And I guess this is the place where I've done residential seminars the longest in Europe. And I like, as I'm sure you can understand, I like being back here very much. Sometimes I wish it wasn't so remote so that it was a little easier for people to get to. On the other hand, the remoteness in the atmosphere of this part of Austria and being here in the forest is part of what makes it so wonderful to be here.

[01:09]

And of course the atmosphere that Cecily and Giorgio and Christiane have created here too, in this building. When I first came in, someone said to me in my tweed jacket that I looked awfully, very western. And I guess that it's natural enough since not only am I a westerner, but I'm also trying to teach a Buddhism that will at least survive in the West. And as I said last night, surviving is not the same as flourishing in the West. So a Buddhism transplanted or transported to the West is not the same as a Western Buddhism.

[02:29]

No, as most of you know, I don't want to adjust Buddhism to the West. But I feel if we discover Buddhism very directly ourselves, a Western Buddhism will develop. And of course, for me, Buddhism isn't Western or Asian or anything. I mean, no more than science is Western or Asian. It's a way to study our life. So I think, since I mentioned it last night, I'll say again that I'm practicing and teaching a Buddhism based on practice.

[04:03]

And also a Buddhism based on studying the mind. And the mind in Buddhism is studied from two minds. One, the comparative ordinary consciousness. And also from the still deep consciousness realized in meditation. And these two points of view are brought to the study of how we exist. And third is what I called last night philosophical Buddhism. And that, it's not such a good term for it, but that's a study of our basic views.

[05:16]

And there should be a fourth, maybe that should be divided into two, which is Because it's a study of our views, but... Can you translate from that much? Maybe this philosophical Buddhism, as a study of our views, should be divided into two parts too. Or there should be an additional point. Because... how to put it, deeper than our views is a view that can't be studied. It's really, from the Buddhist point of view, from the Zen point of view, how we actually exist.

[06:26]

I think we can call it, because we don't have another word, something like reality. And that can only be studied through the whole of us all at once. And this koan that we'll look at these three days, two and a half days, is asking us to look at this view that can't be understood in any usual way. So a monk asks, when not producing even a single thought, can you imagine such a thing? When not producing even a single thought, I think we'd better quit now.

[07:43]

When not producing even a single thought, is there any fault? And Jan Men said, Mount Sumeru. And in Buddhist cosmology, Mount Sumeru is understood to be the highest, biggest mountain in the world. A vast mountain in which there's no handholds. No handholds. So this koan is emphasizing facing our life and situation in a way where there's nothing we can take hold of.

[08:51]

Now, this kind of koan, as we looked at the last koan, does a dog have a Buddha nature? Yes and no. But this kind of koan is often given as the first koan. But it's also the most demanding and difficult. So all koans can be understood From a beginner's point of view and from an enlightened point of view. And from a beginner's and from also a more advanced point of practice. A more advanced point of practice would be your body understands not producing a single thought. Now, I think actually this kind of, you know, we're doing these koans, we've been doing them as they just come up in order.

[10:14]

And there's a kind of productive randomness in that, because if I thought about it, should I bring this koan into this seminar, I'd probably not done that. So in a way we're faced with this koan the way we're faced with many things in life, we didn't plan it that way. And also since it is reaching to such a fundamental view of Buddhism, I think we can try to touch this practice. Now, from the point of view of a beginner practicing it, it's... maybe even more difficult because generally it's practiced in a situation where you would be seeing a teacher fairly regularly.

[11:38]

So we'll have to see where this kind of practice can touch us during these two and a half days. Now I'd like to ask you to do a couple of things during this weekend. One is as I'd like you to ask yourself a question. A question that you can sleep on, dream on, keep in your mind during the seminar. Now you may need to nudge such a question out of you or it may just appear. It can be something from your life.

[12:57]

But working with a koan, if we're going to work with a koan, it's productive if you bring the chemistry of a question of your own to the koan. This kind of osmosis or alchemy is necessary to make the koan questions work. So to nudge yourself, you can try to nudge yourself as you want. Nudge, you know the word? It's to push something slightly. Like you make something happen by trying various things. And Ulrike has changed, as you can see. But she doesn't know the word nudge either. I have to nudge her.

