start out with what we're doing. Because myself, I start out with what we're doing. So please be patient with my looking at this again with some of you several times this year already. Yeah, we start this Friday prologue day where some of you who are free on a Friday come. And we start without Zazen. Because I at least symbolically want to be present in your usual way of being in the world and not after you've done Zazen.

[01:06]

But probably Gerald has been sitting since three in the morning. I gave you an opportunity to say it. That's okay. Okay. I mean, it's symbolic because many of you are regular practitioners, so that's part of your life. But symbolically, at least, there's some importance to that. I want to have the feeling I'm practicing being here with you in as much a lay life context as possible. And in that light, I'm also, I recognize how I want to keep seeing you guys, meeting with you.

[02:23]

I'm supposed to be retiring and she told me yesterday that I'm actually teaching more next year than ever before. How did that, did you do that? How did that happen? Anyway, it's partly just, you know, because the first five years of my practice were, you know, just living as a layperson and pretending San Francisco was a monastery. But I had to engage practice in a married life with a new baby and with a demanding job and so forth. So I have a strong feeling about the many dimensions of lay practice.

[04:00]

Okay. And as quite a few of you know, in the seminars in Austria, Johanneshof had been actually changing the configuration. These are new this year, aren't they, these pads? The new administration. And I'll take naps and break. One thing I like to do, though, is, I mean, I need to do, and I bring this up because it's a part of...

[05:01]

yogic, sensorial activity, practice? One thing that I want to do and that I have to do, because part of the yogic Which is I want to be able to see and feel all of your presence all at once. And if that's not possible, it's harder for me to feel the field in which I'm speaking. And if that is not possible, then it is more difficult for me to feel the field in which I speak. Also, so wie ich jetzt hier auf diesem Podest sitze, und das ist ein ziemlich hohes Podest, wenn ich jetzt noch älter werde, dann müsste mir bald eine Leiter dazu stellen, dass ich hier raufkomme.

[06:39]

Or a knight hoist, you know, that you pull a knight in his armor up on the horse. Oder so ein Ritterzug, womit man einen Ritter auf sein Pferd zieht. Stamm. Stamm. Stamm. He makes fun of me all the time. He has permission. Not that he needs it. Okay. But if I sit on the floor, which I've been doing recently with everyone, I can't see everyone, particularly if there's more people next to you from tomorrow. But maybe like some theaters, we can have revolving platforms and revolve toward me when I'm speaking and revolve toward each other But I don't think we can expect that.

[07:55]

This is as much as we can expect. So anyway, I may attempt to find ways to engage with you more in feeling and practicing with you. Because that's the basis on which I want to continue these seminars, if I do continue them. So I'm also of course welcoming ideas from you about how to develop the way we do these seminars.

[09:02]

Of course, there's also the general advice, don't fix it if it already works. So maybe it's okay if it is. You have to tell me. Anyway, you understand that I want to really make this practice and these teachings work for you. And for me, too. Now there's, we have the topic, I'm beginning to like topics better.

[10:17]

I used to just ignore them, but now I kind of like them. We have this topic of basic teachings, attitudes, practices. And so there's two senses of basic teaching. Of course the term basic teachings implies there's also advanced teachings. So what is the relationship between basic teachings and so-called advanced teachings? Of course, the I think there's somebody.

[11:34]

There he is. Hi. Hi. There is the obvious sense that basic means foundational or bottom. And that advanced teachings are built upon, based upon the realization of less advanced teaching, simpler teaching. And that's certainly true. Lots of teachings depend on not only knowing more basic teachings, but also realizing, embodying more basic teachings. And even embodying, even in minding, sorry, can't resist, in minding basic teaching.

[12:58]

See, I've never done this one before. No. Vergeistigt. Vergeistigt. Klingt halt blöd, ne? Vergeistigt. Aber wenn es so etwas gibt wie Verkörperung, dann sollte es auch Vergeistigung geben. And the fact that there's not, at least in English, and I guess not in German either, shows you something about our cultural view of mind as somehow there, independent of activity in the body. As if it's a neutral container you fill information and stuff. And you've got to kind of loosen yourself from some of these assumptions.

