I'm a little sick these days, but I'm functioning. A couple of days ago, I didn't even know if I could function. Are you translating? Yes, I'll try. Well, go ahead. I was a little sick in the last few days, but I got a little better and it worked. So I thought, oh, I'm so tired of traveling, so tired of getting on airplanes. I thought, maybe I will just cancel everything and stay here. I was in the apartment in Freiburg. So I actually called the Frau Direktor and said, what do you think, shall I cancel everything? Then I called the director and asked her, what do you think, should I say everything?

[01:08]

She said, I'll talk to you tomorrow. She said, I'll talk to you tomorrow. And tomorrow is today. I felt a little better. No, that was two days ago. That was Friday I got sick. I just appeared from nowhere. First time this year. Or it gets me it was better. I just translated that you're feeling a little better today. Yeah. Well, I'm functioning anyway. I mean, before I did, I really thought, geez, I won't do this. And I've got quite a tight weekend. And then I have to fly to the United States and pack for six months.

[02:08]

And the problem with my packing is that it's not what I bring but what I leave behind. I hardly leave anything behind, except you guys. I'd rather not, anyway. Okay, so have you started a discussion which I should participate in, or what should we do? Manuela brought up the question about what is currently a focus in our own practice, and she started to explain what is meaningful and helpful for her just now.

[03:20]

And do you mean you sat silently all this time? No. Oh, good. Manuela... For 15 minutes? No, first we rearranged the sitting to have it more like a kind of an oval. And so we can look at each other and see each other. Yeah, when we have a circle, I don't need a platform. When we don't have a circle, it's easier for me to have a platform to see everyone. Well, did you finish, or do you want to say something about where your practice is at right now? The question arose, Alan asked me, what is your practice? When I suggested this question, I was explaining what I'm practicing with. And now Susanne asked me... In German, please.

[04:26]

And Susanne asked me, after I gave her an overview or a review, I gave an overview and Susanne then asked me some questions because she didn't specifically understand how I practice exactly, specifically with it. And I was just in the process to say something about that. Oh, when I came in. Plastic? Yeah, all the glasses are in Johannesor. Oh, I understand. And so we had to do with the baby glasses. I hate to, I'll try. I washed them thoroughly. Back in 1960 or something, we bought the first plastic glasses.

[05:33]

They were kind of big, thick things. They're kind of interesting, but... Yeah, it helps me to know what... what... the pattern of your practice is and what brings your practice alive, what leads you into feelings or observations or relationship to your daily life that seem to come from practice. Yes, so during these next few days, if any of you can bring that up for us, maybe we can leave some space for that. Could you get me a bucket cleaner somewhere?

[06:47]

There is one in the corner there in the bathroom. Or tissue, rather, I guess it's called. Roshi, do you think I could just continue a little? Yes, please. Because I have the impression it is necessary to... Yes, please. Thank you. What just came to my mind is... What makes it so valuable for me, the practice with the skandhas, is that I first have the body points and the sitting, and then the body points at first, and the sitting, and then something arises.

[08:17]

And when these strong... And when strong emotions come up, they are always connected with a bodily sensation. And when strong emotions come up, they are always connected with a bodily sensation. And maybe an image of my family arises or a thought about the situation, and it's always connected with a physical, bodily sensation. And then I am so happy that I no longer have to stay in thinking, but can focus on this feeling. And I'm very happy that I don't have to stay in thinking anymore, but that I can shift towards the sensations.

[09:25]

And then space opens up where I can just be with all that stuff. And of course, it goes up and down, back and forth. And maybe I have a thought again, but I'm very happy to anchor continuously and relocate myself in the body. And all these associations are unbelievable. You have practically a thought and then comes a sea, a stream of pictures and so on, so impulses and associations. And then I put them all back in this room and realize, aha, there are turbulences or there is tightness.

[10:32]

Or you can then differentiate incredibly in the... And when there is a thought in its course there is an enormous stream of associations or impulses and I can take all that into the space and And can differentiate within this space. And it helps me in daily life because these sensations are very quickly, they come up very quickly. And I notice them. And I can... Now it's okay. Now I have to cook or I do yoga class, give a yoga class.