[14:04]

It's a nice word, don't you think? Nudge, it sounds sort of like like it is. To nudge yourself, first of all, you have to believe that it's productive to be in a somewhat questioning state or doubtful state of mind. And a kind of a I don't know, but maybe we can look at it a little more. But a feeling of doubt is an essential ingredient in Zen practice. On the one hand we have a certitude and even a fearlessness. But at least a feeling of knowing exactly where we are.

[15:12]

A feeling physically located. And feeling your mind with its various boundaries is very settled. And in Zen practice you're working to, you know, one of the questions you can be asking yourself or noticing or having a feeling for is, do I feel located right here? And if you don't, then you try to wonder if you could or you try to find some way to remind yourself. And the Teaching koans is not exactly that you want an understanding beyond words.

[16:23]

But that you don't want an understanding framed in words. Or limited to that mental space created by our phonetically based language. Because in that mental space our thoughts just chase their own tails. So the feeling in koans is you use words the way poison can become medicine. You use words to nudge yourself out of this thought space that we go around in circles in. So that's what this koan is too.

[17:27]

When not producing a single thought, is there any fault? He answers, he says a word, Mount Sumeru. We could say matter horn. It doesn't matter horn. So if you find, for instance, you're not settled or you don't feel completely here, On the one hand, you can notice what's drawing you away, what you're thinking about.

[18:31]

But you're actually here. I mean, in fact, I think a large number of your cells are here. So you can say, well, why haven't I arrived? And then you can use some word, English or German, arriving or just now arriving. So the use of a phrase like this to direct ourselves out of mental space is the kind of backbone of koan teaching. Maybe it's using words as a kind of backbone or energy. Okay, so you on the one hand have this certitude or a sense of being here mentally and physically. But at the same time you know the world is unpredictable.

[19:55]

And when you actually analyze it carefully, and it's something we could go into again, though we've looked at it in earlier seminars, We could look into the way in which the world is unfindable. So this sense of unfindability and unpredictability As I've said, even as death hollows out a void in the present, it's in the end experienced as, in Buddhism, we say, a kind of doubt. Not unpredictable, I mean, not a kind of corrosive doubt, but a big existential doubt.

[21:09]

And I never thought of it before until we were discussing this in Kassel. But I actually think that doubt, when you develop it, is a stage out of anxiety toward fearlessness. Because of being willing to stay in a state of unfindability or being willing to stay in a state of doubt. Having the capacity for that. I think it absorbs our tendency to be anxious or fearful. It's one of those things, you know, I never thought about till the number of the therapists in Castle kept asking me, what role does anxiety play in practice?

[22:16]

So I had to study in myself how I myself worked with fear and then what changed and I could see that basically in myself the function of anxiety was replaced by a functioning of doubt. That was quite long. I'm impressed. I couldn't do that. I can barely say these sentences myself in English. So anyway, one thing I'm saying is that the sense of finding a question in your life on a daily basis, a weekly basis, is a part of working with this sense of unfindability, of doubt, of impermanence.

[23:27]

And to nudge yourself, you could ask yourself, for example, maybe, what is the foundation of my life just now? Is it stable? Is it shifting? And how would I want it to change if it changed? And this may be just a feeling, Not something actually that is framed as an ordinary question. You could say it's a questioning feeling that you root, that you sense in yourself and in a way stay with. Or you can ask a question like, you know, what are the facts of my life? What are the facts of my life?

[24:41]

Or the second question, what is most essential? And third, with working with a koan, you then ask, if you've asked those first two, then you ask something that arises from practice or from this koan, for example. Yeah, or what is the mind of awakening or what is the mind of Buddha? Anyway, so that's one thing I'd like you to do, if you would, is Look at, see if you can sense a questioning feeling or a question that's fundamental in some way to your life right now in these weeks. And the second thing is, you know, this is my last seminar in Europe this year.

