So I've been speaking about karma, and karma from the point of view really of one who practices. And as I said to someone this morning, well of course Buddhism is about human beings, but really the genius of Buddhism is its way of understanding the human being who practices. And what I said about karma, of creating a karma free zone, maybe better to say a karma fluid zone, is not possible unless you practice. And you might think about, or we can think about, might help develop your faith and confidence in practice and your interest in deciding to practice.

[01:05]

To think about what is it that, how is a person who practices different from anyone else? I mean, it's weird to say different, but whatever you do, there's some difference. Difference is different. And a person who practices simply, usually, and a characteristic of a person who practices is one who has the ability to observe themselves, observe what's happening. And what practice does certainly is deepen that ability to observe yourself. And that's what this posture is all about. I mean, this posture is not for dogs or horses. It's for human beings. It's designed for human beings.

[02:08]

It is a posture that's not sleeping, not standing or walking. And it's a posture you wouldn't take for long periods of time unless you had some sense of it, intuition of it, as a wisdom posture. Although, as I've mentioned, Gary Snyder thinks maybe it was discovered by hunters who had to sit very still. Maybe so. But in any case, once it's discovered, there's something that happens in this posture that's not the same as in sleeping or ordinary waking. As I said, in the morning sometimes we get up at 3.30, we don't really wake up. But when you come into zazen, you may have that experience of being wide awake, but now you're wide awake sort of inside yourself or within the... Yeah, I don't know, details, innerness, interiority, innerness of oneself.

[03:20]

I like the difference between bringing your attention to the present, which brings you into the present, and finding yourself inside the present or inside the presence of the present. Now someone asked me again this morning about this sense of bringing your continuity into breath, body and phenomena. And normally our continuity is, for the most part, is in our thoughts. And that's so common as to be normal and as to be taken as normal.

[04:25]

But what you're doing instrumentally, when you bring your attention to your breath, as I've often pointed out, is you're actually not, the point is not to end the thinking, that's an experience, but the point is to remove, of course, your identification from your thinking, And bring that sense of continuity on a repeated basis into your breath. As you know, it's very easy to bring your attention to your breath for a few moments, very difficult to do it for an extended time. Maybe you have to give up the feeling of time to bring attention to your breath for an extended time. It's one of the most difficult things to do, but it is possible. And when you do it, you bring your sense of continuity out of your thoughts. Of course, you still think.

[05:31]

You bring it out of your thoughts into your breath, into your body, into phenomena. But really, again, what you're doing, and this is what I discussed to someone this morning, you're It's all mind. I mean, phenomena is mind. Body is mind. Breath is mind. Thoughts are mind. I think we can understand Abhidharma as the term Abhidharma and the idea of Abhidharma as what carries the factors of existence. What carries the truth into our life. What carries the factors of existence? Well, your thoughts are, we could say, factors of existence, and they carry mind.

[06:33]

Maybe they're vehicles for mind, objects of mind. So mind manifests, we could say, on the thoughts. And if your mind manifests on thoughts, you're in a very different world than if your mind manifests on your breath. It's simply different and you can find out it's different if you want to. And it makes you a different person. You're re-conceiving yourself through a wisdom teaching. Or re-conceive might not be the right word. Re-conceive. Reforming? Reforming, yeah, why not? This is a reform school for people who've lost their way. Maybe in Germany they don't have reform schools for bad kids. A re-breathing, re-bodying.

[07:37]

re-bot, re-something. Anyway, conceive is maybe not the right word. And so when you begin to find your continuity in your breath, rather than in your thoughts, you're in a different world. Particularly when it kind of snaps into your breath. I mean, for a while you do it over and over again. It's kind of nice to do, and it's quite purifying, actually. It's a purifying practice, and exhilarating, even. But at some point, it might take ten years. It might take two years. It might take two days. But whatever it takes, it's worth it. The simple practice... of finding your continuity, because continuity, as I've often pointed out, is one of the main functions of self. Establishing separateness, establishing connectedness, and establishing continuity.

