If I go out of the room, is there anything you'd like to bring up? Because when you're alone, you certainly talk a lot. You have this picture to describe the pain from... into the thought stream, to switching to the body stream, could you use this picture also to shed some light on enlightenment? To shed some light on enlightenment? Yeah. I didn't ask you directly, but when you told me a few years ago, it made it clear how with the manas and the vishnanas and chitta and this malaya vishnana, how the exchange between being in the thought stream and being in the body stream, my question was whether we could use this stream

[01:23]

to keep it simple and well and in the context of this diagram and Let's say enlightening with ing, enlightening activity and enlightening self-enlightening, own enlightening behavior or activity would be when there's a freedom from the tainted and constricted activity of this receiving mind.

[02:38]

This would mean that one would have a freedom from this confined, stained activity of this receiving spirit. What else? First of all, Just a simple question. When you give us the senses, organs of the senses, the ear has the sense of hearing and on the other hand the sense of Gleichgewicht.

[03:54]

I don't know the word. Is it in Buddhism one sense? What? Your inner ear. My inner ear? Where you keep your balance, where you distinguish between up and down? Well, I think that that would be more part of touch and proprioceptive knowing. I mean, the organ of ear does both, and all of it's done in the brain. You know, my slowness this morning is, I think we kind of entered into quite a lot of things yesterday. And I'm hesitant to broaden or develop this picture just because maybe it's nice enough to absorb this much.

[05:04]

Und ich zöge noch etwas, dieses Bild weiter zu vertiefen, weil es eigentlich schon gut genug ist, überhaupt so weit gekommen zu sein. It might be useful if I... I'm waiting for you to give me some cues of where you'd like to go. Und ich warte auf euch, dass ihr mir ein paar Schlüssel gebt, wie weit ihr gehen möchtet. Schlüsselwerke. I lost one of my hands here. Oh, that's me. Every perception... is sixfold.

[06:22]

Sixfold. I'll explain. That's obvious. I'll explain. That's obvious. True. It is obvious. Once you know it, it is obvious. As soon as you know it, it is obvious. Is... It's a sign or a mental representation. is conditioned or unconditioned by views.

[07:38]

And usually most Usually this is the subject-object distinction. Each perception is also the the ordinary process of perception, of attention, let's say.

[08:44]

repeated attention, etc. And five, yogic attention. For example, sustained clarity. Affliction-free, et cetera. And sixth, by psychological and personal disposition. That would be like mood, Interest.

[09:59]

Now, so six-fold just means it's in the six visions. It's hearing, etc., etc. So even if you look at a stone and say you don't hear a stone, One of its aspects is the absence of hearing. So it's always sixfold. Of course the stone, if you hit it, can have a sound and so forth. So every perception is sixfold. And everyone is a mental representation. It's not the object, it's the mental representation of the object. And that mental representation is conditioned by your views. And primarily the overriding view that conditions

[11:11]

mental representations is whether you are ingrained in the subject-object distinction In fact, everything we speak about, space connects or separates, are all versions of seeing things as dual or as non-dual. And when you see something, when you first see it, if you see it as interdependence, when you have this experience, I say, of enfolding it, You reach, in a sense, there's a reaching into. And in a way, you could say you establish an object of perception in its independence now.

[12:29]

Because first it's interdependent in relation to all things and you bring it in and you create this kind of independence from everything. And this is a little like the mountain walking. Or when you stand still, you're reaching into your own standing still in order to stand still. And this, yesterday I used the example of, I said, metalogue, and I said, good morning, but Ulrike told me I should have said hello, which she's right. It's just a simpler example to say hello. But good morning, if it's like a hello, is the same.

[13:43]

Okay, there's a related idea here, which is that a metalogue is something that is defined only through itself. And a flash of lightning, the experience of it is defined only through itself. Every unique moment is defined only through itself because it's unique. Subtle idea of this is it's known only through itself. In other words, this unique moment of us all sitting here there's no knower of it. It's also known only through us being here.

[14:44]

Okay, so when you internally enfold the present moment, at that moment it's known only through itself. So it's a kind of independence to you, see? It's a kind of power, actually. At that moment, it's known only through itself. And you feel it as a kind of power or strength or energy. So this kind of... Remember I started out and I said, I was struck by this scientist, this group of scientists I met with, how they took very simple things and talked about them very thoroughly. Here we're talking about the act of perception and talking about it very thoroughly.

[16:03]

In a shift, for instance, in the act of perception from interdependence, which is already, so to say, an enlightened way of looking at things, Transforming this moment into its independence to a moment known only through itself Which is also a definition of suchness. So the absolute reality is called suchness.

