Well, I've already spoken to three people who are quite new at what we're talking about. And since I... I was a beginner once, as I said. And it is possible to survive being a beginner. And it's sexy. a kind of excitement to be a beginner. It could be, anyway. So I, anyway, I appreciate the practice or the introduction to practice of, the beginning introduction to practice. And I'm speaking about meditation.

[01:16]

Zazen. Which, as I said, means sitting absorption. That's probably the best English translation. This is a Zafu, and Zafu means cushion, so sitting cushion, Zafu. Zafu means sitting, and Fu means cushion. And these are called, not that you need to know, but these are called Zabutons. Buton means to spread out. So sitting spread out. Okay. Anyway, I'm speaking about Zazen or sitting meditation. Because it's the source, really, of Buddhism. But it's not the only practice. Probably the center of practice is mindfulness.

[02:36]

But still even mindfulness as a practice has been developed through understanding sitting practice. So some of you may mostly practice mindfulness, Even, um, um, Some of you who've been sitting a long time may now mostly only practice mindfulness. Or some of you just starting may practice mostly mindfulness. If so, it's good to root your mindfulness in sitting practice sometimes. But if you want to get to the source of the world view that

[03:58]

sitting practice is based on. Buddhism is based. Then you probably have to do sitting practice yourself. Certainly if you want to rediscover what Buddhism is as if you were the first, then sitting practice is important. So in a way we could say that most fully practice is rediscovering practice. Trusting your own experience. And then seeing if your own experience has what kind of relationship that has to the teachings of Buddhism. And trusting your own experience and seeing to what extent the teachings of Buddhism help you open up your own experience and trust your own experience.

[05:39]

To trust your own experience is a teaching of Buddhism. It's also common sense. But the depth of trust is deeper than common sense. Yeah, okay. So, in any case, I'm trying to speak about mindfulness practice as well as meditation. But I decided today to give some basics about meditation practice. And you can decide for yourself how much sense it makes. And the more you define your world through consciousness, the less sense sitting practice will make.

[06:58]

So now I'd like to stop for a bit and see if anybody wants to bring up something or say something. When you said before the break, what's the nature of the surface of the world? Of consciousness or of life, yeah. The question came to my mind, If it's the beginning or the end of the process that's the surface, if that's what is seen first or immediately and you have to go deeper or if what you see as surface is sort of what comes up at the end.

[08:16]

that you should deal with the surface of consciousness, or the surface of life, as Muselis sings, the question came to me whether this is the beginning or the end of the process. Whether what you see as the surface, Well, I would say that seeing that consciousness is only a surface, It's one of the things that can lead to Buddhist practice.

[09:22]

Yeah. A necessary, essential surface in our life. But it's clear not the whole of our life is contained in consciousness. Our dreams show us that. But the question is, how much of our life is not contained in consciousness? And how can we become familiar with it? And then the question is, are there other kinds of knowing that are not the knowing of consciousness.

[10:24]

Okay. So I would say that the first step is, in some sense, that your life is wider than your consciousness. And that often occurs by simply doing zazen. For example, you make one decision in consciousness. And then you sit for 45 minutes or a couple of periods. Say you're in the middle of some type of decision you have to make. And you find you make a different decision in meditation than you do in consciousness.

[11:25]

And the decision you make in meditation seems actually... more realer, more satisfying. And that means a different kind of person or self is functioning in meditation than in consciousness. So then immediately you're aware that the self of consciousness is different than the other self of meditation. Okay, so that's a kind of knowledge. And that knowledge informs one's sitting practice. And the sitting practice at that point is the fullness of your practice, it can be.

[12:54]

But at some point, when your practice is developed, it then becomes helpful to know how consciousness is constituted. Because then you can practice with more precision. It's a little like, I don't know if this is a good example, but it's a little bit like When you practice, you see into your, let's say that you see into your body. Or you feel the world from inside out. But it's not the same as a surgeon who knows exactly where your lungs are and stomach is and kidneys and so forth. And if you're meditation becomes more surgical or precise in the way it goes beneath the surface of consciousness.

[14:12]

At that stage of practice it's good to know something more about how we are constituted. And then the fruit of that practice is The consciousness becomes like a transparent screen you see through. So, why should I say all this? I don't know, because you asked. But also because in the long run it's useful to have a conceptual understanding of practice. As long as the conceptual understanding is an encouragement and not a map.

