Which is always appearing as form. So noticing this is the activity of a Buddha. Noticing this is the Tathagata Garba or the Tathagata. And that's enough. Okay. Now, Okay, we started out with some idea of mind.

[01:07]

And it's hard to notice mind because I suppose because we take it for granted. And how do we know the boundaries and structure of something we're in the midst of? We're living in the rooms of the house, but we never see the outside. And we don't usually even see, we think it's one big room with some stuff in it. We don't see it's actually a lot of rooms. As you go from room to room, it's air to air, so you just think the room is space or air or something.

[02:10]

But the walls of this room change the space, it's a different space. And we have a practice, as many of you know, of creating a little pause before you enter a room. And one reminder of that is to step in with the foot next to the hinge of the door. You can understand the pause as a little moment of dissolving the skandhas. And a little pause where you then allow the appearance of the room to come in.

[03:20]

So you feel each new room or each new space. If you physically do this in the world, it's easier also to do it in the rooms of the mind-body. Now, I've tried to give you a picture of mind as a process. And especially consciousness as a formation process. Okay. Now I did that so we can bring in the idea of original mind. Okay.

[04:30]

What I wanted to avoid is the metaphor of original mind as a mirror or screen. The so-called platform sutra of the Sixth Patriarch Actually seems to have been written much later than it's dated and is probably made by the Ox Head School. But aside from that, it's still an interesting teaching. Ox Head? Yeah. Oh, that's what you said? Okay. And it set the tone for much of the development of Chinese Buddhism, Chinese Zen.

[05:52]

Look, it demolishes the idea of a mirror or stand, etc., as I said earlier. But even Sukhiroshi said, maybe the mirror is a good metaphor for beginners. And when you look closely at the teaching of later Zen masters, actually some of them, I think, fall into the trap of a screen or a mirror. Now, it may be that this metaphor is useful in Zen practice, particularly for beginners again. But if the pedagogy based on a mirror or screen idea from which practices are derived, won't stand up to examination by an alert practitioner.

[07:04]

So ultimately it's somewhat rather deluding. Yeah, it says one saying in Zen, is if you know the teachings and the practices, Wenn ihr die Lehren und die Übungen kennt, wenn ihr also vollständig diese Lehren und die Übungen kennt, aber ihr die Quelle nicht kennt, dann wirst du ein eineigiger Drachen sein. And of course you all want to be at least two-eyed dragons.

[08:04]

By the way, dragons are good things in Buddhism. They're not slain by saints. Okay. In Buddhism, saints turn into dragons. Yeah. Okay, so what we have here now are practices based on consciousness as a formative process. Okay, so now what Zen also tried to do Some writers say it's because the Indian baggage of prajna and samadhi were too great for Chinese Zen.

[09:06]

That's just this guy's idea, I think. What these Chinese Zen practitioners tried to do was to create a teaching which could enter into highly urbanized Chinese society. And quite different than in Tibet where Buddhism entered a very undeveloped society, agrarian society, not an urban society. Fairly thinly populated country spread out over many canyons and plains.

[10:08]

So there the local culture and Buddhist culture were merged. Much more than in China at least. So China had to find a way to get into the minds of already literate urban people. People just like you. Literate, urban. Even if you live in the woods, you're still rather urbanized types. So they tried to devise practices, often actually related to poetry, devised to make, to create.

[11:31]

That lay people could do as well as monks. So there's a tradition that's variously named. And it's one practice samadhi. as one mark samadhi, as keeping to the one. Okay, so the effort was to fuse practices into a single practice. Zen tends to fuse shamatha and vipassana into a single practice. Okay. So even if we take an advice like, don't invite your thoughts to tea.

