come up to standing through a series of tiny steps. Yeah, something like that. You come up to standing through this mind-breath brightness. Remember I said last night when we straighten our posture, you lift your posture with your mind and relax your body. We lift up our posture with our mind and relax our body, our physical body. Does that make sense in martial arts too?

[01:12]

So you now have this sense where you're resting is this kind of mind-breath clarity. And mindfulness now in this teaching means you stay with that. That's where you find your identity even. Song Chi says you don't stray from mindfulness. Okay, so now you bring that up into your posture. So mind as breath and clarity lifts you up. So you feel something like that as you come up.

[02:32]

Now the other day I said, I don't know yesterday, I talked about the presence of breath in your speaking. Neulich oder gestern habe ich da über die Präsenz des Atems in eurem Sprechen gesprochen. In the Eightfold Path. So you're bringing the presence of mind and breath into your speaking. Ihr bringt die Präsenz von Geist und Atem in euer Sprechen. And your body through that. This is a very similar territory. You're bringing this feeling of breath and brightness and mind into your posture. So then if I'm walking, I feel I'm walking within my breath and within my mind.

[03:52]

And if I get in the habit of that, it even feels like I'm surrounded by a kind of little field of mind. And when I step between you, I can kind of feel Your little field of mind, or eight field of mind, excuse me. Unless you see a little kid and you say, hi little girl, what do you mean little? So... I think you've got the point. This is a series of steps. So now the four postures become mindful in this very specific way. And you feel the clarity of that. You feel when you take a walk here, you feel your mind is walking.

[05:12]

And when it doesn't feel that way, you notice it. Clarity means not just being clear. Clarity also means to be clear when you're not clear. Sometimes you're taking a walk and you feel totally... You're very clear. So then you transform that clarity. You feel it in your body. You know, you can take dirty water, put it in the ground, and it comes back out clean in the spring. Unless you've got a big company doing it. You take dirty water, you dump it out in the garden here, and after a while it appears somewhere clean.

[06:23]

So this kind of practice, to the extent that you do it, is purifying your mind. Okay, I think that's enough for this morning. So let's sit a couple of minutes and then we have lunch. Now, I don't mean you to think you're a failure when you don't do this. Just be clear that you're not doing it. Then you can feel the success of being clear that you're not doing it. It's true, that's practice.

[07:29]

Almost always positive. Always? Positive. Because you can be clear that you're failing and then you feel, oh yes, okay. I'm clear. It really is something like that. Can't you feel your mind in your body? What's your posture other than your mind? Your muscles are just waiting to feel your mind. Your backbone is nothing until mind is in it.

[08:36]

So in each of the four postures we're constantly transforming and purifying mind. This is the teaching of the four foundations of mindfulness. You don't have to be smart to do this.

[09:36]

You just have to be wise. Thank you very much.

[10:52]

Vielen Dank. Thank you for translating. You're welcome. Can I borrow your watch? You have one too? Yes. Thanks. Hi. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. That's evening. Good evening. We don't have that. Couldn't talk. That sounds like I just saw you for the first time. Okay. A couple of people during lunch had questions.

[11:55]

You might bring them up, whoever you are, somewhere, together. Kurtz? Yeah. Yeah. My question was in relation to these four postures. that for me there is something ambivalent in it, that these four postures are also making a kind of generalization. So that the consciousness of these four postures makes it difficult for the attention to take all the deviations and these four positions, or rather to take intermediate steps.

[12:59]

so that by these generalizations it becomes difficult for consciousness to perceive the the variations. Difficult for the mind. Consciousness works in direction to these concepts and the mindfulness has the job to get aware of all these steps between them and beside them. Okay. Danke. Of course you're right. But we're starting... We have a worldview here, let's call it that, where activity is assumed and relationships are assumed.

[14:06]

Well, let's go back to what I think may be useful again to use the word semiotic. These are not so much particular positions, but signs for a territory of positions. Even though Charlotte Silver said, come up to standing, she still expects us to get up from the chair or floor and sort of be upright. But she says it in a way that makes us recognize the relationship, the continuous relationship, not just the endpoints.

