Yes, somebody had a question in the back. Yes. . Mein Alltag ist, dass ich auf der Autobahn genau das habe, was wir eben ja haben, wir nennen das Stau. Es ist eine Möglichkeit, dass wenn ich zwei oder drei Stunden am Tag im Stau stehe, was auch vorkommt, im Auto so etwas üben kann. Das würde mir für meinen Alltag zählen. It's difficult for him to practice something like what we've just done, but actually in his everyday life a certain situation occurs several times a day, which is being stuck in a traffic jam.

[01:03]

And the question is, can I practice this, what we've done right now, in the middle of a traffic jam? What? Something similar. As long as you don't cause an accident. And you don't tell the police that's what you're doing. Um. Um. I have a good friend who's Niki Lauda's brother. And from what Florian tells me and what I see him do when he drives, they don't wait for a traffic jam to practice this.

[02:06]

And I said to Niki, Florian wants, do you think your brother drives cars so fast because he likes the state of mind that the speed brings to him? Because I know many drivers do do that. And Florian said no. He brings that state of mind to the car. And that's probably why he was such a great driver. Um... Florian said he saw his brother arrive after becoming the world champion for the third or fourth time.

[03:22]

And as he arrived at the airport in Vienna, There was a huge crowd. And he had the same solidity, a kind of solidity in the midst of that situation. So you can practice it anywhere. But you have to be able to shift into it. And what we're trying to teach you is how to shift into it. I used to practice when I drove regularly and maybe at first it may make your driving a little as you're trying to concentrate once you can shift to a field everything slows down One little anecdote which amuses me.

[04:35]

As Florian's brother has started an airline and he went to Seattle to buy some 747s. So he took the pilot's training to fly 747s He got the highest grade they've ever given. So he flew his 747 himself back to Vienna. Most airline executives don't go pick up a plane and fly it back. That's just an anecdote. You had a question in the back about soul. Could you make...

[05:44]

It is impossible to sit on a chair where one is afraid to die and not to be able to think for oneself that it will continue. Well, I'm convinced I have a soul and I also need a soul because I work with dying people and just sitting on their bedside when they're dying and seeing all the pain, suffering, I just couldn't stand it without this belief that something's passed on. Yes. I mean, I don't think there's anything I mean, I think we all understand that. If you're, as a Buddhist, you're practicing with somebody who's dying, you, when you come into the room with them, the first support you give them

[07:10]

as much as possible, is you'd be willing to be in their shoes. Is you'd be willing to be in their bed. In their place. So it means that you have to come to the point of being willing to die. That's the first kind of support in Buddhism we try to give people. And then you try to give them some physical reassurance. So when you come in, say that Ulrika was sick. and I'm coming in from this side is that I would put my hand on her shoulder here and then I'd lean across her body to straighten the blankets or to say hello or something but really I'd be putting my right hand against her body here

[08:35]

As a kind of act, physical act of reassurance. And then once I'd done that, and in the process of doing that, Again, if you can do it automatically or if you can't do it automatically, you make an effort to do it. You bring your metabolism and your breath into the territory of their breath and metabolism. then you sit down beside them and you breathe with them and you follow their breathing so if they suddenly get upset and do panic breathing I've done this many times what?

[09:48]

Well, I do it. She says, what do you do when people go into hyperventilation? As much as possible, you follow it. And if your breath is really linked, you can calm their breathing. So you follow it. and then if their breathing gets too fearful or hyperventilated or panicked feeling a connection with theirs you slow yours down and theirs will slow right down with yours and you can actually keep a personal all I can tell you is my experience You can actually keep a person alive that way. They can start to die. And if your breathing is there, you can bring their inhale back. And you can help a person die calmly.

[10:58]

And if you're adept yourself, if you yourself are adept, you can kill yourself this way. And it's very common for Zen teachers to do so. Say that this was my last day. I was feeling tired. I've lived too long. I'm probably a little sick. And I think it's about time. And probably I'd be in a place where I'd be going to die in the next few weeks. So I gather everybody I want to say goodbye to. And I would talk with you. Or whatever.

[12:18]

And then I would let my consciousness and awareness sink into the sand. Slowing my breathing down. And die sitting. It's the traditional way to die. But there are variations on the theme. And one teacher in my lineage died that way. And he was quite rigid and sitting there. Hadn't fallen over yet. Sometimes you fall over after a little while. And everybody started weeping. And he came back. What are you weeping for? No big deal. He stayed alive another two weeks. He had a big dinner with everybody.