[08:44]

If you change how you establish continuity, you change how you function. Re-functioning, maybe. Anyway, so you Now mind is carried in the breath. The vehicle of mind or mind manifests on the breath. There's a word in English, will-o'-the-wisp or friar's lantern, which is a kind of glow that arises from the forest floor. I don't know what made me think of that. And sometimes from maybe decaying matter, no one knows. Maybe it happens in Ireland more than other places. But anyway, there's a kind of glow sometimes and probably deciduous force. And there's some way in which mind, like a kind of aura or glow, is carried or diminished or brightened on what it manifests.

[09:53]

like the sun shines on an object, and you see the sun when it shines on an object, and you see mind when it shines on an object, and the object can be quite subtle. So now you're finding your continuity in breath as carrying mind, or the body when you then move from the breath into finding continuity in the body, or continuity in the mind, as each thing you hear, see, also every thing you see or hear, smell, taste, touch, points to mind as well as the object. And you have to remind yourself of this. Re-mind yourself of this. When I went back to Germany this time, for those 10 days a little while ago, I came back.

[11:06]

I had to go, I don't know what, shopping. I had a little food to eat. And when I came back, I stopped at the Oxen. Some of you know the Oxen. It's a the nearest restaurant to us, and it's open quite a lot. They virtually have a stammtisch for us, which is the table for the locals. So I went in and they hadn't seen me for months, so they greeted me and put me in a corner next to the empty wintry deck, where there are usually chairs out in the summer. So I sat there and I thought, should I have to do this 10 days of teaching? I better prepare. I said, what should I do? So I just found myself extending a feeling of mind to the wrought iron fence there, which has this little wrought iron red painted rose in it or something like that. And then to the tree and then to the old farmhouses.

[12:09]

buildings in the small town that looked like farmhouses, probably were, are still to some extent. And then to the low clouds, it almost wanted to draw the objects up into them. And the more I did this simple practice, and this isn't enlightenment, this is just a simple practice anyone can do, to notice how what you're seeing is in mind. It's also mind. I mean, these farmhouses are the shape of my mind. I mean, they shape my mind, or this mind. And when I did that for a few moments, just as a kind of little exercise, a little practice, I suddenly found the tree seemed to be rooted, not only in the earth, but rooted likewise, with its now no leaves in the sky.

[13:22]

And rooted in me, I felt the tree from the tree's side. This is the fifth power that Sukershi spoke about. I don't know if it's true, but it feels like that, you know. It feels more like you're feeling the tree from inside. This is, whether it has anything to do with the tree, and I think to some extent it does, it's an actual experience of this practice. So a basic practice, adept practice, is to on every object, on every perception, see mind, feel mind, as well as the object, the mind in which the object is appearing. And the more you have this feeling, there's also like a shift from... the continuity of thought to the continuity of breath, there's a shift from objects, and the more you keep feeling, reminding yourself, simply reminding yourself, a craft or intention of reminding yourself, reminding yourself of that every object points to mind, or is in, we could say, an echo of mind.

[14:45]

The Elantan Sakarita Sutra says, to see your mind as a vessel of clear water, This is like in the sutras. To see, to know everything as an echo of mind. Maybe echo of mind is a good phrase to work with. So practicing this, you suddenly have a shift from the object, reminding yourself of this, you suddenly have a shift from the objects to almost like a fluid of mind, a pervasive sense of mind, even non-local mind, but at least mind that isn't limited, doesn't feel like it's limited to the body anymore, as often in Zazen you feel. No boundaries. Or as we spoke about, near-death experiences or out-of-body experiences.

