I think this is a particularly difficult topic. Because it's so familiar to us. I mean, we are very familiar with the words in our own language for love and compassion and mercy and pity and so forth. And we're... Yeah, familiar, pretty familiar with each of the emotions that the words... And probably if I asked each of you to describe the difference between pity and mercy or compassion and love, it might be rather difficult to do.

[01:03]

But I would guess that in your actual use of the words, what word your body-mind chooses in a situation... It's probably quite accurate and precise or distinct in relationship to other similar words. Yes, but Is our understanding sufficient to build a practice on one of the words?

[02:18]

one of the emotions. And are all the words the same practice? These similar words? Or do some of the emotions represented by the words lend themselves more fully or profoundly to practice. At least for me, sorting that out in English and then hoping you sort it out in Deutsch is actually quite difficult. Magical people are appearing who I haven't seen for a while. Magische Leute tauchen auf, die ich für eine Weile nicht gesehen habe und die auch gestern nicht hier waren.

[03:42]

So I'm of course very interested then, or anyway, in what you talked about yesterday afternoon. What you chose to talk about and what you had to say about it. So I expect 100 volunteers. I mean, 40 or 50 or something. Who's going to be second? Yes, Nico. We started out by asking about the title of the seminar, What is a Bodhisattva? And could we express or say what a Bodhisattva is?

[04:51]

And there was a general sense of it's not so easy to do that. So we looked at the koan that you presented to reach for the pillow at night. And we wondered, how do we see the qualities of Avalokiteshvara as he is presented in that koan? And we found characteristics like connectedness or receptivity or sensualness. Sensualness or sensorialness? Sensorialness. I think. Offenheit und Bereitschaft. and openness and willingness, compassion and something like a continuous wanting to help kind of intention.

[06:01]

And we talked about how the ideal of the archetype of the Bodhisattva happens before the question of what would really be great humanity. And we talked about what the ideal of the Bodhisattva would say about what would really be great humanity. And what kind of human being do we wish for? What kind of human being can we be and what is our potential? And we talked about the syllables of the word bodhisattva. Enlightenment being or enlightening being. And so that the bodhisattva is not an entity but an activity. And about the fact that the Bodhisattva is not an entity, but an activity.

[07:15]

That the Bodhisattva is not somebody who can stand anything. But it was also new and pleasant for me, this idea of the Marakana, to become envious, to be constructive. And also for me the idea of the Mahakala was quite a relief. The idea that you can also be constructive by being wrathful. That wrath can be appropriate. And we spoke about our difference to these ideal archetypes, the Bodhisattvas. And we talked about Eure Verschiedenheit. Unsere Verschiedenheit davon. Oh, okay. Reichheit damit. Yeah. And we talked about how we are different from these Bodhisattva ideals. Aber nicht nur ungleich, sondern auch gleich.

[08:19]

But not also how we are not equal to the Bodhisattva ideals, but also how we are equal or how we fulfill. Wie die Praxis sozusagen der Dialog ist zwischen dem and how practice can be the dialogue of being equal and not equal and the ideal of the bodhisattva. and how the task at hand then really is how to develop our lives into these directions. If I've forgotten something or somebody doesn't feel included in the description, then please add it. That what you just said should be

[09:24]

Some version of that, versions of that, should be probably the discussion in every family, maybe over a period of a child growing up, for example, or something. And it makes a difference, of course, if we consider these things. And of course it makes a difference when we take these things into consideration. You were going to say something new? Thank you. We start with a very moving example. Someone talked about the death of one, or actually several children, but now one child, where a large community of mourning was gathered in Friedhof. We talked about a very touching example that somebody brought up, which was about the death of one child in this case.

