Now the reason I'm mentioning this tripartite, three-part, three-fold way of looking at Sazen. The reason I'm mentioning this three-part, three-fold way of looking at Sazen. Because I'm trying to give you a map by which you can notice how your experience of Zazen develops, articulates itself, and so forth. It's a kind of GPS, a Dharma positioning system. You don't call it a GPS in German? No, we don't. What do we call GPS?

[01:15]

Oh, really? Okay. Well, thank you. What's the other way to call it? Navigation system. Oh. Well, now I notice people are so used to GPSs, they use them to get to the grocery store. Okay. So first I spoke about the minded attentional stream. And, you know, I have to stretch English to say these things, and then Nicole has to stretch Deutsch even more.

[02:25]

Okay. Now, what are some examples of the minded attentional stream? Which I've mentioned already, like don't move is a minded attentional stream. Ja, ist ein mit Geist belegter Aufmerksamkeitsstrom. You notice when you move. Du bemerkst es, wenn du dich bewegst. Of course, your heart's beating, your lungs are breathing, and so forth, so basically you're moving.

[03:27]

Und zum Beispiel dein Herz schlägt, und deine Lungen bewegen sich, und also insofern bewegst du dich die ganze Zeit. These gross movements, you're limiting with the phrase, don't move. Aber zumindest die größeren Bewegungen schränkst du ein durch diesen Satz, bewege dich nicht. And the don't move added to the attentional stream makes you notice many things, like wanting to move. Und dieses bewege dich nicht, wenn es dem Aufmerksamkeitsstrom hinzugefügt wird, das gestattet dir, unterschiedlichste Dinge zu bemerken, wie zum Beispiel, wenn du dich bewegst. So that's an example of a mental posture as part of your... minded attentional stream. May I ask you a question in between? It's not clear to me yet how is the attentional stream as you've used that.

[04:34]

And the mind that you're... It's not yet quite clear to me how the mind that makes... Giffers from the attentional stream. Yeah, so I have a hard time translating it because I don't see the difference. It's the attentional-attentional stream. Ah, okay, that makes sense. So it's the attentional-attentional stream. I don't know if that's quite right, but let's look at the three aspects and then we'll see if we can find ways to verbalize it. So another very obvious example for a Buddhist of a mental posture that you bring into the attentional stream. is the awareness that everything changes.

[05:44]

And you need to really find out a way to notice that everything changes. So it's always present in your mind and stream. So right now, I'm changing. Just by speaking, I'm changing. Stop it. I'm just speaking, I'm changing. And while I'm changing, Nicole is changing too. Look at her. I am still. And you are each changing. So as I said at the debut talk, we're actually in a field, a shared field of changing.

[06:59]

And if you're sensitive enough, if you're a descendant of Milton Erickson or something like that, you would change. really recognize this field of change has actually got a kind of unity. And it's another way, a sensitive way we can notice how we are mutually embodied. We are separately embodied and we are mutually embodied. And the sensitive bodhisattva field is to feel simultaneously the separate embodiment and be able to notice the mutual embodiment which happens outside of consciousness.

[08:29]

And my responsibility as a Zen teacher is to speak to your separate embodiment and simultaneously your mutual embodiment. Okay, so another minded phrase we can use, which I've suggested over the years, is already connected. An antidote to the basic assumption we have that we're already separated.

[09:38]

And many of you have noticed that if you bring into each perceptual, each sensorial moment, the mental posture already connected. It makes you notice how we're already connected. And makes you notice how much you really function through assuming separation. And a simple shift, I mean really, how simple it is, a simple shift from assuming separation to assuming connectivity

[10:53]

Und wirklich eine so einfache Verschiebung, das ist wirklich so einfach, diese Verschiebung von der Getrenntheit auszugehen hin zu von der Verbundenheit auszugehen. Changes how we live. Das verändert, wie wir leben. If I speak into a field, I feel that we're already connected. Somehow, it's going to make us more connected than if I speak into a field assuming we're separate. Okay, so this is a mental posture you bring into the minded stream. Let's talk a minute about the problem you have with translating this.

[11:56]

If you sit down to do zazen, there is some kind of continuity going on. And what we recognize is that we human beings need to establish continuity in order to function. Und was wir dabei erkennen, ist, dass wir Menschen Kontinuität herstellen müssen, um zu funktionieren. But we don't have to establish a thinking continuity. We can establish other kinds of continuity. Aber wir müssen nicht unbedingt eine Denkkontinuität herstellen, sondern wir können auch andere Arten von Kontinuität herstellen. So, if you sit down and do Zazen and you think, don't move, you're affecting the continuity which is already there. So there is something happening that you're adding to the continuity.