[25:45]

And it's my first seminar here since last June, is that right? Not last June, June a year ago. So a year and a half ago almost. And so I'd like you to think about what you'd like me to talk about in this last seminar before I go back to the States. And get your questions in while you have a chance. And next year I may do less seminars in Europe, so it might be a while before we can meet again. So I could review, if you want, some of the things I talked about during this period last month or so, or even back to last June over a year ago. Because I want to keep in touch with the people here, those of you who I only see once a year here in Austria.

[27:17]

So maybe by tomorrow morning you can have some... suggestions to me, what you'd like me to work on with you these two and a half days, these two days to come. And including just basic things about sitting practice. Or mindfulness practice. So maybe we could sit for a little bit right now.

[28:36]

On the one hand, there's the many teachings and tools that Buddhism gives us. To help us study our mind and our situation. And then there's more direct study where there's no tools or teachings really. Just a deep faith in what we can call our fundamental endowment. Just a deep faith that what we need is here. A deep trust that what we need is there.

[29:58]

Like looking into the hole of space, H-O-L-E, hole of space and finding ourselves. This is Mount Sumeru. Without producing even a single thought. This is not a kind of mental trick, but a deep faith. Something you can dream on.

[31:41]

Give yourself over into. And your breath is your first friend in this practice. Let your friend, your breath, your friend turn into a deep faith in how you actually exist on this moment. and let your friend in breath transform you into a deep trust as you currently exist.

[32:50]

In this seminar, in these days together, let's emphasize not just study but immediate realization. It may sound unrealistic, but there's no harm in emphasizing it. It may not be polite or something, but we don't have to worry about that. faith and active faith in just how we are. Finding a kind of rest in this presence.

[34:13]

Our own presence and the presence we share. With each other and in this place, with this place. Please sit comfortably. Hmm? I don't know. Right. Well, good morning.

[36:11]

We have this funny question to look at. We're not producing a single thought. Is there any fault or not? This is not a simple question for that, as it might look like. And I think I'll try to go into this question with you. When you practice, as I said last night, a faith in existence and your existence is necessary.

[37:40]

Not a faith that everything is going to turn out all right or something like that. That would be a faith in a misplaced concreteness. Trying to have faith in something that's impermanent or not predictable, etc., So we need to have faith. I mean, that's true. We need to have faith. But in what? Since everything is impermanent and changing, it's rather difficult to know what to have faith in.

[38:44]

And I can't explain it except at some point you know you can't have faith in the sense that things are predictable. I don't know, I can't wrap my words around this very well. But you have faith somehow just because we appear here. The Buddha supposedly said, was born, took seven steps and said, I alone in the world honored one. I think this phrase alone is koan enough. I mean, it wouldn't go over very well at a cocktail party if you said that. It's not socially acceptable behavior.

[39:53]

So let's take away the alone and just say, I'm the world-honored one. And I think we can feel that when a baby's born. I think I talked last year even, here, about a baby being born. But in any case, when a baby's born, we can feel everything's come together in that child. Whatever this Cosmos, this stuff is, it comes together, all of it comes together in the birth of a child.

[41:13]

And I think we are capable of feeling that when we have a baby. This is the world-honored one. I mean, in the sense that the whole world has made it. And it's, what other word should we use, but it's honored by the world and honors the world. I'm alone, the world-honored one, means you need to recognize this yourself. It's not in comparison to others. I'm the world-honored one and you're not. It's rather, you also are. Are you capable of knowing that? So the sense of faith is to have that experience now or taste that sometimes that you are...

[42:47]

have the responsibility and presence of this everything coming together in you. And this fact and experience so outweighs all the problems we have. But it's very hard to notice this or hold on to it. So faith anyway in practice is this kind of sense or experience that you know, you don't go around telling everybody, but you know it. And perhaps we could say the Sangha is those of us who help each other recognize that. Now, if you can practice with this kind of face, You don't need to know too much about Buddhism.

