I was thinking of a saying by a Zen teacher, not Dogen, but a different one. When he was asked, what's the teaching of an entire lifetime? He said, an appropriate response. and he answered with an appropriate answer. This is a special claim in Zen, this necessity to always respond to the teaching. Which means to respond to life.

[01:02]

There's always life. Always appearing in front of us and we respond. And we might think that we respond or not. But actually, we always respond. digging our own grave. So the question is not do we respond, but how do we respond? Are we responding from our heart's desire, from the strongest, deepest place that we can come from?

[02:12]

Or are we responding from our woundedness, from our conditioning? Or always some mixture of both. Anyway, we are called forth to respond moment after moment. So I thought this morning we should start by checking our response. So maybe we can all more or less talk at the same time. and respond to what we've been experiencing and hearing so far in the seminar.

[03:25]

So maybe we can work in pairs, two people talking together. And I think there's the right number of people in the room for this. So maybe if Baker, Roshi and I work together, then everybody else can find a partner nearby to one another. And the only requirement would be that you can speak the same language or understand each other in some language. So why don't we now just begin by everybody turning around your cushions so that you're facing close by with someone that you can talk to.

[04:27]

So we can just move around a little bit. Yes, a little bit. But I can go down there, yes. I have the whole piece. Don't start yet. I don't know. Not yet, not yet. Just find first. So there's a structure to it. Okay, so the structure goes like this. First of all, I'll ring the bell and we will all return to silence.

[05:28]

and during that time you can practice think not thinking. In other words, the point of the silence is not to rehearse in your mind what you will say, but simply to return to think not thinking. And then that's when I ring the first bell. Then I'll be tired for that. And then when I ring the second bell a few moments later... One of the two of you will begin to speak. And this will be a monologue. Only one person is speaking. The other person is practicing not thinking while listening to the other person.

[06:47]

Just completely listening without thinking about what you're going to say. Or whether what the other person is saying is good or bad, or trial or not. But simply listening. And the person who's speaking is going to say whatever her response is, to the experience of now in the seminar. Maybe it has to do with a thought or an idea that you have. Or maybe not. Maybe nothing like that. whatever it is that your response is now to this moment. And five minutes will go by.

[07:57]

And in that five minutes, you just keep talking. And if you have nothing else to say, then don't say anything. And if you have nothing to say, then say nothing. But it's still your five minutes. But possibly your expression for part of that time might be silent. Or maybe you have many, many things to say. And after five minutes when the bell rings, you hardly even start. So when the bell rings back at the end, what do you do? And then when we all hear that next bell, we'll all return to our... breath and breathe three conscious breaths. And then the bell rings again and the next person has five minutes.

[08:59]

And then after that we'll ring the bell and we'll end. So that's how we'll structure this small response. Okay. the first person we begin to speak.

[10:28]

Thank you very much. And when they said, you must go to something, and you freshness us sharp. When they said, you must go to something, and you freshness us sharp. When they said, you must go to something, and you freshness us sharp. When they said, you must go to something, and you freshness us sharp. I would have to go out as soon as I see a human. Did they really have the same emotion? Basically, here is the thing. I have to get back to the actual world. I'm not going to let the rest of the world listen to me. I have to say the same thing. I have to say the same thing. I have to say the same thing. I don't know.

[12:16]

I don't know. Thank you. Thank you. Just to name. Just to name. I had a sort of, you know, it was a great job. It was. [...] Thank you very much.

[13:27]

We agree that by doing things like that, you should learn that you should invest in what's going on in the project. And if you have time, you can do it. You learn that you have to do it. That's true. But you have to do it. That's true. Thank you very much. Right hand was behind the subject, but it's actually Japanese. In fact, they're all written in a foreign language. They're translated more or less. I couldn't understand. It doesn't get it. So I'd be involved in the work of this show, and I'll think about it at the end of the day.

[14:57]

So it gives us physics to see whether we can try to work with these effects to try to make sure that we can sell it. It's precious to me, Harry. We'll tell you what we've done. It's actually quite a secret. Something I've been in the park doing to ourselves. Do you know why I bring you here? We don't have any case. I agree. It's a business. [...] So three breaths. Five, five, you see it? What's the question, please?

