One of the questions that came up yesterday a couple of times in different ways and has been brought up to me today too. What do I mean by agency? Was meine ich mit Agent oder Agentur? As I contract it to self-agency. Und dann habe ich es zusammengezogen zum Selbstagenten. Well, it's really very simple. Eigentlich ist es recht einfach. It's I did it, that's agency. I did it. You did it. If you say, I did it. For example, I did it is an example of agency. Thank you. You did what? I did it.

[01:03]

Oh, I'm confessing. I did it. I was a good example of what it looks like to be at the tail end of the swine flu. Okay. So if you say God... If you have the feeling God does everything through you, you don't have a sense of self-agency. And our experience and development of the individual is inseparable from the empowerment of feeling, I did it, I'm responsible.

[02:06]

And we could say that much of what's happening in these kind of popular revolutions in the Near East They don't want Gaddafi doing everything. They want the sense that they have agency in power in their countries. He's so nuts, that Gaddafi. He's so nuts, that Gaddafi. He says, my people love me, why do they shoot at me? Anyway, this is no small matter, this sense of developing your individuality through the experience of self-agency.

[03:18]

because where do we have the experience of self-agency is in consciousness. Because we have the consciousness, we're conscious that we did something. So individualism, based on empowerment of self-agency, locks us into the experience of identity within consciousness. Do you see that? I mean, that really makes it very difficult for practice for the yogic body to have its own intelligence.

[04:25]

Or to imagine a way of being in the world that's not self-referential. Okay. Now a number of you yesterday clearly pointed out yogic bodies. Now, we usually say bodies and not minds. I could say yogic minds too, but it's not what's usually done in Buddhism and it doesn't convey the experience. Yes, for example the Dharmakaya is the body of space.

[05:40]

It's not a space-like mind, it's a space-like body. A kaya means body. Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya. Yeah. Okay. So a body in Buddhism, as I pointed out often over the years, is not the stuff of a body, but what makes a body alive. So if there's a corpse here, in Buddhist terms that's not a body, that's just stuff. Sorry. You used to be a body. Ah, but if it suddenly got up, you'd say, ooh, you got your body back. This is great. So the body is what makes the body alive. So it's a sense of the overall systemic aliveness.

[06:57]

Mind is more... a narrower sense of aliveness. Though the word body although the word mind as we use it in English for Buddhist terms refers to all aspects of aliveness including the body. Yeah, no, I mean, I think it's necessary to sort these things out. We're using these words and we should be clear how we're using them. And how we notice and describe our own experience. Okay. You're right under me.

[08:17]

Did my coughing keep you awake last night? Oh, good. I was a little worried. Kept me awake for four hours. Okay. Okay. Now, Buddhism has words for the experienceable aspects of mind. And also words for the non-experienceable aspects of mind, or minds which you can't directly experience, but you can see the results of. We don't have English words for these aspects of mind.

[09:28]

And I don't think we have German words for these aspects of mind. We can hardly translate mind and geist into the same language. Okay. Okay, so we have to, I think it's helpful for us to name, try to name some aspects of yogic minds or yogic bodies. And I think we basically mentioned or implied all four of the main ones I'd mentioned. And one we could call is breath presence mind.

[10:36]

And let's also then add spine presence mind. And let's also then add spine presence mind. And then let's add hara, or inner gut presence, hara presence mind. And let's finally mention extended bodily space mind. Now I would say that those four are the main ones to notice. Notice, and I think we do notice it in our Zazen practice.

[11:39]

To notice, to articulate. Sie zu bemerken und sie auszudrücken. And to train. Und zu üben. So they're accessible resources. So dass sie verfügbare Hilfen oder Ressourcen sind. Now they, in a koan might say something like, these are the everyday, well they wouldn't say bread and butter. These are the everyday bread and butter, because they didn't have bread, they didn't have butter and bread. These are the everyday bread and butter of the patched robe monk. The everyday resources of the patched robe monk. That in this kind of example I've made up, means the resources of spine presence mind, breath presence mind,

[12:50]

hara presence mind, an extended bodily space mind, are all accessible, always accessible resources for the adept practitioner. In other words, let's take spine presence mind, I can feel now the mind related to the uprightness of the spine. I hate to say my spine. Because I don't feel it exactly belongs to me. I know that it's located quite near what I call me.

