Zentatsu Richard Baker, in a prodigiously millions dharma talk at SFZC City Center Saturday, August 11, explored the nuances of incubation. The talk starts at 29:00
And here’s a transcript of his discussion of incubate vs. understand, from the Q & A, at counter 11:50
“I use the word incubate because understand really isn’t a very effective word for deeply engaging practice. But also, understand, under stand, to stand under, implies – that’s not its etymology, but in any case, it has the feeling that it can be done. But incubate is, you know, it’s nine months, or it’s weeks, or it’s fifty years.
And so, incubate makes clear that the surroundings – sometimes I say, there’s no outside, there’s only an inside; everything is an inside – the word tathagatagarbha, means ‘the womb embryo environing world.’ Okay, so the womb, embryo, environing world incubates teachings, incubates mental postures, and so forth. So, if you try to incubate a teaching or recognize that incubation is the process by which teachings flower, it is then you trust the process of repetition – and there is no such thing as repetition. Because the world is always changing you can’t repeat anything; it’s always different.
‘Incubation’ as a term for practice instead of understanding is based on a world view in which everything is changing. ‘Understand’ is based on a world view where everything is/are entities and not activities.”