Good afternoon. One of my weak points among several or even many are my knees. And mostly it stems from an accident or damage or whatever I did when I was 18. A few weeks ago. And then the other day, a couple of days ago, I stepped off a wall not much higher than this onto my right leg and my knee went out of joint as I stepped onto it. So now it's not behaving properly. And this morning, Otmar said, why are you getting old fast this week?

[01:01]

Because I was limping up the stairs. So I mention it just to say I'm not getting old that fast. I admire each of you for coming to Sashin. To be willing to want to, to be willing to study yourself. And to do something that's always difficult. Almost, I think. For most of us, it's always difficult. And so in a way we're not just studying ourselves.

[02:21]

We're forcing ourselves to study ourselves. Yeah. Once you get in the session, you have a choice. It's study or die. Or observe and hopefully survive. Now there's two, you know, we could say there's two, we're not supposed to say the word goal in Buddhism, but let's say there's two goals in doing Sashin. Now it's actually a little bit hard for me to find words to distinguish the two goals. But they're both present in our practice. But in Sashin the second one is particularly present.

[03:39]

Which we might say is a kind of maybe shamanic power or power, resonant power or something like that. So one goal we could say is Something like realization through acceptance. Or understanding or wisdom. And the other goal is something like realization through transformation. No, you can't really separate these two, but there's a big difference in emphasis, actually, and difference in how you practice. Now, there's a number of effects, maybe even fruits of doing sashimi.

[04:52]

Yeah, one we might say is you develop hopefully a calm relationship to pain and discomfort. Physical pain and emotional pain. And I think you have to live a few years with the calm acceptance, calm relationship to emotional and physical pain. And I think you have to live a few years with this calm acceptance, with this calm relationship to physical and emotional pain. Before you really realize what a treasure this is or power this is.

[05:53]

Because our life is actually got quite a bit of suffering in it through ourselves and through others. And more subtle suffering that we hardly notice. But being able to have a calm acceptance to emotional and physical pain We actually end up noticing more subtle suffering. Now that sounds like not such a good result. You notice more suffering. But that suffering that's in the background of our life is actually often controlling our life.

[07:01]

And until we're able to be strong enough to feel it and sensitive, subtle enough to notice it, strong enough to notice it and tolerate it, then we can actually find ways to not let it control from the background our life. So a calm, let's call it a calm relationship to emotional and physical pain. And another... result is... I'm making it sound terrible.

[08:21]

Another result is the collapse of our conceptual structures. Thanks, you know you're all welcome. You know, if you get to the point where it's either painful or you're bored or it's never going to end and you'd like to shoot the dawn, And you can't do any of those things, except continue to be bored, maybe. But boredom is even worse than pain. But boredom is actually worse than pain.

[09:27]

Pain at least amuses you, I mean, it gets your attention. And the only way to cope with it is really, or what happens, forced to study yourself. It's these conceptual structures we built up over the decades of our life turn out to be of not much use. All our social skills don't help at all when you're just sitting there in your meter square world. Deine sozialen Fähigkeiten, die stellen sich heraus, dass die überhaupt nicht helfen, wenn du hier auf deiner quadratmetergroßen Welt sitzt.

[10:29]

You know, I'm really a nice guy. Please ring the bell. It doesn't help. Ich bin wirklich ziemlich nett. Also jetzt schlag doch bitte die Glocke. Das hilft eigentlich nicht. So you have to forget that you're a nice person. Also müsst ihr vergessen, dass ihr ein netter Mensch seid. And discover you're not such a nice person. I mean, maybe. And then you're just there. Concepts don't help. So the collapse of your conceptual world is one thing that happens in Sashin. It could happen. It's good if it happens. And then you're left with what we call Feeling alone, non-graspable feeling. Just last week, two weeks ago or something, with Nicole's help, I taught one week of the Eugene Gendland Focusing Summer School.

[11:30]

And they asked me to do it ten years ago or so, two summers in a row. And they asked me to do it again this year or so with Nicole's help, and I said, okay. And they asked me again this year if I would do it, and with Nicole's help I said, well, I'll do it. And they talk about a felt sense, a subtle sense of things that you have to listen to to discover how you really feel. And their therapeutic approach is closely related or is rooted in this, being able to notice and act through a felt sense.

