And how many of you are staying or may stay through the weekend? Oh, quite a lot of you, okay. So, this is the first time I've done three seminars in a row. In which there's... Some people are coming to all three and some are coming to only one. So I want there to be some continuity from one to the next and of course also a separate identity for each. And does everyone here experienced, somewhat experienced with meditation? I guess so.

[01:22]

Okay. Because what I'd like to do in this seminar is to actually explore our bodies more than I do usually in seminars. So I'll, in a way, be teaching or emphasizing a practice which I sometimes touch on, but don't go into too much detail on. And we have the title, The Poetry of the Body. And as you could say that poetry weaves breath weaves the mind into language.

[02:43]

And as there are words and the pauses between words and mind present in the words it's In a lot of ways similar to the way breath weaves mind into the body. Well, it was suggested to me that we look at a koan during this intensive seminar. So what I'd like to do with this is to present it just a little bit now. And then we can come back to it as it occurs to us.

[03:45]

And I'm also quite happy if during our discussions you ask me questions about what koans are about. Right now I'd say basically they're about a way to develop a language by which you can talk to yourself at a deeper level. These are little stories in which mind at several levels and enlightenment itself are woven into the text. So let me read it to you. Do you have one?

[04:45]

I'll just start with the case. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but just a part. A monk asked Zhaozhou, I have just entered the monastery. Please give me some guidance. Zhaozhou said, have you had breakfast yet? The monk said, yes, I've eaten. Jaojo said, then go wash your bowl. Now this is a famous story. And one that Sukhiroshi, one of the two or three koans Sukhiroshi used the most and talked about the most.

[05:53]

Mm-hmm. Now, the introduction, I'll read that too, and that's all I'll read it now. Introduction. When food comes, you open your mouth. When sleep comes, you close your eyes. As you wash your face, you find your nose. Kind of like kindergarten. When you take off your shoes, you feel your feet. At that time, if you miss what's being said, take a torch and make a special search deep in the night. How can you attain union? So I don't... The basis of Zen practice starts and resides in the body.

[07:23]

And how to explore your body is an essential and basic part of Zen practice. Again, this is not really gone into much in lay practice and even in monastic practice it's sort of taken for granted that everybody does it. But then it's presented as it opens up in people. So the question I have is how to present the practice of, let's say, one of the first stages is exploring the body. How to present that to you? Maybe it's that we should sit, and while you're sitting, I can make some suggestions.

[08:33]

Actually, it's a tradition to give tesho, or a dharma lecture, during sitting. But it's not a tradition to give guided meditation. But for us in this situation, maybe something in between a lecture and guided meditation is necessary to explore our bodies. So, let's start out with sitting. One, two. develop a kind of inner eye, an inner way of seeing.

[09:59]

And I really don't know how difficult or easy this is for you. But you don't have to worry too much about it because partly the inner eye is awakened through imagining the inner eye. But don't worry too much about it, because mainly this inner eye is awakened by imagining this inner eye. And as I said, the main way we weave, thread mind through the body is with our breath.

[11:41]

What are the main ingredients of breath? Of course, inhalation and exhalation. And you have two nostrils. And a mouth. And a tongue. And you have the pauses at the bottom and top of exhalation and inhalation.

[13:15]

And you have the possibility of, as much as possible, leaving the breath alone. Or you can quicken the breath or slow the breath. Or you can hold the breath. Or you can direct the breath. oder ihn ausrichten. Now in practice, each breath really is your first breath.

[14:47]

The word used for breath in Sanskrit prana means first breath. And the word in Sanskrit prana means first breath. or first small unit of energy. So this breath which we naturally enough usually take for granted is really the first small unit of energy which we can which in many ways lies at the source of us. Now I'd first like you to notice now which nostril you're breathing through.

[16:19]

This will shift during the day. It can be every now and then or when you change your state of mind. But usually it's every hour and a half to two hours. By noticing that you begin to By noticing it but not interfering with it, you begin to monitor your health and your state of mind actually. The next thing I'd like you to notice is how much of your lungs are being touched by the air of your inhales.

[17:54]

How far up in each lung does it reach into your shoulders? And how much down toward the tips of the lungs near the diaphragm? Now the sense of this koan is, you know, have you had breakfast yet? It's a practical question, you know, somebody just arrives and says, have you had a cup of tea or have you had breakfast?

