It's my joy to be able to share these teachings, practices, and experience with you. Is he speaking loudly enough? Oh, good. My mother had a voice. I don't. When she whispered in a movie theater, she'd say, Dickie. People way in the back of the seat, shut up up there. Maybe you have a voice like that. Anyway. So we have this problem I keep pointing out of how do we have a mutual understanding of practice that can be transmitted.

[01:11]

And of course we're speaking about a mutual experience. of being alive, let's put it that simply, that we can transmit. But where then does the role of practices and teachings come into the experience. Because the foundation is the experience that we discover primarily through meditation and mindfulness practice.

[02:13]

But that experience is when it's When it's articulated through a shared practice, and when it's articulated through a shared articulation, when it's shared, when it's through a shared, anyway, yeah, it actually becomes, it evolves within us more than if we didn't articulate it through practices or through understanding.

[03:16]

I think most of the time it would be better to say through observation rather than through understanding. Okay, so now I'm trying to speak about what Andrea brought up yesterday. That's why she's way in the corner. I'm just teasing. Did you hear what I said? Why you're way over there in the corner? Okay. It gives me joy because Buddhism allows our experience to be shared.

[04:21]

Yeah, that is located in our lived life and our shared life with others. So what about this being conscious of consciousness? Wie ist es nun damit mit dem sich Bewusstsein des Bewusstseins? Or being able to bring attention to attention. Oder in der Lage zu sein, Aufmerksamkeit zu Aufmerksamkeit zu bringen. Okay, now if I look at Susanna, she happens to be right here. Wenn ich Susanna betrachte, die zufällig gerade hier ist. You know, I see you. Ich sehe dich. But I also... have the experience of seeing you. I know I'm looking at you. You might even feel that I'm looking at you. Anyway, I can feel I'm looking at you.

[05:39]

But most, you know, the two main jobs of consciousness are to externalize the world and make it look permanent. So externalize the world and make it look predictable. So that my feeling looking at you is not in the category of consciousness. But I know I'm looking at you. But again, the conscious attention goes out along the beam of looking. and captures most of my attention and draws my attention away from

[06:47]

the experience I have of actually looking at you, the sensorial experience of looking at you. Now I very, very often say to pause for the particular. So now I would suggest we try also to pause for perception. And now I would suggest that we also try to stop for the perception. to counteract consciousness drawing attention to externalization. If you have to protect yourself from tigers, It's very good to see the world as externalized before the tiger jumps on you.

[08:00]

But most of us Yeah, you know, don't have too much experience with tigers. Occasionally we have bears at Creston. But right now they're hibernating, so I feel comfortable walking up and down the hill. But as I think I pointed out to, at least in the other seminar, my daughter Sophia playing for hours in the car beside me computer games. Where she was identifying with some little computer blip And not with the other blips. And because the other blips were attacking the blip she identified with, she was completely engrossed.

[09:07]

And every now and then she'd say, I'm killed. Then she'd start over again. So, you know, for me, I never played a computer game, but for a while I wondered, why does she identify with this blip rather than the other? Is it prettier or something? No, it's just in danger all the time. Okay. Okay. So we can know that... Well, let's take the example of hearing. It's the one I usually use. You hear something.

[10:08]

But let's take the example, which I like, of birds. Songbirds, perching birds. You don't have to say perching. Songbirds is enough. Singende Vögel. Singende Vögel? Zwitschernde Vögel. Yeah, okay. Singende Vögel. But birds have a, you know, just a way different hearing than we do. Vögel haben eine andere Art zu hören, als wir das tun. They hear between a hundred, no, between fifty, I think, a hundred, yeah, about a hundred and thirty thousand hertz. And we hear between 2,000 and 4,000. That's a huge difference. And a bird can hear 10 times more notes per second than we can. And some birds can sing two notes at once. So you may be hearing a bird. But you're not hearing what other birds are hearing.

[11:40]

You're in an entirely different world. There's a kind of overlap. I have a bird feeder right outside my window in Otoan. And we look at each other quite often. They seem to like to be looked at as long as I don't do anything quick. And they almost wait for me to look at them. But in any case, they're in a different world. So I can know that. But can I experience it? Can I experience that I'm not hearing the bird. I'm hearing my own hearing. Again, I know I'm hearing my own hearing because I can only hear what my own hearing can hear.

