One of the reasons I started to practice, yeah, continued to practice, started to practice, was because, yeah, I liked to have friends. And, you know, it seemed so difficult to have friends. You can have a few friends, but you know, it's difficult. Zen practice and being with Suzuki Roshi opened up a way to be friends with people that is better than any other way I found. So I have, you know, I feel I have, you know, excuse me for using these kind of But I feel I have an extraordinary friendship with each of you.

[01:21]

And an intimacy in which our Feelings and thinking and experience intermingle. And yet I also know, tomorrow you all leave. You think it's still unbinding, it's the truth. Yes, it's true, you're leaving. And maybe I won't see some of you anymore, but some of you maybe only next year. And some of you I will see in Creston.

[02:27]

But here is this, isn't the world funny? Here we have this intimacy and yet it also is, yeah, inseparable from, yeah, not seeing each other or being separated. I mean, it always seems odd to me that I'm not going to see you every day now the rest of my life. It generally seems odd to me. But I have not figured a way to make Johanneshof big enough and to support all of you. And your families and friends. So I have to let the world do that. But I'm also completely... Yeah, except that I won't see you.

[03:32]

Yeah, but once there's a real contact, yeah, it continues. And if I see you in a few years, I won't be surprised that you're older because sometimes I've been with you for those years. Yeah, now I'm trying to give a lecture I can't give. And I'm always often complaining to you that I'm going to give a lecture that I don't know how to give. And I don't say that to complain. And I don't say that so you lower your expectations so I can say anything. I say that because part of my giving a Taisho or part of a Taisho is a lecture, but Zen lecture is the act of giving the lecture itself.

[04:52]

So some lectures, you know, I pretty much can feel what to say. But often, very often I... I'm giving a lecture I don't know how to give. But maybe it's similar to my enjoying not speaking German. I really like not knowing what's going on. I'm always in a foreign land. But I also like to understand. Maybe I have to find some other way to understand. So there's always this... Yeah, interplay.

[06:02]

And one of the key teachings, esoteric teachings in Dungsan, our lineage, is the trigram or hexagram Li. Li is a long line, two short lines and a long line. Yeah, maybe I'll come back to that. So when I say I'm giving a lecture, I don't know how to give. I mean, I can't even give it to myself. Because there aren't words.

[07:03]

Okay. But I have a feeling. I have a, not one feeling, but a flowering feeling. Oh God, I'm schmaltzy today. Okay. But this blooming can't help without you blooming guys. Yeah, Smokey Robinson said, one of our ancestors. Somebody, a friend of mine says that somebody they know got their PhD in Oxford, proving that Smokey Robinson knew more about love than any man that ever lived, including Plato, Socrates, and so on.

[08:15]

No, I never saw the thesis. Yeah, but listening to his lyrics, it might be true. And one of the lines is, this may not be the love I've heard about. But this must be love. And then there's P.P. Longstocking's. And then there's B.B. Langstrumpf. Astrid Lindgren. Astrid Lindgren, yeah. Yeah, she says, Pippi says, I'm a thing finder.

[09:17]

And Tommy says, what is a thing finder? And Pippi says, the world is full of things and someone needs to find them. Now that's a very Buddhist view. The world is full of things and someone needs to find them. That's one of the reasons in Zen, and I get tired of being the Buddhist thing finder. That's one of the things why so many things in Zen and Buddhist practice are... directed into the details of things. The more fully I can already see the eighth and ninth lectures necessary.

[10:24]

I haven't even started yet. No, I haven't started yet. Because The more you go into the details, the more you find another dimension of things. And when Dogen says, Dharma is to complete that which appears. That's a thing finder. I mean, we're practicing, we're Dharma finders. But if you look up the etymology, what's more simple than a thing?

[11:31]

This is a thing. Is it a thing? Supposedly, the ancestry of this, it's a backscratcher. Some people think it's for New Year's. Yeah. You know, these then guys, they used to sit in these hot, smelly, stinky temples, and like Europeans, they didn't wash very often. And like the cows here in the field, they had the fly whisk, you know, the hen fly whisk, it's good. Not the flies off, you know. Man, it's stinky and they're scratching their back, you know. So it becomes a teaching staff because it reaches anywhere. So this is a thing? I mean, what is it? What do you call it?

[12:44]

And if you look up the etymology of the word thing, It's ambivalent, more ambivalent than any word I've ever looked up. It means to negotiate, to arbitrate. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And it also includes assembly or a court. Assembly, a court, a court of law. So the etymology says... A thing is a thing waiting to be defined. A thing is a thing waiting to be negotiated, arbitrated. And that's exactly what Dharma is. It's what appears, and how you notice it, arbitrate it, etc.

