Well, hello, Nicole, who I actually see, and hello to everyone else. As I've mentioned quite often, spent 50 years more than that, speaking about practice, person to person with people in their practice. And now I find the microphone and the screen and the feeling, and I really do feel the I'm talking with you and I feel somehow the presence of you, but somehow it leads me to speak in the context of Buddhism itself, the wider context of Buddhism.

[01:07]

As I have said several times, I have been used to it for 50 years and even longer than that, to talk to other people personally, face to face, in the context of your practice, your practice. And now there is this context where I speak with the microphone and the camera, but still Yeah, as I said, I still feel I'm speaking with you anyway, even though it's in my imagination. Yeah, and I, so because of this sense of speaking within the larger context of Buddhism itself, I start out, I've started out almost each time with big questions or big statements.

[02:16]

And then my sense of it is to how to turn those big questions into Dharma doors or Dharma gates. Okay. And then into the craft of practice. And then into the autodidactic practice, which you discover through your own experience. Yeah, there's these steps in practice from the big propositional concepts, wisdom concepts of Buddhism,

[03:37]

I'm using propositional because they're propositions about how the world is or could be or maybe is, might be. And I use the word proposition here because it's something like a proposition, a statement about how the world is. Yeah, and again, how that becomes... an entry a Dharma door and then the craft of of putting the practice putting instrumentalizing the concept and then your own autodidactic practice. And again, how this can become an access or a Dharma door.

[04:55]

And then how you can put the practice into your own autodidactic process. And the big questions or the big statements for today are are that we don't really live in the world. We live in our descriptions of the world. And we live in our experience of the world. And our descriptions and our experience are definitively, usually, brain-based predictions.

[06:05]

And our descriptions and our experience are... The functioning of our predictive brain survival, yeah, And our mostly acculturated experience. Yeah, so the Delphic maxim, to know thyself, In Zen practice, it really means to know, to study, to observe the definitions in which you live your life.

[07:21]

And the cultural experience. And Zen is also sometimes often called the practice of ordinary life, practice of ordinary mind. Yeah, but that really means the ordinary mind and ordinary life, the ingredients of ordinary mind and ordinary life, which are brought into... But what that really means is that the ingredients of this ordinary mind are brought into the Zen practice, into the meditation practice and into the propositions or the basic assumptions You can hear in what I've said so far as I'm emphasizing the feeling in fact in this talk of the role of propositional concepts in Buddhist practice.

[08:54]

Was ihr da heraushören könnt, was ich jetzt bisher betont habe, ist die Rolle von Propositionskonzepten. Can I say basic assumptions? Is that different from propositional concepts, basic assumptions? Um... Yeah, it's okay. It's a little different, but it's good enough. I can't find, I don't know if there's a different word in German for what I'm trying. Okay, also die Grundannahmen oder die Propositionsannahmen, einfach die Annahmen darüber, die Rolle der Annahmen in der buddhistischen Praxis. I assume the world is like this, or I propose that the world is like this. Okay, yeah, I see. So it's the difference between I assume that the world is like this, or here, as he uses the word proposition, I have the hypothesis or I suggest that the world is like this.

[10:06]

To assume the world's a certain way is to act as if it is that way. To propose it's that way is to act maybe it isn't that way, but you're trying it out. There's more discovery implied in saying you're proposing it's like this. Now, last time, last Sunday, I spoke quite a bit about the successional experience. Last Sunday I talked for a while about the experientiality of each other.

[11:33]

And I hope you're still trying that out or experimenting with that because to really locate yourself in the world as a successional world and not a world of continuity is hugely important. And I hope that you will continue to try it out, because it is really incredibly important to locate experiences that follow each other in the world. And the experiential, realisational dynamics of that successional experientiality are implied or in the background of everything I'm saying today as well. So I said last week that there are these two big recognitions I'd like to establish. One is and the other is the distinction between mind and the contents of mind.

[13:11]

And I said there are these two concepts with which I would like us to experiment today. One is that of the mind, So I'd like to see if I can establish the craft of realizing, making that distinction today. And what I would like to see today, whether I can make it clearer, is the art in it, the craftsmanship to make this distinction. Yes.

[14:14]

And so, first of all, the concept has to be there. That there is a distinction. The concept has to be that there is an experienceable distinction between mind and the contents of mind. Now, that's the practice. Recognizing that arises from Buddhist wisdom. And it arises from the necessities of the craft of realisational practice. But recognizing that distinction, it's a rather subtle distinction.

