So I spoke yesterday about the possibility, possibilities perhaps for psychotherapy of this turning word practice. Yeah, and I also said that it's not only the most unique aspect of Zen practice among other Buddhist schools, in how it is used in koan practice, I think it's easier for you to get up than me.

[01:05]

Thanks. And a recent recognition of mine is the degree to which it's a structuring dimension of Zen monastic life. And being that, that it is a way to extend some of what extend some of the power of Zen monastic life into daily lay life.

[02:17]

Now, much of what I say I think will be quite obvious. But what I find is when you look very carefully at the obvious, it ain't so obvious. Okay. Now turning word practice to be effective assumes a degree of developed mindfulness practice. At least I think so. And so that would mean that if it's... going to be perhaps effective, and you wanted to experiment with it, and perhaps already there's five schools of psychotherapy I don't know anything about that do this.

[03:45]

Yes, I think that you would have to find some way to have the client develop some kind of beginning, at least mindfulness practice. Now this would also, of course, as you as lay practitioners, adept lay practitioners, of course, you can already make use of turning word practice. Now, as I said yesterday, it's not only unique among Buddhist schools

[04:49]

in Zen practice. But it's also unique to our Dharma Sangha lineage. Because I've extended the practice more than I know anyone else has ever done actually in history. They just didn't as far as I know, had the occasion to do it. And the occasion to do it was that I, as a new practitioner in the United States in the 60s, found myself always confronted with the worldviews, the paradigms of the West.

[06:11]

And that also I essentially had a lay practice because I was married and had a job at the university and I was a graduate student and blah, blah, blah. And how do you translate blah, blah, blah? Blah, blah, blah. In German you say the same thing? Something like... Because that's important sometimes. Okay. And I, you know, felt the need for monastic practice, so as I've mentioned in the past, now and then, I imagined San Francisco as a monastery, but rather a large one. Okay, so we have this idea that you can turn words in the sense of repeating them.

[07:32]

And they can often turn your situation and often turn your world views as well. If it can do all these things, it has to be a very powerful practice. And I think also it has to be a very simple practice. Simple in the sense that it can be easily part of daily life. Powerful because it enters into daily life in a certain way. I mean, after all, what is daily life? Trees grow leaves. Clouds form.

[08:52]

We breathe in our heartbeats. And we enact the details of our worldviews in the details of our life. Okay. Now, once you have a feeling, at least this has been my experience, for this technique, you can use it for almost anything. At first it can be presented as questions. I mean, as I said, it's going to be very obvious.

[09:53]

Why am I unhappy? Why don't I get along with my spouse? So you can start out with questions like that. But as a technique, it means you need to bring it, it needs to be in the background of your mind and to kind of surface into the details of your life. Now, one of the assumptions of this practice is that the the majority of the details of your life are outside of consciousness. They're like can't-see-ums.

[10:54]

Do you have can't-see-ums in German? Es ist so wie diese can't-see-ums. Can't-see-ums. Die man nicht sieht. It's actually spelled S-E-E-postrophe-E-M-S. Can't-see-ums. There's those little bugs that you can't see that sting like mosquitoes. Also das sind so ganz, ganz winzige... No one knows what they are because you can't see them. Do you have them in Germany, can't see them? No. They certainly exist in Crestone. First you get rid of the mosquitoes and then come the can't see them. Do you remember the Can't-See-Him's girl? Oh, you do, huh? In fact, they thought his head was a landing field. Yeah.

[12:01]

Okay, let's say the... Details of your life are like pixels that from a distance you don't see are pixels. So how do you introduce into the details of your life some very fundamental, practical questions? Now this practice also assumes, not only the recently pointed out plasticity of the brain, but in a sense the plasticity of consciousness itself. Because, or let's put it another way, that recognition or assumption that consciousness is structured.

[13:31]

Primarily linguistically conditioned, but structured in other ways as well. Okay, if consciousness is structured. Which you can notice as soon as you wake up in the morning. There's this kind of like bizarre structure of dreaming mind. which seems to ignore ordinary time and space. And when you wake up again, I point this out because I don't always want to point it out in relationship to zazen. So pointing it out in relationship to just waking up, which even those who don't do zazen do.

