and releasing. Okay, so that's, you know, enough on that formula. We could call it a kind of wisdom formula. A kind of wisdom pill. That begins to function in mindfulness. Achtsamkeit zu funktionieren. Und es funktioniert auch durch wiederholte Achtsamkeit. Nicht bloß nur in Zazen und Meditationszeit, obwohl das vielleicht dort ist, wo es am fruchtbarsten ist am Anfang. livelihood and speech. Yes, so that's a kind of teaching.

[01:04]

Before we have a break, let me speak a little bit about karma again. The formula practice I just gave you is a practice that was developed and arose through understanding how karma functions as. So I've been actually speaking about a practice rooted in the understanding of the formation and freeing of karma. Also, ich habe über eine Praxis gesprochen, die auf dem Verständnis beruht, wie Karma geformt wird und wie man Karma loslassen kann. Karma loslassen kann. This is my teacher.

[02:09]

So you like cookies. I've heard some people like cookies. Now you like cookies because they're sweet. But you also like cookies because they helped you through difficult times as a child. There were terrible afternoons of long naps, relieved by having a cookie. Or something like that. So if you're having the cookie partly because it's because of the memory of cookies, Also Teil von diesem Keks-Essen ist, dass man das auch in dieser Erinnerung hat.

[03:18]

Also man mag es wegen dieser Erinnerung. Wir können sagen, dass das Karma ist. But the sugar in the cookies still makes it interesting even if you forget about the karma. Yeah, now if you like chocolate for instance. Now chocolate can also give you the sensation they say of being in love. So this is even more difficult. We have a karma of liking chocolate, but now, whoa, right? Okay, so... So the sensation of being in love from...

[04:28]

Also dieses Gefühl, das man von der Schokolade bekommt, dieses Verliebtheitsgefühl, dem ist es noch viel schwieriger zu widerstehen. Also es tut mir jetzt leid, dass ich auch noch auf euch Raucher losgehen muss. Aber das ist so ein wunderbares Beispiel, dem kann ich nicht widerstehen. And I'm sorry because you're doing these movements while you're drinking. Because smoking is not just chocolate, it's an addiction. And it allows you to drink. And this allows you to dose yourself very exactly. And it suppresses other ways of getting pleasure. So it's more than just karma.

[05:36]

It's the immediate situation. It's now working with all kinds of other karma that makes you want to feel a certain kind of pleasure. In contrast to other feelings. So it's very difficult to work with your karma when it's also in addictive situations. So it's, you know, if you're going to really be present to the immediate situation, It's good to arrive with as little baggage as possible. And addiction brings a lot of baggage with it.

[06:47]

give form to and release. But all your actions appear again in your own context. Whether it's smoking or cookies or chocolate, or thinking about the future, or imagining yourself as inferior or superior, all these things are loaded or are, we can say, your karma. And you can try to deal with them as much as possible. But the fundamental way to deal with it in Zen practice is this...

[07:58]

is this practice of dissolving, of this practice of noticing you make a distinction, noticing you have a desire for something, and at that very moment using the desire to dissolve that state of mind. So you don't try to understand the whole process so much. Which is also okay. But you use whatever appears. To dissolve that which appears. So you use the very desire for a cookie.

[09:12]

Or the desire for a cigarette. You allow a certain pause to occur. And you dissolve into that. So you can use any afflicting emotion or habit as the basis of coming into an undistracted awareness. It's more difficult when there's a genetic kind of interest in it. A biological interest in it. But still it just makes the opening more acute. Acute means stronger. So in your

[10:19]

one of the things we're doing, of course, is, you know, as I say, especially in the first couple of years of practice, in the mind of Zazen, you're recapitulating your life, opening yourself to Man öffnet sich allem dem gegenüber, was einem zugestoßen ist, also in einem Geist von Zazen und nicht wirklich in einem Geist von diesem gewöhnlichen Bewusstsein. Und in diesem Rekapitulieren des eigenen Lebens tut man sich wieder beältern. Your life becomes your own possession. And you stop feeling like a victim.