[14:50]

If you're going to really look at how, and I won't... I'll just mention this now but perhaps come to it later. The practice is a process of transforming mind and body so the world can be enfolded into the mind and body. So you're not primarily in the yoga context of Zen, learning about the outside world. You're learning about how the senses and the mind and the body function in order that the world can be folded into. And until you are developed enough that the world can be folded into you, you don't really know what the world is like except its surfaces.

[16:03]

Yeah, of course, we in our own culture do that too. But we don't emphasize it. And it's not conceptually appropriate. understood even or certainly emphasized. And how you conceptualize your processes has a lot to do with what actually, what happens to you and what you realize. What happens to you and what you realize. So there are advanced teachings which are dependent on the realization of basic teachings. And what's the difference, we could have a seminar on, what's the difference between understanding basic teachings and realizing basic teachings?

[17:40]

Okay, so that's one aspect of basic teaching. And another aspect with basic teachings, which I think is more essential for lay practice, is that basic teachings are developmental, potentially developable. In other words, some basic teachings, you practice them in a way they evolve into advanced teachings. Yeah, the succession of, the succession, the incubation, etc., as I say, of the teaching, the successive practice of a basic teaching.

[19:05]

The repetition, and as I say, the uniking, which is what I really mean by repetition, of a basic teaching. transformed the teaching in the koan we just recently looked at it in the winter branches The seal is used as an image. And from the point of view of an entity the seal is something that remains the same. From the point of view of an activity, a seal is different every time you use it.

[20:17]

So the same phrase repeated. which is in this last koan, the same phrase is repeated several times. And that repetition is different each time, like a seal is on a new document, on a new situation, on a new contract, etc. So if you bring a basic teaching into different situations, it changes, it's different. The repetition changes the basic teaching and also entering into the teaching with enhanced attention develops, evolves, develops the basic teaching.

[21:50]

So one thing I'd like to see to what extent we can explore during these three days is how, as people not living in a continuous teaching stream can develop a continuous attentional stream which develops the teachings you can bring into your daily life. Yes?

[23:01]

What? Oh, you looked like you were looking for something. No, no. Okay. So now, I want to, I have a new granddaughter. Named Paloma. And she's called Paloma. Nice little girl. And I was just... Marie-Louise's brother just got married. And so my two daughters, older daughters, came to the wedding. So for the first time in a lot of years, Sally and Elizabeth were present at some of my talks in the last winter branches.

[24:09]

And one of the first things I did in one of the first lectures was start talking about my granddaughter. As Andreas would start talking about his grandson. It's now ten, right? They get less interesting than or different. But as soon as Over to the left were my two daughters. Fifty-two? Three? Thirty-seven? Gosh. I'm not old enough to have children that old, actually. And as soon as I mentioned Paloma, they both went... Because they remember I used to bring up examples of... in lectures years ago when they were tiny infants.

[25:30]

And they'd meet somebody and they'd say, oh, your father just spoke about you in lecture. Oh, no. And when they then, irgendjemand über den Weg gelaufen sind, dann wird ihnen immer erzählt, ach, schau, dein Vater hat gerade über dich im Vortrag gesprochen. For example, Elizabeth was once sitting in the car seat beside me, and she's now the one, 37, who's an opera singer. I'm not an opera singer. I occasionally will burst into song, but as they say, when I sing by the window, everyone helps me out. In any case, she was sitting in this car seat, you know, and was asleep. I was driving.

[26:43]

And her head was swinging in bigger and bigger circles and almost hitting the dashboard. And I said, Elizabeth, watch your head. And she said, you watch it, I can't see it. And it sounded a bit zen already. It was like that with my daughters. So recently Paloma, Mekto talked about this before, I'm still exploring it. was out on the porch of where she lives, her house. And my former wife, Virginia, went out, her grandmother, and said, what are you doing, Paloma? And my ex-wife, Virginia, she went out with me, where they live, and asked, Paloma, what are you doing there?

