I mean in German, but in English I could say you can't know unity without knowing the unit. Your physical body functions through the separateness of all its parts. And in the separateness of the kidney and the lungs and the stomach, they all relate together. So Buddhism says you've got to start experiencing yourself in the separateness of you. In the particularities of you. In the details of you. And most of us basically... Let me use the example I used the other night. If you tried to take care of all your needs by eating,

[01:01]

you would not have a balanced diet. You need to exercise, you need to do all kinds of things to have a balanced physical body. Ihr müsst auch Sport treiben und alle möglichen Dinge machen, um ein ausgewogenes Körpergefühl zu haben. So if you eat the world, so to speak, always through eye consciousness and conceptual consciousness, you're not going to have a balanced mental and spiritual life. Und wenn ihr so die Welt zu euch nehmt, immer durch eine Wahrnehmung im Augenbewusstsein, werdet ihr keine ausgewogene mentale Nahrung zu euch nehmen. You've got to be able to start experiencing yourself in the details of each moment And in the bosom of your sense fields. Do you have that expression in Germany? I mean, does bosom mean the same thing in German? Yes.

[02:23]

Is it the same word? We say in English, to be in the bosom of something means to be really in the middle of it. So when you're separated from the bosom of your mother, the brust, okay, when you're separated from the brust of your mother, you feel rather cast out into the world. But your mother is also cast out in the world. So she can't always keep you in her bosom because she's not in her bosom. I have no idea how this sounds in German. Okay. So what you're... what your mother is, what we would understand and how I would understand it, is when you are separated from the bosom of your mother, you're joining the bosom of the world.

[03:55]

Or the bosom of your own sense fields. Mm-hmm. Because the world is not separate from you. Now how do you know that the world is not separate from you? Now intellectually you can kind of understand it through ecology and Gaia and all that stuff. But Buddhism and Zen is not about ideas and generalities. We could say it's about making the so-called spiritual world tactile and experienceable. Okay. Now I'm trying to give you this in as graspable, I'm trying to give you this non-graspable teaching in as graspable way as possible.

[05:19]

So that you can have a sense of it and practice it in your body. Now, I said last night I would speak again about interiorized space. Now, the classic example of this, which most of you know, is... Some guy's walking along the road and he sees or she sees a snake. And they jump back and they say, oh, a snake.

[06:21]

Approaching it cautiously, you find out it's a rope. Or a listening microphone. And this person thinks, well, the snake was just a fabrication of my mind. But the point is that also the rope is a fabrication of your mind. And the rope itself is a fabrication of fibers and molecules and so forth.

[07:24]

Okay, so what this kind of story is pointing out is recognize that everything is a fabrication of your mind. Not unreal, but a fabrication. And in Zen, this is usually used, the expression for this is usually a turtle-nosed snake. And it's kind of, I mean, here's a turtle-nosed snake already. They're pointing out that you're, it looks like many things. So, I mean, there's the koan, which is like, I might say to you, when I changed my clothes back there, I found in the back room there was a turtle-nosed snake. When you guys go to use the toilet, you better watch out.

[08:27]

There's a turtle-nosed snake in there. And then if one of you was alert, you might say, why use the back room? Now, that's like the... That's like the koan, because Xue Feng says, on Elephant Bone Crag, there was a... No, he says, on South Mountain, there was a turtle-nosed snake. You all better watch out. That's South Mountain. And Chongqing says, ah, in the Zendo right now, there are many who are losing bodies and mind. And Xuansha says, why use South Mountain? In other words, South Mountain is also a fabrication like the snake.

[09:41]

And on Christiana's bathroom wall, there's a small painting, one of Magritte's wonderful paintings. And this painting you probably know. It's a painting of a castle on a mountain. Except the mountain is a big rock. And the mountain is floating in the sky. Over the ocean. And there's clouds in the sky. So, Magritte also has a painting of a pipe. And he has written at the bottom, this is not a pipe. Now, it would be a little much more subtle if he said, this is not a painting.