[11:25]

And then, but still, there are various sticking points. Things you can feel. Where you get stuck in certain kinds of habits. Or certain kinds of minds. Certain kinds of minds are triggered. Yeah, triggered to one cigarette. Or triggered to want the future under control. And so if through mindfulness you can feel those triggers, So, okay, you can feel the triggers, and if you can't feel the trigger,

[12:25]

just when a headache arrives or before it arrives but you can sense a headache coming or just before a certain mood comes where everything irritates you okay so if you can feel the triggers that's good if you can't feel the triggers then when you notice you're in an irritable mind instead of getting rid of it you enter into it just as it is You give him the form of an irritable mind. We accept what is. There it is. I'm in a very irritable state of mind.

[13:30]

If everybody better stay out of my way this afternoon. And you give him form. and release it. And you give it form when it keeps reappearing and you release it. And if you can be present at the triggers it's much easier to release it. And even noticing it and giving it form the practice of Mindfulness is to notice and give form. Now I'm in an irritable state of mind. Now I'm in a more irritable state of mind. Now I'm in a more irritable state of mind. But now I'm in an irritable state of mind.

[14:31]

Now I'm in an irritable state of mind. Now I'm in a more irritable state of mind. Just noticing it is a form of freedom from it. Or the freedom is just around the corner. So if you practice also with smoking. I love this special breathing practice to hell with Zen. So now I really want a cigarette. And you release it. This is a kind of power of practice. And the bigger the problem, the bigger power you'll gain. Of a mind really deeply rooted in undistracted awareness.

[15:34]

Now, since karma Whatever we mean by karma. How ever we understand our accumulated actions. And how they reappear in this moment. Asking for reinforcement. Or freedom. They're like prisoners knocking on the door. Lock me up. Free me. Sperr mich ein. Lass mich raus. And you have a choice. If your mindfulness is enough, you can hear it not. Lock me up. No, free me. Lock me up. No, free me. Also, wenn ihr achtsam genug seid, dann könnt ihr es hören. Sperr mich ein. Lass mich raus. I like you locked up, you dear. Und ich mag dich so gern.

[16:35]

Oh, no, you have your freedom. Nein, nein, hier hast du deine Freiheit. Also, so eine Art von Erfahrung. Anyway, we all have our accumulated actions that knock on each moment. Does practice help you deal with them? Are you innovative and creative enough to find ways to let practice help you deal with them? Also seid ihr innovativ und kreativ genug, damit das Praxis eure Wege zeigt, wie ihr mit denen umgehen könnt. Find that mind in any circumstance. Könnt ihr diesen Geist in jeder Situation oder Bedingung finden, wo gerade jetzt eben wirklich ausreichend ist. Or just this body is still enough.

[17:36]

Still enough or just enough? Still enough and in its stillness enough. Also, es ist still, ruhig genug und es ist schon ausreichend genug, dieser Körper. That's how we live and die. Das ist die Art, wie wir leben und sterben. Okay, so I'd like us to take a break now. Ich möchte, dass wir jetzt eine Pause machen. as I said, since karma is of some interest to us, like around ten to five, or something in that area, we gather into what, five groups? And Gerald and Beate and Gisela can find spaces for all of you. And have some discussion about your own experience of karma.

[18:45]

Of noticing karma. Giving form to karma and knowing the possibility of becoming free of it. Through practice. Even if it's karma added to addictive situations. Or other kinds of situations that reinforce our karma and make it hard to get out of it. Or other situations that strengthen the karma and make it so hard to come out. So a kind of discussion like this. Practice and karma. So now let's make it five to five. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

[19:50]

Okay. Perhaps you can continue it. Too short. This evening. The best discussions are always too short. Why don't we sit for a few minutes before dinner? Dogen talks about dropping off body.

[21:42]

And sometimes sitting we lose the sense of the boundaries of our body. Sometimes we do feel the body is dropped away. Such a wide mind. Wide, spacious feeling. Don't compare this to something else.

[22:53]

Is it real or not real? Just a wide, spacious feeling. wide mind. And even that dropped off. No conceptions at all. And then there's that little poem I write Gibt es da dieses kleine Gedicht, das ich mag? Sitting quietly, doing nothing.

