Self in your hara. And through the posture your vitality, your aware energy appears. And then this aware energy or vitality supports the posture. Yeah, only if it's for part of the period, it's okay. But you want to come into this more and more. Yeah, and there's an actual... Here I'm not talking about mindfulness practice or Buddhist practice in general.

[01:02]

This is zazen practice I'm talking about, zen practice. Zen sitting practice. There is this pattern actually of body, breath, mind, vitality. And this is a kind of primary body ordering, body ordering. Outside of likes and dislikes. This is a basic teaching of Dogen. And it's a teaching of Kukai and the... Tendai and Shingon sex before Dogen.

[02:21]

The Tendai Shingon sex before Dogen, that he studied before Zen. It's not important. You got it. In other words, this is not just a Zen teaching, but goes back into the schools that Dogen studied before he went to China. So this is not just a Zen teaching, but he goes back to the schools that Dogen studied before he went to China. This sense of a ordering of the body outside of likes and dislikes. I'm trying to show you where a simple koan like this brings us. What's assumed. That you can like our Sashin orders the unfamiliar, which when we get caught in it or perform it, we find ourselves

[03:40]

often with a growing clarity. As I said last night, eyes clear, not fooled by anything. Sometimes our lifetime turns on a phrase. Sometimes our lifetime turns a phrase. As Dogen says, don't let the sutras turn you, you turn the sutras. You turn the sutras. I said it's like stirring the ocean with a broken stick.

[04:59]

And a hundred rivers flow backwards. If the ocean becomes full, the rivers flow backwards. So there's a kind of clarity that occurs through this body-mind ordering, where we begin to have a direct experience of the body-mind, the mind that arises from the body itself. It's not mentation. I don't know what to call it.

[06:09]

It's a kind of presence. We can say mind. And it's also this place where there's neither hot nor cold. And then you hold a question before this body-mind. And often the first couple years of Zen practice are really a kind of recapitulation of our life. We become familiar with our own life. And somehow we used to be at the periphery of our life. Yeah, it felt like our life was not entirely known to us or it was in the past but still pushing on us.

[07:13]

It seems our life didn't really belong to us or was in the past but was still pushing on us but through this this this The power of dharma practice, sitting dharma practice, which is also then a karma practice, this practice is developed to be a practice for your whole life, and the whole of your life at this moment. So we have this ordering of the body-mind, sitting, breath, mind, vitality.

[08:19]

And through this, you enter your life. You enter the center of your life. You're no longer at the periphery. You feel like you've moved into the center of the room of your life, center of the arena of your life. It becomes clear what you want to do and what you need to do. And you can begin to use a detail from the past. A keyhole. Yeah, you don't... I mean, just one little detail and you pay attention to it in this kind of mind. You can often recapitulate your mind. a day or a month or parts of your childhood.

[09:55]

Yeah. Yeah. They say Hermes, the thief, invented language, particularly invented the language of memory, which is always fooling us. So this practice is not just a Dharma practice. This practice is about our karma. Yeah, and this koan is about our karma and our dharma. This place where there's no hot nor cold. But at the same time opens us up to the cosmos.

[11:01]

To the phrase that settles the universe. Strangely, just sitting this way a slips you into the hole of your life. If you practice with a deep intent, and if you have a mind which can hold that intent before you, Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you for translating. Vod-no-mu-jin se-dan-dan Ho-man-muryo se-dan-daku

[12:28]

Bussudo, Mujo, Stey, Lanzho. Die fühlenden Wesen sind zahllos, ich gelobe, sie zu retten. Die Begeben sind unaufwürstlich, ich gelobe, ihnen ein Ende zu bereiten. Wir damals sind grenzenlos, ich gelobe, sie zu beherrschen. Der Weg des Bruders ist unübertrefflich, ich gelobe, ihn zu erreichen. Choir singing.

[13:58]

Varema Kenmonji Jujistru Kotoetari Nyawakuanyo Shinjutsu Yokeshi Tatematsuran I would like to thank you all for your support. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your support. Yeah.

[15:58]

We have a translator and a platform to sit on. And you're all sitting here. So I should say something. Yeah. You know, I feel that this, what can I say? A Dharma treasure becomes apparent. Through our practice. And maybe to various degrees, I hope to various degrees, it becomes apparent to you. In fact, everything is our Dharma treasure. How do we make this apparent? I feel this, but I feel so completely inadequate. To express anything.

