I think maybe we should only have one session now, but a chance to stretch our legs even could be now, but in a while. Let's see what we want to do. First, do any of you have something you'd like to... bring up in relationship to our discussion so far? Yes. Klaus. I am... I'm... I'm contemplating upon a both-and question.

[01:07]

Where my experience is that when I slide into the undercurrent and... It's under the same waves we talked about. Yeah, and I'm... in awareness, the non-conscious. And I also come into conscious from that. That's when the beauty sort of starts in my life. What starts? The beauty of being. So when I dive into these undercurrents and am in the aware or unconscious mind, and then see the waves of consciousness, for me that is the place where the beauty of being begins. And I was wondering if you could comment upon that in relation to any of the metaphors that you've used.

[02:24]

First of all, if this is your experience, it needs no comment. And I think we have to trust and explore our experience If this is your experience, this is your experience. Yeah, it's also the case that how one is in, as you say, awareness affects how awareness transforms consciousness. But in various ways, awareness does change and transform consciousness. Okay.

[03:29]

Okay. You haven't said anything. Do you want to say something? Yes, you. Yeah, this here. I mean, that there, which is your ear. Okay. Yes. Well, I meant this woman there. And you're next, Marius. Go ahead. Do you have something you'd like to say? Yes, you. I made an effort to understand everything. Everything. Well, that's impressive. And then I let go. And just let it affect me or let it work out.

[04:35]

And then I felt quite nourished and connected. Good. That's what I hope, too. All right. Marcus? Yes. I wasn't planning to say anything, but I'm glad you looked past me and asked me. Okay. Okay. What I'm trying to do is to implement what you're speaking about directly here and now, doing that, implementing that here. Yeah, practiced. Yeah. So, for example, abiding in a mindfulness stream and simultaneously letting a conscious stream arise from that and recognizing it.

[05:47]

And a question that I have based on that is, how does the word awareness fit into that? Is the word awareness a point to look into in the power of awareness that results from it? Or is it more of an observation in the power of awareness that I call awareness as an activity? So is awareness something like the act of looking into that mindfulness stream at a certain point? Or is awareness the observing activity of... well actually the activity of that mindfulness stream is that what i'm calling awareness so um yeah that's that's a distinction that is important for me in order to practice precisely why is the distinction important

[07:05]

Otherwise, you know, I'm starting to wonder, are there a difference in terms of the experiential quality or something of the mindfulness stream and awareness? Is there a difference between the two? Or maybe I shouldn't worry about such things. And I think the progress is that we now have three attention circle currents at the same time, which represent different qualities. The experience for me is that there is an attention circle current that I can then integrate into three different qualities, just like it happened now. My experience, maybe I'll start there. My experience is that there is a mindfulness stream, which then I can part into three different qualities, the way that you've described.

[08:23]

Or is there three different kinds of streams? Have I said that correctly? Yes. Well, I wouldn't worry much about it. There are better things to worry about. But this making a distinction between awareness and consciousness is just something that exists Are you waiting for me? No, no, I'm just wondering how to speak about it. We have experience, and experience has numerous possible distinctions that we can make about it.

[09:32]

And we don't want to make many distinctions at all, but we want to make the distinctions that are useful in helping us notice our experience in a useful way, effective way. So let's just get some basic physiological distinction. When you wake up in the morning, and you are half asleep and half dreaming, Maybe there's shards and scraps of consciousness from the day before.

[10:36]

Shards and scraps? Shards are pieces of pottery you find. A shard of pottery tells you, oh, someone lived here before, or they used this for this or that. Okay, also eine Tonscherbe, daran kann man erkennen, dass jemand mal früher an diesem Ort gelebt hat. Oder hilft euch, bestimmte Dinge zu erkennen. Also man findet Scherben und Schnipsel des Bewusstseins vom vergangenen Tag. I shouldn't have used the word, it takes too much time. Anyway, so shards of consciousness in the sense that various things from yesterday or the past or the present. I suppose we could call all of that a kind of field of awareness. But once the shards or the sense of awareness the day, what you have to do, etc., come together in a way you can't go back to sleep.

