You know, all this arises, this teaching of Buddhism, practice of Buddhism. Yeah, of course it arises out of the discomfort we have with our own existence and our shared existence. But the teaching itself arises from the practice itself, arises from the difference we feel between what happens when we meditate and what happens when we don't. And, um, um, And the degree to which we notice that difference and feel that difference has a lot to do with the power of our intention and practice.

[01:25]

And the development of that difference, the incubation of that difference over time Yes, those of us who practice a long time really notice that difference and live in that difference. And that incubated difference between meditating and not meditating, in a sense, is not just incubated individually, but also generationally. Der wird auf gewisse Weise nicht nur im Einzelnen ausgebrütet, sondern auch von einer ganzen Generation ausgebrütet.

[02:42]

Ja, in what we could call the vertical Sangha or vertical lineage. Und das, was wir die vertikale Sangha oder vertikale Leerlinie nennen können. But it's also incubated in what we could call the horizontal Sangha or, yeah, our contemporary Sangha, our practicing together. And the practice of that difference becomes a practice of a study and practice of how we function. And there's this particular kind of intimacy that develops within the shared practice of the Dharma.

[03:53]

of a greater and greater shared functioning in the world. So we could say that the Sangha is shares the same vision of the world, of how the world exists. But perhaps the most powerful connection is the shared functioning in the world. Now, a practice which in some ways represents our existence over time, through time, is going to have, yeah,

[05:23]

a certain complexity that just develops through time. But at the same time, there's this kind of strange simplicity within it all. For example, Our practice starts from noticing the difference between how we make decisions, how we feel when we do zazen, and how we make decisions and feel when we do not. But then much of the practice develops over the centuries through the very process of making decisions. Or through noticing differences.

[07:09]

We notice a difference between practicing and not practicing. And then that practice of the mind and body that arises through practice is developed and articulated, perhaps more than through anything else, through noticing difference. Yeah. So I said I wanted to give you... an instructional model or educational model of practice.

[08:13]

I made some distinction yesterday between Zen 1 and Zen 2. And, you know, I've never said it before, at least not until the last few weeks. And it should probably be forgotten about. But I'm describing Zen 1 as really the practice of embodiment. Of weaving mind and body together. And it really enhances how we live and function. There's just more satisfaction in living through mind and body and phenomena. Through the embodiment of mind, body and phenomena.

[09:16]

We just feel located and at ease in the world as a world that belongs to us, that's part of us. Yeah, this is good enough. Maybe let's stop there. If we've got there. And perhaps for most, for lay persons particularly, this would be most of Zen practice, realized Zen practice. But truly transformational Zen practice, we have to think of as an educative process. You're educating. educating yourself within and through the wisdom that arises from practice.

[10:59]

So Zen 1, excuse me for saying that, Zen 1 is not only a kind of completion in itself, it's also the basis for Zen 2. Maybe we could say that Zen 1 develops more or less organically through the process of zazen and mindfulness. It develops organically and incrementally. And some of those increments are big ones that we call Enlightenment. Und einige dieser schrittweisen Schritte sind große Schritte, die wir dann Erleuchtung nennen können.

[12:14]

Enlightenment experiences, realizations. Oder Erleuchtungserlebnisse oder Verwirklichung. Okay. But what I'm calling Zen 2, you have to decide to do. Okay. So, first of all, the first step is studying your perceptual and cognitive processes. Taking an inventory of your perceptual and cognitive processes. And this can be very interesting and informative. And it can be psychologically informative and beneficial. So you just notice... Like when you perceive something and there's anxiety accompanies the perception.

[13:36]

And you notice when the anxiety that sometimes appears on a perception is carried into your thinking, into your cognition. And then spread sometimes like a stain into all of your thinking. Now, to feel that and to feel it spread, I mean, we see it happens all the time. It helps to practice mindfulness. And doing this kind of inventory or study, the etymology of study is something like to... move forward rhythmically.

[14:54]

To go towards something with a certain kind of persistence. So this study has helped through the practice of mindfulness And this study is simultaneously a development of mindfulness. We might even say a kind of meta attention or meta mindfulness. Sometimes I say micro-mindfulness. So you notice also when perception has nothing to do with cognition. There's perception without thinking.

[16:04]

And then part of this inventory is to notice how the body feels when there's perception without thinking. No, again, we all had this kind of experience. But this, now, you're making a study of. So you really say, in a yogic sense, identify the mode of the body, the feel of the body when there's perception without cognition. Well, we could say, depending on what we mean by the words, there's cognition, but there's not cognitive thinking. So then once you have the feel of the body without the feel of the body when there's perception without thinking,

[17:24]

Then, for example, when you have a perception which causes anxiety, which then spreads into thinking, you can create the feel of the body when there's perception without cognitive thinking. And then that can stop the spread of the anxiety into thinking. Und dann kann das das Ausbreiten dieser Angst ins Denken hinein unterbinden. That then allows you to examine much more carefully the anxiety that appeared on the perception.

[18:45]

Und das gestattet dir dann, diese Angst, die mit der Wahrnehmung zusammen auftauchte, sehr viel sorgfältiger zu untersuchen. And this then allows you to localize the anxiety. Und das gestattet es dir dann, diese Angst zu verorten. This is the everyday activity of a Buddhist practitioner. And it's part of what is meant by the theme in these early cases of the Shoyuroku. The theme of medicine and illness. And when illness is a kind of medicine, when medicine is a kind of illness, etc. So here the stain of anxiety spreading through your thinking is, we could say, is a kind of illness.

