evening everybody the sound is good good enough you can hear nice to see everybody thank you for being here taking care of Klasahara. Loving it. I'm here this weekend doing a workshop on imagination. So I figured I would talk about imagination tonight. But even before I start to talk, I've already demonstrated lots of imagination. I walked in and I offered fragrance to the many Buddhas in infinite directions.

[01:06]

Then I bottled to those uncomfortable numbers of Buddhas and with each bow I merged my body with theirs so that I couldn't really be found anywhere outside any particle of space and time. And then as you yourself have witnessed, dressed up in ancient robes from a long ago time and far away place, I sat up here taking my seat and acting the role of a Zen master in a long line of Zen masters from the past. So everything I say from now on will definitely be influenced these imaginative acts. So what is the imagination anyway?

[02:12]

I think these days we think of the imagination as a kind of fantasy land. The word seems to be the opposite of reality. It's not real. It's just imaginary. It's entertainment. But I think the imagination is real. And it may be more real than so-called reality. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant thought this was true. He thought that we create the world with our imaginations. The English theologian and poet Samuel Taylor Colmidge also thought this was true. He thought that this world had been imagined by God, and that we, with our human imaginations, recreate the world for ourselves, and that the purpose of poetry, what we call creativity, is to strengthen our capacity to imagine the world.

[03:31]

Not only that, but how it feels. Are you here, Howard? Yeah, Howard, who is my authority on neuroscience, also agrees from his perspective that we are making the world up out of our heads. It's just a fact. We are creating the world. Religion is the essential and imaginative act. All human cultures anywhere in the world throughout all times at any time have some form of religion, some imaginative projection about the world we're living in, and some ritual practice that creates imaginative space in which this projection can be expressed and explored. A world without imagination is not possible.

[04:33]

for human beings, as every child knows. To some extent, I think the world that we're living in now sorely lacks imagination. And that's one reason why it seems like such a desperate and troubled world. To strengthen imagination We have to open the mind gently and completely. We have to open the mind to the unknown, the unseen, the unheard of. That's the point of sitting in Zazen. That's why we sit here in silence. We sit as much as we can with a completely open mind. just sitting in the wide open space of being alive which is inherently if we will allow it if we'll stop slamming the door shut imaginative we sit within the body which is not the conceptual body the usual body we think we're living in

[06:03]

But the real body, by which I mean the imaginative body, the body of the earth, which is an expression of the earth, which is our human body. When I say this, I'm not being metaphorical, and I'm not being poetic. I really know that this is a fact about our human body. So now I would like to sing you a few songs. These are songs that I wrote. I think there are three or four of them here. Starting with nothing. Facing the crevice. Found a corner. Starting with nothing. Facing the limit forced in a crack.

[07:06]

not formed, not found, unidentified, unbound, reaching the limit, the fulcrum, reporting what's reckoned, relying on faith. It is, it was, is, it is, it was, is its being. That it is, let it be as it was. And his. Regarding wave. Regarding function. Regarding the gap. Notification pending. Delirious detail. One thing quivers. A thing and its parts. Caution. Roadwork ahead. Delays. Reached forward an image.

[08:10]

Of image, there's none. Hands on all deck. Seats on all grounds. That was the first song. This is the second song. There should be more to it than that. There should be, in any case, something of substance. These memorable moments, these palpable things. There must be a basis, a buttress, a how. There isn't a gap, an oasis, a treasure. Dark and austere, the direction destroys it, dismal and deep, the beast in its bower. There must be at any rate some color, some sheen, at any rate a power, a razor, a sheet.

[09:16]

Sensura, any reasonable memory, nothing unusual, so little and done. That's the second song. Here comes the third song. I wonder how hard I do try, my nemesis, these contents, my lack. Now, now, I'm mired somewhere there. Okay, okay, it's back to Chicago. It's back to Pittsburgh for me. Where rivers meet, there's bound to be tenor. There's residence, a ground in defeat. Hold on, boys.

[10:21]

Let's all pull together. Let's make our ends meet. I didn't hear it. is the final song. Whether it's or or before Whether it's beer or good cheer No matter the record, no matter the deed We're going on, going on, going We're leaning to west or to east The things that I know I do know Regardless of facts or degree My stone is falling. My heart's a bright flame. And I wheel the world over. I dance in my pain. Release and relax my gold chambered fallacy.

[11:29]

Nothing is made. So nothing is lost. So, those are my songs. Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoy them. Those are my songs. Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoy them. So, imagination. It can be weird sometimes. If for a little while it may not provide us with what we think we want or need. It's unpredictable. And it can even be dangerous. And it can even be dangerous. It is not incompatible.