[17:04]

Because that's the moment at which each moment you know only through itself. There's no reference. So this would be an enlightening process for oneself, for others, if each moment you know is known only through itself. That's as the initial and functional process That's called on the path of going beyond. That phrase I gave you yesterday, entering the path, actually it's on the path of going beyond. carrying the sun and moon on her staff continuing that which cannot be transmitted meeting the secret teacher

[18:12]

So this is all unfolding for us from looking very carefully at the act of perception. And in Buddhist practice, the act of perception is the key and only act really that comes almost. So Dogen starts this Genjo Koan, which I mentioned The first sentence is when all things are the Buddha Dharma. there is delusion and enlightenment.

[19:48]

Practice birth and death Buddhist And sentient beings. I think a sentence like this is wonderful if you look at it carefully when all things of the Buddha Dharma now what's this for a minute I think if you look into your heart even if you're a thoroughly a Christian

[21:10]

You wouldn't object if there were a few Buddhas around. Just to make life interesting. But I think that one of the problems we have with practice is we don't really believe there are Buddhas. We don't believe it's a real possibility. Or we think, oh, maybe it's those guys way back in the past. And then maybe there were some near Buddhas around, but no real Buddhas. But somewhere, I think, in our heart, we'd like to have the feeling that there's some kind of person that really we wish existed. Yeah.

[22:20]

So, Dogen says, yes, when all things are the Buddhadharma, And this just means the act of perception that we've been discussing. When there is this act of perception that we've been describing, And Buddha means free from these afflictions and views and dualities. Then we live in a world where there's not only delusion but also enlightenment. And there is in fact then real practice. And there's fully understood and accepted birth and death.

[23:29]

And there are Buddhas as well as sentient beings. So each perception is sixfold. It's a mental representation. Now, here's where we could use the word cheetah maybe fairly accurately. Yeah, go ahead. Another problem we have with these terms is they float into the surface of English texts or German texts. Just think of all the ways we use the word mind. Or consciousness or heart or thinking. I thought that was a good idea. Only a few of them could be, of its uses could really be called a technical term in any philosophical sense.

[24:33]

So a writer like Vasubandhu uses all these words, you know, thought, this and that, and so a word like citta appears in so many contexts, it's very hard to say exactly what it means. But most specifically it seems to mean both as cause and result a constructed thought. Or an accumulated, the capacity of a thought unit to be accumulated with other thought units. So in that category, citta is sometimes a synonym for alive vijnana.

[25:53]

Because the alive vijnana depends upon the capacity of thought to be accumulated. But only certain kinds of thoughts are accumulated. Some kinds of thoughts are non-accumulable. Like the thought that's known only to itself can't accumulate. although it can have an effect on us. So I'm just trying to say that maybe it's simpler to use things like receiving mind, thinking mind, and so forth. But here, if we form the view

[26:55]

If we formed some kind of attitude, non-dual attitude, which would be a complexity actually, but to notice when we make the distinction to stay within the within the inventory we've created this seminar, to develop an attitude which allowed us to notice every time or often when we made the self-other distinction. And part of this attitude then would be also to when it is noticed to dissolve it. Because the perception of duality is also the dissolving of duality. And the act of dissolving duality is an enlightening experience.

[28:17]

But if you didn't have duality, you couldn't have the experience of dissolving duality. So duality has an enlightening function because it allows you to dissolve it. And that's why duality has an enlightened function, because it has the possibility to open it. I need examples to... For instance, when I'm meditating and I think of something, that I maybe name it and say, OK, I thought of this, so that's marking duality, and then let this go. Is this such a... Yeah, that would be an example.

[29:19]

But you have to find the craft of this. I'm giving you lots of suggestions. But you have thousands of dharma moments, millions, billions of dharma moments. And you have to develop your own craft for meeting these. But I can give you an example right now while you were speaking. I noticed that I experienced you as speaking. And I found an observing thought wondering what you were meaning. And then I noticed that was a self-other distinction. And I dissolved it and listened to you as if I was hearing my own voice. And that made me have a physical relaxation right away in my chest and back and so forth.

[30:37]

So we could say it changed my body. Just that act of dissolving this when listening to you put my body into a dharma position. So every moment there's these opportunities to practice. One wish. This was very, what you told me now, was very important for me. To understand what you are telling me. So it would be very precious for me, more examples like this, that I can follow the process. How you do it. Is this curiosity or greed?

[31:40]

I'm just teasing you. It's really the longing for understanding, for getting to know in a deeper way what you are telling. Yeah, I understand. But again, probably you're mostly going to have to find this through your own craft. and the feeling in yourself of one fairly or as clear as I can make it example particularly an example that happened in the moment is far more relevant or than my thinking up some examples. So I think you should feel lucky you got an example in the moment. I mean, if the categories of luck apply to what we're doing here. Okay. I'm at the point where I'm wondering if disappointments are not a good source of knowledge.

[33:06]

I'm thinking of the example where we both went for a walk yesterday And there were white dots in the gray fog, which first looked like balls, then there were some plastic residues, then I thought it was snow, and finally it was just stones. And I notice, now it appears in the text, On the previous page I asked myself if one needs deception in order to see through. I am always afraid that I am deceiving myself too much. This fear that I could be deceived, now comes the thought whether deception is necessary so that I can see through, so that I can go through these processes. I'm wondering right now whether delusion is not a necessary ingredient for realization.