[13:30]

He got everybody in a good mood. And then folded his legs and died. And there's another story about a teacher who folded his legs and died that way. In the midst of a conversation showing that he understood his teacher's teaching, and the Roshi who was present, So even though he can fold his legs and die, he still didn't understand our teacher's teaching. Any case. So then, in my experience being with a person in this way, is generally, if they believed in a soul, or Christianity, or whatever, I would say that, I would support that.

[14:41]

And as much as possible, I would feel it. But my sense of helping a person die is to say under my breath or in my mind, let go. We'll take care of things. It's okay. And in every way to try to get them to let go. Also auf jede nur mögliche Art, sie dazu zu bringen, loszulassen. Es könnte sein, dass ich rein verbal etwas anderes sage, aber mit meinem Körper würde ich das ausdrücken. Nimm es leicht. Und ein Teil der Lehre und auch ein Grund, warum ich das erwähne, wir werden alle sterben.

[15:43]

And we don't have to wait until we're dying to practice this. So we're practicing it right now. And Sukhirashi in this book, he has this section here. He showed me the book earlier and I turned to this section on the waterfall, nirvana. What? We have the German translation here, so it's easier for me. I wonder if the German translation is any good. Her translation might be better. That's what I know. I just went over the Portuguese translation in some detail with my brother-in-outlaw. I mean my son in outlaw.

[16:58]

The man who lives with my daughter for the last four or five years. He's Portuguese. And the woman is a very good translator and has translated Thich Nhat Hanh's books. And this translator, she is very, very good, and she has also translated the books of Thich Nhat Hanh. But there were very significant differences and serious mistakes. Anyway, so, it says, Nirvana, the waterfall. Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, We have no fear of death anymore, nor actual difficulty in our life. And he talks about the waterfall as if going over it separates into many drops.

[18:01]

And then rejoins at the bottom. And he feels our life is like that. We're lots of separate drops. All falling together right now. Nirvana also can mean samadhi. Nirvana can also mean samadhi. So the sense of this is that we're always, in Buddhist practice, the sense is that we're always engaged in life activity and simultaneously in death activity. Der Gehalt davon ist, dass wir immer gleichzeitig in Lebensaktivitäten und in Todesaktivitäten verwickelt sind. This is quite different than Freud trying to have an equivocal death instinct to balance the life instinct.

[19:09]

Und das ist nicht das Gleiche, was Freud sagt. Das ist so ein Todesinstinkt. Sorry, I tried to pay attention because somebody is trying to say something in the back here and raising their hand. Is it because you... Okay, I threw it out there because I have to come back to it. So, I mentioned earlier the sense of pulse. So there's a pulse of life activity and death activity. I think the example I can give of it is if a baby is born into two of you, I hope I'm not setting up any karma here. You would be surprised when this baby was born. And it would change your life quite a bit. And you might give the baby the feeling that The baby was born into a world that's always here.

[20:36]

We tend to emphasize that. That this world is here. And the baby appears in it. But if But if you're the parents, you know that your world is quite different once the baby's there. And after two or three years, this baby of yours dies. And the life this baby created with the two of you dies with it. So Buddhist culture tends to emphasize that side rather than the world is permanent. So the life is always being born with us and dying with us. And being born and dying with us within our own energy and presence. And mindfulness, as I discussed in Austria, but usually understood in the most immediate sense, as paying attention to or giving attention to, actually should be translated more accurately

[21:56]

as the establishment of the immediate present. So you're always establishing the immediate present and disintegrating the immediate present. Things are integrating and disintegrating. And we breathe with that feeling. Breathing in the world. And breathing out the world. And you feel like you're letting it go. As if it were going to be your last breath. And then it comes in. And this way of practice is called Tathagata Zen. Because Tathagata means thus come, thus go.

