Someone said to me that maybe I could speak about shared practice. I guess he was feeling the effects of us all coming together to practice. And the not entirely explainable power that's present in shared practice. And someone else said to me, Maybe I could speak about starting completely from the beginning.

[01:00]

As if this... as they say on the radio sometime in America, welcome to the first day of your life. And have a nice day. So in some senses it's true, though. This can be the first day of our life. And in one way or another, it is also true, it can actually be the first day of our lives. And let us just decide, why not, that this Sashin is the first day of your life. A kind of yet to be known new life. I sometimes try to get strangely modifying phrases to see, to test our translator.

[02:16]

So far he's good. This creaking platform. Sorry. The creaking platform in Crestum was its bad karma. Because it creaked so often that we got rid of it. And we had a new one made by my brother-in-law who's a you know, skilled at Japanese wood joinery. And it's quite beautiful. It has hidden wheels. You can lift it up and roll it out of sight and set it down.

[03:16]

It stays in place. But the fellow across the street, Wolfram, wrote the book on Japanese wood joinery in German. Whose shop built these windows too, I think. So maybe we can have him build one. Bad karma here. Except we need two. Because he refuses to translate for me unless he has one too.

[04:17]

In... In Creston we only need one because there's no translator. So the many Germans who are from there simply don't understand. No, that's an exaggeration. So I thought maybe these two topics that were suggested to me shared practice and starting from the beginning, I could speak about in some way that taught us something, and taught me too, something about Buddhism, because I really want this, as much as possible, the whole of Buddhism to be your resource.

[05:23]

Yeah, not just personal salvational practice. And my own experience too is those practitioners who are embedded in the craft of practice, Find practice most embedded in their life. And I would say that I hope it's your good karma which brings you here to this sashin and to practice. Good karma. And I'll try to explain what I mean by that.

[06:45]

But first let me say this poor, wonderful 17th century Buddha we have here, Amida Buddha, had some bad karma. Well, at least Charlie the cat had some bad karma. Because we had it all wrapped up. Was it wrapped up? Or covered? It was just uncovered. It had just been uncovered. And Charlie is a very rambunctious cat. Oh, rambunctious? Rambunctious, it means liking to jump around full of energy.

[07:46]

Yeah, that's right. I knew that. I mean, she looks like she's fed constantly catnip. Do you have catnip? Catnip is some plant you feed the cats and then they roll around and jump. You don't torture cats like that? Oh, we did. No, it's a kind of food, but it makes cats behave strange. Is that it? So Charlie seems to have leapt at the Buddha, which is very light, and it crashed onto the floor. We had the altar closed up for a seminar, which was here, one of Norbert Meyer's seminars. And one of the participants happened to be at the door and heard this big noise and came and saw that Charlie was running off.

[09:02]

And it's strange, you know, Charlie knew he'd done something wrong. I don't know how he knew he'd done something wrong. What's a Buddha to a cat? I mean, it's just another object he knocks down, you know, as usual. But he disappeared. Charlie did. And later, Gerald found Charlie up in the attic, hidden under something at the farthest corner of the room. And he snuck out with shame written all over his face and wouldn't let go.

[10:05]

And Gerald touched him. So Charlie had at least some inadvertent The Buddha really didn't have karma. That's a misuse of the word karma. But in any case, sadly, the head broke off. And I'm telling you about this because we're going to have to... take it out of the zendo tomorrow so you'll notice the great empty Vajrachanabuddha sitting on the lotus. Unless we move this Buddha over, but I think we can just leave the lotus empty for a day.

[11:16]

Or we can have Charlie sit on the lotus. Anyway, it's a serious matter because we have to get it repaired. So we've been trying to research who would know how to repair an early 17th century Buddha. We've called the museums in Kern and Zurich and other places. And it's, you know, it's value as a art object is now quite a bit less. And we really need to repair it only so it serves for us as a Buddha.

[12:37]

Still it's not so easy. You have to do the work so it is reversible or as close to reversible as possible. In other words, so that if the repair doesn't work There's some better way to do it in the future. You can undo the repairs. And it's, I think, made of dry lacquer, so it's very light. That's why Charlie was able to push it over. We've set the head back on, but it has many cracks throughout the body and it has a hole right in the chest. And we've collected all the pieces we could find.

