So, please, someone say something. Wow! Okay. Yes, we had such an exciting group. It's such an exciting group. So I just want to express something uncensored. He didn't say that, but it's... Yeah, you have uncensored, exciting groups. Call me so I can come down and join them. I would just talk in the unclear. All right, go ahead. Unrefined. Today you spoke about discontinuity in connection with breath. So far the continuities was mentioned as the job of consciousness establishing it through thinking.

[01:24]

Yes. And the yogic skill was meant to be transferring this continuity from the thinking up to the breathing. And now comes the discontinuity of the breathing. My feeling was that there is a continuity. And my feeling is that this continuity is the attention that is required for this practice. And the continuity, by my feeling, is the attentiveness that's following both of them in the practice. Since the attentiveness cannot be split. Does this mean that I can actually, with the continuity of the attentiveness, That means that with the continuity of mindfulness, I put the focus entirely on the breathing.

[02:53]

and not, for example, on valid cognition or other things? Not on valid cognitions or other things. Yes. Yes. I followed it up to the last two things. I think where you lost me is when you said your attention is entirely on the breath. Because that's not possible. Anytime ready to negotiate. You're ready to negotiate. Yeah, if we're going to practice, we all should be ready to negotiate.

[04:02]

I mean, you were trained as a lawyer, though, right? So I think maybe that's my question but does through content through attentiveness and practice attentiveness, a kind of continuity is getting established. That way the background mind always stays alive too. Yes. What I said today doesn't replace any other breathing practice. It's a further refinement of breathing practice.

[05:25]

And first of all, all of you, each of you, has to have confidence in what you already do. And if I say something, you'll say, oh, what I've been doing must be wrong. No, no, what you're doing is what you're doing, and this is something... Added or changed or nuanced, you know. Trust your own experience. Okay. I would like to add a question here. In this context, the word posture has fallen, i.e. attitude, with the discontinuous perception of the breath. We also discussed this in the group, and in any case, for me this was a little satisfactory answer. The word posture was mentioned in the context with this continuous observing of the breath, and for me there hasn't been a satisfying answer.

[06:45]

To which? to posture in the discontinuous context of breath. You haven't found a satisfactory way to understand that? Yes. Well, I haven't found a satisfactory way to express this yet, this clue. But I'm very glad to have stirred up a situation We don't want any complacent Buddhists around here. Complacent means you're willing to accept your position, whatever it is, good or bad.

[07:47]

Paul? The question that Gerhard mentioned was also a question that came up in our group about how to actually do this. Because it was expressed that it's extremely difficult to bring experience to things in a unique way, as unique. Because they said it's very difficult. It's difficult to bring experience to things uniquely, or it's difficult to experience things uniquely. And yet the same person noticed that their experience, particularly around Sashin, they were able to see particular things, like they mentioned a flower, as being unique.

[09:13]

And someone said that especially in Sushin, Somebody expressed this as doing ordinary things for the first time. Like walking with the baby and feeling the space is coming toward you rather than you going toward the space. In other words, somebody had this experience Primarily when they are carrying a baby? Correct. Oh, okay.

[10:15]

Carrying their newborn baby. Yeah, yeah. And it was... Several people had a feeling that movement... help them to experience something as unique, change or shift. And it brought up the importance of context as where we lead into a situation as opposed to leading with our associations or generalizations. People talked about the context of being with a friend or a lover or seeing a practitioner as this kind of meeting, helping to support this context, not leading with associations.

[11:33]

Then it was said that also the encounter between good friends, lovers or practitioners supports such a context for such a unique perception. And someone said that in the repeatable cycle of the same day it helps to see the unique in it. And the seeming sameness and structure of the Sechin is a support for seeing something that is repetitious and unique.

[12:35]

And there was also an observation that allowing things to come toward us, someone used the term taking the backward step, appearing in our experience. It was helpful. The way we relate to things as being the same doesn't take into account that our perception of them is constantly changing. Doesn't take into account. Does not take into account. And that it takes courage to do this. To not continually manipulate our experience. And that the association, somebody had the experience of leading with the associations, is the brain getting stuck and not getting caught in the thinking of the association, is the brain in the core and the brain falling to the floor.

