See that, why does this lazy mendicant... What is the mind, the lazy mind, the mind that watches... lazily watches a white ox on open ground? And what is the mind that doesn't pay attention to the rudeness of auspicious grass? Yeah, once we see the word auspicious, then we know plow means ripening time. Dann wissen wir, dass Flügen hier die Zeit des Heranreifens bezeichnet.

[01:19]

The root of suspicious grass is every day is a good day. Each moment is an auspicious moment. Das wurzellose Gras von günstiger Bedeutung heißt, jeder Tag ist ein guter Tag und jeder Moment ist günstig. But farmers only plow at certain times of the year. Auf der anderen Seite flügen die Bauern eben nur zu bestimmten Zeiten des Jahres. They have to wait for the right time to plow. Sie müssen nämlich auf die richtige Zeit warten, wann sie flügen. I mean, just like around here, they have to wait for the right group of nice days to plow. And they get about two crops a year of hay, isn't that right? Don't they hay about twice? Two, yeah. Some places you get three, right? In Germany.

[02:20]

So the plowing refers to ripening time. It's not always auspicious. You have to wait for the right time to do things. When is the right time in your life? And what kind of time are you living in is part of this assumption? Oh, and I want to talk about the future. Well, it's already the past. It's nine o'clock almost. Fast. Fast. I didn't say that. Yes, you did. Almost not. Tomorrow we'll talk about the future.

[03:22]

What? Why not? What is that in the Irish bar, the sign which says, tomorrow drinks are free? Bars in Ireland, they have a sign saying, drinks are free tomorrow. Doesn't cost them a cent. But tomorrow we'll have... To look at another way to look at the future. I want to do that. We're going to know what we are, who we are. And we're going to imagine the possibility of an open, wide mind. And some kind of opening in our life, perhaps. Where can that opening be? Wo kann und wo wird diese Öffnung sein?

[04:38]

Thanks a lot. Thanks for translating. This woman, Temple Grandin, who wrote this artistic woman, amazing who wrote this book called Animals in Translation. She was also the I read was the subject of a famous New Yorker profile by Oliver Sacks who wrote the man who mistook his wife for a hat. I've never done that. So sorry.

[05:42]

Not yet. They wrote an article on her, right? Oliver Sacks wrote a New Yorker profile. New Yorker magazine. on this woman, this autistic woman, who wrote this book, Animals in Translation. And she said something about, it's a book I'm studying, and she said something about, I don't know why she mentioned preparatory schools, but she said they used to have horses, and that was good for her. Preparatory school is something before you go to school or that's a boarding school? It's a boarding school like before you go to college. And she went to such a thing? I don't know about that. She just said... But she said it was good for her. No, she said they're good for children, especially when they had horses. Okay, so she said that boarding schools are good for children, especially if there are horses there.

[06:48]

And then I thought, oh great, my father taught at a military boarding school where there were horses. Sometimes I think I'm a strange person because I grew up on a lake with horses all around me and I never learned to sail or ride. Isn't that strange? But anyway, I was happy to swim and walk. Anyway, it had a whole troop, two troops of horses, I mean lots of horses, 50 horses, and some were in a barn right beside our house. So, you know, I used to hang out with the horses and feed them sometimes and so forth.

[07:50]

Anyway, she feels that we learn from horses, we learn something about what it is to be human. From animals, she says. And somehow I think this is true. And the shamanic cultures feel this. And Chinese culture felt this. So I think I should give you this koan I gave you last night again so you can get it clear in your mind or body. But first let me say that, you know, I was, when I thought about this little town I grew up in, it's a nice place to grow up, but, you know, it was a farm town of a thousand people.

[09:03]

Also, wenn ich jetzt darüber nachdenke, wie dieses Dorf, in dem ich aufgewachsen bin, oder die kleine Stadt, das war gut genug zum Aufwachsen. Das war ein landwirtschaftliches Dorf mit tausend Leuten. Yeah, Dorf, yeah. And here I am in a farm town in Germany. How the heck did I get here? It wasn't the cows that drew me. Maybe. Somehow, I mean, I wonder sometimes how this is, but the answer is it's this precious teaching which brought me here. And my frustration with the world that I grew up in, you know, the Second World War and everything, you know, from a distance, but I heard the news every day.

