Nyorai Zoshin. Nyorai means Tathagata. Zo means treasure house. And Shin means heart mind. So we could have Tathagata Schatzkiste. So your Tathagata Schatzkiste is the mind light of Amida Buddha. It's the first thing I've ever translated from Japanese into German. See how skillful I'm becoming. Yeah. So this Akshobhya being the Buddha of the East, this first awakening moment of the solidity of the world, and then the

[01:18]

as well as the solidity of the world, there is the light of the mind which makes the solidity possible. So you could practice this each day. Each morning you do the practice of Akshobhya. And even taste and deepen the vow of Akshobhya. And then during the day you identify with the mind, the light mind, the mind light. And there's this sense, too, that when the sun goes down, the sun may go down, the physical light, but the mind light continues.

[02:42]

Okay. Now, I've spoken with you often about the three functions of ego or self. And the functions of self are to establish separateness, connectedness and continuity. And just for those of you... I forgot the third one. Continuity. The middle one. Connectedness. If you don't... If you can't remember connectedness, then yes.

[03:49]

I can understand why that would be a hard one to remember. if you've forgotten it. For those of you who these simple distinctions are new, let me say that I have to know I'm separate from you. And you have to know this is my voice and not your voice, or they'll put you in a hospital. He's hearing voices. And your immune system, of course, functions to know what belongs to you and what doesn't belong to you. And we also have to establish connectedness. We have to know how we're connected to each other and to the world.

[04:57]

And most of the virtues are about connectedness. But for most of us, connectedness is a kind of... behavioral strategy or politeness. We seldom feel truly connected unless we have very good friends or we're in love. So we could say religious practice, yogic practice, is to establish new ways or deepen the ways in which we can feel connected. And the third continuity... We establish a sense of ourselves from moment to moment, usually by identifying with our thought and our story.

[06:18]

And usually embedded in it are certain delusive ideas like permanence and... Now, these three distinctions are quite useful. And I think just to practice with these three distinctions can be extremely beneficial. To notice how you establish experience, separation, connectedness and continuity. Now, when you experience these three as a unit, with an emphasis on separation, and most of us do experience all three of these things as just aspects of one ego,

[07:49]

Yeah. When you experience them as a unit with an emphasis on separation, we could call that ego. And the negative of that is greed, is anger. Or hatred, to push things away. When you experience these three as a unit, With an emphasis on connectedness, we can call that self. And the negative would be greed. And the positive side of that would be compassion.

[08:57]

Because greed is one kind of connectedness and compassion is another kind of connectedness. So greedy people can often become very compassionate people. I see you're most greedy when you help others. When you understand that you're most satisfied with your greed when you help others. And the positive side of anger is wisdom. This is a traditional way of looking at this. And continuity, when you experience these things as a unit with an emphasis on continuity, this is delusion.

[10:10]

And the positive side of that is equanimity. Okay, so you can, if you begin to see these things not as a unit, you begin to see them as three ways you function, and three ways that you function that can be developed and changed. then you are already quite free of clinging to self. Okay. Now, the practice of akshobhya and amitabha are the shift of your experience of continuity.

[11:21]

To the body and to the light of the mind. So instead of discovering your continuity in your thoughts and your story, you discover it in the continuous presence of your physical connectedness. And we could say that practice of Amitabha is this shift of your... Experience of continuity to the continuity of the mind light. To the background mind. To the non-conceptual mind or non-dualistic mind. This is a transformation of the functions of self.

[12:41]

And when you really find your continuity in your solidity, it's a tremendous stability. And when you discover your continuity in the light of the mind, This is a tremendous depth of understanding. Because Amitabha is not only the Buddha of boundless light, who views everything equally, in the light of mind, but also Amitabha is the Buddha of discriminating wisdom.

[13:43]

Because real wisdom and real thinking is based not on conceptual thought, but based on the mind itself using conceptual thought. the conceptual thought based on the experience of mind itself. So each day gives you this chance waking up to your own physicality your own solidity and the recognition that we make our body

[14:59]

You wake up and your body reassembles. And at that moment, your intention affects how it reassembles. And your mind and your intention and your breath are used basically to weave mind and body together. And so this practice, when you first wake up, emphasizes making your body through your mind. Making your body through your mind. And the Amitabha practice represents realizing mind itself.