[28:09]

And Paloma said, looking. Said Paloma, schauen. Thinking. Denken. She's 20 months old. So you wonder at 20 months old, what do you mean? What are you doing when you say looking? Then what does she mean when she says thinking? Could she mean feeling instead of thinking? Is thinking the only word she has available to describe whatever was happening? And of course I feel more permission to look at my grandchild or daughter in a way I wouldn't someone else's child. And since I feel a kind of biological if not genetic responsibility to kind of take care of or help them over the years

[29:29]

I know them and see them. So anyway, I wonder when you're just beginning to experience aliveness, What's going on? Because in a way the basic teachings are to go back to basics. And if possible begin to notice your own Your own mind, notice the mind is free of culture and habits, baggage as possible.

[30:55]

So let's assume at 20 months you're fairly free of baggage. But she does know the words in English, looking and thinking. Yeah. And she... While I was there, she kept asking me a question over and over again. This little voice coming from this miniature person. What are you doing, Dick? And I said, making the bed.

[32:09]

I was making the bed. And then she would say again, what are you doing, Dick? I'm making the bed. Well, at least ten times she asked me, what are you doing, Dick? And I said, making the bed. So I wondered, what does she think is going on? What does she think making a bed is? But my experience was that for her, beingness or being alive was related to activity. And she seemed to... used this repeated question simply to stay in contact with me.

[33:17]

This new guy who she was told was her grandfather, we have no idea what that meant. Elizabeth kept saying to her, he's my father to you. Elizabeth said to her again and again, he is my father. And Coloma was surprised again. Tell me another one. Okay. So I distinctly had the experience she wanted to, she felt better. when she stayed linked to my consciousness or my activity. Hi. And I felt pretty good staying linked to her little presence.

[34:20]

But she expressed this connectedness by asking this question. Because somehow giving form to her attentional stream And asking me to give form to my attentional stream. Her feel, her attentional stream and my attentional stream were somehow rubbing against each other. Okay. So I'm mentioning this because I would like us to pay attention to, while we're here in this seminar together, our own attentional stream. What form does your attentional stream take?

[35:53]

Like when Paloma's out on the deck looking and thinking. Zum Beispiel so wie wenn Paloma draußen auf der Terrasse ist und schaut und denkt. Schaut sie dann die Dichte des Blattwerks draußen auf der Terrasse an? Oder schaut sie sich die Häuser jenseits der Bäume an? And does she, or does she just see shapes or colors? I mean, I often, I learn a lot from painters, and I often have mentioned recently Cezanne. Even the critics noticed when Cezanne was first showing his paintings.

[36:58]

This crazy painter doesn't seem to see outlines. He just sees, well, colors and the colors sort of overlap. There's no shape to things in the usual way. What was the last part? He's not seeing shapes in the usual way. The shapes arise out of color-taking form, not out of the nature of the object. I mean in Western thinking we think of each object having its own essential essence and so forth.

[38:02]

And Cezanne just more so What are called objects is things appear in the field of color and light and so forth. So as Paloma when she's out on the deck looking and thinking, Is she just seeing colors? And if she does see something like a house, does she want to name it house? And if she does name it house, because somebody probably told her that's a house, does she know she's also on the deck of a house, that she's living in a house?

[39:16]

And does she know houses the one across the way and her own both have bedrooms and living rooms and so forth. Okay, so now I think it's about time to have a break. But again, I'm suggesting we see to what extent we can notice without giving form to the noticing immediately. So is Paloma just looking? Or is there an intention in the looking?

[40:18]

She's looking to give a definition, a name or something. Oder liegt da eine Absicht in diesem Schauen? Schaut sie, um den Dingen einen Namen zu geben? Oder in eine Form zu verleihen? In other words, in the sensorial domain field in which we live is the very nature of looking to look for a definition? Or can you hold back looking and defining, and just feel looking itself.

[41:25]

Now this has a lot to do with what is meant by samadhi in practice. So we can use this wondering about what Paloma is doing to wonder about what we are doing in noticing, thinking or feeling. Und wir können das benutzen, was Paloma da macht, um zu schauen, was wir tun, wenn wir bemerken, sehen, denken. So now I not only think it's time for a break, I feel it's time for a break. Und jetzt denke ich nicht nur, dass es Zeit für eine Pause ist, sondern ich spüre, dass es Zeit für eine Pause ist. Thank you very much. Vielen Dank. Excuse me for keep saying it, but how nice to see you again. Es tut mir leid, dass ich es immer wieder sage, aber es ist wirklich schön, euch zu sehen.

