So let me say a little bit more about the posture. It does take a while to learn it, for some people a long time. But for me, it's a lifetime treasure. I remember once I injured myself This sounds like a big deal, but lifting a car out of a drainage ditch. In Japan, some young driver was drunk and he got him stuck in one of the drainage ditches beside the roof. A little car and I was able to lift the non-engine side out. And then all these Japanese farmers appeared, totally embarrassed that a Westerner was lifting a car.

[01:23]

So there were about six people on the heavier side of the car, on the bumper. And I had to save face for us Westerners, so I had to participate. But there's no room for me, so I was kind of... So for the first time in my life I put my back out real seriously. It would take me at least 30 minutes to turn over. Lying on the ground, if I wanted to turn over, it would take about 30 minutes. And it was interesting, I didn't care whether I could sleep or wake or stand up, I only cared if I could sit. I think I would have been happy to never walk again but I would not have been happy not to sit again.

[02:49]

Every morning I spent all this time finally getting myself sitting posture and I could do it and in that posture I discovered how to control the pain and relax the back and eventually several days later drive back to Kyoto and in this posture I learned again how to deal with pain how to relax my back I was way out on the end of a remote peninsula and there was no medical help nearby.

[03:51]

Again, human beings who don't sit Zazen are still wonderful human beings. But my experience has been in my life is that I validate my life through what happens in this posture and not through other postures. I make practical decisions in walking around states of mind. All fundamental decisions I make in this posture.

[04:56]

Or the mind that I discovered through this posture. Okay. I put it this way because I find it myself extraordinary that I myself find it extraordinary that the mind is so connected with the body, that the posture of the body makes a difference in what mind you function within. Now it doesn't mean that you, you know, again, you have to live the rest of your life in a pretzel.

[06:23]

But it does mean you can discover the tuning of the mind and body all the time. And you're tuning the mind and body primarily through attention. And primarily through attention to the breath. And through attention to the posture. And the posture particularly, your hara and your spine. A statement Sukhirushi made, I've been coming back to now and then.

[07:26]

It's in the last epilogue of Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Reality, he said, he meant something more like actuality but he said reality cannot be caught by thinking or feeling. He meant feeling in the sense of emotions. He said just to watch, to moment after moment watch the breath and to watch your posture. And primarily he meant, again, through your spine.

[08:47]

It's true nature. And then he said there's no secret beyond this. I ask you, could this really be true? Now one of the things I'm doing in the seminar in myself and also for myself and also as part of the process of this seminar And one of the things I do in a seminar, with myself, but also as part of the process of a seminar, is to create a little confusion here and a lot of questions. Because, you know, we can't really approach this without... asking yourself a lot of questions. So we're, you know, it's kind of corny, but we're also sort of trying to.

[10:14]

Corny, schmalzy. What is your philosophy of life? What is the meaning of life? What is a lived life? What is the experience of life? living. What is the satisfaction of living? So somehow these questions are in the back of everything we do. So I want to Zen practice is to bring them into the foreground. And how to bring them into the foreground. Not so much to answer them. Or to think they can be answered.

[11:16]

But rather to feel the presence of the questions all the time. Oh dear. I say that when I'm lost, don't know what to do. Because, you know, I say something and I realize, if I say that, then I have to say all these things to have this make sense. So I think I'd like to avoid it, but I can't. to introduce the basic world view of Buddhism.

[12:23]

Which is that we are one single interdependent continuum. If we're one interdependent continuum, then whatever we are, whatever is, is an activity. And if everything is interdependent, if things are not entities, if things are activities, then you are not living in a world where there's answers.

[13:24]

We could say there's answers We're living in a world which is nothing but process. And that process is entered into and activated by questions. And it's stopped by answers. And so to seek answers is to seek delusion. So in the sense that we do seek something like answers, we seek temporary answers with the feeling that this is an answer for this moment. And maybe we come to some big answers that influence our whole life.

[14:38]

But it's still a process of continually reapplying that answer. So I'm trying to get rid of as many answers as we can. And at least for now, these days, locate ourselves in question. So, what is a mind? What is a body? Do we have only one mind? Well, obviously, the seminar assumes that we don't.

[15:40]

But do we have only one body? Well, maybe we have more than one body. I know somebody who's practicing and studying kinesiology. You say that we're different in German, don't you? What do you say? Kinesiology. Ah, yeah. Okay, done. I don't care what you say. Say anything you want. Kinesiology. Anyway, and this raises another question. What is it? We don't know. We don't know.

[16:42]

We don't know. Okay. Anyway, one of it is, it's partly, it's a diagnostic tool. I remember in the 60s, people would, it started, in my experience, in the 60s. That was a long time ago for most of you. And it led me to have this watch. Because someone said you have a watch with a battery in it. I said, I don't know, I guess it has a battery. They said, put your arm out. I had the watch, you know. So I put the watch on me and I put my arm out.

