So karma is a way to describe our mental activity. The shaping of our mental activity and the way mental activity shapes our world and the way our mental activity is shaped. Wie unsere geistige Aktivität die Welt formt und wie unsere geistige Aktivität geformt wird. Und Wittgenstein sagte, dass jede Wahrnehmung eine Interpretation ist. Und man sollte bei jeder Wahrnehmung sagen, halt, das ist hier eine Interpretation. So mind itself, the flow of mind itself is always interpreting. So we want to accept the mind as it is. and see the process of interpretation in the mind.

[01:13]

So one way I gave you yesterday is to come to the bedrock of your mind. The four elements. The bedrock of your still sitting. And it pushes this clear mind up into your consciousness. Or up into at least the deep stream bed of Zazen. As, you know, night mind is different than day mind. And often at night you can do a different kind of work than you can during the day. Well, Zazen mind, by definition, and development is different than both night mind and day mind.

[02:29]

A great ancient discovery was that zazen mind is different than day mind and night mind. So you want a taste of this. Zazen is a shortcut to a taste of this deep, clear, pure and purifying mind. It's like the night air, perhaps, when you open the window for sleeping. Even open just a little bit, you know, seems to freshen the whole air of the room. So maybe sitting down on your cushion is opening a window to another world.

[03:36]

Opening a window to some deep, clear mind that begins to... come into you and freshen you. So one of the first recognitions of early Buddhism was that a person who brings meditation into the continuity of their life stream transforms their karma. Just your life stream flowing through the zazen posture. As well as flowing through your daily activity and throwing through your sleeping posture.

[04:45]

Freshens up our mind, purifies our mind. And creates another kind of thinking. Now, it was discovered somewhat later in Buddhism. As I said, it's this shift from awakeness to thusness. Because zazen is a kind of awareness, but not, as I say, somewhat different than consciousness. So it was discovered that awareness or awakeness, the kind of awakeness we mean by Buddha mind, transformed our karma and was extremely helpful, instrumental in freeing us from suffering.

[05:56]

Okay. Then it was discovered also that what Dogen expresses by the phrase Genjo Koan, Genjo Koan means to complete that which appears. And to complete through knowing each particular is also universal. And as I've been speaking of recently a number of times, thusness is to know thusness is a word to

[07:09]

Thusness is a word for the immediacy of each moment being known only to itself or through itself. They said we'll be all hooked together like this. No, it sounds perfect to me. I even like the way your hands are doing it. Let's see what there's in 500 years left. So my common example is, again, at this moment we have a certain presence here in this room. At each moment it's different.

[08:36]

And everything that happens affects it. And you can't have a point of view on it. We can be in the midst of this presence, but we can't observe it. As soon as you observe it, it's not there. You're outside it. In fact, each moment is known only to itself. We can't describe this to ourselves. We have to be here in the midst of this to have this part of us. And that's what the word that's I think the most practice way to define the word thusness.

[09:58]

So it means to know each moment non-dualistically. Without an observer. Of course we have an observer. It comes and goes, appears and disappears, is stronger or weaker. But through practice we can feel in our stomach that this moment, each moment, is really known only through itself. And with our hara, we can kind of suspend our measuring mind, And feel this moment appearing in us.

[11:02]

Not in us, as us. This is also to be fully connected. Okay, so it was then later Buddhism discovered that this practice of thusness which Dogen describes as completing that which arises So it's complete. And makes way for the next moment. It's complete. Now this is an understanding of change. It's a way to enter into change. And it purifies the mind. The more you... It's very difficult to be dishonest and thus... It's very difficult to be angry and thus.

[12:21]

You need to be outside the situation to be angry or thus. dishonest or violent. Now Roper says all violence is from a lack of love. Love. I like a Rumi poem, which if I can remember, it's real simple. A man comes to the door and knocks on a woman's door. And she says, who is it? And he says, it is I. She says, go away. So he comes back the next day and says, who is it? It's your lover. Go away.