[10:15]

She knows I'm old. I wish it was the First World War. Think what an example of teaching I'd be. My God, he was born in 1906 and he only looks 70. So anyway, I heard the news every day and I thought, you know, I don't want to be part of the human race. Really, I had this feeling. This is what human beings do. I don't want to be a human being.

[11:36]

And what changed it was this precious teaching. I saw another possibility for it. the first possibility I saw, ever saw, for our human life. And here, you know, here we are in this funny old building, which actually is also a recognition of this precious teaching. dass auch irgendwie eine Anerkennung ist für diese kostbare Lehre. Here we have Dieter, Judita, Frank, as much as he can, living nearby. Und hier haben wir Dieter und Judita, der Frank, der in der Nähe wohnt, und so oft hier ist, wie er nur kann. And people on the board, like Nico and Neil and Beate.

[12:41]

Und die Leute im Vorstand, wie Nico, Beate und Neil. Somehow everybody does this pretty much, there's no There's no salaries or anything. They do this to make a place for this precious teaching. And look at this crazy woman. I mean, she married into this life which no sane woman would want. Okay. Although she thinks I'm old. As I guess am. But it's all really rooted in this precious teaching. And someone told me yesterday that they can't do this practice.

[13:46]

It just requires too much discipline. And I found that very discouraging. I want it all to seem as easy as pie to you. And I hope that this, or I wish that this is as easy for you as baking a cake. I want to make this, do you have that expression, as easy as pie? Feather-easy. Feather-easy. Okay, feather-easy, yeah. It's also wrong, feather-easy. Doesn't matter. Yeah. I want this precious teaching to be accessible.

[14:46]

And Sukhiroshi had the same feeling. He thought this precious teaching is stuck in male monasteries for macho youths. Und er dachte, diese kostbare Lehre ist in männlichen Klöstern für macho Jugendliche versteckt. So both of our feeling and Paul from the very early days too. Also unser beides Gefühl und auch Paul seit ganz langer Zeit, ganz von früh her. How can this teaching be just part of ordinary life? Wie kann diese Lehre einfach Teil des ganz gewöhnlichen Lebens sein? And for old people as well as young people. Für alte genauso wie für junge Leute. Especially in this century, since I have three daughters, for women. Und im Besonderen in diesem Jahrhundert, nachdem ich ja drei Töchter habe, für Frauen. Even if I didn't have three daughters, I'd feel the same way.

[15:51]

Selbst wenn ich nicht drei Töchter hätte, würde ich die gleiche Einstellung haben. Well, I actually don't think it requires much discipline. Now, practice is, I think, 90% intention. And 10% maybe discipline. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, it does take discipline. I think where the discipline mostly comes in is the decision to sit every day or some particular number of days a week and the decision to go to bed early enough so that you can do it if you sit in the morning. And also the discipline to sit a specific length of time.

[16:58]

Yeah. I mean, especially when you're in the first few years you're developing a sitting practice. So you sit You make a decision in 10 minutes or 20 minutes or 30 minutes or 40 minutes, something like that. Probably 20 is better than 10. But 30 or 40, that's pretty much the same. And the reason you want to sit a specific length of time Because you want to take it out of personal preference. The second foundation of mindfulness is mindfulness of pleasure, displeasure, and neither.

[18:06]

Die zweite Grundlage der Achtsamkeit ist die Achtsamkeit von Vorliebe und Ablehnung, also Nichtvorliebe, und das Dritte, weder noch. And we want the area of neither to be the biggest part of our lives. It's not pleasurable, it's not displeasurable, it's just the way it is. Und wir möchten, dass dieses weder noch den größten Teil unseres Lebens einnimmt. Es ist weder... And that's what a ritual does. A ritual takes it out of preference. Sitting in the morning becomes a ritual. And if you can't sit 20 minutes, you sit down for one minute. You just do the ritual. And ritual, you know, it's such, you know, if you study Chinese culture and history and so forth.