[15:24]

We mostly just, you know, usually many of us, most of us just see objects and we're aware. We feel the objects are out there in the world. We don't even feel they are conscious objects except, you know, they're objects and they're kind of independent of consciousness. Okay. We are, but we do know that sometimes we're asleep and not conscious in the usual way.

[16:35]

And sometimes we're sleepy and hardly conscious. So we know the distinction between consciousness and being asleep or sleepy. But of course we know that sometimes we are, well, normally we are conscious during the day, but sometimes we are tired, sleepy, and then we also fall asleep and dream and so on. And we already know this difference between being conscious, being awake, and being asleep. But the brain doesn't make it obvious that we are seeing the medium of consciousness on every percept, every object, as well as the object. Excuse me, you mean... The brain doesn't make it obvious that when I look at this microphone or the screen or you or Brian here or James, I don't...

[17:38]

the objects don't appear as simultaneously the medium of consciousness. They just appear as objects that are out there completely independent of me. Yes, okay. But consciousness doesn't make it an obvious fact that when we see something, I see Max or the pillar or the camera and so on, So it takes some reflection to say, oh, I'm also seeing consciousness, and let's also say it's not just consciousness, it's the medium of consciousness. And so it takes a certain amount of reflection.

[18:49]

I have to think about it, to say that, okay, what I see there is not just consciousness, but let's also say that it is in the medium of consciousness. Now if our new maxim is to know thy medium of consciousness. As soon as you begin to know that you're also seeing the medium of consciousness, then you begin to say, hey, how is consciousness participating in this object I see? How is the medium affecting the object? As soon as this happens, you can also ask yourself the question, as soon as you start asking yourself this question, you can also ask yourself, okay, how does the medium of consciousness influence the perception?

[19:53]

And now this concept is also, if we take it one step further, today at least, only one step, it is also a medium of consciousness which is arising within the medium of mind. So I have these English words which have developed through experience. That there's a percept, that there's consciousness, and that there's something maybe we can call mind.

[20:59]

So we have this concept we've articulated in the last few minutes. That there's the sensorial percept. And we can also know with a little thought that that happens within consciousness, which is a medium, and so that happens within the medium of consciousness, which is not necessarily, and is not in fact, the same as the object you're perceiving.

[22:08]

And if we just think a little bit about it, then we can also recognize that this object of perception shows itself in the medium of consciousness and that that is not the same as, oh, excuse me, that that is not the same as, how did that sentence end? that the medium of consciousness is not the same as the object being shown to you by consciousness. Now, language doesn't make this easy to speak about. And that's part of our practice, to begin to see if our experience can be more subtle than the words which point to our experience. So you in Europe have to sort this out in how your language allows you to enter into this craft.

[23:26]

And you in Europe must find out how you sort this out for yourself, how your language, the German language, allows you to get into this craftsmanship, to get into this art, to develop this art. Yeah, and so the first practice is the concept and refining the concept. The distinction between mind and the contents of mind. The first point here is to have the concept and the concept of the distinction between the contents of the spirit and the spirit itself. Because you need to make distinctions, we can say wisdom distinctions, distinctions which allow attentionality and noticing to feel the difference.

[24:55]

So the concept and the refining of the concepts lets you refine attentionality. Okay, and the second practice, the second dynamic of this or craft of this is zazen or meditation of some kind. And the translation of the word zazen is very accurate. It means sitting absorption. It doesn't mean zai is sitting and zen is absorption. It means sitting absorption. It doesn't mean sitting understanding. And the translation of this word, zazen, hits the point where it works pretty well.

[26:15]

Namely, za means to sit and zen means absorption. So the word zazen means to absorb sitting. That means not to understand sitting. So you use cognitive skills to refine attentionality as understanding, but you can't apply that simply to the experience of Zazen. Also benutzt du kognitive Fähigkeiten zwar, um dein Verständnis zu verfeinern, aber du kannst... Did you just say you can't necessarily apply that to sitting Zazen? Yeah, when you're thinking through refining the concept, you're doing it cognitively and you're understanding it. Yeah, yeah.

[27:16]

Okay. But when you do meditation, you're absorbing it. And absorbing is a different dynamic than understanding. Yeah, okay. I translate and then I have a short question. You can do your own riff. Yeah, no, I don't want to go that far. Okay. Also, du kannst deine kognitiven Fähigkeiten benutzen, um dein Verständnis zu verfeinern, aber die Dynamik der Absorption, wenn du das im Zazen absorbierst, dann ist das ein anderer Prozess. Der Prozess der Absorption ist ein anderer als der Prozess des Verstehens. Okay, so let me quickly ask maybe here, because I'm just wondering, would you say what you are absorbing, though, I mean, they are different processes, that's clear.