[19:08]

But it's also understood to be a question here by Zhaozhou of what kind of realization do you have or how well do you understand Buddhism? Or it could be that kind of question. Oder es könnte diese Art von Frage sein. And the way the monk said, yes, I've eaten, it's understood that he meant he's okay. Und so wie der Mönch jetzt antwortet, ja, ich habe schon gegessen, das bedeutet ja, er ist in Ordnung. It's not exactly a proud statement or something. It just says, yes, I've eaten. It's a matter of fact. Das ist jetzt nicht unbedingt ein Ausdruck von Stolz, sondern etwas ganz Praktisches. Ja, ich habe schon gegessen. And then, of course, Zhaozhou says, then you should go wash your bowl.

[20:11]

Now, you can understand that to mean that if you say, yes, I've eaten, there's something, you know, that's a little much and maybe you should go make sure your bowl is clean or empty or something like that. You should get rid of the idea that you've attained something. So the monk might have said, have you had breakfast yet? And the monk might have said, my bowl is empty. But that's a little clever. So it's quite okay. Yes, I've eaten. And Zhaozhou says, then go wash your bowl. Now, this shouldn't be too quickly understood only in this way. Because it also has the feeling of the practical thing, of the practical sense of taking care of things.

[21:45]

Of eating and then washing the dishes. and having a feeling of doing everything with completion. And that's very, very, very, very, very basic in Zen practice. But also there's the sense of the yoga of everyday life. And you can see it in several places in this koan, if you read carefully. In the introduction, when it says, if you miss what's being said, Take a torch and make a special search deep in the night.

[22:58]

The special torch means the, or the torch means the mind's eye or the ability to see inside the body. And make a special search deep in the night means to explore the darkness or darkness of zazen. And make a special search deep in the night means to explore the darkness or darkness of zazen. So that's enough for that.

[23:59]

So the question is, you know, how do you create this torch? So that when you put on your shoes you feel your feet. This means your mind should be in your feet. And if your mind is in your feet or your breath is in your feet Your feet tend to be soft. And if your breathing is balanced, your hands tend to be soft. So this is the Zen way of talking about these things. They don't spell it out too directly, but they say things like, when you take off your shoes, you feel your feet.

[25:01]

And I enjoyed doing it. And especially the second day we were able to, I think, do some good work. And one thing we talked about, as I often talk about, is the feeling, let's just say feeling consciousness. Now you have different kinds of consciousness. And feeling consciousness or the feeling skanda is the most basic. And it's the substratum or medium of every state of mind. Even of thinking consciousness, the substratum is feeling consciousness. Now usually I just say feeling in contrast or in distinction from emotions.

[26:17]

But in this seminar I'll speak about it as feeling consciousness. Now, feeling consciousness is usually stored or explored in the body in the heart chakra or this part of your body. And energy consciousness is explored in this or stored in this part of your body. And both energy consciousness and feeling consciousness are intimately discovered and felt through the breath. In other words, you use breath to thread your grosser mind with your more subtle consciousness.

[27:21]

So how to give you a feeling for this exploring your body? Now in traditional yoga, it's done hatha yoga or yoga using asanas or the postures. It's done through developing at least some and sometimes extraordinary control over the muscles and organs of the body. At least some stages of this may be quite useful in Zen practice.

[28:34]

But in Zen, in Buddhism in general and Zen practice, mostly we do it with this torch, this torch and this special search. This torch of the mind's eye. So you have to find some way to awaken this mind's eye. And there are several ingredients that help. One is a imagination. You just pretend you're doing it. Or you pretend as... You know, as much as you can. And the second is you become familiar with a kind of inner light.

[29:56]

And the most, I think the easiest place to notice that is just before you go to sleep. It's just before you drift off to sleep, you kind of unfocus your attention. And there's a kind of flat sometimes, but flat gray or luminous gray light. And you get to know that light. You study the transition between waking and sleeping. And you study the changes in your state of mind and the changes in your breath that accompany falling to sleep.

[30:59]

Now again, these kind of details I've never, except sometimes I refer a little bit to them, I've never taught in a public situation like this. And I don't know how useful or interesting it is. Because we're not talking about the architecture much at all. We're only talking about carpentry and cabinet making. Maybe we're even talking about the termites. Okay, so this sense of a light or kind of, you know, you don't have to have some bright, you know, wonderful thing, just a kind of sense of a background pewter, pewter-colored light.

