Please excuse me for being late. I shouldn't be late because Andreas got me this car that goes a thousand miles an hour. And it almost drives itself. It's a little scary. We used to get a car from Sixt over here. But two or three years ago they claimed we damaged the car when we left it overnight. And Andreas and I were sure we didn't do it. So I was so sure of it, I even wrote to Mr. Sixter.

[01:05]

He had a name, something like Sixter, right? Mr. in Munich. But they wouldn't, so we settled for half price or something like that. So since then, he's found the Mercedes dealer will give him a car for less than sixth. Or something like that. Yeah. So just to start, but I really would also like to start with anything that has occurred to you, what you felt in the discussion we've had so far?

[02:09]

And for me, even when I'm speaking, it feels like a discussion to me. Because somehow I feel that as this discussion is going on inside me, I feel it may be going on inside you too. Weil ich das Gefühl habe, während diese Diskussion, dieses Gespräch in mir stattfindet, dass es vielleicht gleichzeitig auch in euch stattfindet. But I said that, how are we going to establish this attentional strain? Aber ich habe gesagt, also wie etablieren wir diesen Aufmerksamkeitsstrom?

[03:15]

If again, I mean, in a way Zen practice is saying, we don't want to, we for the lineage, we don't want to add anything or any beliefs or anything. We just want you to be as you are, but with more attention. With some belief, no, well, not exactly belief, but experience, that... that the attentional stream is what defines us and reveals our exact reality.

[04:16]

What did you say? Reveals your exact reality. Dass er uns verfeinert, okay. Dass er uns verfeinert und dieser Aufmerksamkeitsstrom uns verfeinert und unsere exakte Wirklichkeit enthüllt. So in other words, you already have an attentional stream. In anderen Worten, du hast schon einen Aufmerksamkeitsstrom. And that attentional stream is called thinking. Und dieser Aufmerksamkeitsstrom wird denken genannt. And we are... tracing and tracking our existence in this thinking stream. And since the thinking stream is made of thoughts,

[05:20]

And the thoughts are mostly precogitated. Sorry. I couldn't resist that to see what you do. Are cognized, cognized before, thought before. Thought before by the culture and so forth. And what... Pre-cogitated would be like pre-digested, as if someone chewed your food for you. Like mothers do for babies sometimes. Okay. So what we're saying by establishing a attentional stream which is not conceptual or comparative.

[06:49]

Not conceptual. Okay, then I got the whole thing wrong. I'm sorry, can you please repeat that? You got the whole thing wrong. Would anybody else want to translate? I usually get the whole thing wrong and she corrects me. Where should I start? I mean, at what point did you start getting it wrong? Yesterday? Just the most recent sentence is good enough. Well, there we go. This is like Atmar, Srikrishna, me, you. So what did I say? I need to know where I start.

[08:00]

You should start back when your parents were born anyway. Before then, actually. Yeah, before then. I did already that once. I saw you at lunch in the hotel we were in. Yeah, no, it was for breakfast. For breakfast, I mean, not lunch, breakfast, yeah. And when I saw you, I thought, that looks like a guy I'd like to speak with. That's a good idea. You're doing it now. Well, you said if this attentional stream is not a conceptual or is not made of concepts and comparisons, something like that. Yeah, like that. Then it is... then it, in effect, in itself or by itself, interrupts or changes the conceptual stream, the thinking stream. dann unterbricht er schon einfach aus sich heraus, aus dem heraus, was er ist, unterbricht oder beeinflusst den Strom der Konzepte und des Denkens.

[09:12]

So you're already doing something that's changing you, even though you're not doing anything but adding attention. Und allein dadurch tust du schon etwas, das dich verändert, obwohl du eigentlich gar nichts tust, außer Aufmerksamkeit hinzuzufügen. So you're adding attention and substituting for the thinking stream an attentional stream. Okay. And you're adding, as I said, the intention to realize an uninterrupted attentional stream. This all works together, particularly when you see that it's all located through the body.