[10:29]

We also talked about the death of many children, in this case one child, and there was a huge assembly to mourn the child. And the person, Those who took part in it, even though they were not related, especially felt this incredible feeling of connection, that I stood under the presence of a faithful community. And the person who participated in that, even though he or she was not a relative, mainly talked about this incredible connectedness among the people in this gathering. And he also talked about the father who basically broke down at the grave of the child, but who, through the participation or the engagement maybe of the people who were there in this gathering and who walked past him,

[11:34]

fed him in a way. He got more and more upright. He got more and more upright again and found his power. And then we, due to the example that you brought with the tears, said, what brings us to tears, or how is it with the example of touch, when we are touched? What is the relationship to compassion and touch? And then we talked about referring to how you talked about the tears. We talked about what makes us cry, what brings us to tears, and how does that relate to compassion. Yeah. Being moved and compassionate. That was two words. Yeah. Thank you. Yes? I have a question. I think that in my experience, the people who really helped me, what the Bodhisattva would feel,

[13:11]

I was in Niko's group and one thing that stayed with me and that I found to be really essential is that those who really helped me, those people who I would say were a bodhisattva or are a bodhisattva in my life. These were always people who were in a very direct contact, not always the same kind of reaction, not always compassionate or wrathful, but always in a very direct contact. ... And I wonder if we say that the bodhisattva arises from the host mind, if then maybe we shouldn't think about bodhisattva, but have the intention to meet everyone in a field where one has the openness to express exactly what is happening at this moment.

[14:33]

but have the intention to encounter everybody in a field where you have the openness to react to whatever is in the immediate situation. Sounds good. Someone else? One aspect that we talked about were these 80%. And one thing that still stayed with me is the question how these 80% are also 100%. And so far as this 80% may be all that I can do, as much as I can do.

[15:39]

And that maybe 20% are not doable. Yes. In our group we talked again about the question of how to forgive. Also haben die Frage einfach noch einmal genau angeschaut, in der es darum ging, wie kann ich, also wenn Vergebung impliziert, dass mich jemand wirklich verletzt hat, wie kann ich dann einmal diesen Schmerz, der als eine körperliche Spur, And the question that started our discussion again was,

[16:41]

How can I hold the pain since forgiving implies that somebody hurt you? How can I hold the pain that seems to be often perceived as a kind of physical trace that stays? When you feel compassionate for someone? No, not yet. A physical trace that stays as pain and how can I hold that together with a sense of wanting to be compassionate, wanting to wish the other person well. And then we talked a lot about our own experiences that we made with the topic of forgiveness and noticed that there are very different aspects for each of us. And then we all talked about various experiences that we have around the topic of forgiving.

[18:00]

And first of all noticed that this process of forgiving for each of us seems to have different points that are difficult to penetrate. There are several knots in the process that we have to deal with. And from there we actually started to weave something like a Bodhisattva network. So different qualities and abilities that one would need in such a process, but also as a Bodhisattva arising from our experiences. And from that we went into weaving a kind of bodhisattva network with the knots being some kind of capacities or maybe attitudes that we found coming from our experiences needed to bring into the situation so that it would go forward somehow.

[19:09]

And the characteristics that we found there were the ability to be connected. And the attitudes or capacities or abilities that we found were the ability to be connected, to feel connected. And acceptance and always being fresh in the moment. Absicht und rechte Sichtweisen, genau. Some of them were the ability to always see the situation fresh at each moment, again new and new. And the ability to, I don't know, first intentions and right views. and acceptance, we came up with several things that are the sealed mind and being located in aliveness. Or the sealed mind and being located in the living.

[20:13]

And then we actually moved on to the question, what is a Bodhisattva for us? And then we tried to bring that together in the question, what do we mean by saying Bodhisattva? Yes, Kiral. I'd like to add two aspects from our group. We talked about how being concerned with a bodhisattva, or engagement in bodhisattva, that that needs to be a practice that has to be developed.

