Marie-Louise pointed out to me that the word monitoring in German has the feeling of surveillance. I just thought that an audit means something like verfolgen. Man verfolgt ein Ding. Das hat ja auch so eine Konnotation. Also, wir verfolgen einen Prozess. We also, like, follow a process. Pursue. Pursue. Persecution is also the similar thing. To get after someone, you're like... Like you're sitting. Yeah. Stasi Zen. Sherlock Holmes Zen. What? Sherlock Holmes. Yeah, well, that's a milder form. My dear. Watson, yeah.

[01:07]

Yeah, it's... Yeah, there's a language problem. Because, you know, what I meant is more like the extraordinary teaching I find. You know, you just don't find these things anywhere but in Buddhism that I know about practically of... We should be aware of the syllable body, the name body and the phrase body. Silbenkörper, die Silbe, den Namenkörper und den Satzkörper. Silbenkörper, Namenkörper und Satzkörper. Okay, and it's in the Lankavatara Sutra.

[02:13]

And the best thing that D.T. Suzuki did for practitioners at least is his translation of the Lankavatara Sutra into English. I don't know if it, is it translated into German? Is it a good translation? You don't know it? It is directly from Sanskrit. Yeah, well that's better than from D.T. Suzuki. There's also a good translation in the internet. You just can look down in the internet. The whole Lankavatara Siddhartha? Really? Google Lankavatara. Lankavatara.com. Just a second volume, just annotations to the Lankavatara Sutra, which is a thick D.T. Suzuki wrote. Oh, I know that.

[03:15]

Yeah, it's not as good as the translation, but it's okay. But the Lankavatara Sutra is known as the classic Zen Sutra. The Lankavatara Sutra is known as the classical Zen Sutra. Is it the Sutra in German? We don't know. It's neutral. In neutral. Das. Das Sutra. We don't know. It sounds with A in the end. It sounds like a girl sutra, right? But in Dutch it's neutral. So maybe we make it neutral. Some people say the hair. Well, prajna, [...] anyway, is considered to be feminine, so. So that's, wisdom is also, of course, feminine.

[04:17]

Feminine, of course, yes. I'm so happy I have such a big female side. Anyway, yeah, because the... So, anyway, to stay, so, anyway, the Laghavatar Sutra, it's sometimes, you know, there's portions of it were supposedly written in the 10th century. There are, you know, additions and stuff. But... The Lankavatara Sutra has parts in which it is said that they were written in the 10th century. And sometimes it is criticized by the learned because it is a kind of mishmash. But I find it actually there's something persuasive about it.

[05:36]

And much of what we've been talking about, the Alaya Vijjana, etc., is in detail gone into in that sutra. So, it's a sutra that I... along with the Diamond and the Heart Sutras, read extremely carefully, a line at a time over, you know, a line a day or so, over some years. So, and if Bodhidharma supposedly brought it to China, maybe we ought all to read it if you have a chance. Yeah, you bow to Bodhidharma every morning in service, you know. And he hasn't asked you to cut off your arm.

[06:50]

Or stand in the snow. Anyway, the practice is that you hear when a person's speaking to you, you hear the syllables, just the sound at a kind of mantra-like level of what they're saying. It happened to me yesterday. Oh, yeah? Okay. She couldn't translate because all she heard was a syllable. She could have just started humming. Also, wenn jemand zu euch spricht, dann versucht ihr, Silben davon zu hören. Und dann sage ich, das ist ja mir gestern beim Übersetzen passiert, dass ich nur noch Silben gehört habe. And then you hear the words or names separate from sentences.

[07:52]

Yeah, like an example I often use is Walt Whitman's poem in memoriam to Abraham Lincoln. To whom he does write it? For Abraham Lincoln. When Lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed. When Flieder endlich in the When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed. Wenn Flieder schließlich hinter der Tür im Hof erblühte.

[09:00]

So, last in this sentence, when you first hear it, it just means they last a long time. Sunflowers last a long time. But the next sentence in the poem makes it clear. It means, in the past they bloomed. So if you hear the word in the sentence, it means in the past. If you hear the word vertically out of the sentence, not horizontally in the sentence, then it has other meanings. So to hear the name body, not the word body, word being part of a sentence. You just hear the words that are being chosen. then you hear them in a phrase or a sentence.

[10:20]

It's something more like that, what monitoring means in Zen practice. You can hear the mind feeling of the in yourself and in the people that you practice with. And although, you know, in a sangha, people often don't get along so perfectly well, Sekiro used to say, we should get along like milk and water. But he said that because one of the most difficult things of all in practice is living in a sangha. But it actually works pretty well.