[11:36]

Now it's all right now. And from my consciousness I can cut these thoughts off and I'm continually having these bodily sensations. And what I noticed is that there is an enormous feeling of power and strength. Before that, I used to get more helpless, depressed, and didn't know what to do.

[12:42]

Today, I don't know what to do either, but I feel this strength. And there is somebody inside of me who is not busy with that. So the ability... to shift from being in your thinking to being in another kind of space, that is something you evolved through your Zen practice? And do you feel it as a shift to a kind of space or a shift to your body? Or both? First into the body.

[13:43]

No matter if I stand or walk or sit. And then it kind of draws me into my breath. And with this connection of body, breath, this space evolves. And thoughts disappear. So you're... So you're identifying with your attention and leaving your thoughts behind. I didn't think it like that, like you just said. But maybe it's like that. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Anyone else want to say something in this vein?

[15:01]

Yes. Ich bin nicht sicher, ob es die Richtung ist, aber ich wollte meine Erfahrung von Leipzig, also wo ich über die Schüchternheit, meine Schüchternheit mit dir gesprochen habe, I don't know if it's the same vein, but I would like to talk about Leipzig, where I had a talk with you, Roshi, about my shyness. Yeah. I'm glad you're not being shy now at all. We've recovered. And afterwards in the hotel where I stayed, I had a completely different approach to the people, to the people who worked there and the other people at the hotel. Mein Gefühl war, du hast ja über die vier Unermesslichkeiten gesprochen, dass ich in allen vier einschrittig da dran war.

[16:17]

And my feeling was, since you talked about the four Brahmaviharas, that with all four I was a step closer to them. Wonderful. And also in contact with nature or in relationship to nature I was feeling closer. Yes. Don't tell me. There comes something of illness with Houston and so on. You caught the same thing I did, maybe. Yeah, you too. Yeah. Yes, and that brings me back, so that the step forward suddenly no longer had this substance, And through losing my energy through the cold, I had the feeling that the step forward turned into a little bit going backwards again through this energy loss.

[17:47]

Yeah. Words like that. Yeah, so ist das. Yeah. So I'm questioning how can I move forward again? How can I do that when the sickness is over? I'm not sure how to proceed. First of all, have confidence you can do it. And second, purify your intention to do it. And trust your intention to find ways to manifest itself. Your intuition or your intention? Trust your intention. intuition, your intention to find ways to manifest yourself.

[18:52]

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, might even work. Okay. Okay. Someone else? Yes. From the questions you asked about the work with paramitas and the skandhas, I also read a lot about it, but I don't practice a certain About the questions that you posed about the skandhas or the Brahma Vihara, etc. I read something about it, but I'm not pursuing a certain course in a specific way.

[19:53]

And in my understanding there is a frame within I move about and that brings me to a certain threshold. And then something unknown happens. And right now I'm in the blissful state that I don't have to work anymore. You retired? Yeah. Oh, congratulations. And my main practice is to just sit. And the experience I have with it is that a lot of thoughts, feelings, somehow like a film, often run off, and I can simply observe it, it always returns to the breath,

[21:11]

And when I sit, a lot of thoughts and associations occur and kind of pass through like a film, like a movie. And I can just sit and return continuously to my breath. And the second pillar is what I practice is Chan Mi Gong. And what I notice is that it somehow overlaps with everyday life. So that I am simply more present in the situation when I... And what I notice is that that kind of influences and sparks my daily life, fuels my daily life.

[22:24]

I'm more present when I cook or when I create something, when I am outside in nature. When you started out, you said you move around or walk around in a frame. What do you mean by frame? And you have started to say you are in a frame. What exactly do you mean by this frame? This is like a mental preparation for what can occur in practice. It's kind of a mental preparation about what could arise during practicing. Okay, thank you. I tried to practice with the ten directions after last meeting. And sometimes when it occurs to me, I just tell to myself ten directions.