[12:43]

That's a simple practice. Simple advice. But it's pretty sophisticated, actually. For example, it assumes the evolution of consciousness. It assumes there's no one enlightenment. Es geht davon aus, es gibt nicht nur bloß die eine Erleuchtung. Denn wenn ihr glaubt, es gäbe diese eine universelle Sprache, dann habt ihr wieder dieses subtile Glauben an diese eine Leinwand. Und ihr könnt in meiner und ihrer und eurer Sprache hören, dass die Dinge nicht sich ganz treffen. branches are alike.

[13:45]

No two languages are alike. And expressing yourself in different languages is a little different. I think people who know two languages find they're different people in the different languages. I like you all in English. I wonder how much more I'd like you in German. Or in French. In Dutch, that's impossible. So Zen doesn't want to give you mats. Even sophisticated mats. He wants to assume your practice may bring you places no one's ever been before.

[14:49]

sondern es geht davon aus, dass eure Praxis euch vielleicht an Orte bringt, an denen noch nie jemand gewesen ist. Es kann sogar letztendlich sich herausstellen, dass die Praxis von uns im Westen There's a Japanese poet named Shinzei who lived from 1114 to 1204. He died about the time Dogen was born.

[15:50]

And I think he lived about the time this Rostenberg was built. Wasn't it built in the 11th century? Yeah, 1193. 1193. So near the end of Shunzai's life, somebody built this big pile of stones up here. Elegant and beautiful pile of stones. Okay. And he had some idea of original heart. It's a rather interesting idea and a strange use of the word original. He says that Chinese and Japanese poetry have taught him how to know his heart. taught him how to know his own heart.

[17:16]

In other words, the potential of the heart, the potential to feel yourself in the forest, to feel yourself in relationship to the seasons, To see yourself in relation in the many ways we love. Is explored and brought out by love. the poetry and literature of China and Japan. I was struck by a South African poet who liked writing in Afrikaan, is that what it's called, Afrikaan? Because it wasn't a developed language.

[18:31]

And when you were a poet, you were often finding the first ways to say certain things. I think he went back to Paris, I believe, to live, because the government forced him out. And he said he can write in other languages, but it's not the same as writing in a language where you're finding the first ways to say certain things. There's a Harold Bloom, to continue this idea, Harold Bloom was a quite famous critic of literature in America.

[19:39]

And pretty close to the expert on Shakespeare. Oh, er war fast der Experte von Shakespeare. He says something like, we are all the creatures of Shakespeare. Und er sagt, wir sind alles die Geschöpfe von Shakespeare. Shakespeare didn't, he says, I'm not a, don't read Shakespeare that much. Also er sagt, ich lese Shakespeare nicht so viel. He says that Shakespeare wasn't writing about characters he'd heard about or known. Such complex people never existed before Shakespeare. He developed the potentials of certain kinds of people related to greed or something like that.

[20:42]

Or love or whatever. Of people who are involved with greed or who... Yeah, where their character is based on greed. Or sentimental attachments. Okay. I think he would even say that God is a literary creation. Because we know God through the Bible, so it's basically a creature of literature. Also, wir kennen Gott durch die Bibel, und deshalb ist er eine literarische Kreatur. And I think he would say the King James Bible and Shakespeare have done the most to shape us in English. Und er würde sagen, dass die King James Bibel und Shakespeare das meiste dazu beigetragen haben, uns im Englischen zu formen.

[21:49]

Okay. Shakespeare, by the way, I think had a vocabulary of something like 30,000 or 45,000 words that he used. I think no other writer in English has ever come close to that. I think some people say Ben Johnson wrote Shakespeare. But I think in his writings, he has a vocabulary of about 8,000 words. So you simply would have been incapable of it. And of course, a large vocabulary isn't just because you read a lot. It's because you're able to make distinctions and hold them in mind.

[22:51]

And Shakespeare was one of the persons who not only used a huge variety, but created a lot of words. And marks the fusion of French and German into English. Think what he could have done with Afrikaans. Okay. I don't know why I'm telling you all this. It interests me, though. But it's interesting how one person can affect so thoroughly a culture. Of course, Shakespeare's influence reaches into the minds of writers in many languages.

