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Unity in Perception and Reality

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Sesshin

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The talk addresses themes of enlightenment, reality perception, and Zen practice, focusing on the writings of Dogen and how they relate to understanding and realizing one's true nature. It discusses concepts such as non-duality, the sense of self, and the interconnectedness of all things, referring to a koan that explores the unity of perception and reality and the idea that the external world is an extension of oneself. This teaching reinforces the practice of Zazen and the cultivation of awareness and intention, emphasizing how mental and physical stabilization can lead to a deeper understanding of impermanence and interdependence.

Referenced Texts and Concepts:

  • Dogen's Teachings: Emphasizes the importance of perceiving the world as an extension of oneself with a focus on understanding enlightenment through the realization of personal and worldly unity.
  • Zazen Practice: Described as a method to transcend the conventional self-image and achieve deep presence and awareness by dropping the body's image, leading to the experience of non-dual awareness.
  • Koans: Utilized to challenge the practitioner’s habitual perceptions, with a specific koan referenced concerning reality and perception, highlighting the mundanity and profundity of everyday experiences as gateways to enlightenment.
  • Non-sentient Beings Preaching the Dharma (Hui Jiang): Explores the paradoxical teaching that inanimate objects can convey wisdom, prompting a reevaluation of sensory understanding and reality perception.
  • Three Layers of Practice (Intention, Attention, Stabilization): Structure introduced for integrating mindfulness and Zen practice into daily life, emphasizing the importance of aligning breath and thought with broader existential intentions.

Associated Authors:

  • Dogen: Central to the discussion; his teachings provide the foundation for exploring non-duality and the self.
  • Kui Shan & Dung Shan: Referenced in the context of teaching stories that illustrate essential Zen principles.
  • National Teacher Hui Jiang: Associated with Zen teachings about non-sentient beings, underscoring the theme of unexpected sources of wisdom within Zen practice.

The talk encourages an experiential approach to Zen, moving beyond intellectual understanding to embodying the teachings in a lived, moment-to-moment practice.

AI Suggested Title: Unity in Perception and Reality

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And capacity and actualization will be equally realized. Okay. If your nostrils are right and your eyes are clear, then, and this is very close to a commentary on the koan we've been studying, Communion with the source and so forth. And the koan speaks about understanding explanations and communing with and realizing the source. And so Dogen says here, If the nostrils are right, the eyes will be clear. And the source will be realized.

[01:03]

And explanations understood. And then capacity and actualization will be equally realized. He could have said the whole world is your nostrils. Am I losing you? Am I now beginning to talk about things that you say, geez, I didn't understand a word he said today. My mother used to say, if I had a nickel No, in those days, a penny. If I had a penny for every time you kids have spilled milk, I'd be rich.

[02:06]

Well, if I had a fennec for every time I've heard someone say, I didn't understand a word he said... I could take a taxi to Hamburg. Really? So I consoled myself again. was that I'm probably doing some good sometimes. But actually, when somebody tells me it's clear, one of you has learned something from what we're talking about, studying.

[03:08]

I'm actually quite surprised. And I forget that one of my motivations was to try to teach something. Because mostly I just do these things with you. And I really don't know why. But you know, Dogen says these things. Dogen's our boss. We have to talk about it. And it's nice to have a little bit of a challenge. So this koan also says, what do you call the world? So Dogen says, the whole world is your one eye.

[04:20]

Why doesn't he say two eyes? Why does he say this at all? I mean, is he nuts? Is he just bullshitting us? Is he talking poetry? Yeah. the whole world is your one eye. Thanks a lot, Dogen. And then he said, the whole world is your, all the world actually, all the world is yourself. And then he said, all the world is your aura. All the world is your aura. And then he said, all the world is your gate of liberation.

[05:22]

Where do you not realize enlightenment? Yeah. Hmm? Yeah, okay, so... Hmm? It's mean? Because he's not very nice to you? Maybe he's being mean. He was a tough bird, actually. In the early 13th century, he said, I'm going to be mean to that Hermann. I'm going to be mean to that Hermann. He was already thinking about you.