[14:25]

And we didn't get to the second question. Okay. Something else. We found that continuity has a lot to do with identity. and it gives security and to experience... Oh, I am English. Yes, you are German. Shall I start again? In our group we have found that continuity has a lot to do with identity.

[15:33]

Continuity has a lot to do with identity. Identity or continuity gives us security. We can hold on to it. Identity, continuity gives us security to which we can hang on to. And to experience and experience uniqueness, it also means... And to be able to experience uniqueness means that you have to lose this identity. And you can't really do that. Chaos. Because our striving for yearning is to feeling comfort or security and it's not going to something risky or chaotic or adventurous.

[16:56]

You mean? It's impossible or it's just that's our tendency to... No, tendency. Tendency, okay. I personally just experienced this feeling. It's not necessarily something nice. Okay, there was a moment yesterday, but before this moment there was a kind of... Hole. Hole again. Like a continuous hole. Yeah, but it means overstretched period of time she felt down.

[17:57]

Oh. Yeah, you know. H-O-L-E or W-H-O-L-E? H-O-L-E. A depressed thing. Oh, a dark pit. A pit, yes. I think I even wanted to dwell in that one. And we also discovered in the group that I also didn't want to be disturbed there either. I was embarrassed. And this being embarrassed or shamed, that inhibited being disrupted or disturbed in there. This all happened in your group today?

[18:59]

No, that happened yesterday. Okay, yesterday. But today it came out. I see. The tunnel found an entrance to... Exit today. Exit. Yeah, okay. Then some disturbance did come, or disturber did come. And... I was very touched. And there were a lot of feelings. And it didn't stop in the underground, but there was a moment of uniqueness. It was a disturbance. tunnel, but this disturbance enabled a moment of unique experience.

[20:00]

And the disturbance occurred today or something? So this disturbance does occasionally happen, but the one yesterday was in itself special. And in this moment this identification also ceased. And I could let this happen. And there was a connectedness with everyone in the room again. Okay, thank you. Robert Musil, Robert Musil, thank you, says in his diaries of 1920 to 26, just this one line, when you subtract the environment from a person,

[21:11]

What is left is something shapeless. And I think I could change it and say, when you subtract consciousness from a person, Perhaps we could say what is left is something shapeless. But we could also say what is left is something always finding its shape. I think there's a lot of fear right in that area. That easily, because we support ourselves with a certain structure, primarily conscious structure,

[22:23]

Particularly conscious structures. And when we lose those and have no place to go, and we reside in consciousness, and consciousness loses its structure, we can be in kind of difficult place. And to even recognize that consciousness is structure, and if it's structure, then it can be, it's not real somehow, it's just structure, can also be an existential and scary moment. And if we understand that consciousness is a structure, just a structure, then it can lead to an existential crisis.

[23:51]

In this practice, Let's go around and circle around how we were put together. I would like to say something about that. I have experienced this in the last two or three days. I mean exactly what has been said now, only in relation to my breathing. So I want to say something exactly here to this what you said in the last two, three days. I experienced this exactly to my breath. And I have practiced in the past a lot with connectedness with the breath, but now I think that was a form.

[25:04]

So this fear I spoke about is not fear in my life. It's this fear with this breath movement that doesn't have any more. Okay. And? I didn't want to say anything about the group, but I wanted to ask you about the question before yesterday, how do we refine, how does practice refine our lives? That's what you told me, and it came up again. So I don't want to express anything to the group thing this afternoon, but to something that happened in the previous day that you said, how does practice refine our life? And I would like to call this refine more like how did practice change my life?

[26:22]

There are different directions. I am excited and I am lacking words to express this. There are moments in practice in zazen where I exclusively maybe feel myself as a function. as a complete function, which is now a shortened representation, but as a functioning, complete organism, machine, whatever.

[27:45]

Did I feel myself, this is abbreviatedly described, but as a complete organism or machine or something? It has to be something like the remains of memory or consciousness, but I think it is very reduced, and I experience myself So there must be some remnants of memory or consciousness at this moment that I can actually talk to about it, but it feels like as if I'm at the periphery of how this AI is functioning.