[13:23]

At least he's persistent. The third day he knocks on the door. Who is it? It is you. Come in. So the other way, third way that I'll speak about today of purifying the mind is to change the stream bed, to change the water. And this also is the practice of compassion, connectedness and so forth. So I think an essential practice for us, again in the sense of Wittgenstein trying to live rightly, To practice the four Brahma Viharas.

[14:35]

Which again I've spoken about recently, now and then. The four immeasurables. Unlimited friendliness and kindness Unlimited empathetic joy Unlimited compassion Unlimited equanimity And equanimity means to make each moment sufficient You're not comparing, this moment is sufficient. This flower is beautiful, not in comparison to other flowers, but because this flower is sufficient. And if you practice these four divine states of dwelling, that's what the Brahma-Vihara means, because it's thought only the gods can live this way,

[16:10]

But you know Buddhism, so it's up to us to live this way. So if you begin to try to live this way, when it's possible, and when you are unfriendly, You notice, oh, limited friendliness. So this is practicing unlimited friendliness. Oh, limited friendliness. And when somebody you hate has a big success, and you are a little bit annoyed, you think, ah, limited empathetic joy. And what happens, even if you practice it in this limited way,

[17:22]

Feeling the power of unlimitedness. You begin to swim in a new kind of water. This is what Sangha really is, to swim in these immeasurables. Feeling it always as a possibility to swim in these four immeasurables. So when you do this, you're actually changing the water or the stream bed in which you swim. So this water is, you see this water coming up through the bedrock of your zazen. And it goes along in this stream. The angry stream, the competitive stream, etc. And it doesn't make you feel too good, you know. And it sometimes makes you feel good, but underneath you don't feel so good.

[18:43]

So you begin to develop a new stream bed, which affects the water. And we can understand the Skandhas, the Paramitas, the Brahma-Viharas, All as ways to change your stream bed. So this water, this karmic water of our life begins to flow in a new stream bed. Let me end with coming back to pillars and ancient Buddhas merging. He says, what kind of mental activity is this? And in the commentary it says, merge mind and activity in a single thusness.

[20:10]

And it also says, the ancient Buddhas and pillars merge. What kind of mental activity is this? And the commentary says, oh, he's wrapped it up right in front of you. He's wrapped it up right in front of you is also this genjokan, to complete that which appears. He's shown you what it is. And the commentary also says, cut off conceptualizations. Cut off emotional evaluations.

[21:12]

Cut off life and death. And enter the correct state. Now, you've practiced long enough to know it's possible to sometimes cut off emotional valuations. And sometimes to cut off life and death. Any idea of how old you are, or lifespan, or whether you're going to live or die. That is also to be non-dualistically just here in this immediacy. And that's to enter the correct state. Where there are deep mind flows over the bedrock of the present. And it says, this is not about illumination. The thousands of myriad sages all realize through entering this correct state and through returning to this correct state where on the bedrock of the present our pure mind flows.

[22:41]

Mm-hmm. Let's just take away the word your. So I say, I'm going to concentrate on my elbow. I'm going to concentrate on my ear, as I said yesterday. The airplane is going to land on my ear. But what if I take away my and your? Like the windows, the road is to your right. And not think that way for a while. And just notice what appears.

[23:44]

So, I'm eating, my hands appear. So the airplane of attention lands on my hands. But let's not say my hands, just hands. Or just hands or bowls. Or shirt. If you take away these possessive pronouns... you can't distinguish between attention being on the bowl or the server or hands. If you just practice such a simple thing as this, world and you merge ancient buddhas and the pillar merge into a single dustness that's wrapped up right here in front of us

[24:57]

in which our shared karma, this world vehicle channel, begins to transform our karma, transform our life, and immerse us in the activity of Buddha-nature, which will be actualized by your intention. Thank you very much. I want to go through every being and every place with the true merit of the Buddha's path. I want to go through every being and every place

[25:59]

OM [...] Ich gelobe ihnen ein Ende zu bereiten. Die Dharma sind grenzenlos. Ich gelobe sie zu beherrschen. Der Weg des Buddha ist unübertrefflich. Ich gelobe ihn zu erreichen. I know [...]