[15:12]

So what is the purpose of the four postures in the context of this teaching of the four foundations of mindfulness? They come after the development of, let's say, breath-mind. So they represent everything that's not zazen. So how do you represent everything that's not zazen? The sign for that, or the symbol I don't like, sign, is the four postures.

[16:32]

You don't like sign? I don't like the word symbol, I like the word sign better. The four postures. A symbol, I don't like it because it sort of replaces what it represents. A sign points somewhere. Can I tell you a funny story? Okay. I happen to know from years ago before he was a movie star, Harrison Ford, And his wife wrote this. They just separated, divorced. But his wife wrote this. movie about the Dalai Lama.

[17:37]

So His Holiness happened to be visiting Harrison and his wife Melissa at their ranch in When His Holiness arrived, Harrison thought, because Harrison has a lot of farming equipment and helicopters and stuff, His Holiness would be interested in these things because he supposedly likes to take apart cars and things. But he was young. Even helicopters and several airplanes. You make a lot of money as a movie star.

[18:42]

Some movies. But he wasn't interested in any of those things. He wanted to see a moose. So Harrison called up the police and said, are there any traffic jams anywhere? And usually where there's a traffic jam, there's some moose. So they drove... They found out where it is and they drove in that direction. And there was several cars stopped and there was a group of mice, I mean moose. And it happened to be where there was a sign pointing to the next town, which is Moose, Wyoming.

[19:46]

So as the Holiness looked, there was this big sign saying, Moose, and then it was a group of moose. And Harrison says, his holiness looked at the sign and looked at the moose and didn't ask for an explanation. So a sign points at something. A symbol absorbs. Okay. So these are signs, a sign for the four ways... You know, our ordinary life.

[21:00]

But they also represent the postures we live in. And they represent the different minds associated with those postures. There may be lots of ways that we can recline or lie down. But if you want to... Dream or sleep, generally you lie down. Unless you're a horse. Or you're driving. So there's a posture that comes with lying down.

[22:11]

I mean, there's a mind that comes with lying down. So that means just bring this breath mind into the posture where you do so many things standing or sitting or reclining. And we don't think of walking so much anymore as a posture. But until very recently, hundred years or so, people spent a large percentage of their life walking because there was no transportation other than walking.

[23:14]

So there's yogic practices, as Lama Govinda talks about, involving walking, a special kind of walking. There's yogic practice, like Lama Govinda writes about, in The Way of the White Clouds, about yogic walking. Yes, there is a yogic practice about which Lama Govinda speaks in the White Cloud. Is that a book? It is a book, yes. The Way of the White Cloud. The Way of the White Cloud. So about the yogic gene. Yes. And that arises out of people doing a lot of walking, so it turns into a yoga posture. Okay. Yeah, thanks for that question. It was good. Anyone else? My question was to the koan you started, and it said in this koan the dialogue between these two guys is that the ones that... Why don't you just say it in German, because I know it in English.

[24:55]

The Korn goes on in the dialogue that the two guys have. I really don't know the German words because I don't really understand the difference but over the whole body then the other responds that it is only 80% And then the one asks again, only 80%, how would you answer it?

[26:07]

And then he says, throughout the body. Well, the point is that there's no difference. The point is that also there's some difference. First of all, you know, the koan occurs in two parts. And they're basically two different koans, too. Okay.

[27:15]

And Daowu, or Yunyan rather, is our ancestor. He was the teacher of Dongshan. Yunyan was? The teacher of Dongshan. Dongshan is the person who is considered the founder of our lineage. But Yunyan always, in these koans, plays the dumb one. In a novelistic sense, he takes the role of the one who doesn't quite get it. So he represents us. And Dawu represents the one who's kind of, you know, he's cooler. Cooler. And they're actually blood brothers as well as Dharma brothers.

[28:19]

Okay. In the future we'll have stories like this about... Christian and his sister Ulrike. And history will tell us which one plays the dumb role. And it may not be that that's just the way the story develops. Since they're twins, we know they're twins. Okay, so... I don't know. They probably have it happen to them. My first wife was... She had a twin brother, and people are always coming up to her and saying, Are you identical? Didn't your mother teach you anything about the birds and the bees?