[10:13]

As I often repeatedly say, I'm sorry, but repetition is a huge part of practice. that zazen is a physical posture, zazen absorbent sitting, is a physical posture and A minded posture, a mental posture, don't move. Usually I say mental posture. But this morning when I was musing about this, I thought maybe I should say a minded posture.

[11:46]

Like in English we say, I know you don't geist the baby, do you? Certainly not. Well, in English you mind the baby. Certainly not. What? Or if you had a, you know, mind the store. I'm going out for a while, would you mind the store or mind the center? So you're minding the posture. Also, passt du auf die Heizung auf? Yeah. And that minding of the posture is parallel to the intention to have an uninterrupted attentional strength.

[12:56]

I mean, you know, I used to feel I just couldn't go into this detail. Because I... You're playing my song. Because I felt that this kind of detail would just kind of fall off the mind. But I gradually realized that this is a craft and I have to bring it to you in the detail that is necessary for a craft.

[14:02]

We unloaded the container recently with all the not yet assembled Zendo parts. And from Belgium, Mathieu was there, because he's in charge of the project here, to help us unload the truck. And he was in charge of building it, the primary person working on it in California. And we had to be very careful to take each piece out and not bump it, et cetera, because everything was planed and done in a way that has tiny details that will make it all fit together.

[15:25]

So they actually wrap and kind of saran wrap all the pieces and the joints and things. Or if you're a potter, It's just how you sit and hold the pot as it's turning on the wheel, if you use a wheel. If your posture is like this, probably you're going to it will come out differently than if your posture is like this.

[16:46]

In a way, you bring your own posture in making a pot, into the pot. I'm thinking of doing, as I said a little earlier, basically decided not to be, for all my life so far, decided not to be videotaped. I was videotaped at the DBU talk, but I couldn't do anything about that. But they wanted Nicole to sit in a booth and everyone wearing earphones.

[17:48]

I said, no, we're just going to sit here and probably not use amplification as possible. And when they pointed to the box, she had to go in. I said, you're not going to put her in a box. The practice starts here and continues here. So these small things like Holding in your posture the feeling of not moving.

[18:57]

Or recognizing that it's nearly impossible, particularly at first, to have an uninterrupted attentional stream. But to notice, to recognize that you can have an uninterrupted intentional stream. Oh, did you say before that it's not possible to happen? Yes, I said it's not possible. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. You're so good, I can't complain. I should complain now and then just to keep you on your toes. But you can't be on your toes when you're sitting on it. Okay. And I can't impress on you enough that the uninterrupted intentional stream is the chemistry that makes it work.

[20:22]

If you think, well, sometimes I take a little vacation, it doesn't make any difference, I don't have to, I've got other things to do, maybe I'll do this and I'll go, you know, gaming in Las Vegas. There will be plenty to go gaming in Las Vegas. Maybe with an uninterrupted attentional stream, you might earn some money in Las Vegas. Okay. Yeah, I don't know. I can't say that more strongly than I just did.

[21:26]

But that is something that's possible to do. And I'd like you to be convinced of that. Okay. Okay, if those two things then, uninterrupted attentional stream and uninterrupted intentional stream, are the two alchemical dynamics of practice. Yeah. I've been looking recently and looking at... the practices and life and teachings of Musa Soseki.

[22:28]

And I've particularly been sharing it with Atmar. Because he's, you know, the person who really makes the gardens and grounds work at Yohanasov. And Musa Soseki is recognized as the person who established the way Zen temples look as gardens, the way they look as buildings, and the way the teaching is understood. And not too much is known of his general teaching.

[23:29]

Because in those days they didn't have machines like this. And the custom is you don't write down your lectures. Dogen is unusual in that he did. And the reason we have such a compendium of teaching from Dogen But he did write a number of letters to two of the shoguns. And those letters have been translated by Tom Cleary, as I think Dream Conversations is the name of the book. They're quite good.