[28:17]

The process of absorption is a different process than the process of understanding. Understanding, yeah. But what would you say about, are you... They aren't separate. They're distinct, but they aren't separate. Aren't you absorbing what your understanding is? Really, you have to let go of understanding and let a process of absorbing happen. When a gardener plants a flower, So the gardener, through his understanding or her understanding, prepares the soil and prepares the bed.

[29:28]

Yeah, but then, once he or she has planted the flower, he or she lets the flower do its own process. Yeah, and he might add fertilizer or water or something, but basically he lets the flower do itself. He may add fertilizers or something else, or water the plant or something. But basically he lets the flower create itself, that the flower produces itself. The scroll, the kakimono behind you, the moon is a kind of code for mind, and the branches are doing themselves in front of the mind of the moon.

[30:46]

Auf dem Rollbild hinter dir, da ist der Mond, repräsentiert den Geist. Und die Zweige vor dem Mond, die machen sich selbst, bringen sich selbst hervor, vor dem Hintergrund des Geistes. Yeah, and there's a little Zen poem I've always liked from way back in the beginning of the 60s or late 50s. Which is, sitting quietly, doing nothing. Sitting quietly, doing nothing. Spring comes. Spring comes. Grass grows by itself.

[31:56]

And grass growing by itself is like in Zazen you let the body do the body. You use understanding and concepts to establish the postures, establish the context and so forth. But once you've established the posture and the context, you let the body take care of the body and establish its own inner accord and evolution. You use the concepts and the mental attitudes to create the context, to create the connections. But when you have created the connections, then you admit that the body produces the body and that the body has its own evolution.

[32:58]

And we let that happen through, I could say, maybe the medium of interiority. And what I'm trying to move this Dharma discussion toward is the realization or experience of interiority, the alchemy of interiority. Yeah, and interiority is not consciousness. It is a process, a dynamic of noticing and absorbing, but not of thinking about. So the first practice of noticing and experiencing the distinction between mind and the contents of mind

[34:07]

is refining the concept of the distinction. And the second practice is, again, Zazen meditation. And first of all, when you start to practice, your mind, your consciousness is full of discursive thoughts usually. And you try to teach awareness to count to ten. Consciousness can count to ten easily, but awareness has a hard time and suddenly sometimes doesn't get past two or three or even one.

[35:41]

So you're trying to bring awareness, or let's call it in this case mind, into a field of attentionality. Yes. And because what you discover in Zazen is that the contents of mind, the conscious contents of mind are a different medium than mind. The contents of consciousness are a different medium, conscious contents are a different medium than mind. So again, just my saying these words is trying to refine this concept. And that refined attentionality begins to be able to notice the energetic difference between the field of mind and the field and the contents of mind.

[37:25]

And can you repeat that, please? Yeah. the refined attentionality that you're bringing into zazen, a noticing, a refined noticing, And that noticing feels the difference energetically between the field of mind and the contents of mind. These teachings are all shortcuts which have taken generations to establish, and once we can establish and refine the concepts, we can begin to refine our own practice so that we can have an experienceable difference between consciousness and mind.

[38:47]

And then you find, you can begin to feel that When you're on the cusp between consciousness and mind, if you're on one side of the cusp, thoughts, mental mentation immediately becomes discursive thoughts. But more you're on the mind side of this cusp, Thoughts, discursive thoughts, entities, concepts just sink to the bottom.

[40:06]

But the more you stand on the side of the mind, on this cutting edge, the more you are in the mind, the more concepts simply begin to sink. In mind itself, there's no energetic support for discursive thinking. Im Geist selbst gibt es keine energetische Unterstützung für das diskursive Denken. Now, I should stop now. We lost a few moments in our freezes, but I should stop now if I'm following our schedule. But just let me say, and I've got several more steps to go in this development, but just this, when you really feel this experienceable field of mind, you're suddenly free of culture. And again, suddenly you have a way to

[41:23]

to decide how you're going to live your life, what aspects of culture you're going to evolve and what you're going to emphasize and so forth. Yeah, so that's enough for now. And there's two or three more ways in which we need, we ought to develop this distinction. As Zen practice. Okay, thank you very much.

[42:26]

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