[23:26]

And I noticed that a lot of aspects from the text that you gave us last time become more experienceable. And, for example, what is inside, what is outside is kind of not existing like that anymore. For example, do I then feel the direct dependence on my being And I experience the direct dependency of my being in relationship to everything that's around and about me.

[25:00]

And do you think saying the Ten Directions or reminding yourself of that helps you relate to everything all about you? And when you say the ten directions, do you think it helps you to be in relation to all that is around you? Yes, it is a feeling of being very close to it. There is no distance between my body and the air or the sounds. It's an experience of being very close, as if there is no distance between my body and the air or sounds or something like that. That's great. By the way, go ahead. And when I'm sitting, I notice that I'm especially... And while I'm sitting, I notice that below and above are very important.

[26:11]

Then I can sit upright in a better way. That's great. Yeah, so far. Thank you. And I wanted to know if anybody else is practicing with that, because I'm very interested in that. With the concept and feel of the ten directions. Yeah. Is this the warmest we can make this room? Usually we have to heat it a day or two in advance.

[27:13]

I don't know if that was done. I will ask Ottmar. Yeah. at lunchtime, if everything is down. And then usually we somewhere have this... You have four radiators on? No, there's just one. Normally we have four. When you do a yoga class here. Yes, when I did, I'm now in the dojo, but before when I did it here, we had four. Aha, okay. And Ottmar had a meter on the floor to see the temperature. Thermometer, yeah, okay. But also the drab from the curtains put a lot of things in front. Oh, you did, for yoga class. Well, it's about zero outside. I don't mind. I have a jacket, but I know it can be cold for people in here. Okay, well, we'll worry about it for the next meeting.

[28:31]

And this afternoon, I guess we don't have a meeting because we're going to have the ashes ceremony for Peter. Yeah. Um... You know, first, does anybody else want to say something? Yes, go ahead. To the topic of patterns of practice. I explore for some time anything that I do in a way that is holistic.

[29:32]

Heuristic. [...] This is part of the question. If you do it, you do it out of habit or because there are already experiences. In science, there are statistics, for example, and that allows you So heuristic means that it's part of the question, is it stemming from a pattern, a habitual pattern?

[30:47]

If something new has been looked at, are there experiential data for that, are there statistics for that or not? And my practice is that I'm exploring under which heuristic approach am I working right now. Is it something that I do automatically? Is it something that I do automatically? Can I apply new patterns or old new patterns? For example, in the last time,

[31:50]

And in the last time, I'm looking for forms of thinking that allow that I can be overwhelmed and still able to think. Good. Thank you. What seems to occupy me these days In what way does the half a century and more of practice as I know it, of Zen Buddhist practice, how can it be part of this world we live in?

[33:16]

How can this be a part of the world in which we are currently living? And for us in the western world and in our lay life? So just simple things. You know, we're born with some kind of awareness. And that awareness is developed into consciousness. And our consciousness is body-sized. What I mean by that is consciousness is designed, let's put it simply, for the hands, what you can pick up and so forth.

[34:31]

Consciousness doesn't reach microorganism level or bacterial level or molecular level. It's pretty much limited to what you can do with your hands and body. And consciousness is developed to make what we experience feel like it's outside of us. You hear a bird and you think the bird is outside you. Du hörst einen Vogel und du denkst, der Vogel sei außerhalb von dir.

[35:56]

And that's usually true. The bird is not inside you. You're quite an unusual person. Meistens stimmt das, dass der Vogel tatsächlich außerhalb von dir ist. Sonst wärst du ein sehr außergewöhnlicher Mensch, wenn du einen ganz winzig kleinen Vogel in dir drinnen hättest. But as we've talked about often, actually what you're hearing is your own hearing of the bird. That's a fact. But most of us are not capable of noticing that fact. And usually it takes some kind of Zen practice or some kind of practice where you experience your own hearing of the bird as independent of the bird.

