So we should start then. Yeah, where to start? What are you going to look? It's on the phone. Bodhidharma said... With Bodhidharma and Rajnathara, that's where the lineage becomes pretty mythological. Yeah, and things attributed to Bodhidharma are now attributed to others and so forth. But Bodhidharma represents what he said or what he supposedly said represents the kind of earliest... statements of Saint Buddhism.

[01:07]

One of his statements was only a person can enlarge the way. The way cannot enlarge a person. Der Weg kann nicht eine Person verbreiten. In Wirklichkeit ist es so, dass viele von uns das Gefühl haben, wenn sie den Weg eintreten, wenn sie beginnen zu üben, dass sie... But I suppose it's something like saying, yes, you can maybe transform yourself by learning to play the piano.

[02:09]

But only a person can transform the piano, not the other way around. So the point is, at some point you realize that fundamentally, what we're doing is the way. The way is not somehow existing outside of us. And knowing that brings creativity into practice. And we know that it's not fixed. Again, the Buddha is not the... end point, the Buddha is the beginning point.

[03:11]

Now as science evolves, Buddha's practice can evolve. And we are doing that right now. We are finding the way. And creating the way. And we're not finding the way from the past. Yeah, that's part of it. But really, we're finding, creating the way right now. What a good thing it is to do it together. Okay. No, I guess I decided, I seem to be deciding to give you some, this colon of the third, the third colon of the Shoyuroku at the beginning of what I'm going to speak about.

[04:23]

So the first koan is again the Buddha, and the second is Manjushri. A very wide dimension of... than the Buddha. And the second is our friend Bodhidharma. And the third is Prajnatara, who's Bodhidharma's teacher. So these first two koans establish Buddhism as in its earliest sense, first coming into China, in India, and the historical Buddha.

[05:27]

And every morning at Johanneshof and Creston, we chant the names of the lineage. And the Prajna Paramita Sutra in Japanese is Hanya Shingyo. So Prajna Tara has this name, Hanya, or... or prajna. So every morning, which hanyatara, Yeah, it's kind of nice to do it.

[06:29]

Sounds good, feels good. These are our guys. Unfortunately, too many guys, but, you know, this generation we're going to make for women. Yeah, I have the bias of three daughters. When Sally, my four-leaf, Three or four year old daughter. When I first went to Star Wars. Your first Star Wars. A bunch of us went together. and she was 13 or 14 and when we came back I said how do you like Star Wars and she said a bunch of guys and a whippy princess and

[07:44]

And I suddenly realized, what if I grew up and were nothing but girls in powerful positions and some kind of weak little guy, you know? So it made me realize in this male, the male-dominated societies that, uh, uh, we're part of the darker ages of civilization. She and I worked this out. Yeah, yeah. My hope is that from now we'll start drawing lineages of Wing and Tiki. Women teachers have been very important in my life so far.

[09:02]

And a good Zen teacher is supposed to be as they mature, become grandmotherly. But I'm not there yet. Okay. So this time it's a Raja instead of an emperor. Of some East Indian country. Invites Prajnathara to a feast. And Asim at the... why don't you read the sutras?

[10:11]

And he says, this poor wayfarer, somebody who traveled by walking, this poor wayfarer, doesn't dwell in the realms of body and mind. this poor wayfarer, when breathing in, doesn't dwell in the realms of body and mind. And when breathing out, doesn't get involved in the 10,000 circumstances. I repeat this sutra in hundreds, thousands, millions of scrolls. So what's this third koan doing?

[11:38]

He doesn't even read the sutras. All he does is breathe in and out. Well, so much for Buddhism. Let's go on to a different subject. It doesn't amount to anything more than what we're already doing, which is breathing. What is this? Why is breathing in and out? He says he's reading the filter of the scriptures. millions of scrolls. At least as long as he doesn't dwell in the realm's mind and body and doesn't get involved in myriad circumstances. Now Bodhidharma was also asked among the many teachings of Buddhism

[12:53]

Which one is the most essential to practice? If one is committed to realizing enlightenment, which one is the most important to practice? And Bodhisattva Dharma said, the most essential practice that includes all others. Die wesentliche Praxis, die alle anderen einschließt, is just beholding the mind. Ist einfach nur, den Geist zu halten. So maybe we can understand, if Bodhidharma says the most essential, fundamental practice is just beholding the mind. We can say that Prajnatara in not in breathing in and breathing out Maybe he's doing it like the four foundations of mindfulness.

