Well, I'm not very good at following my own schedule, I'm sorry. Yeah, I hope you're fond of unexpected periods of afternoon Zazen. Otmar and I discussed it, as I said last time, it's for me a little short from lunch to... to find what I should say. But, yeah, and we agreed that there's no way to make it later, really, and have the schedule we do. Yeah, so my body just took the time, I'm sorry. You know, I For me to give a Tesho, I always want to find something I don't know how to say.

[01:13]

If I know how to say it, I'd rather not. Except for beginners, but for advanced people like you, I only want to say things I don't know how to say. And that takes me time. Certain kind of life to keep trying out. Yeah, and usually it takes me sometimes several, several teshos before I find how I really would like to say it. I found the same experience in the last ten weeks writing. how to put into writing immediately what I don't know how to say.

[02:23]

But this is part of practice, too, because you're... In sitting, there's always a... a certain mystery, I mean, on the other side of just the boring, on the other side of the boredom of sitting, there's the extraordinaryness of each of our lives that it's hard to touch. How do we reach that? Now, do you have the expression in German, a watched pot never boils? No, not in a fixed form. But you understand. Yes. Do you sit... Wale wante no shijijitsu koto getari Negawa kuwa nyorai no shenjitsu Giyo gogeshi tate imatsuran

[04:27]

I am overwhelmed by an intense and complicated drama. I wonder if I have ever seen anything like this before. Now that I can hear you, listen, accept and proclaim, I want to ask you the truth of this day. Well, I'm not very good at following my own schedule, I'm sorry. Yeah, I hope you're fond of unexpected periods of afternoon Zazen. Atmar and I discussed it, as I said last time, it's for me a little short from lunch to to find what I should say.

[05:35]

But, yeah, and we agreed that there's no way to make it later, really, and have the schedule we do. Yeah, so my body just took the time, I'm sorry. You know, for me to give a tesho, I always want to find something I don't know how to say. If I know how to say it, I'd rather not. Except for beginners, but for advanced people like you, I only want to say things I don't know how to say. And that takes me time.

[06:37]

Certain kind of life to keep trying out. Yeah, and usually it takes me sometimes several, several tail shells before I find how I really would like to say it. I found the same experience in the last ten weeks writing it. how to put into writing immediately what I don't know how to say. But this is part of practice too, because you're... In sitting, there's always a... A certain mystery, I mean, on the other side of just the boring, on the other side of the boredom of sitting, there's the extraordinaryness of each of our lives that it's hard to touch.

[07:58]

How do we reach that? Now, do you have the expression in German, a watched pot never boils? No, not in a fixed form. But you understand. Yes. It doesn't spill. What? It never boils or never spills? It never boils. It doesn't come to cooking. Yeah. A watch pot never boils. You stand. And this is our Jisha's only second day of being Jisha. And he discovered that a watched Roshi never arrives.

[09:07]

Finally, after 15 minutes, he started hollering at me. Not hollering, but I was asking if I wanted tea. I thought 3.45 was a very good time to give the talk. So now I have to give a very short talk. So what I'm trying to speak about, I find I'm trying to speak about in this third Winter Branches, is the transition from the early Buddhism to Mahayana and Zen Buddhism.

[10:12]

And I did talk about that, especially I think in the second Winter Branches, but maybe in more depth I'm trying to reach it now. And also... for us to recognize if the Mahayanas can change early Buddhism, we can change Buddhism. It's like a science. It's something that develops. But just because the Mahayanas could change Buddhism, we can also learn from how they changed Buddhism. They didn't so much change the content, they changed the conception.

[11:35]

So as I pointed out this morning, there's this change from a temporal command structure Yes, the command structure. to a, I can't know what word to use exactly, but the spatial immediacy. And when you shift, and in a way it's a shift from a more... perhaps ethical or moralistic even, and psychological basis.

[12:53]

Ethical, moralistic, and... Psychologically. Medical doctors are always forgetting about psychology. No. To a more, I would say, scientific view. And sometimes too philosophical. And often... cosmic at a level of, you know, the eyebrows becoming golden lights and everything. But in the teaching itself, it became more scientific. Okay. Now, We can go into more depth in this mind of acceptance.