[32:16]

Now it may be different with different people, but I would say in general it's a kind of at first gray background. And as you get more familiar with it and as your interior consciousness becomes more non-referential and becomes lighter and more itself suffused with light Then this gray background has more depth and more luminosity. Or as you get the feeling more of when you start meditation of letting mind melt into the sand of your body. And going to sleep that way.

[33:34]

This gray background has more light to it. Now the important thing here is... Well, two things. One is you're learning to see, just to see an inner light is different than looking at your nose. You're learning to use seeing in a different way than my seeing the trees, for instance. Now, this inner seeing can be applied to outer seeing, but first let's learn it as inner seeing. So just to notice this gray background or a kind of luminosity is already shifting the way you see. And it requires a different pace of being alive.

[34:34]

And it requires being outside your ego a bit. It's too subtle to notice in the pressures of daily life. That's why we can notice it more often just before we go to sleep. Because you can't really go to sleep if you are too much caught up in daily life and the mind of the ego. Then you have to have a sleeping pill or something. which is very damaging to your spiritual body. You have a kind of sick kind of sleep when you use sleeping pills.

[35:56]

So the second thing is that you, the first is you've come to be able to notice or to have this kind of inner seeing which requires you to be a bit free of your ego and daily pressures. Requires a different pace of life. Now the second thing is, when you notice this feeling, and maybe tonight you can see if you can be present as you're falling asleep and notice this, to notice this and retain a feeling of it requires some skills in developed feeling consciousness. So your non-conceptual interior consciousness has to be somewhat developed in order to remember this kind of light that you may feel just before you go to sleep.

[37:10]

So that's the second ingredient. And the third ingredient is the ability for your breath and mind to stay together for a period of time. And this is developed through the practice of following the breath in zazen. So if you have these tools, the feeling consciousness and the feeling of this light And you can have practiced and developed to some extent following your breath with your attention or your mind.

[38:34]

And what was the first thing I mentioned? Yeah, imagination. So if you can develop your intention in a kind of gentle imagination, With these ingredients, you can actually begin to explore your entire body, your lungs, your legs, inside your body, and so forth. It's kind of like having a little light. Look around. That's what this koan means. Take a torch and make a special search deep in the night. Now, this is one reason you need a teacher, because if you read that yourself, you wouldn't know what that meant, probably. That's at least one reason a teacher is helpful sometimes, to point out these things.

[39:36]

Now, we're going to take a break in a moment. But the reason I asked you to pay attention to whether your lungs were full or not and how much your breath reached up into your lungs, Because that sensation, if your mind can be in your breath, that sensation of where your breath reaches in your lungs can be a good starting point for following the interior of your body. Anyway, this is sort of basic stuff for awakening the body-mind or the mind-body.

[40:46]

So your body is permeated with awareness. And a kind of, it's manifested usually as a kind of softness actually in your body. Okay, so let's take a break for about 30 minutes, 25 to 30 minutes. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. It's useful to look at what monastic life is like, the usual scene of serious practice.

[41:49]

The main thing all monastic practice is about, and Buddhist monastic practice too, is about ordering your life. We human beings being so free are in a way the most free from order. Trees have to, they're rooted, they have certain conditions to live. And most animals, except maybe rats, have to live in quite defined territories in order to function. And the purpose of the order in a monastery is to make you aware of your own order. And to support you so that you don't have to think too much.

[43:18]

You don't have to make many decisions and so forth. Okay, so as a lay person, how are you going to bring order into your life? The kind of order that allows you to realize yourself. If you can't look to the outside world for this order, then you can look to your body. So the practice of becoming aware of and present in your breath is not just for the sake of awakening the breath body.

[44:25]

And creating interior space. It's also for the sake of creating a sense of order in the exterior dimensions of your life. The first level would be just being able to be present in your inhalations and exhalations. And I think all of you know this is pretty difficult. It's hard enough just to count your breaths in zazen. But to stay present within your breath all day long is quite difficult. You in fact are present in your breath all day long or you'd be dead.

