Some other question? I know that doesn't answer all your questions, but that's a start. Yes. Yes, I have a question. And that is, this concentration, this concept of concentration, I feel in myself that there are different kinds of concentration, the purposeful, so to speak, that concentrate on one point or one thought or on one picture, and the one that is so general. Yesterday he spoke of having a room consciousness, for example. that one has a consciousness of the people who are in this room. So that's the other aspect.

[01:06]

Should one always deal with this, or should one concentrate more on one, while meditating now, or how should one deal with these different kinds of concentration or consciousness? I've noticed there are two kinds of concentration. One concentration is more goal-oriented, more focused, like on a particular object, and the other concentration is more general, the way you described it, in the sense of this consciousness of this room, or this room concentration, kind of more dispersed. And my question is now how to deal with these two kinds of concentrations. Shall I, in my meditation, just focus on one, The basic practice in Zen is field awareness.

[02:11]

Is not to clear your consciousness or repress your thoughts. It doesn't mean that sometimes you can't use concentration on a specific object, but in general that's not the way Zen practice is done. And these things don't have to be described, as your question implies, as a problem. They can live quite happily together. I don't know if you do, but in general people have a tendency to present a difference as a problem. And that's partly because we get into a thing of it's either this way or that way instead of having a larger sense of simultaneity, of things can exist simultaneously without contradiction.

[03:36]

But that would be as an example of a kind of assumption that's embedded in the structure of your consciousness, whether you assume non-contradictory simultaneity or you assume sequential distinctness. You know, this boson is full of these kinds of terms which I make up too as I go along. But I saw on somebody's Sony disc machine the other day It had a term on it, four times oversampling digital resonance something or other.

[05:01]

So I thought, geez, people are getting used to these kind of terms. They even appear on electronic equipment. I'm not sure what it means, four times over sampling, digital resonance, something like that. It sounds like Buddhism, four times over sampling. You're often four times over sampling with a little digital resonance. Is there some other question? Yes. When we meditate, yesterday and today, such a heavy feeling comes over my forehead. And I would like to know if there is something wrong with my posture.

[06:02]

Well, yesterday and today I've experienced during meditation that a certain heaviness occurs in the area of my forehead. My question is maybe I'm doing something wrong with my posture. See, again you're presenting this as a problem. If that happened to me, what would I do? I'd say, jeez, when I meditated today and yesterday there was a peculiar, wonderful, interesting heaviness that was... a wonderful look on the back I wonder if it will go away. I wonder if it will say hello. I wonder if I can talk with it. I wonder what images are associated with it.

[07:10]

I wonder what will greet it if lightness will greet it from below. I wonder if I let it spread down through me what it will say. Geez, I can't wait to get back to Zazen. I'll try to come back to that under the topic of imagination. I will come back under the title Imagination. Okay, let's say Jens. Yes. I practiced Zazen regularly for a while. And then something happened.

[08:11]

The outside world seemed a bit strange to me. I described everything in a bad way, in a shameful way. The effect was that I wanted to go to the world. I stopped then. and to do it regularly. And then I feel better again. I still have questions about how I can deal with that. I sat regularly for quite a while, but then realized I felt a little estranged from the world outside and almost became a little Weltfremd. It's a very good German expression. Very estranged from the world. Estranged. There's no literal translation. Yeah, the word came kind of far for me. Estranged, it means.

[09:12]

And... Then I stopped meditating and felt a lot better. I wonder how to approach that. Let me make a comment first just about German language. Can I do that? Would I notice this? Because I just sit here and listen. I don't know what the heck is going on. how much German language allows energy to be put into it you say I don't know [...] It's like a tube you can shoot these little bursts of energy into and it pops out.

[10:18]

I liked it. You can't do that in English. In the same way, I was talking to Gerald yesterday about Japanese. In Japanese you can do a similar thing. For instance, the chant that goes next. And you can do that with German, and it's hard to do that with English. Were you practicing with a teacher? Well, you only do, I follow your directions, therefore I practice for myself. Yeah. Yeah. And you were just practicing at home. Well, that's to be expected.

