Me or you? Yeah, me or you. Yeah, now I also meet you some days in our monk weeks as translator. Maybe we need a position in Europe for translator, maybe transo. Maybe we need a position in Europe for translator, maybe transo. I know. I didn't notice that right away. What's that? That sounds a lot like a transvestite. Well, you are. Are those women's clothes or men's clothes? In fact, I just said to you, walking over here, I said, why am I stuck with being a boy and a Zen teacher instead of something else?

[01:14]

cat, oh yeah, I said maybe I shouldn't be a cat among the alternatives, I'm stuck with this one yeah Charlotte Selver, who started a practice called Sensory Awareness, who was a disciple, protege, successor of Elsa Gindler, And Charlotte is a very young woman and Elsa Gindler is an older woman whose partner, maybe they weren't married, was a rather well-known German philosopher.

[02:14]

was part of that movement between the two world wars in Berlin. Which, as I've said before, was much about body culture and led more to Esalen, for instance, than did Asian ideas. And from the same cultural and creative milieu that Hugo Kugelhase wrote, And this is the same creative environment, the same culture from which Hugo Kükelhaus was born.

[03:28]

And this is the Kükelhaus. And also Fritz Perls and Gestalttherapy have their origins there. I was lucky to meet Charlotte in San Francisco. I can't remember exactly. I'd already met Suzuki Roshi, but it was about the same time. And I went to a weekend seminar. And that Charlotte was teaching with Alan Watts. This is about 1960. One or something like that. Yeah, and so Charlotte changed my life by a simple phrase. And I've mentioned it every now and then to you, to the sangha.

[04:47]

She said, we were all sort of sitting on the floor. I had no experience with sitting on the floor at that time. And she said, come up to standing She didn't say, stand up. And it introduced me, as I would put it now, to a different attentional sphere. And instead of my body moving between two conceptualized destinations, I'm sitting on the floor in the first floor of an apartment of a house.

[06:06]

It's used as a meeting center or something, but I think it was the apartment of a house on Broadway Street. And I suppose it was a rug on the floor or something. It must have been. Anyway, instead of going from the conceptual location on the rug to standing up, I dropped the two conceptual locations and went through a series of experiential indeterminate locations.

[07:13]

And I determined each stage as I went along. Oh, didn't you say indeterminable? Well, yeah, but they're indeterminate locations that I determined at each stage of standing up. Okay. Because I had to stand up and they had to be determined enough to stand up. Okay. I had no idea at that time, of course, that I would spend much of my life coming to standing during bowing.

[08:14]

Every day. And now, since my knees won't support me in standing up, Not because I'm supposedly old, but because I had an injury in college to my knees. So now I have to come down. You noticed how slow I am. I have to come down and put my hands down, but my wrists take my weight then, and then my wrists start not functioning. So today I had fun coming down palm first. That was fun. I like to find different ways to do it. Because I'm not going to let mere injury stand in the way of my bowing.

[09:39]

I'll find someone. Anyway. So she introduced me to a new attentional sphere. Sie hat mich in eine neue Aufmerksamkeitssphäre eingeführt. And I recognized at that moment that it was a new attentional sphere. Ich habe in dem Moment bemerkt, dass das eine neue Aufmerksamkeitssphäre ist. I recognized that I wasn't going between conceptual locations. I was going through physically experienced locations. And so I could say it was my initial experienced entry into what I could call contact space. Now, my phrase here, a different attentional sphere.

[10:45]

And again, I've mentioned this many times, And again, I have already mentioned this phrase of Charlotte Silver, who was a wonderful person. And certainly a teacher for me for decades. And a very good friend. I also became friends with Alan Watts. Maybe I've met him briefly before. It's about the time I first arrived in San Francisco. But anyway, from that point on we became friends. If I remember correctly, he was talking about some Zen story about a goose in the bottle or something.

[12:12]

I can't remember the story. And he asked, how to get the goose out of the bottle? I said to him, you put it in, you get it out. And that seemed to work for him. Anyway, so... And what I wonder, having this come from in the whole context, there was a context there from Alan Watts and Charlotte Selver. And Alan, who was British, and Charlotte made a name with Wittgenstein, and uh... and uh...