[11:21]

One of the reasons I think is because when we sit Zazen together regularly, it kind of reduces a certain level of, eliminates a certain level of pettiness. But I think actually chanting in the morning is also an important part of that. I think if we just sat Zazen in the morning and then got up and didn't do service, didn't do chanting, Actually, we wouldn't work together as well. It's a kind of metabolic tuning or something that occurs when we chant. And I kind of experiment with not chanting at the beginning of this discussion.

[12:56]

But actually, for me, I have a feeling that we're kind of chanting secretly when we start. Now, I wanted someone to volunteer to present us the five skandhas. Who is that person? Did anyone volunteer? Okay, great. Can I do that in German?

[14:16]

Sure. That's good. Wiki. Okay, so the... I'll write them down first. I'll write them down now. The first one is... The second one is... feeling and Roshi is always keen to describe it to me as a feeling that cannot be grasped, so not so much the emotions and the feeling, but also at least to include a feeling that cannot be grasped, for example when you here in the pure space, what kind of feeling is that in a space where at the moment 12, 20, 25 people are sitting.

[15:18]

The next is perception. The fourth is Oh, Jesus. Impulses. The last is consciousness. Is that German? I have a program in my computer.

[16:23]

I just write C-O and then... I write C-O-N-S-S. Oh, yeah. Okay. But you said you were going to present them in German. Okay, strangely, like English. Yeah, this is kind of... I mean, I'm... Ich spreche Deutsch. I speak German. I'm writing English here. Aber... The five standards, because I only know them from the English language for the first time, I use them for myself, even if I think in German, I use them in English. And that makes it even a little easier, because then the individual terms, they are not so shaped. I can somehow re-shape them, so to speak, when I use the English words. And when we look at the five cantas,

[17:26]

and now also completely detached from the exhibitions of Marx and Dahmer and so on, which we have treated in the last few days, then this is, so to speak, a completely new system and that The overwhelming thing about it, or the simple thing about it, is that the teaching says, everything that you are, have, what you meet, what happens to you, you can divide into one of these five categories. To see this as a practice, it would be a challenge or an application of the five skandhas that I ask myself, whatever happens to me,

[18:40]

whether it is in the body, whether it is thinking or whether it is how I see the world, how I live in the world, how the world comes to me, everything can be expressed in one of these five elements. categories or in other books they are also called the five heaps, so the five piles. That means you can, so to speak, to put it quite practically, say you have five baskets standing there and you can divide everything you meet, everything that comes to your mind, and Sazen too, everything you experience on the pillow, you can say I will now divide that into the five And the next point where you can practice, and we recite it every morning in the Heart Sutra, it is said that all five skandhas are empty of their own being.

[19:59]

This is another teaching where the five khandhas tell us that there are forms, feelings, perceptions, consciousness, but there is no self. And then there would be a next step in the practice that I ask myself. Normally, once I walk very fast through this khandhas. And when I hear something, for example, then I add to it, yes, I hear that. Or I see that. Or when it comes to form, and in some books it is described more as a body, then I would say, yes, that is my body, and that is at the moment my leg, my knee, that hurts me.

[21:10]

And even more so here in the... consciousness, where one could say, in this thinking consciousness, one can really say, this is only about the self. That means, the whole thinking, it's about me, when I think, and yet this exhibition says, although thinking is there, it doesn't mean there is no thinking, but In this thinking skanda, there is no self. The question is, do I need it now? This is a place where you can practice. Can I put an empty basket here and then maybe say, for my perception, for my perception, as I exist, do I need a basket where I can put something like a self?

[22:25]

Or can I... This is also a matter of practice. If I can slow down the speed, I can hold the form, the feeling, the perceptions, in this skanda, that I can feel it, even physically, I can perceive the perception physically. And this is a very good field to practice, because then the four marks come in, where you could say, with the help of the four marks one can practice perception.

[23:34]

There seems to be a new baby? Yeah, yeah. Now it's born, so she's quiet. Or can I stay in hearing, in hearing-hearing, or in this field of hearing-hearing? And here we come back to the fact that there is a cow and I hear it in here, but there is also a field that is being created, and in this field one can then find that there is no one who hears. This means that what is in the Heart Sutra is correct, that it is free from one's own being.