[23:14]

And it emphasizes that reality is actually a pulse of appearing and disappearing. And when you get more used to that, living and dying feel differently. Because you're very used to being in the middle of death activity and life activity. How things appear and disappear. Now I'd like to say one thing that I think is important and relates to this. There's a sense of rising mind. We have terms, rising mind and sinking mind. An example of it. My daughter recently in Portugal got out of a taxi and the

[24:18]

the drain top, the gutter street drain top was gone. The thing that, you know, the water drains into on a street. So she stepped out of the taxi right into all this sludge, right up to her knees. And she was all dressed up to go to some event. And she war gerade wunderschön angezogen, um zu irgendeinem Ereignis zu gehen. So she's standing there in the middle of this thing with a taxi window about here. Ja, und sie steht also hier in diesem Kuli und das Taxifenster ist ungefähr hier oben. Now if she says, God damn it. Wenn sie jetzt sagt, Himmelsscheiße. I should have known this would happen to me. Das hätte ich mir ja denken können, dass das jetzt passiert. Get out of the mud.

[25:37]

This kind of thing always happens to me. It's typical of what happens to me. This is sinking mind. But if you get out of the taxi, you stand in there. And it's just totally hilarious. Here you are, all dressed up, standing in the street gutter. I mean, Charlie Chaplin could have a field day with this. This is rising mind. Now, we tend to think, when you hear about rising mind and sinking mind, that it's sort of the power of positive thinking, or it's being an optimist. Do you know Voltaire's definition of an optimist?

[26:38]

Someone who thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. And a pessimist? One who knows the optimist is right. But rising mind and sinking mind in Buddhism don't have to do with your kind of positive thinking or something like that. But actually have to do with your energy rising. Now I've been trying to talk about how you Take these questions and make it your energy, the actuality of your life.

[27:40]

How you turn the thought of enlightenment into a physical thought in your spine. And this goes back in a simple sense to when you sit, I've given you the instruction to have a lifting feeling through your back. If you can more and more have that lifting feeling through your back all the time, and the sense of being in your place as we did when we did walking meditation, Then if you find yourself in that muddy street drain, it's not just that, oh, it would be nice to look at this in a good way. You just find yourself in your place. And this energy is coming up.

[28:58]

And so your mind just, you know, the thoughts come from the energy. The energy doesn't come from the thoughts. Do you see what I mean? Yeah. The energy is coming from the thoughts. So if you're practicing... you're always studying the energies of your mind and body. And even if you're depressed and have no energy, you're studying the energies of depression. You're finding your energy in depression. So if you have a cold or you're sick, you find the energy in the middle of the cold or the flu.

[30:07]

And if you can, you'll get better much quicker. So this practice, anyway, this is one dimension of this practice. So I actually want to talk with you. about various ways to look at the events of your life as seeds, as energy, and as awareness, and maybe a few other things I'll think of. But it's getting to be almost 5.30, And several people had questions I'd like to respond to. Could you save them till tomorrow? Several people have spoke to me. Does anyone want to meet tomorrow at 7 a.m.

[31:09]

for Zazen? Okay, so we'll meet again at 7 o'clock, those of you who want to, for meditation. And you can bring your soul or leave it at home. I don't mind. I kind of wish I had one. But I really appreciate your attitude. Damn it, I have a soul. That's the way you should feel. Good. So please, just where you are, let's sit for a few minutes. Thank you very much. I am I like getting questions from you because, one, it helps me get to know you.

[32:26]

And the other is it allows me to talk about things I wouldn't usually. And it gives me the opportunity to talk about things that I normally don't talk about. Or not necessarily. Is that loud enough? Maybe I'm going to learn German. And because for me, teaching has to be a process of discovering for myself. Or I get bored with myself. You know, I'm not a record player. So I can't go from place to place for a couple of months as I'm doing now.

[33:35]

And put the needle down in the groove. Makes me feel funny. And usually I can't find the groove or the needle. So. But if you ask me some question, you know, it makes me answer. Yes. Can you please say something about love? Because I realize through sitting my emotions and my feelings change. How do they change? I realized that I used to put a lot of kind of raspberry sauce over my emotions.

[34:42]

Sort of like yogurt or something. And through sitting, this gradually is taken away and it's just so little that remains. Really little that remains? I mean, under the raspberry sauce there was nothing? Is this working? Ist es wirklich so wenig oder war da gar nichts unter der Soße? No, it's not true, there isn't anything. But it's little. And you liked it better when it was more and covered with raspberry sauce? Hatte dir das besser gefallen, wenn es mehr war und so mit Himbeersoße drüber? Das war bequemer. Alles more comfortable. Is being more comfortable better? No, undoubted. No. Okay. Well, I didn't want to take questions right away, but I started because you put your hand up.

