And the vijnanas are a practice of the dominant perception field. We mainly exist in our eye consciousness. We don't like cats and dogs exist in our nose consciousness. But you can. You can emphasize that equally with eyes, but we don't have any experience of it. So why I say a dominant consciousness, because it takes many factors to create a consciousness. Okay, so you have, you have the construct of the sound, You have the field of sound. You have energy which is like underneath the field of sound.

[01:05]

You have emptiness. And you have space, a feeling of space that's associated with this. Because you don't just perceive the field of sound which is space, but the field of the whole thing. And when you perceive the field of the whole thing, that's Dharmakaya. And this is also since our most definitive consciousness is eye consciousness, Genetically it's the definitive one. Our brain is part of our eyes. And Ulrike is a molecular biologist, and she pointed out to me the other day to emphasize that, that our brain developed through eye consciousness.

[02:13]

So dolphins, probably his brain developed through ear consciousness. So we're trying to become more like dolphins when we practice Buddhism. Swimming in the waterbed of Bodhisattva continuum. It's a new Buddhist term. Okay, so, but because our dominant, our definitive consciousness is eye consciousness. Even if you take out the eye consciousness bias of our culture, still there's usually a perception of light that goes with the sound. So when you're really able to fully take your sense of abiding out of representational thought,

[03:34]

And you don't keep snapping back into it. Then you reside in a kind of field of, spacious field of light in which the constructs of the different consciousnesses come up. And you simultaneously perceive them as constructions and perceive this field at the same time. And the full realization of that is called Buddha mind. Now, I don't know if you got all that, But Friday night I couldn't even told you part of that.

[04:48]

So by spending this time together this weekend, I can at least say that and get the feeling of it out there. Because to some extent we've developed a feeling together and a language together. Now if Wednesday your uncle asks you what happened at the seminar, Or your aunt. You probably can't tell them what I just said. And if you did, they'd probably call the hospital. But they'd call your parents. He and she have gone over the edge. I was scared of that when they said they were going to a Buddhist seminar.

[05:56]

And probably by Thursday you can't even tell yourself what I said. But the permission is there. You have a bigger picture of the world, I hope. Your inner world. And that bigger picture gives you permission. Okay, something else? One more. Yes? I have a question to that what he was saying. with this illusion and fantasy and so on. I think, out of my experience and other experiences of other people, there's a kind of illusion what is totally real.

[07:04]

So, maybe you hear a dog In the Zen book, do you hear your mother speaking to you? Not in that point that you know how your mother, like a dream, your mother speaking to you. She's totally in your next dream. And then there's a figure of... not of moving, the effects of location, but of losing the sense of motion. And that creates a kind of fear, or jump out of it, and let it be correct. So my question is, where does it come from? Because it's not only good, it's a big deal. How can I work with it, not to jump out of it?

[08:11]

Yes. This is very, very real. It's not as if someone else can do it, but it's true. And a partner knows exactly where the coordination is. So there is also this experience that you can hear it. It feels really real. And she said, a dog, and my mother spoke to me, and she said, what is that? And then she said something like, I'm jumping out of there, for a very small second, I'm jumping out, and at some point it's no longer there, and it's real, and I can't do it, but... Okay, when you do Zazen, well, first let me just explain what I've got drawn in here.

[09:19]

This is your world view. Space separates things. This world is dead. Whatever your view is. What happens on the other side of the planet doesn't affect us. And then you have unconscious processes. And you also have what the technical term in Buddhism is alaya vijnana, which is a much bigger idea than unconsciousness. but it includes unconsciousness.

[10:29]

Then you have your primary process, the primary definition of your personality. Then you have the secondary process, which goes along parallel, it's kind of another definition, which doesn't come out through your main definition. And there's a relationship between your unconscious and the secondary process, but they're not the same. The secondary process is arising from these two. And of course, your worldview and your primary process are working closely together. And your worldview and your unconscious work together.

[11:31]

Now these are all ways in which you construct and divide the world. You sit down and you start practicing Zaza. This is me sitting here. Pretty soon you don't know who's sitting there. Oh, it's me. But usually you go over here somewhere and your world views. But then you start feeling space doesn't separate. It also connects. So your world view, you kind of shift away from your world view and you shift away from your primary process. So you're down here doing zazen somewhere. And you kind of lost a little bit of contact with your world view and your primary process.

