Good morning. Of course I want to hear something about your discussion. In our group we mainly talked about the question how to organize everyday life so that practice has a place in it. And really for most of us that still is a question. Because it's difficult. In more intense circumstances, like here at Johanneshof, we make more intense experiences. It seems to be easier to practice Buddhism here in Johanneshof than at home in everyday life.

[01:13]

And yet all of us are trying and also finding starting points. but at the same time each of us makes an effort and also finds connective points. And just the possibility to pay attention to the breath and that's another example of something that's really easy to do, like maybe paying attention to posture. Not thinking. or to see thoughts in the sense that you notice that there are also faces when thoughts are not so present.

[02:28]

Just that this possibility exists seems to be a big help. And there is a kind of self-dynamic going on, I have the feeling now, that these possibilities are then also looking for places in everyday life and opportunities in which they are then effective. And this possibility, and this is my sense now, creates a kind of its own dynamic that this own dynamic finds a place within everyday life to take effect as a practice. And as for Johanneshof, I had to contribute or mention that there's something like everyday life here as well.

[03:34]

And the more everyday life, the more you are at Johannesburg, the more it's also the case that the difficulties that you have in everyday life pop up also here. Thank you. And maybe others from the group can add to that, but that was it for me. Any other perfect summaries lurking in the room somewhere? Yes? In our group first of all we tried to reconstruct what the question was. There were as many questions as there were people. What gives obvious proof of what is to be thought about witness statements?

[04:57]

But we agreed upon the fact that it was about wisdom. And then the question arose, what was meant by that? And if I understood it correctly, then the main point of the discussion was how to become wise yourself. And then if I got that correctly, the main part of the discussion was about how to become wise. Did I say that right? Let me know. Just because I'm practicing with wisdom phrases, I am wise already.

[06:20]

Okay. There was another opinion. But there were other opinions. That it's actually about avoiding mental suffering. And to use wisdom as stored experience. And to understand it as an invitation to understand that experience on your own or yourself. And then we also had a round where everybody said how each one of us can handle that in everyday life.

[07:34]

What seems important to me is the difficulty, if one practices for a longer time, to preserve this beginner's spirit and not to let it become a habit in practice. And what seems difficult to me is when you've been practicing for a longer time to still keep this beginner's mind and not to let practice become a habit. Peter, as many of you know, used to be a judge. It must have been fun to be sentenced by you. You probably made it very amusing. Okay. Three years in jail, but... You probably made it quite amusing, okay?

[08:58]

Now three years in prison. No criminal. See? Okay. Yes, I would like to conclude, because it was the same group. It was also the question that came up, that we usually, when we talk about wisdom, have the idea that at some point we will become or we will be wise. I would like to add to that, because that was the same question. There was also the question that when we speak about wisdom, then we usually have the idea that at some point we will become wise. But that in the Buddhist sense it's also more that you say, this is wise, or this is a wise action, or this is infusing wisdom into my life, or inserting, I guess you say.

[10:20]

So to have more this contrast of being wise to becoming wise. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. In our group we have tried to answer the question regarding meditation and mindfulness and wisdom, and first of all we have described In our group we tried to speak about the question in the context of meditation, mindfulness and wisdom, and first of all we described how far the way to the cushion can be in everyday life.

[11:24]

Family, profession or free time. And the group of Frank had said that it needed a certain effort and for us it was And Frank's group said that there has to be a particular kind of effort. But in our group, the emphasis was more upon the decision that we make before even putting effort into it. And in this term, decision, that can also imply that you have to decide against something else, such that different things exclude each other. The group consisted of doctors, therapists and teachers.

[12:44]

The group consisted of doctors, therapists and teachers. And the topic of mindfulness had an easy access through thinking about how great the distraction is in everyday life and how big the danger is to become distracted. Until you are chased or driven. Pushed into it. Yeah. Yeah. and then we named different possibilities of how to anchor yourself in the present not to do so many things at the same time but to really direct attention to what you are confronting

[14:09]

And also the practice in everyday life to bring each action full circle to complete each action. And one more interesting aspect of our conversation was when we talked about wisdom and in that context talked about the distinction between compassion and pity. And that in pity one's own fear or one's own suffering actually encounter the suffering of the other. And the difference to compassion would be that part of one's own white heart or one's own wisdom can encounter the other.