[21:17]

It is not enough to have an idea of what a good person is. it's not enough to have an idea of what a good person is like. And we always found it to be very helpful that you gave us all these different images of what a bodhisattva is, what kind of abilities a bodhisattva has, and what a bodhisattva is like. To see that this is a practice towards what you are presenting. So we have to develop our own private practice within this field. And the second aspect that we talked about extensively was suffering and pain.

[22:24]

And the second aspect that we talked about extensively was suffering and pain. And one aspect was how can we transform suffering so that it turns into something like anger or sacred wrath. Wrath, yeah. And the question also arose, what does it mean when a bodhisattva really hears, hears deeply the suffering of the world? And the other question that came up was the question, what happens when a bodhisattva really hears the cries of the world? And are we really willing to deeply look at the suffering of the world without having internal resistances?

[23:39]

And is that something one can deal with? Is that standable in a way? Or does that lead to a point where you can't do anything but crying oceans of tears? That in itself can be a very liberating act to be able to hear even better. How do we get to the point where we can no longer resist what we see and hear about suffering? And that in itself can be a liberating act. But how can we bring ourselves to a point where we can really see and hear the suffering? And the crying also may lead to being more able again to see and hear better. And that is one of the reasons why this practice is so important.

[24:59]

And then that is also part of the bodhisattva practice, to deal with these things. OK. Yes. I would like to add something to what was said in the group. Yes, they asked us from which place or space the bodhisattva acts. Can you hear him in the back? I was in Neil's group and I would like to add that we also asked from what space or place does the bodhisattva act? And the sense of being touched. And we also talked about Paul. It's a special story in Britain. Okay. Who sang this particular song and a lot of people had to cry. Is this the feeling of Bodhisattva or does it come from a place of one's own self?

[26:19]

And we asked ourselves, is that the space of the Bodhisattva, or does that come from a more emotional space, like when you see in the movies? It's based from self, not from monsters. Like for example when you see in the movies that somebody is being saved and then you have to cry because that happened. And the question arose whether the space of the bodhisattva is not again a different space that arises from a non-self. Yes.

[27:35]

In our group one aspect of that was also present. And I would maybe say it this way, that you are touched to tears when boundaries are being transgressed. And then what kind of boundary is being transgressed? I don't think you mean transgressed. I mean trespassed. No, you mean crossed. Crossed, okay. Transgressed means you violate the boundaries. Oh, no, that's not what I mean. Okay. Or transcend. Oh, no. Crossed. Yeah. Or the boundaries move. Yeah, something like that. I understand, yeah. Is that a boundary in your own personality?

[28:39]

Like, for example, you're doing something that you've never dared to do before. Or that you see the boundary of a concept, for example. And when that dissolves? Yeah. And then there is the question, when can we speak about the the solution of boundaries of a bodhisattva and grenzen.

[29:40]

Hast du eine Idee? When is that crossing the boundaries? When is that the action of a bodhisattva or when is it something else? Ja. Ja, ist das okay? Ja. Okay. Yes? I was in Gerald's group and we also talked about what practice looks like. Is that an active process or is it a passive process? that it is possible to develop yourself at all, or that, as is often the case in Christianity, when I share or fight, if I do not want to develop an ideal and therefore fight, that the opposite happens.

[30:58]

whether it's possible to develop at all, or maybe it's more like in Christianity, where when you try to develop and therefore fight parts of yourself, that may have the opposite effect. Yeah. Yes? You used to be first all the time. You must be getting older. Okay. A very important step, I think, is to bring it out of such a theory. First of all, I have to develop a lot of empathy with myself.

[32:02]

One aspect that we also spoke about is the aspect of compassion. I found that I also have to develop compassion, first of all, from my own space. And it was a very similar process, just like the Zen practice, And maybe a similar aspect is how Zen practice also has changed my experience of compassion and different aspects are coming up now. with feelings or with feelings in situations, for example, in this example with the control, how only through the active practice that I have done there, i.e.