[13:47]

But one problem is, for instance, someone told us, if you use contemporary Japanese lacquer to repair this, It often ages and absorbs water differently than the old lacquer. Soon you have the Buddha all spotted. So it's actually quite a complex process to repair something like this. So we have an expert on lacquer and furniture repair coming tomorrow who will at least look at it and will photograph its damage. And if we can move it very carefully and not chip any further edges, we can carry it into the dojo and then bring it back later in the day tomorrow.

[14:56]

Anyway, I thought I should explain why it will be gone tomorrow. It's such a wonderful Buddha and treasure for us that I thought you should understand the situation. So let me speak about karma. Karma means form. Karma bedeutet also form. All form. But it means form as the result of intentional actions.

[16:15]

Or actions that are or the absence of action, where action is possible. Anyway, this cat, I think this is the sort of common way, this is your karma, etc., is not a very useful way to understand karma. That means just an accident or circumstance that the cat knocked the Buddha over. And now we're going to have to do something inside the Buddha on the stand so it can't be knocked over. And if we thought of that earlier, we could have prevented this.

[17:26]

But karma doesn't mean everything that's happened to you. Karma should be understood as... in relationship to Dharma. So let's define karma as that which which helps, which supports a Dharmic understanding or impedes a Dharmic understanding. Okay, so I said that our being here is good karma.

[18:28]

What I mean by that is there must have been circumstances in your life that have led you to appreciate the potentiality of practice. So I would say that there's some, even in the most benighted, benighted means ignorant or uninformed, even in the most uninformed of us. There must be the intuition or feeling of Dharma or of the potentiality of enlightenment.

[19:29]

And that potentiality or that intuition draws us here. So this sashin is an opportunity to Transform even, at least open up your karma. And as I said this morning, the first period of zazen, there's nothing I can say to you during this zazen. There is nothing that I could say about you during this show. that could equal your simply pulling your energy into yourself.

[20:34]

To having enough trust and courage to do that. And to see if you can stay this whole week located in your backbone. Your backbone which connects heaven and earth. And in your lower stomach. And in your breath. This would be starting from the beginning.

[21:39]

I think the four or five qualities that are needed for practice and needed for doing a sesshin and needed for developing the practice of zazen Our openness. And I think many of you, most of your sashin will be perhaps being open to your karma, to many things which come up. The things that come up just because you're struggling with your posture. Or waiting for the bell to ring. Waiting for the bell to ring is a big karma revealer. Mm-hmm. So if the Doan waits and waits before he or she rings the bell, the karmic curtains get wider and wider.

[23:13]

Or get annoyed or whatever we do. I could that Doan... And just getting used to our legs being sore, you know, this is quite interesting. Just getting used to the posture. So openness and trust. Trust just in being alive. Trust. in just being here.

[24:15]

In some kind of here, whatever here this is. And closely related to that trust, acceptance. To keep actively accepting. To actively accept is an act of karma. If you're looking at karma, you're looking at your life. through the lens of causation, through the window of causation. If you look at your life through karma, through the lens or window of causation,

[25:19]

So you notice differences, like when you really have the intention to accept, when you don't or do accept just by chance. And I'm suggesting you fill yourself with the intention to be open. The intention to trust, to try out trusting. to accept. And also then the fourth would be relaxation. How can you intend to relax? But somehow, try it out.

[26:40]

Keep just seeing if you can let yourself relax. You notice your jaw is tight, so relax it. Yeah. You notice that your back feels like it was made by a carpenter. And the Doan is nailing it together. And so relax. See if you can find some point of relaxation, openness in your back. Often it helps to lift up through your backbone and to To feel that you're connecting heaven and earth. If everything is connected, we know that.

[27:41]

So why not connect heaven and earth? There's no such thing really as near and far. In the deeper world of realization, there isn't near and far. So your whole body covers everything. Maybe you can taste this, feel this occasionally. And. this feeling is also somehow close to relax it, a kind of a door to relaxation. If you feel you include everything, you might as well relax. So we're working with certain attitudes here.

[28:43]

Attitudes that are antidotes to attitudes you have. Attitudes that free us from our usual way of thinking. And attitudes that open us to wisdom. And wisdom which goes beyond the reductionist common sense. And finally I'd say a fifth. Attitude would be absorption. Which is the best translation of sasen, is the practice of absorption. The trust to just leave yourself open. to leave yourself without fear, to be permeated by whatever your here-ness, your situation is.