[06:36]

And it's lucky he's not here right now. Because Dogen was much smaller than Herman. He's about this big, probably. Like seeing King Henry IV's armor in a museum. He stands about four feet tall. Those great Japanese masters were probably three feet tall. But they're still the boss. So the whole world is your aura. Where do you not realize enlightenment? This is His greatest kindness, actually.

[07:54]

To give you this opportunity. Can you change your mind around so that you can think about the world in such a way that there's no place where you don't realize enlightenment? Where you're not measuring and counting. Can you have a state of mind that doesn't measure, count, or compare? Or doesn't think in terms of whether you're good, bad, or indifferent? Mm-hmm. Then he said, this single sphere is everywhere present. To say this single sphere is everywhere present means the sense of the world is a mandala, a simultaneous mandala in which everything is stopped.

[08:57]

So in summer we have cold soup. In the winter we have hot soup. What do you call the world? As I said last night, this is not difficult, it's just that it's too near to notice. And we have such a habit, reinforced by the movies, of seeing the world as flat. And seeing it as us and then something out there that's flat that we go around in.

[10:24]

We don't see the world looking at us. Mm-hmm. And I don't say that I do. But I know something about it. And I know there's an edge here that I can't explain but perhaps I could shove you across. And you won't have gone anywhere but you'll feel where you are. And you won't go anywhere, but you will feel where you are. Yeah, this Sashin seminar the other day, which was difficult for a lot of people.

[11:47]

I talked about the container of our experience is not the body. It's our image of the body. And unfortunately, you know, I thought, oh, shoot, I discuss these things and people find it difficult. I won't talk about that again. And here I am talking about it again. But I tell you, I don't know what I'm doing. So I'm brought to these points by the situation and so I have to keep going. But I feel sometimes like I'm talking about the taste of 13 different kinds of tropical bananas. To an Eastie, is that what you call him?

[13:01]

To an Ossie. Ossie, who's never seen a banana. Well, someone told me a joke once. In East Germany, they had no bananas. So anyway, to someone, if I've offended any of your East German ancestors, to someone who's never seen a banana, also... Okay, the example I gave is that if your arm falls asleep, for instance, and you don't know where your arm is, which is an experience I used to have quite often, and if you discover you can finally move one finger, say,

[14:18]

The whole arm comes back. You now know where your arm is. It's over there somewhere to the right. So why, if you've only discovered one point, one finger, does the whole arm come back? Because from that one point you can establish the image of the arm. If the image of the arm wasn't the container of your experience, you'd have to discover all the points of the arm to know where the arm was. Okay. Okay. Now, you guys actually, even the beginners here, because I know from Doksan and I know from looking at you, you mostly have the equipment you need. And I'm trying to give you some sense of this deep presence.

[15:32]

And how you act in a world where you experience the world and you as the same stuff. And why that happens. Okay. So when you are doing zazen and your sense of boundaries to your body disappear. What happened is you've dropped the image of your body. It's the image of your body and the image of an outside and inside which makes you experience as here and there. And when you drop that image of the body and the mental continuum which supports that image, suddenly your senses feel like they're in a sphere around you, an aura.

[16:49]

The whole world is your aura. Now, you may experience something like this occasionally in Sashen or Zazen. But it's there all the time. This is, you know, Sashen is aura rubbing time. Yeah, as I said, it's this washboard, and we're all kind of rubbing each other's auras all the time. Now, this koan also says... Am I going on too long here? Not yet. This koan also says, there is no need to build a teaching hall. Then it says something I love. It says, the ancients reaped and... reaped and cooked... reaped and boiled... chestnuts and rice at the edge of a hoe.