[19:22]

One of the most important aspects is ritual rites. And Japanese and Chinese culture is based on rights, R-I-T-E-S, not R-I-G-H-T-S. What restaurant you go to, how the restaurant knows you and treats you is a right, not a right. We won't go into it here, but everything is ritual space, not public or a space you have a right to. There is a Okay, so this part of practice does take some discipline.

[20:41]

Now, there's discipline for learning and there's discipline for doing. The word discipline in its etymology means to learn. Discipline in that sense is those conditions that are conducive to learning. But for many of us, I think discipline has come to mean how we force ourselves to do things. Aber für die meisten von uns bedeutet Disziplin die Art und Methode, wie wir uns selbst zwingen, etwas zu tun.

[21:48]

Und ganz klar werden wir dem widerstreben. Aber die Disziplin für das Lernen, die können wir verstehen. Ja, and that's the meaning in the parameters, the first three of the six parameters. Das ist die Bedeutung in diesen Parameters, den ersten drei der sechs Parameter. The openness and willingness to do what is needed, what a person needs. Also die Offenheit und die Bereitschaft, das zu tun, was jeder oder was die Menschen oder was man braucht. At the same time, the willingness to just learn from the person, to just be open to what the person gives you on an equal basis. And the third parameter is patience, the ability to let things ripen. And that should be and can be a model for every relationship you have with another person. This is the core of what's called Bodhisattva practice.

[23:06]

To have in yourself the feeling, I will give this person or this situation whatever it means. And the second is, I will simultaneously receive from this situation, this person, whatever they offer. And patience to be able to stand there, to locate yourself in this space. So discipline, which is the conditions, For learning, this is very different than discipline to do something or accomplish something.

[24:17]

Now, why do I say it's not so much discipline in this practice, but intention? And it's an intention that comes out of feeling and caring and concern about others and the world and yourself. And in a sense, to know that you're being alive counts. And governments, even democratic governments, tend to disempower us and make us feel we can't really do anything. So for me, part of this topic of wide mind, open mind,

[25:18]

How do we have a feeling that our being alive is something real and counts in this world, exists in this world? If we don't have that feeling, we can't have a wide, open feeling in this world. Wenn wir nämlich nicht so ein Gefühl haben können, dann können wir keinen weiten, offenen Geist in dieser Welt haben. Also sollte ich über Intentionen sprechen. Denn die meisten der Praktiken, die ich euch hier präsentiere, die Sichtweisen, die ich präsentiere, can't be done by discipline. You can only intend them. And if we want to find out... Let me come back to that.

[26:40]

So how does intention work? I think I have to keep coming back to this. Intention is a different mind than discursive thinking. Intention is a view you hold. Say, hold in front of you. All these teachings are meant to be incubated, held in front of you. In front means held in your awareness. Now, to just hold the intention and not try to do it requires a deep trust, a trust in the process, The process that occurs when you hold an intention.

[27:58]

And a trust and an understanding of the dynamic of living, of being alive. And a trust also that you can't hold an intention unless it's usually a good intention. Und auch ein Vertrauen darauf, dass man eigentlich eine Intention gar nicht halten kann, solange es nicht eine gute Intention ist. Zumindest eine Intention, die in gewisser Weise für dich Sinn macht. Also es bedarf eines Vertrauens in einen selber. There's a Japanese word, Irufuto.

[29:11]

And it means a path outside of thinking. And it's also used as a word for enlightenment. But intention is a path outside of thinking. Then you really have to see that an intention is a mental formation that's not really a thought. We just don't have enough words for it. I sometimes try to find odd words like paratactic. My new odd word of this morning is inosculate. Do the doctors know inosculate? They said, yeah. Maybe.

[30:26]

It means when nerves or veins, blood vessels, have small opens and it allows the whole system to work. They have little holes in their little ones, right? when the blood vessels all connect to each other in ways that there's a flow. You don't have to explain. All right. It's not inoculate, it's inosculate. So inosculate literally means to allow a connectedness to occur where there doesn't seem to be the possibility of connectedness. So a word which no one knows and nobody ever uses, we can turn into a Buddhist term.