[28:04]

DEDA WAKDWA RAYO SHEN YETSU YIYO GESHI TADEL MA'ATSURA AIN ULTRA TOFUNA LUSENDA UNFOLKUNA DAMA is also found in the 100,000-million-Kalpas New Zealand. Now that I can remember and accept the Klingon tradition, I promise to keep the Barbeque Textile Targeter. Well, I wish I could hear all your questions. Yeah, questions you will ask too in the future.

[29:25]

And questions that you don't know you're asking. Anyway, I try to feel my own life in this way and I try to feel your life in this way. So I try to accept the two sides of myself and the two sides of you. As you wish to be and as you wish to be. You know what I mean. And I always think this questioning process is obvious, simple. But I see that it's not so simple for you don't understand, perhaps you don't understand how powerful it is.

[30:45]

And it's the most unique part of, characteristic aspect of Zen practice. I suppose it's ultimately based on an image of the Buddha. Or an absolute faith that we live already in a world of enlightenment. That whatever enlightenment is, it has to be right here. It's just a slightly different arrangement of things. But whatever it is, it has to be here. I wish I could remember this poem of David Wagoner.

[31:48]

But there's something. It's based on an Indian teaching story. It says, stop. Something like this. Stop. The trees and bushes around you are not lost. Mm-hmm. What is here is trying to reveal itself to you. Trying to show you you're not lost. Anyway, maybe I can tell you more accurately what the poem is tomorrow. Near the end of his life, Suzuki Roshi had the flu a lot. Probably because of, I don't know exactly, but he had probably for quite a while undiagnosed cancer.

[33:16]

And he was... Hmm. Hmm. And so his immune system was probably weak. And he had been, he says, I don't know for sure, but he says he always was rather a weak child and young man. Anyway, he seemed strong to us. The strongest person I've ever met. And yet he, you know, as I said, near the end of his life, I think I finally decided he never got over the flu. It would sink out of sight but easily come back to the surface.

[34:39]

And he told us once, the Japanese congregation, the Japanese congregation, Because he was at that time also head of the Japanese congregation in San Francisco, of Zen Buddhists. Yeah, and the Japanese congregation owned the building. And they only spoke Japanese inside the building, so it really felt like a little bit of Japan. But he said the Japanese congregation would say, oh, he's a Zen master, he practices Zen all the time, he doesn't get sick.

[35:43]

He doesn't have the flu or a cold. But it's very funny he's in bed so much. He used to think that was quite funny. And he would say that... Yeah, after a lecture he'd say, well, I was thinking of all this in bed. After a lecture, he would say, I've been thinking of all this in bed, what I just said to you. Yeah, maybe I've been doing Zazen in bed, he said. Yeah. But it's not so easy to stay in bed, he says.

[36:56]

And I think I should enjoy being in bed. Why can't I enjoy being in bed? So this is a kind of Buddhist question. Why can't I enjoy being in bed? Why can't I enjoy being in bed? Really? I'm not kidding. And then he'd say, it's so difficult to stay in bed, Don. And then he'd say, why can't I enjoy my difficulties? So this is the way we ask questions in Zen. And I suppose in this there's some image of the Buddha. Not the Buddha who's strong and never gets sick.

[38:00]

But the Buddha who, if he was in bed sick, would probably enjoy being in bed sick. Sukhirashi had this kind of way of asking himself questions. And he felt like he was an inferior Buddha until he could enjoy being in bed. Until he could enjoy his difficulties. So that, you know, this is a Like this question I gave you last night, why am I not happy? Or why am I unhappy being unhappy? What's wrong with this world that we can't enjoy it? I know I had a terrible time.

[39:22]

For one or two years I felt miserable every moment. Sometimes I would feel, I would exchange any physical pain for this mental pain. And then I had this feeling for a moment, I felt kind of good for a moment. It was so unusual. But I thought, if I can feel good for a moment, Why can't I feel good all year? So I had a vision. Next year I feel good all year and only for a moment I feel bad. This was Suzuki Roshi's influence on me.

[40:28]

To ask this kind of crazy question. And I failed. Next year I still felt not so good. But the year after that, I felt good all the time, pretty much. Somehow, if you ask these crazy questions, and you feel it must be possible, and you put this question inside you, then just let it... Kind of bubble around in you. And have an intention behind it.

