After the seminar ended yesterday, I was completely confused. I don't blame you a bit. And I really don't know what to do anymore when I'm sitting, or not to do. So far I've tried not to think too much or to stop my thoughts, but now I really don't know anymore what's going on. Good. That's most basic. You should have as little recipe as possible when you sit down. You should interfere as little as possible. And perhaps the teaching of zazen should be to profoundly leave yourself alone.

[01:06]

That's particularly true. I think I'll do more than answer your question, all right? I think I'll do more than just answer her question. I think that's particularly true for us in the West because so much of our sense of self is based on restraint and constraint and even repression and suppression. And we think that our society has developed the idea, which I'm not saying these ideas are wrong, I'm just saying they develop a particular way of doing things, And to speak about it, shall we say critically, is not to say it's not necessary.

[02:13]

And every society has a kind of organic hold to it, so it's very hard to change items within it, although individuals are free to be different. But basically our sense of individual freedom and the kind of social freedom we have And the kind of social democracy we have depends on individuals policing themselves.

[03:21]

In other words, the government can control us less if we control ourselves more. So what basically has been created in the West is a scrutinizing public. And I talked about this a bit in Sashin. And we've internalized that. And it's been done in one of the main ways it's been done is in the idea of Catholic confession. This idea makes all of us examine our thoughts. Are some of our thoughts bad? Are some of our thoughts the work of the devil? Are some of our thoughts crazy?

[04:34]

So we become very suspicious of our own thoughts. And Dostoevsky is full of it. So you're not suspicious of your hand particularly. Or you may not like your nose, but you're not suspicious of it. But we are suspicious of our thoughts. We don't trust them. And this is anyway reinforced in many ways in the way our society is put together. So in zazen practice you need to have a space. It's a space that's offered to us where you can be completely unrestrained.

[05:39]

So you don't want to bring a lot of rules into your zazen. If you need to murder your parents, do it in zazen. If you need to go crazy, do it in zazen. But you see, in the Christian world, even having the thought of murdering the parents is guilt. Now I'm taking an extreme example of murdering the parents. I happen to be a parent. But we don't dare have certain thoughts because we think they're either crazy or we're guilty for having them. It's a tremendous inhibition in exploring yourself.

[06:40]

To find out who you are, which includes all kinds of things. You can assume that any person who's done anything on the planet is also you. It's also partly you. And we get scared of these parts when we think they might become wholly you. But that's based on a belief that there's something that's wholly you.

[07:41]

The more you realize there's nothing that's wholly you, whatever appears is a part. And so you must say, I don't like this part. But you don't feel, this part's going to take me over and I'll become a dangerous person or something. And believe it or not, this all arises out of the simple instruction, don't scratch. Because if you really learn how not to scratch and just sit still you suddenly realize you can sit through anything. And then you're not scared of what comes up. because you can sit through it it's a tremendous power in your life so this is why Zen emphasizes the posture and learning to sit still it doesn't tell you much about what to do while you're sitting still

[09:17]

Oh, count your breath if you feel like it. Like that. Now, if your practice becomes more developed and the topography or territory of your inner life which more and more can't be distinguished from your outer life becomes more defined then some suggestions and interaction with your teacher is helpful but I would say the best instruction I can give you Each of you just see if you can have an uncorrected state of mind and allow whatever happens.

[10:30]

You may at some point develop a kind of actual taking hold of a kind of openness Or having a sense of a kind of openness that stretches through, reaches into the structure of being. An openness that in itself does not become structured. but allows you to see the structure of yourself and allows that structure to become more flexible. So basically just sit down once a day and have a good time. Zazen is called the Dharma gate of ease and joy.

[11:45]

And Dogen says that the essence of Zazen, the key to Zazen, is self-enjoyment samadhi. But usually you have a little psychological stuff to go through first. But if you can give yourself permission for a little self-enjoyment early on, the psychological stuff goes a lot faster. But enjoyment is connected in our society with the lack of restraint. Now, I've read, I don't know how true it is, I'm not a scholar of this, but Dionysian, Dionysian religions were the major religions of the Near East and everywhere from the 13th century B.C., I believe, 14th century B.C.

[12:58]

till about the 5th or 6th century B.C. And Dionysius you know is the god of wine. Not of drunkenness but of wine. The Greeks turned him into Bacchus the god of drunkenness. So he represented disorder and joy and freedom. And late Greek religion and then Christianity banished him. I think Rajneesh tried to bring him back. More or less unsuccessful in general, but successful for some people.

[14:15]

I think you could understand Rajneesh as a Dionysian phenomenon in contemporary society. And he appealed to that side of us. And although he probably did himself in in lots of ways, society also contributed to doing him in. He probably didn't keep enough Star Wars content in his teaching. or content of the usual society.

