Does anyone want to say anything about this simple instruction not to move? Yes? When sitting, I always move a little bit. So I could always hold a little bit, but it's not easy. It's a light posture. If it didn't move, maybe it wouldn't have moved at all. I'd like to ask, I notice that usually when I sit, I will have some kind of correction of my posture. I sit and just very slightly, it's tiny movements, but I correct my posture. And my question is whether don't move, does that mean don't move at all? Or does it mean to also don't do the corrections? Yes. Because it's not satisfying to sit so crooked and usually it's also very tiny adjustments and I have more, I can bring more attention in again when I do these adjustments.

[01:25]

Add something? One thing that I observe is that I physically sit very still and have a feeling of not moving at all, but that internally there's a lot of movement. I would like to say that I also know I'm not moving, but I feel as though I was moving. All right? When I begin to sit very slow, then first it feels very relaxed.

[02:34]

There's a feeling of relaxation, but then when I do that for a while, some kind of rigidity comes in. You? No. But this feeling of rigidity, that scares me. Okay, well let me go back to you. To not move is a stronger instruction than to correct your posture. Again, these things are a craft. You have to decide an aesthetic. You have to decide how much you correct and how much you don't. So basically when you first sit down, you try to find the best posture you can.

[03:54]

And once you've found that posture, from then on you don't move. Okay, that's the basic instruction. But... If you really are somewhat crooked or something like that, still you should, if you're going to correct, it shouldn't be more than every 10 minutes or something like that. A couple period times during the period. Yeah, and you have to decide for yourself. Um, It's funny to talk about this. It's so important but it's so simplistic.

[04:57]

Do you correct yourself or not? People outside of us would think we're all nuts. But But it's true of any craft, actually. You get into very minute, exactly how you do it. Okay. But you can also try to correct... If you do, you can see if you can correct your being crooked without moving. Yeah, and as you say, maybe that's as tiny, but you're just going to feel like if you could move toward, and the feeling will move you very gently maybe sometimes.

[06:04]

Yeah, it's a little bit like somebody says freeze and then you just stop. Anyway, but you have to negotiate it. And I would say, if you start feeling some rigidity in your legs or wherever, you see if you... It's the whole body that has this rigidity and the feeling is that if I want to or I don't want to get out of it anymore, then if I do have to get out of it, then I have to move very slowly.

[07:17]

Okay. And how long does this happen, after 10 minutes or 20 minutes? It actually happens very soon, after 10 minutes or even sooner. And the feeling is as if I was to dissolve or something. That sounds good actually. But when I want to get out of this state, then you're all done already and I'm very slow and I'm still trying to find my way. Well, that's good. But it's also a little scary. I'm sorry.

[08:28]

So when you start feeling rigid, you start wanting to dissolve. Anyway, I would say you try to feel into your body and kind of visualize it as being not rigid. The basic thing is you've decided to sit for 30 minutes or 40 minutes or whatever it is. And then you explore that as well as you can during that period of time. And consciousness and a kind of restlessness in the body and the ego don't want you to sit still. The biggest enemy of the ego is sitting still. I'm not saying this is your problem at all.

[09:49]

But in very subtle ways, various parts of you try to keep you from sitting. And there's various distractions, etc., Yeah, it's, you know, somehow 20 minutes or 30 minutes sitting feels sometimes like wasted time, but watching TV doesn't. And so the ego, something like the ego, becomes a kind of bully. A bully? You don't have bullies in German and Austrian schools? Okay. Okay. The bully is somebody who takes the other kid's hat and says, I got your hat.

[11:04]

And the Buddha says, keep the hat. Anyway, so the ego tries to bully you and the biggest threat is you'll go crazy if you sin. Or you're going to renounce everything and lose your career. Okay. Someone else. Yeah. Okay. I think there's a very basic distinction between correcting one's posture and between avoiding and exploring one's posture and avoiding pain and moving therefore.