[13:23]

whether this different, this attentional sphere I discovered in this seminar with Charlotte and Alan arises within Western paradigms and Western language in a way that wouldn't be the same in Asian culture. And why I'm saying that is I'm wondering aloud and wondering thus with you, How much the attentional sphere created by and assumed by Western languages In other words, a language establishes and assumes the existence of a particular attentional sphere.

[14:53]

Because even if my experience is rooted in some kind of original mind experience, pre-cultural, pre-language mind, Still, I'm describing the world and experiencing my own world in many ways through Western languages. dann erfahre ich und beschreibe ich die Welt, meine eigene Welt, in vielerlei Hinsicht durch die westliche Sprache. Because I'm using Western languages to point to experience.

[16:14]

So until this statement of Charlotte Silver's, my attentional sphere was conceptually defined, delineated. Okay. Once Charlotte said this, I suddenly realized, I felt the experience, physically experienced, a physically determined conceptual, a physically determined attentional sphere. Because until that statement of Charlotte's, I was living primarily in a conceptually defined attentional sphere.

[17:33]

You know, this whole thing about Charlotte, what I'm speaking about now, is in my mind one little blip. And when I try to open up the blip with you, it's going to take three teixos. From blip to bliss. Okay, so You're allowed to laugh even if you can't speak. A charming laugh you have to. I asked David Chadwick once to not speak for six months. And he is unstoppable. And he wrote the book, you know, Crooked Cucumber.

[18:55]

I think he's in Bali right now. Anyway, I asked him to not speak for six months. And as I mentioned to you, he actually didn't speak for six months. But I'm not making any recommendations to you when I say this, Osher. He still had to lead his life so he would have phone calls. And I used to watch him on the phone. Mm-mm, mm-mm. [...] What could I do?

[19:59]

He did follow my suggestion. He even reported a fire in San Francisco. Er hat sogar ein Feuer in San Francisco gemeldet. He ran into a kind of restaurant bar because he saw a fire. And he went in and he went... They called the fire department. They brought an ambulance for him. They thought he was totally loony. It doesn't mean you have to write a book later. So I think that the... If there is going to be... Well, there will be.

[21:06]

One of the sources of the significant change that Buddhism will take in the West... is that it will be changed in ways that are changed through the different attentional sphere in the West. is that he is changed by the other sphere of attention in the West. So a difference that Buddhism might experience in the West. But although she used English words come up to standing. She used them in a different experienced world view. So she used English words to point to another world view So hat sie englische Worte verwendet, um auf eine andere Welt sich zu verweisen.

[22:31]

But still, they were western words. Aber das waren trotzdem westliche Worte. And probably you couldn't point to come up to standing in Asian languages in quite the same way. Und in asiatischen Sprachen könnte man auf dieses komme zum stehen nicht auf genau die gleiche Weise verweisen. Or at least the whole contextual frame of the language is different. Now this staff here is, I again pointed this out quite often, is from this world view of come up to standing. It's made for a right-handed person. And the lotus embryo is in the palm of the hand. Of the right hand. And it comes up with two stems. And one stem is a bud.

[23:48]

And one stem is the lotus pod. But again, as I've pointed out, there's... Okay, we've got to know what this is. Samenkapsel. But there's no bloom. No. it's clear that they assume a bloom. So where is the bloom? Of course, as I say rather simply, it's in your looking at it. And it's the same as the iconography of the Avalokiteshvara in Crestone.

[24:51]

It's got all the same elements, but no bloom. And so, again, you're looking at it, or you're participating in it, is the bloom. And if you look at the Avalokiteshvara that's in the seminar room downstairs, next building. You'll see that there are the flower and so forth in her hand all have stems that turn into clothes and jewelry and etc. So the concept here is my hand is part of the stick, part of the flower, part of the stem. Yeah. Yeah. So the bloom is the room.

[26:26]

Now this is what I'm calling contact space. And you're saying contact. Contact, yeah. Now I don't know quite what word to use. But this is also the same concept as no outside. which I've been speaking about. Okay. And I would like you to, at some point, in seminar point and things like that, give me a feeling of how you understand no outside. Okay. If there's no universals like universal time, absolute time or space, There's an inside and outside.