[17:49]

And they pushed it down. So what? They said, take the watch off. So I took the watch off and put my arm out. And they couldn't push it down. So I thought, so much for battery watch. And now they have ways I have no idea. You hold something like water or medicine and then if you can push your finger through it's probably not good for you, and if you can not push your fingers through it, it's probably good, and like that. Yeah, I really know not much about this.

[18:51]

But I've seen enough demonstrations and, you know, And it does seem that there's a body which knows things that your conscious Your conscious sense of bodily knowing doesn't know. So your body somehow knows that battery watches are not good for you. You know probably a lot about this. So that means that there's some kind of other bodies that knows things that, you know, like, that knows that your watch is not good for you.

[19:56]

Okay, so now can we bring our... Yes, go ahead. I think it's even more complex. Yeah, please, I'm sure it is. The meaning of the tester. Yeah. Influences the result. So if the tester thinks that the watch with the battery is bad for you, you will have no power. If you are convinced that the watch with the battery doesn't make anything for you, is perfect, then it will be perfect. You think so? Because I wasn't convinced. It's only in your head. You think so? Yeah. Well, maybe it's true. It's time for the, so to say, doctor, because he gets proved what he wants to be proved. And he wants you to have some illness, then he can heal you.

[20:59]

Well, okay, maybe that's the thing. Okay. The force putting down will force opening up, so he has less power. Maybe so. So as the guard of translation. Should we translate this conversation? Yes. Okay. So George means that it is even more complex than presented, because the person who tests influences the result. So if he thinks that the clock is bad for you, then he will be able to press down the arm. However, if the person who is tested is convinced that the watch is good for them, then this person is not able to press down the hand. Eva said it's only in the head. And what you said, I didn't get it. The two handles work together. The power of holding up and the power of pressing down. And that's also the pressing... Okay, I'll never use this example again.

[22:05]

Shut down. No, it's not. Because it proves what you want to prove. It's the power of spirit. The connection of spirit, mind and body. Okay. I need your help. But I'm not quite as skeptical as you are. As Eva said. And I tend to be very skeptical about things. But I certainly didn't think when this was done to me that my battery watch was a problem. In any case, whether this proves it or not, the body does know things that your consciousness doesn't know.

[23:17]

The body and mind in this posture somehow seems to make different decisions than the body in another posture. Of course it's true if you try to run for a bus, it's harder to solve a calculus problem. So if you're sitting at a table, it's easier to solve a calculus problem. But that's just a difference in the ability to concentrate and... The difference between the minds that arise through sitting is another kind of difference.

[24:34]

I am asking us to wonder about our mind and body and its relationship. And I'll come back in various ways to how we can explore the mind in zazen and also in other ways. So the initial way we know the world is through our, if we look at it experientially as I say, is through our perceptions.

[26:37]

And we tend to think our perceptions are the way things are. But there's not just pure perception. All perception is conditioned perception. And can we have unconditioned perception? So that's a That's a question we ought to think about. Certainly one of the things Zen explores is the possibility of unconditioned perception.

[28:01]

But that's pretty difficult. So now we can ask, can you recondition perception? I think first we have to think about reconditioning perception. Even the word condition tells us something. Again, I don't know what... the equivalent word in German is. But we say things in English like these are the conditions. But the etymology of the word condition literally means that's what's said together.

[29:06]

That's what the did part and the con, what's said together or what's agreed upon. Already in a word like condition in English. There's the assumption that what we call the world is a nexus of meanings. We live in a world, an agreed upon world. I was struck again, struck having this problem with my eye. This Dr. Fauder, who did the operation, told me I had only 40% vision in this eye.

[30:25]

And I have only 50% vision in this eye. Sounds like I'm more than half blind. Maybe if it gets to 90%, I am half blind. But what's interesting is my left eye, let's just keep it simple, My left eye is giving me only 40% of the information that it used to give me. But my brain is making just as complete a picture as ever. My brain can make the information it's getting into a full picture. And that works just fine. Until I'm driving.

[32:00]

And as soon as there's a lot more information, car is moving, my brain isn't getting enough information. And suddenly I don't know for sure, is that truck on my side of the road or the other side of the road? So anyway, my brain is making the picture and As long as it's not too complex, it works very well. So part of Zen practice is working with being present within the process of getting information from the world. Okay, so I'm putting each of us in this position.

[33:18]

To acknowledge or recognize that we're making the world we're living in. We're making it through our senses. The five physical senses and mind. And then all of that working together as the body and mind. So there's all these ingredients. And you're participating with these ingredients. Okay. Now, we can't do much about the... We're involved in this world we've agreed upon.

