How do you know? I agree with you from my own experience, but how can you know something like this? Know that? Know something like what? Like what you just explained. Well, first of all, I know from my own experience. Let's trust our own experience. And let's not try to generalize our experience into, you know, something that everyone agrees with. But at least I think we all agree that your conscious mind simply does not know, thank you, does not know that much about your dreaming mind. I mean, the dreams are on some implicit level present in conscious mind.

[01:02]

Yeah. Anyway, I think that's all we can say about it right now. Thank you. It's great, isn't it? Don't you think it's great? We are living this mind all the time and it's... What is it? Yeah, yes. In your opinion, would the difference between mindfulness, i.e. mindfulness and concentration interest you? Is mindfulness more of an emotional, a feeling of concentration in the mind or is it, in your opinion, two different things?

[02:05]

I would like to hear what you think is the difference between mindfulness and consciousness. Does mindfulness include some... And concentration. Sorry, concentration. And does mindfulness include more kind of compassionate concentration or something like that? Mindfulness is an activity. Concentration in the eightfold path is a state of being alive. Perhaps where you don't even know you're alive. Such an idea, I'm alive. Which has been generated through the practice of the previous five first. And then that concentration is deepened through transforming your views.

[03:26]

Okay. Let me give you an example of view. I kind of hate to give it to you because it's my most common example. But since this example changed my life, maybe I could share it with you. Okay, there's a woman. What is your name sitting against the window? Ursula Ursula is quite a ways over there and she's separated from me by space and that's a view we take for granted but it's a cultural view she's also connected to me by space

[04:33]

She is also connected to me through space. I mean we all know that the moon affects our reproductive rhythms. I haven't seen any strings going up to the moon. So we take it for granted we're connected but But we don't think we're connected. Because consciousness, this is another definition of consciousness, consciousness can only notice distinctions. So consciousness can only notice the way we're separated. Awareness can feel how we are connected.

[05:47]

If we let awareness Free of consciousness. Now you can practice with a phrase again. You already have a phrase you believe. Most of us believe. And that phrase is already separated. But you can try a phrase already connected. So imagine with each person you met, your first deep feeling was already connected.

[06:48]

you would behave toward them in a different way than if you think you have to get past the separation. Now we do know that at certain times. You get lost for four hours up there in the forest. It's getting dark and you're by yourself and it's starting to snow. And you see another human being. Already connected. Already connected. You assume a certain, oh, he or she will help me. Okay, now, when I... Okay, so the view that we're... Sorry to go into this.

[08:10]

The view that we're already... is in us prior to perception and conception. Okay. If the view of already separated is there, your perceptions will reinforce that. That's what you perceive. If you change that view to already connected, And you really change it so it's now in the truth body. You start noticing, you start perceiving ways we're connected. You start more often knowing just now is enough.

[09:11]

So to go any further into these things, we'll have to wait till tomorrow. But I'll start out tomorrow not with any promises of what I'll speak about. But I will probably speak about the three minds of daily consciousness. But beyond that, I'll see what you want to do. Now, we have a few more minutes and I'd like to maybe sit for those few minutes. But let me say why I didn't from the beginning suggest we sit. because a lot of you don't know what sitting is and also you can sit all after the seminar you can sit until tomorrow morning if you want but while I'm with you I can try to give you

[11:02]

Something that might help your sitting a bit, I hope. And I I enjoy talking with you because I can feel you but I like sitting with you better but I feel a little selfish if I do that but right now since I have my bell I'll let myself be selfish so I usually start with three hits of the bell And I end with one hit. We'll only sit a few minutes, so don't get nervous. But don't count the minutes. Sort of leave consciousness out of it. Much for letting me be here with you this afternoon.

[12:33]

And thank you for translating. As you can see, my translator lost his voice. That wasn't my fault. Now, quite a few people asked me if we could have more meditation practice. Sorry, may I just put it a little bit nearer? Okay. Is the contrast between his power and my weakness okay?

[13:48]

So, yeah, of course, some people ask me to concentrate on teachings. So I'll try to find some balance. My experience has been that now meditating with people for for decades, that although sitting seems quite simple, you just sit down, you know, and concentrate on your breath, yeah, or something like that.

[14:50]

Most people don't make much progress in practice without teachings. I guess it's because our cultural mind Yeah, our ego and consciousness are just too strong. So today I'll give you, try to give you, I'll give you three, two entries that I think are useful entries into the mind, into consciousness. But first we'll start out with sitting. And although it's not characteristic of Zen Buddhism,

[16:35]

to give anything like guided meditations. It still is the tradition to hold teachings before you. What that means is You know, not clear just from the word hold. That means something like to feel the presence of a teaching without thinking about it. Just hold the teaching as a presence And let the world speak to you through the teacher. But first you have to kind of remind yourself of the elements of the teaching.

