I'm sorry to keep you waiting, but I was told that we were five minutes late again today, so I came five minutes late. My version of five minutes late. Maybe we should make the schedule 4.15, or are we okay? Well, I think the tea could go a little bit faster. But we don't want to rush people drinking tea. Tea is meant to be relaxed. Then we move it to... Oh, then we can make it 420. It could be tomorrow. I don't mind. You know... Tomorrow is always better. I might have something to say. You know, I have two experiences when I give teshos.

[01:03]

One is I don't know what to say, so I just start. Or I know what I want to say, but I have no idea how to say it. Yeah, and that's sort of the condition today. And yesterday I wandered around in feeling you, wondering what to say. And these are the conditions for today. And yesterday I wandered around and felt what I could talk about. Yeah. And when Jörg Herisch brought me some quite delicious cookies and tea,

[02:06]

And when Jörg Hirsch brought me very tasty cookies and tea, I asked him, what shall I talk about? What would you like to hear? He said, let's dive deeper. Okay, then I thought, geez, we need a diving board then. A springboard. A springboard. This platform is, you know, a start. Okay. So this talk is about a diving board. I guess, we'll see. And yesterday I spoke about a little bit of history I know about the admonition to know thyself. And yesterday I talked about the story, as far as I know it, the story about this admonition, recognize or know yourself.

[03:18]

Yes. And how we can feel that, but I never found any instructions. And I know, too, when I was looking for some kind of wisdom in our history, The only wisdom I found that spoke to me was Heraclitus. As you all know, and he's famous for saying, you never step in the same river twice. And for two reasons.

[04:20]

One is the river is never the same. And the person is never the same. And he said also, the only permanent thing is change. And I would say the only true thing is that nothing is true. Although the Heart Sutra says that it's true because it's undeceiving. So that everything is changing doesn't deceive you. So, you know, the instructions I found after all these years... Of course, you know, a great deal of Buddhism.

[05:34]

The instructions I found through all these years is much of Buddhism. And that I like these big beams that support our roof. I feel safe here. And in particular, the Heart Sutta, which we chant every morning, and Sashin at lunch, too. These are also instructions, but we need some looking into it to see how it instructs us. There's a samadhi called the

[06:35]

Kanika Samadhi. And it means the samadhi of perceptual eachness. I'm trying to challenge her ability to translate. And that means that Samadhi, the perception... The eachness, the particularity of... I understand, it's just hard to say. The perception of individuality, perhaps. The perception of individuality, let's start with that. So it's said that the Blessed One, the Buddha, parallel to the Heart Sutra, entered the Samadhi, the Kanika Samadhi. Knowing that all things are simultaneously and successively unique.

[08:02]

Wissend, dass alle Dinge gleichzeitig und aufeinander folgend einzigartig sind. The samadhi of knowing phenomenal eachness, the eachness of phenomena, the particularity of phenomena. Also die Einzelheit, die Einzelheit, die Einzigartigkeit der Phänomene zu kennen. Okay, so this would be a way to say to Heraclitus, yeah? the river is changing. How do you practice with the fact that everything's changing? How do you practice with phenomena, the river, the river phenomena is always different. Wie praktizierst du mit dem Fluss der Phänomene, wenn der Fluss der Phänomene immer anders ist? You enter a samadhi which knows this.

[09:16]

Du betrittst ein samadhi, das das weiß. Now, what is a samadhi that would know this? Was ist ein samadhi, das das wissen könnte? Supposedly the blessed one, Bhagavan means the blessed one, the blessed one entered this samadhi knowing the uniqueness of phenomena. And simultaneously, parallel, Avalokiteshvara saw that the five skandhas are also in flow, are empty. So this is a way of, if it's a different person at each moment stepping into the river. Excuse me, what did you just say?

[10:28]

If it's a different, as Heraclitus say, at each moment stepping into the river, it's actually a different person. As well as a different river. Here the Heart Sutra is saying, the constituents of that person stepping into the river are simultaneously empty of permanence. So the first step in practicing with the instructions of the Heart Sutra is to practice with the skandhas as we've often done here in the Dhamma Sangha. And I also said yesterday that what we're doing here, in my experience, is revolutionary. I am reminded of something Einstein, you know,

[11:29]

Newton said that the gravitation is bodies attracting each other or resisting each other. And the huge transformation that Einstein is famous for is the iconic genius He said there's something about the invisible structure of space itself that is gravity. Er hat gesagt, dass etwas an der Struktur des Raumes selbst die Anziehungskraft oder Gravitation ist. So I was just reading and they said that this is a huge revolution in our thinking, which it is.

[12:55]

Habe ich gerade gelesen und natürlich wird davon ausgegangen, dass das eine große Revolution in unserem Denken ist. But I think also what we're doing here is together, is a revolution in how we imagine a human being and our lived life. And I think it's kind of important that we recognize it's revolutionary. Because I think we tend to think in a context of, oh, I'm just a little guy and I work at a little company and I have a little life and all these important people are doing something else. Well, some of you may think I have an important life, but I'm not as important as someone else.