[29:27]

But sometimes Zen questions sound like that. Anyway, okay, so the first part of the koan is... Yunyan asks Dawu, why does the bodhisattva of compassion have so many hands and eyes? And Dawu says it's like reaching for your pillow at night. One of the most famous comments in all of the Buddhism, Zen Buddhism actually. This koan and this answer is indirectly and directly referenced all the time in Dogen and other people. This question and this answer is reflected in Dogen and other people's writings.

[30:43]

And it's great that Paul Rosenblum brought it up in Rosenblum Sensei in this recent Sesshin. Okay. Now, then Yunyan, in response to, like reaching for your pillow at night, says, I understand. And Dao Wu, so Dao Wu turns the tables on him. Do you have an expression like that? And says, what do you understand? Leave me alone, brother. And he says, all over the body is hands and eyes. Now, It's a good answer, but it's a stupid answer.

[32:10]

There's nothing wrong with it, but it's stupid. Why is it stupid? Because everyone knows these statues. It's like saying, what is a Mercedes? Oh, it's a symbol with a little, you know, et cetera, circle with some lines in it. What is the Buddha? Someone sitting cross-legged. Even Sophia knows that already. All right, so he just basically describes what these statues look like. It's got hands and arms all over it. Hands and eyes all over it. So he basically gives a conceptual answer. Because you can't answer conceptually, then Because you can't answer conceptually.

[33:35]

Now let's go back to the story. Because you can't. Can't answer conceptually. Such a question. Okay, so... Yun Yan says, I understand. Da Wu says, what do you understand? And Yun Yan says, all over the body is hands and eyes. So Da Wu says, not too bad, brother, but that's only 80%. Now, 80% is also a common way of saying you've got most of it, but the last 20 is the hard part. So... It could have been a more subtle answer, actually, if he'd said just simply, all over the body is hands and arms, the second time, if he'd repeated it exactly.

[34:45]

So what's the difference between two answers which are exactly the same? They occur at different times. So if you say the same thing, it's different because it comes at another time. So the second part of the koan demonstrates the first part of the koan. The first part of the koan is you can't know with conceptual thinking. This is not conceptual thinking. So Dao knowing yin-yang really probably doesn't quite get it. says, what do you understand?

[36:02]

And he gives a conceptual answer that's almost always going to be wrong. And he gives a conceptual answer which is accurate but wrong because it's conceptual. Okay. And it's also wrong because it's just the way all these statues are. They're all over Japan and China. You have a circle of arms and 11 heads and so forth. Yeah. So, Da Wu answers, throughout the body is hands and eyes. And Da Wu says... Now, a little later, okay, is that relatively clear?

[37:25]

In other words, it's a shift from different kinds of minds. One mind that's a conceptual mind and one mind which is knows non-conceptually. I don't know, is it useful for you to know for me to talk about this? At least it makes you more aware of what's going on in the koans. Now, later in the koan, in the commentary, it says beautifully, Flower-grown walls. Blumenbewachsende Mauern.

[38:34]

The banks of streams lined with willows. Wo ist der Frühling? What is the shape of it? That's like reaching for your pillow at night. Where do you find spring? Spring isn't an entity. Spring is the activity of flowers and a gentle breeze in the... So I think that's good. Where is spring? What is the shape of it? That's a reference to reaching for your pillow at night. Das ist ein Rückverweis auf das Auslangen nach dem Kissen in der Nacht.

[39:53]

So, if you said, what is spring, and somebody said, willow-grown banks, that's not a conceptual answer. Wenn du fragst, was ist der Frühling, und jemand sagt, ein weidenbewachsenes Ufer, dann ist das keine begriffliche Antwort. You could say it's a semiotic answer. And then it says something like... Semiotic means it's a kind of branch of contemporary philosophy which studies how signs function in thinking. As I responded yesterday about Sophia's different things are signs, and they have equal weight as signs, but they don't have equal weight as words or something like that.

[40:55]

Remember? You weren't, oh, that's right, you were with the baby. Sorry. I studied her science. Yeah, yeah. Your guts, you could understand her pretty well, though. I'm sorry. We talked about it yesterday. Okay. Okay, then it goes on to say, yet, what is spring? Where is spring? What is the shape of it? And yet it responds to circumstances. Like the moon revolving in the sky. All over the body, throughout the body. Yeah. And it says something like, it's not a puppet.