[31:31]

Yeah, you know, the culture hasn't leased it. Also, die Kultur hat das nämlich noch nicht geliest, dieses Wort. But I'll probably forget it tomorrow, so anyway, I mentioned it today. Aber wahrscheinlich kann ich es bis morgen nicht erinnern, dieses Wort, deswegen werde ich es nur heute erwähnen. Okay. But there's something happens when you hold an intention. Aber irgendetwas geschieht, wenn man eine Intention hält. And again, you can take a whole bunch of intentions... and try to hold them and they just go away, they slip away. That's interesting, why there's something that we can't figure out exactly that knows that intention isn't for us. So be very grateful if an intention takes hold of you, even if it's an extraordinary intention that you think, that's too important for me, that's too grand.

[32:57]

Hey, if it takes hold, accept it. Also, seid sehr dankbar, wenn eine Intention an euch hängen bleibt. Selbst wenn es eine ganz große Intention ist, dann sagt nicht, das ist zu bedeutend für mich. Don't let the stupidity of social vanity destroy you. Lasst nicht die Dummheit von... Gesellschaftlicher Eitelkeit euch zerstören. We're taught to not be vain, etc., but often it's a form of social control. Don't think big, you little... No. I didn't actually... I can't repeat this one. Oft ist Eitelkeit ein Mechanismus der Gesellschaft. You snail. Gesellschaftlicher Kontrolle, ja.

[33:57]

Someone has to think, what can we do in this world and have the courage to try? It doesn't mean you're, oh, I'm important. It means you try. Yeah, you don't. It's maybe secret practice. But not schizophrenic practice. It's just you can see in a person when they're alive with a deep intention. Then you just hold that intention. If the intention takes hold of you, you take hold of it. And then you trust the process of being alive. To let the world talk to you.

[35:04]

You don't, you know, sometimes I say studying a koan. You don't know what it's about. No, you can't. What is this koan about? But somehow it takes hold of you and you get familiar with it. And one day you're sitting with some people talking. Maybe in a cafe. And an unusual, invisible fish swims by through the air. And no one sees it, but you see it swimming right through the air. And you realize the koan has given you exactly the means to take hold of it and release it. So holding an attention and trusting our living in this world.

[36:23]

Also eine Intention halten und in dieser Welt sein, dem zu vertrauen. Now this process of bringing an intention to fruition or bringing it or letting it shape our world That open up possibilities in our world. Or widen our mind. Is helped if we practice mindfulness. The practice of mindfulness, which I could say very simply means to physicalize the world,

[37:40]

To physicalize the world in a way that the intention has a medium to function in, swim in. Makes it more likely the intention the intelligence and the intention, the possibilities and the intention will begin to function. When you get in the habit of holding an intention, small ones and big ones, And thinking through the world.

[38:42]

It's a way of thinking through the world or thinking through living. There's a satisfaction that's hard to imagine. You really do begin to feel your... Living counts, makes sense. Adds up. So these views or practices, teachings I present, I hope one of them is a fish that swims into your shirt. And they work through intention, not through discipline. And the intention to develop mindfulness.

[40:06]

The mindfulness that makes intention work. that mindfulness is also developed simply from intending to be more mindful. bring attention to attention itself. Your attention and intention are the most precious aspects of being alive. Aufmerksamkeit und Intention sind die kostbarsten Aspekte des am Leben Seins. And this can't be done.

[41:07]

You can't do it. You can't discipline you. All you can do is allow intention to work. And this is not something that you can do where you can bring yourself to do it, but everything you can do is just to allow this intention to act. Thanks. Oh, okay. That's my little riff on intention. Now, maybe I should just, it's about time for a break, but maybe I should just repeat the koan now. And we can come back to it. And I'm putting out these koans because it relates to the topic.

[42:09]

And also because I think it shows us something about how to notice this subtle process of intentional mind. To be sensitive to the unexpected parts. Okay, the introduction is scholars plow with the pen. Orators plow with the tongue.

