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Living in Present Awareness
AI Suggested Keywords:
The talk explores the distinction between awareness and consciousness, using personal anecdotes and practices to illustrate this theme. It emphasizes transitioning from 'guest mind' to 'host mind' to engage more deeply with the present and foster a connection with the environment and beings around us. This involves being open and receptive, akin to stories of living harmoniously with animals, highlighting how a non-conscious, present awareness fosters trust and understanding.
- David Beck's Practice: The exercise of sitting cross-legged in darkness attempting to anticipate each other's moves without sight underlines awareness as distinct from conventional consciousness.
- Karate Training Reference: Demonstrates that developing heightened awareness can be a tool in physical disciplines, as seen in martial arts.
- Hermits and Wild Animals: This reference to stories of individuals living peacefully with wild animals underlines the potential of awareness to transcend fear and establish trust.
AI Suggested Title: Living in Present Awareness
He had 30 cats. And they were all named Sam. Which I think was his version of Sam. Hey Sam, come over here. And I think that was his version of Sam. So how do we tune ourselves to sameness or thusness? Now, when we're not conscious, we can't stand up. Or rarely. When you're in a coma, you don't stand up usually. When you're sleeping, you can't stand up. You have to wake up to stand up. Well, there is one example. Sleepwalking. Schlafwandel.
[01:12]
Can I tell our story about Michael? Also, kann ich die Geschichte von Michael erzählen? We all went to Christina and Eric and Michael and, I don't know, we had about 12 of us, is that right? Yeah, something. We were all sleeping in a small room of tatamis. I had a little house in Kyoto. And we all went and we had maybe two tatamis that's about five and a half feet by nearly three feet. And we had about two tatamis to three people. And we're sleeping on the floor.
[02:15]
And it's really hot in Kyoto. So we're all in our underwear. And suddenly, Mikhail starts sleep fighting. And suddenly, Mikhail starts fighting in his sleep. He's not conscious. This is dangerous. No, what is he up there doing? We were all scared to get up and try to stop him. So, and this happened Many, quite a few nights. You remember? Yes. But actually, it was quite easy to calm down.
[03:17]
I was scared. It took great tension. But he'd be up there for quite a while, you know. You know him well enough to pat him, you know. So I would say that his intention body that he trains in karate training is trained in awareness, not in consciousness. I have a friend that Oh, some of you know him, David Beck. Yeah. And he has a partner and they like to get in a completely dark room. And sit cross-legged facing each other. For an hour or two. And see who can attack the other. And they find that neither one can make a move without the other anticipating it.
[04:35]
So this is clearly awareness and not consciousness. Or it's host mind perhaps we can say instead of guest mind. So a simple instruction like don't invite your thoughts to tea thoroughly practiced and realized is introducing you to host mind, and it's not just already there, when you noticing it is to mature and is to develop it and eventually mature it. And in host mind you feel person sitting in the dark in front of you differently than in guest mind.
[05:53]
In guest mind you could wipe the other person out real quick. If the other person was in guest mind. So in host mind we're tuned to being in a more fundamental sense than in guest mind. Well anyway, let me tell an anecdote. The last anecdote before lunch. Just an ordinary old story of trying to get to the Zendo at 3.30 a.m. Crestone is this high. And it's pretty wild.
[07:04]
I think most of you know For example, Sophia loves it that all the, a lot of the animals, not elephants, a lot of the animals that are in her children's books are outside. Antelope, moose, deer, mountain lions, bears. Yeah. So it's kind of exciting. And sometimes there's a mountain lion with a cub that's around and we can hear it outside the Zendo sometimes. With a cub, a baby. A young one, yeah. Yeah, so one morning I was heading down to the Zendo and I didn't have a flashlight.
[08:10]
Usually I have a little flashlight in my sleeve. And it was one of those nights with no moon, no clouds, completely dark. High desert, dry skies are black. So I'm walking around and it's about a 10 minute walk down from the Zendo and down a rather rocky path. And I like to wear Indian moccasins because I love the sharp stones. They brighten up my step. And the soft earth, it always makes me think, oh, I wish I could make the earth soft for everyone.
[09:12]
Diese Erde, diese weiche Erde, die lässt mich denken, ich wünschte, ich könnte die Erde für alle weich machen. Or the pine needles. Oder auch die Nadeln der Bäume. So I'm walking down rather carefully, I can't see anything and there's stones everywhere. Und ich gehe also ganz vorsichtig runter und es sind überall Steine. Suddenly I was in a large field of being. I could feel these idling Mercedes. I could not see anything. And I was in the middle of a herd of deer. American deer are a lot bigger than the deer here. But what was interesting to me is It was also a field of absolute trust.
[10:35]
I know, and there's a group of deer that's always around, and it's usually 11. And if I get the daylight and the deer and I are both in some sort of consciousness, they're a little wary and they sometimes bounce off. But I wasn't entering their field with consciousness. I was like David Beck sitting in the total darkness. So it's trying to feel the... potential path. And when I was in that mind, it was clear the animals trusted me.
[11:45]
So these stories of hermits and then guys living with animals, wild animals, is probably true. So these stories of hermits and then guys Because in this awareness or host mind, the animals immediately know whether they can trust you or not. Yeah, and it was quite wonderful to stand there and it took me a moment to realize it was deer. First I just felt this field of being. And once I, yeah, once I, I just stood there. Suspended any thinking. And I felt maybe like Sophia does when she's was really nice and satisfying to be in the middle of this field of
[13:04]
pure being. And I drank it in for a while. And then I went and I couldn't see, but they made a little gentle space for me to get through. And then I went and sat and found myself in the same space. So maybe we should sit for a moment and then have lunch.
[13:38]
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