[24:52]

They're up there with the Huang Bo book. Over and over again, what In these letters, what Musa Soseki says, if you do this, you do that, but you don't lose your uninterrupted connection to the fundamentals. Und immer und immer wieder sagt Musa Soseki, ja, du kannst das und das machen oder das und das machen, aber du verlierst dabei nicht deine ununterbrochene Verbindung mit dem, was fundamental ist. This uninterrupted attention stream. Dieser ununterbrochene Aufmerksamkeitsstrom. It brings you close to the world and close to other persons and close to yourself.

[25:55]

That brings you closer to the world and closer to other people and closer to yourself. Now the attentional string can be developed, articulated by matric practices. And a mantric practice means that you have a phrase or something like a phrase or some kind of sequence of sounds that you say to develop an attentional stream. But the main way we in Zen develop this attentional stream The most direct way is sitting zazen.

[27:11]

So zazen is, first of all, I'm going to speak about it three ways. And zazen bedeutet erstens, und ich werde darüber auf drei unterschiedliche Weisen sprechen, is first of all what I would call now a minded stream. Ist erstens das, was ich jetzt einen minded stream, einen beachteten Strom nennen würde. You're bringing a... a phrase, a view, a mental posture to your moment-by-moment experience.

[28:15]

Okay, so the most simple one to describe is during zazen you are saying to yourself, in effect, don't move. And the chemistry of zazen doesn't work very well without that phrase, without that concept of intention. Again, I've spoken about this don't move as a mental posture quite often in the last couple of years. But I'm going, speaking about it again in the spirit of being, say, a potter and we're all on our own wheel shaping ourselves.

[29:26]

And I hope you, it would be nice if you realized What an extraordinary, I think so anyway, what an extraordinary practice you found yourself in. Because it's a practice which can make you more who you already are and make you simultaneously different. Weil das eine Praxis ist, die in der Lage ist, euch mehr zu dem Menschen zu machen, der ihr bereits seid, und euch gleichzeitig aber auch zu verändern. And what... To me it's suddenly amazing that this is possible.

[30:33]

Und für mich ist es schlichtweg erstaunlich, dass das möglich ist. And you don't have to do much of anything except be more attentive. And attentive in a way that, as much as possible, is more and more uninterrupted. And although that's not possible, you can have an uninterrupted intention, as I've said again and again now. Yeah, I started to say, I mentioned this filming and DBO, etc., Because when I said something about sitting in front of the potter's wheel, it reminded me that I was even thinking of maybe filming a description of the orioke practice. Because I would like to demonstrate, if I could, that the first step in the Uriyoki practice is how you sit in front of the bowls.

[31:57]

dass der erste Schritt in der Uryuki-Praxis ist, wie du vor den Schalen sitzt. Als erstes stellst du deine Haltung her. Und die Uryuki-Praxis ist so... consumes so fully your attention. Und die Uryuki-Praxis... If you weren't attentive, you'd make a mess of everything. And at an Oyoki meal, it's convivial in a sense. You really feel the people you're eating with in the same rhythm. But it's not convivial like you were in a cafe. You're sort of half finished and you push the bowls back and you say, let's, you know.

[33:18]

you lean back and start having a conversation with the person next to you. This wouldn't work. If you did that, you'd never get your bowls back together correctly, so you can put them back, you know, etc., So the bulls ask from you a certain kind of attention. And then it's also a kind of, simultaneously, a kind of chakra practice. And then it's also a kind of chakra practice. Because the bowls are related to the line of your body and to the chakras.

[34:30]

How you pick them up. It's very typical Zen practice to build a practice around the realization of the body, the potential realization of the body. This is like in this koan again. It says he's riding the robber's horse to chase the robber. They're riding the robber's horse, chasing the robber. This is what Columbo would do. He exactly does that. Hmm. So that in zazen, an ordinary period of zazen of 30 or 40 or 50 minutes, you're developing a mind of the pot.