[13:57]

But this is an experiment. What? And each of you individually bringing the eachness of your life to this practice, into this practice, is an experiment. And it's going to take at least two or three generations before the experiment settles out. So you may mature your practice in yourself, and many of you have quite impressively to me.

[15:02]

And some of you have enlightenment experiences or live within a context of what enlightenment is about. But that's not the end of the experiment. It may be a kind of realization of ease and satisfaction for yourself. But if we look at the history of Buddhist practice, And just look at our own history over in my practicing with you for 55 years now. This is a mutual generational process.

[16:15]

And this is a joint, generational process. And what it really is about takes at least two or three generations. But with Erhard Kissel we already have three generations. So Erhard has a big responsibility. Okay, but I'm not expecting your grandchildren to sit with us, at least right away. And Eddie, you know. And to create a location like this, I think, for me, it's about the Sangha giving space a basis for this practice to the future of this practice.

[17:28]

And you can see we're in the process. This is the first Sesshin which is pushed into the room which will be the Zendo in a few months. This will be the Dharma Buddha Hall and that will be the Zendo. And if we have a sashin with all of you again, we're going to have to push into this room again, into this room instead of that room. Okay. Now I, you know, the word jhana, as you know, means absorption.

[18:39]

And it's the Sanskrit sound version of what became jhana and zen, as you know. And then... And when I practiced the four traditional jhanas, off and on for some decade or so, but decades ago, and that's assumed in the instructions of the Heart Sutra, Because here again we have, and I don't know how clear I can make this, but we have the river, the changing eachness.

[19:43]

Einzelheit, Einzigartigkeit. And to know that in a way that it's integrated into your own experience requires a mind called Samadhi. Now I would define samadhi for us as mind concentrated on itself or mind concentrated on mind. Which you experience more than you realize, probably. Or I can define it as field of mind without distinctions. Oder ich könnte das auch definieren als ein Feld des Geistes ohne Unterscheidungen. Or without distinctions that distinguish or that make a difference.

[20:59]

Okay, so that's, you know, if we're going to realize Heraclitus' wisdom in the 6th century B.C., The 6th century. So that's the 500s. Not that it's so important, but none of us were around at that time. It really wasn't so long ago, though. We think it's long ago. But, you know, I mean, as I've often said, I have talked with my grandparents, and they've talked with me about life in 1850 and on. Aber wie ich das schon oft gesagt habe, ich habe mit meinen Großeltern gesprochen und sie haben mit mir über das Leben im Jahre 1850 und von dort angesprochen.

[22:11]

And I think, you know, many of you will be living in 2050. All of you, I hope. And ich glaube, viele von euch... I mean, I'm going to make a few exceptions in my case, but... Ich glaube, viele von euch, oder ich hoffe, alle von euch, in meinem Fall mache ich vielleicht eine Ausnahme, werden im Jahr 2050 noch lebenslos. That's a 200-year period. I have dishes from great-grandparents that are not, you know, maybe I do, that are that old. I certainly have grandparents' dishes. So there's airplanes and the Internet and... Life, silverware, glasses, cups, it's all about the same. So a 200-year period is a period of a kind of consciousness. Two hundred, ten of those bring you back to Christ.

[23:31]

Twelve and a half of those bring you back to Buddha and Heraclitus. My point is we're still a very primitive civilization. If civilization can be used even in that. as a name. And we each and we together are part of this developing civilization. And what we're doing is new. And there's no sort of German or American foundation that established this and chose our facilities and is supporting us, etc. Es gibt keine deutsche oder amerikanische Stiftung, die sich das ausgedacht hat und das alles gekauft hat und uns unterstützt oder so.

[24:37]

This is what in America we call a grassroots movement. Das ist das, was wir in Amerika eine Graswurzelbewegung nennen würden. Maybe even dirt roots. Vielleicht sogar eine Schmutzwurzel. Schmutz, I didn't say anything about schmutz. Okay, so anyway, we're just doing this to try to find a way to practice together. And we're wondering, what is the samadhi that transforms the skandhas and the river into the particularities of eachness? I barely could say that. I'm very impressed that you said that. You said it before me. That helped. Yeah, well, yes. I guess so. There's how modest. Okay. So when I practiced the four jhanas and the four formless jhanas, eight altogether, really what I'd say is, I was practicing what I'd simplify as the four successive samadhis.

[26:07]

And their breath-only mind. Mind-only mind. Motionless mind. And neither mind nor body. Okay. So let's start with breath only mind. And I spoke about that again yesterday. One of the things we're doing in practice is we're putting breath in the way of the mind. Excuse me, that's not right. We're putting the body in the way of the mind. The breath too, but let's start with body.