[11:53]

Because you're located in a... consciousness in a way that wants to do, needs to do things, needs to get up, needs to have breakfast, needs to go to Yonasov and fix our heating system, and so forth. He's an environmental engineer, yeah. Because you then suddenly locate yourself in a way in your consciousness, where you know what else you have to do, and, for example, that you have to come to Johanneshof and finish the heating system, and so on. So that's consciousness. Everything that's not that, we could call awareness. And it functions outside of consciousness.

[12:57]

Or mostly outside of consciousness, except when class is involved. Yeah. But then there are distinctions, of course, of how you bring an attitude, an attitude and intention into consciousness or an attitude into what is not consciousness. Or into what is not consciousness. And in consciousness it's fairly predictable what that attitude will do. And in awareness it's not so predictable. But you can also shape awareness and develop awareness in relationship to the body and intentions in a way that isn't conscious.

[14:05]

But how you make use of these distinctions is really up to you. And the way you make use of the distinctions affects how you develop your practice. Is that response enough? Okay. Even Silke would agree. Be careful to stroke your chin, David. I begin to... I'm afraid of all of you. Yeah. Yes, go ahead. It's all right.

[15:06]

No, don't. What do you mean, it's all right? Yes, Marlena? What's being said here concerns me with some kind of difficulty that I can't quite describe, but I'll try. And to some extent, it makes me even angry.

[16:07]

Because somehow I feel exactly the other way around or something that I try to describe. . I imagine I'm sitting on a sailing boat and I'm sailing on the ocean. And I have a bunch of difficulties there. And then I jump into the water or I fall into the water and I go diving. And I do that twice a day. And when I do that, then I feel better on the boat. Somehow it's like I'm falling into the ocean and am transformed in the ocean.

[17:43]

And when I'm back on the boat, then I'm almost like a fish that's on the boat. When I am deep in the water, in the sea, I am a human being, but on the boat, the world pops out of the water. When I am in the water, the world pops out of the boat. So, when I'm in the water, I'm still a human being in the water.

[18:58]

But the feeling is something like, when I'm in the water, then it's as if the world from the boat is knocking on the door, whereas when I'm in the boat, the world of the water is knocking on the door. And somehow it will live that way. It's simple. But somehow life doesn't get easier through that. So what about feeling at ease or being happy? No. The only thing is I suddenly have two difficulties. Which are the two? The knocking of the boat and the knocking of the water? The difficulty is that there are mystical things happening and wonders that are partly scaring you.

[20:10]

On the boat, the difficulty is that then mystic things can happen, or even miracles can scare one, and also that causes some turbulences, disturbances. Unterwasser ist die Welt teilweise auch so hoch, And the world is also so new or something that the mystic space won't fully reveal itself. And somehow through that, I personally feel lost in both worlds. And that happens, although I am also happy simultaneously that I have both spaces.

[21:49]

So both is there. The boat and the water. Those two spaces. Yeah. But you have a third space where miracles... and a mystic space happen? And what is an example of a miracle or a mystic space? The mystical reason is that we emerge from the past and escape from something like the dreams that you control. a miracle in a mystical space is that things from the past appear like dreams that I can't direct.

[23:00]

and in the stream of ordinary being, where I sometimes get very dizzy because I have so much power to conjure things or to know things. things happen that are also like miracles in the stream of ordinary. And as if I have some kind of so much power suddenly through doing magic or knowing things.

[24:30]

I would say, as simple as So all I want to say is that as simple as it gets, it also gets just as difficult. What makes you almost angry? Okay. Was macht dich dann ärgerlich? Dass die Gefahr besteht. I keep telling myself that lately I am a raven. And it is eating its way through the difficulties of its life. And it doesn't believe that it can live as a spider. I keep telling myself that I'm a caterpillar and that I eat myself just through the difficulties of my own life.