[10:59]

Because if painting represents construction and emptiness, then it is a painting, it is a construction. So he'd have to be pointing out the emptiness of emptiness. So I was looking at this thing in the bathroom, in the toilet room. And I could see that the castle was a fabrication. And the ocean was also a fabrication, as was the sky and the clouds. And the painting was a fabrication. The postcard, I mean. She doesn't have the original. And the frame was a fabrication. The wall was a fabrication. The apartment was a fabrication.

[12:04]

Munich was a fabrication. This room is a fabrication. Ulrike is a fabrication. Thanks. You're a fabrication, I'm a fabrication, right? But what makes a city great, or what makes Munich a wonderful city? I guess, I haven't lived here, but it seems wonderful. ...is everybody uses the city as if it were real. And it's the use of the city which makes it real. If no one was out there making every restaurant impossible to get into... It wouldn't be Munich. Okay. So in Buddhism, this is expressed as mind only.

[13:05]

It means that not that... Out there is not real. It means all I know of out there is what my mind produces. And you should remind yourself of that and know that as thoroughly as possible. Mm-hmm. So you're generating what you see. That ambulance, is that a policeman or ambulance?

[14:18]

What is it? Is making all that siren noise. But actually, of course, what you hear of it is what your ears produce. A bird would hear something else. So again, another basic practice, as I always say, is to hear hearing. To hear yourself hearing. To see myself seeing you. To see myself constructing you. Now. Mm-hmm. Soft eyes.

[15:27]

Soft eyes, yes. When you see from the inside of each moment, it's a different kind of eyes. And seeing from the inside of each moment is one of the things we can say the third eye means. Again, it's like the rain drops knowing there's no it. The raindrop knows there's no it that rains.

[16:29]

So you can come to know there's no it doing you. Each state of mind you have does you. If you think there's an it, then you have one state of mind controlling all the others. Which gives you the sensation of an it. And if you could do that really thoroughly, you'd be sick. It's because we do it quite ineffectively that we're able to function. So, when I spoke to you last night and emphasized the fractal nature of space, that each space is your own unit or absolute space or undivided space because when you really find your seat

[17:42]

You're in a kind of undivided space. You're sitting at the center of the world. But each of us is sitting at the center of the world. So in that sense we're equal to each other. Now this may be an idea you can get, but you need to feel it. Now, this is represented in Christianity by nimbuses, halos, auras, and so forth. But in Buddhism, this sense of the sacredness or uniqueness of space is each of us.

[18:59]

But you don't recognize it. But when you yourself more enter undivided space, or absolute space, you begin to feel it in others. Others may not recognize it in themselves, but you can begin to feel it in others. So it seems like a strange contradiction is to recognize like the Buddha, I alone am the world-honored one, that you each are alone, the world-honored one, the world has honored you by supporting your life. You're constantly being blessed by life, actually. But we feel schmaltzy trying to recognize this.

[20:21]

Makes me think of this beer circus or Oktoberfest. I'm driving in the taxi here. I see all these people out in their lederhosen, you know, hats. And I realized how ridiculous I'd look in lederhosen. I should have come into the seminar. But you have to, I don't know if you can be an American or a Turk or a Korean and wear lederhosen. Yeah. I don't think so. Yeah. I don't think so.

[21:32]

That's a fantasy of the Germans. Don't disassociate yourself from your countrymen. Now, you know, when I see these people walking in their lederhosen, it looks like they have lots of associations with it. Which makes them feel quite good. I don't have any of those associations, so I'd feel really funny to have leather pants on. Okay. So what am I saying here? When you find your own seat, you can't wear lederhosen. When you find your own seat, in this uniqueness, we could say you have a body like space.

[22:39]

Wenn ihr euren eigenen Sitz findet, da könnten wir sagen, dass ihr in dieser Einzigartigkeit euren eigenen Raum findet. Or you have an undivided body. Oder ihr habt einen ungeteilten Körper. It's getting strange. When you really perceive the specificity, you perceive the undividedness. Und es ist wirklich eigenartig. Wenn ihr wirklich das ganz Spezifische erfahrt, dann erlebt ihr auch das Ungeteilte. It can't take any form. As soon as it takes form, then it's in the divided world. So some of you could take form and wear lederhosen comfortably. And some of us, like me, I would feel a little funny. If I tried to draw on my meager acting ability, I might be able to get into it. So... So each of us has a, we could say for the sake of this conversation, a divided body and an undivided body.

