As usual in our baby monastery or embryonic sangha practice center. Yeah, we're experimenting. Does the Sashin work with 50 people in it? And right now, maybe it would be better if we all faced, you don't have to change your change, but Nick, tomorrow, face this way. Or any angle you feel comfortable with. But if you're facing this way or more this way, I'll feel more like I'm bowing with you. And, you know, we do a sashin as it's sort of individual practice together.

[01:10]

And the schedule, of course, and sitting together and eating together, make the practice something we're doing together. And bowing and chanting together. But I think we can make this together aspect more articulated. And not just depend on the schedule to do it. So when we first start to sit, again, I'm experimenting here, trying to find ways in which to evolve and develop this practice.

[02:51]

And so when you first sit, I would suggest maybe lean forward a bit. I find it helpful to lean forward a bit and then lift through the sacrum or lower spine. And then it will also lift through the back of the neck. axis and atlas vertebrae starting. And I mentioned the sacrum and the coccyx and the vertebrae, et cetera, because maybe it helps us feel into our body. Yeah, and I'm suggesting when you do it, I mean, you do what you want, of course, but if you happen to decide to do it,

[04:14]

The feeling of awakening your spine or the spine is also something that is shareable. And I'm trying to... You know, Zen practice, Buddhist practice, Zen practice in particular, changes us physiologically and mentally. This is something I've been emphasizing a lot recently, quite recently, and I'm trying to find ways to make it real for us.

[05:35]

Because if Zen practice does change us, and it does, Physically, neurologically and in a variety of manifest ways. then we become a somewhat different body and different in the way we function. And also East Asian Again, repeating myself for some of you, East Asian yogic practice assumes a different body and mind than our Western body and mind.

[06:46]

It's taken me a long time to say this, to fully recognize it. And it's taken me a long time in a way, implicitly, to dare to say it. Implicit habe ich auch eine ganze Weile gebraucht, um mich überhaupt zu trauen, das zu sagen. Because the basic view is we're all human beings. We're the same all over the world. Die grundlegende Sichtweise ist, dass wir Menschen über die ganze Welt hinweg mehr oder weniger gleich sind. We can all make babies together, but maybe we can't make Dharma together. Und wir können zwar alle miteinander Babys zeugen, aber vielleicht ist es nicht so leicht, dass wir alle miteinander Dharma zeugen.

[07:54]

Because if practice assumes a particular kind of body, then, you know, how do we, can we discover that in Zazen? Weil wenn die Praxis von einer bestimmten Art von Körper ausgeht, dann ist die Frage, können wir diesen Körper im Zazen entdecken? Yeah, so I'm doing this, I'm talking this way partly to take away from you your image, your own image of your body. Or your own image of your experience, assumption about aliveness. So Sashin, we can ask, give us a chance to do something about it. We'll be mostly sitting and doing things together for today and the next four days after today.

[09:00]

jedenfalls für heute und für die nächsten vier Tage. Now when you do kin hin, wenn du kin hingehst, you are synchronizing your breath and your walking, stepping. Synchronisierst du deinen Atem und dein Gehen oder deinen Schritt? It's not really a walking so much as a moving forward with the torso rather still and the legs sliding underneath. And it is not so much a walking as it is much more a sliding forward, in which the upper body remains relatively still and stable while the legs slide under it. Yeah. Now, as I've been, the phrase I'm using these days is each hail, each inhale, each exhale, each hail, attentional breathing.

[10:17]

The phrase I use these days is And I'm going way back to my own beginning practice when I gave attention to breathing, but I didn't give so much attention to each inhale. and each exhale individually, separately. And what I did by confusing the specific practice from the earliest Buddhist and historical Buddhist teaching I substituted the generalization, which hides experience, the generalization of breathing with...

[11:27]

I substitute the generalization breathing for the specific bodily movements which accompany each inhale and each exhale. I have replaced the generalization of breathing with the generalization of the actual experience. I have replaced the generalization of breathing with the very specific bodily movements that come with every inhale and every exhale. And Kinian, of course, just avoids the generalization of breathing. Kin Hin is asking you to exhale on the step forward and inhale as you raise your heel. So the action of qin hin teaches us each hail attentional breathing. But we often don't get the message that after kinion we pay attention to our breathing, but not specifically to each hail.