[27:32]

If there's some kind of universal, there's universals. If we take away universals, which is also to take away any concept of God's space, And this is why in Buddhism, in any rigorous conceptual understanding of Buddhism, is thoroughly non-theological. Okay. It's all like, as I often said in my first experience of this, which I tried to conceptualize.

[28:42]

It was all like a stomach. Is there an inside and outside to the stomach? Well, of course, there's a functional difference between the inside and the surrounding membrane. It's hard to say where the inside and outside of the stomach begin. And then the body and then the world and it's all stomach. That's what I experienced. It's all inside. It's all so interconnected you can't find an outside of it. It's like the two fish. Let's water.

[29:54]

Now let's go back to the spine. I mean back, let's go spine to the back, or back to the spine. Now, I think I have time for this, though my first two have been rather long. Sorry. And I think I have nothing to say. It's dangerous when I think I have nothing to say. Okay. So since you seem to or did get the feeling for and understanding of what I meant by awakening the spine. And noticing the appearance of the spine in awareness and not consciousness. Yeah, in a non-thinking, non-comparative awareness. And in that experience, discovering the experience of the spine within awareness.

[31:22]

And experiencing the awareness that appears with the spine. Okay, so then I thought, well, I've said quite a lot, but I didn't really make it complete. What in yogic practice is meant by the spine in a thorough sense? So I thought, I have to have an entry to discuss this. And I have to give you an entry to experience this. Oh, so I chose the mandible, the jawbone. You can feel where the joint of the jaw is connected to the skull.

[32:30]

Ihr könnt spüren, wo der Kieferknochen, wo das Gelenk zum Schädel sitzt. Ich habe irgendwo gelesen, dass das der stärkste Muskel des Körpers ist. Anyway, you can feel the musculature of the face and the skull and the jaw. Auf jeden Fall könnt ihr die Muskulatur des Kiefers, das könnt ihr ertasten. And you can move it up and down and sideways and so forth. And maybe you can get a feeling for the bone of the jaw inside the muscles and so forth. Okay, now if you get a feeling for the bony jaw, It can be in the same kind of awareness space, attentional space, as the spine in awareness.

[33:48]

Okay, then you can use this entry of the... By the way, I've experienced all these things in the past in various ways, but I've never quite decided to speak about it, practically ever, or in this way. If there's a reason, it must be because this is the second practice period in Europe. Or maybe it's because it's the first winter day in the Alps. In any case, you can begin to feel the presence of the jawbone. And then maybe you can extend that and feel the skull.

[35:01]

Which I think is about 22 bones. And that's supposedly 44 when you're born. And I guess there's 26 vertebrae. Depends on how they're counted. Now, I can almost count the 26 vertebrae, experientially. There are bones in the spine, I should say. But I can't count the, I haven't tried really, but I can't count the bones of the skull. But I can certainly feel the skull and I can certainly feel its expansion and change and contraction.

[36:10]

And I can notice when it expands and when it doesn't. Related to my feeling in my bodily space. Okay, so now you can bring your attentional sphere. Now I'm giving you an attentional sphere. Was ich euch hier gebe, ist eine Aufmerksamkeitssphäre. I mean, you may have been to Marseille or Nice or Florence or London. Ihr wart vielleicht schon in Marseille oder Nizza oder Florence oder London. Yeah, but here isn't a place you are, but you probably never visited. I should be a travel consultant or a vacation planner. Because here's a place you are that you can now visit for the first time or, you know, one of the first times.

[37:11]

So you can begin to feel the movement of your skull. And you can begin to feel how the jaw and the lower rim of the skull is your teeth. Isn't it fun that this occurs in two languages? All right, so, anyway... So, and then the shape of the skull and the jaw allow, are the space of the mouth.

[38:32]

And the mouth is quite different than the bones. And if you're doing zazen and your tongue is touching the roof of your mouth, which is the usual position of the tongue in zazen, You can feel that the tongue at the roof of the mouth completes certain circuits. Circulations. Gaumen. And your tongue is living in this wet spot, like a little wet place, like a little frog. And... And you can feel how your mood affects your mouth.