[23:58]

So a few people, a small group of people, doing something thoroughly, can move a whole culture. At least. This is around 10,000%. Sorry, I didn't get what you said. Is this the 100% I spoke about yesterday? Okay. So what Shunzai was trying to say is you look at the person as created and evolved through the possibilities of literature And I think if you look at your own reading, there may be characters in books that have influenced you as much as real people.

[25:13]

So what Shunzai's idea was, yes, we have this flowering of ourselves through literature, which showed us the potential of being a human being, but it simultaneously showed you the potential of the original heart. And there's something similar with original mind. When you see mind as a process, you can see the flowering of mind Within the flowering mind, you can see original mind. The flowering mind is part of original mind. Flowering, fruiting, nurturing of mind. Das Blühen und das Früchtetragen und das Nähren von dem ursprünglichen Geist.

[26:51]

Is the gate of original mind. Sorry. Is the gate... No, no. The flowering and the... Fruiting. Fruiting of what? Of mind. Ah, also das Blühen und das Früchtetragen und das Nähren von dem Geist ist ein Tor zu diesem ursprünglichen Geist. Okay, so we can try to look at what is a keeping to the one. Or one so-called one practice samadhi. Mm-hmm. I said this morning it was Sunday, Sunday morning.

[28:00]

We have a saying in Zen, part of the one in Koan, every day is a good day. But is every day really a good day? Some days are pretty lousy. And if you pay attention to astrology... What practicing Buddhists are not supposed to do. Sukhirashi said, when I was young I was interested in astrology and I hated to give it up. And there seem to be days when you have more accidents and things like that. And you have to be more careful some days than others. You break two glasses and some other things. But the emphasis on every day is a good day.

[29:02]

As I said, the mind as it is. To enter in the center of each mind as it is. And this is to enter into the day as it is. Stormy and rainy or clear and sunny you're not making comparisons. You just enter into the day as it is. This would be the practice of every day is a good day. Good in this circumstance means not to compare it to other days. Find yourself in this day rather free of predictive systems, astrological systems or whatever.

[30:03]

Ziemlich frei von Vorhersagungen und von astrologischen Vorhersagungen, Systemen und so weiter. Yeah, it's a little like... We have the skandhas. What were the skandhas? Also es ist ein bisschen so, wie wenn wir die skandhas haben. Jetzt schreiben wir einfach mal das Wort skandhas da auf. And you can find your experience in the midst of the skandhas. And so let's say here we have consciousness and here we have form. Okay. In the midst of the skandhas, you can turn toward form. Or you can turn toward consciousness.

[31:16]

I think you can feel that if you practice this skandhas. You're in the midst of a perception. You can feel, rather than perception leading to association, You can make a choice to either turn toward the space, the clarity of form, the direct perceiving of form alone, or you can turn toward association, letting consciousness flow. You can't do that in self as an entity. When you turn self into functions, and then self as the five skandhas, you begin to have a choice of whether you emphasize connectedness

[32:21]

already connected they are already separated you have such choices that choice puts you in a very different place that choice is a kind of non-self because in a way you are choosing more self or less self And self has a way of functioning. And you can see self-importance is not a very good way to function. And as you pointed out, equanimity is a better way to function. So through practices like this, you begin to have choice. And the enlightenment experience is often a turning around experience. Und die Erleuchtungserlebnisse sind oftmals so ein herumwendendes Erlebnis.

[33:56]

You feel physically turned around and interiorly turned around. Also ihr fühlt euch wie körperlich herumgedreht und physically turned around. in your interior. It's an actual sensation. And we can say it's part of this experience of looking back toward mind itself and away from consciousness. You have a feeling of seeing things as they really are. Does this make sense to you? Does this make sense to you? The skandhas is a kind of stage where you can make use of the skandhas To free yourself from the skandhas.

