Dr. Zwiebel, Ralph Zwiebel, has never translated for me before. But we've practiced together a long time and so we'll see how it goes. And I'm always translating to myself what this Zen stuff is about. And so, you know, it's all a process of translation, so we'll... His translating it is also your translating it. Because this kind of practice doesn't fit into language very well.

[01:05]

And can you hear okay? And it doesn't fit into... Western language is very well. But it doesn't make sense, at least it doesn't make sense to me, to use a lot of Sanskrit and Pali terms. It's a little bit like trying to spend Chinese money from an ancient kingdom in Germany. The coins are interesting, but you can't buy much with it. So I have a discipline of trying to speak without using Buddhist terms, but trying to find a way to say things in English. Of course, there are some things which, like dharma and karma, have become so common we use those words.

[02:32]

Now, tonight's lecture is Everyday Zen. Is that right? Something like that? Okay. Yeah, so that's an appealing phrase to us in the West. And sometimes I think it's because we're lazy. We'd like to have Zen just something, you know, that we don't have to make much change, it's just our everyday life. But I think on the other side of this laziness... is an intuition that we can find a way to rest in the present. Now of course, What's different about Zen practice in the West is that it's primarily at this point a practice for laypeople.

[04:18]

So this phrase, everyday Zen, has a special importance for us. Because it has come to mean that we don't have to practice in a monastery. And although Mahayana Buddhism is supposed to be primarily for lay people, in fact, the teachings are carried in the monasteries in a very dilute form, is presented to lay people. So the challenge for us practicing in the West is can we find an adept lay practice in our lay life.

[05:38]

So it also means that our everyday circumstances are in themselves a sufficient way to practice. And since this is not a... Since Buddhism is not a revealed religion, revealed from a god or something outside this world, it has to eat the Buddha himself, practiced in his everyday life. So Zen practice is something not being a revealed religion, it's a religion or a teaching we reveal through ourselves.

[06:57]

So the question here is, how do we reveal it to ourselves? Certainly everyday Zen doesn't mean our everyday mind we usually live in. No need to add the word Zen, we just have our usual distracted mind. So we have to ask what everyday Zen could mean. We do have our everyday circumstances. And we enter into practice always through acceptance.

[08:17]

The dynamic of practice is always to accept yourself as you are. To accept your situation as it is. In fact, you have no choice. I mean, you can pretend you have some alternatives, but in fact you have no choice. But to really know you have no choice, you have to find some way to put yourself into the situation where you feel how you have no choice. And it's quite useful to use language to remind yourself. Not language in sentences and ordinary thinking, but language that points to our immediate situation.

[09:49]

Not language as in sentences and grammar. But words you take out of sentences and just use them to point. sondern Worte, die man aus den Sätzen herausnimmt, um auf Situationen hinzuweisen. For instance, you might use just now arriving. Man könnte zum Beispiel so ein Wort oder einen Satz benutzen wie gerade ankommen oder gerade angekommen. So that you said to yourself just now arriving. He or me? Ich? Ja. I have to speak louder. Excuse me, please again. So you can say to yourself, just now arriving. So kann man zu sich selber sagen, gerade angekommen oder gerade ankommend.

[10:55]

So that, for instance, right now you're sitting in that seat, you can have the feeling just now arriving in this seat. In English, you know the word entrance means entrance. In Japanese, the ordinary word for the entryway, genkan, means mystery gate. And often hidden in our Language are things we don't notice anymore, where each thing you do has its own trance or reality.

[12:01]

And we're constantly turning everything into a generalization. So everyday Zen would mean to stop generalizing your situation and find each situation in its uniqueness. The fact that, and I'm surprised, I've never been here before and there's so many people interested in Zen, I guess you're interested in Zen, Well, your interest is very precious to me. Zen is very precious to me.

[13:25]

And I'd like to give you a feeling for it that in itself is not a generalization. So I'm trying to introduce you to the feeling of practice. Now, some of you may have heard that Zen is said to have something to do with enlightenment. Yeah. It makes us greedy. And it's talked about a lot more in the West than it is in Asia. But in any case, in case you might have a lingering interest in this possibility, Let me say that practice is what makes a recognition turn into a realization.

[14:43]

And practice makes what a realization that you might have in ordinary circumstances, but if you've been practicing, And practice is what makes an ordinary realization or recognition you have that you might hardly notice turn into, sometimes, enlightenment. And it's then practice which matures this realization into an enlightening way of life. So it's much more useful to talk about practice than to talk about some special state of mind. But you know, let's imagine you were enlightened.