[12:56]

And I, and it's, it's so surprisingly close to how we work with phrases. And how we discover phrases to work with. And I was asked to do this 10 years ago because the founder of Focusing Work in Germany went to a lecture of mine in Berlin and said, this sounds like us. Now Gendlin is a philosopher as well as a psychologist. And one of the things he says is that Feeling flows into concepts, but concepts don't flow into feeling.

[14:22]

And that observation is, I think, exactly accurate. Conceptions are rooted in feeling. The concepts are rooted in feeling. But the flow is feeling to concepts, not concepts to feeling. Concepts often cut us off from feeling. Yeah, or structure the world in a way that we have less access to feelings. So what happens if your conceptual world doesn't work anymore? You can't... It dissolves. One, if it does it in ordinary life, it can be a nervous breakdown.

[15:44]

It can be something pretty scary. But if it happens in everyday life, Something like this happens in Sashin. And in small doses it does happen. You just have to resort to, I'm just here, what can I do? I'm just here, stuck. You're just here, you're stuck. It's like being behind an orioke, you're stuck, you can't get up. You can fold the bowls up. Imprisoned behind an orioke. So that's our trick in Sashin, to put you in prison. And then you have to get out by dissolving the jail.

[16:45]

Yeah. Yeah, and if you're sitting on this cushion, there's nowhere to go crazy to. You're just stuck on the cushions. You might as well stay sane. So our conceptual framework loosens or even dissolves. Also lockert sich unser konzeptuelles Rahmenwerk oder löst sich gar auf. And we find ourselves located in non-graspable feeling. Und wir finden uns verortet in einem nicht greifbaren Gefühl. Yeah, or pre-conceptual feeling.

[17:46]

Ja, oder ein pre-konzeptuelles Gefühl. Yeah, you get kind of used to that. Daran kann man sich gewöhnen. Just there, whatever happens is okay. But it's also a kind of power. Because it really is directly you and not any conceptual world. And it goes beyond a word like you. The word you belongs to other people and to society. But this non-graspable feeling, this preconceptual you, belongs only to you. To non-you. Yeah, we discover a me or a you that doesn't belong to others. And then from this you that doesn't belong to others, you can reconceptualize the world.

[19:14]

So probably this as a process happens over a number of sashins, but it can happen during lecture. And then when you reconceptualize the world, the world really feels like it belongs to you, intimately belongs to you. Now this is, you know, I would like you to reaffirm, reconfirm, think about your relationship to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha.

[20:29]

Most of you have taken the precepts to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Refuge, yeah, but also to know oneself through Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. And that's really to know yourself through yourself, through others and through the phenomenal world. So you can, you know, why is one's self parallel to Buddha? I mean, it's clear that others can be parallel to Sangha. And the phenomenal world can be parallel to Dharma.

[21:42]

Our practice is to know the world as dharmas. And to know the world with no outside, no place for creators and things like that. And if there's no outside, there's only this as inside. So the phenomenal world is the source and the manifestation of whatever there is. Including wisdom. So there's a parallel between the phenomenal world and Dharma. And this, you know, I would like you to kind of think about this, notice this. And Sangha, what does it mean to think of others as those we live with and those we practice with?

[22:57]

The you that belongs to others and the you that belongs to no one but And the you that belongs to no one but you is something close to Buddha. I mean, Buddha was, is a person. I mean, it's a person, an enlightened person. Der Buddha war und ist ein Mensch, ist eine Person, also ein erleuchteter Mensch. And you represent, in Buddha's teaching, Buddha nature.

[24:03]

And as Sukhyoshi says, however you act, whatever you do, I mean, maybe you're lousy, but then you're just a lousy Buddha. And like Suzuki Roshi says, no matter what you do, no matter what, maybe you're a very lazy, a very poor soul. A very poor soul. Or maybe we say a Buddha who could be better. But then you're just a poor soul Buddha. We're all a Buddha who could be better. So Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. So I present this because taking a vow is part of the ritual that brings us into resonance with the world.

