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Zen and the Dance of Culture

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RB-04178A

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The talk discusses the intersection of Zen practice and cultural influences, with a focus on how demographics and gender roles shape Buddhism and its related practices. The discussion touches upon the integration of female figures and the importance of questioning teachings within Zen. It also delves into personal experiences of monastic practice, emphasizing how such environments contribute to practitioners' everyday lives and perspectives. The talk concludes with reflections on the nature of thoughts and experiences during meditation, distinguishing between intentional and discursive thoughts.

  • Avatamsaka Sutra: Referenced in relation to a new figure for the altar, highlighting the flexibility of iconography within Buddhist practice.

  • Prajnaparamita Literature: Mentioned to illustrate how Buddhist texts composed in India were popularized in China, affecting subsequent interpretations and practices back in India.

  • Sukiroshi's Instruction: The phrase "not to invite your thoughts to tea" is used to distinguish between discursive and intentional thoughts in meditation.

  • Suzuki Roshi's Anecdote: A story about an old monk who spontaneously resolved a ceremonial impasse, illustrating the importance of embodiment in practice.

  • Dialectical Therapy: Mentioned to draw parallels between therapeutic practices and the mindfulness cultivated in Zen practice.

AI Suggested Title: Zen and the Dance of Culture

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Transcript: 

Good afternoon. And somehow these seminars, when I attend, have become, both here and in Cresta, yeah, a good opportunity for me just to have, you know, one question or comment from each of you. Yes, I like it a lot and I learn quite a bit, quite a lot from it. But as I said yesterday, it sometimes takes forever, seven in the evening. I'm not exactly exaggerating. But it's mostly my fault because I go on too much. So I'll try to see if I can be... brief, but still I want to respond in a real way as I can to what you...

[01:17]

First I want to say a couple, two small things. One is, you know, we have this new figure here. For the side altar. And, you know, I like it. And it's got this wonderful, powerful pose. And Till, maybe you can tell us what you thought it might be from the Avantamsaka Sutra. In German. I did a course recently. That's why I learned it. On the Potalaca mountain, the island mountain, there is a narrow paradise landscape on a rock or diamond.

[02:38]

And there is water and the moon. And the story in the sutra is Thank you. You know, the iconography is not always strict. They take one thing from this and one thing from that. You get statues, you can't explain exactly what the iconography is. But I'm sure it's closely related to what Till says. On the other hand, Beate says it reminds her of La Dolce Vita. That's another iconography.

[03:46]

Because it's almost too luscious and powerful, this figure. Luscious, overly... I don't know what that means. And I'm not sure it's what we want for the side altar in the long run. I don't know. But as far as I'm concerned, we want, I want, we want, yes, some female figures in our practice. But as far as I'm concerned, we want a female figure. The demography of Buddhism, demography means the study of populations, the demography of Buddhism affects what Buddhism is.

[05:06]

Just as a small example, The Prajnaparamita literature was written in India in the third and fourth centuries. But it became extremely powerful and popular in China in the fifth and sixth centuries. And the Mahayana literature, which emphasizes the bodhisattva in figures like this. And the Mahayana literature, the bodhisattva practice, was developed in large part in China.

[06:15]

And this Mahayana literature didn't really influence India until the 11th and 12th centuries. But only in the 11th and 12th centuries did the Mahayana literature So while they were composed in India, written in India, they were developed as a practice in China. And then that Where it was practiced then influenced how it was practiced in India. So the teachings aren't just located in the teachings. The teachings are located in the practice of the teachings.

[07:26]

Already in the West, the fact that couples has been such a big... has been a stable factor in many of the practice groups. Yeah, it's been an influence already in what kind of practice we have. And as part of that, the numbers of women maybe a majority in America and Europe, will develop what our practice is. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know, because I'm part of it. I'm part woman too.