[39:49]

If you're fearful, your mouth will tend to be dry or nervous. And so the mouth, actually the mouth and the scalp tend to be very emotional. And the scalp. The scalp. Like, is this the scalp? This is the scalp. And, you know, we say in English, when you're afraid, your hair stands on end. Yeah, you feel a... In German, you're not afraid when your hair stands. What are you... It's more like when you're irritated or something. Oh, your scalp crawls when you're nervous. There's something like in a novel, and I say, there was a ghost in the room and my scalp began to...

[40:57]

So the mouth and the scalp are very emotional. And you can participate in your emotions through your scalp and your mouth. And I can contract and release my scalp as I kind of want to do. That's helped having no hair. Maybe it does, I don't know. At least you can't see when I'm afraid. What is he talking about? I mean me. Okay, so what do you get the feeling of when you do this? is the head as a location.

[42:10]

And it's a location you can begin to feel the scalp and how the ears are and so forth. And now you can begin to feel, as I said, the spine comes up, is attached to the lower part of the back of the skull. But you feel a spine space coming through the head to the top of the skull. Now this spine space is not made up of the extraordinary. What an extraordinary object the spine is. What does it just say? What is an extraordinary object the spine is?

[43:13]

With its little pads, which sometimes deteriorate. And little spines, I mean little things stick out. But none of that is in the middle of your head going up to the top of your skull. But we feel the spine space even if there's no bones there. Now you can develop and really notice the feeling of the spine space. And when you feel that spine space, you can feel how it also can be used to affect the scalp. Now you can begin to cultivate or develop the feeling of this spine space.

[44:24]

And now you can bring that back down the bony spine, the actual physical spine. And join the physical spine with a physically experienced spine space. Which increases the field of awareness throughout the body. You know, there's 31 pairs of spinal nerves attached to the spine. And there's 12 cranial nerves. So these 31 pairs of nerves reach throughout the body and connect to the thousands of associative nerves.

[45:50]

So by developing an awareness of the spine and the spine space, you tend to bring the entire functioning of the body into an awareness which isn't consciousness, But it's still a knowing that you can act within. And you can now feel how the breathing, which is another autonomous body function usually, And the spine is an autonomous body function.

[47:00]

And now with this spine space, you feel through from the base of your spine up to the top of the head. You can feel how this flows together, this breath awareness and spinal awareness begin to merge. And now you have at least an entry to the way in which yogis in India, pre-Buddhist India and Buddhist India too, began to develop this attentional sphere. And now, when I go up to the altar and offer incense, I mean, yeah, there's the... We're so lucky to have that Amida Buddha, but anyway, that Amida Buddha

[48:01]

loved and touched and looked at for 500 years. And it's sitting there in the middle of the altar. I'd like it a little bit forward, but it's sitting there in the middle of the altar. And it's right beside the photograph of Suzuki Roshi. And because I'm a Suzuki Roshi disciple, I'm really bowing to Suzuki Roshi, not the Amida Buddha. Oh, that's not quite right. Because Suzuki Roshi also grew up as a Buddhist bowing to Buddhas. So when I bow to Suzuki Roshi, I'm bowing to the ideal that he represents and is manifest, expressed in this Amida Buddha.

[49:36]

And because now I've said something about how the spinal breath space awakens the subtle body. Now it's completely obvious to me now why I take incense, powdered incense, and touch it to the middle of my forehead. Because the Sukhiroshi and this Amida Buddha and the people who made the Amida Buddha and conceived of the practices that led to the Amida Buddha And this person who could be a cat or a girl or I don't know what have overlapping bodies. Weil wir überlappende Körper haben.

[51:13]

Now, with your family you have biologically overlapping bodies. Your brothers and sisters and uncles. Mit deiner Familie hast du biologisch überlappende Körper, mit deinen Brüdern und Schwestern und Onkeln und so weiter. But when you practice a shared worldview, particularly a yogic worldview, we begin to develop overlapping bodies. that are not psychological bodies, not personal bodies, but still the lineage is overlapping bodies. And there's more I could say about this contact space. And there is more I could say about this contact space.

[52:13]

One sphere Dharma, it's called in Zen. But another time. And I already, well, it's not as bad as the last time, or as good as the last time. Thank you very much. May our intentions be true to every being and every place.

[52:44]

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