[34:57]

You can make use of the skandhas to function in the world. To function as a painter. Or to function as a doctor. There may be some difference for you, Peter. or to function with a good friend with whom you practice, or in the most intimate kind of non-comparative conversation, oder in dieser intimsten Art der Konversation, die auch nicht vergleicht. Da seid ihr vielleicht noch in den Skandas, aber ihr habt euch innerhalb des Skandas auf die andere Seite ausgerichtet. Aber in der Straßenbahn auf der Fahrt zur Arbeit ist man vielleicht in Richtung Bewusstsein gewendet. although all of this is present at once.

[36:14]

But we're talking here about a way of coming into this all at onceness. Okay, I hope that makes some sense. So we can understand original mind then as the experience of a mind that's free of your personal history. So sometimes it's called the mind before your parents were born. That's pretty clear what that means, isn't it? The mind before your parents were born. So are you.

[37:17]

Imagine a therapist saying that. Don't worry about what happened to your parents. The mind before your parents were born. So we could have a dharma therapy. With psychotherapy you work with the mind after the parents, after you're born, and with dharma therapy you work with the mind before the parents were born. And this also means a mind free of culture. Okay, so the skandhas gives you a way to see into the formation of mind as a process. Before formation or just in formation? See into the formation of consciousness. And then you can make up your own practice. Now, these wisdom phrases, again, some scholars say, you know, Indian Buddhism wanted to use breath, et cetera, and not use language.

[38:53]

But Zen, for some strange reason, went back to using language. But Zen takes language out of the mind of consciousness. puts it into mindfulness and zazen mind, background mind. It takes these words and phrases out of grammatical syntax and turns them into a kind of mantra that you repeat. So it's a special use of language. And then you keep staying with it. So it's called, again, keeping to the one. Or one practice samadhi. Or one mark. You take one mark and you keep staying with it. So you don't invite your thoughts to tea.

[40:10]

You're not trying to get rid of the thoughts. You just don't identify with them. And you're like you're in your house and there's some guests in your house. And you're working on your book. You just let them walk around the house. You don't want to stop and have tea with them. But you can hear them in the various rooms. I bet you've often wanted to work on a book and not have... But through her great generosity and compassion, she always invites her guests to tea. And still produces famed and excellent books. I'm going to have to become her student. Anyway, so... She agrees.

[41:11]

But you hear the guests moving around. You leave them alone. Maybe it's better to invite them to tea. Sometimes they go in rooms you don't want them to go in. They're wandering around the house. Oh, what's this closet? I thought it was a bathroom. And then you realize, geez, I haven't opened that closet in years. So there's still, by not inviting your fox to tea, there's still some activity. You get to know the house and the rooms. And maybe like going into the forest, you don't cut the trees down, but you begin to feel the path. So even not inviting your thoughts to tea and holding the mind of not inviting your thoughts to tea somebody brought up an object.

[42:40]

What is an object? It's not just, you know, this. It's also the sound. It's also the relationship between Dan and myself. Or again, as I often say, if you concentrate on that, And you get really the ability to stay concentrated on it. And your mind doesn't stray from it. It comes back easily. And then I take it away. But you stay concentrated. What are you concentrated on now? The field of mind itself. And then if you can stay concentrated on the field of mind itself, which is an object of consciousness, which produces a different mind than a Mikael mind,

[43:57]

Or Eric mind. Or Christa mind. Or bell striker mind. It creates a mind generated from the field of mind itself. That's different than just the field of mind. It's a mind generated from the field of mind as an object of consciousness. That's different than the field of mind itself. No, the last part of the sentence, I forgot. Just as the stick is not the consciousness generated by the stick. If I look at these flowers carefully and feel the berries and the roses and the leaves and begin to feel the space which is held by the flowers it begins to create a mind in me that's different than when I just looked at it quickly.