[17:49]

So you're familiar with it. Until it's just present there like something you know or very familiar with. So I might during this I might try during meditation to say something about these teachings that might help you hold the teachings in mind. Yeah. Now, those of you who are not familiar with sitting, I really don't like kind of forcing you to sit.

[18:51]

So if I feel too many of you are uncomfortable, I don't want to make you suffer. I might ring the bell earlier than I would like. Okay. So again, I start with three rings and end with one. Okay. As I suggested yesterday.

[22:14]

Have a feeling of lifting up through your backbone. Even if you're sitting in a chair. or even later in the day when you're walking around. Try to feel space in each part of the backbone. Sometimes it's useful to feel lifting crossways in your body.

[23:36]

Like from your right sit bone to your left shoulder. a kind of an imaginary line. And from your left sit bone to your right shoulder. And then in a similar way up to your left ear.

[24:38]

From your sit bone. And then to the right ear. And then bring this together. up your backbone and out the top of your head. In this way we feel our subtle body a little more. The subtle body that's usually encased in the physical body.

[25:47]

Now if you're going to work with the Eightfold Path, try to get some way to notice your views. Usually by asking yourself some questions. What vision do I have of the world? Of myself. Of myself. How would I like the world to be?

[33:26]

Such innocent questions that you take seriously. How would I like to be known, thought of by friends and family before I die? What basic view do I have?

[34:29]

Do I have a basic view? And do I intend it? In practical ways, do I actually bring it into my life? Into my speech and conduct? and livelihood. Like that, now and then we explore the Eightfold Path. feeling these questions, not thinking about them?

[36:19]

And not losing the wide, clear mind of our sitting posture. and our deeply satisfying ordinary breathing. Now let me see if I can give you this simple traditional teaching I call the three minds of daily consciousness.

[38:52]

So let me see if I can give you this simple traditional teaching of the three mental states of your daily consciousness. Let's start with immediate consciousness. I'm not telling you anything new. I'm saying something that's familiar to you. But I want you to notice this which is familiar. More specifically than you usually do. Okay, so the first we'll call immediate consciousness. And that's like right now we're sitting here.

[39:54]

And without thinking about it, without thinking about you, I can feel your presence. And more technically, there's a feeling of of my senses know this situation. And your senses know this situation. And it's actually in this relationship that something is known. known or felt. And if I look at any one of you, in fact, I'm seeing my own mind seeing you.

[41:15]

Like if I hear the fountain or a bird. Do I hear the bird? Do I hear the bird the way another bird hears it? No, I only hear what my hearing can hear. So I'm actually hearing my own hearing of the bird. That's a fact. But we tend to not remember it. So you hear your hearing of the bird. And then you also are aware of the mystery of hearing the bird. You're only hearing a little bit of what the bird is saying.

[42:53]

Other, I mean, birds, other birds hear probably, we know quite differently than we do. So you're only hearing, each of us is only hearing part of the world. And there's a wide stretch of mystery, darkness that's present. A darkness that's between the senses. So if I again look at any one of you, if I really know I'm seeing what I see of you, I know you don't fit. You're much bigger than what I see.

[43:54]

So there's a sense of a presence, a presence of each one of you, that my senses sense part of. And I can bring attention to that. I can brighten that or make it more precise. I know it's actually my own interiority. So I can actually not think about it, but feel it. I can feel my seeing of you, hearing you, and so forth.

[45:15]

Okay. Okay. We can call that something like immediate consciousness. Now, If I look at you, for instance, what is your name? Peter? I can look at you and I can have this feeling of presence. And I can also notice that you're younger than I am. Now when I notice you're younger than I am, we can call that secondary consciousness.

[46:20]

I've given some form or some noticing to you, Peter. But I don't know your birth date. That I can't know from just looking at you. You'd have to tell me your birthday. Now we call that borrowed consciousness. Or incorporated consciousness or something. Incorporated consciousness. And you yourself had to be told your birthday.

[47:20]

So doing a simple thing like knowing your birthday depends on lots of things that we borrowed from our culture. Okay, now what's the difference between these three? Okay. Immediate consciousness and secondary consciousness like I can notice that you're younger, that is this present situation. So it's nourished from this present situation. If I I have to remember your birthday.