[36:16]

Because I want to say something about what you said yesterday. And the question of love and emotions, I'll try to come to it. And a number of you have asked me questions like as simple as what's this and others about posture and things. And I'd like to... come to those questions if it's possible today and you can please ask me again when we're all together.

[37:22]

Okay. You know, when I do, when one does, or I do a seven-day seshin, which is seven days of sitting, and I use the word seshin for something of at least five days to seven days, And the reason I do that is because something happens in a session that takes at least five and usually seven days to resolve. First of all, sitting from morning till night, we start anywhere from 2.30 to 5.30. And sit until 9.30 to 11.30.

[38:31]

And some people may sit all night. So just the sitting alone opens you up or makes you very vulnerable. Also makes you quite strong. And also you need that much sitting to resolve what happens when you do that much sitting. And then I put in my two cents, which causes some problems too.

[39:32]

It means I contribute something or there's lectures which cause some problems. I put in my two marks. So when, you know, this is, what I'm doing here with you is fits, I guess, the pattern of workshops that people do in Europe. I guess because people work seven, because of the seven-day week and the schedule, this workshop thing has developed. But from the point of view of Buddhism, this kind of thing, what I'm doing is quite unique. And there's a few other people doing something similar. Like Sogyal Rinpoche. But exactly how to teach in this form or what the result of it is, is not clear.

[41:02]

So it's a balance of how much sitting we do, and what kind of topic we have and what level we look at the topic and what you bring to it. So actually I would appreciate at the end of the seminar today If any of you have any feelings or comments, I'd like to just know your feelings. I can understand something from that. Some people ask me often, the people who had more experience sitting, often ask me if there could be more sitting.

[42:06]

An actual fact, if we had more sitting, I have to tone down the topic. Because if we talk about certain things and have more sitting, then we need more days. Because I have a responsibility to more or less know what I'm doing. And I've been doing this a long time.

[43:21]

Jeez, nearly 30 years now, I guess. And yet, I still do this with some reservation. Because, you know, who am I to come to Germany where you have an established culture and start rapping with you about something, talking with you about something? I come because enough people ask me, so I'm coming. And I appreciated your comment yesterday because for the first time in many years of teaching, Somebody said, I have a soul.

[44:43]

I've been waiting for someone to say that. Because most people kind of go along with what I'm saying. But a surprising number of people I find actually believe in God. Or believe or feel they have a soul. This is an experience completely foreign to me. I have never once in my entire life entertained the idea of God. It's never occurred to me to take it seriously. Or to have the idea of a soul. And I've never given any thought to an afterlife.

[46:00]

You know, I enjoy living, but I'm not particularly attached to it. And as my father-in-law said, it was okay before he was born, it'll probably be okay after he's gone. So that's how I feel. So, you know, you're educating me about these things. And I don't mean... So I can't... There's no really way to discuss this question of soul or God and no God and no soul. It was worked out in China over many centuries. And in the early days, words were used which were implied some permanent entity.

[47:04]

And over centuries, these words were shifted more toward words that could imply a permanent entity and maybe did not. And finally, again, after centuries, Buddhism, the sense that there was no permanent entity took over all of Asian culture. And even at popular levels of belief in Buddha as a kind of godlike person, still I think that when you prod people's views, it's not like a Christian belief.

[48:43]

So all I can do is present to you, as far as I understand it, what fundamental Buddhism is. And then you can take it or leave it. Or you can take the parts of it that are useful to you. There's no heretics in Buddhism. So you can make use of it as you wish. I think if one is practicing Buddhism, and particularly for a Westerner, you have to deal with the distinctions that language gives you first of all.

[50:04]

So you have to look at what does the word, at least, I'll just use English words and you can deal with the problems in German. So what do you mean, what do we mean, or what does an individual mean by my identity? And what do I mean by my personality? And what do I mean by my self? And what do I mean by my unconscious self or dreams? What do I find there? And what do I mean by, what do I mean or find by soul? And what do I mean by psyche?

[51:16]

And then more specifically, what do I mean by my body? And mind or thoughts? Now, Buddhism, particularly Zen, doesn't tell you actually very much, particularly in the beginning, what is true or what they think is true. They certainly say, there's certainly various kinds of emphases, it's impossible not to have some emphases, But many people have started practicing Zen and through that returned to being Christians and even Episcopal and Catholic, Church of England priests and Catholic priests and so on.