[44:15]

But as your practice develops, you can say, hey, I see this path. And the question one has then is, how much of this path do you show to people? How much do you encourage them to have faith alone? Because sometimes the faith is encouraged by a little sense of the path. So in this koan, both of these things are present. The question contains an immense amount of Buddhist teaching paths. And Yanmin's response recognizes that and also recognizes the practice of faith. So I would like to, in these two days, give you a feeling, a permission of both.

[45:44]

The path that's here in this koan and also the faith that's here in this koan. Now let me come speak a minute a bit about meditation. Now this faith is embodied in meditation. Your faith guides meditation. Now this faith can also be expressed in one thought. And maybe you will just try to name that thought, but just imagine that this faith can be felt in one thought.

[46:46]

Or intention or vow. And what I'm speaking about here is partly in this koan and the background is what's called the consequence school. Now what that means is that you have the character, capacity or courage to accept the consequences of things. To be able to draw consequences. And consequences that may be independent of what your friends think or your culture thinks. So the feeling in this kind of teaching is if you can't really recognize a consequence and hold to it, you can't really enter the path.

[48:20]

And to come to a conclusion, to come to a consequence, you need what is called, let's say, an inferential or inferring consciousness. Inferential consciousness. So, we could say Buddhism is based not only on everything changing, knowing that, but a consciousness that can recognize that everything is changing. If everything's changing, it means the evidence is changing. It means the conclusions are changing.

[49:39]

So it means a consciousness that recognizes that everything's changing is called an inferring consciousness. Or a heuristic consciousness. In other words, it can look at the evidence and draw conclusions from it on the basis of the evidence. And when you start to meditate, you change the evidence in your life. You're changing the evidence that tells you something about how we exist, how you exist. Okay. To do this, to recognize this faith and this inferring consciousness.

[50:49]

A certain meditative equipoise is necessary. Equipoise means to be able to stay centered. These are just using some sort of technical Buddhist terms like meditative equipoise. Yeah, and it's okay with me if you just use in English meditative equipoise. Now we've defined it. I don't care. There's probably a German translation for it that's used, but I don't know what it is. Okay, so how do you develop meditative equipoise?

[51:51]

And your main friend is your attention. And your main friend's best companion is your breath. So you just get used to being with your breath. Maybe you can wake up in the morning and say, hi breath, are you still here? Vielleicht könnt ihr in der Früh aufwachen und euch denken, hallo Atem, bist du noch immer da? Ja, ich habe die ganze Nacht bei dir gelaufen, hast du es nicht bemerkt? And if you sleep with someone they might have noticed if you snore. In any case you have to recognize somehow that this faith is a kind of friendship. Someone asked me last night if I could talk about compassion.

[53:12]

So being your willing servant, I will attempt to see if I can talk about it. But you have to also be willing to create a mind that's capable of compassion. It means things like you have to be willing to see the good points in others. It doesn't mean you don't see the bad points, but it means that mostly your mind is generated through seeing the virtues of others. We're not talking here about what's true to a depressed, bitter person. Or what's true when you're in a bad mood. or what's true to some impartial judge sitting on the tip of each tree.

[54:35]

We're talking really about what kind of mind you want to live in. And The mind where you live is a lot nicer if it's generated through noticing other people's virtues. Now, you again have minds where you don't live, but you use where you think all kinds of things. I'm talking about the mind where you live. And in this world in which everything's changing, one of the things we're trying to do is generate a continuous stream mind. Where you can take refuge.

[55:38]

And this is one of the meanings of the refuges, to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. Can you generate a mind in which you can take refuge? Now another quality of a mind in which you can take refuge and live in good conscience is in addition to a mind which recognizes the virtues of others, is a mind that's also willing to disclose faults. your faults, your ill deeds.