[15:17]

So much of our way of being is based on restraining and constraining ourselves, and usually around sexuality, And then sexuality gets connected with all kinds of psychological disturbance, murder, etc. Because it's the main handle and the most obvious handle society is used to tell us to restrain ourselves. So, anyway, in Zazen, we need in our lives some territory of unrestrained thinking, feeling, etc. And that's the tantric side of Buddhism.

[16:26]

And the Zen. Is there another question? Yes. I have another question about this. In what extent is action important, that one lives this uncorrected state in the mind, or is it a pure spiritual game within meditation? Or in what extent is it important to live this uncorrected state actively? Let's put it this way, of course, if you do it in all consistency, on limits, just an example that maybe many have already experienced, if you stand on a tower, I always want to jump down, I want to fly, and there are simply limits, there you have to correct it, otherwise, yes, but ultimately, it can't go through. Is this just a mental phenomenon, this uncorrected state of mind, or how much can I do that also in my conduct?

[17:49]

I mean, there's a certain limit, I suppose. Like, for example, when I'm standing on a tower, I always feel like jumping because I like to fly. But do I have to correct my state of mind? Flying is great, but you have to know when to do it Yeah, I mean the point is the boundary is don't scratch Conduct is scratching, yes. All conduct is considered in Buddhism scratching and leaking. Doesn't mean you don't redo it.

[19:05]

I think the more you can fly in the feeling skanda, you less want to jump off the East Berlin Tower. And generally the sense in Buddhism is that the rules of society and of individual conduct are not really in the realm of right or wrong. The basic overall precept is don't hurt others. And others includes you. But other than that sort of precept, the only rule is you learn how to go along with your society.

[20:25]

Castaneda has a great phrase in one of his books called Controlled Folly. You know, he carries this whole idea of controlled folly to extremes which stretches the imagination. But the phrase itself, controlled folly, is great. You could call it from one point of view, controlled folly. Does that expression have any meaning in German? Controlled folly? Yeah. Folly, you mean you can translate it? I don't know if it's... I try it with craziness or something.

[21:26]

Wow. Folly means... A folly would be to... Try to build the tallest building in the world on the salary of a secretary. In the German translation. But you could also say following the rules of society is loving other people. We all need a consensual reality in order to just love each other. We are all part of one great being. Compassion means to recognize and feel this great being which includes everything you see.

[22:31]

Whether your consensual reality is six centuries of Dionysian culture, or your social reality is Europe today, or, you know. It's our way of, you know, it's a kind of language, a meta-language, more than just German, it's a meta-language. And a smart bodhisattva learns the meta-language of culture. which doesn't usually include jumping off towers and sometimes would be the last communication and then it's such a mess what else

[23:32]

What else? Yes. I would be interested to know how the difference between vision and visualization as a desired production or advantage in appropriate conditions is in connection with SASE. Is it helpful? Or, as I tend to say now, does it actually make sense? Whereby visualization is also a technique that I personally consider very valuable in order to achieve my goals. I think I didn't quite understand what you meant. Vision as a picture. Visualization of a state that I address as a goal within my sasen. Is it desired? Is it feasible? It doesn't fit at all. I tend to say it doesn't fit at all, because I've heard it before. The idea of visualizing something that I want to achieve, should I try to do that in my sasen or rather not?

[25:04]

First let me comment that I like this group. Partly because you're the most talkative group I've had in Germany so far. You're willing to talk about things without having to sort of... try to... Okay. Why not visualize everything? Why not? Visualize everything. Why just the things you really want? Visualization is a way of thinking. And one of the practices that if I had more time I would try to give you is how to enter an imaginal reality as a way of thinking. Okay, but I'll just say a little bit.

[26:28]

Whenever you see anything, visualize it. In other words, again, if I hold up the stick, you just don't see the stick, you feel yourself visualizing it while you're looking at it. So when I come into this room, I step in and visualize the room that I'm stepping into. And in that sense I'm stepping into my own perception. And when I sit here talking with you, The first thing I do is I visualize all of you. Now, I can't exactly explain what I mean by that. I know I do it. With closed eyes? No, with open eyes. But if I close my eyes, I completely see you all here.

[27:28]

Three blind mice, three blind mice, see how they run. It would be a new chant. But this is involved with practices of direct perception and so forth. But if you do do that, your thinking about whatever it is has a power of visualization, which is different than the power of thinking in words. And I would, if you're very clear about something and you want it, fine, visualize it. If you're very clear about something and you want it, fine, visualize it. But Buddhist practice, strictly speaking, would mean to visualize more processes rather than products.