[24:47]

Of course, it becomes more difficult here in thinking. Can I identify with my own thinking? to get me out of my thinking so that I can say, yes, there is still something that thinks, there is still thinking going on, but it has nothing to do with me anymore, also thinking is free from oneself. And what is left of thinking if I, so to speak, yes, that is difficult, I always feel that as a challenge, because thinking is about the self, or yesterday this philosopher was quoted, I think, so I am, so he would say, at the latest here in thinking, that's where the I comes in, because I think, I am.

[25:52]

And the teaching of Skanda says, even though you think, there is no one who thinks, there is no I behind thinking. But I think, and this has always been the case in the last few days, how do we get this into practice, what do I do with such a, what was it called yesterday, with such a, how can I use it as medicine and not as a scheme? And I think the first important step is, of course, that you get these five points, that you get how to jump. You can do this from a feeling, it usually goes pretty quickly to consciousness, or from a perception it goes into consciousness. Then comes the name, and with the name it also opens the door to thinking. from a practical point of view, I can stay in each skanda as a possible access, and I can also anchor individual skandas in the body, so to speak, that is, anchor the hearing and the seeing in the body, anchor the feelings in the body,

[27:18]

Not so coarse. So if somebody wants to ask or something... Ask him, don't ask me. For me, feeling is much more basic than emotions. It's only... You can speak German because she'll translate. As far as I understand it, the feelings are only like, dislike.

[28:24]

You want something, you want to have it, you take it away, and then you destroy it. Only these three. Because one of them is the church, the other is the house, and everything that is... That it does not cause any kind of impulsions. And that this is also a point where you can influence someone. With what? With influencing someone. That is, if you have the intention to live this input either with rejection or attachment, then it has a sustainable influence on what happens afterwards. And they are also a sequential sequence, like a fast flowing stream. That means, as it says in the Surya Gama Sutra, that the stream flows over the stream waves and over the fast flowing stream.

[29:27]

They are always the same sequence, from the input to the consciousness. At least if you... And you should just check that out. If it says, that's all there is, there's nothing else. We just need these five curves. And there is certainly, if you stay with feelings and say, yes, there is, we also need a basket for feelings and I also need a basket for emotions, so let's call it that here. But we also put in there that we say, come again, so this example, you come into a room and you notice a certain atmosphere in the room. Where do you put that? And then you should at least We need a basket for that. Again, the teaching says, this is all you need. That means that you also have such an indescribable feeling, as it is described there, But I think such emotions have more impulses in them.

[30:28]

Yes, or at least it jumps very quickly. What I noticed about you now is that you have addressed this Form, Feeling, Perception and Consciousness very precisely, but you have made a bend around the impulses. I have noticed this in other lectures about the skandhas. It seems to be a difficulty, or it is so clear that one does not have to contradict it at all. For me it is not so clear. Okay, then I'll join in. It's not quite clear for me either. Can I really join in? because there are two curves, one for this feeling, we call it a non-aggressive feeling, and there is also a feeling for these impulses, and it is not so clear to me yet. I want to ask you, I read in the Buddhist manual that these five standards describe the levels of a human being from birth, old age and death.

[31:39]

And in the discussion, I noticed that someone who practices Buddhism said that these five standards also describe The development and the distance of the human being from the so-called unity. The baby is the first process of dualism. He is separated from what we call unity. The technophysiologists write something. You have now written internally that you would like to know how you can understand it, whether it is correct that you describe these five stages of development, which are also tramps, and how to understand it, that you have to deal with all kinds of births and deaths. I hear it for the first time, it has not happened to me yet, but if you think a little further and look at the development of a baby, you can certainly say that there is no thinking yet, there is a reaction, a reaction to light reflexes,

[32:57]

and touch, and so slowly the perception comes along. I don't think it's the consciousness of the eyes that comes first, and at some point hearing comes along, or hearing is first. So that you can already say, In the course of our lives, we are making a progress. At some point, we will have to think about it. We are almost at a peak. And if you are connected to death, then you can certainly track it down and track it down very well. The individual can be dismantled again, which may be higher at some point, but it is not... Thank you. Yes, but for me it is the easiest when I try to fill my body and put thought into it.

[34:21]

Then the question is of course also where do I put the being? And I can't give a complete recipe and say, I'll put it here and there, and then I just have to say, okay, then of course I know what a being in meditation is, and then I can just ask myself, I only have these five boxes to choose from, where do I put being? Maybe I can also add something to this. Andreas? For me, one of the things that helps me with the word feeling is not to use the verb to feel.