[36:59]

Now, when that becomes commonplace for you, It's one aspect of what we mean by enlightenment. So that like when I'm sitting here with you, I feel this visual field in my body, and I feel that more than its externalization. Now, I wrote a piece about the Anthropocene, the mass extinction we're in the midst of. I gave it to some people.

[38:07]

I don't know. Maybe I'll give it to you, to us. And I think Probably the biggest cultural, maybe, I can only think of one or two or three cultural mistakes, huge cultural mistakes that have been made. which is to think that the non-human is different from the human. It was a huge, huge mistake. It's allowed us to exploit the planet and basically make it not livable soon. And that allowed us to exploit the planet.

[39:25]

And I actually, you know, I'm sorry to be a doomsday guy, I've never liked end of the world predictions, but I think we are in the midst of one. And so there's going to be lots of, right now there's no governmental agency or global agency or organization that can deal with what's going to happen. Just to give you a simple example, they've been predicting the flooding that will occur on the basis of satellite pictures which assumed ground level was the tops of trees and buildings.

[40:31]

Okay, so now they've made new predictions. This has been going on since the 1950s, and the predictions keep getting worse. Yeah, so now the predictions are that... Johanneshoff is almost 30 years old. Maybe we are 30 years old. 20? 25? 96. But in 30 years, all of South Vietnam will be flooded. That's 50 million people. looking for a home. And we see what the problem with migration is in Europe already.

[41:50]

And that's only Vietnam. It's about 150 million people in East Asia will be flooded in 30 years. In 30 years, 150 million people in East Asia will be affected by flooding. And there's no way back. In this global warming, there's no away from it. We're in it. So my own feeling is that there's all kinds of going to be, and there are more and more, eventually probably realistic efforts to do outside things which can ameliorate the problem or slow it down, etc., Already in New York, the tunnels and subways are flooding.

[42:54]

In New York, the underground tunnels are already flooded. What can a Buddhist group do? What can each of us in our practice do? And I think basically, and this is I'm still exploring how to speak about it and think about it. So far I've related to it personally, because it's been a concern of mine actually since the early 60s. And I saw the... many things we were doing as a wake-up call to the environment and nuclear weapons and so forth.

[44:18]

And for me, one of the main motivations of my practice, I heard these things as a wake-up call, and that gave real direction to my practice. But now I feel... It's so obvious that we should begin to have a Sangha practice. Which can be outer things too, like Christian Dillow, the last four or five years, has been trying to move Crestone to having a carbon-free footprint as much as possible. So what I think as individual practitioners we need to do and need to do for our children and our grandchildren, is find ways to accept this in ourselves and having the intention to face it with wisdom

[46:06]

and equanimity and compassion. Yeah. So I don't know. I feel from my point of view, looking at this, it's... I'm rather early in thinking about this communally. At the beginning, no? Okay. Okay, so I started this because I pointed out the human... the distinction between humans and the non-human, which I think is such a tragic distinction.

[47:28]

And... I think what Agatha mentioned, that practicing with the ten directions has made her feel close to and part of or inseparable from the physical world in which she lives. Yeah. And you mentioned the Brahma-Viharas. He did, yeah. Part of the practice of the Brahmaviharas, which I mentioned at, uh,

[48:33]

And I haven't mentioned it in some years. And I think the Brahma-Viharas as a craft is best practiced... They're sometimes listed in different orders. But as a craft, I think the best or the most... useful order is friendliness or loving kindness. And the adjective is unlimited friendliness or unlimited loving kindness. Okay.

[49:40]

And the third ancestor's text starting out, a great way is easy, or something like that. Only don't pick and choose. The third ancestor. The text of the third ancestor begins like this. You only don't pick and choose. Well, it's very difficult not to pick and choose. We do make distinctions. So how do you make distinctions? and not pick and choose. This kind of, it sounds contradictory, but it exists in a bigger space than the contradictions of logic and thinking.

[50:44]

Yeah. And... So in the second Ramavihara is empathetic joy in... as we say, in your favorite enemy's success. Or somebody you feel in competition with. Yes. So the unlimited means an empathetic joy. You don't pick and choose. You can feel joy. freely empathetic with others, whoever they are.

