We live in the medium of our consciousness. It's the medium for perception. For memory, associations. It's the medium for our psychology, and so forth. And certainly at the center of Zen practice is to, Buddhist practice is to notice this medium. So I would, yesterday, the topic you chose was primarily noticing, isn't that right?

[01:05]

So I would like you to help me notice what you noticed. Now I can listen. Yes. We talked about that we notice whereupon our attention is directed, focused. In every life it's often absorbed from the things around us and we just sink under. We sink under. We drown in what? In noticing? The circumstances of everyday life. Sounds unpleasant.

[02:24]

Yeah, go ahead. In meditation we often sink or drown in our thoughts or in our emotions. Also doubts and inferiority feelings can become quite strong. But still we try and make an effort to come back to breath. One participant told that feelings of anger and hatred sort of to cope with that quite well. Feelings of anger and hatred that one could cope with well?

[03:27]

No, she could cope with during meditation quite well. And during everyday life, when this curtain of thoughts is seldomly getting up, the world becomes something glistening. the world becomes something glistening. Sounds better. Yeah. Okay.

[04:29]

Thanks. Vielleicht kann ich dazu noch ergänzen. Wir haben festgestellt, oder einige von uns haben geäußert, dass during meditation, that one tries to perceive oneself and that this perception first arises through a certain interaction of thoughts and body feelings. I would like to add that some of us remarked that during meditation they try to perceive themselves and this perceiving just comes into effect through a play of thoughts and feelings, right?

[05:34]

Yes, it's like you are aware, aim to be aware of yourself, and in that moment where you let go of this, something else comes up, and then you realise that's the moment where presence is there, without thoughts anymore. And this only happens when this body feeling is there. It comes more through the body than through the mind. Yes, okay. Thank you. Yes? We also tried to collect our experiences in group 1 and came to the conclusion that the observation of the observation was an intensification in the awareness

[07:08]

Thank you. We tried in group one to put together our experiences and we noticed or remarked that observing the observation led to a feeling of feeling more awake. Observing observing makes you feel more awake. needs to be a way towards healing and so on. And I would add and put forward at least the idea that there is an observer who can build up a distance to this perception. And I would like to add that the observer has to have a certain distance to that which is observed.

[08:28]

And the ability to direct this process. Das heißt, aus der Fülle der Informationen, die auf uns einströmen, das im Momentan Relevante herauszufiltern. Out of the manifoldness of impressions which sort of stream upon us, filtering out the relevant things. In that also there's a sort of judgment of valuing. And as I said, we make this observation especially then when we sort of fell out of the role of the observer. In retrospectively, there was something which I didn't really observe well.

[09:46]

Yes, then we briefly touched on the topic that it requires a certain amount of energy to stay in this wake. And we also noticed that it needs a certain energy to stay in that more awake state of mind. And they hope that this way change, being more advanced, sort of gives you more energy. And also we agreed that the intention to do that, stay that way, that doesn't help very much.

[10:52]

You have to have this intention to build up again and again and realize again and again. Then the question was, what effect does this practice have? This is quite a thorough meeting you had there. Go ahead. One of three was that... A talk among a relationship which sort of takes a burden away from a relationship, eases a relationship. Probably in a reduction of the unpleasant emotions like anger.

[12:10]

and the intensification of perception, more clarity. And an intensifying of perceptions and towards more clarity. In the end we have addressed the question of how one can anchor this intention physically or externally. And how could we anchor this intention more bodily? Good. Well, just one comment is that most of the energy is the reestablishment of the observant mind, not the maintaining of it. At some point that's the case. The constant needing to re-establish the observing mind, which there's a resistance to, is where the energy is.

[13:36]

And that's one of the differences enlightenment makes. Or let's say enlightenment experience. It turns you around so you no longer resist the observant state of mind. It turns you around, so to speak, and you don't resist this observing gas. Good, thank you. Two questions that still came up in our group. If we notice and don't immediately want to divide into good, bad and not like and like, but accept it, what kind of craftsmanship do we have with acceptance? Because just to say, I accept that now, that wasn't enough for us. What do we have for possibilities? That was a question. One question is that in dealing with acceptance of good, bad, what tools do we have?

[14:48]

It doesn't help or it isn't enough to say just we want not to judge or not to choose, but what tools can there be to do this? The other question was, what is it at all to bring attention to attention? That you are attentive, that was clear to all of us, but what do I do or how do I do that when I bring attention to attention? The second question was how to bring attention to attention that we are and can be attentive. It was clear to everyone, but what is this extra bringing attention to attention? That wasn't quite in our group. The observer to the observed. The observer to the observed. Aufmerksamkeit. Okay. Good, thank you. Yeah?