[11:24]

And Zazen meditation will change the way you see and do things. And often it will threaten your friends. I'm not saying it threatens your friends, but often does. And your friends intuitively try to get you to stop meditating. Because you're becoming a person who might not be their friend or who's different than the person they made friends with. And in the same sense you may, as you are a friend of yourself, you may kind of be a little hesitant to continue or try to talk yourself out of it. Again, I'm not speaking specifically about you, I don't know enough, but just in general that's the case.

[12:31]

And sometimes you can be struck by an immense sadness in practicing. Because you may come to see that much of the way you put yourself together and what have been powerful experiences for you seen from another dimension another point of view are really quite unimportant or could have been understood very differently and so you can have a kind of sadness that you put so much energy into a life which could have been seen differently This is one of the reasons again for a place like Crestone. There's a period of kind of adjusting yourself to these changes, allowing them to happen.

[13:46]

And being in a protected space where things are taken care of, meals and so forth. Where you can allow this incubatory winter schlaf to happen. There is a kind of hibernation you go into through meditation practice for a while. Particularly if it's really affecting you. In other words, a person for whom meditation is mostly cosmetic But don't forget the root of the word cosmetic is the same as cosmos. So the other side of something that's just cosmetic sometimes can open up much wider than you think. but in any case for a person for which meditation is mostly cosmetic or gives them a feeling of well-being which is certainly important but it's not changing their being

[15:24]

They can meditate more easily in their life. But if it's more powerful than that, or changes you more deeply, then there's the problem of how do you... Feeling estranged. Or feeling everything becomes somewhat foreign. and unfamiliar at the same time everything starts feeling unreal you don't know where to settle your reality and if it gets the Zazen affecting you more it will start affecting you physically You can be standing in a department store or shopping center or something. And suddenly not know whether you're standing upright or not. Or not know how you know whether you're standing upright or not. Or everything may seem black around you and you may feel like just falling down behind the counter in the shopping center.

[17:03]

And you have a little stop and you think, oh, okay, here's the counter, here's the... Okay, everything's okay. But this goes back to Kant's idea again which I'm going to have to discuss in some detail he says the essence of human existence is the integrity and continuity of self over time of self through time and that experience is how we orient ourselves And if there's suddenly a gap in that experience of the integrity and continuity of self over time you suddenly won't know where you are or exactly how you know anything.

[18:05]

Did the previous moment exist when I came in the store? Will the next moment exist? Am I going crazy? Probably not. You're just experiencing a little meditation in the middle of the store. Will you drop out of the continuity of self over time? And you get used to it after a while. It's a little vacation you can take all the time. Now, would you mind telling us all the dream you told me a few minutes ago, or the vision? Yes. I had the vision that I was in a birdcage and then I realized that I could fly out of there and that was also nice but then I realized that outside of the birdcage I was also in a birdcage and so on and then suddenly I realized how I can go back when I am in a birdcage that I can also fly into an inner birdcage and so on so that you can go back into the smaller one from the bigger one yes

[19:42]

you don't have to translate it this is a classic dream or a classic vision now it's also personal to you so you have a personal history around it now I will only speak about it more from the classical side what would I do if I had such a dream or vision during meditation. You all got the image, the picture that he presented. Now, this is, from the point of view of Buddhism, a kind of thinking that occurs in images. And images are more basic to our way of thinking and existing than words. And as I've pointed out many times, language is based on really visual perceptions. If I say that you are sitting in the center of the room, that word implies a visual periphery center.

[21:17]

Or something up or down, downstairs, upstairs, that's head, foot, you know, visual again. The word to perceive means to seize, physically to seize. Tables have legs. So our language is built on a number of visual images. Now one of the essential visual images in language that we take for granted... that I should probably remind every seminar is one of the basic spatial images that's built into our pre-thought consciousness is that space separates things And in meditation experience and in yogic cultures, space is more connecting.

