Now, Ulrike and I have some discussion about these things, like how to keep it simple or make it something we can practice and so forth. So I said she might say something, and then she said, well, I couldn't say that, but then she gives me an example that she understood, etc. So she might say a little something about what we're talking about. And I can listen in German, since I'm going to study it one day. Yes, I don't know if I can keep everything he just said. In any case, during the break, Roshi asked me to conduct a discussion so that we can talk in German and you can ask a few questions in German.

[01:09]

I can try to answer them and he would find out very quickly how little I really know and how little I know. But at least it would be an attempt to speak to each other in German. And we could always ask Roshi to jump in when we get stuck. And he then said, yes, actually you could use it as one piece in the discussion. One aspect of mindfulness through the body is the clear understanding of the mind itself, by perceiving the mind directly on the object. And I said, I can't talk about it, I don't understand it. And he said, well, then you don't have to. And I said, how about something else? Because this afternoon, when I lay down and thought about it, how to really

[02:13]

or give an example of what mindfulness is about the body. I came up with a little exercise that I do from time to time and that I have already done with groups. It's really so simple, it's really kindergarten. That you just take one hand and explore the other. And you leave yourself a lot of time and feel the strength and the fluidity and the shiftability of the muscles and the temperature of the skin. So I could go on for hours. and then that you change it and then take the other hand. And that's what I do very often, for example, when I sit somewhere on the train or want to relax a bit, that I take part in a body and explore it and try to pay attention to my breath.

[03:16]

And as I said, I practiced it a bit this afternoon and suddenly I thought, This is really very peculiar. How can I say that one hand is the researcher and the other hand is the one who is being researched? Who does this? These are two hands. How can I really make this division? And at that moment it became clear to me that this is only possible if I put my mind into my hand. If I put the mind into the one hand that is researching, then the mind understands what I mean. Yes, it's actually quite simple. When I was talking to Roshi, I said, this is too complicated for me, what you just told me. I can never keep it. Maybe if you give it to me in writing, I can enjoy it and maybe then...

[04:19]

Yes, to understand or whatever. But I said, this is what I noticed this afternoon. And then he says, it's really crazy with you. So on the one hand you say, you don't understand it. And then you give me an exact and practical example of how to perceive the mind in the object and thereby perceive the mind itself. So that's my little story. Yes, and so for me it is simply also practice. This is such a journey of crumbs. You really have to practice and from time to time you find such a crumb like Hansel and Gretel. And then you go on and you don't think about anything special and you do pretty simple things and sometimes you really have the feeling that it's a bit like kindergarten and suddenly a crumb appears again.

[05:34]

Yes, do you have any questions? About mindfulness? Yes? Is there a way to get rid of the grime? Yes, I think you have to lose it again and again. Otherwise you transform it into, as Roshi said, you can only initiate someone who does not transform it into an object. And a crumple that you transform into an object and want to keep, yes, it doesn't really help you anymore. So finding the crumple is the important thing, not holding it down. Does it mean that if you stay in the picture that you eat the bread crumb to nourish yourself, or rather lay it down?

[06:36]

Is it really about the direction and not about the grain? I think that's different individually. I would always eat the crumb. Vielleicht ist es aber besser und mitfühlender, wenn man ihn liegen lässt, damit ihn noch jemand anders finden kann. Is there a way to increase the chance of finding a gravestone? Yes, I think you just have to go to the forest. As Roshi said, enlightenment is not something that you can really approach and assume as a goal. But if you practice, you simply increase the probability that it will occur.

[07:43]

And I believe that if you go on the way and on the search and leave your house and leave your habits and enter a territory that I consider to be a forest for me, then you simply increase the probability that you will find a crumb. What would you say, Erich? Yes, I liked the answer very much. I would say, you don't have to go to the forest, but you have to look for it, but at the same time you have to pull it back. That depends. Sometimes I have the feeling that I really have to go into something like the forest, that is, I have to go back to Crestone, to our practice community, and refuel there and be in such a protected space again, in which I can deepen my practice and especially the practice of mindfulness.

