Well, I'm very grateful to be here at our first Sashin in Johanneshof. And to see Otmar and the new people and others who are here. I don't know some of you. Hmm. I don't know if this platform is necessary. Is it helpful to... But if it is necessary, I'd wish my translator was on the same level. He's the real voice of the lecture, so he should be maybe up here. So he seems to be unable to translate some things.

[01:06]

And we decided... Where's Gerald? We decided not to have the platform there. No, actually, we decided... I thought it should be there, and people can sit in this area. But this will work. Yeah. Well, let's try it. And if we're here, I guess with two platforms, we can't be farther back. Okay. I mean, Sukhvarshi said that zen shouldn't be a form of excitement. But I have to confess, I feel rather excited to be doing our first sashin here. To have a permanent home in Germany and Europe. And thank you for your indulgence in letting me sleep 13 and a half hours last night and this morning.

[02:26]

Last night I felt a little bit like a piece of old driftwood. that had been washed up on the shores of Germany. And British Air just sort of dumped me on the beach, actually, the beach of the Zurich airport. And British Air simply invited me to the beach. It was the beach of Zurich Airport. And Gerald collected me and brought me here. And thank you, Gerald and Gisela, for starting the Sashin, the lecture, and the hot drink talk. And Sabine and Manfred, too, for all the preparations getting ready for this session.

[03:39]

It was a little crazy to go to Mexico for five days but I felt I owed it to Rocio, who's a teacher in our lineage. It was a way of spending a little time with her and also getting to know Mexico in a few days in a way that would take years if it was at all possible to do any other way. I might say something a little about the conference because it has, of course, something to do

[04:53]

the role of something as fairly obscure like Zen Buddhism in our contemporary lay world. This was one of the Gorbachev Foundation State of the World Forums, this time in Guanajuato in Mexico. And such a conference has to do with both constituency and content. Content being, of course, the level of the discussion. And constituency being who's part of the discussion.

[06:12]

So it's interesting. They want someone to represent Zen Buddhism and either as content or constituency. So that's another reason I thought I should go to explore for myself does what we're doing have any relevance in the larger world. Because of course about 95% of my commitment is to personal practice. Because, of course, 95% of my obligations lie with the private practice.

[07:18]

Now, it turned out that this conference was, forum was actually a part of Governor Fox's, of Guanajuato's political ambition to be president of Mexico. And I would say, unfortunately, most of the participants political leaders from various parts of Latin America and South America. have learned the language of economics and the elimination of poverty and sustainable growth for the environment and so forth.

[08:30]

And most of the talks were people basically showing off their primitive mastery of the language, of economics, etc. But there were a few people who But there were also some people for whom the knowledge of economics and so on like Mahbub-ul-Haq, who was head of the Human Development Center in Pakistan. Mahbub-ul-Haq. Mahbub-ul-Haq. The Human Development Center in Pakistan.

[09:47]

And I've found a few kindred souls like this person who's quite extraordinary. And a completely sweet man named Osvaldo Garcia de la Cerda. I wish we had such colorful names. And he's trying to bring into Chile, he's an advisor to the president, an emotional... of the role emotions play in political and economic development. Such a sweet guy, and he kept saying to me, you must come to Chile and teach us.

[10:56]

I think that mostly came from his sweetness and not because I had anything to teach. But it is interesting that that the people, the individuals who had, I felt, the most authentic things to say were actually touching on some of the things that we ourselves are concerned with in Zen practice. But the interesting thing was that I had the impression that the people who really had something important to say touched on points that also affected us in Zen practice. And the situation is bad enough in such less developed parts of the world. They have a chance, I think, to leapfrog over the developed world.

[12:07]

Do you play that game called leapfrog? Where somebody, one kid bends down and then you jump over the next kid? All right. What do you call it in German? Leapfrog? Oxpring. Oxpring. Springing over an ox? That's much more ambitious than a frog. Yeah. Leapfrog over the more developed world in terms of leadership, because we both have the same problems to solve, but we're rather stuck in our success. And maybe you can skip the developed world in terms of leadership, because you have the same problems, but we don't seem to be able to solve these problems. Okay, that's just enough on that conference and its relevance to practice.