[24:17]

There's a famous Chinese classic on writing. And it says that heaven and earth are trapped in forms. and released by the writing brush and in a sense heaven and earth are trapped in the divided world and you release this divided world when you find yourself in this absolute space So, just to finish, before we take a break, again, each of you is your own version of this room. Each of you is sitting where no one else in the world is sitting.

[25:38]

Each of you, from the point of view of the undivided world or undivided perception, is the center of the universe. And in that is And in that, you are the world-honored one. Now, as soon as you think, oh, I'm not, you're not. Und je bald ihr denkt, ihr seid das nicht, dann seid ihr das natürlich nicht. But it's possible to feel it if you don't think about it. Aber es ist möglich, das zu fühlen, wenn ihr nicht darüber nachdenkt. And we need to come closer to feeling as a medium of thought. Und wir müssen uns diesem fühlen mehr annähern als ein Medium für Gedanken.

[26:40]

Or a medium of actualizing the world. Oder ein Medium, die Welt zu verwirklichen. So again, right now, each of you is at the center of the universe. And every time a sound arises, ear consciousness arises. Every time a thought arises, thought consciousness arises. An ear, something you hear, or a thought, these are all called mental factors. And it requires consciousness and mental factors to go together to either perceive something or for consciousness to arise.

[27:41]

But consciousness can be perceived independent of mental factors. But it can't be grasped. You can grasp the mental factors. That's why the mental factors grasp you. and convince you you're outside the world torn away from the bosom of the world. But when you don't grasp the objects of perception or the mental factors you can begin to feel consciousness independent of mental factors. And consciousness gets much lighter. It's like consciousness put down a lot of suitcases. All the mental factors are like suitcases that your consciousness is carrying around and loaded with.

[28:55]

So your consciousness becomes very light and penetrates everything. And you begin to feel it in your breath. And you begin to feel then the absoluteness of this space you're in. and how you really are the center of the universe until you start making comparisons. And it's not that the comparisons are untrue, but the comparisons take you out of this lighter consciousness called awareness So you can no longer know the absoluteness of the undivided world. And knowing the undivided world is one of the conditions for joy. So let's have the pleasure of a coffee break. But maybe we can sit for a few minutes and then... Just sit comfortably.

[30:09]

Please sit comfortably. If it's possible. We certainly have the softest floor in town. Now I've tried to give you a feeling for some of the most fundamental and subtle dimensions of Zen practice. To make it not seem so far away, if you read about it or imagine it. But these subtle and fundamental... aspects of practice and of this world we live in arise actually from understanding the basics and particulars of practice in your life very well.

[31:32]

The basics understood well are the most subtle dimensions of practice. So if you have some questions that are as basic as you want, please ask. I'd like to have some discussion with you. And as you know, for me it's important to hear at least once each of your voices. Of course, if my simultaneous perception was working well, I heard each of your voices last night when we all said together, I am the world-honored one. I'm sorry.

[32:41]

I'm just teasing. Okay. Okay. I still don't know how I can perceive without immediately naming the perceived inside myself. Yeah, that's a real problem, isn't it? It's a bad habit you got a long time ago. But it is a habit. It's harder to stop than smoking. About a thousand times harder. But it's also pretty easy. Once you get a feel for it.

[33:42]

I've been teaching in Europe since 1983. And the last three years, four years, we've been teaching together. And I can't say how much what I'm trying to do is intimately related to Ulrike's ability to translate. Because I always have a, there's always the problem of establishing a vocabulary and understanding among us.