[14:11]

And, you know, somebody, and often people say things to me like this, but someone said to me that perhaps I emphasize going through the pain too much. But I do feel that you have to take care of yourself. You have to make sure it's not damaging yourself. And if you can, you make friends with your pain, yes. Makes good sense. But sometimes you just have to go through damned unfriendly pain. And I find it helps because many, and in this world today, terrible things happen.

[15:16]

I feel I'm attending the funeral of the world as I once knew it, or I thought it was. I said that to someone recently at lunch or something. And they said that my grandfather in Germany said that just before the Second World War. But I think we're also now attending the funeral of the planet. Yeah. But I still feel Buddhism is one of the few things that I know, the only thing I know really, that might make things a little better or has the possibility of doing so.

[16:59]

So how can you practice, you know, in addition to Sashin, how can you practice this... mind of acceptance, which is also patience, and to the patience to let things speak to you from their side. Now, believe it or not, sometimes, because I know this expression from childhood, a watch pot never boils. I put water on to boil and then I stand there and wait for it to boil. And sometimes I think it would be nicer to read a magazine maybe.

[18:01]

But I just stand there, wait for it. And... Yeah, and the tea ceremony... Tea ceremony... Not the matcha tea ceremony or powdered tea, but the tea ceremony based on leaf tea. There was a Japanese woman who used to teach it here. When you pour it, you wait for all the drops to come out. Tip, tip, you know, right? Tip, tip, tip. You want to squeeze the damn pot, you know?

[19:23]

Is it exactly like that? Your translation was perfect. Okay. And it actually establishes a different mode of mind than the matcha tea ceremony establishes. It's a different mind than the tea ceremony where you handle the bowls a certain way. Sometimes. My practice is I go and wait in the longest line at the grocery store. And that's partly because I am very good at finding the shortest line.

[20:24]

I'm a driver who is never behind other cars. At an intersection. So I have to resist that tendency sometimes and do the opposite. And I find the mind... in the longest line at the grocery store, quite nice actually. And the people behind me and in front of me turn out to be really quite nicer than I had expected. But then when I start being willing to let people in in front of me, the people behind me get a little annoyed. But if you don't like sashins, you can practice this way. Sometimes you'll

[21:24]

A watched pot is harder than the pain of zazen. Now there's the four Brahma viharas. I should end in five minutes. I've got one extra minute after the four Brahma Viharas. We've lost one person already. Okay, they're sometimes called the four unlimiteds. In this book of Thich Nhat Hanh's, if you have it in German or English, it's also the four immeasurables sometimes.

[22:51]

Now, In early Buddhism, the emphasis is more, these are kind of a good way to be, to be a good person. Mahayana, they become, in a way, more scientific. Or perhaps psychological in another way. They become ways of establishing a spatial immediacy through our human nature. You know, environmentalists in the United States are often called tree huggers. Particularly by the logging industry. But I think it's good to practice with trees. There's various ways.

[23:52]

The way I would say now is, you know, you just go and visit a tree. And just look at it. Look at its bark, look at its step. A tree is continuously establishing and re-establishing its location. Also guckt seine Rinde an und seht, dass er einen Baum ununterbrochen seine Örtlichkeit immer wieder erneut herstellt. And the tree itself, I always say, is treeing. The bark, the insects, you know, etc. So you just face it. And try to face it with no views. And just feel what it feels like.

[25:15]

You have no views, you're just present to the tree. And if you can, And if you do add a view and see if the feeling of being present to the tree with no views and then Add, if you're going to add a view, add the view that you want to feel the tree from the tree's side. Because things are changing not just from... a sort of continuous version, a continuity of versions, a similar version.

[26:30]

But rather, things are changing from... one thing to another, to other. It goes from other to other to other. Okay, so you to me are other. Okay, you're asking... But I to myself, the next moment is other. You're not the only other. My next moment is also other. This is the depth of how change is understood in Buddhism. This is also a kind of creativity.