[18:35]

A hoe is something you garden with. The ancients reaped and boiled chestnuts and rice at the edge of a hoe. In a broken-legged pot. Deep in the mountains. Now this doesn't mean that you don't have to build a teaching hall. We just built one in Crestone. And we turn this room into a teaching hall a couple of times a year. But it means don't also give up that being you are who can live as simply as

[19:38]

at the edge of a hole. At the edge of a hole means you just live by what you grow. And it also means the ability to be anonymous. Last night I said, you know, you wash your feet in the Elbe-Lubeck Canal. And even the locals take you for one of them. It means you're able to not be obvious. You're able to be so ordinary, no one even notices you. Even local people who only know the villagers, when you walk through, feel you're one of the villagers.

[20:52]

So this koan has this sense of anonymity and ordinariness. And I think actually all of you understand this or you wouldn't be here at the Sashin. I mean, you've left your jobs and various things you do. Probably in the world's terms, relatively important things. And here you're serving food in the zendo. And making hot water. This is living at the edge of the hope. And it means when you do something, even doing a teaching hall, you're always also ready to be free of it.

[21:57]

And this is not just a moral point. This is about being free even when entangled. So it means it's not just something you do on your vacations. You have this feeling all the time. Someone said to me the other day they took a walk and they almost just kept going forever. So in that sense, there's two simultaneous, at least two, worlds.

[23:01]

This is the mandala, the single sphere. And this isn't talking about, again, a moral point. But we're talking about actually a somewhat different way of being in your own being. Now, some of you have also, in this session and many times, spoken to me about the natural fear that occurs when you start losing the observer. And we connect our sanity and stability with the continuity of an observer. And when in Zazen you feel the observer disappearing, there's a natural jerking back and saying, oh, I might never come back.

[24:14]

And perhaps stories of dreams in which you go into a dream and into a dream you lose track of which dream you woke up from. But what happens when the observer really disappears? The world becomes the continuum. you step into the actuality of the world as continuum rather than something going on inside yourself. And one of the deeper reasons we sit in this posture is you develop a sense of energy in your body that you that you function from rather than some kind of image or sense of inside and outside.

[25:39]

And it's often a little awkward. You stumble a little. But you're stumbling so that the world can can support you. In every action, there's a moment of silence. And you can begin to act in such a way so you feel this moment of silence in every action. And every action moves from a point of silence to a point of silence. And I don't say that I'm teaching this, I don't say I'm good at it. But I know this world. And it's possible to know it. And when we do the service, you know, we talked a little about this during work period. The surface is done really for one of the things that puts it together.

[27:03]

It's about the way we relate to the phenomenal world. How we treat physical objects. Where each thing has its own space. And each thing talks to each other. The stick talks to the bell. And the bell to the stick. And each hit of the bell talks to each other hit of the bell. And you can begin to feel this conversation. And this conversation is going on all the time, not just with bells and service, but every time you do anything. So there's not one time that's more important than another. Like in service we should do this, but other times not.

[28:04]

Or in zazen we should concentrate, but other times not. Every teacup, every walk along these paths, you're either stumbling past your life or you're walking in your life. Ihr stolpert entweder an eurem Leben vorbei oder ihr geht in eurem Leben. Now you can remember points in the past where things were very vivid for you. Und ihr könnt euch an Dinge in der Vergangenheit erinnern wo die sehr lebendig für euch war. But that vividness is possible right now. Aber diese Lebhaftigkeit ist für euch auch jetzt möglich. And it's felt in such an unnoticed or lesser part of our body as our nostrils. And I think your nostrils can be a kind of precept. You can actually feel in the situation, are my nostrils right? And if your nostrils are right, your eyes may feel. They're not just seeing clear, they feel clear and relaxed in their sockets.

[29:18]

And when you see things, they all seem to be at rest and inside you. All the world is yourself. You just feel that way. It's not about philosophy, true. You feel that way. All the world is your aura. Now, I think maybe in emphasizing the primacy of uncorrected mind, I've not emphasized enough that still in zazen you should bring concentration to a point sometimes.