[35:23]

And also with perception, to live the process. That helps me to work more with it. And what helps me, because you said it, with the impulses, that it is often an entry into the skandhas, that I sometimes notice when sitting, I sit now and suddenly I notice, yes, I am very involved in complete unconsciousness, simply following what is happening. Then I can say, slowly, slowly, where does that fit in, in which heap? Then I am mostly with the associations. There I am connected to the I. And then I look at the pile and can say, ah, and then, what is that right now, next to this thought, or what was that fragment? And then I can also switch to, I would almost say, rather to the impulses, so also take a verb, that I look at the process of associating this.

[36:28]

That's what I do for myself, yes, also switch, I found that yesterday quite normal, so to speak, yes, follow the roots. And from there I can often, then comes the point where it gets slower, maybe, and I can get into the perception process. It's often both, it's not just one body, maybe, but one becomes more. With the feeling, with this non-aggressive feeling, I have the most, I can rarely stay in it, I always go around it. And when I think, or when I'm in consciousness, when I'm in the process of being conscious, sometimes I think, yes, if I can switch, I can almost feel the activity of thinking, that I say, yes, and now I can perceive it, or even feel it. To me, it's very helpful to be able to decode.

[37:38]

But the introduction is almost always the impulse. Also what you said, and ultimately this is also a very practicable suggestion, everything that appears, to go to the roots. To go to the roots. And that is a very useful application, because if you go to the roots in the individual skandhas, you can really look very closely, yes, there is this and that and that, but I also find myself in the roots. And there you come closer to this sense of being free from one's own self, because I don't manage to find a self. I can fill the five bodies, but the self, the body, somehow remains empty.

[38:40]

It's difficult, you can't find it. Gerald. I experience the process as very, very fast, so you could call it ascending, from form to form, up to I am aware of it. And what helped me, as Prashima said, you can also consider it as an ascending process, that is to say, returning back to the roots, I can with consciousness return back to the point where I perceive that And the other point that I experience again and again is that form and feeling are almost inseparable for me. It comes almost in a one-way, at least in the sense of pleasant or unpleasant. So with every contact that I experience, it comes pleasantly and somehow neither yet nor so often.

[39:45]

And there I can stop, there I can stop this process in front of our consciousness. I try to stay with it. And there I would also be true to myself. That's why I live in this box, I am true to myself. Where do you get that from? Somewhere between forms and feelings. In the first contact together. Man könnte vielleicht auch sagen, um nochmal bei diesem Beispiel hier zu bleiben, bei den Wahrnehmungen, das ist immer ein... It's a good point to practice this. I remember the very first lectures by Begir Rociboa. He called it the meeting of the three. A sense object. a sense organ with which I perceive it and then the field that is created by perceiving.

[41:05]

And this is the third point. In this sense, one could say that the field of being aware or hearing, would be an awareness of being aware or being aware of hearing. Can I interject here? Yeah. Scientists who are understanding, trying to understand the consciousness from the outside through the brain, and so forth. Generally, I think what they really mean when they use the word qualia, which they take to mean the quality of experience, is really the field that's created. There's the eye organ, there's the object, and then there's what happens, the sensation of the feeling of the color. That's the hardest thing for scientists to imagine, that they can try to find a neuronal, a neuronic... moronic, neuronic equivalent of, is that feeling.

[42:10]

Oh yeah. For the scientists who research the consciousness from the outside, the field that arises between a perception object and the perception, the sense organ, they call it the colloquial. But it means the sensation of what happened here. I have to say, my question is, this is probably intentional in the order in which the scantations are made. Yes, you can certainly assume that. Another order doesn't make much sense.

[43:11]

I would actually start with the scantation. To perceive it twice, you have to, so to speak, and then to perceive it fully. For me, it starts with a form that is really neutral. And that's where feelings come in. through the spirit, and then I have to... and then a pulse, and then I am more insecure, or I can imagine two possibilities, one is consciousness, and then I have to think about the last years, or the last days, depending on that, so if you take it as the last, then I would say that it must be... that everything has been processed, flits, movements and impulses and so on.

[44:15]

But I can imagine it in the same way, that there is a wrong understanding of consciousness. And I say, what is before this mental processing, after I have taken the form and before I have mixed all the concepts and impulses together. So you get into the process, so to speak, yes? Yes. There is certainly no rule where you can say that you have to get into the order, but it simply means that these are the five curves, there is no more. You don't need any more. What really helped me... What helped me here with the form is certainly that the form reduces to where I have the feeling that something is missing, but Dignatal describes it very precisely, and he replaced form with body.

[45:31]

Practices like this I often do walking. Sort of like when you step forward, you feel the form. It seems like all the Forg-feeling, perceptions, everything appears and also you are it and it presents itself simultaneously in the motion and in your breath and everything. By naming it Forg-feeling. It's like walking, you climb in and there is Steps in G. While stepping, you feel. your whole body and breath.