[16:09]

Now, in zazen, when you practice uncorrected mind, you are practicing amitabha-type practice. You are just opening your mind to whatever and accepting everything equally. In the deepest sense, realizing this, this is the root of Buddha nature. So this very act of opening yourself to uncorrected mind, and to observe and accept everything that comes equally, is exactly the same as Amitabha's vow to view each person, wherever they are, whoever they are, equally. So the practice of uncorrected mind is the seed of the vow to save all sentient beings.

[17:56]

And when you sit down and take the lotus posture, or Cesar, and you count your breaths or follow your breaths, you are practicing Akshobhya. You're making your mind and body with bringing your attention to your breath. And fully realized this is the imperturbable body of Akshobhya. So you can see that in your simplest practice, the two most basic things, counting your breaths and uncorrected mind is Akshobhya and Amitabha.

[19:17]

So it's understood that our simplest practices are, when fully realized, our Buddha nature. So let's sit again for a few minutes and then we'll stop. Thank you. This body and this mind are Buddhas waiting in you to be recognized.

[21:34]

And already I think they're speaking to us. In a small voice. If it was a loud voice, we couldn't hear it. But because it's a small voice, we start to hear it. And we feel the truth of these vows of Akshobhya and Amitabha. And the underlying truth of Amitabha is Avalokiteshvara. and when we chant the Heart Sutra in the morning, and at noon, when Avalokiteshvara looks from on high and sees the suffering of all beings, looks from on high means

[23:11]

The mind light of Amitabha. The mind light that sees barn and tree and you equally. So let's take care of each other, help each other on this path. Lord, you are all I need, save me, I am in a doubt.

[24:28]

Lord, I am no one who worships you, save me, I am in doubt. Lord, I am in a doubt, save me, I am in doubt. What is it that you want from me? Thank you. Thank you.

[25:42]

Well, as usual, it's good to come to the last day, and yet I always feel... also like I'd like to continue. In a couple of days, I... We'll go to Creston and next weekend, on the 8th, I believe, or 7th, start the Rohatsu Sashin there. But even more so in the past now, excuse me for being a little schmaltzy, but I didn't leave my heart in San Francisco, I left it in Germany. So even more so than usual, my mind will

[27:59]

at least part of my feeling and attention, will be back here. And in Austria, too, it's okay. Especially in Linz. Um... Hmm... And I want to thank you for making me feel so welcome here in this German-speaking part of the world. I feel like I've discovered I feel like being here I feel like I've come home.

[29:15]

But come home to a home I didn't know I had till I discovered it. I didn't know I would find this as if I had lived here before. Of course, all of you have helped. You've made it almost impossible to leave. Thank you for that. And... And the rest of my life will be to practice here in these two centers, Johanneshof and Creston. I hope to develop these places so each finds its own nature or identity.

[30:30]

And I hope they work together so that folks at Crestone will want to come here and vice versa. Manfred has said he might come visit at some point. And I believe Gerald and Gisler are going back with me, right, the next day or something? From Frankfurt or from where? Frankfurt. Oh, yeah. Are you flying on Delta? Oh, we might be on the same plane. Okay, so I guess Sabine and Manfred will be in charge. Okay. Hmm. And there's about, they told me, six or seven inches of snow in Creston.

[31:53]

Can't compare to here, though. If I was seeking the peace and isolation of snowdom, I found it. Sometimes Crestone is like this, but usually it's nowhere near as much snow. So I would like to... sum up a little or further our discussion of these lectures. Oh, I should say that I'll be back in February for the sort of Sangha seminar here in Johanneshof.

[33:01]

So it won't be too long. Yeah. Maybe start with Avalokiteshvara. Avalokiteshvara is shown iconographically with Amitabha as the acolyte or attendant of Amitabha. But Avalokiteshvara is also understood as the, I think the technical word is hypostasis, the underlying reality of Amitabha. I think in Christianity, Jesus is the hypostasis of the Trinity, or each of the Trinity is the underlying reality of the other two.

[34:17]

So the underlying nature of Amitabha is Abalokiteshvara. And the underlying nature of Avalokiteshvara is feminine nature. And that's why this figure of Avalokiteshvara there in the far Part of the altar is obviously female. Now, what I've tried to... to show you and to find in myself, too, is what it really means to say nothing is outside the system.