[15:48]

In our group it was interesting that nobody actually had ever practiced noticing before. We practiced mindfulness and we practiced attention, but we didn't actually practice noticing. So I was interested in finding a definition which makes a difference to those other practices. What seemed right to me is that noticing is the activity of making apparent to me what is in my consciousness or in my awareness. And what I mean by that is consciousness and awareness always has contents, but these contents are not necessarily aware to me. So, for example, if I could have a diffuse feeling of threat, and it might have a realistic background, but I can do both, I can ignore it, not make it apparent to me, or there's some skill where let it arise.

[17:01]

That's my understanding of noticing, to be present to both ideas, to consciousness and awareness, and to... to get a subtle glimpse maybe of a bodily feeling of something being there, giving it a chance and really also enhancing it and let it evolve and come up. And that's somewhat different to me than just to practice attention to something which is already there or to practice mindfulness towards my breath and my feelings or more rough categories. In our group, no one has said that he has practiced something like remarking actively, as he has practiced attention or attention so far in his life.

[18:04]

Then I was interested in what makes the difference when you introduce the profession of remarking. And it seemed to me that the activity with which I let the content of my consciousness or consciousness appear is remarkable. I assume that as long as I live, my consciousness and my consciousness are always content, but I am not all these contents in the clear. And the contents can also be very subtle, very fine. So there must be an activity, also an activity that one can cultivate, How do we notice something which we've never noticed before? I mean, it's easy to notice something which we've noticed often.

[19:21]

But how do we notice things which we haven't ever noticed? And how do we give them chance? Can we discover things in ourselves that we've never seen before? That's what it has to do with. And the term that helps me with that is noticing. Thank you. A little birdie told me... A little birdie told me that you might give a report. Yes. We were the English speaking group and we had several things noticed or remarked or personal experiences. One was that the difference between when you're in meditation or in a surrounding like this while you're at work and sometimes when you're more open and have this more field-like experience in the world,

[20:38]

You can't function, you can't work when you have to have a focused mind, have to make decisions. This doesn't work so well. It isn't easy to, or probably not possible to uphold that. We talked about... noticing, for example, like how a field changes, for example, if one person comes to the group and how it was a sort of noticing while taking place during the group session, for example, one person talking about how boring life is, for example, and then

[21:45]

in a second sort of round relating something personal like how interesting or how rich and vivid childhood was and how that, for example, just a different telling sort of changed completely the atmosphere, the field, the vividness that was sort of a direct noticing. Also, wenn... Wir haben auch so festgestellt, was wir bemerkt haben, während wie sich das Feld innerhalb der Gruppe auch ändert, wenn einfach eine Person dazukommt oder wenn jemand... And we... One person told how we can do things with this, how we can lean inwardly, backwards, and change the field or the focus in a...

[22:59]

in an aquarium or in water, you know, like, you can move like that. There were a few more remarks which at the moment I don't remember quite clearly, but others may help me. But that's for the moment. Okay. Is that all the groups? Probably. There's six. There's one more. You can't hide behind your wife. In our group we talked about the difference when you are alone with yourself, whether it is in such a special atmosphere or in your personal life, that it is easier to notice something.

[24:11]

And if you are in a situation where you are forced to work or interact, then this possibility is missing, because it is more difficult to notice things. One thing was that we found that it's easier to notice things when you're alone, when you're on your own, and when you are forced to interact in a group at work, that is much more difficult. During normal life we focus our attention on one point and we sort of jump from point to point. And then in meditation it's also like stepping back and then noticing or perceiving a larger area, so to say. One of the conditions that this can happen is that we don't have the intention to make this happen, but rather let it happen without so much intention.

[25:34]

Yeah. Is there anyone who wants to add to this or say something personal or in addition? That means, for example, how can I find out when a thought arises? And often it is so that we have to find out somewhere, I have been thinking all this time, but the point where it came from, it is very difficult to grasp, especially with thoughts or feelings. The discussion went further then and it came to the difficulty of identifying or noticing when an emotion or a thought starts being in it.

[26:51]

The noticing that it takes place is easy, fairly easy. But the beginning, to get before the beginning or get the beginning or notice the beginning, that is extremely difficult. Some people reported about it in meditation, for example, in Sashin. There are situations when the doer, before he hits the bell, there is a change in the feeling in the room, and we know that... The bell will be hit soon. The bell will be hit, but before, we thought about if the change in the feeling could be perceived, the thought, and also... Yeah, thanks. I was also in another group that has not said anything yet.

[28:07]

We tried to understand the question. We had some difficulties to understand each other, what we mean by noticing. In our group we dealt with the question itself and we had difficulty with a different understanding of what is noticing, what we understand as noticing. And some of us have the experience, or maybe all of us, I don't know exactly, that noticing or noticing And many of us had the thought that noticing is something which happens suddenly or happens when you notice a change. And the question came up, what is practicing?