[45:29]

Or very out of breath. But you're not really present in your breath. At least most of us are. So the kind of... But it is possible to do. And it actually... If your intention is to do it, it will happen eventually. But it is possible. And if you have an intention to do it, it will happen eventually. And even once you are continuously present or nearly continuously present with your breath, still there's a long ways to go between you're fully present in your breath. It's like you maybe get in the entryway but you're not fully living in the house and all its rooms yet.

[46:51]

And just this effort can take your lifetime. But at certain stages it will The more developed stages are actually intimately related to your health, how long you live, how long you maintain the qualities of youthfulness. What did she say? What you said. What I said? It's funny, huh? But I kind of, I made a little funny face.

[47:54]

Oh, you did, huh? Yeah, wondering whether I can save a kind of lifting or something. Do a face lift? No, since, I mean, people don't know you're 50. I saw a picture of Gina Lola Brigida today in the newspaper. She looked pretty good at 65. But she had several facelifts. Yeah, she had a facelift. Perhaps. Notice how fast vanity took over the topic. Okay. So, but if you're going to be present, for instance, in which nostril you're breathing from, this takes a lot more subtlety than just being present in your exhales and inhales.

[48:59]

It's not necessary to become present in which nostril, but But it is happening all day long. You're shifting back and forth. And if you want to become more subtle, it's okay to notice it. Actually, a time to practice it is if you're reading or studying for two or three hours. You can notice at the beginning of your study which nostril you're breathing from and then watch it during the time. It's not so hard to do while you're reading. You can even set your stopwatch.

[50:17]

Okay, left nostril now. Still the left nostril. What? You can't change it? There are techniques for changing it. You're pounding your chest. Yes, there's ways you can put pressure under your arm or so forth. But mostly you can just forcibly do it. You can do it. But actually a different part of your brain is working when you're left nostril than right nostril. In more conceptual thinking, one nostril is being used, and in more creative thinking, another nostril is being used. In zazen, you may go quite quickly back and forth. Which is which?

[51:18]

I forget. Do we ever breathe through both nostrils? And during satsang you often breathe through both. I most of the time breathe through both. But if you notice there will be an emphasis on one or the other. Okay. So a certain amount, particularly as in the first... months or years of practice, a kind of a sense of order in your life is really helpful. And that sense of order can come from your body rather than from the monastic life toward your body, it can come from your body toward your life.

[52:22]

And your body has to be extremely ordered to function. Your lungs and heart and breath all have to work extremely in a very ordered way. And you don't want to create a rigid, disciplined life, particularly. That's not what I mean. I mean, the mind in which you live can have its own sense of order that is present in the yoga of daily life through how your mind senses the order of your breath and the order of your body.

[53:36]

But the subtlety of the order of your body In order for that to be present in your breath, your breath needs to be woven more thoroughly with your body. And for most of us, our breath is not very deeply rooted. It changes in quite a nervous way with our state of mind. If you're nervous or a little anxious, your breathing goes faster and your heart starts to beat, so... But when mind and body are more deeply woven together, it's a kind of deep rhythm in your life, not so jittery in relationship to your state of mind.

[54:56]

So this kind of practice I'm talking about in this seminar is to settle your mind in your body. To settle yourself in yourself, on yourself. And to moisten the mind, moisten the body with the mind. And how do you moisten the body with the mind? Okay, again, going back to the image of the poem.

[56:19]

His poem is the mind woven through the articulations of words with the breath. Nun, bei einem Gedicht wird der Geist eingewoben durch den Ausdruck der Worte mit dem Atem. Und so könnten wir sagen, dass dieser Körperatem verwoben ist mit dem Ausdruck des Körpers. Mit den Teilen des Körpers. So again, you're attempting when you're as a practice while you're sitting to more feel from inside the parts of your body. And feel that each has its own space.

[57:20]

And each part of the body has its own quality. So one thing you will notice, first of all, before you can notice the distinctions of color or feeling of different organs, you'll notice that one side of your body usually feels darker than the other. And if you just sit for a moment right now, you may feel there's more, you feel like you're more present in one side of your body than the other. then you can be present on the left side or the right side easier than the other. And it might be different in your face than in your torso.

[58:35]

And if you're going to sign a... color or make a distinction between darkness and light, I think one side will feel a little darker than the other. On the darker side you can't penetrate as easily with your attention as you can on the lighter side. Now that's a basic thing to notice in doing zazen.