[12:18]

Also, ich habe gerade in der letzten Zeit Particularly within this last time, I've made rather intense experiences with that, because recently I started to explore and . and establish my posture in a very basic way. By studying Suzuki Roshi's instructions again very carefully. In a very basic way that changed a lot of things fundamentally, particularly in terms of the subtleties of states of mind. And what happens is that there can be very tiny movements that in a very subtle way change my state of mind within a sense of not moving.

[13:53]

All this is true. Okay. Someone else wants to say something. Yes. If I manage not to move, then what I experience is something like a metabolism, some kind of exchange of substances. Yeah, like an exchange of substances or material exchange. And with this movement, there's a feeling of, I experience something else moving, like the movement of the breath or the moving of the heart, and that replaces the musculature moving. .

[15:14]

Physically, obviously, my physical body at the moment is moving. I'm not so strong. It's very moving. It's very moving that I have muscular movements in my chest. Muscular movements. So that the bones and the musculature are as if they were penetrated by breath movement and fluid movement, like blood movement or something. And then I'm not quite sure which one is the physical body and which isn't. There's a sense of... it's penetrating one another. Yeah. And there's a lot of motion but there's no muscular motion. I understand. Yes. What has happened to me recently?

[16:31]

That I experience moments in everyday life where, when I sit down or stand, I suddenly hold the line and come into a state where there is such a focus, where body and spirit are at the very bottom. That during my everyday life, that sometimes when I stand or when I sit, the kind of focus arises that feels as if body and mind are entirely still. And that also is connected with the feeling of being able to look very far ahead and also backwards as if the body was spreading forward and backwards.

[17:40]

It is a different feeling. To come to peace in the sasen is different than in these other positions. And what amazes me is that in the everyday positions my attitude is not optimal, which is still possible. But the feeling I get in sasana is different from the stillness I experience in these other postures, like in everyday life. What strikes me is also that these postures, when I have these experiences in everyday life, are not optimal. What do you mean by optimal? It's something like sitting in a couch, you know, and being slouched like that, and looking out of a window, but still I feel like I'm present in my body. Yeah, okay, thanks. Yes? This is exactly how

[18:53]

I felt the process to approach towards our aim of the 40 million still-seating nut, the pause we were in particular, to be able to do it, was one of the first steps. So that maybe something like it. Because it was also, I felt like, hmm. gratefulness, or just a sort of pause. Ah ja, in Deutsch, Verwirrung. Das ist mir vorgekommen, als wäre es die Annäherung an das Stillsitzen, nachdem ich 14 Jahre gesessen bin. Danach, erst habe ich Becker-Rosche kennengelernt und diesen Begriff, pause within the particular, kennengelernt. Und dann waren diese Erfahrungen im Alltag, wo ich plötzlich Atem schütze. Und das waren die Annäherungen an das dann später wirklich Stillsitzen. It's like a path, the steps nearer to that end. Okay, thanks.

[20:07]

Yes, Regina? I have taken what you have already mentioned, namely the idea of putting the spirit on the side. The idea of what? So I took this image that you've mentioned before of taking the ideas and putting them to the side so that the entrance way of mind is free or something like that. I've been practicing with that for a while and for me the experience is that I can't focus or hold a particular aim. But at the same time I constantly feel as if I was moving towards something or as if something was moving towards me.

[21:27]

Yeah, I understand. So somehow this has something to do with stillness, but also I notice that there's some kind of identification with movement that I could explore more deeply. Okay. Christa? Yes, I would like to say one more thing about this instruction, or rather what you call commandment. I'd like to mention that when you spoke about what you called a command, don't move, that then I felt very strongly the force of that command, don't move.

[22:40]

And what I noticed is that within that instruction there is a huge freedom. And what came to mind for me is something like my initial igniting experience of how I began to practice. because I feel as if that was exactly about that. And that was when I was at Johanneshof for the first time during a practice week. And I wasn't experienced or hadn't practiced sitting. And also while I was walking or lying in bed at night I had a lot of pain in my knees.

