From several good morning and from several remarks I've heard since I came back last evening, the discussion you had in the afternoon with the two sessions went pretty well, I hear. habe ich gehört, dass die Diskussion, die ihr gestern Nachmittag hattet mit den zwei Sitzungen, dass die ganz gut verlaufen ist. Yeah. And that, of course, makes me happy. Das macht mich natürlich froh. Because I would really like it if we can... if part of our practice can be our shared experience. Of course it is already, but I think if we... the...

[01:03]

sophistication is I don't know if that's the right word is to identify it in such a way we can begin to articulate it more And as I said yesterday, I'm interested in the fact of categories. Yeah, and category, and I'm also, when I use a word, I have to kind of, I want to know something about the word. Because words have fine filaments. through their etymology and through their usage, which connect them to other words.

[02:28]

And that's part of my decision not to use, except obvious words like Buddha, Dharma, not to use Sanskrit and Pali words in our Dharma discussions. Because they have no filaments to other words. They kind of have a dead place in English or I'm sure in Deutsch. So because of my linguistic incapacities, we have to do this in English and hopefully in the mother tongue German.

[03:32]

Okay. So the word category comes from agora, which means a public space for discussion. And the kate part is to accuse or predict. So it means something like to create a public space where you can debate a situation. Yeah, yeah. And as you notice, everything we do is in categories.

[04:41]

Our meal of three virtues and six tastes. Yeah, and we offer the first portion to the precepts. It's that, do we offer to the precepts? The first portion is for the priesthood. The second is for the practice of samadhi. The third is to save all beings. Okay. We don't know what we're talking about. We only chant it. So obviously these are categories in which we can bring our attention. I particularly like the three virtues. The three virtues are it should be chewable, soft. Am I making a mistake?

[06:05]

What? Okay. I thought that's the six tastes what you're doing now. No, three virtues. Okay. The six tastes are spicy, you know, it's a nutrient. Sour. It should be soft or chewable, edible. And it should be... And it should be properly prepared. And now the two Nicoles know that very well, having shared the Tenzo job. But that's pretty basic. You should be able to chew it, it should be clean, and it should be well prepared. And to call these virtues, it's kind of great. And all of Buddhism is in the Tripitaka, which is the three baskets.

[07:14]

Tripitaka, Pitaka is baskets. The sutras, the monastic code, and the apidharma. So we have this topic, three topics, way, mind, and I don't know how we came up with it, but anyway, here it is, way, mind, and world. So I should speak to this with you. So let me go back though and say this afternoon I'd like to do something similar as yesterday. Yeah, but now we have the problem.

[08:25]

We don't have two sessions, we only have one session, because I'll come to the second session. And the first session, should it be led this time in the same way by the house, or should we do it partly by the house and partly by the larger Sangha? And then we have this difficulty, then we only have one session, because I only come to the second session, and then we have a first, another first session, and then the question is, should we do it like yesterday, that it is again led by the house group, or that it is maybe only part of the house group that is led, and part of the... Did I say all that? Yes, you did. Okay. I would not have thought of it. Yeah, all right. Okay. Yeah, but then we have even the bigger problem. Who do we choose to lead the discussion? We can have you all write the date at which you first started to practice with the Dharma Sangha.

[09:28]

Or we can cut up the housing list and shake all the names and pour them out and see. Anyway, so let's try some sort of combination of the... I leave someone with a problem. And if it's an unsolvable problem, ask me, I'll help. Okay. The Buddha Dharma Sangha, I said, is the Buddha, is the generational field of practice. And Dharma is the practice with the field of phenomena, the context.

[10:45]

The world as appearance. Which of course means bring attention to appearance. So all of this is about the categories or the targets of attention. Now the assumption here, if you're on the way, you're continuously bringing attention to something. So we could say the way, the first of our three, is the awakening of attention.

[12:02]

So how do you awaken attention? And how do you have the energy and intention to continue to articulate this attention? So to be on the way, on the path, I mean, you know, understanding Buddhism well or having a PhD or something like that, EHD, what was that? Enlightenment, something. No, I don't know. PhD in Buddhism. Isn't the point. The point is that the... the fullness, fullness, thoroughness, depth with which you can bring attention with what you do.

[13:16]

And I spoke yesterday about an inner attentional space. And I made a contrast with an outer attentional space. And I said I do not use the word introspection because it assumes the priority of an outer attentional space which looks in. And looking in is secondary. Okay. I think I say about this much. Anyway, okay.

[14:31]

So how do you, I mean, we were talking about distinctions. How do you establish an inner attentional space that's primary, that has priority in a sense over within outer attentional space? It's a perceptual, a conceptual parallel to the way usually we look at dreaming. As dreaming is in the service of sleep or in the service of consciousness. And we analyze dreams to understand unconscious and consciousness better. But for the practitioner, dreaming is... The inner attentional space that arises in sleeping is more fundamental than consciousness.

[15:49]

Consciousness is a very particular kind of expression arising from inner attentional space. der aus dem inneren Aufmerksamkeitsraum heraus entsteht, which allows us to define ourselves in relationship to others in our society, in our government, and so forth. der uns gestattet, uns in Beziehung zueinander oder in Beziehung zur Gesellschaft und zur Regierung und so weiter zu definieren. But as the Prajnaparamita literature says, the Buddha has asked, how do you enter the Bodhisattva path? And the Buddha has said in the sutra to say, the Bodhisattva maintains a mind which has no biased thoughts.

[17:12]

Held in mind or spoken in speech. Of course, that's, you know, let's say, maybe nearly impossible. But it can be what you'd like to achieve. And the intention to achieve that is already part of the path. To be on the path. And it's not about, you know, it's about... unbiased thoughts that you just think and don't act on.