[12:45]

Now, all sense impressions happen in your brain. It's the brain which puts together the construction. My ear hears something, but then the brain has to make it, put it together. And when your eyes see something, the image is analyzed and put together by the brain. And you can give people glasses, which everything is completely cockeyed, and the glass is upside down and distorted. And after a certain amount of time, the brain will correct it and make everything look okay. So the brain is putting it together. So the brain can put any information into any other form. So any level of perception can become your mother's voice.

[14:01]

Sounds can turn into visual images. You can begin to hear things you see. Buddha talked about the interchangeability of the six senses. And often there's sayings in koans, here with your eyes. So that means you're back at a source mind before the constructions take place. So when you're down here, you can begin to start anything that comes in. You still have the habit of turning it into a construct. Okay, but when you have an association here, it may not take its construction from your primary process.

[15:03]

It may take its construction or its form from your unconscious. Or your secondary process. It's just like dreams do. When you're dreaming, you let go of your primary process. And things that occur to you occur with material coming from here, too. Okay, does that answer your question? In what way does it? In that way, how I can work. with that and not that the normal mind takes over and I jump out of it because it doesn't work.

[16:30]

It's probably good during the first years of practice to maintain a fairly strong rubber band that reaches up to the primary process in the worldview. A person who goes crazy, these processes are so strong that this line is stronger than this line. And they get lost. It's a psychic space. So when you practice, you're entering psychic space. But there's almost no danger unless you're pretty crazy. And even if you're pretty crazy, this practice is quite helpful if you can do it.

[17:41]

Because partly one of the big, big problems is the fear of this stuff. When you get more used to it, You can usually get back here quite easily. And also, you know, when you're feeling crazy, what do you do? You wash dishes or walk on the sidewalk. You do something that's kind of real basic and familiar. And I think that's one of the reasons we wash our face in the morning. Not just that our face is dirty. It's a way of washing off sleep. And coming back into your primary process. Now, when you first start meditating, there's an automatic kind of knee-jerk reaction to go toward this as soon as something strange happens.

[19:03]

So as soon as you notice you're a little bit loose of this other stuff or something, your mind constructs things differently, there's an inherent thing that says, uh-uh, don't let that happen. But when you've sat enough that you feel really secure here, pretty soon you can start sitting down here. So you can just, it's all right, it doesn't make a difference. So it's just a matter really of getting used to it and beginning to let the adhesive and persuasive connection to representational thought lessen.

[20:04]

Now this is just totally basic stuff. All of you guys are laughing at the Americans again. I said basic stuff, I translated with children's stuff, and that's the name of Beate's door. Anyway, Flower Ordinance Scripture. which is the most late developed sutra in Buddhism. And it just says what we were just talking about. I now see all sentient beings everywhere fully possessed the wisdom and virtues

[21:05]

of the enlightened ones. That just means everyone's already enlightened. But because of false conceptions and attachments, they do not realize it. And that's a koan. And the introduction to try to make that more powerful says one atom contains myriad forms. That means like in meditation, you find one thing and it begins to open up into many things. So it means to be able to, this introduction is about becoming familiar with this interior world. One thought includes a billion worlds. What about a powerful person who wears the sky on his head?

[22:18]

And stands with her feet on the ground. If I read it, it's too complicated. Doing this, doesn't she turn her back on her own spirit and very amateurish? And this is called opening up the source nature of beings. Anyway, these koans are teaching just about what we're talking about. So you get this picture, sir? So when you do zazen, you are working with this territory. We're trying to give you a world view here in this seminar, which helps you be here.

[23:39]

We do, okay. Oh, you're getting a ride, that's right, to Berlin. Okay, you're welcome. Somebody else left a little while ago, had to get a ride to Hamburg. Well, we won't say anything interesting now that you're gone. Okay, something else? Yes, this hearing-hearing, there were so many explanations for it, but I didn't understand them at all. There is an example, and I am listening to this sound now, I should now hear, I hear, then I think first of all, I should concentrate on my ears, yes, how do I hear now? Well, I've heard several explanations about to hear myself hearing, but I'm not sure I understood.