[09:16]

And when I've been there for a long time and come out of it, then I can also go through Frankfurt in the feeling that this is the forest. And that this is not very different from the forest and that actually the food in Creston on the table with everything is not very different from fast food somewhere in Frankfurt. But that loses intensity. I think there are places like our monastery in Creston where you can always go back and forth to refresh the practice. Not like in the Christian tradition where you turn your back on the world for life. I remember an experience that hasn't been so long ago. I went for a walk in autumn and stepped on a giant chestnut alley. And the gardener for the park came with such a small tractor and reckon and mischief drove there and started on this autumn lawn.

[10:28]

I just wanted to lie down in the car. I stood there for a quarter of an hour and suddenly I had the feeling that my mind was resting in this man and in what he was doing. As if I were in my mind. I went away afterwards and I had the feeling that I was totally exhausted. It's like going on vacation with someone else. You could save yourself a lot of frequent flyer miles. Yes, I remember what I actually wanted to tell you. On the subject of mindfulness, an aspect that is also very important for me is inner mindfulness. Roshi has also talked a lot about mindfulness that is now connected to the body, and you can basically derive that from it, inner mindfulness for inner, I can say, mental or emotional processes.

[11:38]

And I had a dream today, which got me pretty busy this morning, because somehow that didn't fit into my mood at all. I was dreaming of a bus ride to Guatemala. I was in Guatemala for the first time a year ago and together with a friend I just used these normal buses, where the locals also sit in. And that was one of the greatest experiences of this whole trip, always these bus rides. Yes, and in the dream it was very intense and lively and this morning I thought the whole time, why did I dream that, what is it somehow, what is it about? And then today I had an experience, a very nice one at lunch. After we were done here, I went downstairs to eat and put my food on my plate and just looked for a place.

[12:46]

And there was only the big table at the bottom of this round, there was only one place free. Yes, my first impulse was, there were two people, so you and a friend, to put me a little further away, because I actually had the need to be silent. Yes, I talk all morning and now have the feeling to just be quiet and also really to eat with care. That means to give my attention really indiscriminately to this food. And then I realized that it is actually a bit unlovable when I sit away. And then I thought about what Baker Roche would do in such a situation. Or Thich Nhat Hanh.

[13:47]

And the two would clearly sit close to the other people. They would not sit away. And Bekaroshi would rather sacrifice his personal style, his practice, to concentrate on the food and rather talk to his neighbors. And I don't think Thich Nhat Hanh would do that, but he would sit down with the others And just the power that lies in his mindfulness exercise, so to speak, without words. And then something very important became clear to me and at that moment I also understood the dream. that we are culturally conditioned in the West, that we can only devote ourselves to something with full attention, or can be for us, if we separate physically from others.

[14:52]

And as a basis lies also this wrong perception of space, in my opinion, as Baker Roche has just explained. So we move in space, we use space as something that we put between us and others and not that we create space and can create a new space together. And from this arise also a lot of misunderstandings and, I think, also a lot of lovelessness. Because I can sit very close to you. And when I have this mindfulness practice, when it has really become part of me, then you will either feel it, assimilate it from me, and a new space will arise in which I do not feel disturbed with whatever I am doing right now. And... Yes, back to my dream. What completely fascinated me in Guatemala in the buses. When the Indians, when the Mayas come into the bus and it is almost empty, then they only fill up one row before they start a new row.

[16:03]

And we as Westerners, we get on the bus and we look for the only row where no one is sitting. Because we have the feeling that we have to create a physical distance to the others in order to be able to be ourselves. And it is a feeling that these cultures do not have at all. They move as close together as possible, and in this moving together they are also completely separated at the same time. And in their own space. And I have experienced very nice things there. So that you sit for hours, you don't have to speak, but you can feel yourself. And suddenly an older woman puts her head on her shoulder and sleeps. Or suddenly there is some papaya or something edible and you don't even know from whom. And that is very meaningful. And suddenly I felt this connection between this dream and what I experienced at lunch and this practice of mindfulness, somehow to be able to connect these points.

[17:14]

There I found a crumb again. It's always a gift when it happens. And I want to learn more in my practice and Was mir in den vergangenen Jahren manchmal nicht leicht gefallen ist, eher auf Menschen zuzugehen und mit anderen zusammen zu sein und nicht immer so meinen Raum schützen und trotzdem bei mir bleiben zu können. Vielleicht möchte noch jemand von euch was erzählen oder fragen. The question we are talking about is that we approach this mind.