[47:13]

And at the same time, what we usually call outside is appearing. For me, by being in the movements, I can see it more as simultaneously one, and at the same time I can, by naming it form, feeling, perception, I can also make it more clear. And in this movement I can see it more as one, and then Explanation is not so clear. in Ki Hing, and you go forward, or also in Shren Ki Hing, that you are happy when you take the next step, that the ground has form, or that there is something that suddenly forms under your feet, yes.

[48:33]

That you are grateful for the form, yes, or something like that, yes. There is simply a ground there. Thomas. Yes, I am also the form. As long as it is clear, it is easy to understand. And beyond that, I have always seen the form as any form of matter. So everything that you can touch, a flower vase, a lamp, etc. And then, of course, I am again in an external state. And there is always the question, is that it? Yes, you don't exclude that. You also need a basket for that, to put it somewhere. You have to say it practically. And these pulses are also... And something needs to trigger that.

[49:35]

This is my idea of impulses. This is my idea of impulses. For me, the first point would be It is more uncomfortable for me than the others. What you should also take with you, and this is also an invitation, normally you would say, yes, here are impulses, it all goes down a bit and will certainly not be part of our education. Where does it say, pay attention to your impulses, or where are we trained? But if we have this non-aggressive feeling here, which you can't name, but which is certainly there, which you can feel, then you can certainly say that we have to take impulses with us, that just without thinking, what is it now and what am I doing now, that an impulse arises, something happens.

[51:09]

Yes, to do something, to do something, to act. And that has an extra core. Maybe something spontaneous or something like that. Yes, for me it's a switcher. So unlike the others that I see as processes, here it's something that switches. From the outside, from the inside. Judita. As for the impulses, I still remember that all the time I practiced in the normal reality to follow my impulses. And these were exercises where I said something to myself in the city, like on the right. Then I went to the right without thinking that it was an impulse to pray. And it was very helpful to get a feeling for these impulses. What could it be? And these exercises, when I have an impulse to approach a person, to live it out, to do it,

[52:11]

And that's what I thought, I asked myself this term, into the body, what it means. I once did a therapy training, Hakumi, and there I got to know the inventor himself, or whoever put it all together, Ron Kurz, and... And in the training as a therapist, he has placed a very high value on the impulses. It was also taught during the training that there is such and such a type and so and so type and rigid and what it all gives and what you can do. But ultimately then in a situation with the client and then afterwards with video, what kind of impulse is there in me what I can say, what I need, without overthinking it? without knowing that it is a rigid type, that they need this and that, and that it is this and that mother and this and that father, which is certainly not wrong, but it has a very great value and was brilliant in teaching to follow these impulses and to leave the whole knowledge out.

[53:46]

And he was very impressed by what he did with clients sometimes, where everyone thought, oh, and that was exactly a consequence of the impulse, and he couldn't even explain it himself. The ones who stood up for him. The ones who were there for him, where he said, do that when he gave supervision or something like that. A what? I have something to do with movement improvisation. I have always studied Lama very carefully. and start a dance. And then I have observed it everywhere, very, very often, for a very long time. And there are... It's also desirable for me.

[54:49]

to find out where the intuition is, and then to follow the intuition, or to see where the impulse follows the intuition, as a question of this as well. I would also like to talk about the impulses, because in the discussion this impulse is now defined as an emotional movement, where I believe, from my understanding, that it does not destroy. to do something with shapes, so that something that results from the other films or the other scanners forms itself there. And not something reflexive or instinctive that suddenly starts. And there I can also pick up on what Karolina said, The sequence is very confusing, because most people know from everyday experience that, for example, you have the impression that a person would be nearby or is in the room or in the field without being seen.

[56:26]

And then such an impulse is formed in oneself and in fact the person appears. With the form of this person you have not come into contact at all. And there is certainly also a perception, although one might also say, but I don't have eyes behind me. But nevertheless, a perception takes place. So some form that may also be in the feelings. Or in these untouchable feelings. Yes. And... That is, something is put together from here and an impulse is created and it is released from the ego. It is simply there. And that was also very briefly about this training. In the moment when you sit down there, and there is also a video camera running, and I have to now, it becomes very difficult. Without me, without thinking, I found that very difficult.