[42:01]

Someone must be pulling the strings. And this is... Exactly, a kind of response to this question of no free will. What's pulling the strings? The whole situation is pulling the strings. But within that situation, there's choice and decisions and so forth. But it's particularly known. It's a non-conscious knowing. Okay. You know, because I live in the United States and here, and because I do just like was an Austrian...

[43:09]

Sophia has been in, I think, seven different sleeping rooms in six weeks or something like that, or four weeks, four weeks. And instead of looking for the pillow at night, I'm often looking for the pillow. toilet and the table. And I don't turn the light on because I don't want to wake up and also I don't want to wake the baby up. But I find if I once walked around the hotel room or somebody loans us two or three little rooms Once I've done it once consciously, at night I can just walk through the room in the dark. But something like a blind person, I have to... I can't think about it, I have just...

[44:12]

walk with a certain kind of feeling. I'm presenting this as something quite normal for anybody who has this experience, which I think we all do. But what these teachings were talking about emphasized this as the primary way of knowing, not a secondary way of knowing. And I've sort of coined a word for it, which I call knowance. Yeah, like sentence or seance or existance. The tanz part means a state of a situation, so it's a situation of knowing.

[45:53]

We don't have some, knowledge isn't the right word. So I can't find a word for it, so in my own mind I call it knowance. Somewhere in between séance and existence. You know what séance is? Like when you move a table. When it's in the way for the toilet, you know. Yeah. No, I was, I can't, you know, just after our morning session, I was struck by what good luck I had when I was 25. Because I met two enlightened people. I think I met two enlightened people. One was Charlotte Silver and one was Suki Roshi.

[47:00]

One was Charlotte Silver and the other was Suzuki Roshi. Now that seems like a small thing to... The only example I've given you so far is she said, come up to standing. It seems to be a very small thing. The only example I've given you so far is that she said, come up to standing. But instead of letting language tell her how to say it, stand up, her experience told her how to change language to say it. Now... As I think many of you know, she's now 101 years old. And almost completely in her full faculties.

[48:21]

And she's Marie-Louise and the baby and I spent an afternoon with her. just recently in California. And the next day she had an all-day meeting of the Charlotte Selver Foundation. And then after that I think she went to Mexico or then she went to Europe at least. And when I was teaching in Munich, she was teaching in Chiemsee. And I told you the story that... I didn't pass time to some of you.

[49:38]

I told you the story when after I got married about six months after I got married. This was when she was 99. She called me up and she said, Dick, I think it's so wonderful. Congratulations, you got married. I said, yeah, no, no, I'm very happy. I said, this is great. And she said, I was so inspired by you, guess what I did? I said, what did you do, Charlotte? She said, I got married too. I said, oh, that's really wonderful.

[50:46]

And she said, and the age difference is about the same. And I said, Marie-Louise Charlotte got married. And I guess she likes younger men. And Marie-Louise said, does she have a choice? The field gets more and more limited, you know. Anyway. Does she live to be 101 and still teaching just because of genetics? Of course, that's possible. But in her case, I don't think so.

[51:48]

I think it's because she comes up to standing. I've known her a long time. I've known her since the beginning of the 60s, 61 or so. She's always relaxed inside. There's no effort to appear different than she is. She always looks quite beautiful, but she just lets her hair be straight. She parts it in the middle, wears simple clothes, no affectation at all. I didn't get the beginning. Her hair is just the way it is. Her face is the way it is. She's never tried to look younger, older, anything. She's just completely the way she is. She responds to people.

[53:10]

She used to have arguments with her husband. But she was never really disturbed inside, just relaxed. And always... always in a basically good mood. It was always great to see her. Can it come from such a small thing as come up to standing? I actually believe so. If you understand come up to standing to mean that somehow on her own she discovered... She's part of a... She studied first, some of you may know, with Elsa Gindler in Berlin.