[28:50]

Or attitudes rather than... Something, some gaining idea. You might try to visualize or feel, visualize your innermost request. So instead of visualizing what you want, visualize just the feeling of wanting or what is your deepest desire. General religious Buddhist practice is to move upstream. So the goal is downstream. Upstream is the desire. And way upstream is probably spiritual desire. And at the very top is probably the spiritual desire.

[30:16]

Does that make sense? What is then a vision? What is then a vision? That is a visualization of something that is initially not real, but then can or will become real. A vision, for example Padmasambhava, he also had the vision that when the iron birds fly, that then Buddhism will go to the West. That was certainly not reality at that time. Isn't visualization something that can become or can happen? Like when Padmasambhava had this vision about these iron birds flying, and then it later became true that Buddhism went to the West. Well, interpretation became true. Do you mean like, do you mean do visions just come to people or visions that predict the future?

[31:37]

Which do you mean? I don't know. I don't know. Sometimes I know things before they happen Well, if you practice seeing as visualizing your thinking is more visions So it's more common. It's an immediate way of thinking. So having a vision is less of a noticeable event. But There's ways of practice which you can feel things starting to happen before they happen.

[33:12]

Maybe you feel little threads from them. And His Holiness the Dalai Lama has an oracle that travels with him as well as a doctor. But in general Buddhism doesn't emphasize such things. But if something occurred to you, all right. But in general, Buddhists are warned, adepts, not to see signs in things. Because if you No, no, a little different.

[34:16]

Don't see that, oh, this means such and such is going to happen. And that's why in general astrology is discouraged in Buddhism. Because if you have any trace of ego left, you're always trying to make the shoe of the future fit. Then one will always try that the shoe of the future fits. Does it have anything to do with makyo? Does it have anything to do with makyo? By makyo, well you should say it in German and translate makyo. As far as I understand, Makyo has something to do with images, with emerging images. I see it as an issue of visualisation.

[35:18]

Images that businesses should own. I think Machu is kind of these rising pictures and the things that come up in Zazen, and I remembered this when we talked about visualization. That's okay. Whatever comes up in your uncorrected state of mind is great. If you start believing it, that's different. My question is how much are projections part of this visualization? That's something you have to start being able to discover. And that's part of holding the five skandhas in view. You can begin to see a visualization arising, you can see the projection coming in, you can see the energy coming in, you can see associations coming in, etc.

[36:30]

It's very difficult for me to distinguish between a projection and just a clear undistorted perception. It shouldn't be. If it's clear, it's... Usually the more you practice, the more you can trust whatever you think is possible. And the more you sit regularly, the less you have projections. But it's very hard to sustain and nourish projections in the state of mind that Zazen creates. But after the break I'll try to come back to the role of, to a little more sort of feeling of what the mind is.

[37:36]

But after the break I would like to come back to what the mind is and how one can feel it. So after the break we will start from scratch again. I would like to say the following. I have always experienced that I had no great difficulties, my thoughts or to leave my fantasies uncontrolled. I always had the feeling that I could move quite madly in one space. But I always had the difficulty in my life to leave this space in the real world and then also to do what I might like to do. That means that most of the time I did not dare to live what I often fantasized. I never had a difficulty in my meditation to just let all these fantasies and all this go and not correct it.

[38:53]

But then my difficulty is coming out of it and then in the outer world somehow trust these fantasies and actually do what I really want to do, which I got in touch with in sasen, in meditation. So this is why I would like you to come back to this point number five about karma, how to access things I believe. Okay. I'll do that too. Thanks. So it's now about ten to five to ten. Five to eleven. Five to eleven. Should we come back at eleven twenty? Please sit comfortably. It's a very rainy day, isn't it? A rather darkish day.

[39:57]

Don't think it's a bad day. It's what we got, right? So as I say, often the practice begins with bringing into yourself the mood of the day or music of the day. And if the day starts out sunny and then it gets dark around 10 o'clock and you start resisting it, you actually do yourself some damage. And it makes you gloomy. Bloomy? It makes you duster. But if you actually kind of feel the grayness and brownness of the day, it's actually kind of nourishing.

[41:26]

And likewise, again, a basic practice is to locate your own mood, your own music. And that you should start out with in the first thing in the morning when you first wake up. And our life sort of lives, funny, strangely, our life sort of lives below the surface of self. In that sense Jung's image of a cork of the self afloat in the sea is not too bad. But I would more think of it as a surface of self with your existence actually just below that.

[42:41]

You brought up the question of makyo. I hear your words. But if I could answer your question, I don't know if I could, I'd actually have to know you better. I'd have to see you during several days walking around and doing things. Because other skandhas need more information. These things are pretty subtle. And there's no kind of formula for understanding.

[43:41]

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