[15:50]

This sense of mind not limited to the body or just feeling somebody look at you from behind. You really much more tangibly sense this. It's not activated just by somebody staring at you from behind or from a car. And then objects and the world are almost like things that float to the surface of mind. They pop up. You look at something and it feels like it floated to the surface of mind within the shape of mind. Just as, just as when you notice that a bird song For you it must be different than it's the song for another bird, because you can only hear it within the own capacities of your ear.

[16:57]

So you're hearing what humans hear, not what another bird hears. And if you know that, you know there's some mystery, there's something that's not included. I mean, this is obvious, anybody who thinks about it knows this, but to practice it, to be present to it all the time, to hear the bird as your own mind, that same feeling when things pop up in mind, a farmhouse. You know you're seeing the shape of your own mind as well as the farmhouse, and you realize, just as maybe another farmhouse, hears the farmhouse differently. Like another bird hears the birdsong differently. Or another divine being or Buddha finds the farmhouse differently. And in your own practice you'll find the farmhouse differently the more you give independence to everything without controlling things from a you.

[18:04]

So anyway, this practice of this, we could say, adept practice of bringing attention to the breath, shifting continuity out of the breath into body, breath and phenomena, is this practice of finding another way in which mind is carried as continuity. I gave, Randy, and I guess you put out this little red and yellow thing I printed out on the Avantam Saka Sutra. It's speaking pretty much about what I am speaking about. I like it, we can't, you know, we could take that and discuss it during the practice period or some lecture or if I do a seminar with you.

[19:22]

But without feeling that Buddhas come from anywhere. Now that is interesting, you know, that's a phrase you have to kind of hold within you. Without any idea of Buddhas coming from somewhere. and without any idea of your body going anywhere. To know the mind, it says, like a clear vessel of water, like an echo. And to know that all teaching are based on, all enlightening principles are based on mind. So here we're shifting. When you begin to shift your attention out of your thoughts into body, breath, and phenomena, you create the conditions where you begin to experience mind itself, not just what it's shining on.

[20:33]

Well, that's what this Avantam Saka Sutra is trying to teach us. It says then it has to be sustained by roots of goodness, moistened by clouds of the teaching. Moistened by clouds of the teaching. Stabilized in vigor, something like that. Rooted in calmness through forbearance. Now these parallels What I would say is what I would call the five fundamentals of Zen practice, which I've been thinking of mentioning to you, just to sum up what you know already and make it simpler. And these five, what I'm calling fundamentals of Zen practice, are what I would say that, I would say everything I know of as practiced

[21:38]

or what I know of practice that's enough for practice are these five. And certainly what I'm practicing myself, trying to share with you, is mostly these five. One is zazen, simply zazen. And I want to also speak about this in a way that maybe we could call it everyday practice and adept practice fold together. are one spectrum. One needs the other. Certainly everyday practice implies adept practice. Okay, so Zazen, let's take this posture. This posture allows us to, again it's this dialogue, And Dieter asked me today to come back to this dialogue. The dialogue, what I would call, is the functioning of the present moment, the way we humans can practice or realize or function within the present, function as the present moment, the activity of the present moment.

[23:03]

or the dynamic of the present moment, or maybe the dynamic of form and emptiness. Anyway, I'm searching for some phrase that catches it. So this dialogue again, we've been speaking of this posture. You're accepting the posture, you accept your posture, whatever it is, and you're informed by an ideal posture. And I keep coming back to this because this dialogue, really sensing this dialogue, not just sensing, well, I'm accepting my posture, I'm sitting well or something, but feeling the dialogue in yourselves. Feeling as you begin to let loose of your posture, and by that I mean let your shoulder do its own zazen, let your leg do its own zazen, let your kidney do its own zazen, let your throat do its own zazen.

[24:09]

Just till the sense of a you doing zazen dissolves. Maybe the dynamic of the non-duality of each occasion or the dissolution of the duality of each occasion. Maybe this dialogue is the dissolution of the duality of each occasion. And I think this is a brilliant kind of point Buddhism has brought us to with the understanding that all our inherited and created patterns, predispositions, structures we bring to each moment, which carry us, you know, with little choice past each moment.