[42:25]

Thanks for translating. So I've been using the image and story of Paloma to, yeah, as a kind of metaphor for thinking and noticing.

[43:44]

Yeah, the wonder of simple things like Is there such a thing as a non-intentional, attentional, a non-intentional attentional stream? And notice that I'm saying... When Sophia, when Sophia, Paloma is looking, is she looking, is her looking conscious? Is her,

[44:46]

Is her looking mean that she's noticing an attentional stream? Notice that I'm not saying mind or consciousness. I think we can assume that when she says she's looking, we can assume that she means something pretty obvious, like she's visually noticing things. But is part of what she's noticing an attentional stream? And does that attentional stream or rather I'm not saying consciousness because we can define consciousness as a pre-formed attentional string.

[46:36]

And we could define awareness as an intentional stream that minimizes the structures of consciousness. So I think we can say looking at some kind of visual thing for her And the thinking means something like an attentional stream. But is that attentional stream structured yet? And how do we structure it? And if we do structure it, can we destructure it or unstructure it?

[47:39]

Because certainly, simple advice like don't invite your thoughts to tea is about Noticing the structures of an attentional stream. Da geht es darum, die Strukturen eines Aufmerksamkeitsstroms zu bemerken. And deciding to change the habits of the attentional stream. Und sich zu entschließen, die Gewohnheiten des Aufmerksamkeitsstroms zu verändern. So, don't invite your thoughts to tea is the most basic, from Suzuki Rishi, basic definition of Zaza. So in your own zazen, can you notice an attentional stream and notice it starting taking form, wanting to take form, etc. ? Can you participate in the degree to which the attentional stream absorbs your attention?

[48:52]

The content absorbs your attention. Or can you notice an attentional stream before it's grabbed by its contents? So those are my questions. Do you have any responses? I will sit here in your attentional streams and see if they turn into any forms.

[50:08]

And Andreas, because he's the organizer, feels that he has the obligation to ask the first question. And because Andreas organizes the seminar, he has the feeling that he has the obligation to ask the first question. This is a pre-formed stream of attention. Automatically. Sometimes automatic is good. For me, in my practice, also in my own practice, this is exactly the crucial point. For me also in my lay practice that's a crucial point to notice how and that I identify with the contents of my noticing on all levels. And when I notice that, then I can so to speak change that through mindful breathing.

[51:21]

Just by letting it. And then mindfulness becomes like a parallel. Shift your mind from the object to the field. And then such things as shift your mind from the object to the human, that's help or support. It's a help and it also helps me to simultaneously notice my body posture. Just by making a small change, I can accomplish staying more in the attention and the mindful awareness. Okay.

[52:22]

Now, I'd like to excuse me for pointing out that he makes, Andreas can make that small change because he has the concept that it's possible. And so he has a concept that there's a distinction can be between the attentional stream and the content. The other day I saw a video. Were you there with an old... Yeah. The abbot of a heiji. It takes... You have to wait a long time to get a job at a heiji. He was 96 when they appointed him abbot. And he died at 106.

[53:33]

And he was a great looking old guy. And he said, Talking about younger monks. Everyone's younger, but anyway. Yeah, important thing is to be free of concepts. Yeah, that's true enough, sort of. But to be free of concepts is a concept. So you really can't be free of concepts without using concepts.

[54:34]

So if we take the general context of what he meant, this is okay. Also, wenn wir den allgemeinen Zusammenhang nehmen, davon, was er meint, dann ist das in Ordnung. But it's the basis often in the West of very superficial Zen teaching, meaning to be free of concepts. Nobody knows how to do it. Aber es ist oft die Basis für das, was im Westen passiert, eine sehr oberflächliche Zen-Lehre, davon frei von Konzepten zu sein, und keiner weiß, wie das geht. Okay, now the retired director has the second. The retired director has the second question. I hope your retirement is working better than mine. It has led to new observations that I would like to share with you. So, at the moment, since I don't work, I... Shouldn't you speak Deutsch first, or do you want to go back and forth?