[30:29]

So this is, you know, the first day. So this first day I'm suggesting you open yourself to openness. Trust yourself. Accept whatever appears. You're safe here. Just relax. As much as possible, just relax. If you can't relax, In the ways you can't relax, you see your karma. In the ways you can't relax, you're fulfilling your karma.

[31:48]

When you can relax, you're transforming your karma. You're creating the conditions for transforming your karma. Now, if we want to start from the beginning, it's very interesting how Buddhism tries to start from the beginning. Buddhism really does try to start from the beginning. The beginning is The factors of materiality. Which is called Rupa. The first of the five skandhas. And Rupa is first of all the four great elements. Called the Mahabuddhas. Great elements.

[33:06]

They're called great because they're the basis of everything else. So if we want to start from the beginning in this new day, we find ourselves just In the first skandha. And as much as possible, just in the first skandha. So just the form of us. The form here of your posture. The form of whatever appears. The form of these windows. The form of all these myriad leaves. The form of our translator. The form of who's ever sitting beside you. The form of this brocade. bowing mat and cushion.

[34:24]

And how much consideration of form in ancient times went into conceiving of this brocade? And into the brocade of this practice we have. And this zendo, it's somehow shown up in this old farmhouse kinderheim in the Schwarzwald. And this form, if we look at it more carefully, Traditionally divided up into the four elements I mentioned.

[35:40]

Earth, water, fire and air. And this means, earth means whatever resists. Your solidity. Or your resistance when the bell doesn't ring. And the liquidity or water element is what brings things together or attracts. This is an ancient way in many cultures. To try to give names to something which we feel.

[36:42]

And heat is concentration, what merges things, brings things together. And air is movement, space, what allows movement. It's also the movement of your breath. So here, if you work with this First skandha. As the four elements. you can begin to feel yourself in each of these. So now as a discipline, I'm suggesting during this first day at least, as a discipline during this first day at least, you see if you can limit yourself to these four elements.

[37:58]

If you can limit yourself to what you notice as form, Not getting caught so much up in your personal story. And as I say, every time your mind goes back to your story, to your thoughts, means you have a subtle belief in the permanence of self. So it's not so easy to just locate yourself in this immediacy. But if you can do it, now we have another possibility. Funny word.

[39:05]

But if you succeed, we have another strange word for it. Rupa Prasada. Namely Rupa Prasada. Prasada in Hinduism means something like the benevolence of the gods. Or a food offering. Or peace of mind or clarity of mind. But what this comes to mean in Buddhism is that when you know the four elements and they're in balance, mentation appears. Difficult to translate.

[40:18]

Awareness, translucent consciousness arises. So if we start from the beginning, we have this materiality. And if you limit yourself to really feel this materiality as the four elements, without embedding your consciousness in these four, Returning your consciousness and attention to these four. I like something Wittgenstein said I read the other day. He said his effort to think and to think about logic, was affected by his trying to live rightly.

[41:29]

It wasn't that it was affected by living rightly. It was affected by his trying to live rightly. And it said it was a revolution and it was revolutionized his thinking to see the effect of trying to live rightly. So the important thing in practice is this trying to bring your attention. Trying to settle yourself in yourself.

[42:34]

And the more you know these four elements, as the basis of existence, And the more they're in balance, a clear feeling of awareness arises. And that's called tranquility. It's defined as tranquility or equilibrium. And it's considered to be the base of all thinking and mind and spirit. So discovering it as what arises from returning to the beginning.

[43:35]

of throwing away all that karma, our story, of today, in this first day, of just finding yourself this stuff, this stuff which breathes, moves, concentrates, And the more these material factors are in balance, a tranquil clarity of mind arises. Das steigt eine ruhige Klarheit des Geistes auf. Vielleicht können wir es ja das Wohlwollen der Götter nennen. Aber nicht nur steigt es von diesem Zurückkehren zum Anfang her auf.

[44:46]

becomes the mind we can return to in all circumstances. The more you know this Rupa's prasada, Rupa's form, prasada is this translucent awareness. It doesn't just arise from the balance of the four. Okay, now I can end with shared practice. In one or two sentences. And this is a division that's made in Buddhism between individual karma and shared karma.

[45:57]

And individual karma is that karma which accumulates through the activity of our personal story And shared karma is that which accumulates through knowing the world vehicle. The world as it's carried to us. And the world as we carry it. So this is... the sense of being open to this immediacy, and everything equally, and the more we touch that,

[47:00]

We begin to absorb the karma of the world, not just the karma of our story, but the karma of each circumstance that we're all in the midst of. And the more we're open to this, what let's call world karma, or sameness karma, or immediacy equilibrium karma, something like that, we then begin to feel the power of all of us, the power of sharing this same world as our shared story. And this purifies our individual karma. And it's closely related to this fundamental mind that arises here.