[33:17]

Kihei and breathing, I was able to experience feelings differently. And one example with compassion or with this sense of feeling with, is that only through my active practice of doing Kin Hin and breathing, in this example of the funeral, how I could experience compassion in a very different way. and also the sense that through that I could hold that and experience it, really. Thanks. You know, I think we should have a break in a minute.

[34:17]

Oh, people agree. But let me say compassion is an experience, love is an experience. It's something we find ourselves experiencing and add the word to it and then the word influences our experience and so forth. And the word categories sort of domesticate our experience. And I think what's interesting about our seminar and the discussion is the word categories in German and English, Deutsch and English, influence how we think about these things.

[35:32]

And we can notice our experience through the word categories and the word categories influence our experience. Okay. And then we have these new word categories. Der Bodhisattva. And compassion as a practice is not the same as compassion as a feeling. Or it's related, but not exactly the same. It extends, changes the... inclusiveness of compassion.

[36:34]

And I feel inadequate to bring these words to you. Inadequate? Yeah. Und ich fühle mich unbeholfen oder ich fühle mich nicht richtig dabei, euch diese Worte zu geben. Oder meine eigene Erfahrung davon, was diese Worte darstellen. And realization of what these words mean, practices mean, is inadequate, I think, for my unavoidable responsibility in saying something about these things.

[37:42]

I say something about these things because they've been important to me. And I say something about these things because I've been trying to, I've been relating my life to these ideas for 50 years. So I feel this responsibility to say something about these things. But simultaneously I feel, you know, I feel somewhat inadequate in trying to present these things. I mean, when you have, when something like the word bodhisattva appears in a society, And I watched the word mindfulness appear in Western thinking.

[38:55]

And right livelihood appear in Western thinking. And most people not realizing that mindfulness in English and right livelihood in English Words that have their power through their being rooted in the fruit of Buddhist practices. But right livelihood means freed from, loosened from the Eightfold Path, and its relationship to the other seven, still became a very powerful...

[39:55]

what words should I use, a very powerful articulation of a position in society. During the Vietnam War, Because many scientists, I mean a very small percentage of all scientists in the United States, but many scientists and engineers decided they could not make weapons or do research leading to weapons that were going to be used in war. justified that by the idea of right livelihood. which went directly against the kind of laissez-faire economics, in a parallel sense, that you just have free markets and assuming everyone is selfish, what a horrible thing to assume,

[41:36]

That markets will operate for the benefit of everyone because we think everyone is basically selfish. I mean, don't you think that's a monstrous idea? All right. At least as an idea. Well, I think it's a similar thing that scientists justify their work often because the pursuit of knowledge is our job. What happens to the knowledge is not our responsibility. And my high school graduation speech was actually something like this, that scientists, my family are a lot of scientists, are going to develop nuclear weapons and not take responsibility for what happens.

[43:25]

If you invent guns, everyone will have a gun. If you invent nuclear weapons, everyone's going to have nuclear weapons. That's just the way it is. And if we invent them, they're 99% likely to be used. Just a matter of when. Okay. So the idea of the bodhisattva who has responsibility for the knowledge or his or her actions is a very powerful idea in our society.

[44:32]

Could be. And the approach to this idea And the approach to this idea in my own life is taking years, decades. As an idea and as an ideal, as a dynamic that works within my life, etc. And, you know, I need about another few lifetimes to, you know, and I've only got one lifetime to be here with you. And related to the Bodhisattva is the idea of compassion as creating the Bodhisattva and being the work of the Bodhisattva.

[45:36]

And related to the bodhisattva is the idea of compassion as the work of the bodhisattva as well as creating the bodhisattva. So it's actually incredibly important to me to see how this idea floats around in us, this particular remarkable selection. people, persons. But we don't get anywhere unless, as Andreas says, we start from our own experience. Because it's only through really developing and noticing and articulating our own experience.