[57:36]

Since during this week, probably we won't have more time to spend on the five skandhas, so maybe I should add some things. Maybe we won't have much more time this week about the five skandhas. What to say, I would like to say something about that. That was really great, thank you. And luckily I had somebody to translate to tell me what was going on. And if there's some questions still pending, we can still ask Otmar. As Otmar said, you can enter this any way you want. But it's not so fruitful to enter it with the feeling of it should be in a different order. It's more fruitful to enter it

[58:39]

with the feeling of... Rather, it's more fruitful to argue with it. Okay, so, you know... And that argument with it, this debate with it, is part of what is the practice of Iceland. And then the argument can go on for some time. Why is it in this order? And there's some simple practical reasons. Let's say the two main points of this is to show us How consciousness is a construct, first of all.

[59:59]

You know the world through consciousness, but you've also got to know that that consciousness which knows the world is a construct. You must... Do you get that? If you start believing the world that you see, you're basically not practicing Buddhism. I mean, people say, well, there's really a world out there. Of course that can't be argued with. That's a fundamentalist point of view.

[61:04]

Why the fundamentalists are so powerful is they take positions you can't argue with. Of course there's a world out there. But really, when someone says that, what they really mean is the world out there is more real. And the world out there is not more real. If there's anything more real, it's your consciousness. If there's anything more real, it's your consciousness. Because not only is your consciousness a construct, the world is actually also a construct. And you're participating in a mutual level of construction. That's different than saying, there's a world out there.

[62:11]

Okay, so the first point of this, one of the two or three main points is, To show that consciousness is a construct. If you get that, you're lost. What if you get it? Yeah. Yeah, you can no longer be a Christian, no longer be a usual way of thinking about the world. Because anything that's out there is something that's a construct. And so, if it's all a construct, Where's the reference point?

[63:14]

And that's immediately emptiness. So first of all, this is to point out that consciousness is a construct. And I... I will say, you may right now intellectually think you believe that. But if you really penetrate that, it will take some years for that to penetrate all the aspects of your thinking, psychological habits, perceptual habits, etc. And the whole of the Arbidharma revolves around the five skandhas.

[64:23]

And the whole of the Abhidharma and the five skandhas revolve around seeing consciousness as a construct. And now it's to show you how consciousness is constructed, what are its ingredients. Now, this is also a creation of human beings. and to have conceptual power and conceptual longevity And to have conceptual integrity.

[65:25]

Did he say perceptual from the other one? Conceptual. Only one new one, integrity. It needs to have In this case, a beginning. So this has got to be first because it's the beginning. Now, you can use the body too, as Thich Nhat Hanh does, and Tibetans tend to use the body. So the body is just the starting point for the development of consciousness. Now, we don't have all the time in the world, obviously.

[66:34]

My watch is there somewhere. And because, unless we say we have the afternoon off. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah. that the things people brought up the most, I guess, are impulses and form. Okay, now, this is in addition to a teaching which needs conceptual integrity. So you have to imagine the people who made this. Of course, it was made over some centuries by a lot of people. And again, this is not a revealed religion. In a societal sense, it's much more like the Max Planck Institute.

[67:43]

In other words, in those days, they didn't have science. They didn't have the kind of institutional world we have. What they had was Buddhism. So it's very clear, in every generation, the smartest people, artists, etc., all went to Buddhism to try to figure out what kind of world we live in. And it was much like if we all got together as some of the smartest people in our generation. Which is obvious. But also with the heart to do it.

[68:45]

And we continued this and we continued it for generations. and be what produced the Abhidharma. So what we do is we're doing something similar but we're going back into it and trying to make sense. So, it's always good when you look at a teaching to say, someone made this, why did they make it this way? So, one of the first things you ought to do Well, the very first thing you ought to do is see if you can locate these as separate territories.

[69:49]

Then, once you locate the territories, make your own list in the order you want. And so if you really practice the five skandhas in this way, it can occupy you for some days, weeks or months. It's the most common teaching of the last 20 years in the Dharma Sangha. Okay, so then when you make your own list, you see how useful your own list is. Okay, so we can understand form as in one way a signal. Now, as Adine mentioned, you know, she tries to practice with it by feeling, yeah, the form first when you touch the floor or take a step.

[71:20]

Okay, and... And Otmar said similar things about how you find a... See, I have to use the word feeling for this or the sense of this. That's a... Yeah, anyway, both of those. Now, the example I use... is imagine somebody is, some kid in the neighborhood is walking by with, nobody does it anymore because they have iPods, but, or something equivalent, walks by with one of those, you know, radios or ghetto blasters. Nobody knows what a ghetto blaster is. The sound reaches your ears, but you don't know what it is. So that's form.