[54:21]

Her maiden name is Wittgenstein. And she's somewhat distantly related to the Austrian Wittgenstein, but she's German. And she's part of the movement in America, which included Gestalt and Ida Rolf and herself and some others. Ida Rolf taught the kind of massage where you reach into the joints and so forth. A lot of them also, Stahl, were connected with Esalen Institute. Now, she taught the simplest approach of all of them. It always seemed like there was almost nothing to it.

[55:40]

For instance, I learned from her that when I'm sitting at a desk, if my arm is on the table, I kind of let the table and my arm disappear together. The other people who were contemporaries taught much more active forms of intervention or body awareness. What she taught is called sensory awareness. What she teaches is sensory awareness. It's so simple, it's almost not there as a teaching. Sensory means with the senses.

[56:44]

It's so simple, it's almost not there. And she teaches through her realization, not because she has techniques. I mean, if she's there with you, you feel the way she sits and your body changes. She doesn't tell you to do much. It's just that the way you stand or sit, something else happens. And her sensory awareness is very close to the four foundations of mindfulness. Especially what we've been talking about this morning. You're walking, standing, you look like everyone else. But it's your breath...

[57:44]

mind clarity walking and standing. Now we're concerned with evolution and so forth. If you can If the human being can live to be 101 with the kind of clarity she has, it's a kind of evolution. It's a kind of evolution you practice within your own body. Okay. So I think we should take a break in a moment.

[59:04]

And after the break I'd like us to break up into small groups. And there's what, 40 people about here? So maybe five groups of eight or something like that. I'll leave that to you to work out. And I'd like to have some experienced older people in each group. And I would suggest a couple questions. What are the best conditions for practice? What are the best opportunities of practice? What are the skills of practice?

[60:07]

So what skills have you developed in practicing? How do you create opportunities to practice? What kind of conditions do you find good for practice? Those three questions, I think if you shared some kind of your experience, that would be good. If you share your experiences about these three questions, I think that would be good. Let's sit for a minute before we have a break. How do we discover the mind of connectedness throughout the body?

[62:31]

The mind also rests throughout the body. Oh, my God.

[67:37]

Well, we haven't gotten very far on the four foundations of mindfulness. We haven't even gotten very far on the first foundation of mindfulness. But mindfulness as a practice It's not just attention to things, but attention to things through the breath. So we can speak of, you know, maybe the Best term is one I've been using for years, breath mind. Doesn't Kaz use that for his book, something like that? It's brush stroke, something like that.

[69:12]

Brush mind. Brush mind, yeah. And some of you know of Issan, Tommy Dorsey, who the book Street Zen was written about. He said to me, when he began, after he was head of the Hartford Street Zendo. But his practice came together when he realized Breath Mind. And the teachings became clear to him when he realized breath and mind.

[70:30]

He said, you first spoke to me about it ten years ago. ten years, more than ten years ago, and I just recently got it, he said. And he was a person who had actually quite a bit of trouble reading and following intellectual text. Mostly because in the 60s he led quite an extreme life and one part of it was he just took every drug anyone gave him. If anybody heard of a new drug, they'd bring it to Issan and say, We're the first to try it, Issan.

[71:40]

Fine. Seemed to have affected his ability to think consecutively. And he took heroin for years, too. So it's interesting. We talk about things and he'd actually understand it, but not comprehend it. Does that make sense? That's a hard one to translate. No? Okay. But somehow breath mind made it all come together. So finally it was present in a way where the teachings were part of each situation. After all, he was present so that the teachers became part of every situation.

[73:08]

So mindfulness practice is not just attention, it's attention joined to breath. And then it's that breath mind brought into your activity. If you establish yourself in breath mind, Even when you stray off in zazen into thinking, that straying is part of your breath. And it's quite easy to come back to your breath. Or to your immediate space.

[74:28]

Yeah, a little bit when you go into thinking, your kind of space conflates and starts off somewhere. You go into some room in your head. If you know breath mind, it doesn't seem like... Yeah, it's still a room very much part of the house. So if we've done nothing else during this seminar, then bring home the sensual dimension of mindfulness.

[75:30]

As the joining of breath and mind. This was, you know, this one teaching was almost enough for Islam. And it's probably enough for you too. And I presume all of you have taken less drugs. I hope. Breath-bind might be even more effective with you. So, but before we end, I'd like to at least give you a picture and feeling for, if I can, for the remainder of the four foundations of mindfulness.