[25:18]

We hardly know, we get just carried past each moment into a future that we're carried past. is that the secret, one of the main secrets is the dissolution of the duality of the moment. Now this is not something, you could do it if you want to practice it and you have a sense of it and you understand what I'm saying. Yeah, you could do it since you have the clue. And particularly the physical feel of it, that helps. And you have some intention, it happens. But it happens if you practice it. This craft happens if you practice it. It may be opened up by enlightenment, but it's matured through the craft of practice. So again you feel this dialogue

[26:27]

of the ideal posture and accepting whatever it is. And you get to know this dialogue. At first it's a practice of mindfulness and a weaving of mind and body together. Again, mind and body are not one, are not two. You can't say they're one, you can't say they're two, but you can say it's a field which we cultivate. We cultivate the relationship of mind and body. And one of the best plows, or best plows, Needle and thread is breath. Each breath is a kind of needle and thread, which is when you bring attention to your breath, you're weaving mind and body together.

[27:33]

In fact, attention is mind, breath is more close to body, and you're weaving it together, using your breath to weave mind and body together. And we could call that everyday practice. But this and doing it in zazen. Also is a weaving of mind and body together. And opening a space for your karma to be cooked in what I say, chicken stock instead of beef stock. And I often say, you know, you're cooking your karma in chicken stock is how it functions. Why does that make a difference? Why is your karma different when you recapitulate it in zazen mind rather than recapitulate it in your usual mind, structured in thought?

[28:36]

It's because zazen is a kind of karma fluid zone. Because you're coming into more of an integration of mind and body, which is a dissolving dualism, self tends to get less concretizing, less something like that. So we could say that's why you call it karma-free stock, karma-free soup. Karma soup and dharma soup, or maybe that's better. Karma soup is the ordinary mind, the dharma soup is zazen mind. So there's lots of things that happen just when you sit. I mean, the first, as I've said, is to just find physical relaxation.

[29:44]

and mental ease. This is a huge thing to discover, really deep physical relaxation and mental ease. And that opens your body to a kind of openness, emotional openness and pliancy. So we could say that's beginning practice or everyday practice. So what is in the sense of this posture is adept practice. And that's finding this ideal posture begins to take over. Suddenly again something clicks in and you also discover immobility in your sitting. And this posture presumes the possibility of immobility. of sitting immobile, of really being still inside and out.

[30:48]

And finding your breath is now subtle breath or subtle mind in your backbone. Something else is sitting you. Something feels like it's sitting you. And when you come in, into that you develop the possibility of non-interfering observing consciousness. Now non-interfering observing consciousness, consciousness can observe but not interfere with what it observes, which is a primary yogic skill as you know. is really possible, we'd say that's adept sitting. A person, an average person who sits. Or we could say well-being practice and non-being practice. They're all very closely related. And the difference between well-being practice and non-being practice, or ordinary mindfulness and a non-interfering observing consciousness,

[31:55]

is not whether you're a monk or live in a monastery or something like that, but really it's only about your intention, your thoroughness and your continuance. If the intention is there and you're thorough, you're into the actual topography details of your life and there's a continuity or continuance. You develop this noninterfering. It just appears, just as suddenly you find yourself located in your breath and not your thoughts. Now, I don't think everyone has to practice adept practice, and maybe don't want to, and why should you? If your life is okay, it's great. But some people, you just want to carry this, really, what is our life about?

[32:59]

What is it like to really practice? What is the potentialities? Sukershi uses in this Sandokai book you're looking at, ninkan, to mean, it's used by Shido for a human being, but it means a person root. And here in that very word you have the dialogue of we're a person and we're also a root, we're rooted in potentiality. And some of us can't forget this root, this source mind. And if you, you may also sense that which I think is true, that society, a healthy society, needs some people who do this, who return to the root of what it is to be human, or what the root of mind, or original mind, essence of mind.

