A special pleasure for me to be here, not only because you're all so nice. I know most of you. But also because this is one of the last times, maybe the last time I'll do this. Because next year I've decided to only do two seminars, one in Hanover because he twisted my arm. And one in Austria. I applied for early retirement. Ich habe mich für die frühzeitige Rente angemeldet. No, I'm just going to try to concentrate on other things and not do so many seminars outside of Johannesburg.

[01:04]

Also ich werde mich einfach auf andere Dinge konzentrieren und nicht so viele Seminare geben außerhalb von Johannesburg. Anyway, so it's kind of special to be here It's like that. Because I never know what to do, but I enjoy not knowing what to do. Okay, is there something you'd like to bring up, speak about? It helps me to have some feedback. In fact, it's necessary. It's up to the organizer to start. I saw he was organizing, looking around.

[02:07]

You mentioned yesterday that in China, Chinese people wait for the future to come. At least I understood it that way. And Westerners go towards the future. In about two months, I will try to make a kind of meeting with Chinese students. And I wonder whether this generation Who is now on the open-ended cross, it is yourself to say, right? Deutsch, bitte.

[03:12]

Yesterday, Oshri mentioned that the Chinese people want to see the future while we Western people want to see the future. And in about two minutes, I will have a seminar with Chinese students. We will celebrate together with Chinese students. Together with a Chinese who is almost finished. And I wonder if now the generation of Chinese students feels something like that. I would expect so, but of course I don't know. But what I said was that there's a concept in China of

[04:16]

Imagining, understanding, expecting the future to come toward us rather than thinking of the future as something we go into. And it's not that they wait for the future to come. There's no wait, it's arrival. So there's two differences here. One is that you don't go into the future, but it comes toward you. And it comes toward you in its unexpectedness. And I didn't say actually, and I'm not correcting you, I'm just trying to be precise, because last night I just sort of said something.

[05:38]

Yeah, I didn't say in general Westerners, because I don't know about in general Westerners. I think in German you have a number of ways to conceive of the future. But certainly in the English language, the culture is rooted in the English language. But the future is something that's conceived of as a place you go to. And as a result, you try to make the future predictable. You try to make it a place you're familiar with. If the Deutsche Bahn and I are low-headed toward Hannover, we have to know where Hannover is.

[06:51]

I was on a plane once flying to the United States, and it got lost over the Atlantic. For some reason, the guidance system worked in England and America, but it didn't work in the middle. There's a different system in the middle of the Atlantic. So we get off Ireland somewhere and the pilot says, sorry everyone, we're lost. Yeah, I was lost too.

[07:52]

And I don't actually know the technology of it, but we had to turn around and we landed in Scotland or some place and got something fixed and then we took off again. So if you're going to go into the future, you want to make the future predictable. So you design your life around its hoped-for predictability. If you have a slightly different view if your view is the future is the nature of the future is of unexpectedness and if it's unexpectedness is always arriving then you have to have a kind of readiness, but not much more to be alert and ready than to have professional skills or something.

[09:23]

You probably emphasize more trying to make the present secure than the future secure. The whole emphasis in America, and I think Europe, Germany too, is insurance, medical insurance, life insurance, after-death insurance. This is all a concept of trying to make the future predictable. And I would guess, talking about your Chinese students again, If you expect the future to be unexpected, then you're going to study differently.

[10:30]

You're going to prepare yourself differently. You're not going to prepare for an expected future. You're going to prepare for an unexpected future. Yeah. So I know that, you know, if I go, I mean, I'm sorry I'm talking so much, but I apologize. But if I go into a, when I was, I stopped my PhD studies to do Zen. But when I went in for one of the interviews or kind of tests that you have as part of getting your advanced degrees,

[11:37]

They asked me things that I should know about. If you go into a similar kind of interview in Zen, they try to embarrass you or upset you. Then you're trying to experience an embarrassing situation. Sorry, you translated that very well. Because they want to see how you handle yourself, not what you know. So there may be some difference like that with your students, I don't know. Maybe something different.

[12:56]

I don't know about that, but maybe... Okay, yeah. But on the other hand, we cannot live without planning. We have to do that somehow. But do you plan for the unexpected or do you plan for the expected? Let's say if I want to eat something, I have to figure out what I have to buy in the supermarket. That's true. Yeah. Of course, everyone plans. But within what world view do you plan? I mean, I go to the supermarket, it's empty. Then you have to figure out what to do.