[72:40]

Then you notice you have a feeling for it. It creates some feeling. Okay. Then, oh, that's a radio or something. It's a song. So that's a perception. And for me, perception, the sept in perception, I'm using English here, it means to grasp. So I put things that have beginning and ends and can be grasped, like anger, love, et cetera, in perception. So in a way, I call this non-graspable and this graspable. Okay, now... In general, in the more philosophical presentations of this, this is positive sensations, negative sensations, and neutral.

[74:09]

But the problem with that is it doesn't work so well as a practice. And for the practitioner, neutral becomes the main territory. And for a practitioner, the main area becomes neutral. I forget the... But like and dislike has already got ego in it. But anyway... Anyway, it's neither positive nor negative.

[75:11]

It's more neutral. The more you practice, most things are just the way they are. They're just what they are, not negative or not positive. And that big, wide, neutral feeling where you're not swinging like a pendulum between, oh, I like this, I don't like this. Is non-graspable. Das ist nicht greifbares Gefühl. Now, impulse is not particularly a good translation. Sometimes they use volition. Volition. There's something to do with wish? Volition means you have an intention, a wish, yeah.

[76:12]

But in English, amusingly, the most accurate translation D.T. Suzuki uses, which is confection. But in English, confection I know that in English, confection is a pastry. But the word listry means things that are made. You can't really use confection because it means candy, you know. And that's why you couldn't use the word konfektion or konfekt, because you immediately thought of... You said perception of a ghetto blaster, yeah?

[77:35]

Yeah. If you know it's a ghetto blaster, then you already have something added to it, right? Yeah. So let me just come back here. So better than confection, although that's a fairly literal translation. It's what brings things together. But if we understand the alaya vijnana too in its paratactic sense, sometimes things are just next to each other. From that point of view, this is close. I think the best translation is associative mind, associations. So things are associated.

[78:50]

What makes them stick together? Impulses make them stick together. So association means put together or association just images that pop out? Is there meaning in association? An association in English is like a group of people that meet every Wednesday night. What does Freud use when he says free association? Well, it's the same territory. What? And this is just like Freud's free association. I'm just saying in English, association means when things have a sort of a grouping. But for us in the world, For German ears, association means nothing.

[80:10]

It means just, if you hear it, free association, you only think of Freud. For you, if you hear association, you hear like business association, these kind of associations, they come with your ears, with us. I know, well, I'm only saying, I can only do this in English. You have to figure it out in German. I can only say, things group themselves and come together. They come together. So now is the question, should we keep it separate from free association or should we just look at the process of free association and leave away association as images popping up? Are you translating? I'm asking. We can kind of focus more on this kind of gathering. We'll have to come back to it tomorrow. We're running out of time. Gathering, you could call it gathering. Could it be the activity which connects things together?

[81:13]

Well, that's part of it, yeah. Is it more the activity, because the impulse is more the activity? Yes, the impulse is included. What makes things stick together? But have I understood it right? It's not randomly that things associate. It's all of it. All of it. All of it. In other words, okay, so you're walking along. Somebody's walking along and you hear the sound. You have a feeling about it. You say, oh, that's a song. And then you say, oh, my mother used to play that song. That's an association. That's what happens when you start to dance. We're talking about creating consciousness now. So the idea to start to dance. It's not only mental.

[82:16]

It's not a description of the world. It's a description of a process by which you can understand your world. Yeah, now if you keep wanting everything that happens in the world to be in this list, the list disappears. Then you've got the world. I think Wittgenstein says, if there was a sign for the whole world, the sign would disappear. Wittgenstein said, if there was a sign for the whole world, Does that make sense? This is a technique to make you notice your experience in relation to consciousness. What would disappear? The sign or the world? The sign. There would be no use for it. Sorry. So, You have various associations and those together generate consciousness.

[83:36]

And you can start to dance if you want to. Okay. So Freud discovered that people Freud discovered that when a patient So he then said, aha, there must be an unconscious. There must be some container where these things that are not known. So at this point he imagines this through free association he discovered the unconscious.

[84:54]

So that means that this is a territory in itself. independent of consciousness. And in some ways it's bigger than consciousness. Okay. Yes? But it would also mean that consciousness excludes things actively. Yes, it does. My definition of consciousness in terms of the five skandhas and our use of it and experience of it in the West This is closest to Manas. I can't have too many questions or we lose it. We've got to end. So I'll just give you a little sense to add to what Atmar said, which he said most of it.