[45:29]

I can feel the space of the bouquet in my body. And it would be different if I were sitting where Dan is sitting. So this makes a particular mind, which is generated by the first appearance, say the leaves, and the second and third appearance, and fifth and sixth appearance, as more and more objects, more and more aspects of it come into me. When I was a kid, I always used to wonder, why did Cezanne and these guys paint still lifes all the time? You know, I didn't have such a nice dish, but, you know, it was an older dish, but I had fruit in a bowl, too, on my table.

[46:32]

I couldn't understand why everybody treated these things with such respect. It's just fruit in a bowl. I realized a still life is a still point, is a dharma. It's a kind of way in which when you know dharmas, everything feels stopped and in place. Again, painting a kind of enlightenment experience. Okay. So the mind that's generated from the field of mind is not the same as the field of mind. So there's no universal field of mind. There's always the mind generated by the particular field of mind.

[47:34]

Es gibt immer den Geist, der hervorgebracht wurde durch ein spezifisches Feld des Geistes. Das ist immer eine Beziehung. Es gibt nichts, das nicht eine Beziehung ist. Wenn ich mich also auf das Feld des Geistes konzentriere, das können wir also Samadhi nennen. Then if I bring the stick back into the field of mind and I stay concentrated on the field of mind and I'm not concentrated on the stick then I can study the stick from the field of concentration. So in other words, if I just see the stick, I can't really study the stick.

[48:46]

But if I create a field of mind, which I'm concentrated within, Then I can not only apprehend the stick. I can apprehend each of you differently. And we can say that's vipassana. To have a flow of insights from a field of mind concentrated on itself in which everything is momentarily arising and dissolving. That experience we can call original mind. Knowing mind before acculturation and when anything appears in it, appears in it fresh and new, and gives you the feeling you've come into the source of mind, but you've come into the source of mind not as a screen, but as part of the process of mind.

[50:21]

As a process of mind itself. So, originating mind, maybe. So original mind is not prior, it's part of the process of mind. That was the topic, wasn't it? What is the original mind? So, maybe that's the best I can do. We're supposed to eat it in half an hour, right?

[51:25]

Why don't we sit for at least a few minutes? Or for a while? There's many things more I'd like to do. But I've heard you have to stop sometime. Yep. So how do we get back through the words of the Bible through Jesus as a literary figure to Jesus as a real possibility for us in our life?

[53:59]

How do we get through the koans to the possibility of practice in our life. To our original heart. And our original mind. The mind from which all this has appeared. went, appeared and really through practice showing us the way back to original mind.

[55:06]

Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you are not lost. Die Bäume vor dir und die Büsche neben dir sind nicht verloren. Wherever you are is called here. Treat it as a powerful stranger. You must ask permission to know it and to be known. You must ask permission to know it and to be known. Stand still.

[56:42]

No, excuse me, listen. The forest breathes. It whispers to you. whispers, I have made this place for you. No two branches are alike to raven. No two branches are alike to wind. If you do not know what trees and branches do, you are truly lost. Stand still. And let the forest find you.

[58:05]

The forest is not lost. Thank you.

[62:50]

Thank you. Thank you.

[65:17]

I don't know. So you try to fuse intention and attention into one.

[67:25]

Fuse breath and mind. Mind and body. Phrase and phenomena. Den Satz und die Phänomene. This is keeping to the one. Das bedeutet, bei dem einen zu bleiben. One practice samadhi. Oder die ein samadhi praxis. Joining mindfulness to just what you're doing. Auf das, was ihr tut, Achtsamkeit hinzufügen und damit verbinden. merging mindfulness with what you're doing. Till subject and object disappear. This is also keeping to the one. And this kind of practice

[68:29]

opens up and transforms the processes of mind. It's really been nice to be with you all this week of these four days.

[70:24]

And thank you for having enough time for four days. And thank you for being our host. And again, Eric and Christina and Mikael for organizing and recording. And Marie-Louise for translating. And me for sometimes not talking. Thank you. Now I hope I see you again sometime. Some of you I know I will.

[71:42]

But all of you, each of you, I hope I will.

[71:44]

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