[15:57]

In fact, dare I say, it's true. In fact, dare I say, should I say, it's true. But it's not so noticeable. But if you were enlightened, you'd feel quite happy right now. So why not start there? Feel happy right now. And you probably wouldn't feel much need for anything. Okay, so stop feeling so much need for things. And again, you can practice with a phrase. And the phrase I would suggest in English is, just now is enough.

[17:01]

Now, of course, if you need to have dinner later or something, just now is not enough. But still each of you knows that just now has to be enough because it's all we have. So if just now If intellectually you know that just now has to be enough, if you know, if you understand that just now has to be enough, because moment after moment there's no alternative, you can try to discover that state of mind where you can actually feel a kind of resting, a resting in the present.

[18:29]

But usually, again, our mind is so caught up in language And language that anticipates the future. We actually don't feel that just now is enough. Now, if I stopped right now and said nothing more this evening, and you actually took this phrase just now as enough, And with thoroughness, you kept bringing yourself into the mind of just now is enough. I could come back next year and find half of you are noticing that you're enlightened. Half of you next year would be noticing that you're enlightened.

[20:03]

But it's not so easy to even keep a phrase like that in mind. When you keep a phrase in mind, it changes your mind. The keeping of a phrase, the holding of something in view, creates another kind of mind. A mind that touches the present differently. And if you actually... more and more got a feeling for that just now is enough, you would come closer to what in Zen we mean by everyday mind. Or practice is everyday life.

[21:04]

Now, everyday mind is actually thought, there's one way of looking at mind, one way of looking at mind, one way of looking at mind in general, we speak sometimes of original mind, everyday mind, and universal mind. And every original mind means to feel the stillness, the silence of the mind before thought arises. And it's a physical feeling. And one of the givens of yogic culture, which Zen is a part of, yogic culture, that all

[22:36]

all mental phenomena has a physical component. And all sentient physical phenomena has a mental component. This means you get to know the physical feeling of your states of mind. And that means that one learns the physical state of one's mental state. So you can physically feel the stillness of your mind. And the more you can physically feel it, you can rest in that. You can hold that feeling. So in that sense, everyday mind then arises from this stillness.

[23:54]

And this stillness or this everyday mind which is engaged but not attached to circumstances, allows us to realize what we call In English, universal mind. And universal mind means mind in its most inclusive sense. almost, we could say, a timeless feeling of everything stopped and included. Now, what's characteristic about Zen practice? and Buddhist practice in general, is

[25:17]

that practice or teachings are ways to come into contact with your living. I don't know quite how to describe this, but I'm trying. Everything is changing, and that changing is also transforming. Let me tell you a little anecdote. A friend of mine wrote a book called Golf in the Kingdom. And it's a kind of, I don't know if it's known in Germany, but in English it sells 50 or 100,000 copies a year now for 25 years.

[26:58]

So he's written a sequel. called The Kingdom of Shiva's Irons. Shiva's Irons. The protagonist. And so Michael, the author, asked me to come and join him for the opening of this book party or something. Michael, the author of this book, invited me to present this new book. And he claims that much of the book has come out of conversations with me. Now, I don't play golf, but I did use the caddy. And my mother was a good golfer.

[28:02]

But I'm not a golfer. But anyway... So I was at this party just a couple days ago in Atlanta, Georgia. And one of the... One of the people who came was this young, very good golfer. And I confess I don't remember his name right now. But in terms of... how far he can hit the ball, he and Tiger Woods are the top in the world. And he's up among the top ten or so golfers in the world. So he began describing, because we were talking about all these things like we're talking about now,

[29:02]

And we talked about what we're talking about here now. And because Michael's book is a kind of fabulous story of this golfer who has these kind of unique powers. You can call it the spiritual side of golfers. Anyway, what am I getting myself into here? You wanted to say it. I'm on the in process. So he got up, this golfer, and started to describe his golf swing. And he doesn't anymore practice or think about his swing.

[30:22]

He has the target. And he has the way his feet are. And he has three words he uses. One, he looks up the target and then looks down. He holds the target in his mind. And then he has two more words, and then... he hits the ball. And he has a kind of ritual of what he does that's exactly the same on each stroke. And what's funny about it is it's quite similar to Zen practice. Maybe we could say that Zen practice, everyday Zen, is a kind of athletic event.

