So I'd like to hear some discussion of what I spoke about and also anything from your own experience as we spoke about earlier. Yes. The topic sounds and Catholicism. Yes. My German is getting so good. A friend of Monika, she's a Protestant priest. Minister. In English we say minister for Protestants and priest for Catholics.

[01:05]

Okay, yes. And she once visited us at Johanneshof. And participated in morning meditation with the sutra chants. And one of her comments, a few days later, wasn't so nice. The comment went in the direction, that it wasn't her business, because it reminded her of Catholic ceremonies. That's not my thing to do because it remembers me too much on ceremonies in Catholicism. This is what I thought of when you spoke about Catholics.

[02:08]

Yes, I know. I've noticed that. My wife's family is half Protestant and half Catholic. The father's side is Protestant and the mother's side is Catholic. Austrian Catholic. So, you know, I'm not very religious. But, you know, it's fun to go to a church in the sacred space and everything. So sometimes I go to Mass with her mother in the mornings. And sometimes I go to the Protestant service too. And the basic feeling in mind is of the Catholic service is much closer to Zen.

[03:17]

I mean, at the Protestant service, it's a very nice woman. I like her. She's a sweet person. But the whole atmosphere of the service is talking. It's all connected by talking and thinking. And the Catholic priest speaks some and gives a sort of sermon, but it's much more... has to do with his body and what his hands do and things like that. And it's also the case that many Christians Many, many Catholic monasteries invite Zen people to come talk or give a sashin and so forth in America.

[04:29]

But there's almost no such communication or interest between, from the Protestants and But there is no such connection and interest from the evangelical church. And that's why I'm sure that was her reaction, that it was too Catholic. And that was also because when Ivan Illich was here, he was... He thought the bowing was the best in town. I wish the Catholics could bow like that. Yeah, so we call this Austrian Zen here.

[05:49]

But he had his own problems with Catholicism, because I remember when he gave his Shusso lectures. Yeah. He had his own problems with Catholicism. That was the subject of the Shusso talks. Yeah, there's different problems. Catholics have one problem with Zen and Protestants have a different problem with Zen. So, anyone else? Yes? You spoke earlier about the change from seeing consciousness to hearing consciousness. You spoke about the shift from the visual perception to the sound. In my experience it's even more a shift to the feeling perceptions. The feeling of the posture of the body, of the breath, and the hearing comes out of this bodily awareness and consciousness.

[07:06]

Yeah, it's one of the reasons I really don't like dubbed movies. I can't hear the bodies in the voice. That's important for me to speak about that because of my profession. Because I'm working with handicapped children, they have a handicap in their language, in their speaking. And most of them have a problem with the auditory perception. But the healing and to influence that, that happens through the feeling.

[08:24]

Yeah, I understand. Good, thank you. In fact, I was going to speak about feeling and non-graspable feeling next, but you anticipated it. Now I have nothing to talk about. Yes. Hearing, I have more the feeling it's going through the skin than it goes through the ears. Yeah, yeah, good. Yes. A territory from my practice through two things.

[09:54]

One is the phrase, to pause for the particular. Connected to what you said that each perception is carried through breath. Can be, yes. And this phrase, to pause for the particular and to let this flow with the breathing, that changed my life.

[10:55]

Yeah, the perception carried by the breath or in the breath, yeah. Yeah. You know, to what degree it changed your life, I won't think about. Just that you used that phrase, In relationship to such a small practice as to pause for the particular. And this is something extraordinary that practice phrases, practices in the field of mindfulness, can have us say something like, it changed my life.

[12:21]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean that with the biography, but it really has this change, this feeling of life. It's more the feeling for my life. It's not so much my biography. Yeah, you still ride a bicycle and things like that, right? Maybe you pause in your ride. For a swim in the Rhine. Not this time of year, though. Mm-hmm. So if we, again, try to stick for this prologue day, I don't know, we'll see what we do this evening and tomorrow and the next day. He's looking at the relationship between mindfulness and meditation. as we've been doing.

[13:28]

Sometimes we've emphasized Dazen meditation, still sitting. And sometimes we've emphasized mindfulness. And right now I'm emphasizing mindfulness. As establishing a field. And that field that's established is much of what Agatha mentions of a non-graspable feeling. And again, this also becomes a habit you inhabit. The more you get in the habit

[14:31]

this non-graspable feeling or a field of awareness. You may begin to find that you begin to experience people, individuals, Now, we don't have words for this. But experience them more as feels. or presences than form bodies. Now there's teachings about to call up the mind-formed body. mind-formed body.

[15:47]

Now, I don't know if we can go into that in the next, during the seminar. But whatever that means, let's say it means something. To call forth one's own mind-formed body Which is not different from Yudhita saying that the sound goes into her, heard with her body or her skin or something, not just her ears. Now, what we're talking about now, we're in a rather different territory than this emotional, mental, physical territory that is assumed in the culture we live in.

[16:54]

that seems to characterize people who have enlightenment experiences is one, as I said, attention, continuous attention to attention. And another is difference makes a difference. If you notice something, and it makes a difference. Like Agatha notices what she notices, Yudhita notices what she notices. So wie Agatha bemerkt hat, was sie bemerkt, und Judita hat bemerkt, was Judita bemerkt. And the noticing makes a difference. Und das Bemerken macht den Unterschied.

[18:14]

You notice it clearly enough that it stops you, and you think, hey, I could live this way. Du bemerkst das ganz klar, und du nimmst an, und du... And you tend to stabilize the possibility of that difference. Or you notice that difference makes a difference. In the sense that it's a contrast to the way you usually notice things. Yeah. Now, one of the emphases of later Zen Buddhism is the unpacking of basic teachings.