[17:22]

But I must, I want to try. Ruka says in some poem, you know, I don't really know what it says because I don't read German. But he says something like we push something, we push things into understanding. dirt becomes perhaps something that's bad instead of good for Krishna. The road comes into the structures of understanding.

[18:25]

The world comes into the structures of understanding. It's not bad. This is remarkable. But still. Anyway, so Rilke says something like the world is pushed into a picture, a landscape or an understanding. And we stand astonished at it and take it as true. And it accompanies us in the pace of the years. But still, it is truly the invisible which accompanies us.

[19:33]

truly the invisible which accompanies us, and the invisible which continuously makes us. But then he says, but don't worry that you may lose something. For when you raise your voice, the world sings through you and the stars sound through you. Now, You know, whether that is anything to do with what Rilke said or if this is my riff. It's still something that comes out of our Western intuitions.

[20:44]

Now, what's this got to do with Buddhism? Was hat das jetzt mit Buddhismus zu tun? Dogen says, what we call self, what the Buddhas call not-self. We call self what the Buddhas call not-self. What the Buddhas call self is the entire universe. Now, I don't even know if that's a nice thing to say. Yeah, but this is practice.

[21:48]

This isn't just nice things. No. Why is this practice? Why is this practice? Okay, so I'm responding actually to... talking with you in Dzogchen, and trying to get a feeling of what the basics are that we need for practice. As I said, we need one thing that's the basis of practice, It's what Dogen calls the realm of great ease. And another is to come into a continuous relationship with our breath.

[22:50]

These are small things. Das sind kleine Dinge. Almost you don't have to worry about any other aspect of Buddhism. Just do these, feel these two practices. Ihr müsst euch fast um keinen anderen Aspekt des Buddhismus sorgen. Nur diese beiden Dinge müsst ihr tun. So I'm looking for other basics at this level which make all of practice work. And one is what I would call great initial mind.

[24:01]

Maybe I'd make it a technical term, great initial mind. You'll have to find some way to say it. Okay. Yes, maybe I will make a terminus out of it, a terminus technicus. So you have to find something how you want to translate it, the primordial spirit. I say the initial spirit. Is initial spirit? Initial, yes. And where is the great? Oh, the great. The great initial spirit. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Well, you know, people say that, scientists say that the human brain is the most complex thing that's been discovered in the universe.

[25:05]

Yeah, I'm sure that's true. But standing alone as a statement, it's quite misleading. Because, as we know, the brain needs lots of strokes. Strokes, you know, stroking pads. See, I say that in our Californian back there, we know what strokes are, don't we? Yeah. So, you know, I mean, If the brain is, whatever the brain is going to be, it needs lots of love.

[26:25]

Genetics and love. Yeah. It needs the whole of human culture. So the most complex thing that's ever been discovered in the universe is not the human brain, but human interactions. Without human interactions, the brain has no complexity. Without this human interaction, the brain has no complexity. I'm trying to give you a feeling for something that's obvious.

[27:31]

I'm not saying anything new. But I'd like to... To make, you know, for us to feel it newly. Aber ich möchte erreichen, dass wir es neu erfüllen. And in this context of practicing in Sesshin. Und in diesem Rahmen der Sesshin-Praxis. Mm-hmm. Wee Kay supposedly said, when the mind is unenlightened... Who said that? Wee Kay. Wee Kay? Yeah. The mind is turned by the Dharma blossom. When the mind is awakened, it turns the Dharma blossom.

[28:43]

And that's sort of like in the stick. As you know, I've told you before, this is some kind of part of a lotus. This is the lotus embryo. You have them in soups in Japan. It feels kind of funny to eat them, but they're... They're a little kind of 2001. Remember that movie where the baby's encased and they kind of look like that and they float in your soup.

[29:45]

They've folded up lotus inside. Maybe for some of you that movie is old times. Oh, the first space movie. Anyway, that wasn't any good. Okay, and then this is the Dharma... Bud. I mean the lotus bud. And this is the lotus seed pod. And where's the flower? You're supposed to ask, where's the flower? It's got everything but a flower. It's you're looking at it. It blossoms through you.