[27:18]

And what I'm saying is, if you start trying to do, you're practicing the instructions of the Heart Sutra. So the mind usually in the form of consciousness goes to the attention-grabbing continuity we think we need. So again, the mind as attention or as consciousness, keeps shifting from the body and the breath to establishing continuity in consciousness.

[28:27]

Also nochmal, der Geist als Aufmerksamkeit oder als Bewusstsein verschiebt sich immer wieder vom Körper, shifts to what again? shifts from attention to the body or the breath, shifts to establishing mental or consciousness continuity. Okay. Now, we think when we have lose mental consciousness continuity, we think we're going crazy. And we might be. I mean, I'm not promising again. But mostly, and if you're a practitioner, you're probably not going crazy. You're just a Zen nut. What's wrong with him?

[29:37]

Well, he's practicing discontinuity. That's why he has nothing or she has nothing to say. Yeah, like that. Okay. So what we're trying to do in Sashin is to shift the experience of continuity to the body. And the body is a whole lot more interesting than the mind. I mean, just look at what your thoughts are mostly. They're just selfological nonsense. You're selfing all the time. They're surfing and they're selfing. I am a good person, am I a bad person?

[30:38]

What's wrong with me? Am I better than him? As soon as the body really comes alive, it's way more interesting than mental continuity. So, you know, what we're doing in Sashin, we could say, is trying to make the body interesting. We're trying to notice the body. Oh, that's down there. Oh, look, that's all down there. I remember somebody who had their first sort of little enlightenment experience in San Francisco when she realized that she thought of her feet as being down there. What do you mean down there? In reference to what? Your eyes? If she were here, she might say, what do you mean a small enlightenment?

[31:41]

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. See, that's self-ological thinking. Whether my enlightenment was big or small. So when you bring attention to the breath very simply you're beginning the establishment of a bodily continuity instead of a mental continuity. And a mental continuity in the narrowness of consciousness. I mean, consciousness is great.

[32:43]

I like being conscious. I hope I'm conscious now. Bewusstsein ist großartig. Ich bin gerne bewusst und ich hoffe, ich bin auch jetzt bewusst. But there's interruptions to consciousness. Aber es gibt Unterbrechungen im Bewusstsein. Dreaming and sleeping interrupt consciousness. Zum Beispiel das Träumen und das Schlafen unterbrechen das Bewusstsein. Now, as I often say in giving a teisho, the part of the yogic practice is, I'm Feeling you as a field. And I notice particularities which I don't think about. Like your hands or glasses. Your glasses. Your beard. But I don't think about them as yours or a person.

[33:44]

It's just... the sensorial field notices them. But because the sensorial field notices them without thinking about them, it supports the samadhi of knowing you as if all at once in this field. So that's a Samadhi going on right here, you know? And in Zazen, you'll notice there are certain times when distinctions disappear, you just feel an inner presence, we can say that's a samadhi.

[34:53]

So you're getting to know an inner way of knowing. Also lernst du eine innere Art des Kennens oder Erkennens. Und ich sage eine innere Art, aber es gibt keine äußere Art. Es gibt nur innere. Es gibt meine innere Erfahrung und meine äußere Erfahrung. Aber meine äußere Erfahrung ist ja auch innen. I mean, you're out there, I know, but for me, you're an experience within my sensorial field. And I never forget that. Not only do I never forget it, I never stop noticing it and experiencing the outer as inner. Es ist nicht nur so, dass ich das nie vergesse, sondern auch, dass ich nie aufhöre, das zu bemerken und das Äußere als etwas Innerliches zu bemerken.

[36:15]

This is getting used to somatic knowing. Und das bedeutet es, sich an das somatische Erkennen zu gewöhnen. Because somatic knowing is not familiar to us, Maybe in the periphery of sleep or waking up, etc. Maybe in sunbathing. Maybe when everything's going your way. We can call that a kind of natural experience of samadhi. But it's usually completely, basically forgotten by consciousness continuity. So if you want to begin to really get used to and be able to be present within somatic knowing.

[37:31]

It really is necessary to develop a daily, virtually daily habit of sitting. And you can think of it as the sitting of no results. Maybe you'll feel a little bit better during the day. I don't know. I hope so. But as consciousness is invisible to itself, samadhi is really invisible. It's not in categories we can notice.

[38:33]

We feel it, but we don't notice it as consciousness because it's not consciousness. You can allow it, but you can't grasp it. Okay, so let's end pretty soon. So, breathing only mind. You're bringing attention to breath. And finally, there's no activity except breathing the breathing body. And that becomes a kind of base. Where your agency is safely anchored.

[39:43]

And you can from that know the world and then still feel at rest in this harbor of breath only mind. And from there you can get to know the world, but you always have to call back to this Atemhafengeist. Atemhafengeist, it sounds like a poem. Haber is... I know, Hafen, Garten, you know. Let's, okay. Thank you very much. May our intentions be the same for every being and every creature.

[40:41]

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