[35:05]

But if I have to establish it with a new translator every time, I'm way behind. It's interesting for me and the translator, but I can't go very far. So thank you. How can I have it back? That's what he always does. I gave you a chance and you tipped it. Okay, if you look at this. Now, the more you can look at this and just see it, and that looking at something and just seeing it and nothing else,

[36:15]

is one of the practices of direct perception. And it's also part of the practice of one-pointedness. And one-pointedness is one of the ingredients that are necessary for the calmness that is necessary to see the world as it is. So I would advise all you lay adepts to do a little direct perception practice every day. It's easier if it's a flower. But it can be a discarded wrapper, candy wrapper on the center strip of a highway when you're stalled in the car.

[37:31]

Which I have an hour or two to do every now and then. Some of those candy wrappers are completely anonymous. einige dieser Einwickelpapiere, die sind total anonym. And abandoned. Und verlassen. And when the traffic starts moving, I think, I too abandon you, abandoned candy wrapper. Wenn der Verkehr sich dann wieder weiter bewegt, dann sage ich, auch ich verlasse dich, verlassenes Einwickelpapier. Anyway, so you practice direct perception. With the flowers on your breakfast table or whatever. Until you just have a sort of sense of just seeing it in an absolute independence. And when you do that, you've actually changed your state of mind.

[38:42]

And that change in your state of mind allows you to peel the name off it and just feel it. So you do that a little bit every now and then. And eventually you can have the feeling of that field as part of the vocabulary of being. And it's there even if the flower is gone. It's there when there's no object of perception. And then you can bring the object back up into the field. That's a simple description of the practice of direct perception. And something any of you can do once or twice a day. Okay, I like holding this flower. Yes?

[40:02]

I have a question. We spoke earlier about the exchange with the other, that is, by accepting him, by perhaps also concentrating on his kind, that is such a practice. which was also mentioned in other seminars. So creating a unity with other people, whether it is in the room or in a larger social context. But I ask myself what the meaning is, because for me other people are First of all, I mean, it's so incomprehensible. And secondly, it would confuse me in my needs or in my way of life and not lead me to the point where I have to go. And that's the broad point.

[41:03]

You talked about putting yourself into the place of others or exchange yourself with others or feel a certain unity with others and I have difficulties with this because I only partly understand other human beings and I find them confusing for finding out my way of life and way of understanding life. Yeah, of course. Natürlich. What is the meaning of this? The meaning or feeling of it, I wouldn't look for the meaning of it, but I'd look for the feeling of it. And letting the possibility of it settle into you. I'll say more in a moment. Something else? Yes. For me, the difficulties are the consciousness or what I experience when I meditate and the vision.

[42:34]

When I come back to my old self, I see things as they are and I also see the negative aspects and I can't keep the high levels and that pushes me down. I would like to go back to that. I also have a problem, or rather difficulties. During my meditation I have certain experiences in a certain higher state, and then when I come back into my ordinary life I see things more how they are, or see the negative sides of it, and that causes some problems for me. I'd like to hear some. Naturally. Naturally. Some of the problems you have are just the fact that you're a lay person practicing.

[43:49]

But even if you were a monk practicing in a monastery, you'd still have problems. But the supportive conditions and the background mind that supports practice are much more present. Now, some people say that I've been practicing, or they know somebody who's been practicing 10 years and they haven't got much result. Now, I'm not addressing you in this, I'm just addressing people. And sometimes somebody will do therapy for 20 years and have very little results. And sometimes maybe somebody will have a successful therapy in one year.

[45:06]

And I'm talking here about looking at practice as a way of relieving problems and of freeing yourself. But I'm just using, you know, I think psychotherapy and Buddhist practice can go together. And sometimes psychotherapy is very good to do in addition to practicing. So I'm not really making a comparison. I'm saying that when, say a person has a successful psychotherapeutic, you know, successful therapy, you've put the energy of two people into that, at least two people.

[46:17]

And you may have read psychotherapy and you may have done all kinds of things. Anyway, to make lay practice work, you have to put a lot of energy into it. Like you have to put the energy of at least you and the therapist into it, but all by yourself. Or you have to have a relationship with a teacher. But in a sense, there's no answer to your question except to recognize it. And out of your own creativity and innovation, to find ways to bring your practice into your daily life. And that's what I'm always talking about, and particularly in this seminar I'm talking about it.