[31:34]

Because you do need to find some way to bring your attention into the present circumstance. And if it's often useful, as he does, he uses the power of language to stop his thinking. So a phrase like, just now arriving, or just now is enough, can stop you and and is part of a process, which is more connected with the world.

[32:41]

Because this phrase, everyday Zen, Does mean, yes, you can practice in your everyday circumstances. But in fact it means you have to engage your everyday circumstances. in a way that thinking doesn't separate you from your circumstances? that thinking doesn't separate you from your circumstances.

[33:46]

And you feel touched or engaged without attachment to your immediate circumstances. So, first of all, there's the intention to do this. Als erstes ist die Absicht oder der Entschluss, das zu tun. And then you have to bring attention to what you're doing. Und dann gilt es, Aufmerksamkeit dazu zu bringen, was man gerade tut. And then there's a craft of discovering how to do it. Und dann gibt es da eine Art Handwerk, wie man das machen kann. So all I can do is give you some aspects of intention and attention. But you have to find the craft of doing it. For example, in my own case, years ago in the 60s, I somehow hit upon the phrase, there's no place to go.

[35:10]

And there's nothing to do. But in fact, I was quite busy. I had a job and I had a Young family and so forth. But I repeated to myself, there's no place to go. And there's nothing to do. And this is not really different from saying just now is enough. It just worked for me. Because when I was doing a lot of things and I felt kind of, I said, there's nothing to do. And when I was going places, I would say, there's no place to go.

[36:12]

And actually, there's a quite famous koan which illustrates this. is that Daowu and Yunyan are brother monks and Dharma brothers and blood brothers. And Daowu was a little smarter and Older. What's his name? Dao? Dao Wu. Dao Wu. Yeah, yeah. And Yunyan, who my lineage comes through, was sweeping. And his brother comes by and says, too busy.

[37:17]

And Yunyan says, you should know there is one who is not busy. So when you practice with a phrase like this, you say to yourself, there is one who is not busy. You find some craft on your own to remind yourself that there is one who is not busy. And if you're successful, Even in busyness, you feel a stillness, physical and mental stillness.

[38:18]

It's like the waves of the ocean could always know they were water. The water has a stillness that's separate from the waves. So everyday Zen really means to discover the stillness of the mind in ordinary circumstances. Now all I've done so far is suggest some possibilities. But if you want to do this, you're going to have to believe it's possible. And if you believe it's possible or want to try it on,

[39:26]

Or think it must be possible. Then you have to develop an intention to realize it. And it can't be just a little thought. It has to be an intention as deep as this golfer's intention to, you know, hit the golf ball a lot better than I can even imagine. So it's really not that difficult, it just requires intention and thoroughness. So it's not a function particularly of intelligence, but of intention.

[40:35]

And an intention you find a way to realize. So, intention is actually a mental posture. You form a mental intention to do it. And then you bring your attention, which means the physical act of your senses, seeing, listening, To your immediate situation. And with this feeling of knowing the one who is not busy. No. the more you develop the feeling of a mind which is not busy, this mind begins to feel the world differently.

[41:54]

It actually starts to nourish you differently. your immediate circumstances start to nourish you. And constantly give you a feeling of things are complete or things are in place. So we could say that everyday Zen means to know things just as they are. But just as they are means that you're not interfering with them. Now this mind that discovers things just as they are... Dieser Geist, der die Dinge so entdeckt, wie sie gerade sind... You're actually...

[43:24]

creating a somewhat different kind of mind, as I said, that begins to nourish you, and then lets the world start to teach you. So then everyday circumstances teach you Buddhism or wisdom. Suzuki Roshi, my teacher, used to say, sometimes when you look at a tree, you see a tree. And sometimes when you look at a tree, you see a palm. What's the difference?

[44:25]

The tree is the same? Probably all in all the easiest way to practice in your circumstances, your immediate circumstances. probably the easiest way to practice in your immediate circumstances is to bring your attention to your breath. And this is one of the ways you can discover a craft of engaging in your immediate circumstances. And generating this mind which is not busy. And generating this mind which nourishes you. And you can tell when this is happening because you will feel nourished.

[45:38]

If everyday circumstances make you feel busy or depleted, check on this craft of what we're calling everyday Zen, is to notice whether your everyday circumstances nourish you or not.

[47:04]

If they don't, you know you're not practicing everyday Zen. So it's, you know, this is, you know, here we are in this room. And we've got, you know, Flowers and glasses and stuff. And this glass is just as it is. But how do you relate to the glass so that just holding it makes you feel complete? Or while I'm speaking to you, I feel nourished by my speaking. Or you're even sitting on the chair, so the chair... nourishes you or actually gives you a kind of energy in the way you're sitting.