[55:49]

You can speak, you can do your own, whatever. I can go back and forth. Yeah, okay. So, I don't set the alarm, actually. I just wake up when I wake up. I do a little bit of work, and... This is a very advanced practice. Based on getting up at 3.30 or 4.30 for decades. Okay. And I noticed that when I just stay in my bed, I mean, stay lying down for a little while, different kinds of stuff comes up into my mind. As soon as I get up and learn upright, Even I have all the time I want, but sitting upright gets different stuff that comes up into my head.

[57:09]

And I would say, that the kind of stuff that comes up when I'm not wide awake yet and still lying down, it's similar to what comes up when I'm doing prologue zapping. And I would say from my experience that what rises up when I am still lying down, that it is as similar as that when I sit down for a longer time. Okay. Yes, I find that really interesting because I have never noticed that before in my life. So I found it interesting because it is something where the mind changes. Yes. Well, it's interesting that you said when you get up different stuff comes into your head.

[58:22]

You didn't say I start noticing other things. It's like when you got up, it came into your head. Now when you were more horizontal in bed, was there more of a sense of the body thinking? That might be worth noticing. Yes, it's very interesting. I have to notice. Come on in. That helps me notice. Okay, now just imagine that I'm, you know, this is like the guy who operates the merry-go-round in a park. A merry-go-round.

[59:37]

I just pulled a big lever and you all started turning toward each other. So you're really talking to each other and not just to me. So just imagine that at least. Next. Yes. About these concepts, to not be able to teach without relying on concepts, that sort of worked me up. Because I think the problem really is you can't teach it and you can't intend it, but it can still happen.

[60:41]

What can still happen? To have no concepts. Yes, you can have very little or almost no concepts. But the process of getting to that point requires concepts. My assumption was it can just happen. You don't necessarily need a concept to... But you cannot intend it. Well, whatever your experience is, I accept. I know someone in Boulder who a car came up on the sidewalk and and smashed her into a building.

[61:56]

And for a year or two, she was quite concept free. It threw her into a state we could call a kind of involuntary enlightenment. And she took quite a while and she finally put it together as a kind of functional enlightenment. But there was enough physical damage that she eventually lost it. I think that Even to notice afterwards that you're concept-free is a concept.

[63:14]

And to decide that was a good experience is a concept. So the question is how much you use concepts. Some people are very... One or two concepts, they get the whole thing. And other people, they have to keep repeating the concepts to make shifts. This is a topic for a topic for this seminar because it's assumed in Buddhism that advanced teachings particularly need conceptual intervention.

[64:17]

There's some things that it's taken several centuries for Buddhism to develop a more sophisticated position than earlier Buddhism. And you can benefit from that without having to live for 300 years. The tradition can whisper in your ears if you haven't noticed yet. But that's another subject we can leave for now. Okay. Yes. I'm Heinz from Berlin. Hi, Heinz. Um... Uh, as, uh, you from, uh, as of... Yeah?

[65:37]

When you... Yeah. I... [...] I Ja, als ich von der Person mal gesprochen habe, und sie herausgefunden habe, zu versetzen, aufbauen, in dieses kleine Wies, das da in die Welt guckt, das Geist in die Hände und Hände, man nur guckt, just looking, and it's the train train. When I went in for the train, but when there came a very ethnic need for what I didn't see. And when I looked into it, what I saw was a very strong identity, a very strong identity.

[66:42]

And with that, the need to ask. With that, what's it? My thing, the grandparent to ask him, what's it? What's that? Yeah, what's that? Um, yeah, okay. Uh, yeah. And then, I found but she found that there is a fear that if I go in there that there is a fear [...] In my case, yeah, and that's really sad to me that it is my case. Yeah. To me, that it may be. To me, that, you know, I, I, I'm more, nearly, I guess, I'm pretty sure that Paloma, she, [...]