[52:30]

So this practice is a good practice for doubters. But it's not a good practice for shoppers. Shoppers are quite different from doubters. To make any practice work, you have to put all your eggs in one basket. So um wirklich eine Übung zum Erfolg zu bringen, eine Praxis, muss man wirklich, ich übersetze es mal direkt, alle seine Eier in einen Korb tun. You can doubt the basket and the eggs. Man kann den Korb und die Eier anzweifeln. But you can't indefinitely go from store to store buying a basket here and an egg here. Aber man kann sonst einfach andauernd von Geschäft zu Geschäft gehen und da mal ein Ei kaufen, dort einen Korb. So you need to make an existential decision.

[53:45]

Generally it's not in the beginning, in practice, a decision of belief or faith. But more like, this is what I seem to be doing. So I'm going to do it. And most people don't even lead their lives that way. They don't say, well, this is the life I'm leading, so I'm going to lead this life. They say, this is the life I'm leading, but I'd rather be doing something else, and I will in the future, and maybe some, you know. And then they die. And just before they die, they say, well, I was going to do this, and I intend to do that. Then, in fact, they had the life they had, but they didn't have the life they had. Yes.

[55:03]

But doubt and great doubt are part of practice. I mean, again, if the closest thing you can say about reality in Buddhism is, what is it? So, when I'm teaching, I'm, what am I doing? I'm asking. I've been doing it a long time, but at the same time I ask, what am I doing? So at least, while Buddhism would not tell you what to believe, Zen especially, it would tell you to investigate.

[56:13]

So at least investigate these obvious distinctions that our language gives us. Identity, psyche, personality, soul, etc. I hate to say soul, etc., because soul is like another category than all the others. And you have to identify to what extent these are functions, experiences, beliefs. So, starting where we left off yesterday in a very basic sense, With, as you put it, how do we know what exists?

[57:28]

Or if there is existence. And this is completely traditional Buddhism. To spend quite a lot of time on who is saying something exists, who's asking the question. And to really ask that question is what's called nurturing or developing, generating great doubt. Who's asking the question? Et cetera. All the varieties of that you explore.

[58:28]

And Descartes, what did he say? I think therefore I am. I think therefore I am. But he also thought it was okay to experiment on animals because they didn't feel pain. A child knows dogs feel pain. I mean, my little daughter at the earliest age knew that the dog felt pain. So what was wrong with his thinking? I think therefore I am a dog beater.

[59:56]

But the problem with the statement is, if you examine I think therefore I am, is the I and the therefore and amness, all those things can be investigated. It's not clear there's an I that thinks, but there's thinking. Let's not jump to conclusions. Buddhism would consider that jumping to a conclusion. Because there's thinking, there's an I. So the first job of a Buddhist is to investigate this thinking. This thought of existence. And with that, through the investigation of the thinking, the mind, what's called the mind of calm abiding arises.

[61:24]

And if you're going to, you know, writers have the highest anxiety of any profession. At least that's what psychological studies show. And if it's so, I think it must be so, because they're playing with the way their thinking is put together. So if you genuinely and consequentially examine these questions, if you have that spirit of adventure and courage, and an inclination, there's going to be some anxiety.

[62:42]

So we give you this posture. Because if you're opening everything up to question, at least you can sit still. Now someone asked me a question about who practiced in Japan. Could you ask your question? It has something to do with the attitude. I have noticed that he is very friendly with us. A few years ago, in different events, when we were doing events, and he repeated with my bad posture, and then he hit me on my back. And my question was, for example, in this direction, is it actually necessary that if you slowly slow down with the habit of sleeping, you get worse, or if it's not better, you get into a different position, and you don't want to be depressed anymore?

[63:52]

Would that be something else? Well, I was surprised how soft and gentle you were with us by correcting the posture yesterday. And from my experience in various Japanese monasteries, I've been treated quite rude and got beaten when my posture wasn't good enough. And my question now is, isn't it just better for my concentration if the pain is too much that I just change it? The position. Yeah, the position, not the pain. The position in order to change the pain. Change the pain. That would make a good television series, Change the Pain.