[48:23]

So in one way it's everyday and in another way it's everyday Zen. Now, if you live in a monastery, it's just the same. You sit on a chair, you pick up glasses, you look at flowers and things like that. The difference is that everyone else is doing it. Or at least trying. And there's a schedule and a practice which reinforces this process. But in your everyday ordinary circumstances, most everyone's going all kinds of different directions.

[49:31]

And so it's very hard to keep your practice, a sense of practice like I'm speaking, in your ordinary circumstances. And our compassion and love for our friends means it's hard to, we want to join their state of mind. So in a way it's our compassion for our distracted friends which makes it hard to practice. So that's why lay practice is so much more difficult actually than monastic practice. But if your intention is deep enough, And you believe it's possible to discover in yourself this one who is not busy.

[50:39]

And you find some craft to realize this. and some way to remind yourself and to maintain your intention, it's possible. But you have to really work out the craft of it yourself. Now, I happen to be a person who needs to practise a lot. And I was actually not very good at it. So I've designed a life where everyone helps me to practice. So I've never been in this town before.

[51:42]

But there's a hundred people here now or so trying to help me practice. Because you remind me to do it. So this is my craft of practicing. I've gotten a lot of people to keep reminding me. And to struggle without a talk about it. and to struggle with how to talk about it. So then if you start to practice, you support me more. So it's good also if you share your sense of practice with your friends. Or find a way to develop a sense of practicing with others.

[52:45]

But I leave it up to you. But I assure you it's possible. If your intention is deep enough. And it doesn't mean you have to do it 24 hours a day. At least not at first. Because really I always say practice is a homeopathic medicine. And it works in small doses. So if only occasionally you remember to feel just arriving, just now arriving, or just now and then you feel just now is enough, or just occasionally when you walk down the street, you find a way of walking in which you feel nourished. At some point, this mind, which even though engaged, is not busy.

[54:14]

Yeah, may appear for you. And that mind will show you what everyday Zen is. OK. So why don't we stop? And why don't we take a break? And after ten minutes or so, if anybody comes back, we can have some discussion. So thank you very much for being so attentive. This has to be on.

[56:12]

Look it on. Yeah, it's on. Yeah. Look it again. In the middle, right? 98. Yeah. 98. Thank you. During the break, a couple of people asked me where the centers where I practice are.

[57:36]

One is in Colorado, 200 miles south of Denver and 200 miles north of Santa Fe. And it's in a very remote place. The nearest grocery store is 55 miles away. 55 miles. About 80 kilometers. And here to Kassel, maybe, something like that. Double that. And we're at about 2,000... Four hundred meters, I guess. Eight thousand six hundred feet. Two thousand six hundred meters. And in Germany, it's in the Black Forest near Totmos, an hour from Freiburg.

[58:54]

And someone asked me to mention that this weekend in Kassel, We'll have a seminar Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. Norbert, what's it called? Okay. So do you have some questions? The word Zen is actually the Japanese version of a Chinese word called Chan.

[60:00]

And Chan is a Chinese version of a Sanskrit word, dhyana. And it's loosely translated in English to mean meditation. But it Really, a better translation, though there is no translation, but a better translation would be absorption. Eine bessere Übersetzung, wenn es auch keine richtige Übersetzung gibt, wäre absorption. Or it means a mind that can be concentrated on itself. Oder es bedeutet auch ein Geist oder ein Mind, der auf sich selbst konzentriert ist. Mhm. And through a mind concentrated on itself, you can best study your own mind and body.

[61:08]

That's the basic idea. Okay. Yes? I like what you say. Thanks. I would like to ask first, why do you keep this form. I see you wearing black. I see you wearing this. I don't know what that is. I see people have it. Black Syria. Yeah. Why are you leftist? I like it. You're all leftists. Könnten Sie kurz in Deutsch selber Ihre Frage übersetzen? Ja, ich habe gesagt, ich freue mich, was Sie sagen. Und ich würde es gerne sagen. You mean, why am I not more everyday? I don't know. This is as everyday as I get. Well, block is just, I don't know, right? I can bring five of these along when I travel and I have no problem.

[62:26]

And I wear this because... It's a small version of Buddha's robe. And it reminds me to practice. And the tradition is, since I'm ordained, Whenever I speak about Buddhism, I should wear a Buddhist robe. Would you like me to answer the question at another level? When you sit... Meditation, when you do meditation, for example, when you do meditation, you're trying to sit in the best posture you can.