[12:43]

So this is an obvious... But how can we experience this conclusion? Because, you know, again, consciousness is externalizing the bird. So one simple way is to create A reminder that whenever you perceive anything, in fact, you're first of all perceiving your own perceiving. You're perceiving your own ability to perceive, and that's it. Now you can increase your ability to perceive.

[14:05]

You can practice with the vijnanas. And develop each vijnana separately and then bring them together. So even though you can develop your perceptual sensorium, And it's a nice thing to do. Why not? But you're still only perceiving what you can perceive. So you create some kind of mental posture again. Sorry, I keep coming back to this. And the mental posture in this case is something like, I'm only perceiving my own perceptions. And then you have to simply remind yourself of that. So that you... Because reminding in German is to put something in us.

[15:25]

Good. Yeah. I'm glad. To remind is... Can't be translated. So that's what I mean. Yeah. So perfect. Yeah. Okay. German's way ahead of me. Okay. So, if you do this, like you, again, I think it's useful to use stepping into a room. You use the, you know, we go in and out of rooms quite often. So we chant, we're going to enter all the Dharma doors. So you turn every door into a Dharma door. And when you come to a door, you say, ah, a Dharma door. And the first thing I always suggest is you stop thinking the room, you feel the room.

[16:40]

You open the door or step in, you just feel it. Let it all be a field of thought. Now what I'm suggesting is you also remind yourself that whatever you're feeling, thinking, seeing, etc., whatever appears, It appears within your own sensorium. So first of all, you're experiencing your own sensorium. Now, if you remind... I hope you don't mind if I say remind every now and then. No. So you remind yourself that I'm only seeing my own sensorium.

[17:47]

It's like you're looking into your own face. But here the face doesn't look like a face, but it is what you face through etc. It's a very sophisticated mirror. Which shows you your own sensorium. Yeah. Okay. Now, if you keep reminding yourself, this is a basic, all Buddhism, not just Zen, approach, method, if you keep some mental posture that reminds you it's your own sensorium, you're very simply bending the beam in this case of looking. You're bending the beam of looking back to yourself. You're saying, hey, attention, don't be fooled by consciousness.

[19:12]

Hey, I'm here too. So attention begins to also notice itself. You're reminding attention to notice itself. Okay. Now, when does this work? When does this happen? Well it most often happens when there's a location to be reminded. If your sense of continuity is in thinking, That's where you're located. So this happens more literally blissfully when your continuity when you're located When your continuity is your physical and phenomenal location, then it's easier to bend the beam of the senses back to the location

[20:52]

the physical phenomenal location. Now, when do you know that you are experiencing hearing as hearing? One of the sure signs is there's a feeling of bliss. And this, I think for most of us, will most likely happen during Zazen. At least you may notice that during Zazen you hear sounds differently. And sometimes you may notice it because it's somewhat similar to hearing the sounds when you're sunbathing.

[22:07]

I mean, all the sounds of the beach or the rooftop, if you're in New York, etc., are here. So what happens is when you do zazen. You can't do zazen for very long unless your body becomes your location. As long as your continuity is in your thinking, zazen is, you know, you can't do it for very long. You're just sitting there kind of, when are they going to ring the bell?

[23:09]

When you don't care, you hope they never ring the bell. I mean, you know, within reason. That means you're your sense of continuity is no longer defined through thinking. So in Zazen, sometimes through the hearing of the hearing of a bird or whatever, Church bells. Yeah, you feel the bliss of location. And an interesting bliss, too. Because your location is enforced by the mystery of not... of not knowing what the birds are hearing.

[24:24]

So this sense of a location is enhanced by knowing you don't really know what's going on out there. It's because you only know what your own senses are showing you. So you can only take refuge in this location. And you might as well settle in and be at ease. And not much to do. Enjoy your life. And that can be extremely blissful or just a taste of bliss. So this is what happens through the process of bringing attention to attention itself, which also deepens or develops, evolves the experience of bodily awareness.

[25:49]

phenomenal location. Okay, so I think for now that's enough on that topic. You know, Physical space and mental space, for us, it's the same. I mean, you may, a physicist, describe space as something or other, right? But for us, our mental space is our physical space. Well, I should say bodily mental or something like that space. It's like if it's a dandelion, you know, with its short life.