[14:16]

Observing the mind in breathing in and breathing out. not dwelling in mind and body as if they were some kind of location, and not getting involved in myriad circumstances as if it was some other kind of location. Now, I would say for us people, most of us lay people, even those of us who are ordained are leading pretty much lay lives. Sometimes we are involved in myriad circumstances, of course.

[15:17]

But our reference point, our initial mind is not to dwell in mind and body and breathing in. And in breathing out, this pulse does not get involved in myriad of circumstances. So, in all this talk about the fourth foundation of mindfulness, which may sound like you're living in the foundation of Then let's also understand it in the context of this statement. of this koan, of Prajnatara, etc.

[16:21]

And then again, to remind you, immediately after this case is presented, of not dwelling in mind and body, etc., The commentary says, there's no realization of the mystic path unless you first master the craft of practice. and in particular the five skandhas the six the eight vijnanas the eighteen dhatus and the six methods of breathing so it may sound contradictory but in your practice you have to like live in these contradictions and get the real sense of what's meant.

[17:34]

Now, so let's go next to the four elements. Because that's the next in the The first foundation of mindfulness. To become mindful of the four elements. And this sounds either simplistic or subtle, too subtle. And the four elements are, of course, earth elements. water, fire, and air. Now this is not so, it's very parallel to what we had here in the Middle Ages. At least the idea of four or five elements.

[18:36]

But this isn't really a symbolic alchemy or something like that. This is a way to enlarge the... So first you get birth represents, of course, solidity, hardness. And water, fluidity. And fire, you know, transformation. Movement. and air, wind and motility or movement of the way The wind moves the leaves on the way also one's body moves one's mind.

[19:50]

So this is, you know, really fairly simple. But again, it's something that makes not much conceptual sense. unless it's the basis for incubation. And this is a practice where you look at yourself really without... words except words as a kind of suggestion. So what is the earth element in us? What constitutes, what are we constituted? How are we constituted? I, um, yeah, you're solid.

[21:05]

Your bones, your skeleton. Sophia's quite involved with the skeleton. Okay. I had a tooth out the other day. That was quite interesting. She said, people will be able to see it in your skull, won't they? The dentist asked me if I wanted to. I said, no, I said, let it wait for me in heaven.

[22:09]

And so she picked it up with a paper towel. So, and this morning, you know, a couple of mornings ago, the stairs are a little slippery, and I... was holding two glasses in hand. I didn't want to fall with the glasses, so I started to slid from it. Stove, we say, stoved my comb, stuffed my comb. It's changed color. It's quite interesting. And so the hardness of my foot met the hardness of the stair. And when you walk you feel the earth pressing up at your feet and your foot pressing down. So you get to feel the hardness of you.

[23:18]

But these elements are also the elements of the world. You know, Sophia, again, when she eats, what happens to her food doesn't disturb her. Becomes her eyesight, her hearing, things like that. It's some kind of magical idea, real magic. Your food turning to eyesight. So the senses, and the word phenomena again, phenomenon, means that which shines. Or that which comes into the light of the senses. Or that which appears in the senses. So again, although we use phenomena of very general sense,

[24:38]

Etymologically, it means that which appears in the sense. Yes. So, what's it to you? Giorgio was a forester, aren't you? Aren't you trained in forestry? And he takes care of it. Watches, responsible for it. Oh, he's a student architect. I think of him... always with architectural ideas turning in and forestry ideas turning in. And then when you suggest a building to him, it's already been worked. He's got just... So you look at a tree and you feel it's the same elements as

[25:53]

And you look at a tree and you have the feeling that it is the same element as I, as myself. You develop the habit of feeling the skeleton of you in the trunk of the tree. Yeah, and you feel the sap of the tree, the liquid of the tree inside of it. Again, the motility or the wind. And often one of the signs of realization or an awakening experience is sometimes you're in a place where there's no wind, but you feel a breeze. Everything seems to, as I said earlier, refresh you. So there's this sense of the...