[16:18]

What's the question? I would never do that. I would never do that. I was in the 17th century.

[17:38]

I was in the 18th century. [...] Yeah, that's right. Thank you very much. And I don't know if there's any other way I can get through this.

[18:49]

It's like, it's [...] like, Yeah, nothing's going to happen. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. This is St. Alder, Dara. You know, the best club I've had in all my life. The best club I've had in all my life.

[19:51]

St. Alder. St. Alder. And then I'd pause over there for a little bit. And then we'd play a little bit. And then we'd play a little bit. And then we'd play a little bit. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know. I don't know. I'm very proud of the way I'm not supposed to talk to you, isn't you?

[21:16]

You're not proud of me, too. You're not proud of me. You're not proud of me. Thank you. Let's move our seats back to where we were in the beginning. So before going on, let's hear some of these things that are on people's minds.

[22:32]

Before we continue, let us hear what is in your mind. When you mentioned yesterday your wonderful first experience with Dogen, you described it as either you did it with the healing aspect of it, it struck with multiple tools, exactly as I, it was like my first experience when I read that. ginger blood, go on. And at that moment I wouldn't have dared to express it like that healing quality. But it was exactly what it was. And then I spoke to you about the building of Darwin as a builder. And I learned that you can't physically build anything, obviously, like monasteries. I suddenly realized that we are building on Dogen. Right now, when we do what we're doing, I haven't that thing, you know. And so we say here that he built something what inspires us, eternity of latest, to still build and shape that phenomenon of what we call Zen, is like the essence of building, what he built.

[23:53]

Do you want to translate yourself, or should I? Yeah, Peter. Because if you go on too long, it's hard to do it. No one has said, of course, that we have the first encounter with Tobin, and that made me very worried, because exactly as I was, Tobin had the first encounter with Genjoko, and she had the first encounter. And above all this healing aspect that was part of it, which I never dared to mention. And then yesterday we talked about this Dobbin as a builder. And he apparently didn't build it himself or build it on his own. But what he did is, it becomes so clear to me, that what we do here is building. Yes, that's what I do. That's interesting.

[24:55]

As you were talking, I think actually Dogen himself didn't make a building, but he did Eheji, the current monastery, which is very extensive, he didn't build. But the original monastery, the buildings, he did cause to be built by builders. So while you were talking, it's interesting, he has now... He even wrote fundraising letters. To some extent. Maybe we should write some fundraising letters and sign Dogen.

[26:11]

Or reproduce his letter. Say, I feel the same way. But what it made me think is that the building is for the purpose of People creating connection together. So the building fosters a life, a form of life. And I think that when someone raises funds and builds a building, they hope that the existence of the building will strengthen and foster that form of life into the future more strongly than without the building.

[27:11]

Also, wenn jemand so einen Fundraisingbrief schreibt, dann hofft er schon, dass das Gebäude, das damit erbaut werden soll, dass das in die Zukunft reingeht und auch das unterstützt wird durch das Gebäude. So the real meaning of the building is in not just the physical building, but the whole form of life that is beyond the building. And the form of life includes things like this? And certain words that we read or chant. Emotions, thoughts, physical gestures of many sorts. A way of cooking and eating food.

[28:17]

A veg, a veg, a way. And I think it's all of this that becomes a wholeness, which is a healing. So the challenge, I think, is how to preserve a way of life, a form of life, of wholeness in the middle of what I think is a fairly confusing contemporary world. Because I think you can't reject and dislike the world, even if it is confusing and destructive.

[29:35]

But if you don't find a way, a form of life within that world, I think you could be lost very easily. Many of us are lost. Sometimes without knowing we're lost. So I think that's what we're trying to do, it seems. And with all these different ways and all these different elements of a form of life. Other things that came from your conversations, please share. Yeah. And you spoke yesterday about not thinking.

[30:53]

It was for me as if you are drawing a map. And my responsibility was, and I hadn't been aware of that, that I had the feeling I have to follow that map. And I was in this feeling of to think, the not thinking. That made it possible for me to go back to the way you described in finding the home. And yesterday you also spoke about that being connected and being settled cannot exist without another.