[35:44]

What's there has to also be here. Again, it's this relationship of macrocosm and microcosm, which is the basic assumption of yogic culture and of Buddhism. This isn't a simple relationship, but it's a relationship of parallel, interconnected interdependence. And it's a connection, as I said, that's not just arithmetic or a simple equation, but maybe logarithmic.

[36:50]

Okay. So that means these cosmic Buddhas that Mahayana brought into the world of Buddhism... that are objects of faith and veneration, that united huge populations in the worship of Buddha, have to also already be in us. Have to be rooted in us and have to be possible for us to practice. Mm-hmm. Now this relationship, again, as I say, isn't a simple relationship.

[38:04]

And later Taoism also and Buddhism interacted in a kind of how to discover this relationship. Now I don't know what words to use, but it's an idea of finding your inner nature. Or the crux of your nature. The crux, the meeting point. The two things, the crux. The core of your nature. Yeah. and also to discover the crux or axis of our inner nature, of outer nature.

[39:11]

So you're not just looking at the sunlight as Buddha nature. But more that the sense of the sun as in plants, in our cows, and so forth. Sunlight made the wood of this platform possible. some sense of light, you know, this constant in the universe that pervades everything. And in yourself, it's discovering awareness at the root of Awareness is the basis of consciousness.

[40:25]

Or non-conceptual consciousness, maybe we can say. Now, when you abide, I don't know what word to use, I'll use abide, abide in awareness, you're also reborn in awareness. If you shift your sense of identity out of consciousness into awareness, a kind of inner, in Taoist terms, an inner embryo is born. An inner embryo is born. And something like that happens. And in other words, different is different. If you abide in consciousness, you will develop a different way of being than if you abide in awareness.

[41:51]

Now, the main elements in this relationship to the world and to yourself, are breath, awareness, and the four elements. Now let me, what I started to do the first day, come back, I hope briefly, to the four elements. And again, the four elements are emphasized because they're outside your personality. And they're what we share with other people.

[42:59]

And they're what we share with the world. And the four elements on their simple names are earth, water, fire and air. Now, I'm going to just give you a few key words to help you practice with these. Earth is solidity. Your solidity. And coalescence, things growing together. We could say it's an arrow that circles in. So you feel very centered, together, solid, and so forth.

[44:07]

You're not leaking your energy. Okay. water is fluidity and the nature of water is to go to stillness water is always trying to seek its own level trying to become still if you pour some water on the top of a mountain it ends up in the ocean Maybe even deep down in the stillest part of the ocean. So the arrow of fluidity is downward.

[45:08]

Towards stillness. Now, how does that relate to, say, other people? Just as your mind is seeking stillness, the mind of other people is seeking stillness. And usually we're relating to the excitement in other people's minds. Usually we're relating to the distraction and busyness of other people's minds. And language tends to concurge that. But maybe poetry discourages that. Maybe feeling your breath in the space between the words helps find stillness.

[46:39]

So the bodhisattva practice would be the more you discover Nature stillness in your own mind. And feel this arrow. moving towards stillness in your own mind and body. There's an entrainment with other people and they tend to feel the stillness in themselves. This is the essence of bodhisattva practice. is this interconnectedness of our mind with other minds. And whatever mind we have tends to be entrained with or contagious to other people's minds.

[47:43]

And whatever state of mind we have, it tends to come into resonance with the mind of others, or to be infected, so to speak. And fire is concentration. Is developing one-pointedness. The ability to focus on something and stay focused on it. And this is an arrow pointing outward. And most of the things we do, speaking a language, is the hypostasis of that, we could say, the underlying reality of it is the ability to concentrate. So if in your language, when you speak to somebody, concentration is present, you produce concentration in the other person.

[48:55]

And the fourth is air. Das vierte ist Luft. Das ist Offenheit. Gegenwart. Annehmen. Wir könnten sagen Luft oder Raum. Der Raum akzeptiert, so wie das Licht, die Scheune und den Baum gleichermaßen. So this mind, in zazen, it's uncorrected mind. And let me say for a moment about uncorrected mind again. Of course, semantically or logically, uncorrected mind itself is a kind of correction. When you sit down in zazen posture, you're correcting your mind.