[56:41]

Try to find a mind which doesn't, you don't lie to yourself, first of all. Many of us create a mind that we live with, so we can live with good conscience, that's the same mind we show to others. That's a little complicated. The mind we show to others often has a lot of little lies in it. Ambitions, ill will, etc. Things we, you know, etc. we often then try to internalize that mind we show to others and believe it's our real mind. So then we start a whole process of rationalizing and explaining to ourself that this is really the way it is.

[57:46]

And then when we find our friend doesn't quite believe us but doesn't care, we get mad at our friend because he's supposed to believe what we've convinced ourselves that we believe. Yeah. So, you know, really to know this mind of compassion in Buddhism is a real challenge. I mean, this is not easy to do this. We all think, oh, it would be really nice to be compassionate, and then everybody would like us more. But we're not really willing to take the consequences of developing a mind of compassion.

[58:56]

But such a mind is so much more relaxed and fluid and casual. And it's a lifetime sort of effort to pass, to come to this little by little. Again, if I say little by little, that's not quite right, because it's also when you just decide to do it. And in that sense you come to it with an all-at-onceness, but then still you have to kind of make it happen. And so it's something sudden, and then it develops in small steps. So this is all here in this, is there any fault or not?

[59:56]

Okay, you're generating a certain friendliness toward yourself. Because recognizing the virtues of others also means you're capable of recognizing your own virtues. If you don't feel good about yourself and you're self-accusatory all the time as a kind of excuse, Your mind is always kind of, it can't really practice.

[60:57]

So we have a lot of simple problems already presented here. How do you feel good about yourself? How do you find the faith in just our simple existence? Well, it's almost impossible to do, you know. You can only do it. So this koan also is really a metalogue. Metalog means it is what it is, it isn't about anything. Like as I've often said, if I say good morning, this is a metalog. Because I'm just saying something in greeting. If I say how are you, it's a little more complicated.

[62:01]

But just to say good morning, good morning is what it is. It's just the statement, good morning. So if you want to practice these things, you have to have a kind of faith that you can just sit down. That's one reason we meditate, to sit down and do it. And so you sit down and notice how you are. I don't feel good about myself. What's new? Oh, you go on sitting, it's okay. Well, sometimes you feel good. Okay. This kind of attitude, once a day or so, eventually changes things. So you're sitting down, cross-legged or in a chair or whatever,

[63:07]

for a little bit every day, doing nothing. Or finding a way to just let this existence appear. And your friendly and your good friend, your breath is there. And your good friend, your attention is there. So it's quite helpful to bring your attention to your breath. So I wanted to just, before we have a break, give you one way of looking at breath practice. Very important in Zen practice, in Buddhist practice, is to see things in parts. So your breath is Dharma, basically means to see things in parts.

[64:25]

So your breath comes in four parts. There's an inhale. And a pause. An exhale. And a pause. And those four parts you can bring your attention to. And on the inhale, there can be a myriad of feelings and so forth. And on the pause, you let your breath spread through your body. And on the exhale, again, myriad feelings can be there. And then on the pause, before you inhale again, there's a little death. That moment there's no air or little air in your body, you have a little death. Then you inhale.

[65:49]

So that kind of some practice like that, it doesn't have to be that particular breath practice. But becoming friends with your breath and friends with your attention. And just trusting and following your attention. as it teaches us something about our... shows us something about our body. But I think I should come back to... to this... to describing meditation practice after we have a break. Okay. So is 20 minutes probably enough, or something like that? Tribune.

[67:20]

Please sit in between. Let me continue a little bit about sitting practice and then I'd like to ask if you have some questions or directions or suggestions as I asked you to have last night. Ich möchte noch etwas mit der Sitzpraxis weitermachen und dann möchte ich wissen, ob ihr Fragen habt oder Vorschläge in Richtung, so wie ich gestern gebeten habe. Okay. So you're... I'd describe your breath as your friend.

[68:27]

And your attention also as your friend. Or your attention as the way you have of being with your friend. where your attention is not your friend, but it's your way of joining your friend or being with your friend. Now, it's really important, helpful to make friends with your body. Now, we comb our hair, and at least some of us do, And you brush your teeth and take care of your skin and so forth. But you don't really know much about the inside of your body except perhaps information.