[25:45]

And I don't have to believe that I will ever turn or that the caterpillar will ever turn into a butterfly. Mm-hmm. And I think this attitude is good. And then it makes me angry sometimes when the tendency in the thoughts or in the philosophy is formulated in such a way And then it makes me angry that the thoughts are formulated so as if through being a caterpillar that the caterpillar can ever turn into a butterfly.

[26:48]

Because I think that we have sworn through our bodhisattva vows that we will be reincarnated as caterpillars and that we will also die as caterpillars. Yeah, that's better. I like your metaphor of the boat and the water. But since you live on an island it may be more than a metaphor. But if you're a caterpillar, it's better to be a happy caterpillar. And if you become a butterfly, fine, but I wouldn't worry about it. Any tadpole which worries about being a frog is in trouble. Yeah, so it is true, built into the caterpillar is the possibility of being a butterfly.

[28:11]

Yeah. But thinking for the caterpillar, think about being a butterfly doesn't help. At least that's my experience. You've noticed how slowly I walk, so to speak. I caterpillar my way through the world. Yeah. Okay. Anyone else? Someone else? Yes, Klaus? I think the voice is good, the water and the boat.

[29:15]

And when you're on the boat, you don't feel so worried. When you're on the water, you don't feel so worried. I like the example of the water and the boat. And when you're on the boat, you don't feel quite at ease. And when you're in the water, you also don't feel at ease. But I also had to think about the word, the term home. Because I noticed when I was in Flensburg, Fennbrook is a really nice town. It's a bit small. San Francisco is like that, Kubrick, Bergen. But there was also a stadium. Shainsburg is a beautiful town, like a small San Francisco with a lot of curves and hills and so forth. There's a stadium, and there was a school event during the vacation.

[30:18]

And there was a moderator. And he spoke northern German. And I went into the stadium, was directly next to the youth hostel. And it was as if I had fallen into the water and I felt completely happy and I thought everyone around me must also be completely happy. Because I grew up in northern Germany. But after a few days I also wanted to get out of there. Because I noticed it's enough. And this feeling of home maybe one only has when one is away from home. What you miss. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay. So I said that Buddhist practices and teachings assume that enlightenment is possible, but you don't want to think about it.

[31:51]

And assume that We can be free of emotional and psychological suffering. And that we can know how we and the world exist. So that those are, if it's something as a Buddhist teaching, it somehow is rooted in those three assumptions, one of those or all of those three assumptions. Okay, so what does Buddhism assume is the world that exists?

[32:51]

First of all, Buddhism assumes that the world is... We can't really know what the world is. We can't even say really that the world exists. Wir können noch nicht mal wirklich sagen, dass die Welt existiert. Because exist is a word, at least in English, which means to stand forth, to stand out. Weil das Wort existieren, das wird wohl die gleichen Wurzeln haben im Deutschen. Das bedeutet so etwas wie hervorstechen oder vorn anstehen oder so. And although the etymology is rather irrelevant, I can still say that The world for humans is what stands for us, what exists for us.

[34:16]

But whatever the world is, it doesn't exist in human categories. But whatever the world is, it is not something that exists in human categories. Even though we can use mathematics, which is sort of, you know, it's our human skill, or creation, but it exists independent of how we live somewhat. So we use mathematics and the other sciences to explore the world. But still, from the Buddhist point of view, the world is not comprehensible. It doesn't exist only in humanly accessible categories.

[35:33]

It doesn't even fit into the word mystery. So I don't know we can say something like we exist in an immense vastness which we can't know. But we can also say that something that we can say world exists as a fact.

[36:34]

And we're part of that fact. Or maybe we can say the world exists as a presence and we're part of that presence. But that's only a working analogy. It's not exactly assumed to be true, but it's a useful way to look at things because we can feel our relationship and imagine and explore, to some extent, our relationship to this vastness. Alright, so that's maybe the second aspect of what Buddhism assumes is the world. And that is perhaps the second aspect of the assumptions of Buddhism about the world.