[30:49]

So this is also Mahakashipa's flower. It blossoms, yeah, it really does. It blossoms, I hope, here in this park, this garden, in this place, in this practice. When you bow to me and I bow to you in Doksan, in one way we're bowing to each other, that's quite nice. But more truly, we're bowing to the lineage. We're bowing to the Dharma blossom of Mahakasyapa. Or if not without Mahakasyapa and the Dharma blossom, we wouldn't be doing this. So this is also expressed as wave follows wave and wave leads wave.

[32:14]

Yeah. Teaching leads us and we lead the teaching. Okay. And you can feel that in your own practice. You really have to come into your own life before the Dharma comes alive. And you really have to study the Dharma, I think, The truth before your own life comes alive. This is the same kind of thing as we turn the Dharma blossom or the Dharma blossom turns us. And where is this dharma blossom?

[33:24]

If it's not on the stick, is it really here with us? Is it really in you? And is it really somehow in us as a sangha? Now in that poem... Yeah. I don't like to call it Rilke's poem. Anyway, whatever it was that I said, Rilke said something like that. I mess up the sutras the same way, you know. Mm-hmm. He's also said, where it says, don't worry that you may lose something.

[34:31]

The next line is something like, your heart reaches beyond the most distant. So I'm trying to say something quite practical actually. which is this what I'm calling great initial mind, which is intent, observation, acceptance. Dogen says that many people went to China and got caught in the net of scriptural teaching and didn't understand the Buddha Dharma.

[36:02]

And then he says, the Buddha Dharma is something like this. The Dharma blossom turns us and we turn the Dharma blossom. And he says these people who got caught in scriptural understanding didn't have the Buddha Dharma key. I guess what I'm doing is I'm trying to... make apparent. Yeah, the shininess of the obvious. The secret or magic of the obvious. Yeah, I could just tell you to practice it. But I want to put it in a context, as Dogen did as well, that it really makes deep sense to you.

[37:39]

I don't think I can begin to to really give you a feeling how important this place where there's no hot and cold is. But look at one of the most famous statements in Buddhism. Someone reminded me. The great way is not difficult. Only avoid picking and choosing. Yeah, now you think, oh, then I can never pick and choose.

[38:45]

That's nonsense. Use this brain. It's the most complex entity in the world. I said, don't be fooled by... Use your own brain. It's the most complex entity we know about. No, we have to pick and choose. But on the Autobahn, we don't pass on the right. And you don't drive certain slow speeds. But on small streets you drive slowly and you might even pass on the right. Pretend you're going to turn. Mm-hmm. So an autobahn is like the great way, you know.

[39:57]

On the great way you behave one way, on the small roads you behave another way. So can you know this, again, this? Great way, which is not picking and choosing. Which is not caught in likes and dislikes. Yeah, it's so difficult. You need the hammer and tongs of transcendence. In the forging bellows of the adept. Or you think, my practice is not good enough. Or I can't accomplish this or that. But that means you don't realize that love reaches beyond the most distant.

[41:19]

That you don't want to be involved in likes and dislikes. Good or bad. Especially in your practice. That's not the bodhisattva spirit. Plus it doesn't work. In my great initial mind. Not mine, but my term, the great initial mind. The first thing is intent. That's all you have to worry about is your intent.

[42:27]

If you worry about accomplishment, you're not in the mind that practices. If you're worrying about accomplishment, you're on the small roads and you're looking for a parking place. And the realm of great ease won't appear. On the great way, you're only concerned with intent. You're not looking for a parking place. This kind of difference you really have to understand if you want to practice that anyway.

[43:33]

Okay. So the first content and function of this initial mind is intent. The second is observation.

[44:34]

And the third is acceptance. And intent, initially intent is to observe and accept. We hear some thunder. And then it's accompanied by rain. We observe and accept. when we're on the great way, which is simultaneous with our usual activity action.

[45:58]

Now, once you develop the habit of Observe and accept. As an initial mind. Not your second mind. What am I going to do? I'd better go close the car windows. It's raining. Mm-hmm. But what I'm saying is something like we can make the great way our initial mind. We develop the habit of observing and accepting. Dogen says... an ancient master said.