[26:59]

Löwenzahn. What? Löwenzahn. Löwenzahn. Yeah, Löwenzahn. Löwenzahn. Okay. If a dandelion's, you know, bopping around, not at this time of year. It's space. You said bopping around. Yeah, I said it. Bopping around, yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. Recently, Obama was bopping around. Yeah, he had some famous black singers singing in the White House, including Mick Jagger, who's not black. And Mick Jagger came bopping in, literally. Running in the room, you know how he does, you know.

[28:16]

And he started singing one of his songs, I can't remember which. And then Obama jumped up on the platform with him and they began singing together, sharing the microphone. Obama is sure a lot more interesting than the Republican candidates. Okay. So the dandelion is its space. It's not, you know, we could describe, botanists or physicists can describe, but the dandelion's space is its space. And it lives and dies in that space. And we too. Now, a bird has A bird's space is air, but let's say bird-mind air.

[29:32]

And Dogen says a bird can only fly to the... A bird finds no boundaries, but only flies within its space. Der Vogel hat keine Grenzen, aber er fliegt nur innerhalb seines Raums. And the fish can swim endlessly in the ocean, but always is in the ocean. In its fish mind space. And we're in our... The medium is our human mind. And it's a little different when you're in yogic mind space. And much of what I'm trying to do is point out the different mediums of mind as space.

[30:41]

And throughout Dogen, and other teachers as well, but throughout Dogen, space is constantly referred to as a metaphor for mind. Okay. Okay. Now you may think, oh dear, mother time. You may think that... It's maybe a kind of dishonest to practice generosity when you don't feel generous. Or it's artificial to practice generosity when you don't feel generous. Because, you know, usually we don't feel generous all the time.

[31:50]

But you're not actually practicing generosity in practicing the paramita of generosity. Over and over again say, you're establishing a mental posture of generosity. And you're seeing what happens when you do that. Okay, well, why bother to do that? Well, I mean, one reason is because we're always in a mental posture or a mental position. I mean, uh... And usually they're eye postures.

[32:52]

This has nothing to do with an iPad. We have eye postures. Like we're in a shot and we think, I hope this person is competent. Or we think, I hope this person likes me. Why they should like you, I don't know, but anyway. Yeah, or we have all kinds of eye postures. I'm in a bad mood posture. I don't feel friendly today. Don't bother me with friendliness, please. These are various eye postures. I think this, I feel this. So you decide, if I'm going to be stuck with all these different eye postures, why don't I make a Buddha posture?

[33:56]

Let me create the posture of generosity. It substitutes for all of those other eye postures. And then, basically, you observe whether it makes you generous or doesn't make you generous. But you feel a certain freedom and openness because you're freed of the eye postures. Yeah, and so you feel more and this sense you get a feel for what it feels like to be open and your body gets to know this feeling of being open so it's kind of like a craft it is a craft

[34:58]

Like a potter shaping your human space. Okay. Okay. So I'll see if I can say this briefly. So you're developing and evolving your location, your experience of continuity within the immediacy of location.

[36:27]

And your experience of location as immediacy as well as the body and phenomena discovers discontinuity as well as continuity. So your continuity is, your sense of continuity is becoming more real. And within that you develop the continuity of, as I've said, breath. body and phenomena and also a continuity of stillness and ultimately continuity of mind as imperturbable mind.

[37:52]

Now these various stations you can tune in Und diese verschiedene Stationen, in die ihr euch einklinken oder eintunen könnt. Die verschiedenen Weisen, wie ihr Augenblick für Augenblick Kontinuität erfahren könnt. Und den Raum von Diskontinuität fast nicht. develops through establishing continuity in mind itself. Okay. Now, all of this are ways in which you're establishing your location as continuity Be here now and nowhere else.

[39:01]

Okay. And you're also actually shaping your lived space. Okay. Now, the example I want to use is our Oyoki practice. I used the word habitus the other day. Habitus. And it goes by, at least the concept goes back to Aristotle and etc. But it's been used recently by in philosophy and a simple example of a habitus that I have which is in the United States I don't know what they do in England but in the United States you always pass the salt and pepper together

[40:18]

In the United States, I don't know how it is in England, but you always add salt and pepper together. And you rarely say pass the salt, you always say pass the salt and pepper. And here in Germany, this is not your habitus. I mean, you pass the salt and you leave the pepper all by itself over here. Quite lonely. And I say pass the salt, but I meant include the pepper. So I sit at tables and the space doesn't look right. Something's wrong. There's salt over there in the paper. There's something basically wrong. The whole table looks like it's... In confusion. And then I was taught never to put your fork in your left hand.