[23:57]

Sitting quietly, doing nothing. Spring comes. Gras grows by itself. Und das Gras wächst ganz von alleine. I'm very glad we can be together again this morning. How are you? Oh, okay. Yeah. And for the short time I was at the meeting last night, it seemed like a nice meeting, good meeting.

[25:04]

I felt I'd missed something by only coming to the end. That's much better than arriving and think, boy, I didn't miss anything. So from your discussion yesterday in the small groups or from last night, is there anything you'd like to bring up? Thank you.

[26:12]

Yes, all good. The problem was form. The problem was form. Why? I don't know if they did, but please, very intensely how to do it. We were unsure what you mean by form. That was an insane group. It's beginning to take form. It was my idea. My thought. There have been other ideas, but that was mine. This is the connection to the Skandas. The first Skanda's form is that this giving form is that the end of all those? This end of one in five Skandas?

[27:15]

So it's the end of the five Skandas when it goes into the consciousness. And then concepts get added. Or is it something which is in this way through the five Skandas? And then if you let go of the form again, you go kind of down in the Skandas again. I mean... You know, if you write them like this consciousness up there and fall down. So forms at the bottom in your picture? No, I made that picture. When you say down, where is down? Up or? No, it begins from the form. Yeah, okay. The form giving is more of this consciousness level. When we put concepts on it and so on, then we give it a form. When we... dissolves the form again, we go back to form. That was my idea. I understand it. I'm glad you accept responsibility for it.

[28:25]

It's not bad. But it's not bad. Okay, I heard you. I heard you. What else? Anybody else from that? Yes? We spoke a lot about karma. Is this the same group? No. Oh, a different group. Okay. It's group one. We spoke a lot about karma and tried to find out karma. We just experience karma. And we had noted that we had emotional situations like in anger and irritation, that we discovered in a karmic entanglement. And the question was then what it was.

[29:27]

to discover that in this kind of strong emotional situation it's not so easy to let go and to change so that it gets a positive shift or that this pattern can dissolve. That's true. That's true. You described that as if one can observe it and let go and then it's already something else. And we discovered that it's not that easy. If it were easy, I'd have no job. One seminar would be enough. I was in the same group and there was also a question, is fear a base of karma?

[30:36]

I mean, it's kind of a fear. And also, it's a karmic, are you in a karmic action when you lose your parents very early? Like your father or mother, you lose them to you two or three, and then later on you realize you miss them very much. And this also always with a karmic emotion or a karmic feeling. Does it never leave you? For can it change? Deutsch, please. One question was whether fear is the basis of karmic temptations. And the second question was, if you had older parents or older parents with two or three, In the time of life you are in this feeling that you have something to do. And if you can change it, if you can change it.

[31:38]

Well, first let me say, I don't know how to answer all these questions. And it's only in the last six months or so that I've been trying to tease out the idea of karma. In terms of how we practice with our accumulated actions, accumulated actions and inherited views. So I have to look at the way I do it. And I have to look at the way we tend to do it. You individually and you in this culture.

[33:11]

And then I have to look at how not Buddhism but Zen presents. the understanding of karma as something you can practice with. In yogic practice, karma only has meaning, not as a philosophy, but as something you can practice with. Also in der yogischen Praxis hat so etwas wie Karma philosophisch keinen Sinn, sondern nur, wenn man damit praktizieren kann. Und die Theorie folgt dann der Praxis.

[34:13]

Also zumindest in vielerlei Hinsicht. In other words, you see what's possible in practice. Also, ihr schaut, was in der Praxis möglich ist. Und dann definiert ihr oder schafft ihr Theorien, die euch dann erlauben, damit zu praktizieren. Und der Buddhismus kommt immer wieder zurück auf dieses in seinen eigenen Erfahrungen ruhen. So it's really wonderful for me to discuss these things with you. Because we can refine our shared understanding of karma and so forth.

[35:21]

Now I can respond, I have some sense of what... of how to respond to your question. But I'd rather put that aside for now and speak about practice after we have some discussion. Okay, now, going back to Hans Pedro's comment, And for Beate, it's the same. Afterwards, I'd like to talk about practicing in regard to what you said. Okay. And with Hans-Pedro, his what is form, and with you, what is form? Renato.