[67:58]

that and i'm pretty sure it's no not probably that not here but it was much from in yourself this is time uh is this for me it's a this is my family right this moment nobody can do you Perspective. Decade. Me too. For that moment of experience, what's happening? What can I perceive? Yeah. Well, that can like, no. You can perceive the touch. You can perceive the touch. You can concentrate just. And there's nothing more you can do. And you can switch hands, and one hand can touch the other, and this hand is different. That's a nice play. Left is touching the right, and right is touching the left.

[69:02]

Quite interesting shift in it. It's very interesting. [...] Does it talk about, um, Paloma? Just so, you tipped it. Just so, you might. And I would just if you just did. And I'm happy you identified yourself fine, so I don't have a fear of knocking. Signs from Berlin. um but i think that's a uh Really, sociology and psychology have tested yet, and they try to bring us territories.

[70:18]

I think this is a question that sociology and psychology have answered so far. We have to research these areas. To what degree does a tetrahedron itself have intention built into it? Zu welchem Ausmaß stammt Aschenmerksamkeit selber? Stammt Aschen, die Intention wir beteilt in sich. Is a human being with attention a medium? He wants to understand. The attention is in nine months. Or from wanting to understand and or know or something. Is and or know. Menschlichen Wesen. Ad. Ist, dass Aufmerksamkeit hat. Ist, die Absicht, die Intention, auch Fortschritte. Also, das Verstehen, diese Wollen, Wissen zu wollen. Diese Worte, diese Absicht, diese Intention, untrennbar mit der Aufmerksamkeit verbunden. That's her. I don't know the line. That's her. It's still an infant of 20 months or so. Still neurologically complex than we are and we are when she's older.

[71:21]

Then we not here. She's near. Oh, okay. An immense complexity in a lot of details, and since synapses just die in bells. And as she herself also falls, and an enormous complexity is born, and then many things die off over time. So by wanting to know, she's neurologically shaping herself, neural shedding things that she doesn't know. And by knowing, she knows, she knows, why she is neurologic, by affecting the things that are not necessary. Yeah. Yeah. so in practice we're playing of shifting away being directional free floating or something like that

[72:37]

We can ask questions like which has a lot to do with the development of Buddhism. There's such a thing as aimless attention. Or the attention always basically guided. Implicit. Intentional. Ist sie implizit absichtsvoll? If it's implicitly important. If sie implizit absichtslosvoll ist. Give it a different. Kannst du ihr da eine andere Absicht zu? Can you substitute the implicit extension with extension?

[73:41]

Can you do this? Can cultural intentions, through a Danish intention, through conscious attention, let go of attention that a physical attention Sometimes when I see an ad, it's the IP or something. Now the people who design ads design the ads to non-design the ad. Obviously, they're buying your attention or selling your attention. So I try to focus at the end when they clearly want me to focus on her. Now is there another ally of it?

[74:53]

Now is there an aspect to this? Now the life is young, and as soon as there's an underlying process, there's a storing and restoring all of your experience. Now, more advanced teachings would say, how can you suspend usual conscious attention so the attentional process of the Alaya Vijnana begin to function non-consciously in you? Now that's clearly an example of advanced teaching that took some hundreds of years to develop.

[75:56]

Dr. Neal? Dr. Roshi, that was actually my... You were going to say what I just said. No, you were going to say exactly what I just said. My question is, your experience is, if there's suspended... I'll say it in German in a minute. Is there suspended intention or suspended consciousness? Is there a... Is there a tendency, is there a process of reorganizing itself if I don't interfere or leave it alone? That was my question, Jürgen. Also ist, wenn man die absichtsvolle Aufmerksamkeit, die Absicht überhaupt versucht, also ganz rauszunehmen, ist da ein darunterliegender Prozess der Selbstorganisation oder Reorganisation oder sowas? That's what's happening in what Katrin said and what I experienced when I have to take in a nap, for example.

[77:25]

It's the easiest, the most noticeable situation when stuff floats and I don't interfere. Exactly. So suspending attention is an activity. We can say it's a dynamic. And suspended attention begins to change things. It's not just stopping, it's also creating a space in which things change. But let us wait one minute. I just want to tell you a funny anecdote. I know this because the wife of my nephew is partners with my son-in-law's brother.