[30:36]

And go beyond the point of concentration. Bring concentration a little farther than you... than... I don't know what. When you feel fully concentrated, bring it, go a little farther. And then relax. Once or twice a day, you know, that's good. So anyway, again, I'm talking about this complex presence or deep presence. In which we live. In which Dogen can say. Where is... Where is there not a place that you realize enlightenment? Wo gibt es einen Platz, wo man Erleuchtung nicht verwirklichen kann?

[31:52]

That you really know this flower is already here. Dass er wirklich ist. Diese Blume ist bereits hier. Each of you is already here. Jeder von euch ist bereits hier. It's not about comparisons. Es geht nicht um Vergleiche. That's okay for one part of your life. But right now, no comparisons. It doesn't make you the center. It makes everything the center. Yeah, I've already said too much. I'm sorry. Thank you very much. May our intention equally penetrate every being and place. With the true merit of Buddha's way, should all men take unto themselves

[33:01]

oh [...] Sanctuary is out of our lives. I am proud to say it's clean. These fires are inexhaustible. I am proud to put them to good use. The world is so boundless. I want to master it. The Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I am proud to take it.

[34:06]

An unsurpassed, penetrating and perfect Dharma. It is rarely met with, even in a hundred thousand million kalpas. Having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Well, before I start toksan, I always I feel so good sitting with you. And I resist a little starting doksan because I like to sit. Then once I start doksan, of course, it's so wonderful to meet with you. I wish I'd started much earlier. And you know, as I explained in Crestone, when we sort of studied the new Zendo,

[35:11]

Because you can't see it here, of course, because we just have these boards, but the eating board in front of the sitting place is the most important part of a zenga. And that's part of a development in the kind of mandala of a temple complex. From the Buddha Hall being the most important. to then later in history the dharma hall, the teaching hall, being the most important. And finally the zendo being the most important. And in the zendo, the real altar is this eating board, is the raised tan. And it's really an architectural and emphasis within the complex manifestation that each person is a Buddha.

[36:50]

And not the statue of the Buddha or idea of a Buddha, nor even the teacher. But each person practicing. And I actually feel that in Doksan. I feel I'm meeting 50 Buddhas. Now, really, are all of you Buddhas? Yes and no. But is it true that I have the feeling that each of you is Buddha? Yes. And that's a precept. In other words, I carry that intention as I'm meeting with each of you.

[38:09]

And sometimes you make this feeling very strong and sometimes I almost forget about it. And when you make the feeling stronger, I actually see you differently. I see you in a different way of perceiving form. So I think this is an example of what is meant by a precept in your practice. So then we can talk about three layers in your practice. And I'm deciding to speak about this because I can see it in some of your practice now. And very simply, the three layers are intention, attention, and stabilization.

[39:13]

And they work together, and they're different forms of each other. Okay. So what do I mean? By stabilization, I mean, as I discussed in some detail in the last seminar, mental stabilization. Which isn't just a simple form of calmness. It's actually a turn your body has made. And even this emphasis on the body is a historical development within Buddhism. I mean, in early Buddhism, you

[40:14]

had to practice many generations to become a Buddha. And then one teacher began teaching, you can become a Buddha in this very time. And then his disciple changed it, you can become a Buddha in this very body. which changed the way the body is viewed. So I'm talking about this in a historical context also so that you see this is a development within the history of Buddhism and can be a development within your own personal history. It sounds so nice what you say. I wish I could understand it. I really think German must be an intoxicating language. It draws people into it and they get all excited in German.

[41:52]

That's why it's so difficult to learn. You keep outsiders out. Ah. But I like the music of it. And I'm really jealous of all of you that you speak it so easily. I feel I was left out. My parents were born in the wrong country. Okay, so mental stabilization. Of course, any kind of greater physical and mental stability is helpful in practice.