[36:29]

Well, again, there's no general definition of any word in Buddhism. It's always contextual. Okay, so when the context is form and emptiness, form means everything. And emptiness means everything. More practically, form means anything you can notice. And a little more practical speaking, it means that form is all that, what you can notice. So that's the form of the five Skandas. But every other Skanda is also form. Because associations are form. Because associations are form.

[37:33]

And perceptions are form. But that's form understood in another context. So it's form plus form equals five Skandas. Form plus form macht die fünf Skandas. All right, so what else? Was noch? Yeah. I wanted to say something about the discussion. Last night or the... Yeah? Gestern Abend. I always have the feeling in myself everything is so unsecure and chaotic. You personally? Yeah. And I come here, and here's this kind of big rock, you know, in the wild water. Gibraltar of Zen.

[38:38]

And then I notice that isn't like that. Here's also this kind of... So I'm confused. I have to orientate myself. How do I take a position? The rock is in you. But maybe it's heavy and you could put it down. You know, this is my life. It's like this all the time. People say to me, how are we going to make Creston work? Three people are leaving, and nobody else is coming, and there's no money, and we go, okay, fine. Also, this is my whole life. The people come to me in Creston and say, three are going away, and no one is here, and no money is there, and so on.

[39:40]

And I must say, okay. What can I do? And the same is sort of true here. Except we have our two Gibraltars of Geralt and Gisela. Who for many years at Crestone and now here have the waters of disorder swirling around them. And they're getting kind of tired of it, actually. But even, you know, any organization nowadays, these large companies that we think have been here for generations are beginning, a lot of them are folding. But even in these big companies, which we've already had a lot of years ago, there's something else in there.

[40:41]

Yes, that's just the way it is. We're just a very acute example of everything changing. We're just a very acute example of everything changing. The first noble truth is impermanence and suffering. So we should be the first noble truth. I don't know, I get used to it. You can get used to it too. If you get used to it, then it's easier to get used to it in yourself. So, if you're familiar with yourself, then it will be easier to get yourself into something. Something else? Yes, go ahead. What's the difference between karma and samsara?

[41:44]

And another question... That was in your discussion group or you're just asking this question? And another question is word accumulated action. I don't understand. Because an action is an action. It comes from habits or something. But what does it mean, accumulated action? The effects of our actions accumulate. So I should say the accumulated effects of action. But I try to make translation easier for her. Yes. So I'll come back to that. I have to come back to that. Yes? It's my duty to report from group number four.

[42:44]

Oh, it's duty. All right. The duty officer report is correct. We gathered various distances where we thought karma was important. Number one to our life. We also had questions where we were uncertain whether to determine is karma or not. Three examples for karmic experience where effective persons were working with it one was um... a mother who had the stereotype uh... discussion with her daughter uh... over and over again it always ended in the same dissonance and uh... one day she turned around and gave the discussion a different twist and went into a different direction the mother gave a different twist to the daughter the mother decided to who's here decided to um... to discuss the issue in a different way

[43:51]

And it was a solution they never again had this type of offensive discussion. Hey, that's good, okay. It was a conversation between mother and daughter, which was always on the same way. And one day the mother said, no, let's talk about it differently. And it was solved the problem between the two of them. One of us was on the edge of a cliff in a very windy weather and felt the urge to fly, to jump, and decided on her own, in spite of the obvious choice that she had, that she would turn around and walk back. So, one of us was on a cliff, in a very stormy weather, and she was sure that the right thing would be to jump, to fly, is still unbeknownst. It seems like a wise decision.

[44:55]

Less wise maybe. One of us, he's very tired from the job, comes home, will grab a beer and switch the TV set on. There are other days when he won't. There's a decision to be taken. So these were examples from our personal life. We found it more difficult, the issue if a very young child is, say, killed in an accident. It's actually not his action, it's the action of somebody else, and should we turn this karma or also the basket of fruit, which is standing in front of us. It's a result of actions and things that happened before. So the simple law of cause and effect is the same as karma or not.