[14:37]

You can see the scaffolding of the day appear. scaffolding. You're going to climb up on and try to do your day in the way everyone wants you to. So the structure of consciousness appears usually in two or three stages. until you can't sleep anymore, and you probably not, and you get up, etc. Well, okay. Let's accept then that consciousness is structured. If it's structured, it can be destructured. It can be unstructured.

[15:38]

It can be restructured. And you can explain much of Zazen practice as unstructuring consciousness. And sufficiently destructured consciousness we, I call, awareness. And an awareness, then, destructuring consciousness then opens you to awareness, which is a more fundamental mind of knowing than consciousness, which I called yesterday, I can give it various names depending on its how you enter it, what it does, etc.

[17:07]

And I called it the mind behind the mind. And the mind behind the mind can do lots of things. I find even when I'm sort of trying to fiddle with some numbers, things, it'll calculate the answer outside of consciousness, and a number will appear, 79. I'll think, could that be the answer of what I was trying to figure out? And I check it consciously, step by step. Oh, yes, it is. Well, it happened to me when I was playing around with a few numbers, that this spirit behind the spirit came to a number outside of consciousness, for example 79, and when I then calculated this step by step with my conscious mind, the result was actually 79.

[18:08]

This mind behind the mind is often, the functioning of this mind behind the mind is often what we call intuition. And one thing that happens if your zazen is sufficiently established, that the thinking of consciousness is paralleled by a continuous flow of what normally would be called intuitions. I didn't quite get that. Once your zazen is sufficiently established, which means you've gone through the long, boring period of a downward learning curve, And you stayed with it despite boredom. Because that's when not change is occurring, but transformation.

[19:35]

And transformation is usually a period of little incremental adjustments that you don't notice. And transformations are normally very small steps of incremental adjustments that you don't notice. I just don't find the German word. Adjustments. Adjustments. So incremental adjustments that you don't notice. There's all these German words, all these English words, and they kind of... You get them together pretty well, though, most of the time.

[20:36]

Thank you. I don't have this problem. Okay, so when zazen mind is sufficiently established, so it merges with ordinary mind, Yeah, then ordinary, usual, conscious thinking is supplemented by or paralleled by a flow of intuitive thinking. Okay. Okay. Now, again, treating this as a technique of asking yourself questions, it requires the repetition of the question or this wisdom phrase or whatever.

[21:44]

and the repetition, if one can do the repetition, so this question or attitude or insight, floats in between consciousness and non-consciousness. And what you're actually doing when that happens I try to find words to describe it, and the words are metaphoric. It increases the depth of consciousness. So depth in the sense that consciousness begins to notice, be present to more of the details of daily life.

[23:14]

More of the can't-see-ums are seen. More of the spaces between the pixels are seen. mehr von dem Raum, der zwischen den Pixeln ist, wird gesehen. So simply, more of the details of life, of daily life, are kind of... become the texture of consciousness. Also, mehr Details des täglichen Lebens werden zur Textur des Bewusstseins. So then you can start to refine the question, like, why don't I get along with my spouse? When do I notice I've been abandoned by my spouse? When do I notice I'm irritated by my spouse?

[24:33]

No, I practice this with my spouse and I can't say it always works. But it does make a difference, I find. I notice the little triggers at the level of can't see him's. in which the atmosphere changes. And this finer textured topography of relationship, I can begin to act. Okay. Now, how can we give... I'm imagining I'm a therapist.

[25:45]

No, I better not. That got me in trouble yesterday. I'll just pretend for a moment. And I think, geez, this sweet client in front of me here doesn't really have a sense of what mindfulness practice is. They clearly can't shake themselves out of their patterned thinking. So what I would do now is do something which I could call not the stream of mindfulness, but maybe cued mindfulness. So I might say, when an actor in a play is supposed to do something because somebody puts a glass down on the table, that's the cue that they enter.