[12:31]

But it is not incompatible. with ethical conduct and doing something worth and doing something worthwhile things to oneself. At times and world depths, these ten five teachings are not as of a recent more or less great organized and good conduct way of developing imagination. What they're really about Love, which it relives and always is, I think, contains the ethical aim, which is so deep in the teachings of the imagination and desire. It is an imagination.

[13:36]

Love is a method to love. They are rationalists. This isn't practical. These teachings, I want to quote another few bloggers and material not about holistic. These straight lines of poetry and love can't be pinned in good conduct. And these lines, in real, come from a book of beyond need and desire. My book, Escape. So this crazy life of tea was in, and at the time, it was our dear friend, Hoetsu Suzuki, which is actually, who was a diary poem, Suki, about a period of salvation, which was a temple. But at that time, it was in a poor eye and a teacher at the new month of their functionality. So it really, every day's end friend, rolled out the record to the carpet fan facility, like we don't have a place.

[14:43]

you know, to all these 2000s American kids and various lies sizes and shapes in the text. So, and one evening, he gave us a talker and he spoke to us through the air, and he gave them what's brilliant, all kinds of talker poems that I've ever heard in my life. Well, I've pressed it into a few happening lies, and this, in the text, means a lot because Let's come on. And here's what it's from poses. We can also start on some hot art. One son, quote, they woke her, quote, sound in both ears. As the sudden, quote, hearing from us, my eyes do just don't work right. Either age is slowly wet melting my body. With each first loss, there's gain.

[15:49]

My ear is weak as my eyes. When I lose my lifetime to grand death, now there will never my life be owned. More. Not. Than. Than. So. Huh. Than. Everyone. When I lose. My life. Is. Death. Is. And that will. Come at it. I. Like. They should. Most. One. If. Be. Full. You see that. See another isn't. Like. I'm teaching you. For. First. Or. And. Other. Yourself, you see, it's a certain piece of humanity that's just like, is you, and that, this words, the Asian man, in a, fashion, other, very specific, famous, and, since, the, is, are, and, really, one, the, UK, the dealers, who, spoke, of, was, heard, and, so,

[17:17]

But also, you're really fine. The word could be a cool thing to open the air level to the air with it. That is completely. Because what I need is. It [...] is. No matter what happens to us, is really, you will golf.

[18:22]

Be okay. I am my practice. I guarantee golf. Have to get myself. Three. Two. Three. Be. Go. Myself. Not to worry, I have some. about your life. That means every time I feel quiet and this is . And when you do that, you will fall to risk. I'll come down. The way everything of this will be okay. You're. No. No.

[19:24]

You are. And you don't always. You get really. Fantastic is all right to do. Why don't you think this. If they can also go back. Everything is. Necessitous. And everything. Nothing. I've got you. Poor life. There. All. Because. My. [...] See? It's a footy [...] foot

[20:46]

Imagine a lot of people who are the person [...] who are the I think that's less true.

[21:47]

Thank you. Must start all I was out of it. Yeah. Be a sh- It's a gentination. Okay? That makes sense? Yeah, sort of. Yeah. Interpret. I think it- Oh, t- Cock. Station event. I think- Sh-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N-T-A-N There's usually, uh, the word.

[23:01]

Thank you. [...] It's small. Small. What? All I said, I'm going to take a second to 11 minutes. I've. What? [...] ... [...]

[24:19]

Oh my dear. I said to teachers that when he failed, he was the same. So I failed in a simple introduction. As in Japan, as Dogen was when he died, 54. I remember he said to me, now I'm 54. I'm the same age as Dogen was when he died. I better start getting serious at you. through the lens of the imagination, what we are. In the limitation, we are unlimited.

[25:25]

Everything is possible in each thing. In each thing. In this one simple thing that I'm doing. Everything is possible in this one thing. So because we're so conditioned by a materialistic point of view, we think that everything is possible. Well, obviously that's not true. It isn't true in the material world. but the imagination. And that's really one of the essential characteristics of practicing Zen. In this moment, doing what you're doing, everything is there, and everything is possible. So we try to cultivate our heart through our practice to make that real in our own lives. Then one can be very satisfied and happy. What else do I need, right? But this one thing. Because everything is there. Why do I need to go anywhere else or see or do or be anything else? Because in this one place at time, I find everything.