[28:55]

To the outer and to the inner. It's not like a limit of an end. It's inside, it's to the extent or something. I'm missing the word somehow. So... And I experience this, I just can't express it. I'm sort of like an inter-punctuation which could be differently.

[29:59]

Also from the outside I actually experience this interpuncturation and it could be completely different. I think we can feel what you're saying even if you're not fully expressing it. Now, when you used the word punctuation, you meant like punctuation in language. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it just means that I am like a kind of punctuation, but it could, you know, just be completely different.

[31:20]

Okay. Evolution or accident. So... Now, the verse... Things we've moved toward in the last few minutes. You know, we take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Now the import of those three refuges and the importance of these is that serious practice can take away all refuges, so you're only left with Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, so you better know what it is. And the only three that are left for you are Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, so better understand what they mean.

[32:29]

It's not so much that these are the best refugees, but rather they may in extremity be the only refugees. In extremity they are just the only ones. In extremity they are the only ones. Punctuation allows me to say one thing I... have been wanting to move through this koan toward. Is punctuation, or dharmic punctuation, or something like that, Because one of the things that practice brings you into is finally, not finally, but one of the finally's, to the point where you experience everything as particular fleeting moments.

[33:44]

But that experience is accompanied by a parallel Subtle mind of continuity. Okay, Peter? No? Good. And what I started in Rastenberg, one of the things I spoke about were mem signs. Mem signs? It's a word I made up. Okay. Das sind die mem Zeichen. Yeah, Memsigns. You can't translate it because it's never been translated before. Okay. Now, Memsigns comes from the Buddhist analysis, Abhidharmic and Alayavisyanic analysis.

[34:56]

These Memsigns come from the... of how perception works. And that each perception is immediately accompanied by a sign, an associative sign from memory. And for those of you who are familiar with this, what I said in Rastenberg, I think it's can be gone over a lot until we really get it.

[36:03]

And the simplest example I found, if I hand this watch to an infant, it's not a watch. It's just a shape. And it might also be a sound. But it's just a shape. And this is maybe Musil's becomes a shapeless, even shapeless thing. Okay, so if it's just a shape, Everything that's added to it that makes it a watch, metal, a band, all of that are mem signs.

[37:09]

Okay. Is that clear? Okay. All right. Now... And it's quite a while before an infant child can start knowing this is a watch. It better not be dropped. You can tell the time, et cetera. Now we take it for granted. All of you would identify this as a watch instantly. But can you separate this mem sign from the shape? From the percept.

[38:09]

This is part of beginning to read the world as scripture. Now, let's just take the example of each thing is in fact unique. Each percept is unique. Okay. Now, in addition to what is brought to a pure percept, A pure perception would be a perception without mem-science.

[39:23]

But you also bring your views. Which are kind of memory, but really it's more fundamental in memory or experience. Okay. So if I know that each twitch of a leaf... Twitch? Twitch? You know, twitch is like that. When I know that each twitch of a leaf, each movement of a leaf, is unique, that knowing... it is going to affect my seeing uniqueness.

[40:35]

In other words, the view we have of a percept... The view you have of perception, within perception, conditions perception. So if you make an effort, if you just simply know and continuously know That each thing is unique. We could call that, if we want, a kind of wisdom mem sign. In other words, every percept would be accompanied by the immediate association that it's unique.

[41:58]

Jede Wahrnehmung wäre unmittelbar begleitet von der Assoziation, dass sie einzigartig ist. Das ist nicht das Gleiche, wie es als einzigartig wahrzunehmen. Aber das macht es viel, viel, viel wahrscheinlicher, dass ihr es als einzigartig wahrnehmt. this sense of men signs and the views that precede perception. So you have views within which perception occurs.

[43:00]

And those views, those percepts within the field of views, within the container maybe of views, once the percept occurs, there's an immediate mem sign that attaches to it. So, if I have a view of, I don't know, taking care of things, Then whatever you put in my hand, I'll take care of it or something like that. Then immediately you put the watch in my hand.