[13:05]

So I'm asking you to, suggesting you notice during these five days The difference between specifically breathing attentive to each hail and breathing attentive just to breathing. And allow attention to show you, let you feel the difference. One of the differences, of course, is when you... I mean, of course, bringing attention to your breathing has a physiological effect.

[14:36]

But what you're really doing is bringing consciousness to your breathing. But when it's just attention to each inhale, each exhale, And not just simply the idea of an inhale or exhale, but the physical experience of each inhale and each exhale. And when your attention is on each inhale and exhale, you're not only synchronizing attention with each inhale and exhale,

[15:39]

Also, beginning a process of synchronizing all your bodily rhythms with your attention. So such a simple mistake, simple oversight on my part when I was much younger, It meant that the impact of wisdom teaching, the impact of attentional breathing, was much delayed compared to if I'd given attention to each hail.

[17:07]

Yeah, it's okay. I'm not regretting it. It's just that now that I see the difference, I'd like to share it with you. Yeah, the difference, you know, if you're a medical doctor or doing surgery, you have to know exactly what you're doing. You don't just generally cut the person open, you have to know what you're cutting. Now these early teachings of Buddhism assume a kind of surgical-like attention to dealing with the self and consciousness. Now, when you do qing yin, as I said, you lift your heel as you inhale.

[18:36]

And as some of you know, part of kin hin is what's called heel breathing. You just don't coordinate your heel with the inhale. You're imagining the breath coming actually through the heel, up through the body and into the nostrils and circulating through the head and nostrils. Of course we know that's not true. But it's kind of true. But it's another kind of truth.

[20:11]

This is not fake news. At least I hope not. When you bring your feel like the breath is coming through the heel and up through the body, you're creating an imaginal space. you're creating a imaginal space. Now one thing we should, that I want to also point out, that the the assumption of or generation of imaginal space is real in Dharma practice.

[21:12]

And now you can experiment with this. You have a chance. There will be a few more key hints. You can see that when you imagine the breath is coming in through the heel and up through the body, your whole posture changes subtly, slightly and subtly. And becomes, and your whole kinion posture and movement will likely become more stable. So this imaginal space has a real effect.

[22:20]

And maybe now, since there's more of you here than usual, I should mention the four criteria for what constitutes a Buddhist practice. The first is the assumption that enlightenment is possible. That the potential for enlightenment is real. Or the potential for transformation. Now this is not about whether you actually have enlightenment experiences. It's about that you assume, really assume, know that it's possible.

[23:36]

That's an imaginal space. And that's something we have to work with a little bit because, you know, we're supposed to be modest and Catholic and Protestant and so forth and not have any hubris and, you know, etc., So there's some kind of like, it's a little difficult for us to imagine that we're in the midst of the potentiality of enlightenment. Now, you will have to work with your own experience of whether you can accept that or whether it makes you feel weird or grandiose or I don't know what.

[24:47]

And now you have to experiment with it. You can see how it affects you. Whether you have a sense of size or whether you have the feeling that it feels good or strange or so. But we're in a field where enlightenment, in which enlightenment is possible. And if you don't feel that, don't assume that, the teachings, the roots of the teachings are going to find soil in your life. If you don't assume that this potentiality, the teachings won't find a way to root into your life. So this is an imaginal space of the potential of transformation, of realization, which is necessary if our practice is going to develop. It's not about waiting around to see if anybody's enlightened, or you might be, who knows, you know, I gave up.

[26:13]

If you have that view, you don't notice the little tiny minute changes from which these sprouts of realization occur. And the second criterion is that it is possible to be free of all mental and emotional suffering. It doesn't mean you don't feel grief and you don't feel discomfort, but somehow it's not suffering, it's just experience.

[27:27]

And again, this is an imaginal space which is essential for practice to work. There are inner knowing processes. Inner knowing processes that function outside our consciousness. And if you know, if you believe, you feel, yes it does. It's got to be possible to be free of mental suffering. Sometimes it's worse than others. So if there's a difference in worse or better, there must be a space also where it just doesn't happen anymore.