[08:30]

And I seem to produce nothing but daughters. So I want women figures in our practice. So I don't think we're going to be as lucky probably as we are at Crestone where we have... nine-foot tall Kuan Yin cast for the Hiroshima Peace Rotunda. But, you know, I found this one, and it's not so expensive. So the center has contributed $1,500. euro toward it. And the And one woman has contributed 200 Euro to it.

[09:37]

So we owe another 1,000 Swiss francs. And Mr. Tuvari in Zurich. He likes us, and he doesn't know us, but he likes us anyway. And he likes the idea that the figure will be on an altar. So Marie-Louise and I were in the other day and I said, I know we still owe you a thousand Swiss francs. He said rather indignantly, You didn't hear me mention money. So he says we can take years if we want to pay for it. So I'm not bringing this up because there's any financial pressure.

[10:49]

It's just if you'd like to contribute to this unusual figure. Males as well as females. Yeah. Yesterday I watched Sophia for a very long time trying on shoes. And she tried them on and closed them first and opened them and put them on her feet. And then those special sandals, what are they that you use for bobby cars so you don't wear out your shoes? Yeah. And she tried putting those on top of the shoes first and then second after she got them.

[11:52]

She had tried every combination. And she described every step of the process to herself in Deutsch. And she had... And I was standing right near her looking. She didn't notice me at all. She was so engrossed in languaging her actions. So I talked with, told Marie-Louise about it. And she remembered right away how when we first came back here in May, I guess, from being in the States. Sophia said she didn't remember the apartment. And when we went in, she said,

[12:53]

Where do I live? Where's my room? Or something like that. But although that's what she said, her body completely knew the apartment and where she lived. So she had a physical memory of the apartment completely, but not a mental memory. And Marie-Louise thinks, and I think she's right, that she's now creating a mental memory with physical events by describing everything she does to herself. She's creating a mental memory of physical events by describing her physical actions to herself.

[14:08]

Yeah, unfortunately for most of us, our mental memory takes over and we lose touch with our physical memory. Now, I could talk about that more, but maybe... Am I supposed to give a talk tomorrow? Maybe I could continue on that, because... But I brought this up because I just thought how important it is for us to use language as footprints of our experience. In questions, we voice to ourselves.

[15:21]

This is only again to say how important the process of questioning is in Zen practice. How the missing ingredient in the teachings the missing ingredient in the teachings, and the ingredients that's assumed will be there in the teachings, is your questioning of the teaching. It's almost like you cook the teachings by your questioning. And they become edible or accessible through your questioning. Yes, so let's start. I always go clockwise. You should have known that. Okay. You've made these good cakes?

[16:36]

Yes. Thank you very much. You don't have to ask a question. But I'd like you to. I just tried to figure out which words bother and which words don't. Or are there sentences that bother and sentences that don't bother? And yes, maybe you can say that. I think there are words that don't bother when I meditate. I think there are words which don't disturb when I meditate and I am trying to figure out which sentences and which words disturb and which words and sentences don't disturb during meditation.

[17:40]

So maybe you can say a little bit about that. I have tried to say, for example, the sentence, Who am I? I was disturbed. I practice with the sentence, who am I? And this sentence didn't disturb. It's interesting. And I actually, you haven't been here, but I've been speaking about... Yes, that is interesting. I have been talking about different aspects and versions of this for months. And the simple example that I give again and again is Sukhiroshi's instruction not to invite your thoughts to tea. When you practice it, of course, to not invite your thoughts to tea is a thought.

[18:42]

So what's the difference? What thoughts are you not inviting to tea with this thought? Well, what we're talking about when we're talking about thinking in Buddhism and Zen is discursive thoughts. In Buddhism, an intentional thought is not a thought. We'd need another word for it. Like vows or something like that. And it actually functions in a different flavor or fluid of mind. So first of all, intentions... Don't usually disturb your meditation.

[19:51]

But discursive thoughts, you get carried away with. So that's just one distinction. But aside from that, What's important is that you noticed that some thoughts disturb your thoughts and some don't. So you can do your own research. Find out for yourself which thoughts disturb and which don't. Which mental formations disturb and which mental formations don't. Do you want to add something? Yes, what are intentional thoughts? What are intentional thoughts?