[29:26]

What is practice? And the question came up, what is practicing? And the question came up, what is practicing? One which was new to me was that we try to alter our state of mind We order our state of mind, we plan to change our state of mind, and how can we... Can you tell me that again, please?

[30:34]

How can we that which comes accidentally or suddenly, how can we transform this into a practice? Therefore it was important that we bring an intention into that. and attention. Okay. Was in our group something like a wrestling with a conglomerate of thoughts? And sometimes it's really difficult to express yourself, to find out how your own thoughts are going, to understand what someone else is saying, to understand a dense web of language, thoughts and attempts.

[32:05]

and difficult even to articulate what one's own thoughts were and to understand what the others' thoughts were, and really a complex and intricate conglomerate of thoughts. I also noticed in the background the ringing and the language of such experiences or thoughts. Also I noticed that this like wrestling for the speech, for the words, I don't know that for long. words like mindfulness, awareness, neither in German, there is no such thing in Swiss German, I don't think there is, it was never part of my childhood, of my youth.

[33:14]

The first connection with Zen practice, I got to know these words and sometimes I am very, very inexperienced and also clumsy and searching Words like mindfulness and awareness in German, Swiss German, in my childhood I never heard of them until I started with them in practice and for me it's difficult to bring my experience and the language or the words into Yeah, together. One expresses the other. You mean because your experience somehow was outside the categories of such things as mindfulness and now it's hard to join them together? I don't know the words.

[34:17]

I don't know the words. I know experiences but can't connect with the world. Swiss German mindfulness doesn't exist. Language isn't there. So how to speak about things that for such a long time weren't in those yards? Perhaps it worked that I had my experiences, but I … Yeah, that's obvious. I don't have any verbal and thinking experiences with that. And this was also … I think we could feel that also in the group, how difficult it is to speak it. Yeah, that's good. One question popped up also. Is noticing a matter of this moment or can you retrospectively and looking back notice?

[35:30]

To some extent you can, yes. And the practice of reviewing past lives doesn't have to be thought of as reincarnation. It can be thought of as a process of noticing your past lives within this life. And to let the past life happen again, to look back, and that doesn't necessarily have to be the same as reincarnation, but within this life, a practice, to let the past life happen again, or to look back. Yes? Isn't that the prerequisite to learn? Isn't this the condition for learning? Isn't what the condition for learning? To have the ability to analyze the situation which was in the past and try to notice things which I hadn't noticed in the moment as I was in the situation.

[37:01]

Well, I don't know if I'd apply it to all categories of learning, but it's certainly in psychotherapy, it's certainly, for example, a way we learn about ourselves. In this context, interesting since a long time, what is the function of remembering? Okay. Nothing but the big topic today. Yes. So I was in this group and I had a feeling that this observing mind is always there but I'm not conscious of it.

[38:05]

And I had the example, because I had a lucid dream at night, And I was first asleep and I woke up and I had the pictures and I had the feeling that I was asleep. And I was also in this group and I had the feeling that this observing spirit and non-thinking spirit is always there at some level. but I wasn't aware of it. And I had the example that I had a dream in which I could remember and I saw the pictures again in the morning and had the feeling of it. But I fell asleep, I didn't meet anyone. Okay. The question was also, it seems to me to be interesting to mention, to bring the noticing to the noticing, do I have to make a selection here, in what sense do I actually notice, with the ears, the eyes, the touch, or is there a universal mind that can do everything at the same time?

[39:14]

The question was interesting for me that when noticing the noticing, do I have to make a choice before with which sense I notice, with the ear, with the nose, or is there a universal noticing which notices everything? Look at it. Senses. Senses. All of the above and below. All of the above and below. Yes. Yes. Isn't then the term of the unconscious? Isn't. Is there in then the term of the unconscious? Does there exist the term of the unconscious? Not exactly. What is these mumblings in the back here?

[40:20]

When you say, like, the term of unconsciousness doesn't exactly exist. Yeah. So does a multi-scene have to be a conscious, a conscious multi-scene, or can it be, like, a physical multi-scene? Because I've never practiced talking about experiences in Zen, but just practicing. So this was like a new experience, but it sort of mixed me up in a way that I found myself in Zazen in the evening, in my thoughts instead of in my body. And I'm not sure if we can get into a state of mindfulness just by practising, just by having... just through practising, just through the physical thing.

[41:30]

Yes, I understand. German, please. I have never done such a practice before, where you exchange ideas about what you do in practice. And for me it was a very moving experience that in the morning I was completely in the thoughts of what was going on in the group. And I really had trouble getting out of my head into the body and out of the breath. That's why I asked, do we need a conscious observation to be able to notice, or is it not enough to simply practice and to notice through the body and through physical experience? Well, I would like to respond to all this, but as much as I can, it's quite exciting for me actually to listen to you.

[42:59]

But it's time for a break.

[43:00]

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