[48:30]

Or I'm thinking about the world in that way. It's suddenly not in this immediate situation. It's not nourished by this immediate situation. So imagine we're taking a walk in the forest up here. You can walk along and sort of feel the path. Feel the trees to each side of you. Now we can, let's call that immediate consciousness. And let's say you're with a friend. And you're just walking along. And you feel each other's stride. And one of you notices that, oh, There must have been a little forest fire over there or something.

[49:45]

Some trees are burned. And you feel a little bump that you go over. But you turn your attention and you look at the tree, the burned trees. But it's still the immediate situation. And you can immediately go rapidly, easily go back into immediate consciousness. But then one of you says, oh my gosh, I have to make some phone calls at five o'clock. And then you say, yes, I too, I have to do some errands before the store is closed.

[50:46]

Now you're in borrowed consciousness. Borrowed from our society. And you go over a bump into that. And it's quite difficult to get back into immediate consciousness. Now, I've heard the Dalai Lama give this teaching. And I've also heard him practice this teaching, seen him practice this teaching. One time I was actually in Munich, some years ago,

[51:52]

when His Holiness spoke before a large group of young Protestants, I think. And it was in some big Olympic amphitheater or some kind of big place in Munich. Yeah, and, you know, he stayed, when he first came to America, he stayed at my temple for eight days. 1970-something. And so I got to know him pretty well. And he wasn't famous then. And he's six months older than I am, so... Yeah, that's... And so we spent quite a bit of time together at that time.

[53:13]

So he, you know, it was a big auditorium, but I was somewhere in the middle, and he saw my kind of head, you know. So suddenly he waved, you know. And he's not just a monk, he's also something of a chipmunk. Er ist nicht nur ein Mönch, er ist auch irgendwie so ein... Chipmunk ist eine Art Eichhörnchen. Chipmunk. Because he's a little animal. Because he's just there and he's all around me. Scratches his head. Er sitzt im Erdhörnchen. He's a totally sweet, wonderful man. So he gives this talk. And almost the whole talk, he was in immediate consciousness or secondary consciousness.

[54:22]

And there was another man who gave a speech the physicist whose brother was head of... Weizsäcker. Weizsäcker, yeah. Thank you. You don't have to whisper. Weizsäcker, yeah. And he gave a very intelligent kind of environmentally... environmental-like speech. But he was in... borrowed consciousness most of the time. It was a good speech, but we listened to it, we didn't feel it. And the Dalai Lama actually, when he spoke, he said almost nothing. When he wasn't talking to Buddhists, So he said, were you there or something?

[55:38]

He said, we all want to be happy, don't we? Don't you want to be happy? I want to be happy. I mean, I'm exaggerating, but it had almost no content. Except his presence. And here's this bunch of young Protestants who became very happy. And afterwards everyone streamed out to the U-Bahn. And people were singing in the subway cars. It was like after a big peace march. people were smiling at each other and even at one point one train went by one direction singing and another train they picked up the other song and there was a grumpy Bavarian who couldn't figure out what was going on and he got up and went to the

[56:57]

Yeah, not so young. My age. Well, this is a kind of siddhi, a special power. It's a kind of? Siddhi. A siddhi is like a charism in Christianity. A siddhi is like power, like mind reading or something like that. Uh-huh. This is also so... I mean, to be able to take a large, I don't know, some thousands of people, and in a very short talk, less than half an hour, make everyone feel happy. And except for a couple remarks about China, he was in immediate or secondary consciousness the whole time.

[58:10]

And you feel good. But you know most of our educational system is in borrowed consciousness. How much information you have. Compared to others' information. Now, that's not bad. We need to have information. I want to know if this plastic is off-gassing. But again, if you spend the whole day in borrowed consciousness, by evening, a beer and television is probably pretty good. Yeah, you actually... not nourished by your day.

[59:23]

And one way to kind of get a feeling for practice And for what we mean by Dharma is while you're doing things see if you can do them in a way that you feel nourished. Walk at a speed that nourishes you, not that gets you somewhere. We think of walking now as locomotive, like compared to a car. I want to get from this point to that point. And we don't enjoy walking itself. So at the end of the day, we don't feel so good. And the other is to notice, do things completely.

[60:49]

And let me just try to give you a feel for that. If I pick up this bell. It's a series of small steps. And that's what dharma practice is. Noticing a certain pulse movement to everything. A movement that's always arising from stillness. So I'm going to pick up this bell. I bring my hand to it. And then I stop.