[13:57]

Okay, yes. I think that the title for this seminar has been very good marketing. Original mind, a living original mind? Yeah. Oh, really? Okay. Because it intrigued a couple of questions. Okay. Okay. Well, if I got you here, I'm glad that the marketing was good. It was working brilliantly. Oh, yeah, okay. The question that has raised for me In German, the word original is translated as original in the sense of where it comes from, in the sense of original as something very particular and very exotic almost. And there's a difference. What I liked was the polarity between something that is unique, original in an egoistic sense, and on the other hand the search for the essence, the originality.

[15:46]

So what I found to be interesting is this polarity between this, in an ego sense, the uniqueness of something, and then the original in the sense of in the sense of its very essence. I didn't understand the ego sense of uniqueness. When you want to be original, then it has something to do, especially in the creative sense. Then you try to create something out of your ego or to develop something that is original, unique. If you want to be original in the translation in German, original, then it has this connotation of you wanting to create something very special and very unique.

[17:02]

Yeah, that's a kind of psychodynamics or something like that. Yeah, there is a kind of psychodynamics. Of course, if I'm going to teach in English using a phrase like original mind, I have to understand, say, three things. I have to understand what this means in actual fact in practice. Ich muss verstehen, was bedeutet das als Tatsache in der Praxis. I have to understand as well as I can what it meant in 13th century Japan or 8th century, 9th century China. Ich muss verstehen, was bedeutet das im 13. Jahrhundert in Japan oder im 8. 9. Jahrhundert in China. And I also have to understand what it means in English to most people. Und ich muss auch verstehen, was bedeutet das für die meisten Menschen im Englischen.

[18:08]

Because any phrase will send us off in various directions. And either to make use of those directions or stop them. So I think what you're pointing out, in German, the phrase goes in certain directions. We have to notice that those directions that the word in German brings us relate to the actual practice that's met. And I can't speak to that in German, but it's probably not so different than the So I'll try to deal with some of that, but you also, understanding what I'm saying, will have to deal with it yourself in your own complexity. Okay, someone else. This image of the future coming towards me?

[19:38]

I realized that this is just a certain kind of category in which I may look at it. And I realized that in the same way I am actually looking also at the past. But when I changed this concept, I realized that also the past is connected with you. And I found that to be interesting to experience in this manner. You and Dogen. Dogen says the past goes from past to present to future. And the future goes from future to present to past. And to feel both directions is something that happens in practice. And I would like to talk about memory as text, but I don't know if we'll have time.

[20:54]

Something was very important to Ivan Illich. And it's very close to my own thinking and practice. But let's see if we get there. Okay. Yes, you told me that when you practice Maharshi, your breathing becomes automatic. I know that from my practice as a bodybuilder, that I feel the breath of others, of myself, but also of other people. Can I translate? Yeah. Okay.

[22:14]

So you talked about coordinating the breath with the Maharashtra. And I also know that from my work as a, what are you, psychotherapist or physiotherapist? Therapist. Yeah, as a therapist that I... that I will see if I can coordinate my breath with people. But I'm also noticing with some people I automatically almost do that. But with some people I feel there's a resistance and this feels almost way too disturbed or too ill for me to enter the same breath. You feel a resistance from the other person or a resistance from yourself? Yeah, I understand. I understand. Yeah, a sickness from you.

[23:19]

Yes, yes, I understand. Yes. Yeah, yeah, I understand. I think that was all clear in Deutsch, right? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's true. I mean, it's not an accident that the words spirit and inspire and spiritual and soul and psyche are all words related to breath. And I think it's no coincidence that the words psyche and spirit, also spirit, So maybe you can be inspired, inspiration, inspired by another person. But you can probably be outspired, too. That's a good one. Because breath and you're, oh, you're very outspiring. It would be the ultimate insult.

[24:26]

He's very outspiring. Because your breath and your state of mind are so closely related. And also, when you breathe with another person, you know, the word conspiracy means to breathe together. That's this I mentioned. I think somewhere he says that the Hebrew, the Jewish culture, I need to check on conspiracy again. Is that to come together? Conspire, to breathe together. Yeah, but does it mean people coming together or does it mean... Now it means, yeah, now the word conspiracy means to plan something sneaky.

[25:34]

against the government or against... But in fact, meditation practice is a conspiracy. The Sangha is those who breathe together. Ha, ha, [...] ha. You be careful. So, but I think, again, going back to Illich, I think he says something that, I think his words are exactly the Hebrew, he says. He says something like, we... live under the nose and breath of God, something like that. That there's a feeling that we breathe in the mind and body of God as well as each other.