[43:05]

But real, in the Zen tradition, real mental, physical stabilization is when mind, body, and the physical world are experienced as one piece. Nun aber die wirkliche geistige und körperliche Stabilisierung in der Zen-Praxis ist dann erreicht, wenn Körper und Geist und die Welt aus einem Stück erfahren werden. And that's realized through a number of stages, including developing ease and pliancy and blissfulness in your body, mind and back and forth. Und das wird durch verschiedene Stadien verwirklicht, dass man jetzt zum Beispiel eine innere Ruhe, Gelassenheit und eine körperliche Geschmeidigkeit entwickelt im Körper und Geist und auch umgekehrt. Okay. So, we are all developing to some degree or other a kind of mental stabilization.

[44:06]

Now, whether you can practice these things in your daily life or not is really up to your own creativity. And the depth of your intention. Because I can't follow you around all day. And even if I could, you'd get very annoyed with me being right behind you. Now I've told you the idea of of wouldn't it be great to buy a barge in Holland and put a Zendo on it and float around the canals of Germany, following each of your cities. So we'd hear, oh, southern Germany needs a Zendo, so we'd float down to southern Germany. And after a month or so, we go up to some other city.

[45:20]

Sounds good, actually. I'd hang my laundry out on top of the clouds. And what are the locks called? Sit and waiting for the locks to open. Actually, it sounds more attractive than being a Zen teacher. You could help with the ropes. Okay. So this mental stabilization, to whatever degree you experience it, is a...

[46:26]

No, how to describe it? It's a... You're waiting. A feeling of clear water. This spiritual stability, to what degree or extent it is always realized, feels like clear water. You're waiting. A feeling of clear water. And even if, and you can press on the feeling a bit with your breath. Or deepen the feeling. And it's related to equanimity and so forth. Okay. Now, a second layer is attention. You bring attention to your breath.

[47:45]

You bring attention to your activity. And this is a kind of attention and your breath is a kind of bridge between form and emptiness. Your thoughts begin arising from your breath and subsiding into your breath. So it's a level of attention which is closely related to mental, physical, mind-body stabilization. And then the level of intention. Now, intention is that, for instance, say that you're attempting to notice that the world is impermanent.

[49:18]

And you should always be practicing with, at least for quite a long time, with the sense of impermanence and interdependence. Und ihr solltet wirklich auch eine ziemlich lange Zeit damit praktizieren, mit diesem Verständnis von Vergänglichkeit und gegenseitiger Wechselbeziehung. Bis es euch wirklich zur Angewohnheit wird, dass ihr Dinge nicht mehr länger als unvergänglich macht. Euer Selbst oder andere Menschen oder Beziehungen And you feel the interrelationships of things. So if you are practicing with this intention to notice and feel impermanence and interdependence,

[50:23]

This is a level of intention in your practice that's different than the level of attention. Do you see that? paying attention to your breathing, paying attention to your walking, sitting, lying, is not the same as an intention. So when you practice with a koan, or a particular phrase, this is at the level of intention. Now, when you have a very deep intention, the non-conceptual form of that is mental stabilization. Or maybe I should, I think I'll just call it mind-body stabilization.

[51:41]

Mind-body stabilization allows you to have a deep intention. They support each other and they become forms of each other. So if you're practicing as you all are in your lay life, I would suggest that you try to develop mind-body stabilization. And that's mainly through sitting practice. You develop that. And when you can sit without much distraction, you're moving into mind-body stabilization. And then I would suggest you practice mindfulness in various forms, mindfulness of your breathing, of your activity, and so forth.

[53:09]

And this movement into thought forms and out of thought forms. And I'd also suggest you see if you can develop a level of intention that focuses and organizes or joins everything you do. Now, It's your own challenge, really. What level of intention actually focuses and doesn't exclude anything in your life? It might just to be alive. To stay alive until you die. That's a reasonably good intention.

[54:23]

And to name it like that and intend it is different than just staying alive until you die. Now, I think if... If we all looked at ourselves most, you know, deeply, probably, I think, what we would like the most about ourselves or the feeling we'd like to be most joined to is compassion. Yeah, I think, I hope that's at the root of most of our being. But manifesting that in our activity and thoughts isn't so easy.

