, die wir tun. We carry the orioke bowls, hold a jar full of milk or water or whatever. Wir tragen die orioke Schale oder halten ein Glas mit Milch oder was auch immer. We see the hundred grasses. Wir sehen die hundert Gräser.

[32:06]

But do we see each form, each blade of grass with the feeling that it's the entire earth? Do we have faith in this noticing that this is the continuous practice which can be actualized? How do we come into this territory which Yashan and Dogen and these other ancient Buddhas are pointing out? How study begins, how practice begins, So it's as simple as the difference between a mind of knowing and a mind of noticing.

[33:19]

But why should such a little simple thing that we all can do have a mind of noticing instead of knowing perhaps? How can that really make any difference? Well, our mind is actually built up of habits. You know, psychological events. Personal experience. And it accumulates and makes our mind. So we can take... We can use a habit to change our habits. So I'm suggesting you develop a habit of noticing... first and most, more than knowing.

[34:36]

And if you notice rather than know, you'll find yourself closer to a now that didn't originally belong to self. So first you know you want to have some sense of the difference between knowing and noticing. And then with your breath and body and attention, You want to make noticing more noticing the source. Looking into the source. As Dogen said, this now is the seed of all Buddhas and Buddhist practice.

[35:45]

So we're making a distinction between the mind of knowing and the mind of noticing. Something within all of our capacity. And I'm saying if you deepen this noticing and it becomes the foundation of your mind the foundation in the sense that you're more connected with the world of the senses and the physical world. with the world of the senses and the physical world. So in a way you're locating your mind, locating, stabilizing your mind in the world of the, in the physical world, in the world of the senses.

[36:50]

It's a way to stabilize your mind. And it's also a mind of transformation. Because you're shifting your sense of continuous practice or continuous reality out of thinking, out of being a foundation in thinking. into a foundation in moment-by-moment noticing, which makes you feel more connected You feel a widening sense of engagement, of connectedness.

[38:21]

And a widening sense of awareness in this world of the hundred grasses. Yeah, so practice is this simple, really. But it works when it's continuous. When it approaches being continuous. And when you have the energy and ease and faith that this is the basic human doings which we share with each other. and share with the Buddhas and Bodhidharma and Yashan, etc.

[39:42]

Then there's our habits of thinking, our necessary thinking, our psychological habits are added to this. And we may have to change some of those things in order to practice. What we're trying to do is not change that so much, but first of all get underneath it with a new foundation mind. We could call looking into the source. Marlene Kliefert, who was here, left a while ago. She's a potter. And she's given me more pots than I can use.

[40:54]

But I don't, you know, if it's beautiful, I don't have to use it. I just like it. And I've got three on my windowsill upstairs. And sometimes I'm just sitting there doing nothing happily. And those three pots are in the windows across the room on the windowsill. And one is, yeah, in the form of a Japanese tea bowl. I don't know if you could use it as a tea bowl, but it more or less is the form of a Japanese tea bowl. And the one in the center is kind of just a real basic vase, sides and a bottom, open at the top.

[42:15]

And a kind of cloud-like pattern in the unglazed but fired surface. And a pattern of clouds unglazed, but fired. Yeah, and the other one on the right is, yeah, I'm pretty sure it comes from a Japanese vase that's behind the Buddha at the entry to the Zendo and Creston. It's a partly opened lotus bud with various petals. So I sit there and I can feel them. And I can non-think them.

[43:37]

And here I'm speaking about the Yaoshan story I told you last time. A monk asked Yaoshan in steadfast sitting what do you think I think non-thinking. Think non-thinking. And the monk says, how the hell do you do that? No, the monk says, how do you think non-thinking? And Yashan said, beyond thinking. Now, you get a kind of picture here now You know, we have all the teachings of Buddhas, of the scriptures, twelve divisions and the three vehicles.

[44:40]

And most of these guys knew, yeah, a lot about Buddhism. But when they really talked about practice what really these teachings are about. It's raising the eyebrows and blinking. It's holding a jar. Ennobling this form. It's noticing The blade of grass is the entire earth. At what pace can you open yourself to whatever appears? To the object, sense object. and find it awakening the mind and senses, which is knowing the sense object.

[46:07]

Sorry. That there's the sense object. And there's noticing it fully enough that it awakens the feeling of the mind and senses, which is knowing it. Okay, there's the sense object. Well, it's good that you don't get it, because we should make this clear. There's the sense object. And if you really look at this sense object, this object itself, you've got a minute, I think, today. This object itself represents winter branches which don't look like they're really blossoming until spring comes. So we're all winter branches waiting for spring. But spring is always present.

[47:11]

So this is actually the psychedelic mushroom, soma. And this is little ones. And Buddhism long ago said, we're not going to use psychedelics, we're going to use our body and mind for the same transformative practices. Alice in Wonderland. I never thought of trying to eat it. Anyway, so here's an object. And if you look at it carefully, if you open your senses to it, if you feel it, you feel your own mind noticing it and senses noticing it. And it creates a heightened feeling of connectedness.

[48:33]

And then the single blade of grass really is the entire earth. So this kind of noticing, not knowing, but noticing, and the habit of this is at the center of practice. So looking at the three parts of Marlene, There's no way I can't know that this one on the left looks like a tea bowl. And I can feel Marlene's own inspiration in it.

[49:36]

And I can feel also the history of tea bowls. And the middle one is, you know, vases. Vases have existed for thousands of years. And then there's one that looks like a lotus bud. I've never seen it in the West, so it's an Asian concept of a vase. And we have one at Crestone, so she probably got the inspiration there. So I can know all three vases. And I can't help but know something about the three vases. including I know Marlene made them gave them to me and so forth but I'm not that's just sort of a kind of embankment of thought in the background embankment like the side of a stream or something like that the bank of a stream

[51:19]

Yeah, but I'm not thinking those things. They're just there. And what is there? The presence of mind is more present than thinking. The feel of the presence of mind is the content of the experience, not the content of thoughts. And when the feel of the presence of mind is the content of the experience, This is what Yaoshan means by non-thinking. Ya, okay. Raising the eyebrows, blinking, or not. Thank you for translating. No, he won't.

[52:49]

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