[46:06]

We have not discussed. I have not discussed that. Good, thank you very much. Someone was right here, yes. Group 5. Group 5. Oh, Group 5, yeah, okay. It's better not to speak at all. Our group decided it's better not to speak at all. In the beginning. Part of the group decided that. And then they spoke a long time.

[47:16]

About not speaking. And we also spoke. Martin had this idea that everything, completely everything which is, is karma. At least I understood it that way. And let me have a discussion. If you practice for longer period somebody practicing crystal and how difficult it is to come out of a seemingly fairly karma-free zone back into the ordinary life and be caught up in this ordinary life structures which get on your nerves and then you have the feeling to be caught in that situation and I spoke about myself and experience that I sometimes have a feeling that the posture is a good image for the Auseinandersetzung

[48:43]

With all the structures, with Karma. Just through mindfulness. That I get the chance to... To notice something. And how fast that disappears again. How subtle it is, for instance walking in Kenya. How difficult it is to really be upright. How subtle it is, that feeling that makes you go back in your old posture. On the other hand, how effective the practice of intention is to work with karma and with all structures.

[49:47]

Okay. Thank you. Tara? We had discussed also about the dissolving. And that kind of fear up in our group when we dissolve too much that we end up in an unstructured field where there is no direction anymore also. And it was something, yeah. And also that we need something which holds also. Which holds. Which holds. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And my question to this is also if this which holds when we practice that in meditation, if this is form or not form, or less, how to define that. And then we spoke also about karma and that it is very good when one is in a calming situation that one feels the body, goes back to the body and feels where there is tension and so and then one can

[50:52]

maybe release a little bit afterwards. Yeah, good. Thank you. I love all this. Somebody else is over here. Yeah. When Henning was reporting from his school, some questions came up from that situation around when we find ourselves in the karmic-loic situation. Is it enough to decide not to do the same, let's say, pattern of action and to stop it and to decide to do something else? Or, yeah, just to change it, really? Or is there something else needed? Or various, I guess there are various ways to deal with it, but there was coming just, do we have to stop it? or to change the same number of times we did it so that would be really too much work and then it came up in Zazen we just let it happen this dissolving which is connected to these kind of situations that is a source to let it happen by itself without always the only to do this

[52:19]

kind of work in the situation in our daily life, but what in daily life else could mean this dissolving situation, else when you only decide not to do it, to endub it. That was also in our group, my question, what does it mean in this very complex situation in daily life, dissolving the form, because it's so complex. Yesterday he was saying, everything you take in, what is there in this situation. And, yeah, it's just, I can't say that. I don't really know what it means. Deutsch, bitte. Oh. Yeah, as Henning, from his group of politicians, came a lot of questions. And one question is, if I am in a kind of situation, would it be possible to solve this situation, which I can see again, in which I decide, something else to do, so like the example of my mother, which is in other situations.

[53:46]

And when I asked him this question, I thought it was perhaps so, that it must have been so often to decide something else, as if you have done it, as if you have done it, and that was a lot of work. Then I asked myself, what is still going on, to solve this, [...] without that I can just do the same thing. cognitive voice. And then the question is, if I find a situation in the everyday life, that I can see what it means to solve the form, that was in our group then the question in the everyday life, not in a situation that is so complex, where so many things happen. Someone else? Yes?

[55:07]

We mentioned that right in the situation we become very angry, we understand much less than a few minutes or some time later. It's the same head, but... The same head. But it acts more stupid if we are in the emotion. It might not be the same head. But how can we accelerate the development to dissolve the anger? Right in the situation, we have to react to somebody else. Okay. Deutsche, bitte. Ja, please, bitte, dass man immer leichter sieht, dass man wieder hochgegangen ist. Sounds good.

[56:09]

Okay. Well, it has nothing to do with the group yesterday, but with one aspect that was mentioned. I have difficulties in getting rid of my good car. And even worse, I don't want to get rid of it. Because I realized that I could turn it in compassion. It is something, the good karma, because I don't. Okay, thank you.