[47:30]

So you can listen to it from that point of view. And also there are quite a lot of practices that help you in that, specific practices. Practice does two things. It opens, it gives us a contrast with our daily life. Certainly in the beginning, the first few years, that's what we see. And it also gives us more strength. And a new way of seeing. But then it also opens up the outside world so we're more vulnerable to it. So then you have to learn practices of sealing yourself and not armoring yourself. So you don't lose your energy, deplete yourself during the day.

[48:54]

Particularly through your increased openness. Almost every seminar I get questions which really mean I should say something about sealing and armoring, the difference. And maybe I will speak about this practice if a few more people ask me to. But basically, if you can remember with your body at a level of feeling, not concept, remember with your body the feeling of in practice. So you can bring that feeling back.

[49:55]

And often you can bring that feeling back when you bring your attention to your breath. That's the first step. And that's the big step. And the next step is to begin to be able to sustain that. And do it easily, without effort. It's possible. Okay. Something else? Yeah. Expectations? Yeah. to practice and to get into those things again. And now I always want to get empty and to get free from these expectations and ambitions, trying to get to the point where I was and to explore what comes next.

[51:23]

But I always... When I want to get empty, I know one way that I can practice wholeness and be present and not to... to judge things better or more than it. And I always, when I'm practicing, I always get one point where I'm like a dark wall in my mind, I guess. And I can't get over this one. Okay. Do you want to say that in German, or would you like Ulrike to summarize it? A little louder.

[52:30]

When I was asked to practice Satsang, I immediately had very strong and deep experiences. And now I notice that I have very strong expectations and that I can't get rid of them. And that these expectations prevent me from going over a certain wall and getting back there where I want to be while I'm still alive. And on the one hand I know that I could practice wholeness or I can practice wholeness and just be in the present in order not to evaluate something more or something as better. Okay. Well, let me respond to your question, statement.

[53:34]

And in the sense of talking about what I said last night, of finding out how to think in feelings. Now, when you ask questions, all of you, not just you, I'm not responding just to you, And all your questions, I appreciate. But if you want to practice with asking questions, and my practice was for years with Sukhiroshi, always having a question ready for him or some kind of contact. Is if you try to develop a question into a second or third generation question.

[55:02]

And when you do that, you get it closer to the answer. And you also get it closer to The undivided world. Because the question normally arises in your conceptual divided world. And it points very little to the undivided world. But second generation's questions usually point more to the undivided world and are usually... Anyway, that's enough. Aber die zweite Generation dieser Frage, die weist oft dann schon mehr auf diese ungeteilte Welt hin. Unman, Young Man, was famous for his one-phrase answers. Unman, also Young Man, war sehr berühmt für seine Antworten, die nur aus einem Satz bestanden.

[56:06]

Which virtually always reflected three dimensions of practice. Die haben fast immer die drei Dimensionen von Praxis reflektiert. So, for instance, you might have said in your question, How do I face the wall of blankness and peak experiences? No, I don't know if that's exactly your question, but you might have brought it down to something like that. Well, you just have to remember that those peak experiences were, or whatever we call them, let's just call them peak experiences. Do you have that phrase, peak experiences? Yes. I mean, Abraham Maslow developed it as part of his psychology of peak experiences.

[57:10]

So peak, I think, is kind of adopted in German. Yeah, okay. You have to remind yourself that these peak experiences or these highly refined experiences occurred in the present. They didn't occur in the past. And they didn't occur in the future. You can't look for them from the past or in the future. They happened in the present. So you can only keep trying to be in the present. And you can't be in the present saying, I'm only going to be in the present if I have a peak experience. That's kind of spiritual materialism. Or religious greed.

[58:18]

And quite normal. It's sort of nice to have. It's probably a lot more fun than other kinds of greed. Mm-hmm. And part of practice is, you know, we sometimes have some powerful experiences as a result of contrasts or shifts in ourselves. But when those experiences arise from that kind of shift and contrast, they're not fundamental. They're fundamental when they arise out of very ordinary mundane circumstances. So you've got to be able to be willing to live in the soup of the ordinary. And get quite used to it.