[43:16]

But we adepts, or we patched, robed mendicants, What's a mendicant and so on? Okay. But we... Patched, robed mendicants. Yeah. Yours is patchier than mine. I just have these nails in there. Oh, yeah. Or just us adepts, lay adepts as well. We lazily watch a white ox on open ground. Then it says, how to pass the days.

[44:19]

What a plaintive cry from 1,000 years ago. How to pass the days. Oh, so Di Jiang asks Shu Shan, not the Chattanooga, Shu Shan boy. You don't have to say that. Did you ever pass the corner on Forth and Grant, where old little ball of rhythm has a shoeshine stand? Anyway. It's one of my early songs. The Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy. Anyway, D-Jung asked Shoeshine. D-Jung asked Shoeshine. Where are you from? Oh, I came from the south.

[45:24]

How are things in the south these days? Nishushang says, there's extensive discussion. Nishushang says, how does this compare to my planting the fields and cooking rice? And Xu Shang said, but what can we do about the world? I mean, this is real. What can we do about the world? And Di Zhang says, what do you call the world? And then the other asks, what do you call the world? What kind of open mind or wide mind do we have that knows this world? What do we think this world is that we function in? So that's enough for now. Let's have a break. Thank you very much. I'd like to have some discussion, but I think I'd like to bring a few more things into the arena first.

[47:07]

I hope that there's an internal discussion going on, if not yet external. Yeah, I always try each year, especially in the beginning of the year, six months I'm in Europe. I try to establish some teachings, views, practices. That can be the ingredients of developing our practice here in the Dharma Sangha this year, 2005.

[48:07]

Yeah, because I can see and feel how our Dharma Sangha practice in each of you is evolving, developing. And through that also much of it in me. Auch entwickelt sich das in mir weiter. So anyway, I'm trying now in Austria and Berlin and here now, trying to get some basic things we can look at and develop during this year. Also jetzt in Österreich und Berlin und auch hier möchte ich, dass wir ein paar grundlegende Dinge anschauen, die wir dieses Jahr weiterentwickeln können. So let me go back to who we are. And I think when we hear this dictum, know thyself, it's funny we put thy in there like it was biblical.

[49:30]

We generally take that to mean who we are. And who we are in relationship to ourself. In relationship to others. In relationship to our situation. And I think often in relationship to stress or, you know, difficulty. Und auch oft in Bezug zu Stress und Schwierigkeiten. In situations where we are exploring or finding out or wondering who we are. Und in Situationen, wo wir erforschen wollen oder herausbekommen möchten, wir wissen. What is this life? Was ist dieses Leben, in dem wir leben?

[50:34]

And how do we pass the days? Und wie verbringen wir die Tage? But in Berlin I tried to speak about what we are instead of who we are. As Neil may remember. Sometimes the translator doesn't remember anything because it just passes through. Manchmal erinnern sich die Übersetzer an gar nichts, weil es einfach durchfließt. Aber einiges scheint hängen geblieben zu sein. Ich glaube, ich war da nicht so präzise, um das klar zu machen, was ich verstehe, unter was wir sind, im Gegensatz zu der wir sind. What we are is in Buddhist practice a far more important question than who we are. Who we are is important, but you can't get there until you establish what you are.

[51:37]

How do we explore this? What do I mean? Well, I often say, ask yourself the question, who is breathing when you're sitting? And also ask yourself the question, what is breathing? I think most of us have a wider feeling when we ask, what is breathing? And it's clear there's just a what-ness to breathing, which isn't about who's doing it. And sometimes I translate thusness, which is one of the... the word used to describe our experience in the most fundamental sense.

[53:03]

I translate it as hotness. So now again, I want to extend the sense of what is breathing to what we are, what you are. Let's put it, your spatial identity. Please notice that who you are is primarily a temporal identity. Who you are, just think about, notice, The sense of who you are is rooted in the past and in an expected future.