[15:32]

But that one also has to be honest towards oneself. The German word is uprightness. To keep making that distinction over and over again. And I had to leave the group early, and so I definitely want to pass this on to other participants of the group because it's definitely not complete. Okay. Thank you very much, Julie. Vielen Dank. Yes. In our group there was someone who said that he has very little time to sit and to practice, but that he still is able to clarify his mind.

[16:59]

that he takes time throughout the day to clarify his mind from time to time. And that impressed me because I thought, well, with such little time, even then you can do something with it. Thank you. Okay. Yes? In our group we had an exchange about what of the teachings from the afternoon touched us. And from that we, in a very natural way, came into the discussions about these two questions that you asked. And we then concentrated upon how you bring your life in order so that it is supportive of practice, so that it supports practice.

[18:34]

And that is again a different question from how do we enact practice in everyday life. And we had an exchange about that and that was very touching. And we came up with that the most important thing is to have an intention and then to deepen that intention, make it sharper. And that then there is a resonance between that intention and everyday life and practice. And that then at some point there is a decision, but that it happens more from a practice mind and not from a consciousness mind.

[19:40]

And that for the environment that is often not necessarily understandable. But you can harvest the fruit of that sometimes years later. And so we supported each other to be more courageous in making these decisions or to at least consider these decisions. Thank you. Danke. Anyone else?

[21:00]

Yes. First we had a question in our group about meditation, mindfulness and wisdom. was a clear concept for all of us which we can also take into everyday life more or less. And we found that meditation for most of us was a clear term that we could also take into everyday life. Carefulness was also clear for all of us in everyday life. Carefulness with people and also with objects, with nature. Mindfulness was also clear for everybody and how in everyday life to be mindful with nature, with others.

[22:03]

Unklar wurde es bei der Frage zur Weisheit. Da kam der Begriff von Leuten aus dem Ernsthof, die Weisheitssätze. But unclear it became when we talked about wisdom, and people from Johanneshof mentioned examples of wisdom phrases. For me, the most important thing was the words of faith. I read something about it, but the words of faith are very different from the words of wisdom. The words of faith are what I want to achieve, and the words of wisdom are And what came up for me then was a parallel to belief phrases, but then immediately there was the response that belief phrases are very different from wisdom phrases, that belief phrases are something that you want to achieve, whereas wisdom phrases are without goal.

[23:14]

For me, a part of what I feel is that meditation and mindfulness belong together, so one of the other parts does not work in everyday life, and that from this, usually, wisdom arises. And something that I feel about this is that meditation and mindfulness can't be separated, that they belong together in everyday life, and that from these two wisdom arises. Yeah, ideally. Yeah, idealerweise, oder hoffentlich. Someone else. Noch jemand? Yes. My sense was that in our group we also talked between the lines about how you can not use practice as secretly as a kind of self-improvement strategy.

[24:25]

And somehow that had to do with something you said, Roshi, the question, what person do you want to exist in the world? And that when you see such a person that then you have the decision in front of you that you have to become that person. And that moved few people to tears because they see it the same way. And it moved others into the direction of saying, I just do not want to improve myself anymore. So indirectly we talked about how can you practice and, of course, want to improve yourself in a way, but also just be happy with how you are.

[26:01]

Yeah, I think the path to improving yourself is to enjoy yourself. But enjoy yourself in a fundamental sense of clarity of mind, ease, and so forth. Okay. Anyone else? Someone else? Yes. Oh, yes. Yesterday you said during the lecture that your teacher said to you that I now see that you brought your life in order and now I can teach you. like our life, of course, the life is individual, but maybe there is a structure, like for each of us, a minimal program, a minimal structure, to be able to become capable of being a teacher and the teaching.

[27:26]

So the question arose that we could actually ask you, Roshi, how can each of us have a, well of course each life is individual, but how can each of us have a kind of minimal program or minimal structure that applies to everyone in order to bring our life in such order that we can receive the teaching? Yeah. Come live with me in Crestone. Yeah, what's interesting though is to see how people do it on their own. Okay. Well, this creating a place, creating a way to practice in your life.

[28:34]

It's a little bit like tying a string around your finger. Do you have that to remember something you tie a string around your finger? No, we make a knot into our paper towels. Paper towels. Handkerchiefs. Oh, handkerchiefs. Well, I don't need paper towels, that's right. Poor people put it in their paper towels. Throw it in the basket. Not in your handkerchief. I want to blow your nose. Oh, I can't blow my nose. Exactly. Well, it's sort of like that. When I'm in Freiburg, you know, still I put my cushion out in front of the bureau where I have a Tara statue. And when I get up in the morning, I squeeze between the cushion.