[20:58]

Well, like, who am I is more of an intention. It stays there, it stays in place. It's not discursive. Wer bin ich? Das ist mir eine Absicht. Es bleibt an der Stelle. Es ist nicht diskursiv. It can become discursive and you can start thinking about it. Then you'll be disturbed by those thoughts. Das können diskursive Gedanken werden und dann fangen die an, dich zu stören. And intentional thoughts are almost always physically rooted. Und intentionsabsichtsgedanken sind immer körperlich rooted. You can feel an intention much more than just a thought, ordinary thought. Okay? Thank you. Thanks for being so observant. Yes? After the last Nenjo ceremony about the feast, after the last... After the last Nanzu ceremony, our big meal.

[22:15]

The cooks, René and I, we have been sitting at a table. And René told us this story when you, Roshi, and René and Frank sat at an orioke meal. And I had to serve soup. And Frank had to serve soup. And I served soup to René. And he... What language is this? I had to serve soup. I had to serve the soup. And René took the roll and kind of... Kicked it. Kicked it? Yeah. I was quite nervous in this situation.

[23:16]

I would click. You gave me all your tissues. And what I remember, all the others also remembered scenes where they were particularly excited. And all others remembered situations like this where they have been quite nervous. And we have been curious about how this practice kind of makes us nervous where we are usually not nervous. You mean, makes us nervous? In contexts or ways we're not nervous in ordinary circumstances. Yeah. But ordinary circumstances might make us nervous in some other way. Is that what you mean? No. You only get nervous when you practice. Even in Nanzhou, everyone is just standing around and yet it is very exciting. And I wonder about this, why we get anxious and nervous about that.

[24:45]

Well, I've noticed it. And it's interesting, you know, if you do theater, for instance, you're... Yeah, people have so-called stage fright before they go on stage. But often, if you're the do-on, say, and you also are an actor, say, happen to be, The feeling is, if you make a mistake on stage, say, it's a mistake, but it's not a real mistake. Somehow if you make a mistake as Doan, it feels like a real mistake. And it seems to have real consequences. But it actually has less consequences. But we feel that way.

[25:56]

I don't know why. It seems realer or something like that. It seems more real. And it's good when you can get that you can be as Doan and not be nervous. But you know all these ceremonies are made to be difficult. It's their... the more you get to know them, you see that you're... it's as if you wrote a piece of music that no one could play. Das ist so, je mehr man sie kennt, es ist ungefähr so, als ob man ein Musikstück spielen muss, das niemand kennt. I remember a story of Suzuki Roshi used to tell. Ich erinnere mich an eine Geschichte, die Suzuki Roshi erzählte.

[26:58]

There was a big ceremony at Eiji. Das war in Eiji eine große Zeremonie. And everyone comes from different traditions of how you do a ceremony. And even in one's own tradition of ceremonies, there's supposed to be times which are spontaneous, there's not clear what to do, and you just have to find out in the context what to do. So there's this big ceremony, and it was a big occasion for Heiji's 1000th birthday party, I don't know what. And it got to a point where no one knew what to do. One came next. And it kind of like Paul, Paul is a silence of death. A kind of pall started falling on him.

[28:08]

And Sukershi said he was a young monk at the time. This old guy, about 88, could barely stand up anymore. sort of creaked its way up into standing. And did something, and then everybody knew what to do. And Sukhiroshi always liked this story. And that it took somebody's bodily gestures to release the ceremony. So anyway, that's some kind of answer. But since Sophia may require her mother to leave, do you have something you want to say before you go or bring up?