[24:54]

For example, when a train goes by, when I try to hear the train, does that mean I concentrate on my ears? Yeah, maybe. When the train doesn't bother you. When the train actually enhances your concentration, that's a sign that you've begun to understand hearing, hearing, or practice hearing, hearing. Yes, it's the same, unpleasant or pleasant. Okay, now I would like to come back to pleasant and unpleasant feelings. Suffering and the continuity of being. to sort of end this seminar on the practice of the Bodhisattva but I think we have to have a break so we'll take a break and then we'll finish so please 15 minutes not more than 20

[26:12]

Things arise sometimes in the phenomenal world. Like a cry or a sound or a train whistle, etc. Which calls to us in some way. As if our deeper body, our deeper nature was calling to us. Dogen says the entire universe is your true nature.

[27:31]

And this is not a temporary nature, he says. The entire universe is your true nature. And this kind of experience is entering the bodhisattva stream. And this calling can come from the phenomenal world. And this calling can come from inside you. And as I said, there's a kind of power to this calling.

[28:32]

A compelling quality. And also, we feel our own power in such a circumstance for a moment our own power and timelessness and we feel some mystery of our existence and the world And just as Miriam brought up the question or statement about when you're asleep or nearly asleep, you may hear the deconstruction of the sound more.

[29:41]

You hear the not yet constructed sound. Now remember I drew you the picture of the square. It was together in the square in which the lines were apart. When you by habit hear always the constructed sound, it will tend to wake you up or disturb you or disturb your zazen. When you also hear the unconstructed sound like the square that the parts are separate. Maybe the four lines are four parallel lines.

[30:44]

No, they're not a square. Or maybe the four lines are so separated they've basically disappeared. Then sleep or your zazen moves right through that and it's just enhanced by these lines. Now feeling is one of the five skandhas, the second skandha. And feeling is one of the skandhas that's all accompanying. Anything that happens is accompanied by feeling. And feeling is the skandha that accompanies all other skandhas.

[31:47]

Anything that happens to you is not accompanied by an emotion of anger or love or something. And every perception, every thought is not accompanied, not all of your existence is accompanied by thoughts. But feeling accompanies, is present in all of your moments, waking and sleeping. Okay. Now feeling has three characteristics. There's feelings you like, feelings you don't like, and neutral feelings. Now that seems like a stupid thing to say.

[32:49]

A child could say there's feelings I like and don't like. But the child probably wouldn't put much attention to neutral feelings and would hardly notice neutral feelings. And that's because in Buddhism we note the neutral feeling because it's the most powerful. Okay, so imagine a stream. And this stream has a left bank and a right bank. And the left bank, shall we say, is liking. And the right bank is feelings you don't like. So the water of feelings, when it's touching this side, doesn't like something.

[33:53]

It touches this side, it likes something. And it's not very deep where it's touching like and dislike. But in the middle of the stream where it's neutral, it's very deep. So if you move this background, all accompanying texture to our life, so you're not always seesawing back and forth between liking, disliking, liking, disliking. Which gets so boring. And it's so exhausting of your energy. And move toward where you can just look at things indifferently. It's not that you don't care, it's that you're not involved with likes and dislikes.

[35:09]

So feeling can become much deeper. So thoughts may appear like a piece of wood floating in the... in the stream. Or the boat or ship of self may be floating on the stream. But getting out of the boat into the water and into the deep water where you don't have likes and dislikes. You open up into a deeper world. Okay, so what is the answer to my question about the continuity? I suppose I should write it down. So you understood that in practicing you're getting free of the sense of only being able to locate yourself in thoughts.

[36:39]

You're beginning to be able to move your sense of location into your body as a totality and not just in your thoughts. And in Zen you're going to be taught to put your mind here first. Put your mind in your hara. Putting your mind in your hara is because it's kind of the base body position, the basic body position. Where you can have a sense of identity. You can have a sense of identity in your elbow, but it's a little hard. So the chakras are places where you can have a sense of place or sense of location.

[37:45]

All right. So you're beginning to, through such practices and through Zazen and when she let go of representational thinking, you're beginning to put together, yoke together mind and body. And you're beginning to develop interior space, which is not, I always say, just private space where you have your own private thoughts. When you hear a telephone sound and you're asleep and you don't know what the sound is, and then you put that sound together and say, oh yes, that's a telephone. You've made that construction in interior space.

