What would you like me to start with? Didn't you like start something at the end of the last thing that you said you'd finish? Oh, yeah, but I don't keep my... Well, you can remember. I know. Oh, it's outside now. Okay, I'll come back to that. Yes. Yes. I'm interested in the mind that completely rests within itself without planning and without feeling pressure from the outside, without analyzing, without questioning.

[01:19]

What about that mind? Yeah, we're all interested in that. It's called Buddhahood. But the fact that you can articulate it and you can imagine it as a possibility, you have a feeling for it. This is wonderful. And if you have a feeling for that, this is already a very big step. Now if you can hold that as a feeling, as a real possibility, As an intention? Yeah, and you can trust the, and if you trust the intelligence of the world, each moment,

[02:22]

then it's likely that you can realize or to some important degree realize this mind. And if during meditation or sashin, things like that, we sometimes experience it, this helps this intention to be the actual Christian. But just to have the intention is a great gift and power. I'm going to be digitalized and lost somewhere on a computer and never to be printed.

[03:42]

Yeah. Anyone else? Someone else, please. Everything was clear as a bell beforehand. No questions about it. So everything was clear as a bell before and there are no questions about it. Somehow the question arose in me if the whole thing cannot be understood anyway why so much attempts to explain it? Earlier I had the question if the whole story can't be understood anyway why then so many attempts to explain it? You're excused. You can go have your lunch. You're excused. You can go have your lunch. Who says it's not understandable?

[04:46]

You say it. Did I say that? Where does it take place? He says it's not understandable. He says it's not understandable. It depends what you mean by understandable. It's not, in some ways, it's, you know, if you try to understand it in the usual way of thinking, it's not so understandable. If you understand it as angry, as a possibility, as something you sense is real, then it's understandable. Yeah, Sophia and Zoe are hoping to grow up. They think when they grow up, they'll know everything.

[05:47]

They think everything will be better when they're an adult. And they'll think they'll be free to do whatever they want. And if they're free to do everything they want, they're going to be happy all the time. And if they hold this as an intention, they'll probably grow up. And maybe they'll find out it's not true. But somehow we'll grow up. And now I think through practice you're trying to grow up in some deeper way. What's it called? But somehow we all grow up and I think that through practice we try to grow up in a deeper way.

[07:03]

I think that's what we do. About this explanation you gave us beforehand, I had the feeling I have a certain sense of what it is, but afterwards I had the sense I don't understand anything at all. That's the way it is, yeah. Yeah, we have a feeling for it and then it disappears and then it comes back. Yeah, I'm glad you hope so. This is progress. And the translator's also allowed to ask or make comments.

[08:06]

Oh. I see what I can do. I have one more question. I have a friend who has just fallen into a psychosis and I somehow had the feeling that I wanted to help her with something out of tradition, out of teaching or out of practice, but I didn't know how to help her. So I have another issue to bring up. A friend of mine recently had a psychosis. Oh, I'm sorry. And I had the feeling of wanting to help them with something that's rooted in this tradition, with something that's coming from within the teaching. But I didn't quite know what's appropriate, and I was wondering whether you have any suggestions of what might help out of the teaching in such, yeah, when someone

[09:16]

See any more plasticity? Suffering, just suffering. Okay, but someone's suffering psychologically, like people. Well, not knowing something about her and the case and situation and background and the history up until now, I can't say anything. But I can say, yeah, I can just reflect a little bit on this in general, but what's your brother? Um, Basically, practice is something that helps you help yourself. If you can't help yourself, it's pretty hard to practice.

[10:24]

And in general, I've seen people who are mildly psychologically disturbed or neurotic or something. Practice doesn't necessarily help them. It might and might not. But I've also known people who were quite thoroughly, deeply disturbed, but they had an intention to do something about it. And practice is in practice allowed them to to that intention allowed them to, the practice allowed them to strengthen that intention.

[11:37]

But without a certain kind of energy and intention, it's difficult. You know, Zen is not a cure-all. And it was a kind of shocky episode for the new people studying with Tsukiroshi in 1960-61. Because we had two people who were pretty central to the group, three even, go quite crazy. They were attracted to Zen because it did sort of help them. And one of them was the sort of president of the early Zen Center. And he went completely crazy I remember sitting beside him, talking with him, and he was, flames are all around me.

[13:07]

And the more naive Jews in the 60s in San Francisco, They thought, here's this wonderful Zen master, he should be able to cure anything, and obviously it wasn't happening. But he also, on the other hand, helped quite a number of people who were had this kind of intention I'm speaking about, an energy to do something. Yeah, and he helped quite a few people get out of the, if you can imagine, the fields of LSD in those days. A big difference between, a big single difference between Zen's approach to psychotherapeutic problems and psychotherapy.