[27:13]

What word do you use? Auslöser. Oder vielleicht auch Zeichen. Bitte? Hinweis. It's such a basic word in English. You know, the orchestra conductor says, this will be your cue. Yeah. Zeichen. Zeichen. For a musician, you use a different word when it's for an actor. Oh, really? You guys are so complex. We're just simple. Same word we use. Okay. So I start thinking, what could be a cue? Well, the first I would say I'd want something very ordinary to be the cue. I wouldn't want it cued yet to the person's own complexes. Okay, so I might say, when you have a cup of coffee or tea, probably more easily at first, at least, when you're by yourself, or even a glass of water or a glass of wine or something,

[28:44]

Something, you pick something, let's say a cup of coffee or tea. And when you have, you just ask the client and you say, I don't know why I'm saying, I don't know anything about psychotherapy, but anyway, here I go. What you have permission to do in a relationship, that's what I don't fully understand. But I'm imagining you could say, When you have a cup of coffee, hold it for a moment and bring attention to the breath two or three times. And then after a few sips, bring attention to your breath twice.

[30:02]

Five or ten times, four or five times. And when you finish, maybe another four or five times. Now, the practice of this in koan context is nearly the same. Yeah, because you have to cue yourself to notice certain things. I mean, what is the three bells that begin zazen but a cue? To bring attention to the breath. And fill the body with attention. So, yeah, you can use a cup of coffee or tea. Okay. Now, if a person can accept that, and I think I would say to the client, this is a practice which will help our therapy together, but will also help, can be useful in all kinds of circumstances.

[31:52]

I certainly wouldn't tell them it's Buddhist. But if I gave them a cup to use, I would have a Buddha at the bottom of the cup. What's that at the bottom of the cup? It's a Buddha. So, okay. Now, you can also, you also want to... You can kind of stage.

[32:55]

These can occur in steps and stages. For example, you can start, you can suggest to somebody, I mean, now we're talking more about practice, not necessarily a client. You can suggest to someone that on each noticing, You say yes. Let's say you say yes. And as those of you I've been practicing with for a long time know that I did this myself a lot. Still do it. You say yes to whatever people ask. Yeah, really, it's quite fun. But you have a second chance, you have a second response.

[33:56]

So, for instance, if I'm at Crestone, where the nearest movie theater is at least 100 kilometers away, Someone says to me, let's go to the movies. I say, yes. But then I say, well, we both know it's crazy. It's 100 miles away. So you've always got the second response where you say... I can't do that, but yes, I'd like to. And this really begins to change. You will be surprised. It begins to change your relationship. I see people walking along the street when I go back to the hotel.

[34:57]

Which probably have several layers of no built into their responses. And sometimes I keep complete strangers. I try to do something a little bit to see if I can nudge out a yes, but usually no, no, no. That's close to a thousand. Nine, nine, nine. Okay, then you can shift the practice of yes to the practice of welcome.

[36:25]

And whatever comes up, you feel you welcome it. It's going to be a rainy day, you welcome it. It's going to be whatever, you welcome it. And this is using language to get yourself into a practice of accepting. The turning word phrase just now is enough. is a practice of acceptance. And the way to enter from consciousness to the mind behind the mind As I said the other day, is to develop an allowing accepting mind.

[37:37]

So the basic Dharma practice is to notice appearances and have a feeling of receiving them allowing them Accepting them. And releasing them. What are we doing? Okay. Perceiving. allowing, accepting, releasing. We're fiddling with the structure of consciousness. We're refining consciousness.

[38:50]

Because consciousness, as I said, can be structured Its depth can increase. And it also can be refined. And it can be refined to be more compassionate or wiser, etc., Und es kann verfeinert werden in die Richtung, dass es mehr Mitgefühl haben kann. It can be refined to really actually notice that everything is changing. Und es kann dahingehend verfeinert werden, dass es wirklich bemerkt, dass alles sich verändert. And the practice of noticing appearance is a practice, as I've said, of noticing impermanence.

[39:51]

Und das ist eine Praxis, dass man die Vergänglichkeit bemerkt. Yeah.

[39:57]

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