[61:50]

And I just feel the bell for a moment. And it's a little cool. And then I pick it up. And generally, if you do that, you pick it up and you put it here. What is this? It's a chakra. You know, when Sukhiyoshi first came to America, someone asked him, what do you notice about Americans? And they expected, I don't know what they expected, but he said, you all do things with one hand. And so I, what the heck is he talking about? So then I noticed we'd be having a meal together and somebody would say, pass me the salt.

[63:03]

And it was like... Like that, yeah. But if I asked Suki Rishi for the salt, he reached over, turned his body toward it, picked it up, brought it into the field of his body and then handed it to him. It all happened just as fast, but it felt different. It's almost like we have a a light here or a field here. And if Christian asks me for something, and I turn toward him, I'm turning this field or light toward him.

[64:06]

And then if I pass him something, I'm passing myself, not the object. Or the object is an excuse for a relationship. Now this view is not just Buddhist. It's a pervasive view in yogic culture. Why do you think the Chinese and Japanese don't put handles on their cups? Warum meint ihr, gibt es keine Griffe, oder warum bringen die Japaner und Chinesen keine Griffe an ihren Tassen an? Well, they're underdeveloped world and they never thought of handles.

[65:09]

It's because they want you to use two hands. And they want you to feel the warmth of the liquid. So the cup always has a little rim and an edge where the top part doesn't get so hot. And if you go to a restaurant which has first or second first or perhaps even second generation Japanese or Chinese? Where do they hold their cups? Right here. And after they drink, they hold it here. There's little invisible shelves here called chakras.

[66:13]

Where you put things. I mean, this is yoga culture, and this is where this meditation practice comes from. To feel the body in what you're doing. To feel the body and mind as relationships. That can be, that sensibility can be developed in your particular everyday life. And if you do develop that in your everyday life, you'll find sitting meditation is

[67:14]

It feels different. It's more satisfying. It makes a deeper sense. Okay, so let's take a break in a moment. But let's, as I said, let's sit for a minute before we have a break. Only a minute, so just hold your posture, however it is. Well, let's come back at 4 o'clock.

[70:22]

And thank you very much for being here now. Thank you for translating. How's your voice doing? But how's it feel? It's a little rough. Would you like to ask me about or comment about in relationship to what we've been speaking about? I have a question concerning the topic of consciousness. My question is what kind of information What kind of consciousness is it when we go out into the world with information and then perceive the world more completely in the example of, for example, picking herbs?

[71:51]

When I study herbs and I hear about a new herb, then it is a kind of borrowed consciousness because it's just an information. And then with this information I go outside and look in the grass and everywhere I discover this kind of herb and I haven't seen it before without having this information. Yeah. Good. I'll come back. Yes. Someone else. Yes. How is immediate consciousness connected with inner happiness or power of the original personality? For instance, the holiness. Okay, so questions about this? three minds of daily consciousness, I'll come back to all at once.

[73:24]

Okay, someone else. You're all completely happy with what's been said. Understand it. I'm not that good a teacher. So let's put borrowed or well, let's call it borrowed.

[74:37]

I know it's a little bit negative word, but it's the only word, best word I have. Okay, so we borrowed secondary and immediate. Partly drawing it just helps give us a feeling for it. So if you're in, as I said earlier, immediate consciousness.

[75:48]

And again, walking along, you notice something. Your immediate consciousness, you notice something like, for those of you who weren't here earlier, cut down a tree or something. Or a new girl. You're in immediate consciousness and you go to secondary consciousness and you feel a little bump as you go across. But you return fairly easily to immediate consciousness. Okay, and then say that you start discussing things like The nature of herbs, and where you read the book, and all that stuff?

[76:57]

And you feel a much better bond when you go across that. And it's kind of good to get a feeling for the bond. like I can speak to you with the feeling of immediate consciousness and when I do that what I'm saying feels nourishing If I start thinking about, well, the dates of such and such a person are this and that, then I'm in borrowed consciousness.

[78:03]

Yeah, maybe necessary to know these things. But I definitely don't feel nourished. I feel like somebody pulled the plug out of the wall and I'm working on batteries. Okay. But if I stay in immediate consciousness, even if I mention various things, if I keep returning to immediate consciousness, overall you can call my activity immediate consciousness. And I'm not listening to myself so much in speaking, but listening to you.

[79:15]

And that feeling allows me to find something to say. Okay. Now, for example, with your example of the herbs. So you read about an herb in a book. And you go out and you find that herb. But what? a yogi would do, or a shaman person, is actually spend some time with that earth and try to take away what the book said about it.

