I feel just like a flower in the morning with you. You are my grandmother. And I do thank you very much for the kindness you've given to me this weekend. I feel happy to feel that we are on the same path and I was at this seminar last year and something accompanied me through the year a feeling that I can't describe but a feeling that somehow gives me strength You can translate On the same path, and I've been to a seminar last year, and ever since I felt that something was accompanying me through the year, it gave me strength, and it makes me feel very good.

[01:18]

Maybe to Mark, I think. It is a very beautiful poem. I would like to read it to you and tell you what you have already experienced. I have been to Bridgette a few times in the last year. I am on my way, but I do not think that I have made great progress as a path to enlightenment. What I have managed to do better and better is to bring in the little that I have experienced here into my everyday life, where I have a lot of stress. The two principles are very useful. When I ask myself in great stress, what is it? And when the stress gets even greater, I ask myself, when did it disappear? Just to start, it's a beautiful stick. I wish the stick could tell us a story about what it went through.

[02:24]

I've been here last year. I've been in your seminars several times. I'm on the path. I don't think I make much progress, but I'm still on the path. I try to integrate more and more of what I see here into my daily work, where I have lots of stress. And I think the last few months quite successfully when the stress becomes very heavy I ask the question, what is it? And when the stress becomes even stronger then I ask, when did they fly away? In recent years I have come into contact with the most important philosophies. I have also encountered Buddhism and have already practiced Zazen. Today I appreciate that I have learned Richard Kern.

[03:29]

I really like how he continues the workshop and I feel a lot inside and I also appreciate that he offers us the opportunity to continue working with him. What I found very interesting at this seminar In the last year I came in contact with almost all... The Islamiyya laughed me out and the Iyya in myself is laughing at me.

[04:44]

Is that not it? What fascinates me the most is the fact that it is called Max or just Ed. I am very happy for the food for the head, just because of what we do. The heart syndrome was a theory to me until now, like any other. And now I suddenly feel like I have a head in the chair where my hair is now. Yes, I just get scared. I'm fascinated about Zen because it says, do it or let it be.

[06:04]

And because of that, I'm grateful that in that seminar I got nourishment from my mind as well to do that. The Heart Sutra was until now for me just another theory, like many others. And now I feel in certain moments, fuck, maybe it's true, maybe. It frightens me. And as well, suddenly, sometimes the question, what is it?

[07:06]

Seems to me, you crazy. Too crazy. I'm confronted with the final 10. and that he spoke to me the most was the way in which Richard expressed his truth, that he did not turn his back on me, that I felt nothing. It's like, for me, first time, then, this life, and what was the strongest for me was that the way I was teaching you your wisdom, your reality, it was like I had to go through it myself.

[08:35]

It's all come back to me, I have to do it myself. Now that you are doing it for me, I feel I also wish you had to do it by myself, but it was correct, and now I get to it. Now, the next thing I'd like to ask, and I also have the feeling that I didn't understand anything at all and yet I understood everything at the same time. At the moment I feel very paradoxical and I have noticed that all teachings, all truths, the whole life is a paradox, and that is something that fascinates me, it makes me less afraid of life, And that was very important to hear, because it's like a wave before it comes and goes.

[09:38]

And the feeling of in between, I would like to experience. Thank you, Hagen. for me also the first time here. And I have the feeling that I have understood everything and nothing. And I felt more paradox. And I think all the truth and all the philosophy and all these things are paradox and also the life. And so now I'm less afraid to survive. For me it was very important, as you say, with the zero, to come back to zero and to one, because it's like a wave when it comes and goes.

[10:48]

And the feeling from between, that I like to expect to know more about that. And I don't know when and with and how, so not so certain about it. And I will thank you and thank your body. I've been making teeth for many years. Thanks to Beke Roshi I understood things that I did not understand. I am very grateful. At the same time I feel like I have a frustration because of my too small progress in the practice.

[11:51]

This exercise with the tour, the foot. In English? I'm doing Zen since many years. Thanks to Baker Roshi teaching, I've been able to understand things which I've never been able to understand, and I'm very thankful. However, I have also a feeling of frustration because of my incapability of getting better with the practice. This exercise of stepping over the door with the foot on the side of the hinge was miserable as I forgot almost half of the time.