[19:50]

And establishing the mind, the percept-only mind, It's a kind of medicine. So medicine and illness as they occur as a theme in Zen is very much in this realm I'm speaking. So then you also notice, of course, when there's lots of cognitive thinking and no perception. And then you can decide whether you want to or whether you don't want to.

[20:52]

Kind of bring that cognitive thinking back into perceptual immediacy. In this way you study inventory, your perceptual and cognitive activity. Yeah, and this isn't next week's work. Exactly, last year's work. But let's say that it's Yeah, months. It bears fruit in months and it probably continues most of your life.

[21:58]

But it's the way, it depends on the development of mindfulness and it develops mindfulness. Okay. Okay, so that's the first, today I'm calling that the first step. And most of our practices start with an inventory of what's already here. Often the practices, the stages of practice, assume the inventory happens. If they don't even list it, they assume you're doing it. Now you add choice or knowledge. You choose to bring wisdom into this knowledge, wisdom into this information, into this process.

[23:17]

And basically in Buddhism you bring the knowledge of impermanence and momentariness. Momentariness. Now, we could say those two words in some philosophical sense mean the same thing. But impermanence as a word in English means what things are not. They're not permanent. Impermanent. And momentariness is a word which describes what things are. They are momentary. So your practice is to notice that things aren't permanent. Also besteht deine Praxis darin zu bemerken, dass die Dinge nicht beständig sind.

[24:29]

And to notice that things are momentary. Und zu bemerken, dass die Dinge momenthaft sind. Yeah, and you can try various ways to do this. Und da kannst du verschiedene Arten und Weisen ausprobieren, um das zu tun. Now the traditional way to practice with knowledge, with wisdom or knowledge or information, is to form a concept that you can hold in your mental and physical activity. Basically, you want to form a concept of impermanence or momentariness or something like that. Transitoriness, I don't know. You have to try what works for you. And it's often what words click with you, stay with you. Und das sind oft die Worte, die bei dir einrasten, die für dich, die bei dir bleiben.

[25:49]

And since Zen always talks about being free of words. Und im Zen wird ja immer darüber gesprochen, dass man von Worten frei ist. Yeah, in Koan 3 about, you know, I don't read the scriptures. Und im Koan 3 heißt es ja auch, ich lese die Schriften nicht. Yeah, it says you should see right through the paper of the scriptures. And even if the scriptures were written on cowhide, you should be able to pierce the cowhide. Is that the skin of the cow? Yeah. Okay. I attempted to say, no, no, it's a hidden cow. Cow hide. Where's that cow hiding? Anyway, to pierce even the cowhide.

[27:07]

That means when you read a sutra, you should be creating it as if from the other side you're making it happen. As if from the other side, where you've pierced through, you're making the teaching, you're writing the scripture yourself. Now, so we don't want, Zen very definitely does not want you to identify the world and yourself primarily through words. But as you also know, words are an incredible tool to focus attention. And to become a location for attention. Und auch um ein Ort für die Aufmerksamkeit zu werden.

[28:16]

So when you try to form a concept, a kind of platform from which you can experience the world. Und wenn du also so ein Konzept bildest oder eine Art Plattform, von der aus du die Welt erfährst. Yeah, I mean you have a big platform called a world view from which you view the world. Did you say create or experience? The world? Yeah, both. And now we're talking about creating little platforms that are kind of separate from the big platform of a worldview. And these little platforms in Zen practice are usually different from the world view you're habituated to. And these little platforms allow you or the way you can actually start to change your world view.

[29:36]

Catalyze the change. And the world will change. You said that too, right? I didn't, but I could have. Yeah, okay. I mean, okay. Oh, my goodness. Only at step two. We've got five to go. Oh dear. Failed again. All right. So you can try to create some word or phrase, as we often do. That is the specialty of Zen, to create such wisdom phrases. So you might try to bring the concept of momentariness or impermanence into some, yeah, something like in English, just this.

[30:59]

So you might try to bring the concept of momentariness or impermanence Or perhaps just now arriving. The sense of arriving, momentarily arriving. Just now arriving. On each percept, on each act, do you feel arriving? Yeah, or you might use the word gone. Every time you look at something, you say gone. Goodbye. Because we have a habit.

[32:03]

You know, the habit of permanence is you're going to be here in the next moment, but you say gone, goodbye. Oh, you're still here, really. Or you could use the word receiving. And again, you will find if you try to create such a platform, A concept you can hold in your mental and physical activity. Which can always be brought into each cognition and each perception. It only works when it's not... It doesn't work when there's a sense of... It happens once and then now that's it.

[33:13]

Or it's continuous. It only happens when it's each, each, each percept, each cognition. So obviously you're edging toward the world as appearance. You're bringing the word or knowledge of arriving or receiving into each percept and cognition. Du bringst dieses Wort oder das Wissen vom Ankommen oder vom Aufnehmen oder Empfangen in jede Wahrnehmung oder in jedes Konzept, in jede Kognition hinein. This is a wonderful process.

[34:20]

You're really going to enjoy it. It's so reassuring. Because You're able to stay the way you are and the comfortable way you are, but yet you've got this little new platform you can kind of fool around with things. You're always receiving and arriving, and that's not so bad. Okay. And now to further this process of knowing how the world fundamentally exists, we need some examples to work with. But they'll wait till tomorrow. I mean, I would really like to go on to seven and then, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

[35:39]

I'm sure your mind is open to it, but I don't think your legs are. And heck, I've got to have something to say tomorrow, too. If I can remember where I left off. I think that's enough for today. Let us ask you to guide us in this place of worship.

[36:16]

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