[41:29]

And keep nourishing it in what you do. And then other questions start coming up. How can you trust yourself? Or it comes up that you really have some fear of just being alive. So one question like, Trying to stay with one question opens up other questions. Mr. Kiyoshi also used to say, we lose ourselves when we stick to something. When you feel, oh, I have to do these things, so many things.

[42:43]

I think all of us have this kind of feeling. And usually we have to do these things in relationship to something else. And in the process we lose ourselves. We lose touch with ourselves. We lose our composure, our inner composure. So you can also make a question. How can I not lose my inner composure? So then you have a practice already discovering your composure. And in Zen it's always the case that it's on your cushion where you can most beneficially experiment with these things.

[44:06]

And you'll find that you... Sometimes on your cushion you'll feel some kind of extraordinary composure. You feel completely independent of everything. And yet, for some reason, you feel like you include everything at the same time. There's some deep ease. Maybe you're finding yourself, not losing yourself. And everything is so all right, there's nothing to do.

[45:14]

So here's another question. How can I feel there's nothing to do? You know how a child draws pictures? They draw trucks and people and trees and buildings. And often you need considerable commentary and interpretation to figure out what the heck they've drawn. The kid with complete authority will say, this is, oh, okay. And this is, oh, okay. So we practice Zazen like that. So we practice Zazen like that. We just, oh, this is okay, whatever it is.

[46:24]

This is the Buddha? Really? It's my drawing of the Buddha. So we need maybe this way of doing things. You limit yourself to study something that's good. Something that's bad, you should study that too. If you're in bed sick, study that. I found this is quite true. His advice is quite true. You can be quite happy under any circumstance. You maybe have to hide your happiness because people think you're a fool or something.

[47:26]

But you can let it come out a little bit every now and then. He says we should study the small and the big. Until we feel unlimited. And the root of this again is just to accept. Or just to include. So here you could create another little phrase question. This is also me. But we get so annoyed by things. We send somebody, somebody says they're going to Harris Street and can I bring you an ice cream cone? Can you buy an ice cream cone in Harris Street? Yes, you can.

[48:38]

You can show me later. So they say, what would you like? You say strawberry. And they come back in half an hour and they brought you chocolate. And you can get quite annoyed. Yeah. And you're suffering because of your expectation. Here you've got an ice cream cone and you're suffering. But maybe this person remembered that his mother liked chocolate. And when he was in Harris Street, he was a little spaced out being in the big city. And you remind him of his mother, so he brought you a chocolate cone. And he liked his mother, so he doesn't know why you're mad at him now.

[49:43]

So we shouldn't tie our state of mind to expectations. So how do you not sacrifice your state of mind? How do you not tie your mind to expectations? So this is Dungsan's way, creative way, to use the Zen technique of questioning And it's the root of all the koans, how the koans developed. The background of the koans. Not so much as a formalized teaching system. But we, particularly here in the West, should get into the background of the koans.

[50:55]

And each of you can make your own personal koan. How do I complete this very moment? How do I complete this very moment? How do I find my composure in this moment? And the image of the Buddha means you know it's possible. The understanding of the fact of enlightenment makes it possible for you. But if you have some greedy mind, it's... or some expectation, then you lose touch with yourself. What difference does it make? Just as you are is okay. But somehow we have some fear often of how we practice.

[52:12]

Whether we practice with a sangha or whether we don't practice with a sangha. It makes me think of, you know, leaving Munster once, that sign I saw. We're in some kind of construction zone and there was always a stow there. And somebody had written in big letters, you think you're in a stow. No, you are the stow. And that's what we are. We are the Sangha. So quit thinking you have some problem with the Sangha. And likewise, you are the Buddha.

[53:15]

Have that kind of confidence. And again, as Sukhiyoshi used to say, each of you is always showing us what kind of Buddha you are. This is a good way to look at things. Yeah. And you can come into more traditional cons, like questions like, What is not knowing is nearest. And the way you use these kinds of questions is you turn them into phrases. And a mantra means something that protects the mind. So you take this very question which is disturbing you and you turn it into a phrase which you can repeat as the flavor, the fragrance of your mind.