[26:29]

That's the real jewel of our practice. And that, as you can see, does take some imagination, right? Yeah. So thanks for bringing that out. Yeah, I know. I've been talking about this question of imagination pretty much 100% of the time. People misunderstand. That's why it's good when there's questions and we can see the different ways that are not clear. Was there another one over there? I'm wondering what the difference between imagination and empathy is. In this practice we hear a lot about empathy, compassion, love, kindness. First time hearing about imagination. Yeah. Well, this was... A week in a row, she's great teaching, right? He was saying that if you really, where love, compassion, empathy comes from in us is imagination. Because imagination is what it takes for us to transcend the narrowness of ourselves, to understand that another person is ourselves.

[27:38]

That's a profound thought. Another person doesn't exist to satisfy our needs. Another person exists in their own right, and we are that person when we truly see them, listen to them, interact with them. So, you know, I don't particularly care about the word imagination. If you don't like it or if it doesn't help, we can forget about it. But you can see that compassion and love take some special quality that isn't your average everyday thing you learn in school, right? It's not a skill like mathematics or learning how to operate machinery. It's a whole different order of stretching of the soul. That's all. That's the main point. Yeah. Maybe one more? Is there somebody over here?

[28:38]

about imagination and enlightenment, of the Buddha's enlightenment. So here, enlightenment, like seeing the connection with everything? Yeah. And of imagination? Yeah, I think so, don't you? Yeah, maybe. Yeah, yeah. Yes, we... There was that funny movie where Keanu Reeves played the Buddha. Did you ever see that movie? Yes. Yes. Some of you saw that movie, and they depicted, like, the Buddha getting enlightened, and they had all these sort of, like, psychedelic, pulsing images, Kiana leaving in the middle, Cosmos and all this. And I thought to myself when I saw that, yeah, that is so lame. You know, because it's such a... one-dimensional concept of what... The imagination is the unknown, and it's exactly beyond what we depict, beyond what we define, beyond what we know.

[29:53]

We can feel something in our life that's transcendent and really wonderful, but we can't really paint a picture of it, exactly. So all the depictions of sequences of the whole art and iconography of the But all those depictions stand for something beyond what they are. Yes, I think awakening or enlightenment is living our lives with full imagination moment after moment. And that the Buddha realized that that was the case and then saw that it was a lack of imagination that was causing everyone to suffer. He wanted to help. So he tried to figure out how to provide practices and ways of understanding ourselves that would eventually lead us to that magic to purchase our lives.

[30:55]

Well, thank you everybody for one last thing. no imagination or so gratifying or what it seems to me. Why is no imagination gratifying? It seems like this unknown just birthed all this greatness. But there's something appealing about this container holding things tight. Oh, I see. Why do we keep doing it? If it's imagination, is it so wonderful? Why do we keep things so foolish? What's this? Yeah, what is it? Yeah, you really do wonder, don't you? It really makes you wonder. It's true. Why do we keep doing this? Why do we keep messing up the world? Why, when we all know that nothing makes you more miserable than bad human relations, right? When people don't like you, when you don't like them, when you hate them, when you think they're awful and they're around anyway and you can't get rid of them and you can't get away from them.

[32:05]

When we know how awful that feeling is, Why do we not love everybody? We're just so much better. Why don't we do that? That's a great question. And I think that probably the answer is that just the same way we have built into us the need for imagination and the capacity to exercise that muscle, we have just as much built into us the foolish desire to suffer and go on hurting ourselves and one another. It's the deeply ingrained human habit. And like all habits, the more you do it, the more you do it. And when human beings have been doing it forever, we collectively have a gigantic habit of doing this. So much so that we have been teaching each other Over the generations, this bad habit, generation after generation after generation.

[33:10]

I mean, it's a tremendous tragedy. As bad as you think the world is, it's much worse. Really. Really. It's just much worse. Because we've been doing all of this all the time. The violence and the horror that goes on every day in just little houses that nobody notices, right? It's just terrible. So, because we've been doing this a long time, so we all take a deep breath, be very compassionate, very understanding. Just like a child who, you know, keeps falling down and hitting their head, and we have to put a bandaid on again and again and again. We say, please, dear, try not to run in that area over there which is so slippery, and you always fall. And they do it again, and you fix them up again, and you tell them again, So we have to have that spirit of trying to take care of our own lives, trying to awaken ourselves as much as we can, trying to share our understanding and our concern with one another with a certain amount of confidence that love is actually stronger in the end.

[34:31]

We seem to be on a journey. together. Don't you think? We're on a journey together. And there's a lot of difficulty in this journey. We're going somewhere. We're getting there. It's a long journey. And we work on this together with a lot of patience. So everyone knows why. It's beginningless, but it's not endless. Anyway, thanks everybody for listening and please do get a good night's sleep. We'll all get up bright and early in the morning as if this talk and this moment of being together never happened. Thank you.

[35:43]

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