[54:20]

But you don't only have a temporal identity. You also have a, let's call it a spatial identity. What I sometimes now call a horizon of immediacy. Don't let who you are take over, crush what you are. What you are is your real resource. There's no mind without a body. The craft of practice, all the craft of practice is rooted in what you are, not who you are. The basis for knowing who you are in all situations resides in what you are, first of all.

[55:45]

And what you are is... what your senses bring to you. Your senses and the act of observing. So practice resides and is concerned with what's present in the senses and the act of observing, the activity of observing. Look at all the teachings again in the menu of the Heart Sutra.

[56:49]

They're all concerned with what you are. You can't have an experience of moment-by-moment existence in who you are. Moment by moment, noticing being present in moment by moment existence. It's a physical act, a physical activity. And again, in playing with this term I used a minute ago, yesterday, a subjective object.

[58:06]

Now, if you live in a world without a creator, without some kind of special creation, humans were created differently than animals or dirt. Ohne eine besondere Schaffung von Menschen sind was anderes oder was besseres als Tiere oder Erde. And, you know, I'm a big part of Bush's so-called political capital. You are a big part of this political... a big part of Bush's so-called political capital. He depends on a constituency that believes in special creation.

[59:10]

Those who vote for him. The constituency for coal. Who believe we're not We're not related to monkeys or dirt. But if you don't live in a theological world, all of this stuff is interrelated.

[60:11]

It comes from the same place. So let's try to get a feel for that. Let's call it all objects. Versuchen wir mal dafür ein Gefühl zu bekommen. Nennen wir es einfach einmal alle Objekte. And some objects are subjective objects. Also manche Objekte sind subjektive Objekte. They feel and observe. Sie fühlen und beobachten. And animals are subjective objects. Und Tiere sind subjektive Objekte. Imagine you have a porcelain cat. It's an object. And while you're dozing off, you open your eyes, and this porcelain cat has become alive. Yeah, it's still an object, but now it's a subjective object. And then it is still an object, but a subjective object.

[61:22]

Now, I don't know if I can get the importance of this sense of it's all objects and some are subjective objects. We all occupy the same world. Again, animals and us. So here in this koan, scholars plow with the pen. Now, just in a little phrase like that, you can take it, oh, scholars, write. But the idea of incubation is in there. Like Foucault, Michel Foucault says, writing writes writing. Yeah, so not only does the scholar who writes write, affect the world.

[62:33]

The act of writing itself leads to understanding and perception. So writing is a way to plow yourself, to discover what you want, to discover what you feel. No. And orators plow with the tongue. Und Redner pflügen mit der Zunge. And I really do discover, I'm sorry, I don't think of myself, but I haven't put rocks in my mouth, but I do discover what I'm saying in the process of saying it.

[63:34]

Also ich entdecke im Sprechen, dass ich etwas entdecke. Das ist auch eine Art pflügen. Yeah, and then it says, you know, but us adepts, we just watch a white ox. Now, if you incubate this corn, you begin to notice the correspondences after a while. Die Übereinstimmungen bemerken. What do oxes do? Was machen denn Ochsen? They pull the plug. Die ziehen den Pflug. And the word Niu in Chinese means ox, cow, bull, water buffalo, etc. It means all those guys, all those subjective objects.

[64:38]

And you know, there's blue oxes and there's a lot of stuff about oxes in China. There's blue oxes and black and yellow ones. So this is a white one. And white also, if you know something about Chinese culture, white is not only for virgins, but it's also the color a scholar wears before he has a post, an appointment. So it's the scholar without a career. And harvesting begins in springtime. I mean, you know, yeah. So the ox is a special animal. Der Ochs ist also ein besonderes Tier.

[65:56]

Most Chinese people think you can't eat beef or an ox. Die meisten chinesischen Menschen denken, man kann Rindfleisch oder ein Ochs nicht essen. Because it helps with the plowing and the making of food, so it's disrespectful to eat the ox. And it's also somehow connected with the emperor. And emperors often, in Japan and China, issued edicts that oxes, cows cannot be slaughtered or eaten. Denn in Japan und China haben die Kaiser öfters mal Erlasse erstellt, dass Ochsen und Kühe nicht gegessen werden dürfen. And, you know, the emperor in China symbolically did the first planting in the springtime.