[12:58]

Now, the problem with language in general for us is language, at least English and Indo-European languages, fundamentally assume the world occurs in consciousness. So all the words describe consciousness. Words tend to describe a world that can be known through consciousness. But if we have a world in which we hold to the moment before thought arises, hold to a world before Consciousness appears. Or hold to a world underneath consciousness.

[14:19]

Or around and above, or whatever you want to say. Maybe it's something like you can see the shimmer of consciousness above you, but you're functioning in a fluid that connects us that's not in the shimmer of consciousness. We simply don't have words for this. So I have to kind of jab around, move the words around. Okay. So... Another example of a minded attentional stream is activity, not entity.

[15:33]

To find some way again to re-mind, over and over again, re-mind, because it takes lots of re-minding, re-mantric-ing mind until you really see every object as an activity. So you get all the Zen stories about like, if you don't call us the bell, what will you call it? Now, if you search for another word for it, you're, you know, kind of like, not, you know, such a mature practitioner. Yeah. So, I don't know. Ring it against your head, buddy. Silly. Album, I'd say. So this distinction between activity and entity-ness, you need to change.

[17:08]

Because the attentional stream flows through a world of activity but gets stopped in a world defined as entities. Now, we could say there's no outside. We could talk about that in various ways. And that would be a kind of philosophy. But if I say not outside, this is craft. Again, I'm trying to make these small distinctions to illustrate the importance of small distinctions

[18:17]

That's a very small distinction. But over on the other wall, it's the whole wall. So a small distinction repeated really has a powerful effect on you. Okay. So, if on every percept, the bell, the machine, my tea, etc., Wenn bei jeder Wahrnehmungseinheit, der Glocke, der Maschine hier oder der Tasse oder so, you develop the mantric habit of saying, not outside.

[19:22]

Du die mantrische Gewohnheit ausbildest, dass du sagst, nicht außen. Not outside. Nicht außen. Neil, not outside. Neil, nicht außen. Did you bring me those... Cookies, bread, different type. Thank you very much. I like them with my tea. I'm glad. So not outside begins to internalize, not outside, not philosophy, but not outside, joined to every person. Just using the way Zen uses mantras, the mantric practice, to bring the wisdom of the teaching into your moment after moment perceptions. And so not outside is a way to do that.

[20:30]

Okay, we'll come back to that. Now I feel I'm... I really would like to stop talking. But I feel that while we've got the topic floating in the space here, I should finish these three distinctions. So now we've spoken about the minded attentional strength. Now let's go to the bodily attentional stream or embodied attentional stream.

[21:41]

And that's harder to conceptualize. So one way to talk about it, as I did already, is your breath becomes a way to embody, to make physiological the attentional stream. Now, I've often in the past spoken to you about notice in the moment by moment. I mean, unless you have an attentional stream, you hardly notice moment by moment. In the moment-by-moment attentional stream, as you develop this detailed attentional stream,

[22:45]

You notice when you feel nourished. In a certain way, like you might notice that you eat certain foods, you feel kind of lousy afterwards. That's paying attention, giving attention to the bodily stream. Und das bedeutet, das ist auch Aufmerksamkeit zum Körperstrom zu bringen. But there's also certain things you think which make you feel lousy. Aber es gibt auch bestimmte Dinge, die, wenn du sie denkst, dafür sorgen, dass du dich lousy fühlst. If you think these kind of thoughts, something like that. you don't feel so good. You can't go to sleep or something. You're experiencing the bodily, let's call it this for now, they all overlap, bodily attentional stream.

[24:14]

Okay. Okay. Now, so you might notice, as I started to say, some moments you feel nourished. There's something about the situation that you feel nourished. And it may be related to how fast you're walking or how slow you're walking or who you're walking with and so forth. So if you're practicing with the attentional stream, you notice that, yes, I can feel this sense of nourishment and I can function in a way physiologically that this sense of nourishment continues.

[25:16]

Or you notice when you feel at ease. And then you decide to see how that, when that easeful experience as the attentional stream is present. Now, it's through developing the bodily or embodied attentional stream that begins to embody phenomena. Because, you know, this is all stuff.