[85:55]

Okay, so if this is a territory, separate from consciousness, then this is also territory. This is also territory. So you can establish yourself not only in consciousness, but also just in this or just in this. Establishing just in this is much about Vijnana practice. And if you establish yourself just in this, you find the wing... Normally the wings of the senses are like you've been in an oil slick along with the, you know. Yeah, and your wings of the senses don't really open up. But, in feeling, you don't see what you just pointed at.

[87:15]

In perception. In perception. So when you can really practice each Vijnana separate from associations, each perception, each sense field separate from associations, You generate a different territory of mind than here or here. Now, if you think that we have to return to some kind of reference point or return to some kind of baseline mind, the baseline mind in Zen practice is this.

[88:17]

Percept only. Percept only. No. It's also each one, but this one probably is what's emphasized the most in being with people and stabilizing yourself and so forth. So we can talk about this more tomorrow if you want. We'll see how much time we have. Let me also point out that there's a directionality here. These are independent, but they also have a sequence leading to consciousness. But the directionality also goes the other way.

[89:19]

When, as Gural said, you can slow this down enough and develop the ability to locate yourself in each one. Locate. your non-self in each one. There's an increase in awareness. Consciousness tends to shut out awareness. Awareness increases when you go this way. And what is form in Madhyamaka Zen practice? Emptiness is okay.

[90:44]

Form equals emptiness. The beginning point of this is also emptiness. So now we don't have signal, we have foreground-background merging. Or the feeling that things are both permanent and impermanent, manifest and unmanifest. So this is then another way to say this list starts with appearance. Okay, so this is a relationship with the other two lists we had. How do things first appear? The basic philosophical question, why do things exist at all? The question that is in all Zen practice, that's on all perceptions implied, is what is it?

[92:06]

And you answer it with what-ness. You don't... There is Zen practice which struggles to answer it until you reach the end of the struggle. You give up, and there's a kind of... There can be a satori experience through that. To have that work, you have to really implicitly believe in a substantial world. So it's practiced more for beginners.

[93:13]

If you know the world isn't substantial and is a construct, then you have to end up with what-ness. So now we have, if this is consciousness, and awareness increases this direction, then awareness is equivocate... identify equivalent to emptiness. And there you have the difference between the Yogacara school and the Madhyamaka school. Because emptiness is really a kind of experience. As long as we're human beings.

[94:19]

So again, this isn't, as Audemars pointed out, the other main point is to show that everything that you experience can be understood without self. But this isn't a basket for everything that happens in the world. It's a basket for everything you experience. Okay? Okay. I'm getting old. Sometimes when I hit the wall, I think like a house of cards, the whole Johanneshof is going to fall apart. Dorothea, you haven't said anything. About anything. Tomorrow's okay, if you want.

[95:37]

If she's ready. If you're ready, please. No, I'm more here. Okay, please, go ahead. This is more, it's not, it's about what I'm practicing. Yeah. What I wanted to say is about practicing. Good. It's okay? Yeah. Yes. Well, try. It's one of the five. How do I construct my world? And then I notice that Sometimes it's like how it's described, it's the neighbor, kind of imaginary, that's the perception built on the next one. Suddenly it's the perception, it's the thinking, and so on.

[96:53]

Sometimes I perceive, can observe that. So that I can see that certain thoughts repeat themselves. Behavioral patterns always come back. And then I can interact with it, as he suggested. And then, if it's a change, then I can interact with it. Patterns and therefore positive thinking patterns. So it was just positive thinking, just the other way around.

[98:18]

But it was still in this constructed reality. And how do you do it then? It's still in the constructed world. And then I ask myself, do you need to do it actively? Or can I only do it very many times, look at it very many times? And one day it will dissolve or disappear. Because some things you cannot come back to. Okay. I don't know how that fits into this here. Well, you can definitely... Perhaps. You can definitely... relate how you're practicing, as I understand what you're doing, to the five skandhas.

[99:22]

But also, when you said, do you just observe it? Do you have an intention and let the intention do its work on its own? Or do you more intentionally or with willpower make things happen? You do all three. And just observing changes things. But the most powerful way and the basic way is to have an intention coupled with observation. Intention coupled with observation or investigation. Intention coupled with observation or investigation.

[100:24]

Almost we did yesterday, but not quite. Okay, let's sit for a moment. Because we have this wonderful garden.

[101:53]

Because it's very absolutely traditional to have a garden around a temple with Zen practice. And as I said the other day, we get up and away in the morning partly to get up with the birds. And the relationship between teacher and disciples often characterized as birds calling to each other. Maybe we could say that we start the day with the syllable body or the sound body of the birds.

[102:54]

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