[12:56]

And slowly I'm thinking that there is no way of getting better that you are like that and there is no way of getting better and that gives me some bad feeling. My first experience of Zen was 20 years ago in the Los Altos Zen Center with Suzuki Roshi. But I decided then that I didn't understand it. I couldn't go on. So I read some things and what have you, but this is my first real-time experience, and I just want to say thank you.

[14:01]

It's been a great experience, and I've learned a lot, and it's fun. Thank you. 20 years ago I had an experience with Zen. It was the old Zen Center with Suzuki Oshii. At that time I decided that it was nothing for me. And now I am very surprised. I am also very grateful that I have now participated here. I can take something with me here and I have especially realized that it is fun. You might be interested that it's Sukersi's lectures at the Los Altos Zen Center which produce Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. I just thought, because of the door movement, that I would have to put my head against me.

[15:09]

And I thought, if I go on like this, I'll start going through the window into the house. I don't know. I don't know. the door. So we start with that. So if it's not better to enter or go out of the house through the window. I didn't want to receive the Bokken, but I got it the next day. And it was so beautiful, I had to do it. And what interested me the most was the idea of nature. And I think since I was a child, the trees were like a mantra to me.

[16:17]

And the trees always had a certain state of mind. And now I'm waiting for the trees. But I want to see in the future what other mantras are like. I didn't mean to come to the seminar at all because I couldn't afford it, but I came on Friday evening and it was so good that I had to come back. The thing that struck me most was the idea of the mantra. And I'd been wondering why I always had a funny feeling with trees. And I think that maybe since I was a little child, trees were like a mantra or something for me. And they always brought back the same experience. So now I'm thankful to the trees and to you and to all the other mantras that are around. I was grateful for the explanations, because they confirmed some of my experiences, which give me more confidence.

[17:40]

I am also very grateful for the exercises, Many of your explanations who are confirmers of my own experience and they give me more security to go on and I am also very thankful for your exercises because they allow me to go further and I would like to know you and you better and I hope that one day we will stop the bus together.

[18:47]

Apart from the tension and the fear that the encounter with Zen causes me again and again, this afternoon I noticed that this little roll was hanging there. Besides the confusion and fear I experienced every time I came in contact with the teaching and experience, I realized this afternoon, after Zazen, when I saw the left of the scrolls, this circle.

[20:08]

Seeing this circle I realized that I need different kinds of mantras and mantavas to get some kind of orientation. And so this goes with me. And also I realized that this is something I have been looking for in different places. Thank you. I would like to tell you one of the most touching things that happened to me personally during these last two days. And that is when you started the first time chanting the Heart Sutra, the power and strength of it was just overwhelming to me because I didn't even know it.

[21:17]

And it reminded, it transcends cultures. It was very powerful, I thought, and that all of you did the Heart Sutra was a surprise to me. And I remembered in that one moment, just my feet having been breathtakingly like that, the first time I heard the Heart Sutra myself, it was the one thing that kept me practicing, because I wasn't doing it for the other people in the room at that time in my life. I was doing it for the Heart Sutra. I was very touched to be here in a country that I don't know, to hear the Heart Sutra so powerfully chanting. I think it's very powerful. I think today was one of the most moving moments during the last two days, when I heard for the first time how you all chanted the Heart Sutra.

[22:20]

It was a very moving moment, how the Heart Sutra is something that through all cultures. And it struck me when I heard the Heart Sutra for the first time that I felt something similar. And that was actually the reason why I continued with the practice. I really practiced reading the Heart Sutra. And that was a very moving moment for me to hear the Heart Sutra here in this foreign land. Here I made a decision to make a plan about supporting my life. and I realized that it was beautiful and the most difficult thing for me to do.

[23:44]

I am very touched that I have this staff of Suzuki Roshi in my hands. I think a lot about Suzuki Roshi and Suzuki Roshi Sometimes I have the feeling that I am connecting with Bela Roshi when I am sitting and when Bela Roshi is not in Europe. And I would like to say that I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity that I have, that I can come here. And I thank everyone who contributed to it, also Ulrike, who translated wonderfully. I very much touched the stick of Suzuki Roshi in my hand. I'm very much devoted to Suzuki Roshi, and I sometimes have the feeling he connects me with you when you're not in Europe and when I'm sitting.