[29:11]

If you have to go. Last time in Creston, I practiced and tried to really feel myself strongly or feel me strongly. I did that driving a car and you drive there an hour or go nowhere basically. So there's a lot of opportunity. So I practiced this intensity in my body and suddenly a shift happened to my usual perception of what happens when I'm driving a car. So usually I feel like I'm racing over the road and getting somewhere. So I know how much time it will take somewhere and things are just flying by as I'm racing across the street. And I have this feeling of being outside myself.

[30:14]

And when I practiced this other way, suddenly it felt like I'm I'm still and the world is passing, the world is going under me or around me and I'm very still. It's like when you sit in a railroad station and you don't know if you're driving or the other train is moving or the house is moving, some feeling like that. And I was wondering, you spoke about the background mind yesterday. How did this relate to my experience where I feel like I'm kind of the center, or not center, but a stable ball and just things floating around? So I tried to practice the question, to feel myself or my body so really firm or strong. And it takes me just an hour to get somewhere, nothing special to go there and always look straight ahead and then I tried it in the car and normally my experience of driving a car is that I chase it over a street and just move through the landscape to get somewhere and where I practiced that was the feeling like when I am calm and things pass me by

[31:37]

against me and above me, like when you are in the station and you don't know if the house is moving or the other train or you yourself, and then I ask myself how this is related to the background noise that we talked about yesterday, because for me it feels like my experience that I am like a Sometimes in practice you feel like you're upside down too. Well, let me say it's a not uncommon experience even for non-practitioners. But I think, Sophia, give your mother a break for a moment, would you?

[32:40]

You can come out in the middle of the room, Sophia, and be a frog. But I think most people who don't practice, if they have experiences of this kind, shut them off quickly. because they're rather disturbing. But I think if you practice and you sit fairly regularly, it somehow loosens up, makes spaces in how we organize the world. And we we're more willing to let something that's different than the way we usually know the world happen.

[33:54]

Yeah, and there's a famous story where a Zen teacher is enlightened, actually, when he is looking at a stream and he sees the bridge moving and not the stream. So first of all, this kind of finding the world organized differently is not uncommon. And what happens if you practice is the difference actually is much more likely to penetrate and make a difference. Now, if I was going to try to give a kind of explanation of what I think happens in a case like this, I wouldn't say that suddenly you become more self-centered so the world

[35:17]

you're shaping the world instead of the world shaping you. But I would say that probably what happens in those kind of cases is, as you brought it up, thought of it partly because I mentioned the field of mind, which suggests to me that you already know. that you had a shift from the contents of mind to the field of mind. And when we find ourselves located, located in the field of mind, then the contents of mind start appearing.

[36:47]

We don't feel we're doing it. We feel things are appearing in the mind. So the world starts flowing around us. Okay, that's all I'd say. And, you know, this whole idea, and what I'd like to try to talk about in the next days is the relationship between the field of mind and what I call awareness. And what I'm trying to do these days is try to find a way to do that. I haven't found exactly how to do it yet. René? I'm here by bicycle.

[37:56]

You came here by bicycle? Yeah. From Luzern? Yeah. Did you have a yellow jersey on? And I tried to make that journey, to do that journey as a practice. Didn't help. Save my energy, my physical and my mental energies on that trip. That only worked to Wickenbach. That's pretty near, though. And I had to lay down on the bench. And when I have been lying on the bench, I remember that I didn't eat.

[39:05]

So eating is very important. It's part of our schedule. You mentioned in one of your talks that being natural has something to do in the sense of the West, something with God. And then Fukuroshi said there's something to do with mastery. Training, yeah. Training, yeah. And I'm thinking about these two possibilities and still it's not somehow not happening yet.

[40:21]

Okay. Maybe saying God is a stronger way of putting it than necessary. But the idea of a natural, as we usually use it, assumes some sort of fixed point in the world, some basis in the world. But the teaching and experience of emptiness means there's no fixed point. I speak about non-referential space, for example. But let's just say that if you learn how to ride a bicycle,

[41:21]

After a while, it becomes natural. It's not natural at first. And for Sophia, she's beginning from her scoot bike. Probably it will be fairly natural to shift to a pedal bike. So that's easy to understand. That it's natural at a certain point when you learn it. And again, the conversation Marie-Louise and I had recently. Sophia was crawling at how old? And at some point around eight months, would you say, she was crawling and looked like she'd soon walk. And Ulrika Dillow, why don't you say what she said?