[59:35]

More to notice than to try to do anything about. But again, two things are happening when you do that. One is, again, you're developing the ability to turn seeing inward. And two, you're beginning to develop the language that allows you to read your body. It's a kind of inner, a kind of non-linguistic language. Not a language not based on words, but on feelings or tones or colors.

[60:38]

And sometimes you can even feel or hear certain sounds within the body. So as I've said many times, if you hear yourself hearing and you begin to create a field of hearing and then you begin to hear these birds right now, for instance, inside of you, What you're doing is you're creating an interior space that hears the birds within. But hearing things from within is not quite the same as turning your hearing inward. Turning your hearing inward is almost like into the inner silence of the body which has a quality of sound to it. Now, to get back to a more practical level, you can, when you first sit, practice filling your lungs as much as possible.

[62:24]

And the usual way to do that is what's called bamboo breathing. So if you just breathe, inhale as deeply as you can, sort of like this, you can't get very far. But if you do it in a series of steps, you can fill your lungs quite a lot. And that series of steps is called bamboo breathing. So one thing you can do, the beginning of some periods are the first time you get ready to sit in the morning.

[63:24]

And not enough of you who sit actually do much rocking back and forth and preparing yourself for sitting. In general, you want to move a bit till you feel a certain fluidity in your body. A certain flexibility. And if all parts of your body don't feel open, you do something to make them feel open. Und wenn nicht alle Teile des Körpers offen sind, dann tut man etwas, um die zu öffnen. Like cross your arms behind your back or stretch your shoulders back. Also dass man die Hände hinter dem Rücken fasst oder die Schultern durchdrückt. Or turn your head to the part of the right and the part of the left. Oder den Kopf hin und her wendet. And usually rock a little forward and back. Und gewöhnlich sich etwas vor und zurück wiegt.

[64:29]

And left and right. Und links und rechts. And then during that you sort of start bringing your attention to your breathing while you're doing that and your breathing then starts making your posture more subtle from inside if while you're making these movements you bring your mind to your breath. Ideally, when you start sitting, you feel the tingle of breath at the top of your head and at the base of your spine. Again, unless you're lucky, it takes a while before that openness of breath in your body, you can feel it. Am I driving you crazy with all this talk about breath and details?

[65:34]

Okay. Well, anyway, so if you inhale several times through this bamboo breathing, you can try it. And then hold it. Your lungs are quite full. And then just hold it. And then sometimes press down with it. without exhaling, and hold it till you feel a kind of melting feeling. Now you can practice holding a long time and so forth, but in Zen practice we don't do that much unless you have some special interest in it. But every time you do that and say that every second or third time you did zazen, you tried that, you're becoming more conscious of how open your lungs are.

[66:55]

But every time you do that and say that every second or third time you did zazen, you're becoming more conscious of how open your lungs are. And you sometimes want to do the opposite practice, which is exhale as much as you can. Again, in a series of exhales. Pulling in your stomach muscle. And holding it again. That sometimes can hurt you in the chest a little bit.

[67:59]

But again, this is not to develop fancy or specialized breathing exercises. This is to get familiar with your lungs. And try to open up your breathing up here especially more. And sometimes you can even pat yourself up here with your fingertips. Which helps you to feel your breath up there. In general, the basic energy which you live your life through comes from or is always in touch with the energy of breath.

[69:10]

So this daily practice of paying attention to your breathing is also the feeling of having a certain reserve of energy in your breath. Now, I don't exactly mean you have just a lot of stale air in your chest that you haven't breathed out. So no one wants to be in front of you when you exhale. Dragon breath. Lizard mouth. But rather... Because when we do that bamboo exhale, you're trying to expel everything and clean your lungs.

[70:24]

And the more your lungs are opened up, the less of this dead air you have in you. The more it circulates when you're breathing. But by slightly having your inhales slightly more conscious than your exhales, it helps to actually have a feeling of a reserve energy in your breath. So I think that's enough on breath at this point. Is there something anybody would like to talk about or ask me a question about or bring up for the sake of yourself or others?

[71:26]

I mean, it's not just a question, it's your help in shaping this discussion so that it helps others too. And that's not just a question, but it helps me to somehow form this seminar. I have a question to this breathing exercise of putting my intention to these nostrils. Like normally when I can only breathe through one nostril, like when I'm stuffed up or I have a cold, I feel this quite a limitation.