[76:47]

But before we stop, I would like to give you at least a picture of the rest of the four foundations of mindfulness. So I would like to, of course, first hear reports from each of the five groups. And any dissenting opinions or spontaneous reports is fine. Okay. We talked about how we actualize the practice in everyday life, how often we sit and how we motivate ourselves to do so. One person in our group is at Johanneshof for the first time.

[78:10]

And he asked us why we actually sit. And then quite a few personal statements came out of that, that we feel a connectedness. that a longing leads us and that through sitting we learn to endure or come through difficult situations. but it became clear also that practice doesn't consist of sitting alone, but also of other techniques like following the breath and so forth.

[79:16]

Then I said that it almost was discouraging for me. That you emphasized that you really have to do this 100%. And in every seminar and in every... And in every seminar it's something else that we have to do a hundred percent. And Frank comforted me. He said, oh, it's a suggestion. And he said, I should trust him and then he would find the right one for me.

[80:39]

So he said I should entrust myself or trust this so then the right thing could maybe find me. Okay. Someone else? Someone else? Maybe I can add to this. I also emphasize that maybe it's good to try the 100%. But it's not so important what, but there are various things.

[82:08]

And the other thing is that I found we really had a good, intense discussion. Although our neighbor was very close with food and loud drills and machines. And my feeling was that this is one because it was about finding out about conditions and possibilities for practice. And that was also said in the group that it is a good condition and possibility to come here.

[83:14]

To come to a seminar and go into these small groups, although it's maybe unpleasant at first because you don't know anybody. And then to experience a situation where I can talk about my own anliegen. Yes, my own need, in a way that I can't in ordinary circumstances. For me, in any case, other people are also part of it, as a possibility, as a demo for mindfulness in practice.

[84:38]

So for me, other people pertain to this or to this conditions and possibilities for practice, mindfulness practice. And also a certain order and form within which we meet each other. And a teacher. Someone else? I have the same group. For the conditions of the practice, it was important, if you are not at Johanneshof, that many said that it is good to have people with whom you sit together, either a group or a partner, just people who will support you. For those who don't live at Johannesburg or don't come here, it was important to, it seems important to have a group or a partner to sit with and have their support.

[85:58]

We also talked about skills or what comes from the practice for us. And we also talked about skills that emerge from practice. And one Fritz already mentioned, that is, enduring difficult situations are not to be too identified with your own emotions. Okay, good, thanks. Gabi? Okay. Someone else? Yeah? Similar aspects came up in our group too.

[87:06]

I want to add two or three. One aspect that was new to me and that was mentioned by Beate. that she said that in her practice she also has to deal with things privately and in her job. get things done, before she maybe lets herself into the practice more, more intensely.

[88:11]

And the second aspect, which I found very interesting, is that a condition for the practice is also the dealing with suffering. And then the second aspect that was interesting to me is that Also that how you deal with suffering is important for practice, that the suffering is a kind of fuel that gets you into practice again and again. The perceiving of your own suffering, but also the perceiving of suffering in your environment. And that this fundamentally is really only one suffering. Okay, thank you.

[89:12]

We also talked about similar aspects that have been mentioned. You also said that suffering is like a condition for practice. This is also a condition to begin with practice in the first place. An interesting aspect came up concerning the opportunities that we can that we can use simple, monotonous work for practice, that it's easy for us in the beginning to use this situation.

[91:00]

And that it can also give us the feeling to practice this simple work of a certain rhythm. that we can, in a simple work like this, that we get to know a feeling of a rhythm of the practice. So it was something repetitive. So concerning the skills that you develop in practice, that are necessary in practice? but that are also somehow conditioned for practice, that we have a body and also a feeling for our body.

[92:16]

that when we already have a feeling for our body that this makes, in the beginning, makes practice easier. It shows the spectrum more readily as compared to when you don't have that feeling for your body. Okay, thank you. Yeah. I feel a resistance coming up in myself that only through suffering you can enter the practice. Maybe if you understand the whole of being is suffering.

[93:53]

Because my motivation to sit is more a longing and not a suffering. Maybe the longing, if the longing is a suffering, well then...

[94:01]

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