[42:35]

The other one said, no, no, look at the crawling. It crawls like a lizard. So the back moves back and forth when it goes. You have to learn that the hands and feet can move in the axis so that it doesn't always move back and forth like that. And until her backbone is straight like that, she's not going to be able to stand up and walk. Then when kids first learn to walk, they kind of walk like this, you know. So we might say, oh, somebody walks naturally. But it's actually just like learning to ride a bicycle.

[43:44]

You learn to walk. So that kind of viewpoint, which more yoga teaching has, that everything is that kind of. It's like that. It's actually, even though we don't notice it, it's something we learn. This is the view of yogic teaching, although one may not even notice it, but it is something we learn. Yes. Okay. You said recently that it is probably not possible to develop the spirit of acceptance. You mentioned that it's probably not possible to develop the mind of acceptance as long as we haven't developed the field of the mind.

[44:46]

Does that mean that we first have to find the field of the mind before we can develop the mind of acceptance? No. Nine. Of course you can, right now, in any circumstance, see if you can just notice without thinking first. If you try to say, oh, I will accept that now, you can do that, but it's kind of clumsy and the thinking gets in the way.

[45:51]

But if you just notice without thinking, That's a kind of acceptance. It's like I say when you come to practice with the threshold or the door, get in the habit of when you come in a room, just noticing it, don't think the room. Or just feel the room. And just make it a habit. Use the doors to help you develop the habit. And if you just get in the habit of feeling each situation before you think about it, that would be more the physical act.

[47:01]

of acceptance. And if you develop the habit of just feeling situations before you think about them, That feel of a situation is close to the feel of the field of mind. You're not emphasizing the contents of thinking. So this, again, to overuse the word, The yogic sense of acceptance is beginning to develop your ability to find your non-self, yourself. There's no way to say it.

[48:25]

Find your non-self located in the field of mind rather than in the contents of mind. Dein Nicht-Selbst eher zu finden in dem Feld des Geistes als in dem Inhalt des Geistes. Okay. Yes. Till? Du hast die klösterliche Praxis lange praktiziert. you practiced the nasty practice for quite a long time and in relation that I am on that planet with all the people. That you are on this planet with everyone else.

[49:31]

Not only the guys and the monsters. In that context, can you perhaps a positive and a negative aspect or a simple thing and a difficulty or a good or a bad thing about the Can you say a good thing and a bad thing about the practice in the monastery, in that relation that I am on that planet with everyone else? Can I say something good or bad about practicing in a monastery in relationship to all people at once?

[50:34]

Something like that. Is that right? positive or negative? Like, advantage or disadvantage? Well, out of your experience. Out of your monastic practice. I'm full of so many old songs. When I look at you and I hear the question, I almost start singing, till then. Because your name is Till. Till then, I don't know. Till then. A difference makes a difference. It makes a difference to do zazen or not do zazen. But it doesn't make sense to do zazen all day long.

[51:38]

But zazen, you know, I just spoke about the background mind yesterday. It becomes a kind of friend. I think you've noticed that the background mind, maybe you relate to your friends and what they do differently if you also have a friend in your background mind or as I've said. So monastic practice or... Semi-monastic practice makes a difference. And my life is based in lots of ways on trying to answer the question you've asked. Sashins are really little examples of monastic practice for lay people.