[69:33]

But you can see and to feel into your body in a little different way than you see things outside, but not so different. Attention is a kind of secret, a little secret or a big secret. It's... It's a little expression of big mind and Buddha's awakeness. It's a little string that appears. If you follow that string, it leads to enlightenment. Enlightenment. Or leads to clarity and awareness. So it's a little treasure, this attention that comes up. Mm-hmm. So when you breathe, bring your attention to your breath.

[71:08]

You're very simply developing some experience in turning the flashlight of attention inside. It's almost like being a spelunker, being in a cave with a flashlight. You know these new watches which have the little green light? I heard some guy got lost in a cave and used the light from their watch to find their way out. Now, when you first begin to bring your attention to your breath and then to your body, you can let your attention go wherever it happens to go.

[72:20]

Or you're curious, say. You can say, what's my kidney look like? Mm-hmm. And not much happens, but you know, you can ask yourself the question anyway. Or you can say, what's the inside of my arm like? And what's really interesting about this, you can direct your attention with language. But really, when you're using language, what you're doing is joining intention to attention. By the way, am I speaking loudly enough? Could I speak more loudly?

[73:20]

Yes, okay. I was always embarrassed by my mother's voice. You'd be in the movie theater with her and she'd whisper something in the entire movie theater. So I'm always a little afraid I have a voice like that. Mm-hmm. So intention is really inseparable from attention. And that's another of the secrets of attention, is how intention and attention work together to expand this light.

[74:31]

And this is a process of getting to know yourself. And it's not so different from getting to know a person you like. A good friend, we have many friends, but a good friend is usually somebody we know well and love well. And it takes time to come to know well and love well your body. It's not automatic that just because you were born as a body, you know your body. So when you bring your attention to your breath, you're beginning to weave attention into your body.

[75:34]

And your attention and intention is both a guide and a gate. So you kind of ride your intention, attention and guide your intention too. Sometimes the mind is envisioned as a kind of wild animal and at some point you have to ride it. It's not so much a matter of controlling it. You can just put a fence around your mind for that. But to ride it and let... just be able to stay on. And using attention is the main way to do this.

[76:51]

And getting to know your body inside and out. Okay, so again, at first you just let your what your curiosity or happens, your arm or your kidney or whatever. Or your lungs inside, around the outside. Or just itches. All right. Then you can, second, you can begin to divide your body into parts. First you divided your breath into parts and now we're dividing your body into parts.

[77:53]

And the most useful divisions traditionally and that are thought also to produce the most subtlety of mind is to divide your body into four or five elements. And it's funny, I find myself talking, I rarely talk about this, but I talked about it at some length here a couple of years ago. But here I just want to mention it. Which is these five are your solidity. And you begin to enter into the solidness of your bones and so forth. And you find ways to feel that from inside. And in a similar way than your fluidity, the liquidness of you. And then the heat, heat and consciousness are so connected.

[79:08]

Being alive, of course, is heat. So you begin to see when your body is warm, is your body warm all over? And one of the signs of knowing your body is your hands and feet tend to be warm all the time. So then the motility or movement of things, there's a kind of movement going on all the time. And you begin to know that movement and know its relationship to your breath. And through that you discover a more subtle kind of breath or movement that you can read about, but now this way you discover it directly.

[80:13]

And then the space of your body, space around it, in it, and around things. Okay. If you do this and explore any part of your body you want to with this inner flashlight, And you take your time, you do this as you wish. But now, after you've done this, got to know your body in this way, you can begin to direct your attention much more immediately if there's some physical problem or something you want to understand. You probably know what's going on in your body.

[81:23]

You don't have to have a doctor tell you that something's wrong that you hadn't noticed. Because it's long before we start feeling sick, these things are happening. So meditation is really one sense you could say a great deal in that it's a way to love well and know well your body. Okay, now then, if you ride or attend to your attention, as I said the other night, it begins to happen with more subtlety.

[82:13]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_76.32