[27:08]

this bridge of the same elements that the world and I are made of. We're all made up of the same elements. When you practice this for a while, you look at a tree and you say, well, it's a different arrangement, but it's the same elements. Maybe you come closer to the Zen saying, the insentient beings preach the Dharma. Yeah, or, you know, Prajna Tara. breathing in, breathing out, I reiterate, repeat this scripture, millions of scrolls. And if you just remind yourself of it, really begins to feel

[28:29]

There's no kind of hierarchy, you know, that's, you know, we're great human beings in the midst of nature or something like that. It's all just us in other arrangements. you feel a kind of comradeship with everything as it is. And when we meet a person, having developed this habit, we feel the elements of each person we meet. They're How's your skeleton today?

[29:59]

Feeling a bit ghosty. Ghost of my former self. Anyway, you feel, and then you feel the... I don't know, the... You feel... The stuff of you relating to the stuff of another person. Yeah, that's why I like... The California practice. You know, we don't just give air kisses, we give big hugs. And although you can feel the stuff of another person at a distance, it's nice to really... I mean, it's like a dynamo.

[30:59]

So that's the... mindfulness of the four elements. And it really extends your sense of self to include everything. And less loosens the grip on you of a unitary self. And you feel the parts of you. Now I should go... before lunch, into what's called the mindfulness of the usually 32 parts.

[32:17]

32 means the number of name parts, you know. Now, earlier I was speaking about body space. Like somatic body space that you feel like a presence. And then there's the physical body space like when you feel your hand. You're a shape in the world among other shapes. And then there's Internal, interior perhaps, body stays.

[33:26]

Yeah, and that includes like feeling our toes are down there somewhere. From the outside. What can we feel from the inside so the feet are in any way down there? And when we breathe in, we're not dwelling in, but breathing into this interior body space. And we can use breath as a little flashlight to explore the body, the interior. And the interior body space has no special shape, no definite shape.

[34:31]

And a common experience in meditation is that suddenly don't have boundaries. But mind, even if it's resting in the body space, the interior body space, you can't say where it begins and ends. You can feel an itch appear from inside. So this mindfulness of the interior of the body or the 32 body parts, etc. is to become as familiar with or nearly as familiar with or more familiar with interior body space as you are with exterior body space.

[35:45]

So, you know, in Buddhism, Socrates, you know, know thyself or something like that, this also means, you know, in a very practical way, know inside and outside. Notice it with this attention which can free us from No, I'll just say a little bit about it because it's up to you to do it. If you want to do it, it's kind of fun to do it. Sometimes, you know, for some people it's a little scary. Because they notice they bring attention to their heart, their heart... heartbeat may be affected by bringing attention to it.

[37:01]

And you feel it could stop at any moment. And you'd kind of not rather be reminded of that. But if you get used to it. So I find the easiest entrance is through the thumb. Because you can bring your attention to your thumb. And Often the thumbs, as you know, get lost in a huge space. Yeah, I think it will bring attention to your thumb. And I find too much consciousness in my right arm, so I use my left arm.

[38:02]

And I bring the attention to my hand, my thumb. I don't know if it's mine, but it's there. The center of the palm, which is so different from the sides of the palm. Through the center of the palm, you can feel into the bones of the palm. Once you get some kind of feeling like this, I find any way I can go up my arm, feeling the blood vessels and the nerves. And I feel if I stay with it, I can fairly easily go up to my shoulder, and then I use my shoulder as the entrance to my lungs.

[39:26]

You may find a different route, but that's up to you. When entering through the shoulder, now that I've gotten used to being inside the body, I can explore the tips, the upper tips of the lungs, which often aren't filled, and I can try to open them up. And after a while you can get, because there's movement in breathing, so it's easier, you can feel the inside and outside surface of the lungs. Then it's quite easy to move into the space between the lungs.

[40:30]

And then down and find the stomach cavity in the stomach. And this way you can explore the entire body. And if you try it now and then, I'd say, every one or two weeks you try it for... It's a yogic skill, and you get better and better at it. And you can use a name like, oh, kidney, I'll look for the kidney. Yeah, but, you know, you can use the word kidney and you can use the information you have about kidney.