[47:19]

You never know who the heck said these things, but anyway. Dogen says, an ancient master said. Or rather, someone said to an ancient master, when a hundred or a thousand or a myriad objects come at you, come to you. What do you do about it? This ancient master supposedly said, do not try to control it. This is to observe and accept. How do we trust this, though? Dogen says, view the hundred or thousand or myriad objects as the Buddha Dharma. Now what kind of understanding and practice is this?

[48:30]

It sounds too simple and too obvious. What's the background of understanding of such a practice? And why does Dogen say this is the key that the Zen schools have. And other schools don't have. Although it might be similar actually to the tantric practice of visualization. Instead of visualizing, we establish a certain kind of initial mind. And I often say it in various ways. Have a feeling of yes or welcome or arriving. But now I'm taking it beyond just an attitude and making it...

[50:00]

or I'm trying to make you see the point of it as a teaching and trust it as a teaching. Okay. Now, you know, an astronomer might say, and one man named Barrow did say, an astronomer named Barrow did say, that we can only study, know the universe within the finite universe. within the horizon of the finite speed of light.

[51:09]

We can only observe the universe within the bubble that the speed of light allows us to observe. Oh, the light. The speed of light, yeah. What's beyond the speed of light ever reaching us, we can never know that, the full scale of the universe. I don't want to sound like I'm talking some kind of muddled philosophy. Muddled philosophy. Yeah, muddled philosophy. I'm going to learn this line now.

[52:24]

You know what Kobenchino Roshi says? He said there's not enough time in one lifetime to learn German. Unless you're born here. But two of you prove it's not true. But you're younger than I am. Okay. Dogen says the entire universe is born with you. The mountains and rivers and great earth are born with Sophia. And continuously being created with Sophia. and will continue to be presented with Sophia.

[53:38]

So you have to have some feeling of this continuous creation. And the mountains, rivers and great earth will accompany Sophia throughout her life. And accompany us. Yeah, and the thought of enlightenment arises from the mountains, rivers, and great earth. And the Buddhas have always been practicing with us in this way. Now, this is a... let's make it simple again, a way of understanding change.

[54:42]

of the mystery of change in change. So when the Zen school emphasizes how everything is changing, and being continuously created along with you. And Dogen calls this the fundamental point. His teaching turns around actualizing this fundamental point. Which is what makes this acceptance, this practice of acceptance possible. So the intent to observe and accept, which I see right now, of course, a good part of my day, Sophia is doing all day long.

[56:06]

Every darn moment. Observing and accepting. The other day she was with us in a restaurant and they gave us as a dessert some kind of ginger sorbet, white ginger sorbet. So she's never had any ginger and she's never had anything cold. So I couldn't resist. I put some on a spoon. You put it where? Put some on a spoon. And put some in her mouth. And she went... Ginger and cold.

[57:20]

Nothing ever that cold has ever been near her. So I thought, well, she ought to try it again. And this time she completely accepted it. There was no surprise or anything. She just, oh, now I know what cold and ginger are. But after the second bite, she looked at me with huge eyes. Why are you doing this to me? So she's observing and accepting. And through that, being deeply affected by everything constantly. Now once you develop the habit of this initial mind of intent, observation, acceptance you can then in this slot of intent

[58:35]

in this slot of intent, because observation, and Dogen says, practice begins with minute observation. So once you have this habit of observation acceptance, Just as it is, which is a kind of gate to justness, in the intent slot, because this mind is now a habit, you can put various intents, big intents, small intents. What should I do about this? immediate problem I have.

[60:02]

And then you hold it in front of you, in front of your mind, in the midst of your perceptions, with a trust that the entire universe is being born with you. Or as Rilke says, it's still actually the invisible which accompanies us. It's still actually the invisible which accompanies us. And love or intent, we could say, reaches beyond the most distant. There's some magic to this. And Sukhiroshi says the world is its own magic. And I'm trying to... Say something that's obvious but that's also magic.

[61:14]

And how this, even this small problem, how do I solve this problem? The invisible, the... Invisible change within change begins to speak with us. If we have patience and we have a dharma eye, Or you can have some big intent. Or a small intent again, like, what is essential in my personal history?