[26:45]

Und zwar so, dass es da ein Gefühl gibt, dass wir in dem Geist und in dem Atem Gottes zusammen atmen. And that shared mind that arrives through breathing together is the essence of friendship and society actually. Und dieser gemeinsame geteilte Geist, der durch dieses gemeinsame Atmen ankommt, ist... But as society gets more complex you don't want people to breathe together. I remember in Japan there's something called the I can't remember the word. But it means a self-sufficient unit within the society. So there'll be a small group of villages, like where I used to have a house up on the coast of Japan facing China.

[27:47]

And they understood that one village is usually not self-sufficient. But a group of villages was considered, and there's a word for it, a self-sufficient unit. Within the group there were enough carpenters, enough fishermen, enough farmers, enough weavers, that they needed nothing outside this little group. And as a result, these little groups were impossible to politically control. And so in about, I think, the 15th century, the shogun, the military boss of Japan,

[29:10]

And saying that his political control did not reach into these little self-sufficient units which were all over Japan. He said a very smart a devious thing. Basically he said, hook them on Tokyo goods. Get them addicted to goods they don't produce. And that's the story of our society. We're a tremendous amount of social control. Actually, advertising buys our mind space.

[30:29]

Externalizes our mind space. One of the remedies to externalizing your mind space is to practice meditation. I can barely say these things in English. I'm amazed you can say them in German. Well, And there's a tremendous intimacy when you breathe with another person, when you breathe with a group. And that intimacy is scary. You know, it's a problem when you practice together.

[31:31]

Often there's inappropriate kind of love feelings. Because of the intimacy that's caused by breathing together. So we need, through practice, we widen a sense of intimacy and don't limit it to just love kind of intimacy. So people resist breathing, feeling their breathing with another person because of the intimacy. And they also, we one self might resist it because you feel you can go into a very crazy state of mind if the other person's in a crazy state of mind.

[32:39]

Aha, but then you need original mind. Because original mind stays stable even though one part of your mind is engaged through the breath. So we're approaching from here and there original mind. Okay. Someone else. Oh. Oh. Finally someone asked. And I don't think you have to have that translated.

[33:52]

Oh, you translated it. I did already. Well, it's not a who-ness, it's a what-ness. And I think, you know, I'm trying to sneak up on it today and tomorrow. And give us a feeling for some examples. And maybe we can, perhaps, I hope by the end of the seminar, have a real feeling for it. I'm glad that you're not the kind of shouting guy who's getting this kind of question. I'm glad I'm not shouting at you and saying, I spare you 50 blows. It works sometimes.

[34:55]

Someone else. Is the fuel of mind a substance? Or is it also a coaching that we need? Do you want her to translate that? Okay. So you... So the last thing you said was something like, is the field of mind approaching your thinking? I started off with this.

[36:04]

You're chewing on it. I got that. It brought me lunch soon. It's a substance. It's always what I do in thinking. You mean, when you're chewing on it, are you actually thinking that it's not productive? Not nourishing. Okay. Okay. So, I mean, I... So I said to bring attention to attention.

[37:14]

And I've used this example many times. I can bring attention, I can ask you all to bring attention to this stick. And you can become quite concentrated on the stick. And of course there's quite a lot of teaching about having a mind able to stay with something. And it takes a while before one's mind can just rest wherever you put it. It goes away, it just comes back by itself. That's technically what's called one-pointedness. but the problem is in English and German especially in German doesn't mean one point because it sounds like this but it doesn't mean that it means the field of mind is everywhere present

[38:37]

Okay, so let's say that we can all be pretty concentrated on this. Okay, then I take this away. And let's say you stay concentrated. Now what are you concentrated on? You're concentrated on the field of mind itself. You've got a physical feeling for it through this. Now I can take this away. You can continue the physical feeling. So now there's a field of concentration. And I can bring the stick back up into it.

[39:51]

And then the stick can be observed from the field of concentration. Now that's another way to say samadhi support. Because you're mine. I always have to help. You can buy the cushions right out. And there's a little tape recorder inside. You can hear me. Did I understand correctly that you cannot turn the field of mind into an altar? No, let's say that if this is the field of mind and I bring this stick up into it

[41:02]

without any distraction of other... In other words, the contents of mind are gone. By concentrating on the stick alone, I've eliminated the other contents of mind. Which is also what the practice of naming does. Now I've taken the stick away. Now there's no contents of mind. Now, with that feeling of no contents of mind, I can look at anything and it's very one-pointed because the field of mind is concentrated there. I'm not concentrated on the object. Does that make sense? Yes. Okay. I'm glad it does. And now that I've taken away the slag, I can direct my attention to all kinds of things, because I'm concentrated on the field of the mind.

[42:10]

So one-pointedness means, really, to have no other contents of mind except one thing at a time. And that's also the feeling of arriving in each moment. Okay. Now, I'm trying to create some pictures here, some images. Yeah. And images are more powerful than thinking.