[44:19]

This thing without, that's only a shape in my hand. Immediately the mem sign joins it. This is a kind of grammar or punctuation. And you begin to feel how things are put together and you can take the mem signs away or you can even change the views the categories in which perceptions occur. Now come and... Please say this again. Okay. It's overlapping with my own thought. Thank goodness. I hope it's overlapping with a lot of... I feel wet all over. No. It always overlaps.

[45:21]

Okay. Okay. Mostly, percepts do not occur independent of views. Okay, so within views, percepts occur. That's already an editing choosing process. Because you're not perceiving other things that are outside your views. So a percept appears, smell, taste, touch, whatever. And then it's immediately joined by a mem sign. Now, to get to the point where you can experience that, You can understand it.

[46:35]

It's fairly easy to understand. But that it becomes one of the bases of moment-by-moment noticing and knowing. happens primarily through the articulation of consciousness through articulating the breath. comes through articulating consciousness through articulating the breath.

[47:36]

Now you can't jump several steps at once. You can understand several steps. But understanding the several steps can give you depth and confidence in bringing attention to the breath. by bringing attention to the breath, because you understand the whole situation pretty well, it gives you depth and confidence when you bring attention to the breath. You know, in the koan it says you need two eyes.

[48:58]

It's one of the things it says. It also says you have mirror-like eyes, mirrors that see everything without... Without what? Coloration? No, I don't know what it's about. Without distinctions. Yeah, okay. Without comparisons, it means. And as you articulate the plasticity of our neurobiological... You have to be very slow now. Three words at a time. Sorry. As you articulate... And enhance the plasticity of the neurobiological context...

[50:02]

These mirror eyes which are refined through the breath slowly become more like magnifying glasses than microscopes which see into how we exist. So you can have sort of confidence that you're working with something brilliantly spiritual and, you know, even scientific when you bring attention, you know, to the breath. Now, I like that they use the word reiterate instead of repeat in the English of the koan.

[51:04]

I don't know how you translate it. What is for you the difference between... Yeah, I'll have to say it. And I can only say it in English. I don't know what the Chinese word is, so I have to just enjoy the distinction between repeat and reiterate. Ich weiß nicht, was das chinesische Wort ist. Ich kann mich nur an den Unterschied zwischen reiterate und wiederholen ergötzen. To repeat in English just means to repeat something. Auf Englisch heißt wiederholen einfach bloß wiederholen, widerrachen. Remember our now old friend Prajnatara. Erinnert euch an unseren mittlerweile alten Bekannten Prajnatara. At least a great, great grandfather. It says, I reiterate this scripture 100,000 million scrolls on each breath. Yeah, and repeat means simple repetition.

[52:51]

Reiterate means you keep saying it, repeating it, but you keep saying it again, but in a way that gets closer and closer to an understanding. I think in mathematics it's used. Do you repeat something? Some kind of refining. Over and over again, it begins to refine the situation and come to a conclusion. It's an enneering process. An enneering process. Okay. Sorry. Can I ask a question? No, finally the overlap. No, the overlap's long gone. Yeah. Where did the breath kick in this whole thing?

[53:58]

Can you get that one spot out once more? Where the breath fits in? Because I did get... Now I've put my overlap in here. It's the emperor's new clothes question. Basically, the view is a function, a mathematical function, of the choice of mem stickers. Yeah, okay. No, the view controls, influences what you perceive, but not the meme signs particularly. That would be, but it would influence, but my point was it precedes perception. But it also does the other thing. Because, yes, your view will influence what meme signs are.

[55:01]

So that part, sorry, now I can't even translate. So there I am, but I just didn't even hear what I said, and I think the translation was not backed up with confidence when the breath part came in. Okay. So there you go. It wasn't backed up by breath. It wasn't backed up. It was anything, anything. Nobody was home. I've had this... The first translator had ever admitted to me that nobody was home. So let me come back to that. David? Excuse me. Thomas? Yes, please. Is there anybody at home? Oh, yeah. You haven't said anything so far, so I wanted you to say something. I don't think it's the right moment, no. All right, so I'll wait. I'm patient. Nico. To reduce that, what he said, not to reduce what he said onto something we know.