[36:09]

Yeah. And I think it's useful, and what I'm trying to say in this, is you get used to the feeling, maybe you just say it to yourself, I'm minding the body now. And I think what's helpful, and that's why I say it like this, If you're minding the baby, you don't want to ask someone to mind the baby who lets it roll off the changing table. If you want to not let your attention stray from the baby,

[37:15]

Now you're trying to not let attention stray from attention itself. But of course you do, and you start to think, and so forth. But your intention, your vow, it's doesn't go away. So you come back to attention to attention. And this minded posture is the first aspect of zazen I'm mentioning to develop an attentional stream. Und diese beachtete Haltung ist der erste Schritt im Saar-Sinn, einen Aufmerksamkeitsstrom zu entwickeln.

[38:44]

Und du tust etwas ganz Bestimmtes, wenn du das tust. Der zweite Aspekt, den ich erwähnen möchte, I guess some of you thought we were going to have a break. Are you going to close up your books? And then I say a second aspect and your books come back. So this is also... Zazen is a biological process. Or perhaps better to say a physiological process. And biology is sort of the study of life processes, but physiology in English is the study of the functions of life processes.

[39:45]

And when biology is something like the study of life processes, then physiology is the study of the functions of life processes. So when you bring your attention to your breath, Well, again, this is very simple, obvious. Everyone knows these things who does zazen. But I'm trying to really turn this into a... attentional and intentional craft in which you can notice the stages of practice when you get more successful at maintaining an attentional stream. Now, when you bring attention to the breath, you're directly entering the physiology of the zazen practice.

[40:56]

And you're beginning to functionize. affect the functioning of the body. Because here you're not just making a mental stream, you're making a physiological stream. Because practice is, because we're creating, you're actually creating a new kind of person. And if neurologists study people who have practiced a long time, the brain works differently.

[41:59]

The body works differently. And that takes time. You don't change the dynamic pathways throughout the body just by one little or big enlightenment experience. So the emphasis on practice after enlightenment in our lineage is the recognition that the physiological establishment of an attentional stream beinhaltet die Erkenntnis, dass die... Can you say this again?

[43:00]

The establishment of a physiological attentional stream, a bodily attentional stream, das Herstellen eines physiologischen, eines körperlichen Aufmerksamkeitsstroms, takes time. dass das Zeit braucht. And the insights we may have had, insights which are, we could call, let's say, little enlightenments. And I'm sure that all of you are here because you've had little enlightenment experiences. Makes me think of Charlotte Selber. She was one of my first teachers. She established a sensory awareness practice in the United States. She was German, Austrian-German. And I knew it all, all our mutual lives, pretty much. And I knew her all of our mutual lives, pretty much.

[44:14]

What's a mutual life? We both were alive at the same time, and we knew each other for 60 years or something. Oh, okay. And I don't remember how she died. I think I've told you this story before, but she died when she was about 104 or something like that. And I can remember, well, give a lecture on her. But I did say once to her, you know, I hope I live as long as you. And she said, no, you don't. But after she was 100, she began to be, she had a body like a 14-year-old girl or something. She got very thin and kind of fragile. Not that 14-year-old girls are fragile, but maybe an 11-year-old girl.

[45:26]

And she always, you know, I sat beside her and she always would sit right against you with her hip against you, her leg against you. And I said to her once, I said, Charlotte, thank you for the many little enlightened experiences you gave me. And I said to her, Charlotte, thank you for all the little enlightened experiences you gave me. And she pulled herself up to her full tiny height. And she said, what do you mean little? I said, oh, I'm sorry.

[46:30]

But these little enlightened experiences, often which we don't even know we've had, But they've changed us in some way. Those little changes are matured through the physiological stream of Zazen. Now, since it's been a full hour and a minute or two, since you were on time and got here, we should take a break. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you for coming.

[47:29]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_76.32