[15:16]

I don't want to present this as a map. I want you to discover the city of practice by walking around in it and not having a map to show you where to go. Und ich möchte gerne, dass ihr diese Stadt der Praxis dadurch kennenlernt, dass ihr da herumgeht, aber nicht dadurch, dass ihr eine Landkarte habt und euch an der orientiert. Okay, so machen wir das. Niemand anders? Yes, George. If you have understood that there is this consciousness and on the other side there is the Self, the Self, and that through this Self you can gain much deeper knowledge than probably the shift of consciousness, then the question arises for me, and this is simply based on my own experience, how can it be clearly distinguished

[16:35]

whether an inner, a result of an inner realization is a product of the layer of consciousness, and thus I would call it an inner projection, or is it in itself at rest? Is there a possibility to differentiate, to see for yourself from which layer of information? So you talk about consciousness and the innate self, and the self is much deeper. So in practicing sometimes, that's my experience, I get informations and my problem is distinction. Does the information come from consciousness?

[17:40]

of the self. Is there any possibility to know, just if I have a deep state here, is this a projection of consciousness, will, ego, whatever, or is it the self and something else? The Dalai Lama said that there is no higher self in Buddhism. There's another question, but it's... I would have to know the context in which His Holiness said there's no higher self in Buddhism, but in general that's what he says is what I would say too. But if there's no transcendental self or something like that, if I say that, really can only be understood when you have the shift to a different worldview.

[19:06]

Now, Cecily, just at the beginning of the break, said that this is a... not the usual way of thinking of consciousness. How did you put it? Do you remember? To not want to interpret dreams into... It is not important that you shouldn't even get access to the unconscious. Because I thought one of the aims in life is to unfold as much of the unconscious part as possible. Into consciousness. Into consciousness, yes. And you kind of contradicted that. And I realized that it really relieves me a lot.

[20:07]

But that's just a second feeling that I had when I went out. Okay. George, please. Are you going to translate it yourself? No, I made a remark at the beginning of the break that it surprises me to hear that it is not about making the unconscious conscious, because I have assumed that part of an essential aspect of my life is to give as much of the unconscious as possible to consciousness. And that it is surprising to hear that this is not only not possible, but actually also not intended. And just going out, I then experienced for myself that this means a kind of relief for me. So what she's saying is that she felt that what I said was actually a different world view than the usual world view we have.

[21:19]

And is a different world view. And sometimes in small things what you're trying to do is see in a small thing like this difference of which is really quite small, that actually it's a different world view that extends from that. Okay. So what is enlightenment? Enlightenment is to be free of worldviews. Or to have some kind of turning around within your own worldview. But then we can ask questions.

[22:22]

And I think one of the ways to develop your own practice to ask obvious questions. If enlightenment is about a shift in world views, What worldview supports the idea of enlightenment? Or, what Giorgio said, what worldview supports the idea of a transcendent self? So if you asked his holiness, is there such a thing as enlightenment, he would say yes. But if you ask him, is there a transcendent self, he'd say no.

[23:26]

Okay. So what's the difference between a transcendent self and enlightenment? Isn't it somehow in the same territory? Or is it a similar territory but rooted in a different realm? Now, you could say, well, we have an impossible task being Westerners practicing Buddhism. Because it's rooted in a worldview so different than our own. Yeah, and the worldview of Asian yogic cultures Has developed in some parallel way, intertwining way, over centuries.

[24:51]

Hmm. Yeah, that's maybe a sort of disadvantage. But as many of you know, because I point it out often, on the whole it's an advantage for us. Because the contrast between our worldview and the Buddhist worldview is much clearer. So it gives us a chance to be more free of world views. And the Buddha's very first teaching is Right views or perfecting views.

[26:06]

And that's not just a casual statement. It clearly means that other worldviews are possible. It means you have a choice of worldviews. How do you make such a choice? What are the alternatives? It also makes the assumption that Views function prior to thinking, consciousness, and perception. Views control how you perceive and so forth.

[27:14]

Or shape how you perceive. So already if you look at a teaching like this you have some big questions. Do you really? Are there other worldviews? What are they? Do we have a choice? How to discover other alternatives? Well, the main way of discovery in Buddhism is meditation. Meditation. It seems like in ancient times, like 3000 BC, there was a debate whether using psychedelics or some kind of drugs Or meditation was the better way to explore worldviews, to free yourself from worldviews.

[28:23]

You know, we have the word psychosomatic. And psyche and soma. Soma meaning the body. But the soma is the name of a psychedelic mushroom. So it meant that they explored the body with psychedelics. What is this body under the surface of consciousness? And we have that idea right in Buddhism with the idea of thought coverings. Our body is encased in thought coverings.

[29:24]

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