[24:55]

I'm very grateful that I had the opportunity to come here and to meet you again and to be with all the people here. I thank everybody who has contributed to it and also Ulrike who has been translating so beautifully. And I thank you very much for your most beautiful work this morning. Thank you. So I came dancing in the seminar and that was my first experience with Zen. And as I've already said, the last year I've not found it easy to establish the kind of meditation in my life. I feel from this weekend I've gained a lot more inspiration to persevere. And I find the idea of direct memory very comforting. Because I've absorbed a lot.

[26:02]

I haven't understood all that much. And I'm hoping that my memory works. Would you translate what she said? Right. One year ago I had my first encounter with the Zen. At that time I found it difficult to carry out a meditation practice in Latin. And now I have received some inspiration to practice. I'm liking something. Oh, and what was very important, this... And that was very important to me, this Dharani memory, because I know that I have so much, but I don't know how I could have done it otherwise.

[27:16]

During the seminar I thought a lot about what it means to have a physical existence, and above all I thought about what it really means to be a lay practitioner. Roshi said that in a monastery the monks support each other very much, even if they don't understand anything, let's say, they absorb a lot from the physical side and don't even get around it, and that this is an aspect that is really missing in self-practice. So I'm wondering if you can support each other more in self-practice in order to get this element in. During the seminar I was very much involved with this statement of yours to inhabit the territory of one's physical existence.

[28:41]

And a question arose out of this. You've mentioned several times that in monasteries there's this coercive energy that people study very much from each other in this kind of mandala type of space through their bodies. And that's something, some quality that's lacking in lay practice. And the question I'm dealing with now, how can we kind of find something equivalent to this in our lay practice? And it feels to me like this is exactly this element that has always been lacking in lay practice and which is very difficult to kind of provide in lay practice. So this is a question I'm taking from the seminar of how to deal with this. I'm also very glad to hold Suzuki Roshi's stick in my hand.

[29:54]

To try to be able to do this has actually been, is my life work. But I don't think you can actually imagine how much I do, am doing this with you. I don't just come to you as the recipient of Suzuki Roshi's lineage. For there's two lineages, the vertical lineage of Suzuki Roshi from Buddha through Suzuki Roshi to myself, And there's the horizontal lineage, which is you, which makes the vertical lineage come alive. So you are really bringing, helping me make, and I'm helping you make the teaching alive within each of us.

[30:57]

And that's true, not false. And I like the fact that this teaching is so joyous and also difficult. We need something difficult in our life. And we need something we can't reach the end of. And no matter how long I live or how much I practice, I will not reach the end of practice or Buddhism. And each of you is a vast universe. Each of you is bigger than Buddhism.

[32:11]

But Buddhism and practice can help you really know that. So I'm very grateful to be doing this with you. I would like us to chant the Heart Sutra. And then afterwards we'll have a break. And then I'll try to say a few things to bring this together if it's possible. Oh,

[33:20]

Thank you. Oh, oh, oh, oh. What's wrong with you? [...] Oh, oh, oh.

[34:51]

Thank you for watching. You will stay for a total, you will know, you'll be sighted. You'll change the world, you'll possess all, and you'll have a great life. You'll be successful, you'll [...] be successful. Well, it's 4.30, so 20 minutes. That's not true. No, I haven't listened to any of these.

[36:17]

All of them. I've never listened to them. I have them. But I hear they're not bad on the Autobahn over 140. LAUGHTER I guess you said something about it's possible to meet here, maybe? Yes, I said that. I said, I offered money on Thursday evening, and I said, after the same time, after the meeting, people are interested in that, can meet with me, and then you can talk about all the details, all that could happen. Well, I would like that very much, because I'd like there to be a way for you to continue that, you know, even if only one or two come and sometimes five or six, it helps, and you know it's there. Yes. He just said there are several centers, he answered, and I said, what a heretic you are.

[37:33]

No, that's good. Monday night you can go to one place, Thursday the next. Have I hit you yet? I think it will come. I don't know. And also, if I feel you're continuing, naturally, you know, I'm going to go to the places where people are practicing the most. So if you're practicing more here, I'll come more. Okay. I think it has to be translated. If I really have the feeling that such a practice is established in you, which takes time, then it is very important for me because I go where people practice. If you practice with me, I will come more often. Okay.