[52:40]

Sashins and monastic practice are more like the life in a monastery. And being able to come here or go to Crestone, this makes a difference. What kind of difference? Yeah, you can find out, but it makes a difference. And I think that's enough for me to say. When you practiced at Crestone a long time, and now you find it's pretty much the same to be here, or you've sometimes said that, so what would you say, what's the difference for you of having done a lot of monastic practice

[53:46]

But not year after year, just six months or so at a time. What difference has it made? Well, definitely it changed my practice when I went to the first practice period to Creston because that was my first experience of a monastic practice. So she said Haus der Stille somehow wasn't a monastic practice. This was just a seven-day event or something like that. But to be in a monastery like Crystal Mountain Zen Center and to be there for three months, that definitely changed my practice and that has been an important step in my practice after doing all these sushis. So there was definitely a difference. And I think it has been also a difference for the European Sangha that monastic practice is possible now in Germany with the Johanneshof. That also changed the Sangha. Do you want to say that in Deutsch? Yes, that has definitely changed my practice according to all the sessions that I sat with in the House of Silence, where it was always just seven days in and out.

[55:02]

But then for the first time in my life, three months or I was there for half a year in Creston and there every day. to participate in a monastery practice, that has changed my practice. And that was simply a step, that was a step that was simply necessary and important in my practice. And I also believe that this was an important step for Dhamma Sangha Europe, that now the Johannishof is there, where a monastery practice is possible. And Catherine, you were engaged in so-called ordinary life with all the people on the planet? before you went to Creston. You lived in China and Japan and have a Ph.D. in philology and something like that, right? And... And now you're deeply engaged in life, running a school for dyslexic kids and things like that in Frankfurt.

[56:27]

But in between there was five years at Cresta. Are you engaged in the daily life with all the people on the planet in a different way after Cresta? Yeah. What difference does it make, can you say? Something for Till or for all of us. One thing for sure, somehow this monastic life is in my body. It's not like that I know how it is. My body knows. And it's very, very familiar. And so it's part of me. And the genes never were part of me like that. I think because life in Christown means, I mean, that was my everyday life for five years.

[57:33]

So it's an everyday life. in a way like the everyday life I have now in Frankfurt. I mean, it's just normal everyday life, but it happens to be in the winter. So it has become part of me, definitely. I would say that I experience and view what I do now in a different way, because with the background of monastic life and practice. Yeah, and I think actually I wouldn't have dared to start my own business and do this without my Buddhist practice and also without the practical experience of running Christa Hansen. So in many ways, even the monastery, which is fairly remote in Colorado, it's in the middle of other people's lives and in the middle of the world because many different people come there in the summer, for example.

[58:50]

So it's not really isolated at all. The nearest grocery store is an hour away, a real grocery store, but it's not isolated. In German, maybe? Yes, very clearly and clearly. That makes a huge difference. The most important thing, I would say, is that somehow this practice that it is somehow ingrained in my body and is part of me and that I feel and feel it and somehow it is completely natural because it has been my normal everyday life for five years. That was my everyday life, just like I now have a different everyday life. And I would say that what I do now in the normal everyday life, in my working life, that I experience it from a different point of view and also judge it.

[60:00]

Yes, one joke and two, I think. It's just in me, it belongs to me. And that changed me, of course. And I am also convinced that I would not have dared to become self-employed without the Buddhist practice and without the practical experience that I gained. Well, it's also a way to learn how to cook and to learn to do an office, to run an office. That always helps also in the normal life. Yeah, the tradition is you learn the zendo, the office and the kitchen. Well, you know, when you live at a place like Crestone, it's just another version of ordinary life. And how is it another version?

[61:06]

In a strange way, it's a version about the other versions. In other words, it gets, in a way, disrupts your cultural habits and gets... It's something, I would say, more fundamental. And the last part? Disrupts and gets under your cultural habits. And gives you a... in a funny way, a way to be even more ordinary in ordinary life. Okay. Doris? Okay, I've been trying to think of a question, and I can't, which is sensational for me, because normally I question everything, and I have a million questions a minute.