[43:27]

And images include more than thinking. And images include more than thinking. But images can also oversimplify. Yeah. So I'm trying to create some images and try not to let them oversimplify what we're talking about. Okay. So you want to, I want you to use the images Which again is very similar to intention. Intentions and images can be present in one's mental and physical activity and can be in a way seeds seeds die die Weisheit einer jeden Situation herausstellen.

[44:39]

Wenn ihr eine Situation denkt, dann sorgt es dafür, dass ihr sie beschränkt. Aber wenn ihr eine Intention haben könnt in einer Situation, dann sorgt es dafür, dass ihr viele Dinge bemerkt. Okay, so here we're talking about noticing the different contents of mind. Naming, activity, intentions, images, thinking. Yeah, and the different contents of mind create a different field of mind. but the contents of mind see if I get my words to fit in here somehow first I'll say the contents of mind are not the field of mind and the field of mind is not the contents of mind

[46:03]

But that's like saying the body is not the mind. Or the mind is not the body. But there's no mind without a body. Without a body. Okay. so the mind and body are inseparable and the field of mind and the contents of mind are inseparable but they're what can I say contrasting manifestations Okay, now I said the most important target of attention is attention itself. Okay, so we can bring attention to the contents of mind. But can we bring attention How do we bring attention to the field of mind if there's no contents?

[47:31]

How do you bring attention to the field of mind? Because the nature of attention is an object of attention. Well, you put simply, how does the eye see the eye? How do, this is the fundamental problem, fundamental problem of all meditation practice, is how do you bring attention to the non-contents of mind? Okay, from my window upstairs. That big last night, there's a pretty big corn field. It's planted very differently than corn in America.

[48:41]

Or at least differently than when I was a child. I don't know if it's a difference in farming equipment or because this is probably mostly animal corn and not human corn. I'm just mentioning this for the heck of it, but in America, the Midwest, the corn is planted quite far apart, so a lot of sun gets in, and you can see rows in all directions. At least you can't see through it. Yeah, I just mentioned, I guess I'm interested in the particularity of things. Anyway, there's a lot of corn outside my window. And there's two small trees.

[49:41]

And there's several ancient huge trees in the distance. And let's say the corn and the trees, the small and large trees, are like the contents of mud. And they all share the same soil, dirt, earth. But they don't possess the earth where they are. Now, oh dear, this is going to go a little bit longer than I wanted. I'm sorry. Let's quote somebody.

[50:46]

Why not Wittgenstein? So Wittgenstein says something like, I always occupy a particular point in my visual field. Okay. You occupy a particular point in your visual field. And I occupy a particular, and you do, and you do, etc. Actually, that's very close to the pronoun I. Genau genommen ist das dem Pronomen ich sehr nahe. You can't find the self. The self is not an object. Denn man kann das Selbst nicht finden. Das Selbst ist kein Objekt. But in fact each of us occupies a specific place in our visual field and in every field. Aber tatsächlich besetzt jeder einen spezifischen Punkt im visuellen Feld.

[51:53]

Now let me quote Dogen now. Nun lass mich Dogen zitieren. Dogen says, the continuous, I used this the other day, Dogen says, the continuous practice which actualizes itself, the continuous practice which actualizes itself, is your practice just now. But the now of this continuous practice is not originally possessed by the self. The now of this continuous practice is not originally possessed by the self. Wittgenstein says, I always occupy a particular point in my visual field.

[53:06]

Okay. But that visual field is not possessed by the self. But it's not inseparable from you. It's not separable from you. I said it's not inseparable, I meant it's not separable. Oh yeah, this is smarter than that. I just move my lips. We have to turn this over to the younger generation. Okay. That's saying pretty much exactly the same as this now is not possessed by the self. This is not hard to understand but it's so mixed up with our usual understanding it's hard to sort it out. Okay, so let me try one more thing.

[54:07]

There's the corn and the trees. And they share the same soil. But this field out here is not a desert nor a swamp. And it was a desert like around Crestone in Colorado. Different things would grow there. If it was a swampy field like in front of Johanneshof, different things would grow there. So what grows there is not separate from the field. But what grows there is not the field. Okay. Now the trees and the corn know the soil. They're rooted in the soil. Even though you can't ask the corn, hey.

[55:30]

No. You can look at the corn and you know the soil. And a really good farmer or agronomist could actually say, looking at the corn, it had this or that kind of soil, like a good wine grower can tell by the grape what the soil is like. So if we continue this image, and we say that the soil is something like original mind, the soil of mind, And the contents of mind are like the corn and the trees.