[72:27]

So in order to practice this or develop this ability, would it help to just imagine I'm breathing through one nostril? Yeah. Yes. Also, of course, you can blow your nose and things like that, practical things. But in general, even if you have a cold, you'll notice that the stuffiness will shift to the other nostril after a few, later in the day. I'm not sure you've understood my question. If I breathe through one nostril, for example, when I have a cold, this is something I feel is very unpleasant. Right. So I don't know how to find a gate to that practice because I experience this being so unpleasant. When it happens through just, for example, a cold, would it help then to just imagine it? Yes, as I said. But also... probably later in the day you'll find out you're stuffed up in the other nostril. Because there's a relationship between mucus and all that stuff and the kind of consciousness you have.

[73:38]

If you bring your attention more to your breathing, it actually helps you get rid of a cold or stuffiness. Do you want to say some of that? My question was, normally I feel this as quite disturbing. So when I am forced to breathe only through one nostril, for example when I have a cold and the other is clogged, would it help me with my imagination to imagine that I am breathing only through one nostril? One practice of helping you get rid of a cold actually is to breathe with your tongue out for a while. Should I translate your answer first? Oh, sure, go ahead. So, the answer was that even if you, for example, are cold and your nose is still clogged and you give attention to it, you will be able to notice that this clogging changes back and forth during the cold, because consciousness is also very closely connected or certain changes in mental states, like certain mucous membranes separate mucous membranes and so on, and Did you translate what I just said?

[74:56]

But when I used to sit facing the wall, that was fairly easy to practice. But sitting facing the whole zendo as the teacher with my... It's a little funny. But there's various tongue positions for your tongue. at the bottom of your mouth, floating in the middle, at the top on your palate. Or your tongue shaped like this. And as Arika says, that's a genetic ability, not everyone can do it. It requires a jean or scotch tape.

[76:04]

Or a little rubber band, yeah. And there's also breathing with your... Mouth open but your teeth closed. Or your mouth completely open. And breathing with your mouth open and your teeth closed, for instance, increases the moisture in your breath. But generally, you can do these more special kinds of breathing, and I do them when I have a cold or something, or I can feel something, and I feel if I breathe a little differently, it modulates it.

[77:11]

Because you have these different ingredients that are part of breath, your mouth, your nostrils, your inhale and exhales, your diaphragm, your stomach muscles. And whether the breath feels like it's circling like this or circling like this or circling like this and so forth. There's quite a repertoire of things you can do that most of us don't notice. So there is quite a repertoire of possibilities that most of us do not notice. Yes. I would like to add something. Yes. I was wondering when this alternating of breathing every two, three hours, it goes from one nose to the other. If this is kept in one nose for longer hours, then sometimes it's a sign that some illness is coming. Yeah, I think that's right. If you are more than a couple hours on one side than another, it's usually a sign that something's out of balance with you.

[78:30]

And if you learn how to make the shift, you can actually take a kind of care of your health through doing it, as Florian says. And one way is to put your hand in your armpit and push up hard and down, and it will tend to change it. As Florian says, you push in your side, that I don't, I'm not trying. But in general, if you practice zazen, you can change it intentionally.

[79:43]

Yes. This is the first time I hear you mention a relationship between silent practice and your physical health. Could you go into this a little more so as to point out whether this is simply a concept of psychosomatic relationship or is it more than this? Is it a kind of mirror or reflection of the state of mind that breaks out in the body, so to speak? Like measles breaks out in the body, your mind breaks out in your body and you start scratching your mind. Well, we don't like to emphasize in Zen practice the benefits, the goodies.

[80:48]

And generally the attitude in Zen practice is, if you're sick, just be sick. You can intend to get better, but it's all right to be sick. It's like the story of the fox who was the man who was reborn as a fox for many generations because he gave the wrong answer to the question about can you be free of your karma or not. So he was reborn for many generations as a fox. So when people work with this koan they're trying to get the right answer so you won't get reborn as a fox. But the real answer is, what's wrong with being a fox?

[82:03]

A fox. So it's called a fox. Yeah, I saw a fox. Yeah, I did see, I saw actually in the men's room of a restaurant in Berlin, I saw a fox out the window. No, going through the garbage, just living in Berlin. Came from East Germany, I think. Now that the wall is down. Well, in America you have raccoons living in the cities, all over the place.