[59:25]

I suddenly felt like I had a piece of stew meat under my arm. Or an old tomato on my shoulder. Now, The question though, the statement, the question though that conceptually is about retrieving those peak experiences is coupled with a longing for something you don't have. Now, that coupling with longing brings up many other mental factors.

[60:28]

Okay, so we can say that the world is divided into three. Now, recently I have stressed the importance of understanding the world as three natures. But I'm not going to talk about that right now. What I'm talking about now is the world as three divisions, shall we say. Okay. And I'll just try to work through this a little bit, and then we'll go have lunch, okay? Okay. Now, I've given you a sense, I hope, of how everything we see is actually internalized.

[61:29]

You got that? Most of you got that as well as we can, anyway? Okay. Now, when you view the world as internalized or internal, there's an energy that goes with that. And the way you perceive the world and the way the world organizes itself, the way it lays before you and appears, Has its own energy and own self-organizing way of being. Now, when you shift to perceiving the world as external, as externalized, the externalized world also has its energy. And its own way of organizing.

[62:49]

Okay. So sometimes we shift into the mold, M-O-U-L-D. No, mold around like a bread mold or not bread mold. a cookie mold that you put cookies in that makes the shape? In other words, we take on the mold of the external world to function the external world. Or we take on the mold of the external world to have a relationship with our friend who exists in the external world. So it's a kind of compassion. So this sense of bodhisattva practice is to be able to shift from Knowing the world is internalized.

[63:54]

And being able to also know the world as externalized. OK. Both are a different kind of energy system. They both organize things differently. Now that's viewing the external world from the point of view of its impermanence and stuff, but it's still externalized. Okay, now you have a third dimension, which is mental factors. Anger, karma... yearning, bad habits, and so forth. So, although you perceive the externalized world as relative, and the internalized world as relative,

[65:03]

Absolute. When these karmic mental factors come up, they then organize the world in a very personal way for you. So a person who's practicing sometimes has the feeling in zazen of tremendous freedom and boundarylessness. And they can even make decisions about their life in this feeling, you know, they might do things a little differently. and then sometimes in the conventional reality you still have this very open feeling and the flowers smell great the air smells fragrant even if there's no flowers the rain is wonderful Because you're not asking anything.

[66:21]

It's just happening. Okay, so now you have, that's the externalized world and the internalized world. And then suddenly some mental factor comes up like, I'm not good enough. Or I should have more money. Or that person I really loved is not or is or should be available. And suddenly a whole different energy starts taking hold of you and organizing you. And you've lost zazen practice, you've lost the smell of the air. Now, if you're really practicing, you get to know those three different energies and begin using them. They're not bad, just a different kind of energy. Okay, so I would say that you've framed your question conceptually.

[67:23]

In the world of, you're saying in this externalized world, can I have these experiences from the internalized world? But in fact, your question has many factors from this hidden world of karma. that you're trying to resolve. So those aren't present in the way you conceptually framed it, but they're probably the ingredients of it. So the conceptual frame of a question often doesn't touch its dimensions. But the feeling of the question will. Now, Okay, whew, that was hard work.

[68:39]

I don't know if that's as hard work for you as for me. But to talk about something that is so not graspable and try to make it clear to you by balancing these three imaginary balls... You know, that's how I lost my hair. We were at Sechin recently in Hamburg, and we took this walk along one of the rivers the day after. And a bunch of Turkish kids really cracked up at my shaved head. I mean, they were laughing and laughing. They couldn't get over it. And one of them even said, we don't mean any harm, but it really is funny. I looked back and here comes Gerald.

[70:03]

Most of you don't know, but he's got a very shaved head, but he had a hat on. And he's about that much taller than me. So he was walking along, and when he got to the Turkish kids, I called, Geralt, take off your hat. And Geralt didn't know what he was supposed to do, but he took off his hat. And all the Turkish kids said, oh, really cracked up. And Geralt did bows with his hat. Okay. So when you have a question like you just brought up, you try to come to the feeling of it.