[26:21]

And as you feel the attentional stream of the stuffness of you, Yeah, fingernails, you know, shoulder blood and so forth. You begin to feel the presence of the air, the floor, the floor under your feet or coming up to your foot. And this is essentially, though I won't try to say more about it now, a development of a spatial attentional stream. The embodied attentional stream is essentially a spatial attentional stream.

[27:22]

Okay, now the third attentional stream. We had three already. No, we didn't. What were the three? Minded, bodily, and spatial. No, the bodily is the spatial. Oh, I see. Okay, all right. Yeah, the third attentional stream. The third is the self-identified, self-referencing attentional stream. Or maybe the emotional loving attentional stream. Oder vielleicht der emotional liebende Aufmerksamkeit. Der willkommen heißende Aufmerksamkeit. Zum Beispiel kannst du bemerken, dass jedes Mal, wenn du dich wohlfühlst, dass du dann jedes Mal an etwas denkst, das in deinem Leben schiefgelaufen ist.

[28:49]

Or you think, well, I feel pretty good now, but boy, did that guy screw me 10 years ago. Now you're present not in the minded attentional stream or the bodily attentional stream, it's a kind of psychological or karmic attentional stream. In our hubrically defined Western mentality, Every good thing is compared to our karmic debt. So now you're seeing if you can develop an attentional stream or you notice an attentional stream that's flowing within and through your psychology, your accumulated experience, your identity and so forth.

[30:21]

So in zazen you can notice these three areas Related to developing an attentional stream. Okay, now that was quite a lot. It wasn't much at all, but it was... very little over-described. But it's that over-description, I hope, which lets us enter with some sensitivity to our experience. Because if the primary dynamic of teaching yourself is first of all to establish an attentional stream,

[31:34]

You can notice whether you're establishing it as a minded stream or an embodied stream or a psychological stream. So what is your experience in any of these categories? Now, please don't tell me I'm always close to this. All right. Suck it to me. All right. What else? I'm waiting for anybody's feeling about these things.

[32:43]

Yes, Andreas? Yes. What helps me is to be close to some kind of mindfulness stream. And what helps me to do that is a phrase like, this very mind is Buddha mind. And that again I join bodily and through the breath. What you just said about going into detail more and more and refining, that's something that really helps me. Not so generalized, like saying in the spine, but more like noticing this very point in the spine.

[34:03]

And then I can refine that more and more at this point. Well, that would be a good example, too, of the bodily... attentional stream when you feel the spine throughout the day and throughout in your posture. Like feeling the breath, in this case you're feeling the spine talking to other spines. Hi, spine. Okay, thank you. Oh, yes. This is the robber's horse. Since you're the translator, now you're speaking. Oh, I see. Yes. I'm just wondering, if such an attention stream

[35:07]

What I'm asking myself is, is the attentional stream not something different from having attention, momentary attention to things? For example? Yeah. For example, I also have psychological patterns that are anchored physically. For example, I have psychological patterns which are anchored in the body. Yes. So I'm wondering at the moment how it is to bring attention to the body, to bring attention to attention, bringing attention to the body, bringing attention to attention itself, bringing attention to psychological patterns, bringing attention to psychological patterns.

[36:24]

How should I put it? Bringing attention to the body is not necessarily establishing a stream that flows through phenomena. Bringing attention to the body is not the same to an attentional stream flowing through phenomena, right? Yes. We have to have some way of making distinctions. So I wouldn't use the words attentional stream flowing through phenomena. but I would say rather phenomena in the midst of an attentional stream. Because if attention is flowing through phenomena, it's like associative mind. It goes this way, it goes that way, it goes wherever you're thinking of it. Now it's a little difficult to find some words for this, for metaphors.

[37:39]

Maybe let's use water since we're saying the word stream. Vielleicht nehmen wir die Metapher Wasser, weil wir über Strömungen sprechen. And so that there are various things floating in the water. Und da sind unterschiedliche Dinge, die im Wasser schwimmen. Maybe tadpoles. Vielleicht kaulquappen. Yeah, or fish or... Fische? Or, you know, some kind of... Whatever floats in water. Insects? Oder was auch immer im Wasser fließt, Insekten oder so. And what you're noticing is that all of them are floating and are dependent on the water. Und was du bemerkst, ist, dass die alle abhängig sind vom Wasser. So, and if you take the fish out of the water, then it's like Volker... A fish out of water. And you notice the fish needs the attentional stream of the water. I don't know. I mean, of course, percept after percept is attention, right?