[39:00]

So if I look at Miriam, Miriam exists in my exterior space. But the way I put her together and perceive her is in interior space. So in effect, I create a double in myself of miriam. Now that double in a sense has its own existence. The Miriam I create inside myself may not be the Miriam Miriam wants me to have inside myself. She may think I left out a few things. And she may think I put in a few things that need editing.

[40:15]

So each of us is always actually editing the other person's head. We don't need to know about that. Or you forgot something funny. Tell me about this. Now, when I look at Miriam, the actual fact is like the rope, is a construct. Miriam is a construct. I don't actually perceive the Miriam that's there. I perceive the Miriam that I've constructed. That would be like, instead of hearing, this is minding the constructed mind. As I can feel and hear, I put the sounds together to recognize it as a telephone.

[41:16]

I put a number of perceptions together to create a miriam inside me. Now, we all do that all the time, but we don't notice it because it's so fast. And we're so slow. Consciousness is very slow. For example, if I trip on this thing and fall down, consciousness won't prevent me from breaking my nose. But in actual fact, I'll probably not hurt myself at all. What did that is awareness, not consciousness. As I've often said, awareness is what wakes you up in the morning at 6.02 when you didn't have an alarm clock.

[42:40]

So when you are practicing slowing down this process so I can begin to see myself constructing Miriam. If I do that seeing of that construction through consciousness, I'll always be too slow. So what's happening when you do Zazen is you become more and more familiar with awareness. we are also bringing together awareness and consciousness.

[43:47]

Awareness is the kind of consciousness you have when you are not in representational thought. If I make this construct... I hope you don't mind my using your... If I make this construct of Miriam inside me... Inside, outside is just a way of speaking. But I'll continue on that. I make this construct of Miriam inside me. And if I make it... And in a way, you make it at the level of feeling, primarily, not the level of perception. Now, if I make it at the level of feeling, and my feeling is up on the shallow part, like it, dislike it,

[44:49]

And I put together a consciousness of Miriam which is based on like and dislike. It's going to be a very superficial or shallow image of Miriam. It won't have much depth. It won't have much life of its own. If I do that all the time, I'm going to be kind of depressed because the world seems really dumb and colorless. So if I can construct this image, feeling of Miriam, free of likes and dislikes, I'm indifferent to how she appears in me. Isn't that much more compassionate?

[46:13]

So indifference and compassion are two doors to the same thing. Because if I'm using likes and dislikes, I like Miriam, I don't like Miriam, I'm going to give a small picture of Miriam. But in a kind of deep calmness, detachment, indifference of just accepting the world, Miriam appears inside of me. And the more she appears in my awareness and not in my consciousness, The more she'll have a life of her own, speak to me. So when you look at somebody and you have a sense of what they're thinking and feeling, it's because the construct you've made is in awareness, not consciousness. Now somebody you live with and spend a great deal of time with, you're constructing them

[47:31]

He could see them so much, both in consciousness and awareness. But if you get experience of you yourself providing an awareness more than consciousness, you can know people quickly, almost as if you've lived them a long time. Because the image you allow to be constructed in you is much fuller. So that's what I mean by interior space. This is an interior space which recognizes the outside world. This is being able to know the interior space in which the outside world appears in you.

[48:51]

That's in fact how you function. We don't usually live in the middle of that function. So Zazen is yogic practice to slow yourself down enough so that you begin to live at the pace of your inner states of mind. The silence or calmness of zazen is also a change of pace to your inner pace. So you're not pushed around by your state of mind. So the first stage would be to kind of begin to know your own inner pace and space.

[49:58]

Next step is to begin to be able to move more at the pace of the world. You're walking in the forest. And you let the trees tell you how to walk. Or you're walking in Munster. And if you're subtle, you can begin to feel the whole city asking you how to walk a certain way. And there will be several different octaves, different speeds, which you can walk.

[51:00]

And if you go to an Asian country, it's particularly distinct that the octaves at which a city operates are different. But even in Europe you can see the difference between German cities and Dutch or Italian or Europe, America. It's a difference. So there's a kind of pace of the phenomenal world, whether it's trees or buildings. And that pace is in the architecture too. And that each person has a pace which speaks to us. So if I could make this construction of Miriam I will begin to feel Miriam's pace. So if I, because the pace, the construction of Miriam in me isn't like a photograph, it's not stopped, it's moving all the time.