[13:29]

Now, sashin comes at the end of a three-month, the traditional three-month practice period in a monastery. And the three-month practice period can be understood partly as a preparation for Sashim. But sashin as a part of lay practice is more a taste of or a gate to, entrance to monastic practice. And I bring this up partly to establish the context of what we're doing here. But also to establish the context of teaching, of what we're doing as teaching here.

[14:42]

And what I'd like to do now, at least at the beginning of Sashin, talk a little about some of the teachings that have been part of the recent seminars in Germany. But I'd like to put them in a a new context for Sashin practice. It feels like, to change the subject slightly, it feels like the snow has made everything more silent.

[15:49]

I just talked with my 18-year-old daughter was at college in the east coast of America the other day. And being a Californian, she was rather resistant to putting on the body of winter for snow in the east coast. And where she is in inland upstate Massachusetts. They have snow pretty much like here. Most of the winter you can't see the tops of the park benches, park tables.

[16:56]

But she said to me, just as I felt here the silence, she said she's come to really like the silence of the snow. And the isolation it gives to the sense of place. Now, I think for a monastic life, mostly the situation... and the continuity of the practice day after day, organizes the teaching for us, or it kind of brews in you and organizes itself.

[18:16]

Brews like brewing a cup of coffee or soup or something. But I think in a lay session like this, it will be useful if we can make a practice more conceptually clear. So I would like to give you a practice which I would like you to try to do during the sashi. Now I've often spoke about the moment of waking up. When we're asleep, you could say that whatever relevance it has to scientific truth, but it feels like

[19:37]

And when we sleep, then it feels like, and I don't know if this is in relation to any scientific truth. It feels like our subtle body or psychic body is dispersed in... in dreamland or in a larger space. And when you wake up, the waking up is a process of letting this reassemble. To coalesce, coalesce means to grow back together. And I sometimes, I often have said that we have an expression in English at least, I got up on the wrong side of the bed.

[21:01]

And I think that that happens when we get up before our subtle body or psychic body reassembles. Now, what I'd like you to try to do is to notice this moment moment of reassembling, of waking up. For this moment is a moment of definition and potential transformation.

[22:14]

Now, of course, every moment is a moment of definition, of potential. dissolution, of transformation. But it's actually quite difficult to have a sufficient mindfulness, to be present in each karmic moment, as definition and potential dissolution and transformation.

[23:15]

And of course, as you all know, it's the bridge of breath which through which we develop the ability to be present to that degree. But it should be possible for us to more easily notice a moment that's in effect handed to us on a platter. Do you have that expression in German too? Handed on a platter, just... So, because that moment of waking up is almost entirely defined for you.

[24:29]

And the only problem is you're a little sleepy. So I would like to, anyway, for you to make an effort tomorrow morning and each morning of the Sashin, to let yourself regather. And if you're really good at it, you'll find yourself regathering before the bell comes, And just about the time you have gathered into a point of intention and concentration the clucker, cluckers. But in any case, see if you can feel this regathering process as you wake up.

[25:43]

And before you, as you say in German, stand up. Before you stand up into your daily consciousness. And of course, in Sashin, we don't want you to stand up entirely conscious. into your daily consciousness. We want you to stand up into a consciousness which still has the flavor of dream consciousness. And is open to zazen mind and the mind of practice. Now this moment of waking up is... is truly a definitive moment.

[27:16]

And what your state of mind is at that moment has a great deal to do to establishing the feeling and pattern of the entire day. This is the main reason we do zazen before waking up even before the sun comes up. The leading bishop of, Catholic bishop of the The United States recently died of cancer. And he wrote and spoke quite freely about what it was like to be more open to his friends and so forth during this period in which he knew he was going to die.