[41:40]

And it's sometimes useful to know the shape of the kidney. I'll draw it for you, you look it up. But the kidney in your body is a system, is a functioning. So you don't want to get too stuck on... its location or its shape or something like that. Because there's often a kind of Anesthesia.

[42:48]

Anesthesia. Where, for instance, people who hear music hear it as colors. Well, I think some people see mathematical equations in colors depending on the answers of different colors. In other words, you may feel a sound or a color associated with the kitten. So you have to be open to what you find there. So you may move in the lungs and it might be...

[43:49]

feel green and you get farther down, so-called down in the body, you find it's blue or something. Or there's a certain kind of feeling Like I felt a different feeling in the center of my palm than I felt along the sides of my palm So you could take in this healing center of the palm which people use for healing or in religious figures so often with the hand. And Buddhist figures almost always have an eye in the middle of the palm, and the soles of the feet in the middle of the palm.

[45:08]

Now say your mindfulness is, you know, doesn't have to be so sensitive, but sensitive enough to really feel the difference in the center of the palm. Then you can explore, knowing the body, you can explore where else does that feeling occur in the body. Can I follow the cues of the iconography of the Buddha? Do I find the same feeling in the soles of my upward-turned feet? Do I find it in my... Is it true?

[46:31]

Can it be? Do I find it in my forehead? Is it vertical or horizontal? Are these five locations connected? Do I feel this? some kind of interior tubes. Is this other winds in these tubes or liquids in these tubes? So like this we study the... how we actually exist.

[47:35]

And when you really get the feeling, not the image of, let's say, the kidney, you can begin to feel it's a system throughout the body. Then you can feel it. then you can work with the limbic system too which relates to olfaction or smelling Emotion, motivation, behavior. You can follow the feeling of smelling into the body. You can use the breath to carry along attention.

[48:38]

He starts with the physical breath and becomes a subtle breath. The other day, again, I started out white, a tooth out. And this professor, periodontal dentistry at the university, at the uni clinic in Freiburg. Yeah, very nicely sat me down in a nice blue chair. A sweet white robe that he knees around me. What? Tending to my every need.

[49:40]

Dakinis. Dakinis. White bikinis? No. White bikinis? grabbed hold of my skull and rinsed the chink out. And I could feel it all the way up. He said, are you all right? And I said, fine. And he said, are you all right? And I said, fine. So he sewed a chunk of cotton up inside my gum and sent me home. So I thought I might as well explore this. So when I sat the next morning, Yeah, I compared first the feeling of this side to this side.

[50:55]

And then I found the main influence was a circle, a sort of flattened sphere, which reached into my shoulder. And somehow the tooth and the... So it was all kind of a related event in here. And this sort of flattened sphere I found had a center right about here. So I concentrated my intention to have this get well quickly because I had to immediately travel and come here and stuff. So I concentrated on this.

[51:57]

On the center I discovered. And I found I could shrink the sphere and And it's enlarged and so forth. So then for the next day or so, I kept my attention on this spot. I don't know if it helps the healing or not, but it feels... like the right thing to do. So whenever I have a cold or any problem, I tend to locate the shape of it in my body, and then I work with the shape of it. And it's not, you know, I really don't ever care whether I get better or not.

[53:14]

I'm interested in what happens, not healing. I feel like such a mess. Healing is hopeless. A futile optimism. But I'm thoroughly interested in what happens. And somehow it feels like to me that this interest in what happens also tends to make me heal faster. Now, I'm sorry to spoil your lunch with the description of a tooth extraction, but I wanted to give you some sort of practical examples

[54:30]

of mindfulness of the interior of the body. That you're not born with this awareness or not much. But as you develop and as you grow up and you develop your attention We can use our maturity to explore and know ourselves. And that's enough for today. I mean for this morning. For this morning. I want you to come back this afternoon because I don't want to start missing you yet.

[55:40]

So let's sit for the sound of a few bells if I can find them. Oh, really? So much for mindfulness. Thanks.

[55:57]

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