[34:21]

There's only 40% vision. My eye is... it still creates my agreed upon world. And we can discuss, I won't right now, that if I have a different view of what the world is, my eye will confirm that or not. So my perceptions will create a world that I that conform to my views of the world.

[35:29]

And to really work with what is the minds what minds would mean in Zen we have to somehow put ourselves in this process of seeing the world as ingredients. Okay, so at this point I don't think we can uncondition the world. But I think we can start reconditioning the world. Now, the first, the most basic attitude in relationship to the world, to perception, in Buddhism is acceptance.

[36:37]

You have to develop the habit of accepting whatever appears. Now, to activate this attitude of acceptance, I suggest you use three words or other attitudes. And we've discussed this many times. And you experiment with saying yes to everything. Or you can try welcome. Or both, or I don't care.

[37:39]

And in case you meet a bear in the mountains, maybe you need the third one, watch out. Where we live in Creston, it's possible to meet a bear in the mountain. And your first attitude better be acceptance. I'm here, the bear is there. Okay, but you don't necessarily have to say welcome. But you don't want to frighten him either. But watch out is probably good.

[38:42]

Recently somebody in Creston was out hunting with a bow and arrow. Not hunting bears. And this bear, he saw this bear. What's the guy's name? He's Portuguese? And this bear, Marcio, yeah, this bear was somewhere over there and suddenly kind of swung its head around and then stopped and discharged him. Well, so Márcio, the Portuguese in Crestown, was not from Bern, but... He is Brazilian. A charging bear is a serious matter. Luckily, he's... quite skillful, and he waited to the last minute and then put an arrow right in the bear's shoulder, which I guess it's such a big impact from a powerful bow that it actually, the bear ran off anyway.

[40:06]

was stunned. Anyway, I'm suggesting that somehow you work with Whatever appears, you accept. And if you work with this, you'll notice it probably often. Whatever appears you don't accept necessarily, you like it or you don't like it, etc. So you notice what your usual reactions are.

[41:12]

Some of us may walk around with a mind that's always, I don't like it. Whatever it is, I don't like it. I'm not going to accept you unless you prove yourself. So anyway, you try to find some way to activate this, actualize this attitude of acceptance. And the second basic attitude I'm suggesting To recondition your perceptions is to say, what is it? So this is, in my experience, as basic as So the first in the

[42:30]

in the first attention you bring to anything, is what is. Before I allow myself to name this as a microphone, it's in some space where it's not yet a microphone, etc. So how you activate, I think, how you activate this second attitude is you have to kind of pause for the question. So you develop the habit of pausing for each appearance. Now you notice I'm using the word appearance.

[43:39]

This is already a word which enters into things as activities. So I'm not assuming the world is already there. A kind of already there container we live in. Of course, in some practical senses. It is an already there container we live in. And we have to practically think that way. We're going to go have lunch next door at some point, right?

[44:57]

What are they expecting us, 12.30? One. One, okay. No one knows. No one knows. It's a decision. Yeah, ask when they'd like us to come. Thank you. In any case, we'll go to lunch. And in every way I'll describe it as a container over there with tables and we can sit down and eat. From my point of view, that's a rather clumsy but useful conceptual formulation. My experiential reality, actuality, will be a series of appearances between here and there.

[46:12]

And really, I will feel during this series of appearances, anything could happen. I doubt if a bear could come rushing out of the forest, is that right? Not here. Well... But still, my feeling is a bear could come rushing out of the forest. So that's an experiential, an experience... experienceable actuality.

[47:17]

But I'll actually find, at least I've had to cultivate. It didn't come automatically. And one way I've cultivated it is to have a basic a mind that's conditioned to ask, what is it? And the what is it requires a kind of pause. And the what is it requires a kind of pause. And when the pause becomes a habit, we don't really have to ask the question. The pause is a kind of moment of waiting.

[48:21]

Waiting within appearance. Now let me again bring up what I implied before, the difference between understanding and incubation. Understanding. It's a distinction I've been emphasizing recently. Making a contrast between what happens when you try to understand something. Understand.

[49:23]

And what happens when you have the feeling of, in English, you can use the word incubated, So if we go back to Sukhiroshi's statement, reality can't be caught by thinking or feeling. Just moment after moment observe the breath and observe the posture. We could almost say serve Serve the breath, serve the posture.

[50:30]

You can't exactly, you can understand the idea to observe the breath. But you can't really understand observing the breath properly. Or it's sort of inconsequential. But you can incubate observing them. In other words, you can discover what happens when you observe the breath over months and months and months and months. Something happens which is like an adventure, you can't really predict it. And what happens when month after month, moment after moment, you observe your posture.

