Good afternoon. In the 60s, in the United States, I guess it was the 60s, it must have been. The transition in popular youth culture. from a belief in psychedelics to a belief in meditation was, I think, marked more, the transition was signaled more than anything. by a book that Dick Alpert and Steve Durkee and some other people brought out, called Be Here Now.

[01:03]

And such phrases seem to... Yeah, it sounds good, be here now, why not? I've got nothing better to do right now. Like in America, they all say to you, have a nice day. In America, they always say, have a nice day. And I often want to say, I'm sorry, I have other plans. But be here now, sort of like that. I mean, I don't know. What do you mean, be here now? But it certainly brought out the obviousness of... The potentiality or living in the present.

[02:11]

But such phrases hide the present from us. So, I mean, what is be? I mean, yeah. What actually is here or here-ness? What is now? What's the duration of the present? Or maybe be is not being or becoming, but mostly a command. Vielleicht heißt sein nicht werden, sondern ist ein Befehl wie sei. Or maybe it should be being now here.

[03:17]

Hey. What's the point of it? I have to get the point. Being now instead of be here. Being now. Being now. Yeah. That might be closer to Zen practice, being now here. Mm-hmm. But what is, you know, thinking about this, I would like us in a few minutes, a few moments, to break up into small groups. And maybe, yeah, six or seven groups. And it's a nice day, so we can be outside, most of us.

[04:28]

And I'd like you to think about what is living in the present. What would that mean? Is living in the present the same as anchored in immediacy? Is being space the same as the present? We don't live in the present. Can we live in the presence of the present? I don't know. I mean, I'd like you to think about what does it mean to be Anchored in your experience. Anchored in your experience. Anchored in immediacy. Identified through immediacy.

[05:30]

Is this the same as be here now? I think that if you want to practice, we have to have a... We can't generalize about what the present is. Generalizations are for newspapers and politicians. Yeah, we need to have some way of entering, knowing our experience. our immediate experience. So, let's see.

[06:50]

Atmar, could you participate in figuring out how to break people up into groups? I can break up the people into groups about time. Yeah, okay. So, and Dieter, is he sitting here somewhere? You can do it too? Okay, then you can work together. Okay, thanks. It's good, yeah, don't worry. It's better than talking to me. It always is better. And this is your actual present anyway, so, you know. And I'll at some point decide we ought to stop.

[07:56]

I want to hear what you talked about. And to make it easy on you so we don't have to wait for the first person to work up their courage. Andreas? Andreas? We spoke in a very pleasant atmosphere. So we spoke about what could anchor us that we can approach present So we decided it's important to have an intention to do this For example, certain things can be that you say, at every step I feel that I am working with the working sets.

[09:34]

It can be a memory, now I go a little slower or at every step I feel that I am there. So we thought we can do it with phrases or with walking and when you arrive you kind of arrive with these turning phrases. Right now, here, they might even obstruct us from doing that. Because they actually imply that you have so many ideas. That prevents that. And that is a very important point, how one can experience the mediocrity, if one, so to speak, goes away from the contents of thinking to the process of thinking. So the main way of how to get to this immediacy is to go away from the contents of the mind or thinking to the processes of it.

[10:43]

Okay. That's a phrase that worked for him very well. For you, that worked for you. In all fields, all the skandhas, in all senses, no, sense inputs, or whatever you call it. Sensory input, yeah. Good. Okay. Yes. I did quickly, but I forget it. Okay. So we spoke quite some time about how we distract ourselves from the present moment through our views. We meet someone, we have an idea how it should be and then it's not like that and then we just drift away and there are a million reasons like that.

[12:10]

Somebody said he consciously comes too late to make a trick on himself, that his ideas or concepts or views don't work like that. And then we said there are moments where we all would be in here and now. These are moments of fear. As if we go across the street and a car would come, we'd all jump aside. So we have an instinctive curve. Or you're underwater and your air runs out and you get quite present. I bet. And Akash told a story from somebody in 9-11.

[13:11]

He was in the skyscraper. And he sat at his desk and he saw paper going down in front of his window. And he knew immediately that he had to leave. And he's the only one in that flat floor who survived. And then we discussed how it would be if we'd be so present in every moment. So then we said presence means in one hand that we sit in nature, nice environment and feel peaceful and feel good. But it also means... That you are also in this very moment out of the immediacy angry or sad or happy without thinking about it.

[14:21]

And then we had the subject of trusting what is appearing or coming Trust what's coming up while you're sitting zazen We also consciously have to decide to engage ourselves. Then it was nice that we discovered that little exercises for that, like for instance having these small groups, so that we kind of accept these numberings. And that we all actually look around who is in which number and that we kind of wait and decide which one. So we have this opportunity in million ways every day if we are ready to just involve but in an accepting way.