[55:25]

It mostly works spontaneously only with puppies. And the more complex an adult being we're presented with, the less compassion we often feel. Human beings are a real challenge to compassion. So here you have a good koan to work with. Yeah. Now I feel that when I talk about enlightenment, you all become depressed.

[56:46]

As someone said to me, I have all these nice little flowers that I love. I'm exaggerating what this person said. But you hold up this big flower and say, hey, look at this nice big flower. It's much better than your little flower. And you say... Yeah, I understand. And actually the translation of enlightenment is awakening, not enlightenment. Yeah, so maybe we say awakening, I don't know if that helps much.

[57:51]

But the real problem, I mean, of course it creates a them and us. It's the ultimate elitism. But I think the reason we get depressed by it is because we think too much in terms of whether we are enlightened or not. Plus it sounds impossible. You can't do anything to get it. You have to wait around and hope it happens. And you have to wait around in black clothes With painful legs.

[58:58]

All in all, it's a raw deal. Plus, most depressing of all, is secretly we know we don't want it. But at least I think the remedy for this is really to not want awakening for yourself, but want awakening for others. And be motivated to support other people in their awakening or their practice or their understanding and forget about yourself.

[60:07]

Isn't that an even rawer deal? You can tell where she's at. Did you say what I said? You can tell where she's at. Anyway, it feels better to get this kind of raw deal, I think. Or just think of it in terms of... I mean, really, you don't want the suffering of anyone. And of course you want the benefit of others. I mean, most of the time, at least people you don't know, you want the benefit for them.

[61:18]

And you can work on wanting benefit for those you know. We're a sorry lot. But if you just extend this feeling, you end up with where Buddhism's at, with this bodhicitta, this thought of enlightenment for everyone. So forget about enlightenment. enlightenment, even awakening, just the thought of the ultimate benefit for everyone. So if there's the ultimate benefit for everyone, it's sure to benefit you a little too. And if everyone else is thinking of the ultimate benefit for you, it's very good.

[62:30]

So that's what Sangha means. We're all trying to think of the ultimate benefit for each of us. So, Buddhism basically is a teaching of suffering. That change, for the most part, is experienced as suffering. that everything is impermanent, just as it is, neither good nor bad, in the deepest sense. And yet there's some direction in our being, some direction in our life. And recognizing that direction in our life, the spring blossoms, the cuckoo who never sleeps.

[63:40]

This morning, about five minutes after four, when I was thinking, it's actually a five-day sashimi, it's a very good idea. that damn cuckoo was going out there cuckoo cuckoo and Ulrike looked down on me and said that cuckoo never rests so I got up But now I know why they trap them in clocks. And only let them out once an hour.

[64:53]

Now, where was I? Hmm. So there's a certain direction to our being, to the cuckoo, to the flowers, to the ponds. And how do we recognize it? That there's a direction to being that is in contradiction to dying, changing, suffering. And that also needs to be recognized.

[66:18]

And that's recognized most fully in Buddhism through the desire for the ultimate benefit of each person and being. Now, that's the deepest or most inclusive sense of intention. But this layer of intention as a layer of practice... Also includes intending to understand the Dharma. Okay. So let me say something about the story I told you about last night.

[67:21]

I always tell this story about do not hinder, etc., as if it was about Dung Shan. And it's actually a story that was central to Dung Shan's practice. That he repeated to Kuei Shan. And asked for Kweishan's teaching on the story. Yeah. And this story became central to my practice, working in my practice in the early 60s. Because it was even probably a more foreign idea to me than it was to Dung Shan. Anyway, Dung Shan visited various teachers. And through Dung Shan, he... Through Kuishan he found Yunyan, who became his main lineage teacher.

[68:55]

Yunyan, as you remember, is the one with the broom, and you should know there's one who is not busy. These are, we would say respectfully, our great ancestors. So, Dung Shan went to visit Kuei Shan. This all happened in China in the early 9th century. In Southeast China, I think. On this planet. Yeah, actually. Yeah, I'm sure. He said, I have heard, and now in those days, you know, there were no, it was very hard to have books and printing and so forth.