[34:12]

Often I'm a little concerned that I'm too much in delusion. But yesterday when I was on this walk with Ulrike on this mountaintop and we were in the fog and we saw these white spots, first we thought it was cows, then we thought it was plastic bags, then we thought it was snow, and then it turned out it was just white stones. So we went through this whole process and it really helped us study something. And so that made me aware of the fact how important this delusion is for some kind of recognition of experiences. So it's not a bad thing. It's true, but don't use it as an excuse. Yeah, I mean, the Alaya Vishnaya and the whole world is a play, an interplay of the seeds of ignorance and the seeds of wisdom.

[35:14]

And a third factor, the farmer. And you're the farmer. So we have this whole everything is the seeds of ignorance and wisdom. And the To me, the extraordinary thing is each of us has the opportunity to decide which we plant. And that's not a matter of good and bad, it's a matter of deeply feeling good. Knowing what really makes a difference in your life in a deep way, in a sustained way. So we can say that that for some reason we live in a world where this decision to make a difference makes the difference.

[36:43]

There's no plastic Buddha. I know. You're saying wish. You had a wish that made me remember. I just saw my daughter in Portugal. Somehow it came up when she first could write. I don't know how old that is. Three or four. Or when she could write out a sentence. And she wrote this kind of... Maybe five, I guess. I don't know. But she's only first went to Japan. Anyway, she wrote out this clumsy note. You know, capitals and small letters mixed together. Dear Santa, I want a wishing wand. A wand. A wand. I want a wishing one and a machine that tells me what I don't need.

[38:04]

The Buddhist influence in the household. Then the influence of her mother. There was a little postscript. Postscript? P.S. And that tells me when I'm rude. Okay. Okay. Now, the next is the ordinary process of attention. The ordinary process of attention is we're always looking at things, we look at it a second time, we hold it, and even in a moment there's different kinds of perception going on. And this, that it's a process of attention, is important. And then there's also yogic attention.

[39:29]

And I think this year we've built well on last year's, I think we talked about the development of attention and the muscle attention. Didn't we talk about that here, I think, last year? I meant to. I don't know if we did. The development of attention through several stages. So, yogic attention would be sustained clarity, brightness, affliction free and then psychological and personal disposition and your interest in something now your interest in something might be negative and your interest might be caring And caring is much more powerful.

[40:43]

When it's negative, you kind of look at it just to make sure it's not going to hurt you. But a caring interest, the way you look at your baby or something like that, is much more attentive. So this is again part of where this comes in. That the perceptual process, because it's a process of various kinds of attention is affected by your psychological disposition. And your views are built into this receiving attention. And this is more in your overall general disposition.

[41:47]

And of course in this, as we talked yesterday, the way in which you can rest in your personality independent or rather free from your personal history. The personality in the sense being a spontaneous presence in the immediate presence. No, I only did this to indicate in the simple perception how much is going on. Anything else?

[43:01]

And I'm also happy to discuss, although we've primarily been speaking about, sort of loosely, Dharma therapy, I am also happy to discuss any practice questions you might have if you have some in relationship to your practice or what we are doing. Of course, I don't mean your psychotherapeutic practice, but your mindfulness and meditative practice. I think that what has touched me the most in these days, and also touched my heart, is this on a completely different level or new, to make it clear to me that the only security is the one that is in the moment, that is, in the perception of what is.

[44:40]

What I sort of took from these days and what touched my heart the most during these days was really getting that the only security I have is the immediate presence. And I ask myself something else besides sitting here. In everyday life, how could I remember that the environment is just good enough? And I'm just wondering how I could deepen this insight in my everyday life, reminding myself that the present is simply good enough. That's good. Just do that. Remind yourself that the present is simply good enough.

[45:48]

You just created a wisdom phrase that you can enter into your background mind as a sort of mantric reminder on each moment. While you're out, I said that I'd be happy to speak about any questions relating to practice itself, meditative or mindfulness practice. And I think we have the idea, because there's so much emphasis on lay practice, nowadays, as there well should be, We generally have the idea that somehow we can just kind of inject practice more or less into our daily life here and there.

[46:57]

Well, that's true. But really, if you want any sustained maturing of your practice... You don't have to live in a monastery. But you do have to design your life to support practice. You just can't take your ordinary life and kind of add a little practice here and there. It may create your sense of well-being. But it won't develop your realization of non-being. It doesn't mean you have to change your life completely, but you have to figure out some kind of way to practice regularly and so forth.

[48:06]

And probably other than the doing of it itself, the regularity is the single most important thing. For example, I would say a person sat, if any of you want to introduce, as some of you have already, sitting into your life. If a person sat six hours in a day, ten times a month, This would be almost completely insignificant in comparison to somebody who sat 20 minutes a day every day.

[49:08]

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