[37:45]

Okay. So... So, third, I would say that... I don't know what, there's no words I can quite find out, but I can say there's a kind of world bandwidth. Or a bodily mind bandwidth. And it's assumed that this bodily mind bandwidth, if I'm not getting incomprehensible again, can know much about the world or can participate in the world in a fuller way than consciousness.

[38:49]

Or maybe we could say there's a, I don't know, again, I'm just looking for words that don't yet exist. Maybe we could say... Well, no, let's stick with a... bodily, mind, physiological, biological bandwidth. If you can stick with that. Also, wir können vielleicht dabei bleiben bei einer Körper, Geist, physiologischen, biologischen Bandbreite.

[40:03]

Also, wenn ihr dabei bleiben könnt. And I think maybe it's close to what Klaas and Ravi and his friends call surfing. I promised him I'd try to look for a bandwidth which fit with surfing. His use of surfing. Is the ocean warm enough to surf in Sweden? But that doesn't matter. Yeah, with a wetsuit. With a wetsuit, okay. I'm thinking that all you need to know is that the wave is always there. The wave is always there. All right. So the question then is, how do you become an antennae, an antenna, that tunes into this bodily mind, phenomenal biological, physiological bandwidths?

[41:14]

Antenna is the word that Aristotle made up for insect horns. Yeah. Well, I think if I'm trying to speak in the same vein, we're establishing a body-mind relationship a bodily-mind-attentional stream.

[42:18]

But a bodily-mind-attentional stream which incorporates, embodies phenomena. And the code word for that in Zen stories is non-duality. And I call it a code word because it's not simply that there's no duality. but it's a code word for approaching experiences which in various ways are not dual or partially non-dual. Okay. Now, Where is, in what way does this bandwidth manifest itself in our human world?

[43:50]

It manifests itself as activity. As I said earlier, to think that there's that the world exists as separable entities is delusional. It's a practical expedient, but it's only an expedient. Translator, wake up. Hilfsmittel. Hilfsmittel, danke. Okay, danke. Thank you. It's good. It's good. Sie wissen nicht ein Dorfkopf. Dorfkopf. Kein Dorfkopf. Es ist ein praktisches Hilfsmittel, aber es ist nur ein Hilfsmittel. Okay.

[45:00]

So how do you function within this world mind width? Yeah, as I implied earlier, you form... You form algorithmic fish hooks. Okay. So if you... The koans try to give us some. But you can also just ask any question of yourself or of the world, or why am I unhappy?

[46:05]

How do I get along with people? Whatever you want. And if you treat this as something not that you think about, but you form it in some way that it will stay in place in your bandwidth or whatever. And some phrases, some formulations, some questions, well, you just can't hold them in place. Now, if you want to, if you are in the practice of establishing the bodhisattva antennae,

[47:17]

Don't record this. Then it's good to establish certain body points, which I've talked about in the past, in which you locate a certain stability. then it is good to form certain body points. I have often talked about this in the past. Body points that help you to maintain a certain stability. And Gerald mentioned earlier that the spine has been important to him and other people say the same thing. And Gerald mentioned that the spine is important to him and other people say the same thing. So the body points I tend to establish, and there's Mahayana teachings about this and so on, but the body points I found useful to establish are the base of the spine, the whole middle length of the spine, and the spine just at the back of the neck.

[48:46]

Now, I mention that because I'm talking about absorbing the psychological stream or minded stream and the... the psychological stream and the minded stream into the bodily stream. I mean, you are a bodily stream because you can walk and you can drive a car and you can, you know, go around corners and so forth. But to establish that bodily stream as a stable, stabilizing experience of aliveness. Aber diesen Körperstrom, diesen körperlichen Strom, als eine stabilisierende Erfahrung des Lebendigseins einzurichten, herzustellen.

