Now I have the interesting problem of how to incorporate and simultaneously move along from what we did yesterday. I created the problem by having this Friday free day. But anyway, let's see. One of the things I emphasized yesterday is the shift of the shift in view, which is often the precipitator, precipitant of realisational experiences.

[01:15]

One thing I emphasized yesterday is the shift in views, which often leads to realization experiences. And what's interesting about the shift is that it's, whether it's from A to B or M to Z, or Western culture to East Asian yogic culture, what's on either side of the shift is different. not as important as the shift itself. That what the shift is from and to is not so important as the shift itself I find extremely informative and interesting.

[02:36]

One of the basic concepts in Zen Buddhism, Chinese Zen Buddhism, is of original mind. And I think that it's a term I use, but there's a lot of problems with it. And this is a term that I use, but there are also many difficulties with this term. As if there's some inherent nature that's uncontaminated, unstructured by culture. Strukturiert, danke.

[03:43]

Oder nicht strukturiert ist. I wonder if I had a child, another child, if I could name him Schmutz. In Germany, that would be illegal. Illegal. Come here, Schmutz. Maybe a name for a dog, Schmutz. No? Well, a mutt. A dog is, in English, a mutt. Anyway. And maybe it would be better to say, oh, there you are. Hi. And maybe in English it would be better to say originating mind or originary mind.

[04:47]

Vielleicht wäre es besser von einem... They're the same thing. They don't exist, is the thing. Okay. So they don't exist, that's the problem. Yeah. But the concept at least of original and original mind is a useful way to face the differences that appear. Yeah, but perhaps if there is such an experience of an original mind, free of any views, it's this shift between A and B, or whatever,

[05:59]

which is my sense of it is that it's an infinitesimal moment in which there's a freedom from views. So the shift from one view to another works because there's a moment in which there's no views which allows the shift to occur. Now, Zen as a practice Zen as a practice is pedagogically shaped by the existence of such a shift. Perhaps, you know, one of their dynamics was the shift from an Indian culture or Buddhism to Chinese culture, which then tried to make Buddhism a form of Taoism.

[07:44]

Now, I'm saying this to say something about Zen practice. And I'm also saying it to say something about each of us. Because each of us is capable of this kind of shift. Now, in a simple idea, a nervous breakdown, a nervous breakdown is a kind of no-view shift which you can't handle. That says something about, if that's the case, and that's a few times I've known somebody who had a nervous breakdown and usually recovered without being in a mental hospital or anything.

[09:17]

Suddenly, everything they're doing, their career, et cetera, nothing made sense anymore, and they didn't know how to bring sense back into their life, and they kind of had to stop working for a while. and so forth. That's one reason I think that because of the emphasis within Zen practice, the emphasis within Zen practice, more than any other Buddhist school, I think, is on this no-view shift.

[10:24]

The emphasis on this no-view shift is, I think, one of the reasons why there's such a strong emphasis on zazen meditation practice. And one of the reasons why there seem to be no stages emphasized in Zen practice. But let me just say that of course there are stages in Zen practice. How could there not be? But the emphasis is on the practitioner, him or herself, recognizing the stages. So Zazen is seen as a kind of free-floating mind-body experience, experiential field rooted in stillness.

[12:04]

And that free-floating bodily mind field And this free-floating body-spirit field is conceived of as preparation for these realisational shifts. And there's realisational shifts then when and if they happen, you still feel settled in the posture, you in some ways can't be disturbed. You don't have a nervous breakdown, you just have a breakdown.

[13:22]

And in these shifts in which realization takes place, when they take place, I remember the first time I saw this visibly. you know, we formed Tassajara in California because Sukhriyasi said, he said to me, he needed a place where he could meet face to face with people. So I started hunting for a place. And through some kind of extraordinary luck found Tassajara and imagined let's see if we can Make it happen there.

[14:43]

And in the first or second 90-day Ango practice period, one young man, I suppose, he must have been Twenty or something. Had a realisational experience, very clear, enlightenment, I can't use the word enlightenment because it suggests some sort of territory you enter that's special. Suddenly this young man had a responsibility in the center, etc. He suddenly just started crying, and he cried for two or three days, walking around just crying. Never saw much after that.

[15:55]

But 20 years later, I realized he was in Cincinnati or someplace. He was a Zen teacher. And I knew from Suzuki Roshi and other ways that this was a kind of classic, this weeping about the life you've just given so much energy into is suddenly meaningless. And you just weep for yourself and the world. This is actually a classic enlightenment experience. And I knew from Suzuki Roshi that this was actually a classic experience.