[80:17]

There's a woman I know that I can't think of her name now. who is an artist. She's Swiss. And she likes to draw, I mean, some of you may know her, I know about her, but she likes to draw insects and like biological things. Botanical things. So she was drawing insects. And she does very detailed drawings of insects. And she began noticing that the insects, some of them where their shell is, would have an antenna coming out of their shell instead of out of their... But, I don't know, she thought it was strange, but she just drew it that way. And then she noticed over a period of some months that every time she got close to nuclear power plants, she found insects like this.

[81:22]

So she went to the local scientists And said, well, look at the insects. Here's the drawings. And they said, oh, no, we check regularly. The insects are fine. And It took her quite a long time to get them to recognize that the insects were different. Because the scientists in there looking were seeing what they were supposed to see. But when you draw it, you actually have to really look, and that comes out in a strange place.

[82:43]

Drawing puts you in immediate consciousness. So if you went out and then drew these herbs, Like the interesting experience. So there's that kind of distinction between immediate and borrowed consciousness. But certainly we need borrowed consciousness for... incorporated consciousness or educated consciousness. To know all kinds of things. But you don't want to just know the herb that way. So anyway, as I said, this is a A very basic teaching that I also heard the Dalai Lama teach once.

[83:57]

And present in his own behavior. This ability to stay in a kind of consciousness. nourished by the immediate situation and not go into thinking consciousness. unless it was necessary, and to go in in a way that stayed in contact with immediate consciousness. And part of the skill of this practice is noticing the bump.

[85:00]

Notice energetically how it feels different. And even in zazen you can, I mean, not even, zazen is a good place to notice it. Notice the different feeling when you are able to stay with your breath or stay with your immediate situation. If you can do it long enough, The body starts feeling wider and clearer. It seems to have boundaries there, rather wide. But as soon as you start thinking, you're inside somewhere. Okay, so again, we need to think about things.

[86:06]

But a practice like this is to see if most of the time you can stay in this immediate consciousness. And to be able to do it, it really helps to notice the little bump. And if you can notice the bump and not be just distracted by your thinking. Because if you just notice your thinking, it's too late. If you notice the body feeling that goes with the shift to thinking. then you can usually relax or something like relax and be back in immediate consciousness. And generally, I almost guarantee you, you'll feel peace. The more you get in that habit, the better you'll feel during the day.

[87:27]

And if you... get into this simple habit of completing things that you do. Like I started to say, if I pick this up with one or two hands, I put my hand on it, And it pauses long enough to feel the metal. And the coolness of it. And then I pick it up to a point where I feel completion. Yeah, and then I might pick this up and bring it up. And I do each thing in a way that feels complete.

[88:40]

It's an aesthetic feeling. And if you do each thing so that it feels complete, little things, I mean the sense that Anjin Thomas showed us the other day. When you come up to your cushion, this is just a more explicitly embodied sense of completeness. You don't just walk up to your cushion and sit down. You could do that if you want.

[89:49]

And you can do it with a feeling of completeness. But in formal practice situations, you emphasize completing each thing. So if I come up to my cushion, I look at it. And usually we bow to it. It's like a kind of acknowledgement of where you are just then. Then I turn around and, oh, wow, where did you all come from? So I have a feeling of where I am. Then I kind of respect you or the room. And then that's one motion. That's a motion.

[90:52]

And then bringing my foot up is a series of motions, each one I feel complete. I lift through my backbone. Now, you can do that quickly. I can pick up the bell quite quickly, but I can still feel completion on each step. If you practice such a simple thing, feeling complete on each little motion, little activity, little thoughts, You'll feel more complete.

[91:53]

It's simple like that. If you're always doing things halfway, you'll feel kind of, you know, a little funny. Yeah. So this is about coming into, again, a pace or pulse with your own mind and body. And then with the feel of the world. Okay. Now, what did you ask about the three minds of daily consciousness? Oh, I remember. I remember now. Okay. This is just about... It's not about the mind of zazen or anything.

[92:56]

It's just about these categories in which you are... Your thinking and activity is... Drawn from the present situation and when it's not. It's a kind of yogic craft. That's all. But if you practice it, it opens you up to other things. Yes. Okay. Okay, so the last thing I'd like to give you today is the three functions of self. Okay. Now, if we treat self as an entity, And we identify self with an observing consciousness.

[94:16]

Then we have quite a lot of problem with who's doing this practice, who's thinking these thoughts, and so forth. But if we don't think of self as an entity that's some kind of somewhere inside us, you know,

[94:41]

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