Now yesterday, several people said that they'd like me to speak about koans again. And some others said that they want to continue the discussion or the discussion from the small groups and things. So what should we start out with today? I mean, this is our last morning until 12, 12. 12, 12? No, not 12, 12. 9, 12. June 2 0 1 1, 2 0 1 2. Seven ways across and five ways. Also einige von euch haben mir gestern gesagt, dass sie sich wünschen, dass ich noch weiter über Choren spreche und andere haben gesagt, vielleicht die Inhalte der kleinen Gruppen.

[01:02]

Also was sollen wir heute Morgen tun? Das ist ja unser letzter Morgen zusammen bis Juni 2012. So let's start out with if there's anything you want to discuss from this year's seminar. And of course it's important to me to that we make sense of this together, because that's the only way it makes sense. It's important to me that this makes sense for all of us, because this is the only meaning that can really occur.

[02:08]

I love it. I mean, I say something pretty straight, and he says it, and it's funny. I'm the straight man. He's the... I made a crooked mistake. Oh, really? I thought a good one, though. Christina. Christina. Um. I'm still moved by what the representative of the sentence, the hook is in an unsuspected place, kept saying, that what she knew was under the feet of this other sentence, hold to the moment.

[03:27]

And that it was deeply under what we're all standing on. For me, this started to be connected with memory this morning. We were together as a group shortly before Christmas last year. We were talking about discussing the lived body, or the living body, And the question was also, is there something like a shared live body when a group is together?

[04:33]

And then many of us had the impression or a feeling. See? to see or to feel or some sensing of does this shared lived body have a center? And our agreement then was that it's somewhere in the middle and also below the ground. Also that And this came together with the sensations of

[06:21]

the lower tantin and what the earth has to give and what the children of the earth have to give the plants, animals and all beings. Okay. Reggie Ray, who's a teacher who has, in Trungpa Rinpoche's tradition, one of his successors. He was at this meeting with me outside of New York. He's also our neighbor right next to us basically in Crestone. And one of the practices he has people do is lie on the floor and see how far their body extends into the earth.

[07:25]

And it's a kind of extension of this sense of heel breathing, where you're breathing the earth into your body. But anyway, he has people do that and then to develop the ability to continue the feel when they're around, like you can feel your body extended in space, you feel your body extended in the earth at the same time. You can see that these practices are a mix of imagination and subtlety that's there but you kind of Feel it out through the imagination.

[09:00]

Because if your view is of an unconnectedness or an inseparability and that view is pervasive and repeated, you do begin to feel your I don't know, sometimes I say stomach, but maybe you're in the bathtub of the world. The bathtub of the world? Yeah. In case someone else was Okay, Hilton.

[10:06]

I want to add to that from my experience in meditation that I feel my body as a receptacle for all beings, the bacteria in my intestines. No, you don't have bacteria in your intestine. And also at the same time I see myself as a microbe in the externalized universe. A pretty nice microbe. Andy? Just like Christina reported, the constellation has continued to work in me both yesterday and also this morning.

[11:57]

And I've noticed that I'm using the word arising, which is also part of the phrase I embody. And today in meditation, I had this strong feeling that I was, that I'm becoming the space in which everything happens. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Secret. When I was the middle tantan and lay on the ground, I had the feeling of sinking very deeply.

[13:13]

And on the earth, And to kind of resting on the lower tanchen and the auric. And at the same time I was seeing the sky as open. That's right. That's identical to what I sensed or felt.

[14:17]

You were both lying there. Looked cozy. Yeah, it was cozy. Yeah, okay, so you were going to say something. Everybody always understands. Everybody always understands. This morning I had the idea that I would like to constellate this phrase, jeder versteht schon. But I would have to constellate it in English in its five parts.

[15:20]

Every body already understands. Understand. And you have all ways. Okay. Yeah. I am very moved and encouraged that in my work I have a total focus on this quality of connection to earth, to bring people closer. Can you translate yourself?

[16:29]

I just feel supported a lot and touched somehow because this is a point where I put a lot of emphasis and work with the clients, especially traumatized people. And it feels so, it comes in ease and they carry, to be carried in which really needs that time. And I'm just here working with them and thinking about it. So it feels like here I get a lot of support, my entries and things. You know, all these years I've, in my mind, felt a little shy, my own shyness, in bringing Zen into your accomplished lives and constellation professionals and so forth.

[17:41]

In all these years I have felt a little shy. It is my own shyness. And I felt like you were, as I am, your invited guest. But I think for some years it's been more of a partnership than my being a guest. And I feel that particularly this time. And as the previous seminar here at Rastenberg was lay and monastic practice.

