summarize what I've discovered next door looking at what they're doing. They've been looking at the floor and so forth and how many tan or seating places can there be. And actually, Lenny really likes your idea of moving the wall out. We didn't yesterday. Well, no. We all change our minds. Anyway, but that would be too big a project, at least at this stage of our finances and thinking about it. And so the most important thing right now, I think, is to make the practice period work starting in September.

[01:18]

And I'm told, I don't know if it's correct, there's 24 people who Not officially. There are a number of people who are thinking about it, but I'm trying to organize it. Ulrich says there's 24 people there, right? You're guessing. Okay. So let's say that there might be 30. I mean, we're trying to make a Zendo. So we could easily make a Zendo for 30 people if we only had a half ton or one seat, you know. And your units, the architect is extremely good and quick at CAD. So dozens of Zendos appear. So dozens of Zendos. And Matthieu and Eunice are willing to somehow produce a simple wooden town wide enough for it like this by the beginning of September.

[03:02]

And Eunice and Matthieu are willing to produce A complete wooden ton or half ton? Half ton. Half ton. Aus Holz zu produzieren, also bis September, Mitte September. Einfachen Malz. Einfachen Malz. Yeah. And if we could do that and have 20 to 30 seats, which we could. Wenn wir das könnten, wenn wir also 20, 30 Sitze hätten, wenn das möglich wäre. And... And Mathieu thinks using local wood, he can do it himself in the space quickly. So that would give us, what that would give us isn't a chance to see how that building feels to sit in, And would give us a chance to feel how a practice period feels.

[04:04]

And if it felt good, then it would be a basis to go forward with maybe a more developed Zendo in next year. I think we have to take this step by step or sit by sit and see how it feels for us to do this. Now, I said I would say something about for those who might not know what full tan means. So tan is the Japanese word for the meditation platform.

[05:06]

Which usually includes the eating board of nine or ten inches. And if it's a full tan, it means it's a full tatami, six foot three or so. And then with a cupboard, or tanzu, behind, against the wall, with two compartments, one for your bedding, and when I was at Eheiji, since I'm taller than most Japanese, the lower cupboard wasn't just for my bedding, it was also for my feet. I had to be careful because at The wake-up was at 3.30, but around 3.20 or 3.25,

[06:30]

Some crazy, I mean dedicated monk came racing down the eating board with a 2x4 wrapped in a wet cloth. They're just coming. And the sender was dark. And if my head stuck out, then, oopsies. So I had to either have my feet way in the cupboard or I had to feel it coming and I could feel the breeze. Pull my head up and the breeze would go by. This is kind of the fun of being a monk. Anyway, if we can... And the tan... is also considered to be an extension of the altar.

[08:03]

So you don't have a Buddha in the Zendo, traditionally, as I said yesterday. You only have a Manjushri with the sword of wisdom. And because the practitioner is the Buddha. So the emphasis is on you're also on the altar. So anyway, and so the feeling of Atan is that it's where the fundamentals of life can happen. You can sleep there, eat there, and so forth, dress there. And at least for three months, you don't need more than these six feet by three feet.

[09:04]

And strangely, once you get used to it, it's an uncanny feeling. Uncanny? Feeling of completeness. And strangely too, even if you just use it to sit and you're not going to eat there, like sometimes we don't eat there, physically you respect it as the eating board and try not to... sit on it or put your feet on it as you go up and down. And so there's a feeling of the potentiality of the space as a place to live. The potentiality of the space is also there even if you don't use it. So this is more sense of space as an activity and space that evolves and evolves you.

[10:31]

No, I would like now to have any observations you have about institution practice or anything else. And I'd like to start with Beate. I didn't see your hand up, but I know you. And because, you know, She was the person who really said, let's build a Zendo behind Johanneshof. Get the building codes people involved and so forth. And then last year she did a practice period. And your daughter survived and your husband survived, I think.

[11:54]

So you have some feeling, which I've heard you express, about whether it needs to do a practice period. Could you say something about it for us? And I'm trying to figure out what we're doing and how we should continue. And maybe you can tell us something about it, your feelings about it, and I will try to find out what we are doing here and how it goes on. Of course, I would not have been able to predict this possibility of really implementing the Bundestag in reality during the practice period for a long time. Yes, a possibility. For a long time I couldn't conceive of the possibility of doing a practice period and convincing my husband and daughters that this is possible.

[12:56]

I have been doing this practice for a very long time, in numbers of years, and I would not have thought that the practice has so much to offer me, or that I do not know so much about practice yet. And I do the counting in years. I do this practice for a long time. I wouldn't have thought that practice has to give me so much more that there would be so much more which I didn't know. I am very convinced that if we start a practice period here And I'm completely convinced that if we would make it possible to have a practice period here, that even for having practiced so long, a lot would add or come to it. New dimension. Thank you. That the visibility of my practice in the different forms and formats, as it suddenly became visible to me in a practice period, my inner practice could be experienced in the entire outside, in the place where I was in the practice period.