[57:16]

I was in group one. For me there was a similar question, how do you use karma? the example when one is able to see a situation then one acts in a different way in a so-called less harmful way this is now good karma this is no karmic action and what is then dharmic action I mean, you made these distinctions and it's for me, I'm totally confused how to use them. Yes, okay. I appreciate you. I was concerned about that. Deutsch, bitte.

[58:21]

I was in Gruppe 1, and we talked about karma, and to see the possibility in a situation a monster to see and then stop or to change and to change it differently and then the question is this a not-karmic action or is this a action for good karma and what is then a dharmic action I think it's, I mean, I will try to do something about making these distinctions clearer.

[59:24]

But without a great deal of time together over a period of time. It's very hard to sort out really what these mean. Because this isn't a dictionary and it's not philosophy. It's what happens when you drop a particular kind of idea into a particular kind of water, what happens? But the idea always has a little different shape and the water is different and the altitude is different from which you're dropping it and so forth. So it takes time to really sort out a practice idea. And that's something in the end you have to do in the environment of your own living.

[60:38]

But we can also, as part of a lineage, we can try to sort this out together. So after the break probably, I'll try to do something at least. Ingrid? My question was, does something exist in Zen like somebody who judges or who In respect of karma, good and bad karma, is there some kind of judgment? Somebody who judges good and bad karma? In Christianity we have the Ten Commandments and stuff. In the Koran we know that if someone steals the apple out of the hands and stuff.

[61:46]

Yeah. No. But your actions are in your living with others and with yourself and there's always a kind of sort of judging going on through that. A basic view of Buddhism, if you're really practicing Buddhism and not just drawing from Buddhism into your own worldview, which is okay too, is there's no outside the system. There's no outside position where Judging can happen.

[62:47]

Okay. If somebody throws away his life's suicide, then for me there's a gray zone. My colleague, she killed herself and she was psychologically ill. And I also had another colleague who got to know that he's got cancer and then he killed himself. Well, if you believe in some version of rebirth or reincarnation, how you die affects your

[63:55]

rebirth or reincarnation or whatever theory you have. And there may be a factual there may be a fact I mean some kind of survival after bodily death. Maybe a fact. I actually don't think it's important for Buddhist practice. But what is interesting when you study instances of survival after bodily death what seem to be instances sometimes quite convincing.

[64:57]

It seems that the theories, the culture holds, influence the survival after bodily death. But in Buddhism it's still... what your mind is at the moment of death, whether it's suicide or a normal average death. And Zen teachers commonly in effect commit suicide. I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. To bring it home.

[66:00]

Because usually when Zen teachers... in effect commit suicide. They do it at the time they're just about to die. So say that I knew I would probably be dying in the next few weeks. I could feel my life energies at a pretty low ebb. I might decide this seminar was a good time to give you all an example of impermanence. And to give you a good example of how you can dissolve the constituents.

[67:10]

And I might sit here in an erect posture. And after a while, there'd be a long pause and the translator wouldn't know what to say. She might make up a few things for a while. And then she'd tap my shoulder and fall. So, I don't know what I should do yet, but my life I don't know if I like my life so much, but I love

[68:19]

Hanging out with all you guys. Being alive is kind of fun. So maybe that's about enough. Is there something else we'd like to bring up? Yes. Oh, of course. There's good karma and there's bad karma, but from a Buddhist point of view, all karma is karma. I'll try to speak to most of the points after the break, but if I forget something, please remind me. I'll try to respond to all the points afterwards.

[69:27]

And if I forget something, please. Please remind me. Erinnert mich daran. Okay, Maureen? So I should let go karma overall, good karma and bad karma, because what I've understood is that karma is the recognition or the acceptance that my behavior comes back, or that they treat me well, they treat me well, like very easy example. I will be a good mother, perhaps my child will take care of me at all. Perhaps not. Nora? I kind of have the same problem, like you spoke before, that I really love good karma and that I can't imagine letting go.