[78:44]

Not that you need to know these things. But partners means like business partners. Geschäftspartnerin von dem... So I know this strange story, and they just won big awards for an ad they did, a TV and computer ad. It's a Geico insurance ad. So anyway, you know how the ads say, in 10 seconds you can click to end this ad. This ad has written at the bottom, in 10 seconds you will not be able to end this ad. So it shows a family sitting, talking, a son, and it looks like a son and a daughter and a mother and father.

[79:54]

And they're having a meal. Everything looks fine. And then it goes seven seconds, eight seconds, nine seconds. And a gigantic dog comes in, jumps up on the table. And all the actors freeze. And then the dog licks their face and eats their food. And if you look carefully, the actors are trying to keep from laughing. But this is an enormous dog, almost as big as the table. And they must not have fed him for about a week because he's gobbling up everything.

[81:10]

And his tail is swinging around. Yeah, and the people are all sitting there. Everything is frozen. And then Geico says, our insurance will protect you from things like this. And as soon as the dog jumps up on the table, you can't click it off. What's the dog going to do? So that's a good playing with attention. I come to feel that it's part of being human not to just want to understand the world but we have to understand the world.

[82:11]

I've accompanied or stayed with a friend who's been in artificial coma for three months. Cables everywhere. He had multiple organs failing on him. Oh dear. And the council decided in a very difficult session that they would give him another chance. And his lungs were completely failing. It wasn't alive anymore. But one possibility he had was, and there are very few machines like this in Germany, to directly infuse oxygen into the blood.

[83:29]

And they did that, but the danger is that afterwards you get a stroke. After that he came back to life. After about one year, all cables were removed. And he was like, got nutrients artificially, like all his food and so forth. After one year, he could walk again. Yeah, and breathe normally and breathe. Yeah. And then it was so that he... Yes, in a special way he existed, he was very awake. Like a child he suddenly experiences the world. And then he existed in a really unusual way. He was wide awake, like a child almost.

[84:50]

And that's how he perceived the world. And we had to, I was just wondering, take all the things out of his apartment and so forth, and we had stored all his things, belongings. And one day I asked him, what do you need? What do you need us to bring? Back to your apartment, yes. And his response basically was, well, there's nothing missing. And he said, where nothing is missing, everything is present. This is good. That's good.

[85:56]

But this comes accidental. Yeah, I know. And so the story after this is he became character. He became his old character. Character. On character? Correcting himself? Character. [...] He became a new character or the person he was before? The old character. Very straight and very rigid. So, this is the story. He was in this state. And I think it depends on the presence, on the present. If you are in this moment, just in this moment, then... It has a lot to do with presence. So he was in this presence and concepts always have to do with the procedural story that we seem to always need.

[87:07]

What was the time frame from when he was concept-free and when he became the same old asshole again? And so about three months and during that time all the nurses just loved him and for all his attention that he could give but now he doesn't get that kind of But he doesn't learn from the lesson. Okay, well, thanks for telling us that story. Silvia? We talked earlier about concept freedom and about aimless attention.

[88:09]

And I wonder if this is not again a goal, this aimless attention, So I'm wondering, we've spoken about being free of concepts and aimless attention. But I'm wondering, isn't that exactly turns into a goal or an aim all by itself again? So isn't that like turning in a circle that the moment we speak about that, that in itself, or whether it exists, that that in itself already turns again into an aim or a concept? Well, maybe in your experience, or all of our experience, that may be the case.

[89:13]

And it may be the answer to the question, can we really have aimless attention? And you're saying, probably not, because it starts being aimed again. And that might be the answer to the question, can we really have aimless attention, because, as you say, because it immediately turns into a goal. Is that responding to what you said? I am still working, dealing with this one-eyed turtle that infinitely paddles in the dark sea. The one-eyed turtle paddles and paddles in the dark sea. die einäugige Schildkröte paddelt und paddelt im dunklen Gewässer.

[90:15]

Und das im Zusammenhang mit, was bei mir ankommt, dass es Wiederholungen braucht in der fortgeschrittenen Praxis. And that in connection for me, that it takes repetition in advanced practice. Das ist für mich voll von Absichten und That for me is full of intentions and aimed attentions and so forth. Okay. So I liked what Elizabeth said to you, that you should watch her head because she doesn't see it. That's the sentence I would like to say to you. Well, I can see your head, it's okay. Okay, yes. Hi, my name is Klaus from Göttingen.