[18:19]

Can it not be the reverse case that this mind appeals to me, as if there is a substitute? Can it not be an interaction? Does it not need attention and motivation? in the sense of the situation, that it does not happen today or tomorrow, because the situation has changed. So you mean that this exchange or this flow goes in both directions? It does not have to go anywhere from me, it can also be the other way around, that it approaches me, that it appeals to me. So from my experience, I can certainly say yes. The question is, how do we call it, how do we express it in language, whether we really say that it is the mind that is addressing me now.

[19:26]

I feel the whole energy, when I am fully there, that I am in the moment, I am making full appeal, and there I am being appealed. There I am. Yes, that is the moment, [...] I'd like to bring you in at this point. Okay. I think this is quite an interesting question. What is your name? Gangolf asked, like this experience that we put our mind in the object or experience the mind in the object, whether this kind of interrelationship or exchange also works like from the object itself, that there's a flow in the other direction.

[20:42]

Hmm. Sometimes I actually think so, but I'm not so sure it's useful to think about it that way. In other words, if you can, let's just, I'd like to make two little examples which perhaps we can end with in relationship to what you're saying too. And there's a good example, the best example I've come to for the experience of emptiness.

[21:46]

And the third noble truth means the experience of emptiness, enlightenment and so forth. And the freedom from causation. And when we practice, if we look at tomorrow, mindfulness of the feelings. Now feelings fall into three categories. Pleasant, unpleasant and neutral. Now, if you notice your mind on your actions, you'll see that most of the time you are addicted to alternatives.

[22:49]

You like it or you don't like it? Good or bad? Do you notice it or you don't notice it? It's important to you or it's not important to you. That's pleasant and unpleasant. The big category, which sounds boring, is neutral. But that's like the deep part of the stream, not on either bank of like and dislike. But it also means a mind not addicted to the alternatives of this or that. Can you imagine such a mind? And the practice of mindfulness of the feelings means to really be able to rest in a mind that doesn't either go toward like or dislike, etc.

[24:08]

And that's very close to the experience of emptiness. Now let me give you this example of Jeffrey Hopkins tells it in his book Emptiness Yoga. The experience of emptiness. The experience of emptiness. The experience of emptiness. and he tells when somebody came looking for their teacher Geshe Wango in New Jersey so he looked for him and couldn't find him but he didn't form the opinion he's not here He's not here is an object.

[25:25]

He's either here or he's not here. These are alternatives. But Buddhism is interested in the state of mind which is he's neither here nor not here. So if you can imagine staying in the state of not finding someone, but not coming to the idea he's not here, that's an experience of emptiness. So if I'm in the moment, what your question is, there's an object and I'm perceiving the object and I see my mind on the object, Yet I'm not turning it for that moment into an object.

[26:31]

That there's an interaction there that's in a realm, a truly interactive realm, that you can't say what's coming from where. And that's a very fluid and creative state of mind. It's almost like our usual states of mind can be the cup which holds this fluid state of mind. And when I say something like this, all you can do is begin to have the courage to sometimes taste this and not be frightened by it. For that moment you have no support. You don't know the things are coming or going or where you are.

[27:48]

There's no reference point. Everything is center. But actually when we, and I'll use this example I mentioned last week, when we toast, we're doing something like that. Last year in this room we talked about the Heart Sutra. And the Heart Sutra, if we looked at it very simply, is to take the usual way you experience yourself, your sensations, your perceptions and so forth. And you repackage them into the vijnanas and skandhas. And then you can find them empty. So the sense is when you bring something together completely you can let it go. So what do you have when you toast someone?

[28:50]

First of all you have the alcohol which represents transcendent experience or something. And that's traditionally what it means. Then you have the color of it and the smell of it. And you have the taste of it and the feel of it. All the senses are there, all the vijnanas are there, all the skandhas are there, except one. Except sound. So to bring all the senses together, you clink the glasses to have a moment of sound, you look in the eyes, and your center and everything goes away. So when you get married or when you get divorced or when you feel in love or you are there with a friend, you make a center for a moment with a toast. As you generously brought us that beautiful bottle of wine last night.