[52:14]

So if I look at Miriam, I have one pace. If I turn and look at you, actually you change my inner pace. If my construction of you is an awareness. Now, the practice of vijnanas, which I didn't give you this time, is to open yourself up into your sense field free of your script so that my proprioceptive way of understanding you is functioning. And actually everything that goes with the nose channel of odors, feeling, the way you create your balance by the way your nose works, actually immediately experiences

[53:28]

What is your name? Andrea. Andrea, in her nose channel. Well, that sounds weird, but that's the way it is. And much of the unconscious information you get about other people is only unconscious because we're not aware what our nose is snuffing. Because you actually can smell people's moods. People smell differently when they're angry and so forth. Mosquitoes know it. If you're sitting in the Zendo and you're feeling angry, mosquitoes... They sort of say, let's make him angrier. But if you want to get rid of mosquitoes, you sort of change your state of mind and mosquitoes can go away.

[54:50]

It's a tough practice, I'll tell you. Okay. So I think I've said enough about this yoking of the subject and object. I think it's fairly clear. Beginning to see this absorbed into the field, and this absorbed into the field, and the field expands. So the continuity here is at a perceptual level is your sense field. So you begin, there's a beautiful picture in a book of a Bodhisattva sitting, actually an adept sitting.

[56:07]

And it says, so-and-so Sattva, or so-and-so, is enjoying the dance of the sensory world. Now, dancing in the sensory world we often enjoy. You sit on the back porch. And we enjoy the trees and the birds occasionally. Enjoying the dance of the sensory world means that you always have that as a continuity, not just occasionally when you happen to see a tree or listen to a flower or see a bird. Did you say listen to a flower? I said listen to a flower or see a bird.

[57:17]

No, I didn't get it. Just testing. Now, so you... I gave this little exercise in another seminar recently. I won't go into it today. Let me say that when you first wake up, let your dispersed body gather. When you feel gathered, you open your eyes. Then you let the feeling of the day come into you. And then you, once you establish that contact, you keep that contact there all day long.

[58:21]

So even though we're doing a seminar, I feel noon come. And the voices change around lunchtime. And now we can feel the day changing, the air is heavier, the trains sound a little differently. And though I'm talking to you, there's still that continuity underneath my voice. If I get totally involved with my ideas about myself while I'm talking to you and am I doing it well, I lose the day. But if I don't get too personal about my thoughts, I can think about what I'm saying and talk to you clearly.

[59:28]

At the same time I can feel the day in my body. In the late afternoon. So this continuity begins to be established in the sense field. The second kind of continuity is compassion. Service. So, this is, I may be here, but talking and feeling. My sense feels free of my script or where I'm kind of residing. But I have to do something with my hands and walking around and talking.

[60:29]

the more my actions are motivated by my inner sense of Miriam. And the more I'm motivated by the inner sense of Yvon, individual and separate. You may feel sometimes I'm speaking directly to you. That feeling arises out of connectedness that's happening because I'm speaking as much as possible from a feeling that's appearing in me from you. Now, that practice of compassion, the kind of ingredients of that compassion are said to be cultivating a feeling of generosity or friendliness or loving kindness.

[61:57]

Now I describe that as an initial feeling state or initiatory state of mind. I may also have the feeling that you're a jerk. I don't feel that about any of you, but possibly. But still, my initial state of mind will be one of, I hope as much as I practice, will be one of friendliness and acceptance. And that initial state of mind is also a little initiation, it's a little ordination.

[62:58]

And this initial state of mind is also a kind of initiation, Because when I say see Ruth Winter, I've seen her for a while. And I see her and she smiles at me. That smile is a kind of little initiation. I feel blessed or ordained for a moment. So this initial state of mind is also an initiation, a kind of blessing. And to develop this initial state of mind, this initiatory state of mind, requires a mind that's not caught in representational thinking and constructs. and not caught in likes and dislikes.