[50:24]

But given that you have sat down in zazen and you've concentrated a bit through your breath at least, uncorrected mind is a specific posture. Now we're not talking about uncorrected conscious mind. We're talking about uncorrected or uncorrecting zazen mind. And as I often say, zazen mind itself is a different liquid than conscious mind. And distractions that occur in zazen mind are different than distractions that occur in conscious mind.

[51:42]

So even though you're not correcting your zazen mind, something's happening. So there may be some distraction that comes in? You don't correct it. No, that's there, okay. You find yourself correcting it. By going back to your breathing or something. But you don't correct your correcting of it. Do you understand? In other words, you try not, if you spontaneously correct it, okay.

[52:42]

You don't stop yourself correcting it. You accept whatever happens. You're trying to create a situation of not a natural state of mind, but a spontaneous state of mind. So if your mind deepens or you correct it, it comes out of a spontaneity rather than a kind of doing. And this is Avalokiteshvara, seeing everyone equally wherever they are. Whoever they are.

[53:43]

And this is also the mind and attitude and vow of Amitabha. Amida Buddha. Now, the more you come to, and we've talked now about, waking up in the morning and discovering your solidity. Now I would suggest for a while, maybe a few months, in zazen, in the mornings, you spend five minutes or ten minutes, twenty minutes, Maybe a little more in the beginning, but less as you develop the habit.

[54:57]

Of seeing if you can feel with whatever words you want as key words. Feel your fluidity. Your solidity. And your concentration. And your openness. And you might spend during the day, maybe for one hour you try just emphasizing openness. Another hour at some point during the week. you might emphasize feeling your solidity and so forth with each of the four and then see if you can feel that also in the world

[56:11]

Because each of us share these four elements and as does the phenomenal world. So you might try feeling people's fluidity and softness. Or the world's softness. And the world's solidity. And there's a kind of chemistry in this. You're developing another kind of connectedness with the world and other people. It's not just social customs or politeness. You're discovering something close to our shared inner nature. Our shared inner reality. Now these correspond to the four natures of mindfulness.

[57:54]

When you practice mindfulness and you are concentrated on each step Now I'm walking. This is a long breath or a short breath. And this is a kind of concentrated state of mindfulness. When you are just... A flaneur, walking in the crowd. Open to the movement of the city and people. Just looking, observing. This is a mind, we can say, of confluence, where everything flows through it.

[59:08]

Concentration is a mind of convergence. You're able to bring it together into a point. But mindfulness also can include a coalescence, a growing together. And this is more solidity. You feel your presence is a field, a very strong feeling of there-ness. Or you can feel everything is stopped, timeless, still. Okay, now each of these four minds join to their four elements. The more you have that feeling of mind and body being together, these four aspects of mindfulness and four elements, the full realization of those is one of these four Buddhas.

[60:24]

In other words, the more you bring your mindfulness, aspects of mindfulness and aspects of the body outside of personality, you create the possibility of this kind of Buddha quality being in the world. I don't mean you're going to suddenly become a glorified Buddha living in the western paradise. I hope you do, and I will come to visit. If you'll let me. I'll be at the door. Domeni kudasai. Yeah. But that for moments in your life this Buddha quality can be interactive with what you're doing.

[61:57]

But for moments in your life this Buddha quality can be interactive with what you're doing. And it helps other people practice. It increases the possibility a Buddha will appear in the world. Because no matter how ineffective you are, you create seeds for the realization of Buddha nature in others. This is the vision of Buddhism. And the practice of Buddhism. And I think it really works. And I think we need some kind of vision like this. If we're going to have a deep enough feeling for the world that there's some hope.

[63:07]

This kind of deep inner activity, I think, should be part of the world. Needs to be part of the world. So knowing this, the way the world is supports the way you are. And you discover this subtle relationship, chemical relationship between you and the world. Now, let me just say, because I'm so fond of those cows out front, you know.

[64:21]

I've been telling everybody they have exactly the life I would like. They walk around when they want. They eat when they want. And they stand still a lot. I've been trying to achieve this for most of my life. I would need a bigger fur coat than I have. Now, we tend to think that we're more complex than animals. And of course we are. But what we're trying to achieve with our complexity is awareness. And our consciousness is always interfering with our realization of awareness.

[65:26]

And my belief and... As much as I can say, confirmed by my experience, is animals live in awareness. And animals are much more advanced than us in realizing awareness. They don't have the problem that we have with such a complex consciousness. And I think the more you discover the bliss of this inner elixir and and feel it yourself, you'll feel it in animals.