[34:06]

I think in the introduction to Case 51, it says, if there's a single thought of good and bad, It won't be essence of mind or you won't discover your true nature. And this is the same idea that if at this moment you have the dualism of a good or bad, It's like a prism, which in this case intensifies, reifies, concentrates, well, concentrates, disperses your karma. At each moment, this is the teaching of the moment of death, which is also this moment, your karma comes into this moment and is either resolved or perpetuated.

[35:22]

And if this moment is a dualistic moment for you, your karma is reified, continued as is. If at this moment you can dissolve, have experience, which isn't such a big deal, dissolve, find yourself in a karma fluid zone, your karma tends to resolve or be transformed And Sen San, the so-called third patriarch of Zen, third ancestor of Zen after Bodhidharma, he says, he starts out his... And he had quite a difficult time. He had to feign, that means to pretend, feign mental illness in order to escape from persecution.

[36:30]

And he went into the mountains, supposedly, and lived for ten years in isolation. But he says, starts out, the great way is not difficult if you only don't pick and choose. Isn't that good news? It's not difficult if you don't pick and choose. Well, try not picking and choosing. But what good news? I feel like a Protestant minister here. Have you heard the good news? Only don't pick and choose. Hmm. But this requires, again, some adept skills at dissolving self and other, dissolving the... When you have continuity in thought, the inherent dualism of each moment. Do not pick and choose. Of course, we have to make choices. I mean, he chose to feign mental illness and he chose to live in the mountains. But at each moment... You don't shape each moment through picking and choosing.

[37:34]

And then the great way is not difficult. So, Zhaozhou asking Nanchuan, what is the way? and Chau Jos and Nan Chuan said, as I said before, not mind, not the Buddha, not things. Okay, so I just talked to you, said to you, it's better to practice with seeing everything as mind, but now we say not mind. But a phrase like, he doesn't mean, of course, that the way is something other than mind, or things or maybe something divine or something, I don't know what. He means at each moment the way is when you, the dynamic of dissolving duality.

[38:38]

Not mind, not Buddha, not things is a dynamic of dissolving dualism. So on each, or it's the Buddhists, do not appear from anywhere. On each moment you say, not mind. Or you say, not the Buddha, not the potentiality of the Buddha, not enlightenment, not Buddha. Things, not things. This creates a, what I'm calling, a karma fluid. I wouldn't be so presumptuous to say a karma free zone, but perhaps a karma fluid zone. What is the way? Not mind, not Buddha. things. This is this dialogue, the same dialogue as the ideal posture and accepting, or at each moment, genjo, to accept everything that appears, it inflows or inheres. There's a moment of duration, there's a moment of birth, a moment of duration, a moment of dissolution and disappearance.

[39:51]

Four marks. One way to understand the four marks of existence are each moment. There's an in-holding and an out-folding, an in-folding and an out-folding. That's to let it appear and complete it. the duration of the present, this momentary duration of the present, is to complete. So this dialogue, ideal posture, and accepting, perfecting, accepting, one and many, order and disorder, not mind, not Buddha, not things. These are this dynamic of form and emptiness. So, that's only two.

[40:52]

Would I give you two or three? I don't know. Okay, so the five are. We'll come back to the others. Zazen posture. And zazen posture is both everyday practice and adept practice. And then breath practice in the same... Mindfulness practice as... Well, we won't go into it. And wisdom teachings and wisdom phrases. Zazen. Breath. Mindfulness. Wisdom teachings. Vaiskandas. Vishnanas. And wisdom phrases. Just now is enough. Already connected. not knowing his nearest dissolving self and others, self and other. These five, I think, for me, carry what's essential for practice, and it parallels pretty much this statement from the Avantam Sarkar Sutra, that's why I printed it out for you.

[42:02]

I think that's enough, more than enough. for today, a kind of review. Okay, thank you very much.

[42:12]

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