[50:25]

It's good to actualize it through your Zen Zazen posture, and then also feel it and actualize it in your daily cutting of carrots and so forth. Now, it takes a while to do this. This hasn't been your practice. It takes a while to even locate the feel of a Bhagavad Gita. Now I speak about this when I say, when you're in zazen, feel that the spine is the primary posture. And lift up through the spine and through where the spine isn't to the crown chakra.

[51:41]

An activated feeling. Now what do I mean by that? Okay, my left hand feels the air. My right hand feels the air. Goodbye. My right hand can feel my left in a way that's different than just feeling. I can activate the feeling of my right hand. So my right hand feels like it's feeling the left, or I can make my left hand, either there or here, feel the right. Hello, kitty. By intention, I can make my right hand the feeling hand or my left hand. And you bring that feeling, that densified feeling, into the spine.

[53:01]

And so I suggest once you develop that feeling, You feel the field of the spine turn into the feeling of mind itself. And turn into the breathing mind itself. and feel an opening, embracing space. Now these are acts of imagination.

[54:05]

In a way, turning the left hand into the feeling hand is a kind of act of imagination, but it really happens. Am I getting too dense and incomprehensible again? It's okay, I can go slowly here, okay, all right. Because it all exists as a little ball, I'm just kind of opening it up. Okay, so right now while I'm speaking to you, I'm speaking to you with the feeling of my spine being more alive than anything else while I'm speaking to you.

[55:07]

Okay, the bodily points I tend to actuate and imagine, imagine and actuate. are my middle of my chest, these three points of my spine, the crown chakra, and my hands and my feet. So when I simply will get up pretty soon and walk, I feel this... I sometimes talk about the no other location mind.

[56:14]

Wenn ich gleich aufstehe und gehe, dann und manchmal spreche ich über den kein anderer Ort Geist. No other location mind is possibly, at least in English, an algorithmic phrase. Und dieser Wendesatz, no other location, kein anderer Ort, kein anderer Ort. If you can locate this phrase, and you use the mind stream as the door, entry, no other location phrase, mind, that makes sense. and then you place that in the minded stream and shift that in by repetition shifted into the bodily stream and it may require conceptual reminding

[57:18]

And after a while, it's just the way you feel your body. The body. And strangely enough, these bodily points are places where you locate feeling. Und merkwürdigerweise sind diese Körperpunkte oder diese Punkte, an denen du Empfindungen verortest, die fangen dann an, unsere gesamte Stoffwechselaktivität zu organisieren. It's a kind of Darmic medicine. For my doctor friend. Yeah. So, again, when I get up, I'll bring this feeling of no other location, but each foot arriving with each step.

[58:37]

And if I, as I'm walking, if I turn toward you, I feel I'm turning a kind of light that's in the middle of the body toward you. And I first get a sense of this when, you know, years and years ago, of course, somebody asked Suki or she, what does it, what do you notice most about America or Americans? He surprised the daylights out of me. By saying, you do things with one hand. So if Nicole asked me to pass the bell, The American passed the bell.

[59:55]

You want the bell? There's the bell. But Sukhirashi wouldn't do that. So I observed. What did he mean? He would pick up the bell and bring it into his bodily sphere. Often near this chakra. And if you've ever noticed, you could tell who are first and second generation Japanese in restaurants, if they drink their tea this way, they hold the cup, this chakra and this chakra. It's just built into yoghurt culture. He would pick up the bell with two hands bringing his whole body to the bell. Er hat die Glocke mit zwei Händen angehoben und hat seinen ganzen Körper in die Glocke hinein verlagert.

[61:05]

And bring it up into his body field. Hat sie in sein Körperfeld hineingebracht. Then he turned his body to me and passed me the bell with both hands. Dann hat er seinen Körper zu mir gedreht und hat mir die Glocke mit beiden Händen gegeben. And I felt a kind of radiation almost as if a light was being turned toward me. She's got it now, and she's not. Ring, ring. It's one of the reasons when we put our raksu on, we do things like that. It's an activity that is embodied and you keep embodying it. So, if you... These are just, you know, little hints, secrets or... These are just little hints or secrets or codes that I give you.