[15:01]

My own inner practice could become visible and could become in the different forms that in the practice period appeared and took place. And it sort of reassured my own practice. And that's true, at some point I was sitting in the tracks here in the police station and for me it was quite clear that I would like to have the expression of what is in me, what I perceive in me, I would like to have as a possible space around me. So that was already, as Roshi describes it, that I then also with this sentence, I would like to have a broadcast, stood up.

[16:03]

This was an expression of the feeling that what was inside myself would want and need an outwardly visible expression. Yeah, okay. You know, I'm trying to teach in a way that Let's say I'm trying to give you recipes that you can discover the ingredients and explore and cook anywhere. Because I really want you to be able to practice. fully in your lay life. But still, it's a fact that sashims make a difference.

[17:06]

And also practice periods make a difference. Otherwise there would be no sense. But not everyone has to do sashins even or practice periods. But not everyone, not everyone, do sashins or even practice periods. But... If within the Sangha the possibility is there, it is a kind of activity of space, we can say, that pervades the whole Sangha. So I think as a Sangha, a lay Sangha, which I hope will continue into the future, Part of it should be the opportunity to sashins and practice periods.

[18:14]

For those who find the opportunity. Okay, someone else want to say something? I don't care if you want to say something. Somebody else say something. Yes, Ulrike. Yes, Ulrike. So Roshi started a practice period with the suggestion... And you were there, yeah? These 14 or 15 people who are here are the practice period.

[19:17]

This number of people. The feeling that a close group of people stays together for more than three months, the feeling that this limited number of people is then together for three months, has something closed off. This is a closed off universe of 15 people. That's how I experienced it, like my universe of thinking. And I would say that this feeling, for me, is that the people who are there, in any given situation, they are the world. There is nothing outside, and what is inside is so complete and complete. In any given situation, the people that are here are the world.

[20:23]

Dogen says somewhere, consider always the immediacy of every situation, the entire world. That's an expression of the practice of interdependence. You mentioned yesterday that I mean several aspects of institutional practice. And one aspect I mentioned was that other people like family and friends can better accept this weird thing we are doing called practice.

[21:33]

when it's an institution. So on one hand I want to confirm that that has been my experience, that really my parents and my friends could better accept it. When I said it's a long tradition and it's Buddhist, it's not some weird sect and so forth. I also feel on the other hand, since we are, I mean we want that this can exist in the next generations, that an institution is important for that, for it to carry on. Because a society, I mean any society, I think, has institutions. So that is like a known building block of a society. So an institution, no matter What maybe the content of the institution is, can be better accepted in the society and then can be carried on into further generations.

[22:41]

So, Roshi mentioned yesterday several aspects of institutional growth and one aspect of this was that others like family and friends can somehow better accept it if you do something as strange as practicing, and I wanted to confirm that this was my experience, that when I went to Queston my family and my friends could better accept it, that I said, yes, this is a long Buddhist tradition and this is not some strange sect that I have fallen into. And on the other hand, we also want the practice to exist for further generations. And I think for that, an institution is simply important, because our society and every society has institutions.

[23:42]

That is something known, no matter whether the content is perhaps not so well known. And that an institution has better chances to survive and to continue. One of the dangers, I think, or possibilities could be is that we in the West will start thinking, well, our present educational institutions... I think our present educational institutions will be good enough to teach Buddhism. And Buddhist classes, that will continue Buddhist. But I think institutions modeled on Western traditional educational institutions cannot pass a yogic teaching. Universities do pretty well, I guess, at passing how to be a poet.

[24:58]

Most of the poets I know learn through hard knocks. Hard knocks, do you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, the school of hard knocks. We don't have exactly the same, but it's very picturesque. Yes, you want to say something? For me, the institution is a necessary container in which the teachings are preserved and developed. This kind of institution? Yes. And it's a kind of refuge where the practice just goes on and being passed on whereas my individual practice occasionally is sometimes disruptive. Mm-hmm. Discontinuous.

[26:35]

And also to this belongs my idea of institution as a protected room. I do certain experiments about my own construction, which I wouldn't make in everyday life. Because I have to be constructed in different ways just to function. Yeah. for being able to do these experiments myself. Someone else? On the other hand, I found it interesting to go to the Sashin in Roseburg, in an empty space, to establish it and then to see that Sashin is created by the people who come there.

[27:50]

And on the other side, I found it interesting to see in Roseburg, we all came into an empty room, and coming together, we made that happen. Then we came, the sashin happened, we disappeared, and everything was gone. Yeah, we had the sashin in a box. And we take it out, and we... even bought the place a refrigerator and things so we could serve the food. And you were the tenzo, weren't you, for a while? I found it astonishing and good that people can and could recreate this once it happened. This was clearly not dependent on the specific location, but I found it fascinating that we always are able to recreate this and make this happen again.