[27:35]

Each moment there's a new other, which is you yourself, so-called. And that is also, you know, could be called another word for uniqueness. Each moment is absolutely unique. Okay, so you're back with this tree you haven't hugged yet. You're back with this tree that you haven't hugged yet. And you're letting yourself feel it from its own side. Or you're just... Present to the tree with no views.

[28:37]

So we've got two things here. I want to add a third. I'm standing in front of the tree with no views. You're just there. Whatever the tree is. And then you add the view to feel it from the tree's side. And then you add the recognition of that which cannot be found. You can really experience that you can't really completely know the tree. There's a dimension of the tree that can't be reached, can't be found. Then you bring that state of mind to the practice of the four Brahma-viharas.

[29:49]

So it's unlimited practice. or immeasurable friendliness or kindness. And it's unlimited or empathetic joy. And it's unlimited or immeasurable equanimity. And immeasurable or unlimited kindness. Now, how do you feel that? We can't force ourselves to feel compassion. This is also a way to develop the mind of compassion. compassion or patience or mind acceptance. See if you can bring the mind that you felt in front of the tree

[30:53]

See if you can bring that to the presence of the next person you're with. See if you can be present with them with no views. As you felt it with the tree, see if you can reproduce that mind with a person. You're just being present. Present to a watched pot that doesn't boil. This is a mind of patience. And you try to let the person come to you from their side, and you notice when you bring your side, your views, to the meeting, you see if you can only feel their side.

[32:06]

Then you add the third feeling, or it's all at once, but let's say add. Of There's a dimension that can't be found. Because there's a dimension of mystery of what can't be reached. In yourself and in the other person. And through that we can develop equanimity. and empathetic joy and so forth. So the practice for these things is very mechanical.

[33:28]

Again, you get familiar with these four Brahma-viharas, which is part of the Abhidharma. And then you radiate them to your right. Always toward the translator first. And you see how well you can do. And you see how well you can radiate these things. And then you go to the left. And you go back in all four directions. And then up and down. And you can see. Actually there are invisible people. Your mother is on your right, your father is on your left. There are various people occupying the space around you. And it's actually not easy to penetrate these Brahma-Biharas. Radiation.

[34:31]

Now this is a way to use our human nature, not exactly in an ethical sense. But to use our human nature which feels differently in front of a person than a tree and to develop the spatial immediacy We can call it the periphenomenal space. The periphery, the perimeter phenomenal space. And then... you find the equality of each thing around you.

[35:43]

Ivan Illich spoke about the shift in, I think, about the 12th century to God in that the world was held in God's hand. That is a world that's not causal. Because the only connection is that God's hand is holding it. And that was the kind of Christian Ivan Illich was. But that's very similar to Buddhism.

[36:44]

Because the Mahayana emphasizes a mind where there's no before and after. A mind where everything is just paratactically next to you. Paratactically means each thing is in its place, but there's no connection. So you shift from the early Buddhist kind of temporal framework to a more spatial framework where everything is just beside each other. Everything is equal then, and that's what suchness means, when you feel the absolute equality of everything around you.

[37:45]

Equal not in their differences, but equal in their simultaneous arising. So one way to view the world, one worldview, you can bring in a Mahayana worldview. What's the connection between us? We're all simply falling together at the same speed. People in the past fell at a different time. We're falling at this moment.

[38:51]

And there's no solid ground. It's just that we're all falling at the same speed. Which is scientifically true. The Earth is turning. The solar system is moving in the galaxies. The galaxies are moving in several hundred million galaxies. And although we can't feel that, that is a fact. And maybe in Zazen sometimes everything just begins to have a loose connection. Everything is just beside you. So this is a view of the world rooted in suchness in the Mahayana vision. Which is quite different from early Buddhism. Because we teach all here together and we seem to be really just falling at the same speed.

[39:59]

And eventually we'll separate. Thanks. It wasn't as short as I would have liked himself.

[40:23]

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