[48:10]

from the four elements and is at the basis of all of our minds consciousness, awareness and this is returning to the beginning through the doors of openness trust, acceptance, absorption, relaxation. And through the good translation of our Berlin voice. Thank you very much.

[49:30]

Thank you. The leading beings are timeless. I promise to have them. Die Begierungen sind unauslöschlich, ich gelobe ihnen ein Ende zu bereiten. Die Damals sind grenzenlos, ich gelobe sie zu beherrschen.

[50:36]

Der Krieg des Buddhas ist unübertrefflich, ich gelobe ihn zu erreichen. Ngegawa, Tua, Nyorai, Nyoho, Shrezen, Jutsu, Tsui, Hiro, Yotishi, Itate, Matsuura, Aemon, Gletho, Tusha, Doi, Tengen, Naot, Furukama, Naidama, Yudhne, Tsui, Dabu, Inhuda, Tazan, Hri, Yonan, Kaipa, Slu, Zayten, Nunga, Yin, Tze, Yon, Tan, Riven, Ede, Kanam, Aine, Mkan,

[52:27]

So I really like our Amitabha Buddha has transformed her himself into Vajracana Buddha. Now, Amitabha Buddha, which is the fellow that's usually there. He's now in the dojo doing some exercise.

[53:28]

He has this... She has this mudra. Which means that... It's the highest form of Amitabha Buddha. One of the so-called Adi Buddhas. Or cosmic or transcendent Buddhas. And Amitabha Buddha is the Buddha of the western paradise. And just since we're clearly in the western paradise, We're working on it anyway. It's nice that Amitabha lives with us. But I've always been particularly fond of Vajracana. Because Vajracana in the midst of the five Adi Buddhas, Vajracana sits in the middle.

[54:30]

And it's identified with the Dharmakaya or the all-at-once space. Buddha is all-at-onceness. And Vajracana is said to be the Buddha that you... is so undivided. so non-dual, so undivided, that it can't rise to the surface of ordinary consciousness. So you almost can't offer incense to it. You'd have to do a sort of 360-degree incense offering. So that's why I circled the incense just now offering it.

[55:57]

And someone, when I had my tea today, somebody brought up to me. I found a little my cookie napkin was a little cut-out Buddha. All just white, no. Little ears even. And I thought of pasting it on the lotus. Yeah, but instead I put it on my desk. Yeah, no, when I speak about something like I did yesterday, When I talk about something like yesterday, then I'm seriously pondering what kind of meaning this solidity and the air and the gas formality and the fluidity give you.

[57:11]

And I would like it to make sense to you as a practice, not just as a... And it makes me, made me think of the Blue Cliff Records koan number 21. When Chi Men is asked, what about when the lotus flower has not yet emerged from the water? And as you know, a lotus, that's a lotus stand for our Amitabha Buddha. And if you've ever seen lotuses in I've never seen them in the West like they are in Japan.

[58:30]

But it's used, as you probably all know, as a symbol for Buddhism Its roots are in the mud, in the pond. And the flower lifts up above the water. It doesn't float on the water like water lilies do. And the leaves in the lotus repel water. Like a duck, duck repels water. So it collects pearls, or little pearls of water, which stay round, globular. In the rain.

[59:30]

And when it's too heavy, it tips and dumps them. And then even in the rain, it's dry again. So it keeps, it's up above the water and it keeps drying itself. So it's a symbol of enlightenment, but particularly of the base of enlightenment. Enlightenment rooted in the earth and yet lifting up above the water. So if you look carefully, there's always thousands of little buddhas sitting on each lotus flower, even in Japan.

[60:31]

So, you know, this monk, this fellow asks Chi-men, What about the lotus flower before it has emerged from the water? And he says, Chi-men says, a lotus flower. And the monk says, what about after it's emerged from the water? And Ximen says, lotus leaves. He might have better said lotus flower again, perhaps, but he wanted to help this monk. So the introduction says if you can discern outside of patterns or and it says if you can penetrate words

[62:01]

In the midst of words, if you can penetrate words. And if in the midst of meaning, you can penetrate meanings. and in the midst of various teaching devices, if you can penetrate those devices. So I asked you last night, what about the Buddha? How is it before the Buddha appeared in the world? Before Sukhiroshi came to the West. In other words, what is your condition right now? With this lotus flower within you.