[63:32]

And the posture can be very refined. For example, I would say that acupuncture points were probably discovered from inside by meditators. And as we know, acupuncture points are quite specific. And you can't just poke any old place. You have to poke exactly in a particular place in the ear or a particular place in the toe. What this makes apparent is there's an unbelievable exactness to our body.

[64:34]

Now, an ideal posture is one that that realizes this exactness. But in fact, I can't be that exact. Though over some time, the craft of practice, you get better at it. So what sitting posture really is, is a dialogue. It's a dialogue between an ideal posture and accepting your own posture. And that dialogue is what makes it powerful. And there's these two, there's a kind of pulse or these two directions.

[65:43]

One direction is to feel yourself into this ideal possibility. And simultaneously to accept your posture just as you are. Do you understand what I mean? Okay, so there's, I mean, in Buddhism and in yoga culture, there's no idea of natural. There's no idea of natural. This is a cultural idea of the West. We take it so for granted that we can't imagine that it's not the way it is. But, for example, is this a natural haircut? Yeah.

[66:51]

And if I let it grow long, is that natural? Or like a sadhu, it gets matted in six or eight years of grease and hair. Yeah. Whatever I do, it's a style. If I keep it short, it's a style. If I let it grow long, it's a style. There's no natural hair. If I don't wash it, it's a style. If I wash it, it's a style. So naturalness in yoga culture is naturalness that is developed through discipline. Now you might say, for instance, a good tennis player is very natural, but this naturalness came through discipline. durch Disziplin oder entwickelt sich durch Disziplin.

[68:08]

And when a tennis player or a golfer feels they're, what's the phrase nowadays, in the zone? Aber wenn sich ein Tennisspieler oder ein Golfspieler in the zone In the zone is everyday Zen. So what I'm saying is that I wear this raksu, it's called a raksu or robe, because I am myself in a dialogue between the possibility of Buddha's way of life and accepting my own way of life. And that dialogue is what's natural for me. So that's why I work. Yes. Yes. No end.

[69:27]

You know, a dialogue between hope and no hope. I don't like the idea of higher and lower. Because it has a hierarchical kind of Good, bad thing. I'm not saying you mean that. It's just in Zen we wouldn't use the word higher. We would use the word, we would say wider. Or more focused. Or more inclusive. Yeah, okay, that's fine.

[70:52]

I just wouldn't use the word higher. Yes, but I guess from what I understand that you mean, yes. Ich würde das Wort höher nicht benutzen, aber so wie ich Sie verstehe, würde ich das mit Ja beantworten. But there are many, many kinds of consciousness. Aber es gibt viele, viele Formen von Bewusstsein. And being familiar with all of them, or many of them, is Zen practice. Und mit vielen oder allen vertraut zu sein, bedeutet Zen zu praktizieren. Something else? What's your process? Sitting here and talking with you.

[71:53]

Nothing special. Does someone else have something here? You are refusing this aim of enlightenment or you make it relative. Why are you talking about the feeling of happiness if one is enlightened? I don't quite know what you mean. You mean why do I mention enlightenment and happiness? What's wrong with happiness?

[72:58]

No, it's nothing wrong with happiness, but I think I have the imagine of enlightenment not always as happiness, because I think it can be the worst thing that can happen, or the best, I don't know. Well, you know, we're just sitting here this evening having a conversation. You know, if I'm not trying to... I'm not trying to do more than give you a general impression of what Zen practice is.

[74:03]

But in general, in traditional practice, enlightenment is not mentioned much. But because it's not a concept, not an idea, and not an idea. In fact, you could say it's a freedom from concepts. But let me say that realization or enlightenment is a capacity of human beings.

[75:06]

Quite independent of Buddhism. I mean, people in most ordinary circumstances or often more commonly artists or poets, they work out of what is probably an enlightenment experience. But we tend to, particularly in the West, get enlightenment mixed up with some kind of perfect way of being. My teacher used to say, each person has their own enlightenment. There's no one big enlightenment and everyone's enlightenment is the same.

[76:22]

That's a kind of theological idea. And in fact, if I could say so, your body can be enlightened and your mind can be quite obtuse and stupid. Your body can be enlightened and your mind... Not enlightened. And your mind can be enlightened and your body completely tied up. And Protestant conversion experiences are intense. When described, they're very similar to Zen enlightenment experiences. But I consider the descriptions of Zen enlightenment experiences pretty silly. In any case, there's experiences that can occur to you mentally and physically that change the direction of your life.

