Seems like I was just here yesterday. Yeah. We never leave each other. Well, I mean, in some ways, maybe. I said to Otmar yesterday, I think for a somebody who wasn't used to translating Yesterday's lecture would have been hard to translate. He said, if I quote you, it wasn't difficult. I've heard all of this in so many different ways. Something like that. Yeah, I mean, from one point of view, I'm always saying nearly the same thing.

[01:10]

But in my own experience, it's always quite new. Yeah. I couldn't do it if I didn't find it new all the time. Of course I have to. use words and concepts and practices that we've already established in our self. But my point in bringing these things together is often for me something new. And I hope you can see sometimes what's new and in the midst of what's familiar.

[02:25]

And we chant the, we're chanting the lineage now in kind of Sanskrit and Chinese and Japanese and German. Yeah. And, you know, we can't the lineage not to validate what we're doing. not to validate means not to say this is right because we are inherited this lineage.

[03:26]

But it's to put ourselves in the context of this vertical lineage within the responsibility of this lineage. Because I also feel While I'm speaking, familiar or new, I'm responsible within this lineage for what I'm speaking. So when we gather here at Johanneshof, we gather with... people who are concerned with the same questions and same practices. And when we chant the lineage, we may become more aware that we are part of generations of people who've concerned themselves with the same questions.

[04:50]

Yeah, so, you know, There's a famous teacher story of Gute, Japanese Gute, who always, when anybody said anything, he raised one finger. And this was actually a very important koan. for me with Suzuki Roshi. But it said, you know, in the koan, Gute never used up, he never used up the one finger. And how could you?

[05:53]

In every situation, the one finger is different. And in a similar way we really can't use up just this. And you may get tired of using it. That's your consciousness which is tired. When you're using it as beyond consciousness, you don't use it up. And for me, I keep rediscovering my own teachings. Well, they're not exactly my teachings, but they're ways I've found to say things.

[07:06]

Yeah, I rediscover them, and I think you can keep rediscovering your teachings. Yeah, your own life through this, just this. Now, I'm not presenting this as a... If you practice just this, you... Increase your chances of realizing enlightenment. It may be the case, actually.

[08:19]

Yeah, but if you are seeking enlightenment, this is a terrible mistake. Because it means you don't accept the way you are. It means you feel something's lacking. Das bedeutet, dass du fühlst, dass da etwas fehlt. It means you're kind of greedy. Und das bedeutet auch, dass du gierig bist. It's best just to accept, each moment, accept. Das ist das Beste, jeden Augenblick einfach nur zu akzeptieren. And this accept on each moment. Und dieses akzeptieren in jedem Augenblick. Just now is enough. It's another phrase, powerful phrase. Just now is enough. Always adequate. Always stepping into this pure land.

[09:20]

If you have that mind, enlightenment is already there. And it's this mind which awakens that many ways were implicitly enlightened already. This teaching is based on enlightenment. So just this is also enlightenment. to accept. Whatever it is, That's what it is. Why do you need something other than that, than this?

[10:25]

You can ask yourself, you can practice with, why do I need something other than just this? If you can practice with that question, with an open... feeling, open, relaxed feeling. This is also the basis of realization. Okay. Now, some phrases are designed as antidotes to views you already have. Delusive views you already have are mixed up views. And some phrases are meant to kind of inject a... a wisdom teaching into our activity.

[11:48]

Yeah, these are wonderful phrases. But most basic phrases simply probe existence itself. probe is to reach into... Yeah. Yeah. As I said, it's kind of like a dowsing rod. We can say a phrase like just this. Is a way to probe our sensory world. and a way to observe and study our sensory world.

[12:59]

And of course, our mental and emotional world as it appears in our sensory world. Here you're sort of like a dharmic car mechanic. And maybe a karmic mechanic. Karmic? Karma karmic. So a dharmic karmic mechanic. Yeah, yeah, you're trying to... And you are trying to feel into your automatic behavior.

[14:15]

Yeah. So you're studying and observing your... through your sensory field with this phrase. And this phrase also activates and actualizes your sensory field. And this point I have to explain more. And we articulate our sensory field. And we... transform and actualize our sensory field.

[15:24]

You may feel this is a lot of claims for this little phrase. It's like a magic wand, transform my life, transform my life. But it works. Because how do we actually function sensorially? How do we actually function sensorially? It's not like, you know, our senses create a photo in the brain or something and then we... act from that photo. Perception is a sensorial motor process. The body, the head, the eyes, the ears are all active in our sensory awareness.