[70:29]

Oh, okay. So, Deutsch, bitte. As we've spoken about karma, I understand that so was that karma Okay, thanks. Yes? I have a simple practical question. I observe when I sit and I keep my eyes open. It's relatively easy for me to stay with the breath. And it is kind of like what you said yesterday. It's kind of boring. Not that much happens. I just sit and that's it. And I'm wondering, you know, like I'd rather be active in my life and have the same, you know, that's what I kind of understand mindfulness would be, to have the same state as when I'm sitting.

[71:34]

What would be? Mindfulness. Oh, yeah. So my question is, like, why do I want to sit? But then when I close my eyes when I'm sitting, then I feel something happens. I feel cleansed, say, from karma, like things go through me and are being let go. But when I sit with my eyes open, none of that happens. Yeah, I mean, I think people who wear glasses, for instance, shouldn't wear glasses during meditation. But that's not a rule, that's just my own sense of it. Because the glasses put you in a kind of seeing frame. And in the same way, having your eyes open can keep you in a kind of consciousness.

[72:40]

I mean, I think it's Nagarjuna who emphasizes kind of boldly open space. And that might be okay for a certain kind of practice and a pretty developed practitioner. Also, the allgemeine... over the centuries. But that's really very slightly open, so a little light comes through and there's a kind of easy focus on somewhere about your height in front of you.

[73:51]

about in your height or? The height you happen to be. Of where you're sitting from. Your altitude. But I think it's also okay to have your eyes lightly closed. I think, or I think, it's also in Ordnung, when you just close your eyes. So there's even a feeling of light that can come through your eyelids. What you're trying to do is find an eye posture that doesn't trigger awakeness and doesn't trigger sleep. And one way to do it is also to put your sense of awareness at the back of your eyes rather than the front of your eyes.

[74:56]

Okay. Anything else before the break? Yes? I'm just struggling with this question that when I'm a painter, when I work. This is like practicing. But I'm also building a karma when I work because I'm doing something. So, you know, so I'm practicing but I'm also building a karma. And a picture. Yeah, right. I mean, that comes out of it, hopefully a good one. But still, I mean, this is like, I can't really separate the two. Okay. So I'll try to talk about these things afterwards. and see if any of it resolves anything.

[76:15]

Okay, thank you very much. Let's come back at 11.30 and then we'll see what happens. Okay, so no one knows quite what we are. But, you know, let's call ourselves human beings. Though I remember Herr Dr. Conze once saying, no one's ever called me a human being.

[77:24]

He didn't want such a generalization applied to him. Anyway, we don't really know what we are. But we have experience. Things appear to us. And we have some kind of consciousness in which things appear. And the consciousness of And the consciousness is conscious. And it's conscious of perceptions. Yeah, whatever, what's something in front of you. But it's also conscious of all kinds of

[78:25]

memories, ideas, thoughts. So although we don't know what we are, there's a lot of things that we notice. Okay, so first of all we can assume that what we notice is what we are. what we notice is. Maybe there is no reason to make such a recognition. Except that it gives us a way, it begins to give us a way to work with and take responsibility for what happens to us. So we notice that some things appear to us rather highly charged.

[79:29]

Also bemerken wir, dass manche Dinge, die uns widerfahren, irgendwie wie hochgeladen sind. In a repeated, even compulsive way. Also in einer wiederholten und fast compulsive, zwangsaften Weise. Danke. Yeah. Yeah, and we notice that some things seem to interfere with... Our happiness, our ability to function and so forth. In a way, much of the tools of practice are to get you so that you can notice what happens to you. Okay, now this isn't real. I mean, some people hear, you know, some people say to me and then I hear it less than I used to.

[80:37]

Yeah, that this is a... Why don't we turn to our own tradition? And what are we doing meddling around in the Orient? In fact, Europe's been meddling around in the Orient for centuries. I mean, as someone said, awake... Europe was caught in rationalism. Asleep that dreamed of the Orient. And it looks, you could even say that the romantic movement in Europe is a kind of upsurge of oriental ideas.

[81:47]

Man kann fast sagen, dass die Romantik schon so eine Art Suche in dem Orientalischen gewesen ist. Also ich glaube sogar, dass Novalis gedacht hat, dass der Garten Eden irgendwo in dem Himalaya nahe von Tibet sein müsse. So we have this somehow ancient teaching which is also contemporary wisdom. Yeah, I don't want to discuss the reasons for that with any...