[52:07]

We're wired through our views. And when we neurologically rewire our views, the experience isn't limited to the descriptive language. Yeah, as Manuela said, she does certain aspects of practice, and then there's an openness, and you don't know what's going to happen.

[53:08]

So if you really attentively practice something like empathetic joy, it actually biologically changes you into a slightly different person. So it's not you doing this practice, it's the future you doing this practice. It's a bodhisattva practice, not a person's practice. So it's a practice that anticipates the future which you could become, be. And the... And the third Brahma Vihara is equanimity.

[54:32]

And in the transmission ceremony, it's called the iron person. You develop a way to not be armored, but to be sealed in stillness inside, which really nothing can disturb you. And strangely, it gives you a power to be open to all kinds of grief, suffering, and terrible things happening to you, because at the core, you're not disturbed. And... And then the fourth is compassion. But the unlimited also means that all four of these you do in the seven directions.

[55:53]

And that's where we're beginning to practice which doesn't have any distinction between human nature and other nature. And there we begin to practice in the area of not distinguishing or not distinguishing between human nature or nature in general. I am practicing currently with the Brahma Biharas and I have a question. The way I practice with them, I go through all of them, through all four of them. In all directions. And would it make more sense to practice them individually? one at a time.

[57:01]

Well, you usually practice one at a time. I mean, you're in Kaufhof and you practice unlimited friendliness with the clerk. And then she wants to marry you. Yeah. But then out on the street there's somebody begging who clearly should have a job and clearly has got four bottles of beer beside him, but still you give him something. And we humans have created a world where there's too many humans in the world. I mean, the planet can't sustain this number of humans. But how do we practice compassion

[58:08]

all these too many people who are soon, for our grandchildren or any, people are going to try to take your house away from you. So then that's a real test of your practice. How to be, one has to be practical, but one also has to practice. As a Buddhist. As a Bodhisattva. As a Bodhisattva. Okay, so as you just mentioned in all directions, the seven directions are, it's a concept, right? Right. But it's an inclusive concept. So the four directions are, you know, the four of the seven are north, south, east and west. So you visualize, conceptualize, feel in your shoulders, your shoulders which support your clothes because gravity pulls them down.

[59:47]

So we're always walking in a field, functioning in a field of gravity. And our body has to support the clothes by hanging on the shoulders or wrapped on the torso. And our body has to support the clothes by hanging on the shoulders or wrapped on the torso. What I'm speaking about is both commonplace and exquisite or refined in yoga culture. In other words, you don't dress your body, you dress your posture, the posture you want.

[60:49]

to come to live. And as I keep saying, this comes from a culture which doesn't have a other space, any space different than this, any God space or creator space. There's only this space. And it's mysterious. We don't know why it's here or how it's really here. But we live in it heuristically. Yeah. Okay. So the four directions, compass directions, and then up and down. And then all around.

[62:04]

So like Dogen says, the entire earth is the true human body. So in a yogic Zen practice like the four Brahmaviharas, you include the entire earth by visualizing the seven directions. Up and down and all around. All around. Yeah. So it's a way to locate yourself in the midst of an inseparable spectrum, material spectrum. Sorry, difficult. I don't know what the word for, obviously I'm so dumb, don't know what the word for material is in German, but in English, material is mother.

[63:11]

comes from mother. So at some point people realize this is our mother. So the five skandhas are if consciousness is normally articulated to create an outside world, to make us notice the world as outside us. How do you reverse that? And be able to experience the exteriority as an interiority.

[64:26]

And if I said no more to you, then please, for the next years, discover the interiority the exteriority as an interiority, you'd have enough to do for the next decade or so. But what is valuable, though, if it's taken me, let's say, 20 years to bring this into actuality, If I'm practicing with you with some real contact, it might take you only two years. Because we live I'm just trying to find ways to bring this other sense of the world to us.