[70:05]

So mostly you knew things through stories. And the Dharma network, without modems, passed stories around China. So he said to Kuaishan, So Dung Shan said to Kui Shan, I've heard that National Teacher Hui Jiang, who I think was a disciple of the Sixth Patriarch Hui Ning, he said, I've heard that National Teacher Hui Jiang teaches that non-sentient beings preach the Dharma.

[71:08]

I remember when I first heard just the phrase non-sentient beings as an oxymoron or worse. Do you have the term oxymoron in German too? So Kuei Shan said to Dung Shan, Do you remember the details of what was actually said? And Dung Shan said, yes, I do. And Kuei Shan said, will you try to repeat it to me? So Kuei Shan said, a monk asked Nan Yang, national teacher of Wei Jiang, He was also called Nanyan.

[72:19]

What kind of thing is the mind of the ancient Buddhas? That's a quite interesting question. Ancient Buddhas here in this context means are, you know, you could even call Sukhiroshi an ancient Buddha in this context. It refers to the people who established the teaching in China and even in India. So he said, what kind of thing is this mind of the ancient Buddhas? And Koishan said, wall tiles and rubble. Rubble is like piles of cement, junk, tile.

[73:38]

Yeah, unshook. Of course. Wall, tiles, and rubble. And the monk said, I love the innocence of these guys, you know. That surpasses Castaneda. He says, aren't wall tiles and rubble insentient? How can they preach the Dharma? And Wei Zheng said, They are constantly, radiantly, unceasingly preaching the Dharma. The monk says, then how come I don't hear it?

[74:41]

And then Wee Chung said, although you do not hear it, Do not hinder that which hears it. Now this story goes on. That's about the first third of it. And if you're interested in the story, the rest of the story, it occurs in various places. In Charles Look's books, Philip Whelan calls him Chuck Luck. And anyway, in Chuck Luck's Chan and Zen second series, it's page 128. Page 128, second series.

[75:47]

Anyway, it's in various places. If you're interested, you can ask me. Because the whole story is worth studying. Denn die ganze Geschichte ist es wert, dass man sie studiert. Und eine Geschichte wie diese, die bringt man jetzt auf diese Intentionsebene der Praxis. Insentient beings preaching the Dharma. Nicht fühlende Wesen predigen das Dharma. What is not hindering? Und was heißt nicht behindern? What is not hindering? So these stories point to a different relationship to the physical world than we're used to.

[77:02]

And I tried to give you some sense of it yesterday. And most of us, I mean, When I say us, I mean most people, Chinese people too. It helps if you grow up in a yogic culture, but this is still something that is opened up to you through practice and study. And through realization. So most of us have really not much relationship to the physical world.

[78:24]

We live in it. We walk around on it. And we look at it. There's a bumper sticker in America. I saw somewhere it said, I love nature, but I don't want to get it on me. Anyway, we live, as is obvious, and excuse me for pointing it out again, mostly in a mental world of likes and dislikes. And from earliest Buddhist times there were various practices with the physical world. How you perceived and related to objects. And I would like to go into it, but I think that it's actually another, will take too much time.

[79:51]

This evening, tomorrow, probably tomorrow. I'm not going to go into it, but I'll say a couple of things to end.

[81:26]

I don't know exactly what to say, but when you bring attention to your breath, you're actually treating your breath as a physical object. Or beginning to give a new kind of form to formless states. And part of the study of a typical way to practice or study in your ordinary life Und eine typische Art, jetzt in eurem gewöhnlichen Leben zu studieren, ist, dass ihr anfängt, die Übergänge zu bemerken, wenn ihr am Einschlafen seid. Oder wenn ihr in den Zazen-Mind geht. or as you relax.

[82:41]

Anyway, just this kind of attention to how you are existing is part of the practice of beginning to see the boundaries and centers of the physical world. and the physical world of which you are a part, and in which awakening occurs. May our intention equally penetrate every being and place.

[83:54]

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