[38:37]

Of course you can practice anywhere and every situation is what we call the bodhi mandala. Any situation, if you get the mandala of it, is the site of enlightenment. But some of these practices are easier to do in some situations than another. And transitional situations are the easiest times to catch the feeling of practice. And that's of course transitional situations in your life between jobs, between girlfriends.

[39:54]

Yeah. I don't like the term girlfriend by the way, it should be woman friend or something. And psychological and physical, medical transition states are opportune times, vivid times for practice. But also transitional, transitions in the simple, so-called simple, physical world are good places to practice.

[40:55]

And so that's why I gave you the practice of stepping through the door. And Luigi caught me stepping through with the wrong foot already. It means that you don't have to do it all the time. Or you can be forgetful like me. But it's good for a time, really, quite a long period of time, a year or two, to actually try to make an effort to do it. Another excellent time to try to enter the physical mandala of your own body-mind experience is on stairwells. Is it on stairs? It's a transitional state which generally you're not doing anything but going up or down stairs.

[42:42]

You can't really think too much about complex accounting or problems or something like that because you've got to pay attention to going up and down stairs. So it's a good time to have the feeling at the top of the stairs that by the bottom of the stairs I will have completed something. A little vow where you vow, by the bottom of the stairs I will have entered the immediacy of my own physical experience. Somebody asked me if we could have time to practice walking meditation. We don't, but this is a practice. And you feel you're stepping off into an abyss as you are. and the step comes up to meet you and see you reach your foot goes out with a sense of woo is there going to be anything there then ah the stare and you feel you're swimming down this thing

[44:03]

And when you go up, it's even better. Because it changes your breathing right away. Oh, shit. He got it. Okay. So that's a good time to practice. I can't tell you how good it is but it may take you a while to get the feeling of it. Okay, I put these two scrolls up. The one on the right was given to me by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. And you can see his handwriting down at the bottom.

[45:27]

And it's a simple scroll, a gift when he was visiting my temple in California. It's contemporary and it's meant to be, it's painted very distinctly so that you can visualize it. And the one on the left was given to me by Yamada Mumonroshi. We died a year or so ago. He was probably the leading Zen master and Zen calligrapher of Japan. Yeah, it's a kind of doughnut, as he pointed out. Doughnut? And it's painted that way so you can maybe not just visualize it, but physicalize it.

[46:41]

And it has this little poem up there, a statement which says, you know, have a cup of tea and eat this thing, is meant to be a kind of Buddhism. Zen puts something out very seriously and then to take the edge off makes a joke. So it's up to you to do it. Okay, now I'll try to give you a little Zen lesson in reading texts. Okay. It's often said, and you may have heard the expression, that don't take the finger for the moon. Have any of you not heard that expression? Yeah. So what it means is, this sutra points at the teaching. So don't take the sutra for the teaching.

[48:08]

But as I have shown you, the sutra itself is a mantra and is the teaching. So in that sense, the finger is the moon. Like you reminded me where it says you can't eat, as I've said in other, you can't eat painted cakes. But Dogen Zenji says, oh, yes, you can. Okay, so the moon is often used as an expression of a symbol for an expression of enlightenment. It's the feminine quality in the sky. And even though you see the full circle of it, you're only seeing half of it.

[49:14]

So even the full moon is only half. One side is always dark. And even the full moon goes through its phases to the new moon and so forth. And then there's the reflection of the moon. And the reflection of the moon and the moon are sometimes considered the double moon. Okay, so there's a story. In the double moon sense is don't take the reflection of the moon for the moon. However, we see the moon reflected in the water. And the reflection of the moon is not just the reflection. The tides of the ocean and even of a lake are the moon. and menstruation is the moon so the moon isn't just in the sky the moon is here too so this story of the sweeping

[50:37]

So this guy is sleeping, sweeping, and his Dharma brother comes up and says, oh, so busy. And so you say to me, oh, you're so busy. And I say, you should know there's one who is not busy. And then you say, oh, so there's a double moon. Okay, so let's do it in English and German actually. There's one, you're so busy, yeah. I know he didn't speak German. So anyway, German's good. You should know there's one who is not busy. You say, so there's a double moon.