[64:14]

For instance, if you water along the edge of the stream, if you put a pebble in it, you get a little bit of a splash, but not much. But in the middle of the stream where the water is indifferent, I drop a little pendulum and it makes nice rings. So this initiatory state of mind, the ability to cultivate a particular state of mind requires that you have also cultivated being free of mental constructs. Now again, you're not repressing your mental constructs. You're not trying to get rid of your mental constructs. You're just not living in them all the time. It gives you a certain responsiveness and freedom.

[65:38]

In practice, practice is to understand this and try to do it. But it can't be forced. But it can't be forced. You just have to allow it, notice it, allow it further and notice more. And one of the ways this is practiced why this is considered central bodhisattva practice is the so-called four immeasurables and the six paramitas, six perfections. I'm not going to teach the six paramitas.

[66:39]

You can look them up anywhere. But they're central to bodhisattva practice. So I'm just going to stick with the four immeasurables. And they're called immeasurables because you're moving across the undivided world, which is immeasurable. So you're cultivating this initial initiating state of mind of friendliness, loving kindness. And then you're cultivating compassion. And you're cultivating empathetic joy. And the fourth is equanimity.

[67:44]

Now, equanimity means what I said, also the gate to it is indifference. Equanimity is a state of mind that doesn't jump around like this, like that, just accepts. So whether you're a thief or a saint, I just... Now, compassion means if you're a thief, I'm willing to be a thief. Compassion means you're willing to be what the other person is. Mitgefühl heißt, bereit zu sein, das zu sein, was der andere ist. But you're also willing to be what you are. Aber du bist auch bereit, das zu sein, was du bist. So I'm willing to be Miriam when I look at Miriam. Und so bin ich bereit, Miriam zu sein, wenn ich sie ansehe.

[68:45]

But I'm also willing to be myself. Aber ich bin auch bereit, mich selbst zu sein. This sense of without contradiction, remaining true to myself and true to Miriam is compassion. It's like when Ulrike goes to visit Max, her sort of father-in-law. Step up, sort of step up. If she's willing to go through the operation he's going through, really willing to change places with him. And at the same time, she's also willing to be healthy and who she is. Without the feeling of, oh, I'm glad I'm healthy and I'm not sick like you.

[69:51]

She's on the one hand willing to accept, I'm healthy and you're sick. And there's a kind of poignancy in that. The most painful thing for me when I used to go to the Soviet Union in the late 70s, as I get to like people and miss, I couldn't say, come visit me. They could say, will you come back to Russia next year? But I couldn't say, won't you come to Germany or won't you come to America? So there was a pain for me, suffering in recognizing I couldn't bring them, I couldn't invite them to come home with me.

[70:59]

So part of suffering is that she can't change places with Max. She can't invite Max to be healthy. So compassion is this sense of being willing to put yourself in another person's place. And also willing to be healthy and even joyful because Max wants to be healthy and joyful. So your joy is part of what Max wants. So being open to Max's suffering is also to be open to your own joy. So the Bodhisattva is one who lives in this openness to suffering and also allows this non-referential joy for no reason to come up.

[72:14]

So this is compassion and empathetic joy. And if you keep practicing those things and you try to do it, it's just like we do it, our culture requires us to be friendly. But it thinks you can be unfriendly inside and friendly outside. This practice is to be friendly inside, too, because it arises from the undivided world. In the divided world, you might be a little annoyed. If you force yourself to be friendly in the divided world or in consciousness, then you get into repression and denial.

[73:18]

Let's say you're like Max, you're about ready to die. And you just have never had an operation. And you wish you died. And then you hear something in the room. And you open your eyes and it's some guy you don't like. And he's about to bug you about something. But you're so glad to see this guy because you're alive. Hey, look at the light on his face. You know, the sun in the room. Because you come from the undivided world, you almost died. So you can be quite friendly without it being fake or repressive.

[74:39]

You can say, I am so glad to see you. The guy says, you are? I was here to collect that money you owe me before you die. So maybe the sense of the undivided world requires a deep sense of your own impermanence and death. The basic practice of Buddhism could be defined as the willingness to die. Not just to know you're going to die, that's already difficult enough. But the willingness to die. Almost at any moment. I prefer to say almost at any moment.

[75:40]

Okay, so that's the practice of the four immeasurables. That begin to allow you to be closer, like Dung Shan said, I'm always close to this. I'm always close to the world that does not fall into categories. because I practice empathetic joy and so forth. And I'm in a sense maturing my mind continually. Because the more you do that, the more, all I can say is you are maturing how you really exist. Now, this is sometimes one of the images of this is the needle and thread of compassion and mindfulness.