[22:56]

But our language and our basic assumptions that are prior to language just take for granted, assume that space separates. So all of your perceptions, and when you see something, that perception is already guided by the idea that two things are separate. And there are many such prior conceptions, assumptions in our thinking. So Buddhism begins with right views or complete views The first teaching of Buddha is views, not thoughts.

[24:08]

And how you change your views, which then change your thoughts. Or how you study your views. So that's all to say that in Buddhist thinking images are more powerful and fundamental way of communicating than thought. So that you just get used to thinking about yourself in images in zazen as well as in dreams And doing to use it as a language which you don't have to translate into words. Our tendency is to try to turn these things into words and give them meaning. First of all, I wouldn't turn this into words and meanings except I'm going to try to talk to you about it.

[25:25]

First I would take it as a profound reassurance of location because I'm perceiving that there's a structure of consciousness this cage which limits me but I don't really have to worry because if I get outside that there's another cage to take care of me And another cage. And so, no matter how much you free yourself from the structure of consciousness, there are still other structures of consciousness that are larger.

[26:33]

The freedom itself is a structure of consciousness. And seeing that it goes back into smaller and smaller cages, I would think, goodness sakes, I wouldn't think rather I wouldn't think, oh jeez, I'm stuck in this cage. I'd think, thank goodness, I could be in those smaller and smaller cages. I've already made it to this cage. Hey look, there's another one, I can pop into that one. And then I would use the visual images and play with them.

[27:38]

First of all, when I had such a vision, I would try to get a physical feeling of the vision. So you can recreate that feeling in meditation and then produce the vision again. And you do that by kind of feeling or taste to it. And then, so then I would get in this image and I would expand the cage. and expand it very big and then bring it down and get used to doing that and then if I see one cage after another I'd say what let's pretend I don't let's say I don't see the bars of the cage And I don't identify with the bars of the cage.

[28:49]

I think I'll identify with the space between the bars. And I'll expand the space between the bars. See, I'm talking with myself using the images. Okay, now what gives you the right to do that? Who's in charge? Who's doing it? Yeah, no one knows. And so maybe you shouldn't do it. this just came to you out of the sticky stuff of time you better not interfere with it you didn't bring it there you are there you didn't make it come so let it be and that's the fundamental attitude but you can still play

[29:59]

And how do you make your consciousness your own? And who's owning your consciousness? Again, as I keep bringing this up, it's a very difficult question to answer. Probably you can get a feel for it, but there's no real answer. But as I laid out the sense of our cultural history not having the biological environment as part of it and we can say that our cultural consciousness has a membrane that interfaces with the environment. And that membrane has very little real information about the environment in it.

[31:14]

So we can speak about a culture has its own consciousness. And if culture can have its own consciousness, so can you. Who has culture's consciousness? I think for now you can just accept, if culture can have its own consciousness, so can you. Now I'd like to stop at 12.30 about. I don't know what time restaurants open, close and so forth, but 12.30 is a good time. And maybe a little after 12 or toward 1 they're less crowded. I don't know. Or it's Saturdays. Okay, we'll try.

[32:25]

I'd like to ask Ulrike if she would present on this newspaper here the five skandhas for me. Usually I do it, but she's done it two or three times for me. I wish you told me a little earlier. A little division of labor here. Do it? Yes, right. And I promise I won't translate for you. The first skandha. Skandhas. You can do it in German words, too.

[33:27]

Can I also talk about them a little bit? Sure. Just say anything you want. I'm trying to learn. Skanda is a Sanskrit word, and it's often translated into English as heap. Heap means heap or clusters. I think cluster is the better translation, but it means five heaps or five clusters. And often in psychological and philosophical terms they talk about clusters within perceptual frames of, you know, etc. So it's a pretty good term, cluster. And in the Heart Sutra, which many of you have chanted, it starts out, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva saw that the five skandhas were empty. So the very first teaching in that talks about the five skandhas. In the Heart Sutra, which is a fundamental teaching in Buddhism, it speaks about the five skandhas, which come from nature.