[82:47]

at any length now. For now, let's just say it's rooted in experience, in any century experience. And the historical Buddha himself saw himself bringing an ancient teaching into the present. And also because it assumes something like original mind. But perhaps more instrumentally because it is about how the mind functions.

[83:49]

So in that way it's a little bit freer from culture than most teachings. It's really not about understanding the accumulations of consciousness. but about how consciousness itself is created. So in a way Buddhism is about uncreating consciousness. Dekreation, also das Entkreieren von Bewusstsein.

[84:54]

main territory of your living. Now, again, no one exactly knows why. I don't exactly know why I'm doing this. Sometimes I say it's because I was influenced by who was first embedded in the poetry of the Middle Ages of Europe and then Asia. But when I was, you know, 18 or 19, something like that. You know, I had a friend who was George Andrews, who was a bass player in a jazz group and a composer and arranger.

[86:00]

Also da hatte ich einen Freund, der war Bassspieler in einer Jazzgruppe und er war auch Komponist. Yeah, I've often wondered where he is now. Anyway, we used to hang out together. Also auf jeden Fall sind wir mal zusammen... And he read a lot of Schopenhauer. And he kept saying to me, your ideas are just like Schopenhauer's. You should read Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer, I didn't know who Schopenhauer was. So how did my ideas get to be similar to... at least for this guy, to Schopenhauer's. And Schopenhauer is the first major Western philosopher to wholesale import Buddhist ideas into Western thinking.

[87:09]

import in large amounts. The four noble truths, a whole lot of stuff he brought into Western thinking. Now I think there's three ways and a fourth in which Buddhism is influencing the western world. And I would say overall the western European and American view We can even say 18th century rationalism has supplanted or deeply disturbed the worldview of every country in the world.

[88:34]

whether you're... Also ob man jetzt ein chinesischer Businessman ist oder ein Rebellenführer auf den Fijis und sagen, dass Fiji von den Polynesiern regiert werden soll, dann trägt er einen Anzug und weißes Hemd und Krawatte. We didn't convert the world to Christianity, but we converted them to suits. And we converted them to some idea of democracy and so forth.

[89:36]

But at the same time, the underlying ideas of the world, the underlying worldview ideas are being seriously challenged by Buddhism. Nowadays, as we influence the kind of outer view of the world, the inner view of the world, Buddhism is influencing. So again, I'd say there's three and a fourth reasons which I've felt since I was young that Buddhism is infecting the West. The first is It's going to influence the general way of thinking about things.

[90:39]

And it's made a pact with the devil, I suppose. From some traditional points of view. With science, sociology, psychology and so forth. And it's everywhere now, Buddhist ideas. Obvious and disguised. And the second is a lot of people... I mean, the first is influencing everyone. The second is going to influence hundreds of thousands of people. So the first, that really affects everyone. And the second, that really affects hundreds of thousands of people. And it's happened in the first half of my life.

[91:40]

That's an optimistic statement. Assuming this, I'm only in the first half. I'm assuming that I'm only in the first half. Not a few hundred, but hundreds of thousands of people now see meditation as a resource. Yeah. I mean, if you want to sell women's magazines. The first banner on the front. And the cover will be a new angle on sex. And the second is other ways to try meditation. I mean, over and over again, I looked at me, well, sex and meditation.

[92:48]

And so I went to Sekian the other day. And there were... Every shop had these Buddhist beads. So we're walking along with the real thing. And we looked at these... These look like Buddha beads. They said, oh, that's what they are. I said, really, and they look like Jell-O. They're in many colors. Oh, they said, the red does this for you and the green does that. And then she says, yes, the red makes this for everyone and the green makes this and so forth.

[93:53]

I have a friend, she wears 10 of them. Yeah, really? So I said, oh, this is really wonderful. I said, Buddha beads, I said, are these more popular than... Catholic Rosaries? She said definitely. And she said absolutely. These little things signal a big change. I felt quite backward with my boring sort of wooden beads, you know. And I didn't know what Brown does for you.

[94:44]

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