[56:06]

So it helps me to localize this with the mem signs and the views on the second skandha. with me just sensing, getting in contact with this sense object. Memsign and views put more activity onto this consciousness step. On the steps before I make a perception. Yeah. Yeah, okay. That's right. Someone else? Yes. Yes. For me, I again have the question, what do you mean by articulate the breath?

[57:40]

And how is that different from bring attention to the breath? You mentioned it before and you mentioned it right now. For me, the question is what is the difference between articulating the breath and bringing my attention to the breath. If I bring attention to this glass, I'm not articulating the glass. But the more attention I bring to the glass, it may articulate my perception of the glass. Yeah, it's transparency, it's reflectiveness, etc., all becomes clearer.

[58:45]

Okay, so the more my attention... takes its... sets itself up within attention itself. I don't understand sets it up. Okay. The more my attention finds its attentiveness, power, nourishment, through attention,

[59:46]

Yeah, if I give attention to this, just that I want to drink something, that doesn't particularly refine my attention. I just go to the next thing. And then the tension is keeps reifying my desires and so forth. So if I bring attention to things and have the kind of inner stillness just to let attention rest on things, that actually begins to refine attention and articulate attention.

[61:05]

I'm sorry, I have to switch over to Marie. I'm gone. Oh, yeah? Finished or somebody else. Maybe we'll have to define the English word to articulate more precisely because I think it's a different feeling in German. Yeah. I can stay here with somebody or... Yeah, shall we just take... What time is it? We have to end in five minutes. Okay, Marie. You can just... From Marie-Louise to Marie-José. Okay, thanks. Pleasure, bye. Yeah, there is a problem with articulate, that's what I've heard, in the German-English relationship. So what does articularium, whatever the word is, mean in German? To put into words. To express. Articulate in English doesn't mean to put into words.

[62:16]

It can mean to put into words. That's in German? Maybe you need to explain, articulate. Yeah, okay. In English, articulate, to articulate the parts, for instance. If you had a... I don't know why I'm thinking for this example, but if you had a rolfer, masseuse rolfer person. It's a kind of rolfer where they go into the joints. So a rolfer would feel with his fingers, he's going in and articulating the joint. It's parts where the skin along the bones, etc.

[63:20]

So articulate means to make the parts clear. Do you have a word for that? It's not to define. In English it wouldn't be to define. Isn't it to feel into? Well, for the masseuse it would be to feel into it. For instance, Marie-Louise just designed a house, right? Somebody could say to her, could you articulate the steps through which you came to this design?

[64:24]

Well, she might say, first I took a bath. And I felt good afterwards. And then the possibilities of the house appeared. And then I picked up a pencil. That would be articulating the parts, the steps. And that's not to explain what's in kind but... That means in English, make followable. No, it means really just to make clear all the differences. You can have, when you look at a muscle, it's very sinuous.

[65:26]

It doesn't have a lot of flesh over it. There's an articulation. If you flex the muscle, there's an articulation of the muscle. So it comes out of this. It comes out of the situation. We don't make it clear. It's like the world's most famous Austrian. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Living Austrian. Anyway, he really set out because I know people who knew him when he was a young man, to articulate the body in a way which would change the world's view of the body. To articulate your breath, what does that mean?

[66:33]

To articulate the word breath? Okay, so an articulation of the breath would be to notice the inhale, to notice the pause at the top, the exhale, the pause at the bottom, etc. Those would be the first levels of articulation. And I can't say I'm defining the breath. I can't say I'm expressing the breath. I can't say I'm making the parts clear. I'm noticing the details. Yeah, but there's lots of details.

[67:45]

You're noticing the details, yeah. But in English, if I notice the details of breathing, it would be muscles, lungs. It wouldn't be the parts that make up... the breath, make up the unit we call inhale-exhale. When you articulate the breath, is it also an active component, like you shape the breath? Well, all right, so we're going to have to stop because we have to have dinner. We have to articulate our stomachs. But let me say something. When we bring attention to the breath, The first stage is you simply bring attention to the breath.