[18:27]

I mean, it's unbiased thoughts that you may act on, but you don't have biased thoughts, etc. It assumes that the mind, before you express anything, is already a factor in the situation. So if you have a mind full of critical thoughts and comparative thoughts about people, but you don't say anything, that doesn't help too much. So it's assumed that the inner attentional field is already present to others at a subtle level. Okay.

[19:28]

So the way is attention with, not simply attention to. Can you make that distinction in German? Okay. Ja. Because your prepositions are different. This works. Der Weg ist Aufmerksamkeit mit und nicht Aufmerksamkeit auf. So if you can feel I'm giving attention to this person, but rather I have attention with this person, it's a different feeling. So etwas empfinden kannst wie ich habe Aufmerksamkeit mit. And you keep reducing biased thoughts. Und du reduzierst immer weiter die vorgefärbten Gedanken.

[20:44]

And keep emphasizing when you feel attention with. Find the territory of with instead of about. Oder voreingenommene Gedanken. Und du findest immer wieder diesen Bereich des Mitseins und nicht so sehr den Bereich des Darüber oder Zu oder Auf oder so. Now, a quotation of Yuan Wu again, I've mentioned a few times. Go, what Yuan Wu says, go directly to your personal existence in the field of the five skandhas. Hmm. Now, would you call that your personal existence? But for Yuan Wu, he's saying we practitioners on the way, on the path, we experience our personal existence

[21:48]

as first of all how the world appears, and the wisdom of Buddhism is to notice how the world appears in the five categories of the skandhas. Okay, so Yuan Wu is assuming that you completely habituated yourself to notice things appearing in its form, non-graspable feeling, perceptions, each category of perception, the five physical senses, all the associations which appear, and consciousness. So one of the earliest wisdom categories of Buddhism, the five skandhas. And these categories are taught so that you can bring attention to them.

[23:29]

And they only have meaning when you begin to find your own life within, not just to, but within these categories. So it means first you notice where attention goes. Aha. I often, if I watch television or a movie or something, I watch where my attention is drawn in the screen. dann beobachte ich, wohin im Bildschirm meine Aufmerksamkeit gezogen wird.

[24:36]

And then I try to bring my attention to some other aspect of the screen. Often it goes back to the first aspect. I can't move it away from it. Und dann versuche ich, meine Aufmerksamkeit zu einem anderen Aspekt auf dem Bildschirm zu bringen, aber ganz oft springt sie sofort wieder zurück zu dem ersten Aspekt. Ich kann sie nicht einfach so hin und her bewegen. And if it's a story, some actors just have the ability to take hold of your attention and hold it. But in advertisements, there's often a much more complicated, I don't know, more complicated, but complicated way to get your attention to subtle aspects in the visual field. often erotic aspects in the visual field. What is advertising? Since I started talking about it. advertising is corporations trying to buy your attention they spend a great deal of money to get your attention and then to externalize your needs

[26:11]

Und dann deine Bedürfnisse zu entäußern. And then to say, our product will satisfy your now externalized needs, you fool. Und dann sagen sie, unser Produkt wird deine jetzt entäußerten, veräußerlichten Bedürfnisse befriedigen, du Dummkopf. So much, Dummkopf, yeah. So much for an inner attentional field. So viel zu einem inneren Aufmerksamkeitsfeld. Okay, so how do you establish an inner attentional field? So part of what Yuan Wu is saying is by noticing form, feeling, perceptions, You're noticing an in-mind battlefield. Out there, it's happening in you. So, as you're tapping in, something else is happening. and you can feel yourself moving in your knowing of form and notifications and so forth.

[27:37]

Feel the futile. Feel. Know. Know. Then you can act. After enacting the visual proof in the field of the five clusters, cut off the small verbal attachments and definitions. What's happening here? Simply opening the world the worst So the word Cheerio.

[28:52]

Einfach das Wort Cheerio. Okay. Non-measured. We only hear in the shirt. Bemessendes. When you do measured thinking. Conceptually defined. When you define your thinking. Wenn du bemessend denkst. Konzeptuell oder denkst. Definiertes denken. You're moving. You're moving. Uh, attentional field. Something. Or a poet. Playing with the attention between the attentional field and outer attentional field. Attentional field and a cusp of language. Okay, in the f- Now, okay, I'm going to finish up a prime attentional field.

[30:05]

I thought verbally defined. Now, if you can do it, even if you can do it, you can time. It's a kind of alchemy. Small doses are transformative. Yeah. You feel yourself. I mean, if you practice this noticing, connoticing without thinking, You find yourself in a world of presence and not conceptual distinctions. Yeah, you don't put it together verbally. You just feel the presence of everything. And that habit of doing that, maybe just a few moments, a few minutes a day, begins to develop an inner attentional awareness.

[31:29]

Which becomes more and more stabilizing. das immer stabilisierender wirkt. Als ich euch vorgeschlagen habe, körperliche oder Körperzeit zu praktizieren und nicht Uhrenzeit, dann ermutige ich euch, ein inneres Aufmerksamkeitsfeld zu entwickeln. So maybe the topic today could be if anybody can feel a distinction between an inner attentional field and an outer attentional field. And to see if you can find the Dharma doors Like bodily time.

[32:51]

Or noticing without thinking. So you begin to find yourself in a field with the world. With other persons. and with the physical phenomena of the world in the five senses. Oh, thank you for making such an effort translating. It's good. That's enough? Okay. May God bless you.

[33:54]

May God bless you.

[33:55]

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