[30:25]

So we toast it. And there's the sound and we look in each other's eyes And that's the Heart Sutra in a little bit of a moment of toast. So really, a toast is very similar to this, bringing yourself together, all the senses, and being aware of all the senses at a particular moment. And then you can let go into this space where you are your own space. So we don't see that when we toast, but the same teaching is there. Yes, Mark? Could one say that the moment when selfless will field, it disappears?

[31:52]

Deutsch? Pass it along, Deutsch. I wouldn't know what fulfilled means. Bringing it together in intuition. Yeah, but that might only happen at the moment of death, if you're lucky. I would say that when you see self, it disappears. So it's nice to see all of you.

[33:01]

And I don't want to make you disappear, but you might like dinner. So we'll meet tomorrow at 10 o'clock. Or 9.30. 9.30, yeah. And 7.30 for Zazen, for those who want to cross their legs and hope to die. Okay. Thank you. Please sit comfortably if it's possible.

[35:11]

Listening to the 10 o'clock bell yesterday. Listening to the 10 o'clock bell. We make everything so regular. The church bell. The church bell. The church bell. The 10 o'clock bell. that it's wonderful, the regularity, but sometimes we don't hear or experience anything because of the regularity. Yeah, I mean, if you were just about to die now and you heard the 10 o'clock bell, you'd think, whoa, the last time. But you can't really go around saying, I'm going to enjoy this moment as if I was about to die.

[36:25]

It's a little too heavy. But occasionally to remind yourself might give you a sense of the impermanence on each moment as well as the regularity. Now, we're going to meet for a while today. Maybe we'll have lunch a little earlier, 12.30 or something. Is that possible, or is it set for one? Okay. Because then, if we decide to have a meeting this afternoon, we can leave a little earlier so people can get back into the stalls.

[37:33]

Or back into the train, if you're smart, I suppose. So I've tried to give you a kind of various entries into the practice of mindfulness. And I'd like to try to give you more of a sense of the dynamic of mindfulness this morning. Because these practices of mindfulness actually are based on each other. So I suppose initially to practice, really practice mindfulness, you need some kind of Socratic injunction to know thyself.

[38:53]

Hmm? Is that hard to translate? Injunction? I've never heard. Socratic injunction means a command. Socratic, something you tell yourself to do. Yeah. It's rare that I find a word you don't know these days. Not so rare. Except it's not Buddhism wouldn't say, know thyself, because you don't know what the self is, and who thy is, and so on. You have trouble with that. Buddhism is more practical than that. Maybe Socrates can do it, but we ordinary mortals, we need to start with our breath. So there's a certain analysis that precedes, spirit of analysis, that precedes the practice of mindfulness.

[40:04]

Which is this sense this desire, this intention to know how we exist. And be willing to start with the simplest things or whatever you can at the first level of noticing. And Dogen says we study the body with the mind. And we study the body with the body. And we study the mind with the body and the mind with the mind. It's not much different than Ulrike saying, you take this hand and you somehow make this the explorer and this the examined.

[41:28]

One part is studying the other part. But you have to start somewhere, so we generally start with our body. It's the most noticeable, you know. And to start with the body means starting then with the factors that arise from the body and that the best one everyone agrees is to start with the breath. But as you've noticed, once you start looking at anything carefully, it expands into experiential physics. But still, you have to keep coming back to the practicality of studying the mind and body initially through the breath.

[42:54]

And you should know that this, you'll recognize that this, and you have to be willing to allow it to change your pace. And some teachers recommend, particularly the more Theravadan teachers, recommend a kind of enforced slowness. And this is helpful to do sometimes. In any case, it'll change the pace of how you are. So we talked about again mindfulness of the body and primarily we talked about it through the breath.

[43:57]

And a little bit I touched on, that you can begin to study each part of the body and discover that each part of the body has its own absorption, own concentration, own awareness. So you begin to see a topography of awareness. In other words, you're bringing awareness to the breast, but then breast changes awareness. And then you bring breath, this flashlight of breath awareness to a particular organ, your lungs or your intestines. And where you bring the attention, then that organ changes awareness. No, I'm...

[45:23]

Eventually you can get subtle enough that you can study your organs because each organ you can feel the different awareness and whether it's healthy or not healthy. So already you're very quickly into some depth in the study of the to know oneself as one's body. But of course this subtlety is not going to be available to it at first. First we're just mixing attention and breath. Then you're beginning to notice intention and attention on your breath. And you notice the various ways you can breathe. Okay, and then we looked at mindfulness of the feelings.