[28:32]

And when he spoke about how he wasn't very good at prayer, And when he prayed, usually he thought about all kinds of other things. Pretty much like Zazen. But he made a commitment to God, he said, to offer the first half hour of every morning of his life to prayer. And he would at least offer that time, even if he couldn't offer his full attention. And that decision is probably more crucial even than whatever the content of Zazen is.

[29:40]

or prayer. So there's this defining moment of waking up. Now I'm asking you to develop a feel for that moment. And part of the feel for that moment is to notice that it has a direction toward you. And so I'm also asking you to feel that direction. No, I think sometimes when you notice existentially this moment, you may say to yourself, who am I?

[30:51]

Yeah, who's lying here? Who's going to get up? Or you may have a certain anxiety come in. I must do this or these problems will ensue. And I would say that that's the case when our daily body or daily personal body wakes us up. And says, you've been in bed long enough. Get up and do your life. Now, Yeah, this mind, the mind of our daily body wakes us up.

[32:20]

But we'd also like to give a chance to the Buddha mind body to wake us up. And this is a moment you can... Try to be open to. Because as this subtle body, shall we call it, is reassembling and the direction is towards you, You, in a sense, coalesce. And you redirect that arrow back into the daily world. Now you have a choice about how you redirect that arrow.

[33:23]

You have a choice to let it redirect itself. And you have a choice to influence it. And you have a choice to influence it from your daily mind or from your Buddha mind. And you have the chance to influence it from your sense, hope for a deeper humanity? Or to influence it from the pressure of what you need to do. So this moment is... is extremely important for your whole life, because each day begins this way.

[34:40]

And you can feel this moment actually physically coalescing in your chest, in your body. And in the configuration of your thoughts. Now you basically have three main choices. Buddha mind. To turn this arrow toward Buddha mind. Bodhisattva mind. Or personal mind. Now, You're doing zazen and you're doing sashin because you at least have an intuition

[35:56]

that you want to turn this arrow toward bodhisattva mind. Or Buddha mind. Or you want to somehow find a greater satisfaction in your personal mind. And this waking moment gives you the best chance in your life to do it. And the best chance to discover how to practically notice a moment.

[37:07]

Because actually each moment is like this, but we are not really, we're carried through each moment and not really fully present in each moment. We are carried through each moment by our karma. But the second and third noble truths of Buddhism mean that each moment is actually a possibility to reaffirm or release yourself from karma. And so the Four Noble Truths are present in their actuality at this waking moment.

[38:11]

And Zazen and Sashin are nothing more than a chance to get you to notice this moment. To notice it in a vivid, clear and tactile way. I love this moment. I hope you can come to love this moment, because it's so full of potentiality. It's full of the possibilities of the whole of your life, your health, your happiness.

[39:26]

So this arrow can point toward Buddha mind, toward Bodhisattva mind or your personal mind. The first practice is to begin to notice this moment and the second is to notice its direction. And third would be to get a feeling for having something to say about its redirection. Hmm. Hmm. And where, how it could be redirected.

[40:34]

Now this, the yogic mental, yoga is also mental posture. And the mental posture of this moment. And to recognize this moment as a mental posture. It's the potential for a mental posture. is the first aspect of this teaching I'm presenting in this session. Now the next is how you bring this into your zazen. But I think that's enough for today.

[41:43]

So I'll come to that tomorrow. So please don't limit yourself to just tomorrow morning noticing this moment. But also this sense of being in the timelessness of each moment, every moment. of being in stopped quality without anxious pressures of each moment. Yes, this very moment is. Again, I want to thank all of you for coming to the Sesshin and the whole of the Dharma Sangha for making this Sesshin and this place possible.

[43:14]

And I hope we can fully honor the hopes of so many people who have made this place possible. honor their hopes by the quality of our practice, the depth of our practice in this sashi. Because the whole point of this place is this sashin. And of course sashin is to come, but if we think that way, then this sashin isn't real. This sashin and your personal practice is the whole point.

[44:19]

of everything the Dharma Sangha has done. And the Buddha has done and the lineage of our successors, our antecedents have done. Thank you very much.

[44:50]

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