[46:53]

That's why I spend most of Friday on what is a good person. But if we really observe and articulate our own experience, then there's the soil to plant the seeds of bodhisattvic compassion, etc., So I would suggest, for example, like in Giulio's example and what he said, he has experience of a number of people in his life, it seems, that have in effect been bodhisattvas for him. They may not have been bodhisattvas to everyone, but somehow they were to him.

[48:06]

So in a way we could say among the people he knew there was enough bodhisattva experience to generate a bodhisattva feeling in him. In other words, if there's enough bodhisattvic feeling among us, this group, the overall effect of all of us may be like the presence of a bodhisattva. Or in other words, if there is enough bodhisattva feeling in us here now, then it can be that... Sorry, then that. That overall of effect of all of us with some sense of a bodhisattva may function in society like a bodhisattva.

[49:16]

In other words, a sangha can be a bodhisattva in a society. Even though each individual is not fully realized the bodhisattva, but overall the sangha can have the effect of the presence of a bodhisattva. And Giulio can, and each of us can, look at the experience that we had of this person as somehow a Bodhisattva in our life. And you might feel, Giulio might feel, and each of us might feel in a similar situation. I would like to... be able to be to someone else like that person was to me.

[50:32]

And as soon as you feel that, you are practicing the bodhisattva vow. And if there's several people who felt that way, it begins to define a bodhisattva in yourself through these several people. And when several people have this feeling, then a Bodhisattva is defined by these several people. Yes, Junior. Just to be a little controversial. Please. The last time I had this experience, I was at the airport. And there was a long line. And I called with my phone. Relatively loud and... When I was talking about my things, I was at the end of the line and then a woman let me in. I said, no, no, to you. Then she said, no, please go ahead, I can't bear your conversation. Troublemaker.

[51:39]

Last time I had this experience, I was at an airport and I was talking on the cell phone with somebody quite loudly and I was talking about my own things, my private stuff, etc. And I was at the end of the line and then the woman in front of me asked me to go in front of her. I said, no, no, after you. And she said, no, please, I want you to be in front of me. Bother the person in front of me. To be in front of me because I can't stand this conversation you're having. And I think that even though that hurt me at that moment, I experienced that as a bodhisattva deed because she was being very direct and she dared to confront me. Yeah, I think that's what, yeah, that includes what I mean. Yeah, we do want to have a break, but Tom? Yeah, before we break, one brief question before we go into break.

[53:08]

Is the bodhisattva the mentor, or is the mentor the bodhisattva, or is there a difference? Is the mentor the bodhisattva? Well, not necessarily. Ideally... In Buddhism, the mentor may teach you all kinds of different things, but the teacher should have some characteristics of the Bodhisattva. But they're not the same. No, they're not identical. But again, as Nico said, the bodhisattva is an activity. So we might say His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a Bodhisattva. And we might say a Lama, Tukul, so-and-so is not really a Bodhisattva. But he's an extraordinary person.

[54:15]

And in my practice, I imagine him as a bodhisattva and give him the benefit of the doubt. And then the ideal of the bodhisattva functions in me through this. The Bodhisattva is a kind of dynamic that has many expressions, not just as a person. Now I want to add one more thing which is another way to practice. One way is to look at your accumulated experience as I used Julio as an example. Yeah, but also is to study your present experience. For example, with each person you meet, you try not to think about them.

[55:17]

You just try to feel them. And as soon as you try to feel them, you have to accept them. But you don't have to love them. So love and compassion here, you can see a difference. Also kannst du einen Unterschied erkennen zwischen Liebe und Mitgefühl. I can feel Andreas, or at least I make an effort to just feel Andreas. Ich kann Andreas fühlen, oder zumindest gebe ich mir Mühe, Andreas zu fühlen. And I try not to let my love for him interfere. Und ich versuche, meine Liebe für ihn nicht zu sehr stören zu lassen. Like that. So ähnlich. Okay, so let's have a break. Also lasst uns eine Pause machen.

[56:21]

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