[47:12]

And we touched on that really only. And as pleasant, unpleasant in this deeper sense of neutral, where you're not caught in an addiction to opposites. So now the next mindfulness is the study of or being mindful of consciousness itself. Imagine your mind is a house and there's various visitors and residents. So you make a decision to just notice who's visiting. Now, you can say, well, I don't like these thoughts and I want to change my mind.

[48:30]

I think I'll turn the radio on and, you know, etc. But we have to go, that's okay, you know, turn the radio on. But every now you turn to public, you know, supported radio and it says, the Socratic oath. Oh yes, to know myself. Commercial radio won't tell you this, but you know. So you have to say, I mean, you can be aware of your arm. But you can't change your arm. I mean, you can change it a little, but, you know, wash it and things like that.

[49:38]

But basically, you don't have much choice about your arm. You can be aware of it. You only have two choices, to not be aware of it or to be aware of it. And basically that's the same situation we are in with our mind. We can be aware of it or we cannot be aware of it and we don't have many other choices. So first of all, you just decide, okay, I'll be aware of what's there. And the deeper Socratic vow of mindfulness is to accept what's ever there as yourself. If you don't make that determination, you cannot practice mindfulness fruitfully.

[50:39]

So there's no demons or possession or anything. Whatever's there is you, whoever that is. But you can notice who are, if a thought comes in the door, you can notice, well, this guy's been here before. Aber wenn dann ein Gedanke zur Tür hereinkommt, dann kannst du sagen, gut, dieser Gast war bereits hier. Und dieser Typ ist nie weggegangen. Und er hat nur so getan, als würde er weggehen. Oder sagen, ja, dieser Mensch ist ein Besucher. And then you can decide whether, notice whether a thought is nourishing or debilitating.

[51:57]

Or wholesome or unwholesome. But you don't try to drive out the unwholesome thoughts. You just don't. Because you can't drive out your arm, even if it's feeling pimply. So you just say, well, there's another unwholesome thought. Jeez, what's my house like today? So basically the practice of mindfulness is rooted in accepting what's there. And what you do is just become aware more and more skillfully of every visitor and resident and so forth. Then it becomes a little more subtle.

[53:17]

Because you have to start seeing the difference between emotions and thoughts and so forth. Now again, this is a great enterprise. What better thing to do? I mean, you get stuck in this body, you know. Might as well... Or, you know, it's like the bell and the sound. You can't separate the sound from the bell, and yet the sound is separate from the bell. And you can't separate yourself from your body, and you can't separate yourself from your mind, and yet they're also different, but they're not different. And this difference and... Oh!

[54:21]

I don't know. And this difference and not difference needs to be studied. Now, as you begin to recognize a topography of mind, And you begin to distinguish between thoughts, emotions, and feelings, non-graspable feelings. Which is the most basic atmosphere of being alive.

[55:22]

Then you begin to see that with, say, anger, there's a consciousness that goes with anger. Your mind isn't just a neutral space in which there's visitors and residents. If a visitor called greed comes in the door, I mean the first time he's ever visited, the whole, it's like I'm doing a Moliere play here, the whole house changes instantly. So you now begin to see not only the residents and the visitors, but you begin to see the consciousness that allows those residents and visitors to be there or that is created by the thoughts and feelings.

[56:56]

Now, this is still fairly simple practice of mindfulness, but when you come to this point, you've made a big step. And if you can recognize your states of mind when they appear, you'll notice, hey, I bet tomorrow Breed is going to come to visit. Because usually the atmosphere of mind if we call it that precedes the thoughts or feelings that you notice. Now part of the big step you've made when you begin to recognize the background consciousness

[58:02]

Or the field of consciousness. Now I've used this example innumerable times, but if you can concentrate on this, until you're really concentrated on it, And to really be able to do that is also a practice of mindfulness called one-pointedness. To help the mental skills to allow your mind to rest on something without going away. And if it does go away, it comes back easily. And then when you can be concentrated on this and you take it away, you can stay concentrated.