[54:39]

And this flavor begins to permeate your activity in life. And if you don't stick to doing things your own way, if you don't, in your weakness, keep sticking to, you know, the right way, To secretly think you know the right way is just a kind of weakness. There's just the way we do things. So just watch the way we do things. Pretty much we accept the way we do things.

[55:52]

If it's hurting people or it doesn't work very well, we study it, but we also accept the way it's done. So if you have a chocolate ice cream cone, you enjoy it, I hope. And next time, maybe you go with him to Harris Street. He'd probably enjoy the company. And then you could make sure you got strawberry. So we need some maybe subtle way or trusting way to be with each other. So we understand through doing things together. And you more or less let the way things should be done appear of itself.

[57:29]

I mean, anyway, this is some kind of ideal. And... Sukhyoshi used to say also, even at that time there were quite a few people practicing. And he used to say, maybe you think I can't spend enough time with each of you. that he said, even if a master has only two or three disciples, he still does not show them the way in detail. Yeah. So we have questions again, like traditional questions.

[58:37]

He showed me only half. Or, I honor my teacher because he refused to reveal the teaching to me. Oder ich verehre meinen Lehrer, weil er sich geweigerte, mir die Lehre zu enthüllen. So really, you can take even this as a phrase. Man kann wirklich sogar dies als Satz nehmen. He refused to reveal the teaching to me. Er weigerte sich, mir die Lehre zu enthüllen. You'd be surprised how fruitful such a phrase can be. Und ihr werdet überrascht sein, wie fruchtbar so ein Satz sein kann. She, he, the teacher, refuses to reveal the teaching to. So we have to find some subtle way to understand even though the teaching is refused.

[59:44]

Yeah, because Everything is right here. Why do we have to reveal anything? So what is right here? What is completing this very moment? What is the pure wind? The pure wind circles the earth without limit. Thank you very much. In our intention, equally, to push every knowledge and every thought through with the true devotion of the Buddha Path.

[60:46]

Jyotindra, Jyotindra, Jyotindra, I feel countless in my body. I'm trying to save them. They're almost extinct. Ich gelobe ihnen ein Ende zu erhalten. Die Rahmen sind grenzenlos. Ich gelobe sie zu beherrschen. Der Weg des Buddha ist unübertrefflich. Ich gelobe ihn nicht zu erschrecken. Thank you very much.

[62:33]

Satsang with Mooji Satsang with Mooji Vah-eh-li-mah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah I am under pressure from the right wing in the home for commoner drama. It is also found in 100,000 million copies of the same, which I can now take into my own hands and take into my own hands, so that I have the ability to make a place in the world. Good afternoon.

[63:43]

Schönen guten Nachmittag. Good afternoon. Both sides of the Zendo. Guten Nachmittag auf beiden Seiten des Zendos. Ja. How are you? Wie geht's euch? Wie geht's? Well, this morning when... This morning, or lunchtime anyway, when the gamassio was picked up. When the tray came to me, and I'm always last. All the previous gamassio bowls were at the front of the tray. And I thought, oh my goodness. Oh dear, I've been doing this so many years. And still we put the Gamaccio bowls at the front of the tray.

[65:06]

It seems to me it should be obvious you should put them toward the back. Und es scheint mir doch so offensichtlich zu sein, dass man sie nach hinten stellt. I mean, it's like, as if, I mean, you wouldn't park your car in front at the entrance of the parking lot. Also irgendwie ist doch klar, dass man sein Auto nicht an der Einfahrt des Parkplatzes parkt. Sometimes I feel deeply discouraged. It's not a bad feeling, though. It makes me think, oh, I have to find hope. Yeah. And, of course, not quite so obvious, but you should put them on the tray either to the right or left.

[66:21]

Unless you know the exact dimensions, it's hard to put it in the middle. So... Generally, you might put it the way we read, left to right, or in Japan, right to left. So this made me think, why is Zen so involved with such little details all the time? actually quite hard to explain. Probably I can't explain. But of course I'll give it a try. And maybe I can just say various things and you can get a feel for it.