[66:41]

So they're not just standing there bored, wishing they could read Time magazine. In my opinion, they're blissed out. In my opinion, they're blissed out. Otherwise, how could they stand such a boring life? So, this is a lesson. And animals can teach us bliss. The more you discover your own inner elixir of bliss, you can feel it enhanced when you're present with animals. And my experience is animals feel it in you. And we'll relate to you differently.

[67:49]

So maybe the end product of our sashin is to become like those cows out in front. You notice today I wore the cow colors. Maybe I'll go out and stand in the snow with him for five minutes. Maybe the farmer will feed me. I wonder if the cows know we're sitting in here seven days in our little pasture. Chewing the cud of our consciousness. Now, we could say the vows of Akshobhya and Amitabha, the vows, Amitabha's vow to

[69:15]

not experience anger or repulsion. Now, please understand this would be very bad psychological advice. If you are Located in consciousness, it's very important that you accept anger and sometimes express anger, probably. But the more you find your being abiding in awareness, you can experience the same things Without anger. Without repulsion. Now, the nature of awareness is acceptance.

[70:27]

So the more in consciousness you accept things as they are, So you may feel anger, but also you accept your anger. That anger, that acceptance becomes a kind of opening that pokes down through consciousness into awareness. So the more you practice acceptance in conscious mind, You start developing a relationship between consciousness and awareness. You can imagine awareness bubbling up into consciousness and consciousness, the contents of consciousness being discovered more in awareness.

[71:32]

Ihr könnt euch vorstellen, dass das Gewahrsein in das Bewusstsein hinaufblubbert und dass die Inhalte des Bewusstseins sich mehr im Gewahrsein befinden. Now, since I've been upstairs just before lecture with my biochemist partner Ulrike, I said to her, you know, because I was thinking these virtues, these vows function like catalysts. And so I asked her to define catalyst for me. And a catalyst is something that allows, correct me if I get it all mixed up, please. A catalyst is something that allows a chemical reaction to occur.

[72:46]

It participates in the reaction completely, but it isn't used up in the reaction. And it reduces the amount of energy necessary for the reaction to occur. So enzymes are biocatalysts. They allow reactions, interactions to occur in the body chemically. that would occur, can occur anyway, but would require so much energy that we couldn't be alive for those reactions to occur with that kind of energy.

[73:55]

So the enzymes... These biocatalysts reduce the amount of energy necessary so they function within our temperature range. And virtues are exactly like that. Virtues are bioenzymes. A kind of, what we could say, virtue enzymes. Or virtue catalysts. That reduce the amount of energy we need to transform ourselves into Buddhas. So if you can take this vow to develop the mind that sees each person equally, whoever they are,

[75:01]

If you can develop the mind of Akshobhya, which feels everything but doesn't feel anger or repulsion, as part of what it feels, which is a different mind than the psychologically dynamic mind of consciousness, you change the alchemy of being. You change this inner elixir, inner embryo. And you create the conditions for Buddha qualities to function in yourself.

[76:13]

And Buddha qualities of awareness, awakeness. of enlightenment, of inner seeing, to function in others. This is called a Buddha field. It's a really hopeful idea. And I believe it's also a fact. It's a kind of yogic imagination. A kind of mythology. But as yogic imagination and mythology both function to make it more real. And these

[77:14]

bio-enzymatic virtues, our generosity, the so-called four unlimiteds, generosity, empathetic joy, compassion, and equanimity. There's no limit to these practices. And patience. And awareness. And breath and inner breath. and the four elements, we can say these are all bio-enzymatic virtues that create a Buddha field. that reduce the energy necessary to realize Buddhahood.

[78:42]

For ourselves and for our society. So I hope we can think of Johanneshof as a bioenzymatic virtue laboratory. I think we have to thank Christian for translating the untranslatable. Can we give Christian a bow for translating? Okay, that's probably already several quantities more than enough. So again, let's have a few moments of sitting and...

[79:44]

This breath you feel right now, so intimate with awareness, is just now a taste of Buddha nature. It's not far away. Please have this confidence. This belief. This experience. It's not far away. It's not separate from us. Not separate from us. Not separate from us. Thank you very much

[81:52]

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