[71:05]

Now, in Sashin, I asked everyone to think of What you'd most like to resolve from the past. And what you'd most like to accomplish in the future. And what you'd most like to realize in the present. Now these are questions you can all ask yourself. And each is a different but related question. But it's hard to answer. You may have a little flash every now and then of something. But if you actually pay attention to it, there's a subtle feeling that accompanies each question.

[72:11]

And there's a subtle feeling that accompanies each one of them. And you can bring the three feelings together to make one question or one feeling. And then you can stay with that feeling and then the answers to the questions may come up in the details of your life. And that's using a non-graspable, concepts are graspable, Emotions are graspable, but feelings are not graspable. As soon as you try to grasp them, they disappear. Subtle feelings like the atmosphere of this room or the feeling that goes with a question. But if you can allow your body again to remember these feelings, for instance, if the question you asked and you asked and you asked, you can bring down to a feeling the kind of feeling that arises when you think of the question.

[73:36]

And then forget the question. Because the question isn't the real content. Much more of the real content is in the feeling. And then put that feeling in your Schatzkiste. In your treasure box. And stay with that feeling in the activity of your day. This is thinking with your feeling. And this is how you work with koans too. You know, I have a 12, 13-year-old daughter who's now 176 and a half centimeters. She's great. She is great. A lot taller than when you saw her in Bali. Yeah.

[74:46]

Anyway, she's going to school, etc. And one thing is, I'd like to try to teach her how to think. Now, that's not really possible. I think Wittgenstein said once, if there was a book that taught people how to think, it'd be the most valuable book in the world. But there's some things we should know about thinking. You can't really think unless you have the courage of the consequences. I mean if you think and you don't pay attention to the conclusions of your thought, then you're not going to think very clearly. But if you're willing to act on the conclusions of your thinking, then your thinking can become very powerful. So a kind of honesty is required of thinking.

[75:51]

If you can't be honest in your thinking, there's no power in it. Now, I've known many people since, you know, when I was in college, say, who've become scientists and poets and so forth. And it's interesting, it's not usually the people who were the smartest. It's the people who cared the most. I mean, I've known people who weren't that smart as some of the scientists when I was in college. But they really cared about the experiments they were doing.

[76:53]

And they were able to bring their emotions into it. And their scientific experiences didn't become just the function of their mental skills, but where their emotional life and caring and so forth were acted out too. And these are the scientists I know who've become famous for certain breakthroughs. So if in your thinking you can bring your emotion, your life, you're feeling into your thinking, your thinking is going to be much more powerful. And then finally, you can allow feeling to function as a kind of thinking. This is a very deep way of acting in the world. So, one is you pay attention to your question. And two, pay attention to the feeling that accompanies the question.

[78:10]

Again, like the feeling of a dream, not just the analysis of the dream. You wake up in the morning, you have a feeling from the dream as well as the details. And don't just pay attention to the details of the dream, pay attention also to the feeling of the dream. So bring the feeling of this fundamental question or practice question into your life. And little by little the details of your life will start answering it for you. Okay. One last small example. One of the things that's recommended in Buddhism is what's called the inner smile.

[79:15]

Now, this is very similar. There's the outer smile. But when you smile, there's a feeling that goes with the smile. So sometimes you can let the smile go away from your face, but you can keep the feeling of the smile in your body. And then you can let that feeling of the smile reach every part of your body. And that's called the inner smile. And the inner smile is also non-graspable and awakens from the space, and awakens from absolute space. It awakens from undivided perception.

[80:17]

It awakens from knowing you're the world-honored one. And when you look at a little baby, And you enter in your own body a kind of undivided space by looking at the baby. And then the baby smiles back at you. The baby says, oh, you know where we really live. Because the baby is smiling when it really feels connected. And we forget that. So I think this nun that smiled at me, she was smiling from her undivided space. We both recognize that's where we all can live. And then she went bicycling away.

[81:25]

And I came to the seminar. And it's very nice to be here. So let's have lunch. Do you know where any restaurants are around here, Christiana? Can you wake her up? I mean, maybe you can give suggestions to people, or Michelin, maybe you can give suggestions to people about restaurants and things. It's one o'clock almost. So fast ein Uhr. Shall we come back at two-thirty or three? Three? Okay, I'll see you at three. Three then. I was a little sleepy, so I should say good morning. Again. I'd like to begin with hearing from you. The only way we're going to develop this teaching is together, so you have to help.