[34:47]

And especially with the first skanda I had difficulty imagining that I could only perceive the form of something and nothing else. And then I thought about it, especially as a biologist, how one can perceive the form of something without associating it with anything else, and then I thought to myself that it might be a signal that simply comes. This signal is now taken up somehow, sometimes with sensory organs or other receptors that one does not have inside or outside. And the next stage, the second heap, the second skanda, is the feeling skanda. Here, too, there are immediately difficulties with the translation. The Sanskrit word is first translated into English and then into German.

[35:50]

Yes, the feeling or the feeling and maybe the next one. I can say that now this signal, this form that you have recorded, will now be loaded, so to speak, with a feeling content or a content that is on the level of feeling. I think it's important to put down various words for each of these. Do you want to translate what I said? Because after all, as I said last night, our topography includes San Francisco, Tokyo, Beijing, Berlin, and they're all on top of each other. And there's dimensions of our interior landscape that haven't been mapped yet.

[36:59]

So in this ancient Indian tradition they tried to make this map. A map of a process, not a product. But still, there are Sanskrit words with particular meanings. And then I translate them to English words. And then you're translating into German words. So you have to check up on all of this back into your own experience to see if your own experience fits this map. You can only use the German and English words as sort of suggestions or guideposts, but really you have to find it out in your own experience.

[38:02]

So this is just to suggest a way of looking and studying yourself, but it's up to you to use it. Don't get stuck to these particular words. Yes, that's all. So now we have a form that is loaded or filled with such a feeling content and then comes scandal number three, that is, in English perception is often translated into German with perception. It helps to put the top back on, in between.

[39:11]

On this level, a thought comes in, or arises from one or two thoughts. The thought comes in. and this creates a kind of recognition or a cognitive process and at this point the past also looks back into perception and the whole 1, 2 and 3 is marked as perception and the fourth skandha is the impulses The images that come before the perception, they come out of the feelings, can't they?

[40:25]

Yes. I think so. Is this why the structure starts happening in three? The structure starts happening in two at the level of assumptions. So basic views, attitudes, assumptions, space separates or space connects are in two. And it's in impulses which the main organizational process occurs, associations and so forth. So here on this level, after a cognitive process has taken place, a self-adapted process takes place, where other things find their way in, like associations, which is very important. I just happen to have a question.

[41:44]

Why is it translated to impulses, this fourth skandal, the Sanskrit word? Because it's the hardest one to translate. And D.T. Suzuki back in the 30s translated it as confection. Because confection means something that's brought together, made together. But it also means a pastry or candy. So that wasn't too good a translation. Particularly when they're trying to make Buddhism serious. So associations is probably the best word in some ways. But association doesn't have will in it.

[42:46]

Association doesn't have a sense of movement or, you know, motte, motte, you know. But impulse has the sense of a movement or will in it. So here you have association and volition probably. I answer these things fairly easily. But you can't imagine how many thousands of meditation hours over many years I've put in on this. Trying to answer a question like, why impulse? and then beginning to notice... Is that an impulse?

[43:52]

And then beginning to notice where impulse comes in and how it moves and then begin to see impulse or volition in the skandhas. Doesn't mean I'm consciously thinking about it all the time in many hours of meditation. but the basic practice of the five skandhas is technically to keep the five skandhas in view so how in the midst of your thinking activity perception how do you keep the five skandhas in view So practicing keeping them in view after a while you begin to see them functioning in you. And although I know it's not much to show for 30 years of meditation You can answer these kind of questions fairly easily.

[45:22]

But if you ask some tough ones, I won't be able to answer them.

[45:24]

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