[59:28]

Now what is the object of concentration? The field of mind itself. The object of concentration is concentration itself. When you get that, you've come a long ways. You can actually then with that tool begin to study the mind. And study the self and study the psyche and so forth. And create a lot of space. And then you can bring the object of contemplation back up into it but study it from the field of concentration rather than an observer relationship.

[60:39]

And then when you see the field of concentration, you're very close to seeing emptiness. Okay. So as you begin to see the consciousness that goes with anger, say, or the consciousness that goes with any thought or emotion, You've begun to move toward a field, to seeing the field of consciousness itself. This now means the study of mindfulness is no longer the study of the objects of mind or breath or the body, but the study of mind itself. Okay.

[61:56]

Now, I said that when you study, when you mix attention, mix mind in the form of attention with breath, You slowly develop a breath body in contrast to a thought body. And at some points you recognize there's only a breath body, there's no thought body. That gives you a chance to change the continuity of mind. And that gives you a chance to begin to see with clarity. Everything looks very precise and clear and exactly in its own place. Now, in a similar way, you don't just notice when a particular thought or emotion or resident or visitor thought arrives.

[63:18]

You also begin to notice when there are very few thoughts or feelings, very few residents or visitors. And you get familiar with that and don't get anxious and immediately distract yourself. And if you get so that you can finally relax and accept when there's thoughts and when there's less thoughts or no thoughts, you're also beginning to develop the skills to recognize the field of mind itself.

[64:36]

So we can now talk about not just thought body, breath body, we can talk about thought body, breath body and mind body. That's continuous all the time. It's not permanent, but it's continuous. And no living occurs without it. Now, when you shift from the thought body, and you can use the life raft of the breast body, and you shift into the mind body itself, this is called enlightenment. And it's usually experienced. Sometimes it's a kind of metanoia. In other words, it occurs so outside of consciousness, it's merely a turning around.

[65:41]

But often it's also a feeling of a deep shift in yourself. And everything is the same, but everything is organized from a different point of view. Now, enlightenment is always sudden. But it might be a small sudden or it might be a big sudden. If your practice is very developed, it might be a small sudden. You hardly notice, but everything is different at the same time. No, this is not something you can wait for.

[67:04]

It doesn't occur in the realm of waiting. It's not something you can expect because it doesn't occur within expectation. But at the same time I want to assure you this is not only for Buddhas, it's also for you. Although we might casually call you a Buddha afterwards. So when you begin to see and really accept the view that everything that appears in your mind and body is you, that insight or view is virtually necessary to recognize non-duality.

[68:14]

It is the conceptual condition that allows or gives you the permission, the conceptual permission for recognizing non-duality. Now not exactly oneness. We say more something like non-separateness. Now Buddhism itself often falls into the delusion of oneness. And Dogen has an interesting way of expressing it. Because you understand that when you begin to see that all parts of the mind are you, it's the right hand holding the left hand or the left hand holding the right hand,

[69:33]

You know the word fist in English means five. And finger in English means one of five. So in the word fist, you have the sense of both five and one of five. Dogen says, practice is like a fist, meaning this relationship. When I open my hand, where does my fist go? At the same time, my right hand can explore my left hand. And if I begin to experience, as Ulrike pointed out, that it's mind in my hand which is exploring either hand, I come closer to realizing non-duality.

[70:46]

Because I see that it's the mind studying the mind studying the mind, and none of them are really visitors. None of them are really visitors. And I see that the idea of mind over matter is a daily event. There's my hand. I can have the most tender little tiny thought, and boom, my hand goes down. That's mind over matter. It is. It's mind over matter. I mean, matter over mind. I mean... And then you recognize that the hands are not separate at all, they're joined.

[71:56]

And that joining is also mind. Now, Dogen says, and he has the best expression of this movement into non-duality and its experience as oneness. Which is the most consistent with Buddhism as a whole, I think. He says when you go out, he says in the Genjokon, when you grow far out into the ocean, Everywhere you look in all directions is round. And you think this roundness, this jewel, this oneness is reality. But you also know, without too much thought, that the ocean is also a thousand harbors.

[73:10]

Millions of glasses of water. That the mountains and rivers are infinite in variety. And this is not only characteristic of mountains and oceans. It's right below your feet. It's in a drop of water. In a drop of water reflecting the moon, he says, in a drop of water reflecting the moon, you see the breadth and height and depth of the sky.

