So Dogen said in his Eihei Koroku, his Eihei records. And Eihei, which is his name, the name of his temple, means eternal peace. He said, sometimes I offer profound discussions. Er sagt, manchmal biete ich tiefgründige Gespräche, tiefgründige Diskussionen an. Simply wishing that you may be steadily intimate with the field of mind.

[01:09]

Steadily intimate with the field of mind. Stets vertraut mit dem Feld des Geistes. Seine Bemühung zu praktizieren, die uns diese Gelegenheit gibt. Uns diesen Vorschlag zu unterbreiten. His teaching focused on this possibility for us. Where do we establish our continuity? Do we have a choice? Do we have a choice not to be subject to our habitual thinking mind?

[02:21]

Which given any opportunity will immediately take over. Rush forward filling even the fraction of an inch, fraction of a centimeter space. So 90 days peaceful above. Ninety days of peaceful abiding. Two monk weeks of peaceful abiding. One day at Genrinji Temple. One period of zazen, one moment.

[03:23]

Where do we establish continuity Wo richten wir unsere Kontinuität ein? The possibility that practice period offers is to establish it in moment by moment awareness. Die Möglichkeit, die Praxisperiode gibt, ist die Kontinuität im Gewahrsein von Moment zu Moment herzustellen. In a perceptual immediacy. or an ungraspable awareness. And it is about doing something.

[04:25]

It's intending something and then acting on that intention. Man hat eine Absicht und handelt dann entsprechend dieser Absicht. Aber dann geht es darum zuzulassen, dass die Absicht uns leitet, anstatt dass wir die Absicht richten. Suzuki Roshi would often point to his nose when he'd say, myself. He'd say, me, and he'd point to his nose. And he'd say, Zen, the arrow points this way. It means it's not establishing continuity in our circumstances.

[05:42]

And our sometimes unceasing effort to make circumstances accord with what we like. In unserem manchmal unaufhörlichen Bemühen, die Umstände so auszurichten, dass sie dem entsprechen, was uns gefällt. Und dafür zu sorgen, dass die Umstände das vermeiden, was wir nicht mögen. Most of us may like the idea of eternal peace. Peaceful abiding. Sometimes circumstances don't support that. Where do we establish our continuity? My first summer I was in Tassajara, I had a friend named Dennis.

[07:04]

This was in 1968, and Dennis was in the army, the U.S. army, and he served in Vietnam. And he came back from Vietnam and he went to Tassajara. And he didn't like to talk about Vietnam very much. And he was my friend and I didn't force him to. But he had glasses that the army gives the soldiers. Like they give you a uniform, they give you a standard kind of set of spectacles. And a...

[08:04]

Often I would look at Dennis with his spectacles and I'd think about what he saw and what he didn't want to talk about. And maybe what he did and didn't want to talk about. And he was my friend. And we had a plan when we left Tassajara. This was in August. We were going to go to a Chan center in Chinatown in San Francisco. And we were going to sit with this Chinese group. And they had a practice they never laid down.

[09:17]

And they had a kind of bench that they sat on which had an angle so they never laid down. They always just sat. And we were kind of wide-eyed Dharma explorers and we wanted to go experience this group in Chinatown. And we also wanted to have Chinese noodles for dinner after we sat. This was a package deal. We were going to sit with this group, do good practice, and then we were going to have a really good Chinese noodle dinner. We get to this temple which is on an alley called Waverly Place right in the center of Chinatown.

[10:19]

Busy, very busy. And then we came to this place with the name Waverly Place or something, right in the center of Chinatown, a very busy place. And it was on the second floor, not fancy if you walk up the wooden stairs to go to this big room. And we start to sit Zazen with them because they sat all day, all night. They just sat. We weren't sure. People came and went, but basically they sat. And there was a street fair on Waverly Place.

[11:26]

Just that day, there was this street fair. And after about 15 minutes, there was a Chinese rock and roll band that was performing at this street fair. And after about 15 minutes, there was a Chinese rock and roll group that performed their music there. Right below the window where the Zendo was. And I'm not sure for how long, but it was at least 45 minutes. They played, and I remember really well, they played Benny King's Stand By Me. The same song. And I don't know exactly for how long, but for about 45 minutes they played Benny King's Stand By Me.