[39:04]

So what does it mean to say an attentional stream and not just percept after percept? I think we'd have to say it's something, I mean, I have to think about how to answer this, respond to this, but it's something like knowing the percept is a percept. I know this is a bell. Yeah, but it's also a person. It's a bell and it's also mind because it's mind telling me it's a bell. Yeah. It's a bell. But it's also, because it's a percept, it's mind telling me it's a bell.

[40:26]

Yeah, if I was a Martian, I might not know this was a bell. But it's also simply mind and not necessarily a bell. I might use it for something else, to keep my tea warm. It's a tea warmer, a tea cozy. Yeah. So I guess we'd have to say that it's an awareness of attention itself in the... Within differentiation, it's a continuous awareness that all the differentiation shares mind.

[41:31]

Also müssten wir glaube ich sagen, dass es ein Gewahrsein davon ist, dass innerhalb all der Differenzierungen Does that approach your question? That totally, I'm impressed. Yes, that answered my question. I'm not so sure yet. Well, it did respond to my question. I mean, it gives me something to think about for sure. Okay. You know, I'm trying to speak in a way that that you can embody. I'm trying to speak in a way with my body that allows you to feel this as a craft, as a bodily craft of establishing a tensional stream. Ich versuche auf eine Weise mit meinem Körper zu sprechen, die es euch ermöglicht,

[42:36]

Das hier als eine Handwerkskunst, als Aufmerksamkeitsstrom zu verkörpern. Wir sind hier und formen einen Buddha. Buddha as a shared actuality. Buddha als eine miteinander geteilte Tatsächlichkeit. And Buddha as an individual actuality. Individual means divided, that's not a good word, but it's what we've got. Und Buddha als eine individuelle Tatsächlichkeit. Und Individualität ist kein so gutes Wort, das bedeutet geteilt, unterteilt, ja. And so that's a little bit like what we're talking about, the end is the beginning. The end is the Buddha, shall we say, for our sake right now.

[43:44]

So knowing that the end is the Buddha, we're shaping the Buddha through how we practice the attentional strength. Wissend, dass das Ende der Buddha ist, formen wir den Buddha durch das Etablieren eines Aufmerksamkeitsstroms. But you're each doing it in your own way. Aber ihr alle tut das auf eure eigene Art und Weise. Finding your own path. Euren eigenen Weg findend. But through this practice of how to teach yourself, let the world teach you through the attentional stream. Okay. Someone else? Yes. For me, that would be a very good summary of what you described. I often have the experience when my... I can still do that, yes. For me that was a great summary in words for something I'm experiencing, which is that I often times, when my mind gets distracted, for example, I think about some kind of conflict.

[45:10]

when there's some kind of inner struggle or something, I get distracted. And then, when I notice it, it feels as if I step back one step and immediately fall into a kind of depth, where I have the impression that something like a current arises immediately under this form. And I experience the immediate connection to this current, and the phenomenon suddenly becomes Then my experience is that as soon as I notice that and then take one step back, immediately I will feel that I'm opening into some kind of depth which that depth shows me that there's a stream underneath, and the stream makes it feel like the phenomena is an entry or a gate into, the phenomena is appearing in that stream and makes it feel like it's a gate into some kind of treasure.

[46:27]

Yeah, I like that. It is that. Thank you. I mean, if you believe you're a particular identity, fated, destiny, etc., if that's part of your psychological stream, you can't do what Hans just said. Because you have to feel that what you are is a process, and that process can be fiddled with, changed. If you think you're living out a destiny, this practice is almost impossible.

[47:33]

I'm such and such a kind of person and I'm always like this. Well, that's, you know, the death of practice. I'm like this, but the Buddha's way is possible. Okay, someone else? Yes. My experience with the flow of attention is that it is necessary, or in the moment when I notice that I am bringing attention to something, I am at the same time in a role of observer. And my experience with attentional strength is that I notice the moment I bring attention to something, I immediately feel that I'm in an observing position.

[48:37]

is for me sometimes like a back-and-forth switching between the observer and being in the stream, and that it needs something like the field of the mind to be able to observe the stream of attention, but the moment I observe it, it is ... So it's a little bit it's like switching having to switch back and forth between the observing position and the feeling of being inside the stream and so at least in terms of trying to understand this or in terms of the reason that seems like it takes some kind of Field of mind or something, because at least in terms of reason, it seems impossible to be both in the observing position and inside the stream of what's happening at once.