[25:14]

Okay. Now, Buddha, sâshin also helps us develop our intent or concentration. I'd like to use the term resonant, resonant, resonant concentration. Now, I think I'll leave that for a moment. And I want to suggest another thing for this session.

[26:16]

Is that you think of the phenomenal world as a continuum. Okay, the phenomenal world is a continuum. But I'd like you to think of it that way. That you're in the midst of a continuum. And you're continuing the continuum. Part of the continuity of the continuum. I mean, I think of a chorus. You know, a chorus like people who sing together and do something together. When you sing in a chorus, chorus can mean more than just singing together, but when you sing in a chorus, let's say. It's nice to hear a chorus sing, but it's different to sing with the chorus.

[27:20]

It's difficult. It's different when you sing with the chorus and not just hear a chorus. And to really feel the chorus, you have to start singing with it. That's a particular kind of experience. And the sense of the world as a continuum, it also makes a difference if you're singing along with the continuum. And not just observing the continuum. Oh, now, how the heck do we sing along with the continuum of the phenomenal world? This is too much for the first day of Sessions. And don't tell me the third day it hurts too much. Okay.

[28:40]

But anyway, here I go. The world, the phenomenal world is a continuum. Now what do you usually experience as a continuum? Self. And where do you usually experience self? In your thinking. So you actually, I mean, just take an inventory or notice how much your thinking and yourself are interrelated. And how much your sense of the world, the continuity of the world is supplied internally. by self-referential thinking and by thinking. By thinking and by self-referential thinking.

[29:41]

And this is obvious stuff, we all know. Know and notice. But I think we have to keep reminding ourselves of it because it's such a pervasive form of suffering. And what I'm asking us to notice now is we are hiding the continuum of the world for us through the continuum of self. As Dogen says, the world does not originally belong to the self. So what is this continuum of the world? Of the phenomenal world? And what's the difference between finding oneself located in the continuum of the phenomenal world instead of the continuum of thinking and self?

[31:13]

This distinction I'd like you to try to bring into your awareness during the Sashin. Where do I locate the continuum of self and world? And the flow of this continuum may get interrupted by Sashin. Or you may feel yourself suddenly in the chorus of this continuum in a new way. So I'm suggesting that we practice with, let's say, three words, mind and mind. Mind, three words, mind and mind.

[32:25]

Oh, okay. That reminds me of a first grade joke. How do you spell candy with two letters? C and Y. Sorry. See, do you understand? C-A-N-D-Y. C and Y. Oh, C and Y. Yeah, also C and Y, but it doesn't make much sense in German. I know. But mind and mind may not make much sense in English or German. Okay. Because I'd like us to find a way to establish a feeling of the continuum of mind or the medium of mind So maybe we could say that in this session I'd like you to feel the medium of mind as a continuum.

[33:54]

And maybe you can use these three words, mind and mind, or some version of it in whatever language you want. Yeah, in German and Dutch and Swiss German. Okay, mind and mind. Now, what do I mean by mind and mind? Whenever you see a percept, which is all the time, you notice the act of perception. Okay, let's say this stick here. Yeah, you notice it, so that's a percept. And you notice that it is a percept, which is to notice it as mind. So you notice it as mind or understand it as mind because it's a percept.

[35:12]

What you're experiencing is a percept. And you don't feel it with your hand, but feeling it with my hand is a percept. You can't translate that, so... Okay. So it's a percept, it's mind. We know that it's a percept, it's perception. So you know every percept is mind. Also erkennst du jede Wahrnehmung als Geist. Das ist also der erste Geist. In diesem Geist und Geist. Und der zweite Geist. Du schaust, ob du das auch als Geist spüren kannst. Du kennst das als Geist, aber du spürst das auch als Geist. To know it as mind and feel it as mind.

[36:29]

To see it, understand it as mind and experience it as mind. If you can get an actualized sense of that we would have made great progress in the Sashin. Mind and mind. Thank you very much.

[36:58]

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