[15:36]

Yeah. Whoa, not bad, not bad. Yeah. Next, someone else? Looks like all the live wires are sitting right here. Yeah. So I know the main point. Present as such we felt is something like a construct or concept and construct. Yes, presence, not present. What we would define as what arises through immediate experience. It's non-conceptual and it's prior to thinking. And how that feels brings this kind of feeling of nourishment, something we make exciting.

[17:10]

One of us who ran a marathon I had the feeling he experienced something like that when he went over kind of a barrier of exhaustion or something like that. For this anchoring we thought about that also a lot. Normally we find ourselves anchored in thinking, and some of us also try to anchor themselves in breathing, by observing the breath or by practicing the presence of the breath.

[18:15]

Some of us try to anchor themselves in the breathing, and that's to do it through observing the breathing. Being in the awareness of breathing. So it seems that there is another way of anchoring which is more inclusive or wider, even though we thought that might not be a real anchoring anymore. So that's the observation that some kind of inner centering or inner awareness can arise? And that something feels like... So it feels like as if it's based on or part of observing the breathing but it's something more profound.

[19:33]

So we think these are different forms of this anchoring. We think what are different forms of this anchoring? So the last one, which feels like this inner-centered thing, they somehow think it might not be a real anchoring. And the other one was this breast awareness one. Exactly. And I also believe, and this is an experience of mine, that appearing fear I think, and that's an experience of mine, that appearing fear can be in connection with the task or the losing of this anchoring. Like, for instance, or in lucid dreams as I experienced it.

[21:04]

So I think this fear arises because some anchoring got lost and it's like existential fear. Okay, that was it, basically. Yeah. We're also going to die. Where are we going to die? We're going to die in the immediate present. So in some sense, I think we're afraid, we fear to visit the site of our death. The immediate present, let's call it that, is where anything can happen.

[22:09]

Paper can float down past your window. And so I think there's a certain fear in Zazen when we come to the point of really being in the immediate present with no deflecting from it. Deflecting? Turning away from it. It's like really hearing, feeling your heartbeat and realize that's all between you and life and death. It's a little scary to actually notice your heartbeat.

[23:13]

But after a while you get used to it. Okay, someone else? Yes. Yes. So our first question was, how can one really remain in this immediacy, especially when one is speaking, because the experience of many people show that this is something that draws you out of immediacy.

[24:14]

Yeah. The second question was, what is the relationship between immediacy and the observer, because we have found that many of us experience a position from which one observes, that is, an observer of inner sources, that he is actually sometimes pessimistic, observes something that has already passed, that is, perception and then the observation of perception. So then we ask ourselves, what is the relationship between immediacy and an observer? Because we found out that the observer somehow is always observing sort of something that has already just happened, or he comments something that happened. The last question we had in the group was about the being space.

[25:19]

And there was the question, or some of us reported that we are already in inner space, without time and with a feeling of timelessness. The next thing was that we spoke about the being space and Not really, I forgot it. We said we can, some people say you can enter through breathing and you can have them... Let's talk about being space.

[26:21]

Yeah. And some describe to them... Jina's space without time, kind of timelessness, and one of us had the experience that he can enter this space just by remembering himself of the space, and someone else had the experience that by stopping the breath or just taking the hearing field, space opens up, but on the other hand, the space can be very scary because of the idea or the feeling of losing oneself, of losing the identity. Yeah. One more question. Yeah. There was one question about hearing a bird and not discriminating between the hearer and the heard.

[27:28]

And the group had the idea maybe that the permanent non-discrimination could be nirvana. I hope so. I hope it's that near and easy. I can translate it? You can translate it. That would be nirvana if I could translate it. That would be nirvana if I could translate it. Yeah, okay. So I was also in Gerhard's group and we discussed if it is necessary to make an effort to get into this immediacy or if it's not necessary.

[28:51]

So we came to a court basically that it needs attention or some effort to get there, but my feeling is also that it can just suddenly arise this immediacy, but this gets kind of confusing. Afterwards? Yeah. Then when you're not accustomed or practice that, then you might get confused from it. Yeah. No, it's true. I mean, it's actually expressed. Anyway, sometimes we have experiences that are in such contrast to our usual experiences, when they're actually a kind of even enlightenment experience, that it can be very disturbing. Or a greater immediacy. Yeah, we make an effort, but mainly we have an intention.