[63:42]

Maybe a few leaves coming out, but probably not fully emerged. So you came to this session, I think, feeling the pull of the roots of the lotus. And feeling the push of the leaves and flower. So I spoke to you about these four Mahabhutas. These four elements. Now how can we practice with something like this? I think it's probably useful as an idea or image But these things are meant in Zen practice and brought into Zen practice because they're meant to be practiced with.

[65:01]

So you have to use your own imagination to discover how to practice with these things. And we're trying to create the base here in such teachings Of the flowering of our karma when we sit regularly. When particularly sitting becomes something we do as regularly as sleeping, getting up, etc., Yeah, not necessarily a lot, but regularly. And this was, as most of you know, Suzuki Roshi's genius in introducing, more than anyone else probably,

[66:06]

just sitting to the West. Maybe contributing to this being a Western paradise. As Gerald said to me the other day, just to sit down is already... an act of benevolence. We can have all these ideas, but just to sit down. It makes me think of how karma sometimes explains that the baby is the condition for the resemblance of the parent. In other words, parent causes the baby.

[67:25]

And the baby very often looks like both or one of its parents. So the cause is the parent but the baby, the child is the condition for the resemblance to be passed on. So you may in like manner have many teachings presented to you There are many images, visions of practice.

[68:26]

Intentions. But it's the sitting down which is the condition for these resemblances of practice to bear fruit. Now I'm going to try to give you a feeling for this meditation stream, contemplative stream, That transforms our karma. If you sit regularly, it's amazing how our struggle with life changes. I know people always like me better when I'm doing zazen.

[69:41]

At least a lot of zazen. I talk to somebody on the phone, my daughters, and they say, Oh, Dad, you must be in zazen. You sound so nice. I say, I'm just the same as a couple days ago when we talked. Oh, no. I feel pretty much the same, but she says, no, no, something different. Mm-hmm. I wish I could revisit my family life as a child after Sashin. Yeah, things might have been better. That was awfully low. Yeah.

[70:50]

So I'd like to try to give you a feeling of this, what I'll call meditation stream. If you sit regularly, it begins to surface more and more in your life. And not just during the time of meditation. First it happens mostly during meditation. When you stop sitting, it disappears. But if you sit regularly, it's not about a lot or sashin so much as sitting regularly. It begins to be present in the whole of our life. that not only transforms our karma,

[71:56]

and frees us from our karma, but also allows another kind of karma to appear that normally will not surface in consciousness. Now, for some reason, I don't know quite why, I just seem to have decided To speak about the traditional teaching of karma as our practice. So it's now the text since yesterday that we're working on. Or the texture we're working with. And I'm trying to also give you a feeling for the texture of our life, your life. The planet each of you is.

[73:15]

The living planet each of you is living. this planet, let's call it, that appears especially when we sit. And again, I'm trying to get us out of invisible mental space. I think mental space is the only space most of us know. So I've been talking quite a bit this You're about embodied space or physical space.

[74:27]

For this space on our lotus, this Vairocana, Dharmakaya space, is not empty space, it's physical space. Yeah. Okay, so this kind of what I'm talking about is in this teaching of the four elements. No. Well, for the most part, the teachings of Zen... arise from meditation practice. And the teachings that arise from philosophy and the teachings that are adopted from cultural beliefs

[75:32]

are plugged into practice. Or changed or understood so they can be plugged into practice. Like you can understand Yogacara teachings as the way Majamaka teachings are plugged into your practice. So this more cultural belief, ancient cultural belief of the four elements is developed as a practice in in Buddhism. And we have to find out how to plug it into our own life. So to plug it in, you have to find some socket. So the socket I'm suggesting... Today is your mudra, your zazen, hand mudra.

[77:13]

So I'm just really trying to make it accessible, this teaching. Okay, so let's take this wonderful mudra called the universal mudra. The first teaching Sukhriyashi gave me virtually was to put my mind in my mudra, in my hands. And as I've told you many times, I had no idea what he was talking about. This is not... I wasn't too long out of college, and no one had ever told me that in college. And so, well, he said so, and he was a Zen master, so okay, I tried. And so I was kind of wondering what to do exactly. Yeah. And occasionally I fell asleep in Zazen, but this... I never was able to get my head into my mudra, but almost.