[14:45]

Zen works with how the mind works. And so, primarily works with symptoms. What's happening right now, not what happened in the past. But sometimes both approaches are useful. Now, if this woman is already started in practice, maybe there's some possibility. But if she's not started already, there's not much she can do from the point of view of practice. Because you've got to see the possibilities or have a feeling for them before you can enter. Otherwise it just doesn't make any sense at all. Okay. But you can be present to her and with her through your practice in a way that can be helpful to her.

[16:18]

Okay. So would you talk about the role of intentions in Zen practice? Would I talk about that? Yeah. Well, that's what I have been talking about. But I'll continue. Okay. Okay. Okay. Here I am. Yeah, I don't know. I sometimes blame it on my nose. I followed my nose.

[17:19]

I saw a picture of myself yesterday in a car from the side. I couldn't believe it. I'm going to carry mirrors or something. Anyway, I've either followed my nose or followed my intention. And I ended up doing it. I certainly didn't plan this in the cornfields of Indiana. The path kept opening up, so I followed it. Yeah, it seemed more vivid than wandering in the shadows of my mind. Then I had some trust that somehow it would work out. I never worried whether I'd eat or... I didn't think about those things.

[18:47]

Going back to Ivan Illich's statement, the Hebrew, he said, amble's under the nose, within the nose, under the nose and within the breath of God. And he said, in a similar way, the Christian, he said, walks in the sight of God. No. You can't just say, oh, this is a nice statement. It's sort of like believing in God.

[19:48]

You've got to try it out. You've got to enact it. You've got to take it as an activity. Or dynamic. Okay. Now, put that aside for a moment. Yeah. So, Zen is not about being natural. Even enlightenment isn't natural. I mean it's universal. In the sense that any human being in any culture seems to have experiences of enlightenment. But you can't think of it as, well, if you're enlightened, then you're the ideal human being.

[21:03]

Or if you've had an enlightenment experience, it means you're something like enlightenment. Now, one of the things that William James points out in one of his... One of the things we can see in reading William James' taxonomy of Protestant conversion experiences And one of the things that we can see when we read the writings of William James is about the taxonomy of Protestant conversion experience. Is it the phenomenology

[22:05]

Now, the experiences are very similar, basically the same as Buddhist and Maiten experiences. For example, in Philip Kepler's book, The Three Towers of Zen. Okay. Now, we tend to think, oh, yes, somehow there's oneness, there's some kind of enlightenment or some kind of natural way to be fully human. To be fully human. Okay. But Buddhism, it's Two and a half millenniums of experience say that enlightenment needs to be accompanied by wisdom.

[23:26]

And guess who has had a Protestant conversion experience? President George W. Bush. He's had an enlightenment experience. I don't want one of those. But I think if you're going to be honest about this, he's had some kind of what do they call it? Born Again. And it's some kind of Protestant conversion experience. Changed from being a 40-year-old drunk to being whatever he is now. Yeah, okay. So even enlightened experiences need to be accompanied by wisdom, the context in which the experience is opened up.

[24:58]

So again, what I'm bringing up here is just sitting zazen to find your natural self, yeah, maybe you're going to feel better, but it's not really Buddhist practice. Okay. So the concepts or intentions you bring to your practice are fundamental. Even if you bring no concepts, that's fundamental. But to bring no concepts would be one way to practice Zen. But to develop a mind free of concepts, let's see any of you do it. This is not easy. This would also be wisdom then.

[26:14]

Wisdom, yes. Okay. So the point I'm making here is that we practice mindfulness and we practice meditation, I hope. Zazen. Zazen. And I hope you do that in your daily life. And what I'm trying to do for this two and a half days is to bring some of the concepts or attitudes or intentions into your practice. Into your zazen and mindfulness practice. which will make them most likely to be satisfying and bear fruit.

[27:15]

Okay, now let's go back to amble under the nose and within the breath of God. Now let's enact it. Imagine all the time you had the feeling that God's breath was here. Or imagine you felt you were walking in the sight of God. Now I'm sitting here in the sight of each of you. And by the way, I apologize a little bit for always coming in after you've started meditation.

[28:20]

But since I have to say something to teach, it's much more... fruitful for me to come in after you've established a field. And I sit down and And it's not a field I helped establish. So I'm walking, I'm sitting here in the field of each of you. So I'm here in the sight of each of you now what if I also imagine that I'm also here in the sight of God that's a very powerful and interesting dynamic now I'm not talking about you know belief in God or not belief in God I'm talking about the dynamic of this view

[29:33]

Now, of course, it would depend on what concept of God you have. If you're the severe, punishing Jawa God, you know, it's going to be... You better watch out. You better not pout. Santa Claus is coming. He knows when you've been sleeping. He knows when you're doing good. You don't have to translate that. But that's a dynamic. He knows when I've been sleeping. But if you have a dynamic of a kind of accepting, loving God, a concept of an accepting, loving God, then that would be a different presence.