[64:54]

Okay. It'd be on in the mid-afternoon for American housewives. And Europe would refuse to buy it. We don't want our television polluted by Americans. I know, I know. Yeah, I'm kind of a softie, I'm sorry. I pretend I have a tough side, though. Well, there's several things.

[66:06]

First, let's look at the negative side of that practice in Japan. Japanese culture is extremely self-reinforcing. I don't think anyone... can easily understand how self-reinforcing it is. They have expressions like the nail that sticks up gets hit. And in general, it's not done in a... it's not done in a militaristic or brutal way, it's just done in a very subtle and thorough way.

[67:07]

And the atmosphere in Japanese monasteries is meant to create, is meant to for has been developed for and created by 18 to 22 year olds, men, males. And so it's a lot like the worst of English prep schools or public schools. And I mean, I've lived in monasteries and I've seen pretty unpleasant things.

[68:10]

And they don't believe they should modify their way for anybody. They feel it should be applied democratically to everyone. So this is partly just, I'm just telling you this sort of as anecdote. It's not, maybe it has some importance, but it's not really on the topic. But two examples. Two or three. When I was at Daitoku-ji, sometimes high school boys would come to the monastery to sit, to try out the sitting. They didn't encourage any of them to stay, I tell you. They hit you with a very large stick.

[69:22]

It's very thick. And they hit you very hard. And in tai toki you sit forward facing the edge. And when they're going to hit you, you have to bow down like this. And they hit you usually with the flat side of the stick. They sometimes use the silent stick though, which is to hit you with the edge. And in the summer they hit you twice on each shoulder. And in the winter, they hit you four times in each shoulder. So that's eight hits. And they bring this stick as big as a baseball bat, but flat.

[70:23]

All the way back to their bottom. And they kind of leap up under their toes. And then real fast. And if you don't know how to accept it, it actually will knock the wind out of you. You really have to just kind of let go. The kind of, here it comes. So, los geht's. This is only one example. Well, if you're a monk and you're sitting there for two and a half years as I was, and you know the ropes, after the first few months, they never hit me again. And if you're sleeping or you're not sitting straight, they hit you.

[71:36]

You should have seen how well I sat. What? No, not those kind of ropes. You know how to let your breath out as you're being hit. You exhale as you're being hit. If you're inhaling or holding your breath as you're being hit, it just completely... I mean, you can pass out. Know the ropes in English just means to know how to survive. Yes. Please. Yeah, so you know the attitudes and all that. Anyway, these high school students would come in, and they'd sit in the zendo. And in a half hour period they wouldn't know the ropes.

[72:54]

So they wouldn't be sitting perfectly straight. Or they'd scratch or do something. So they'd get hit just like they were a regular monk. They make no allowance for them as 15-year-olds who don't know what's happening. So I saw these high school students hit in a half-hour period four times maybe. That's times eight. That's 32 hits like that. And I thought it was terrible. But at that level Japanese culture is very tough. And I could give you many, many examples, but I won't give you too many.

[74:14]

One of the head monks died of spinal meningitis. I don't know. Is all spinal meningitis, Michael, very contagious? Not? Is there any kind that is contagious? Okay. Well, whatever he had was very contagious. And this, when we went to the hospital to get shots, because I was sitting with him and my family, the doctor actually gave the shots in the distance. And the monk who had come and told me about the death, because I hadn't been there that day, I went down to the monastery to sit.

[75:17]

I told him, you know, you should have shots. I spoke to the hospital about it. And he said, I was punished for telling you He died because he was weak. There was no more discussion. So the monasteries have that kind of attitude, which is throughout Japanese culture at a certain level. I don't see any reason to import that unless we want to become Japanese. And I guess I don't... One last example. There was an old man who decided to become a priest, priest-monk.

[76:32]

It's no distinction. And this was a different monastery. I was living in a huge monastery high up in the mountains called Eheji. And This guy, he was in his 60s, and he didn't do... The eating bowls are very complicated. And he didn't do them very... He didn't get them exactly right how to do it. And they kept punishing him for it. And once he dropped a chopstick, And these 19-year-old boys came over with their bowing cloths.

[77:32]

And in front of the whole monastery, beating this 60-year-old man across the face. I almost pushed my chopsticks off. I think it's from my point of view, it may be good to teach Japanese culture, but it's not good to teach Buddhism. However, from the other side, it is very important to learn to sit perfectly still. So from that point of view, it's quite valuable to have that kind of pressure. So it means no looking around. You learn to just keep your eyes settled. And this is a yogic skill which is passed to things like the no theater. No actors can have an ability to move in such a way that if you photograph them at any point, any photograph looks beautiful.