[67:26]

And it's a kind of feel. It's not something that's really explainable. He's adding something to the translation. Everything sees it. I thought you were wanting something, a payment for translation. Well, I'll translate a little more clearly. We'll talk later. You're good enough. When my brother, my brother, former brother-in-law, my, anyway, Lenny, bracket.

[68:34]

Als mein früherer Schwager, Lenny, bracket. Yeah, he and Paul Disko are probably the best trained Japanese woodworkers in the United States. Und er und Paul Disko sind vielleicht die best ausgebildeten... And they're really part of the culture that Tsukiroshi started of paying attention to details. So, Paul Disko's context, sort of training was arranged by Yamada Muman Roshi. And Lenny's was organized in the context by Kobori Nanrei Roshi. And Lenny, when he first went to see Kobori Roshi.

[70:01]

And I knew Kobori Roshi had arranged for Lenny to meet him. He'd come to visit us in Japan. And he made for our kotatsu, our table in our house, the worst table you can imagine. I'm not a carpenter and I could have made a better table with my hands behind my back. So we teased him about this table. And his family has been involved in lumber and woodworking and so forth. So I don't know if it's our teasing that got him to do it, but he said he wanted to study Japanese wood joinery.

[71:08]

But he clearly did have a sense to make things, to feel the wood. He did the interior of the Zendo at Crestone and the Hotuan, the small building we use for Doksan and other things. Anyway, he wanted to see Kobayashi himself. He just said, I'll just go see him. So he showed up at Kobayashi's temple in Kyoto. And he called out, you know, gomen kudasai is what you do in Japan.

[72:18]

And a monk came out. And he said, I would like to see Kabori Roshi. He said he was my brother-in-law. And he said, I'm interested in Zen and carpentry, wood joinery. And Kobori Roshi, after a while, came out. And said to all your associates, okay, you can come in. So Lenny took off his shoes, kicked off his shoes, and went in. Good boy, Rashid, look. And himself got down into the Genkan. Genkan means mystery gate, by the way. Genkan is the entry to a building.

[73:33]

As we have the entrance in English. Anyway, but most Japanese folks have forgotten Genkan means mystery gate. But I think most of the Japanese have already forgotten that Genkan actually means the mysterious gate. So anyway, where she gets down and takes Lenny's shoes and turns them so that the heels are toward where you step down. So when you step out, you step into them. And he looked at Lenny with a withering look. Withering means like a flower withers. and said, I thought you were interested in Zen.

[74:45]

So why is Zen like that? Why give poor Lenny a hard time just because he takes his shoes off? Lenny's a very nice guy. He just took his shoes off. Yeah. But Zen is like this, so I'm trying to give you some feeling for it. Well, one thing, there's not much sense, like I think in our culture there is, where we have the idea that everything was created, that this earth is created. And in Asia, the feeling is that form, material comes first. So we often misunderstand emptiness because we think of emptiness as coming first.

[76:09]

But for people in Asian culture, form always, material always is first. Material is the given. So in Buddhist cosmology there's something like endless mother universes spawning more universes. Or mother of universes? Mother universes. So emptiness is a description of form or it's about an understanding of form. So there's an assumed sacredness to the physical world.

[77:10]

The material world is not something you want to transcend. Dogen says we should treat everything like it was our own eyesight. And the tendency, for instance, in Japan we say, tea is ocha. And rice is gohan. Chopsticks are ohashi. The ohashi just means bridge. So it means the bridge to your food. But the O is, I don't know, we say in English usually an honorific.

[78:26]

An honorific. Not honors. That's something that honors. It's respects. Maybe you could say wonderful, wunderbar. So maybe it would be like wonderful chopsticks. Or wonderful rice. Or wonderful tea. So they add this to it, so it sounds very funny if you just said cha. You wouldn't ask for cha in a restaurant. You'd say, could I have some old cha? So Suzuki Roshi used to say, I don't know if historically it's correct, but that this tradition of adding this wonderful or this respecting to basic daily objects is a Buddhist custom.