[62:19]

Well, I don't think I made this very clear. But the rain is raining. That's a good time to start. Stop, I mean. Because the five hand has started past... The hour hand has started past five. The what? The hour hand has started past five. Der große Zeiger... Der kleine? Oh, ja. Der kleine Zeiger ist über die fünf hinaus. Thank you very much. Vielen Dank. May our intentions equally penetrate every being and every place with the true merit of the Buddha-virtue.

[63:25]

Shujo muhen se dhano O man, what shall you say I am done? O man, what shall you say I am done? Bo-tsu-do-mo-jo-sei-gan-jo. The feelings in my body are countless. I pray to save them. The desires are endless. I pray to bring an end to them. The dharmas are limitless. I pray to conquer them. The result is good and outstanding. I pray to achieve it. Satsang with Mooji

[65:34]

We hope that through the children and the people of the United Arab Emirates, hundreds of thousands of millions of people will be able to receive it. And if they receive it, we hope that they will be able to give it back to us. We hope that the truth will be revealed. I was happy with the talk, lecture I gave yesterday. Yeah, but I was also unhappy with it. Yeah. I wanted to show you the First I wanted to emphasize the practice which I call great initial mind of intent, observation and acceptance.

[67:48]

Yeah. Yeah, I really... I completely believe in and confirm this practice. Okay. But I'd also like to give you belief in it or faith in it. But the problem is, why does it stop with acceptance? And how can we trust acceptance? Now, I think I made clear that Our activity is not just acceptance.

[69:07]

It's also rejection and discrimination and so forth. I tried to make clear that this was the initial mind. Not the only mind. And so maybe we could call this talk today or yesterday the alchemy of the ordinary. But even if we understand this intent, observation, acceptance, in the context of an initial mind only, Yeah, I mean, it's not just an initial mind, but right now we're speaking of it in that context.

[70:28]

Why does it work? Why does this... What would make acceptance work? it would require the participation of the world. No. So then we have teachings like the teachings of insentient beings and so forth. Then we're in a sort of another territory, much more subtle territory entirely. Now, why should the phenomenal world cooperate with us? This is certainly the position of Dogen.

[71:30]

And of all the Zen schools, It's most characteristic of the Dung Shan Soto school. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But is this nothing but romantic, excuse me, bullshit? You don't have bulls in German? Yeah, but we use the feminine. The cow shit you have. Cow shit means something different than bull shit in English. Well, we can discuss these finer points at another time.

[72:44]

This is like the romantic poet's worship of nature. From the outside particularly contemporary scholars certainly would attack it this way. So how can I make this functioning Because I see it as functioning real to you. Believable enough so you'll practice it. Believable enough so that you'll practice it.

[73:45]

And through practicing it, discover the truth of it. And thus be able to mature our life through this practice. Yeah, but maybe that's too big a task. You know, if I can sit down with a few of you and speak from inside practice, we can perhaps make sense of this.

[74:53]

But since so many of you are finding your way into practice still, And haven't really... You understand and taste the practices, but you haven't fully established yourself in the practice. So then I have to... would have to give you a feeling for so many different practices we need to stay in Sesshin another few weeks. That's an extremely optimistic assessment. Yeah, but maybe we can toughen up the schedule and continue.

[76:13]

Now that you're getting stronger. It's the sixth day, isn't it? Something like that? So we have one more day. Now, I don't like to... I'm sort of switching the subject here. Now, I don't like emphasizing Zazen too much in my lectures. I want to emphasize it in the way we... the way we... Implement Johanneshof. Ich möchte es in der Art und Weise betonen, wie wir den Johanneshof aufbauen.

[77:23]

Yeah, and having seminars where we assume there's a schedule, etc. Und wo wir Seminare haben und annehmen, dass es da einen Zeitplan gibt. A schedule with Sasan. I have never gone as far as Suki Roshi did when he was invited for the first time, I think the first time, to Stanford University. This is, I don't know what year, 59, 60, 61, something like that. And they brought him down to this great university and he asked him to give a talk on Buddhism. And he looked at everybody and said, please push all your chairs aside and sit on the floor. So he sat down with them for 40 minutes and then he got up and left. They didn't know quite what happened.