[77:37]

and are accompanied by feelings of light and lightness and freedom and so forth. And many of us have had these experiences in small ways or big ways. But in Buddhism, These experiences are understood as rooted in practice. Not the result of practice, but opened up through practice if they happen to occur. Not the result of practice, but practice opens them up and makes us able to live them. And happiness is just fine, you know, but it's true that I'm not speaking about only happiness.

[78:56]

And it's possible to be in the midst of suffering on one level and underneath have a deep feeling of happiness and gratitude. We have several, we have different layers of mind and they have different kinds of continuity. Okay. Something else? . the life situation of the average human being, we are really surprised that there are so many people here tonight, because, in my opinion, there is a good knowledge of the living conditions in the Western world.

[80:32]

Therefore, it is surprising to us that many people are interested, because, due to this experience, the life of Philip, So it's a I try to, the speaker, he does not know where you come from, if you come from Asia or from the Western world. But if you are quite familiar with the Western way of living and life, he asked you if you are surprised that so many people are here, coming to this place, and if you have any idea what the reason is.

[81:46]

Perhaps that you could understand that in his understanding, that many people feel here in the West that life is one big koan and that if this is a reason that why these people are coming to your lecture. You mean that we in the West are seeking and Zen is a possible way to answer this seeking? The question of... One moment, please.

[82:54]

The question about this higher consciousness is, in his opinion, a typical question and seems to point at a wrong perception of... a wrong way to understand this practice. . People avoid to be confronted with their unconscious, which they could realize if they would concentrate on their breath. Okay. Well, this will be the last thing I respond to, okay? Well, I haven't responded yet, so... Can you wait till I respond and... I'll take one more, but let me finish this.

[84:04]

There are these two civilizations, the Asian and Western. And I don't think either has done too great a job in creating a way for us to live or take care of the planet and so forth. I actually think our only hope may be a third civilization or a culture that develops out of the meeting of these world cultures. I say this because I care very deeply. But, I mean, I also don't care. I mean, whatever happens is fine. I'm getting old and young people can solve the problem. But I...

[85:32]

But both cultures have created their own way to structure the mind. Higher consciousnesses and so forth. And We also tend to think there's a common idea that modern is best. So somehow we progressed, you know, and progress and evolution are synonymous. I think in lots of ways we've become considerably less subtle than our ancestors. Less subtle. Less subtle. Just take a word like common sense.

[87:06]

In English it means at least a sense nowadays, a... A sense common to others. But it used to mean a sense common to the senses. And we don't have much experience of that kind of thing. how we develop and orchestrate our senses. But in another sense, modern is not just contemporary. I think the Athenian Greek was more modern than many of the centuries in between.

[88:11]

And I think Tang and Sun dynasty China were very modern in a way that we are modern. It's why their painting and poetry appeals to us. So when I'm practicing Buddhism, I don't think I'm practicing something Asian. I feel I'm doing something that's modern and western. Yes. and at the same time Asian. And I constantly have to try to translate what is meant in yogic culture in a way that

[89:14]

isn't defeated by our habits of looking at things. I'll give you a very simple example that I use quite often. What is your name? Marion. Marion. Marion is sitting over there. And I'm sitting here. And space is separating us. And this is a cultural idea. That space separates us. Because it's also the case that space connects us. I mean, the moon isn't attached to us by a string. The moon is up there somewhere, but it certainly affects our tidal and reproductive rhythms.

[90:25]

So the mind... we have a mind that's structured to notice separateness. But outside our mind and senses, which establish a seamless three-dimensional structure, sequentiality, there's a tremendous amount of connectedness going on. So one way to practice is to discover that connectedness or the mind that experiences that connectedness. But here we have to work with the habits or the views that establish how we perceive.

[91:33]

Because if in my mind I have the idea we're already separated, And that is present before I start to think. All the perceptual information I get will confirm that and convince me it's true that we're separate. So you actually have to work on your views and maybe work on one which says already connected. So the basic position of Zen would be something like this. In various cultures, we have various structures of mind.

[92:50]

And those structures may interfere with our experience or enhance our experience. And part of our practice is to realize structures of mind which interfere least of all. And which most accurately reflect how we exist. Whatever the structures of mind are, it's possible for mind to be free of structure. And what's important is not so much what the structures are, high, low, or sideways,

[93:55]

But to know a mind that's entirely free of structure. And knowing that mind, we can most transform the structures of mind.

[94:10]

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