[32:06]

And that makes really sense to me in case of what I experienced and what made me to follow you. That we are different and I am not you and you are not me. That we are different and I am not you and you are not me. But we have this common space that connects and in this space we can meet each other. And I want to thank you for that. Thank you for your beautiful words. Other things? Yeah. Yesterday You spoke about when you hear something, like the birds or the tractor, the window, that it's... Anyway, this is what I wrote down.

[33:27]

It might not be what you said. Excuse me, let me translate. Yesterday you talked about how it is when you hear something, for example the birds or the tractor, and I wrote something down about that. It's not outside the body. It is not outside the body. It is not inside the body. So the body is not really the body. I look forward to thinking about that a lot. I don't know if that's what I said, but it sounds really good. I like it. You must copy it down and give me a copy. Yeah. I had the unexpected experience when I followed your instructions to simply talk about what appears in the mind.

[34:42]

than to listen to the other person speaking what is on his mind, with the instruction to do this by thinking, not thinking. I had what felt like a very clear physical analogy to the instruction. That I had to listen without physically or orally responding. And this created a A new sensation of being connected but also not participating in the response.

[36:08]

Did everybody understand what he was talking about? Yeah. That's a wonderful feeling, isn't it? Liberating, I think. Did you feel that way about it? I'm not sure. I was surprised. I'll let you know. Well, if even in a small measure I understood what you were saying, Because the more intimately we speak the more possible it is that we don't understand each other.

[37:10]

Even though at the same time we clearly do understand each other. But then when we translate that understanding into words and concepts we might go off. But if I did understand what you were saying, then in my experience, when I have that feeling, I do feel it as a very liberating kind of experience. Because it's like throwing yourself away. To me, anyway, it's a very burdensome thing. They have to be dragging yourself around wherever you go.

[38:18]

It's like having a big, heavy lot of luggage that you travel with. And I'm not referring to Baker Oshie's traveling habits. I mean... I mean... But you have more luggage than I have. I mean another kind of luggage. That's much heavier than... then the kind of luggage, heavy as it may be, at least somebody can lift it up. So to be able to put all that down and not have to be dragging that around is a wonderful feeling to me. If that's what you meant, then that's how I feel about it.

[39:26]

And if not, then try something else. But, you know, it strikes me that I'm thinking about Bekiroshi speaking the other day about working with phrases. Which is, you know, something very foreign to our usual way of looking at things. And you could say that all these things that all of you are reporting this morning, which are different sometimes in Miriam's case, specific words, Or, in the other cases, not necessarily words, but a kind of specific sort of feeling that arises in the seminar.

[40:46]

You could say that these are phrases that have arisen out of, so far, our seminar. And these phrases are treasures. Each one, the people who spoke, each one spoke of a treasure that that he or she has found so far in the seminar. The important point is that such a thing, usually the way we live, such a thing comes to us and it becomes a wonderful memory. I remember in the past the summer of 2007 when I was in Johanneshof and I was at this seminar and I had this wonderful experience. I cherish it always. and it changed me but practicing with phrases is a little different from that it doesn't erase that kind of thing or say that that's not still worthwhile and valuable but there's something else again

[42:15]

In other words, that kind of experience that I just described is valuable and working with phrases doesn't obviate or erase that kind of experience, but it adds something else. Okay. What it adds is that we can take this phrase and we can practice with it going forward. We learn how to bring it up and investigate through using it as we go forward. So that rather than just being a memory of an important experience of the past, it becomes constantly something to renew us in the present. And it keeps opening up further and further as we go on.

[43:42]

Until we exhaust it or it seems as if we exhaust it. And then another phrase might arise that we then go forward with. So I think that practice is this ongoing sense of investigation, encounter and response with a living reality. with a living reality. So... Oh, I forgot.