[76:58]

Mindfulness would be the sense fields and compassion here. Another image is an alchemical image, alchemy, in which you're making, you know, something, iron into gold. Okay, so here the alchemical process, chemical process, is you're joining the sense fields and compassion with the flame of bodhicitta. Now, what you've done, what you do here... What you've done by joining mind and body, interior and exterior space, subject and object, and awareness and compassion, you don't have to translate that, is you've created what we could call Buddha mind.

[78:27]

Because this mind that's not consciousness attached to your identity is Buddha mind, this is ordinary mind. The more you have a sense of this Buddha mind from your Zazen practice, and out of your compassion and sense of connectedness with others, And your senses and your openness to the suffering of Max and everybody. And much of the world, much of the structure of the world is actually frozen grief. It's the grief of people suffering, not being able to eat, not being able to... So we create a world that is always reacting to and trying to prevent suffering.

[79:42]

So this deep awareness of suffering... that is also what you see in the structure of the world. And as we say, when you look into people's souls in the West, you're walking across the street. Somebody's sitting in a car, you don't know them. And for a moment, you look through the windshield and you see their face. And because they don't know you, they're naked for a minute and you can look straight into their eyes. And you see a bodhisattva.

[80:43]

Or you see the suffering and confusion of their life. And the more you see that in each person's eyes you look at, And the more you see it in the eyes of every person you look at, you see much of the problem is because they're always here. You'd like to just give them a feeling of this. So your sense of giving them a feeling of this becomes a little... blessing, you tempted it by giving them one of the four immeasurables, empathetic joy, friendliness, and so forth. So, friendliness is not a moral virtue or to get ahead in the world. Or the practice of the inner smile, which is characteristic of Buddhism.

[81:45]

Feeling your whole body smile. That sense is part of the alchemistry, alchemy, and compassion of noticing, realizing our connectedness. And you have two reasons to realize enlightenment or to realize Buddha mind. One is you'd like to realize it sounds good. That reason isn't enough, doesn't work. You need the help of everyone you meet. Okay, I'm sorry. I'll be down in a few minutes. Ihr braucht die Hilfe von jedem Menschen, den ihr trefft.

[82:57]

This is such a difficult thing to do, really, that you need the help of everyone you meet. Das ist so eine schwierige Angelegenheit, dass ihr wirklich die Hilfe von jedermann benötigt. Your own desire arises from here and is not strong enough. But your compassion, your real feeling for each person you meet. When you recognize how this would help that person. And the only way to help that person is to realize it in yourself. Because it's easier to realize it in yourself than for me to realize it in you. Now I may be able to create a construction of Miriam inside me, which I do. Enlightening that construction is quite hard. Actually, it's kind of possible.

[84:04]

A great Buddha teacher can almost do that. But still, that requires the person to enlighten themselves first. So the only reason you enlighten yourself first is because it's the only way to enlighten the other person. You can't enlighten yourself first to interact with the other person's enlightenment. So this is the real meaning of Sangha, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, the three treasures of Buddhism. Buddha is the teacher. Dharma is the teacher. And the Sangha is the practice of each person enlightening you. So Bodhisattva practice is to recognize that your own continuum

[85:05]

Bodhisattva practice is enlightened through other people. So you develop bodhisattva practice. And that recognition that you can only be enlightened through the help of others and your desire to enlighten others It's called the thought and enlightenment. Bodhichitta. Bodhichitta brings compassion and your abiding in the sense fields, which allows a connectedness. Together to create the continuum of bodhisattva practice. Well, we didn't end earlier than yesterday.

[86:56]

Thank you very much. You think sometimes I tell you too much. Maybe so. But I think you may not realize how much what I told you, you told me to tell you. I don't really know so much what I'm going to say when I come. And I start listening to as many parts of you as I can hear. And I feel, how am I going to make bodhisattva practice clear to you?

[87:58]

It's so intangible and intimate. But you're also a bodhisattva. I have to listen to you. So I try to listen to you. And this is what I heard. Of course I know the language of what I hear, but still I heard it from you. So would you be willing to sit for a little bit? Okay.

[88:45]

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