[79:11]

There's never a moment where their posture isn't beautiful. Also die Schauspieler im Nottheater, die bewegen sich so, dass man in jedem Moment eine Aufnahme machen könnte und sie würde immer schön aussehen. And part of the skill of that is to locate your eyes in each posture. Und ein Teil dieser Fertigkeit besteht darin, dass sie in der Lage sind, ihre Augen wirklich in jeder Haltung zu platzieren. It's as if you turn your... It's as if you move your attention from the surface of your eyes and looking out to behind your eyes. And your eyes can remain completely steady. So I noticed, though you're sitting quite well, quite a lot of you are actually kind of looking around with your eyes. And checking your posture from outside to see if your hands are right and things like that.

[80:19]

You've got to learn to just be put down here. In a sense, you put yourself down in the posture. Then at some point, whether your posture is good or bad, You drop any consideration of whether it's good or bad. You just sit there like a stump or a stone. Anyway. So, starting out with this thought of existence or thinking or mind, the first problem is looking at all these questions

[81:20]

having a willingness to look at all these questions, who's asking the question and so forth. The more you examine those questions, the more you see how the questions change and so forth, And the more you see that your mind moves from this consciousness and this object of attention and this, etc., the sincere examination of these questions leads to the arising of the mind of calm abiding. Then you use the mind of calm abiding to examine the mind of calm abiding. You use the mind of calm abiding now to examine these questions.

[82:47]

And you stabilize this mind of calm abiding. And this mind of calm abiding, which isn't known by, what can I say, this mind of calm abiding, this stabilized mind of calm abiding, which can't be limited to this thought or that thought or this, etc., is called the ordinary mind. So when you hear Zen stories about, oh, just ordinary mind, that's the mind they're referring to. So you use the stabilized mind of calm abiding to investigate the stabilized mind of calm abiding.

[83:53]

So that's the beginning of how you start this examination of identity, personality, psyche, etc. You start with what you've got, which is mind, and you make it a mind of calm abiding. And then whatever you discover through that mind of calm abiding has an authenticity for you that probably nothing else has ever had. A kind of calmness and matter-of-factness. Eine Ruhe und eine gewisse Sachlichkeit. And virtuous action, virtuous action, virtuous, und tugendhafte Handlung, is considered action that is in keeping with the mind of calm abiding.

[85:20]

Das ist jetzt eine Handlung, die... Okay, so I think that's enough for this unit of the morning. And it's almost 11 o'clock, so let's take a 15 or 20 minute break. You can have the toilet line up. And some conversation. And I will not hit any of you with this stick unless you ask me to. And my description of the Sashim being from 2.30 to 11.30, has caused flashes of anxiety in a few people.

[86:26]

Don't worry. You've got softy Roshi here. I'm going to start out And at the beginning and find out what experience people have. I'll make sure that there's enough sleep. And every 30 or 40 minutes there's a walking meditation. And there's meals and lectures. And work period. And hysteria. So don't worry. Excuse me, Beate, can you close the door behind you? And some people have asked me, how can they prepare for Sesshin?

[87:50]

And of course, practical things help, like sitting regularly between now and then. But mainly, just be willing to do it. Don't have a lot of willpower. I'm going to do this. Just be willing to do it. And to stay the full week. In some position at least. The important thing is to be there on your cushion. And to follow the schedule exactly. That's more important than exactly what your posture is. And kind of steady your mind toward being ready to do this.

[88:53]

But it's you know If I can do it, you can do it. It's true. Any other questions about the sashin? You can also ask Ulrike and Beate, who are mainly responsible for details about And next year it looks like I'll do two sashins, one there and one in Austria. This is a big step for me to do this, actually.

[89:56]

It's taken me five or six years before deciding to do a sashin in Europe. Because once I do a sesshin, it means I'm really committed to you, to practice with you. It's not responsible for me to start you in practice at that level and not be available. I mean, it possibly even means, in some way it means I'm going to start living part of the time in Europe. So, you may be stuck with me. It's up to me, yeah. I'll be my own translator soon.

[91:09]

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