[14:03]

Now, Linji... The other school. Dogen actually studied in both Linji and Dongshan Lineages. But Linji says, if you want to be free of life and death. That sounds good, doesn't it? If you want to be free from life and death, just sign up. And he says, and if you want to be free to dress and undress in freedom... Well, upstairs, I mean, that's all right.

[15:18]

But when he uses the word dress and undress, we have to know a little bit more about Linji, which he thought all language was just a form of clothing. You put it on... but it doesn't have much meaning. So if you want to dress up in your language and culture, he says to use the word Buddha is an act of veneration. It doesn't mean anything. It's just an act of veneration. So if you want to dress up in your language... Culture. Or undress. Take off your culture and language. So let me start from the beginning again. If you want to be free of life and death.

[16:19]

And free to undress or dress in freedom. Then instantaneously. No, you can't say it in German like that. Oh, you did it. Okay. then instantaneously become acquainted with the one who is listening to this lecture. The one who has no form. The one who has no characteristics. No origin. No cause. No dwelling place. And yet is lively and diverse. And the source of all activity.

[17:41]

If you seek for it, it becomes more remote and cunning. Just call it mysterious. This may not be the love I have heard about. Just call it mysterious. Now say that you're a person like many of us who feel you have a duty to do a lot of things. Yeah, but actually you're alive and you enjoy your life, you know. So you do something. Yeah. Make the bed, cook a meal, write a letter.

[18:45]

Visit someone. And you enjoy it. You do it out of the joy of doing it. But you have this other personality that you've been taught to have that you have to do things out of duty. So you also did it out of duty. When you're in one mood, you say, geez, it was my duty. I went to visit so-and-so. It was my duty I wrote that darn letter. So then you start having two people here. The one person who enjoyed writing the letter, got enthused about it. And one person who only thinks they did it, particularly in a bad mood, out of duty.

[19:48]

And the one that does things out of duty is more involved with your memory. And the one that does things out of duty is clearly more in the clothes of your culture. So the one that does things out of duty accumulates experience in a different way than the one who does things out of joy. And so the one that does things out of duty says, God, I'm a victim of my life, I never do what I want, I'm always doing things because I have to do it, etc.

[20:55]

Because the one who does things out of joy doesn't accumulate experience the same way as the one who does things out of duty. And they're both doing the same thing simultaneously. Do you understand? And the one who does things out of duty is always kind of like complaining about his or her life. And they don't feel free. And they've noticed the part that did it out of duty and they've forgotten the part that did it out of joy.

[21:56]

Well that's... Sometimes the truth. And this duty-bound person, I'm just making this all up, you know. To use an example. This duty-bound person lives in the shadows of our psyche and dreams. Well, Linji is talking about the opposite kind of person. But also is simultaneous with us. But does things out of joy, out of enlightenment. He is listening to this Talk right now.

[22:59]

And has no dwelling place, no cultural dwelling place. Yeah, no origin. No form. And yet is the source of all activities. Yeah, we sometimes call this Buddha nature. If you seek it, it's... More and more remote and cunning. Let's not even call it Buddha nature, let's call it mysterious. Now back to our taxonomy. Within the tradition of Zen itself, there's three kinds of enlightenment. There's also Kensho and Satori. But Kensho is something in between getting your...

[24:10]

What do you call it when you graduate from gymnasium? Abitur? Yeah, somewhere between getting your Abitur and PhD. I mean, in the sense that you say, I got my Abitur. Well, great. That's nice. But Satori is usually to mean the... not just an entry, but the accomplishment of a lifetime or, you know, you got the Nobel Prize or something. So Kensho can mean a lot or a little, but mostly it means An opening. Samyak Sambodhi. It's a more technical term. Okay, but I don't think those are too useful for us, Kensho and Satori.

[25:43]

Excuse me? I don't think there are such useful words, Kensho and Satori. I just mention them because they are commonly used in Zen. So the three kinds of enlightenment to continue our classification within Zen practice. And you know I don't like the word natural. Because everything is artifice, there's no natural. But let's call it natural enlightenment. And by that I mean enlightenment which occurs in the context of the world. Then the second kind of enlightenment is enlightenment which occurs in the context of the teaching. Or the context of wisdom. And the third is enlightenment that occurs in the context of the teacher or the Sangha.

[27:03]

Or the lineage. Now most of the stories in Zen stories are primarily stories about enlightenment which occurs in the context of interaction with the teacher. Now, the enlightenment occurs because a tile falls off a roof and hits bamboo and makes a nice sound. That's the classic example. Wow, I'm enlightened. Okay. That's called Pratyekabuddha enlightenment.