[74:13]

So on one hand he expresses the mind, he says, the still round moon in the calm sky. Mm-hmm. So he's equating the mind to both the sky and the moon. The round, full moon in the still sky or calm sky reflects in a thousand pawns and in every droplet of water on the waves.

[75:14]

So this is one experience. This is an expression of when you begin to experience the continuity of mind that appears in every action, every thought, every drop of water. Nun, das ist ein Ausdruck, eine Erfahrung, wenn man anfängt, die Kontinuität von Mind überall zu erkennen in einem Wassertropfen. But then he also says, it's like the oneness of the ocean, which is also simultaneously harbors, valleys, etc. So he says a very peculiar thing. He says, when your body is not filled with the mind or with dharma, you feel everything is sufficient. And our whole intention in practice usually is to move toward oneness, a feeling of completeness, and so forth.

[76:31]

But he says, but when the mind is full, when body and mind are full of the Dharma, we know something is lacking. Just like when you see the ocean as one, in all directions it's round, you still know, even in the drop of water beneath you, there's harbors, mountains, etc., So the most fundamental expression of realization in Buddhism is that knowing completeness is to also know incompleteness. This simply means even in enlightenment, everything changes.

[77:43]

Still, the unexpected happens. We don't know. So in the deepest knowing, there's not knowing. No, I didn't. I gave you, looking at the flowers yesterday, the first of the three noble truths. Yeah, first three noble truths. And the good Dr. Felix reminded me that I'd forgotten one.

[78:46]

I said, let me go back to my room and look it up. What is it for? Yeah, so I looked it up and, yeah. And it's the path. So here we have these flowers that you see as Time-bound. Oh, they're already wilting, some of them. Poor babies. Did we water them? Anyway, yes, that's the first noble truth. And the second noble truth is we see their cause, the pollution of the florist's truck and so forth. The grey running clouds over the greenhouses.

[79:58]

And how it affects you right now. That's the second noble truth. And the third noble truth is that it exists in an absolute independence and clarity. Here we see the light of the mind. So the practice of mindfulness is also not only for me to see Eric, but for me to see my mind searing Eric. As in meditation, when you hear a bird, you hear your mind hearing the bird or your ear hearing the bird as well as the bird.

[80:59]

And you know that another bird hears it differently than you hear it. That's the bird's sky and the bird's dharma, and the way you hear it is your dharma and your sky. And in Buddhism, those aren't contained in one vision. They're each one independent, its own Dharma moment, unique and non-repeatable. Und im Buddhismus ist es nicht alles jetzt enthalten oder Teil einer einzigen Vision, sondern Vogel und Dein Mind haben ihre eigene Vision und ihren eigenen Dharma-Moment.

[82:11]

And the Hua-Yen teaching is not that they fit together, but they interpenetrate without interference. Und in der Lehre von Hua-Yen sagt man, dass die jetzt nicht zusammenpassen oder zusammengehören, sondern dass sie sich gegenseitig durchdringen. And that's a big step in Buddhist philosophy. Not that everything fits together as oneness, but everything interpenetrates without interference. It's a substantially different idea. So that's the third noble truth, to see everything independent of cause, timeless, in this timeless moment. Like you might look at a flower just before you died. Or you might look at a flower if the Buddha held it up.

[83:22]

Now, when the Buddha holds up the flowers, or we hold this up, this is the fourth noble truth, the path. Or we hold this up. or the Buddha holds it up, that's the path. Because when Mahakashapa saw the flower that the Buddha held up, the entire Zen lineage began from that moment. So that means when you see these flowers with the clarity of comprehension of mindfulness, So you see them as time-bound or suffering. And you see them as caused, interdependent. And you see them as independent, brilliant in their own dharma moment.

[84:26]

And you see the light of the mind itself. If you see in that way, this immediately tells you what to do. And there's the path. Because there is a certain direction in our life and that direction comes forth through this kind of seeing. So I don't have to hold up these flowers. They're already being held up. Everything is being held up. This room is being held up. Each of you in your own space is being held up.

[85:46]

Ulrike is being held up. So, maybe we should take a break now. Shall we sit for a few minutes? Yes. Let's sit for a few minutes.

[86:05]

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