[67:01]

Und in China war der Kaiser symbolisch als erster das erste Pflanzen. In Japan, there's a day in the spring when the Japanese emperor will never travel. Because I think there's a place where they open up a hole in the floor and plant seeds, plow the ground. Floor means inside? I think inside they have a set of tatamis they remove or something. I don't get something light. I don't know. I have to figure out that. Something like that. They do on a specific day. So I'm just trying to give you a little background to say the ox is a very special animal. And white is a special color.

[68:03]

And it means, yeah, something purer and better. So the adept lazily watches the white ox on an open ground. Der Adept beobachtet Paul, einen weißen Ochsen auf einem weiten Feld. But it's still an animal. Aber er bleibt immer noch ein Tier. And animals have a different pace than we do. Und Tiere haben einen anderen Temposchritt als wir Menschen das haben. So an image like this is meant to work in you. Stop some time and feel that you're watching a white fox.

[69:08]

With the pace of a cow or bull, In an open field. I think if you even imagine this, you can feel your own pace change. Selbst wenn du dir das nur vorstellst, spürst du schon, wie sich dein eigener Schritt, dein eigener Rhythmus ändert. So this koan is embedded in a sense of various kinds of time. Und dieser koan ist gebettet in der verschiedensten Gefühle, Auffassung, Verständnisse von Zeit. The time of plowing. Der Zeit von Pflügen. The way one plows one's life. Die Art und Weise, wie man sein eigenes Leben pflügt. And the pace here of another time, the ox's or water buffalo's time.

[70:15]

Und hier dieser Schritt, der Rhythmus eines anderen Lebens, des Lebens eines Ochsen oder eines Wasserbuffels. One famous Zen teacher was asked, what about after you die? Was passiert nachdem du stirbst? You'll find me. You'll find down by the river a white ox. And, you know, again, to come back, we all are in a different time. I mean, we saw it just during break in our four little naked girls. It reminds me of my daughter, I told you the story before, Sally at the San Francisco airport taking all her clothes off.

[71:18]

She did it before we knew it. Sally, what have you done? She was about four. She said, I've taken my clothes off. And I said, we don't do that at the airport. And she said, doesn't everyone want to? Well, I couldn't answer honestly, yes or no. Many do. So I had to say, well, just don't do it at the airport. They are in a different time than we are. Don't think it's an illusion.

[72:23]

If you think it's an illusion, you're in your temporal identity, not your spatial identity. You're in clock time. And one of Ivan Ilyich's favorite lines is, I want to be in a world which has lost its clocks. You know, again, I've said this often, but you know your own childhood is a big percentage of your life. I think we can probably say it's right brain time and not left brain time. And after some resistance from the 60s, because it became left brain, right brain stuff, it's such a big deal in the 60s. I know, except contemporary research, which I think is established, it looks like that they really are two different brains.

[73:45]

But brain-like functions are throughout our bodies, so not a simple division. But I think right brain functioning is emphasized by meditation and mindfulness practice. And there's a different kind of time which goes with that. If you practice, you feel you're more back in the time of childhood.

[74:59]

Not childish time, but the pace of childhood. Wenn ihr praktiziert, dann habt ihr mehr das Gefühl, ihr seid in einer Kindheitzeit. Also nicht einer kindlichen Zeit, sondern die Zeitempfinden vom Kindsein. Praxis ändert uns wirklich. It changes the circuitry, the emphasis on right or left brain, etc., and through intentional mind, which is prior to sensory impressions, if through intentional practice you change your fundamental views, Those views begin to change how we perceive.

[76:01]

So this koan presumes time as ripening. Dieser Korn geht aus von einer Zeit als ein Reifeprozess. We plow at the right time. Wir pflügen im rechten Moment. Around here you have to hay at the right time. Und in dieser Gegend muss man das Heu im rechten Moment machen. But here to lazily watch the white ox which isn't plowing even. But here, just in a lazy way, the white ox.

[76:53]

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