[62:30]

And after only two or three days here at the Joho, as I call it, I don't have as many questions, and I wonder why that is. And I... I think it is because of rules, which is also something that I have a hard time with because normally I question every rule and I try to change every rule and I don't accept rules. But here I have. Sorry. I'm cut out for it. And I discovered something not only about myself, but I can see it very clearly in my daughter, almost as if she was mirroring my own behavior. And I can see with her and then with me how relaxing these rules are. The minute that we do them or I do them, really do them and turn myself over to these rules, as hard as it is for me, I can relax and I cease having that many questions, which is quite unusual for me.

[63:35]

Yeah. So, no questions. Well, comments are allowed. They don't have to be asked. I already notice after two or three days here in the youth center that something very drastic happens to me and I notice it in my daughter as a mirror that I, because I normally have 10,000 questions and do not accept rules and change all rules immediately and that is also my normal behavior, that in the moment when I have to accept rules here, that I actually relax when I Thank you. What time is the seminar supposed to end? Does anybody know what the schedule is?

[64:45]

No, no. Really, what time is the seminar supposed to end? That Eno should know. I should know. Quarter past five? Okay, that's in two minutes. Saved by the... But maybe instead of giving a lecture tomorrow, we just continue this tomorrow. Shall we do that? Just have the other half tomorrow. Or the other third. You all have to sit in the same places. Andreas is already planning to sit in the same place. Let's at least get to the corner here. Do you have something you'd like to bring up? Did you translate everything I said? Yes.

[65:47]

Almost. Werner, do you have a question? When I sit down and try to relax, a thousand words go through my head and I would like to have a simple question. Is that normal or how can I see if the thoughts are normal? How can I even see if it's okay or if the thoughts that are circling are a sign that I can't relax? When I sit and I try to meditate, I have thousands of thoughts and images going around in my head and I don't know, is this normal or is this just a sign that I cannot relax? Both. I think what one finds out when one starts to sit, if the body is stopped and slowed down, and you aren't asleep, It's a little bit like racing an engine in neutral.

[67:03]

The body stops and the mind just starts going. But it takes a while. The slowed down body will slow down the mind. If I have these beads, and they're like this, slowly, if I sit still, slowly you can begin to see them. If I'm moving, I can't see the beads. But if I stop, then I can see the beads moving. And my ability to begin to notice my thinking going, the mind that notices the movement slows down the movement. It's the basic idea of the practice of mindfulness.

[68:23]

So if you're mindful, for example, that you're angry, The basic idea is you just say, oh, now I'm angry. Now I'm more angry. Now I'm really angry. But you're not saying, I don't want to be angry. I mean, on some level you're saying, I don't want to be angry, that's true. But the practice is, as much as possible, just notice. By just noticing, you're creating a mind that is not the angry mind. And we're back to this fundamental sense, again, of a field of mind.

[69:30]

The field of mind, then after a while, isn't angered. Now, so just noticing your anger... creates a mind that isn't angry. And if you at some point shift from identifying with the anger as you and identify with the field of mind as you, you're in a different world. And this new therapy, I've read about this dialectical therapy or something, seems to be based on this idea.

[70:34]

So it is in effect, although it's not intended exactly, it is in effect a kind of therapy. So noticing that you're thinking is what practice is. And then you can also notice in the same way that actually we're not really deeply at ease. And we could also define most of practice as finding a deep ease. And the deepening of one's ease goes on throughout one's life of practice. And it helps us, as Doris pointed out, to have little periods of life, at least little periods, if not big periods, where you can just turn yourself over to a schedule.

[72:00]

Accept that the world will get along without you for a few weeks. And you can just bump into trees if you want. It's okay. As long as you're following the rules. Someone will feed you even if you bumped into a tree. It in itself is a kind of ease. Okay, the last in the quest for today in the corner. Yeah. I don't know, I don't remember where I was on the weekend. We had a live seminar. and then we talked about it and we came to practice. And I did theater work again and then I came up with a saying. A few years ago I moved a lot to explore the world. Now I sit down all of a sudden and I don't know exactly what the difference is, but there are some similarities.

[73:14]

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