[82:28]

Okay, so now I'm going to wait, yes. Always a backache, so I would like to ask how I should deal with it, where it comes from and what it is. Well, if you learn a new posture like this, there's always going to be some difficulty. And if you do what I call a clear hold, or a clear posture, it will clear up unclear postures. So if your back has unclear postures in it, or different kinds of memory and things laced in the muscles, your back will hurt in zazen until that releases.

[84:05]

So this posture, if you don't force it, is a kind of psychotherapy. or at least it's a kind of process which the posture itself begins to reveal stuff that's in your body. And it'll start coming into your memory. Sometimes in subtle ways, like patterns or atmospheres in your memory, and sometimes in vivid things. So this posture becomes a way of clearing or purifying yourself. Or maybe washing yourself.

[85:12]

Okay. Yeah. The question I was asking myself when I started meditating, which is a long time ago, and still asking myself, that's the question, what to do while I meditate. This is concerning to some exterior things, like should I close my eyes, or should I look not close, let's avoid to meet with a possibility sport? Should I just, well, I know, well, I think I have to do something to do nothing. while meditating, so I try to concentrate on my breath. And I was asking myself, that's all, or shall I maybe meditate about some questions? And it's referring to what you said the last part of this morning, if I can meditate on the feelings which arise while you're asking questions to yourself.

[86:13]

Or can you, while meditating, start with this concept of language, with these questions? Can you go back to the feelings and then just stay with the feelings? Do you want to say it in German? . Once you enter the outer aspects of meditation, once, whether it should be done with closed eyes or with half-closed eyes, with a point that is approximately 2 meters, I have already mentioned that, and what the inner enters, it is also to know that you have to do something without having to do anything, i.e. to concentrate on breathing, for example. Or also, what do we do tomorrow? Yeah, all of those things. I mean, when you said you have to do something in order to do nothing, that's right.

[87:42]

But you don't want to force yourself to do something. Now, again, I said that the basic posture of zazen is uncorrected mind. Und noch einmal, die grundlegende Haltung ist dieser unkorrigierte mind. So, anyway, if you're sitting and something comes up, If you interfere with it, you're correcting yourself. So it's a kind of negotiation. So you don't interfere with what comes up. And it's in a way you're letting your consciousness and your mental factors detach themselves a little bit.

[88:59]

But so that's expressed in don't invite your thoughts to tea. But if you do start to follow something, then you just let yourself follow it. But you do everything, as I said to Herman, with maybe soft eyes or a soft feeling. And soft eyes is actually a way of looking where you let your sense of where your seeing is located move to the back of your eyeballs. And also, when your practice, for instance, and your body is a little closer to this undivided world, you'll feel perhaps a little coolness.

[90:01]

The surface of your eyelids will feel cool. But there are many physical signs that your body is actually not held by conceptions anymore. Now, I'm pointing these things out because not only are they commonly pointed out in adept practice, not so you can try to create them or make the shoe fit, But so that you can have a sense of guidance in your practice from your own body as teacher.

[91:04]

So now, a sense of coolness on the surface of your eyes, for instance. is not something you can create. Think I'm going to make my eyes feel cool now? You can't do it. But you'll sense that it comes sometime. Or some other feeling of pliancy or your skin feels like a baby's or something. And you just let that feeling be. So in a way there's a certain guidance that you're letting happen. But it's more in the realm of noticing and letting than doing.

[92:10]

Now, you see, I think I should say something now that goes beyond just answering a question, okay? There's a communicative function to wholeness. Does that make sense? In other words, wholeness is always communicating with you. Or another way is there's a tendency for everything to self-organize. And whatever you mean by wholeness tends to organize itself. And it's tending to organize itself in a larger synergetic way than the parts. And we're always interfering with that.

[93:21]

And that interference is existential suffering. Or fundamental suffering. Hmm.

[93:24]

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