[24:00]

And one Zazen period began with very extreme pain in my knees that spread throughout my entire body. And it was as if something within me decided not to move but that it wasn't consciousness deciding. And that led to a moment of accepting and accepting everything. And there was this brief moment when I felt as if I was leaving my body. There was this strong feeling of bliss or of happiness that almost didn't feel earthly or secular, I guess. but then the very next moment a great fear came in and I fell back down again but that was just fine also that disappeared immediately okay yes

[25:43]

I would also like to add to the inner and outer non-moving. There is also the other phenomenon that there is a spiritual peace or inner peace, but the movement of the body also has something to do with correcting. I also observe that it sometimes happens that the breath and the body act out of each other, while the mind or consciousness or consciousness is not involved in it. This micro position correction is a negotiation between the breath and the body or the spine. I'd like to add about this not moving internally and externally. The other experience that's also possible is feeling a profound stillness of mind while moving externally. And it feels as if body and mind are negotiating in a way that also these micro... Breath.

[27:13]

Oh, okay. As though these micro-adjustments are also a kind of negotiation between breath and body. Okay, yeah. Tara, are you just waving around your arm or do you want to say something? I experience this not moving very strongly as a kind of dissolution or as a disappearing or dissolving. Yes, of course, on the one hand, I have an identification with my personality, with my nature, but also with my body.

[28:23]

And, well, on the one hand, the feeling of vanishing and the feeling of vanishing is simply a much, much more intimate feeling. So, it was always a distraction. So on the one hand, there's this identification again with my personality or with my body. And on the other hand, then there is this sense of . I was wondering what is disappearing. And the one is the identification with my personality but also with my body. But at the same time, there was the experience of a lot more space or a larger kind of identity.

[29:43]

But in this state, I have a hard time finding my way through the world. You mean if you're in this state while you're in the grocery store? Or on your motorcycle? I mean encountering another person because I just don't feel myself as strongly anymore. Yeah, you don't give that impression. I'm just teasing you a little. But be patient. Because when things change, it takes time to reestablish a new basis for doing things. Okay? So, Within movement is a door to not moving.

[31:07]

And within not moving, there's a door to an experience which is not in any category. And we can kind of think of... not moving as you become calmer or as I said, you're at ease and so forth. But to not move is not the same as greater and greater calmness or something like that. I mean, one does become calmer and more settled in oneself and so forth through sitting. through sitting defined by the mudra or the yogic posture of not sitting, of not moving.

[32:12]

In other words, when we do zazen and where the intent is not to move, which is, of course, one of the reasons we sit with others, because if others are not moving, it really helps you not to move. Okay. So, through the intent not to move, and through the support of others not moving, We do discover a calmness and an ease, or we can. That's wonderful.

[33:29]

But that's still not moving. That's really sort of moving less. Being more calm than you were. It's still in the category of our usual experience. But this thing I read to you, you know, one unmoving, etc. This is an experience that's not in the category of any other experience. We could say it's... I hate to say it. Let's say it's in a category like enlightenment, which is in no category at all. So if you do discover not moving, and again, although the basic practice is somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour,

[34:43]

several times a week or once a day if possible. Sometimes people have the experience really of transcending movement in a sashin. And to go through that, you know, every fiber in your body wants to move and everything hurts and so forth. And whoever is ringing the bell is never going to ring the bell. I've never done this to you, but Suki Roshi had us sit for two and a half hours once on the third day of Sashin in the afternoon.

[36:10]

And he was walking around outside. And in those days, you know, we had mimeographs and carbon copies. Carbon copies. Carbon copies. Carbon copies. We have a black sheet of paper and you type through it and it makes additional copies. And so with carbon copies you have the first one is usually regular paper but the other ones are very thin paper called onion skin in English. Because it's kind of crinkly. Anyway, so the copies of the schedule would be made on onion skin, right? So Sukhiroshi would have an onion skin copy at his place on the altar.