[16:45]

That's why we have two years and two ways to find sounds and compare them. It's a capacity within our own intelligence and awareness. When you walk into a room, you're actually scanning the room. It's all automatic. It's kind of automatic, but you're scanning. And here your bodily posture, your stance, is very important. Our awareness of our posture, as I said the other day, Our nearly continuous awareness of our posture is part of being almost a kind of...

[18:07]

aerial, like a car aerial, to pick up the radio, what do you call it? Atenna. Atenna. It's a kind of like sensorial antenna, antenna, our posture. And you will find there's a difference. Your back, the way your spine is, When you're standing in a situation, if you're really alert, you'll see there's a difference. If you're walking in the dark, I can press down, there might be, you know, deer or mountain lions even in the dark somewhere. And at 3.30 when I find my way down on the path and I hear something in the brush,

[19:22]

My whole body gets very alert. When a blind person is tapping with his or her cane, we're doing actually the same thing. It's just not so obvious because we're not blind. Our cane is our posture and our ears and eyes and so forth. Now, when you add postural breath or breath, when you add to your posture, when you add to the awareness of your posture, the awareness of your breath, you actually change how you are in the world.

[20:37]

So this is just a kind of science. This is a kind of science. A science, once you know this through mindfulness practice, mindful attention. to increase your awareness within this sensorial motor process. This is just common sense or wisdom. And the way we In Zen, bring attention into our sensorial field is through phrases

[21:39]

And in particular, now, just this. Again, as you walk into a room. If you have yoga practice, you... you notice the field and then particulars. And there's this rather basic physiological scanning process going on. Now, when you use a phrase like just this, you're grouping all this information, you're bringing all this information together in a little... clusters. They gather and then you release them.

[22:51]

They gather and release. So now instead of just this we can use the phrase to pause for the particular. Yeah, a phrase I give you over and over again. It's a gift, I think an incredible gift, these phrases. Ich glaube, diese Sätze, das ist ein großes Geschenk. Now, you can take to pause for the particular. Und du kannst diesen Satz für das Besondere anzuhalten. At least in English you can make it to pause within the particular. Und zumindest im Englischen könnte man sagen, anzuhalten in dem Besonderen.

[23:58]

To let the world stop for a moment in the particular. This is the very center of Dharma practice. Pause within the particular. To stop the world for a moment. To hold the world in a particular for a moment. To... hold the world for the moment, for a moment in the space of the breath.

[25:01]

Yeah, if you get into the habit, if you only do this sometimes, you're changing the way you generate a sensorial field. You're changing the world, you generate a sensorial field. And you can feel yourself, feel presence in the middle of the sensorial field. And you can feel when you're in the midst of the sensorial field within the container of self-reflexive thinking. Self-reflexive and self-referential. Self-reflexive means that always refers back to the self.

[26:18]

And this is a quite limited field. And you can feel claustrophobic, confined by it. But you can feel good with it, too, because it's you. Mm-hmm. But if you release it, suddenly you're in the world of the object somehow. But it's really the world of... It's part of you. So it's not objects exactly. Because it's you are the... Yeah. Hard to use the words. It's part of you. Aber das ist ein Teil von dir. Das sind nicht nur Objekte. A phrase like this is a friend.

[27:20]

you can always use it say you have some kind of anxiety some disturbing thoughts come up A pending crisis. Might is just over the horizon. Yeah, but you have no point in thinking about it now. But it's kind of sticking to the mind. It sticks to your attention. So then you can start bringing your attention to the particular. And you can keep cutting through it with a phrase like just this. And what you're doing is bringing yourself back into Percept only mind.

[28:30]

And if you're not familiar with the five skandhas, this is a way to enter into The five skandhas as a teaching. In the Heart Sutra we chant no form, no feelings, no perception, no impulses, no consciousness. No perception is the third skandha. And first of all, perception is perception as part of consciousness. And then the practice of the five skandhas is perception as separate from consciousness, its own mind.

[29:38]

And that would be percept only mind. So it can be a mind within consciousness as well as it's the foundation of consciousness. And as a mind within consciousness it's quite free of such self-anxiety. It's rooted in your immediate situation. Nourished by being rooted in your immediate situation. So you can use just this to... little by little, cut by cut.

[30:46]

enter into percept only mind in the midst of consciousness. Not to repress what you ought to be thinking about. When it's time to think about it, think about it. But if it's not time to think about it, Bring yourself back into percept only mind. Ground yourself in percept only mind. Yeah. And there's in that mind there's there can be bliss and ease. Yes, no, don't you think? And so we'll continue this afternoon.

[32:31]

Thank you.

[32:32]

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