[79:40]

I remember again when I was first practicing with him, I noticed that there was a... some kind of precision or clarity the way he did things. So I tried to study what he did. And one of the examples I have often given you And one of the examples that I have already told you about... So, generally speaking, it is so that you normally don't ask, you just take it as it is. But I asked him after all.

[80:42]

And it seemed to me unusual enough that I thought it might be a coincidence, so I asked... Is it true that you always walk in a door with the foot nearest the hinge? There was somebody else in the room that came in in a minute, and they laughed about it that this poor American noticed this. Yeah. I remember when I was in Japan, I got so used to living in Japan. And I still feel as much at home there as anywhere. And when I lived there in the... In the 60s there were no other foreigners, basically, almost at all living there.

[81:57]

And so I'd be walking along the street and I'd see this, occasionally, another foreigner way down the road. This huge, clumsy object walking along the road. And I think, oh my God, it's a foreigner. And with no sense of a kind of space, just kind of like... And I'd think, and how big he or she is. And finally I'd catch up with a person I was bigger than they were. And then I realized how I looked first in Germany. Yeah. It puts you in your place and size. Mm-hmm. Custom shoes. Is this a commentary or a footnote?

[83:21]

No, no, no. It's a... Oh, I love Eric Easton. Oh, yeah. So gross, mid-hood. You don't know how good I am in German, you see. Brilliant. Brilliant. And in the temples, one of the things that I noticed that I liked is the paths don't go directly to the door. Say the building's over there where Gerald is.

[84:21]

The path might go in the gate like this, and then like that, and then over. And generally there's no shortcut in the grass or whatever, like we would have. And if it's a stone path, usually the stones are maybe smooth at the beginning, beginning near the building. they require you to walk at a different pace. And often they might go up a little ways, which changes again your pace and breath. So I'm just giving you little examples to try to give you a feeling for this Zen culture.

[85:38]

The Buddha bowl, for instance, Togen says something like, the Buddha bowl is where a miraculous event occurs. You know, someone serves you a meal and you eat in it. So you should treat it as if it were a miraculous event. Sometimes we say that it's Buddha's skull. We should treat it like it was Buddha's skull. That's why the monk bowl has no base like this. So we have to clean it on our leg because you can't clean it down below.

[86:41]

Dogen talks about things like the samadhi of... play or the samadhi of self-joyous activity. So, let's go back to the gamachyo. The Gamaccio bowl would be seen in this way of looking at things. Would be seen in its use and function. And its use and function includes being served.

[88:00]

And the way we eat has to do with the serving is as important as the eating. It's only recently in the States and I don't know It's common in Germany yet to have the kitchen and the eating place in almost the same room. But many of the very best restaurants now You're right in the room with the cooks and they're cooking right there and you can watch them. And many restaurants in Japan, the size is determined by you shouldn't have more customers than the cook can cook and serve the customer. Because it's not about the food, it's about the relationship.

[89:14]

And so the cook is there and cooks for you and serves you and gets to know you and so forth. And sometimes there's a server or a waitress type person or waiter type person, but... It's still very much in the same room often and interrelated activity. So the restaurants tend to be small for this reason. So, I mean, this sense of the serving, the eating being similar and equally valued activities can be

[90:32]

extended throughout the culture in terms of its architecture and so forth. So the gamaccio bowls are... are... are... We should treat the commercial bulls knowing that it has brothers and sisters and so forth. The bull has brothers and sisters. And this way of eating and the way we do the Dohan work and the bells and so forth is all similar. For instance, when the bells... don't lead the bowing.

[91:57]

The bells follow the bowing. Yet they also lead the bowing. First of all, whoever is the doshi, the person leading the ceremony, the bells always follow the doshi. And if the bells lead the doshī, the doshī should just stop and stand there. But still, sometimes the dōwan thinks, oh, the doshī's spaced out again. He's getting old, he's standing there, he doesn't even know when to bow. But Tsukiroshi used to tell me I have to go into meetings with the Japanese congregation sometimes who was often quite upset about things we did.

[93:18]

And he stopped me at the door the first couple of meetings so I got the point. And he'd say, don't argue. And he'd say, don't make your point too strong. In fact, let the others make your point for you. How do you do that?

[93:54]

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