[52:03]

Is this a double moon? You don't have to say anything. Okay. So, now, in Zen way of thinking is the moon is also not different than the water it's reflected in. So this little Zen story is he's sweeping. Oh, you look so busy. You're so caught in the first attention. You're so caught in the attention that creates the world. You don't give me a hard time. Don't you know there's one who's not busy? Oh, then there's a double moon. The moon and you is the reflection. Is this the double moon? there's no difference between the water and the moon.

[53:13]

So it's a shift from moon to moon to water and moon. Yeah, so that circle is that. That circle means this water is you and enlightenment and your practice. And this is also called a womb, a mandala. And you really feel this visual mandala of form and emptiness, appearing, manifesting, disappearing, non-manifesting. You get a feeling for that in your activity. You get a feeling of that as you go downstairs and go back upstairs. And it's carried out even in this little thing. This is called a wooden fish.

[54:15]

And it's shaped like a heart for the Heart Sutra for chanting. But it's called Mokugyo, which means wooden fish, wooden sutra. And so here's the tail of the fish. This is the body of the fish. This is the mouth of the fish, like a dragon. The mouth. And here's the jewel. Another circle. So this is a circle. And this jewel is the circle. And the jewel is Dharani memory or intelligence. So it means you can take this jewel or this circle and internalize it and bring it to everything you do.

[55:17]

And that jewel is very fertile. This circle is very fertile, so it's also a womb. Out of which Buddhas are born. And we recognize the possibility of each other as we recognize the possibility in ourselves. So this practice is not really so difficult because it doesn't occur in normal time and space. It occurs outside your schedule. The hard part is the intention to do it. If you have the intention to do it, You may be an amateur, you may not have much time, but if the intention is fully realized, and you try to practice every time you happen to remember,

[56:42]

Without forcing yourself, but just having it present in you. Like Marianne's baby is present in her. She doesn't have to do much, she's just to walk around with his tummy. And eat right and sleep enough. So all you have to do is walk around with Buddha in your tummy, in this circle. Don't smoke too much, don't drink too much, eat moderately. But have a good time. Enjoy yourself. But don't forget about Buddha in your belly. And I'll tell you, really, Buddha will start coming out. You may not recognize him at first, but your friends will say, is somebody tapping from inside?

[58:00]

I can feel it if you can't. And so if you just have that feeling, really, practice starts to be part of your life. You don't have to be especially good or bad person or talented. You just have to have the intention. And that's the response to your part of the sutra here. in the three worlds past, present and future and in the three worlds means past, present and future but it also means entering that continuity of awareness that appears in nocturnal and daily mind that transcends past, present and future that transcends or is more than ordinary time and space distinctions and that connects all worlds and all Buddhas

[59:20]

verbindet alle Welten und alle Buddhas. And because of this connection in all worlds and all Buddhas they depend on wisdom which has gone beyond wisdom because that is wisdom which has gone beyond wisdom. Okay. And by that they attain because there's no attainment unsurpassed. Stop comparing. Hör auf zu vergleichen. It means don't compare. Oh, this teaching, that teaching. No. When you're doing this, you don't compare. This is totally it. Okay. Okay. It's complete and you view it always as complete. And there's a little mantra you can take. Just now is enough. It's obvious. What other choice do you have?

[60:40]

Just now is enough. What other choice do you have? But do you live that way? On each moment, remind yourself, just now is enough. Complete. Zero. Zero. Zero. Whether the zero like in the Dalai Lamas is filled with the Buddha or just empty. And Buddhas appear out of a circle. And perfect means it functions. And thus enlightenment. Okay? Okay.

[61:44]

You know, I want to thank Ulrike, because I'm trying to teach Buddhism. And I need a lot of help actually. And I couldn't do this without Ulrike. And I couldn't do it without the Wernies who invited me to be here and so forth. And Sarah, who showed up from America, surprisingly, back there. And she turned this bookstore book list into the most widespread Buddhist publication on the planet. Called , which means Buddha Gate.

[62:46]

And has published several of those little stories of mine in her Butsamon. And really the state of mind and concentration you've brought to the seminar Also make it possible for me to teach. And I want to thank you very much. And I want you to know that this practice is possible. And you can do it. If you want to. What do you want to do? What makes you happy? What is your innermost request? Can you hear your own inner request? What kind of life do you want?

[64:03]

And when you die, what kind of life do you want to have had? Better start now. Really, can you have the courage of the life you want later now? So, Makapanya Haramita Sinyo

[65:03]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_71.19