[56:47]

So what we really have is a dynamic of a relationship between the corn and the soil. I must. Okay. So, if we have a tree. I'm not good at pedagogy, but you know. That corn. Now, and this is the field. This is the space. Okay. Now, there's actually a relationship, of course, between the soil and the tree.

[57:56]

And corn. And the tree. And the corn in the soil. And there's actually a relationship this way, too. Okay. So from this point of view, this is a separate and not the corn. The tree is not the corn, the corn is not the tree. Now, are we eating corn for lunch? If this is confusing, I'll come back to it. Now, if this... this tree only identifies with itself as a tree, it doesn't feel any connection to here or to the soil.

[58:59]

But if the tree identifies with the soil and the tree, then it'll feel the connection with the corn. Even though there's no cactus growing here because it's a different soil. It shares with this. So this line represents interdependence. due to the fact there's always present interdependence that we don't usually notice. We can say noticing original mind simultaneously with the contents of mind It's similar to noticing the relationship between mind, the tree and the soil.

[60:02]

So what you really have here if we compare it to original mind and contents of mind field of mind and contents of mind you actually have a dynamic of a relationship between back and forth. And since neither of these are And since neither of these are entities, they're activities. There's an activity of tree and soil, soil and tree. And obviously this is the same dynamic as form and entity. Or it is a field of mind and contents of mind. So we have something like this. So you have a tension that goes this way.

[61:39]

And you have a tension that goes this way and becomes part of the feeling. So in a way we can say this activity is original life. Okay. We're heading in your direction. Yes. Is the original feeling a method? You want to say that in Deutsch for me? So are you saying, is this thing excludes this thing? Is that what you're saying?

[62:55]

Yeah, but what is limited and not limited need? Well, your question is fundamental, that's for sure. But this is a practice, not a philosophy. Okay, so if we can solve the philosophical problems, let's do that after we establish the practice. As I said, this is a particular soil. It's not a swamp. You know? It's not a desert. It's green northern Germany. Okay. But if we get this dynamic, it may be the basis for the more extended dynamic of the particular, the everything all at once.

[64:02]

That's why I left a little gap here. Okay. Okay, so what I've tried to establish now is that the contents of mind establish a particular field of mind. Like the most common example for all of us is when you're dreaming, dreaming exists in a certain soil of mind. When you wake up, there's a different soil or a different liquid.

[65:06]

The dream's gone. You can't get it back easily. So the contents of the dream were related to the field of dreaming mind. You can recapture the dream sometimes by recapturing the field of mind or recapturing an aspect of the dream. So I'm going to leave us with a couple of questions. It's easy to bring attention to the corn and the tree. How do we bring attention to the field of mud?

[66:13]

Or the soil? The corn and the tree both share the same soil. But they've forgotten about it because this guy is busy being corn. And most of us are so engrossed, monopolized by the contents of mind, we don't notice the soil. So if I here start noticing the breath of this room, the conspiracy of this room, then I'm beginning to notice the soil. You can say that's a step toward noticing the soil of mind. Anyone want a cigar?

[67:26]

You pass out cigars in Germany when you have a baby? I don't. The cartoons are in the fake movie, you know? The father passes out cigars. Is this spoiling or what? I don't know. OK, so the question is, how do we bring attention or begin to develop the subtlety of attention where the corn knows it shares soil with the tree? Wie entwickeln wir die Untergründigkeit, die Subtilität der Aufmerksamkeit, in der der Baum den Boden mit dem Mais teilt?

[68:29]

Okay, now you may understand better, Dogen saying, this now does not originally possess by itself. Und nun mag es sein, dass ihr besser versteht, wenn Dogen sagt, dieses jetzt gehört ursprünglich nicht dem Selbst an. Yeah, so the continuous... I'm sorry I'm going over lunch, but I can't start this up again. The continuous practice which actualizes itself is your continuous practice just now. Arriving in this now. And this now is not originally possessed by itself. So the tree may have a strong feeling of tree-ness. I'm busy being a tree. But this does not belong to the tree. And this visual field of which I find myself in a particular location, is not the born field.

[69:46]

So the identity of the tree is not just the tree, the identity of the tree is also the soil. The identity of the soil also belongs to the corn. This is pretty much what Buddha means by selfless. To widen the sense of self. Okay, now then we have a question. What is the relationship of this soil to the soil of all the other fields? I know this is an exciting moment, but we'll leave it at that. Thank you very much. So it's about what time?

[71:00]

About quarter to, and are we eating here or eating somewhere else? We're eating here at 1.15. 1.15, half an hour break, huh? Okay, well I could have been injured. So shall we, 1.15, shall we come back at 3 o'clock, 2.30?

[71:16]

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