[28:58]

Of course, in a place like this here, where all is there, it's a different atmosphere. But I found it fascinating and interesting that we just could make this work happen and establish. Of course, I learned how to do that at Tassajara. And so I sort of put Tassajara in a box and brought it to Germany and we would open it up. But one of the, I mean, that's maybe what we're going to be doing something like that next door in the building. Yeah. We'll go up to the Roseburg and see if they still have the box. But one of the big differences that people noticed is when we did the Roseburg in this, what was the oldest Buddhist center in Germany, I believe.

[30:27]

Goodbye, my friends. Thank you for making lunch. There was a kind of wonderful rotation of responsibility. Because there was no resident people to take over. And so you had to plan to be the tenzo for a while and then Then you were the tenso for three years, I think. And then somebody else has to be the ino, and everyone got a chance to do it. Not everyone, but many people. And I know some people really missed that when they came to Johanneshof, because there was these people they didn't know who were running the zendo in the kitchen.

[31:38]

What the hell do you know? I know how to do this from Rosenberg. And some of the initial residents were, you know, pretty sketchy. What exactly means sketchy? Yeah. It's a sketch and not fully drawn in. And they seem to be the authority and they knew less than the people who have been practicing for a long time. So that's really one of the dynamics of an adept lay sangha. is the adept lay sangha is often more accomplished and more experienced than the residents of the monastery.

[32:42]

So this requires serious practice of empathetic joy. This requires serious practice of empathetic joy. And we're working on it. We are working on it. Someone else. Noch jemand? Yes, Nicole. Was Herr Markham sagt, ist für mich selbst auch die Frage, auf was ein Ort eigentlich ist. What Kami says also brings up the question of what a site or a place is. And the first time that I thought about that was when I was lay ordained. And when I got my raksu, I noticed that laying the raksu was like a place.

[33:56]

But when I noticed I had my raksu and I noticed that putting on the raksu was something like a site or like a place. It was so warm. I could sit on the same spot in my room and lay the raksu. And all of a sudden, it was a place or a room. There was a feeling when I was sitting at the same place where I have always been sitting in my old room and I put on my raksu and suddenly what appeared was a space. And for me, it's been a long time, and again and again, what Rashi says, this dialogue between individual practice and institutional practice, for me it's a kind of dialogue between an inner desire in me and what the practice has to offer in order to respond to this desire. And for me, when you speak about the relationship between individual practice and institutional practice, what that is for me is a kind of dialogue between an inner request that I have and a response that I get from institutional practice, how that is in dialogue with my request.

[35:29]

And for me it took a long time. At some point I realized that the institution, everything we do here, is a kind of extended self-space. For me it was as if everything was happening in relation to my inner space of inspiration. So for the longest time, I mostly felt practice happening in a request space. Everything that we're doing was in response to my inner request. and to begin to feel the institution and the spaces and the teachings really as an institution in itself, like an extended self-space, that's something I'm only beginning to explore.

[36:34]

Would you like to add something? Sure. Some time ago I started to sit with a rope and rapses at home. It makes a significant difference when I create a space like in the sheen at home. It makes the access to here or being in the sheen much easier. You know, I really don't want to believe that.

[37:38]

let me say that because I wish it were otherwise but the fact of my life is accepting that what you just said is true is these things actually do make a difference and how to make use of that difference Explore that difference and make it your own is our practice. And do you have anything to say before we disband this morning? The sentence from yesterday, space as an activity, is still, I'm still dealing with it.

[38:53]

Or maybe better said, to feel or to feel, in the sense of Skanda, to follow the activity of space more than to let it go. More precisely also connected to the skandhas and to follow the space more than... Follow the activity of space more than... To grasp it. Yeah, yeah. That I meet the different layers of space within myself. That I meet the different layers of space within myself. But by us practicing together, I seem to be able to discern these different layers of space.

[40:07]

Yeah. Yeah. singularities and I'm playing with this should I use space and plural spaces or rather as a chain of singularities space, space, space and with the question what is the what is the so-ness of space And the question appearing about the suchness of space or space, space, space. Right before I saw I take a shot on the screen of the different Zendos.

[41:19]

And you see these little chests and you can imagine that these are spaces like this you set on. But it's quite fascinating to watch and see how this comes to be here. Well, thank you for helping so much. And what you described is your exploration of space. This kind of exploration opens up the teaching. Before we go to lunch, let me say that Sukershi emphasized, and some of you mentioned, the inner or innermost request. If this is going to be a healthy institution, it should respond to and call forth people's innermost requests.

[42:40]

independent of buddhism or prior to buddhism or some primordial feeling you come into the space or into the zendo and you feel it's my inner request is possible here And then you might discover Buddhism helps to open up that inner request. But if we can really make the magic work, it worked prior to Buddhism. It's more fundamental than Buddhism. Buddhism is just one language, one activity to open this up.

[44:00]

Yeah, but it's the craft I know, many, most of you know. All of you know. Thank you very much for translating. You're welcome. Thank you for this morning.

[44:23]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_74.75