[41:21]

And if I do put my fork in my left hand, trying to imitate you guys... It feels weird. What am I going to do with this thing in my left hand? And you never push with a knife. Or pile up peas in the back of your fork. What is this? And it's so much my habitus, if you can call it. I really can't do it. I try to imitate you sometimes. It's so much my habitus that I can't do it. I've tried to imitate you, but it doesn't work. Okay, so that's habitus. That's habitus. An example. We create another kind of habitus with the oreo bowls. All cultures... of any mutual cultures usually turn eating into a social event.

[42:33]

And Zen monastic practice does too. Okay. so it's uh... and it's a orioki practice is based on cooking serving eating and cleaning together and the bowls are designed to require a fair amount of attention If you have the regular mug spools and you have the little folded lacquer table, It's too small for the bulls. They barely fit on.

[43:34]

Etc. So you have to be quite careful all the time. And you're holding them, etc. So the way the bulls are where the serving happens and the eating occurs and etc. It doesn't give you much opportunity to chat with your neighbor. If you're holding your chopsticks and bowl and I say, Neil, what do you think about tomorrow? I'd probably drop everything. So, orioki practice is an anti-chatting habitus. Which means... It's a different kind of social event.

[44:45]

It's not a social event that emphasizes consciousness. It creates an attentional space. An attentional space that you have to give attention to to make it work. And it's detailed enough that you have to give pay attention. And even, I mean, I've been eating, we all do it pretty well, but even people who have been doing it 10, 20, 30 years still... Some details aren't quite right. Well, it's not exactly about right, but it's doing it in a totally shared way. So the orioke practice of cooking serving, eating, and cleaning the bowls together creates a certain kind of space.

[46:14]

The dandelions wouldn't know what to do in it. I mean dandelions, I mean dragonflies. The dandelions would know what to do. You could eat them. Okay, so... you're creating a space you know how the yogi knows how to be in. Now, I think if we didn't have meditation experience, Sazen experience. It would be a lot harder to do the Oryoki practice. Because Oryoki practice works when your location is not in your thinking. Or chatting. So when we feel a need to chat, we sit at the table. We don't eat Oryoki. But with the yogic non-conscious space of ariyogi practice.

[47:34]

You've created a particular kind of body, mind, mental space. And although within that space you can't chat with your neighbors easily, you can chat with the Buddhas. I mean chant with the Buddhas. So we can chant various things. Now we, you know, etc. And the custom is, and the reason the monk's bowl has no base to it, is the monk's bowl represents Buddha's skull. Yeah.

[48:44]

So you're eating out of Buddha's skull. I mean, skulls have been used as eating bowls. So you're eating out of Buddha's skull. So the custom is, whenever you're going to use... the first bowl, you bow. And whenever you leave the first bowl, you bow. But when you're going from the second to the third bowl, you don't bow. So what we've done here, what the tradition has done is created a yogic space An attentional space that allows you to constantly bow to the Buddha during the meal. So you've created a space that allows you to bow to the Buddha but not to chat with your neighbor.

[49:54]

Is that selfish? Is that artificial? It's just something that we've done in this yogic tradition. So to create the mental posture of generosity, it's just like creating the orioke space. You've decided that We have some cultural idea. That I have this identity that's really mine. And I have to be true to it. And I'm dishonest if I'm not true to it. But in a yoga class, in a Buddhist yogic culture, we discover our location in immediacy.

[51:09]

And that immediacy hasn't some intrinsic nature or something like that that you have to be true to. You can shape that immediacy through wisdom. Or through delusion. And, you know, you decide it's kind of a bit better to shape it through wisdom. So you shape it through the mental posture of wisdom. the parameter of generosity, or through the mental posture of knowing everything you know is your own knowing, your own sensorium, or you shape it so that the shared practice of eating allow us within the shared practice to bow to the Buddha.

[52:21]

By imagining, by creating the mental posture, that the The baseless first bowl is Buddha's skull. So that's the basic situation. Now we can decide how we want to do it, how we want to continue it, how we want to articulate it. And what parts we can bring into our daily life. Thank you very much.

[53:05]

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