They say a stitch in time saves nine. Do you have that expression in Germany? No. Are you making fun of me again, Eureka? Have I ever committed such a crime? Well, if you thought it was a crime, maybe you wouldn't have. Where's my... Oh, there's my engineer. I'm sorry the engineering is not as good as yours. Thank you very much. that you'll be able to remember where my stitches are.

[01:04]

So do you think that there's some way or do you have some questions about bringing practice, particularly as we discussed it in this seminar, into your daily activity? Because the special... The obligation of a Mahayana practice is to turn the world, particularly his or her world, into a practice place. I really liked the other day when you explained in Kimse this responsive mind in relationship to this reactive mind.

[03:28]

And because I see that in my workplace all the time, a lot of conflicts that consume so much energy because people get into reactive patterns with each other. Whereas a responsive mind, a soft mind, is, I mean, you create such a different atmosphere where you work. So I think it would be useful for all of us if you just reminded us again of the difference between the two, maybe, if there's nothing else right now. Roger emphasized very much the soft mind, which is open and receptive, but does not react to others. I have noticed that this is particularly important in the workplace and you have a lot of opportunities to practice it. She just did it. What I said was that the mind of mindfulness Perhaps best described is a mind on the one hand joined with the breath, a mind that you feel within the pace and space of the breath.

[05:05]

And in addition, we could describe the mind of mindfulness as a mind that is responsive but not reactive. Now, again, reactive and responsive can mean sometimes the same thing, but maybe you can get the feeling of what I mean. It's not a dead mind. It responds, but doesn't react. And Suzuki Roshi used to call this a soft mind. He used to say to us, you need a softer mind. In English, when you're not too smart and a little stupid, in fact, you're called soft-headed.

[06:25]

So I went to this small, but he seemed bigger than me, Japanese Zen master. But I had the feeling at first he was telling me to be soft-headed. In the early days he didn't speak English very clearly and I had made many fruitful mistakes. So I had to think a lot about it and finally I understood what soft mind is. So, something else? Yes. Well, I always thought that maybe I would do it in my work so that I would regularly, so when I do activities that I do again and again, that I set myself such a anchor, that I remember again that I can go to Athens again, for example.

[08:02]

Because otherwise I forget about it all day long. And so I can always go back and I think this activity, which then comes again, so to speak, I will be reminded of it again and so I can easily get involved in the work. I think what I will try out is when there are repetitive parts in my work day, that I use these repetitive parts as anchors for my breath practice. So whenever the repetition comes up, I kind of try and stay with my breath, and I think that will help me not forget about my breath during the whole day. That's good. Yeah, you have to do something like that. Simplest thing I use is stairwells. I treat all stairs as if they were stairs in a monastery. Particularly nice sometimes in multi-level parking lots.

[09:14]

Yeah. And a desk can be a very refreshing touch to your elbow. Yes, you just have to stop for a moment. Something else? One person told me that they... felt they preferred the midweek practice because it was less... it was more in touch with practice in each other than this which has more intellectual... I think the word used... gymnastics.

[10:22]

Mind acrobatics. Acrobatics, yes. Someone told me that he or you may have liked these practice days better because there was less spiritual acrobatics involved and you could really get in touch with the practice and also with each other. In the next seminar I think Rick and I will sit on a trampoline. We can dance here. We did this trapeze once. Yeah, we did. I have a friend who has a whole circus set up, trapeze. And we had to climb up this tower and it was great fun. Ja, wir sind schon mal am Trapeze gesprungen. The French circus trainer training us and she almost got caught. She almost did a flip and got caught. I prefer mind acrobatics.

[11:23]

Yeah. But, yeah, we might try to develop this mid-week practice more. I just think just Saturday and Sunday is too short to do it. So we need, it should be four days or maybe five. Yes, I think we should just develop and expand these practice days. And to have such a similar time plan on a weekend, a weekend is very short to get into it, but just a week of practice days... I think I prefer the... Physically, I prefer the midweek practice because it just feels different.

[12:23]

But this isn't so bad, maybe. I mean, maybe... Is it okay for you guys? I don't know. Okay? All right. Yeah. I had the same feeling like Werner did at the beginning. It's very exhausting, this change to seminar. But then, now I think it's so much that you give to us that I can really work on it with myself for the next year or so. I don't know. This will take me a long time. Yes, Deutsch. Yeah, I hope so. My idea is to give you something to work with. Yes.

[13:25]

Yes, maybe I would like to say that here as well, what I said. It is a very personal opinion. It depends on what someone has to do in normal and everyday life. If someone has a lot on their shoulders, like me, then I am glad that I can simply come to rest here in this week of practice. So it was my mind that had the chance to find peace. still werden kann, nichts neues geboten bekommt. Und das ist für mich eine totale Erholung. Ja, ich bin dann da unten, da ist ständig etwas Neues los. Insofern ist es eine ganz persönliche, also sehr subjektive Meinung, was gar nichts aussagt über das großartige Angebot, was dann am Wochenende He's just saying the same thing publicly, but he's saying, I mean, his feeling of just needing, you know, to give his mind a break, doesn't say anything about this kind of extraordinary teaching you give.