[37:31]

And the period is supposed to be 40 minutes long. And around 50 minutes we can hear him coming in the zendo. And in a sashin, an extra one minute can seem like, yeah, but ten extra minutes is quite a lot. So we hear him coming in. Slide, slide, slide. So we hear him coming in. Then we hear him pick up the schedule. And then he puts it down, he walks back out.

[38:40]

This is really something. And then about, you know, after about an hour and 20 minutes, he comes in again. Thank God, I mean, thank Buddha. And again, it's the same thing. He crinkles it on his skin and then he puts it down and then he goes upstairs to his room. So he created this hope with this crinkly onion skin. And finally, after two and a half hours, he rang the bell. Most everyone just started laughing.

[39:41]

And of course most people moved. Yeah, and I can't claim to be such a good sitter but there are two people, Graham Petchy was sitting beside me and he moved once. And he was better at me at not moving. And at some point, after about an hour and a half, he leaned forward like this and leaned back. That's as much as I can remember. I embarrassedly have to say that I didn't move at all. Somehow I just gave up. Any case, sometimes it takes a sashin to enter into really not moving. But it's not in the category of calmness or something like that.

[41:05]

It's another kind of... It is an experience. But it's not an experience you can say anything about. And strangely, it becomes a seed experience. It becomes a seed in other experiences. So it's again, not just greater calmness, but it's a kind of seed that grows different kinds of plants in different experiences. So again, it's not just something like greater peace, but it's a kind of seed that allows different plants to grow in different experiences.

[42:06]

Now, there are, I would say, three nots, not K-N-O-T-S, not instructions. Instructions rooted in not. Or don't. And the most basic, as we're discussing, is don't move. And all of the approaches to and effects of the intention not to move is that intention to not move is the basis of everything that happens in Zazen. Do you really get it that this is a combination of a physical posture and a concept, an intent not to move? You have to have the concept not to move or you'd move occasionally.

[43:21]

So it's really one of the ways that mind and body come to a kind of fusion. Yeah. I remember watching Tim Buckley, a friend of mine who's now an anthropologist. He was sitting right there when I was sitting like here. And for half an hour or so I watched him go through everything trying to make him move, but he didn't. And finally you come into a kind of open space like in the middle of a hurricane or something where the wind stops and it's calm.

[44:28]

And some of you will find in Sashin, for instance, when you really think you can't, and suddenly there's a calmness and openness and space. You really do change how your body sends the information that something is hurting to the brain. Okay, now I really don't actually like talking about this too much. Because I really don't want to put you in a position where you think, now I have to go through this, now I have to not move. I don't know. Do what you want. I don't care.

[45:39]

But if I'm teaching Zen, I do have to say that the most fundamental posture is don't move. All right. Now, not moving is the seed of big mind. Now, I also want to say that these instructions have a spatial fruit. And I don't know how else to say it. I've been wondering how to say it. But when you do come to the point where you don't move, no matter what, you find yourself in a big space. So the instruction in a way generates, when you realize the instruction, a big space.

[47:00]

These instructions are kind of like a house or a room. There's an architectural quality to them. Okay, now that's the first don't instruction. The second don't instruction is don't scratch. And the don't move is primarily a mental instruction. And don't scratch is more of a physical instruction, it's about the body. And this is not about the mind wanting to move, consciousness, this is about the body wanting to move. So, I mean, I'm sorry to give you all this silly stuff.

[48:06]

And this should be a lecture in Sashin, not a seminar. But somehow we get stuck with this title, I don't know. So I'm trying to stick with it. Is that your idea? My idea? So don't scratch. And of course what happens in the first year or two of practicing Lots of real insects decide to crawl alone. Yeah, and sometimes they turn out to be imaginary. And if you do sort of like... It moves over here and then it moves over here. And what's quite interesting, if you watch them carefully, they move to acupuncture points.

[49:22]

Meridians are acting up, you know. You're off. And then there's always the real insect that decides to crawl in your nose or your ear. Then, if you're in a place where I've sat often, there's hot, sweaty, lots of mosquitoes. and really it's a good training if there's mosquitoes because not only do you have to get used to them as I remember I did as a kid in Indiana summers in America I had never less than 50 mosquito bites But then you're playing around with your kid, but when you're just sitting still and the mosquitoes think this is a landing field...