[78:47]

Yeah. I was well known for sleeping in Zazen. I couldn't tell you that. But I kind of eventually understood, experienced what he meant. But now we're talking not about putting your mind in your hands, but letting a mind arise in your hands. So here I'm trying to create a more developed topography of this planet in which you live. And tomography, if I can use that medical term. Topography is the surface and tomography is the inside.

[79:48]

And, I mean, these guys who developed these teachings, it's much more complicated than four elements. But these are names for something that we can notice. And notice in a way we can practice with them. So we have to see beyond the words and the phrases. The names and the classifications. And I'm quoting the Blue Cliff Records 21 when I say that. And see really what the possibilities of this practice are. The lotus that might emerge in this mudra. So first you have the solidity of your hands. One hand doesn't pass through the other.

[81:33]

And you put them together, usually your fingers overlapping. And your thumbs lightly touching. And making an oval. And it's supposed to be, in my experience, the Mudra which most connects all the energy systems of the body. And creates this space. It's not just about wires connecting thumb to thumb. This space which is also the whole of this space. And when I talk this way, I'm trying to enter you also into another experience of your body.

[82:37]

And I'd like to transform, you know, why not be ambitious, your experience of and concept experience of the world itself. Yeah, so we have the solidity of the hands and when you put them together you have the, let's say, I think the key to understanding the water-liquid fluidity element. It's pliancy. Things are pliant, they bend. Usually people who practice have very pliant bodies.

[83:57]

When you feel their back, if I straighten people's back, the more mature practitioner, usually his back is quite soft. And you can understand this is the liquid element. So when you're sitting with this mudra, And you imagine this is the socket you're plugging this practice into. You feel the hand. One hand, usually the left, lying on the right. And you feel the shape of the oval. Lifting up feeling through the thumbs. And the gentleness of the touch of the two thumbs.

[85:10]

And you feel also as you settle into your sitting posture. And you feel the softness of the two hands touching each other. I mean, it's quite magical. Here these hands are joined up here at the shoulders. Yeah, but still they're different out here. And one hand can touch the other. So definitely my right hand is not touching my left. Or my left can touch my right. This in itself is extraordinary. That we have this differentiation in the midst of unity. And so we can feel this softness of our two hands touching each other. And this really is transformative.

[86:33]

And again, most people who practice have very soft hands and feet. And they also usually have warm hands and feet. And so you feel the softness of the hands, but then you begin to feel the warmth of the hands. One reason we don't cover our hands in the cold is so we develop this warmth in our hands. And I asked Dukirshi once, I said, how do you practice heat yoga? He said, it has to be very cold. You really need to learn it. So we keep usually, this is called the window. No matter how cold it is, we keep this window open and we keep our hands exposed.

[87:42]

Because we're always working and practice with our energy and our heat. So you can begin to feel the heat of your hands together. One of the ways to practice and learn heat yoga is you begin to generate heat in your hands and spread it up your body, up your arms. And I think you'll notice that your fingers might be a little cooler sometimes, but palm of your hand is usually warm. And there's actually a kind of little focus of heat that in the mudra you can direct between the two palm centers at each other. When you're sick, you know, your hands get cold and

[88:45]

Or when you have the flu, sometimes one part of your body feels warm and another cold. But that's always the case. It's just less noticeable when you're healthy. In fact, there's little spots in your hand where it feels cold in one spot, warm in another, almost like a little wind is coming out or a wind is being drawn in. And that's a kind of thermal topography of the body. And when you get sensitive enough to monitor it, You can tell a lot about your own health and take care of your health. So then you begin to, in this little socket for plugging this practice in.

[90:24]

You can feel the solidity, the pliancy, the heat and the space of the air or space of the hand. The space that allows the hand to take this form. And the tiny minuscule alive movements of the hand at all times. Because at all moments the posture of your hands is slightly changing. Yeah. And the more these are in balance, and they're all closely connected,

[91:41]

The heat of the hands is very close to creating a feeling of one space in the hands. And the form, shape, solidity of the hands also makes that possible. When these are more or less in balance, a feeling of presence, our mind arises in the hand. This is what in Buddhist study is called Rupa Prasada or Prasada Rupa.

[92:48]

This almost fifth element, this subtle materiality that arises from the four elements is based on the four elements and is the most direct pure experience of mind.

[93:17]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_70.48