[14:21]

But it's actually inherited from a long line of spines that go back many generations. And the mind that arises from This spine is part of this room, part of our being here together. Yeah, and so I can, in a sense, as Manuela pointed out yesterday, you can modulate this spine mind by how you bring attention to the spine. Or a similar way I can shift very easily to breath presence mind. Just now in speaking. And the pace of speaking is related to the breathing. And so the attentional aspects of language

[15:43]

are more fully incorporated incorporated means to embody more fully incorporated by the breath presence mind What is incorporated? The attentional aspects, the feeling, how you mean something is more conveyed within the attentional aspects of the breath presence mind. I get lazy, you know. I mean, I try to choose the right words. But I know if I don't do too well, he'll improve it.

[16:57]

But in America, I can't depend on that, so I can improve it myself. And this is something different. Your attentional body is focused in the hara. And it helps to really suspend discursive thinking. And you feel in the world as a physical presence in a way that's different than through the breath and spine. Yeah, and if I shift to... extended bodily presence, I have to sort of give up and disappear and allow a wide feeling to absorb me and the situation.

[18:06]

No. You didn't learn about these in high school. There's something we learned through Buddhism or yogic practice or martial arts or something. But now you know about it. You're in on the secret. Yeah, and meditation and mindfulness... can bring these four to the four. And as you begin to notice them each the noticing begins to articulate them. And the articulation makes them more accessible. Okay. But there's also cheekbone mind. At least I find, and I think my point here is it can be any bodily part, can be the aspect, a yogic aspect of mind.

[20:00]

But I find that the right and left cheekbones are kind of like antenna. Like a cell phone, in which nowadays there's no antenna because the case is the antenna. and if I look and sense the world and don't think I feel my these cheekbones and don't think are sort of engaged in the knowing of the world.

[21:05]

You can also have a chakra mind. And of course a hara is a chakra mind. And when you have a breath presence mind, it easily shifts into And I think there's also something like, I don't know, I'm not a neurobiologist, I don't know, I'm just a guy who happens to have started yogic practice. And it's through practice his, and I hope a little bit of her, own experience, is trying to make sense of these experiences within the paradigms of the West. so that we can, you know, feel this together.

[22:13]

This is a kind of friendship, yogic friendship. So I would say that there's also maybe something sort of like a fascia mind. Fascia is the sheath of fibrous tissue. Oh, yes, fascia, yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah, thank you. I always want a medical doctor for my translator. Not always. I discovered she'd be a good translator the other day. Mm-mm. Mm-mm. Yes, go ahead. The fascia are this fibrous tissue that from head to toe surround, almost like saran wrap, surround our muscles, tissues, organs, etc. And some people think it's the medium through which acupuncture works.

[23:31]

I have no idea, but I know there's some sort of feeling of an overall bodily connectedness that I, in my mind, call fascia mind. And I'm pointing these things out only because there's a subtlety to the body And not just stuff. A subtlety that comes alive, more alive, through meditation and mindfulness practices. Okay, now one thing that I proposed yesterday is that there is a bodily intelligence that's parallel to and not the same as mental intelligence.

[24:42]

Okay. Now, I don't know what word to use. And intelligent, the ordinary use... of intelligence in English doesn't help you too much for bodily intelligence. Because in English at least it's used primarily to mean you think things out. Yeah, you're good at thinking things out if you're intelligent. Yeah. But I've known a number of husband and wife teams where one of them thinks things out much better than the other. Wo einer von beiden die Dinge sehr viel besser durchdenkt und zu Ende denkt.