[28:31]

If you have this imaginal space, then it's possible to be free of mental and emotional suffering. Wenn du diesen Imaginationsraum hast, dass es möglich ist, frei zu sein von geistigem und emotionalen Leiden. Then your inner knowing, I don't know what words to use, but I'm using that today, your inner knowing will in effect lead you, guide you, suggest to you ways in which you become free of emotional suffering. Okay, and the third criteria is that it's possible to practice in a way that is beneficial for everyone and everything. And there's a relationship between practice which is beneficent for you and beneficent for others.

[29:53]

And this imaginal space also is essential in Zen practice. And the fourth criterion is that we can live very close to how things actually exist. And that's so much a part of Buddhist practice and Zen practice and the other three criteria. Then we can say that really Buddhism is almost maybe is a kind of, is a science. and that we can say that Buddhism is almost a kind of or a science.

[31:24]

As my body, as I said before, as my body knows if I tip this glass too much, my body knows the water is going to fall all over the place. My body knows how gravity functions. That's something close to how things actually exist. It is how things actually exist. My body can also know how things are fundamentally impermanent. And all the uncertainty, unpredictability that arises through knowing things are interdependent. So through dharma practice your body starts living within impermanence, not hoped for permanence.

[32:45]

Your body begins to live close to how things actually exist. Now, one of the importance of these four criteria And a part of the importance of these four criteria is that none of them depend on the Buddha having said it. This is Buddhism as Dharmism. And the Buddha did say these things. But with So for now, I'm just trying to make Buddhism your own so we can look at Buddhism free of its cultural trappings over two millennia and a half.

[34:09]

So Buddhism is an old tradition we can learn from. from what it has learned, but it's also a new teaching right now in you on this first day of the Sashin. So I would suggest that you review, all of us, review these four criteria To see if this is where you're at. And if it's not where you're at, why not? What differences are you feeling? But one thing I can assure you is all the teachings assume you live in these four imaginal spaces.

[35:34]

Now for me, every Sashin, every time I do it, I start at another Sashin. It's a new adventure. And why is it an adventure? Well, it's because... Yeah, you know, I have a... He just wrote me, feeling he was still practicing with me. But let's say he's a former student. I haven't seen him in some years. He's a really good guy. I like him. But he has a sort of sitting group that sits with him and so forth.

[36:49]

But he actually doesn't like Zazen. But he sits, you know. And other people sit with him. But it's interesting. He doesn't like sasa. Well, maybe. So why do we do sasa? One reason is sometimes it feels good. Sometimes it makes the day feel better. Sometimes we feel cleaned out or purged or something. Or more settled. But one of the reasons I find I do Zazen, it's like and feel and enjoy, but it's just I do it, aside from all those things. Because it's the attentional or catalytic territory of inner knowing.

[37:52]

Sorry. Sorry. In other words, and this is always part of my trying to approach how to speak about the alaya vijnana. There's an inner knowing going on all the time. Day and night in each of us all the time. And it appears in our dreams.

[38:53]

And it appears in our Zazen. And particularly 4th Skanda and 3rd Skanda Zazen. And it appears when we're with others in certain ways. So my feeling is that processes of inner knowing in contrast to conscious knowing In Sashin, my own processes of inner knowing get connected with your processes of inner knowing. And I find myself within experiences of inner knowing that I couldn't have got to without your help.

[40:03]

during these, right now, in fact, but in these next five days, I presume. And I find this inner knowing inseparable from the four criteria. And it's an expression of the word hishiryo, to notice without thinking. Yeah, and so this inner knowing is... arises through zazen practice, is enhanced through zazen practice and attentional each-hale breathing,

[41:13]

And it's enhanced by sitting with others and especially sitting with you in Sushim. Our individual practice is also together. Unsere individuelle Praxis ist auch das Gemeinsame. And even together remains profoundly individual. Und selbst das Miteinander bleibt zutiefst individuell. And this is the adventure for me of now sitting sashimi with you. Das ist das Abenteuer für mich, jetzt mit euch sashimi zu sitzen. Dankeschön. You see, my German's getting better.

[42:15]

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