[30:36]

Now Buddhism takes the view that there is no God. My daughter is causing a little problem in our neighborhood. Because it's quite a good Catholic neighborhood. Very nice people. And she announced to these kids, I have been in an airplane up above the clouds and there was no God there. What? In the other kitchen. So we told her, Sophia, you know, you'd just better not say this. In our neighborhood. So Buddhism would say, okay, the concept of the presence of God is useful.

[32:04]

But the concept of God we have is very important. Now, if you think God is real, then you can't mess with the concept of God. But if you think it's a dynamic of activity, but I want to have the presence of God that works. But you have to be careful, because then you get into some modern thing, everything is relative, and then you end up in mush. But just again, let's imagine that you have the feeling that as I'm in the sight of each of you, I'm simultaneously in the sight of God. Mm-hmm. So I have both, not just the sight of God, the sight of each person, my own sight.

[33:34]

Now that's not so different than the feeling of somehow original mind is present here. Buddha mind is present here as well as our usual mind. So I'm ambling. Ambling means to walk without purpose, in a mind at rest. The flaneur of the Paris gaslights. You know what a flaneur is? A flaneur is someone who... What? A flaneur. Flaneur.

[34:37]

Oh, I don't even know the German. Okay. Somebody who just wanders walking in the streets enjoying the crowds. It kind of was created during Baudelaire's time when there were gas lights and suddenly people weren't just walking on the street to go to work. It was the evening time. You could be out and walk around in the evening and enjoy the crowd. Suddenly you had a chance for people to gather and be together. Yeah, I was in Georgia, Belize, before the wall came down. Belize and it's in Georgia, part of the Soviet, former part of the Soviet Union. Georgia. Georgia on my mind. And I went out from this hotel I was staying in.

[35:55]

And honestly, I walked 20 blocks in two directions. could not find a single place to have a cup of coffee or tea. There was no place to conspire, no place to get together and talk. But then again, let's go back. Imagine ambling within the breath of God with each other. Just imagine ambling within the breath of God with each other. Okay. Now, again, all I'm pointing out here is that it really makes a difference what kind of view you have in the midst of your activity.

[37:09]

And part of that view is your intention. And when we practice with the five skandhas, or we practice with the precepts the instructions are you hold them in your presence. The instructions are not that you follow the precepts. The instructions are that you live in the presence of the precepts. Yeah, I mean, one of the precepts is do not kill. You can't follow that. If I grind my teeth, I'm killing things.

[38:15]

But I can live in the presence of trying to avoid killing, trying not to kill. So the teachings are presented not to be followed, but to be held in mind, to be held in your activity. And that depends on a kind of belief or faith, actually. A faith in the likely wisdom of the world or intelligence of the world. Okay. Okay. So, now, go back, and we'll take a break.

[39:17]

Go back to what I said earlier, something I said earlier, and then we'll take a break. Let me go back to this comment of Durgin's. Continuous practice which actualizes itself. Now, this isn't just continuous practice. It's continuous practice which actualizes itself. So continuous practice, which actualizes itself, is your continuous practice right now. We can have some kind of seminar on what is continuous practice. And certainly one thing continuous practice is, is holding intention, wisdom in your mind and body.

[40:38]

And you know, as I said earlier, to bring attention continuously or Have your intention living in your breath. When some of you first hear that, that sounds impossible. I can't get my attention in my breath all the time. There are better things to do. And I love the guy or the woman, I think it was the other day somewhere, who said, yeah, what you say is very interesting, but my breath is so boring. I can't pay attention to my breath, it's too boring.

[41:43]

And someone else said try smoking, it makes your breath more interesting. What can I say? Well, I can say, quote Arnold Schwarzenegger. Breath with the mind in it is better than any cigarette. Okay. The continuous practice which actualizes itself is your practice right now. And the now of this continuous practice is not originally possessed by self.

[42:47]

Now that's really a great, powerful statement. And then he goes on to say that this now does not exist without continuous practice. Now, what he means by now is the now that's realized through continuous practice. This actualized now, this actualized continuous practice is the seed of all the Buddhas. This is really structurally And in terms of its dynamic, not different than walking in the sight of God.

[43:58]

It's just put in the Buddhist way. But the consequence, the result is probably very similar. If you feel this actualized now, this arriving in your activity, this continuous practice of arriving in your activity, is the seed of all the Buddhas. It means you have the feeling of the potentiality of the sight of God or the presence of Buddhas in the details of your activity. Okay, so now we'll have a break. A pause. Oh, I'm so good. Four o'clock. And afterwards I would, as many of you know, would like you to gather in small groups.

[45:27]

And I'll let the two of you figure out how to do that. Yeah, okay. And what should you speak about? That's up to you, of course. But I hope it wasn't from the side. Warn me. Well, at least you can laugh. Yeah, have you Yeah. Let me think about how to put it, but basically, in what way have you had experience that relates to what I've been speaking about? And the feeling of knowing things without thinking.

[46:31]

Okay, so I'll let you have your break. Thanks a lot. We lost him. Where did he go? Maybe he's there. He was at lunch. Sitting beside me.

[47:04]

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