[26:16]

But the spouse, who is sometimes a male and sometimes a female, doesn't really think things out, but is extremely accurate at feeling things out. And often comes to better conclusions in the end than the person who seems to obviously think more clearly. And I always wonder about these differences. And when you feel with another person and when you think with another person. Okay, so I'm now trying to say something to explain to myself and to you what I feel. Explain in terms of Western paradigms my experience of bodily intelligence and why Zazen and mindfulness practice would accentuate that.

[27:33]

Again, I say these things so that you don't have to wonder so long in so many years as I have. The wandering is fruitful. But sometimes there's too much wandering in the wandering. And it's helpful to get to the point more quickly. your inner debates to resolve them more quickly. It's so nice of you to say all my words. Thank you very much. I love it. Goodness. Anyway. I have to find some more to give you now.

[28:49]

Okay. Since I can't use intelligence in the usual sense, let me, as I often do, go to the etymology of intelligence. And originally, I mean, in roots it means in between, picking and choosing. Inter is between or in the midst of or something like that. And the intelligence part is like giving a lecture, legible lecture. It's the same root. It's legere, like to read. But legere means to pick out, to choose.

[29:53]

So let's say that intelligence, in this case, as I'm limiting or focusing its definition, means not to think about, but to be in the midst of picking out and choosing. Now, I think the body does this. No. Somebody like the guy whose book I commented on yesterday, the reviewer of whose book I commented on yesterday. I mean, I don't know, I haven't read the book, but still, it seems to me he might say, well, you can't have intelligence that bypasses the brain. And he would probably mean by that that bypasses consciousness.

[31:05]

That bypasses reflective consciousness. And I would say you can't probably have a knowing that bypasses the brain, but you can have a knowing which bypasses consciousness. Because what we have here is a whole process. Brain, body, etc., sensorium, all functioning in relationship to each other. And after years of Zen practice, it's clear to me that consciousness does not have to be a pivotal part of this process.

[32:14]

Okay. So what do we have How can I describe bodily intelligence? Well, I mean, I'll try to find some words. It's the sensorium, all of your senses functioning, Functioning within the modalities of the body and not within the modalities of consciousness. the body in any situation is also noticing and choosing whatever appears is appearing in parts and so forth and it's absorbing those parts and those connectivities

[33:34]

And we could say summing them, adding them up. But not thinking about them. In a conscious sense. Okay. All right, so that would be, from my point of view, just now, this moment's description of bodily intelligence. I'll stop in a minute for those of you whose legs are no longer listening. Okay. All right, so if that's a description of bodily intelligence, let's have a description of why meditation and mindfulness increase bodily intelligence.

[34:49]

Because bodily stillness increases this absorption. An inner stillness increases this absorption. Next, an attentional body An intentional body increases this absorption. I mean, one of the aspects of a yogic posture, which is different than a position which is not yogic, A yogic posture is a posture, mental and physical, which can be infused with attention. I often say, if I'm sitting like this with you, it's how I feel sometimes.

[36:19]

But we can't say this position is infused with attention. But if I bring a little attention into it, it's like a balloon or something. Ah, whoa! I'm ready. Okay. So, a yogic posture is infused with attention. And the first four bodily presence minds I mentioned, their dynamic is that they can be infused with attention. Okay, so that's the second, an attentional body. And the third aspect is that yogic body can be more easily locked into immediacy.

[37:26]

Fully engaged in immediacy. Yes, so if you have a an intentional body fully engaged in immediacy, and the stillness, the patience that arises from stillness, the absorption which arises from stillness, you have a body knowing the world within the modalities of the body and sensorium and this is different than the modalities of mentation particularly when limited to consciousness.

[38:40]

So here we're not simply weaving body and mind together. Although this is a big part of making them partners and getting them friendly with each other. But it's making use of their differences. The knowing modalities of the body parallel to and in contrast with the knowing modalities of the mind and consciousness. At least this is the way Zen develops these things. Thank you very much. May God bless us in the same way as every being and every skin.

[40:04]

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