[83:06]

They're very smart and they're great. But in general, yes, Zazen practice helps your health. If your breathing and your energy work better, then you work better. And if you can direct your mind's eye to particular organs or particular problems, you can help speed up your immune system. And if you can be present in the actuality of the moment and not the conscious apprehension of the moment, Then you can notice when things happen to you immediately, as I say headaches start and things, and you can begin to change them immediately.

[84:10]

And more basically, as I've said, if you develop a feeling of physical and mental intactness, which helps keep you healthy. But these are, for Zen practice, just byproducts. And in fact, we make almost no effort to learn them. And to make an effort to learn them would be considered, particularly for Mahayana practice, a lower form of practice that interferes with your realization. However, if you became very sick and your life was threatened, lower forms of practice may be quite okay. Choices between no practice at all and lower forms of practice.

[85:44]

Okay. Anybody else? Yeah. um Just a brush, and in the case, then go and wash your bowl. I have a feeling that there is, that's why the district didn't wash the bowl, because you put the bowl everywhere. You do what? You improve the situation. By washing the bowl? Yeah. Yeah. And there is no interest in searching. You just look at it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that seems like a contradiction.

[86:46]

I agree. That's part of what makes it a koan. I also like catching a dragon with a straight hook. The next line in the commentary. I mean, can you imagine catching a dragon with a straight hook? Yeah. But that of course means uncorrected mind. That's to make no effort because if you drop a straight hook down, you're not going to catch anything. Okay. Wash the bowl also though means he says wash the bowl because he said he had eaten. Okay. Something else. Is that me? Say that again. Yeah. Yeah.

[87:46]

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I'd started meditation a year before and I thought, well, sitting at home alone and practicing on my own was the reason. So you stopped sitting and your hair grew back. That was happening to me too, you know. So what happened? Does it have any relationship to sitting or not sitting? Well, I can tell you it's sitting. And then your hair grew back. Well, I'm not really sure what the reason was.

[88:48]

Yeah, me neither. Did it grow back thicker or prettier? Curlier. Curlier? Oh, good. Somebody else said something. Yeah. Many things you said about breath reminded me to breath therapy, according to Middendorf. So, on one hand, that might be a good preparation for Zazen, or you said that would be considered as a lower practice, according to Mayanna. Which would be? Middendorf's practices? I don't know what his are, though. Well, the practices I... Working with breath. What? Working with breath. It depends on your intention in working with breath. The way I'm speaking about it is to notice your breath as a way of becoming familiar with your body and bringing body and mind together. But there's no purpose beyond that.

[89:51]

If you started working with your breath to attain certain goals, then that would be considered fine, but at the same time interfering with deeper practice. Now, if your practice is, say that you or someone is a breath therapist Or you use breath as part of a therapy. Then that's part of a therapy. You can continue your practice of therapy. And that therapy may inform and deepen your zazen practice. But you have to distinguish between the therapy practice and the zazen practice.

[91:07]

Like if you do tai chi, say. Tai chi make... I definitely see it in people. Tai chi makes people's bodies more receptive to the teaching than people who had no experience like that. I can really feel people's bodies hearing the teaching. I don't find that so true for martial arts. But it's partly true. But it's quite true for qigong, tai chi, and those more softer practices. But in any case, to say that you do do tai chi, you can't confuse the practice of tai chi with zazen. There are two different practices which inform each other.

[92:18]

So I don't think somebody who's doing Zazen should stop doing Tai Chi or their breath therapy or whatever. But the large organizing attitudes or motivations are different. And those large motivating attitudes are much more important than the specifics that you do. Really, if you don't have the large organizing attitudes straight, no matter what practice you do, it won't take you very far. And again, that's why the Buddha's teaching starts with right views, complete views. Now, I think we've talked enough for a while.

[93:32]

Unless somebody else has something they want to bring up. Anyone? I'm happy to listen to you. I'm not so happy to listen to myself. Yeah. Did you say anything about what... In zazen, you're exhaling consciously. Usually, that's why, as I said, we count our breaths. But in daily practice of being present with your breathing, as a steady state of mind, you're a little bit more present with your inhales. And your inhales are usually a little longer than your exhales.

[94:55]

But you can do it anyway. You just do it. Try it both ways. I mean, these things are, again, not hard and fast rules. They're... you know, that have to do with us and our own. But in general, what I said I think is correct.

[95:22]

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