[16:58]

That when you have such an enlightenment experience, that you suddenly start to cry. You realize that life, in which you have pumped so much energy, that it is meaningless. And then you cry for yourself and the world. Giorgio, since I think you have trouble hearing, wouldn't you be better sitting here? And it's cozy. It'd probably be better there because there's the voice. I'm just pretending to say something. Yeah, so then when you recognize the extreme emphasis that Zen as a Buddhist school places on this no-view experience,

[18:11]

You also see then why there's this seemingly formless zazen that prepares you for this experience, which is... Yeah, prepares you for this experience. So that throughout, it's the authentication of one as a teacher, etc., is not how much knowledge you have or how many sutras you've memorized. It's whether you've had this experience or not and how you've made use of this experience. then you also see that the authentication, the authorization of validity, the authentication, thank you.

[19:19]

Then you have a new dynamic, which people who are practicing and are in the field of enlightenment but haven't had the experience, how are they included in the practice? And this conception of practice rooted in this no-view experience. is also makes it understandable, one, that this private relationship with the teacher called Dokusan or Sanzen, is where you open up to the fellow practitioner called a teacher to recognize that you now

[20:51]

that a certain stage of practice now can be identified and utilized. So yesterday we talked about these things, some of these things. And today, you know, here we are, we have today and much of tomorrow. And in this short period of time, two days, I think what we're here for is to immerse ourselves in some kind of tangible feel for how we actually exist. So the stages in practice are also sort of shifts. And so confirmed and nudged in this personal relationship with the teacher.

[22:38]

So Zen is really, though it became, you know, lots of temples in Japan, 25,000, really it's a teaching for a few people who know each other. I mean, the job of a teacher is to have a known address. And the work of the teacher is to have One disciple. They might have three or four, but one disciple is enough. But each of us can be that one disciple.

[24:32]

And the teacher is also that one disciple of the relationship with the disciple. Now, I'm struck by, as many of you know, I really appreciate the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. Fernando Pessoa. And Pessoa just means person. It's kind of interesting to have a name, Fernando Person. Particularly since he felt he was a non-person. But Pessoa... created something like, I don't know, 70 what he called heteronyms.

[25:38]

A heteronym as a word just means something like a substitute for another word. But he used the word to, I guess some others have used it, but he used the word as another not like a pseudonym, a false name, but another person with his own history who lives simultaneously with you, separate and as part of you. And he used the word to say, and I think other people before him also used it, that it describes a person, and not that it's a pseudonym, so not that he wrote under another name, but to describe a person who lives with him, through him and in him, at the same time with another person.

[26:54]

Yes, and... He's a poet, but I would almost say he's a writer who happens to write by writing poetry. Now, so that isn't just me talking all the time, I thought we should have some reality that's in print. I think anyway there were three or four main heteronyms and probably the most significant one was called Alberto I don't know how to pronounce it in Portuguese even though I have a daughter who's I have a grandson who's half Portuguese, but, you know, it doesn't help my pronunciation. I won't talk about my linguistic impairment.

[27:57]

Okay. Anyway, Alberto... Sayiro, maybe. That's how it's spelled. He was born from Fernando in 1914. And I would say for certain that it was an enlightenment experience. And he considered the two other main heteronyms he created saw Alberto as their teacher, their master.

[28:59]

And He called himself an author name, the author called himself an author name, who was also a disciple of Alberto. Some of us human beings go to great lengths to avoid having a nervous breakdown. So it's much like in Buddhism, the theory of and practice of the two truths. Because whatever culture you're born into, enlightenment or realization takes you out of that culture into another kind of world.

[30:10]

So you have the problem of how to live an enlightened life in the midst of a benighted life. Benighted? Darkened. Darkened. Have you been enlightened? No, but I've been benightened. If you say yes, you're probably wrong. So, So the two truths are that you learn to live, again, this life rooted in enlightenment and simultaneously function with others in the usual way, the brain condition, consciousness conditioned way.

[31:25]

Maybe at this point you've been sitting Zazen and you now are listening to me for 36 minutes. Maybe you need a break soon. Yeah. So let's leave it there, brain consciousness. And immerse ourselves in this field of enlightenment, if it's possible. After a cup of coffee or tea, which often helps. All right, thank you very much.

[32:27]

Thanks for translating.

[32:28]

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