[49:47]

No, that's a very useful observation insight. And language observing puts us outside. But one of the first things to work on is to notice that the observing position is usually identified with self. As soon as we feel we're observing, we feel it's me that's observing. And that's not dharmically correct. The observing position is something that we do and even plants do. We then, because of all kinds of things, culture, psychology, parents, identify that observing position with self.

[51:03]

And by doing that, our parents try to shape us. As you said, I should go back to when I was born, so I'm trying it right now. Okay. Our parents try to shape us, and then the school takes over, and our culture takes over, and everybody's trying to shape us by shaming us into being a self. But tension... is not attention. How can I say attention itself is not self? Attention is not self.

[52:05]

In order to shape and develop ourselves in a collective sense, we identify attention with self. Now, I don't know if I can find the words to try to make this clear, since the words are rooted in the concept of self. But you need to explore and this is the third attentional stream The self-identified attentional stream. One of the first things to notice is when your attentional stream is intensely identified by self, and hurts you.

[53:18]

Did any of you see the Trump-Hillary debate? Hat irgendjemand die Trump-Hillary-Debatte gesehen? It's kind of hard to see, at least to see it live. It's kind of hard to be up at three in the morning. Es ist schwierig, das live zu sehen. Da muss man um drei Uhr nachts aufstehen. The world is hanging in the balance, so I get up at three to watch it. Actually, I worked at... No. Yeah, I guess I get up at three. I worked till three. Something like that. And then I watched it. Anyway, Hillary used quite effectively the addiction of Trump to his self-identified attentional stream.

[54:21]

What? His most used word was, I'm proud of... Yeah, right, of myself. Yeah, he used it in a very effective way, and the sentence... So she was much more physically composed, her torso, the way she turned toward him, etc. She maintained a physical composure. And she hung out bait, bait. Maybe you'd like this. Your attentional stream would like this. Someone said her weapon of choice was the needle. And so did you teach her?

[55:34]

What? Did you teach her? No, I'm not sure I could have handled myself as well as she did. So he fell for it. He fell for it more and more strongly. So you can notice when your self-identified attentional stream is intensely identified or less identified with self. When it's intensely identified, things hurt you, you can be offended, you know, etc.

[56:34]

One of the obvious ways of teachers in Zen challenge their students after they're fairly developed You say to them something like, you know, these are These are very good ideas of yours, but you're not really, you know, you're not really very intelligent. And if you can offend the practitioner, you know, he or she is not very developed. Yeah, that's why I'm studying with you, oh dear teacher, because I'm so dumb.

[57:52]

Yes, but that's why I'm practicing with you, good old teacher, because I'm so dumb. I like that word. Okay, so that's what we're talking about. So when you notice that your self-identified stream isn't very sensitive to self, you're okay, everything's fine, you know, maybe, you know, you know, then if that can be the case, then there can be a non-self-identified stream. Wenn du merkst, dass dein selbst identifizierter Strom nicht so stark mit dem selbst identifiziert ist, dann ist alles in Ordnung. Dann kannst du auch einen nicht mit dem selbst identifizierten Strom entwickeln. And then as Sylvia pointed out, when your observing position, so-called position, maybe observing posture is better, I don't know.

[58:54]

is distributed or felt as a field. Then the observing posture is felt as part of the field. Dann wird die Beobachterhaltung als Teil des Feldes wahrgenommen. Then you feel it's a shared observing posture. Dann hast du das Gefühl, dass das eine miteinander geteilte Beobachterhaltung ist. You feel the tree is looking at you too, or the bell is looking at you too. Du hast dann gleichzeitig auch das Gefühl, dass der Baum dich anschaut, oder dass die Glocke dich anschaut. And although those words don't convey what's really happening, there is a mutual participation, which we could call a mutual observing. Und obwohl diese Worte nicht genau beschreiben, was tatsächlich passiert, gibt es so etwas wie ein gemeinsames Beobachten, that we could call what?

[60:05]

A mutual field? Yeah, I don't know what I said. A mutual field. I should learn to find out what I'm saying. Are you a troublemaker? So I think Yes, I might. I'm done. I think it's time to, we've done enough. It's enough of a prologue for any old seminar. So let's listen to a bell for a minute and we'll end for today.

[60:50]

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