[65:41]

We live in a vibratory field. Like the bacteria that exist in the crease of my elbow. and the bacteria which made me feel ill. It only takes... Yeah, and by the way, the biomass of the bacteria in the world exceed all plants and animals. So when we are living in this materiality, that materiality is also a biomass greater than all the plants and animals. So when Dogen said the entire earth is the true human body, he was speaking about something that he could feel, but you can't scientifically explain, particularly in those days.

[66:48]

So in a culture which knows it generated itself and it wasn't created by something else, You become more sensitive to, I don't know what words to use, the vibratory field you live in. And we see it in simple things, like you do sashin with somebody and they're sitting beside you, you don't know who they are. You don't speak to them, but you feel connected to them. Something's going on. So we could say all of Zen practice is an unfolding of the

[68:12]

of exteriority as an interiority. So we need something to bring our attention to. If we're going to investigate ourselves, And yet consciousness is entirely occupied with the outside. or images derived from the outside, which is most of our thinking. How do you notice the process itself? Well, the five skandhas was somebody's brilliant experience, idea at some point. Let's look at how consciousness is constructed.

[69:36]

So you bring attention. Well, let's start with consciousness. You bring attention to consciousness, and then you see that, like when you go to sleep or go into zazen, Something that you're in a field of associations which are not simply in an exteriorized consciousness. Now the five skandhas don't exist somewhere like chemistry or something. They're just a brilliant discovery, generations ago, that this is a way to bring attention to how consciousness is constructed. So you can really see how you construct consciousness.

[70:40]

And you participate in it. And then you're... If you really do that, you're never... affected negatively by consciousness again. It's just something you've constructed, and you can deconstruct it. And if you really do it in this way, then you will never again be negatively influenced by consciousness, because you see that this is something you have constructed, something you... And when you start the process of deconstruction, you end up finding that constructs another kind of knowing. And that knowing eventually makes you more sensitive to the vibratory field we live in, which is the alaya vijnana.

[71:52]

We can call it that. And also, you know, you're not born with a mind. You're born with awareness which can be constructed by culture and interactions with others into consciousness. Du wirst geboren mit Gewahrsein, was durch deine Umwelt, die Gesellschaft und so weiter in Bewusstsein verwandelt werden kann. Mind is an emergent property, an emergent experience. Ist eine auftauchende Qualität, Eigenschaft. Now, this may sound like a dumb... We're supposed to eat at 12?

[72:55]

So this may sound like a dumb example. Okay, but say that you have a car. Most of you have a car. And the car comes with headlights. The headlights are like awareness and consciousness. And so they show you the objects ahead of you, trees or cars or whatever, people. So you can have better headlights and you can develop the headlights and you know, etc., But now you've got an automatic windshield wiper. And the automatic windshield wiper knows when it's raining. Okay, so if we imagine the car had some kind of awareness or consciousness. The headlights don't teach it anything except seeing what's ahead of you.

[74:09]

But the windshield wiper When the windshield starts getting damp, it suddenly starts. Now that wasn't part of the car when it was purchased. The headlights were part of the car. But the mind, the knowing mind, that occurs only when the window is wet and the windshield wipers start and there's a certain amount of air on the windshield, etc. That's an emergent property. So mind is an emergent property which you generate.

[75:30]

Now we could talk more about that, but we'll stop now. Because once you generate that, then you're in another kind of world, and that's what's meant by mind-to-mind transmission. You know, I basically don't feel stress ever. Also, grundsätzlich spüre ich so gut wie nie Stress. But I do notice when I have to travel soon and pack and I start getting hives and I start scratching them and I suppose that's my body showing stress. Ja, aber wenn ich so mir vorstelle oder weiß, ich muss jetzt bald packen und so weiter, dann fängt es mich an zu jucken. Und ich glaube, das ist die Art, wie mein Körper Stress auftritt.

[76:33]

Anyway, so I'm sitting here scratching my head. Thank you very much. Vielen Dank. Thank you for translating. Beautiful thanks. Danke schön. I hope all of that wasn't too obvious to you. I didn't say clear, I said obvious. I mean, clear, I can get there's a slight connection.

[77:08]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_76.3