[91:26]

Hi Klaus. I don't know exactly where to start because there are many things I could say now, but I'll just start with the fact that my mother gave birth to me in May of that year. What is the difference between a Percival and a Klaus? The difference I don't know the difference. I don't know the difference. Okay. But I started to do karate and then got in contact with Zen.

[92:29]

And I was like, I have to learn. And I also held the opinion that I need to learn and fight. And sort of persist or something and try to remove myself from what I am. And I really made an effort, although karate came a lot easier to me than understanding. And yet I managed to take up university studies. And I read from Schleiermacher and he once said, And I read by Schleiermacher that theory can do without practice, but that through practice, theory becomes one that's more conscious.

[93:53]

Yeah. And since I started doing karate and wanting to learn, I became afraid of heights. And I couldn't even step up to the balcony, like even on the third floor or something, because I had this fear that there's something that wants to pull me down. And then 20 years ago, I used to always do parachuting with the people who I was living with.

[95:00]

Parachuting. Yeah. That's good practice for someone in fear of life. Parachuting. So one had to jump out of the airplane by oneself and there was like a chain connected and the parachute would open immediately all by itself. Oh dear. But I jumped off too early because I was afraid of being pushed out. Aha. And my leg almost got entangled with the parachute. But since I was doing karate, I had the techniques to detangle myself. This was useful. That moment. I did not exactly lose my fear of heights.

[96:13]

I jumped once again in a tandem jump. And my adrenaline, that was all. I really liked it and how we jumped together in that tandem jump. But my fear of heights still was not gone. But then two weeks ago, I did another tandem jump. I had no fear whatsoever, not during flying up and not while jumping down. I was a little disappointed. Oh, shut up. But I got the feeling that I had climbed the hut as a little boy. But I re-attained the feeling that I used to have as a small boy when I would climb up the highest trees.

[97:18]

In this way I got in contact with a feeling that I had, from which I had moved away, because I And in that sense I got back in touch again with a feeling I used to have but that I lost because I had to understand. But now this feeling is one that I had without having concepts. That's great. Ich verstehe die Notwendigkeit von Konzepten, um meine Umgebung zu verstehen. I understand the necessity of concepts in order to understand my environment. Aber häufig werden meine Gedanken dadurch zum Tier eingeladen. But usually my thoughts are invited to tea by... Dass ich merke, dass ich in meinem Alltag, dass ich klugen will und ich möchte die lösen.

[98:30]

by my noticing that in my daily life that there are knots that are forming and I want to resolve them. And that's a back and forth, a back and forth, but in the end maybe two steps forward and one step back. Like that. It's what the practice has often envisioned as a spiral. You go out and then you come back. Then you go out and you come back and each time the circle gets bigger maybe. I always enjoy the energy you bring to things, Klaus. A verbal karate. Thank you. I think it, oh, you want to say something?

[99:32]

Yeah. Go ahead. But we're going to have lunch in a moment, so. Okay. Okay, go ahead. Okay. So let's assume if through long practice I was to see through my secret or my hidden intentions and I wouldn't want them anymore and also maybe I wouldn't want to understand the world anymore Does that mean I'm free? Well, let's go there together and find out. It might be called freedom.

[100:33]

I'd have to really know your experience a little better than I do. But yes, maybe it could be freedom from your unconscious and non-conscious intentions. It could be called freedom. I'd have to know your experience better than I do. But maybe it's freedom from unconscious or unconscious intentions. And your freedom might be reconceiving them. Or your freedom might be to notice they didn't have to be secret. I don't know. But thanks for your development of our conversation. So I have to turn to the boss here. So it's 12.30. The chef, yeah.

[101:34]

The chef de seminar. And so we come back at three? Of course. Okay. It's 12.30. That gives people 1.30, 2.30, two hours and some. Yeah. Okay. Is that all right with everyone? Thank you for translating.

[102:08]

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