[12:31]

Always the same song. And you have to read, they're a Chinese rock and roll band playing on a street fair in China. They're not a great group of musicians. You have to understand that we're talking about a Chinese rock and roll band that plays on a small street market in Chinatown on the street. So we're not talking about great musicians here. with their Chinese accents singing the same song, which doesn't have a whole lot of lyrics to begin with. This was not the kind of eternal peace, peaceful, abiding, wonderful zazen we were looking forward to with this dedicated, hard-sitting group of Chinese practitioners. ganz herzige Saison auf das wir uns gefreut hatten mit dieser Gruppe chinesischer Praktizierenden.

[13:45]

So where do we establish our continuity? Wo stellen wir unsere Kontinuität her? We don't like what's on the radio we change the channel. Wenn es nicht gefällt was im Radio läuft dann machen wir einfach einen neuen Sender an. Adjusting the external circumstances to fit our needs. To avoid what's unpleasant. What does Dogen's heartfelt wish for us mean? Wishing us to be steadily intimate with the field of mind.

[14:47]

Not the kind of, he didn't say, I want you to be steadily intimate with exactly the kind of practice that you want. Field of mind present prior to dividing the world up. But continually informed and influenced by our present circumstances. One of our Buddha ancestors is Wansha Shibei. He lived in Tang Dynasty China. lived in the province of Min Min, M-I-N, Min grew up as a fisherman on the Nantai River at the age of 30 he dedicated himself to practice

[16:21]

Und im Alter von 30 Jahren hat er sich der Praxis hingegeben oder auf die Praxis eingelassen. And it said once he met his teacher, Xue Fang. Und es heißt, dass er einmal seinem Lehrer Xue Fang begegnet hat. He never left. Und dass er ihn danach nie wieder verlassen. He lived a very ascetic, spare life. Er hat ein sehr asketisches Leben. It said he only had one cotton robe, and when it wore through, he would put paper underneath it to keep himself warm. He is known for his clarity and directness in his teaching. So when a monk came to visit him, and asked, how do I enter practice with you?

[17:51]

He said, do you hear the sound of the creek? It was called Yuan Creek, Y-U-A-N in English letters. He said, yes. And Juancho said, enter there. What does it mean to enter at the sound of the creek? What does it mean when David Wagoner tells us that the forest breathes. Listen to the forest breathing. Is Xuanzang suggesting that there's a certain way we should be listening to things?

[18:56]

In accord with what we like or don't like? Is he saying we shouldn't listen to things? What does it mean to enter at a sound? We may say it means to enter the process of our hearing. Wir könnten vielleicht sagen, es bedeutet, in den Prozess unseres Hörens einzutreten.

[20:14]

Das Hören ist ein lebendiges Tor. Und den Prozess des Hörens zu hören. It doesn't mean not to hear the creek. It doesn't mean not to hear the Chinese rock and roll band for at least 45 minutes playing Stand By Me. Dogen's wish steadily intimate with the field of mind. Being intimate with the process of our aliveness which may in a particular situation be hearing.

[21:27]

Seeing, touching, smelling, tasting. while at the same time attending to the particulars of our experience. Knowing our experiencing is an act of knowing. Seeing mind in each situation. Being intimate with the process of seeing.

[22:33]

Hearing, feeling. When we talk about being connected with the myriad things. Sometimes Dogen says myriad things come forward and actualize the self. It means one way we may understand this is being intimate with the process of our intimacy itself. Seeing mind in each situation. Suzuki Roshi, the arrow points here. experiencing taking place in us, experiencing connecting us in the world,

[23:47]

zu erfahren, wie wir uns in der Welt verbinden. Unabhängig davon, ob uns gefällt, was auftaucht oder nicht. Manchmal gefällt uns nicht, was auftaucht und wir stimmen nicht damit überein. We may begin by accepting that's our experiencing in the moment. The default position is the process of our experiencing, not the content, which is continually changing. The intimacy is not separated from the content. It's one of the ways the intimacy expresses itself.