[78:46]

Except that the floor was dirtier than they expected. But I know that I could never have entered the way if I hadn't started practicing zazen. My habit of thinking was just too strong to have I can see it in lots of you who have been practicing a long time.

[79:48]

You still try to enter experiences through thought first and experience after. You follow my lectures through thoughts rather than following my lectures through an experience of each thought. of following it through an experience of each thought. Yeah, ideally, say that there's 50 thoughts, probably more than that, in one lecture. And only three of them would you have come to through your own experience.

[81:06]

Then you should limit your understanding of the lecture to those three thoughts. The rest is just talk. Now, you might... From the feeling of the lecture and etc. and Sashin, you might have a feeling for some more. It's not really your direct experience yet, but you have an experiential sense of it. Experiential sense of it.

[82:11]

And that's what I'm trying to do in my lectures, is increase your experiential sense, feel for aspects of the teachings. You should never use a Buddhist term, period. unless you've experienced it, come to it through your own experience. If you use it in the context of language, it's just talk. In other words, the meaning of the words comes from language, not from your experience, it's just talk. Maybe your practice goes much slower then.

[83:20]

You know, some of the great teachers seem to have accomplished a lot in 10 years. And some of them died at 35, 53, 46. And some of them died at 35, 46. Forty-six. Any number. You can just pick numbers if you want. As long as they're short numbers, not big numbers. And I'd like to take some of those short numbers and add them to my life.

[84:25]

Because I'm already way older than those ages and I still haven't accomplished anything like they accomplished. But some other Great teachers also were the attendant of their teacher 40 years or more. So it's not really about the number of years. It's actually about how, believe it or not, slowly and patiently you're willing to go. The thoroughly practice, realize one teaching, thoroughly go through one koan is the most important thing.

[85:34]

So you don't get ahead of your experience. This is also wave follows wave and wave leads wave. You let the wave of experience lead you and you never let the wave of experience get far behind. Yeah, now... Dogen says things like the entire practice of Buddhism is Zazen.

[86:49]

There is no other way. All the Buddhism patriarchs practiced and realized through Zazen. have realized through zazen. Just set aside good and evil. Right and wrong. Likes and dislikes. Even The thought of becoming a Buddha. Just sit in this way is sasin. Now, how are we to understand this? Now, how are we to understand?

[88:01]

Yeah, and it's not so easy to do zazen. And most of us, particularly if we're not here, supported by the schedule, sit fairly irregularly. Because you believe in your thoughts, you don't really believe in zazen so much. And insights are also thoughts. So now I seem to be talking about zazen. But I'm really trying to talk about Dogen's commitment to Zazen. Because many deep benefits come to us through Zazen. I mean, through insights.

[89:03]

And through the many forms of practice, especially mindfulness. So this is lay practice. And it's pretty hard to establish a real zazen practice without Dharma brothers and sisters who sit with you. And this sitting with others is an essential part of sitting, of zazen. So what do you need to make this?

[90:24]

Well, let me stay with Zazen for a little bit. What arises from zazen which doesn't happen in other ways? It's the most direct way to recognize the unison of the body and mind. And I use unison, I don't know if it, not unity. Unison is like singing together, to do something together. Because we're not talking about oneness here, we're talking about a relationship.

[91:32]

So we notice the unison of mind and body, the potential unison of mind and body. And if you sit even just a little, you begin to participate in that. And then the question comes up for you, the challenge. The question or challenge comes up for you. Do you really develop and mature this unison of mind and body? Now, that is... If you make that decision that is the source of many teachings.

[92:49]

You'll need many teachings, much help to develop and mature the unison of mind and body. Even if you sit some, even if you just sit some, the mind, the... activity of the mind that through language is lifted out of the body. So you have the task then of kind of settling thought, thinking, mostly language-based thinking, back into the body.

[93:55]

And you begin to experience after a while thinking as part of the body. You feel your thoughts, moods, emotions in your body. Maybe I should say you feel your thoughts in your body as you feel emotions in the body. Because we all know we feel emotions in the body. And you begin to... Yeah, perceptions too.

[95:19]

You feel perceptions in the body, seeing, hearing, etc. This is when body and mind begin singing together. And your body begins to tell you directions, guide your thinking. You wait till you can feel a thought or you wait till feeling precedes a thought before you go to the next thought.

[96:08]

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