[29:37]

And the bed, I almost trip on the cushion, so I think, oh, I'd better meditate. I mean, usually I'm there because I have so much work to do, I can get work done undisturbed. And sometimes I just wake up and have to go to work, but then I trip over the pillow I think all the while. You know, it's fairly primitive, but it tends to work. I think I can at least sit down. Then suddenly it's 40 minutes. But if you get fairly good at practice it actually even in a very I think it actually makes a very busy person's life more I mean, I've been at times in my life as busy as this human being can possibly be, plus some.

[31:09]

And one thing I found is that meditation, an hour of meditation roughly gives me at least, allows me to have two hours less of sleep. and a lot of productive flow of kind of insightful thought occurs. But it's definitely the case. If you get used to sitting regularly, you can sleep less, half an hour, 45 minutes, an hour less than you would otherwise. And I think many people find, at least and I find, that the things you have to do during the day appear with greater clarity and

[32:25]

And clarity and... It's clear which ones have to be done first and so forth. In California it used to be entrepreneurs and commodity brokers and people like that really needed to meditate. In California it was the case that business people and real estate brokers had to meditate in any case. Real estate broker? What? I don't know. That's not true. Where was the broker? Excuse me? Where was the broker? Oh, I see. You're the commodity broker. Oh, I see. Okay. Thank you. It sounded like furniture. No, no, no. No? Real estate broker. Real estate. Well, it did sound like furniture or real estate. Yeah. Movable real estate, right?

[33:48]

Okay, so I think I really find that if you intend to, you can find a way to do it, but your intention has to be pretty thorough. But even if your intention is thorough, like my intention is thorough, I still have to create ways that make it easier, that remind me, that make it possible. When I was younger, I had not very flexible legs. Really? Is it that hard to describe my legs? Anyway... It took me a long time to learn to sit.

[35:14]

The way I had to do it is I'd take all the furniture out of my house, my apartment. So I sat for meals at the floor. I did my desk work at the floor, on the floor, I mean with a low desk. And then, you know, after a while I didn't have to do that. But the last few years I've had to do it again because I got older and my legs got less flexible. So now I went back down on the floor from my desk. Now I'm not saying all of you throw your furniture out the window. It helps to do something physical in the environment in which you live that makes it easier to practice.

[36:27]

One helpful thing is to create a sacred place in your apartment house. The word sacred again means dedicated to a single purpose. So you find you have some place, if you can make such a place, where you don't do anything but sit. You don't read books there, magazines. You only sit there. Because we are contextual beings and we need to use context to support ourselves. We need context to support ourselves.

[37:33]

And for those of you who want to develop a sitting practice, there's lots of ways to pile pillows up, have benches and so forth. When I first started singing, believe it or not, I had three Zafus. I was in danger of hurting myself if I fell off. But the main point in the posture is being able to sit so you can lift up through your spine. I mean, I think if you think of your spine as part of your brain, which I think in some biological sense it is, but in any case, in yoga culture, it's kind of part of the brain.

[38:57]

And what did you just say earlier, to do something, the word in German is upright. And what does it mean? That's something like being honest towards oneself. Yeah, well, there's a truth to this kind of physical metaphor. Something happens when you can sit upright. So your legs aren't so important, not so important where they go. The main thing again is to be able to lift up through your spine. You can think of the spine perhaps as the non-conceptual brain. Because as soon as you slouch, you start thinking. And your mind gets to, you think around and look around. And it's the upright spine which allows physical and mental stillness.

[40:40]

If you don't find physical and mental stillness the mind of non-dreaming deep sleep or zazen or whatever you want to say doesn't flow into the body. And if you don't find physical and spiritual silence, then the spirit of non-dreaming deep sleep or the spirit of sasana cannot flow into the body. Now, I think we should have a break. We just say in relation to what you mentioned near the end. I think it, as Otmar said, we have to think of wisdom as an activity. Meditation is something we do. Meditation is something we do.

[41:58]

And wisdom is something we do, not something we are. And the whole point of this idea of wisdom phrases is that you can insert them into your doing. So one of the main things we're trying to speak about this weekend is how you do these three things and how you do these in the context of your lay or practice in a centered life. And how you do these things in Western culture. Because it's the doing of these things which allows a new Buddhism to appear.

[42:53]

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