[19:20]

And as you probably noticed, that's what I do a lot. So the Eightfold Path, again, begins with perfecting views or right views. So one aspect of this mindfulness that I'm saying is the fruitful mindfulness, is you notice when something is different from your habitual views. And you trust your experience. You don't trust what your culture says, you trust your experience. And if it's different than most people think, It trusts your experience.

[20:37]

Now you know you're not just crazy. That's also being different than other people think. Well, that's another topic. And there's a difference in... vitality or validity or authenticity or something. Okay, so one, if I took these three aspects of, let's call it, fruitful mindfulness, one I would say is Attention to, continuous attention to attention. One is, the next is attention to attention. Discontinuity.

[21:45]

Continuous attention to discontinuity or to difference. And that's like the pause for the particular. And the more you know this and have the habit of the pause for the particular as a practice, now the pause for the particular is really not rooted in a phrase. I would say that's more of a practice than a phrase. You just get in the habit of the particular makes you pause. It's not because you have a phrase.

[22:47]

So that helps as a beginning. And the habit of pausing for the particular or letting the particular pause you is you begin to feel a topography of consciousness. So we could call this second point of mindfulness practice, the continuity of discontinuity. This is also in what Paul said and what you said, or somebody, about cessation. Cessation is all in this territory of the discontinuity of continuity or vice versa.

[23:59]

We have a voice from the Emerald Isle. Thank you. Thank you. Your day was recently, wasn't it? Excuse me, I don't know. Yeah. Okay, the third is aspect. I'm only mentioning three, don't get nervous. Keep it simple, and it is simple. Is the perception or noticing of space. And that's also in the pause for the particular. But that's also this non-graspable feeling. And you begin, you meet somebody and you feel their presence.

[25:20]

And sort of in the middle of their presence, there is their form body. But you find yourself noticing their presence, their space. Their field. And that I might call visceral attention. Visceral. Visceral. Oh. That's your gut. Your viscera is your gut. Yeah. Belly knowing. Actually, it's called in Japan hara guy, to know with the belly, to know with the hara. And then maybe I shouldn't say this. but you feel the presence of somebody and then you look into the presence and I hate to say this but there's a rather ugly form body in the middle of it there's a rather unattractive kind of funny person in the middle of it but the presence is quite wonderful

[26:58]

And sometimes you see a really gorgeous person and the presence is quite tiny. So you really find it's much easier to feel maybe this idea that everyone's already enlightened when you feel the presence of each person rather than the form. Okay, so what I've said here is mindfulness practice includes, let's say, working with attention to attention, attention to discontinuity, and attention to space.

[28:16]

Now, when I say that, what am I doing? From one, I'm reporting experientially that I see the fruit of this kind of mindfulness practice. But I'm also saying you can educate your own awareness by noticing in these three categories. Okay. Now, I'm generally talking about our noticing a distinction between consciousness and awareness.

[29:22]

And these are distinctions I'm making partly because English allows me to make them. And they are somewhat in the words, in the sense that consciousness means to cut, S-C-I is scissors. And the root of awareness is more like to watch, to be wary. Now, I'm making this parallel between consciousness and awareness. Ich mache diese Parallelen zwischen Achtsamkeit und Bewusstsein. To put into our experience, to give us a territory of experience. Um uns ein Feld der Erfahrung zu geben. Of what... All Buddhism is based on, particularly Majamaka and Mahayana Buddhism, is the so-called two truths.

[30:38]

And Nagarjuna says, if you don't feel and know the difference between the two truths, absolute and relative, you have no entry to Buddhism. Any entry to Buddhism. Absolutist practice. Okay. Now, if I say absolute and relative, we don't have any entry there. It's just philosophy. Yeah, so... So if I say awareness and consciousness, maybe you have some feeling. Or I can say form and emptiness. Well, that doesn't help us much. And both Tendai and Yogacara... attempted to bring experience into the two truths by creating three truths.

[32:04]

I didn't get that. Madhyamaka and Yogacara, or Tendai, I said, and Yogacara, both try to make the two truths more experiential by adding a third truth. And Zen is rooted in Tendai. and Yogacara teaching. OK. Now, a root metaphor for all of Buddhism. His motion and stillness. And in all the teachings, whether it's don't invite your thoughts to tea, The root metaphor in Don't Invite Your Thoughts to Tea is motion and stillness.

[33:11]

The mind that holds in place and watches the thoughts. So, some of the practices of Zen are rooted in this metaphor. physical practices and the mental practices, is this distinction or feeling the difference between motion and stillness. I often say look at a tree and feel the leaves moving but moving in relationship to the stillness of the trunk and the roots.

[34:15]

So now I'm not just talking about a distinction between or a awareness and consciousness. All of these, awareness, consciousness, form and emptiness, are all versions of these two truths. Yes, as Peter pointed out earlier, the zazen mind and usual mind. That's one of the first things we notice practicing. And I think, although I'm not too interested in the left brain, right brain thing, but I think clearly you're shifting to right brain from left brain in Zen practice.

[35:29]

That's not right and left hands, it's the reverse. But now we can talk about the education of consciousness, not the distinction between awareness and consciousness. So it's not just that awareness is good and consciousness is deluding. But how do we transform consciousness itself? Come back next week. Or maybe this evening. I don't know.

[36:34]

Shall we sit for a few minutes and end?

[36:39]

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