[50:47]

What you find out is if you're thinking more mosquitoes come. Because they're attracted to a certain smell. And you actually get so you can control your body smell so that, at least in these extreme circumstances, so that the mosquitoes won't come. And I discovered this because, and we had no screens or anything, I discovered that some days the mosquitoes didn't bite me and some days they did. So then I began to study when they didn't. And I discovered this because I noticed that although these, how do you call them, these windows,

[52:00]

Now, what happens if you learn, discover how not to scratch? It's not so hard, actually. But what you enter into then is a space in which you can sit through anything. If you had to, you can go to the dentist and you cannot have Novocaine. I still, by the way, do have Novocaine when I go to the dentist or whatever they do. Novocaine is that the... It's a numb. Sometimes I say, oh, fine, I don't care. Okay, so what happens if you can sit through anything?

[53:12]

You create another kind of space which you don't repress things and you don't express things. It's a space in which you can allow yourself to feel fully without feeling you're going to express it or need to repress it. So it's one of the main psychological dimensions psychotherapeutic even, dimensions of zazen practice. Because when you really know, I can feel anything without acting on it. You could tremble like a Shakespearean character in Macbeth or something. only wanting a knife to stab, and you can just sit there calmly.

[54:32]

And in a funny way, this opens you up into how all of us are capable of horrors. You can allow yourself to be any human being who's ever been. I mean, it sounds like I'm saying something extreme. But really it's a feeling that you can allow this. And it's one of the major senses of having a kind of sense of integration and power. You feel you can't be hurt.

[55:48]

And if you are hurt, it doesn't matter. And you feel you're not capable of hurting because you know you can allow without acting on. And the more you get familiar with this space in which you don't have to, what you know you don't, you're completely capable of not acting on whatever you feel. Of not acting on whatever you feel. So more and more dimensions of what it is to be this kind of being we call a human. Humans who are often, so often, so extraordinarily inhuman.

[57:02]

So you feel you're really like other people in the midst of being other people and yet you feel free at the same time. Also hast du das Gefühl, du fühlst dich genau wie andere Menschen, inmitten anderer Menschen und gleichzeitig fühlst du dich vollkommen frei. So don't scratch as a sasen instruction. Also dieses kratz dich nicht als eine sasen anweisung creates a different mind than don't move. Okay, now the third don't. Is don't invite your thoughts to tea. Or to lunch. Don't invite your thoughts to tea takes a little time. And then there's the fourth one which is not a don't. Which is count your breaths or bring attention to the breath. But that's actually don't means don't identify with discursive thoughts.

[58:12]

But it's disguised as count your breaths. And then there's uncorrected mind. So each of these we can consider a posture, a mental posture, which through the practice of zazen creates a number of different minds of zazen. Yeah. Now, to what extent it interests you to go through this, I don't know.

[59:14]

I think what is interesting about it is not whether you're going to take this on as a practice, etc., etc., But it gives you an insight into us as living beings. And how And how simple really it is, in fact simple, to through intent transform our life. So intent will transform your life, depending on the intent. And if you add to that intent, still sitting, and you add to that intent mindfulness practice, it simply magnifies the power of the intent.

[60:34]

So from the point of view of a lay practitioner, we're talking about the power of intent And then it's up to you whether you want to use the way you can increase the effectiveness of that intent through meditation practice and mindfulness practice. And so the first thing I'd say is you discover your deepest intent or your basic intents. The intent you really want to, you really want that intent to be realized. Yeah, you really would like your life to manifest through these intents.

[61:58]

I would say you start there. And then you see if the tools a kind of tool of zazen or mindfulness practices are useful. And whether you want to sit occasionally or emphasize mindfulness practice more, that's up to you. Okay. So let's have a moment or two of sitting and then... We have a break and lunch.

[62:41]

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