[68:58]

Okay. And that attention influences the breath. And then you're not articulating the breath, you're influencing the breath to be something influenced by attention. So you want to take away the effects of attention on the breath. So then you need what I call a very basic yogic skill, which is a non-interfering observing consciousness. A non-interfering, observing mind or attention. Without a non-interfering, observing attention, you can't really progress in practice. Now, a simple example again would be if you have a samadhi and you notice it, the samadhi goes away.

[70:18]

You develop a yogic skill to notice samadhi, hang around the periphery of it and still maintain the samadhi. And this would be articulating it because you're not messing with it. Yes, that could be a next step. Okay. This is also related to the ability to maintain a subtle continuity while perceiving distinctions. To do what? While perceiving distinctions or... Okay.

[71:22]

So these are the tools of the trade. Of the profession of yogic practice. Do you have that expression? The tools of the trade or something like that? Tools of the trade. Okay. Okay. Now, just a number of things. When you develop a non-interfering observing attention, You're developing one of the two most essential tools in Buddhist practice. The other is one-pointedness or continuous concentration.

[72:24]

Okay. This itself is a kind of mind. And non-interfering observing attention itself merges with background mind. So you've generated a mind. First just a tool and then becomes a mind itself. Okay. Now, once you can observe the breath without interfering with it, Then how the breath itself is structured without interference can become apparent.

[73:44]

Then when you bring attention to that way the breath is structured anyway, then attention articulates that structure. It makes the structure clearer. Could you articulate your argument, or could you articulate how you put... Then you show that you make clearer what's already there. Isn't it interesting? I find it extremely interesting. Because what it makes clear is we bring the mind to things through words. And if we don't quite have the right word, It doesn't flow to the object. Okay, Fritz, you want to say it?

[74:54]

Can you wait till tomorrow or you want to say it now? I wanted to say something. A new word. I expect the Anmutungsqualität. The what? Nobody understands. It's a super word. I can't translate it. Then we'll see. I don't understand that. I don't understand either, but I don't understand anything. Does anybody know what word he's using? It's a new word. Yeah, I know. I understand. Could you explain this new word? How the quality feels like. What a quality feels like. What's the quality of this, what we try to express, how that feels. Rather than how I could describe it, because it's in the domain of feeling, and that comes in the... to my understanding leads to the number five of the six subtle, settling the mind into mind.

[76:00]

And this feeling to express means to show the unmotivated quality of that, how that feels. Okay. Say it again in German, a little louder. Well, the quality of the invitation was a word choice for me. She says that I want to express how it feels, the quality, what I want to describe. In contrast to an intellectual attempt to fit it into words from a thinking structure, how does it feel to express the feeling? Katie, I understand. It may be fairly close to what neurobiologists call qualia. Which is a word they've made up, I believe.

[77:06]

Which is Q-U-A-L-I-A. Q-U-L-I-A. U-A-L-I-A. And it means the feel of something. The feel. F-E-E-L. The feel. No, you have to see the color. For example, the color blue. It's not only a color, there's a feel we have to the color blue. So neurobiologists say, how can we find a physical basis for the qualia blue? So they use the word to express how difficult it is to find a physical basis for the mind.

[78:08]

All right. I'm getting in the state like Marie-Louise. And you're doing fine. Thank you. The jellyfish. Okay. Down, down, down. He's an American guy. He's an American guy? The situation is quite right. Okay, so let's hit the bell and see what uniquely may happen. BELL RINGS Here the quality.

[79:34]

How's the quality? So when I bring attention to the sound of the bell, and attention notices that the bell sound itself is in the process of disappearing, and that the bell sound itself is mind itself ringing,

[80:41]

All of these are articulations of the process of noticing. The act of noticing. Now, if we can find another word for articulation in Deutsch, that would be Because this process of articulation is a process of refining consciousness. And bringing attention to the breath refines attention and the breath. And bringing attention to the breath It refines attention and the breath.

[81:54]

Just as it was believed that speaking and thinking in Sanskrit refines the mind that thinks. As in the Middle Ages, the monastics and scholastics thought that thinking in Latin refines the mind. Refiners. So to bring attention to the breath is also simultaneously to refine the mind.

[82:46]

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