[14:43]

Oh! Yeah. I came here to get a kick in my mind. I came here to get a kick in my mind. Do you think there'll be a delayed reaction from this fellow? You know, a donkey could do this. I give you a kick. I have noticed that I have never felt so well prepared for such a weekend seminar as it was today. I have already participated in some weekend seminars. I recognized that I never felt as properly prepared for a weekend seminar as this weekend seminar because of the week before we had.

[16:01]

I felt very... I could take some of the concentration from the week's seminar to this weekend and it felt completely better than the ones I know before. So, obviously, the two work together for you well. Yes, very good. Well, there's no situation that we teach, I practice in regularly, particularly with lay people, that would ever give me a chance to give a lecture like this morning or maybe once the other day. Context just isn't there, even... Perhaps in a sashin, but in general the context isn't there because it takes a very concentrated situation to do it. Could I have some water, please? Something else?

[17:27]

How does it feel, Sabina, to have been here all these years and come back for the weekend? All these months, actually, and nearly, what, a year or so? That's nice. You did so much to make this weekend possible, actually, so thank you. You're welcome. I think this was maybe close to the largest number of people we should accept for a seminar, wouldn't you say? Or was this too many? Should we have had a little less? It's okay. We could improve the ventilation in this room. I mean, at the same time, it's the question how many people can we really actually seat in the zendo and for how many people can we cook?

[18:40]

Yeah. The limits are actually there. So we were close to the limits? In the zendo. In the zendo, yeah. Unless we built a second floor in the room. Like a Japanese coffee shop, you know, drink your coffee like this. And also that's the number of people I think the kitchen can handle, but not many can. I wanted to address something again. There is the plan that this wall may be removed from the dining rooms. And I feel it as very pleasant that this wall is there. Me too. And because I find it very pleasant if not 50 people eat in one room. Because it's buzzing, buzzing, buzzing and somehow ...

[19:41]

Yes, I thought it was good the way it was and I would like to throw it into the room as something to think about, because I also find this house, especially the old part, very, very beautiful and I don't know if it will do him any good if we just take out this wall. So I'll just throw it in here. And Thierry wants to just bring up that she really, really enjoys the two separate rooms where we eat, because she feels in a big seminar, I mean, it's already so much buzzing energy, and she really enjoys eating in an atmosphere where it's two rooms, also she feels it's so typical for the character of the old house. To take out this wall, she really has problems with that feeling. I'm hesitant. I just want to... I understand. And so Shiri would like it if we sort of maybe think about it together and think it over.

[20:46]

Well, even if we do take out the wall, we can create a way to draw a curtain or a sliding door. Sliding door. It takes off the character. It takes something off, which we can't... It's difficult to... I understand. The main reason for doing it, other than eating together, is because I would really like to have the seminars we do here not in the Zendo. Not our seminars, like the various people who come who help support the place. They are quite insistent now in using the Zendo. for their meetings. That means we have to cover the Buddha and change and put rugs down and everything, and we lose our practice place. So I want to... Can you use this room? It's not big enough and they won't do it. Why not enlarge that room just one or two meters more?

[21:47]

This room. Also we will have less groups from outside in a year or two. Anyhow... not included in the house from where you are sitting. Yeah. So we thought of that, actually, moving out that way. If we are successful in our fundraising and have extra money after we make the payment, out goes the wall. I don't know. Yeah, OK, we'll consider everything. Anything else? I wanted to say again for those who didn't get it. I would really like to try to make this book. First of all, the preliminary work. and once with a few people, so a few have already been written on the list, they are now lying out there on the table, starting to think about how to do it at all, which forms, how to produce it. So a book with the individual stories, and some have already noticed a lot of what my personal lineage things,

[22:55]

experiences that brought me to practice. It was already in childhood, so we already had a lot of good friends and so on, and it was fun to think about it, and now there should be at least ten people in the story. And I thought to myself, who is interested, not in the context of a lot of work, but in the context of thinking about it, then write your name on the list, then I'll do a round-up, because then you can just write stories The book, yeah. And I would like to make an appointment with you in two months or so for your... for what your poems were and so far for... I wanted to ask if you can... if there's... if you can bring it from America. If what exists here?

[24:02]

For instance, if you have a poem that influenced you and you say, in the 60s, this was my... Oh, yeah? Something that I cannot find here in the library. If you could bring it. And then what? Say what it was and bring literature what it was. And then what? I tried to make this book. But it won't be just me. Ten other people. Ten other people. She actually won a literary prize, if I may say that. Oh. And a crowd for... She won. You are a clean country. So you, do you think you, will you do it, try to explain? Try to get a publisher to agree to this?

[25:27]

I don't think it will work because they have copyrights, all the texts you can find. They're all from different... Oh, no, that can be worked out. So it will be difficult. You really have to want it to buy the copyrights to the other editors. But I will try to make a concert with other people and look how it could be and try to go... Okay. Sounds like a good idea. Okay. Anything else? So, shall we sit for a few minutes and then disband? Ah.

[26:30]

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