[62:32]

In your meditation or zazen practice you can begin to bring attention to the body in this very specific way. But I would say, like sometimes I say, when you do zazen, go through the five skandhas as a way of settling into stillness. And also you can sit down and awaken the spine and then the hands, feet, chest, crown chakra. And tongue sometimes. The tongue is a good one to notice. Somehow bringing energy to these points, including the tongue, usually in Zazen, the roof of the mouth, Not only develops your posture, but also makes it easier to fulfill the stream request, don't move.

[63:52]

The bodily points help you settle into not moving. Okay, now one last little riff. Eine letzte kleine Umspielung. Again, if what we have here is an embodyable world-mind-width, if what we have here is an embodyable world-mind-width, not only is the embodied attentional stream actualized in relationship to the phenomena you're in the midst of,

[65:25]

So, as some of you say, relate sometimes, as in experiences to me, or practice resultant experiences to me, like you see a bird somewhere, and it lifts off, and you feel exactly how it lifts off in your own body. In this way you really feel close to this, I'm always close to this, or not knowing is nearest, all makes sense as statements about actual experience. Und in diesem Sinne könnt ihr dann wirklich das Gefühl haben, dass dem immer nahe oder nicht wissen liegt am nächsten. Diese Aussagen machen dann auf einmal als tatsächliche Erfahrungen Sinn.

[66:35]

Now I want to say one last thing, which I've been trying to find out how to express in the last few weeks. Und ich möchte eine letzte Sache noch sagen, die ich versucht habe herauszufinden, wie ich sie ausdrücken kann in den letzten paar Wochen. And I referred to it when I spoke last yesterday afternoon, to the kanji being pulled out of the air. When you instinctively, as if you were born with the capacity, see everything as activities, Wenn du instinktiv, als ob du mit dieser Fähigkeit geboren wärst, wenn du instinktiv alles als Aktivität siehst, dann sind Aktivitäten im Raum geformt und als Raum. And creating that very space as they form.

[67:48]

And one sign of realizing this particular kind of non-duality. Whenever the percept whatever the percept is that becomes an internal experience, an interiority, that interiority now, which is the outside world, is a projected internality, interiority, This is a kind of Buddhist or dharmic bodily science. And if you like, what is your name?

[69:09]

Tonka. Tonka. What a great name. As Tonka says, she just lets it wash over her. So I hope you're all feeling washed. So, Because it's taken me all these years to find out even to say what I'm saying right now. I couldn't do it a few years ago. A few years ago, the experience wasn't clear enough for me to even begin to find words for it. Vor ein paar Jahren war mir die Erfahrung nicht klar genug, dass ich noch nicht mal damit hätte anfangen können, Worte dafür zu finden. But when you really have the experience that the world is actually experientially within your sensorium, aber wenn du wirklich diese Erfahrung hast, dass die Welt tatsächlich ist,

[70:17]

And when you feel the world happening as your own interiority, then the world you see, which is outside you, and it's very good to know that in case a tiger or a car is coming, But still your experience now is of the world forming as you look at it. It gives the world, the phenomenal world, a spatial quality which belongs to you. Das verleiht der Welt, der phenomenologischen, der erfahrenen Welt, eine räumliche Qualität, die jetzt zu dir gehört.

[71:37]

So you feel part of and located in the world as you experience it. Okay, is that good enough for now? Yes. It's unpacking at least some of what I said yesterday afternoon. But this can be and is within our experience. And I thank you for your patience and giving me the happiness of trying to say this with you. And thank you for translating. Okay.

[72:39]

Leg stretching, mind stretching, and mind-shrinking time. Mind-shrinking time. Well, we have to go back into ordinary consciousness now.

[72:50]

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