[51:49]

So I'm not asking for an answer to what is it. I'm asking what happens when you incubate the question, what is it? And that question, asking that question, having the feel of the presence of that question. basically creates a kind of pause. Like the five dharmas, things appear and then you name it. And the naming, it's a teaching called the five dharmas.

[53:02]

Something appears, you name it, you discriminate about it, and then you call it a dharma because at that moment you have right knowledge. And right knowledge means to see it as an activity. And if you see it as an activity, it only has a momentary existence. And that results in an experience that's called And suchness is an experience of emptiness. So here we have a little simple bridge to the highest teaching of Buddhism. You ask, As appearance.

[54:07]

And instead of naming it, you go directly to what is it. And what is it enters you into what-ness. So, in a way, the mind that arises through The pause for what is it can be a direct entry into the non-substantiality of everything.

[55:10]

So, something appears, And you're noticing this is your experienced reality. You can say you know what the object is. But you've already jumped to naming and discrimination. And if we can locate ourselves in the immediacy of things, first of all, in the experienceable the experienceable activity, and that experienceable activity

[56:26]

And this experience is always a process of selection and editing. Because there are a million things here right now. And you're putting only some of them together in a certain way. So there's appearance, which is already a selection process. But before you name that selection, a particular thing, a microphone or a bell or whatever, you hold yourself for a moment in that not yet named space. So this is a reconditioning which is close to unconditioning. The first attitude is acceptance.

[57:51]

The second attitude or habit, and I always say a habit you inhabit, is the not yet named space. If I say pause, it's putting it in the context of time. Or if I say the not yet named space, I'm obviously making it spatial. So here we have another dynamic where time tends to turn into space. Where the pause in time tends to become spatial. Or the pause in time tends to become spatial. And you find yourself in a not yet named space.

[59:11]

In which anything can happen. As soon as you name it, it all comes together. And you're in a narrative of usual reality. Okay, if you can feel the physical hold, dharma means to hold. If you can feel this physically hold, held, or hold, held space. For a moment. And what Tsukuyoshi says, moment after moment, he means like this. Yeah, it's not just a generalization.

[60:17]

It's the spatial experience of moment, moment, moment. the non, I don't know, how many ways can I say this, the non-narrative spatial moment. I'm just testing my translation. This could be simpler, these tastes. Not for you.

[61:19]

They have to be difficult. OK. So, in this not yet named spatial moment, Okay, you can experience uniqueness. In the sense that actually everything is unique. Nothing is repeatable. Yeah. Okay, so that's the second attitude you bring to perception okay and the third attitude you bring is and the last for now no hurt you try to have a basic attitude of not hurting anything This is also compassion.

[62:33]

Anyway, you have a basic attitude. You don't want to hurt other beings or hurt objects, etc. And again, how you actualize or activate that attitude is the best I can say is you feel everything belongs together or belongs to you. The root of the word belong is galang. And belong means near at hand. So it means you feel together with something.

[63:35]

So my sense is, when you feel together with something, when you feel you belong together with something, you actually treat things carefully. I mean, if... I find I have to make these things very simple for myself to have access. If I feel I belong together with this glass, like when I'm washing dishes or something like that, or drinking, If I experience that I belong together with it, I can belong together

[64:57]

with it better if it's not broken. I can certainly drink out of it better if it's not broken. So I feel if I can bring this feeling of belonging together with things, like while I'm washing dishes, I'm quite careful with each glass. So these are the most fundamental, I think, initial attitudes you can bring to perception. I think they're the basis for developing Buddhist practice. The first is you're just looking at perception. And at some point you recognize, either through intellect or experience, or both,

[66:05]

that perception is already conditioned. And it's not easy to uncondition. But because it's already conditioned you can bring conditions to it or attitudes to it that make it more accessible to the life you probably most deeply want to live. So these three attitudes become minds in themselves.

[67:22]

Three minds, let's say. But they not only become minds in themselves, they become the ground, background and foreground of all minds. And those three attitudes to cultivate are acceptance, what isn't, and not hurting, or belonging. That's enough for this morning, isn't it? And really, you could bring lots of attitudes to whatever you do. These three are the most fundamental for Buddhist practice. So why don't we, since we're learning how to sit, why don't we sit for a moment, at least for a spatial moment of a few spaces.

[68:28]

The first space is the first hit of the bell. And I can say there will be three to start. Or I can let you discover there will be three. Or I could confuse you and make it two and a half. What is... And just one ring is made up of so many tiny little waves of sound one after another.

[70:38]

Tiny little receding sounds. which our body can also live within those tiny spaces.

[71:04]

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