[30:29]

Also wir machen schon eine Bemühung, aber hauptsächlich ist es nur eine Absicht. And as I said the other day, intention is a kind of intelligence that holds the world up to us in the quality of that intention. Und zwar die die Welt uns sozusagen And then our inner seeing or insight or actions are drawn out of this by this new, by the world intention holds up to us. Let me start over?

[31:54]

Yes, maybe. Yeah. This world that's held up to us through intention often can draw out of us insight or seeing or activity effortlessly. Like we look outside and certain things arise. We don't have to make an effort to enjoy the view. We just enjoy it. But some effort is not always bad. But we want to emphasize intention more than effort. We want to keep deepening our intention rather than trying to make something happen.

[33:01]

And although I don't want to comment now on things, as things come up in context, that I probably wouldn't speak of tomorrow or later today. You know, maybe I'll mention now. Like Gerhard said about the fear of speaking. The secret of the Eightfold Path is bringing mindfulness to the breath and bringing the breath the mindfulness of breath into speaking.

[34:16]

Until your speaking is always from your body, not from your mind. So it's the joining of speaking and breath and body. It's the joining of which is called right speech. And that's why it's the first sort of practice point in the Eightfold Path. Because as I've often pointed out, the reason lie detectors often work Is it very difficult for the body to lie? So when you're speaking and thinking, or even inner thinking is joined to the breath, you... it's hard for you to lie even to yourself.

[35:40]

And we generate then what we could call a truth body. And that truth body is what makes the rest of the Eightfold Path work. And you can right now practice listening with your breath. And I think you will... feel the truth of what people are saying more clearly. And you'll have less distracting comments from your own mind. Okay, someone else? Yes. We have a lot to talk about, but I still have a few memories.

[36:54]

It's 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning, we were six, and it struck me that when you spoke of the present, that in the present, that the word present also appeared, that in our society, the so-called present, there was a physical reaction, in the sense of suddenly waking up, Okay, so we were six in the group and five of us noticed that when you switched from the word present to the word presence some kind of bodily change appeared. We got more awake and we got more It was like a shift which led to presence. Yeah, good. That's good.

[37:58]

First we think maybe it is because it's an unusual thing. I mean, this word, presence... And so because this word has something which includes activity and because the word presence is, I made up a little bit the German word for it. You did? It sounds German, but it's not a dictionary word. And so that has some kind of activity in it and not a kind of a... So then what we also thought about was this presence together with somebody else. So then we wondered if each of us arrives in his own presence, because we were five people or six on one table, or do we all together arrive in one joint presence.

[39:20]

So then we kind of agreed that each one of us kind of sees her own movie. But we're not sure. First we found lots of entrances to this presence. First we thought it was calmness, it was body, how you can enter it. And if you have lots of feeling and tantra, if you've learned that a lot in therapy and stuff like that, then getting active, the baby screams, you have to do something, that brings you much more into the presence. So it seems very different paths to presence.

[40:30]

Yeah, okay, good. Thank you very much. Danke. Danke. We collected examples of immediate experiences. So I will just say some characteristics of it. One is relaxation. A kind of bodily feeling of letting go. So a kind of letting go of an inner pressure of achievement or something you always kind of race after. Something kind of slowing down. Stepping out of linear time.

[41:39]

So the feeling of there's no before, no after, and no measurable distance to things that occur or happen. Absence of concepts and thinking. That these impressions have something very momentary and unique. They're accompanied by a feeling of melting into a bigger whole.

[42:44]

I mean, whole, complete. Yeah, I understand. A feeling of openness and something. And tractor. I think that receivingness or something like that. Oh, I'm doing my best. Receptiveness, essentially. That's something you cannot intentionally get to? Mm-hmm. So through trying to be open and to kind of a readiness that it's possible.

[43:52]

You can create a ground for it. Those kind of moments can also occur after you have passed some bodily experience of exertion. And also at that moment when you kind of have to give in and you have to accept you have no other way, then it kind of happens. The question which arose, especially in the context of being here and now, was the question about responsibility. Because responsibility was seen as an activity in respect of the future, or in regard of future, or future-oriented.

[45:27]

And that led to the question of the extent or stretch or size or, I don't know, of the immediacy. Okay, that's good. I should speak to you tomorrow. In context with this quality of opening, There is one thing that is not so easy to do. There are many things that can happen to you that you can't even imagine. So there came this remark that opening is something difficult because it can be accompanied by things which make you drift away or lose it or can't deal with it. Maybe.

[46:33]

Vielleicht. That's it. Okay, thank you. Is there some group or several groups not represented yet?

[46:49]

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