[18:48]

And it seems to me that my feeling now is, you know, it's obvious, but anyway, I'm saying it, that you're an exemplary group of lay practitioners. And that over these years, it seems that Zen practice and constellation practice practice and therapeutic practice in general can become partners in how you continue practice. Yeah, so Horst? I would like to add to the variety of experiences during meditation.

[20:10]

I was very undisciplined, highly undisciplined in doing meditation. And I joyously let myself be in the stream of my thinking. Although I don't deserve it. It paid off. I suddenly felt myself truly alive. And I have And I began to feel my heart with an intensity that I have seldom experienced. Not only discipline can lead to joy. Oh, really? You mean the Buddhist police didn't catch you speeding?

[21:49]

I see that horse... It did catch me, but they only benevolently slowed me down. I see. Well, it is the case that in meditation it's often good to practice with a pulse of release and non-concentration and then concentration. And sometimes concentration jumps in very powerfully. Yes, that is so. It is often good in meditation to practice a change between concentration and non-concentration with a pulse and then the concentration can suddenly jump in and appear with greater power.

[23:02]

Yes. One thing I like about Zen meditation is it can be. And it's something I won't try to talk about when it can be and when it can't be or isn't. I won't try to talk about that. But we know, like as the koan suggested, the senses, five or six or whatever, are only a small part of the pie. And the questions we ask, that we can ask, like why are we here, what does it mean, etc.,

[24:12]

In my opinion are fundamentally unanswerable. And the posture of Zen is to leave them unanswerable. And there's a whole lot of things that happen that we say you just put in the intermediate world. But you don't try to make theories about it. And what I find happens when you have a kind of... discipline of not trying to find answers.

[25:38]

That experiences occur which aren't exactly answers, but they do answer something. And experiences occur you could never think your way to or imagine your way to. There's a poem Yang Wan-Li wrote. He was a Chinese poet who lived in the 12th century.

[26:44]

Who died when Dogen was six. And he said, don't waste your energy. The Buddhist police don't know where you are. No, it doesn't say that. It doesn't say that. It says don't waste your energy. It's so much better just to sit in your study. Yeah, sweep the floor if you like. Light insets. Close your eyes. It's so beautiful just to listen to the wind. Listen to the rain. And, uh, That sense is also that when you practice, joy appears.

[28:04]

Often. I hope often. And when you listen to the rain or the wind, as we have ample opportunity to hear, Maybe for all of us some kind of joy appears. And that joy, in a way meditation leads to, practice meditation, leads to noticing these joys. And in a certain way, the practice, the meditation, leads to this kind of joy to be noticed.

[29:08]

But without practice or anything, of course people have joy listening to the rain on the roof. But the sense in a poem like this, because it's written in a Buddhist context, It's not just that meditation or practice can lead to joy. But that if you practice, joy leads to joy. Joy becomes more and more present tactile presence in your life. So it's just a little equation. Listening to the rain leads to joy. And practice leads to joy.

[30:09]

And to the joy of listening to the wind and rain. And these become seeds in your life. Anyway, that's the feeling behind the poem. So you're doing nothing but, and you're speeding on the discursive autobahn. Angst 5, I mean A5, no, I don't know. But it's still in the context of meditation. Okay, excuse me for that little riff. Someone else?

[31:29]

Yes, Susan? I wanted to thank you all for... For? For... I want to thank you for being with me the way you've been with me. And the feeling, often I don't understand, but it's very strong and supports what I aim at. It's not over yet, you know. All right, okay. But you know, at least four people did leave last night. And one person, a woman, came up to me.

[32:34]

I don't know what they tell you, but what they told me. This woman said, it just got so intense, it's time for me to leave. And... But she said, but I'm coming back next year. No promises, but anyway. And someone else, a male, came up to me and said, I just had an impulse to leave, so I'm leaving. And I said, okay. And two other people left. So maybe doing that constellation yesterday made it feel like it was over. Something had resolved. Yeah. So it's about time to have a break.

[33:35]

But what I would like to do after the break and after we stop discussing is speak with you in the context of... that we are in fact continuing practice in our life in its various forms. So what does that mean? And I'd like to start with this statement which... Andy represented. Old Master Sijo said in walking, in sitting, Just hold to the moment before thought arises.

[34:48]

Look into it and you'll see not seen. And then put it to one side. When you direct your effort like this, etc., So, yeah, if that's okay with you, we'll move a little bit in that direction. Okay.

[35:27]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_74.71