[25:07]

It means things that arise are both distinct and also not separate. They're both distinct but not separate. Die Dinge sind sowohl unterscheidbar als auch nicht getrennt. Ja, aber nicht getrennt. This place is a place the mind can't exactly reach. Our intention to reach into it begins with the mind, begins with the thought. but it becomes our aliveness when it matures and ripens in our awareness.

[26:21]

So I mentioned these things about that he was from a district called Min and that he was a fisherman by the Nantai River. Because he was a person like we are. His possibility is a human possibility. It's our possibility. A generalization we may make. In early Buddhism, the suggestions are often to follow the teachings of the historical Buddha.

[27:30]

In early Buddhism, the suggestion is often to follow the teachings of the historical Buddha. The teachings are prescriptive and directive. and they are extremely useful. But we may say in later Buddhism like our practice The teachings are unfolding. The teachings are confirmed by our practice.

[28:33]

We don't just follow the teachings. We also confirm and generate the teachings in our own practice. So it means the model for practice is not only Shakyamuni Buddha, which is... And that means that the example for the practice or the role model for the practice is not only Shakyamuni Buddha and that is a shining role model of the practice. It means the model for our practice is the Buddha ancestors, is Suzuki Roshi, is Baker Roshi, is one another. Each of us is the model for practice. This is what I mean when I say sometimes we could be a Buddha for our own practice.

[29:45]

In this case, Buddha is the most satisfying kind of aliveness. It means we can connect with the possibility of this satisfying aliveness in our own life, not with some shining example of practice in our past. So it begins with accepting that it's possible. If we can't accept that, maybe we can accept it's possible a little bit sometimes.

[30:46]

Maybe we feel there's no love in the world. And we see a puppy or we see a kitten. Just for that one or two seconds, we may be able to imagine that there's love in this world. Can we imagine making the one or two seconds our entire life? And our entire life with everybody. So it begins with this moment. inch this centimeter space of possibility. But it's not quite enough.

[31:49]

With this we also need to act as if it's possible in our life. accepting the possibility and then acting as if. So the statue we have in our Oryoki dining hall of Kannon in a relaxed posture She's sitting in this graceful way on a rock. And if you notice there are waves at the base of the rock. And where she puts her foot down is a lotus. It's not that she looks for a lotus and then puts her foot down.

[32:53]

Es ist nicht so, dass sie einen Lotus sucht und dann ihren Fuß dort niedersetzt. Sondern jeder Ort, an dem der Fuß aufgesetzt wird, erblüht ein Lotus. Das bedeutet, fortwährend in ein Buddha-Feld hineinzutreten. It means where we sit, we're sitting on a lotus. Acting as if we're sitting on a lotus, blooming in this blooming world. tun so als ob wir auf einem Lotus sitzen und in dieser blühenden Welt erblühen. With all our joys and sorrows, not getting rid of a single one. Mit all unseren Freuden und Leiden und versuchen kein einziges davon loszuwerden.

[34:07]

Can we not just imagine the possibility but act as if Können wir uns diese Möglichkeit nicht nur vorstellen, sondern so tun als ob. So tonight we'll make our Ryaku Fusatsu full moon ceremony. Heute Abend machen wir unsere Ryaku Fusatsu full moon ceremony. And part of the ceremony is we chant the three refuges, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. And Suzuki Roshi used to say, taking refuge in Buddha is taking refuge in ourself. And Suzuki Roshi always said, to take refuge in the Buddha means to take refuge in ourselves. It's not a Buddha outside of us. It's each step, each bow, stepping into a Buddha field. Not just following practice, but generating, confirming and creating practice.

[35:24]

Steadily intimate with the field of mind. As best we're able. Being in accord with Dogen's wish. Even when there's a Chinese rock'n'roll band playing Stand By Me for 45 minutes. Thank you very much.

[36:23]

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