[44:55]

Sorry. Can I say something? Yeah, please. Do you find a poem starts when a phrase finds you and asks you to find it? Yes, except usually it's not a phrase in words. Sometimes it might be words, but usually it's... A feeling without words that leads me to come to words. Oh, I remember now what I was going to say before. that this process that I was talking about of working with phrases is inherently liberating in the way I was speaking in response to Paul because when you are dragging around all of your luggage

[46:09]

You can't practice that way. And when you do practice that way, it means that you've And if you practice this, it means that you put your luggage aside, at least as long as you deal with it. And that's why it's so liberating and so joyful to be engaged in living in that way. So I think one of my thoughts, you know, returning to the sort of metaphors of classical Zen, is that the important thing about, we think of, you know, koan work. Working with phrases is a form of koan work. And just like in school, when we think of koan work, we're focusing on getting the right answer, like passing an exam in school.

[47:38]

But the point is the ongoing engagement with investigation. irregardless of answers. And that's the part. I think when Dogen, one of his main things he always talks about is And that is exactly what Dogen said. He said the answer lies in this ongoing process. That is the answer. To look at the next moment and be ready for it. That is the answer. Anything else somebody wants to say?

[48:47]

A couple more, maybe in person. I'm sorry, what's your name? Roland. I was surprised that your sentence indicating that you would speak a lot about thinking, thinking, not thinking, was leading to the contrary. It was leading to coming home and other funny, fuzzy feelings. Do you want to translate that before you go on? I was surprised yesterday that the sentence led to thinking, not thinking. Whereas the sentence that Rorschach quoted about one hair pierces myriads of holes would lead into this more, into what you have been mentioning, but it led to an intellectual concept of the function of the self. So I was really surprised by that, that this sentence, which was my expectation, would lead us into more Koan-like things, but simply led to a crystal clear model function of self.

[50:07]

So that is really an interesting interaction. What I was also fascinated by is what Mr. Roshi said about the hair that produces or reaches a myriad of cells, that this then leads to a model of the function of the self and not to what I had expected. And so you've been, for me, two poles. Actually, yesterday, the two of you represented in those two sentences. That was really as a choreography that was ever intended. We had it all worked out. We planned extensively beforehand. We practiced piercing for you. Actually, funny, fuzzy feelings are my specialty. Dennis, what did you want to say?

[51:11]

Oh, well, as Paul's collaborator, I have to say first of all, what a great listener I am. First of all, I have to say what a great listener Paul is. This morning I got to play with Sophie. Roland's help. That is partly what I was saying in very different kinds of words. Because my response to the seminar Both the things I tell him were very, very personal. You hadn't tell him that? Yes, I did tell him. That was very personal. Now, Bhikkhu Rinpoche used to say many years ago, 20 years ago or more,

[52:14]

Do not share your practice with anyone except me. And I was telling Paul about my zazen this weekend, because that was my response. Dare I say, two kind of breakthroughs for me. I've sat for 40 years now or something like that. And I've had, as I'm sure you know, a very great deal of difficulty. And this weekend I realized that I was trying to dominate. I was trying to... I want it to be the big mine.

[53:32]

Whoops. I was going to have all these treasures that you and Gershwin came to me before. And... I was getting such a cool reception from you all. Cool so much. But anyway, that wasn't quite what I wanted. Then I decided to ask in Zazen, please take me. Am I going to? Yes, and I got such a reaction that I reacted more and said, please take me. This related to something that then came up on the blackboard, because paying attention to the breath and then to the body, my body hurts that much when I sit this house in that I can't do anything else but to pay attention.

[54:45]

Mein Körper tut mir so weh, wenn ich Sazen sitze, dass ich also nur die Aufmerksamkeit zu meinem Körper geben kann. Aber dann die nächste Zeile, da heißt es Phänomena. Und ich habe die Welt ausgeschlossen, weil ich versucht habe zu dominieren. Instead of being open. And again, some of you look at me as someone who has been with me for so long and you take me so seriously. And I know nothing about this.

[55:55]

Let me try to figure it out. But you still looked at me like this. So last night I thought, well, I'm getting older and stiffer and heavier and more and more luggage. And I'm taking all this far too seriously. And then the New Testament kicks in. If you look at this bliss, if you become a little child. And then you play the Sophia. So I decided I'm already through that door. But then I decided, I am through the door and I can play and I can play with Sophia.

[56:57]

And Sophia arrived this morning.

[56:58]

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