[28:10]

Means the natural enlightenment in the world as it is Eine natürliche Beerleuchtung in der Welt, so wie sie ist. But not in the context of wisdom or a teacher, a teacher, a lineage. So you may be, and hopefully are, free of most suffering and everything is groovy. But you don't know, you really can't teach. Because this experience occurred in a way that doesn't let you teach or continue a lineage. Now, most practitioners have enlightenment experiences or realizations in all three of these categories.

[29:18]

Of these categories. Natural, context of the teaching, and context of the teacher. What do I mean by the context of the teacher? Well, it's a location. I mean... I mean, like a baby is a location. Baby, there's something different when you have a baby in your arms. Yeah, or your lover or your spouse. Or you're walking down, as somebody pointed out to me today or yesterday, or something, you're walking down here and you walk by a cow and it's just kind of... munching. Here I'm talking about this real serious stuff, you know? And what do I think of this cartoon of these cows? You may have seen it. These cows are talking and smoking and discussing philosophy.

[30:21]

They're standing on their back legs. And one cow is up the road a ways, up the field a ways. And he says, car, car! And they all get down. And he says, car, car! And they all start munching away. So anyway, sometimes you're walking by and the cows stop munching and they look up. With her tail. And with big eyes, they look at you and go, whoa. Now, if you had an enlightenment experience at that time, we could say you were in the Moo lineage. I can't resist these, you know, easily. I mean, I'm not only schmaltzy, I'm corny today.

[31:44]

Do you have the expression corny? Yeah, so... Well, you don't say it. No. Afraid it might be worse. But there is a difference when the cow looks at you and when he or she is just munching away. It's a different thing to be arbitrated in the world. So... There's Pratyekabuddha and Samyaksambuddha. Samyaksambuddha is a person who is enlightened within the lineage with a teacher. And again, most of the stories relate to that. But in fact, there's a kind of texture of natural light within the teaching, within wisdom, and within the lineage.

[32:56]

Now, since this is only the eighth lecture minus one, I'm going to have to stop soon. So, I'm not stopping, but I'd like you to ring the bell. Okay. Now, what do we know from this? We know that I said to David, please ring the bell. David lifted the striker and hit the bell. Now, what can we know from that? We can know that what we're seeing is activity. Strictly speaking, we could say performative acts. Don't worry about it. Yeah. And the bell was hit.

[34:27]

And a sound appeared. So what we can clearly see in this activity is interdependence. That's fairly obvious. What we can also see By listening to the sound, and I brought this up the other day here, is impermanence. Would you hit the bell again, please? The sound is going bye-bye. It's impermanent. So we can know impermanence also like that. So the world is full of things and someone needs to find them. So we just found the thing called interdependence.

[35:45]

We found the thing called impermanence in contrast to permanence. But we didn't see that the bell is impermanent. Because the bell is clearly impermanent. impermanent in relationship to the impermanence of the sound. So strictly speaking in Buddhism, to say the sound is impermanent is delusion. Because to say something is impermanent implies permanence is possible. To say that something is indefinite implies that continuity is possible. What wisdom says is don't call the bell the sound impermanent.

[36:54]

Call it the absence of permanence. Because you can call the bell also the absence of permanence. And this Buddha, I told you about all the activity around that Buddha. In the last 40 years, it's had 460 years of activity before that. Who knows what that was? So when you see the Buddha, it's wisdom. I mean, we can just see with our senses impermanence But we can't see really the absence of permanence without wisdom. We can't also see easily that the bell is mined, David hitting it is mined, my speaking about it is mined.

[37:56]

Again, as Wittgenstein pointed out, there's nothing in this scene that tells you it's seen by someone. And the seeing of it is what's most real. So I can't speak this lecture to the words you know. I can only speak this lecture to your experience. And your experience, which is inherently mysterious. And it's always waiting to be discovered, found.

[39:26]

And that's as much as I can do. Unless you decide to come back sooner than you planned. Because I guess I can only point out here this conjunction, simultaneity of form and emptiness. So what is the quality of realization? Yeah, it's It's connectedness. It's inclusiveness. And it's freedom, the freedom to dress, etc. And what does the word free mean? The etymology. It means to love. It means love in the context of love which frees or peace which frees you.

[40:39]

The love, friendship, peace, calmness, stillness that frees you. Okay. So in a way we have in our experience connectedness. And in a deeper way we have, I guess you'd say something like non-separation. In a deeper way, we could say the conjunction we call simultaneity. That Linji was pointing out. And that actually this kanji, I mean, trigram... that Dung Shan uses, points out as well. I hope this continues to work in you.

[41:42]

Yeah, thanks.

[41:42]

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